Suburban Homestead

The Evolution of *Cabin Time*

There has been a beautiful evolution to the way we take our time together at the family cabin. While some things will likely remain constant throughout the years - long days, extended family, multiple generations, river time, skiing, rich foods, and holidays, there have been some undeniable leaps in the quality of our time spent as cousins grow older and less dependent on us adults. This past summer was incredible as two complete generations were finally able to hike up-stream together and explore the wilderness without some kids and a parent needing to stay back for napping or safety reasons. I am equally grateful that the small toys have started to dwindle in quantity as we acknowledge their waning attraction and begin sorting and purging to make room for more group-oriented playtime. We graduated to board-game-playing-heaven this Thanksgiving weekend, and the hours spend together on the floor, on the bed, the deck or at the dining table, conversing and playing games amid stacks of plastic chips, pastel paper bills, folding cardboards and transparent red die, was simply priceless.

What’s more, we had incredible weather for all four days of the holiday weekend.  While the river was too cold to dunk a toe in, the mountain air was in the high 60's and so we got to prop lots of windows and doors open, allowing for the sounds of the river below to rise up and wash over our happy souls.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well our 14lb. turkey rubbed in 2 cups of sage butter, wrapped in a pound of bacon and drizzled with maple syrup is finally in the oven and three generations of family is about to sit down and relax before the final push.

May your home be filled with love, laughter, beautiful music and incredible food tonight.

(A Pilgrim cookie creation by the five-year-old, atop one of our favorite desserts - Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Spice Cookie)

SuperNatural Halloween at the Academy

We did something new and different totally spectacular this past weekend when I took a friend's advice and bought tickets to The California Academy of Science's SuperNatural Halloween Party.

Imagine dressing up, being first in line, and getting to sit all alone on one side of the museum, eating ice cream...

...and getting to watch this:

It had been 33 days since we'd last visited the museum and met these baby ostriches, just over a month old. On Saturday, they were 66 days old!

The museum served up great food and activities. We took in the rainforest with just a handful of families, no lines, no fussing...just wide open spaces, eager docents, crafts, trick-or-treating for quasi-healthy treats, live music and choices, choices, choices. :)



























I wonder if SuperNatural is this good every year... or if we just got really lucky because the Giants were playing the third game of the World Series that night? We stayed until almost nine o'clock, and just as we walked out, a great cheer erupted throughout the building and we were told - "The Giants won!"

Dinner in Croatia

I wanted to share some images of a simple but incredibly delicious meal we shared together when we first arrived in Croatia. It was a tiny spot in Lovran, a small coastal town in Istria, called Wine Bar Loza. The area is known for its wines and truffles, however this night, we shared a plate of mixed cheeses and cured meats, a basket of *grandma's bread*, and a side of salted cod pate. To call any Croatian meal *locally harvested* or *sustainable* would be redundant, I gather. I get the feeling that it goes without saying - when you sit down at a restaurant in this part of the world, your food did not travel far to get to your table. I hope you can both see and taste this with these photos taken while dining beneath a walnut tree, listening to church bells chiming and savoring the local traditions.

Hunting for Truffles in Croatia

This is an incredibly special time for us as we take a week to celebrate ten years of marriage and three wonderful kids -- only, we didn't take the kids along on the celebration. ;)

Today, the two of us ventured down quiet, winding country roads, lined with massive family gardens of pumpkins, squash, corn and fruit trees, to partake in a bit of truffle gastronomy.  It all began at the Karlić family house, where the mother, Radmila, prepared us an incredible lunch of all things truffle.

There was salami with truffles, cheese with truffles, cream cheese on bread, olive oil and honey - all with truffles. And after the first course, we were treated to a look at all the truffles that would be added to our second course omlette!

After lunch, Radmila's son Evan walked us past a small vineyard, and down to the forest below where his grandfather began the family's tradition of truffle hunting in 1966. There were no promises that we'd find anything...

...and yet their sweet pooch found three! It was such a cool experience and one that I know we could only have had here.

Click here to learn more about the Karlić family business.

Apple Canister

How cute are these apple canisters? I just picked up a couple at The Container Store ($16) and filled them with new crayons for the kids of some of my garden loving gals. Happy birthday, kiddos!

Wordless Wednesday

Our Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving this year!

And like every large party we ever host, I'm always disappointed the day after when I upload my photos with great expectations, only to realize that I didn't properly document all the wonderful food people prepared nor does it look like any adults were in attendance. I seem to only ever photograph the kids.

