Growing up in New England, I have always felt a special affinity with Thanksgiving. I can even claim ancestral connections with William Brewster, the minister on the Mayflower. Annual visits to Plimouth Plantation as a child, was a good way to create appreciation for the strength, courage and determination of the first settlers. The tiny […]
Stacking firewood and books
These days, with the garden demanding less time outdoors, the move indoors prompts me to surround myself with books. I naturally gravitate to books on garden design and food, yet lately have been drawn to read about the environment. I am focused less on what I know and more on my journey to learn something […]
Mary Azarian Prints
Like every good Vermont kitchen, mine is a meeting place for friends who migrate to the stools at my counter and don’t want to leave. So I’ve made my kitchen a welcome center, and placed all of my favorite art on the walls. This includes three prints by my favorite wood cut artist, Mary Azarian, […]
Beaming Bioneers
The annual Bioneers conference took place in California this past weekend, beaming live via the Internet to 23 cities across the US with 40,000 viewers. I was among a group in Montpelier, listening to a diverse group of passionate speakers who balanced traditional knowledge with science, looking deep into the heart of living systems […]
Hot Pepper Jelly
Hot pepper jelly is not for the timid, nor for toast. Try it as a spicy sweet condiment over a mild cheese or add a spoonful to stir fry for a powerful punch of heat. Cookbook author, Ellen Ecker Ogden author of The Complete Kitchen Garden cookbook, shares her recipe for hot pepper jelly.
Nature and Nurture
The morning glory arbor blew over again last night, sunflowers uprooted and the wheelbarrow is filled with rain water. Hearing the rain pummel the roof was once a welcome sound, but too much of a good thing is devastating. People are helping people across Vermont, dig, rebuild, feed their farm animals, and bring emotional comfort. […]
Butterfly Wisdom
This morning I watched a butterfly lilt across the pond at the base of Equinox Mountain. At first I thought it was a small bird, fluttering in the sky until I looked more closely. I watched the paper-thin wings fight the light southerly wind and could only think how this small creature was not going […]
Flowers in the birdbath
The calendar has moved into August and the pressure is off. Racing to get out to the garden with the wheelbarrow and weed bucket has turned into a leisurely pace of drifting with my camera to capture photos of the showy casa Blanca lilies wrapped up in a cascade of morning glory vines, the bee […]
Kitchen Garden Tour
My artichokes are at their prime, but I can’t pick them. Same with the lettuce, the tomatoes and the cucumbers. Hosting a garden tour in the middle of the summer is pure torture. It’s not that I aim for perfection, an impossible feat when it comes to a vegetable garden, but I would like it […]
Savory Summer Recipes
The best part of growing a kitchen garden is that you don’t have to stop at the supermarket on your way home from work. Instead, you can pick up your harvest basket and pluck lettuce and tomatoes on your way into the house. There is nothing more exciting than harvesting those first ripe tomatoes, eggplants, […]
Garden Smart: a mid-summer plan
It’s mid summer, and time to kick back and enjoy the garden. But the truth is that I am still hunched over filling weed buckets, clipping spent blossoms and flicking Japanese beetles into jars of soapy water (making beetle juice?). And I discovered a half price sale at my favorite garden center, and decided to […]
Listen to your peas
It always takes a little while for me to decide where to plant the peas. There is no doubt about it, the thrill of the first emerald green shoots emerging from the soft soil, is almost as exhilarating as the taste of the sweet pods that will follow in early July. But it never lasts. […]
