Bumbling toward self-sufficiency in the wilds of Cape Cod
New Englanders pride themselves on their hardy stoicism. They take what comes, they persevere, they endure. If you’re going to get along here, you never complain about the weather, the traffic, or the fish not biting.
I think this is why steamers, popular in this neck of the woods, never caught on anywhere else. No matter [...]
One day last fall, as we were coming off the clamming grounds at Bay Street in Osterville with a peck of quahogs, we saw two guys loading their pickup with two full baskets of steamers. Steamers, as all you clammers know, are generally harder to come by than quahogs. They bury themselves much deeper than [...]
It was time.
Last May, we made our very first batch of dandelion wine. Up until then, the only fermenting I’d ever done was accidental, a result of leaving fruit juice, or black beans, or cooked barley sitting in the refrigerator too long. As this was our first attempt at deliberate fermentation, we followed the recipe [...]
Nothing like two feet of snow to bring home to you that it’s winter. And, in winter, our food procurement efforts grind virtually to a halt. The eggs keep coming, but after that the pickings are slim. We can shellfish year-round, an unusually nice day might find us going after trout, and I keep hoping [...]
Of all the projects we’ve undertaken thus far, I think lobstering is the hardest. Not only does it require a lot of hard, cold, dangerous work, it involves the acquisition of expertise – what kind of traps, where to put them, how to bait them, when to check them. Lobsters are enigmatic and lobstermen are [...]
Since I’m in the business of reinventing state mottos (I did Louisiana a couple weeks back), I’ve got a few suggestions for New Mexico, where I now find myself. My frontrunner is: “New Mexico: Where the chairs are uncomfortable and the foliage is dangerous.” (The real one is “Crescit eundo” — “It grows as it [...]
After burning god knows how many gallons of gas checking our super-secret hen-of-the-wood spot once or twice a week for most of the summer and all of the fall, we finally hit pay dirt. Not just one, but two big, young, firm mushrooms. Cleaned and trimmed, our haul was well over two pounds. They’re sauteeing [...]
I spent all yesterday afternoon reenacting a scene from the Bible. It wasn’t the usual Sunday school choice, like Moses coming down from Mount Sinai, or Abraham not sacrificing Isaac, or Jacob tricking his father into giving him the blessing meant for his older, hairier brother. (I understand there are also compelling scenes in the [...]
We all have one. It’s that elusive special something that makes your chili, or strawberry preserves, or banana bread, so very popular. And you never tell, but not because you’re afraid that everyone you know will be able to replicate your chili, or strawberry preserves, or banana bread and you won’t have any friends. It’s [...]
I wasn’t the kind of kid who didn’t like to share, although my mother’s endorsement of my childhood open-handedness leaves something to be desired. “You weren’t worse than other children,” she told me.
As an adult, though, I find that I sometimes don’t want to share at all. While I generally don’t mind sharing with people [...]
Tamar Haspel has been writing about food and health for over a decade. She recently moved from Manhattan to Cape Cod. She’s adjusting well. [Read More…]
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