All posts by Sonja Hakala

I have been a professional writer since 1987. I've written for newspapers, magazines, worked in the book publishing industry, and published novels and non-fiction books. In addition, I've guided numerous authors through the process of independent publishing, and offer workshops in that same vein. I'm the founder of the Parkinson's Comfort Project and over the course of six years, we gathered and gave away over 500 handmade quilts to people with Parkinson's disease.
Carding Chronicles

On the Way to Work

My studio and house are separated by 60 steps or so on a path that is surrounded by gardens on both sides.
Ripening cherry tomatoes
Last year was the first time I grew veggies in a small plot close to the door of my studio.

There’s a trellis of cherry tomatoes right on the path. We grow cherries because we have such good luck with them. And when we harvest them all in a few weeks, we’ll wash them, drain them and then pop them in plastic bags for the freezer.

That’s it, no other processing, no making sauce when the temps are high.

Then as the cold times roll through here, I’ll pull out handfuls of the green and red fruits. (Yep, we harvest them all and the green ones are as great as the red.)

They are a terrific addition to soups, chili, spaghetti sauce.

But for now, it seems that some of them just go from hand to mouth, hand to mouth.

Sure makes my commute a treat.