Potato Harvest

I was dreading a trip to our community plot this past week as we have abandoned it for 3 weeks with just a quick visit by Ben after abandoning it for the 3 weeks before that. Suprisingly it was planted well and everything just filled in it's own space and the potatoes were ready for digging.

And what a haul it was. Ben dug into the first row and potatoes seemed to cascade out of the earth. Asher was thrilled to find them in the ground and River following Asher's lead (as always these days!) he joined right in.

They also picked up their own activity. Washing the potatoes and getting them ready for market.

Over 60 lbs! Both varieties are good keepers, French Fingerlings and Corrolla.

Blackberries

Thankfully being on vacation didn't prevent us from enjoying some of this harvest. We are rolling in blackberries.

All I have to say is these canes have some major thorns. I brushed up against one, dropped my typical explitive and Asher told me to stand still so that he could pull the thorns out of my leg (yes they are big enough for a 3 year old to get them out). Regardless, they are delicious especially the ones that have swollen juice beads warm from the morning sun. Our freezer is stocked as are our bellies and fridge. Thank you summer 2010 for being so fruitful.

Dinner for 160

Keeping in true fashion of this summers hectic lives we have been living, on one of our 10 day stints home, we cooked for friends twice and did a wedding in between. This was our third round of doing this and luckily the last (cooking twice for friends with an event in between, over 9,200 miles driven in between these 10 days bits at home). As far as catering goes, we learned a lot and fed a lot of people a lot of really good food. The menu was almost entirely vegan and all vegetarian, sourced as close to home as possible as we do in all of our cooking.

Roasted/Grilled Veggie Platters.

Grilled Tofu Kebabs with basil leaves wrapped on cherry tomatoes.

Falafel and Tabbouleh

Breaking the Seal

While I hadn't quite anticipated such a blog break, in ways it has been nice and also hard to figure out where to start on the return. In the three weeks since I last posted Ben and I have catered a wedding for 160, cooked for friends twice, driven to central Pennsylvania and back, swam in a mountain stream lake for 6 days in a row, spent 2 days unable to walk due to back trouble and sweat our asses off digging 60 lbs of potatoes from our garden, along with a garlic harvest, cucumber turned into pickle harvest and consumed more blackberries than any of us has ever done in our life.

Life is full. We are happy and now I am on the mend back wise, my mother has been down to visit us and save us from our busy selves twice and yesterday and today have been our first days that we have had to do nothing except be since the first week of May, which was really too long ago for a day to just be.

I'll be back with pictures soon, though these past weeks I tried to leave my camera behind a little more and enjoy everything in front of the lens. Hope summer in it's form where you live is treating you well.

Home

We have often left gardens for vacation and this year was the most rewarding return. The plants filled in their spacing to keep weeds away, we got a ton of rain and everything is huge. And the added bonus, the raspberries that were producing when we left are still giving us ripe fruit 3 weeks later and the blackberries are just coming on.Some edible flowers: Borage is a great one, while nasturtiums can overwhelm some children's palette, these are mild and somewhat cucumbery.
We have been picking green beans every day! Such a treat, plus this was our first year that we saved our GB seed, an heirloom variety that we grew last year and is delicious.

And the beloved cucumber tunnel. As Asher is a bit taller this year, we had to adjust the height. The boys both love going inside it. The green beans are right at the end of is (as is the street, gotta love the easement garden!)

We searched and searched for female flowers, but almost all are male at this point, I think to attract a steady flow of pollinators.
And then it was found, our first cucumber of the year.
And gobbled down quick as can be. Cucumbers are one of my most favorite summer snacks.

Doing the Local Thing

Ah the dilemma of all travelers, how do you eat good food on the road? As folks that don’t eat at fast food restaurants, avoid processed foods and meat that wasn’t raised by someone we have met, but still requiring the caloric intake of busy on the go (nursing) folk, we seem to struggle a bit with on the go eating. I long sometimes to just give my kid candy to bribe him to behave in the car, small boxes of breakfast cereal on the go and other easy food, boxed mac and cheese, the conveniences of the road.

