Open View Gardens

Most foodies would be thrilled by the prospect of doing their weekly shopping, even in winter, at an outdoor Italian market. Two years ago when Barbara came to visit me in Bologna in December, I remember taking her to the Mercato delle Erbe, a huge indoor market selling just about anything you could want in […]

When I first dreamed up Open View Gardens, I wanted to help expand our sense of what we grow and eat locally, and to encourage community building by exploring our culinary diversity. As our mission reads: “Growing food grounds us in the relationships between earth and nourishment; preparing food brings us into relationship with our […]

Barbara’s Note: This week we bring you our dear friends — Kate Gridley and her son Charles Barstow are incredible cooks, artists, thinkers and stewards of this earth.  Kate, a painter of fabulous portraits, still lifes and landscapes, is also my fellow conspirator and columnist at The Addison Independent and my co-blogger at Eating Well.  […]

I started Open View Gardens to help open our notion of what we can grow and therefore eat locally.  I want to explore as much of the world as possible through garden and kitchen.  As are others in the North country, I am experimenting with foods we don’t normally associate with this region, and foods […]

Yesterday my daughter returned from her year studying food and culture at the University of Bologna, a year filled with adventures, not the least of which were about food.  Her experiences reminded me of why I majored in art history–it was the only truly interdisciplinary major in those days at my school.  Now there are […]

BG’s Note:  What a thrill it is to have daughters who share my passion for cooking and culture. How fabulous it is that one of them lives in New York and calls me whenever she happens upon a food shop she’s sure I will love and must visit next time I’m in the city.  How […]