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Stories from the Garden and Home

Reflections on gardening, seasonal living, hospitality, recipes, and the simple joys of slowing down and gathering around the table.

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🌱 Garden · Seasonal
The Garden Bed Cocktail Starter Guide
May 28, 2026  ·  6 min read
You don't need a large garden to grow a great bar. Five plants, a few pots, and a sunny spot is all it takes to have fresh ingredients within arm's reach all summer. Here's exactly what to plant right now and why each one earns its place.
Read the guide →
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🌸 Seasonal · Garden
How to Make Elderflower Syrup Before the Season Ends
Elderflower blooms for about three weeks in late spring. Miss it and you wait another year. Here's how to spot it, harvest it, and turn it into one of the most elegant syrups your bar will ever have.
May 28, 2026  ·  5 min read
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🥃 Cocktails · Seasonal
5 Cocktails You Can Make with What's Growing Right Now
Late May means strawberries, mint, basil, lavender, and elderflower are all either peaking or right around the corner. Here are five drinks built entirely around what's in season this week.
May 28, 2026  ·  4 min read
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📋 Technique
Why Fresh Juice Changes Everything (And How to Make It Worth It)
Bottled lemon and lime juice is one of the most common shortcuts home bartenders take — and one of the most costly in terms of drink quality. Here's what fresh juice actually does differently, and how to make it a habit.
May 28, 2026  ·  5 min read
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🌱 Garden
Growing Mint Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Garden Bed)
The most useful and most invasive herb in the bar garden. Everything you need to know to grow it right.
Coming Soon
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🥃 Cocktails
The Summer Bourbon Smash: Peaches, Thyme, and Honey
When peach season hits in July, this is the only drink you'll want to make. A complete guide to the recipe and the ingredients.
Coming Soon
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📋 Technique
Ice Is an Ingredient: Why the Size and Shape of Your Ice Matters
Big cube vs. crushed vs. cracked — each one does something different to your drink. Here's how to think about ice the way bartenders do.
Coming Soon
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🌸 Seasonal
Tomato Water Bloody Mary: Why You Need to Make This in August
There's a three-week window every August when heirloom tomatoes are perfect for tomato water. Don't miss it.
Coming Soon

From the Seasonal Harvest

This Summer: Plums from the Garden

Not a blog post — a full cluster of guides, recipes, and techniques built around one ingredient, one season. The plums are ripe. Here's what to do with them.

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🌱 Garden Guide
The Complete Plum Guide
Variety selection, planting, pruning, thinning, harvest timing, and the full season calendar. Everything before the first pick.
Pillar Guide  ·  Garden to Glass
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🌱 Harvest & Preserve
How to Harvest & Preserve Fresh Plums
When to pick, how to handle a large harvest, and the best ways to preserve — jam, syrup, freezing, and infused spirits. Includes canning safety guidance.
Technique Guide  ·  Preservation
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🌸 Preserves
Homemade Plum Jam — From the Tree to the Jar
A full water-bath canning guide built around homegrown plums — with flavor variations, the plate test, altitude adjustments, and batch notes.
Canning Guide  ·  Makes 5–6 pints
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🥃 Cocktail
Plum Bourbon Sour — Garden to Glass
Stone fruit, oak, lemon. Built around plum syrup from the same trees — the drink that closes the garden-to-glass loop. Includes spirit guide and four variations.
Recipe  ·  Late Summer  ·  Bourbon
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🌸 Bar Pantry
Plum Simple Syrup — The Cocktail Ingredient of Late Summer
Pull a pound of plums before the jam sugar goes in. Twenty-five minutes and you have a jewel-toned syrup that keeps 3 weeks in the fridge — or 6 months frozen in cubes.
Recipe  ·  25 min  ·  Freezer-friendly
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🌿 Mocktail · Alcohol-Free
Sparkling Plum Mocktail — Garden to Glass
Plum syrup, fresh lemon, sparkling water, and garden mint. Everything the harvest has to offer with no spirit required — and all ages can enjoy it.
Recipe  ·  Alcohol-Free  ·  All Ages

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    Drink responsibly. Every mocktail on this site is just as good as the cocktail version. Enjoy the garden. Enjoy the bar. Be safe, be kind, and look after each other.