Filed under: garden, last green valley | Tags: arugula, asparagus, broccoli, fall creek farm, Farmers Market, garden, Pomfret, putnam, weather
Photographed above is the arugula and asparagus I purchased from the Putnam Farmers’ Market last week. A woman from Fall Creek Farm told me that the asparagus was the last of the season! I made asparagus parmigiano a couple of times and I am looking forward to doing so again next year.
The flowers are picked from my own garden but are, unfortunetly, not a sign of my ability to grow flowers. They are a sign that I am unable to grow broccoli. A combination of early heat and recent rain made half of my broccoli bloom and the other half not develop at all.
Filed under: college, garden, last green valley | Tags: Bennington College, boston, bulls, cheever, Connecticut, deer, fruit, garden, hunting, lee reich, Michael Pollan, New York Times, pear, Pomfret, suburbia, summer, The Omnivore's Dilemma, uconn, vegan, vegetables, wall street, yellowstone
Ten years ago it was not necessary for our family to protect any of our plants. Now, however, no plant is safe. The hosta on the east side of the house has not survived a single season in five years, the holly gets a yearly pruning in winter, and the vegetable garden now requires a six-foot fortress. Perhaps our property has been established as a (Good Grazing Ground (GGG) by the Association of Hungry Deer (AHD).
The article above was published in the New York Times in September of 1905. The previous day an article was published on the impact of deer on Pomfret’s farms.
Vegan gardening. in order to make this Frittata? or possibly to grow lesser-known fruits?
The New York Times has an article on students and recent graduates who are performing internships at farms. The article did not mention any of the Bennington students who have interned at farms (Bennington once had its own farm), but the article did mention that the interns came armed with a Bennington graduate’s book.
Cheever living in CT.
Filed under: garden | Tags: arugula, asparagus, broccoli, chives, Connecticut, garden, lemon balm, lettuce, lovage, onion, parsley, peas, Pomfret, spinach
arugula, asparagus,* broccoli, chives,* lemon balm,* lettuce, lovage,* onions, parsley, peas, spinach
* denotes perennials planted prior to this year
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: abbott spring farm, alcohol, book sale, bottle bill, brayman hollow road, bread, Connecticut, connecticut route 244, dunkin donuts, garbage, garden, litter, long weekend, peas, Pomfret, ragged hill farm, redeemables, vineyard valley, vineyard valley golf course, water bottles, yogurt
It is long weekend. I am in Connecticut, at home. I have been cleaning up my yard, and I will soon be working in my garden. I planted peas the last weekend in March as I thought it was time to plant them, but I do not think that it was. Not a single pea has peaked above ground. Perhaps this was an especially cold March? Maybe they are taking their time. I don’t know.
I picked up litter on 6/10ths of a mile on my road. I did this six months ago as well. I collected:
Redeemables (67)
32 alcohol cans
18 alcohol bottles
9 non-alcohol cans
8 non-alcohol bottles
Things that were redeemable before their barcodes became unreadable (32)
22 alcohol containers
10 non-alcohol containers
Non-redeemables (46)
13 alcohol containers
19 water bottles
5 iced tea containers
4 juice containers
2 coffee containers
2 milk containers
1 tin can
Garbage (one medium-sized trash bag)
30 or so plastic and Styrofoam cups (most from Dunkin Donuts)
1 portable fan
If this rate is consistent along Route 244’s 3.6 miles in Pomfret (which it likely is; there are no major roads that intersect with 244 besides at its ends), there are 1740 recyclable containers thrown out of car windows onto my road every year. There are 28 houses on my street, one golf course, and two large farms. There are 56 containers for each of these! Every week an average of twenty alcohol containers are thrown out car windows onto this one stretch of road.
Because the expanded bottle bill passed fewer water containers will be thrown out of car windows as they have been given value. I am sad that the bottle bill did not include other possible additions such as coffee and tea containers. While the bill was being drawn up there was also talk of increasing deposits to 10 cents. There is other incentive to throw alcohol containers out of car windows. I don’t know how to solve that problem.
The town of Pomfret, Connecticut will be having a town-wide roadside clean up tomorrow, Saturday, April 18th. I will be participating!
