Family photo, at Duck's Cosmic Kitchen

I think this may be the first family one in a year. Gillen looks like he's been drinking our beer but he was actually way energized by the sweet tea.

The lovely locavore Virginia Dupree offered to take it last night. We were at one of the dinners that she puts together with the Decatur restaurant, Duck's Cosmic Kitchen, to highlight eating locally.

Three years ago, Virginia was eating lunch at Duck's and reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle. She remembers what she was eating and that it was local. Between the delicious meal and the writing, she was inspired to take action. She put out an email to some friends asking if they would like to eat a meal with only locally produced ingredients at a local restaurant. That was on a Friday. By Monday, the word had spread and she had enthusiastic commitments from sixty people.

Now, there is usually a long waiting list for each dinner. She always includes a local farmer or other locavore, to eat with the gang and then talk about the specifics of eating local. The next dinner is hosting a local canner.

Nicolas and his mother went once before. Last night, Gillen was invited to join him in order to talk about his heritage breed turkeys. Jesse and I decided to join them. It was so nice - Tomato Pie, locally produced steak, Vidalia onion rings, blueberry sorbet served with orange and red watermelon. And Gillen was quite a wonderful speaker. Here, he is being transformed by his love of the desert:If you live in Atlanta or Decatur, Duck's Cosmic Kitchen (usually only open for lunch) is very special.

Father's Day

The boys are back in town! We are so happy to have them home.

It was a good week. Jesse created a video game called "Sacred" and Gillen had a blast discovering the world of Crime Scene Investigation. I didn't rewrite a book or anything but that will come. I'm taking my time on the rewrite. I did de-clutter closets, photos and my mind!

Back to the joy of baseball in the backyard followed by pool relief.
Jesse is wearing his new baseball birthday gifts - a Blue Jays hat from Poppy and cleats from us.

This is one great papa. It will be challenging to show him just how much we love him. Gillen made him meusli this morning. They both made sweet cards. I got him some new headphones. We're going to see "Up" with him later. It's not a parade, like I'd like. But it's a start.

Time

Too often, lately, it moves lightening fast. It blurs by, just like Fracas while in pursuit of a frog; or on a low to the ground sneak inside to grab a lap:That is how quickly my boys seem to grow.At least he is still using the wrong side of Nicolas' razor, and apparently even the wrong end of his face:
At least there are still dinosaurs on the edge of the bathtub.

I love Nicolas in pajamas.

I will be gone for a time, to Montana, where my little sister lives with her husband and new baby girl, Isha. I am respectfully requesting (in my mind) that there be no growing while I am gone.

sigh.

It is way too soon to be leaving them again. Once a year makes way more sense than twice in one month.

Where the Boys Are

This past weekend, visiting Boston and Brookline and my friends from thirty years ago, was magical. I loved growing up in that part of the world alongside those people. Much of my long-ago past rushed back to me through the city smells, the walking, the subway rides, the ancient bricks, the street signs and through the (previously forgotten to me) stories shared by my friends. I will post about it soon.

Today, it was all about my guys. Being away from them for a few days, especially when there is a plane involved, always makes me smotheringly appreciative of them when I return. I so love Boston. But this is where the boys are.

Nicolas hosted a big Seeds of Change event at the farm today. I blogged about it at that other blog. I love watching him talk about the farm. Even better was the moment when he pulled me into the barn, opened the cooler and... (you're having crazy thoughts now, aren't you) handed me a huge bunch of asparagus he'd put aside for me. Mmmmm...as good as my first kiss ever, with red-headed John Tayer in seventh grade.
There were thirteen new additions to the farm over the weekend. Twelve are from Gillen's heritage breed turkeys, the Bourbon Reds. One is a Standard Bronze turkey. Gillen's glad that he will have so many new heritage birds. He is feeding the poults yogurt and egg yolk (thanks to Danielle) and we hope this group will make it.
Jesse gave me a tour of the vegetables he had discovered on "that really long day" (Friday) that he spent at the farm while I was gone. Thankfully, he had a great time the rest of the weekend.

The tomatoes have outgrown him:
He led me to his favorite row - the sugar snap peas - and picked me a handful.
Despite my love of the Boston Public Library, which I did get to re-visit, there is something to be said for reading Calvin and Hobbes in the middle of an unoccupied field:It is good to be home.

Farm Tour

The Georgia Organics conference is happening in Decatur this year, only 45 minutes from our farm. So seventy of the conference participants came on a bus to our neck of the woods for a farm tour.

