It is that time of year. Warm days, nights below freezing. And each sunny day in the forties I feel that maple sap running up the tree. And each afternoon as I pick eggs and later when I shut the chicken coops for the night I look up to the stars and remember. As a child near my birthday in March we would visit my grandparents and they made …
Today as I make bread I remember… Ken could surprise me easily. I am often trusting and naive. One year Ken asked me to help him move some lumber from one of the many lumber piles. He told me he was pulling some maple for a project. It never occurred to me the project was for me. That year in the late fall Ken kept teasing me I had helped him move my …
Yesterday I got to spend some time with a gorgeous, happy baby. I thought of Ken. Ken, as the second of seven children, had lots of baby experience. I, as the second of two with two younger cousins across the country, did not. People would start to hand me babies – after all I am a woman. And I would quickly say, “Hand that baby to Ken. I come in once they …
I have been cleaning and sorting and clearing in the house; there is much to do. One day I climbed up a ladder and washed high walls – can’t remember the last time I did that (embarrassing, but true). I also started sorting rags with the plan to put them in barrels outside until I have cleaned, sorted, reorganized my solo living space. …
Last fall we had unusual weather – eighties on October 20th! And less than three weeks later on November 5th, the temperature dropped to single digits, and the ground froze. We wanted to plant garlic, but how? Ken planted garlic in the mobile high tunnel where the soil was NOT frozen. This spring has been cool and we got late snow. I realized it would be warm in the greenhouse so I dug …
Years ago when we were in a fair trade store I saw a lovely set of chimes. I announced to Ken I wanted to buy it. This does not happen often, and he was taken aback. He looked at it and said, “A guy could make one of these.” My quick reply was, “And if A GUY doesn’t make one, his wife will buy one.” For a few weeks Ken puzzled what he had …
Greetings from the Garden! This box has sprouts, onions, garlic, celery root, carrots, beets, black radishes, kohlrabi, and dried black beans Field Notes. This is our final box. After twenty – three years I think we can say it was a good run. We have delivered vegetables to people on time without fail for all those years. Each box had at least eight different varieties, and many had over twelve. Ken did a marvelous …
Spring planting in the greenhouse all depends on the weather. The air and soil temperature inside the greenhouse is much more important than the date. Some years Ken had planted in February, but this year we had early cold with no snow cover, so the frost went deep into the soil. We have also had more cloudy than sunny weather, so there has not been much solar gain once the sun has some real heat …
The first seeds Ken planted each season were the onions. Since I had bought seeds, I decided to try planting them in Ken’s germination cabinet. These are the first seeds I have planted since the bean seed in the cup in kindergarten. Although I called a friend for tips, I had low expectations. So much could go wrong. Was the soil too wet, too dry, did I put enough soil covering the seeds, too …
Ken used to teach people to make nori maki. This is sushi rolled in a sheet of nori – a sea weed that is pressed into a thin flat sheet. And the term sushi refers not to raw fish, but to the rice cooking process. Sushi is rice cooked with some rice vinegar to soften it so it can be carefully pressed into shapes or rolled. Sashimi was the term used for raw fish when …
