Old Haunts

This past weekend we had the chance to visit some old places and old friends. We had such a nice time.

The CSA farm we were part of last year was one of our happiest stops, although it was too short. The kids had a great time splashing in the creek, feeding and petting the goats and playing with the farm dog Ruby.

We also had the chance to visit our old farmer's market, where we loaded up on some of our favorite things....yummy maple syrup, organic PB, honey and veg from our farm. Oh and i almost forgot the wine....delish!

I love this picture...she is literally off the ground. She was having such fun running and skipping down the farm road.

We rounded things out with a visit to our old neighbors and lunch at our favorite local coffee shop where the barista knows you by name even when you have been gone for 9 months.

Here it is...

This is what i have been working on, my Farm Field Quilt. Inspired by this picture of a field at the CSA farm that we belong to. As soon as i saw this picture i knew it had to be a quilt. Chris convinced me to take my sewing machine and table out of temporary retirement so that i could work on it because i could not stop talking about it. I raided my fabric closet/stash to see what i had that i could use. I grabbed a pile of browns and tans, greens and a special blue green for the broccoli field. I did not want to have to buy any new fabric for it. I was really excited and got it cut and pieced within days of taking this picture.
Now I am at the critical point, where i try to decide how to quilt it and if i can do it myself without ruining it. This is also the point that tends to stall my quilting progress...analysis paralysis. I made a little one, doll sized, similar to it. That one i am probably going to hand quilt just to have some handwork to do. I have to admit that i really love it. This is, hands down, one of my favorite quilts that i have worked on. I laid out on my dining room floor for a few days and i just got excited about it every time i went by.

Mish Mosh

Here you go Colleen, Robert Frost's grave. I love the inscription on his gravestone....Mary, did you doubt that there were more cemetery pictures than just that one? For anyone else reading this that might think this is a little weird let me give you a little background. I was raised on cemeteries, so to speak. We always thought that they were cool. My dad was and is totally into geneology so we had several road trips just to go see family plots at varied and assorted cemeteries around NY. He studied the plots he was interested in and Colleen and I would roam around looking at all the cool, different headstones...reading all the clever sayings and dates. They seemed much more original back in the way back about what they said. We played games and jumped stones...Dad just let us have fun.

So i always thought they were fun, peaceful, beautiful places not scary or creepy...well, except for that one time that i was reading a headstone and started sinking into the dirt where i was standing. That kind of freaked me out. Anyway...now when we are traveling near(VT) or far(Scotland!) i like to walk through and see "who" is there. Although this is the first time i have gone with kids. Avery wanted to know what a cemetery was, i told her that is where they put dead people....she was not so sure she wanted to go. Mitch wanted to know why they put you in the ground when you are dead...Chris tried to explain that it was just your body and your spirit went to heaven but Mitch was confused and wanted to know why it was just your body. What did they do with your head? LOL....that took a little while to work out.

Mary, i thought i would try this barn in B&W to see how it was, and you were right. I love it. I played around with some of the effects on picasa and saved the color on the tree because it was so pretty.

Saturday Outing

It was another fun filled day at the farm. We love it there. Today there was a tour of the local farms with activities at each farm. We only went to ours....but as always we were not disappointed. There was face painting, see Avery's flower, and potato stamping....and another hay bale ride with Farmer Brian....and more.

I can not help it, every time i am there i want to close my eyes and soak up every single moment. With the trees changing and the weather cooling down it is even more beautiful there than it usually is. Idyllic comes to mind.

These are some of my favorite places there...the creek where we caught crawdads and chased the little fish and spent a bit of time wading in the water on hot afternoons. This is one of their old barns...i don't think it is used anymore but it is charming and beautiful in its own dilapidated way.

Party Down at the Farm

We were able to participate in the yearly party/potluck out on our CSA farm. We have been looking forward to it for awhile and it did not let us down. We had a really great time.

There was food, hay bale rides on the tractor, music and dancing...and lots of great company. I think the contra dance was my favorite. Mitchie was my dance partner, and Avery was Chris'. They both did a great job following the caller and doing all the moves. We did not get any pictures because we were so busy dancin'!!

We ended up taking two hay rides. We thought about not going on the second one but then i figured why not? We are not going to get a chance to do this again. Thank goodness we did! Farmer Brian took all the kids to the potato field and let them dig up their own potatoes to take home. They loved it!! Ruby the farm dog was the highlight of the hay ride. The kids loved it. Avery is even writing about Ruby and her adventures on the farm. Seems we were both inspired by the farm.

It was a perfect day, with perfect weather, great company(i love my little family) and a great party. While digging in the dirt and riding a tractor may not sound like a rolicking good time to some...we are a simple family with simple pleasures and this was a really fun time. I was soaking up every moment, wishing it could go on for longer.

Beauty on the Farm

As we rode through the farm yesterday on the back of a tractor i quick snapped a few pictures as we were moving by, not knowing really what i was going to capture. I was pleased to find that the pictures revealed something to me...the farm is like a patchwork.

Maybe i have quilting on the brain, but there it appeared in beautiful shades of green...all perfectly lined up in rows. Oh sewing machine, where are you when i need you!?

pretty don't you think? It was a special treat to go around and see everything on the farm. We love it there!

"Eda-mommy"

i love the look that says, what on earth are these? We got edamame in our farm box this week and this was a true first for us. The kids were great little helpers and pulled the fuzzy little bean pods off the stalks with me. I wasted no time, took the directions of the farm, and boiled them in salted and soyed water for about 10 minutes. Once they cooled down a little we snacked on them all night. I think i enjoyed them the most. The kids and Chris thought that they were ok. I was compulsively snacking on them into the next day until i found the beetle...it was in the bag i had stored them in in the fridge overnight. Was this some kind of apocolypse beetle that can survive a full 10 minutes in boiling water? I did not want to know...i got all grossed out and threw the rest away. Sorry farm. The eda-mommy was good while it lasted.

This Weeks Box

i got a vegetable i have never used before in this weeks CSA box...tomatillo. What was i going to do with this? Fortunately the wonderful people at the farm took pity and explained what one was and had several recipe ideas for how to use it. I am sure that cooking with tomatillo and jalapeno is a familiar thing to people who live in other parts of the country, but i live in and grew up in the north east and these are not very common here. But i had them so i was certainly going ot do something so i made this recipe for a salsa verde. I am pretty pleased...it turned out so great. I did leave out the avocado, since it was already that fantastic by the time i got to the part of the recipe where i should have added it. Even my Avery is eating it...and it had a little kick to it. We are having it with chips and this afternoon for lunch with a quesadilla. I also had a chance to really use my new food processor to make it....what a lovely addition to the kitchen it is. It made it so fast and easy. How was i living without it before?

We also got lots of other yummy things this week...cantaloupe(almost totally devoured on its own), lettuce(salad), tomato(salad), onion(salsa verde), beets(to be roasted with carrots), corn(grilled), fairytale eggplants(also grilled)...i think that was all...and some really huge, and pretty sunflowers.

Zucchini Madness

I love this book, Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is full of great ideas, information, tips and recipes. In this season of zucchini and having an abundance of them from the farm i remembered that there was a recipe in the book for Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies. I knew this one was meant for me to try. They are so delicious and moist. The recipe is on the books website here. I am surprised that there are any left, the kids love them despite containing veggies.

We also went to get this weeks box out at the farm yesterday and it was as usual full of veggies that were familiar and some not so familiar. This week we got salad, cucumbers(slicing and eating), more squash than i have any idea what to do with(squash fritters, bread maybe), potatoes(boiled with butter parsley, garlic and basil), green beans(i like them raw), the prettiest onions ever, basil and the sweetest, cutest baby fairytale eggplants. These i have not ideas for, i am stumped! Any ideas for what to do with eggplant without breading and frying it?

Yummy Market Dinner

I am always shocked by how pretty swiss chard is. The colors...pinks and oranges and red...i just love them. Last night that swiss chard was on the menu. It was one of the items in this weeks CSA box.

The chard leaves were boiled and then pat dry...I added pasta to the same water. While the pasta was cooking i sauteed the chard leaves(chopped), garlic and leeks in olive oil. The swiss chard stalks went into the pasta water, and when it was done it all got drained together. In the meantime i toasted some italian breadcrumbs in olive oil to toss with the pasta when it was done along with some fresh parmesan.

As a side dish i made the fennel salad featured in this weeks CSA newsletter. I really enjoy fennel, and the licorice flavor that it has. Everyone ate it but i think i was the only one that enjoyed it. The kids and Chris did really love the pasta. I am really pleased with the way everyone has been willing to at least try the new things we are getting each week.

Dare Taken

My mom double dog dared me to make the beet ice cream when she saw me mention it. So, Mom, i took the dare. I did it! Now, i will continue by saying it was purely experimental. I did not know what else to do with my beets and I was pretty sure that it was not going to be kid ice cream.

What were the positives...well, obviously the color. The color was just ridiculous. These pictures can not even come close to doing it justice.I will be honest and say that to me the flavor is not the greatest...but that is because i am not a big beet fan. I have never quite gotten over the canned beets that my mom tried to feed us. BUT, for those of you that think beets taste like little gems this is for you! When you first taste it it was lemony(you add lemon juice at the end) and sweet, then you tasted the beet flavor and then the super creaminess of the creme fraiche came through. Wow..was that "foody" speak or what?!?

However in our house this picture speaks volumes. Mitchie was so there...ready to give it a try. I am proud of him for that. He tasted and then said no thanks because he said "it did not taste very well" . I asked him to please take another bite for the blog and this is what he did.

So there were no beets in this weeks box... there was zucchini(destined for the grill), cucumbers(with hummus and just for a snack), sugar snap peas(gone), fennel(maybe roasted or in salad), scallions, lettuce, swiss chard(perhaps with pasta) and turnips(mashed or au gratin?)

*** I am pleased to say that today i had some real taste testers...adults...and they seemed to enjoy it! They also are all fans of beets. A major requirement to eating beet ice cream. Thanks for being so nice Justine, Rebeca and all the other girls at the market***