gardening | august harvest in maine

40 pounds of tomatoes later... The past two weeks have been a harvest of tomatoes, more tomatoes, more tomatoes and well, more tomatoes! I'm not going to lie to you... it's been absolutely fabulous! So far this season, we've harvested over 65 pounds of tomatoes.

I overcompensated from last year's tomato-less summer by planting over 60 plants. The heirloom tomatoes have been a blast to grow. I grow a variety mix so you never really know which variety you're growing until the fruit begins to color. Tossed into a fresh sauce, the Black Krims gave the dish a beautiful deep, red color. The Sweet Persimmons are next in line for a quick salsa.

I'm making a plethora of sauces. Some just with Romas, some just cherry, and then of course, some with a little of every kind of tomato we're growing. New culinary adventures have lead to jars of cherry tomato ketchup and dehydrated Romas. I've frozen bags and bags of whole tomatoes with dreams of chilies and stews on a cold winter's night.

I've pulled around 15 pounds of onions. The lack of rain this summer has not been a friend to my onions and shallots. The bulbs stayed relatively small. Sweet, but small. The Borrettana Cipollinis fared the best. I think the Red Marbles would have enjoyed a slightly better planting spot. Next year!

The broccoli patch sang its swan song with one final offering of side shoots. After that, the plants found a new home in our compost bin. While some other folks were rolling in cukes back in July, mine are only starting to come around now. I bottled several jars of my absolute favorite refrigerator pickle recipe over the weekend. Hopefully a lot more are on the horizon as a July planted cucumber crop is coming along with much vigor. Right now it'll just be a race between the fruits and the last frost date.

Pickles wouldn't be pickles without some fresh dill and dill seeds. My original dill crop is producing beautiful seed heads that I can barely keep up with harvesting. My second sowing is providing the fresh foliage and flowers that give the pickles not only great taste, but a cool visual addition. Toss in some fresh garlic and cayenne peppers and you'll have your newest food addiction.

Though I would love a little more rain, we have been really fortunate for this summer's growing season. I hope you're having the same garden luck. Check out Daphne's Dandelions and see what your fellow gardeners are harvesting this week. Happy gardening!

daily photo | sweet annie

august 19, 2010 | the allure of Sweet Annie

wishlist | back to school with kates paperie

(Cavallini bookplate, $4)

ah, memories... I don't think I really ever out grew my thrill of buying back-to-school supplies. Growing up, it was sheer heaven to buy new boxes of crayons, pencils, and notebooks. Pure glee. Now, with my youngest son starting kindergarten and my oldest heading into second grade, I take pleasure in reliving old memories as we get prepped for the start of school.

Truth be told, I've never met a notebook I didn't like, so I'll be honest and share that I've been doing a little back-to-school shopping for myself. So, of course I had to traipse on over to Kate's Paperie to check out their latest offerings. I was not disappointed. I'm still trying to rationalize why I need the set of four notebooks above (Four Seasons, $32.50 for set). My reasoning of "because I really want them", just doesn't sound like a solid argument, but they are just so cool.

(Pencil cup, $37.50; Status file folders, $8 for a set of three; To-Do sticky pad, $4)

Personally, I think going to work is a lot more fun when you bring a bit of personality into the day-to-day stuff. Being a designer, I'm naturally drawn to the majority of these items just on design aesthetic alone. Plus, who wouldn't like an oversized pencil sharpener pencil holder?

(Clockwise from top: Ruler notebook, $16.50; Letterpressed Sketchbook, $26; Cavallini notebook, $12;

Cavallini Vintage Office rubber stamp set. $28; Cavallini jumbo erasers, $3 each)

I'll try to exhibit some semblance of will power this back-to-school season and only indulge a little... maybe just that Four Seasons notebook set. It is crazy that September is just a few weeks away. This summer has flown by, but it's been a great one. I hope each of you had a fabulous summer season as well. Happy back-to-school!

daily photo | bounty of cherry tomatoes

august 15, 2010 | a seemingly endless bounty of cherry tomatoes abound

from my window | sunflower surprise

another garden fairy gift... This has been a bountiful summer of mysterious garden gifts. First it was the lovely lilies, then it was the corn growing amongst my marigolds. But this gift is the grandest of all. Standing eight feet tall, this brilliant sunflower sprung up amongst my leeks.

I'm thinking our garden fairy is either a chipmunk or a squirrel. Those guys love to frolic under our bird feeder. This sunflower may very well have sprung from seed from that very feeder. Regardless, this commanding beauty is a very happy, unexpected addition to our gardens.

I'm planning on harvesting the seed to save for next year. I've grown sunflowers in the past, but this particular one, for me, is the quintessential sunflower. Next summer, I'm thinking of making sunflower fort so the boys can have their secret hideaway.

