Today's picture/bread quote

I saw this today at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont. These could be my words!

Entering a contest

Last month my friend Les wrote a blog entry about the chance to win a gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

"Post on your Facebook wall a photo of yourself, your spouse (or S.O.), or a pet reading Leveling the Playing Field.” 

I left a comment saying that I would if I were on Facebook. She wrote back saying that I could enter with a photo on my blog. 

Since neither Tom nor I have had time this busy summer to do much reading, neither of us has read the book yet. But I did buy it when it first came out, and one evening I looked over at Lucy in the chair beside me and lo and behold, she had fallen asleep reading.

It's a little hard to see the title, but the book is called Leveling the Playing Field by Rod Scher who happens to be Les' husband! He has his own blog called The Geekly Weekly which you may find here. 

A reprise of the summer bouquets!

Yesterday we went to a family wedding, and the woman who grows the CSA flowers I've posted about this past summer did the flowers. It was fun to watch her getting things set up.

And this morning she offered bouquets to those of us who had stayed overnight. I brought ours home and put it in the same bucket, and voila, summer returns to Windy Poplars for a few days.

Today's poem by Midge Goldberg

I've posted poems on the blog for a long time. Sometimes there are hardly any comments, and other times there are many. A few people have said they didn't think they liked poetry until they read a poem here. That's probably because I enjoy poems that I can understand.

A few months ago I was introduced to the poet Midge Goldberg on a New Hampshire Public Radio program called The Bookshelf. You may listen to it here. The host describes her poems as "accessible," which is so important to me as a reader.

I bought her newest collection.

Now, Here

This isn't nowhere, but it's nowhere

enough. A narrow forest hides

this pond, this house, this plot of sky.

Only the highest pine,

branches gesticulating,

reaches the wider world.

A coyote threads the woods, unnoticed.

Midge Goldberg 

Farm To Table Supper

I found this recipe on Martha Stewart’s page where you may watch a short video of it being prepared.

I changed it just a bit, including the portions since it was for just Tom and I. This is the simplest of suppers, yet so delicious. A perfect summer meal. My pasta came from Italy and my olive oil from Tunisia, but everything else came from Windy Poplars Farm!

Cut up some tomatoes. Chop some basil and parsley. Put a few cloves of garlic through the garlic press. Add olive oil. Sprinkle with salt (and pepper, if you like).

Cook pasta. Drain. Put pasta in your bowl or on a plate, and top with the mixture.

You may visit Weekend Cooking for more food related postings.

Today's picture/Week twelve CSA flowers

Week twelve, the last CSA bouquet of the season. And what a beauty it is! I'm wild about the dahlias, and from what I've read so are a lot of other people. It is a current star in the flower world. Not great shots but they show the cool way the dahlia opens.

Does anyone know what this is?? Liatris? Isn't it a great color!!

We are already on next year's list, as is our daughter. We have so enjoyed these weekly bouquets.

Blueberries

Years ago we drove past our neighbors' house and saw a sign that read 'blueberries for sale.' We knew the grower and his wife only to speak to and we still just see them at blueberry time but for that one month or so in the summer we visit often and have some great conversations. At first he had a regular woman customer and any people who saw the sign. Our first year he took down the sign when he realized that the woman, and Tom and I would buy all his berries. I'm not sure what happened to the woman but now we are his only customers. It is like having our own personal grower. He'll call and leave a message, always identifying himself, and saying, "I've got some berries if you want them." And we always do.

This year for the first time, we kept track of how many we bought. I'm going to jot the amounts down here so I'll have a record.

July 27 - 5 quarts
July 29 - 4 quarts
August 1 - 6 quarts
August 4 - 7 quarts
August 7 - 9 quarts
August 9 - 6 quarts
August 12 - 6 quarts
August 15 - 9 quarts
August 19 - 4 quarts
August 24 - 3 quarts
August 28 - 2 quarts

61 quarts in all, at $5.50 per quart equals $335.50. That may sound like a lot of money but if I were to buy blueberries in the store, either fresh or frozen, the cost would be a lot greater. Plus, these are local, unsprayed, and frozen as fresh as can be.

They go on cookie sheets in the freezer for a few hours, and then I put them in freezer bags.

One day the grower and Tom had a talk about blueberries. Tom said that blueberries are very good for you, with lots of antioxidants. And the man paused a bit, wondering about this because he has had esophageal cancer. And then his eyes lit up, and he said maybe that's why he is cancer-free now because of eating so many blueberries.