While this was the second Thanksgiving I hosted at our house, it was only the first where I actually cooked the turkey!  Here is our organic bird, wrapped in organic, nitrate-free bacon, ready for a long bake in the oven.

All the food was prepared ahead by me, or brought over by contributing family members. While the turkey cooked, I ran around the house in my jammies, tiding up spaces that had needed attention for months and pulling out my wedding china that gets used (maybe) once a year.

I wanted to share these adorable owl plates which I picked up for the kids at West Elm this holiday season. One of the smallest members of our family is a huge fan of birds of prey, so they are perfect for our table. Unfortunately, we were short two for the Thanksgiving kid's table.

My brother-in-law always has the job of carving the turkey, and he has not idea why.

We served the kids up first since we only have room for one table. Everyone loved their turkey feast, except for the this lil' pilgrim:

I don't know what was going on with him, but this is how he sat while all his siblings and cousins ate. Then, when all the big kids were done with dinner, his attitude about his meal changed, and he sat at the table, by himself, and ate his whole meal!

This salad was a great addition to our table: Roasted Beets and Carrots with Goat Cheese Dressing

My Thanksgiving plate:

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette, Olive oil muffin, Saurkraut, Roasted Beets and Carrots with Goat Cheese Dressing, Roast Turkey Wrapped in Bacon, Lemony Mushroom-and-Pine-Nut Stuffing Muffins, Cranberry Jelly, Mashed Potatoes.

The kids playing in the garage/playroom - the IKEA swing is everyone's favorite!

My sisters, my mother and me!

Wordless Wednesday

Incredible Cookies

I got the most incredible gift yesterday when my dear friend, Kate, made good on a promise to teach me how to frost cookies like a champ.

No, I did not frost that chicken. Kate did!

I was responsible for baking all the cookies, and Kate made the frosting. She came with all sorts of impressive tools and shared all kinds of useful tips and techniques.

Like how to check the consistency of your 'piping' without filling an entire bag.

The set-up was brutal. It must have taken about 2 hours to get all the 'piping' and 'flood' made, then colored. At first go with the pastry bag, I didn't think I could pull it off. My cookies looked like %*#@ and it all seemed to much to bother trying again.

But things picked up rather quickly as Kate watched over me and helped me get it right. I love this picture of her decorating a turkey while my daughter looks on, smiling. (But trust me, you don't want kids around while you tackle decorating at this level!)

Here are some that I did make! My absolute favorite is the turkey leg. I'm already looking forward to making Christmas cookies... I'm thinking chickens in santa caps. ;)

Thank you, KATE!!! xoxo

Wordless Wednesday

My Thanksgiving Menu

My mom often comes over on Sunday mornings for a cup of coffee. Today we took our coffee while hammering out the menu for Thanksgiving dinner.

It will be my first year hosting the turkey dinner in seven years and I'm so excited!  I've already begun the preparations - cleaning windows, hanging wallpaper and trying to finish the conversion of *le garage* into a playroom. (There is nothing quite like the anticipation of house guests to get me moving on interiors projects!)

But back to dinner.  With the help of family members who have offered to bring a dish, this is what we will all be eating come November 24th:

 

• Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette  (can't. get. enough of it.)

• Cornbread  (because the kids need a vegetable! :)

• Roasted Beets and Carrots with Goat Cheese Dressing  (anything with Michael Pollan's name associated with it is a winner in my book)

• Roast Turkey - 16 lbs.  (this will be the FIRST turkey I have ever cooked!)

• Lemony Mushroom-and-Pine-Nut Stuffing Muffins (because I need to break from tradition)

• Cranberry Jelly (because some family members just can't break with tradition ;)

• Mashed Potatoes

• Pumpkin Banana Tart  (this dessert is killer - a modern twist on a traditional dessert)

• Charlotte Rousse  (because Thanksgiving falls on Papa's birthday, our first one without him)

• Thanksgiving Cookies

This day last year: "(Homemade) Frozen Waffles"

Quince-e-dink

Have you ever seen the inside of a quince before?

Wait...let's back up. Do you even know what a quince looks like on the outside?

People always ask me that - "What is a quince?!"

I got lucky again last week when there *arose* the *opportunity* for me to visit a family friend's house and pick fresh, organic quince and persimmons from her picture-perfect trees. (OK, fine, I rang her up and begged). Both trees serve as stunning focal points in her front yard. Her back yard is a beach on the bay. 

