Yard To Table

Back at the Table - It's Season 2!

• Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts • Season 2 • Episode 1

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It's garden season and podcast season - at least for these two! Ellen Scherer Crafts and Trevor Crafts are back to the Table - and Yard! - for Season 2 of "Yard to Table". In this episode they talk about the transition from Winter to Spring at Stonebrook, the joy of Spring Ephemerals and Flowers, and plans for this year's growing season... while going through some major happenings on the property.  You will also get a hint of what is ahead this season on the podcast - and they guarantee more joy for sure!  Welcome back Yardists! 


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Trevor:

Oh. Well, hello, Ellen.

Ellen :

Well, hello Trevor. Hello everyone. Welcome back to the table. It's Season Two of the yard to table podcast.

Trevor:

That's right, season two of yard to table. I bet a lot of people thought we weren't going to come back. I bet there were people, there were people out there that that were thinking that was nice. They're lovely people. There's no way they can do this again. We did, by the way, you're never going to not hear us. We love it. Never gonna you're gonna hear us in your dreams.

Ellen :

Okay, that's not weird. We we listen to the theme song as we get ready to record. It's like our little pump up. It was so nice to hear it. It is lovely to hear it. Yeah, it felt good. I was like, oh yes, we're back at the table.

Trevor:

It's nice because you have this big break, which is kind of, it's very seasonal, yeah, and over the winter time, it's, it's, there's not a lot growing in a garden over the winter naturally. And then you're back and it's and in here we are, and here we are. And it always feels like winter is never going to end. There's a point in time, and I'm sure that that's true for everybody that lives here, where you're feeling sort of March, late February, March timeframe, that it will be like this forever,

Ellen :

yes, in its stark and brutal beauty, which we love,

Trevor:

But you, kind of, you're sort of like, oh, okay, well, I guess we're the we're the ones that end up with winter forever, and it always, not always been the case. But I guess we're this our generation. This is the year where it's winter for the rest of time.

Ellen :

Well, weather is crazy.

Trevor:

It is science fiction,

Ellen :

As we know, last year, it warmed up very early, super warm. Yes, last season, I feel like we had a real New England winter. This year,

Trevor:

lot of snow and a lot of ice, and a lot of very long periods of ice and frozenness,

Ellen :

which was awesome, because we do love seasons

Trevor:

and you don't like ticks.

Ellen :

That's a whole podcast,

Trevor:

so that's another thing. So that was you were happy to hear that they may have,

Ellen :

how long will the ice last? Yes, so that the ticks will die off, correct which is going to join there's no real answer to that. But anyway, there is not. We'll talk about natural tick remedies on another podcast. Send them all in to yard to table, but it'sfunny.

Trevor:

I mean, in truth, it is the last couple of years here that we've had which has been so much fun, we've been reintroduced to our youth of having constant seasons and seasonal change, which we love. And I think we got very used to being in California, where there is really no seasonal change in any big degree, right? It's a little bit here and a little bit there. You know, sometimes around February, the non, the non native trees lose their lose their leaves.

Ellen :

Well, there were a couple moments, like when the Jacaranda trees bloomed. Those, if you don't know, they're very tall, they're all over Los Angeles, Southern California, not, maybe not down in San Diego, but in our Los Angeles County, huge purple flowers, and that was our is our daughter's favorite color. So that was always a big moment when the the jackarandas bloomed, and when you knew you needed I think California was always tricky, because you had seasons in a day sometimes, right? So it would be super warm. It is a desert, right? And then you're like, Oh, it's hot, and you're in your tank top and you're running around, and if you didn't throw a sweater in the car or on your shoulders, it was 50 degrees or 40 degrees or 40, and you'd be freezing depending on where you were in the elevation of the town. That's true. Yeah.

Trevor:

Some of the coldest nights that I've ever had have been in beautiful, sunny California

Ellen :

Coming out of the pool. You're just like, frozen.

