Kitchen Garden: Slashing corn stalks paves the way for potato crop
Swashbuckling pirates were at work in our corn patch today. Corn season being over, my ...
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Maine Dish
Spicy beet hummus made at home
Does your family enjoy hummus, the Middle East spread or dip traditionally prepared with mashed ...
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Soupe au pistou is a garden in a bowl
In summer so many vegetables beckon from the garden it’s hard to choose, so I make soupe au pistou. Every country has its multiple-vegetable soup. In Italy you’d make minestrone. What makes this French Provencal one a treat is the last-minute addition of basil, garlic and olive oil, pounded into a paste in a mortar. …
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Ancient tool takes different forms for the job at hand
“The man who joyfully cleaves his ancestral fields with the hoe … will never be persuaded … to cleave the sea,” wrote the Roman poet Horace in his First Ode. During Horace’s time, the first century BC, forged iron hoes were numerous and varied, from heavy, mattock-like tools to the more slender sarculum, which had …
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Hay fever means tissues and pockets aplenty
Sniffling and snuffling. Wheezing and sneezing. Hay fever season hit our farm so hard this year we thought of renaming it Phlegm Farm. Allergies are no fun when you work out of doors. This doesn’t mean that the plant pollen that causes hay fever can’t also find its way inside your home or office. But …
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Crimson-red amaranth eaten in Pre-Columbian rites
Best yet, it is a grain crop that home gardeners can easily grow. You sow it after danger of frost, about ½-inch deep, in a finely textured, moistened seedbed — the kind you’d prepare for carrots.
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Biscotti makes nutritious snack
“Maine Dish” chef Cheryl Wixson devised an almond biscotti recipe after searching for a gluten-free treat. She also had an abundance of slivered almonds to use.
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Relish the garden harvest that each season bestows
If you have ever wondered who created the great classic recipes, the answer, in most cases, is “nobody.” They sprang from the garden, farm and orchard, just as a carrot sprouts in the row or an apple falls from the tree. No Italian chef set out to invent minestrone; it is simply the contents of …
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Warm up with stuffed cabbage leaves
Sadly, aside from Peter Rabbit, the rest of my family is really not completely in love with cabbage. Sometimes called the workhorse of the winter kitchen; cabbage is one of the few green vegetables that can be stored from harvest in the fall until spring in my root cellar. The first cabbages were brought to …
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Growing your own artichokes
The artichoke is a formidable vegetable. Armed like a cactus, the spiny globe is as much a challenge as a temptation. You must peel away many sharply pointed scales to reach what Pablo Neruda called “the peaceable dough of its green heart.” But the reward is great. The heart is silky-tender when steamed or boiled, …
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Gifts for sportsmen
Most of the sportsmen and women I have known over the years have an affinity for tools of the trade, gizmos and gadgets that have a practical application in their outdoor pursuits. And if they want something, and can afford it, they just go out and buy it. Oh, there are exceptions in the outdoor …
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Gingerbread cookies are a crowd favorite
Last week, my culinary students at Deer Isle-Stonington High School prepared and served a harvest lunch for their 120 classmates and staff. It was a heroic effort that involved the whole school and spanned over two weeks of preparation. Students roasted five Maine-raised turkeys, picking the meat off the bones, making stock and preparing gravy. …