This week I’ve been looking at the garden. It is much improved with a new decking area (relocated and rebuilt over two weeks) and a new fence. The fence was meant to be an easy job – just me moving … Continue reading →

Wow, what a week last week! All the destruction and loss of life in Boston and Texas, then Boston (where many loved ones live) on lockdown all Friday. I don’t know about you, but I’m still kind of reeling from it. My heart goes out to all those affected by these tragedies.

On top of that I’ve got the reverse culture shock that seems to visit me after every big national conversation. It’s often jarring to hear what people say when they’re frightened and trying to make sense of it all.

So it was welcome therapy to dig in the garden with the kids yesterday. We planted annual flowers, not pictured here, but we are so enjoying watching our vegetable garden.

I let the kids pick their favorite vegetables. Our five-year-old chose “salad,” which is what he calls lettuce or spinach. The way he uses the word is very German. Our eight-year-old chose carrots, and they’re coming up very nicely.

I started peppers and tomatoes indoors. They used to look like this:

and this:

But then I set them out for too long in the sun and fried nearly all of them. Ugh. I was so proud of them.

There are still a few that appear to be living, so I’m trying to nurse them back to health.

Meanwhile, I’ve been sewing a lot (very therapeutic), and I’m barreling ahead with some rewrites in my novel. I’ve been getting some ideas from the book Structuring Your Novel by Robert C. Meredith and John D. Fitzgerald. And my protagonist is facing some reverse culture shock of her own, so at least I can use mine.

What about you? Growing anything in the garden this year?

Have a great Monday!

This is the best year I’ve ever had for my tomatoes, and I’ve been growing them for at least ten years. The photo you see above is a sampling of the tomatoes I just picked from my third and last harvest. The plant themselves look warn, yet there are still quite a few tomatoes ripening, and it appears as though I’ll get at least 100 more before I pull the plants for the summer.

I credit my success this season to the fabric growing bags I used, that breathe and drain better than any clay or plastic pot can. I used organic fertilizer, alternating every week with epsom salts, which are rich in magnesium.

It never ceases to amaze me how nature takes its course. It appeared as though some of the plants stopped producing tomatoes, yet tiny buds of deep green leaves began to emerge, followed by yellow flowers and fruits. I’ve never had a season such as this where the last harvested tomatoes tasted as delicious as the first. Each harvest yields fewer and smaller tomatoes, yet this year the tomatoes of the last harvest also tasted as delicious as the first. In a few weeks I’ll pull out the plants and dump the soil into flower beds as I wait for September 1 – the date I plant my seeds for next season. I just received my seeds in the mail, so I’ll be ready to get started by then.

The challenges of nurturing and growing delicious healthy tomatoes can be compared to many other challenges we face in life – such as raising our children, building a business or taking care of our health. It all boils down to research, patience, experimenting and a whole lotta work and love.

I’ll sure miss eating my homegrown tomatoes this summer, but I’m actually looking forward to a gardening break. You can bet I’ll be itching to get started come September though. Every year brings new gardening experiences with new varieties and new discoveries.

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you may remember my first encounter with real Easter grass, in my son’s German kindergarten. I was almost amazed at the simple thought of growing something that we’d always bought manufactured from plastic, in plastic bags.

But really, it’s the simplest, easiest thing you could ever grow, and the payoff is huge.  This year, we’re growing our own at home. I’m just as excited as the kids to watch the green pop up.

I got a package of wheat grass seeds from the garden center, we filled some pots, lay the seeds on top, and watered. My son, now 5, told us not to cover the seeds with any dirt.

And shazam!

It’s got me singing Now the green blade riseth…

P.S. The lovely bird pot was a gift from our friend Sally Brotman, she of chicken kebab fame I love, love this pot!

Narcissus by Nishimura Hodo, c. 1930

Our daffodils are mostly finished; now comes the freesia time. Oh, they smell heavenly. And the pink jasmine has opened its stars all over the garden wall.

The butterfly garden is rebounding, now that the neighbor’s pepper trees have been hacked back to stubs. The tiny lilac and the young manzanita bush are in bloom, and the tree mallow is all pink blossoms and bees. The nasturtiums have sprung up from last year’s seeds, but the flowers seldom last long: Rilla and Huck keep eating them all.

