Having planted much of our veggie garden before setting off to Norway in late April, we’ve been able to enjoy (i.e. eat!) an increasing abundance of food since our return to Vermont two weeks back. Huge salads of mixed greens, crunchy spinach, and some tears of chard tossed with sliced radishes, shredded beets and cabbage (still from last season, staying cool in the fridge!), shredded carrots (purchased), some sprouted grains, a neighbor’s goat cheese and more…have been the rule.  Occasionally, we grill up a little meat from our neighbor’s pigs, chickens and cows, too, to throw on top of the salad. Or perhaps we’ll sprinkle on some slivered almonds, sliced apples… And when we’re feeling really crazy, we’ll lay on a fried or poached egg or two – Chilean style! Yum.

There’s no doubt that the garden is the foundation of our diet during the warmer months, and increasingly, year round. Our love for fresh, healthy food is also responsible for an evolving focus in our photography and documentary work around Vermont’s emerging local food economy, edible landscaping and modern homesteading. On this note, be sure to check out our friend Ben Hewitt’s incredible new book, The Town that Food Saved.

This month, Northern Woodlands ran a feature story on the subject of “forest gardening”.  The story opens with our photo we captured of Ben Falk, of Whole Systems Design (a friend and neighbor here in Moretown), tending to his fruit trees by cutting and mulching with deep-rooting comfrey growing beneath them. Northern Woodlands magazine is a publication of the non-profit Center for Northern Woodlands Education, Inc. based in Corinth, VT. It’s distributed primarily in the northeastern U.S., and it offers a forward thinking perpsective on how we use, develop and live within our forest-dominated environment.  Take a peek at the clip below: