When I first visited this amazing Paonia, Colorado home in July of 2011, and was taken into the back yard, I fell in love. The grape bower made of old tree limbs, with a shady alcove to sit underneath -looking out at a rich garden plot beyond. And the towering bushes framing the garden, were loaded, LOADED with elderberries….
Category: Preserving the harvest
Beet Chips with Kosher Salt and Rosemary
The temperature was -4 early this morning, with a very thin, fine powder of new snow over all. The garden is buried, with my popcorn and cranberry garland from the holidays swinging forlornly from some branches out back. Sweet juncos, a chickadee or two, and flickers will soon be flitting about in spite of the frigid…
Amaretto Pear Preserves
Pears and almonds go together like childhood friends. It’s true! This pear preserves recipe has a wonderful depth added by flavoring with a little Amaretto (Italian almond liqueur), fresh nutmeg, and honey. So easy, and lushly delicious, like these pears it was made from this afternoon. Assembling ingredients for a recipe like this brings a smile….
the sweet fall harvests
Each day at this point in the garden season is a treasure. Be-jeweled. I feel it. Looking about this plot of ground, October 4th in the afternoon, I feel the gift big time. It makes poignant, clear sense, to truly be present in the moment these days of twirling, fleeting gold and changing season. And I do my best. Looking for beauty, and…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Chokecherry Tree ~ and a fine dessert recipe of GF Honey Lavender Shortcakes with Caramelized Peaches and Chokecherry Syrup
I’m living in a sweet, residential neighborhood of a small town on the western slope of Colorado, the North Fork Valley. The street has a lush canopy of leaves, my home is a 106 year old renovated two story, with plenty of trees and flowers, and a rich garden plot in the back. It really…
KIMCHI !! Making Korean Sauerkraut straight out of a Colorado garden
I’ve been doing some miles on my kitchen floor these days – August is that glorious crazy time when winter visions of this season’s garden are coming into wild, abundant fruition and there is plenty to pick, eat and preserve! I love kimchi and have been waiting all season for my cabbages to arrive at…
Potatoes – Tomatoes; and an authentic Ecuadorian recipe from the Andean Highlands
I do have a reverence for the garden, which sustains me – with a love deep within my heart expanding into the earth. Digging potatoes is a marvelous treasure hunt, a reflection back out of the earth of all that love – and in gardens past, also a race against the wily and voracious wire worms. This year,…
Pachamama's Beautiful Food 