“That seems like an awful lot of trouble,” Mom stands beside me chopping fresh asparagus from Barbers farm while I make the hollandaise for Sunday dinner. Hollandaise doesn’t happen without mise-en-place. A class of cold water and a plate of cold butter to reverse the egg yolks should they start to turn; butter melted, […]
The Ash Tree
“Remember when Saoirse got stuck in that tree?” Ula’s side nearly splits with laughter recalling that day: her big sister’s hubris as she scaled the giant ash, her embarrassment when she had to call for help. We are alone at the home, standing in front of the mighty ash, the tree that wrapped my daughters’ […]
Essential Kids
“But how will they learn calculus?” I heard that question repeatedly when we started on our homeschooling journey. It was a pre-corona world, where advanced mastery of math and sciences, expansive extra-curricular involvement and stellar test scores were the necessary recipe for the necessary acceptance at that necessary university, which was supposed to unveil the […]
Baling Twine Economics
You can do a lot with baling twine. It binds the hay together, for certain. We’ve also used it for door latches, knife sheaths, belts, halters, hinges, jury-rigged tailgates, tie downs and cooler handles. The artful employment of baling twine is about more than the ingenuity of a small farmer. It’s about their psyche; the […]
Survivors’ Guilt
It takes me a second to realize it’s an eagle and a muskrat. And that I’m witnessing something profoundly beautiful. And terrible. And therefore, awesome, in the truest sense of the word. They’re in Clapper’s hayfield, the one on the way to the cafe from the farm cleaved by the meandering stream. I remember that […]
Lessons from the Not-So-Happy Homemakers
I received a letter from a reader, Landon, last week that’s prompting this week’s post: He writes: I read your blog post about Coronavirus and saw how every choice you made focused on your community, and then saw how every tier of your Patreon included some kind of giving to the community. Why do you […]
Episode 12: When, Where & How
Mise-en-place. It’s French for put in place. And it’s the Golden Rule for running a restaurant. It defines when things happen, how they happen, and precisely where. At 4 am Saturday morning, I turn on the proofing ovens. At 4:01 I lay the croissants out on trays. At 4:07 I put water on to boil. […]
Easy as a Ketchup Sandwich: Episode 11
We bought our first bottle of ketchup when we entertained guests shortly after our wedding in 2000. The second and third bottles our household has ever owned were consumed & discarded in the last two weeks. I blame the vegan sleeping in our guest bedroom. Corey (dubbed “The Kid” by the cafe customers), slips by […]
The Full Stop: Episode 10
Failure to come to a full stop. That was the reason Saoirse failed her drivers’ test last Thursday. I’ve never seen her fail to stop. She’s a stickler for rules, refusing to put the car in gear until everyone’s buckled in, lecturing her Dad about his various infractions, scrupulously adhering to every speed limit, and, […]
Managing Expectations
The scrambles can all go together in one pan. The sunny sides need to cook separately. I have enough space on the cooktop to manage three orders of home fries; sausage and pancakes on the griddle. That leaves one order of over-medium, two over-easies, the oatmeal, and three more orders of home fries plus the […]
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