imagining sustainability

"If we cannot envision the world we would like to live in, we cannot work towards its creation. If we cannot place ourselves in it in our imagination, we will not believe it is possible."
~ Chellis Glendinnin





Flowing through my head these days is the idea of change, possibly spurned on by the summer winding down; watching my cucumber plants begin to die off and my pumpkins swell with each passing day. So much can be learned of change just by watching Mother Nature make her graceful dance of it.


In all this thinking about change and the seasonality of crops I was reawakened to the blessedness of living at a place like the Farm where so much of our food comes from US!! Sharing some of this with a friend the other day spurned my introduction to The Berkshire Food Journal. 


Check it out and if you live in the area think about supporting one of these great vendors, and if you don't, maybe think about how you can support local in your neck of the woods! 

applesauce, an experiment

Avalon (our house) smells like fall tonight; it even seems like a fall day outside right now: 62 degrees Farenheit, windy and rainy. Why, you ask, does it smell like fall in our house? Well, with the breeze and the rain it felt perfect for a fire, then add to that the smell of boiling apples and voila! you have the scent of fall.

Why, you ask, am I boiling apples? Well, the apple trees (pictured right) outside our back door (which produce a MacIntosh-ish looking apple) and another tree at the edge of the road (which produce a yellow apple) are what Bob, the Farm's nature/woods/weather expert, calls early apples. Apple that are considered early apples are, as the term suggests, earlier to bloom than most other varieties, whose fruit comes into season meaning they come in to season in thef fall. The apples on said early fruiting trees has just been dropping into our yard for a little over a week and while I love running over the apples with the lawn mower--opening up the fruit as an offering to the bees and wasps--and throwing them when I am frustrated, I realized that I didn't want all that fruit to go to waste. "This is the day that I make my first batch of applesauce!" I told myself earlier today.

Anything worth having is worth working for so it just felt right to go out in the rain this afternoon and pick the apples off the ground; pick the ripe apples straight from the tree; pick everything except for the rotten ones.  This is how I made the applesauce:

• Cut apples into chunks (toss in everthing, saves time) and toss into pots (leave room in pots so you are able to stir)
• Add a little apple juice or water so bottom of pots don't scorch
• Keep pots over medium/high heat, covered
• Stir frequently
• When apple chunks are soft, put in a food mill and grind until the cows come home...or until all you have left in your food mill is the junk (this includes seeds, cores, stems)
• Season with a little cinnamon if you like that particular taste, sugar if the apples weren't sweet enough for your sensibilities (I made about a gallon of applesauce and added a few tablespoons of cinnamon and about a quarter cup of sugar to it since my apples were a little tart--just to give you an idea)

I had first thought that I would can my applesauce to enjoy at a later date, but I think I am going to donate my applesauce to the Farm kitchen to see if people like it. Ah, that's right, guinea-pigging the community to test my recipes. Wish me luck!

a change from the sights here

Many friends have shared this very cool NYTimes article about Berkshire County, MA, where I live. Also, mentioned in the article is an acquaintance, Susan Sellew of Rawson Brook Farm. If you like goat cheese, try her chevre, it's amazing!

Watching The Breakfast Club at the Mahaiwe was great this evening; nothing beats seeing a movie in a majestic old theater! Well, maybe sitting by the ocean beats that; change of pace tomorrow when I head southeast to the Hammonasset Beach and State Park at the Connecticut seashore. I am looking forward to napping like a cat in the sun and reading near the sound of waves; summer feelings and sounds. The ocean led me once again to Uncle Walt.

"The world below the brine"
"The world below the brine
Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves, Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the
thick tangle openings, and pink turf, Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the play of light
through the water, Dumb swimmers there among the rocks, coral, gluten, grass, rushes, and the
aliment of the swimmers, Sluggish existences grazing there suspended, or slowly crawling close to the
bottom, The sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and spray, or disporting with his
flukes, The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leopard, and the sting-ray, Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes, sight in those ocean-depths, breathing that
thick-breathing air, as so many do, The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like
us who walk this sphere,

The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres."
~ Walt Whitman

a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal

Tonight at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, MA, there will be a showing of John Hughes' The Breakfast Club. If you have never seen it--come! If you saw it when you were a kid and remember the way it made you feel understood--come! If you are an adult and feel like somehow John Hughes made this movie which spoke to you as a kid and yet still knows how to speak to something in you as an adult--COME!

tomatoes, a love story

Thought to be poisonous at one point. The fruit of the Americas (native of South America). An Italians dream since the 1500s. A North American joy since the late 1700s. Referred to by the French as, "love apples." I give you the tomato.

