Why Travel?

I know I promised you a recap of our trip. And it will come. I just can't seem to tackle the "wholeness" of it. So many places, so many good times, so much catching up with Jack and German friends....Maybe I'll break it up and tackle it by subject. Stay tuned...

But today, I want to tell you about Mary's 21st birthday dinner in Paris. We had made a reservation at L’Ambassade d’Auvergne – a restaurant in the Marais neighborhood where we were staying – so it was only about a 10-minute walk from our hotel. Jack joined us for the weekend, making it even more special. Mary's Aunt Gay (Ed's sister) was with us as well.

I could tell you how we toasted Mary with her first (legal) cocktail, a house-special aperitif.

Or, I could tell you how we chose this restaurant because Ed and I had dined there 15 years ago and still remember the Pommes Aligot, cheesy mashed potatoes that the staff whips up tableside.

Pommes Aligot

Or, I could tell you how the entire room broke into a funny french rendition of "Happy Birthday" when Mary's pear tart was delivered with a single candle in it.

A lovely 21-year-old!

But what I really want to tell you is about the lentil salad that Mary ordered as her first course. I haven't stopped thinking about it. It came in a big bowl and she was served two perfect oval scoops. Then our waitress offered the rest of the table a taste, before leaving the bowl on the table.

This lentil salad captures the essence of why I travel: food. Our travels inspire me to try to recreate the dishes that I fall in love with as we we make our way from city to village to countryside. The special dishes and meals also allow me to remember – and relive – our travels.

So yesterday, when I realized that I had some lentils in my pantry I knew I had to try my hand at re-engineering the lentil salad of L'Ambassade d'Auvergne. I cooked the lentils for about 30 minutes, drained them, and gave them a splash of red wine vinegar. Then I sauteed some prosciutto (bacon would work as well), adding a small onion, a carrot (the first from my garden), and a stalk of celery. To a quarter cup of olive oil, I added a heaping teaspoon of french mustard, some salt and pepper – stirring that into lentil mixture.

Earlier in the day, I had harvested my first crop of beets and had cooked up a mess of beet greens. My final dish included a bed of sauteed beet greens, a topping of lentil salad and a sprinkle of feta cheese.

Beets from my garden, first harvest.

Here's my real test of how close I came to the original. If I close my eyes and take a bite, can I transport my mind back to that special night in Paris? Oui, je peux!

And that's why I travel. What about you?

Makes Me Smile

We are just back from 15 days in France and Germany, visiting with Jack and celebrating Mary's 21st birthday.  I'll fill you in as soon as we get our suitcases unpacked, laundry going, the 18-inch grass cut, the garden weeded...

My breakfast egg at the Hotel Hornburg Garni in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

This Morning's Breakfast – Straight from the Patch

Doing Derby Right

Stop. Look. Listen.

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know that Ed and I have been doing some birdwatching on Farm Dover. Four times this week we have gone out on expeditions -- three times early in the morning and once just before sundown. For me, these have been eye-opening experiences.

It's just amazing what I see when I sit very still and really look. I always knew that lots of birds made their home on Farm Dover, but I assumed they were all robins, or crows, or cardinals or an occasional blue jay. But this week, I've been amazed at the number of species that either nest here or just stop in on their way to some other destination. And I've been amazed at how truly beautiful they are.

On Friday, we saw an indigo bunting, which is as striking in its blueness as a cardinal is in its redness. The small sparrow-like bird is almost iridescent as it flies through the air.

 

And then on Friday afternoon, we hear a "wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty" and follow the sound to glance a common yellowthroat. This little masked warbler likes dense, brushy areas and hedgerows, making it hard to spot. But spot one, we did. I see him first, silently pointing him out to Ed. We each have a pair of binoculars and seek him out; he is perched on a twig in our middle field. "Look," I whisper, "it has a yellow throat and breast." Ed notes that it also dark mask around its eye and an olive green back and tail. It isn't until we get back home that we consult our field guides to figure out what kind of bird he is.

Then we circle up to the upper field, above the lake. And there we find another yellow bird. Come to find out, this one is a yellow-breasted chat. A beautiful bird.

I know this "sport" of birdwatching can be quite competitive. But for me it is more like meditation: Being still. Being observant. Listening. Looking. It's a chance for me to see our farm in a different way at different times of day -- in different light. As we move around the perimeter of our property, we stop and look not only for birds, but for their nests. We look at specific trees, wildflowers, the fields of winter wheat, the creek, the beehives, the sky and its clouds. It's an exercise in stopping to look, to listen, and to really see.

