Jerusalem Artichokes and Golden Beets

Yesterday I picked up some fabulous golden beets from the farm I pass on my way to work. I ate the greens last night with grilled salmon steak and a maple s0y glaze. Yum.


What are these, you ask? Why these are the famous tubers of the Jerusalem Artichoke. Someone in my neighborhood was giving them away for free and I realized why--they can border on being invasive. She gave me some to eat and some to plant. I figured I should taste them first, right? They are good--water chestnutty--but nothing I'm fanatical about. I sort of like the plant though, they grow very tall and are in the sunflower family, so they get nice yellow flowers. Maybe I'll tuck them away somewhere in a corner of the property. Aren't they alien looking?

How Lucky Am I?

These pictures are from my hour-long lunch break. I just walked out my building and into this gorgeous world. That's incredibly lucky.

Duck Weed

I never said anything about this--our pond in the morning when I go down to get the eggs. It was just so beautiful. Sometimes pictures fail to get the everything though, the smell of the air, the temperature, the clouds trailing above, the low quacking of the ducks. It was a special little moment among many. It's nice to recognize that life is good, and it's doing it all on it's own. You just have to notice it.

Fawn Again!

I saw the fawn again. It's mother deposited it right smack in the middle of our yard, in between the pond and the road. Slightly strange. The grass was a little longer where it was in the middle, but still. And she didn't come back for it until mid-afternoon! I didn't want to get too close and scare it too much, but apparently you could pick it up and it wouldn't do a thing. All day long I would peek out the window or run over to the top of the hill to see if that little speck of polka-dotted brown was still there and it was. Finally, one time it was just green grass. I went down and there was a small, fawn shaped depression where it had been.

Freeport, LI

Last weekend we made an effort to go to Long Island and visit the ocean, which we miss so very much. In the summer, we feel the longing most of all, even though wintertime walks are also greatly appreciated. The day was hot and sunny but an ocean breeze cooled us off. As we drove to Jones Beach, we discussed our childhood memories of coming to the big beaches and what a special treat it was in comparison to our hometown beaches, among others, West Neck for me and Short Beach for Steve.

The air was salty and the beaches still not full when we pulled in at ten a.m. to Beach 2 and walked a ways down to set up camp. We walked and saw a few horseshoe crabs, which we felt bad for as their prehistoric numbers have been dwindling unnoticed, because they are, to most, ugly Eeyore types of creatures lumbering about on the sea floor. Actually, they are quite poetic in their own way, but that's an entirely different story. We saw some cut up chum fish and felt bad for the fish. But, we stayed lighthearted and slathered on sunblock which really DOES work!! (As we discovered the little bits that we missed turn bright pink back home.) Steve did the brave thing and went in the surf for one wave. It was terribly cold, this being June and all.

Later on, we realized the Nautical Mile was having its yearly festival replete with seafood snacks, fair food, rides and all the other sundry oddities that these kinds of events bring. We rode bikes to the fair which was so much fun, felt like a kid tooling around past all the stupid people in cars standing in traffic. Got a pineapple ice and ate free samples of shrimp salad, crab salad, fried this and that.

On Saturday night we went to the Helm, which is an old-school bar with incredible style: every kind of hat nailed to the ceiling with the wearer's name marked in black, chianti bottles, also with name and date, lined the ceiling's perimeter. A scruffy band played, and we sat at the bar soaking in the atmosphere. Steve felt compelled to do a shot of Jack Daniels before we rode our bikes home in the softly humid night.

Heat Wave

The past few days have been brutal and you just have to sit and take it. I made sure I didn't leave the office because the AC is swank in there, but once home we sit in the basement. Even the porch wasn't its usual respite. Thick, baking heat. We have a fan in our room but I do have a unit come August. We've never had one before but I do believe that in pregnancy you get some leeway with ice cream and air conditioning. The weather is back to normal and now it's just amazingly summerific out.

My Little Garden

This is when it looked very nice and neat. Now it's a little scraggly, but that is what it's all about.

Fawn

This morning as I zipped down to gather eggs and feed the ducks, I went along my way looking for eggs and new nests. Instead, I found to my great surprise a beautiful baby fawn curled up on the very edge of the pond where the water is not even an inch deep and the silty black mud is thick. It was the size of a house cat. I've never seen a fawn so close up before and it was so tightly curled, and its eyes were closed with the longest sweetest eyelashes ever. Steve came to look on his way to work and we realized we were probably scaring the bejesus out of it, poor thing. Its little nostrils were working overtime, but you couldn't see the distress on its body at all. I left it alone, and didn't even take a picture as we are wont to do these days, take a picture of everything otherwise we'll forget it in an instant, or never believe it ever existed. I had to go to work. I wondered and hoped that by the time I get back it'll be long gone.

Pickling

I forgot to mention that last week I quick pickled some red onions and radishes and they came out stellar. I simmered 2 cups of white wine vinegar with 1 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of kosher salt till dissolved. To season, I added two crushed cloves of garlic, a crushed knob of ginger, some coriander seeds and black peppercorns. After pouring this mixture over two cups of each vegetable (in separate mason jars) I let them cool, and then put them in the fridge. By dinner they were ready to eat. The onions are all gone. They were great as an addition to a sandwich. The radishes are like little chips, crisp and tangy.

Nutlet

"The fruit is a small, globose, downy, hard and dry cream-colored nutlet with a diameter of 8-10 mm."

Isn't that the best description ever? This is about the American Linden, or Basswood, or Lime Tree of which I have one of in my side yard.

Nutlet. Just such a great word.