Scooter Boy

My ds does not love to have his picture taken. He usually acts like Sean Penn around the paparazzi when we pull out a camera. As I mentioned in a previous post we don't even think to take pictures very often, and so therefore rely on our Thich Nhat Hahn approach most of the time. So if you look at pictures of ds on this blog, I don't think you will see him smiling. Until now.

When we were in NYC in June we spent a lot of time in park where ds managed to borrow another toddler's scooter. I thought such things, like adult tricycles, only existed in big cities. Then a friend told me you could just get one in Target. So we got it on Sunday and he LOVES it. We got it on the street and he said with glee, "Mommy, take a picture of me!" And here it is.

Celebrating our Local Harvest

Last night we celebrated our amazing local harvest with wonderful friends, food, and music. All of the produce was procured from local farmers, and some of it came right from my very own garden. One friend even brought along another, more surprising, locally produced item. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Sir D and Lady K hold the plates of Crostini - one with Roasted Eggplant and Pinenut Puree and the other with Ricotta paired with the Apple and Peach Chutney I canned last weekend.



Lady D displayed the Caprese. The tomatoes and basil for this dish were the most local of all ingredients - right from my garden. Sir D said the tomatoes were the best he ever tasted, and that compliment earned him a bag of them when he left at the party's end.



Along with the Crostini the evening got rolling with a game of croquet.



We all dug into bowls of Shell Beans and Summer Vegetables (Onions, Garlic, Carrots, Fingerling Potatoes, Green Beans, Tomatoes, Bell Peppers and Summer Squash) topped with Basil Puree. Even the jug of beer on the table came from a local brewery.





G tried to get a head start on dessert, Fresh Peach Pie with Cream Cheese Crust and Whipped Cream.



But I managed to show it off first, with some mild protest from G.



Then the music got started. Sir D called this Singing for Your Supper.




The little ones were especially entranced.




Then Sir D presented the most curious and delightful of local products: A Spam guitar.




G loved it and was delighted when he got a chance to play it.



MFK Fisher wrote "There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk." When the bread is local, I think the communion is even happier. I am so very grateful for my community - the friends, food, music, and laughter - that sustains us all.

Adventures in Canning 2

We did it! Overflowing baskets of produce met with 5 women and 5 hours and became 100+ jars of local bounty: tomato puree, 3 different tomato sauces, pickled cucumbers, okra, beets, and onions. Every one of the jars seemed to seal correctly, so in 2 weeks we'll pop 'em open and have a tasting party. I expect great things, but even if they don't meet my expectations, I'm already satisfied; we spent a wonderful day combing the local markets for the best produce, had delightful exchanges with septuagenarian farmers, and shared the hot, steamy, vinegary work with stories and laughter. It just doesn't get much better than this for end-of-summer pleasures. Here are the pictures:

Adventures in Canning

A long time since my last post. We travelled to the beach in early August, celebrated dh's father's 75th birthday mid-August, and immensely enjoyed every day, especially those last lazy ones by the pool. So, it's the end of summer and the growing season is winding down and the abudance is amazing. I've planned my Local Food Harvest party for next week and some of my friends and I are definitely on for a day of canning this Saturday. I'm excited and a *tiny* bit nervous about canning. I'm afraid my enthusiasm for the subject may be betraying absolute ignorance. Here is an exerpt from an email I sent my friend who will be one of those joining me:

I feel I need to make it *very* clear that I have *never* canned before and have no canning materials. I *just* realized this may be a problem. I previously assumed you follow a recipe, put the jars in a big pot of boiling water, and voila. Just a minute ago I looked on-line at the AVM recipes I plan to use and discovered a line I had previously not seen - "place jars in canner". Oops. I don't even know what a canner is. I googled canning and came up with similar. I think my method could work, and when I talked to a neighbor (who is a fan of she who eats, btw! but more about that later!) about canning, my impression was she uses a big pot, too. So our canning adventure goes with a *big* disclaimer. Eat at your own risk. Because of it I plan to make the spaghetti sauce from AVM and store it in bags in the freezer. I'll also try to can the sauce recipe and the dill pickle recipe of aforementioned neighbor. So, when you ask, what do we need, I really have no idea and the thought of that makes me a *little* nervous. I think it will be a fun day with great women, a good learning experience, and possibly an amusing blog entry. What I hope it isn't: a future intimate relationship with clostridium botulinum. So, at this moment I plan to go to the farmers' market at UNC-A (where my CSA farm Full Sun will be) and stock up on tomatoes. A farmer at the FBFC tailgate market, who has had the best looking cucumbers for pickling, told me to call her tomorrow because she doesn't know if she will have any Saturday. Alas, cucumbers are now at the end of their season. (Note to self: time to pickle cucumbers is late July/early August.)

Be sure to stay tuned for the next installment and, hopefully, pictures of the adventure...

California Dreaming 2

One of our East Coast friends just happened to be in this part of the world at the same time, having traveled cross-country on his motorcycle to make it to the MotoGP World Championships. Ds is totally enamored of motorcycles and went into paroxysms of joy when our friend allowed him to sit on his motorcycle, whereupon he threw himself over the engine to grip the handlebars, stretching as far as his legs could go, trying valiantly to kick the thing into gear. Our friend promises that as soon as his feet can reach, he will help him ride. There is no doubt ds is going to keep him to his word.



It was hard to leave, but I was, of course, anxious to be back home and see how my garden had grown. And sure enough, big, juicy ripe, red tomatoes were hanging on every vine. I was not even expecting the greatest surprise: 4 perfect, albeit tiny, lightly green shelled eggs! So the Arcana's have started laying! This is a full month before I expected them. It is a great pleasure to receive this gift, and now I rush outside every morning like it is Christmas. This picture was taken a few weeks later, with all of the chickens' eggs represented. Beautiful, aren't they?

California Dreaming

We had an amazing, wonderful trip to California. I'd never been and it was so lovely - every note was just perfect. We arrived and stayed 5 days with our dear friends who left our home city over two years ago to live in Santa Cruz. They have an almost 5 year old dd, and a ds who is 2 years old, the same as our ds. First of all, the climate is amazing: cool in the morning and evening, clear, sunny and warm *every* day. The scenery is breathtaking - mountains on one side and beaches on the other. That this is perhaps one of the loveliest places you could ever live is obviously no secret - we saw two bedroom, 1 bath cottages for over $700K. So a VERY nice place to visit, but we *couldn't* live there.

Our days with our friends were filled with so many sweet moments - from time just being in community, cooking and eating delicious food - and every bit of produce local! - watching the kiddos play, going to the tide pools to delight in the sea life - sea stars, hermit crabs, anemones, sea urchins - all so close up, every night long "moony moon" walks (named by their dd, because she is on a first name basis with the moon, her special friend), and one my greatest dreams fulfilled, getting to walk in an ancient redwood forest. I can't possibly describe what a pleasure it was to experience even one of these moments, but suffice to say they were all magical.

The next 5 days were spent on the opposite end of the bay, in Monterey for a family centered maternity care conference. It was a great conference with many interesting and informative lectures, and then some great day trips on the side. The most spectacular was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway to Big Sur. The rocky cliffs drop precipitously right into the most beautiful blue-green waters of the ocean. You could smell the sun warmed rosemary growing wild in the craggy outposts. It was, for me, very reminiscent of the shores of the Italian Mediterranean Sea. Dh and ds spent a few hours of every day at the spectacular Monterey Aquarium (thanks to the generous gift of guest passes from our friends), where I got to go on our last day. It was my first trip to an aquarium, but I understand that I was seeing the best. They have *everything* there. Much to ds's delight there was a whole tank of "Dory and Nemo" fish, and my favorite was a 3 story high tank with millions of gallons of water highlighting the "outer bay" sea life - sharks and sea turtles, and giant yellow fin tuna, and a bizarre creature called a sun fish, and brilliant schools of sardines, and much, much more. Ds fell asleep in my arms when we took a little break and dh and I ended up sitting on some balcony seats quietly watching this amazing other worldly place for almost an hour.

Me and DF




My G and her A, BFF



My G and her I, after a moony-moon walk



One of the most magical places, an ancient redwood forest



Preparing a meal where *everything* is local, even the wine

The Weekly Share

I really need to take my camera to the Farmer's Market next time I go. Full Sun Farm's stand is just SO gorgeous with the stacks and stacks of vegetables just picked from the ground. This is what I came home with today:

Carrots
Summer Squash 2#
Cucumbers 2#
Basil
Tomatoes 2#
Parsley
Bell Pepper
Onions 2#
Garlic

I was at a bit of a loss for what to do with all of it when I got home because we are leaving Friday for California. (Where my friend R also promises abundance from her farm share - with, gasp, fresh berries! We were hit by a hard frost in April that decimated all of our flowering plants - so very few local berries and apples for us this season.) I realized I could make a wonderful ratatouille with most of the list, and made so much that there was plenty to share with a friend who just had a baby. I plan to bring the carrots and cucumbers as an antidote to the stale confines of airports and planes that await us on Friday.

I am equally sad and excited about taking off this Friday. Sad that I will miss more of the tomatoes ripening on my vines, and the promise of fresh corn from my CSA next week, but also SO excited about my first trip to CA, and a bit of a break from my kitchen, where I have spent at least 2 hours a day preparing and storing all of our local bounty. Except for the tomatoes that I just slice, salt and eat, this is NOT fast food.


Here are pictures of some of the dishes I prepared this week. The ratatouille, gingered beets, and red cabbage cole slaw. Gorgeous, aren't they?