You are correct in allowing your jaw to drop.

Anywho...I'm guessing I grabbed close to thirty pounds of exotic fruit before heading home to make a batch of Little Miss Who's favorite jelly.

When I think of quince, or olives, totally inedible fruits in their purest, raw state, I wonder how anyone ever figured out how to make them edible.

Here's what quince looks like minutes after being cut - brown.

But after all the work is done, quince makes the prettiest colored, and most wonderful tasting jelly. (Click here for recipe.)

As for those persimmons, I took a grocery bags worth home and adorned my windowsills with them, where they could ripen enough for me to puree them for baking.

This day last year: "Getting My *Persimmon* On"

Happy Halloween!

What an exhausting day and it isn't even lunch time yet!  I just got back from the big kid's class party and costume parade.  My contribution -- skeleton gingerbread men, animals and dinosaurs!

I've been wanting to try these for years, ever since I first saw them over at ohdeedoh.com

Here are the kids on Saturday, before heading out to the mall.  I shared this photo of Mr. Noodles in his chicken costume with our sitter... who then showed it to her friend... who just happens to have the adult version of the EXACT SAME CHICKEN COSTUME!!!  She sent it over to our house in case I would want to wear it. Um -- let me think abo---  YETH PWEZZZ!!!  (more photos to come :)

Yugoslavian Finger Squash

I came across this goofy looking squash at the grocery story recently.  It was labeled *Finger Squash*, which seemed so perfectly appropriate for a pre-Halloween dinner!

So I brought one home and cooked it up for dinner alongside a butternut squash. I baked both with just a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  The Yugoslavian Finger Squash was pretty bland, especially next to the butternut.  But if nothing else, it's just a really fun looking vegetable.  I love the way each *finger* sticks out on each wedge.

Even though the flavor isn't one to rave about, I saved some seeds for next years garden.  This squash is too much of a conversation piece not to grow.

'Orangelo' Watermelon

I'm happy ecstatic to report that I spoke too soon when I complained about our heirloom watermelons being tasteless.  Please forgive - I'm such a novice when it comes to growing my own food...especially watermelon, which I'd never attempted before.

After our recent hot spell (aka: Indian Summer) all our giant melons seemed to get the required heat they needed, and they sweetened up perfectly.  Almost overnight, we had a huge crop of ready-to-eat Orangelo and White Wonder watermelon - albeit in the middle of OCTOBER!

So we got juicing!  Instead of completely de-seeding each fruit, and quickly juicing it in the electric juicer, I hand cranked it, seeds and all, through the Squeezo.  It worked pretty well, but because of the large size of the seeds, they did tend to get jammed under the screen, requiring an occasional clean out.

I was surprised though that the watermelon juice did not taste nearly as sweet as the whole fruit did.  But the kids didn't seem to notice.

Spiderweb Cookies!

I have been making Martha Stewart's Halloween Pumpkin Spice Cookies for years now. YEARS!  I'm not sure why she mentions pumpkin in the name, there isn't any in them. Possibly because she recommends you decorate them as such. I tried that once, and failed miserably. It appeared to be a near impossible task, one only achievable if you have no kids, no friends, no job and endless hours on your hands to fine-tune the consistency and colors of Royal Icing to *just right*.

Nuf said.

I usually just make the icing, divide it up and color it with various Fall colors.  Like this batch which I made last Thanksgiving.  But this morning, I decided to try my hands at spiderwebs.

How cute are these?!?

This recipe makes a ton of cookies.  So this time, after rolling the dough into four logs, I refrigerated two of them, and froze the other two for Thanksgiving time.  Then I made a half batch of Royal Icing.  We still have too many cookies, about 24.  But we are going to dinner at a friends house tonight and will bring some over to share.

This day last year: "The Accidental Genius"

Wordless Wednesday

This day last year: Red. Plum. Tomatoes.

 

Dragon Fruit

Have you ever heard of it?!  Before yesterday, I had not.

I saw a small stack of them at Mollie Stone's and thought, What the heck, let's get exploring!

After doing a little online research, the kids and I learned that this beautiful, exotic cactus fruit is imported from warmer climates like Southeast Asia, Mexico, Central + South America and Isreal.  We also learned that ours was perfectly ripe (not blotchy, and a little bit soft to the touch) and ready for eating.

It sliced open easily to reveal the most beautiful shade of fuchsia speckled with tiny black seeds. (These pictures do not do it justice.)  I diced it up like I would an avocado and returned it to its shell for eating.  It had the consistency and texture of a kiwi, with the flavor of a fig!