Trevor:

It's always windy and cold at night, but seasonally, it's still not too different,

Ellen :

And one of the things that we've said many times, and what we continue, how we continue to feel, is how much we love seasons. And because I think it was a more traditional feeling, northeast New England winter this spring just hit me between the eyes, in terms of being so wowed by everything that was pumping out of the ground, from the skunk cabbage, you know, is this crazy purpley, alien looking color and thing that comes out of the ground and literally warms the soil up. What is the that name for it again? What kind of heliogenic? It's a heliogenic plant like snow drops. Like snow drops, right? So you see the snow drops and these beautiful clumps that are all along our Brook and around our back field. They are just propagating all over the place, awesome, and we're trying to move them to be along the stream. But that window gets very fleeting. Um. Up, but the skunk cabbage to all the spring ephemerals that are popping up, from the the trumpet Lily to the Dutchman's breaches,

Trevor:

these names, who

Ellen :

the white Trillium? I literally walked around the property. And because we have so we do have so much land to say, what do we have? We're always looking because as we, as we have gotten rid of all the chemicals on the property and things have really we've let things grow. We remove things like the garlic mustard weed, which is delicious, but invasive. But, you know, letting the May Apple grow as ground cover, taking out the pack of Sandra, which I hate. There's ticks. Again, they live in there, the mice and the chipmunks and everything. It's just, it's so exciting to see the bluebells growing and all of those things that are part of the spring ephemerals that start to bring color into what is a very drab landscape,

Trevor:

Berkubane, land of eternal night, also known as just march in Connecticut. Yes, rainy and cold

Ellen :

but one of the things I love, of course, is everyone knows is flowers. And

Trevor:

I was not aware you are no one listening knows this is new news. It's breaking news. Friends. Breaking news to everyone out there that's listening it. Ellen likes flowers. Oh, that's a, that's a, that's a scoop. And

Ellen :

I will say that Christina Koether of State of Nomadica has infected me with Tulip Fever.

Trevor:

It is, it is a spreading disease. It is something that I think has no known cure, right, but is very infectious. So I do want everybody to just watch out. You don't have to watch the tulips. The tulips are fine. The tulips are there's no disease on the tulips. It's in the it's in the planters of the tulips, the humans that that that put them in the ground, that seemed to succumb quickly to this affliction

Ellen :

Because I think the first year we had some 400 that was a lot. Still, I think I picked four varieties and 100 of each.

Trevor:

Continue, continue the story. I know where it's going. Let everyone else know where it's

Ellen :

last year was 700 tulips. Yeah, I have a big list for next year.

Trevor:

How many is it next year?

Ellen :

Well, we'll talk about that be close to 1000

Trevor:

Yeah, that's a lot of tulips.

Ellen :

Yeah, that's a lot of tools. Well, here's the thing, tell me all about it. I'm here and I'm listening so our head collar. Sorry, tulips, they bloom. I like to pick the ones that bloom from early to late. The early ones I mondial was the beautiful white double tulip that Christina turned me on to very early, and it's beautiful. But this year I had selected, I had found this exotic Ember, which is a white tulip that has, when it opens up, it's kind of got these kind of spiky double tulip also, but with these spiky leaves, and then in the center is this yellow and green, yeah. And when they dry, they're like these crazy not dry, but as they age in the vase, and then eventually are at their end, they're these crazy pinwheels that are just so cool, right?

Trevor:

And I think that's what a lot of people think about a tulip. And you think sort of the initial state of a tulip, which is that sort of standard egg shape, y kind of pattern, all the stuff that you see around, but really a very wide variety. Wait, and you don't think a lot about the sort of end state of tulips. Yes, not only is, are they very beautiful and unique and interesting in the early stage of when they come out and they get cut and blah, blah, blah, but then also at the end, like you were saying, These, are these really widened out into these very unique shapes and structures. So even though they were sort of at the end, they still retained a lot of very interesting beauty.

Ellen :

And of course, tulips that you grow and raise organically grow organically. They last longer. They're beautiful. You can keep them in a vase for weeks at a time. You can, if you have time, you can pull them out, you can recut stems, you change water. I don't always have time for that? Even with being a lazy arranger and viewer of the vase, yes, you're very lazy. We have a lot of tools going on. Well, you know, it's joyful. It's just, it's joyous. I love it so much, but Christina turned me on to it and and then, you know, we planted exotic Emperor this year, whirl bowl, which is another double tulip that was an early, beautiful Pinky, more magenta, y, really red color. There was the bell epoch that was new this year. That's another one that when it was like a peachy, Goldy color, and then when it matured in the vase, they expanded out. They were huge. I did a big arrangement on the table, the potting table, because it made me happy when we walked over to the to the bar and to see them there and Bella Park, which, oh my gosh, they're just a beautiful double tulip with that just aged to sort of, you know, golden late. I can't even describe it. It was like a it was like a pinky orange. And then it. Sort of got to a rusty, faded golden color. I love that. I ordered that again for next year.

