This year the blog will revive its photo celebration of the northern hardwoods ephemerals, the flowers that bloom on the forest floor after the last sap run and before the canopy fills in and shuts out the sunlight. Here is the front of a card created and printed by neighbor Heather Hale on one of… Read More
Saturday afternoon at the opera
April 22. It is a Saturday afternoon in late April, eleven days out from the final boiling day, and all seems familiar. Wild leeks near the Keystone line are poking up 3-4″. Spring beauty buds are tight today but won’t be for long. Witch hobble blossoms and leaves are greening up at the edges. Falls… Read More
Maple Ginger Beer
Guest blogger Sarah Bailey (see Thriving in the Sugarhouse, 3/17/17) writes: If you’re already familiar and experienced in keeping cultures and fermenting beverages this recipe is a breeze. If the world of fermentation is totally new to you, I’ll try to make it easy enough. The basic recipe is as follows: 1-3 inches ginger (depending… Read More
70 degrees in the shade
In case you readers have not read the blog comments recently, I will print the poem offered there by Elyse Moore in response to the previous post. Sweet Music to Boil By Sweet music to boil by floats minds on clouds of steam, through harmonies of aching muscles and hearts– Hums liquid tones through soaring… Read More
Music to Boil By
12:30am. When I walked out of the sugarhouse after 16 hours of work, the greater world expanded in stillness below a full moon, but just until I noticed how clouds chased across the moon, how urgently Miller Brook bellowed from the bottom of the valley, and how cool air emanated from the snowbank. … Read More
Sunday Buds and a Washing Machine
Other titles for today’s post could be: I Smell M.U.D. Saving the best for last There’s red in them thar hills Even the sunshine can’t get her off the couch The last option explains why there is no post titled April, Round One. It wasn’t clear that last week’s continual weak run would end –… Read More
Not Your Everyday Oatmeal Cookies
Maple Trout Lilli writes of just the ticket for a cold, rainy day in April: MAPLE GLAZED OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES A jazzed-up maple cookie with a delectable maple glaze that is a rich compliment to this sweet spicy cookie. I kept the batter in the fridge and made a batch of 12 every day… Read More
It’s Happening
QUICK UPDATE: WEATHER: A fortuitous ordering of fresh snow (6″), freezing nights, sunny days, and the slightest of NW breezes.. HOW’S IT RUNNING? A decent run on chilly overcast Saturday, robust runs yesterday and today. Chief of Operations notes that not a single morning this year has the ice belched out of the lines; there… Read More
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 