Toki Oshima drawing By Roberta Bailey These days “kindness” is the word that I hold in the foreground of my mind. It is on a slip of paper at the corner of my bathroom mirror, the base of my computer, and I envision it on the inside of my forehead. It helps me move through
Stock up on ingredients for fall and winter recipes at the Common Ground Country Fair farmers’ markets. John Williams photo By Roberta Bailey Here we are at another September, another Common Ground Country Fair. We have persevered through drought and heat, wild thunderstorms and unexpectedly chilly nights. We have reveled in a cool breeze, cooled
 Tide Mill Creamery’s products at the Common Ground Country Fair show a few of the many ways to enjoy local, organic dairy products and support our farmers and processors. English photo By Roberta Bailey It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. Small dairy and cheese businesses are starting up all over
By Roberta R. Bailey The Common Ground Country Fair is far more than the sum of its tents and activities. It is donkey brays at dawn, manure pitching of presidential magnitude, grass matted down by so many footsteps, cardboard sliding on a hill, the shush of a scythe through oats in a demonstration plot, Sweet
Frank Giglio. Photo by Lynn Karlin By Roberta Bailey We are in the short, dark days of winter, a time for reflection as well as a time for revelry; a time to hunker down, a time to read, as well as a time to sharpen the skates, wax the skis, strap on the snowshoes, bundle
Our farm and garden produce stores the summer sun, enabling us to thrive on these crops – frozen, canned or otherwise preserved – all year. English photo By Roberta Bailey In a few of the essays in her collection “The Faraway Nearby,” Rebecca Solnit explores the long cycles of light and darkness in Iceland. I
Illustration by Toki Oshima By Roberta Bailey Kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut, fermented vegetables, kefir, yogurt, sour beers and ciders – live probiotic ferments are all the rage these days. Add hot sauces to that list as well. As a condiment lover and, particularly, a fan of hot peppers, I am excited. I love the full pepper
By Roberta Bailey Lately I have been focusing on connections. I have been reading about mycorrhizal relationships between plants and fungi and thinking about the deep connections between our ecosystem and our mental and physical health. Our culture tends to isolate things in order to study them, from insects attacking a plant to an animal’s
These prize-winning eggs shown in the Common Ground Country Fair Exhibition Hall by David Mansky of Bar Harbor came from four breeds of heirloom chickens. English photo By Cheryl Wixson Now that the longer days of spring are almost here, we are enjoying a surplus of local farm eggs. Considered one of the world’s healthiest
Fresh asparagus – a top reason for mucking about in the garden. English photo By Roberta Bailey Last summer my husband and I spent seven days a week building a post-and-beam house. Our old house had burned the February before, and we were under a tight timeline with the insurance company. It all worked out
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