Attention: Science Nerds!

One day last fall as I was traipsing through the fields with Ed I spotted some sort of weird cocoon attached to a twig. I snapped the twig off and brought it home to our back porch where I placed it in a small vase. A few weeks later, I found another one and added it to my collection.

Friends would ask me what it was and I would say, "I have no idea. But maybe I'll find out when spring comes." Today, I found out. I noticed that something was happening with the cocoons -- both of them. They looked fuzzy, or maybe hairy. Upon closer inspection, I found hundreds of little bitty praying mantises had hatched.

As it turns out, this event was very fortunate for my garden. Come to find out that praying mantises have a voracious carnivorous appetite, eating almost any insect of a size they can overcome. They wait in quiet camouflage for hours at a time and when an insect comes wandering by, they jump out and attack.

Each of my two egg cases hatched about 200 tiny nymphs. When hatching, the young crawl from between tiny flaps in the cases and hang fom silken threads. After drying out, they disperse within an hour or two, leaving no evidence of their appearance. So, it was just my lucky morning that I noticed something was happening.
 
According to my online research: Once hatched, praying mantises begin feeding on small insects, such as aphids. Later on, they'll continue advancing up to larger and larger prey. By summer's end, praying mantises can reach several inches in length. In the fall, females produce more eggs, deposited in a frothy secretion that hardens to protect the eggs from predators and severe winter climates. Egg cases are attached to twigs, leaves, fences, etc. Several egg cases may be laid before cold winter finally sets in. This new generation of praying mantis will hatch when warm weather returns, to repeat the process.

There is an actual market for these egg cases. Organic gardeners use praying mathises as a form of biological pest control. I installed one of the egg cases in the center of my tomato plants; the other I left up by the house. The egg cases sell for about $6 each. I think I'll switch from looking for four-leaf clovers to mantis egg cases.

Hope is a Thing with Feathers...

Ed greeted me this morning with a cup of coffee and an invitation to go out with him for some early-morning birdwatching. Your blog post today is brought to you by Ed, along with our "Life List" for Farm Dover. 

It was the bird that got me interested in bird watching ten years or so ago.  We were on an overnight to Shakertown for Mary’s May birthday with some of her friends. We stayed in an old stone house in a field, a walk from the village. 

A stream ran through the yard and watered a small hedge. For some reason I had binoculars when I noticed a flash of neon orange in the hedge. It was a northern oriole – a most spectacular bird and a joy to watch. 

I’ve only seen one other – until Sunday when I was delighted to spot a pair of orchard orioles in one of our fields. I hope it’s a nesting pair.

That puts an exclamation point on the list of birds we’ve seen on Farm Dover so far. I’m not much of a hand at bird identifying, so I hope there are more to spot.

Female Orchard Oriole

Male Orchard Oriole

 

In 2012 we started this life list of birds we have seen at Farm Dover. With each new bird, I update it. As of May, 2026, we have spotted 103 species. 

Life List for Farm Dover

American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Goshawk
American Kestrel
American Redstart
American Robin
American Woodcock
Bald Eagle
Baltimore Oriole
Barn Swallow
Barred Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Black Burnian Warbler
Black Vulture
Black-and-white Warbler
Black-billed Cuckoo
Blue Grosbeak
Blue Jay
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue-winged Warbler
Broad-winged Hawk
Brown Thrasher
Brown-headed Cowbird
Canada Goose
Canada Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Cedar Waxwing
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle
Common Nighthawk
Common Yellowthroat
Dickcissel
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Eastern Screech-Owl
Eastern Towhee
Eastern Wood-Pewee
European Starling
Field Sparrow
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Gray Catbird
Great Blue Heron
Great Crested Flycatcher
Great Egret
Great Horned Owl
Greater Yellowlegs
Green Heron
Hairy Woodpecker
House Finch
House Sparrow
House Wren
Indigo Bunting
Killdeer
Kirtland’s Warbler
Loggerhead Shrike
Louisiana Waterthrush
Mallard
Merlin
Mourning Dove
Nashville Warbler
Northern Bobwhite
Northern Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Northern Harrier
Northern Mockingbird
Orchard Oriole
Osprey
Palm Warbler
Pileated Woodpecker
Pine Siskin
Prairie Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird
Redhead
Rock Pigeon
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Sandhill Crane
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Song Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Tree Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
Warbling Vireo
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Wild Turkey
Willow Flycatcher
Wood Thrush
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Yellow-breasted Chat

1. 
   

