Cooking
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Cocktails, Cooking, Gourmet Garden, Herb Gardening, Recipes, Roses, Valentines Day Flowers
The Vintage Rose: A Valentine’s Cocktail
The Vintage Rose Cocktail: Perfect for Valentine’s Day (or any day!) Valentine’s Day is coming up, and with Rosalind Creasy’s The Edible Flower Garden still on my mind, how could I resist sharing a romantic rose-cocktail made with real rose petals and homemade rose syrup? Long time readers may recall this recipe from nearly a decade […]
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Annual Flowers, annuals, Baking, Color in the Garden, Cookbooks, Cooking, Cooking with Kids, Decorating the Garden, Garden Design, Gourmet Garden, Herb Gardening, Pollinating Insects, Recipes, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Designing Spring’s Prettiest Potager & Rosalind Creasy’s ‘Edible Flower Garden’
Rosalind Creasy’s The Edible Flower Garden When you begin plotting out your spring vegetable garden, do you include space for edible flowers in your planting plan? Wait, did I just say edible flowers? Indeed I did. Gourmet gardeners will already be familiar with the delicious flavor of stuffed squash blossoms and the zing of spicy […]
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Cookbooks, Cooking, Freezing, Garlic, Gourmet Garden, Herb Gardening, Potager
Spicy & Savory Winter Squash Stew
Winter Squash Stew from The Edible Herb Garden After posting my recent review of Rosalind Creasy’s The Edible Herb Garden last week, I decided that I simply had to try one of the many tempting recipes at the back of the book. Cooking with fresh herbs and homegrown vegetables is a bit more challenging at […]
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Books, Container Gardening, Cookbooks, Cooking, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Gardening Inspiration, Gardening without Lawn, Herb Gardening
Spring Planning with Rosalind Creasy’s ‘The Edible Herb Garden’
The Edible Herb Garden, Rosalind Creasy It’s late January. The ground is frozen, the hills are grey-brown and the garden is covered in ice. Convincing clients that now is the best time to create a landscape design for spring planting has never been easy. But it’s smart to begin now —when the snow is piled […]
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Calamondin Orange Tree, Citrus, Cooking, Indoor Eden, Indoor Gardening, Trees
Calamondin Orange: Sunshine in a Pot
Calamondin Orange Tree in the Kitchen As we move closer to the shortest day of the year, and the long, dark nights of winter, sunlight begins to feel like a rare and precious commodity. During the cold, colorless months, I find myself seeking out warm hues —bright yellow, orange, lime green— and all things tropical. […]
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Celebrations, Cooking, Cooking with Kids, Dining Outdoors, Fruit for home gardens, Fruit Trees, Great Growers and Nurseries, Peaches, Recipes, The Last Day of Summer, The Seasons
Celebrating the Swan Song of Summer: Grilled Peaches with Blue Cheese, Caramelized Onions & Pecans . . .
