Late Summer Strawberries

Strawberries from the farm stand

Simple salad with strawberries

     romaine lettuce

     strawberries

     walnuts

     tangerine

     hard boiled egg

     vinaigrette

Hi Winnie and Steve,

I really like this time of year, and yet there is a mixed feeling I have also.  I like the cooler mornings and the angle of sunlight toward the end of the day.  I start thinking about cold weather and rain coming which conjures up images of reading more books and having a nice fire going.  I know I will also miss summer.  We try to get the last of our outdoor projects concluded.  The winter squashes were cut from the vines today, and I have been advised by the local farmers to let the squashes "cure" in the garden for two weeks to develop their sweetness.

I also like the late summer strawberries I can get at the farm stand.  We eat them greedily knowing it won't last long.  I toss them in salads and snack on them.  They are so sweet.  What a treat that bright red sweet flavor delivers.  Alice Waters wrote a book called:  The Art of Simple Food.  She says, "I love salad:  I love to wash it, I love to eat it.  As far as I am concerned, a meal without one is incomplete.  The salads I crave are combinations of lettuces, vegetables, and fruits prepared very simply and tossed, typically, with a lively vinaigrette." Sounds good to me -- especially adding those sweet strawberries.

Thinking of you.  Donna

Daily Vinaigrette?

Radishes from the garden

Summer salad

Daily vinaigrette

     garlic clove

     olive oil

     walnut oil

     apple cider vinegar or sauvignon blanc vinegar

     small dollop dijon mustard

     salt and pepper

Hi Winnie and Steve,

I miss going to Maine and tend to start noticing my state-of-being around this time of year.  I am guessing it is because the fall seasonal change is just making its presence felt in the mornings here with a nippy little chill.  Those glorious fall landscapes in Maine were so special -- no way to do justice to the emotional feeling of viewing fall foliage along coastal Maine.  Do you recall that old two-story house in Bar Harbor where they would serve lunch out on the side porch?  Somehow I was thinking of it this morning -- they served great salads, and we appreciated the cool salad in the warm late summer days.  We'd sit out there and talk for so long.

Salads are big on the menu over here.  By lunch time we are often feeling a bit heated up in this Indian summer weather.  Also, the ingredients are something I almost always have around.  I think these days I am throwing in more things than in the past.  Sometimes I think about what "goes together."  Yet other times I just like variety without any thought to the mixture -- I might put beets and strawberries and who-knows-what in the same salad.  Friends gave me the best kitchen tool I have received in ages -- so useful.  It is called a garlic grater-marinade bowl. It is from a potter up in Sonoma called Architectural Ceramic Design.  I use it every day!  I take those glorious big cloves of garlic from Blue House Farm and begin the vinaigrette by running it across the grater in the bottom of the bowl -- then just add the other ingredients to the bowl.  So much easier than a garlic press.

I like reminiscing about the times we shared.  I think of you so often.  Love, Donna

Kale -- a good producer

Dinosaur kale in the garden

A Kale Sautee

     basmati rice

     dinosaur kale

     kohlrabi

     bell peppers

     carrots

     onions

     raisins

Hi Winnie and Steve,

Are you familiar with dinosaur kale?  Sometimes it is called lacinato or black Tuscan kale. Anyway, I think it is my favorite of the kales although I enjoy them all.  It is a great winter crop here as well as summer.  As a beginning gardener, I really like its taste and nutrition -- remember Michael Pollan says -- Eat food. Not too much.  Mostly plants.

The fog started coming in a few days ago and cooled us off once again.  I have to admit that I was ready for some cooling down even though the sunshine is so glorious most of the time.  One of the things I really enjoy here at the ranch is the opportunity to see some animals of the wild.  Sometimes just hearing about sightings from others can be exciting.  Up above our ranch nearby, one of the neighbors spotted a mountain lion which has to be thrilling -- especially from a safe vantage point!  I hope to have this experience some day.  Almost any time I want, I can see a barn owl in the big barn owl box that hangs off the back of our barn.  The box has two large openings where the owls can enter, and I can usually spot one of their faces looking out at me.  Our grandson was in the garden over the weekend with his dad and they called me over.  A very large adult gopher snake was in the garden and slithered off.  We always look carefully since the gopher snake looks amazingly like a rattle snake except the head is different.  