So Sweet!

The first full harvest of Farm Dover Honey. Thanks Maggie!

Nothing like fresh, local honey. We've been waiting and waiting for Maggie's Farm Dover bees to signal that they have enough to share. Here's how we are planning to enjoy it:

• Ed likes it on his steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast. He also recommends it on a peanut butter sandwich.
• I like it stirred into some Greek yogurt.
• It is lovely whisked into a vinaigrette for a green salad garnished with fresh berries.
• Serves as a main ingredient in my homemade granola.
• And perhaps my favorite: drizzled over Humboldt Fog, an elegant, soft goat cheese.

Humboldt Fog,
named for the local ocean fog which rolls in from Humboldt Bay, California

 
So sweet!

Road Trip - Part II

I'm back at Farm Dover after a whirlwind weekend in Floyd, VA. Let's see, I promised to tell you what I found in town while Maggie was attending her bee class, which started out at the Country Store and ended up at the Spikenard Farm and Honey Bee Sanctuary.

The town is tiny, all of two blocks long and one block wide, but jammed packed with locally owned places: a coffee roaster, farm hardware store, antique mall, yarn shop, several art galleries and a cozy coffee shop, located above a music book shop. Here's a look around...

 

After a morning in town, I headed out to the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway with the intent of finding the Mabry Mill. It was purported to be the most photographed site on the entire parkway, and now you can see why. 

After a hike around the mill, I headed to the Honey Bee Sanctuary to pick up Maggie. Since founding Spikenard Farm in 2006, Gunther Hauk and his wife Vivian have been actively spreading their vision of sustainable biodynamic beekeeping. The Spikenard Honeybee Sanctuary provides on-site workshops, lectures, consulting and publications.

We celebrated Maggie's 25th birthday that night with dinner at Oddfella's, followed by moosetrack ice cream back at the Country Store, which was also the site of a very popular Saturday night country dance (think Grand Old Opry).



The next morning we had breakfast on the porch of the Ambrosia Bed & Breakfast, before saying goodby to our host, Caroline. On the way home, we listened to the first book of The Hunger Games, making the seven-hour trip back home go fairly quickly. As we pulled in the drive, we still had a chapter or two to go. We thought about sitting in the car and finishing the tape, but decided we had better go in and see how Ed survived the weekend home alone. It appears he did just fine....but he was glad to see us.



All and all, it was a lovely weekend -- especially nice to spend it with Maggie. I hope she decides to go back for another class and invites me along again.

Road Trip - Part 1

Maggie signed up for a bee-keeping course in Floyd, VA and I signed up as her travel companion. We left Farm Dover early on Friday afternoon and arrived in the tiny town of Floyd, located on the crest of the Blue Ridge, just after dark. It was a pretty spring night and every person in town (population 432) plus a bunch of other people all showed up at the Floyd Country Store for the Friday Night Jamboree, which features local and area Bluegrass bands. We ducked into a jazz bar next door for a craft beer and asparagus pizza before heading to Ambrosia Farm Bed & Breakfast.

This morning I dropped Maggie off at the Floyd Country Store for her class and I headed out to explore the town. I'll let you know what I find...

Making Birds, Bees and Me Happy

If all goes well, sunflowers, zinnias, and nasturtium should be popping up in my garden.
Photo by photofarmer, flickr®

Yesterday's Travels to Paradise (KY)

Ed and I went to Paradise yesterday, but not before going to Owensboro for his Aunt Ila's memorial service. Ila was married to Ed's father's brother, Hugh. Back in the day, the two Galloway brothers ran Galloway's Market in downtown Owensboro.
 

I don't know that side of Ed's family very well, seems like I mostly see them when someone dies. I've recently connected up with three of his first cousins via facebook, so I'm hoping our friendships grow beyond funeral visits and status posts.

The service was at First Presbyterian Church with a lunch afterwards in the fellowship hall. Ed saw some long-time friends and cousins that he hadn't seen for a very long time, evidenced by the fact that they didn't recognize each other (I guess they -- and Ed -- had changed since he was a teenager and known to all as Eddie Lee.)

