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Finding The Lost Garden
Fall is here and I’m still nursing an elbow injury that I got last April right before we moved to The Little Brick. My ideas for a summer of gardening had to be put aside. No serious digging, pruning or shovel work for me. So I took to the gardens and field with my…
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Nöel
Holiday Greetings from our hilltop valley. It is unseasonably warm, and when we walked this morning it felt like spring garden planting weather, not the season of candlelight, bayberry scent and eggnog by the fire. The woodland is so lush and green with moss and ferns that we imagined this is how Christmas is in the Pacific Northwest.…
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A Farewell of Sorts
It’s been nearly a year since I’ve written. As the months yawned on since last June, I couldn’t think how to synthesize what I wanted to say. So the long and short of it, is that we are moving on from our little house on the hill. Not without some reluctance, but also not without…
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Hello Winter. Thankful.
Almost Thanksgiving and the grass is nearly obscured by snow. That’s okay with me after the mild, lingering autumn we’ve had. Our garden wall project that ate up our summer (and was partially the reason I rarely wrote), is nearly complete, and that is one of a million things I am thankful for this season.…
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Salad Days
Between thunderstorms we’re celebrating the salad days of summer. The thunderstorms have been a daily occurrence. No swimming in the river to beat the heat. {But Paul’s watermelon cocktail on July Fourth was a good idea.} And salad. The row of mixed lettuces of lime, purple, burgundy and viridian is thriving in these wet days. Spells…
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Spring Crops, Summer Heat
The last day of May brought a July-like heat and humidity. We plucked the first fat ripe radishes from the garden and ate them with butter and salt. Delicious. We are making a new asparagus patch, so I raided my parent’s plot while they were away and we sautéed the spears with mushrooms and feasted…
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Anna Pavord, Pulling Weeds
I scored Anna Pavord‘s The Curious Gardener at a book sale last week. It was a brand new copy until I got my hands on it. Now it has some dirty fingerprints, and I’ve read all essays about spring and summer months. Come September I will dive back in for more of her wit and…
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![ballymaloe cooking school garden © Sue Schlabach]()
360 Degree View—An Irish Garden
Have you ever visited a place you’ve only seen in books, but gazed upon so often that you felt you knew it? It’s like stepping through the looking glass, and removing the glasses you are wearing that have blinders on the sides. A month ago we followed the narrow lanes of County Cork, navigated the…
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Sprouting, Anticipating
Yesterday I discovered a paper bag with four paperwhite bulbs—forgotten and sprouting exuberantly. I tucked them in among the spent paperwhite bulbs I planted in December. All our outdoor bulbs remain under a thick blanket of snow. The Irish daffodils are appearing in our markets and were irresistible.Their scent fills the house and nips…
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![Green Beans © Sue Schlabach]()
Bouquet Garni, Young Beans, and a Roosting Chicken
Tonight’s dinner of braised root vegetables was seasoned with bouquet garni—a pleasing little bundle of parsley, thyme and bay. We ate the sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets over gnocchi, drizzled with the pan juices, butter, and chopped herbs. The wind picked up this afternoon and the air was chilly, but we still ate outside. Hints…
