Photos full of memories

In October I went up to Minnesota and Wisconsin to visit my mom and family. The plan was to help my parents put their gardens to bed for the winter, but instead I managed to overdo it before I even left home, rendering my back useless to the garden work plan.

Emily (the young monkey!) – Hollywood, FL

My mom and I always seem to have enough to do whether it is at their home in Minnesota or over at the lake in Wisconsin. I was able to help do a few garden projects and we did manage to transplant a few rhubarb plants over at the cabin. I had a chance to spent a fun night with my second cousin and I also spent some time with my brother and my two nieces. Go Go Go. Never a moment of rest! But that is why I go; to help out and have some fun along the way (if time permits.)

My brother at the lake

Over the past 7 years, my mom and I have been going through boxes and shelves, sorting and deciding what to do with all the “stuff.” Every time we came up any sort of photo or slide, we labelled the box and put it with the rest of the photos on one shelf. We knew that would be a big project, but wanted to stay focused on other “things” first.

Because I was unable to do much of anything, we spent time going through photos and slides. The first box I grabbed was a lot of fun. It was a mix of many years and full of photos I haven’t looked at in a long long time. As I went through the box I took some quick photos of a few to put them on the computer. It has been so much fun to email them to my brother or friends that are in those photos. We are all getting some good mileage out of them.

My Gramps had a Trading Post and gas station in Wisconsin. It was fun to come across some photos from that time. He also sold alumicraft boats and motors, LP gas, concrete statues and birdbaths. I can still remember the bog cow trough filled with water where he would set up the boat motors so he could run them, work on them and also show customers. He also traded a lot when people wanted a bit of gas for their car. His trading post of packed full of treasures. He hung a lot of them from the ceiling because the floors and every nook and cranny already had something in it. The front window was filled with fishing lures – again hung. I vividly remember a ventriloquist doll that hung from the ceiling.

Out front, sitting between the gas pumps was a totem pole. When we sold the station and house we took the totem pole down and moved it to our cabin where it still stands. My mom and I restored it twice since then and it is time to work on it again… next summer.

Mom and I had a chance to set up the old slide viewing rack and go through several boxes of slides. What fun that was. Sailing slides, travel, lake slides, slides from when my brother and I were babies and growing up. Slides of trips my grandparents took to Cuba and Puerto Rico and Mexico too. Lots and lots of slides. I brought many of them back to Texas with me in hopes of getting them converted to a digital image on a little converter that I have. It just takes time, but I hope to work on them little by little so we can all enjoy them for years to come.

Do you look through old photos every now and then?

Sincerely, Emily

P.S. As we gear up for the holiday season, the contributors at NDIN are hosting a series of giveaways. Be sure to check out Miranda’s post yesterday to see what she is offering and be sure read all the posts over the next few weeks to see what else we have in store for our faithful readers.

You can see what else I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily. The topics are varied, as I jump around from gardening to sewing to making bread or lotion and many things in between.

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Landscape

Some things in life are guaranteed: the sun will rise in the east, corn will grow in Illinois, and there will be construction on I57 at Kankakee.

From the wide sky over Lake Michigan, waves rolling into the shore; the sight is worth the sand blowing tiny stings into my bare skin as I cross the beach. The aftermath of storm has left a rare rip tide. I ride it out of town.

I miss the prairie.

Another wide sky, with nothing to block it except the occasional wind farm coming over the horizon. Unlike the lake’s wide sky, this one fills the pirouette– no wall of highrises behind me. An inch of landscape and a mile high sky, all the way around.

As I roll down the highway in the early bright morning, my eyes and my heart are full with my love for this landscape.

In keeping with the  farmland solitude, the college town that is my destination is in that deep breath before the storm: the waiting period between summer and fall, before the cityites and suburbanites descend with their noisy, store-bought culture, forcing the eye back to ground level.

You can keep your mountains, and rolling blue hills, the picturesque, the monumental, and the grand. This land speaks to me,  fills my soul and completes the circuits in my brain in a way that I can’t describe. Why do I forget this in the city, where I pretend to be like city folk, louche and sophisticated. Is anyone fooled?

I dream of returning to a place with a horizon, with the endless prairie sky, uninterrupted- no mountain, no valley, scaled by the gods.

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REAL Local: More from England

I know that our REAL Local series has come to an end, but I still wanted to share a few more things that I found while traveling in England.