For the first time in years, I watched Nicolas' whole tour. He is quite a speaker. And he looked good - talking about his Belgian roots, his hoop houses, his asparagus, and general farming advice, under a cloudless sky. He had put on one of his least-worn button-up farm shirts for the occasion. When Gillen went with him to the farm this morning I heard him ask Nicolas why he was so dressed up. :) Here he is at the asparagus bed.Tom Stearns, who owns High Mowing Seeds (and whom we drank lots of wine with at Terra Madre) is in the red plaid shirt and vest to the left. He's created a hugely successful business by simply growing organic plants for seeds. He is also one of the guys talking and writing about Slow Money.

In a few weeks, Nicolas and Jesse are going to work with a big Atlanta chef on a cooking demo at our Atlanta organic market. The audience will be elementary school kids. I'm so glad that Jesse wants to do this. He's really excited. I had to take a picture of them today for publicity:Gillen also led a tour, in which he talked about his turkey business, the hoop houses and the worm farm. He speaks (maybe :) even better than his father. I hadn't even known he knew all that! Very cool. Here he is explaining about the worms:And after being asked what they look like:Tonight, Nicolas and I are going to a small Slow Food dinner that will include Michael Pollan. He is in town to speak at the Georgia Organics conference tomorrow tonight. I hope I don't gush - through my mouth or arm pits. I'm really impressed by his ability as a writer and am grateful that he got so many people talking about factory farming, organics and eating local. Though I am not as enamored as my friend Helen (whom I really hope gets to meet him tomorrow night), I did put on lipstick; and I am going to put my telephoto lens on my camera so as to capture him from afar.

Farm Gifts

From Gillen - wild peach and plum blossoms with the unique addition of straw. I love this boy's bouquets.
The following picture is from tonight. The farmers brought home the season's first asparagus. In Nicolas' hand is the farm's first ever cilantro! I wish that I could post the invigorating smell. Nicolas is trying to recreate the look he had in this picture, from last year, when he brought me asparagus for the very first time. My gratitude was immense.
If you get some asparagus this spring (and I so hope that you do) please try roasting it, with olive oil and coarse salt. Oh! Green ecstacy. For me, this is the taste of spring.

Visionary Dinner

Last night, Nicolas and I were guests at the annual visionary dinner. It is put on by Southface, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable living, particularly sustainable housing. I learned from the keynote speaker, Bracken Hendricks, that housing accounts for almost half of our total energy needs. Wow. That is a lot. Imagine if we just changed all future housing (and renovated current housing) to safe, carbon efficient or carbon-neutral what an impact that would have on our future? Imagine the jobs entailed in doing this? Hendricks' emphasis was upon confronting the economic crisis and global warming with hope and vision, seeing crisis as an opportunity for change. He quoted Martin Luther King - "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Nicolas and I have been working towards reducing our carbon footprint, but could do so much more. Our dryer (yes, all winter I used the dryer) is starting to die so there is my crisis that will create positive change. I just need a better clothes drying rack situation, in the light and out from under our bug filled trees.

We have been to these dinners before but this was the first time that we were seated at a front table. Nicolas' arugula and green garlic were used by the brilliant Iron Chef winner Kevin Rathbun in his short ribs main course and Nicolas and I(!) were asked to stand. They even showed the audience the video that Whole Foods had produced about Nicolas, as well as a few about other local sustainable meat farmers whose food we were eating. It was exciting to see emphasis placed upon the whole, big sustainable picture - from the food we eat to the houses we choose to build, to the policy we choose to support. We were seated at the Whole Foods table and I was impressed by how much they are doing to promote more sustainable practices, particularly more humane animal farming policies. The event took place at a ballroom in the Georgia Aquarium. We ate next to the Beluga whales on one side and the whale sharks on another. They are magnificent. I admit to feeling a little bit conflicted about these big guys' indoor housing as well as about the fact that Coca Cola won an award for promoting sustainability. But just a very little bit. It was a delicious, hopeful night.