 Grilled Peaches with Blue Cheese, Caramelized Onions, Toasted Pecans & Balsamic Glaze Gloria Peaches at Scott Farm Orchard, Vermont. According to Scott Farm orchard manager, Zeke Goodband, these beautiful, sweet, firm-fleshed peaches are the perfect choice for grilling and roasting! Beautiful Scott Farm Peaches, Almost too Good to Eat Oh summer, summer, summer . . […]
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Books, companion planting, Cookbooks, Cooking, Gifts for Gardeners, Gourmet Garden, Kitchen, Planting Techniques, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison, Plus a Springtime-Fresh Garden Recipe: Peas with Baked Ricotta & Breadcrumbs
Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison As organic vegetable gardeners, we know how important it is to become familiar with the various plant families and to develop an understanding of how they relate to one another in the garden. Botanical knowledge is key to avoiding many pests, diseases and cultural problems. Having recently reviewed the topics […]
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Baking, Coffee, Cooking, Recipes, The Seasons, Winter, Winter Garden
Caramel-Drizzled, Spiced Coffee Cake, Daylight Savings & Winter’s Last Hurrah
 Caramel-Drizzled Coffee Cake Takes the Edge Off a Winter Storm Late winter snow storms are real heart-breakers. And it seems that, no matter how many times we’re hit by an early March ‘weather event’, I’m always caught by surprise. Songbirds are returning, buds are swelling on trees, and clocks are about to spring forward to […]
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Autumn, companion planting, Cooking, Garlic, Halloween, Herb Gardening, Onions, Plant hunting, Plant Propagation, Plant Spotlight, Planting Techniques, Preserving Herbs, Putting Food By, Root Cellar Storage, The Seasons, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Bavarian Purple, Spanish Roja & More: Selecting & Planting Gourmet Garlic …
Gorgeous, Gourmet Garlic! Bulbs, Clockwise from Top of Ceramic Bowl: German White, Russian Red, Bavarian Purple & Spanish Roja. On Table: Two Heads of Doc’s German & One Each of German Red & Music. In Basket: A Combination of All Garlic Varieties, Plus Continental. Creatures of the night, beware: I grow garlic! Garlic and onion […]
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Apples, Autumn, Cookbooks, Cooking, Gourmet Garden, Orchards / Orchard Keeping, Trees for Fruit
Sampling Sweet Heirloom Treasures … Apple Tasting at Scott Farm Orchard
The Golden Light of Harvest Season at Scott Farm Orchard in Vermont If a rose is a rose is a rose, does it then follow that an apple is an apple is an apple? Of course —except in the most simplistic of senses— neither statement is true. Each of these closely related species —both of which […]
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Apples, Books, Cookbooks, Cooking, Fruit for home gardens, Fruit Trees, New England, Orchards / Orchard Keeping, Recipes
Dorie Greenspan’s Simply Delicious French Cake with Heirloom Apples …
Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake from Dorie Greespan’s Wonderful Book of Recipes, Around My French Table I awoke this past Sunday morning with a kitchen full of heirloom apples from Scott Farm Orchard and nothing more important to do than brew a pot of coffee and bake a special birthday cake. No problem, right? Well, I suppose […]
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Cookbooks, Cooking, Cooking with Kids, Recipes
Gems in the Rough: Heirloom Potatoes & Delightfully Crispy Faux French Frites {Plus Tips for Root Cellaring Your Spuds}
Crispy Faux Frites I confess a weakness for frites. Real frites, mind you, not the soggy, pale-yellow excuse for French fries found in fast food restaurants. I’m talking about genuine, golden-brown, warm, crispy, sea-salty, flavorful French frites. The last time I had really great French fried potatoes I was in San Francisco of all places, […]
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Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes, The Seasons, Tomatoes, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Cool Inspiration for Hot Summer Days: Beautiful Cookbooks & Delicious Dinners from the Garden …
Hot day, Cool Dinner: Pasta with Arugula, Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic Although I don’t consider myself anything more than an average home cook, experimenting in the kitchen certainly is one of my favorite pastimes. And in mid-summer —when my potager is filled with the best produce of the season— it’s a delight to stroll […]
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Cookbooks, Cooking, Extending the Growing Season, Plant Spotlight, Planting Techniques, Potatoes, Recipes, seed starting, Seeds, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Summertime Brunch from the Potager: New Potato, Snow Pea & Mint Frittata With Delightfully Lemony Mayonnaise …
