The ABCs of Heritage Apples, and Others

  • Post published:10/27/2012
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A is for Apple, but if we look at heritage apples we can march right through the alphabet. Baldwin, Cox’s Orange Pippin, (Old) Delicious, Esopus Spitzenberg, Golden Russet, and on through to Northern Spy, Roxbury Russet, Stayman Winesap and Westfield Seek-No-Farther. The Roxbury Russet and Westfield Seek-No-Farther remind us that some apples had a very local fame and audience before they spread to wider fields. In fact, Roxbury Russet was the first named apple in Massachusetts. Even though…

Three Woodpiles, Three Styles

  • Post published:10/02/2012
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Three woodpiles, two which have been of very different styles are among the most popular of my posts. We seem to be thinking about winter and warm nights in front of a crackling fire or humming woodstove even in August. The first was an artistic woodpile I passed one fall day in Hawley, a town near us. The second woodpile in Ashfield was a traditional pile designed to help air move through the pile to dry wood. Artistic and scientific.…

An Autumnal Wedding in Heath with Cake

  • Post published:09/24/2012
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Yesterday I finished making a cake, to serve as ONE of the wedding cakes, for the wedding of our good friends Lyra and Ed. This is an All Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake with Mousseline buttercream frosting from my favorite cake cookbook, the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. When I bought this cookbook I was particularly taken by the love story Rose tells in her Introduction and I can never resist repeating it when I am serving a…

Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn Galbraith

  • Post published:09/05/2012
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My friend Kathryn O. Galbraith was recently presented with a Growing Good Kids 2012 award from the American Horticultural Society for Excellence in Children's Literature. This book, beautifully illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin depicts the myriad of ways that we all, people, birds, and animals as well as the wind and the rain plant the beautiful and fruitful gardens that grow along the roadsides, riversides and meadows. I wrote about Kathryn and her book when it first came…

A Creative Community Shows Off at the Heath Fair

  • Post published:08/23/2012
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Our creative community got to display its imagination and skill at the 95th Annual Heath Fair from August 17-19. The Hall exhibits range from flowers, flower arrangements, vegetables and fruits on a plate or in jars, cookies, bread, maple confections, eggs, ciders, honey, quilts, knitted or crocheted hats, sweater and scarves, lego constructions, photography, art of every sort - and all categories are organized by age. Ribbons and money can be won by everyone! I spent a lot…

More Wonders at Mass MoCA on Wordless Wednesday

  • Post published:08/22/2012
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I did not notice these wonders at Mass MoCA until about the fourth time through All Utopia's Fell by Michael Oatman. This exhibit is an Airstream trailer rigged up like a space capsule that has crashlanded and is hung up in the air on an old factory building, crammed with all the equipment for necessary for spacemen to live and work. Finally I noticed that  this craft has God's eyes everywhere. Was Michael Oatman suggesting that God's eyes…

How We Feed the Hungry in Our Community

  • Post published:08/09/2012
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It is ever harder to feed the hungry in our community. So many people have been unemployed for a long time. Many other people have only part-time jobs or minimum wages jobs that do not pay enough to pay all a family expenses. We have several ways that we try to feed the hungry in our community. There are food pantries like the Center for Self Reliance, the Salvation Army and the Survival Center. We have breakfast and…

CR Lawn and Fedco Seeds

  • Post published:08/04/2012
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We’ve all faced the spring task of combing through the seed catalogs trying to decide which squash, or tomato or whatever variety to buy. Will it be dark green Raven zucchini, the light green Magda or the striped Safari? We might be considering days to maturity, disease resistance and spininess of the plant. If we agonize over our few choices, can you imagine what a seed company has to take into consideration? Recently I spoke with CR Lawn,…

Flax for Textiles, Oil, Nutrition and Paper

  • Post published:07/30/2012
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Rory had to go home to reorganize for Boy Scout camp, but not before he caught this snake in the garden. He has such sharp eyes. I've seen a lot of snakes this summer, but none as pretty as this one. We keep Rory pretty busy with travels and projects - and chores. He began the garlic harvest and I finished today. Time with Granny and The Major is never complete without a couple of stints in the…