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A clump of garlic scallions from a bulb left in the ground the previous year. For anyone who cooks and likes zesty food, garlic is a year-round essential.  Doing without just isn’t an option.  Happily, garlic is absurdly easy to grow in Zone 4, so my goal is to never buy […] 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 […] 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 […] 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 […] A groundhog, outstanding in its field. Gardeners unite in observing the second of February as the start of spring! Despite the annual, mindless media babble at Ground Hog Day, the party line that pegs the start of spring to the equinox, and the persistence of the northern winter lasting many more months, spring’s […] Old seed storage system on left, new system in the middle and jars for the home-grown seeds on the right. ‘Tis the season of seeds!  A time to organize and order seeds for the up-coming season while other garden-related tasks are at a standstill and before the seed companies get too […] Chester and Baruk cozifying with the potted rosemary and cacti during a December snow storm. In June, when trees are in full leaf, flowers abound and breezes pass through the permeable boundary between indoors and out, I occasionally pause to remind myself that in less than six months all will be radically […] 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 […] Raspberry row BEFORE pruning Faced with a long list of seasonal garden tasks in the fall — from planting garlic to capturing leaves, to preparing the garden beds for spring — the long row of raspberries often claim attention first. Pruning raspberry canes makes them more productive and easier work around when the […]  Roadside apples in early October. Despite the blossom-killing frost last spring, the wild apple crop seems to be as prolific as ever, proving that the feral fruits growing on this hard-scrabble hill are indeed well adapted to harsh conditions. Unlike cultivated varieties that are propagated through grafting (cloning the mother tree) […] |