Trevor:

That's how I'm hoping to age... to a rusty gold, a rusty golden color? I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I That sounds maybe I'll retain some of my natural beauty as I get towards the end myself.

Ellen :

Oh, honey, you're so naturally beautiful to me. Always.

Trevor:

Thank you so much.

Ellen :

You're welcome. But one of the other favorites new this year was the louver tulip. It was this beautiful purple with that one was really cool. That was like a show stopper, Queen of the Night, which is the one of the late bloomers, which is a very dark, almost black, purple, more traditional shape. The fun part about that tulip was everyone that grew grew grew like a little baby companion tulip. So I was cutting and making little bouquets out of the smaller ones and putting them in our daughter's bedroom. It was so fun, and my favorite that here it comes, the renown unique. That's it. That's the one which is a late season tulip, double tulip. It is beautiful, red, rosy color, and it really, for me, I think it's the precursor to Peony season.

Trevor:

It very much. It's Peony adjacent, yeah, to mock peony.

Ellen :

Well, that's in there's just this world of tulips that I never knew were anything but the more traditional look. And there's the broken tulips that have this incredible sort of striped variation that came from a fungus that people didn't like, but they make they they're very old and ancient. I think we have to have Christina on to talk about tulips, because she's like, my sage. She could come back.

Trevor:

Yeah, she's invited. She can come back.

Ellen :

She's so amazing. But it's just been great. And so, yeah, there's, there's a few more for next year coming.

Trevor:

A few?

Ellen :

yeah,

Trevor:

300 is not a few. Like a few is like five.

Ellen :

You mean 300 more? Uh huh. We have the beds for it,

Trevor:

And herein lies the herein lies the trick. When you have a yard and the yard is big, you want to fill it with beautiful things, and so why not

Ellen :

when nothing else is growing. Seeing those beds full of incredible color and variety is just that's a heart warmer.

Trevor:

You know, I love it too,

Ellen :

I know. And you know, the other part I love too is I give them away. I give them to our friends, our daughter's teacher, got a got a bouquet. Just that's the good stuff. I

Trevor:

Close to the tulips. Also, we had our mountain love it flocks, came back again. Oh, yeah. It was beautiful. That was that we have white and purple, and that just creates such an amazing sort of carpet of color. And you don't realize sort of looks pretty rugged over the winter, and then all of a sudden it goes, boing.

Ellen :

And that creeping flux, a lot of people will do it as a lawn cover, yeah, which, you know, it blooms and then it fades, and then it blooms again. But it's, it's like, these puffy clouds of color that you just want to dive into. And I think the other early flower that I hadn't really known too much about previously was the hellebore. And that's another one that now I'm, like, obsessed.

Trevor:

You are fully obsessed, fully obsessed. You're hella obsessed. Oh, that was that hella obsessed.

Ellen :

That was a lot of people.

Trevor:

These puns, these are fun. Everybody knew, if they listened to season one, they know this is puns, and it's accents. And I haven't done an accent in a while, but I know our listeners, nor shall he, they're coming. Worry not.

Ellen :

So hellebore, yes.

Trevor:

Let not your heart be troubled

Ellen :

Thank you, honey. We had one hellebore was at the base of a tree, one of our beach trees, yes, as you walk into our backyard, and I was always like, what is that flower? Figured out what it was. They're so hardy. They're shade lovers, and they have these beautiful colors, the fire and ice variety. So we went out. I said, this plant's lonely. It needs friends. So we went out and got some fully grown so we could enjoy them. We potted them in some shady areas around the house, so around the yard, I should say house and yard. Once they stop blooming, which will be soon, they usually bloom till about end of May, I'm gonna, we're gonna replant them and put them in with our lonely hellebore by which will be lonely, no more spring. They will come back again, which is beautiful. And I planted some in the garden too, by the way, yeah, you

Trevor:

planted a lot in the garden. Yeah, those are going to be for bouquets. Yeah, it's going to be beautiful. And speaking of the garden, the old yard, we had some volunteer holdovers from last year that over wintered, which I was very surprised about. You know, we learned something new every year. I guess it was a hard winter. I mean, it was, it was a lot of ice and a lot of snow, yeah, and very frigid temperatures.

