The Bethlehem Fair, birthplace of holy memories

We just did our annual trip to the county fair, one of my very favorite, ever end-of-summer rituals. Little things can make wonderful traditions.

 We live in a size-able city that is a bedroom community of The Big Apple...that means that living around these parts is quite urban and rather devoid of fairs. In urban New England, people in our neck of the woods have mostly grown up attending carnivals which are like fairs, minus the agricultural bits. I love agricultural bits.

 I love the part about how you park in a tromped down hay field and walk forever to get to the gate. I love the quilts and the baking contests and the view from the top of the ferris wheel that is all trees and rolling hills and the occasional church steeple.

I love that you have to wear your old boots because the midway is just a dirt path that gets messy from so many feet tromping through it all week. I love that nobody thinks twice when our four year old has grass stains on both knees and our toddler is hanging off the fences by the livestock pens.

The fair was one of my childhood rituals. I grew up entering things I made, dreaming of owning a horse of my own after visiting velvet noses in the horse barn and spending my savings on the Tilt-a-Whirl and The Scrambler. I feel so right at the fair, lots of great memories there. Wonderful, precious to me, part-of-who-I-am, things-that-make-the-world-feel-right-memories. Its simple stuff and silly stuff, (the ridiculous carny patter on the midway still makes me laugh out loud and The Scrambler makes me giddy) but its so happy and so gritty and inspiring to me.

 I always come home and want to go to visit the area farms more and grow bigger carrots and teach the boys to knit and work more carefully on my pie edging. I love that fairs make me think of things that I can do myself and want to do them. I love that they make me proud of capability and relaxed warmth and my own state. I love how much the fair has become a celebration for my sons. Its super fun to share the things you love with the next generation.

And I have to say, my husband, who isn't an agricultural devotee has been very gracious about learning to appreciate this ritual that I love so deeply. Affectionate shout out to him for making me feel understood and helping the kids value things he knows matter so much to me.

My Autumn Food List

A few years ago I brainstormed the idea of a seasonal food list for the side of the fridge. The idea is to "keep in mind" visually all the cozy, traditional foods that we keep dreaming of when we long for Autumn. I also really love the fact that it does a tiny bit of keeping me on track with local/seasonal eating. No better way to check off "apple dumplings"  than to turn it into a trip to the Farmer's Market or the local orchard! Compiling the list is also a fun exercise in self-examination. What speaks Autumn to me personally? What traditional Fall foods are not compelling for me but seem culturally obligatory? Ha! Mental purging! Sometimes I have a particular food that I crave and love but I don't know what time of year it "fits" in so researching its seasonality (mussels in white wine sauce was one for me) ends up being a bite-sized education. I now know that mussels are in season in Autumn. 

The first year I drew up my lists it took up a little bit of my time....but now I just have all the lists saved on my computer and I just review the appropriate list, add or remove whatever seems right and hit PRINT. The list lives on the side of the fridge and I use it when planning menus for the week or dreaming up special dishes for company. Then I keep a pen handy for scratching things off as they show up on our table. So fun! Here's my Autumnal version....

Autumnal Food

Pear Tart

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Stuffed Figs

Cinnamon Pork Chops

Cheese with Apples

Mussels and Crusty French Bread

Oyster Mushrooms Fried with Bacon

Sausages w/ Caramelized Onions

Slow Roasted Ribs

Roast Quail

Apple Dumplings

Fresh Plums

Plum Tart

Apple Turnovers

Raspberry Jam

Mulled Cider

Roast Beets

Venison Tenderloin

Braised Rabbit

Black Bean Soup

Roasted Garlic

Cranberry Bar Cookies

Buckwheat Pancakes

Scrambled Eggs W/Mushrooms

Apple Galette

Fresh Apple Cider @ The Mill

Spicy Muffins

Carrot Cake

Swedish Meatballs

Chili w/Cornbread

Pumpkin Bread

Honeybaked Ham

Chai Tea

Apple Cider Donuts

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Pot Roast

Butternut Squash Soup

Braised Pork Belly

Pumpkin Waffles

Apple Crisp

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Acorn Squash w/ Cinnamon and Maple Syrup

 Bouf Bourguignon

Cranberry Coffee Cake

Concord Grapes

Goat Cheese Cheesecake

Pumpkin Fudge

What would make your list?

 

Dear Farm, Goodbye....

Our dear little farm where we go to pick veggies and fruit is suddenly far away. There are downsides to moving. Its far away and unfortunately in the wrong direction. This year it is has honestly been painful and then more painful trying to get up there to collect our share. I think this may be our last round in the roster.

We need a new CSA! We're in a new place and honestly, the options are suddenly way more diverse and numerous than they were two years ago when I was trying to find our first share. You can't lose with more options. I love the fact that our farm requires us to go up the farm to collect our share and has no delivery, but frankly, as a mother of three with one car its a little insane to have to run up there every week. And although its meant to be enforced time in nature it often becomes harried, manic, "Run run run!!!!" time on a farm where the kids don't get out of the car and I madly throw vegetables into our sack and then dash back behind the wheel and peel out of the drive on my way to go collect A while everyone wails in unison. It could be better.

I love this little magnet on the cooler at the farm. Gotta figure out where to get one.

Local drop off doesn't sound so terrible. It would mean I'd drive .4 miles down the street and pick up a pre-sorted, ready loaded box of goods fresh from our farm. That could be handy. Plus, then I'd have the time to swing by the farmer's market if I wanted and we could always drive up to pick up milk or eggs if we felt rambly and wanted to go for a drive. Right? Maybe there are even good places to drive to over this direction that won't be directly opposite wherever I need to be next. (Do I sound like I'm trying to talk myself into this?)

Sungold cherries...one of my favorite tomatoes in the world.

G, suddenly distressed and immobilized by the fact that he was in tall grass.

So, yes....Farm, its been sweet. Very sweet. We've mosied all over your velvet fields and wandered zig-zags across your dirt lanes, but our time may be over. Time to let our slot go to a another family who will love it well the way we did. Everything, even farms themselves, have their season. I know that's the right thing to do, but somehow I'm still very sad. I loved last summer at the farm and I'm so sad to let it go and step into the new thing, but I know that good surprises are only found by opening your hands and letting go of the old and who knows what great new experiences are waiting for us at a new CSA.Yesterday I put us on the waiting list at this sweet little venture. And now we wait and see....

Ah! The Farm....

Sure feels good to be back at our CSA farm, picking up our share! We kind of blasted through the fields and coolers today, collecting our goods and sort of run/walking back to the car. Just a quick Cheshire grin greeting with the head farmerette was all we had time for...hazards of moving your whole daily routine a couple of hours earlier in the day and sharing a car with a hard-working spouse. This week it has felt like I am forever running around dashing everywhere two minutes late.

But, next week will be more sane, practice makes perfect and pretty soon we'll the new rhythm down and we get a new chance to enjoy the farm every single week, all summer long. I cannot wait to linger, and listen to crickets along the lane, watch the tomatoes swelling on the vine and look up our list of weekly goods on the chalkboard above the vegetable bins. Good times are coming!

This week: tatsoi, butterhead lettuce, fresh strawberries (farm to table to stomach in about an hour and half!), arugula and broccoli raab Mmmmmmm!!!!! Fresh food, how I do love you.