I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
I thought this was going to be a good year in the garden. It started off with so much promise – for the first time I had perfectly plump cabbages that did not get eaten by cabbage worms. But it was mostly downhill from there. …
Gardening can be incredibly rewarding, but also unbelievably frustrating. Some crops are reliable, always a success from year to year. Green beans, for example, are one of the easiest vegetables to grow. I get a large harvest every summer, often more than I can use. …
Every year it happens. The weather gets hot and sweaty, and the zucchinis grow from finger to baseball bat-size in a matter of hours. I am swamped. It’s the equivalent of a zombie apocalypse in the garden. They can be so prolific, it’s almost obscene. …
I am hesitant to talk about the current state of my garden in the same way that when traveling I don’t discuss the traffic, lest a sea of red taillights appears around the next bend in the highway. I don’t want to jinx anything. But …
As I took my daily walk on this early February morning, I couldn’t help but notice the green stalks of spring flowers already peeking through the ground. It left me conflicted. On the one hand I love that spring – my favorite time of the …
It may seem obvious, but we should eat the season. In other words, we should eat fruits and vegetables that are in season locally rather than eating produce that has travelled from halfway around the world or all the way across the country. Our food …
As the angle of the sun dips on the horizon and the first golden hues shine from leaves that are nearing their end, the harvest from my garden changes from summer to fall crops. The shift is not sudden. Summer green beans, peppers, and tomatoes …
When I think of pickles, a variety of things come to mind, but “fresh” isn’t usually one of them. The synonym I’d more likely apply is “preserved.” Thoughts of pickles include big barrels on old sailing vessels; food made for long-term storage to be eaten …
Plants cannot live without sunlight. Photosynthesis converts light energy from the sun into chemical energy of glucose, the food that all plants need to survive. But too much sun might be a death sentence, depending on the plants one desires in their garden. As we …
Overabundance in the garden is a problem I can deal with. To even use the word ‘problem’ is a stretch. Nonetheless, when there is too much of a given crop in the heart of its harvesting season, the gardener must find a way to use …
