I am a gardener and veteran garden guide at Monticello. I was inspired by my grandfather Harry, who was a first generation Italian American. My grandfather always maintained a wonderful garden. I have fond memories as a young boy climbing high up in his apple tree and dropping apples to him below. I remember the […]
This year I grew cucumbers in my backyard garden. I put in three slicing cucumber plants and three pickling cucumbers. I found that it can be easy to miss seeing the lighter-colored pickling cukes sometimes so a few of them got quite fat! Picking was my solution for the abundant crop (including the fat ones). […]
Brooklyn, New York, 1948. My immigrant father, Francesco Pietanza, a merchant steward and cook from Mola di Bari, Italy arrived at Ellis Island on the S.S. Coronado in search of his younger brother. Despite the racketeering longshore waterfront and the underlying discrimination that peppered the streets of his chance destination of South Brooklyn, he was […]
In the 1960s I learned everything I needed to know about gardening and cooking from one of the original organic gardeners and foodies: my grandmother. After World War II she noticed that it was hard to get good produce anymore; the peddlers who used to sell door-to-door didn’t come around any more. So she bought […]
My father Nicola, emigrated to the United States in December 1965. He came to live with his brothers and sisters who had already established themselves in Flushing, New York. In September of 1967 he traveled back to his hometown of Mola di Bari, Italy, where he met my mother Rosa. They married in Mola di […]
Woodend Sanctuary is a 40 acre property in Chevy Chase, Maryland, bequeathed to and now headquarters of the Audubon Naturalist Society of the Mid-Atlantic States. The mission of the Audubon Naturalist Society is to inspire residents of the greater Washington, DC, region to appreciate, understand, and protect their natural environment through outdoor experiences, education, and […]
I am Dolores Isom Olds. I was born in 1929 and grew up in Hurricane, Utah. My parents were Eugenia Walker McAllister and Thomas Irving Isom. My Dad was a farmer and mainly grew fruit trees. He and his three brothers each had an orchard. Uncle Leslie and Uncle Bernard grew apples and pears. Uncle […]
My 96-Year-old Dad has a Green Thumb in West Virginia My father and I are enjoying the season and have put in a raised bed garden in his yard. This is the first year, but he is enjoying all phases . . . soil prep, planting, cultivation, and harvesting. When I was a kid we […]