I planted dahlias last fall, a gift from a close friend, but they haven’t yet made an appearance aboveground. Oh, but there’s a lone iris, slender leaves, rich purple-blue flower, that streak of gold down the middle. I carried irises in my wedding bouquet, so they always make me think of us.

The milkweed is just beginning to open, and all the roadsides are thick with gazanias and grape-soda lupine. Our crows are building a nest in the schoolyard fig tree just beyond our back fence. When I water the lettuces, tiny alligator lizards dart out from under the spray, indignant every time. They run up the wall and freeze in plain sight.

The front-yard tulips, those crazy gold-and-scarlet marvels, are about to drop their petals. Last week they were stunners, turning the head of every passerby. This week they’re haggard and overbright, still commanding attention in their garish decline, the Norma Desmonds of the garden.

In Tiny World Terrariums, Michelle Inciarrano and Katy Maslow — co-owners of Brooklyn's famed Twig Terrariums — offer readers all the tools necessary to create lovely, thriving terrariums of their own, and to bring each tiny world to life using cleverly arranged dollhouse miniatures, plastic figurines, rocks, and found objects. The projects in this book [...]

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Great news! Thanks to a group of very talented final year film students from the University of Northampton you can hear the story behind the creation of the world’s only underground club for kids – Secret Seed Society.

Behind the scenes Secret Seed Society HQ

Stumbling Goat Productions went behind the scenes of Secret Seed Publications to see a Social Enterprise in action.  With the help of Bright Horizons Nursery and Caroline Chisholm School, they were also able to follow the team spread their love for vegetables through gardening projects and their interactive theatre production ‘What’s the Big Secret?’.  We all had lots of fun filming together, especially the children who became film stars for the day!

4 days ago I planted my tomato seeds as I always do at the beginning of September. Since South Florida is a natural greenhouse with all the heat and humidity, look what I’ve got already! 4 inch seedling in 4 days!

If you plan to grow tomatoes of your own and you live in Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach Counties, now’s the time to plant your seeds. Make sure they get water, but don’t flood them. Keep them out of the rain, but make sure they get some sunlight. They should be transplanted into the ground or in pots around October 1st. You’ll have your first tomatoes around the new year!

Happy Planting!

First up: Into the Thicklebit | Overheard.

Next thing: We’re talking books in the comments of this post—Kristin Lavransdatter and Papa’s Wife. Got other Scandinavian favorites?

Next thing, for San Diego locals: My signing’s on Saturday! Yellow Book Road @ beautiful Liberty Station in Point Loma, 3pm. Come! Say hi! Eat cookies! Listen to me attempt a Scottish accent! (Serves me right for writing characters in dialect.)

Book reviews & interviews.

Other shareworthy links in my sidebar.

***

We have an excursion to City Farmers Nursery planned for this afternoon. Rilla is planting her own butterfly garden. (The one that spans the width of our backyard isn’t enough for her, evidently.) She’s making a list. Excuse me, I mean a LEIST. So far, she’s got:

1. MiLKWED

2. HOT PENK DRANEYOM (hot pink geranium)

I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Rilla knows we don’t water the plants when the sun is shining full on them. Shortly after I began work this afternoon, a note came sliding under my door:

IT IS THE SADE PORT AF THE DAY

As I was deciphering it (yellow crayon on white paper: tricky), a second note whooshed in:

SO SH I WODR MY PLANS

There was a new watering can awaiting her, you see. (Hot pink, of course, as everything must be, including draneyoms.) I opened the door, found her bouncing (because that is how one waits). Yes, you should water your plants now, and mine too, if you wouldn’t mind.

She didn’t mind.

Trying to work this afternoon, but it’s hard not to stay glued to the hurricane feeds. Hope you weather it well, all my East Coast friends…

Rilla and I did a lot of garden work this week: cleared bermuda grass out of the butterfly garden, planted some freesia bulbs I’d forgotten about. We have our sunflower seeds ready to sow, maybe this evening. Oh, and it’s pansy weather…almost. Midday sun still a bit harsh.

Time to start thinking of sowing our winter greens. The seasons are upside-down here; six years and I’m still not used to it.

