You’ve Got That Garden Glow
Welcome! I am Aly, and I am the Founder of the Sow & Sip Society.
Our mission is to help you turn your gardens into a source of creativity, wellness, and joy. Join us to share and celebrate with family, friends, community, and most importantly, yourself.
A Passion for Gardens, Gathering, Family and Friends
Dirty Little Boxes is a tribute to my family, my childhood in Oklahoma, and my beautiful Grandmothers, Margie and Avis, who inspired my love of gardening, cooking, and everything vintage.
You will find that I love to cook all kinds of vintage family recipes. I use them as inspiration and then add modern and healthy twists that are often dairy and gluten free.
Both of my grandma’s were Depression era children, and this shaped much of what I knew of them.
Grandma Margie was a Texas lady. She was also incredibly resourceful, generous, and showed her love through food. I spent my childhood visiting her and my Grandpa in East Texas. We would pull into their driveway after a long drive and step out of the car to air as thick as honey and cicadas so loud they made my ears ring. Behind my grandparent’s squeaking screen door, was pot roast cooking in a gravy of onions, carrots and whatever else was growing in the garden. The kitchen counters were covered in bushels of peaches, or buckets of string beans, or maybe a box of cucumbers…and my mom and I might spend the weekend helping preserve peaches, or blanching green beans, or making jalapeno jelly.
The most memorable thing about my Grandma Margie, was that she was legally blind.
She went blind when I was a child, so it’s the only way I knew her. I remember clearly that, as a child, I rarely, if ever, saw her use a cutting board. When it came to cooking, everything was cut in her hands with a paring knife. That meant everything from fruit, to onions, and even carrots. So, this is how I learned to prepare food. I spent a good chunk of my young adult years never owning a cutting board, and the only knife I ever used was a super sharp little Cutco paring knife. Well, fast forward to the first time I cooked a meal for my now husband. He watched as I chatted away, knife and onion working in my hands over the bowl. He was convinced I would be digit free by the time dinner was done. Surprisingly, we never had the blood bath he was anticipating, however, soon after, I was gifted a cutting board and a knife skills lesson from a professional chef.
The most memorable thing about my Grandma Avis was her chocolate chip cookies.
Grandma Avis was a Midwesterner, growing up in a small town in Northwest Missouri. To give you some perspective, the current population of her hometown is 64 people. Grandma Avis was elegant, endlessly practical, and also showed her love through food, although her love came more in the form of chocolate chip cookies, homemade ice cream, and applesauce made from the trees in her backyard. She was also incredibly patient, and I don’t think I ever saw her angry or rattled in any way. Her favorite words were, “Ok” and “Alright”, and any time you asked for her opinion on food, you got a thoughtful expression with an “It’s not bad.” I chalk it up to her midwestern resolve. She went through a lot in her life, but she was proud, worked hard, and I admired her greatly.
Since her passing, I have felt a palpable desire to connect to my family history.
That probably means different things to different people. For me it is about traditions that pass from generation to generation. It is about connection to our food and recipes, and growing the food you eat in your own little piece of earth, with your own two hands. It is about sharing meals with family and friends that connect you to a time and place in your life. It is about filling your garden and home with beautiful things that hold meaning. It is about teaching my kids the traditions and values I grew up with, even when I’m busy and distracted by daily life.