Citizen Nicolas Pierre Aglae Marie Joseph Donck

We spent much of the day today in the Atlanta Homeland Security Office, where the kids and I witnessed Nicolas going through the last step of the long process of becoming a U.S. citizen. Well, mostly we sat in a waiting room. But then finally, after three hours of playing hang-man and twenty questions and lots of talk about hunger (we hadn't expected it to take so long and had not eaten) we entered the "ceremony room" and got to witness the swearing-in of Nicolas and 120 other newly approved citizens. There were 52 countries represented. A lot of people had many friends and family there to celebrate this rite of passage with them. Although Nicolas chose to get his citizenship mostly due to his father and I nudging him to do so (I wanted him to be able to vote, and his dad - to have the same passport as the kids and I when we are overseas), it was a very big deal for most of the people in that room today. I don't think that we should take ourselves so seriously, as United States citizens, but also, I never want to take the privilege of what it represents for granted.

And yes, this post's title does include Nicolas' legal name. It is made up of his godparents' names and, humorously, the parents of Jesus. He has no idea from whence this tradition sprung - whether it was family or religion or Belgium. He doesn't give things like this much thought. He is busy thinking about how many potatoes he needs to get in the ground when he finally gets back to the farm. He is the salt of the earth, citizen of this planet. I'm grateful he is here in this corner of it with me.

Slide Show of Nicolas

Nicolas is the featured farmer at the Whole Foods web site. Their pictures of the farm are wonderful. And you get to hear his sweet Belgian/southern accent, an accent which I heard as being mid-western when I first met him. Maybe wrong about the accent by my intuition was right about him.

Thirteen Years

I convinced Nicolas to go into a photo booth with me last night at our local movie theater. He probably thought I had something really fun in mind. No, I just wanted shots of us on our thirteenth anniversary. That's crazy, out of the norm behavior enough for me!

We're looking ok for having just ingested bar food, coca-cola, popcorn, snowcaps and gummie bears (it was our anniversary - we went all out. Ohdear, my naturopath MIL is reading this...) Plus, we had just seen yet another very stressful thriller about the CIA and the war - "Body of Lies", which had me squinting so hard in distress that I am surprised I could then stretch my face back out into a smile so quickly.

It's been fifteen years since we met, waiting tables at a vegetarian restaurant in Little Five Points in Atlanta. I was directing at my brother's theater and Nicolas was just starting his farm. I was planning a move to Seattle, to go to grad. school for theater and hopefully reunite with my ex-boyfriend.

Thankfully, fate intervened. He brought me on my first camping trip, ever! His mother healed my chronic fatigue. He was the most authentic, down to earth guy I'd ever met (I'd only ever dated actors or musicians). He said "funerable" rather than "vulnerable" - this really got me. He spoke French. He had lost most of his hair when he was eighteen. He has beautiful blue eyes and the best smile, ever.

I remember the moment when I made the decision to think about us as more than just friends who go out for a beer after every Wed. night shift. It was a Thursday. Nicolas was working. I was not. I lived in Little 5 Points and was on my way to get myself dinner. I stood at a cross-roads. If I walked to the right, I would be going to the health food store, Sevenanda, to get myself a hummus sandwich. If I walked straight forward, I would be going to Eat Your Vegetables, our restaurant, to order an EYV salad and then hang around with the serious European waiter while it was being put together. I knew that he would know that I had chosen to go there to see him. This was a big move. It was easily made.

The profoundness of my having shown up may have been - ok, was absolutely - lost on Nicolas, the Belgian. He is straightforward and, after all, he is male. But that was the moment I think about every year at this time and I feel so grateful that I chose the salad.

What I CAN do

Inspired by the arrival, starting next weekend, of five separate groups of friends and family over the next month or so, I started seeing my home this week, as I hadn't seen it since my sister's wedding two years ago (last time we had many people here). I noticed how cold our old drafty house is and realized that it may be a bit much to ask our friends and family to bring longunderwear in order to gather together in the living room. We are in Georgia after all. I noticed how I start to feel eye-strain after talking and looking at anyone for more than ten minutes in the living room at night - not much light in there. And I recognized our rugs, once again, for what they are. They may once have been a great deal at the Pottery Barn outlet but now there is no denying it anymore. They are dingy scrapbooks of what we have crafted and eaten for the past several years. So for the past week, I have done a lot of research. We ended up ordering rug tiles from FLOR; I'm getting lamps at IKEA this week; and I carried the borrowed Singer machine to the dining room table, along with its manual, in order to face down my sewing phobia once and for all and make curtains.