Summertime Brunch from the Potager: New Potato, Snow Pea & Mint Frittata with Lemony Mayonnaise July is a month of abundance in my kitchen garden. After months of hard work come the blissful rewards: a walk down the potager path at this time of year is like a trip to a private farmers market. New […]
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Cocktails, Cooking, Garden Party, Summer Solstice, The Seasons
A Warm Welcome to Sultry Summer …
A Warm Welcome to Summertime with Pyrotechnic Flower Bouquets Summer begins today at 1:16 pm EDT, and I’m welcoming her with open arms. After a long, cold winter followed by a wet, drizzly spring, I’m more than ready for hot and hazy, hammock days and sultry summer evenings. There are so many things to love […]
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Bee-Friendly Gardens, Beneficial Animals and Insects, Berries, Butterflies and Moths, Cocktails, Cooking, Cooking with Kids, Fruit for home gardens, Plants for sun, Pots, Recipes, strawberries, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Strawberries & Homemade Granola: Fresh Fraises des Bois for Breakfast …
Fresh Picked Alpine Strawberries or Fraises des Bois (Fragaria vesca) & Homemade Granola One of the best things about June —besides peonies— is fresh picked strawberries from the garden. I have a small but productive patch of fraises des bois (Fragaria vesca) —better known as alpine strawberries— in my potager (click here for more information […]
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Annual Flowering Vines, Annual Flowers, annuals, Bee-Friendly Gardens, Butterflies and Moths, Cocktails, Color in the Garden, Container Gardening, Cookbooks, Cooking, Cooking with Kids, Flower arrangements, Garden Party, Garden projects for kids, Honeybee Friendly Gardening, Hummingbird/Butterfly, Indoor Table Arrangements
A Visual Feast: Beautiful, Edible Flowers
Pansies (Viola × wittrockiana) are lovely atop cakes, in salads and especially when floating in cocktails… Or Cocktails, Like this Sunset Mangotini (click here for recipe) (Viola × wittrockiana ‘Matrix Purple’) Candied rose petals, lavender ice cream, hibiscus tea, chocolate cupcakes laced with violets; some flowers are more than a visual feast, they’re actually good […]
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Cooking, Recipes, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Rainy Day Musings & Beautiful Colors… Sauteed Beet Greens with Caramelized Onions, Balsamic Vinegar and Pine Nuts
Sauteed Beet Greens with Caramelized Onions and Balsamic Vinegar Rainy days, slow and soft. With deadlines looming and a long list of chores to complete; must confess I feel a twinge of guilt when allowing myself an afternoon of luxury in the middle of a busy season. But it sure feels good. The sound of […]
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Cooking, Cooking with Kids, Ferns, Fiddleheads, Gourmet Garden, Late Autumn Garden, Mushrooms, Native Plants, Nature, Plant hunting, Plant Propagation, Plant Spotlight, Planting Techniques, Plants for shade, Recipes, Shiitake Growing, The Seasons, Unusual Plants, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager, Woodland plants
Spring Brunch from the Kitchen Garden: Shirred Eggs with Shiitake & Arugula …
Shirred Eggs with Homegrown Shiitake Mushrooms & Garden-Fresh Arugula I’ve always been a breakfast person. French toast, waffles, eggs, potatoes, pancakes; I enjoy them all. Sometimes, in fact, I would like them all at once. Because of my love affair with breakfast foods, I have developed some pretty liberal ideas about when they should be […]
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Cocktails, Cooking, Maple Syrup, Recipes, The Seasons, Trees, Trees for Fall Foliage, Vermont, Woodland plants
Early Spring’s Sweetest Things…
The New Sugar Shack at Deer Ridge Farm in Guilford, Vermont Spring, oh spring, where are you? You certainly are a bit coquettish this year; teasing us with early catkins on willow, then snapping us with a sharp, cold sting. Yes, Spring has been withholding many early-season pleasures here in New England, but she always […]
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Cookbooks, Cooking, ornamental grass, Ornamental Grass in Containers, Recipes, The Seasons, Winter Garden
The Scent of Homemade Bread on a Honey Drizzled Morning…
Homemade Whole Wheat Bread and Farm-Style Butter I Keep Dried Ornamental Grass —Miscanthus sinensis cut from the Garden– In My Bedroom Through Out the Winter Months. I Love How the Feathery Plumes and Golden Curls Catch Morning’s First Light… Of course, I also enjoy looking at ornamental grass in the garden throughout the winter. This […]
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