We bought a book at one of the castles we stopped and I loved the bag it was packaged it – love the words. I have no idea if it was made locally, or even made in England, it was just nice to see the words on the bag. They weren’t an after thought, the words were the bag.

I found some cookies that hit the spot one day…. and had to pack some to eat on the plane, right?! They only fit the “L” in S.O.L.E.(Sustainable, Organic, Local,  Ethical), but they are made in England.

Ginger Nuts cookies – England

I knew I must bring home some tea. While I know the tea was not grown in England, I tried to buy from a company with good ethics (and a pretty box too!) After reading about them on their website, I think I made a good choice.

I was really amazed when I was looking at some the packages in the little markets I went into. I was mainly looking to buy a few food items to snack on along the way and a few things to bring home with us. Many things in the cookie and cracker sections (or at least most of the ones I looked at) were made in England. Many others said made in the U.K. also. Now, I know the “U.K.” covers are larger area, my point it that it wasn’t imported from some other far, far away place.  That was refreshing to see.

I also am in the habit of picking up tea towels with I travel. They are a great souvenir, easy to pack and useable. This one (and a few others were made in England!) Yippee!

REAL Local – Made in England!

One more item that I purchased to bring home as a souvenir of our trip. We went into an antique shop in Chipping Campden and just wandered around. I would have loved to have loaded a suitcase with all sorts of wonderful finds and I did warn my husband that if I found a wonderful old candelabra that it was coming home with us some way, some how. Instead I picked out a simple (and inexpensive) silver-plated serving spoon.

I completely forgot to as the women what she knew about the pattern. I am under no false illusion that it is valuable or rare; it was the right price and it packs easily. It has a bunch of markings on the back, symbols really, no words. One day I will find out more about it. Until then, I will just use it and enjoy it and remember our trip.

Sincerely, Emily

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REAL Local in England

We just came back from a wonderful two weeks in England. While the rest of the contributors here at Not Dabbling in Normal have been focusing on what they are finding local where they live, I decided to look at what I found local where we were traveling and mainly focusing on the local food I found.

Home Farm B&B – Full English Breakfast

We started our trip in London. Our breakfast was at the hotel every day and the girls that waited on us had no idea what I was asking when I asked where the food came from. Even revising my question didn’t help, you see, these girls were Italian and seemed to speak very little English. Dinner didn’t go any better while we were in London. The food we had was great, but the main issue was a language barrier. At the Greek restaurant, it was Greek, at the Indian restaurant it was Indian and I don’t speak either of those languages.

As we moved away from London things improved greatly in terms of being able to find out where the food was coming from.

At a local pub in Elsenham called The Crown, the waitress and I had a nice long chat about where their food came from. The sausages that I ate were from a local farm and processed by a local butcher and the potatoes were local too. My initial question was, ” does any of your food come from the area from local farmers?”  I couldn’t stop smiling as she just waved her hand and said “oh ya” and continued name where everything came from.

Elsenham – The Crown

As I sat in the Old Thatched Tavern Stratford-upon-Avon eating wonderful onion rings, I learned that the chef grew them himself. Really!? That is so wonderful !

The Old Thatch Tavern – Onion Rings

In Ebrington at the Ebrington Arms pub I learned most things on my plate were local also. Sausages, mushrooms, potatoes, cabbage, all of it.

At Home Farm Bed & Breakfast I was thrilled to learn about where the owners bought the food for the beautiful breakfast we were served. It was just around the corner at a local farm; mushrooms and all! F A N T A S T I C !

One last place worth a mention was the lunch we had a Kiftsgate Court Garden near Hidcote.  We walked around Hidcote in the morning and then headed across the street to Kiftsgate Garden for a late afternoon lunch and a walk around their beautiful gardens.  Lunch was homemade and wonderful. I had a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich with two types of chutney; Piccadilly and another sweeter chutney with apples. I went back to ask about the second chutney and chatted with the lady that made it. M A D E   I T ! It had been seasoning for 1 ½ years and was ready to serve! She showed me the ½ gallon jar she preserved it in and we had a nice talk about it. I didn’t come home with her recipe (darn it!) but I was thrilled to eat all their homemade toasted sandwich and some fresh shortbread!