Just a parting thought with a quote I read recently.  

"I am done with great things and big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny invisible molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual by creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets.  Wm. James" 

I noticed the difference in my response between watching the world news and the hopeful feeling after the potluck with our young local organic farmers.

Thinking of you.  Donna

How does a garden grow?

Green beans in my home garden

Green bean salad

     green beans

     potatoes

     onions

     chopped parsley and arugula

     tomatoes

     vinaigrette

     salt and pepper

Hi Winnie and Steve,

I've been thinking a lot about gardening lately -- in my case vegetable gardening.  My attempts have been pretty limited -- if a crop worked I repeated it; if it failed I crossed it off my list! This preoccupation with growing food has snuck up on me this last year.  I have had a garden for many years -- initially for the visual and aesthetic element.  But as I have developed over the years an interest in nutrition and health, I have attempted to grow more of our food and make that experience a part of my everyday life.  After I completed my nutrition education through Baumann College, I started shopping at markets that carried organic items.  I later started to do my primary food shopping at the farmer's markets.  Three years ago I joined the CSA program with our wonderful local farmers at Blue House Farm.  Now I find myself with an increasing desire to produce the food in my garden. There is a small sense of self-reliance to go to the garden and have two or three things that get picked and brought into the kitchen for preparation.  I emphasize "a small sense of self-reliance" -- we're talking baby steps here.

I seldom leave the ranch to take classes these days, but I did go recently to a class on Winter Vegetable Gardening given at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond.  You would have enjoyed the site and teacher, Cynthia Sandberg, as it reminded me of the many small farming endeavors in Maine near your place.  It's funny how perceptions change over time, and I certainly have seen an evolution in my own thinking about the beauty of simple food.  I read a quote that perhaps gives some reason for how this evolution occurs.  "The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new places but in seeing with new eyes.  -- Marcel Proust"  That makes sense with my experience.  It is as if I am seeing with new eyes.  I feel grateful for this.

Thinking of you as always.  Donna

Tomatoes and basil -- a classic taste

Basil

Summer Salad

     basmati rice

     black beans

     thinly sliced basil and arugula

     marinated olives

     ripe tomatoes

     feta cheese

     vinaigrette

Hi Winnie and Steve,

I was remembering one of the times we did a weekend retreat, and it was so warm.  I think we were making salads for everyone in the old kitchen of a conference center.  We were trying for ease of preparation without using stoves since it was already so hot.  We probably felt a bit miserable at one level, but I recall lots of good camaraderie in the kitchen.  Do you remember how we would try to figure out how much food was needed for the group?  Then we would haul all those boxes of food into a bare-bones facility.  I somehow was thinking of those times with lots of heat since it was very warm here today.  Normally we don't get very warm weather here on the coast.  I think it's the warmest summer I recall -- or maybe I should say the sunniest summer I can recall.  We even put the board back in the small cement barrier on our little creek by the house. This creates a very shallow pool.  The old black Lab dog appreciates a place to cool off on days like this.

One of the nice things with the heat I guess is the really tasty ripe tomatoes coming into season. Our season here is probably just a bit on the later side. Remember when I wrote to you about food sharing?  Well, as it turns out, T. came by today with a bag full of tomatoes from his garden, and I am barely exaggerating when I say he also brought onions about the size of melons! Having tomatoes around the house feels like striking gold.  Add basil to the mix and that classic taste is so wonderful.

Since you wanted to make a simple uniform once, I know you will enjoy this quote by Henry David Thoreau -- "Beware of activities that require new clothes."

Thinking of you.  Donna