First Annual WRF Apple Festival!

This will be a multi-entry post as we had a VERY full weekend of fun and apples. Art drove from the airport on Thursday evening to Massachusetts and picked up numerous bushels of organic tasting and cider apples. Naomi, Shana, and Hallel arrived Friday evening to kick-start the weekend festivities and help me finish planting all the bulbs. There's Shana planting and the finished bulb rows. For dinner I made two new delicious recipes - a savory lentil "stew" and pumpkin feta muffins - both found on a cooking blog I've fallen in love with and highly recommend at 101cookbooks.com

Saturday brought much of the rest of the New England family for dinner and Apple festival prep. A big thank you to Bob who took many of the pictures in these posts. I asked him to be our "event photographer" as I was having fun in the kitchen much of the time. I love this picture of the wall in our tractor and tool garage. Naomi's friend, Alex, arrived from Boston Saturday as well and they started off our tasting and helped Art set up.

Apple festivities began in earnest on Sunday morning with many, many gallons of cider pressed. I think everyone had a turn pitching apples into the "slusher" and cranking the press. Most of the early batches were labeled with the varieties mixed. There is really nothing like fresh, pressed cider. Our neighbor, Joan, said it tastes "like sunshine."

We also had "tasting tables." One table for the conventionally grown apple varieties and one with organic. We are still perusing the comments left on taste, texture, and over-all ratings. We have a good sense of which varieties we'd like to plant in the orchard with some outliers still under discussion.

There were a lot of apple activities in the kitchen as well including soup prep and pumpkin pie and apple galette baking. Many thanks to Nan, Beth, Misa, and Noami for making and bringing their VERY yummy soups. We had Hungarian Mushroom Dill, Parsnip and Apple, Lentil Miso, Butternut Squash and Apple, Beef Chili, and Thai Pumpkin soups for the 30+ apple-partiers.

Cooking applesauce in the fire-pit was Art's idea and it was incredibly delicious. 

Many of our new neighbors came by for the festivities as well as friends of Noami and Allie. There was soccer, golf in the hay field, baseball, horseshoes, a "tea party" with the little ones, visiting, and walks with the dogs. That's Adam who absconded with my new mandolin (!!) and of course pulled out a few ditties and Lisa running with her dog Rafa in the hay field. It was all such fun and we are so glad so many could make it and hope others will be able to join us next year for more of the same and then some....!

Hike to Winnicut River

After the official festivities ended a group of us took a hike down to the Winnicut River. That's Guy with Rafa-dog in the area we've named "Beaver Armageddon." I think the beavers might have left some time this summer as there is so much growth and no new beaver-cut wood. Those of us who ventured down in this area came away with many burrs and one of us slipped in the mud by the mini-rapids but the hike was a beautiful end to a glorious fall weekend.

First Frost

The kids and I woke to a fine film of frost on the farm this morning. 

Now we have an initial marker to work with for planting and growing.

Fall foliage is almost at peak here. We're watching whether a Nor'easter develops 

by Friday. Winds could effect the length of the colorful tree season.

Took this pic on Monday night. We ate dinner (and roasted marshmallows) around the fire by the wood shop.

Fall Planting & Winter Prep

It's bulb planting time here and we're in full swing. Art plowed me these five  rows that are 100 feet long and about 4 feet wide. These "raised rows" have grass aisles which will presumably be kinder on the feet and back when harvesting and should aid in reducing the dreaded weeds-in-aisles issue.

I ordered this fabulous bulb augur from Johnny's Seeds in Maine. This reasonably priced tool fits in your cordless power drill and makes neat bulb holes with a minimum of effort. Love it! (Those are a variety of Darwin Hybrid Tulip bulbs on the right, and a mix of mostly pastel long-stemmed hybrid tulip bulbs on the left. Can't wait to see how they grow and bloom!).

I have planted 400 tulips, 200 Dutch Irises, 200 Allium Spaerocephalons, 24 Liatris bare-root plants, 9 phlox plants (3 varieties), and 2 spectacular daisy plants. I have narcissus, lilies, and a mix of giant Alliums left to plant. I am still deciding whether to try seeding the larkspur which needs a good stretch of cold and dark to germinate. We straddle the 6a and 6b planting zones and according to local growers and gardeners our longer, warmer seasons over the past four or five years have enabled some to successfully grow for zone 7!

We are also preparing for winter weather. While working on the three wood stoves we may use in the house, Art has been diligently adding to our wood supply which is stacked in the barn. Jack helped stack the recent load we received from our neighbor Dave.

10-10-10

We spent a beautiful weekend celebrating the wedding of our friends Eser and Tim on the gorgeous Maine Coast. The joyous celebrations enabled us to visit and catch up with many of our friends from Washington, D.C. Our love to Eser and Tim and to Sheila (my cousin) and Carlton who were married on Saturday, the ninth!

Jack and Art looking dapper with the Atlantic Ocean and the October Maine foliage in the background. Naish had a BIG soccer tournament in Rochester, NH, this weekend and his team, the Stratham Strikers won all four of their U10 games. Go Strikers!

finger condoms, saramago, and (yes) more tomatoes

finger condoms! (yes, Alex, the peas are for you)

Seems gardening has its perils for us lefties (klutzes?). I cut my right index finger with the pruning shears on Friday and shrugged it off. But yesterday, I gouged my right ring-finger with the floral shears when I was snipping  tomatoes to store (and ripen indoors at the end of the month). Even though it was a gusher, it wasn't until this morning when it was swollen, black & blue, and throbbing that I reluctantly went to get it checked. Too late for the stitches I should have gotten on both cuts but I had them cleaned and steri-stripped, a tetanus shot, and (goody!) these cute finger condoms. (Sorry about the pic, it's tough taking a pic with the wrong hand and a wide angle lens to boot). Aren't they adorable?!

So I've started a book I must say is worth commenting on here. The Elephant's Journey, by Jose Saramago is just divine and I highly recommend to all. Much of Saramago's work (he's Portugese and his novels are available in translation) is rather dark and very much worth a read too (Blindness, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Death with Interruptions, etc). But this little gem already has me chuckling a few chapters in and Saramago's chapter-long paragraphs lend themselves superbly to this wry and gorgeous fable.

We've been very busy between farm and garden work, soccer games, and brewing up bi-weekly vats of marinara to freeze. I swear I am not sick of eating tomatoes (they're scrumptious!) I'm just tired of trying to keep up with them so they don't spoil before I have a chance to save that warm flavor for the winter months. I've also been running out to pick Cockscomb Celosia and Gomphrena and tediously de-leafing and hanging them to dry. We'll see how they turn out.

Jack is in a major book-reading marathon and I can't keep him in books. I'll add his recent reads to the family reading list shortly. He's batting a thousand on all his subjects at school and I've also noticed that he is now, perhaps, a half an inch shorter than me!

Naish is starting early New England and American history. His teacher commented on a Batcheldor who settled New Hampshire and pointed out that Naish lives in one his ancestors homes. I think Naish was pleasantly surprised at the confluence of this history lesson and his new home.

It's cool here (not chilly yet). I'm checking the 10-day forecasts fastidiously as we have over a thousand bulbs to plant (tulips, narcissus, alliums, lilies) and some corms and tubers as well. The trial garden gig is up and flower farming must commence! More on bulb planting and, possibly, an exciting Winnicut River Farm announcement to come.

Alex's Credits

Click the title of this post to go to the film trailer for "Figure" and be sure to pause when the credits roll. Great job, Alex!

Bonus, I think I've been able to upload that video from Adam's concert. Check it out and visit his web-site.