In Season & Fresh from the Garden, the Fields, the Orchards & the Woods
Cornmeal is simply not used enough in sweets. There, I said it: eat more cornmeal. I like soft polenta (mush) and hard polenta (either – like oatmeal – taste sooo much better when made with milk instead of water). I like cheesy grits and creamy …
I have to confess that I do not have the proper respect for Thanksgiving. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that food-centric holiday. It’s just that – not having grown with it – I am not enough imbued with its traditions, and I am trying …
I love fresh oysters. When we lived in the city, we used to go to the wharf for Christmas and New Year, get fresh oysters in their shell, mud from the Chesapeake bay still clinging to them. Later that day, Keith would scrub them clean, …
Last evening I saw the man in the moon. In the incredible Hunter’s Moon that hanged, powerful and enormous, for a short while. As I was driving home, the sun sinking behind the mountains at my back , the majestic Moon was rising in the …
The English call them marrows, and – at least according to Agatha Christie (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, if I remember correctly) – take great pride in growing the zucchinis to very large vegetables. They call young zucchinis “courgettes” (the French word for zucchinis) and …
Isn’t that what you are asking yourself? You are not? sigh… you know, quince is not a very popular fruit nowadays. And really it is a shame, because nothing else has it piquant aromatic floral taste… pineapple, jasmine, guava and sweet vanilla, with a hint …
Shall we talk about ground cherries? mmm… say you politely, really? Ground cherries? You are not the only one to wonder… the year I gave ground cherry jam to friends for Christmas, I got some puzzled looks: this is cherry? you grind them? why? that’s …
A guest post from the resident hunter, Keith. Hunting season starts October 3 this year. Sylvie. This (past) weekend we hosted an English Shakespearean acting troupe which inspired me to write on hunting. These were young city-folk who were hosted by families in The County. …
I have been offering small hands-on classes on canning starting about one month ago: we’ve had 3 on peaches, 2 on pickles, and the first class on canning tomatoes is in 10 days, on August 17. There will be more workshops throughout August & September, …