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Fresh basil with bags of frozen pesto Basil,that indispensible warm-weather herb and best friend of tomatoes has been a gardener’s favorite for years. Yet during my first 25 years, basil was no more than a jar of gray, flavorless flakes in the spice cabinet –a far cry from the verdant and evocatively fragrant summer staple we [...] Wet woods in May at a patch of wild leeks. Record-breaking flood levels on Lake Champlain,saturated soils,galloping streams,and days of rain. Depression and complaints about the weather abound. But rain can be beautiful too. Tromping through dripping,soggy forests can be miserable but with a water proof cap,a rain jacket [...] Belgian endive grown as a root crop. Imagine a care free-crop you can grow all summer,pick in the fall and store in a closet for winter harvests of fresh,crunchy salads. It’s not a dream but a Belgian endive! I’ve just started harvesting my 2010 crop this month. It all started back in [...] Beans at various stages of maturity from scarlet runner and other pole bean varieties. Beans have me entranced. Each year I plant ever more varieties for drying and shelling. The colors,patterns and sizes,the smooth coolness clicking through my fingers,the ease with which they grow,and the tasty and nutritious meals they create,keep [...] Green tomatoes picked before frost,ripening on trays We’ll be staying close to home for Thanksgiving so can source the majority of ingredients for the feast from our 2010 harvests. As with every growing season,there were notable ups and downs but thanks to unusually good weather for plants,the successes far exceeded [...] Enough chicken of the woods to feed an army. Found near my house today,but too far gone to pick for good eating. Two weeks ago heavy rains penetrated even the dense canopies of evergreen trees,soaking the ground. Then came a heat wave. A week later our woodsy world erupted in mushrooms. Unfortunately,I was [...] Boiling juice first and adding fruit at the end to preserve color,taste and texture of raspberries. Hot,sticky,sweet Jam in July. Raspberries ripen fast in a heat wave,at a rate of 2 quarts a day from my 40′row. With no chest freezer at our house,making jam has proven to be [...] Open faced sandwich for breakfast. Radish variety –multi-colored "Easter Egg." Stepping out into the garden with a cup of tea this morning to examine the overnight happenings,I found most of my radishes had bolted but a few were still intact and in good condition for fresh eating. This fact,together with the knowledge that [...] Korean lilac and siberian iris blooming with the chives –late May 2009 A year ago while admiring the mid-day buzz around some profusely blooming chive blossoms in my garden I noticed that none of the pollinators were honey bees. Instead, a multi-cultural throng of pollinating insects ranging in size from the big fuzzy bumble bees to tiny and [...] Late April localvore spread. “Hey,lets go pick wild leeks and then make a localvore meal.” That welcome invitation from Karen came late last Saturday morning and by evening we had assembled a magnificent feast. The last-minute dinner party was particularly notable for how easy it was to load the table with a wide range of delicious local products–foraged,harvested from the garden,[...] | ||||||
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