Before heading back to Shelby County, we rode out into the country, out past Windy Hollow, toward Glenview, Guffie, and Calhoun. We stopped at the old Fitts farm, which was much changed since I first saw it nearly 30 years ago. It was the home place of Ed's maternal grandparents, but today there are no tobacco barns, no old family farmhouse, no root cellar, no front-yard Maple shade trees -- nothing but 66-acres of rolling fields, dotted with some ancient-looking oil pumps. Ben Burns (Ed's great nephew) was out on a gigantic John Deere tractor getting the fields ready for planting.

I couldn't help but scan the ground as we walked around, just in case I caught a glimpse of the little gold ring that Ed's mother lost down the porch floorboards when she was a young girl. For over 75 years she searched for it, as did Aunt Gladys, as do my girls. I suppose for as long as that land is in the family, relatives will continue to look for a bit of shiny gold peeking out of the earth.

Oil rigs still pumping out black gold on the Fitts Farm.

Our journey continued. Just down the road was the old Galloway farm, which is still in farmland, but showed no evidence of the house where Ed's dad was born, weighing in at all of two pounds. We stopped at a couple of country graveyards, trying to find the grave stone of a revolutionary war soldier and ancestor of Ed's on his faternal grandmother's side, a Coloniel Lyttle. No luck.

Don't believe what you hear about words carved in stone: They do disappear with years.

Tichenor's Store at Guffie has seen better days.

From there, we made our way over a bridge of the Green River and toward Central City (which is where my maternal grandmother was born and raised). We had a general plan that we wanted to see the Peabody Wildlife Management area, approximately 60,000 acres in Ohio and Muhlenberg counties that are reclaimed strip mine lands. So we headed to where Paradise lay, but, like the John Prine song says, we found that Mister Peabody's coal train had hauled it away.

On the way to Paradise....

Despite almost non-existent signage, we managed to find our way to a portion of the Peabody Wildlife Area near the TVA plant. Most of the mined land has been reclaimed to grassland, small ponds, swamps and sloughs. The town of Paradise now looks more like a bird-watcher or angler's paradise. A Kentucky Wildlife ranger pointed out some good fishing spots on the map and told us we could camp anywhere that didn't block a gravel road or boat ramp -- an outing best saved for another day.

With the afternoon slipping away, we made our way back to the Western Kentucky Parkway, I-65, I-265, I-64, Simpsonville and then finally to Farm Dover. Nice day; nice to be back home. Paradise, in fact.

___________

Reclaimed grassland and pond in the Peabody Wildlife Management Area with TVA stacks in the background.
photo by Robert Gundy via flickr®

Paradise, by John Prine

When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

Chorus:
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

You Be The Judge

Could this be a Blue Ribbon Winner at the State Fair?

Celebrating Spring with Garden Bounty

Perhaps by August I will have calmed down about the produce from our garden. But for now, I get exceedingly excited by what's coming up in our garden and in our neighbors: Sandy and Jon's.

Last night, we had friends over for dinner and our appetizer featured radishes, pulled from the garden just ten minutes before our guests pulled down the drive. Earlier in the day, I had blended some softened butter with herbs from the garden. I simply washed off the dirt from the radishes, trimmed them up, and cut them in half vertically. I served them along side the the herbed butter and two kinds of salt: black smoked salt (from Montreal) and some course grained sea salt. They were delicious: crunchy and not too hot.

Straight from my garden, into the kitchen sink, and onto an appetizer platter.

For dinner, I made our family-favorite asparagus lasagne. It comes from a recipe that I pulled from a Gourmet magazine 20 years ago. Ed and I planted 25 asparagus crowns a couple of weeks ago, but it will be a couple of years before we can begin harvesting our own home-grown asparagus. Fortunately, my neighbors grow beautiful asparagus that they sell to restaurants in Louisville. I called Sandy as we headed to church yesterday to see if she could spare some for my dinner guests. I was in luck.

Asparagus is low in calories and is very low in sodium. It is a good source of calcium, magnesium and zinc.
It is high in fiber, protein, vitamin A, B6, C, E, and K, as well as thiamin, riboflavin, ruitn, niacin, folic acis, iron, phosphorus, pottassium, copper,
manganese, selenium, and chromium. Did I mention that is it also delicious? 

