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Keep Your Options Open is a small publication about investing and gardening. I write it as I learn, so you'll get the real process, including the parts I'm still figuring out. This first issue covers what's on the site so far.

From the ledger

The newest post is Introduction to Stock Options. It starts with one idea: an option is a contract, not a stock. Buying one gives you the right to buy or sell shares at a set price before a set date, and you are never forced to use it. The post covers calls, puts, and the handful of terms that come up in almost every conversation about options.

If you want the wider meaning of the word first, Option Definition covers how it shifts across finance, law, and school. Next up in the series is covered calls, a way to use an option against shares you already own.

In the garden

This year I turned a basket of garlic chive blossoms into a jar of chive flower sauce. It takes salt, a food processor, and a few days in the fridge while the flavor settles. Waiting is most of the recipe.

The chives also gave this publication its name. After I picked every flower bud on one August Saturday last year, the plants put out a fresh round within a week. The full story is in Why Did I Pick This Blog Name?

Around the foundation

Keep Your Options Open is a new program of Mountain and Sea Foundation, and this is its first issue. The foundation is also getting ready to launch Our Planty, a gardening community and marketplace, and we'll share more here as it gets closer.

We publish guest posts from the foundation's community, and you're welcome to pitch one if you have a story, a lesson, or a strategy worth sharing. The guidelines are on the Contribute page.

If you have a question or a topic you'd like covered, just reply to this email. We will get back to you.

Alice