No, I don’t live on the shores of a raging river, but I did this morning. The excess rain of Hurricane Ike blew through and dumped five inches of water onto our neighbor – a dry creek. Suddenly the creek water was way up. Okay, I’ve seen water before. But, an hour later, our back yard was […]

Twenty years ago, my husband planted two apple trees. They have never yielded any fruit until this year. I have made pie, crisp, and applesauce out of the few apples I was able to pick before the squirrels devoured the fruit. “I stopped bothering to spray the trees years ago, because there was no fruit,” he […]

There are two types of travelers: those who research and plan the very best possible experience (guide book in hand) and those who just wing it. I travel with a starting point and from then on, it’s anybody’s guess. My husband has been know to slam on the brakes for poultry farms, vintage tractor shows, and […]

Fish is a source of food that can put the cook front and center with killing the animal that provides dinner — just ask anyone who cooks a live lobster. Last night, we went fishing and caught two large salmon and one small trout in the cool waters of Lake Michigan. After filleting them and […]

A weed is a plant out of place and some weeds are edible, such as dandelion greens. Last night, we tried purslane as suggested in the August issue of Sauce Magazine. Purslane is everywhere, so eating it seemed like an efficient way to weed control. Although I’ve seen purslane raw in salads, we deep-fried the […]

only one cherry pie

garlic crop

no thanks to molecular gastronomy

More rain and now we have had twice the amount of rain as in a typical year. What does all this rain mean? Nothing has been planted this spring in our field of mud. The spring flowers look lush and marvelous, but the steady rain washes out the nectar in the flowers. The flowers need […]

The Belgians have invented some great foods: waffles, miniature cabbages, beer that tastes like champagne, and Belgian endive. Fully grown, endive is a curly, dark green, bitter leaf. But, over a century ago, a Belgian farmer mixed up his endive and asparagus and instead covered his endive crop with dirt to prevent photosynthesis in order […]