This is the movie *I* want to see this sumer.

Opening in NYC, LA, and SF June 12th. I won't be there... can you go see it for me?

In support of Raw Milk

It was an interesting day today... it started with the funeral of a friend's 23 day old infant. Very, very sad... (Previously posted about that)

...and then moved to my normal bi-monthly milk delivery down in SC. As soon as I pulled up and parked I got a tap at the car window with a guy holding a digital video camera pointed at me asking for an interview. Um, ok. Good ting I wasn't frumpy dirty last second out the door Mommy today! I was still pretty dressed up from the morning.

Turns out his name is Max Kline and he is riding across the country in the next 40 days in support of Raw Milk, stopping at deliveries like ours, farms, and other supporter's homes. Very interesting seeing as food myths are of personal interest to me.

I wish him well on his journey and can't wait to see his finished product. I hope he can help make an impact on our crazy backwards culture.

In other milk related musings... it was last month that I noticed, for the first time since I was about 13, I drink milk without thinking about it twice. Seeing as it resulted in such pain for so long - even sometimes with Lactaid - I was naturally hesitant to just up and drink a glass even though with raw I can. Well, I am happy to say... I can now chug it with the best and not think twice. The pain is a pretty distant memory! Bring on the gluten free cookies and a big tall glass of the creamy goodness. :)

Flounder Blues

Ok, I know some of you are here for the kids and some of you are here for the knitting. Today... you get neither! Tough tahooties, get over it. You get of Pickles & Blues instead. Market rambles.
So- remember when John and I had date night last week? We headed over to the Tailgate Market Fundraiser. Bill, the Pickle Guy, also has a jazz band and they played for us. We thoroughly enjoyed Bill's band and the songs... so much so that John bought the CD. It's been in our car ever since.
This morning I worked the market for Summer, since she could not man her Felicitea booth. Well, I set up right beside Bill and ate pickles all morning. Yum. REAL pickles, cultured, fermented and no vinegar. Yep... yummy. I even came home with a jar of pickled green tomatoes. Seriously, good.
Anyway, over the course of the morning I told him how much we like the Flounder Blues... and he let me know there was a music video for it. It's not huge and fancy, but it is fun. I like the imagery I get in my head a bit better, so listen to it once without peeking... but the video is cute, and I just have to share. Of course, if you don't like the idea of going fishing or gigging... well, then you might not like the video.
I wonder if we can find some flounder for dinner now...

AAACCCKKKK!!!!

I am SO BEHIND!

Halloween costumes to make... Dory wants to be a Monarch Butterfly and Jack is going to be BamBam Rubbles.
Food to pick up... UNFI was delivered Saturday when I was at SAFF, and it's still taking up room at Lisa's house.
One last second design to enter and write up... Chiodna, a cabled cowl demanded last second attention.
Jack's 2nd birthday is tomorrow... *nothing* is done. Nothing.
Bills to pay... Um, yeah.
Blog entries to catch up on... EEK! I'll never remember it all. At least I have pics of some of it to remember what all happened this month. And the Tweets might help fill in a few gaps.

Okay, a to do list makes me feel a *little* better. (But not much)

The weather has turned cold for the moment, and I didn't prepare in time so the kids are not ready for it. Nothing from last year fits now, of course.

Can I go back to bed?

Flooded Market.

I'm so sad. I need chocolate and found out that the market flooded and the tent collapsed right after dropping John back at work so we could have the car.... you think I could drive around and collect from each of them individually? I did ask the lady with my greens if I could come by. lol Now, only if Bill and his chocolate were close enough. *sigh* I can't wish the rain to go away, we need it... but I need my chocolate too...

Anyway- Summer made a video of the Saturday market a while back. It's a tiny bit different from the Tuesday one, but you really get the gist of it!

Contest!

The Tailgate Market owner, Lynn, came up with a contest/school type project for the regular kids. This past week she had them plant salad seeds in dirt in a rather nice take out dinner container. We forgot to water them when we got home, but remembered the next morning. By Wednesday evening, less than 24 hours, they had sprouted. The next morning there was twice as many and several were over 1/4" tall! By lunch they were about 1/2". This morning, 3 days later, they are everywhere and many are way over an inch!!! These are some fast sprouting seeds. I was expecting several days. Nope. They were just itching to grow! I so wish I had taken pictures now, I could have made a little time lapse video out of them. Oh well.

Bottom line is this was perfect timing for Dory. She is very excited about them and that is something I don't know I could have gotten her excited about on my own. She is *determined* to win the contest for "greenest leaves". Im not sure what the actual contest is for or it's length, but she's excited none the less!

