2+ mon, 6+ day ago  (725+ words) I was coming back from Boston on Friday, and made a stop at Trader Joe's in Acton, and you'd think the snow was already falling from the surging crowds loading up on pre-made meals. I picked up some fruit juice…...

4+ mon, 5+ hour ago  (717+ words) Pumpkins are the largest fruits on earth " and we want them bigger, Bigger, BIGGER! In the US, Wisconsin takes the cake (or cheese) for most heartfelt dedication to growing giant pumpkins. Their organization, "Wisconsin Giant Pumpkin Growers" celebrated their 41st anniversary…...

4+ mon, 4+ week ago  (468+ words) We New Englanders think we invented apples, but these beloved fruits are a long way from their place of origin: the forests of what is now modern-day Kazakhstan. More than 8,000 years ago (or 400 generations from the original Neolithic hunter/gatherers)…...

5+ mon, 2+ week ago  (643+ words) My mother, Janet Cragin loved teaching four and five-year-olds at Applewild School in Fitchburg. She adored the "back-to-school" season, and made sure her tiny charges noticed the little apples growing on the trees that ringed the spacious front yard. This…...

5+ mon, 3+ week ago  (827+ words) As luck of the calendar would have it, today's Family Recipe Box coincides with International Day of the Octopus and my birthday. And since I neither eat nor cook any cephalopods, birthday cake is on my mind " or a few…...

7+ mon, 4+ week ago  (507+ words) May be we are not such fools as we look. But though we be, we are well content, so long as we may be two fools together." " R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone (1869) An action-packed drama, Lorna Doone is a swashbuckling tale of…...