Category Archives: Travel

Celebrating the Super Bowl

Posted on January 30, 2013 by AnnieRie

I knew somewhere I had pictures of a raven. It took a while to find them. They were taken five years ago on our trip to wine country. Who knew? I had to fly to San Francisco to take pictures of the Baltimore mascot.

While out there, we took a ride down the coast and found quite a few birds. Seeing a raven up close, and seeing my crows who live in the yard, the difference becomes noticeable. The raven featured in my header through the rest of this week has that shaggy throat, is very large and has the slight difference in beak curvature.

Compare them to my backyard crows.

Now, back to deciding where we are going and what we are making for the Super Bowl. I do know there will be venison chili, from my stash of venison in the freezer.

hocoblogs@@@

Sixty @ Sixty

Posted on December 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Yes, sixty years young, today. This is one of those significant birthdays. Worthy of doing something different to commemorate.

I recall one of my fellow volunteers talking about traveling to celebrate a milestone birthday. Something like 50 days for the 50th birthday. We traveled way too much when we worked. We are really enjoying our surroundings and doing things we never got to do while we were in the work force.

So, I decided. Sixty is, of course, six decades. Six times ten. Six things, ten times. Or, ten things six times. I settled on more experiences with less to accomplish in each. It looks simpler to do. We shall see. I have been doing research already to find things that interest me.

This year, no New Year’s Resolutions, just the pursuit of these stretch goals, for lack of a better descriptor. Some are fun, some may be difficult. If I enjoy this journey, I may make it into a page. A journal of sorts. Since I am an avowed locavore, locapour, and still a foodie, many involve cooking, eating, gardening, farming, the county and nearby places.

My list —

Visit six festivals and/or fairs that are new to me
Taste at six new wineries never visited before
Seek out six new farmstands or markets to expand my locavore network
Do something different or visit someplace new in six states other than MD
Eat at six small business restaurants and/or diners
Eat/drink or experience six childhood memories
Log six new birds not seen before
Cook and eat six new proteins, i.e., meat, seafood, beans or nuts
Grow and/or eat six exotic fruits, veggies or herbs
Tackle six rightsizing projects

Some are self explanatory but others will take some initiative. Rightsizing projects include things we inherited from our families and things we accumulated over our 60+ years. Things like pictures, CDs, books, tools, clothes, shoes, whatever lurks in closets and cabinets. Having the space here makes it one of those often avoided projects.

The childhood memories include things like — riding a ferris wheel again, or a merry go round, or eating cotton candy, or a root beer float. Things we did as kids.

For my first project, my husband bought a pomegranate at Wegmans yesterday. I have had pom juice, and pomegranate balsamic, but never tried getting the seeds out and using one in cooking. Tonight’s salad will have pom seeds on it. Maybe using my fennel we bought, and oranges. I am making my own birthday dinner, doing things I want to eat. Rockfish. Salad. Roasted cauliflower. None of it hard to make, and no worries about driving in the slush/snow/ice/whatever we have on the ground tonight.

It is still snowing out here. The red bellied woodpecker and one of the squirrels were out there chowing down this morning while I was prepping the fish in a marinade.

This is a new young red bellied woodpecker, who is more skittish than the older ones are. He bolts when he sees the reflection of my camera. As for the acrobatic squirrel, he is lucky today. I don’t have the two layer baffle system on the large suet holder, and he can defeat just one. Besting the squirrels is a major undertaking here. Or, at least keeping them under control.

Who knows what this year, 2013, will bring to us here. I do know I intend to make it somewhat memorable, and certainly don’t intend to be bored.

hocofood@@@

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Day Trippin’

Posted on November 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

One of the pleasures of retirement. Going places during the week. Today, though, being Black Friday, it seems everyone took the holiday or didn’t have to work. That’s why we decided to head off down the back roads and have lunch at Linden, with a visit to Glen Manor as well.

We decided that heading down an old alternate route through the scenic byways was a perfect way to spend time. We hadn’t been on Blueridge Mountain Road past FEMA’s Emergency Operations Center since the GPS years ago took us on that road.

At 1800 on top the mountain it gets pretty windy and the road can be quite treacherous. But, once the leaves fall, like now, the views can be tremendous. We remembered those views and enjoyed the vistas down into the Shenandoah Valley while carefully negotiating the twists and turns, back down to US 50. If you want to see a map of how crazy the roads are, here is a bike loop that shows on the left the route we took.