Tomatoes are something, like asparagus and watermelon, that mean summer to me. All year long I look forward to that first bite into the fleshy fruits; the seed seeping chomp into a cherry tomato; the very smell of tomatoes in the garden--the smell of the green tomato vine spines supporting fat, reaching orbs.

We just started getting crates upon crates of tomatoes in the Kitchen and it looks like the garden team grew some similar varieties as me: green zebras and Cherokee purples. They have other varieties of big beefsteaky looking tomatoes and perfect, perfect, PERFECT cherry tomatoes.

Our favorite way to use the tomatoes these days is simple enough: slices of Farm tomatoes, interspersed with slices of Farm mozzarella, sprinkled with fresh Farm basil, salt (sea salt is nice), pepper and a little olive oil (occasionally balsalmic vinegar too). Do you see a pattern?--Farm produce! So good! Heaven in a bite!

Beside being really excited about the tomatoes I am really digging on our Farm mozzarella too! My friend Farmer MacDonald started making mozzarella some months back and it is so good!

Pictures of our lovely produce to follow.

Info here.

progress of a garden

A while back I promised I would post some more photos of the garden TSO and I have been working on around our home. Here is what the Avalon gardens have come to look like this summer.

1. View of the sunflowers and the railing where the morning glories and moon flowers are growing.

2. Ditto #1. In this picture you can also see our lovely seedum plant and some of the lily or iris (can't remember which?) stalks.

3. Our first GORGEOUS red sunflower. Can't remember what variety this is?

4. Glorious sunflowers.

5. A v iew through the railing, purple morning glories.

6. A close-up of the trumpeting morning glories.

7. The garden along the side of the house. Here we planted strawberries, triteleias (which never took), gladiolus and some other plants which I can't remember. There are also peonies and irises here.

Recently Neighbors P and R gave me a huge mass of red day lillies for transplanting; was able to separate the lillies and spread them out around our garden beds and now I am just waiting impatiently, hoping that the lillies take this year and flower next summer. Lillies are my favorite.

laughing through the awkwardness

My best friend L thought of me when she saw this picture. Thankfully she only thought of me because the ridiculously large whatever the hell that is made her think of  the ridiculously huge cucumbers I've been finding in my garden lately. Some of my cucumbers are getting hidden by the ever increasing pumpkin vines, which are now growing and twining all around every cucumber plants, wrapping around everything like damn boa constrictors!

L sent me this picture with the hopes that I too would take an awkward photo with my freak cucumbers and my cat. I may just humor her yet. For those of you out in the wide world, who also love awkward and funny photos, check out these absolute gems! The above picture and more available through this Los Angeles Times article.

bat tales

There was a bat INSIDE MY HOUSE tonight!

It's funny how one minute you are relaxing in your empty home, contemplating life and enjoying the soothing night sounds of nature; next minute it sounds like a giant moth is falling down the damn chimney! That's literally what went through my head, "hmm, a moth in the fireplace."  Next thing I know this bat is flying around our living room frantically.

So, I did what any other sane person would do: I tried to be rational for about ten seconds until it settled in, "HOLY CRAP!! THER'S A BAT IN THE HOUSE!" I shreiked; threw pillows; wondered about rabies; covered my head with a blanket; then,when I thought the coast was clear, ran for the phone.

It followed me down the hall; I played possum--thowing myself down onto the ground and using my blanket as cover. After grabbing the phone I hid in the bathroom and was able to get ahold of B2, TSO being unreachable...where are my housemates when I need them!!?

