Have a fruitful summer, fall May 29, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle In the official language of botany, a plant is “armed” if it packs certain defensive gear. A cactus uses sharp spines — which are modified leaves — to protect itself from creatures seeking the water inside its stems. A lemon tree guards its fruit with thorns, which are modified branches. Bramble fruits such as raspberries …
For a nutritious lunch, try foraging May 19, 2018 by Kate Cough on Arts & living, Home & garden, Lifestyle If you could see through the fog this week you may have noticed some emerald treasures: edible shoots, nudging their way up through winter’s leaf litter. Fiddleheads, garlic mustard, milkweed and dandelions are just some of the wild treats that appear in the early spring. Fiddleheads are the furled frond of a young fern and …
Behold the blueberry bush May 14, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle I’ve never had much appetite for blue food. Apart from the sky, blue is rare in nature, and even more so on the plate. A delphinium blossom or a huge, iridescent Morpho butterfly are both miracles of blueness. But I pass up those Peruvian blue potatoes in favor of golden ones, and the same goes …
Ellsworth Garden Club festival and plant sale scheduled for May 19 May 4, 2018 by Staff on Home & garden, Lifestyle ELLSWORTH — The Ellsworth Garden Club’s annual Pink Tulip Festival and Plant Sale will be held on Saturday, May 19, from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at Donald Little Park on State Street. Proceeds will help to support breast cancer awareness as well as the Endowment Fund for the park, which the club has owned and maintained …
Dandelions are health-giving, even life-saving April 30, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle If every plant is here for a purpose, then few have as full an agenda as the dandelion. For starters, few plants announce spring with as much fanfare. Those joyous little yellow dots are everywhere you look, thanks to the plant’s talent at procreation. It needs no pollinating insect to set its fuzzy balls of …
Nasturtiums add color, texture to any dish April 16, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle An old friend of mine was recalling the first time he ate a nasturtium garnish. “It didn’t taste bad, but I felt a little weird about putting it in my mouth. It was so big, and orange, and soft. Not like food. As if I were eating the napkin.” I asked him if he felt …
Master gardeners share know-how to get you started April 11, 2018 by Jennifer Osborn on Home & garden, Lifestyle ELLSWORTH — Do you crave a house full of fragrant, colorful flowers and a kitchen counter laden with freshly picked tomatoes, herbs and greens? Start planting seeds now. But first, read this article. “Seed starting is actually the easiest part of the growing process to control,” said Mary Blackstone, who has had her hands in …
One potato, two potato, three potato…more! April 2, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden When the grass starts to grow, it’s time to plant potatoes, or so the old saying goes. But how many gardeners are rushing out to plant a vegetable so humble, homely, lumpy and brown? Historically, the potato is an important survival food that has seen humankind through times of war and famine. But nothing to …
Shape your booty in the garden March 19, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle The famous homesteader Helen Nearing once told me that gardening was her tennis, her golf and her calisthenics. “I bend, stretch, leap and drop every day,” she explained. Helen had built a stone house in her 70s and was still growing her own food in her 90s. Her husband, Scott Nearing, who died at 100, …
Garden to plate can be a waiting game March 5, 2018 by Barbara Damrosch on Columnists, Home & garden, Kitchen Garden, Lifestyle According to Albert Einstein, time is relative. I once saw a TV interview in which he said, by way of explanation, that time passes more quickly when you spend it with a beautiful woman. As we all know, time nearly stands still when you are waiting to find out when your delayed plane will take …