In bloom: Mexican bush sage (salvia leucantha), cleome (one last floweret left), geraniums (always), gazania, red salvia, blue plumbago, lantana, milkweed, lavender, and chrysanthemums—pink and white. Oh, and the cape honeysuckle, beloved of hummingbirds. And sweet alyssum everywhere.

The nasturtiums are starting to reappear: leaves only, no buds yet, but they move fast.

Lots of roses around the neighborhood; a single giant flower on ours.

Something is eating up the lamb’s-ear.

Our big nature sighting of the week was a gulf fritillary caterpillar on the passionflower vine! We had to rush off to dance class, though, and he was gone when we returned. Big guy, probably pupating by now.

Alarming photos starting to roll in from New Jersey. Stay safe, friends…

So far, so good. My tomatoes have been growing in fabric pots for 2 months. I’ve picked Mexico Midgets, Black Cherry and one Black Tula. By Christmas I hope to be overwhelmed by the first real harvest.

22 fabric pots with tomatoes, 4 plastic pots with cherry tomatoes

Large cluster of healthy Black Truffle Tomatoes

Black Tula, best tomato I’ve ever tasted

First tomatoes of the season picked – mostly Mexico Midgets, tiny and tasty!

Brussel sprouts

Key Lime Lettuce

Green Beans

Someone’s lurking in the garden

My organic tomato garden has been prolific this year – the best I’ve ever had. And I have vowed NOT to waste one tomato. When they come off the vines by the basket load every day for a month, I have to work hard to eat them, can them and share them with friends. Giving canned sauce is always a pleasure. I’m often asked how I make my sauce, so here is the recipe.

Fresh, homegrown organic tomatoes have way more flavor than tomatoes you can buy at most stores. Believe it or not, even canned crushed tomatoes  taste better than regular store-bought tomatoes, so I have given you the option of using canned tomatoes should you not have good fresh tomatoes available.

Making tomato sauce requires just a few basic ingredients.

Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 5 lbs. fresh tomatoes, the more varieties, sizes and colors the better. Or substitute 2 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes.
• 2 6 oz. cans tomato paste
• 3 small yellow onions
• 25 cloves peeled garlic
• 3 Tbsp. shredded carrots
• 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 2 heaping tsp dried oregano
• 2 heaping tsp garlic powder
• 2 heaping Tbsp of basil pesto (I make my own with basil, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice and pine nuts, but you can buy it prepared)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Pinch cayenne

Peel and core your tomatoes. I use a tomato peeler, but you can cut an X in your tomato skins with a sharp knife and blanch them in boiling water for 1 minute to peel skins off. Cherry tomatoes do not need to be peeled.

Tough skins and cores down the drain.

Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large heavy duty sauce pan. Peel and remove tough ends, then chop onions in a food processor by pulsing. Do not over process or the onions will be watery.

Start to saute onions on medium heat. Add pinch of salt. Keep stirring. You do not want to brown the onions. Saute until translucent, 8-10 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, pulse the garlic in the food processor until finely diced.

Add more olive oil to the pan, lower the heat  and mix the garlic with the onions. Keep stirring for 2 minutes and be careful not to let the garlic burn.

Add the balsamic vinegar and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.

 Add the tomatoes to the pot, stir well and simmer.

The tomatoes will cook down and naturally break apart quickly as they are mostly water.

After the sauce has cooked for about 15 or 20 minutes, and the tomatoes have cooked down, add the 2 cans of tomato paste, garlic powder, oregano, cayenne, salt and pepper to taste.

Cook sauce by simmering for 2 hours on low heat. Stir every 10 or 15 minutes so it doesn’t burn on the bottom.

After sauce is done cooking, turn off the heat, stir in the pesto and then your sauce is REALLY done.

I can my sauce using a home canner, but if you do not know how to can, you can wait for your sauce to cool and freeze it in portions perfect for your family.

Sauce can be used over pasta. You can add meat, make meatballs, use it in soups, stews and more.

Happy Cooking!

I was going to write about Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel today but it snowed and I am tired of snow and it is the middle of February which means there is no better thing to do on a day like today than plan the garden.