While in the bathroom (hiding) I began to hear a horrible shreiking noise followed by thumping. "BRAVO!" I thought as I raced out of the bathroom, only to discover our little moth-catcher sitting in the living room, playing with the bat, who, like myself earlier, was playing dead.

Somehow the bat eventually got himself onto our screened in porch, at which point I felt brave enough (figuring he was hurt enough to not fly at me) to try and scoop him up with the coal shovel and throw him outside. Nope. Power of flight still intact. Fortunately B2 showed up around this time and saved the day.

Thank you B2! Now that my adrenaline levels have gone down I think it's time for bed...and time to close the fireplace flue, which I just realized, is still open!

laying in the Elysian Field

Went down to pick more cucumbers tonight; to check on the progress of my tomato and pepper plants; to feel the mounds coming up under the speckled beet leaves; to pull weeds. After all these lovely chores I dropped onto the cut grass, smelling the fresh clippings which now hung to my clothes and to the dampness of my skin. I lay down feeling weightless against the Earth, as though in its constant spin my tiredness was pulled down and away from me. I spent minutes...quarter of an hour...half an hour...who knows?!...just laying there, hands behind my head and toes pointed skyward. I stared at the clouds, white chalk smudges against a perfect baby blue sky; noted the cooler air; listened to dueling nature: a cricket on my left side, a bird on my right. I honestly wanted nothing more than to lay in that field and sleep. To feel nothing. To expect nothing more than to wake up under a star filled sky perhaps.

But, sadly, I forced myself up. Moved on to my other plot and stooped, squatted, hunched over cucumbers. Examined, planned, measured, guestimated; gathered another 30 cucumbers. My cucumbers continue, yes, but now I turn my thoughts to October after seeing my pumpkins growing rapidly. Look out, Great Pumpkin, you've got competition!

Pics to follow.

Thrillers...not the Michael Jackson one either

I forgot to post this and thought it was cool. For you lovers of thriller novels:
NPR's Top 100 Killer Thriller list!

just call me Trouble

This is a video for "Trouble," by Ray Lamontagne, one of my favorite singers. He has a new CD coming out: Ray Lamontagne and the Pariah Dogs, "God willing and the creek won't rise." Here is the NPR link for a free listen to all the songs on that album.

caught in the act

Received my bi-monthly(?) on-line American Library Assoc. newsletter, and as always read some fun and or interesting articles, including this one. I love the ALA READ poster series! Who, dear readers, was your favorite READ poster celeb?

