Blizzard 2009

Enough snow to obscure the front steps.The block.It reminded me of another snow-covered new york street .Uncovering the snowblower revealed a raccoon nest. These are either his tracks or those of one of the feral cats that frequent the front garden.The digging out has already begun.

Homemade Apple Sauce

It's easy to pick pounds and pounds of apples and not know what to do with all of them. An apple a day doesn't even dent the surplus that results from a day picking apples upstate. So, we peeled and sliced up the mostly Green Delicious apples and boiled them in a pot with water and cinnamon. A little lemon keeps them from browning too much. Once they're cooked to a soggy mush, run the apples through a food grinder.The result is a lot of applesauce. This is only about half the jars that were added to our freezer. So far the apple sauce has served as a complement to chicken pot pie and a marinade for pork cooked in the oven. There is plenty left.

Wild Hive Farm

Not too far off the Taconic Parkway, Clifton Corners is barely a corner. The old country store is a quaint restaurant with micro-milled flour and local produce for sale up front. There's a case full of baked goods. The menu is varied and difficult to choose from - everything looks good. The place was busy and we waited 10 minutes for a table during the lunch hour. There was fresh brewed iced tea. The squash soup was perfect with a wholesome bread on the side. The hardiness of the bread made for excellent French toast.

Wild Hive Farm
2411 Salt Point Turnpike
Clifton Corners, NY 12514

Meadowbrook Farm

Living in NYC makes this view noteworthy.I've always focused on the smell of the outdoors, especially those times of year when change is evident, spring and fall. Apple picking journeys offer fall colors and scents. It didn't take long to gather 36 pounds of apples, mostly green delicious.Meadowbrook Farm has the apple orchards, friendly staff, and barn full of other goods: vegetables, preserves, and homemade doughnuts. It seems that homemade donuts are part of the playbook for family run U-pick apple orchards. There were even goats and chickens. The Farm is in Wappinger Falls, northeast of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County.

Meadowbrook Farm
29 Old Myers Corners Road
Wappingers Falls, NY 12590
845-297-3002

Peppers

This is the output of four pepper plants so far this summer, two peppers, and some bonus tomatoes. I added one of the peppers to curry and tonight we had pizza with homemade dough, pesto (garden basil), tomato slices and the other pepper. They were mild to moderate in spiciness.

As for the poor pepper output, from my limited research it could be because of the high temperatures over the last month and the excessive rain in July. I'm hoping that September will be better for production. The eggplant has a flower so maybe we'll get one of those yet, this from a garden started at the end of June.

181st Street Subway Station

This old tunnel collapsed the night after we were in it on the way home from the cloisters. I took these shots before the cave-in.
There are plenty of other photos of the 181 at this neurotic website.

The Waterpod

The Waterpod is trademarked, which seems to subtract from its renegade image. Nevertheless, this is a great concept: take a barge and fill it with a miniature farm and a lot of innovative irrigation devices. There's even a couple chickens and there might be a hive of pollinators. There certainly were a bunch buzzing about.

The Cloisters

At the northern end of Manhattan along the Hudson, the Cloisters is truly not like the rest of the boisterous island. The Pallisades are directly across the immense channel. With four medieval cloisters incorporated into its structure, this branch of the Met is unique among US museums. The collection is mostly medieval, most of the art religious from around 1000 to 1600. There are a collection of sarcophagi in the Gothic chapel, with many of the monks lying with dogs at their feet. From my research, this is a symbol of fidelity, most likely to God in this case. The dogs, or lion as in the case of a knight, are not foot warmers.
Here's a statue of Saint Roch, closet hipster and patron saint of those suffering from disease. That's why he has a sore on his left thigh. It's a good thing his dog is bringing him a bagel.
To get home we took the bus that leaves outside the cloisters to the 1 stop at 181st Street.

Underground Train Tunnel

After seeing this scene a month ago, I was intrigued. What could induce people to climb down a manhole in the middle of Atlantic Avenue? In this well-organized adventure into an underground train tunnel, two rent-a-cops control traffic around the open manhole. A generator roars above ground to light a string of lights within the tunnel.This is the line for the first tour. A second line for the second tour was lined up when we left.
Information about the tunnel is available at the website. In short it was built in the 1800s to haul goods under Atlantic Avenue. It was then abandoned for other routes and eventually sealed off. The tour guide found the tunnel in the early 80's and has spent his life since talking about it. The history is fascinating but the tale of the tunnel's discovery was just as long and not that exciting. I could have had more history. The tunnel is cool, since it's always sealed off. It was a welcome difference in temperature from subway platforms in August. It's uniform and straight, running for half a mile. The walls are lined with rock dug from Manhattan and the arched ceiling is made of brick. Flashlights came in handy. Honestly, there isn't much to see after five minutes, except more darkness. At $15 it's a little expensive, but the novelty of climbing down into an old tunnel in the middle of Atlantic Avenue will keep the crowds coming.

