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Articles Written by: MICHAEL TORTORELLO
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No-Fault Fixer-Upper
The kitchen of the farmhouse, which was bought out of foreclosure, got a makeover with Ikea cabinets. More Photos » UNDER certain circumstances, the smell of a whole roast turkey could help sell a house. Even Preston Wright, a vegetarian, would grant ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 30 Sep 2009
The Starter Garden: My Corn or Theirs?
Follow Michael Tortorello on the Times Topics blog as he starts his first vegetable garden at his home in Minneapolis. SCORE 1 FOR STORE When it came to tomatoes, the panel sided almost unanimously with the market, whose juicy versions, far left, ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 9 Sep 2009
Related Topics: Whole Foods Market, Inc., Cornell University
Times Topics: Is Gardening Worth It, Financially?
The most astonishing thing about the 1,090-pound pumpkin that Dean Christopherson entered in the 2009 Minnesota State Fair competition may be that it only took second place. The blue ribbon went to Bill Foss, of Buffalo, whose 1,186-pound pumpkin would ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 2 Sep 2009
Related Topics: New York Times Company
Times Topics: Answers to the History Quiz
One piece of unfinished business. Earlier this summer I posted the first — and surely the last — Starter Garden history quiz. I had a mind to mail a packet of scarlet runner beans to the first correct entry. And then I waited for a winner, and then ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 26 Aug 2009
Related Topics: Ulysses S. Grant, Dalai Lama
Times Topics: Share Your Insight, Green Thumbs
iStockphoto A cucumber on the vine. The tomatoes are blighted and losing their leaves. The blue Jarrahdale pumpkins are almost done flowering. And the pickling cucumbers are spreading as if they have a mind to creep in the nursery window and make off ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 19 Aug 2009
Related Topics: New York Times Company, Dalai Lama
Times Topics: What to Plant as Summer Fades
iStockphoto Seeds that are good to sow this time of year include cabbage, which ripens more sweetly in the cool fall. How many days remain in summer? For a person of a certain temperament — my temperament — the season begins to wane on June 21. Every ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 12 Aug 2009
Related Topics: Jackie Smith, New York Times Company
Times Topics: Vegetables on Vacation
My vegetable garden may be growing on me, but it’s still not family. That’s another way of saying that when my clan—nine strong—takes a two-week beach vacation to Rhode Island, the starter garden will be stuck at home. I don’t mind if my plants sulk, ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 5 Aug 2009
Related Topics: David Cronenberg
The Starter Garden: The Never-Fail Bounty
THE onerous task of cultivating a bumper crop of summer raspberries, I have found, involves a strenuous amount of sitting on my duff and not gardening, which it turns out is one of my natural talents. The natural talent of the raspberry plant, ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 29 Jul 2009
Related Topics: Sigourney Weaver, Facebook Inc., Jeff Nelson
Times Topics: The Toxic Salad
Thinning plants is a job for the callous. The row of carrot greens in my vegetable garden, for example, was looking as crowded as the Hummel cabinet at auntie’s house. The carrots were not to blame for their predicament. Having failed extravagantly in ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 13 Jul 2009
Related Topics: New York Times Company
Times Topics: How to Water Well? It Takes Some Strategy
Everyone knows how to use a hose: You turn the spigot and the water comes out. Watering a vegetable garden, I figured, couldn’t be much harder. There is the tricky matter of attaching the hose to a bold new technology called a “sprinkler.” I may be an ...
From MICHAEL TORTORELLO, The New York Times, 8 Jul 2009
Related Topics: New York Times Company
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