We then took the scenic route down Leeds Manor Lane, seeing all the hunters parked along the road to the state wildlife management areas. Passed one of the many crossings of the Appalachian Trail which follows the mountain ridge in the same general direction we took to get to the wineries. We encountered a few hardy bicyclists, climbing that second major hill on Leeds Manor, one walking his bike up it, two resting at the summit, and a straggler far behind. These are hidden gems of scenic routes, for drivers and cyclists.

This AT crossing is right near the Avenius vineyards, which contain plantings used to make one of the single vineyard designations for Linden. You can park just up from the crossing and hike up to look across the ridge. One day, when we decide we are adventurous, we will climb that trail to take photos from the top. We went to Linden first, to sit and enjoy a bottle of Chardonnay with some local cheeses and one of their crusty warm baguettes.

2009 Linden Avenius Chardonnay

They are already all decorated for the holidays and the winter arrangement of the screen porch has replaced the extra tables and chairs out there the other seasons. This is one of my favorite places to sit when it is cold, to savor the fire in the wood stove and take in the view.

When we arrived at noon, there were about 10 of us in the winery. By the time we left the lot was full and they were two deep at the tasting set ups. Obviously lots of people decided wine tasting was way better than shopping malls on Black Friday. The deck and porch were empty when we arrived, but hopping when we walked out. The Christmas decorations are really beautiful. This is a great place to visit.

After our stop there, we headed into Front Royal to our original destination today, Glen Manor. We haven’t been there since April, and we wanted to pick up some Sauvignon Blanc. We tasted some other new releases, their Vin Rouge and Cabernet Franc. Since our last visit, they have added an extension to the building to increase working space. It is still lovely as always, and there were people out on the patio while we went through a tasting.

This is one stellar site to sit and absorb the beauty of the Shenandoah while drinking a glass of some of Virginia’s best wines. Even though the trees are mostly bare, the surroundings are bursting with fall foliage at the ground level.

No wonder we keep returning to these hidden gems in Virginia. Brought home a few white wines as well. What better gifts for Christmas from a locavore and locapour than dessert wines from Linden and Glen Manor. They both are offering a Late Harvest Petite Manseng. They will make someone very happy you bought them these lovely wines as a gift.

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Posted in Adventures, Day Trips, Locavore, Retirement, Travel, Weather, Wine and tagged day trips, fall foliage, Locavore, nature, retirement, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Over the River and Through the Woods …

Posted on November 22, 2012 by AnnieRie

… one thing I don’t miss these days. The long trips over the holidays. On clogged highways. My husband’s family lived out of state. It always meant traveling in the winter on snow covered roads. We tried avoiding bad weather, following forecasts and working our schedules around the best travel days.

I-70 at noon Wednesday

One Easter we got trapped by a late ice storm and didn’t get home to get back to work. Having relatives in the highlands of northeastern PA meant treacherous trips on I-81 and I-83. I feel for those who have those same dilemmas and who face the clogged roads to make it home to visit. But, I would be happy to have his family still with us, and take those trips to see them. We miss our families most during the holidays. My mom is still active and we cherish the years we have by sharing holidays with her.

Today we get to leisurely drive about 30 miles to share Thanksgiving with my brother and his extended family. Since the 1990’s he has always sponsored midshipmen at his home, first in Catonsville and now south of Annapolis. It means quite a bit to the families of these young men that they have a safe place to come and share a day or two, or a meal or two, with someone who looks out for them. Many of them still keep in touch.

We go to his home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and Fourth of July, usually. Plus, birthdays, weddings, graduations, Mother’s Day, and just sometimes to see old friends, having a base for get togethers is comforting and familiar. It does mean we have made our own personal traditions, that dovetail with the family visits.

I don’t know how many years we never had a Christmas tree. Lately, we do get one since we are home on Christmas day. The first few times we got one when we married more than 30 years ago, they would dry out and drop needles all over the place, since we went to PA for four or five days. I have yet to succumb and buy an artificial tree. We now buy ours locally at either TLV or Pine Valley

Around our current home, all the trees grouped by the driveway were former Christmas trees from the previous owner. Bought with the root ball, they were planted and some of them are 25 years old. If we were younger, we would do that, but at least we recycle our tree into mulch with the county. I do love the grouping of trees at our home, though. They make me think of the memories of the family whose children grew up here 20 years ago.

