Harmony Homestead Dispatch #9

On my last day in Vermont, Paul and Niki and I met Michael (otherwise known as 'the boy with the long red hair') at his shop for lunch. He restores pianos in this spooky factory space built in 1904:

I found cool stuff inside besides the instruments.

Niki played this gorgeous piano dating from 1890, and nearly had a heart attack when I told her later that it costs $36,000!

This one's a pump organ, if I'm not mistaken.

After lunch at Wicksticker's (where, like I said, we had beer and peppermint schnapps on the house), Michael took me back to the shop for a little while, but it was too nice an afternoon to work. So we went for a swim.

Our favorite swimming spot on the Poultney River.

It was a perfect last day—at the end of it Gail made her sublimely delicious enchiladas, and we had this for dessert:

(This holy mother of all fruit tarts is from a bakery in Middlebury, but she makes amazing desserts too. Gail is one of those enviable people who can, seemingly without effort, turn a random pile of raw ingredients into edible gold.)

I'm going back to Vermont in a week or so, so I'll have more photos to post then!

Harmony Homestead Dispatch #8

Nick and Niki with Lilypads.

The polebeans really took off once we got the teepees set up.

Cattle crossing at the Larsons' farm. Oh, rural life.

Here we are (Niki, Nick, Gail, and Paul) at our favorite snack stand, chowing down on the BEST sweet potato fries ever. Mr. Wicksticker's is set up in the owner's own front yard, and it's right down the road from our favorite swimming spot. Because we have gotten to be such frequent customers, Mark (a.k.a. Mr. Wicksticker—he also makes candles) has taken to giving us free stuff. That day we got a jug of his very own maple syrup (and we gave him some beer), and the day before I left he gave us beer and peppermint schnapps. (Yes, peppermint schnapps, at two in the afternoon.)

Paul and Niki with Queenie, and Avalon peeking out from behind. I'd intended to take many more pictures of the animals, which I'll do when I get back in September.

Kate and I are leaving for Peru today and I wasn't organized enough to autoblog this time, so the blog is going to be pretty quiet for the rest of this month. There'll be plenty to blog about when I get back!

Harmony Homestead Dispatch #7

This isn't going to be a useful post or anything—just some photos of us all having too much fun.

Paul makin' the bacon. (Yes, that is a mohawk'd Nick in the background. Ben had shaved his head the night before.)

Ginevra and Niki were the pancake queens: blueberries and raspberries (from the garden), banana, and banana with chocolate chips! I'm not much for pancakes, but I think I ate more than anybody else that morning. They used pumpkin pie spice, which made them that much tastier.

He's got pizzazz even while he's washing the dishes.

More tomorrow!

Harmony Homestead Dispatch #6

Well, I'm back in New Jersey for a few more days until we leave for Peru, and I'm missing Harmony Homestead terribly. Seven weeks passed in a blink!

Whether we were working or playing, every minute was fun.

We stopped for ice cream after an afternoon at the Manchester farmers' market (where Paul was playing) and a good long browse at Northshire Books (where Linsey picked up a blank book entitled The Wit and Wisdom of Sarah Palin. Bwahahahaha.) From left: Jasmin, Gail, Paul, Nick, Linsey, Niki, Sal, and on the bottom, Geneviève with Grace and Luna. If you look closely you can see that Sal isn't wearing any shoes. That's because his only pair got smelly beyond any possibility of continued wearing, so after ice cream we went to a shoe store, where they had JUST locked the door (it was about 7pm by then). The woman looked down at his feet, unlocked the door again, and ushered him inside. The rest of us sat in the car and laughed and laughed.

A few days later (July 17th, to be exact), we went for a ton of interesting sustainability workshops, good food, awesome live music and contra dancing at Solarfest. Above, Leslie is leading us on a 'weed walk,' where we learned a lot about the medicinal uses of wildflowers like yarrow and stinging nettle.

And of course, we spent most of each day in the garden:

You will notice that we were way behind in the planting, and there's a very unfortunate reason for that. At any rate, everything got put in the ground eventually and we're hoping for the best.

