Yeast, Fungi and Curing Diseases??

I make bread all the time and have a fascination and respect for yeast. I am not sure if I knew before reading this article but yeast is fungi– something else I have fascination and respect for–thinking about how yeast could potentially cure degenerative diseases... Olivia Judson, who I am a big fan of recently wrote an article about all of this called "Bubbles, Bread and Beer"...I really enjoyed reading it.

May Wedding– Dressing at The Tabard Inn and Wedding at The Darlington House

Just got some more photos today from a recent wedding...there have been a bunch ...tis the season.

I particularly loved this bouquet, much of it came from my own downtown garden...the popcorn hydrangea, mint, peonies and blueberries. My daughter was not thrilled that I cut from the blueberry plant for a bouquet before the berries had a chance to ripen! I will be sure to get her plenty from the farmers market this weekend.

Kate Headley's gorgeous photographs are below. You can find additional photographs from this wedding on her blog here. Kate shoots lots of her photographs with film, a rarity these days, at this wedding she used two of her favorite cameras the Twinlens Rolleiflex and the Contax 645--both use medium format film.

Deep in the Wedding Season, May Newseum

I have not been blogging much the last several weeks...from spring through mid-summer all my worlds collide with flowers, gardens and food in full swing.

A glimpse of what I have been up to can be gleaned through the fabulous photos below taken by Jay Premack (to see more of his photos from the wedding click here).

I really enjoyed this one. The bride was a joy to get to know, great team for the wedding–immaculate planning by Aimee Dominick and the dramatic setting of the Newseum...

There were so many fun touches including the terrarium wishing table, grass for place cards, eclectic vases with bountiful spring flowers...
More glimpses of weddings and musings about food to follow soon!

Impruneta Terracotta

I have planted several container gardens this season. One was a large outdoor kitchen and fireplace area that was begging for the warmth of plantings. I collaborated with the family who lives there and we decided to use a variety of containers made of heavy glazed pottery, copper and terracotta. They wanted all the pots to be maintenance free and durable with year round plantings. We talked about different varieties of terracotta– the inexpensive terracotta readily available vs. Impruneta terracotta.

Impruneta terracotta comes from the Tuscan village of Impruneta which is unique because the clay from there has a high concentration of minerals including iron, calcium and aluminum. The result is that the pots are much stronger than other terracotta pots and can be very large since the weight of the clay does not compromise the structure of the pot. These pots are able to withstand negative 20 degree Fahrenheit temperatures without damage. All of the pots are made by hand and are available in a great variety of sizes and shapes as well as custom sizes. One of the many things I love about these pots is that since they are hand made each is a bit different. I have used Impruneta terracotta for projects before but this time I got them from a different company, Tuscan Imports. They were efficient and a pleasure to work with and their pots are priced less expensively than others. The beauty and scale of the many pieces that I got were impressive.