About Poppy
Former life: Ice cream scooper, Montessori teacher, student of psychology, weaver, spinner & natural dyer, clothing designer, entrepreneur, color consultant.
Inspiration: All forms of natural beauty, anything handmade, the way light changes, wild places, magazines with lots of photos, colors and their combinations.
Pleasures: Time with friends and family, cocktails on Friday night, snorkeling in the tropics, danceable music, gardening all day, yoga class, sitting by the woodstove.
Obsessions: Eating organic local food, being healthy, shopping at the farmers market, national politics, preserving our environment, making plans, being creative.
Struggles: Writing the way I see, worrying, being too impatient, reading and following directions, getting enough exercise.
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Try a Little Bitterness
Radicchio, endive, frisee and escarole are members of the chicory clan and all have the reputation of being bitter, sometimes not in a good way. Until fairly recently, I avoided these bitter greens not out of dislike, but out of lack of familiarity. As with any relationship, balance is the best way to go. Instead [...]
Not My Mother’s Meatloaf
With Mother’s Day right around the corner you might think this is a story about how I still make my mother’s favorite meatloaf recipe. You know the one I’m talking about — with family-guarded special ingredients, handwritten on an index card. It should be the recipe that every time I make it, I think of [...]
Fraiche and Foresty
When I was in college in NC, I managed to talk an old farmer into renting me his family home on forty acres for $50 a month. He had since moved up in the world and retired to a mobile home. The farmhouse was rustic beyond my parent’s belief with no indoor plumbing, no insulation, [...]
Stir-Fry a la Jamie Oliver
I’m not sure how many of you have been watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution but I’ve been finding it both fun and inspiring. Sure, it’s a reality TV show but in this case, it’s all about replacing the sugar, fat & salt-laden processed food served in most public school lunchrooms with fresh, nutritious, homemade food. [...]
What’s Not to Love About Rhubarb
I know I’m not the only one who’s ignored rhubarb plants inherited from a previous landowner. Still, there’s no excuse for my neglect over ten years before finally figuring out what a goldmine I have growing right in my own backyard. I’m not talking about one little ratty plant but a stand of 6 or [...]
Tame Some Nettles: Make Pesto
Last weekend on Orcas Island, just as I was settling in by the wood stove after a long hike for what I thought was cocktail hour, my brother suggested we all go out to gather some nettles for dinner. Couldn’t pass that up so it was back on with my boots, grabbed my camera and [...]
One Potato, Seed Potato
Watching my seedlings pop out of the ground in the garden never ceases to amaze me. I’ve become quite the over-anxious parent checking on them more frequently than my email these days. Potatoes require a bit more patience but once the flowers on the mother plant begin to appear, tender new potatoes are easy to [...]
Spring’s Honey Do Cocktail
Spring is officially here and the activity level is really amping up around our garden. The bees aren’t the only ones who are in a semi-crazed state jumping from one corner of the garden to another in hopes of making a dent in a continually updated list of priorities. Not that I’m making a list [...]
A Breakfast Ritual Worth Repeating
Many families have a ritual around at least one special meal a week. For us it’s our Saturday morning trip to the farmers market followed by breakfast at home, made with everything farm-fresh. It’s the same every week. We wake up, roll out of bed, get dressed and set off to the market. We usually [...]
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