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Recently I started teaching a new class–Fundamentals of Home Canning! I’ve taught a this class a couple of times now, […]
Yep, it’s that time of year,,,,when I feel increasing vegetable-related anxiety creeping in. I venture into our attic or cellar […]
Last night I taught a class on how to make and can Spiced Pear jam. The students were an enthusiastic […]
These last couple of days have been a blast! I was invited to Brunswick Highschool to teach three different classes […]
Prior to the publication of the updated edition of my book in 2021, one of the comments I that heard […]
Local friends! Any chance you’re free next monday evening? If so, please consider joining me for a class on making […]
Here in Maine, it’s finally strawberry season! It’s a short-lived and much-anticipated time of year….local berries grown in fields, without […]
Friends! A few nights ago I taught a class on making and canning strawberry jam. It was a great night […]
One of the big additions to the new edition of my book is a chapter on using Pomona’s pectin to […]
Friends! I am so excited to share that the updated edition of my book Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin hits the […]
Yes, it’s that time! Our local pick-your-own strawberry fields have just opened up, […]
Happy August everyone! Wow, what a month of bounty! Broccoli and cauliflower are in the freezer, the green beans and […]
Yay, it’s finally strawberry season! I know that lots of you further south have been enjoying local berries for a while […]
Happy almost summer, everyone! I’m loving the hot weather and getting dirty in the garden (especially after such a long, […]
I had a fun opportunity last week to be a guest on a Maine Calling–a great program on Maine Public […]
It was great to be back in the “207” kitchen the other day to make some blueberry-maple jam! (Video unavailable–sorry!) […]
Photo copyright Fairwinds Press Happy Saturday Afternoon! I hope you’re enjoying the weekend. So, I wanted to let you all […]
Every year during strawberry season, I’m caught off-guard just a little bit. Not by the berries, or the weather, or […]
If you didn’t catch my jam-making segment on “207” last night, here it is! Enjoy! Video Copyright NewsCenterMaine Honeyed Strawberry-Rhubarb […]
Good morning! I just wanted to let you all know that the good folks at Fairwinds Press are doing a […]
The season is finally here–fiddleheads are up! They’ve been up around here for a few weeks actually, and we’ve gotten […]
There’s a lot of outdoor work going on around here these days. We’ve been preparing our current garden for planting, […]
Every weekend from late February through the end of March, we’re pretty much focused on one thing–making maple syrup. We […]
I was back at the WCSH6 studios the other day, taping a new segment on Blueberry-Vanilla Jam for “207” (Video […]
The boys and I have been making bread together since they were babies, but the process has definitely evolved over […]
In late October we made our annual trip to Hope Orchards. I have a fondness for the place, as I […]
I’ve been wanting to make a gingerbread house with the boys for years, and we finally did it! It was […]
After having been totally focused on the book for most of the summer, I’m glad to have had an opportunity […]
Remember the vegetable triaging (as it were) going on around here earlier this fall? We’ll, I’m finally getting to the […]
Our apple trees did rather poorly this year. While last year we were amazed by the remarkable quantity of apples […]
September is always a busy time for me in the garden and in the kitchen, as I imagine it is […]
This summer has a been a busy one for sure….short on hiking and gardening and swimming and many of our […]
This will be our first growing season at our new place, and we finally, for the first time in many years, […]
Yes, that is indeed snow on the ground…it seems like an appropriate time to tell you all about our winter […]
I know…. it’s a bit out of season to be talking about maple syrup in late April, with the buds […]
Back in mid-February, when we had a brief thaw and it felt a bit spring-like, we tapped the first of […]
I love muffins. Connor and Ian love them just as much–probably more, even. I’m pretty sure this has something to […]
Ok, I’ll just say it. Ben and I and the boys have fallen totally in love with our new place. […]
For a couple of months in the fall and early winter we were running back and forth frequently between our […]
By mid-November, I was starting to feel a little bit guilty about the kale. It had been quietly patient, waiting […]
In late October I had the opportunity to teach a canning class hosted by the Gastronomy M.L.A program at Boston […]
For the past few years, in the fall, the boys and I have taken a road trip to Hope Orchards […]
As if the craziness of unpacking wasn’t enough, leave it to us to add several black trash bags and a […]
Perhaps you’ve noticed that, well, things have been a bit quiet here on the blog lately. My apologies for that. […]
Aaahhh, Swiss chard. It’s one of my most favorite vegetables. I have childhood memories of my grandfather eating boiled chard […]
When I inventoried our chest freezer in the basement back in June, I found that we still had, um, kind […]
We got our first big heads of broccoli in mid july, and have been continuing to harvest the smaller shoots […]
Ok, so I just realized that my last six posts have all been about strawberries. (Did I mention one-track mind?!?) […]
Remember Connor’s bowl of mashed strawberries that was sitting in the fridge, waiting for me to get liquid pectin at […]
Connor has been strawberry picking with me every year since he was one (or almost two, really, since his birthday […]
We went strawberry picking for a third time a few days ago and picked another twenty pounds, bringing us up […]
It’s strawberry season! It has been for a couple of weeks now actually, and I’d been itching to pick berries […]
Last week was a busy week of classes for me. I taught two workshops on making and canning jams, jellies […]
Today was the first day that really felt like summer to me. It was gloriously hot and humid (yes, I […]
