Yes, I dreamt up this tostada, fully awake but mesmerized, standing in and meandering through the fall garden, creating in my head with what was possible – given ingredients in my pantry and what could be harvested that day. Autumn in the garden is soo beautiful, with goldfinches landing on ripe sunflower heads, making them bob and…
Author: Margaret Gilfoyle
Autumn – Almond Butter Cookies – And Criss Crossed Lines
This world is filled with lines that cross. Everywhere. In a myriad of ways. Lines of communication, lineage of families. Branches of trees making up a forest. Tic Tac Toe. Lines, highways, rivers and streets. Words on a page. Prayers criss cross and tumble over each other on the wind – for our lives, to connect to each…
Praying Mantis Encounter – and a recipe for Grilled Chicken Marcellina
The garden is an exquisite jumble of greens and all of those coveted colors – red, orange, yellow, purple….and I’m harvesting, canning and freezing like mad whenever I get a few hours to spend. I love it of course! What is not to love about these tomatoes? One of the most prolific vegetables this season have…
Unexpected Beet Conversions – A (Tongue in Cheek?) Religious Experience
When cooking all those lovely offerings from your garden, it is hard, no impossible, not to go into rapture about their exquisite taste. It was an unexpected surprise to hear, a few weeks ago, my simple preparations would result in the shock of true conversion status. Something like this: I’m referring to beets, and their effects on unsuspecting friends and…
Surprises in Life and the Garden: And Oh! the pang of unrequited love
Oh my! All is well. To everything, turn, turn, turn. There is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven….. I found out this morning a dear friend is considering a move to another country, and even the suggestion of this change wrenched my heart. Aching! Already, and nothing has…
Wasabi Egg and Avocado Salad Stuffed Cucumbers
Cukes galore at Ft. Collins, Colorado CSA Happy Heart Farm inspired me to create this recipe back when I provided food demos monthly on pick-up days. It often turned into a party on these afternoons – 4 to 5 dishes for all of the members to taste based on what was being harvested. That hot summer the cucumbers…
Late Summer in the Garden
Even after the sun rises, Orion you watch, silent over me I was up before dawn, with the moon and constellations glowing, in a beautiful hot springs with steam rising all around me. The sky lightened and day gave way. Away from home for a short time… Grateful to be there, happy to be back…
This is just to say – I love plums, and thank you, William Carlos Williams (with a recipe for plum pizza)
PLUMS. They taste like heaven and the name rolls right off your tongue. The Italian – or Stanley – plum tree in my yard has had a very good year. I need a taller ladder quick, to reach those elusive clusters still swinging on high. I sat down with lunch and a beautiful book on…
The Versatile Ear: Raw Thai Style Corn Salad, Corn and Feta Stuffed Poblano Peppers + Roast Serrano, Organic Sweet Corn and Heirloom Potato Chowder
Fresh sweet corn. Butter. Salt. Iowa born and raised. Summers at the lake in upstate New York. Corn is in my blood. I love corn on the cob! What a sign of summer! As young girls, my twin sister and I used to make observations about a person’s style of eating an ear of corn, sitting around the table with family,…
Tomato Nasturtium Salad with Kalamata Olives
Home grown increases the flavor of a tomato by at least a 1000%. You don’t have to go far in a conversation to find folks who agree – it’s a well known fact. I’m growing quite a few varieties this year, and there are many more to try next season…beautiful colors, unusual heirlooms, from the huge Mortgage Lifter…
The Sacred Pocket: Contemplation, White Sage and Sweetgrass
Yesterday, it rained again. We are so grateful, as the moisture seems to be cycling back into more regularity after a hot, hot summer. There is no wildfire smoke in the air, at least these past several days in the valley. So many prayers for rain – and they have been answered. The elements of…
Paonia Peaches! Elderberry peach crisp, Frangelico peach preserves, Serrano peach hot sauce
The North Fork Valley of Colorado where I live is blessed with so many orchards, most of them organic. In mid – August, everyone was talking about JJ’s peaches, u-pick for 1.25 a lb. I decided to drive up to Lamborn Mesa during the height of the earliest picking season, on a coolish morning which was quickly warming…
The revolution is here: a brand new urban balcony garden
I have always been a rebel. You know, I liked coloring outside of the lines. I liked to explore the woods behind our house and catch butterflies, raise pet mice and chameleons waaayyy more than playing with dolls. Fast forward and you’ll see me getting arrested for civil disobedience at a nuclear rally when I was 20. The list goes on, within…
Reflections on a gift of watermelon pickle
Isn’t it the memory of watermelons that makes us want to grow them? It is for me. I was in third grade, with a teacher named Ms. Hoover. Ms. The first woman I had ever known who wasn’t a Miss, or a Mrs. Ms. Hoover had teased up hair and big brown eyes that seem…
Pachamama's Beautiful Food 