Newman's Own

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It hit me again this morning when I pulled out my bag of coffee and saw his picture on it: he's gone.

The Goose

Total weight: over 30 pounds.

Elderberry Pond Farm

Elderberry Pond Farm

A friend and I went to the Organic Abundance Event at Elderberry Pond Farm yesterday, a fund raiser for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York. Despite the lack of sun and cool temps it was a great success.

There was however, one aspect of the event that I wasn't able to keep from putting a damper on the day. One of the local chefs happened to be particularly extroverted so while we were eating at his station we learned a bit – probably more than we needed to know – about him.

This very young looking man and his wife, who have in the past few years bought and rebuilt an old farmstead as an inn and restaurant, were graciously contributing to this fund raiser for organic farming but the details of their life seemed to me completely at odds with organic and sustainable farming.

The chef explained to everyone that his wife wasn't at the event because she was home taking care of their little boys, ages 4 years, 22 months and 6 months. When a guest mentioned that the chef couldn't complain about having only boys for obvious reasons, the chef said he and his wife weren't done and they were going to keep going as long as they could.

He was also promoting his inn by listing the amenities including jacuzzi baths and flat screen plasma TV's in each room. And what was he driving? A freakin' Escalade!!

Also this past week The Mister noticed a man buying organic milk and then carrying it out to his Lincoln Navigator.

I know I'm not always consistent myself but these folks just can't be spending much time thinking about what they're doing.

The Season of Bounty

I'm trying to be mindful of my great and good fortune in having such abundance but I'm just so weary after all the time I've been spending in the kitchen dealing with it while at the same time suffering from the worst seasonal allergies I've ever had. This week I've been turning mountains of cime de rapa into rapini and just when I thought I was making progress I received a gift of I-don't-even-know-how-many pounds of fresh wild goose last night.

But goose is a wonderful substitute for wild duck in the ragu, the sugo d'antra, I learned to make in Tocchi so I am right and truly grateful.

Ike

Ike still had a punch when it ripped through here early Monday morning and took out the power. We couldn't sleep for about two hours during the height of the windstorm and I spent a good part of that time wondering how people make it through the long hours of a full-fledged hurricane without going nuts.

Despite the downed tree limbs and general mess left by the storm I really do enjoy the quiet of the house when the power is out – as long as I can pull out my old Chemex and make a good cup of coffee for myself and my neighbor when she remembers I have a gas cooktop.

The Lorings

Lorings are still my favorite for canning. I wish I could preserve the beautiful colors in their skin but at least a good part of it bleeds into the flesh and makes for some lovely jam.

Not Yo Mama's Dilly Beans

Not the recipe I used years ago but one with more spices and in this batch my Metechi garlic and chiles japones. Two long weeks until we can crack open the quart of trimmings...

Fagiolini

I have a windfall of gorgeous organic Blue Lake beans. I was only planning to freeze a couple of packages of my own beans every few days but on Saturday one of the organic growers at the market had a bumper crop and was practically begging me to take a box. I couldn't pass 'em up.

Weather

It's hard to believe that we can be enjoying such glorious weather while the Gulf Coast hunkers down as Gustav approaches. But that's what we've got and we're making the most of it. After spending Saturday at the state fair where I enjoyed an hour or so getting as close as I could to 13 hitches of six draft horses each, we biked up to Oneida Lake yesterday and ended up doing over 40 miles before we went to our final baseball game of the season.