There is a meadow in Eastham just off the side of the highway that pulls my attention every time I pass by. The field is the site of the old […]
Farm & Garden
What would it look like to grow, harvest, and protect our bounty?
Browse all Farm & Garden stories below or dive into a topic:
PHOTOGRAPHER’S NOTEBOOK
Treasure Hunting for Rubies in the Bog
An Outer Cape tradition provides a bountiful cranberry harvest and an after-school treasure hunt
There is something wonderfully primitive about foraging food. It feels like the way it should always be. There are no signs or sounds of civilization out in the dunes. Just […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
The Hoarfrost Cometh
Lulled into a false sense of seasonal security, a gardener loses a few favorite plants to the cold
One of the things I love most about living here is being more in tune with nature’s rhythms. Watching tides, Moon phases, storm systems, and bird migrations, I’ve learned to […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
Ending on a High Note
Don’t give up on your garden at the end of summer. That’s when the best is yet to come.
In contrast to its slow, gray springs, the Outer Cape is famous for its benevolent autumns. Just as the earliest crocuses and daffodils give me hope during what one friend […]
BACKYARD FARMER
Poultry and Their Politics
An amateur analysis of ‘chicken business’
It’s a hen-peck-hen world out there. By “out there,” I refer to the front garden of our house in Wellfleet, where our three hens are placidly sipping from a puddle. […]
ROAD TRIP
Pick Your Own Sweet Memories
A search for local apples leads up-Cape to Crow Farm in Sandwich
Apple trees were big when I was a kid. On annual apple-picking excursions with my family, I would clamber into the branches of trees in New Jersey and sometimes in […]
ON THE FLATS
Meet the Farmers of Mayo Beach
Growers respond to nature and science as they consider the future of shellfishing
WELLFLEET — Jake Puffer beckons a group of touring visitors closer, asking if they want to peek inside the ridges of his farm’s oyster hats. Disks dipped in lime, sand, […]
ON THE FLATS
Meet the Farmers of Mayo Beach
Growers respond to nature and science as they consider the future of shellfishing
WELLFLEET — Jake Puffer beckons a group of touring visitors closer, asking if they want to peek inside the ridges of his farm’s oyster hats. Disks dipped in lime, sand, […]
ALTER EGOS
Oliver Egger and the Olive Eggers
A writer meets his namesake in a chicken coop in Eastham
EASTHAM — While trying to avoid typing practice during a sixth-grade computer lab, I typed my name into Google to discover if there were any other Oliver Eggers out there […]
ALTER EGOS
Oliver Egger and the Olive Eggers
A writer meets his namesake in a chicken coop in Eastham
EASTHAM — While trying to avoid typing practice during a sixth-grade computer lab, I typed my name into Google to discover if there were any other Oliver Eggers out there […]
HOMEGROWN
Aging Gardeners’ New Favorite Crop: Cannabis
Elders find fun, community, and pain relief in growing and smoking weed
WELLFLEET — The Outer Cape is full of children of the ’60s. Some of those who have green thumbs have found in their home gardens a new way of reconnecting […]
WEST END DISPATCH
Secret Plots of Lilies and Foxgloves
A writer joins PAAM’s 25th annual annual garden tour
PROVINCETOWN — Realizing there might be a limit to what can be done and learned in this world, I have taken to asking, when getting to know someone, “What are […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
Know Your Enemy
How I went from ignoring my weeds to getting to know them on a first-name basis
Determining whether a plant is a weed is a subjective thing. Most gardeners define them as plants that just happen to be in the wrong place. But there’s another layer […]
POSIES
When a Farmer Favors Flowers
Paula Erickson builds summer bouquets in her Truro garden
Paula Erickson walks among delicate dots of yellow, purple, and white. She is searching for something with a touch of wildness to complete her bouquet. Rows of sweet pea, foxgloves, […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
In Summer’s Slow Nightfall, a Glimmer of a Reward
Lessons in letting nature keep the schedule
I should have known the chickens would not go into their coop until it was properly dusk. I had stopped in at my mom’s place to shut the chickens in […]
