If you’re thinking about growing elderberries, you’re in good company. Elderberries have a long history of medicinal and culinary uses. Some legends say that the Norse fairy mother lives in the elderberry roots or that the elderberry can ward off evil magic if you plant it near your doors and windows. Across medieval Europe, people believed the elderberry could cure rheumatism, gout, and skin problems.
I try my best to love all the seasons. They each have their unique joys: there’s nothing quite like the quiet of a snowstorm or the brilliant colors of the trees during fall in New England. But somewhere around the time when the thermometer starts dipping lower each day, I start thinking about how to […]
Stone vs. mulch. It’s the final piece of the garden design puzzle. After we’ve decided what to plant in the garden, what kind of support trellises we want to make or buy, and what kind of watering system we’re using next season, there’s still the question of what kind of edging is best for an […]
The winter months are such a joy for cooking, especially if you grew winter squash the year before. Since winter squash, like butternut, honeynut, and delicata, can last months in the right environment, you can grow enough to feed your family all winter long—and that’s exactly what I like to do. It’s also why I have a dozen roasted delicata squash recipes up my sleeve, but today I’m going to share with you the one my family loves the most.
As a kid, I played this game with my friend where we’d blindfold each other and take random food or condiments from the fridge and get the other person to guess what it was. It would always end in tears when one of us reached for the hot sauce. All of this by way of saying, I’ve always been interested in weird things you can actually eat.
Have you ever made homemade strawberry soda? In our home, we try to limit the amount of processed foods we bring in, and that includes everything from bread to soda. We almost never have soda in the house, though I do worry that my husband has a mineral water addiction that’s being left untreated and may need intervention.
Garden vegetable plants have a secret double life that no one is talking about. Sure, homegrown veggies taste delicious in a yummy seasonal recipe. And yes, it feels good to supplement your grocery trip with some pesticide-free vegetables. But why is no one talking about the flowers?
I’ll be honest, I’m not a cucumber sandwich kind of person, generally, I don’t eat cucumbers un-pickled at all, and if I didn’t love pickles so much I probably wouldn’t have them in my garden. But I sure do love pickles, in fact, I like them so much that I rarely bother with canning them.
Everybody loves a butternut squash soup, but what if you have a variety of sweet winter squash nearing the end of their shelf life, and you just want to use it all up at once? Good news – you can! In the roasted winter squash soup recipe below, I’ll show you an exact recipe for using up a bulk of your different varieties of winter squash, but fear not – if you don’t have the exact squash I do, it’s totally adjustable, just use 6lbs of any type of sweet winter squash you have.
In the northeast, strawberry season begins in June, and if you’re lucky, lasts through August. I’ve always been envious of those who live in warmer climates and can simply garden year-round and make a recipe like this strawberry chocolate chip sorbet whenever they want. I love having four seasons, but that still sounds like utopia to me!