"If I can learn how to work this thing, I can do anything!" I boldly announced for all to hear, hoping to model getting over the fear of learning something new to my boys. In hindsight, I believe I should have taken a more quiet approach. After reading the manual four times, in order to learn how to get the right colored thread on the bobbin and then set the tension, I started to sweat. I decided that I couldn't go any further without a new empty bobbin so realized that this task needed to be put on hold, again, until I could get to a store. An hour later, another brilliant avoidance realization hit me. Insulated curtains mean sewing through lots of material. Looking up different needle and cloth possibilities on this machine, I was relieved to note that it can only handle medium-weight material.

YES! I will face down my sewing phobia, and thus be able to conquer anything... just with the help of a live person, and not today.

I researched insulated curtain options on the internet and may even be commissioning my sewing genius friend to make them for us.

So, for the rest of the sew-free day, I concentrated on what I can do well - make lists of things I need to do and take pictures of others doing things well.

Here is Gillen, dressed in his OLD, very small little league baseball pants and socks with his organic farmer shirt. He is compelled to put this outfit on before playing baseball in the back yard with Jesse. Every time. Even if they only have ten minutes or so to play before we have to go to soccer practice (for which he has to change). I so love this boy.


Here is Nicolas putting up a clothesline for me - something I have had on my list to do since the sticky notes list back in August.


I kind of like this dark picture of terra-cotta colors that I captured from the side porch. Squash are photogenic.

Now I am off to eat the gluten-free (so I can eat it without a rash!) cake that Gillen made for us and the squash soup that Nicolas made. Yes, I am that lucky. I will redeem myself, with better examples of what I can do, starting tomorrow. ;)

Two Anniversaries

On October 15th, 1995, Nicolas and I were wed, by my amazing step-father Wilson, at a beautiful plantation a few miles from here. Two years ago, on that same day, I started this blog. I have paid much more attention to this blog (and other's blogs)in the past seven months than I did the first seventeen. It would stand to reason that I then gave less attention to my husband, which is sometimes true. I think he has appreciated the nights when he gets to watch more sports, uninterrupted by my "sharing" or by my need to change the channel. I'll have to ask him tonight, when all my attention is on him, on an actual date!

I have grown really fond of the blogging world. It gives me a way to connect to so many fabulous people, to ramble freely about whatever I please and gives me somewhere to put these pictures I so like taking. The only problem is that there are too many amazing blogs and too little time. I need some sort of blog IV to get my fix, while still being able to grind the spelt, soak the beans, create a full and varied life with the kids and watch the Red Sox with Nicolas - they're back, in the playoffs, Manny sporting wilder hair and more attitude than ever, Poppi even more focused, and I am loving the possibilities...

This next blogging year, I intend to get better at juggling everything in my life, not just my favorite blogs. As for my marriage, I aim to convince Nicolas that he doesn't really look quite as great as he thinks in these sunglasses:
oh, and find a way to get him to have more fun and less work.

Unusual still-life

Except for Gillen's first soccer game happening tonight, on this new travelling team he is on, it is another quiet day at home of crocheting, games, swimming and Harry Potter. It's been a while since I included the farm so I took this picture of a Cockscomb bouquet that Nicolas brought home on Friday. To me, they look like red velvet brains. I prefer Sunflowers. But they are unique. I was taking this still-life, when over the top of a Cockscomb, I saw this even more unusual still-life:


"Nicolas with National Geographic, on a Monday."
He is our favorite thing to bring home from the farm.

Nicolas on TBS this morning

This may only be showing locally. I'm not sure. There is a show called "Storyline" on TBS at 9am and one of the stories this morning will be an interview with Michael Touhy of Woodfire Grill, a successful Atlanta restaurant. Michael is a big supporter of local organic growers. They taped part of the interview at our farm and interviewed Nicolas as well. The same show has musicians Shawn Mullins and one of the members of REM. Nicolas and I used to wait tables together at a restaurant in Atlanta. He was just starting a farm and I was starting a theater. "Eat Your Vegetables", in Little Five Points, was where we met. That was also where I served a younger Shawn Mullins lunch many days. It's cool that he and Nicolas will be on the same show today.

While he is being shown on TBS, live Nicolas will be selling tomatoes (among many other things, but they are the biggest hit) this morning at the Morningside Farmers Market.

Jesse's party was super. ; ) Here he is in a tree with two of his favorite gifts, a balloon hat that he made with the balloon kit he got, and the unbelievably cool (I am in awe of people who sew well) pokemon bag that was made by Helen.

