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The kitchen was abuzz for our weekend visitors, Julie, Stacey, and babysitter-for-life Lauren Ballback. Between meals, Jen managed to put up quite a few jars of marmalade. Stacey lent her customary good cheer. Lauren stopped overnight on her drive from Virginia to Maine. While here, she and Sarah made approximately 30,000 calories worth of granola. […]

We have entered the shank of blackcap gathering season. Jen never leaves the house without a Ziplock bag, or possible two.

We had a mostly happy Thanksgiving, although we were very sorry not to have Julie and Stacey with us. They stayed home out of concern for Rinda’s health. It was wonderful to have Sarah back with us for the week. She was in high spirits throughout. Lew was in good form, tucking into a Thanksgiving […]

The frost has held off, so we’ve been able to harvest plenty of peppers with which to make hot sauce. In the background you can see a colander full of Bogmere Pippins, gathered by Jen. They are tasty, if perhaps unsightly. In less cheery news, marauding deer laid waste to our new donut peach tree, […]

We are enjoying the last of the summer tomatoes — which also are the best of the summer tomatoes — as well as the various unsightly apples yielded up by our superannuated fruit trees. We even got a few from our nano-orchard, our first domestically produced Macouns. They make the apples in this colander look […]

Jen, reigning marmalade champion, has decided not to defend her title this year at the Dutchess County Fair. That does not mean, however, that she won’t be making a big batch of peach-lemon marmalade.

Mid-summer brings John Harris and his boys, seen here with their dog Milo traversing the Fallsburg Creek while hunting for wineberries. The berries were pressed into service — literally — in wineberry-lemon sorbet. On Sunday we took advantage of the spectacular weather to take a 10-mile hike to the top of Overlook Mountain and then […]

Skies are blue and the grass is high – it must be summertime. Jen inspected our nano-orchard, which appears poised to produce as many as four apples this season. Rather than rely on our domestic fruit production, she set out to pick wild black raspberries. The brambles provided, ensuring we will have jam this summer.

Jen enjoyed her customary Mother’s Day breakfast in bed, including an asparagus and wild scallion omelet (also known as the Lawn & Garden omelet). Of course, having Sarah back home is the best gift of all.

The first day of spring is not March 20, it’s the day Jen harvests enough asparagus and forages enough morels to make fettuccini with morels, asparagus and parmesan (and a little garlic). This year, that day was May 7, and I would be surprised if any among the multitudes reading this had a better Sunday […]