Every year, the rhubarb is the first thing to really explode out of the garden. And it keeps growing all summer long-it even chokes out the bishop’s weed that grows all around it, but can’t survive under its massive leaves. This year, on the first unofficial summer weekend (Memorial Day) it snowed in central Vermont. In fact, if your place was above 1600ft, you got 2-4 inches. Good thing we didn’t have the tomatoes and basil in the garden yet. But the rhubarb just didn’t care. It sent out more stalks, laughing at the frozen precipitation and the strawberries shivering down to their roots. But rhubarb, for all of its exuberance, is not one of my favorites in the garden. … Continue reading →

At the end of every season, I can’t help but look forward to the next. As much as I love the idea that spring and summer are around the corner, I know, come the end of August, I will be looking forward to cooler weather – though that seems impossible right now. The same goes for autumn. The first few times I smell wood smoke in the crisp, low-humidity air of October, I am reminded of the excitement of snow, cold, moving firewood and plowing with the tractors. But, right now as I think about spring and mud season, winter seems like a mouthful of cod liver oil. Why is that? Normally, I would say I am not one to … Continue reading →

My neighbor Elisabeth (now long gone) who, by the time of this story, lived by herself in the middle of a three hundred acre hill farm, milked cows by hand and, even in her early seventies, would think nothing of walking a mile to my house. She didn’t seem to be bothered much by the darkness of winter. In fact, she didn’t seem to be bothered by much. Elisabeth always had a smile on her face. One cold, snowy, January day, she drove her 1972 F250 pickup down to get the mail. Halfway down, she got stuck. Even with chains on all four wheels, low gear and in 4wd low, the truck slid and got caught in the ditch. She … Continue reading →