In my little town...

When I first dated Nicolas, fifteen years ago, I had mostly lived in big northern cities. Except for college, and some time in the near-to-Boston suburb of Newton, I'd lived in Boston and NY. When I moved to Atlanta I didn't have a car, or air-conditioning, in a city where both are pretty necessary for survival. Atlanta was supposed to be a pit stop on my way to Seattle and graduate school......

This, I fear, is about to turn into a major digression - about meeting and falling in love with my Belgian farmer. I'll save that for another night.

I'll just skip to the point (that I would have spent paragraphs of your time, those who were still here, getting to. ) The point is that I was a big-city girl with ignorant ideas about small town life. Even when I had already moved here, I still hung on to my big-city ways. I would farm during the day and then commute in to Atlanta to direct plays at night. I got my hair cut in Atlanta. I frequented the Atlanta thrift stores and bars and movie theaters. After having kids, I brought them into the city to hang out with my city friends' kids and felt the need to do city things. Just this past spring, I still drove Jesse an hour away to take a homeschool class he wanted to do, once a week. But over time, it has gotten less appealing to drive so far, not to mention the point that gas has started to become a luxury item.

I am becoming even more aware of and grateful for the people and resources out here. Actually, there are a lot. I can go weeks now without going into Atlanta. I think it may have been a month since my last visit. That's got to be a record.

This weekend was a great example of how much we can do out here within a ten-mile radius. On Saturday morning, we met local friends at the 6,400 acre Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center for a butterfly talk and walk. Charlie Elliot, only ten minutes down the road, sponsors several free workshops about nature and animals (plus camps, bird competitions, volunteer opportunities). The southern gentleman talking yesterday was filled with information about the butterflies that we could hope to find in our area. When the talk ended and we left the conference room to find the cool butterflies that we'd seen in his slides, I was very excited to finally be able to give one a name. Gillen, maintaining his cool on the very hot day, was eager to check them off on our butterfly list.

But the butterflies must have heard that we were coming (or they were all hanging out in Claudia or Gillen's gardens). We only found one.

We did see a bunch of dragonflies:I am looking forward to going to the dragonfly talk at Charlie Elliott in August.

The boys were just happy to find good temporary walking sticks:Later that day, we went to another nearby small town - Rutledge, where our kids (except for Jesse, who had been sick) had taken part in an art camp all week. The camp culminated in a celebration on Sat. afternoon and evening that included a blow up water slide, hot dogs and corn for the camp members, a short version of High School Musical (that they had put together in four days!) and all of their art work displayed in Rutledge's center of town square.

This should hold them off for a while on any need for a far-away water park:The following are three pictures from their High School Musical production, which was so sweet.
Some communal food art that the camp created- our more overgrown okra made an appearance here:
They created several of these sculptures, all with recycled materials. This one is from Gillen's group. The reason that we have cool opportunities like this, locally, is because of amazing people like these below. Ed and Molly are the couple that sponsored this camp. They live in Rutledge now, where they have an art studio and a sandwich/ice cream shop (housed in a train caboose that they moved there - this shouldn't just be parenthetical - it is so cool). They used to live right here, where I now sit, under this tin roof. While living here, Ed created this house's side porch, back deck, and the entire second floor and staircase, with his own hands, and his increasingly aching back. Their businesses pulled them to Rutledge. I drove by this house, eleven years ago, and was enchanted by the landscaping, and by the flowers that were painted on the windows. I never dreamed that we could live here. It turned out that not a lot of other people appreciated this old house, or even gave it a chance once they found out it didn't have air-conditioning. Ed and Molly let us rent it until we could buy it. They too are from Mass. Plus, I think they saw how much we appreciated their hundred year old, well loved home. And they are just good people.
Below is Eva, who put up the camp. She also works on our farm and teaches yoga in all of the surrounding towns. Yet another example of a talented, community-minded, generous local. I am appreciating our life out here, this moment. It would be nice to have a movie theater more nearby, or a bigger group of very local, like-minded home schoolers. But I will bide my time. I remember the years when I wondered if we'd have air conditioning. We got the air several years ago so I will wait optimistically on the rest.

