Once Around the Sun

This collection of weekly essays was written between March 2020 and March 2021 with garden observations, growing guides, recipes and encouragement from a seasoned home gardener. Bliss White McIntosh gardens in upstate New York on the Vermont border near a small town on land that she has known since birth (USDA zone 5a). Full of gardening tips, these essays also convey the mood of gardening during an unusual year when many people turned to the outdoors for relief from the lock down, and to local vegetables for food security.

Every devoted gardener knows that the year doesn't begin with planting and end with harvest. Each week of the year holds some special quality as we plan, dream, read, cook, notice changes in the angle of light and day length and hope that this year will be our best one yet. These essays document those changes throughout a 12-month period from the first cold, wet days of March 2020 through planting, dealing with weeds, bugs, worms and diseases, with joyful successes, delicious wild harvests, discouraging failures and, ultimately, a bounty of food and flowers. The book takes us full circle through butchering day, a giant snow storm, emerald ash borers, gardening book reviews and back around to the coming of spring, with seasonal recipes from chef Helen McIntosh peppered throughout. The White McIntosh family carries on a 4 generation interest in horticulture, natural systems and food.

Bliss White McIntosh is an artisan basket weaver, teacher, musician and active member of the local gardening and arts community in Cambridge, New York. She has been growing on her family land for 45 years in USDA zone 5a.