The big boy was so excited to share our discovery that we gently packaged up the second half of the fruit and sent it off to school in his backpack for show and tell.  Too cute!

Fruits, Vegetables and OCD

I once read that it can be extra challenging to rehabilitate a *domestic clean freak* of their OCD, because it’s so easy for one to justify their behavior.  Unlike other habits that can be argued to be "not necessary", or "disruptive to others", one's need to clean can easily be justified as a win-win for everyone. What the heck do you care if I clean all day – look how great and germ-free our house looks!

I’m kind of feeling it might go the same way when growing ones own food.  I mean, if you grow your own food and have OCD about it.  Like someone we might know…

Who me?!

It’s fig season and I’m obsessing again.  Our newest Kadota only produced a few fruits this year, but right now, our six-year-old Black Mission Fig is giving us buckets everyday. I just can’t stand the thought of any figs going to waste but because I haven’t found the time yet to kill six pounds of them with some jam, I’ve had to get quick and crafty.

Here’s is my figgy week in review:

Monday:  Fig puree – why not!?  I made tons and packaged them into 1 cup containers to use at a future date for these muffins.  I also I quartered a bunch and froze them for smoothies.  I think they’ll be great blended with peaches, dry rolled oats, milk (and a couple kale leaves ;)

Tuesday:  12 beautiful ripe figs to my MIL and a Fig Almond Tart

Wednesday:  3 recycled clamshell fruit containers, filled, and frisbee’d out to fig lovers in the neighborhood

Thursday:  I’m out of town but schedule a friend to come over and take what she can.

Friday:  Still out of town! :(

Saturday:  A *light dinner* of figs and goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto.

Sunday:  Family for dinner, figs and goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto for appetizers.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get on that family dinner!

Fig Almond Tart

This, my friends, is one for the history books...

...at least, the ones on figs, that is.

See, I am very, very picky about my fig recipes.  I want to love them all, but I rarely find one that I can.  Last years caramelized fig ice cream did not *live up*, and 2009's fig pie turned out to be nothing more than two pounds of dead weight at the bottom of my garbage can. (That was before chickens, of course.)

Set me up with figs topped with goat cheese and wrapped in prosciutto, and I'm good, top to bottom. Start adding them to my baked goods, and that's when I'm going to have to ask that we sit down and talk things out.

And yet I experiment, every year.

So I did not have high hopes for Bon Appetit's Fig-Almond Tart, a recipe printed at the request of a reader, wanting the secret to their favorite dessert from Marinus Restaurant in Carmel, CA.

But man-o-man, was I happily surprised!  You really can't go wrong with figs when you dress them up with 3x's their weight in butter, eggs and almonds. And the crust - THE CRUST!! Tasted just like my great grandmothers shortbread...

We ate ours for dessert, but this would be great for breakfast as well. Its flavors are ideal for Fall, Thanksgiving and the Holidays.  I'm going to have to experiment with making this tart using figs frozen from this months backyard harvest.

Here is the recipe as found in Bon Appetit Magazine's July 2011 issue, with my notes:

 

Fig-Almond Tart

Ingredients:

Crust

• 1 large egg yolk (I accidentally used one small egg - yolk and white - and it was fine)
• 1 tbsp. heavy cream (I just used 1/2+1/2, and it was fine)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose for plus more
• 6 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, diced plus more

Filling

• 3/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 cup plus 2/3 cup sugar, divided
• 3 large eggs (our girls lay *medium* eggs, and they are fine)
• 1 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cup (scant) slivered almonds (I only had whole almond so I pounded them first)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 12 oz. fresh mission figs (about 12 medium), stemmed, quartered

Special Equipment: Use a 10″ – diameter tart pan with a removable bottom is ideal. If you don't have this, get creative. :)

Directions:

Crust

Whisk egg yolk and cream in a small bowl.  Mix 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Add 1 cup butter: mix on low speed until coarse meal forms. Add egg mixture.  Blend just until moist clumps form.  Gather into a ball, flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for 1 hour.

Butter tart pan.  Roll out dough to 13″ round on a lightly floured surface.  (I found I need A LOT of flour on the counter and on top of my dough to get this done. The dough is very *wet* but the upside is this crust will taste like shortbread!)  Transfer to pan.  Press onto bottom and up sides.  Trim excess dough.  Chill 30 minutes.

