The thing about a burger is that they can be a simple and quick dinner or they can be dressed up into a fancy gourmet meal. We’ve all heard of the burgers of folklore, costing in the four digit realm. One, the “Golden Boy,” created by a chef in the Neverlands, is $6,000 and uses high-dollar ingredients like caviar and Waygu beef and even a gold leaf bun! While you can spare the gold leaf for your family, you can still earn a gold star by sourcing locally and getting creative. Head to your local farm market, farm stand or sustainable butcher shop with the challenge to build the best burger The ..read more

Summer is a time for you to get sweaty, but your food to get saucy. Chances are, you have a whole refrigerator door of condiments. A mustard too spicy, another too sweet. A mayonnaise that you love to mix in with a tangy barbecue. An intriguing sauce that you bought but never really found the right thing to use it with. Instead of shopping for a miracle sauce, take some time to customize a special condiment or sauce just for your own taste buds. Learning a few staples will have you pouring a pinch of this and a spoon of that to top on all your favorite dishes, with homemade flavors. You will ..read more

Shayne Darling-Meyer is creating, on Mason Dixon Outfarm in Bridgeville, “a magic space” where visitors “can escape the world for a few minutes and enjoy what they are surrounded by, not what’s in their hand.” (Photos courtesy Mason Dixon Outfarm) Shayne Darling-Meyer has always been free-spirited and wild, so it’s not surprising that she is passionate about wildflowers and native plants. She is also described as “creative, compassionate and kind-hearted” — so much so that she can’t stand to see a flower trampled, which is why she limits visitors to her meadows and flower gardens to small, i ..read more

Bees not only use nectar to make honey. They collect pollen for their babies and in so doing, spread it from flower to flower. (Photo courtesy Michele Walfred) Many of us consider insects as something to be feared, an annoyance to be swatted or a germ-carrier to be stomped on. Maybe it’s time to reconsider. Many children are afraid of bees, most of which can’t or won’t sting unless threatened. I have a healthy respect for the European hornet, especially the individual giant wasp that I tried to flush away with a garden hose. It followed the stream of water, then the hose, to my hand and stun ..read more

Sweet, sweet summertime is here! It is my favorite non-holiday time of the year for so many reasons — a slower change of pace, longer days, vacations and an abundance of fun activities to do throughout the season. In recent years, I have found it to be busier than ever — in other words, the exact opposite of a recharge and refresh. Too much pressure to plan the perfect vacation, too many events to try to schedule, all combined with the pressures of maintaining your home during the hot season can combine to make it less than magical. Sound familiar? This summer, take charge of the season and us ..read more

Be sure to put a good puddle under Hydrangeas to keep them blooming and looking good. July marks middle of the summer gardening season. Expect the hottest temperatures and humidity of the season this month. Having said that, here are a few gardening tips to help plants through this tough time of the year. Be sure to check trees and shrubs weekly for sucking and chewing insects and inspect for fungal diseases as well. Remember most insects are active in the evening or early morning hours before the heat of the day, usually before 10 a.m. Spray your plants in the early mornings, if possible, t ..read more

The soft lavender blue color of the Agastache Blue Fortune’s fragrant flowers is a complement to the silvery green fragrant leaves that are attached to the square stem opposite from each other. (Photo by Ginny Rosenkranz) Agastache Blue Fortune is also called Hummingbird Mint because when Blue Fortune blooms, the brightly colored hummingbirds visit the fragrant nectar rich flowers. The tiny tubular flowers line up and around of the top of the 3 to 5 inches of the flower spikes, looking almost like a tiny bottle brush. The soft lavender blue color of the fragrant flowers is a complement to th ..read more

(Editor’s note: DeeDee Wood is the owner of Black Cat Curiosities, an online antiques research and sales venue.) You might be walking down the beach this summer and stop to consider a shell that has just washed up from out of the surf at your feet. Shell collecting and display is part of the “antiques world,” as antique shells can be found in the world markets, and some people put them in what was once termed a cabinet of curiosity. From ancient times to Victorian Europe, collectors have always been fascinated by these objects that spawn from the sea, with geographical histories, rarity of spe ..read more

..read more

..read more