Today I will eat my brother’s turkey and fixings. He cooks most of the dinner, just as my dad loved to cook. We will come home tonight and brine our turkey and have our dinner tomorrow or Saturday. This is also a big radio contest weekend, and luckily, my husband now contests from home. It means we can have that dinner, and make our own memories in our home. Now, off to find the brining supplies for the turkey and put together the cooler to take to my brother’s.

Then, I need to figure out where I am putting the tree, and go up in the attic and get the Christmas lights out. And, do Christmas cookies and cards. Ah, the beginning of the busy season. Don’t forget about Small Business Saturday! Go out and buy something, presents, food, trees, whatever, from the small local businesses in Howard County.

Happy Thanksgiving!

hocoblogs@@@

Things to Be Thankful For

Posted on November 20, 2012 by AnnieRie

Two days left before the holiday season kicks off with Thanksgiving. For us, a little bit hectic but not like it was when we had two sets of families to juggle with visits. Now, we are pretty much all residing in Maryland and my brother hosts many of the holidays.

My mom lives about 30 miles east of us, and my brother about 30 miles southeast near Annapolis. Both are easy rides. I am thankful we can avoid the holiday traffic on the highways. I remember when I was still going to Hopkins at night to study electrical engineering and we had class the night before Thanksgiving. We worked in Silver Spring. I never made it to class. Sat for three hours trying to get up the highway to Baltimore. So, I am very thankful I still have family locally.

I am thankful they found my collapsing discs before I had permanent nerve damage, and that I had a great neurosurgeon repair it. Health is something we take for granted when we are young, and don’t know how hard it is to recover from injuries or illnesses as we get older. I still have bad days after doing things for the first time since the operation. A little Tylenol and I cope. It could have been life changing if I hadn’t found out in time.

I am thankful my husband and I could retire and enjoy it. Enjoying our hobbies, our friends, the local events and get togethers. Finding my niche at the Conservancy to still feel useful.

Him connecting with the radio clubs and getting to do something he loved as a teenager. Something he gave up when we lived in Columbia in a town house. Having fun at field day every year.

Putting up the antennas and getting on the air is his hobby. No, he doesn’t play golf. He never wanted a boat. All those hobbies that many people have, he wasn’t into those things. His hobby is practiced right in the rec room, on his radios. Maybe I do get a little tired of “CQ contest, CQ contest” for up to 48 hours. I like the CW (Morse Code) contests better. I can’t hear him using the keyer. Phone contests I get to hear him call stations and give the proper exchanges to validate a contact.

I am thankful we went through the derecho and the hurricane with minimal damage. We were counted among the lucky ones. For that, we are making sure we help those who still need help. Giving clothing, non perishable foods, toiletries, and contributions where we can. We lost a few trees. We lost some food after the derecho. Nothing earth shattering for us. We know we were very fortunate. The largest ones were caught in others and missed our home.

I am thankful we live in such a pleasant and relatively safe environment. Even with all its warts, this country and, personally for us, this area are peaceful. Civil unrest, riots, financial crises like those across the pond, we are relatively insulated here. I am thankful I got my degree, thanks largely to encouragement from the good nuns in my high school. They insisted I take math and science. From thinking I would do a business curriculum and get a job in Baltimore at 18, to getting to go to college and major in math. Without that push, I would have had a vastly different life. Instead, I got to experience amazing things.

young and adventurous, my month at an ice research station

I am glad the Dream Act passed. Education is key to making a life better. Any type of education. I learned that. So did my husband. Both of us worked our way through college, and made better lives for ourselves. Without that education, we wouldn’t be retired and enjoying life. I am so eternally grateful to our parents for helping us, even though they struggled. My dad was a policeman. His dad a coal miner, then a factory worker. We know that our education, his in engineering, mine in math and computers made us marketable and employable, even during the recession in the seventies when we graduated.

We have much to be thankful for. Thursday we are off to visit my family and celebrate the traditional turkey day the way we have for many years. Dinner, a nice long walk, then some football.

Today is CSA day. We are getting good things for my dinner. Tomorrow I pick up my Maple Lawn turkey. Then, off to England Acres to get a centerpiece and some things that won’t be in my CSA box today.