Filling

Bring half-and-half to a simmer in a small saucepan.  Whisk 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, and flour in a small bowl.  Gradually whisk in half-and-half.  Return to sacuepan.  Whisk constantly over medium heat until mixture thicken and boils, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl.  Stir in vanilla.  Set over a bowl of ice water; stir pastry cream until cold.  Remove from ice bath; set aside.

Finely grind almonds with1/3 cup sugar in a food processor (do not grind to a paste).  Using an electric mixer,  beat butter and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a large bowl until smooth.  Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well between additions.  Gradually beat in almond mixture, then 1/2 cup reserved pastry cream (reserve remaining cream for another use).  Cover; chill until firm, about 4 hours. 

Preheat oven to 375*. Spread filling over crust.  Arrange figs, cut side up, in concentric circles over filling.  Place tart on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until filling in center is golden and set. Bon Appetit says this is about 1 hour 15 minutes, BUT mine was fully baked in just 40 minutes so be careful with cook time. 

Let tart cool completely in a pan on a wire rack.  Serve at room temperature plain or dressed up with a dollop of whipped cream or, better yet, some lemon curd.

Wordless Wednesday

Vegetable Tarte Tatine

Last year, I made an incredible vegetable tarte tatine, and served it up with a favorite mustard and honey glazed pork chop. This weekend, I made it all again, only this time, I supplemented garden-fresh carrots for potatoes, and used a mixture of colorful sweet potatoes. It was still delicious, but oh, SO much *prettier* than the first one!

I couldn't help but share.  This is a relatively easy dish to make, not to mention, it serves 8 with a big, bright punch!

The whole time I was making it, the colors and shapes of the vegetables kept reminding me of this post from last Thanksgiving.

Lunch at the Japanese Tea Garden

After the Picasso exhibit on Friday, we walked next door to the Japanese Tea Garden for lunch.  It had been a long, long time since our last visit.  Here we are in 2007:

...and here we are in 2011:

When it comes to ethnic foods, I really don't care how much fat or sugar is in any one dish.  As long as my kids are willing to eat something that looks TOTALLY different than what we eat every other day of the week, I'm happy.  Some of my proudest parenting moments have come while watching my kids nosh down things like fried fish butts or raw, dark greens. (pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat...)

These noodles were not even that great. They had a heavy, fishy taste to them that I personally did not care for.  But he slurped them down and so I said, "Good call, Sweetie."

If you haven't seen the Ramune soda from Japan, you are missing out!  Our cousins taught us all about them recently while we dined on sushi together. They are a carbonated soft drink that the kids love due to their unique packaging. To *activate* your drink, you must puncture the top of your glass bottle in order to release a glass marble down into the soda which then activates the carbonation.  So gimmicky, so clever, so completely irresistible!

Go ahead, take a big, teethy bite out of that green tea mochi!

After lunch, and a bit of running around the gardens, we crossed the street and visited another set of gardens - the botanical ones.

Silly little Miss under one of my favorites - Angel's Trumpet.

Happy, happy day!

Picasso Exhibit with Kids

The little man had Thursday and Friday off school. So I pulled his sister out of pre-school, and treated them to a special day in the city. First stop, the Picasso exhibit and the de Young.

I feel very fortunate to live so close to San Francisco, and all the culture it has to offer.  I try to expose my kids to as much as I can (within reason).  I rarely invest in things like audio headsets (too much work, sensory overload for little brains) but instead, spend a little in the gift shop, treating the kids to something they can take home and remember their experience by, like a book, or in Picasso's case, a postcard to hang in their rooms.

These sorts of exhibits can be tricky.  The kids may think they want to go, but upon arrival into this exhibit, everything appeared to be turning South, rapidly.  My quick save went like this: "If I hear anymore fussing before we are out of here, we will not be visiting the Japanese Tea Garden as requested. K? All right, now everyone pick your favorite picture in this room and tell my why you like it the best!"  And from there, our time at Picasso became a series of games  - "I see a chicken! Who can find a chicken in this room?" "Try to find a picture that you think would be easiest to recreate and home and tell me how you'd do it." "Show me an example of one of Picasso's abstracts and tell me if you can figure out what any of the shapes represent." 

But the best lesson of the day came with the story of Picasso himself, and how he chose a path different from everyone else, how he was told his contributions were worthless and how he persevered regardless of what people said.  "Because everyone is different and unique and every one of us has something wonderful to contribute to this world. Got that?!?"

