I walked through the garden with my Sunday morning coffee amazed and delighted to see that the fat pink buds of my Guan Yin Mian tree peony had opened. Guan Yin is the name of the Bodhisattva (or goddess) of Compassion. The term bodhisattva is not much used in the west. It means those who have chosen to remain in the world even though they have enough merit to reach nirvana. Guan Yin is almost…
The stone wall is a New England icon. Our soil is rocky and early farmers spent a lot of time clearing planting and grazing fields of stones and piling them at the edges to make walls of varying durability. Actually, we New England gardeners are still pulling stones out of the soil and piling them where they won’t be in the way, or using them as another resource. Here at End of the Road Farm we…
Who would not want to belong to a group of people who not only grow giant pumpkins, but like to smash them, wear orange tuxedos, sail in pumpkin regattas, tour pumpkin patches and compete at fairs for the honor of growing the biggest pumpkin? Recently I attended a meeting of the Franklin County Giant Pumpkin Growers Association who haven’t yet, done all of these things, but they are in touch with other growers across the country…
When I woke up on the first Earth Day, nearly 40 years ago, gas for my old car cost about 29 cents a gallon, I had never heard of recycling, and I didn’t worry much about lights left on, or watering my lawn. Things have changed since then. Gas prices got up to over $4 a gallon and struck terror into all our hearts. Recycling is an everyday habit for many of us. I not…
One of the many joys of blueberries is that they don't have to be picked the instant they are ripe. We've been picking since early this month, but there was something of a hiatus during the days of the Heath Fair, and immediately after. It takes us a while to recover from the Fair, but since we are regaining our energy my husband joined me at the blueberry patch yesterday where the berries hang thickly, all big and…