There were about 40 people there but it didn't feel like it at all - probably because some of those people (some of the sweetest) were under two feet tall. Jesse wanted all of these people there. He hand picked them. But when it comes down to it, he is somewhat of an introvert. He spent a lot of the day in his room with a few fellow Pokemon fans, playing Pokemon. When we all sang to him, I saw him really take in that he was surrounded by lots of smiling faces and he looked so humble and happy. Of course I don't have a picture but I think I'll remember that one.

A few families stayed until 9pm. It was great. All the kids played kick ball with Nicolas, swam, had a water balloon fight - I got soaked - and we picked up pizza (no delivery out here) so I didn't have to cook.

This morning, Gillen made fruit salad and pancakes for Nicolas for Father's Day and Nicolas got his wish of just sitting and reading outside, with Marley playing in the background and his boys calmly reading next to him. Gillen is reading "Farmer Boy" and is truly loving it. There is a book club about this book next month in Decatur. I'm so glad he has discovered the joy of reading


I hope you are having a good weekend too.

They made us brunch

The moms of the local part of the family - my MIL, my SIL, Isabelle and I were treated to a brunch yesterday made by the guys. It could have been served in a five star restaurant, it was that good. And the table! Gillen loves to make flower bouquets and centerpieces for the table. Look at what he did yesterday, complete with sun ordered up to hit the table dramatically.
The food was incredible. Bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese, pancakes, a huge fruit salad, eggs from the farm scrambled with raw milk and cream cheese, mimosas...
It was the best mother's day yet.

Farming

It was a beautiful day today, cool and sunny. The boys and I helped Nicolas by cutting the greens off of the last of the season's baby turnips.
Gillen ate more turnips than he threw in his bucket. They are so good. Have you ever roasted a turnip? Incredibly sweet.

Eventually they both went off to do other things. Gillen made a wooden, chained sign for a "natural restaurant", painted the name in red paint with his finger, and hung it on a tree. Jesse created an "edible" lunch (as opposed to their usual non-edible restaurant play items I guess) of a sandwich filled with bok choi, a turnip and a strawberry. He meant to save it for Papa's return from the back fields but got hungry and ate it himself.

They played and I got to farm alone for awhile. I do like farming, in these perfect weather conditions. It is good to be outside. I have blisters on my hands from last week's hoeing and today my nails had that old stained black look that a manicurist had struggled with before my wedding 11 years ago. No longer a full-time farmer, it easily washed off today.

Here's the mark of long-term, full-time farming. I am happy to say that Nicolas is out of his slump about his chosen profession. Today, just his hands are looking tired.

Sustainability

Here is another example of how Nicolas is the better human being. He doesn't waste paper. Ever. Not once since I met him thirteen years ago have I seen him just grab a piece of fresh, new, 8 x 10 paper and start writing. He is a born recycler.

Me, I loooove paper. I kept a journal for years and years and picking out my new one was always a big deal. I love graph paper and origami paper and cool wrapping paper and I used to make my own handmade paper (but not, I admit, because of any sense of wanting to spare trees), though I did also buy lots of recycled paper.

Now that scrapbooking has become such a huge hobby, man... the PAPER. So many incredible designers creating multiple possibilities of mood and style and texture in a 12 x 12 sheet of what used to just be paper.

Hence, Nicolas' pad of paper for work; this little pad to the left that is finally down to two sheets of paper, tiny notes about vegetable orders on both sides of the wrinkled sheets. To the right, a glimpse of my paper stash, stacked into two tightly packed containers. And my dirty little secret is even bigger. When I was at MOMA last year I bought a book of sticky notes that were designed by Lotta Jansdotter . I'm talking 8 different books of decorated paper contained in a bigger book. But you have to see these sticky notes! I use them sparingly and when I do, they truly brighten my day. Oh. do you know about mulberry paper? How about heavy weight vellum - translucent, coming in many differnt colors and patterns and when you emboss it...




But back to the difference between Nicolas' sustainability and mine. He is the recycler. Now, I do recycle - everything. I just happen to also be the buyer, and not always of recycled goods. He simplifies, I layer. He is aman of few words. I am a woman of many. But I do have to say that many of them (my words) - not having been fully appreciated the first time, are recycled.

Here is the big lesson, for me. Nicolas' energy sustains him through many hours of hard labor on the fields and then hours of family. My energy comes in passionate explosions of creativity and generosity; and then utterly fails me. His is recycled, mine often has to be recreated from scratch.

the moral: because of sustainability issues I need to blog more (hence using less paper to scrap book) and recycle (some) of my cool papers into farm notebooks for my husband. I need to talk less, breathe more and maybe even plant some more trees.