onion-less cooking

usually i'm excited to have people eat a meal that i've made - but not yesterday.  it was my turn to cook dinner last night, and for some reason i was feeling really unispired.  it was a strange feeling.  i didn't have a sense of accomplishment or joy, and i didn't particularly enjoy making it or eating it. 

i made tortillas, black beans, rice, and courgettes (zucchini, for all you americans), with lettuce, spiced up canned tomatoes, and cheese.  everyone loved it -- many of them had never had or even heard of black beans before!  but i, as the cook, wasn't really feeling it.  at least their enjoyment of it made me feel a bit better.

i stood there in the kitchen for ages, trying to think of something interesting to do with the beans and courgettes, but to no avail.  i just felt tired and dazed, and my brain wouldn't cooperate with the job i was supposed to be doing.

and all because we didn't have any onions...

RHUBARB

these past few days my diet has consisted primarily of spinach and rhubarb.  they are the only two crops in the garden that are ready to harvest.  i didn't plant anything else early enough in the greenhouse... :(  in any case, i've been eating a lot of spinach & lettuce salads and sandwiches with hummus, and baking up a rhubarb storm in the kitchen!  unfortunately for him, Mike hasn't aquired the taste for rhubarb yet, because there's LOADS of it in the garden...
two weeks ago it was a rhubarb pie. 
so far this week i've made:
rhubarb crisp
rhubarb coffee cake
strawberry-rhubarb pie
and have plans for a rhubarb custard tart.
i won't have time to make rhubarb sauce or jam, or that would definitely be next on my list!

i certainly can't eat all of these things singlehandedly before i leave in two days!  i guess i'll have some happy co-workers... 

cohoot connections

our parents always forget that the two of us haven't met. just because we're the same age and interested in farming and live on the east coast and because our parents live in the same cohousing community in oregon where we've both spent time doesn't mean we know each other!

but now we do. i decided to make our parents' delusions a reality by calling up Laura and visiting her in Brattleboro, VT. and we had a fabulous time. :) lots of beautiful fall hiking, planting garlic, and cooking of garden-fresh produce! pumpkin pie, pumkin bread, minestrone soup, brussels sprouts, kale, squash...and a giant miatake mushroom found in the woods.

can life be like this all the time?

so mom, dad, yes - now we are friends, and not just in your imaginations. :)

Cold Pond Community Land Trust

South Acworth, NH

My stay here at Cold Pond has been quite nice - and very quiet. I got here just in time yesterday for Steve to greet me before he went off to go bowling, and then I was on my own until almost 11pm to figure out how to make a wood cookstove work, take a walk, build a fire in my little cabin, and search unsuccessfully for matches, among other things (including talk to the neighbor about the horses that had gotten loose and were in the road...).

Today, it snowed. It was heavy, wet snow, mixed with rain at times - like the way it snows in Western Oregon. And it was windy. So, we didn't do anything. In fact, from the time I walked over the house at 9:30am, I didn't set foot outside again until I walked back to the cabin at 9:30pm. We made potato-leek soup, and Steve made an apple cobbler - yum yum!



It's down to Brattleboro tomorrow!

Freedom Farm goes to the Bronx

It was rainy this morning as we packed the van and harvested produce for YMPJ. It was kind of nice actually – misty and heavy and fresh. I gathered squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes and tomatillos, while the others harvested green beans, potatoes, corn, and flowers. We also offered potted oregano and cilantro plants.

We got to the Bronx at 11:15am. People were showing up asking about produce while we were still unloading the van and setting up the table! We asked them to wait, but still we could barely put it out fast enough once they started coming. 20 minutes later, you barely would have known anything had happened. It would have been gone sooner if we hadn’t asked people not to take so much and intentionally saved some back for the second wave of people who came (most of them seniors from the apartment complex across the street)! It basically turned into a grab-fest – get as much as you can while it lasts! – and we only garnered $8 in donations…I guess that’s what happens when you “sell” produce by donation to economically marginalized people...

The experience really tested the limits of my generosity. It wasn’t that I didn’t want people to take the food or that I was hoping there would be leftovers. No, I guess I just wanted to see more awareness and appreciation for the hard work that went into growing the food, and for the fact that it was organic and local. The cynical mind in me says that the only reason the folks who came were interested in the food is because it was free; they couldn’t have cared less about where it came from or whether or not it was organic. They were just happy to have good fresh food that they could afford for once! For one day in August in the Bronx, the Freedom Farm crew was able to provide access to lovingly grown, healthy organic vegetables to those who normally wouldn't have it, and I am so glad for that! I just hope they noticed how delicioius those potatoes were and savored them...

Ratatouille

Wow.

Cary just made one of the most delicious meals I've had in a long time.

It all started with the fried sage: crispy, salty, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth amazing. tasted kind of like artichoke! sensational.

Next came dinner: spicy ratatouille made with fresh vegetables from the garden including yellow summer squash, zucchini, and the most delicious potatoes ever, honest. served with spaghetti and french baguette with sage butter. So-o-o savory. simply splendid.

That was followed up by a viewing of the movie Ratatouille, which was interrupted halfway through by a plate magically appearing over my shoulder containing a wedge of baked apple pastry goodness with a dollop of ice cream.

mm-m-m delicious!

Cookies, Corn, and Cards

Feliz cumpleaños, Pradera! Today was Prairie's 26th birthday.

We did some gardening around the house this morning--I transplanted some lemongrass. But, for most of the morning, and most of the rest of the day, I was sorting corn. The corn we bought in Tocoa the other week was pretty bad--I spent the day crushing weevils and picking out kernels that had holes in them (where the weevils like to hang out). Hopefully now though the corn won't get much worse, since the majority of the bugs are out.

After lunch I brought out the gifts for Prairie--dried apricots, a chocolate-espresso bar, and a deck of cards. Yay. At dinner time, I got to make molasses crinkles! This being rural Honduras, they were a little different than what you might be used to. We had no shortening, just oil. And no brown sugar, just a form of solidified molasses called rapadura. But they came out just fine! Mmm, mmm!

In the evening, we played cards in the lamplight. It rained for a while, so hard that we could barely hear each other talk! The only interesting game we could remember was Rummy 500. I won by 300 points...

Grapefruit and chicken feet

Another long Monday, but a good day. And, it rained last night--finally! hooray. It is so loud when it rains hard--it kept me awake, along with my needed to go pee...

It was a slow day at Centro de Salud, but at the one moment when someone actually showed up with a prescription to be filled, Prairie wasn't in the room, and I was expected to do it! I felt so helpless--I couldn't read the doctor's handwriting to know what the medicines or dosage instructions were, I didn't know where to find them on the shelf, and I couldn't rip the tape to make the labels. Sigh. But I survived.

After getting our mail, we went to visit Gloria, a good friend of Prairie and Beth's. She fed us grapefruit! What a treat! We don't get much of that around here. And then she gave us lunch. I wasn't very interested in the "sopa de pato" (chicken-foot soup), so I had mostly broth with vegetables. Prairie gave me one of her chicken toes to try...it was enough.

On the way home, we walked with a family--a father (Francisco) and three older children--who live about 2 hours farther down the road to La Fortuna from us.