Kiftsgate – toasted sandwich & shortbread

The food we ate in London was really good, but I enjoyed our meals more once we left London and I as able to find out where the food was coming from. I was very impressed with the bar tenders and the waiter/waitresses and all they knew about the food they were serving. It felt good.

Sincerely, Emily

I have been posting about our trip to England along with photos. Stop by my personal blog if you are interested. Soon to come are some of the gardens (like Kiftsgate and Hidcote) along with more castles (like Warwick and Sudeley)

You can see what else I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily. The topics are varied, as I jump around from gardening to sewing to making bread or lotion and many things in between.

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Out of town and looking for local food.

I become very aware of how comfortable I am in my own little world when I travel. Everything changes. I have always liked to travel, but I notice with our lifestyle changes and the foods we are eating over the past few years, there is so much more to it now.

Spring just seemed to come really early, and I know many of you can relate to the hustle and bustle of getting your gardens ready and spending a lot of time outside. I am preaching to the choir there. When my mom called to say she was going to have a partial knee replacement in 2 weeks, all my plans changed and I needed to leave. My head started to spin with all the things I needed to do at home before I left. I was going to be with her, there was no question about that and for the most part I can roll with these sudden changes. This time it just took a bit more preparation and planning to get the garden planted.

Only when I physically arrived in Southwest Florida did I start to think about local food. My mom wanted to take me a place called Food & Thought, but it would have to wait until she was well enough to be able to leave the condo after the surgery. This trip wasn’t about me and my eating habits, it was all about my mom and her needs. This wasn’t a vacation for me, I wasn’t going to be walking on the beach or laying by the pool reading a book or even hopping in the car to scope out local food stores.

While mom was in surgery (having this pretty cool robotic procedure that actually only takes a little over an hour and is done as an outpatient) we were going be doing a lot of sitting. My step-dad and I ran out to Temple Citrus to pick up fruits and veggies. Well, we forgot to bring the cooler (too hot that day to leave veggies in the car) with us when we all loaded up to go to the hospital so we would be limited to picking up oranges and grapefruit and after that the shopping wasn’t up to me.

Temple Citrus brings back many childhood memories of visiting Gramps in Hollywood, FL and picking fresh oranges and grapefruit to squeeze for juice. Gramps planted special trees for my brother and I. We each had our own orange and our own grapefruit trees.  There were also avocado and kumquat, and if we had a little too much sun, there was aloe that we would snip.  When my parents decided to buy a place on the west coast of Florida we would stop at places like Temple Citrus to get our citrus fill. They have their own citrus orchards and farms for some of the veggies and there are always samples that you can taste to help you decided which oranges or grapefruits you wanted to buy.

Both of my parents spend a lot of time volunteering at the Naples Botanical Garden and the week I arrived each of the volunteers was given a huge onion straight from the vegetable gardens there. The vegetables grown there are donated to a local food shelf. My mom has met wonderful friends through volunteering there and she had several starfruit from a friend’s tree along with another huge papaya. That is a good start to eating local.

My parents mostly eat real wholesome food. There are some back up cans of soup and baked beans in the pantry, but for the most part they eat foods I can enjoy. Lots of salad and vegetables. My step-dad makes the bread. One of the neighbors makes different jams. Many of their friends have been delivering food and treats and flowers to wish my mom a speedy recovery. We have enjoyed homemade oatmeal scones with homemade star fruit and mango jam. We have enjoyed homemade raspberry coffee cakes – the raspberries are from my step-dad’s garden up in Minnesota. Homemade chicken and barley soup. Homemade vegetable soup. We did not go hungry. A beautiful Easter Lily kept us company on the lanai and another bouquet of stargazer lilies and blue irises kept us company on the dining room table. Another friend gave my mom a beautiful tea cup with gladiolas on it and a fresh orchid bloom from one of her plants

My mom is doing really well, I even let her go on a walk done the sidewalk on her own today without me on Tuesday! She has been calling me Mother Superior; I am not sure it is entirely a compliment. It is hard to keep an active 80 year old tied down long. She wants to get back to tennis and swimming in the surf.

Sincerely, Emily

P.S. We left the house for the first time yesterday and went to the Naples Botanical Garden. We also stopped at Food & Thought and I ran inside and bought a few things. What a great store. All organic. If they don’t grow it themselves, they try to get it as local as they can. If they can’t get it local it is all organic and US grown or produced.