I've got to give thanks once again to my garden fairy. Without a doubt, he/she has brought my family continued smiles throughout this summer. The boys have loved the surprise sunflower the best. Their favorite part has been watching its bright yellow face slowly turn throughout the course of the day towards the sun. Our own garden compass. I'm looking forward to next summer and having a plethora of these pretty giants grace our gardens.

daily photo | poppy seed pod

august 9, 2010 | saving today for poppies tomorrow

recipe | slow roasted tomatoes

hip-hip-horray!... It is here! Tomato season is officially here and I'm at a loss for words to say how excited I am to have tomatoes to harvest this summer. I might have over compensated this year for my lack of tomatoes last summer. Sixty something plants may be a little overkill, but I can never limit the varieties that I want to grow. I'm also not good at thinning seedlings. Rather I separate each seedling to its own pot so none have to die. The result of course if sixty something tomato plants!

The cherries were the first to get the season started. The Sun Golds and Super Sweet 100s are averaging a little over a pound of cherries a day. I remember the first time I ever grew Super Sweet 100s. First of all, I was stunned by how incredibly tall they grow. I expected over five feet, but these plants were average seven feet no problem. Then the fruit. My God, the astounding amount of little red orbs this vine produced was mind boggling. This year is no different. I'm also happy to have the Sun Golds grace our gardens for a third year in a row. They are by far the sweetest cherries I've ever grown.

I grow a lot of plum tomatoes for my sauce, so I was excited to add Juliet to the mix this year. Just as the Heinz and Roma are starting to slightly blush, the Juliets are ripe and ready for picking. The are pretty small, like an oversized grape tomato. But the are solid, meaty plums with little seed.

The timing of the tomatoes couldn't be better. Our garlic harvest has just finished curing and our basil is more lush than ever.

I have to confess that my recipe postings have been slim to none this summer and I apologize. For one thing, I rarely use my oven in the summer. But the main reason is that I do a lot of non-recipes. What does that mean? It means simply that I go out into the garden and grab whatever is ready and create a stream-of-consciousness meal out of it. Like the other day when I mixed green beans, broccoli, onions, peppers, basil and garlic and served it on a bed of quinoa. The only cooking part was really a quick sauté in extra virgin olive oil. I pretty much do this all summer long.

I woke up this morning to this first wink of the autumn that is just around the corner. It dipped down to 40º last night, so this morning was a bit nip when I strolled outside to water the garden. It just took a few breaths of that crisp, cold air and I was in the kitchen turning on that stove to slow roast some cherry and plum tomatoes. It got me all excited to think of fall. I can't wait to get back into my routine of baking breads and slow cooking roasts and stews.

If you are looking to save a little of that summer tomato freshness for the colder days ahead, I highly recommend roasting up a bunch of tomatoes and storing in the freezer for future recipes. I toss them into chilies, sauces, pizzas, sandwiches, you name it. The concentrate flavor produced from roasting packs each bite with a bright tomato punch.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

cherry or plum tomatoes, sliced into halves

garlic, minced

thyme, minced

oregano, chopped

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt

cracked pepper

I didn't include amounts for each ingredient because it really is up to your personal taste. I tend to go heavy on garlic, because, well, it's garlic.

Preheat oven to 300º. Lightly grease a shallow baking pan. Arrange the tomatoes face up in a single layer. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil across the top. Sprinkle the herbs, salt, and pepper and roast for 2 hours. You may need to sprinkle on a little more olive oil around an hour into the cooking.

If you would like to freeze for later use, arrange the tomatoes in layers in a freezer-safe container and drizzle an additional bit of extra virgin olive oil over the top. Freeze and use within six months.

raising chickens | hen is actually a rooster

what do you mean Dottie is crowing?... For a couple of weeks now, we've been awoken by Clark's morning crow. At least we always thought it was Clark. I mean, why wouldn't it be, he's our rooster. But see, here's the thing. When we'd hear the crowing, it was always in the early morning when they were still in the coop. So we never actually saw Clark crow. We simply assumed.

(Clark the rooster with Turtle)

Dottie, our beautiful Silver Wyandotte, has always been the most aggressive of the hens. At just a few days old, she was always the first one to come up and peck your hand. She was quite bossy with the other hens too, but we thought that was just her becoming the Alpha female of the group.

Just up to last week, Dottie didn't show any visual signs of being a rooster. Her feathers were not super shiny, she wasn't developing spurs, no comb obviously, and her tail feathers were the same of the rest of the hens. Clark has all the tell tale visual rooster signs, while Dottie registered D—none of the above. Then, this past Monday my husband called me at work. He puts on the speakerphone and I hear cockle-doodle-doo. I'm like, thanks for letting me hear Clark. Tom replys, that was Dottie. There she was crowing while standing on the highest point of the coop. Uhm, Dottie isn't a Dottie. Bummer.

