State park trail entry point.

Journey Home

Tales from the pilgrimage.

Kitchen Garden

  • Week 17 — Rush Toward Harvest

    Tomatoes are coming in, along with eggplant, peppers, garden huckleberries, and green beans. It won’t be long before the rush to harvest is finished. Read more

  • In the Kitchen — Summer 2026

    Some days it is a wonder how little time kitchen projects take — a lot less than fretting about aging cucumbers in the refrigerator drawer. A gardener doesn’t have time for fretting. When confronted with excess produce, one simply gets down the juicer, sorts cucumbers needing to be used, slices them in half and feeds… Read more

  • Week 16 — Transition Through Summer

    The heat wave broke on Thursday, and it rained all day Friday. We need the rain. I was so confident of the forecast, I did not water the garden on Thursday. It turned out I was right. I wasn’t ready for peppers, yet here they are. I picked a good number of jalapenos, as well… Read more

  • Week 16 — Time for Soup

    Midsummer is a time to make garden soup. I cleared the kitchen counter and searched the refrigerator for ingredients, then lined everything up in a neat pile to the right of cutting board. I already made vegetable broth from turnip greens, so I got the large pitcher from the door of the refrigerator, along with… Read more

  • Making Applesauce and Pickles

    In summer the kitchen becomes a studio where I create things to eat incorporating fruit and vegetables from the garden. Experimentation is the rule, with a mind for the palates of both of us. I make a lot of dishes that don’t appear any other time but when the garden is coming in. Tradition is… Read more

  • Week 15 — Garlic Harvest

    I was late getting out of the house to the state park trail on Sunday. The challenge was how to photograph the expansive patch of invasive lilies, and I had no good answer. I was distracted by the need to return home as quickly as possible to harvest the garlic crop I planted last fall.… Read more

  • Long Dance to the End

    Leaves on the Red Delicious apple tree I planted more than 30 years ago began developing spots, yellowing, and falling in late June and early July. In addition, a type of slime mold rooted in the large scar where the 2020 derecho blew down a main limb. Called dog vomit slime mold, it feeds on… Read more

  • Week 14 — Summer Harvest Ramps Up

    We had some good rain this week and that boost growth in the garden. There were cucumbers, zucchinis, and squash aplenty. I checked garlic by digging six plants and decided to give it another week or two before harvesting the main crop. After pulling a couple of onions, I decided to harvest the whole crop… Read more

  • Fennel: A Summer Vegetable

    I learned to grow fennel while working at Susan’s farm beginning in 2013. It is a remarkable plant with its entirely of bulb, stalks, and fronds being edible. I grew eight or so plants this year and have begun to harvest them. Pretty soon there will be too many to use in the kitchen so… Read more

  • Grinding it Out — Taco Tuesday

    Three weeks into summer, the average high temperatures are running a few degrees higher than average. This is the hottest time of the year for Eastern Iowa, and people born here can get used to it. That doesn’t mean we particularly like it. Exercise and gardening occupy a narrow morning window from sunrise until 8… Read more