Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

*     *     *     *     *

• After Emily's Homeschool Coop Picnic I stopped at the natural foods store in that neck of the woods... $13 worth of potatoes later (enough for 2 meals) and I left truly hoping our method of growing is a huge success this year.

• We had gotten away from big weekend breakfasts but twice in the last month our table has seen Adam's pancakes and a teenager that deemed them worthy of getting up before noon.

• I've been fascinated with this cookbook for several months now. Specifically, the story behind it.

• If you were to come over right now, I'd take you out back to the garden. We'd pick lettuce, spinach, and baby kale. We'd pull radishes and check on the peas - hoping it is time to sneak a few. We might stop at the hen house to gather a couple of eggs, and if you held off your visit for another week or two we'd head over to the strawberry patch to top off our basket with the most perfect dessert. We would have such a good time in the garden. 

Each day I find myself snapping a picture or two in the kitchen - a pile of ingredients, a table waiting for us to gather around, a sink full of soapy dishes, a cup of tea, dinner as it comes out of the oven - simple, everyday moments in the kitchen. These photos serve as a reminder of days gone by and as encouragement to carry on in this busy kitchen of ours when inspiration is lacking.

Every Thursday morning I'll post my photos from the week, words or recipes optional. Just glimpses into my kitchen and you're invited to do the same!

It's simple to join in:

• On your blog, post photos taken in your kitchen throughout the week.
• Words aren't necessary, your photos will tell the the story. Some of us enjoy adding a few thoughts to accompany the images... the choice is yours. 
• Feel free to grab the brief description at the top of this post, or add a few words of your own to explain the project.)
• Link back to this post so your readers can visit This Week In My Kitchen and join in. 
• Come back here and link up your current post (not your main blog) so we can all visit your kitchen!
• Join me every Thursday or the occasional Thursday if that works better for you.
• Please be sure to only link up if you are participating in this series. Thank you!

I look forward to visiting your kitchens! 

Every year, without even a glance at the calendar, I can tell when June is approaching. It feels like the busiest time of year... parties, cookouts, recitals, birthdays, anniversaries, the garden... the days are long and full. As I am sure you know.

I've been working on a room for myself for a couple of months now (oh, those final tweaks and rearranging to get it just right). Today I planned to take some photos and share them with you but instead it is dark and rainy so I think I'll wait for a day with a little more light.

Anyway, here's a tiny peek. A room of my own. For the first time ever in this house... so many more pics to come. 

How are you doing? Is this time of year whooshing by for you too? Believe it or not, I'm kind of looking forward to the hot and sticky, forced slow down of July. (Cannot believe I just said that.)

I'm off to bake some bread for Emily's egg salad sandwiches. It's been nothing but eggs and lettuce around here!

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

*     *     *     *     *

• After an early morning trip to the gym, Adam brought home berry yogurt parfaits from the cafe downtown. As a result, I was turned on to a new locally made yogurt that I had not known of.

• We've entered full on salad season... I love when the garden starts thinking for us. Here, eat this! Makes meal planning so much easier.

• It's also minty iced tea season! Sweetened with a touch of maple syrup or left plain - equally refreshing either way.

• I thought the minestrone I made the other week used the last of our beans from the freezer, but I found another quart and ceremoniously (kidding) added them to this weeks stew. My calculations tell me our family could have used about 2-3 more gallons of beans to make it fully through the year. We eat a lot of beans and they are so freezer friendly, we'll be putting more by this year for sure.

• The leaves are fully on the trees now which means the light in my kitchen has dimmed to a cool, shadowy, summertime vibe... love.

Each day I find myself snapping a picture or two in the kitchen - a pile of ingredients, a table waiting for us to gather around, a sink full of soapy dishes, a cup of tea, dinner as it comes out of the oven - simple, everyday moments in the kitchen. These photos serve as a reminder of days gone by and as encouragement to carry on in this busy kitchen of ours when inspiration is lacking.

Every Thursday morning I'll post my photos from the week, words or recipes optional. Just glimpses into my kitchen and you're invited to do the same!

