Autumnal Surprise!

  • Post published:10/27/2011
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This fall we have truly been having a 'golden season.' The weather has been relatively mild, if rainy, and the usual flame of the maples was muted. But a golden glow shone on every sunny day. But today we got rain - and a surprise.   This photo was taken around 4 p.m on Thursday.  

Apple Blossom Time

  • Post published:05/27/2011
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I hope this photo give some sense of the amazing bloom of the Sargent crabapple. It is  not 15 feet tall, but it is at least 15 feet wide and was planted about 15 years ago. It thrives in the Sunken Garden even though it is very wet in the spring.  It is now in full flower - almost a single tree-sized blossom at this point. This apple tree, name unknown, produces apples but they are not the…

Black Knot on My Plum

  • Post published:05/19/2011
  • Post comments:4 Comments

It's been raining for almost a week. This means the conditions are good for the spread of black knot. We have slowly been removing the plum trees from our orchard and the time has come to take down the last tree.  I loved the occasional harvests of Stanley plums which I mostly canned, but I think we will just content ourselves with the three semi-dwarf apple trees. This gall, one of several, is about 6 inches long and…

The First Snowfall

  • Post published:10/22/2010
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I'm not sure if this really counts as the First Snowfall for Garden Bloggers, but snow surely did fall out of the sky last night. Yesterday around noon - all of a sudden - the sky turned black and the wind whipped up the leaves to such an extent that I could hardly see across the drive. Then slush fell out of the sky for five minutes. The weatherman called it hail, but it didn't do the kind…

Fall’s Fruitfullness

  • Post published:10/14/2010
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Lots of people in Heath have an old apple tree or two. Sometimes the apples aren't beautiful, but they certainly can make good eating. I've been using the generous harvest from this unnamed tree to make apple sauce and apple butter. French toast with apple butter or apple sauce makes an easy  and nutritious breakfast. My neighbor called me to say he and his wife had collected three big buckets of black walnuts from their two back yard…

Eating Together

  • Post published:10/12/2010
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The Sunday New York Times Magazine devoted their whole 10-10-10 issue to Eating Together.  Well, the previous weekend the Heath Gourmet Club celebrated its 29th anniversary --- 29 years of serving ourselves.  Michael Pollan wrote about the 36 Hour Dinner Party that he enjoyed with famous chefs and his son in Napa, consuming a whole goat and a lot of really good produce and olive oil. They also had the pleasure of cooking in an outdoor 'cob oven.'…

Surprises!

  • Post published:05/11/2010
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The first unpleasant surprise was frost!  The 7 am temperature on our thermometer on the north side of the house, but in the sun, said 42 degrees and I rejoiced. But my husband brought in the cat's frozen water dish from the welcoming platform. The first shock. Then I went out to open our ad hoc cold frame and the inside was all frosty. I'd better mark this frost date in my Journal. The second, and final, unpleasant…

All Kinds of Apple Trees

  • Post published:05/05/2010
  • Post comments:2 Comments

When we first moved into our old farmhouse in Heath in November of 1979, I cooked in what the previous owners called ‘the summer kitchen’ although there was no other kitchen. It was small and oddly shaped because of the stairway that went up to a loft/attic space. The 1930s era stove was on the north wall next to a small window that looked up the hill, across the field to an old apple tree. When the wind…

Wonderful Winterfares

  • Post published:01/18/2010
  • Post comments:3 Comments

In the February/March issue of Organic Gardening magazine, Gordon Hayward who gardens in Vermont, talks about our ‘food shed.’ I know about watersheds, that protect the quality of our water, and was amused when I heard people talk about their ‘view sheds’ the landscape view they enjoyed from their house, but I had never heard the term ‘food shed.” However, aware as I am of the 100 mile diet, I should have realized the term put me on…