State park trail entry point.

Journey Home

Tales from the pilgrimage.

recipes

  • Into the Light

    I spent much of Black Friday loading customer vehicles with large, bulky items that were on sale. It was often a three-person job. Management had us come in an hour before the store opened at 6 a.m. to put the final preparatory touches on what is one of our biggest sales days of the year.… Read more

  • Red Chile Sauce

    Part of my barter agreement at two Community Supported Agriculture farms was participation in fall shares. I pick up the final share this afternoon and sweet mother of Mary that’s a lot of vegetables. Now that I’ve learned to make corn tortillas at home we need something to put in them. Something different — black… Read more

  • Fennel Potato Soup

    We have yet to have a hard frost, which is okay by me until I get the kale in for cleaning and freezing. Despite weird weather, this year was the best ever for our home garden. It seems I should say more about it than that. Truth is I’ve been bedridden the last 48 hours,… Read more

  • Bowl of Summer – Cucumber Salad

    Cucumber salad is not even a recipe. Peel them, slice and put them in a bowl. Add thinly sliced onions, extra virgin olive oil and your favorite vinegar, then salt and pepper to taste. Mix gently then serve. It’s summer in a bowl. When the garden produces them, we eat a lot of cucumber salads.… Read more

  • Eggplant Season

    By the time eggplant season is finished. everyone in the family is tired of it. Here’s a simple, tasty recipe that’s not as much a recipe as techniques to use garden abundance in mid summer. The savory flavor will have diners coming back for more. The first part is preparing eggplant slabs for the dish… Read more

  • Wanting to Wake Up

    At retirement plus 19 days I thought I’d be more productive. Yesterday, after a shift at my desk and an hour-long visit with a neighbor and a team of surveyors, I took a nap… with long, deep sleep. Groggy when I woke, the better part of the day had escaped me. More time to heal… Read more

  • Hurricane Weekend

    Rain tapped the bedroom window this morning on the fringe of Hurricane Harvey. It was a reminder of our connection to the oceans. They are absorbing heat from the atmosphere on a planet experiencing some of its warmest days in living memory. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture and the result is intense storms like… Read more

  • Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

    A gardener and farm worker has access to lots of summer vegetables, especially “farm seconds.” It is difficult to use them up before they turn to compost. The recipe for roasted red pepper and tomato soup is simple and the results are sweetly tasty. It was born of an abundance of bell peppers and tomatoes. I… Read more

  • Garden is Planted, Dinner is Served

    Ambient temperature hit 91 degrees Sunday, about 20 degrees above historical average. The heat continues, drying the topsoil, creating want of rain. An idea once held — the garden should be planted by Memorial Day — is outdated. As early crops come in, others will be planted. What’s more significant to yield than planting time is weeding,… Read more

  • Red Bell Pepper Soup

    The abundance of tomatoes, bell peppers and onions is leading to a pot of soup featuring those ingredients. There is no recipe — I used ingredients already in the ice box. I cut up a bag of onion seconds and sauteed them in extra virgin olive oil until translucent; poured in a quart and a half… Read more