Bookman and I enjoyed the vegetable garden so much last year that we decided to expand it. But instead of waiting until spring and the very hard work of digging up long established grass, we put down black plastic to kill the grass. Once the snow melts and the ground thaws, it should be a piece of cake to dig it up. In theory. We’ve never tried the black plastic kill your grass method but the get rid of you lawn gardening books tell me that’s the way to go. If it works our neighbors will have the pleasure of seeing black plastic on a few different areas of our yard through the summer. But when we have prairie meadow and other beautiful things growing in those places (eventually) the ugly black plastic stage will be a dim memory.

So I inventoried what seeds we didn’t use from last year’s garden and then Bookman and I sat down with the Pinetree Garden Seeds catalog and started figuring out what we are going to plant in our expanded garden. Last year we grew beets, peas, beans, cantaloupe, pumpkin, radish, tomatoes and bell pepper. Oh and lettuce but we had a sudden heat wave in May following lots of rain so the small lettuces didn’t make it. This year we are going to do everything we did last year plus kale, pac choi, red cabbage, sweet corn, pole beans, summer squash, cucumber, kohlrabi, and mustard greens. Yummy!

Before the woodland garden fail

We’re doing more ornamental annual flowers this year too. I found out nicotiania planted near the vegetable garden will help keep pests away so I’m going to try that. There will also be zinnias, morning glories, and sweet peas. And we always do sunflowers.

I’ve also been looking at the Prairie Moon Nursery catalog for native plants. We’re going to get some varieties of coneflower we don’t have and might try a few other prairie plants from seed too. We are also going to get some wild strawberry plants from Prairie Moon. These are native strawberries that will tolerate shade. We are going to see if they will grow under the apple tree in our front yard.

All that and we haven’t even gotten the catalog for the big local plant sale we go to every May. I do know though that we will be purchasing two blueberry shrubs at the sale. We will be building a raised bed for them because they need acidic soil and my garden soil is too sandy. I have big garden dreams this year!

A large part of the garden dreaming has been driven along by a few books I borrowed from the library. The Edible Front Yard is a practical how-to book garden design tips, and suggestions on how to mix food plants with ornamental plants. Edible Estates is less practical and more inspirational, showing how one can turn a grass-covered front yard into a beautiful edible garden. And the best part is that the majority of the front yards they transform are regular urban and suburban front yards. American Green: the Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn is part social history part horror story. It looks at how the lawn became such a pervasive part of the American landscape and why that perfect lawn is so environmentally dangerous.

I’ve been slowly digging up pieces of my lawn for years so I don’t need to be convinced. What grass I do have left, and there is still quite a lot, only gets mowed never weeded, fertilized or watered. I am trying to kill it with neglect but darn it, it is hardier than I would like. Still, I hope within the next two to three years Bookman and I will be able to mothball the lawnmower for good. It’s about time we make that final push and with the expanded veggie garden, the flower seeds, and the prairie seeds we’ll be making big strides toward that goal.

Why is the government teaching us to waste water? I'm asking you because I'm talking about your garden. The fact is, the gardening practices that are endorsed and taught by the U.S. government and the Department of Agriculture make extremely inefficient use of water. How can this be possible when, as of February 1, 2013, [...]

SCENES FROM LIFE: A SHORT PLAYETTE
AT THE GARDEN CENTRE

SCENE: CUSTOMER STANDS AT THE RETURN COUNTER IN GARDEN CENTRE, HOLDING A PLASTIC BAG OPEN AT THE TOP


GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
"Number 14...who's number 14?"

CUSTOMER
Here! That would be me! See? Here's my ticket. Number 14

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
Now that we've agreed on that, what can I do for you?

CUSTOMER
I'd like to return these plants, please

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
Flowering or green?

(customer opens bag, removes contents and places them on counter earth spilling everywhere)

CUSTOMER
These plants. They're annuals as you can tell...then again, maybe you don't garden...not everyone likes to play in dirt. That's a little garden humor, there!

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
Come again? You want to return...dead garden plants. Now I've heard it all

CUSTOMER
You have a money-back-no-questions-asked policy?

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
Yes but...

CUSTOMER
...well - these former, vibrant living things are no longer in this world. Gone to see their maker. Never to feel the heat of the sun, again. I have the bill here...

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
Lady - those plants are dead!

CUSTOMER
Right - and that's why I'm returning them! Oh the angst and guilt of garden passings!

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
That doesn't include plants!

CUSTOMER
Show me where it says that. Money back is money back.

