These heirloom apples are not much to look at, but one bite and everyone I know becomes a huge fan. I had to go to New York City to find a farm in the Hudson Valley with russet apple trees. My favorite way to enjoy these apples is to pick them myself. This farm has [...]

I’ve been writing a lot of what Anne LaMott calls “crappy first drafts.” This writer’s challenge gives me some comfort. I would like to feel that what I am writing will become publishable. Maybe I’m too hard on myself. I’m in a dark mood. I struggle with the physical aspects of rage. Why am I [...]

Sunday’s COMA walk was an opportunity to learn new edible mushrooms. This is a blewit (Clitocybe nuda), considered as choice as a morel. When Lisa, one of our experienced mycologists spotted them, she told us to look for others. I listened, separating the long grass growing pondside, to find these two. Lisa’s eyes rewarded her [...]

Nothing intrigues a child more than a simple machine. After cleaning all the black walnuts we’d harvested a month earlier, I was back to share my walnut cracker with Bird Lady and her grandchildren.

I like this time of year. I want to feel good about the beauty around me. But I cannot ignore the impact of the extreme drought conditions on my favorite trails.

Hands-on quality time spent with a friend and her grandchildren, turns walnut cracking into a game.

COMA member George Johanson is one of several members who also forages. He turned up at our last COMA walk with chestnuts. He would not say where he got the chestnuts, only that they were a gift. He was willing to share butternuts with me – I took them. I had to beg for the [...]

I love wild apples. These were probably planted and then left to go wild. They are crisp, tart and taste like autumn to me.

When it gets hot and humid, I try to take sunrise hikes. Right now, sunrise is closer to 7:00 AM. I typically end my sunrise hikes by 7:00 AM in the summer. I got close enough to these birds to be sure they are not turkey vultures. Black vultures have white legs and white marks [...]

Despite a lack of rain, some trees manage to produce beautiful colors.