You can see what else I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily. The topics are varied, as I jump around from gardening to sewing to making bread or lotion and many things in between.

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Unprocessed in Austin

I was in Austin, Texas last week getting certified as a Square Foot Gardening instructor (I’ll put up a mini-course in a couple of weeks!)

And I have to tell you, if you’ve got to go somewhere while trying to eat unprocessed, Austin is the place to go.

First of all, it’s got the Whole Foods mother ship, and I do mean Mother Ship. That place is immense. I’m no fan of Whole Foods, much less of retail tourism, but this place was pretty cool.

It’s immense, easily three or four times the size of any Whole Foods I’ve ever been in. I loved the mix-it-yourself trail mix bar, and the bulk offerings:  heirloom beans, unusual grains, and different types of rice, as well as an enormous bulk herbs and spices section.  The flavored sugars alone took up as much room as the spice section in most stores. Since I don’t go into Whole Foods very often, I don’t know if these things are standard, but I’d be surprised if other outlets had so many of each of these things. (Yes, I thought I had pictures, but they don’t seem to be on the camera, so you’ll have to take my word for it.)

We pretty much ate our way through Austin, and because I was traveling with hard-core vegetable gardeners (Motto: don’t get between me and my eggplant) we sought out restaurants with a reputation for responsibly sourced food.

There is a huge market farming community around Austin, apparently–a staff member from the Sustainable Food Center told us that there are nearly 200 farmers within 50 miles of the city supplying their farmers markets. I believe in Chicago we’re drawing from a much much wider area, especially if you’re looking for meat and flour, so this was fairly impressive, especially considering it’s nearly a desert. (A real desert, not a food desert.)

One of the neat things about Austin eateries is that they all seem to have not just vegetarian but also vegan options. Here’s where we ate dinner, on various nights:

Foreign and Domestic: Loved the concept of an evolving menu based on seasonal, locally available ingredients, but the food was not quite there. I got the Summer Squash Tofu, which was essentially green clay on succotash. The succotash was good, but the “tofu” which I thought would have at least the texture of tofu, looked and tasted like that green stuff that you stick flowers in to make them stand up.  Other people had a lightly crusted fish. The fish was fine, but the crust was chewy. The appetizers fared better-I had an amazing brioche stuffed with caramelized onions with a side of peach butter. Unfortunately, it had apparently been baked in a drinking glass, so that the top had risen over a straight shaft. Yes, folks, it looked like a penis. VERY uncomfortable to eat this among people I didn’t know very well.

Tokaba had this amazing drink–a habanero margarita, but the food was apparently not very memorable, because even looking at the menu I can’t remember what I ate. Of course, I did have two of the margaritas, which may have had something to do with it.  What was really nice about this place was the huge outdoor seating. How novel to eat outdoors in October.

The Black Star Co-op is a member-owned pub featuring beer from local breweries. They don’t allow tipping because they say they pay their workers a living wage, so they don’t need to tip, but I think it might be more that no one would tip because the service is so terrible. The beer is fantastic though, varied and unusual, and I had a beet-and-spinach salad, again, locally-sourced, that was fabulous.

Guero’s is the Pizzeria Uno of Austin, as far as I could tell. Uno’s is the place that all the tourists go because the restaurant has managed to position itself as the place to get Chicago pizza. Consequently all the tourists go home complaining about how terrible Chicago pizza is.  Guero’s is loud and crowded, I’d say the food is poorly presented except that if they have the remotest concept of presenting food it’s news to me.  They have terrible beer. This supposed best Tex-Mex in Austin is not quite as good as the little family-owned taqueria down the block here in Chicago. Of course, we have a larger Mexican population in Chicago than they do in Austin, and here in Chicago they’re actually from Mexico, as opposed to fourth generation as seems to be the case with the Austinian Mexicans (also the owners of this place are named “Lipincott” which last I heard is not a very common hispanic surname).  The waiter did, however, look up factoids on armadillos for us.

We found all of the above ourselves, just researching Austin eateries. The last place we ate, Mother’s Cafe and Garden, was the suggestion of a native, and it was definitely the best place we ate at.  I had a stuffed poblano pepper that was just amazing.  The place is vegan and vegetarian, roomy and friendly and they were the only place we ate at all week that hadn’t run out of chocolate cake.

And yes, I went to Texas and did not have barbecue. Sue me.

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