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
When did you plant these? They're a collection of black mush. Can't even tell what they were

CUSTOMER
Dahlias. Planted them the week that you started selling them. March...I think... Yup - March

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
March? The ground was still frozen! How did you even get a spade in the ground

CUSTOMER
I managed. We garden lovers can make the impossible happen. So are you going to give me back my money?

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
Damn - there's ants crawling all over the counter...

(garden center employee smashes ants with her hand and fingers)

CUSTOMER
Even more reason to return me my money as soon as possible. Oh look - there goes a earwig. Boy those bugs sure can move fast...right accross the counter...

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
How about I replace those...whatever with live plants? Would that be okay?

CUSTOMER
That would be perfectly okay with me. By the way, what should I do with these dearly departed?

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
'I will not open my mouth to a customer...I will not open my mouth to a customer...' Um - just leave them here

CUSTOMER
Is it okay if I say good-bye to them?

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
Whatever...

CUSTOMER
(touching plants)
'Plants - I'm very sorry that my TLC didn't save you from extinction. I tried - I really tried! Go now - go meet your friends in the garden in the sky!'

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
Good. Said your goodbyes?

CUSTOMER
Yes. It's always so hard to deal with plant deaths

GARDEN CENTER EMPLOYEE
(grabbing dead plants and tossing them in trash can)
Not really. "Number 20 - who's got number 20?"

I eat at least 4 tomatoes every day and give at least 4 away. I cut them up in my salads, salt them and eat them over the sink, put them in soups, sauces, dip them in hummus and cook and can them. The deep red color is indicative of the deep, complex flavor. I will be sad in a few weeks when the Florida tomato growing season is over. But the good news is that I will plant the seeds for next season on September 1 – not that far away!

We’re finishing the end of the harvest with a bang. I think I’m turning into a tomato!

The worlds smallest ripe tomato? Not even 1/2 inch across.

Today was the big plant sale. Bookman and I were up nice and early. Got to the plant sale site at the State Fairgrounds about 7:15 and picked up our wristbands to get in. Over the years they have had to come up with a crowd management system because the sale has gotten so popular. They send people into the sale in groups of 30 or so ever 5- 10 minutes. That way everyone isn’t all bunched up in the same places. Works really well. Plus, we can get a wristband and leave and come back when the doors open at 9 instead of standing in line and waiting for a couple of hours.

So we got our wristbands and then went to have some breakfast at our favorite breakfast cafe. We got back to the sale about 9:15, just in time to breeze right in.

I brought the camera with me planning on taking photos of the sale but in making sure we had our cart and plant list and everything, I managed to forget the camera in the car. Oh well. Maybe next year I’ll remember. Because I am such an advanced planner, it only took us about 45 minutes start to finish. Plus Bookman and I make an awesome team.

Now we have to plant everything. Today being a mostly sunny and warm day, we got started. The new bed we planted last year in the front yard next to the street had several plants that didn’t make it through the winter so we planted two new plants, leadplant (amorpha canescens), a small shrub in the pea family and native to Minnesota and other parts of North America, and purple prairie clover (dale purpurea). The clover variety is called “Stephanie” so you know I had to have it even though it is spelled wrong. It is a cultivar of a Minnesota native variety, butterflies like it, and it grows well in association with leadplant. Hopefully they both live and thrive. Here they are in their new home:

While I was at it, I had to take a photo of one of the flowers we planted in the bed last year, echium russicum. It is native to Russia and very cold hardy and has awesome curvy flower spikes that then bloom a reddish-purple. Here is mine just starting to bloom next to the yellow perennial alyssum in the background:

Last year we bought a honeycrisp apple tree at the plant sale and it is doing really well. We needed another tree to pollinate it so we got a crab apple from the Arbor Day Foundation. The crab did not thrive despite our best efforts and succumbed to the winter. So we invested in a bigger crabapple this year at the sale and brought home a variety called “chestnut” that gets one inch sized crabapples on it and will be good for making jelly. Yum! We planted it in the same place as the crab that died so I hope there is no lingering death curse or something. Since it is a much bigger tree because it didn’t come bare root in the mail but in a five gallon pot, we had to enlarge its living quarters:

And here is the tree planted up.