Brooklyn Bread

Offering a variety of bread products of every size and type, I've only sprung for the bagel. And for my money I don't think there's any reason to go further than that. For $1.50, it's the best bagel with butter around. This is not the typical dense bagel, but rather a lighter, air-bubble containing masterpiece. Saturday morning breakfasts will never be the same. Unfortunately Brooklyn Bread doesn't really stock sandwich-sized loafs or provide bread slicing services if they did exist. There's always room for improvement.

301 Church St
New York, NY 10013-2403
(212) 334-8282

The High Line

Following the trend of rails to trails conversions all over the country, the High Line opened in June 2009. It takes the idea a step further though, since the train line is elevated. The section from Gansevoort to 20th Street, roughly paralleling 10th Avenue, is open, fully landscaped with benches. The website is well-designed and worth checking out before going. There's an entrance on either end, but also a few access points in the middle. On the north end of the currently open high line, visit the General Theological Seminary. The grounds and old church are spectacular. Looking for cold drinks and caffeine we wandered into La Taza de Oro. It doesn't take long to realize this place hasn't changed in years. It seems like a good place to get octopus soup, beef tongue, ox-tail, and a codfish sandwich.

Bamboo and Radishes

This fine bamboo (locally sourced from a Long Island backyard) latticework will hopefully guide some snap beans to the light...thanks to the Mrs.

The first real produce, barring greens, from the backyard garden - tastiest radish I ever ate.

NYC

It was a beautiful day in DUMBO.

South Brooklyn Pizza

$3 makes their slice of cheese a treat, but the extra 50 cents is worth the exponentially better piece. In the style of pizza margherita, this place will be a regular stop when I'm craving a triangular snack.
451 Court St
Brooklyn, NY 11231-4042
(718) 852-6018

Bond Street Art

This doorway tableau is near the Gowanus canal on Bond Street between 3rd and 4th Street.

Milk Thistle

A quart of Milk Thistle skim runs $4, $1 deposit on the bottle. Although it sounds obvious, since it's organic and $4, it really is the best skim we've ever had. That the bottles can be exchanged is also a draw. Our pick up is at the Sunday Carroll Park green market.

The Stoop

D'Amico Foods

Since 1948, D'Amico's has been roasting coffee in small batches on Court Street. Stumptown has gotten a lot of press for moving to Red Hook recently, but the proximity and authenticity of D'Amico's makes it the natural choice for this family's beans. There are enough varieties and blends to keep us occupied for a while, a pound at a time. We started with the Latina, at $6.99/lb, an economical choice.
On Court, between Degraw and Sackett
Phone: see above

Slug Deterrent

Having read that the holes appearing in a few of our bean plants were probably attributable to slugs; and crushed oyster shells, with their sharp edges, can fend off the slimy creatures; we crushed the left over clam shells, less the largest, the bluest, and the one with the coolest design, and strew them along the edge of our garden plot.

Chowder

July 4th weekend found us clamming again in an estuary on the east end of long island. I scooped up this crab from the water. After this photo he scittered to the depths, perhaps to become a sea gull snack someday.This time we found a few more clams, despite it being high tide. Here they are cleaned and ready for boiling.
A couple rolls toasted in the oven served as croutons.
This blurry picture doesn't capture the wonder of this batch of home-made, foot-felt, hand-gathered, clam chowder. It was excellent.

Garden Happenings

Last week my $150 Tumbleweed Composter arrived in an enormous cubicle box. The directions were clear and within 20 minutes we had a composter. Over the last week we have been accumulating yard waste, so it's already half way filled. After we picked its place along the fence, I shoveled in the mulberries. Last year I ate mulberries but I never want to see another one again. Now we can turn them into dirt.The radishes sprouted quicker than we thought they would. The picture is after one week of growth. (white mulberry in foreground) Tonight I thinned them to one inch apart.The carrots have sprouted as well, less substantial than expected.Here's a bean sprout. We're a little late to be starting them, but we'll hope for a long fall.Our first tomato.Lastly, here are the tripods we fashioned out of bamboo. The plan is for the beans to climb these as well. Today we planted 3 cucumber plants (for pickling), 4 cabbages, some more cilantro, some more dill, and chicory. I planted a couple delphinium seeds in a cut-off drainpipe, only half-heartedly thinking it will grow.

Yellow Horned Poppy

A native of Western Europe, this Glaucium flavum was growing on the east end of long island along the beach.

Hard Shell Clams

Two and a half hours from Brooklyn, depending on traffic, Mercenaria mercenaria can be collected from the estuaries. After obtaining the necessary permits and gauges, we waded into the shallow water. Using feet as shovels, we collected these specimens. We threw back the littlest one for next time.

After scrubbing off the black stuff and any sand, we steamed them in a pot with corona, lemon juice, and crushed garlic. After about 8 minutes, they opened. The largest one didn't fully open, perhaps too muscle-bound, so we didn't feel comfortable eating it.
These were much bigger than the clams usually served in restaurants, like small ravioli.
We plan to incorporate the shells, whole or crushed into the garden.
Next project: chowder!