Toki Oshima drawing By Roberta Bailey Every spring, along with the usual house cleaning, I sort out the freezers and the canned goods in the pantry, making room for the first bags of spinach and fiddleheads, and for the new jars of strawberry jam and pickled snap peas. Nothing makes last year’s canned goods look
By Roberta Bailey Time passes. Seasons change, and then, change again. You work hard toward one goal, and then, before you know it, that goal has passed and you’re reflecting on its moments of intensity while looking toward the next life event. Sometimes it’s all in perspective; most times it’s hard to grasp, seeming surreal.
By Roberta Bailey All that seems predictable with the weather and seasons is that they will be unpredictable and erratic. Winter was a bit of a no-show. We tapped our maple trees in February and pulled the taps by mid-March. Red maple buds swelled in early March, usually a sign that the sugaring season is
From spring spinach to fall kale, Maine’s growing season offers ample opportunities for us to savor every moment. English photo. By Roberta Bailey We all pack a lot into our fleeting Maine summers. Lettuce, spinach and peas intertwine with weddings and graduations, green beans and raspberries bump up against summer camp, melons and blueberries go
Raspberries are ready! And so is so much more – making an outing to farmers’ markets and farm stands a weekly treat for the author. English photo. By Cheryl Wixson Starting in June, my friend Heather and I celebrate the seasonal bounty with weekly trips we call Farm Days. Every Thursday we leave Deer Isle,
Cut and simmer rhubarb to extract the juice, then sweeten it, add other fruit juices to it and can it for later use. English photo. By Cheryl Wixson Note: Many recipes mentioned in this column are posted at www.mofga.net. One of the joys of local, seasonal, organic eating is anticipating the bounty of summer. Once
New potatoes are featured in a Maine Nicoise Salad, which includes other CSA fare: fresh lettuce, marinated yellow beans, cherry tomatoes, eggs and tiny boiled Maine shrimp – all decorated with a few nasturtium flowers. Cheryl Wixson photo. by Cheryl Wixson As cool spring nights give way to longer, warmer days, my taste buds anticipate
By Roberta Bailey This summer I trialed 10 varieties of green soybeans for a local seed company. I planted and labeled each variety carefully, then took notes at various stages of development. The crowning event was the edamame (green soybean) taste-off. I steamed each variety separately, then shelled them into individual bowls. All of them
Hoop houses, such as these shown at the Colsons’ New Leaf Farm, have become increasingly important for producing tomatoes in Maine. Photo by Eric Sideman. by Eric Sideman, Ph.D. MOFGA’s Organic Crops Specialist The fate of my last tomato of the season is always the same – a BLT. And minutes after finishing that classic
Raspberry Recipes by Roberta Bailey Copyright 2006 I love berries…all kinds of berries. When I was a child, I knew every berry patch or vine or tree and when they would ripen. My summer was a grazing progression from one fruit or berry to the next, starting with wild strawberries, red and black raspberries, blueberries,
Media Inquiries:
Contact Jennifer Wilhelm [email protected]
