SAB's Page

Few things are more gratifying than growing pumpkins.

Plant a few tiny seeds indoors in May, transfer them outdoors in early June, and in four months you will have gorgeous bright orange orbs that scream "Fall is Here!".

We dug out separate pumpkin patch a couple of years ago, when our pumpkin plants began taking over the garden. Pumpkins love space; their tendrils will wander everywhere, and it got so that they spilled out of the raised beds and cluttered the pathways. Luckily, a pumpkin patc… Continue

This summer, our family went to our cottage in Canada for seven weeks. Being there is blissful, but leaving our Bainbridge generated some stress. Where will the dogs go? Who will take care of the chickens? Who will water and weed the garden?

This summer I got really lucky - my friends Nina and Ruth agreed to take care of the chickens and garden in return for fresh vegetables and eggs. On alternate days, they came to the house to feed and water the chickens, collect the eggs, and pick whatever w… Continue

Swiss chard is one of those overlooked vegetables. You have to search for it in the grocery store, usually in the corner of the produce section sharing a bin with bok choy and kale. Go find it, because once you eat it you will be hooked.

As a side vegetable, we enjoy it cooked two ways. Swiss Chard is delicious at its most simple: steamed, tossed with a pat of butter, a splash of balsamic vinegar, and some ground sea salt. For a variation, sometimes I saute it in butter over high heat with a cl… Continue

Ah - Summer in the Northeast....beautiful sunny days, tank tops and fireflies at night, evenings sleeping with all the windows open and only a sheet on top of you...


Not this year! We've been on the East Coast since June 17 and have barely seen the sun poke through the clouds. Every day brings a new set of showers, or out and out rain, and the fireflies are still hibernating. What's a person to do? Beckon the summer gods with an offering of Southsides!

My husband can make a killer Southside.… Continue

I grew up on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series of books. Starting with Little House in the Big Woods, I read them cover to cover when I was in 4th grade, and then read them cover to cover again each summer in Quebec up through high school. The pluck and optimism that Laura and her family had, confronted with daily hardships ranging from a plague of grasshoppers to being resettled off Indian lands, inspired me and made me long to live back in the pioneer days.

Reading the books… Continue