This weekend our little private personal Thanksgiving, a tradition we started years ago when I wanted to learn how to cook a turkey, we will give thanks again for what we have.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my cyber readers, and my cyber circle of locavores.

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Posted in Family, Food, Hobbies, Local Businesses, Locavore, People, Retirement, Travel, Volunteering and tagged amateur radio, commentary, cooking, family, Food, hobbies, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, real food, retirement, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Anniversaries

Posted on April 1, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today is a special anniversary for me. Two years ago, on April Fool’s Day I got up and went to work for the very last time. That was it. My thirty year and one day anniversary of Federal employment. I would have reitred the day I was eligible but adding one day gave me the total, including unused sick leave, needed to add another month to my pension calculation.

I always said I would only work thirty years and then walk. I wanted to work, but no longer needed to, once we got our town house paid off. We were lucky that we bought our town house before the crazy real estate market in Maryland. We were smart to keep cars for 12-15 years, and never buy on credit.

We saved like crazy to buy this place we wanted for our retirement, so we could enjoy it and our hobbies, away from the traffic and the noise. The view from the front porch alone is worth it, most sunsets are spectacular.

I know I am lucky to be retired so young. I was 57 when I retired. I started working in 1968 when I was 15 1/2, in order to afford Catholic schools. Worked through college. Became a teacher. Met my husband, and at 27 fell into a mathematician job that had me coding computer models and traveling the world. I loved what I did back then. Of course, 30 years later, I was tired of bureaucracies, but the early years were fun.

My job took me cool places, so that now people say “Are you going to travel?”, and I say “No, not for a while.” Been there, done that, as they say. I spent so much time on the road in the 1980s and 90s, I was glad to take a headquarters job at the Navy Yard and stay in my office. Working for the Navy meant cool travel. Hawaii, San Diego, Bremerton, Port Canaveral, Ft. Lauderdale, the Bahamas, Newport RI, the Arctic, and the UK. Bath Iron Works in January stunk, but the rest was pretty amazing.

Add to that, the cruises and trips with friends while we were unencumbered by a mortgage and we have hit four continents and about 60 countries.

Later, when we are finished enjoying the nearby attractions, we may go places again. Now, it doesn’t seem to matter if we hang around here for a while. We have done all sorts of projects, like the roof and the siding.

I just like staying home and tending my gardens.

Cooking up a storm.

Going to the Conservancy a few times a week.

Taking day trips.

Visiting wineries.

Whatever strikes us as interesting. Driving to Chicago for a week, for example. Or, taking trips to markets.

My recent surgery and the extended recovery is a wake up call as well. Health is something we should never take for granted. Putting off retirement if we have the means to do it is risky. I have so many old coworker friends who had health problems soon after retiring. All those years planning and dreaming, then endless doctor visits, surgeries and treatments. Life is precious and not predictable.

Today, one of our closest friends retires after almost twenty five years at the hospital. She is six months younger than I was when I walked. She knows she is lucky to get to do what she wants. She also started working at 15, and like me, worked at one place or another for 42 years. Never taking a break.

I wish her well, and hope we all have years of good times to come. Taking that big step into retirement is scary, we know. Those last few weeks test you as you keep wondering if it is the right thing to do.

I know it was for me.

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Posted in Commentary, miscellaneous, Retirement, Travel, Volunteering and tagged commentary, health, photography, retirement, travel. Bookmark the permalink.

My Inspirations for Blogging

Posted on March 4, 2012 by AnnieRie

For whatever reasons, I got to thinking about what tipped me over that precipice into wanting to write a blog. I never really read blogs except for travel ones back when we were big into traveling. There was a time for about six years that we worked like crazy and couldn’t take lots of time off, so when we did, we did it big. One big vacation a year. Travel blogs helped us decide new areas we wanted to visit.

Like Turkey. Without reading a travelogue we never would have thought of visiting Istanbul. Turns out we loved it. And, we wouldn’t have thought of visiting the Spice Market without reading about it in a blog.

We also would not have known that a great way to travel is to rent houses using on line assistance, like VRBO. It is how we found a house in Sonoma for a great deal off season in November, and from reading travel blogs I found out it was less crowded and easier to spend time at the wineries without feeling like part of the Disney World sized crush of people. Also found that having a house with a grill and a deck made us feel more a part of a community than a tourist. We shopped at the farmer’s markets and grilled many nights.