From The Guardian:

Blueberries are a rich source of anthocyanins, flavonoids and phenols, such as chlorogenic acid, quercetin, lutein and kaempferol. These are anti-inflammatories and antioxidants which strengthen the body's defences against free radicals. So eating blueberries could help protect against cancer, heart disease and age-related degenerative diseases. Their store of vitamin C also boosts the immune system.
In a 2008 study, tests of New Jersey blueberries found that organically grown ones had significantly more phenolic and anthocyanin antioxidants, and a significantly higher antioxidant capacity, than the conventionally grown equivalent.

We eat them in our yogurt or kefir every single morning, so here's hoping.

Please visit Weekend Cooking for other food related postings.

Today's picture/Week eleven CSA flowers

Second to the last week. Makes me sad but I think that last fall there were some of her flowers in the local Co-op so I'll buy them if I see any. And I talked to her today about a Christmas wreath. She puts her own dried flowers in them, so we shall buy our wreath there this year. She's such a nice young woman. Tom and I are lucky people that our daughter is so close by, and that her friends are our friends. It is a wonderful thing to hang out with thirty-somethings when one is sixty-something. And we see it with Margaret's friends as well. Their folks are a regular, happy part of their lives. Lucky, lucky.

Today's picture/Another bouquet

I thought I'd post a picture of Margaret's CSA flowers to show how the gardener makes each bouquet just a little bit different. At the flower farm they are all wrapped in brown paper and sit in individual buckets of water for people to choose which one they want. Each one is equally beautiful as you can see.

Today's picture/Week ten CSA flowers

The red hanging flower is called love-lies-bleeding. Amazing name, huh?! More about it here. It is edible, as are the herbs this week, dill and basil.

Mrs Bale watches a movie on DVD

Two fellows in the movie Mid-August Lunch are sitting, drinking wine, and watching the world go by.

“Some weather.”

“You said it. Plenty hot.”

“It’s August. It’s hot.”

“It sure is."

Today's picture/Week nine CSA flowers

Rust isn't only on cars

The last time I grew hollyhocks was four summers ago. If you type hollyhocks into the search bar, you may see them. When we decided on the new garden this year, I wanted to plant them again. We started the seeds inside and they were a good size when we put them outdoors. For a while the plants were a lush green and very healthy. They got tall and the buds looked great in this picture from July 30.

but the leaves had these odd little spots.

You might think, oh, those aren't so bad, but these were the leaves which were just beginning to be infected. Here are the leaves which were in worse condition.

And now, a couple weeks later

Even the buds are affected

But amidst all this ugliness, the hollyhock flowers continue to open and bloom and look as beautiful as any prizewinner, as long as you focus on just them!

When the problem first appeared I searched online and found a very informative site.

Puccinia malvacearum, the rust fungus that infects hollyhock, causes yellow spots on the upper leaf surface, and orange-brown raised pustules on the lower leaf surface.   Wet conditions promote infection by the rust fungus. The lower leaves typically show symptoms first, and the disease slowly progresses to upper leaves over the summer. Infected leaves eventually turn brown, wilt, and die. Wind and splashing rain help spread the spores of the fungus, so spacing plants to promote good air circulation can help slow the progression of the disease. Because wet conditions favor infection, water the soil around the plants rather than wetting the leaves with overhead irrigation if possible.

I grew them in the corner of the fence, and they were too crowded. Four years ago, they were out in the other garden with plenty of airflow. I did have a big problem with Japanese beetles but no rust. This year there have been very few of them around anywhere. Funny how bugs go in cycles.

So I plan to clean up very well, and next year I won't grow them in the same place again. I'll give them lots of space and will water from below. 

And I wanted to note that the mallow was also affected by rust. Hollyhock and mallow belong to the same family malvaceae. 

When I mentioned in the post about the new garden that I had a whole blog entry planned on hollyhocks, both Lisa and Stephanie commented that they have a terrible time with rust, so here's hoping these tips will help all of us! Stay tuned to see if next summer's hollyhocks are rust free.

The Smartest Woman I Know by Ilene Beckerman

The Smartest Woman I Know

by Ilene Beckerman

nonfiction 2011

print

finished 8/11/16

I had planned to vacuum my downstairs today, but it was so, so hot (88º - remember we have no air-conditioning!) that I thought I’d better sit in front of the fan, beside the window on the north side of the house and read instead. 

I had ordered a book that was coming tomorrow, Kick: The True Story of JFK’s sister and the heir to Chatsworth by Paula Byrne, which I want to begin the minute I open the package. So, for my reading time today I knew that I needed a short book. I found this book on the shelf, and remembered that I had ‘won’ it on someone’s blog years ago. I did some searching, and found it was on the TLC book tours in 2011. There was a list of bloggers who wrote about it, and I found the one who sent it to me! 

The Smartest Woman I Know is a hundred page treasure. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it! Rather than write a regular book report, I shall tell you about it with photos of some pages.

And one of those customers was

Today's picture/Week eight CSA flowers