Strawberry Shortcake

My son made this strawberry shortcake. It's the biscuit variety, which we'd never tried before. I read in magazines that people in other parts of the country like biscuit-y shortcake, but after this experiment I'm still in favor of angel food cake as the base.

Can you tell I believe in teaching my children to cook?

Interesting Book

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is getting interesting. I've gotten past the introductory stuff on how they moved and how people nowadays don't understand where food comes from - all fine, but now the story is really beginning. I just finished the chapter on early spring when they began their year of eating locally.

First of all, I related to her when she talked about moving into their house before the doorknobs were put on! They renovated an old farmhouse, whereas we built new, but it's fun to be able to relate to an author's experience. They put in a small garden the first summer, but they were too busy with house-related stuff to really get going on food production. Been there, done that; we had a garden, but this year the fruit trees are going in, we're getting chickens, and we want to expand the garden.

Secondly, I'm enjoying her writing style. When she was saying that they were beginning their year in the early spring because their asparagus was ready to eat, but they were despairing of finding any locally-grown fresh fruit so early as they were heading to the farmer's market, I was thinking, "Rhubarb! She's going to find rhubarb!" I love it when a book makes me feel smart for figuring out a mystery.

She talked about how asparagus is only good the day it is picked. I have never in my life eaten truly fresh asparagus, so that intrigues me. Maybe it's like sweet corn. I wonder if people who don't live in an area where sweet corn grows have any idea how good it is. Sweet corn is not worth bothering with when you get it from the grocery store even the next day after picking, not to mention several days later. I have a vegetable gardening book that says that a developer of sweet corn varieties from the University of Illinois advised boiling your water first, then picking the corn and husking it as you run to the kitchen! I think my dad would agree with him.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I've just started reading this book. The author and her family moved to a farm and endeavored to eat only food "whose provenance we really knew." They grew their own or bought things that were locally produced. It should be interesting to read.

Good Eggs

I buy eggs from my parents, who have free-range chickens: beautiful Buff Orpingtons.

The best eggs in the world are farm-fresh from chickens that have eaten a natural, varied diet. Especially when the weather is warm and they're eating green things and insects, the eggs have so much flavor.

Two of my kids had never eaten an entire fried egg in their lives. They thought they were yucky. The first time they tried the free-range eggs with dark yellow yolks, they loved them and cleaned their plates. Fresh eggs also fry and poach much more neatly, so they look nicer, too.

Sledding

We have some great sledding hills on our farm. The great thing about the newest one we've tried is that you can go really far and not run into anything.

Thing 26

In my library project, Thing 26 is "Join the 23 Things Ning".

I joined just now in round 2 because I didn't participate in round 1. I uploaded my photo. I sent messages to two members; one is my new co-worker and one is someone I knew in my community years ago. I also joined my library system's group.

As far as seeing uses for a Ning, I imagine it's useful for networking and for discussing ideas more easily with people outside of your own library. It would depend on how much activity the Ning sees; the more often people are on it having discussions, the more value it would have. Otherwise you'd be putting a question out there and getting silence in response. It could work kind of like a meeting you could access anytime you had something to ask or share. I was really hoping it would be a way to get back in touch with people I've worked with in libraries years ago, but there are so few real photos and not even that many real names that I didn't find many people I know.

The only other Ning I've ever seen was for an alumni group, so I'm not sure I understand how a Ning could work for me in my personal life. If they work basically like discussion boards on the Internet, just a grouping of people discussing a topic, then I can see lots of potential uses for them; they would be a way to facilitate communication for any group.

Sunrise

One of the things I like about living in the country again is being able to see the sunrise. In town, the sunrise and sunset were usually behind all the houses. Now we see the sun come up over the horizon many mornings when we're out waiting for the bus or when we look through our bedroom windows while we're getting ready to go. I grew up with open space around our house, so to me that feels right. I know I'm lucky, though.