So, blogging inspired me. Eventually even I started taking pictures of our food.

One day, for whatever reason, I noticed an email about the 50 Best Food Blogs, by the New York Times. One of them caught my eye.

Orangette

I started reading Molly’s blog. I had read articles of hers in Bon Appetit, particularly finding it interesting that she wrote about sauerkraut at Thanksgiving. It’s a Maryland thing. Other parts of the country don’t traditionally include sauerkraut at dinner with their turkey.

I also found The Slow Cook through some linkage and clicked on it, since the name resonated with me. I started reading it as well.

Both those personal blogs made me think that I too could find enough to write about, and really, how hard was it to start a blog?

When I began, I also had been reading the Patch pages, and found HowChow and HoCoBlogs while wandering around links. The internet really has changed how I operate. Not to mention getting an iPad as a retirement present from my husband and learning all these social media, which are replacing the paper and magazine world we grew up with.

What direction do I want to take this blog? Originally, I wanted to record things that interested me, and also have friends who have moved away keep in touch by commenting back and forth. I wanted to keep a journal, actually, and found it more simple than I expected.

Now, recovering from surgery with nowhere to go (Can’t Drive) and not much else to do (Can’t lift, bend or strain my back), this blog is my daily entertainment. The iPad is light, and I can prop it up and write away.

Not how I originally envisioned spending my spring, but still fun. Now, I am going to send some west county posts back and forth with HowChow. Blog about living out here, eating out here, shopping, activities, events, sights and sounds, plus info on the “over the Border” spots easily reached from here.

It is a great way for all of us to network, as well as make new acquaintances at the HoCo blogtail parties. From years commuting to DC and not knowing many others than coworkers and a few neighbors, blogging has its own social world. And, a nice one at that.

Eating Relatively Locally

Posted on January 27, 2012 by AnnieRie

Over the past years, we have been migrating much of our food choices to those locally produced, where we can find them. Beyond that, we have also committed to buy from small or local businesses when possible. Since 1980, we have also supported MD, PA and VA wineries, as well as those in the Finger Lakes. We pick our own fruit when we can, and have begun freezing and canning.

In 2006, we took one of my favorite vacations. Ten days renting a home in Sonoma, in order to experience wine country in a unique way. We bought at farmer’s markets and food stands, purchased local wines and cooked dinners on the grill, using the freshest and finest ingredients. I envy those who live there, as Sonoma County is a perfect climate for year round production.

We also bought and loved the local olive oils from the area, and to this day we order California olive oil and grapeseed oil and have it delivered once a year. Beats getting oil from Europe in terms of carbon footprint. We add a half gallon of balsamic in order to support the small business, even though I know it comes from Europe. Can’t get everything in our back yards, but we at least think about it.

St. Helena Olive Oil Co., owned by Peggy O’Kelly, is a truly wonderful source of goodies. I have had no regrets in continuing to support them and love their products, even though they are expensive, they are worth every penny. These are my salad dressing olive oils, not for cooking. Their grapeseed oil I use in baking and cooking, when I have my best meats and seafood to make.

Now, my vinaigrettes are made with products I love, and they taste so much fresher than any store bought dressings.

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Locavore, Travel, Wine and tagged Food, Locavore, travel, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Adventures in Food and Wine

Posted on January 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

Saturday here was lovely. One of those gifts of a day that you can’t waste indoors. We decided to bag the planned yard work, and the house projects and go for a ride.

We haven’t been to our favorite wineries in ten months. We have been pretty much home bound doing renovations and repairs, and the entire first year of my husband’s retirement had us working here and not playing. We vowed to remedy that lapse of adventures and trips this year.

We chose to travel the back roads to Virginia, and to stop at a popular year round farmer’s market in Leesburg on the way. I wanted to get some goodies from Mock’s greenhouse, but they weren’t there. Bummer! We did get some apples and some yoghurt and butter though.

We then went down to Linden Vineyards in Linden, VA. It is a lovely site just below the Appalachian Trail near Front Royal VA.

We did a cellar tasting of their new individual vineyard designated reds and chardonnays, and sat on the enclosed deck drinking a glass of library wine, the 2003 Claret. Jim Law, the owner and winemaker likes to open old wines in the winter and offer them by the glass paired with local cheeses and sausages. So, I could count this as a Dark Days lunch, but the baguette wasn’t local.

