Quote of the Day: Tasha Tudor
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take Joy!
I was thinking about this quote when I noticed this peony hiding behind the fence last week. What joy gardening can bring to our lives. I would much rather spend time in the garden cultivating plants than watching the news.
If you’ve never read Tasha Tudor’s Garden
The longer I garden the less I see tasks like weeding as chores. I find that through these “mindless” activities I find peace, joy and solace. There’s something about this type of work that allows your mind to wander the way it can’t when doing other kinds of work.
What kinds of things bring joy to your life?
Share this:
Quote of the Day: Christy Bartlett
“You can’t be lazy. It’s up to you to see and see something new, to sustain your interest in the world around you. It’s not up to the world to entertain you. It requires effort to be interested.”
Christy Bartlett – found in The Wabi-Sabi House: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty
Sometimes all it takes is looking under a leaf to find something new and exciting. I find gardening to be endlessly interesting. The more I learn about nature the less I realize that I know or understand about it. I’ve looked at wild daisies hundreds of times and earlier this week I picked some for the kitchen table and found these lovely beauties on the underside of one of the leaves.
Things like this always amaze me. These tiny little bronze/gold pearlescent eggs are perfectly formed. I think they’re leaf footed insect eggs, but I’m not positive. I’ll definitely spend some time looking these up. (here’s the post with the images of what hatched out of these lovely eggs)
What has piqued your interest lately?
Share this:
Quote of the Day: J.W. von Goethe
Happy it is, indeed, for me that my heart is capable of feeling the same simple and innocent pleasure as the peasant whose table is covered with food of his own rearing, and who not only enjoys his meal, but remembers with delight the happy days and sunny mornings when he planted it, the soft evenings when he watered it, and the pleasure he experienced in watching it’s daily growth.
J.W. von Goethe (the Sorrows of Werther)
found in The Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook
In spring I can’t help but be so ever thankful for having a bit of earth in which to cultivate some of the food for our table. At the moment we’re truly enjoying fresh green salads topped with whatever edible flowers are blooming and the yellow strawberries that will be bearing all summer long.
The asparagus is almost finished and will be replaced on our plates by those beautiful golden peas I planted a few months ago.
The strawberries are finally in full swing and every evening we’ll be enjoying a bowl of shortcake covered in fresh raw milk from the farm (recipe to come later this week). It’s the perfect late dinner on a hot day!
The peas and strawberries will give way to zucchini, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes as the summer days grow hotter. Then before we know it we’ll be craving warming stews filled with squash and venison and a side of crusty bread in the cold months of winter. I don’t know if I have a favorite season when it comes to eating homegrown goodness, I’m learning to appreciate the different flavors and textures they each bring to the table.
Do you have a favorite season for eating fresh from the garden? What’s your favorite item in each season?
Share this:
Quote of the Day: Thomas Jefferson
“And our own dear Monticello, where has nature spread so rich a mantle under the eye? mountains, forests, rocks rivers.
With what majesty do we there ride above the storms? How sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain thunder, all fabricated at our feet?
And the glorious Sun, when rising as if out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of the mountains, and giving life to all nature?”
-Jefferson to Maria Cowsay, 1786 (Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello)
I’ve been thinking about this quote as I’ve been noticing the garden bursting forth in fresh green leaves and colorful blooms this spring. Every morning when I head out to walk around the garden something new is blooming and a new plant is emerging. Here’s the rich mantle of my garden this past week.
What a wonderful time of year indeed after the long dark dull months of winter here in the North.
Share this:
Quote of the Day: John Gunther
All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.
-John Gunther
There’s nothing quite like starting the day with a good breakfast. I’m not picky about what I eat for breakfast except that it can’t come from a box and I prefer it to be warm. We don’t go for cereals or other pre-made things, if we’re looking for a quick breakfast a piece of sourdough bread toasted in a cast iron skillet with some good pastured butter is our breakfast of choice. We also like scones for quick grab and go breakfasts.
Once or twice a week we enjoy a breakfast featuring eggs. Whether a hearty “farmers” breakfast as they’re called in diners around the country. Eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast, sometimes mushrooms, and onions as well. Sometimes it’s an omelet and sometimes simply scrambled eggs. Every now and then I’ll whip up a breakfast pizza!
In the winter we love steaming bowls of oat groats topped with nuts, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, raisins and some maple syrup. We also enjoy warm coconut rice pudding on occasion.
Lately we’ve been eating sourdough pancakes a few days a week since we have such a bounty of maple syrup in the pantry from the 2011 sugaring season.
No breakfast is complete without a cup of coffee with raw milk. This is of course my favorite part of breakfast!
What’s a typical breakfast for you?