Here's the recipe.

ingredients:
4 pounds asparagus trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces, reserve some of the tips
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 .7 x 6.25 inch sheets of instant (no boil) lasagna (from Lotsa Pasta)
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup water
8 ounces mild goat cheese such as Montrachet
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
1-2/3 cups freshly grated Paramesan
1 cup heavy cream

Note: I sometimes add prosciutto in layers if I’m serving it to meat lovers. Last night, I used some country ham.

preparation:
In each of two shallow baking pans toss half the asparagus stalks with half the oil, coating them well, and roast them in a preheated 500 degree oven, shaking the pans every few minutes for 5-10 minutes, or until they are crisp-tender. Sprinkle the asparagus with salt to taste and let it cool.

In a saucepan melt the butter, add the flour, and cook the roux over moderately low heat, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the broth and the water in a stream, whisking, simmer the mixture for 5 minutes, and whisk in the goat cheese, the zest, and salt to taste, whisking until the sauce is smooth.

Arrange 2 sheets of the lasagne in a 9x13 inch pan. Spread the sheets with one fourth of the sauce. Top the sauce with one fourth of the asparagus and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of Parmesan. Continue to layer the pasta, the sauce, the asparagus and the Parmesan in the same manner, ending with a sheet of pasta.

In a bowl, beat the cream with a pinch of salt until it holds soft peaks. Arrange the reserved asparagus tips decoratively on the pasta, spoon the cream over the pasta and the asparagus tips, spreading it with the back of the spoon and sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup Parmesan on top.

Bake the lasagna in the middle of a preheated 350 degrees oven for 20-30 minutes, or until it is golden and bubbling. Let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

LOOK! What's Coming Up in My Garden

We don't eat strawberries during 11 months of the year, but we eat them everyday when they are in season locally. And it doesn't get any more local than from the raised garden in our back yard. So, give it another week or so and we'll be celebrating everyday: Strawberries with yogurt for breakfast, strawberries on salad for lunch, strawberry shortcakes for dessert. YUM!

One more reason not to have to drive into town

I love being out here on Farm Dover and grumble a bit whenever I have to leave. I don't mind going as far as Shelbyville, LaGrange or Foxhollow Farm. So imagine my delight when we found our favorite chocolate bark at Foxhollow Farm Store.

Just this past week they started carrying Cellar Door's Sea Salt Almond Bark. We discovered this handcrafted gourmet confection a year ago at Cellar Door Chocolate's Butchertown shop. Since then, we have gone out of our way to pick up a bar (or two or three). I'm sure all the decadent and delectable delights from this artisan candy maker are delicious. But we just can't seem to move beyond this bar. It is the perfect combination of quality dark chocolate and salty, crunchy almonds.

So, if you haven't tried it, head to Cellar Door in the Butchertown Market or take a drive out to Foxhollow Farm Store* on Covered Bridge Road and pick up a bar. While  you are there, you might as well enjoy the best hamburger ever, grilled to order by none other than Maggie Galloway.


*The Foxhollow Farm Store is open every Saturday 10am to 5pm throughout the Winter. They serve burgers cooked-to-order and a seasonal soup from 11am to 3pm.

Homemade Granola, REALLY

Remember when I blogged about fruitcakes and how I like to know what's in them before I'll eat a slice? Well, I'm the same way about granola. I'm suspect of the sugary-as-dessert, expensive stuff you buy in a box in the cereal aisle of the grocery and even of the anemic-looking stuff from the bulk section of Whole Foods. A few years ago I started making homemade granola from a recipe in Breakfast Lunch Tea/Rose Bakery. I'd bag it up in cute little cellophane bags and send it to my kids for Valentine's Day (being heart-healthy and all). It is very good granola, but the recipe is a bit complicated and the ingredient list is long.  

A month or so ago I ran across another granola recipe on one of the cooking blogs I like: Orangette. The writer intrigued me when she wrote:

What sets this granola apart, I think, is its texture. It's so light and crisp that it actually shatters between your teeth. This is not the kind of drudgery that makes your jaw ache halfway through the bowl. It's mostly composed of the usuals - oats, nuts, and seeds - but what makes it special is that they're bound together by a dark slurry of maple syrup, brown sugar, and olive oil, and that slurry that caramelizes in the oven to form a thin, crunchy lacquer over each nub and bit.

I had to give it a try. I made one batch and then made four more. Then I kind of forgot about it until last week in Baltimore when I ordered granola with yogurt and fruit and immediately realized that my new recipe was ten times better. So, this week, I made another batch. And I'm considering making another one today.