It's simple to join in:

• On your blog, post photos taken in your kitchen throughout the week.
• Words aren't necessary, your photos will tell the the story. Some of us enjoy adding a few thoughts to accompany the images... the choice is yours. 
• Feel free to grab the brief description at the top of this post, or add a few words of your own to explain the project.)
• Link back to this post so your readers can visit This Week In My Kitchen and join in. 
• Come back here and link up your current post (not your main blog) so we can all visit your kitchen!
• Join me every Thursday or the occasional Thursday if that works better for you.
• Please be sure to only link up if you are participating in this series. Thank you!

I look forward to visiting your kitchens! 

Sometimes when people learn that we rent this home, and that it is likely not our forever place, they think we're a little crazy for the amount of work we put into developing our gardens and the land in general. But the way we see it, the years spent here are ones we'll never get back. This property is primed for gardening and maple sugaring - and the education we are receiving as a result of our efforts holds value far greater than the loss of walking away from a few dozen garden beds - when and if the time comes. 

Heck, knowing me (and if my favorite garden guru, Caroline, advises it to be okay), I'll ever so carefully bring my blueberry bushes with me when I go! I know the raspberries will be okay to transport so I'll bring a bunch of those, same with a hefty portion of strawberries, and many of the perennials will be divided and packed up in their own satin lined suitcases. Fences can easily be rolled up and thrown in the back of a truck, ready to provide service on another piece of earth (we do very few permanent fence posts for this reason). Even those lady birds of mine could take a little field trip to a new locale, should that day ever come.

I guess what I'm trying to say is we're enjoying the process. Having spent the first 38 years of my life waiting for "someday," I'm finally wise enough to realize that today is the day I've been waiting for. Rented or owned, the garden is magnificent and during this time of year I can't think of another place I'd rather be.

Would you care to take a springtime walk through the garden?

We've expanded the garden this year, it's a little hard to get it all in one shot.

The raspberries that were transplanted to this spot in the fall have taken root and look amazing.

Lettuce is ready for early harvesting.

Trying a couple of eggplants. I'm the only fan in this house so two plants will do.

The Kale Cage! Lookin' gooood...

Two beds of garlic. That doesn't seem like enough... I think we have garlic at every meal.

What does one do with a spot in the garden that can't be dug (serious tree roots from a big ash we took down in order to get full sun in the garden)? Plant potatoes! And raspberries! Raspberries will grow in all sorts of difficult spaces and we have more baby shoots than I know what to do with.

We'll see how this goes...

Blueberries are filled with flowers...

... as are the strawberries.

Thank you for visiting the garden today!

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

*     *     *     *     *

• After taking just one photo this week, my camera battery died and the charger is nowhere to be found in this house. I think I may have left it in Maine. A replacement has been ordered and will arrive today so I'll be back on track for next Thursday, but it sure made for a light collection this week!

• Every Mother's Day my husband makes Strawberry Shortcake and it is pure heaven. We always have it with the biscuits (his mother's recipe) warm from the oven, the berries and cream sweetened with just enough maple syrup. I start dreaming about it around Easter.

Each day I find myself snapping a picture or two in the kitchen - a pile of ingredients, a table waiting for us to gather around, a sink full of soapy dishes, a cup of tea, dinner as it comes out of the oven - simple, everyday moments in the kitchen. These photos serve as a reminder of days gone by and as encouragement to carry on in this busy kitchen of ours when inspiration is lacking.

Every Thursday morning I'll post my photos from the week, words or recipes optional. Just glimpses into my kitchen and you're invited to do the same!

It's simple to join in:

• On your blog, post photos taken in your kitchen throughout the week.
• Words aren't necessary, your photos will tell the the story. Some of us enjoy adding a few thoughts to accompany the images... the choice is yours. 
• Feel free to grab the brief description at the top of this post, or add a few words of your own to explain the project.)
• Link back to this post so your readers can visit This Week In My Kitchen and join in. 
• Come back here and link up your current post (not your main blog) so we can all visit your kitchen!
• Join me every Thursday or the occasional Thursday if that works better for you.
• Please be sure to only link up if you are participating in this series. Thank you!

I look forward to visiting your kitchens! 

My camera battery died before the grilled asparagus and the blackberry wheat beer and the strawberry shortcake and the evening on the deck. But I couldn't seem to break away from the day to charge it up... perhaps it was even more perfect as a result.