Ellen :

But all of a sudden we started to have some baby spinach popping up

Trevor:

and pop up It did. This is all of our holdovers from last year, and we didn't pull the plants in that specific bed. I think there were cosmos in the middle of that bed last year. Yes, and that might have been the sunflower bed. That might have been the sunflower bed either way. Yeah, I'm gonna say friends. I wouldn't recommend planting incredibly. Tall plants in the middle of a bed, and then having other things around the perimeter, only because then it actually does become rather challenging to manage the middle of the bed, because you have to try to get to it, and you're reaching and things like that, learning just a lot of climbing and it, but it looks beautiful, but it's a little hard on the on the reaching but those spinaches, they decided they did not want to go away.

Ellen :

No, they came back. And we've been enjoying that. It's been wonderful. And then, of course, the carrots, we had a bunch of carrots back. They came back on their own. Just send them out, so we were gonna have some nice, big carrots coming in. And of course, the rhubarb is a perennial. So that's always an easy one to plant. You got to get in there. You've got to nip off the flowers as they start to come in, but it's so hardy and resilient. Yeah, fortunately, our ground cherries didn't make it this.

Trevor:

No, that that we're gonna we're gonna work on that again, because I adore ground cherries, and I feel like that's a really important part our garden, and I really want to have that really come forward this season. So we'll keep everybody posted on how that's going. And of course, the old asparagus patch came back in force as always. That really is the springtime for me. It's like you walk and you crack off and you take a bite and it's so sweet and It's so crunchy. It's the best in the morning. It's like, absolutely perfect.

Ellen :

A lot of weeding that patch got crazy, yeah, it did over the winter. That was a Back Breaker, yeah?

Trevor:

Like, I don't want to trample anything that might be down. Here it is.

Ellen :

It's like, you're like, oh my gosh, I have to be so careful, because you can't, obviously, the crowns get under there, and you can't, you're not seeing anything yet, but it's just you want to make sure you're not disturbing it, and you're trying to get everything clear. And it is. It's a good workout. I feel like gardening is great workouts.

Trevor:

I feel like I need to make a Mission Impossible rig where you're, like, hanging and it's awesome, and it's on, like, wheels with a motor.

Ellen :

Can I wheel you? and you don't need to.. You wait, oh, wait, how are you getting in this? Tell me more

Trevor:

in the rig? Yeah, it's like an exoskeleton suit, basically. Yes, put on and it's sort of No. I've the two options here, anybody out there that's ever moved anything with pods, the container moving system, they have, like, a whole little set of legs that comes and connects it, and a little remote control, and it just drives around. So we can make the same thing that does not sound expensive, no, not at all. And then you just lower yourself down, and you're sort of like in a hammock on your belly, and then you just do your weeding, and then you hit the button and it moves you forward. That seems really I think that's a much easier and more simple way to do it. Yes,

Ellen :

of course. Where do you store all that rig stuff? I mean, after you've paid for it, of course.

Trevor:

So we did a lot of weeding in our bed

Ellen :

Thats' practical

Trevor:

I don't know. I'm a big thinker. I love your big thinking.

Ellen :

Well, we had to, we have to approach the garden in a different way this year. That's true,

Trevor:

because we have had a couple of things happen, happening to our table. Our table is changing. Yeah, we are redesigning, rebuilding, restoring and re every retaining our kitchen and our dining room, and we are creating a scullery. Scullery. So excited. So the the original owner of the house, Alice del Lamar, built the house in a lot of that part of the house in the early 30s, and all of that existed until the 80s, when the House changed hands and that next owner really did an amazing job with the kitchen. But then not a lot happened since that point in time. So a lot of our elements, like our fridge and our freezer was all from 1980s which is amazing

Ellen :

. Which is amazing because they, with the exception of the freezer, which broke about a year ago,

Trevor:

died to death and was not resurrectable,

Ellen :

we had these incredible appliances that lasted a very long time.