Local summer - week six

After seeing Pinnochio in an eggplant, I can't stop seeing faces everywhere. You need to look at this one sideways:Jesse created some of his own.Of course, when I look at piles of vegetables on my counters waiting to be turned into sauce and salsa:
or dill pickles (these will be ready in only two days!):
or lemon cucumber...(anyone feel like filling in the blank on what to do with these?), I don't see faces, I see abundance.

Earlier in the week, I made greek salad with our peppers, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers. The feta was not local. For this second greek salad, Nicolas bought locally produced feta cheese, much to the kids' disappointment. Too goaty for them? But I loved it.
I will make gazpacho this week as well. It is the season of the tomato, when our mouths start rebelling from how much of it we are eating, but it still tastes way too good to be moderate.

Here is the quick pickle recipe - they are delicious, just like the ones from NY delis, that I miss.

From the book How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman:

Kosher Pickles

time:1 to 2 days

1/3 cup kosher salt
1 cup boiling water
2 pounds small (Kirby) cucumbers, washed (I used what we had - many more, and much bigger)
At least 5 cloves garlic, smashed
1 large bunch dill, preferably fresh and with flowers, or substitute 2 tbls. dried dill and 1 tsp. dill seed or 1 tbls. coriander seeds

-combine the salt and boiling water in a large bowl, stir to dissolve the salt. Add a handful of ice cubes to cool down the mixture, then add all of the remaining ingredients.

-Add cold water to cover. Use a plate that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowl and a small weight to hold down the cucumbers under the water. Keep at room temperature.

-Begin sampling the cucumbers after 4 hours if you've quartered them, eight hours if you've halved them or even 48 hours for that really "pickle-y" taste.

-When they are ready, refrigerate them, still in the brine. The pickles will continue to ferment as they sit, more quickly at room temperature, more slowly in the fridge. They will keep well up to a week.

Backyard Farming

Gillen and Jesse's backyard farm is doing well. The only thing that may not make it is the popcorn, but we're still hoping it is supposed to be short. The watermelons are looking promising. I'm loving that anything they grow here comes right in to our kitchen. The first run farm vegetables usually go to market, to stores or to restaurants. Of course we get plenty. But there are times when we go a whole season without tasting something that we grew because it was all sold or we just didn't think to bring it home. It is true abundance to have it right in the backyard, and grown by the boys.

Gillen's bird garden has exploded this year. It is full and wild, and attracting bees, hummingbirds (even without the hummingbird feeders), butterflies and lots of different dragonflies.

This is a picture from last week. Once a day, Gillen releases his poult from the cage, where it is living on our side porch. When it's big enough, it will move to the farm. A week ago, we thought "Invincible" was small. That was before he became the surrogate parent to three brand new tiny poults who are now sharing his space. We thought he might terrorize them but he is looking after them - cuddling up with them at night and pushing them to eat and drink. It's too bad the turkey parents wouldn't do this - at least not consistently.

Monday Farm Photos

It was eggplant picking and packing morning at the farm. I got to be on the packing committee with Gillen. This picture only represents less than one fourth of the total eggplant that was boxed this morning and will be coming to a Whole Foods near you (if you are in GA) very soon.

There are Calliope:Black Beauty:Asian (or Japanese):I didn't get pictures of the "Louisiana Long Green" or the "Snowy" Eggplant. Both are like the Asian, in taste and shape. But as the name says, one is white and one is green.

I thought that today marked the temporary closing of what has been the poult nursery on our side porch. The surviving poult, Invincible, is finally old enough to move to the farm today. But when we got to the farm we learned that three more poults had successfully hatched under an unsuspecting chicken, so the sound of baby poults will continue to fill our days. I truly am happy for Gillen that his turkey business seems to be making it after all.

We got to see all of the baby ducklings together under their tree. I like watching the Mommas, Jet and Mae Belle, waddle as they herd their offspring away from me. I am afraid I am getting to know them way too well. I can see myself helping them to escape before Christmas.Once home, away from all hard working, serious farmers' eyes, I was free to do what I'd wanted to do all morning (and only succeeded in doing once there) - take portraits of those eggplants that placed highest in The Eggplant Personality Contest that I sponsored for them while they underwent being boxed.

