Last night the Heath Gourmet Club celebrated its 27th Anniversary - 27 years of serving ourselves really good food, lots of it very local. I made an apple tart with homemade applesauce from our own not very beautiful apples spiced with Calvados and topped with thin slices of Cortland apples from a new orchard in town. There used to be a number of orchards in Heath and the remnants are to be found everywhere, including our own fields…
While browsing through the garden blogs this rainy morning I came upon the Human Flower Project and this recent post about the Books in Bloom garden created by St. Michael's College (Burlington, VT) education professor Valerie Bang-Jensen and biologist Mark Lubkowitch and their students. All the plants in the garden have a connection to a children's book. There are lupines for Miss Rumphius, poppies for the Wizard of Oz and blueberries for Blueberries for Sal. Of course, there…
We have finally begun mopping up after spending the summer putting a new cement foundation under the eastern end of our house and installing a new heating system. We hope we'll be a little warmer and dryer this winter.This stone retaining wall, one of two, is the attractive bonus of the project. The thicket of blackberries, invasive pasture roses, asters, weed trees and goldenrod has been removed so that we can have access to the new basement wall…
My autumn crocus (Colchicum) is blooming at the foot of my wisteria. I cleared away the lemon balm that had totally overrun that area. Autumn crocus, sometimes called Naked Ladies, send up their blossoms in the fall with no stem or foliage, hence their naughty common name. The leaves come up in the spring; the bulbs can be transplanted in late summer when the foliage starts to fade.I intended to move the bulbs where they could be more…
This is our old stove, a Magic Chef c.1930s. It was in our old farmhouse when we bought it, and I used it for the first couple of years. It only has three working burners, but the oven worked and as the cook I was happy. But we worked on the house and moved the kitchen space and I got a modern stove. After renovating the old kitchen space (some years later) the old stove was moved and…
There was a serious frost warning last night but the temperature was 36 degrees when we woke. Not even the basil was nipped.However, it seems that it is only prudent to give the houseplants that have been vacationing on the piazza an insnpection for disease or pests, a watering and a good shower. This task done they are certified safe and I bring them back into the house.The census this year is a giant jade plant, a jasmine,…
It's Dahlia Season! So far, only three of my dahlias are blooming (I got 2 of the tubers in very very late) but they suggest to me that what I am developing is a garden that is full of bloom in June with our 'famous' Rose Walk and rose collection, the peony border and a few other spring perennials, and then not too much bloom until the fall. This is a concept I will try and build on.…
Yesterday's New York Times had a story about how a group of Californians were harvesting unwanted fruit from old orchards and homewoners who had ornamental fruit trees and bringing it to local hard pressed food banks.I told this same story on Saturday in my Between the Rows column about how local farmers here bring leftover produce to the Center for Self-Reliance on Osgood Street (413-773-5029) in Greenfield after the Saturday Farmers Market! And then I learned that it…
How can it be? The leaves are turning and the other night there was a frost warning. I had a fire in the wood stove the past two days. This year, as we approach the heating season with some trepidation, and a new (efficient we hope) heating system, we are still getting our firewood ready and hoping that the Farmer's Almanac's prediction of a very cold winter is wrong.
Marion Ives, the metalsmith (and Hawley neighbor) calls this copper and brass garden gate, currently on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum Good Morning Glory. I think of it as Good morning. Glory! which is the way I feel when I walk into my garden early in the day. This detail shows not only the morning glories, but the dragonfly which I find so charming.Although Marion has shown her work at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge before,…