The benefits are so much more rewarding though and as we sought out local food for our family, we embraced our ethical eating and living and discovered common friends while we journeyed. A food coop in the oddest of places in our mind, down the road from Bubbie and Poppies home in New London CT provided us with local meats, cheeses and organic produce and beans for our camping trip. A young farming couple was inspiring and like minded.

And oh, some of the food, we ate high on the hog as they would say. It is awesome when the local menu serves up lobster, fish, mussels, clams, crabs and oysters. We typically abstain from seafood in here in the Midwest, and this trip only proved better reason for it, it isn't good. But wow, when the water is clear, the fish is fresh, the seafood is good.

Asher and River were thrilled with the new things on the menu.

Lobsters explored and given thanks to.
and then chomped in to.Mussels as the harbor from the fry shack.Crabs at the shore.And ice cream from as many local ice cream shops that serve the real deal as we could find.And we embraced the local culture- after being typical tourist and getting to much sun at the beach the first day. The Niantic Children's museum was perfect. I have been traveling to a lot of these lately, and don't get me wrong, I love them, i love the creative play my children and I enjoy, but from Bloomington, IL, Iowa City, IA, The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, they are all pretty much the same, cookie cutter though localized by local restaurant sponsors (in most cases, please touch was MCDONALDS, maybe another post) and other local sponsors. But this museum, they definitely have talented staff and volunteers that have great pride in their place. A fish market to play with, a boat and a place to rake clams. Not to mention the awesome tree house designed by kids, simple water elements and awesome music making.

Then there was the Carlise day, Ben was off fishing the LeTort Spring Run, we hit up the local coffee shop and found a great park to spend our time at. It made me truly realize that all the fun we need travels with us everywhere we go as a family.

And as far as coming back home, we are glad to be back. It is the place where our family belongs and while we dream of living in other places, our trip only led us back to this place. Ben summed things up well over here.

Island Beach State Park, NJ

Now a week ago, we welcomed summer appropriately with a day outside until the last ray of sun gave it's last glow and the moon took over lighting the world. Island Beach is our favorite location on the Jersey shore and it didn't disappoint.
Water really is an amazing thing, the power of the waves at the ocean really is incomparable to anything else. I didn't mess with a camera on the beach while the playing took place, but our evening walk was amazing. Asher enjoyed swimming in the real ocean (not the long island sound) for the first time, firmly gripping onto his mama, and laid on the beach to feel the waves crash on him with his papa. It was the most perfect sandy day.
The length of day was much appreciated and we tried to enjoy every bit of sunlight. The moon seemed to try and upstage the sun.
There is a reason the jersey shore is so over developed and over populated, it is such an amazing beautiful place. Just sad that a place that people love so much can be destroyed by all of their enjoyment. Island Beach State Park really is a gem of undeveloped shoreline. We saw osprey nesting and hunting in the ocean- pretty spectacular. This was my favorite day, happy kids, relaxed adults, hot sand, cold water and beach combing.

Hickory Run State Park, PA

We are home and I am still filtering through and remembering the fun of vacation. This was our first ever really long summer vacation, we typically travel in May, and the difference a month made was amazing. There is something about taking a long road trip during the summer- I don't know why but it just feels more like vacation. Hickory Run is always on our list and we missed it last year and hadn't had a chance to introduce River to his namesake. It was two years prior while camping that River first came to be and his papa, while fishing, knew that he would have a son named River.
Cool weather, no mosquitoes and this view from our campsite, oh I really love this park. Plus a playground in view for the active 3 yo.We explored the boulder field this year, a pretty remarkable geological feature.

Uncle Zak showed the boys some new jumping techniques.

Mud run's rocks were overturned, salamanders were found along with crayfish, caddis flies and others.
Brothers played.
Water was enjoyed.
Brook Trout were caught, experiences shared.
A dragonfly found, just emerging from the larval state, drying its wings, we got to watch it take its first flight, something pretty magical. You can see the shell below it.
A brook trout unlike any ever caught by Ben, so beautiful, in such a beautiful stream.