Here are the winners:An Asian contortionist:
This Louisiana Long Green was really loving her mermaid self.
The grand prize went to these two Calliopes for their strong, harmony-filled rendition of "Lean on Me":

One Local Summer - week five

A summer wreath:
We had vegetables and eggs from our farm tonight for our local only dinner. The corn, basil and tomatoes were from Gillen's portion of the back yard farm and the cherry tomatoes, green beans and eggs were from our big farm. We used butter from a farm in Moultrie, GA. We also did use cheddar cheese in the omellette and mozzarella cheese with the tomatoes, basil and olive oil. Both cheeses were organic, but not at all local. I drool when I look at Danielle's cheeses (this post of hers has great info. about cheese making) that she is creating with the milk from her new cow.

Earlier this afternoon, Gillen used blackberries that he and Nicolas picked this morning to make a blackberry cobbler. It didn't last long. We definitely need more of that in our life.
Nicolas saw my pictures and felt that the green beans were not represented enough. They are so hard to pick that they need to be appreciated fully. They truly were delicious. Small, tender, steamed fillet beans with a dab of butter melting over them. Mmmmm. What I need is a picture of the main farmer leaning over picking them, sweat on his brow, a burning ache in his back. They are almost as much of a pain to pick as okra, but just as good to eat.

A plug for Nanowrimo

I got so much help from this book, (No Plot, No Problem) written by the man behind the idea of Nonowrimo. I was wary of doing the challenge in November with everyone else as I wasn't sure how many hours I would have to myself in November. It would have been great to have had a huge pool of fellow writers who just experienced the same insanity for a month - to share the let-down and also congratulate each other. Maybe I'll do this again some November. The book was my support. His advice worked so well for me that I'm continuing to follow it now. He recommends leaving the writing alone for a few weeks before starting revisions. I am wanting to keep going. But I think my brain needs to look elsewhere for awhile - like to the real bees in my back yard. They are taking over the hummingbird feeders, drinking all of the sugar water within a day of filling it for the birds. It's time to go have a serious talk with them, though I may have to channel my favorite character, brave Beatrice.I learned a few things about myself doing this challenge:

• Sometimes I need structure (in this case - deadlines, word counts, daily routine) to get going. This realization has helped me to understand one of my sons better.
• I am a writer. I may not be a good writer but I'm not going to feel self-indulgent for doing it.
• I learned that you ought to be in shape before you sit at a computer for hours. It can be a dangerous thing to not move at all for hours and then jump up and dance as if you were still young and nimble when a good song emerges on your writing soundtrack.
  
• Until my kids are older, I will only write when they are happily occupied or asleep.
  

The book's bees did deliver their message last night and then landed, much more gracefully than I had hoped. The first draft is done. I'm waiting on the champagne for the revision, or until Nicolas and I are not too tired to enjoy the whole bottle - whichever comes first ; )

Moday's Farm Photos

Seven more ducklings! This momma, Jet, is just as protective as Mae Belle. She has had her babes hidden under a short table in the greenhouse. We got lucky yesterday and got to see them following her back there after a trip to the water.

It was the annual Camp Kingfisher farm day, when a group of 13-14 year old campers come from their nature camp, an hour away, for a day of work at the farm. Nicolas gets a gift certificate for a canoe ride for all of us on the Chattahoochee River. Gillen loved working with them yesterday.The weather has been so mild this week. It was painless being outside, even in the middle of the day. Jesse had no interest in farming but very much wanted to be with me. We spent a few hours together in our farm's small fig tree grove - reading, writing, talking, getting bitten by ants and finding blackberries:
Dancing around the fig tree:Practicing the ancient art of moving flower petals with crossed eyes:

51,733 and counting...

I did it. The O'Riley Bees reached 50,000 words on Friday. So, I made the word count. But the story is not over. I would have added many more words over the weekend but I sensed that the youngest member of my family had reached his word-count limit for a while.

By the time the kids were asleep last night, I was spent and had no more energy to go finish the story. A giant swarm of Beatrice's benevolent bees are hanging out over the ocean waiting to finally make it to Block Island and give their message to the throngs of people who are there to gawk at the visiting President. Paddy is no longer a bee, but a ghost, and Finn has yet to meet his father.

It is farm day so we are off to the farm to see yet another set of new ducklings! There will be Monday Farm photos later.