Without a doubt, within the week, Dottie has become much more rooster-like in appearance with her, I mean his, tail feathers shooting out. The sad part is that we have to find a new home for Dottie. We can't have two roosters, they could kill each other in such a small flock. We're trying to find a place where they'll let Dottie be more of a rooster and less of a dinner. He's a really cool bird and we're definitely going to miss him. If anyone knows of a good home for Dottie, please give me a holler. Thanks!

daily photo | queen anne and emerson

august 2, 2010 | ralph waldo emerson

as we are, so we do;

and as we do, so is it done to us;

we are the builders of our fortunes.

garden | weekly harvest vibrant colors

yum!... The gardens are cranking out their delicious treats on a daily basis now. A quick stroll in the tomato patch late this afternoon yielded two pounds of Super Sweet 100s and Juliet plums. On a very happy note, it looks like we nipped last month's blight in the bud.

I'mll be growing Teide Red Summer Crisp and Flashy Trout Back lettuces again next year. Both add such beauty to the garden beds, but also hold fairly steady in the summer heat. Looking forward to the cooler days of autumn, I sowed some Mesclun, Black Seeded Simpson, and Winter Density Bibb. It'll be pretty cool to try to see if I can harvest into the winter.

Harvested my first beets. Not quite sure what to do with them yet as I'm a beet newbie. I'm a firm believer in the simplicity of a simple roasting tossed with olive oil, sea salt and crushed pepper, but it has been too darn hot to even consider turning on the oven. Any suggestions?

If the carrots keep growing like they have been, we're going to be harvesting carrots right into December. We've been feasting on the sweet Scarlet Nantes all summer. The Nelsons are next in line for the picking, followed by some Mokum for the fall.

Been bean season these past two weeks. I just pulled out the last of the Fortex pole beans from the ground. Their bounty came on fast and all at once with their production falling off fairly shortly after the initial harvest. Mind you, that initial harvest yielded several pounds of beans, so those plants definitely carried their weight.

The Masai Haricot Verts have been a mainstay on our table, gracing everything from salads to sautés. Right next door, the Indy Golds have transformed into their waxy yellow hue.

Unfortunately, my timing of my dill and cucumber plantings was off. The dill pretty much has been ready for pickling since early July, but my cukes got a bit of a late start and are only starting to come around now. I love using fresh dill sprigs in my refrigerator pickle recipe, but I'll have to settle for their seeds which isn't too shabby either.

I hope all of your gardens are growing well. It's been so much fun to read everyone's blogs and see who's harvesting what where. I'm definitely getting inspired reading about some of the cool veggie varieties folks are growing. It's going to make seed shopping this winter that much more expensive ;)

living | smugglers notch state park stowe vermont

smitten with smugglers notch... We continued our exploration of Vermont's state parks this past weekend with a camping trip out to Smuggler's Notch State Park in Stowe, Vermont. We had an absolutely fabulous weekend nestled in the heart of Vermont's gorgeous green mountains. Even the weather was perfect. Warm during the day and sweater cold at night.

The trip out to Stowe has always been one of my favorite road trips. It is a five hour ramble over mountain ranges and across pastoral farm land. No highways. No clutter. Simply the most scenic views every which way you turned.

You take a breath taking zig zagged climb up the mountain past ginormous boulders that line each sharp curve. As soon as you crest the top of the mountain, you'll come to Smuggler's Notch State Park. A quick stroll down a path and we arrive at our perfect site. Located completely private in the woods, you immediately hear the chatter of the cascading waterfalls that flow just a short walk away.

The trail path along Bingham Falls in the campground was an easy walk for us all to take. The falls themselves are modest and quite serene. When the sunlight dabbles through the trees to glisten on the water, it is downright magical.

We stopped often to snack on a couple of blackberries or to check out some cool mushrooms. The forests floors were alive with Indian Pipes, moss, mushrooms and wildflowers galore.

Outside the campground, the towns of Stowe and Waterbury provide great get-aways. If you are into trails for walking, biking, whatever... Stowe is your town. The entire town is connected via a huge expanse of trails that cross over old trestle bridges and take your through the woods.

We had to make a special stop in Waterbury at Cold Hallow Cider Mills. I had heard word of their donuts prior to ever heading out there. Gourmet magazine had named their cider donuts one of the top four donuts in the country. They did not disappoint. Warm, apple spiced goodness served to in a light, airy donut. Later that day, we regretted that we only bought one each.

First Maidstone, now Smuggler's. Vermont has provided us with another fabulous camping adventure this summer. We're already planning on coming back to both parks, only next time we'd like to stay a few days longer.