This past weekend, Ben and I and the boys headed out to collect eelgrass for the garden. Eelgrass looks kind […]
With my thoughts on the less tangible aspects of our big Memorial day planting weekend in my last post, I […]
Memorial Day weekend is always the time that Ben and I do the vast majority of the planting in our […]
Last week we began our annual springtime push to get the gardens ready for planting. No matter how much we […]
Since the fiddleheads weren’t up yet when we checked on one of our favorite picking spots the weekend before last, […]
Have you ever been tempted to ignore your compost pile in the winter time because snow made it difficult to […]
It’s fiddlehead season here in Maine again! This is usually the first foraging outing of the spring for us, and […]
As you might remember from my earlier post, I got a new batch of sauerkraut going back in the middle […]
Naturally-Dyed Easter Eggs
My mom told me the other day that my grandmother Rauha used to dye her own wool, out of natural […]
Remember the lonely maple tree out in front of our house that we tapped a few weeks ago? Well, she […]
Last fall I bought 25 pounds of green cabbage from a local farm, and made sauerkraut with some of it […]
Some folks have a spice rack, or a spice cupboard. For us, it’s a spice drawer, and at the moment […]
Finally, we’ve had a slight (and what I’m sure will be temporary) break from the cold temperatures and the mountains […]
Today I’m making food for some friends of ours who just had a second baby. I’m planning on doing a […]
Remember the four bushels of apples I bought back in November? Ah, yes–the apples. Well, in case you were […]
Per usual, Ben was in the kitchen last weekend–this time making Christmas cookies with the boys. It’s getting to be […]
Ben almost always cooks on the weekends–usually making our family dinners for both Saturday and Sunday nights. Not that we […]
A week or so ago, Connor, Ian and I made what is becoming our annual trip to Ricker Hill Orchards […]
I got a group email the other day from the coordinator of the community garden where Ben and I have […]
We’ll, were finally bottling the cider. We started it just over a year ago–right around Halloween of 2009. It’s been […]
I just thought I’d let you all know, in case you haven’t seen it in my upcoming class listing, that […]
I’ve been working on more can-able recipes using maple, and since we’re in the midst of fall, and it’s apple […]
Remember our trip to Hope Orchards the other day to buy pears? Well, one really fun thing going on while […]
I love pears, so for the past couple of years during pear season I’ve been buying local pears in bulk. […]
There’s no getting around it: Peeling and coring apples takes LOTS of time. Especially when you have to continually pause […]
Hey there—just want to let you all know that I’ll be teaching a couple of classes on making and canning […]
As soon as that fall feeling is in the air, I start to think about apples. It’s one of my […]
Hi Everyone. I just want to let you all know that I’ll be teaching a couple of classes on canning […]
Yep, I still have a LOT of tomatoes to put up. We’ve had some beautiful days, so Connor and Ian […]
This summer I’ve been developing a few can-able recipes using maple syrup. I just got a box of fresh, local […]
Ok, I have to admit, I’ve imposed a bit of a daunting task on myself. Yesterday I purchased a crate […]
Can we all agree that overgrown green beans are, shall we say, not so great? This would be precisely […]
Connor, Ian, and I made a trip up the coast to visit my mom and step-father Etienne this past week, […]
Yes indeed, we are still putting up a lot of green beans around here. The other day I got a […]
When we got back from blueberry picking at Estes Farm the other day, we had lots of berries to wash […]
I can’t seem to help myself when it comes to local pick-your-own fruit. Even though we’re planning to buy a […]
The garden is absolutely overflowing with green beans. Last night I found a large handful of them in my purse. […]
The cucumbers in our garden are doing alright, but they are not quite as productive as I’d hoped this year. […]
Ok, the green beans are going crazy. Funny how it can look like there’s not much going on, and then […]
Yesterday, the boys and I went corn shopping (Sounds funny, doesn’t it?). Corn is one of those things that we […]
Well, considering all the urgency I felt around needing to collect the eelgrass, it has taken me way too long […]
Yesterday I was back again at Ten Apple Farm, a diversified homestead in Gray run by my good friend Margaret […]
Yesterday, the boys and I met my dad at the beach to collect our favorite mulch for the garden–eelgrass. Eelgrass […]
With all the just-picked fresh strawberries in our house, jam was one of my big projects for this past weekend. […]
Yes indeed, strawberries are one of my all-time favorite fruits. Always have been. As a kid I loved going to […]
It’s strawberry season again! And it came early this year–due, I suppose, to the unseasonably warm winter and relatively early […]
Earlier today I glanced into the sun porch and saw Connor there, quietly watching the seedlings. What a lovely thing […]
We went fiddlehead picking again mid last week, and finally they were up for real! We got to enjoy a […]
Now that we have our potting soil ready, we can finally get our seedlings going. Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny […]
Last weekend was definitely a rainy weekend, but at this time of year we just don’t have the luxury of […]
Every year about mid-April, my husband Ben and I, as well as my brother John, start keeping our eyes on […]
I have a handful of vivid memories of my maternal Finnish-American grandmother, Rauha, from when I was growing up….knitting, collecting […]
Well, I brought home two half-pints of marmalade from last Saturday’s canning class, and by Sunday evening had managed to […]
Saturday was a really fun day. I taught a class on canning orange marmalade at Ten Apple Farm in Gray, […]
As much as I appreciate the depth and complexity of a slow-rising, whole grain bread, there’s a time and and […]