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I was so sore yesterday after spending the day digging up and planting the vegetable garden that when I crawled into bed I worried I would be too cramped up to get out of it again this morning. But thanks to a good night’s rest, I was able to get up sore muscles and all, for a yummy homemade waffle breakfast. Then it was pretty much go-go-go all day dividing my time between laundry and cleaning a little indoors and continuing to work in the garden outdoors.

Here is the vegetable garden all planted up:

We’ve got paste tomatoes and a slicing tomato, a bell pepper, beets, lettuce, bush beans, peas, radishes, pumpkin and cantaloupe melon. We don’t have the string up for the peas to climb yet. We’ll get to it in the next day or so. In a few weeks there should be lots of green sprouts in the there.

Now, for what took most of our work today, the side yard. We dug up all the weeds and other unwanted overgrown plants and spread out some compost. Then we put up the reed fencing. We need to get a little more but it has already made a huge difference. We are going to put in a new gate too eventually. After the new fencing was up, we planted some stuff:

Beautification project in progress

dwarf hemlock

lady fern, wild ginger, and froggy

I usually go overboard and buy too many plants for new beds, not taking into account full grown size and that they might spread. So this year I went light on the plant selection partly because I didn’t want to overdo it and partly because I am not sure what sort of plants might do well over here. Except for the dwarf hemlock they are all native plants chosen mostly for their leaf shapes and textures rather than flowers. There are some flowers in there though, hepatica (white flowers) and wood poppy (yellow flowers). There is lots of space in between the plants and a good three or four feet with no plants at all. We’ll be adding wood chip mulch in the bed to help keep it moist and to keep the weeds down.

To go along with the gardening, a book I bought last week arrived in the mail. The Smell of Summer Grass by Adam Nicolson. Nicolson is the son of Nigel Nicolson and grandson of Vita Sackville-West. He has a book on Sissinghurst that I own and am looking forward to reading when the mood strikes. The book I bought is about Perch Hill Farm in Sussex, a small farm he and his wife bought and turned into a little piece of paradise. I am looking forward to reading it though probably not until fall or winter when my gardening season is over. It’s always nice to curl up indoors when it is cold and gray outside and dream of

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By: Melissa Wiley, on 5/15/2012
Blog: Here in the Bonny Glen (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Gardening, Nature Study, Photos, agapanthus, garden notes, lily of the Nile, Add a tag

The Lilies-of-the-Nile are being impish again. I was going to remark that as much as I adore their purple spheres of bloom, this bud stage is when I love them best—but I see I already said that, a year ago. I really am repeating myself; I see too that I posted an agapanthus bud exactly one year ago today. Impish they may be, but they are punctual little fellows!

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By: Aaron Polson, on 7/10/2012
Blog: The Other Aaron (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  memories of Aimee, thoughts on life, aimee ziegler, gardening, food, Add a tag

I'm making köttbullar for some friends today--or meatballs as we'd say in English. The funny thing about these is that they are meat-less because the target audience lives a mostly meat-free life. How does one make meatless meatballs? With potatoes (from our family garden), ground almonds, and love.

I've used food as an "I love you" for a long time. I suppose I learned this from my mother--what with her always available chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter brownies, and various pies. During college, I never came home to an empty pan or cookie jar.

My first gift to Aimee, was a peach pie. We'd only been dating for about a month, so I didn't want to get weird or anything. She'd mentioned liking peach pie once. I made one and "sealed the deal." (her words, not mine) I baked scores of pies over the years--peach, strawberry rhubarb, chocolate peanut butter... Aimee's birthday became an occasion for pizza, a different kind of pie. When she turned thirty, I kneaded dough and baked for hours. By her fortieth, I'd learned a few tricks, but every pizza was still a work of my two hands.

When prepping food for friends, I always like to make it from scratch, just like my potato meat(less)balls. Food is special that way--something with effort and care put in that you can actually taste and feel.

Aimee helped plant this year's potato crop, and I'm happy to share this little miracle tubers with friends.

2 Comments on Food is Love, last added: 7/14/2012

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Kelli said, on 7/11/2012 9:25:00 PM

Those look delicious! Food is an amazing thing for sure! Once again, thank you for sharing one of your stories.

Cate Gardner said, on 7/14/2012 12:09:00 AM

I already knew you were awesome but good lord, now I discover you bake pies too...

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