Trevor:

Things now are not meant to last that long. Sadly, they should be, but

Ellen :

they totally should be. It's why we like to talk about sustainability in all things.

Trevor:

But it was time. Yes, there was a lot of things that had to happen.

Ellen :

And I will say we view ourselves as stewards very much of this property. And that was one of the things that drew us to it, probably more than others, because it was a lot to take on,

Trevor:

because we're crazy people.

Ellen :

We are we're definitely crazy people, but this house has a lot of history to it. We love that about it, and it has a character that we love, and we really know that we are the caretakers and the stewards of this property, and that's important to us. The. Decisions we make around this property, we want to be timeless.

Trevor:

And the hope was that in opening some of these walls and things like that, that we would find a gigantic pile of gold or money or something. None of that happened. We did find some dry rot. Yeah, a fair amount of that.

Ellen :

Yeah. And some things left by friends.

Trevor:

Yes, some, some, some of those chipmunks and mice that Ellen might have gotten into the water earlier may have allowed us to have sort of life in the country. Yeah, yeah, new, unique perspectives on life and death. So ultimately, we've, we're right in the thick of it, right now, thick of a renovation. We're sort of late. We're rounding the corner on this, on this big adjustment, because it really is a third of the house, essentially is getting adjusted, yes, but in the process of following our joy, following the things that really make us incredibly happy, our yard is such a huge, enormous part of that our table is such a huge, enormous part of that entertaining being able to extend our time in the garden and with the fruits of our labor. No pun intended, but the apple orchard is doing wonderfully. Thank you for asking, but really to come up with some new ideas to help create a space for us that extends our yard to table lifestyle,

Ellen :

and that we feel is very much in keeping with the nature of the property. Yeah, and I mean, it's crazy. We moved the kitchen to the one end of the house. It was in the center of the house before, and we can see the garden now from the kitchen window,

Trevor:

we opened a wall window space so that we had a better view. Yes, we just created a lot of elements that let a lot of light in, and also were able to have us almost feel like the outside was coming inside, yes,

Ellen :

and still keep the character of a older house, which was very important to us. So when we say open a wall, it was basically open a window. Was making the window a larger window, but keeping in the character of the of the building, because that was very, very important to us, for sure. Can I, can I talk about the scullery a little bit?

Trevor:

Well, I mean, it's nothing going on in there. It's not interesting at all, go ahead.

Ellen :

So calling it a scullery sounds very bougie, but it is in keeping with the house in terms of the time period, right? And the activity that's going to happen in that space, because that is a place of bringing in the vegetables now from the garden and being able to process them and do the things that we love to do, like canning and cutting and freezing and obviously cooking and storing. But the most exciting thing is my flower fridge.

Trevor:

Yes, friends, Ellen is getting a flower fridge. We went fully insane, and she's getting a commercial flower fridge in our home,

Ellen :

I am, it's, it's my cooler. It is, why a flower fridge? Why not? But it has a different temperature and humidity than a regular refrigerator. And as I was experimenting this season with keeping tulips for a longer period of time, I'm literally wrapping up bunches with the bulb on, laying them on the floor of the basement bathroom to keep them cold. And it was working. I thought, how amazing this will be to actually have the flower fridge where I can do this and store it. And the same thing with our Peony season is about to be among upon us. Our Peony season is about to be upon us.

Trevor:

its cometh the glorious days

Ellen :

of the peonies. They can last for months. Yes, if you get them in that marshmallow stage and wrap them up and then you rehydrate them, and you've got peonies extended Peony season. So with all of the grounds that we have in the and the ability to grow, it's exciting to be able to think about extending the season for these things to do. The thing I love, that's my my stress relief is cutting flowers and arranging flowers and putting them around the house and entertaining with them and giving them to friends. I'm so excited. It's very it's crazy, but you got to do crazy sometimes people, you got to find your joy.

