Eat. Drink. Live.
It’s a weekend of garden work at the farm! We’re planting, weeding and mulching, plus taming a couple of big-assed flowering quinces that have gotten so out of control that I missed seeing our lilac bloom through them! The […]
We haven’t been sieged by them, but they are here and there. And we heard them this weekend, down the ways a bit. They sounded a bit like the purr of an engine in the distance.
Early Friday morning in the garden, before anyone else was awake. Peonies blooming, blueberries ripening, cicadas molting. New this year: creeping phlox under the dwarf sour cherry and coreopsis near the pear tree. Â Here’s a look. Too many ferns! […]
We’re trying something new at the farm here, folks. Thanks to a suggestion by Trae Feind (who finally paid the farm a visit but it went undocumented!), we ordered a sun sail to block the rays to the patio during […]
Every year we start out with beautiful hanging baskets on the porch, and by the time August rolls round, the flowers aren’t blooming and the leaves are looking ragged. Greg thinks it’s because I’m buying full-sun plants for a shady […]
There’s nothing like pulling the first harvest out of the ground and serving it, moments later, to guests. These radishes have a nice bite, too!
Gin gin mules. For Mother’s Day. And to think, a year ago, when we broke ground, we had no idea what we were in for: Patio Project 2012. The recipe for Gin Gin Mules is here: Gin Gin Mules.
Patio project complete, it’s time to get planting! We’re looking to make the patio feel cozy, and also to block the late summer’s brutal sun, which shines directly on the patio as it’s setting. A tree, then — sour cherry, […]
Our Sour Cherry and our Pear, in view from the new patio. A vision in white.
SCF fans may remember when we first planted these Toyo-Nishiki flowering quince way back in 2009. They are now enormous and beautiful.
A look at the baby lettuces, spring flowers and bulbs that are popping up all over the farm!
Small Bites won an award for best blog from the New York News Publishers Association! And to say congrats, the contributing bloggers sent me this gorgeous bouquet of tulips. They’re stunning. What a wonderful gift.
Is it really here? We are hopeful.
We’ve decided to take down the blackberries that we so dutifully planted three springs ago. They’re just too darn onery. And a lot of work. Blueberries, on the other hand, are a lot less work: prune them in the spring […]
On the first evening warm enough for a cocktail on the porch, we headed out, blankets in hand. We sipped sidecars as long as we could stand it, then headed in and built a fire in the living room to […]
After spending all last summer with a big pit in the backyard (aka building our patio), we can’t wait to enjoy time out there this summer. The first warm day this spring, and we are already dreaming of moonlit dinner […]
Is spring finally on its way? We can only hope.
Will this winter ever end? Â Â
The family headed for a walk downtown to choose a couple for ornaments for friends at our fabulous Christmas store here in Nyack: Hickory Dickory Dock. Â They have all kinds of beautiful hand-blown glass ornaments, painted glass globes, and fun […]
After months of patio-project hell, we finally have a new backyard. Just in time for snow. But oh! When spring comes? We’ll be sitting pretty. Finally. Thank goodness! A look at the installation, after the jump.
The porch and the garden have served us well these past months. But it’s time to start putting the garden to bed for winter. We wrapped the rosemary in burlap, harvested some last crops and put the cushions away in […]
Orange tree at the corner of Cedar Hill and Franklin:
After a long hard summer working on Elizabeth’s Folly, enduring a pit in the backyard, jackhammering a boulder to the ground and laying more than 1,000 bricks, the patio is now done. We are beyond thrilled. More photos, after the […]
We are 20 bricks shy! Can you believe it? Almost done, though!
I’d say about 3/4 of the way done.
By 5 p.m., quitting time and cocktail hour, both, we had mad much progress: This included measuring and leveling several jagged corners: And also tamping and leveling the sand underneath the brick: What a pain that part is, let me […]
After tamping the rock, leveling the sand and checking our measurements, Greg lays the cornerstone of the patio. By the end of the day, this is what we’d accomplished: We are on our way, folks.
The tamping continued. Not much more to report:
The big pile of gravel in our driveway is known as Item Four. Greg hauled it wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow into the pit, and them tamped it down with a special tool. It is, if you’ll excuse me for saying so, […]
The finishing touches have been put on Gregory’s Portico. Admire, all ye:
My husband, Greg, and I are co-founders of SCF, which chronicles what we eat, drink and grow as we raise our daughter on a tiny plot of land in the Lower Hudson Valley.