The kids ended up having fun (I'm pretty sure) and I'm certain they learned a itsy-bitsy-tiny-wini bit about Pablo Picasso and what it means to just be proud of the person you were born to be. After that, it was off to the Japanese Tea Garden for lunch!

Apple Butter

My MIL recently put my husband's childhood home on the market.  It quickly went into escrow, but before the deal closed, I made one last trip over and stripped her two apple trees clean of fruit for myself and a friend.

The little man and I collected about 30 pounds of apples that day(!!), 21 of which made their way back to our house where I made them into apple butter and sauce. 

Most of the apples had been attacked, in some way, by a bore worm, so I had to painstakingly cut away all the effected areas...but the girls out back got the benefits:

As far as I'm concerned, all things *apple* are relatively easy to make so long as you have a Squeezo Stainer.  No peeling, coring or seeding necessary.  Just cook your fruit down and pass it through the Squeezo for quick and easy separation.  (Woo-hoo! Now you'll have more time for folding laundry...or unloading the dishwasher...bon-bons?)

After the Squeezo, I take the apple sauce, mix it with sugar and spice, and slow cook it overnight until it is the right consistency.

Apple Butter makes the best gifts during the fall and holiday months!

Go here to see my apple butter post from last year:  How You Like Them Apples?!

Things That Make Me Happy

It was a very good weekend. There were many things that put a smile on my face...

No. 1 - My 20th high school reunion!  Seems a crying shame that you go through school with 300 people, during some of the most formative years of your life, and that you then only get several hours to catch-up with them every ten years. Can't wait for the next one!

No. 2 - Martha Stewart's DIRT CAKE!  It's meant to be served up in a terra cotta pot, but I took a tip from a girlfriend and did it in dump truck for the 2 year old's birthday. Happy Birthday, Baby!  You bring me smiles everyday!

No. 3 - Free, organic fruit from someone who had no need for it. :)

No. 4 -The Missoni for Target collection - the colors, the quality and the way my little, spicy meatball wears it so well.

No. 5 - Our homegrown albino watermelon and the way it finally tastes good after a week of hot, hot weather.

No. 6 - This puzzle showing the incredible artwork of Charlie Harper.  Perfect for a drizzly, Sunday morning with kids.

Wordless Wednesday

Adventures on Apple Hill

Our family's cabin is in the Foothill Sierras. It's amazing in the summer heat, with the river out back, but my absolute favorite time of year to visit is in the fall. And that's mostly because of Apple Hill.

Apple Hill is a cluster of small farms near Placerville. Most are apple orchards, but there are also peaches, pumpkin patches and Christmas tree farms.  They all open up to visitors on Labor Day weekend, and some stay open as late as Christmas.

Every farm offers something a little different - *U-pick* opportunities, hay rides, Halloween festivities, homemade baked goods, arts and craps crafts, train rides, picnicking, etc., etc. Total Americana - which is why I can't get enough of it.

Our favorite farm is High Hill Ranch, #1 on the farm tours map.  This weekend you could find us there making candles, taking ponies for rides in circles, eating bbq chicken with apple (and marshmallow!) salad, and fishing for dinner.

I mean, come on...how cute is all that?!?

Above, some of the High Hill gals prep containers of their infamous marshmallow and caramel treats, to-go.

After an afternoon at the ranch, we drove the loop that takes you past most of the farms on Apple Hill. Bavarian Hills was already celebrating October-fest with traditional German tunes making their way out to the road. Larsen Apples, shown below, is closed on Saturdays, but I've always loved the look of the barn with gold and red apples painted on the side.

Denver Dan's has U-pick, which we did several years back. This year, we just stopped by for a quick look at their Alpacas.

Is it just me, or does my daughter's hair look like that of a blonde alpaca? ;)

Heirloom Carrots

Not long ago, I had plans for all the heirloom carrots I planted from seed. Big plans.

But now Fall is here, and besides deciding that I don't even really like carrots, I haven't done much more with them. I did pickle some, and that was successful. But other than that, it's been juicing and a little roasting.  These ones just cracked me up. I don't know what the secret is to growing "normal" carrots, but I've yet to uncover it. The only thing missing from this picture is a ruler - these kids were enormous!! These went into the juicer, along with the weeds shown. I don't know the name of the greens, but I do know they are high in omega-3's, they run wild in my garden, and I'm seeing them a lot at the farmer's markets.

Needless to say, the juice tasted like dirt.