This challenge (and possibly, this adrenaline writing rush) ends tonight. I have to finish the first draft by the time I break out the champagne after dinner. Even if it means a really bad B-movie climax, the bees have to have landed!

"One Local Summer" challenge - week four

Our local only meal included mashed potatoes with Yukon Golds from our farm and local milk and butter. There was salad and sliced onion from the farm - the onion was so sweet we could eat it raw. The best part of the dinner were the grilled pork spare ribs from Riverview Farms in north Georgia. The Terrapin Golden Ale was from an Athens brewery, an hour away.
We have eaten lots of zero-miles food this week, as more of our summer vegetables ripen. We snacked on heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers, eaten fresh off the farm with a bit of salt. The Crimson Sweet Watermelon was not ready yet, but that didn't stop Gillen from eating one - it was juicy but almost completely white! He thought it tasted great. The rest of us are going to wait a few more weeks.

We also had some of the last lettuce that we'll have until the fall. There will be a bit of salad mix still for customers at the market but no more salads at home for a while.

Using local Riverview Farms grown and milled corn meal (we also ate their grits this week) we had corn bread and fried okra, cooked the way Alton Brown and the NY Times taught me - in a cast iron skillet. Here is the recipe for the okra from a few years ago. I just skipped the flour part and I used coconut oil. The picture I took of it this year doesn't do it justice. But here is one of the corn bread and tomatoes:Last night we ate four to five inch ears of corn from Gillen's section of the backyard farm. It didn't get enough sun to grow to full size so Nicolas also brought some corn home from another farmer at the market. Honestly, Gillen's really were sweeter. Mmmmm. Tonight, we are using Gillen's basil to make pesto and his first eggplant in a medley of roasted vegetables.

Phobias

Jesse has a horror of thunderstorms. It started when he read the Magic Tree House book about a tornado (he will forever be able to quote which number - #23) on the same day that he read the one about the earthquake (another number etched in his mind - #24). This was a few summers ago, on the fourth of July. That night, we took my born-on-the-fourth-of-July father to a Braves game. A big thunderstorm erupted in about the fourth or fifth inning with giant winds and the drama of people running all around us for cover under the awnings. Jesse has never been the same since. We live in Georgia. Big thunderstorms are a part of summer here. There have been three short ones just this week. Jesse and our dog, Tuki, have both been shivering phobic sad sacks. I was thinking that he managed to overcome his fear last year, as I didn't remember him reacting this way. But then I remembered. Last summer there weren't many storms. We were in a drought. If we had any, the intensity of our family joy over rain for the vegetables may have kept Jesse from having room to be afraid, or we just over powered the thunder with our screaming?

Jesse's fear of storms had developed into a dislike of regular old rain. Then he saw a picture of Logan (a much older unschooling boy who taught him to play yu-gi-oh at an unschooling conference four years ago and is still thought of as a hero). In the picture, Logan is outside in torrential Florida rain. He looks so happy. He is loving the rain. Plus he happens to be next to four very cool looking girls. Jesse saw the picture and announced, "I don't think I'll be afraid of rain anymore." He was right. Here he is, outside in the rain, a few days after that:

But he is more afraid of thunder and lightning than ever. : (

I know irrational fear. When I was in fifth grade, my best friend at the time, Sally Solomon, brought me to her mother-the-scientist's laboratory, at Boston College. She had a very large rat in a cage. In my memory, it must have been four feet long. I have had a big fear of mice and rats ever since. This week, when Gillen had a chance to learn how to feed wounded wild animals, with Pete - one of the cool wildlife guys at Charlie Elliott Nature Center (something Gillen has been wanting to do for years) my seemingly insurmountable fear of mice had to go away. I had to be there. There were lots of frozen mice and rats to be weighed, and then fed to assorted snakes and birds:


It was fantastic how quickly I let go of my fear of flying too, when I had to fly with my own little people and didn't want them to be afraid.

I'm not saying I'm over the rat and mouse thing. The rodents this week were frozen, not to mention dead. I am going to pretend to be over it and see what happens the next time a live one is in my vicinity. I sure would love it if Jesse didn't have to wait until he has kids (or a girlfriend) to get over his fear. I was thinking of having some kind of ceremony to help him let the fear go and let the thunder in... Anyone have any better ideas? Or experience with phobias?