Working Waterfront

Why hide the heart of the home?

Spotted recently in a mainstream national newspaper: the phenomenon of the “back kitchen.” Apparently increasingly common in million-plus dollar homes, the back kitchen accommodates all the messy business of actually preparing food and cleaning up after it, while the other kitchen stays neat and tidy for social events like children’s… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Recipes or not

The first reader comment said, “This is stupid—slap peanut butter on a piece of bread and jelly on the other and BAM you got your freaking sandwich.” SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Convenience may be the enemy of connection

Seeking convenience almost always sacrifices connection, something pointed out to me by my wise niece, Sarah. By that standard, I have a very connected kitchen. For instance, no dishwasher occupies space here. Sarah, and occasionally our young friend and occasional co-habitant Brynn and I wash dishes. I love being connected… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Farming from the porch

Take a bucket of shell peas you’ve just picked and a basket to heave the pods into, and a bowl to collect the little green wonders, then go sit on the porch where it is cool and shady and shell them all out, eating some as a snack, and anticipating… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Getting the garden ‘out of the woods’

Most fruit trees overestimate how much fruit they can ripen. I thin my peaches in early summer, the Red Haven first which ripens a little sooner than the Reliance, whose fruit is already the diameter of a quarter. The tree will naturally throw off some of its fruit sets; I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Prepping like it’s 1885

Remember 1999 and the big worry about the Y2K bug? Everything civilization rested on would collapse in a heap when the clocks all ticked over to 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, 2000. The world’s computers would all crash and we’d be enveloped in darkness as the grid went down and mayhem… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My dumb kitchen

When you read about smart kitchen appliances, what you learn is everything about them except “Why?” My life is blessedly free of smart toasters, coffee makers, voice-controlled faucets, and automatic stirrers. I probably wouldn’t even think about them except a favorite foodie website hawked, “Smart Kitchen Tools You Need Right… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

We spoil our food with best-by dates

Hung in bunches in the cellarway, our onions sprout. Apples stored in spackle buckets soften. So do beets. Our carrots sprouted feathery tops but we ate them all before they had a chance to grow hairy rootlets. Keeping an eye on the potatoes means spotting white shoots before they get… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Dinner disrupted—the rise of ‘can’t eat’ foods

Daring to gather indoors around a dinner table with three or four good friends is one gift of vaccinations. Invitations fluctuate with the ebb and flow of COVID infectiousness but most of us older triple-vaxxed people venture some sociability. Since social isolation is as bad for our health as heavy… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A Maine island take on Candlemas

On Feb. 2, many Americans look to Pennsylvania to see if the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil emerges to see his shadow or not. If he does, it means there are six more weeks of winter. Folks, on Feb. 2, there will be six more weeks of winter no matter what. Some… SEE MORE