There will be two book sales, a rummage sale and an auction on Saturday, May 2nd. I believe that both public libraries are currently accepting book donations at specific times.
I am starting to dream up my summer, and I decided that I am going to make non-stop yogurt and bread. OM NOM NOM
Filed under: art, college, garden, last green valley | Tags: Providence, garden, ticky-tacky tract, locust, pin oak, magnolia, birch, chinese elm, victoria station, vanilla bean cafe, sherri vogt, risd, rhode island school of design, american association of museums, chase center, dale chihuly, symposium books, books on the square, may theilgaard watts, tom watts
Last weekend was “Long Weekend,” a break from Friday/Monday classes. I went home. I went to Victoria Station and the Bean. I raked leaves and put my garden to bed. I found my digital camera. I discussed the amazing Sherri Vogt.
Saturday was my most productive day. I woke up early and drove to Providence. I parked just outside of the Brown campus and walked to the RISD Museum. I didn’t have to pay for admission, as I am a member of the American Association of Museums. If you are a student it costs $35 to be a member and you get free admission to museums across the country including MFA Boston, Brooklyn Museum, ICP and the Guggenheim. I think some museums allow a guest to have free admission too.
I saw RISD’s new Chase Center for the first time. The museum seems so much larger and…museum-like with the addition. The South and Central Galleries are now filled with art and design from the 20th Century. The museum also now has a photo gallery, which seems painfully small for being part of the school that began to consider photography “art.” Both “special exhibition” spaces paid homage to Dale Chihuly. About one third of the space was given to the work of students who were instructed by him while the other two thirds was fully devoted to Chihuly himself. The RISD Buddha is sitting too comfortably; Chihuly has control of the museum.
I also visited Symposium Books and Books on the Square. I purchased a nifty field guide by May Theilgaard Watts and Tom Watts “for identifying deciduous trees in Winter.” The book closes in on the tree you wish to identify, by asking you questions about a single twig. You identify trees by process of elimination. As the illustration above shows, the book includes two pages of “conspicuous features” that can help you identify a tree based on where it stands in the landscape.
On the way home from Providence I pigged out on spinach artichoke dip and pita chips. YUM
Filed under: garden, last green valley | Tags: garden, hartford courant, lab 257, lyme disease, plum island
Two Sunday’s ago I read two articles in the Courant that I enjoyed a lot.
It all came together for me during a recent walk when I crested a hill and saw a clump of shadows — branches, I thought, or were they arms? When I walked closer, I could see a gardener, kneeling, tending a vine. But where the gardener’s arm left off and the vine began seemed indeterminable. Each tends the other, I thought. I carried this image away and the possibility that in each of us, no matter our age or temperament, a garden can grow. Read the rest of the article here.
The spread of Lyme has been linked to a staggering rise in the deer population and to the construction of suburban houses “in the path of the tick tornado.” After years of living near woods in a “paradise” that proved toxic, the author and her family moved four years ago to a high-rise in Stamford to escape the ticks. Read the rest of the article here.
I bought a friend of mine a book titled Lab 257 about the federal germ laboratory on Plum Island. There are theories that Lyme Disease spread from there creating the Lyme Disease epidemic in New England.
Filed under: garden, last green valley | Tags: garden, woodstock, woodstock fair
Perhaps Fair season is a more appropriate time for this post, but an inspirational message of this kind can never come too early. This article is from the New York Times, Wednesday, September 27, 1875:
Filed under: art, garden, last green valley | Tags: art, garden, New York, politics, Pomfret
One, two articles from the New York Times that I enjoyed. The first is about the revival of home vegetable gardens. The second came a little late, but now I have new pea knowledge.
I started my summer maintenance job at Pomfret School on Monday. Most of what I do is move tables and chairs from the lawn of one mansion to the lawn of another. I also bunk beds. No doubt we’ll all be jacked and crispy by the end of the summer; those bunks are heavy and we spend a lot of time outside. I really like the job, even if it’s tiring.
My dislike for the paintings of Tom Menard brings to mind my dislike for the paintings of Grandma Moses brings to mind my fondness for the art of Lisa Sanditz.
Filed under: garden, last green valley | Tags: Farmers Market, garden, Pomfret
I have a hard time growing salad greens. Help? (more…)