The 2003 Claret — in the winemaker’s words, from the Linden website library section:

Aromas:

Black raspberries and plums, aged balsamic, pipe tobacco and herbes de Provence.

Palate:

Pine resins, candied blackberry, tapenade and cedar; full bright acidity & gripping tannins.

Food Pairings:

Robust meat dishes with reduction sauces.

Vineyard:

Hardscrabble Vineyard (65%), Fauquier Co. on top of the Blue Ridge at 1,300 to 1,400 feet with an eastern to southern slope. Deep, well-drained mineral soils give cherry character and good structure. Vine ages from 12 to 19 years. Glen Manor Vineyard (25%), Warren Co. is on the western slope of the Blue Ridge about 7 miles west of Linden Vineyards at an elevation of 1,100 feet. The deep, fertile soils give roundness. The vines are 9 years old and trained on the French lyre system. Avenius Vineyard (10%), Warren Co. is just 1 mile north of Linden Vineyards at 1,300 feet contributes good acidity and verve. Vine age is 7 years.

Vintage:

2003 was a difficult vintage both in terms of yields and concentration. As the growing season unfolded, it became evident that in order to ripen our red grapes we would have to greatly reduce yields. This is because of a cool, cloudy summer that slowed vine and fruit development. Severe cluster thinning began in July and continued into September. It was not until October that we experienced some good warm sunny weather. Harvest was from October 20 to November 10, 2003. No single vineyard wines were bottled in 2003. All our best vineyard sites were declassified into this Claret.

Winemaking:

Native yeast, warm fermentation and early pressing give the wine its pretty aromatics and supple texture. Aged in 50% American oak, 20% Hungarian puncheons, and 30% French oak for 19 months. 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Cabernet Franc, 12% Petit Verdot. 1,040 cases produced.
========================================================================================

As you can see, we love going to Linden. Jim Law is a master, called a perfectionist by many, and cares deeply about what he grows, makes and sells. Sitting on the deck and watching the skyline changes on the Blue Ridge Mountains is one of our favorite activities. We also bought some wine to bring home and cellar.

We then wandered down to Glen Manor, sitting just below Shenandoah National Park and the Skyline Drive. From the description above of Linden’s Claret, you can see that Jeff White used to grow grapes for Jim at Linden, but for the past few years has opened his own winery. His setting is even more spectacular, and you can sit outside and watch the cars far up in the hills driving the Skyline Drive.

He makes just a few wines so far, but still some winning varietals. His sauvignon blanc is made in the style of a New Zealand wine, all citrusy and perfect to pair with seafood. We had to indulge in some of it to bring back for a treat for seafood dinners.

All in all, a beautiful day in the mountains just two hours southwest of us.

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Posted in Adventures, Locavore, Travel, Wine and tagged Linden Vineyards, Locavore, travel, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Why Blog? Why Now?

Posted on November 20, 2011 by AnnieRie

I was just asked by a friend as to why I started a blog now, what motivated me, and what do I intend to write.

I have to say my initial exposure to blogs was travel blogs by people visiting places I want to travel. People who wrote about Antarctica, and expedition cruises.

I haven’t been traveling lately, mainly because house renovations got in the way, but we used to travel quite a bit.

I suppose it was somewhere in the Amalfi Coast, while sailing that I really got into cooking, or maybe it was the market in Nice.

But, I also got inspired reading some great articles in Gourmet, before they went away, and then I inherited a Bon Appetit replacement subscription that introduced me to Molly Wizenberg and Orangette. We shared a common bond, sauerkraut at Thanksgiving, since I was born and raised in Baltimore.

So, now retired and really into cooking and growing some of my own food, I decided why not record it? I contributed to a few groups in my earlier years, only to find the posts disappeared when you don’t own them. My own domain, my words, my pictures, here until I decide to get rid of them.

Today I am making sauerkraut from a cabbage left over from the CSA. It will be ready to eat by next Sunday, for my dark days first supper, and our home Thanksgiving. Just us. The relatives get together on Thursday, but we like our own small fresh turkey from a local farm, with leftovers to make soup.

And here I get to record it.

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Posted in CSA, Dark Days, Family, Food, Retirement, Travel and tagged Dark Days. Bookmark the permalink.