Fresh Salad

I so wish that I had managed to take a picture before we had dinner. John proclaimed it was the best salad he had ever had. It was topped with ground mild sausage from Grateful Growers and parmesan cheese, but the vast majority of it was something unexpected. Flowers, lots of flowers... nasturtium, chive, rose, and dianthus, along with their leaves, a small amount of sweet mixed baby salad leaves, sugar snap peas, fresh red beets, baby turnips, garlic chives, non-local broccoli tops and 2 small tomatoes, and some sweet clover from our yard.
It was so good that there was absolutely NO need for any type of dressing at all. And while I thought I was making enough for John to take to work tomorrow... we ate it all.
Small City Farms *just* started to sell this year, but they have helped transform our dinner table. I almost hate to blog it for fear that they will be found out and we will loose our little food supply! We buy them out of peas every time we see them, it feels like. I get to the market super early in hopes that I'll get to them first. They have been selling their salad greens mixed and washed already, with flower petals mixed in. So often the wonderful fresh veggies I get at the market sit around and end up with the worms. SCF has jump started me to really utilize what I am getting rather than thinking, "oh, this looks good!" and then later not knowing what to do with it.
(Pictured as sold!)
It has me thinking outside of the box and is propelling me forward to move beyond the standard American salad vegetables and adding all sorts of local fresh seasonal foods to our table. All I can really say is YUM. We are all loving this new diet. This is week 2 of a mainly seasonal table, and it's a good thing. I sure hope we can keep it up. It feels good in more than one way!
On a side note, we finally got our Earth Box set up and have added carrots and lettuce to it. I hope it grows for us, I think we might be *way* to late in the season already... but we will give it a go. I so wish we had more than the one. In the small bed, my kale has bolted and I need to figure out soon which herbs I have still, but John has his garden in place and growing strong. We have 4 tomato plants, 2 of them are Purple Cherokee. I bought one from Dean Mullis of Laughing Owl Farm thinking John had not planted one of those, but he had. We should be sick of them by the end of the year at his rate! We also have lima beans, various peppers, puff ball sunflowers, dragon's tongue bush beans, red kidney beans, watermelon, and marigolds. :) Yea summer!

A good egg

We love our eggs, as you already know since I post pics a few weeks ago of the green ones... but I was trying to make myself some cookie dough when this little egg made a resistance. It refused to crack! I know Dionne feeds her ladies really well, but geez! I was able to take a massive area of shell off without damaging the membrane beyond the initial crack. (The little spot of gleam.) It is an issue that is leading to more shell in my cookie... but I don't think I shall complain one bit. These are certainly GOOD eggs.

(Yes, that is the compost ready to head out to John's worm farm.)

Stacks (and an egside)

Look at me, Mommy!!! Look what I found!


LOL Dory heard the camera and just had to be a part of the action...

_____________________________________


Lastly, green eggs. See Grandma? I told you some were green! Yum. Yes, they are the same as any other egg, just a different breed. Thank you to our great farmers.

Signs

Clear as a bell Jack joined the world of sign language with the sign for 'More!' tonight in reference to apples. I can't wait to see him do more signs. There was no mistaking this sign from him! He has done several others, like bye-bye, but they are small and poorly timed usually, this one was perfect!

Eggs

Jack-e likes them.

Thanksgiving Pie

So, what do you do with a tiny bit of turkey, carrots, celery, some left over bread and a ton of mashed potatoes? You make the Thanksgiving version of Shepherd's/Cottage Pie. John and I picked the turkey clean, added shallots, carrots, celery, rosemary, sage and thyme... toasted some bread cubes and giblets then layered it all in a pan with gravy over the top. Sealed with the purple mashed potatoes and piped on white mashed potatoes and covered in shredded cheddar cheese we do believe we have lit upon the perfect after Thanksgiving meal.



I know it doesn't LOOK like much, but neither does Cottage pie... but it's super comfort food, and the side of cranberry chutney was perfect.
Let me just say... we have a winner. This will become a yearly dish now.

Thanksgiving Day

On the menu:
the wonderful Turkey that John cooks outside on his Dad's grill
NC Blue Potatoes, mashed
Carrots Vichy
Supersweet Corn done simple with butter
Cranberry Chutney
Gluten Free 'Stuffing' cooked in the oven
Lentil Artichoke Soup
Fresh, homemade Butter

For desert:
Gluten Free Bread...  since John forgot to bake it and let it rise for an hour too long.
Apple 'Crisp' with Vanilla Ice Cream



Jack just ate an apple slice, he was very pleased.



This is what John had to say for himself about forgetting the bread.

Andy didn't make it, we missed you... John and Patty seemed to have a great time and my family held off until tomorrow. We get to have Thanksgiving twice this year; because, of course, we are doubly thankful.

Turkey Adventures

We all headed up to the mountains today to pick up our Thanksgiving Turkey, a Blue Slate (heritage breed) pastured hen. We had a wonderful time. Dory had a blast. She saw rabbits, guinea hens, pigs, pigmy goats, turkeys, different chicken breeds and a 30 year old horse. She called the Mrs Farmer and Mr. Farmer and they seemed to get a kick out of that since they only just barely see themselves that way. They are more than just growing for their family, but not big enough to be full time... they have not found their niche yet. I hope they do, we spent nearly one and a half hours with them and really enjoyed it. I know they have a heart for what they are doing and it would be wonderful to see them flourish. Thank you Linda and Joe!