One morning last April, just before 5 AM, an exuberant chorus of songbirds beckoned me outside. Standing on the front lawn, I tried to distinguish one or two to identify, yet the cacophony was thickly layered, woven together into one joyous mass celebration of spring. It happened again this month, the returning song birds serenading outside my window. I was once again reminded that nature continues to follow her cues right on schedule, and we are here to take notes.

My kitchen garden is slowly filling with cold hardy herbs and salad greens. Like a well- timed symphony, the peas emerge just as the rosy red knobs of rhubarb stridently push upwards. The oven is on, while rhubarb crumb coffee cake bakes and I'm settling into that glass half full kind of feeling.

Each time I rip open a seed packet to insert the tiny seeds into the soil, I think back to the first summer I became a gardener, waiting patiently until the frost free date (Memorial Day Weekend), and then planted everything like mad. Now I've learned that I can begin in early April, adding a little more each day. Here it is mid-May and while the cold weather has delayed germination, and the plants are tiny, it is beginning to look hopeful.

This newsletter is sent once a month, and soon twice a month. It allows me to share my recipes and ideas that pique my interests and hopefully yours. As always, my goal is to inspire you to grow a beautiful food garden and encourage you to go beyond your own backyard to build a community of food gardeners. We all need more gardeners like us, to share what we love with others.

Grow beautiful food,
Ellen Ecker Ogden
Author, Designer and Lecturer

The Complete Kitchen Garden and The New Heirloom Garden plus other books for cooks who love to garden.

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”
― Wendell Berry

BAKING BREAD

I'm following Kitchen Vignettes a PBS food blog and and think you'll like the Pesto Babka.

Baking bread and gardening go hand in hand. Both involve starting with basic ingredients, yet each of our efforts -- both in the kitchen and in the garden -- will turn out quite different. I've been following a few of the many inspiring bakers on Instagram including Blondie and Rye and Zoe Bakes and feel quite humbled at my efforts. I often stick to my own familiar recipes, the ones I've made for decades. Truth be told, I update a little each time and encourage you to do the same. Click on the photo below for a link.

In the Garden

Here's a new way to combine art and food that will make you smile:
The Museum Is Closed, but Its Tomato Man Soldiers On

There are many things I miss during this time of self-isolation, yet more than ever is visiting museums. As a member of both Mass Moca museum in North Adams and The Clark in Williamstown, my visual senses feel deprived. Seeing art up close triggers my own creativity, and inspires me in the garden.

Another activity I will miss is the annual Open Days Tours hosted by the Garden Conservancy. My kitchen garden was scheduled for the tour in mid- June, yet has also been cancelled. If you or your garden club would like to take my virtual on-line design class for FREE, follow this link.