today we bought some local flowers at the farm stand. a bunch cost about 5 bucks and they spread out over two or three vases. not a bad deal.
i even got a few extras flowers to put in a tiny glass. not a bad option while steve works.
with all the out-of-focus stems of the flowers, i put them into a little white pot along with any other food scraps for composting.
buster joins me as i head to the barn and pour the scraps into the big bin. we should have some high quality soil in the next couple months.
as we head back inside, buster takes a break to eat some food.
here are some fine foods we bought at Gill's, one of the local farm stands. the watermelon is for a a mint, watermelon and feta salad. tomatoes will be paired with fresh mozzarella. with the garlic and lemons, i will put in the food processor with olive oil, ricotta, paprika to make hummus. fresh peppers, onions and corn we will grill with some meats i bought at a farm nearby. we generally buy all our cattle meat from them.
each week, i go into the barn, pour a few scoops of birdseed into a big bowl and bring it to the feeders. with a simple pole with a hook, i lower the feeders, and fill them up with black oil seed. all kinds of birds come and eat here all day long. bluebirds, cardinals, goldfinches, black capped chickadees and siskins.
some quality reading while upstate largely circulates around food and shelter. meatpaper is a magazine based out of san francisco and has all kinds of interviews and essays about butchers, taxidermists, chefs, vegetarians. gander mountain is a basically a hunting catalog but great for extra warm socks. catching fire is a new book by a yale professor proving that cooking (not just fire) made us evolve into humans.