I'm feeling a busy week ahead. 30 Day Vegan starts next Monday, but on Friday I officially open the classroom, send out the digital recipe book, and generally ease into the coming month with everyone who is along for the ride. It feels a little bittersweet though as I've decided this will be the very last run of 30 Day Vegan as a live workshop. There are many other programs and offerings I'd like to provide and part of being able to do that is taking something off the table, in order to create the necessary space to do so.

My hope is to pull 30 Day Vegan into a beautiful self-paced workshop that can be taken at anytime. (So, it won't be going away all together.) While the pulse of it may feel a little different, offering 30 Day Vegan as an "anytime" course is something many people have been asking for. Taking this workshop according to their own schedule is exactly what they've been waiting and hoping for.

A bit of letting go, and a great deal of space and possibility opening up.

It was a pretty great weekend around here. Entirely too quick, but really good nonetheless. It began Saturday morning with (mostly) Adam shoveling ten yards of compost throughout the garden, then turning it into the topsoil. A process that didn't end until sundown. More than once we expressed serious bucket tractor envy. That would be the dream...

Striking her "I just laid an egg and want the world to know about it!!" pose.  She stands here for ten minutes bawking at the top of her little lungs each morning post egg laying. It's a hoot.

After all the compost and soil was nicely distributed (how is this for a riveting blog post), along comes me with a garden rake and Virgo sensibility - a girl obsessed with creating semi-raised beds and simultaneously trying to find peace in their lack of symmetry. Our beds have no wooden sides (we'd go broke - our garden has about forty, 8-10 foot beds), just mounds of garden soil. The tops are relatively flat for spacious planting, most of them about two feet wide.

In addition to what I've already planted, over the last week I've added beets, leeks, broccoli, and a few lettuce starts that I picked up at our food co-op. Those should be ahead of our own seeds by a couple of weeks.

A few minutes of blissful romping before the fencing went up and the "No Chickens Allowed" sign was hung.

At the end of last year's gardening season, as we reflected and planned to move forward, one of the things Adam and I both wanted for this year was "even more variety." So far we are right on track for that happening. I'll write up a full list of all that we are planting soon. Fingers crossed for lots of successful outcomes.

Here we are, on the other side of the weekend. The garden will likely be on its own for the next few days while we take care of some other things. I'm looking forward to a busy week leading up to 30 Day Vegan. Adding some new recipes, writing a few new essays, saying hello to new faces. Adam is heading back to the office, and Emily is returning to her homeschool routine after a vacation last week. We're doing final edits on, and ordering, the yearbook for her homeschool co-op this morning. She'll go to the gym this afternoon, debate tonight, orthodontist and piano lesson tomorrow... ahh, life!

Who knows... maybe we'll be able to slip into the garden for a brief time this afternoon. Yes, there are other things to take care of, but I'd really like to plant that fourth bed of peas... and mulch the raspberries... and ready the potato beds... and...

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

*     *     *     *     *

• Fresh bread for our neighbor who provided lots of love and care for our chickens while we were away recently. All was wrapped up with a chicken postcard from Taproot. 
• Roasted vegetables and Lisa's super easy and tasty Garlic Butter Chicken.
• At home dinner date for two - salmon burgers sans bun and springtime salad.
• Wishing I currently belonged to a book club... this book begs to be discussed out loud with others. 

*     *     *     *     *

Each day I find myself snapping a picture or two in the kitchen - a pile of ingredients, a table waiting for us to gather around, a sink full of soapy dishes, a cup of tea, dinner as it comes out of the oven - simple, everyday moments in the kitchen. These photos serve as a reminder of days gone by and as encouragement to carry on in this busy kitchen of ours when inspiration is lacking.

Every Thursday morning I'll post my photos from the week, words or recipes optional. Just glimpses into my kitchen and you're invited to do the same! 

It's simple to join in:

• On your blog, post photos taken in your kitchen throughout the week.
• No words are necessary, your photos will tell the the story. (Although feel free to grab the brief description at the top of this post, or add a few words of your own to explain the project.)
• Link back to this post so your readers can visit This Week In My Kitchen and join in. 
• Come back here and link up your current post (not your main blog) so we can all visit your kitchen!
• Join me every Thursday or the occasional Thursday if that works better for you.
• Please be sure to only link up if you are participating in this series. Thank you!

I look forward to visiting your kitchens!