Hello Friends.

Reading in the morning and at night provides the ultimate bookends to my day. Call me lazy, but finding moments of pleasure is what summer is all about. On the back porch with a book has become the best part of my day. It used to be rushing out to the garden with fresh seeds to sow or excitement to see what sprouted overnight, but now the garden is planted, and I can sit back and relax.

Gardening and reading transport me into two distinct worlds: one involves active participation, while the other requires solitude. Both encourage the mind to be curious and remain open to new ways of approaching life's small challenges. Both have a subtle way to turn something that is not innately interesting into an irresistible subject. In real life, a murder mystery is scary, yet in a book, it becomes a fascinating tale. Reading about soil, compost, and seeds may not be stimulating reading unless you want to become a better gardener or change your perception of the landscape to co-exist with nature.

As a devout multitasker, I've found it hard to sit in one place for too long. Reading outside allows me to find other ways to be distracted while pretending to focus on one thing.  My eyes read the words while my ears listen to a chorus of tree frogs, the chirping wren seeking a mate, or catch the flutter of a bat as the evening draws near. The light changes, too, and I often stay outside until it is fully dark, close my book, and listen. The rustle in the leaves near the compost, the tip of a trash can from a neighborhood bear, the faint wafting scent of a skunk. These are the signs of summer.  

To enhance my enjoyment of the outdoors, I read books about nature and the land. This past week, I've been reading The Salt Stones, a new book by Helen Whybrow, set to be released in early June. The book begins during lambing season at 2 AM, when time is "slightly suspended," as Whybrow writes while attending the birth of twins tangled up in the birth canal like tree branches. She's been a shepherdess for over two decades, raising Icelandic sheep and delivering more than 800 lambs. Yet, every time she faces this task, it presents differently. She knows her ewes and what is at stake.

She writes with clarity, blending her actions with personal choices that reflect the fullness of the moment and her life as a shepherdess, mother, wife, and daughter to an aging mother.  The book covers a full year of living on a Vermont hillside farm, taking the reader on a journey to understand how the landscape shapes everything she does, with a complete devotion to the health of the flock and the farm's history.   It's a life that reflects exact details, taking notes, paying attention to intuition, and taking a strong stance to protect the business side of farming that requires sacrifice. She takes the reader through a year of stories, rejoining and rejoicing in the living world, bringing us home to what truly matters.

All farmers are gardeners, while not all gardeners are farmers, yet we share the same perception about the real and the metaphorical ways that a landscape teaches us and brings us home. As gardeners, we are ultimately creating a sanctuary that allows us to care for the non-human species that surround us every day.  When we sit quietly to notice, our lives are enriched by seeing everything that goes on all around us. And sometimes, it takes the guise of reading a book, outside on the back porch, to take it all in.

From my garden to yours.  

Ellen Ecker Ogden

Welcome to The Art of Growing Food. In this newsletter, you will discover artful ways to plant a food garden. The designs in my books are based on the European potager; small, intimate sanctuaries for cooks who love to garden. You can follow my Vermont garden on Instagram or the website.