Trevor:

No, I think that's part of it. It's, it's you have an opportunity

Ellen :

a new car or a flower fridge. Flower fridge, yeah,

Trevor:

well documented, but it's, but you have this opportunity to do something different and new, because we had to redo this part of the house anyway, right? So why not create something that's new and that's different? We're experimenting. You were experimenting with all of the different configurations of how do you keep in trying to plan for something that gave you joy? And I think that's the fun part about having things in your yard, because you can experiment, and it also takes time. You have to do it over a period. Period of time where if something doesn't work, then you have to try it differently and plant it again, or try again or come up with a different idea. Because that's, I think, how we really hone in on the things that work and the things that really make us happy.

Ellen :

And I think it's what sparks our creativity. There's so much around planning and planting gardens and flowers and landscape that is an art, and there's so much creative joy it gives both of us and sparks so much of our work in the different fields that we do outside of this podcast. And it is, there's nothing outside of this. There's nothing. But it is, it's, I think it's really very giving, in that sense, to us and to me personally.

Trevor:

So I tell them about the can I tell them about the yeah countertops, yeah. So in the scullery, we also have new countertops, as you do,

Ellen :

yes, oh, everything had to, well, yes. A lot of

Trevor:

things had to be rebuilt and redone. We are using the sink from our old kitchen as the sink in the scullery, which is a lovely farmhouse sink, which will fit in perfectly as things happen. We had a beech tree in the front of the property that had been badly damaged even before we came to stone Brook and huge crack, huge half of the tree had come off in some derecho or something else, somewhere along the line, and sadly, it passed away as it does, as things do. It's part of the challenge of having a property with an enormous amount of very mature trees, which are absolutely stunning and gorgeous, is management of said trees, management of said trees, and sometimes you lose them, yeah. So we, so we actually took the those huge pieces and had a company come to mill them on site for us, and then kiln dry them, and then we will be using those beach countertops as the countertops for the scullery,

Ellen :

which is really awesome,

Trevor:

because then the house is the outside is coming in, and we're able to extend the outside through being able to see it and work on it. And I just love that being able to have part of stone Brook outside come inside. And that's really fun and important, I think,

Ellen :

and so many of the decisions that we're making because that was how they were made in the past, by Alice and previous owners. But mostly Alice, it was finding things that were from Connecticut or from New England, that were being used, local artists, local materials. And if you follow us at Stone Brook house, we'll share a lot of this in the progression of the coming together of the renovation and those very special, unique local touches that we're putting into the house, because that's really part of the history of this property.

Trevor:

Alice had a forge on site, a lot of the hinges,

Ellen :

and I know you're very disappointed. We don't

Trevor:

I want a forge So, bad friends, I'm I'm dying for one, I don't know if it's forage or chickens. I don't know what comes first, the chickens already season two, they never went away, by the way, but that's the fun part. Is that I feel like we are very much carrying on Alice's legacy of making things right here at on the property and bringing it into the house and

Ellen :

recognizing local artisans. That's really important. So we're excited to share more as we go, as we move forward, but exciting stuff, but the renovation has impacted the garden plan.

Trevor:

It has it has with right now. What we're doing is we are cooking on a two burner induction, plug in stove top and a toaster oven. Toaster oven, yes, microwave and a tea kettle. Yeah. So that's kind of the extent of

Ellen :

it's warmer out, so the grill is in, the grill is back on again

Trevor:

which I'm super happy about. And that's becoming

Ellen :

for people who like to cook and eat, it is a little challenging.

Trevor:

Yes, yes, yeah. We're always cooking, and he's always trying something, not big problems to have in the grand scheme. No, not at all. But we are working towards trying to still unique things and things we find at the market, yeah, and

Ellen :

well, this is again, where our local growers and makers have sustained us from being able to purchase NOAA now, especially things that are starting to become in season, that are growing, but also pre made meals that has been a huge help we would not have been able to get through.

Trevor:

We just had a fabulous pot pie from Genee Habansky just the other day. Herbaceous catering was so good, and

Ellen :

her frozen like butternut squash and zucchini lasagnas.

