Solas na Cruinne

“Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.”
~ Wendell Berry, American author and poet

There is just something to be said for acquiring locally what you could have bought from thousands of miles away. And, when it comes to berries, it’s even better that you get to go and grab it off of the bush yourself.

We went out on a sunny day, what seems a rare occurrence in New England this year, and paid a visit to a local farm called Meadowbrook Orchards. They have such a beautiful orchard there, it looks like a field of olives in Tuscany or something. They also have a little restaurant, ponds and, of course, berry picking!

So, armed with a carrying box and some quart tubs, we set about harvesting the vines and bushes.

Serge ate his way through some sparsely populated raspberry vines while I dodged the mating beetles that were ensconced within.

Next we moved on to the heavily laden blueberry bushes, in all stages of ripeness. Being my favorite berries, I must have eaten as many as I harvested. But that is the best part about picking your own, there is no surcharge for what you nibble in the process. :-)

We discovered that if you kneel down and look up into the bush, you find the sweetest and ripest of the berries. They’re often hidden under big drooping leaves on the uppermost and lowest branches. Delicious!

All-in-all we got 1 quart of raspberries and 4 quarts of blueberries. Two of the blueberry quarts headed into the freezer for sorbet, one for fresh munching and one may head into some pancakes or muffins.

The farm had a plethora of other fruits, we saw blackberries that will be coming ripe soon and some nectarines, peaches and acres of apples.

We had a sweet and joyous time, and were even startled half-to-death by an electronic bird squabbler that plays a recording for frightening off our hungry feathered friends. Ha, ha!

After all of our hard work we relaxed with old-fashioned sodas in the farm restaurant, creatively decorated with old farm and wood-working tools and with a cozy sofa near an old Victorian wood stove, which thankfully was not fired up in July. ;-)

I think it’s safe to say that we will be heading back to Meadowbrook for some pie apples in the autumn!

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
~ Dale Carnegie, American writer and lecturer

This is our first year of gardening and we are finally getting in our first plants for the season. :-)

Thanks to Serge’s great research we are planting our organic garden by the moon (check it out here and here.) And, thanks to both of our physical labor, the first beds were tilled and filled and planted today.

Serge had a blast coating his potato starts in natural sulfur and placing them in the 2×2′ potato boxes. Box #1 in named Grawp and has big Kennebec potatoes in it. Box #2 is named Hagrid and has Yukon Golds in it. We’ll see how they turn out.

I am also very interested in companion planting so we are mixing carrots, onion and lettuce in the 8×4′ bed which is named Joy. Yes, we know it’s weird to name our beds instead of numbering them but, so what!

Not all of the beds are built yet but the root veggies which needed to go in during the 3rd quarter of the moon, are in their beds sleeping tight tonight.

We will plant some more onions and carrots out of their proper moon phase to see the difference in how they turn out.

Garlic will have to go in late for this one first year of gardening because our local farmers co-op was out of them already. We also had to drive halfway-across the state to another farmers supply to find potato starts. I guess we needed to buy them by the end of April according to the helpful lady at the second farm supply. (Lesson learned.)

Tomorrow we have a little helper in the form of our roommate, so hopefully more strides will be made in building, tilling and filling beds as well as towards tearing down that huge pile of loam/peat/compost mix in the back yard! Yippee!

“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
~ Federico Fellini, Italian Film Director

We are greatly enjoying all of the skills we’ve been practicing and (sometimes) mastering.

Today we tried yet another new act of creation using our (worth every penny!) Green Star Juicer. We’ve already made fantabulous fresh juices and amazingly simple seed crackers…now on to pasta!

First the recipe:

3 cups whole wheat or all-purpose flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
2 tbs olive oil
5 medium eggs
1 tbs sea salt
water as needed
optional: carrot juice for color or fresh garlic and basil for added taste

Instructions:

1. Simply mix all ingredients in a bowl, knead by hand and add extra flour or water as needed to get a smooth, damp dough that it doesn’t stick to anything…with pasta, it is always best to err on the side of drier rather than wetter dough.

2. Wrap in cling film or Ziploc bag for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

3. Process through a juicer, pasta maker or roller.

4. Boil and enjoy!

We had a blast mixing it all up nice and sticky and also squeezing it through our, pre-oiled, juicer with pasta screen attachment.

The eating went well, but remember that fresh pasta cooks FAST. Two to three minutes maximum, honest!

Delicious, if we do say so ourselves. ;-)