Saturday morning breakfast on the back porch: Greek Yogurt with local honey, raspberries and homemade granola

Here's the recipe:

Olive Oil and Maple Granola
Adapted from Nekisia Davis, Early Bird Foods, and Food 52

300 grams (3 cups) rolled oats
125 grams (1 cup) raw hulled pumpkin seeds
130 grams (1 cup) raw hulled sunflower seeds
50 grams (1 cup) unsweetened coconut chips
135 grams (1 ¼ cup) raw pecans, whole or chopped
85 grams (packed ½ cup) light brown sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
175 ml (¾ cup) maple syrup, preferably Grade B
120 ml (½ cup) olive oil
Dried cherries, optional

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut chips, pecans, light brown sugar, and salt. Stir to mix. Add the olive oil and maple syrup, and stir until well combined. Spread the mixture in an even layer on the prepared sheet pan. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is golden brown and toasted, about 45 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven, and season with more salt to taste. Cool completely on a wire rack. If you'd like, stir in some dried cherries. Store in an airtight container.

Yield: about 7 cups

The author notes that the mixture will keep for a month in an airtight container. But not if you leave it out on the counter and unscrew the jar and eat a handful every time you walk past it, like I do.

_____________ 


So, that's how I make homemade granola. But as I was making it, I realized that it is not completely far-fetched to think that I could make REALLY homemade granola, from the harvest of Farm Dover.

I googled "growing oats" and think we could figure out a way to grow a half-acre of oats, which is a lot of oats. I'll have pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds from our garden. Ed and I planted two pecan trees this past weekend. Unfortunately, we will need to wait 8-10 years for our first harvest. We even have a number of maple trees on the place, so tapping them for syrup is not out of the question. The dried cherries will come from our two cherry trees – Maggie has built a food dehydrator that I bet she will let me borrow. That just leaves salt, olive oil, brown sugar, and coconut chips.

When I told Ed of my plan to REALLY make homemade granola, he joked that if global warming continues, we might well be able to grow olives, sugar cane, and coconuts right here on Farm Dover.

Dreaming of Strawberry Shortcakes

It is always a couple of degrees colder in the country and tonight's forecast is getting dangerously close to being bad news for our strawberries and fruit trees.

We covered up our strawberries but not sure what to do about our fruit orchard.

Jack Frost stay away, please.

Baltimore: It Grows On You

Ed and I have been privileged to visit our children in their respective college cities. From day one, we loved visiting Maggie in Madison, WI and Jack in Montreal. Baltimore was another story. While we have loved visiting Mary at the Maryland College of Art, it has taken us three years to be charmed by Charm City. But it has finally happened.

We just returned from a weekend visit to Baltimore. Maggie was able to join us after she finished work on Saturday, so it was almost a family reunion. (We missed you Jack!) Mary's boyfriend, John, joined us for the weekend festivities.

Getting from the airport to our downtown hotel was easy; we just hopped on the light rail right at the airport and hopped off, one block from our Hotwire hotel. After a late lunch of half-shell clams and oysters at a raw bar at the Lexington Market, we headed over to Hamden, a quaint shopping area that just happened to have a great bar to catch the UK/UL game. Late dinner was at Woodberry Kitchen, one of our all-time favorite restaurants. Maggie's flight was delayed, but she slipped into our booth just as our Government Mule (organic vodka, housemade ginger beer, lime-ginger syrup) drinks were served to us in frosty copper mugs.

Sunday started with Palm Sunday church service at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church. It was hard to focus on the sermon with the sanctuary's Tiffany stained glass windows for competition. Then lunch at a little cafe just down Bolton Street. Afterwards, I headed shopping with the girls while Ed and John toured a clipper ship in the Baltimore Inner harbor.

Today we walked from downtown to the inner harbor to Little Italy and then to Fell's Point and back. Then we popped back on the light rail to head to the airport. And now we are back home again. 

Thank you Mary and John for hosting us. Thank you Maggie for making the effort to get away and join us. What a fun weekend.

Ordering lunch at the Lexington Market.

Stopped in to gape at the Peabody Library.

We found some comfy couches to watch the UK/UL game.

We toured one of the art galleries that featured
MICA student art work. That's a bunny tree behind Ed and Mary.

After church.

Sisters.

John and the girls at the harbor.