This is why they're called polebeans. Paul showed us how to lash, and then Birch Bark Jim (he's the best, I wish I'd gotten a picture of him) helped us construct the tee-pees. That was the most fun I've had in the garden so far.

More photos soon!

Harmony Homestead Dispatch #5

Sorry if I've been a deadbeat blogger lately—between farm life and all the fun stuff we do in between, there isn't much time left for puttering around on the internet (which, if I'm being honest, is what I'm always doing at home). Anyway, here's what we got up to last Thursday evening:

Circus Smirkus is a circus run and performed by children and teenagers. I can't tell you how amazing they are—it's like a professional show, so much so that you keep regretting your wasted youth (dude, I was watching Gilligan's Island all summer) even as you are continually delighted by the spectacle. If you ever get a chance to see one of their shows, don't miss it.

Clown noses come with your ticket. Me and my new little bro Nick.

These acrobats are like fifteen. Holy moly!

Zucchini Blossom Fritters

Zucchini blossoms are one of my favorite sights in the garden. Mouth-watering memories of the amazing zucchini flower fritters at Betty's restaurant on Lesbos (see my Greece retroblog post) got me wanting to fry some up for dinner.

It's really easy—wash the blossoms and cut out the pistils; whisk an egg and add milk and flour to make a batter (pancake batter consistency, I'd say); add salt, pepper, and a little something extra (I used cumin); fill the skillet with olive oil and fry 'em up. They have a lovely subtle-sweet flavor, and taste great dipped in tomato sauce.

Harmony Homestead Dispatch #4

Lavender and nasturtiums for sale at the Sunday farmers' market in Dorset.

Shots from the garden: the polebeans I planted my second day here (much taller since I took this pic); tomatoes; rhubarb (Gail makes the most amazing rhubarb peach crisp—I'm going to blog the recipe!); zucchini (hoping to make fritters out of the flowers, I'll let you know how that goes).

Harmony Homestead Dispatch #3

The sunset edition! Took this one on the ride home from swimming on the Poultney River last week.

And these were taken tonight:

Harmony Homestead Dispatch #2

As promised: puppypalooza! (I neglected to mention that they are Vizslas.) Most of them are going home with their new families tomorrow. It's going to be awfully quiet around here.


Grace (she's the pup Gail and Paul are keeping) and Lilypads (so named for her extra digits) have a tussle in the puppy pen.

Harmony Homestead Dispatch #1

My new favorite spot for reading and writing.

The last week and a half has felt like an age in the very best way; I hardly recognize myself. I am sunburned, bruised, covered in midge bites, I haven't bathed since Thursday—and I couldn't be happier.

Planting bush beans.

Gail and Paul are two of the very kindest, most authentic people I have ever met. They treat me like one of the family, and I already feel like I've known them for years. (I'll get a good picture of them and post it next time.)

A fragment of china, found in the garden, that may have belonged to the very first homesteaders here—a hundred and fifty years ago, Paul guesses. (It might be early 20th century, but it's so much more romantic to imagine it's that much older.)

I play with nine puppies every day. This is Bean. (All but one of the nine are spoken for, and they'll be going to their new homes this weekend. One of the new owners rechristened their puppy 'Uncle Peter,' which I found hilariously inappropriate.)

I had a feeling it would be this way, but I can now say for certain that manual labor has an amazing effect on one's creativity. I've gotten so many great ideas while gardening or doing dishes; I haven't been at the computer much, and yet I've been worlds more productive than I ever was at the library. I've made space in my head, and a lot of really good things are showing up.

I have so much more to say about Gail and Paul and all their interesting friends, but it's getting late and I want to post this. More puppy photos in dispatch #2!

Another Adventure

My nifty new galoshes.

Today I'm off to Vermont to volunteer on an organic farm near Manchester! I'll be up there 'til the end of July. There's WiFi, so hopefully I'll be blogging lots of pictures of puppies and goats and vegetable patches and such.

Aaaaaand that's about all I got. Happy Sunday!