Trevor:

Oh yeah, they're amazing. We did miss out on the ramp lasagna when we were there at the farmer's market. Yes, I did. That was a disappointment. But we have been doing a lot with ramps. We don't grow them ourselves. No, unfortunately, you

Ellen :

know there's, yes, we had, don't have any on the property, which seems quite strange. 11 acres, we don't have ramps. I know. No, but if you are not familiar with ramps, we've talked about on podcasts before, they're just an early spring Allium. It's a leafy green. Don't confuse them with Lily of the Valley, because that's toxic. They have a Red Base. Lily of the Valley ramps, red stem, delicious. And we, we found them at the opening day of the farmers market, yep. And we've been putting them in everything. And because we have limited options, it's a chop and ad situation. It's chopping sun today. But you know, this is where keep it simple. It's delicious. Yeah, ramp and eggs,

Trevor:

ramp and rice, ramp and asparagus and eggs. It's just like

Ellen :

you made this delicious grilled shrimp with lime and cilantro with a ramp rice for Mother's Day was beyond yummy. It was very tasty. We had salad that, you know, with delicious greens from Sport Hill Farm. Thank you to our local farms, but our but our garden plan this year is going to be the focus is really on flowers. We're going to plan for flower forward, early garden, yes, which is great. So we're still going to be growing the things that we love, which are tomatoes and zucchini, and we're going to do some we

Trevor:

got eggplant again, Chinese eggplant, yep, acorn lettuces, peppers,

Ellen :

lettuces, spinach staples, but one of our main areas, and it was so fun when I was talking to Christina about what we were going to do this year and how we were going to design it. She's like, I think you need a place to sit and take a deep breath because of the construction and life. Life is crazy. And so these, we have this sort of four beds coming together in a flower. We collaborated on this area that is just going to be beautiful. So it'll be our cosmos again, the stone Brooks seed mix. And seeliosa, I'm always learning how to pronounce things, which are these beautiful sort of plumy flowers, along with some lemon basil is going to be mixed in there. And then I'm trying things like sweet Williams and snapdragons. And we're going to grow we're going to plant some more purple asters, because that's a native that's beautiful. And fall, and I'm looking forward to it. So it'll be flowers are the focus on enjoying flower bathing, love that forest bathing, and then flower bathing, but also being able to cut. So these are things that I'll be able to use to cut and make bouquets. Again, my little stress reliever of sitting at the potting bench and putting something together. So that'll be great. And then hopefully,

Trevor:

yeah, and then we'll focus more on the late harvest. Yeah, vegetables and and

Ellen :

next year we're going to have a Gordon. Ah, I really want that. You want that big time. Yeah, the space for it, yeah,

Trevor:

just one more item on the list.

Ellen :

So I guess the season of growing has begun at Stone Brook.

Trevor:

Yes, it has.

Ellen :

And the podcast season has begun.

Trevor:

Well done. You know, I sit across from you often in pretty much all walks, all parts of our life. Yes, yes. Dinner Table, breakfast table, podcast table, office table, garden table, lot of tables, lot of tables. And I did not see that coming. I really didn't, isn't it nice that you're just you're a mystery coming up on our 12th anniversary. That's right, 12 years together as a miracle, surprise. You still are a mystery to me.

Ellen :

But we're very excited about season two. We have a lot of exciting guests coming on that you will be finding out about, and of course, the amazing stories from our garden and our lands and our hopefully our new table,

Trevor:

and you'll see it all season two. Season two, it's gonna be just so much fun

Ellen :

delivering a little different episode content too.

Trevor:

Oh, we're messing around with the format a little bit. We'd love your feedback. Yeah, we're just change some stuff up, do some do some field work and get out there into the world. Yeah, well beyond our little plots

Ellen :

slices of life in the yard,

Trevor:

it's gonna be so much fun and

Ellen :

well, it's really awesome to be back. And thanks everybody for listening and being back with us for season two of yard to table. I

Trevor:

can't wait to dig in! Dig? digging? it's a pun, dad joke too. There's a pun, there's puns. It's all puns.

Ellen :

Thanks for being with us and having a seat at our table.

Trevor:

Yard to Table is a production of Macrocosm Entertainment. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts and for tips and more information, follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse

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Ellen Scherer Crafts

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Trevor Crafts

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