Here is a list of every celebrity who has posed for a READ (or LISTEN) poster so far (available at the above link):
1985 Bette Midler Bill Cosby Mikhail Baryshnikov Sting 1986 George Burns Goldie Hawn 1987 David Bowie Diahann Carrol Paul Newman 1988 Michael J. Fox Oprah Phil Collins Ruben Blades 1989 Isiah Thomas Steve Martin William Hurt 1990 Bo Jackson Glenn Close Kirk Cameron 1991 Denzel Washington Harrison Ford REM 1992 Alec Baldwin Jimmy Smits Michael Chang Michael Keaton Whoopi Goldberg 1993 Graham Greene Jackie Joyner-Kersee Kristi Yamaguchi Roseanne Arnold Sean Connery 1994 Edward James Olmos Elvis Marlee Matlin Michael Bolton Spike Lee 1995 Branford Marsalis Geena Davis Little Women Matt Dillon Shaquille O'Neill 1996Antonio Banderas Barbara Walters Courtney Cox Danny Glover Dr. Quinn Cast Lawrence Bros. Mel Gibson Michelle Pfeiffer Morgan Freeman Tim Allen	1997 Bill Gates Bill Nye Brandy (Norwood) Cindy Crawford Fabio Hercules Jay Leno LL Cool J Nicolas Cage Oprah Power Rangers Rob Schneider Rosie O'Donnell Xena (Lucy Lawless) 1998 Emeril Lagasse Grant Hill Kim Basinger Muammad Ali Olsen Twins 1999 Ani DiFranco Melissa Etheridge Michelle Kwan Monica Rebecca Lobo 2000 Christina Ricci Enrique Iglesias Regis Philbin Stephen Hawking Tara Dakides 2001 Britney Spears Chamique Holdsclaw Coolio Dr. Ruth Elijah Wood/Lord of the Rings Ian McKellen/Lord of the Rings Kristine Lilly Liv Tyler/Lord of the Rings Marion Jones Mike Mussina Susan Sarandon Tim Robbins Weird Al Yo-Yo Ma 2002Firefighter Indigo Girls LeVar Burton Salma Hayek Serena Williams Tony Hawk 2003 Bernie Mac Jason Kidd Julia Stiles Landon Donovan Matt Kenseth Missy Elliott 2004Jeff Corwin Orlando Bloom Renée Fleming Rick Bayless Trace Adkins	2005 Aishwarya Rai Anthony Hopkins Colin Farrell Ethan Hawke George Lopez Ice Cube Jamie Kennedy Johnny Damon Keira Knightly Margaret Cho Mat Hoffman 2006 Alan Rickman Ben Roethlisberger Cedric the Entertainer Dakota Fanning Danica Patrick John Leguizamo Kelly Ripa New York Rangers Sasha Cohen 2007 Cesar Millan Corbin Bleu Ewan McGregor Hilary Swank Los Lonely Boys Sendhil Ramamurthy William H. Macy 2008 Abigail Breslin Common Eva Mendes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Rachael Ray Steve Carell/Get Smart The Wayans Tim Gunn Tony Hawk Twilight (Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart) 2009 Hugh Laurie America Ferrera Jeffrey Dean Morgan Yao Ming Cole Hamels Rachel McAdams Jonas Brothers Ne-yo Brenda Song New Moon (Taylor Lautner) 2010Rachel Maddow Seth Meyers Taraji P Henson Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan Eclipse (Dakota Fanning) Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr & Jude Law) Nathan Fillion

a milestone in gardening

Today marked a serious milestone in my life as a gardener. With the help of M (3.5 year old daughter of friends N & M) I picked over 20 pounds of cucumbers from my plants, taking me to a grand total of just over 300 cucumbers to date. M and S (M's 1.5 year old sister) both were pleased with the product, chomping on one of my cukes; M Sr. couldn't believe how big some of the cucumbers had gotten; RugbyGirl nearly groaned since our cupboards are already so full of quarts upon quarts of pickles (30 quarts to be exact).

I am out of quarts jars, been meaning to buy more, but until then (this weekend, perhaps?) I am donating my cucumbers to the Farm kitchen. There is nothing as lovely as knowing that we are eating the fruits of my labors. Yum!

Daniel and Kooper left us this morning, back to hiking the Appalachian Trail after a brief respite here at the Farm. Good luck guys and thank you Daniel for becoming a follower!

hiking for a cause

Roommate RugbyGirl's cousin Abby is sick with Mitochondrial Disease, and her friend Daniel and his dog Kooper are hiking the Appalachian Trail to raise funds and awareness. Please check out his webpage and all the links and donate if you can!

Daniel and Kooper are actually staying with us tonight--RugbyGirl having picked them up at the AT crossing nearest our house earlier--and we've fed him, let him shower, played with his dog Kooper, and EvanAlmighty even took him to a Farm sauna.

According to the U.S. National Park Service,

"The Appalachian Trail is a 2,175-mile long public footpath. Conceived in 1921 and completed in 1937, private citizens built the trail and thousands like you each year volunteer to maintain its footprint. From Maine’s Mount Katahdin and Georgia’s Springer Mountain, this footpath traverses scenic, wooded, pastoral, wild and culturally resonant lands through 14 of the eastern United States."

The history of the creation of the Appalachian Trial is an interesting one, so read up! Or for a fun story of hiking the trail, try A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. 

Another good AT site.

Photo found here.

is...

playing around with my blog layout, template, colors, you name it. Now, be honest, what do you think?

I heart farmers markets

This week is Farmers' Market Week here in Berkshire County! If you are in the area, click here, for a map of the markets closest to you; for more info on Berkshire County, check out Berkshire Grown.

How To Be Alone

Living in community sometimes makes me forget that I used to do everything alone. I liked this a lot. :)