My mom sent this to me. It is so inspiring. I don’t need to describe it. Just watch.
“People realize that we shouldn’t throw away trash carelessly. Well, we shouldn’t throw away people either.”
Waste not. Want not. I especially need to remember that this time of year!
“Friends doing stuff” was the tagline for a fun day + night at Duex Puces Farm for an event called Fiddle Tree. The first of many happenings. There was music, delicious food prepared by Tara and the FARMBAR (with help from Josh of Two Boroughs!) and wonderful wares from local makers. I finished all my Christmas shopping with a beer in my hand and my kids sitting around a fire….how’s that for running errands!? I scored lots of beautiful little odds + ends, not to mention these FABULOUS party hats made by Tara’s friend, Nancy. She made 30 hats and placed them nicely next to a sign asking for donations to Enough Pie (more on that later). Enough Pie made 32 smackers! 30 kids (myself included) enjoyed wearing the hats all day + night.
Late afternoon we passed the kids off to a sitter and Lindsay and I camped out. The rain subsided and the band played on. The Barefoot Movement, bluegrass from Jonesboro, Tennessee, was heartbreakingly, honestly good. We hit the sleeping bags early and slept late. I forgot how much I love waking up in a tent. Reminded me of my favorite Steve McQueen quote, “I’d rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth.” Well, I wasn’t in the middle of nowhere. But just enough so.
The sunchoke, also known as Jerusalem artichoke, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America. We got two bags of them in our last CSA box. I thought I loved all root vegetables equally. Now I have a favorite. First, you get beautiful yellow flowers and that’s just the tip of the plant. Underground is the tuber root that looks kind of like a ginger root, but tastes similar to a potato…I guess. So I cooked the sunchokes just like my basic potato recipe, roasted with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. Sunchokes caramelize and have a distinct taste that’s hard to describe, but is delicious. If anyone doesn’t know what to get me for Christmas…unlikely a root cellar… how about the new encyclopedic cookbook, ROOTS?
My birthday normally falls over Thanksgiving break, which is wonderful because I am always with family. One of our family birthday traditions is that my dad tells the story of the day we were born. The story always changes a little year to year with my mom lobbing in comments and corrections. The short version of my story is that I was born, rather quickly, on Thanksgiving day. The first of four kids.
I gathered with friends last week to celebrate. We ate at a cozy French restaurant. Before dinner my friend, Anne, treated me to a blow out at the newly opened Tease Dry Bar next door. A nice little luxury. My friend Courtney gave me a fabulous 2013 calendar that her letterpress company created in collaboration with Garden and Gun. Allison gave me a beautiful and inspiring book on flower arrangements in season, Bringing Nature Home. Ellie gave me a turquoise bracelet from Seeking Indigo that has been infused with reiki to promote balance. I’m always looking for a little balance! It was a lovely birthday and for anyone looking for thoughtful Christmas gifts, all of these would work. Tis the season.
I ate my one and only grapefruit off my first grapefruit tree last week. It was DELICIOUS. The Meyer lemons are ripening up and I used one in last night’s hollandaise sauce. Now that the weather is getting much cooler with a light (and beautiful) frost on the ground most mornings, I am a little nervous about my potted citrus. My grapefruit, lemon and lime trees are too heavy and big to bring inside. I worry about keeping them warm this winter season and their leaves are yellowing a little. Does anyone have any tips?
My cousin, Mo, sent me the link to this video just this week. It feels like the perfect Thanksgiving song. The kids have been out of school all week and I’ve been playing hooky. We’ve built fires, gone on hikes and found perfect walking sticks, made special lady bug houses, collected bottle tops, ridden horses, watched the sunset, followed the moon and eaten way more candy that would normally be allowed. I am so thankful for this time. I am thankful for every precious moment with family and friends. Keep your heart young this day/week/year of giving thanks!
Last night in honor of the Halsey Museum of Contemporary Art’s annual Moon Party, I got a beehive. I have never gotten a hair-do before, not even on my wedding day. It was so much fun sitting in the chair at Canvas watching my hair get teased into a beautiful sculpture. But nothing can top Becca Barnett’s incredible installation in the gallery. She hung undulating panels of honey combed packing cardboard from the ceiling and from that, hung around 700 honey bees on gold thread. It was absolutely stunning (my iPhoto does not do it justice). I think I will have to find a place in my home for a part of her buzzzzz-worthy creation.
I voted today and much weighed on my mind as I casted my ballot. Every vote counts. Every vote is (hopefully) a reflection of an individuals’ thoughtful conclusion on who will best serve our country. I pledge to discuss my opinions with CIVILITY. I am not right. You are not wrong. Leave room for doubt + discourse. Can’t we all agree that the majority of us are neither RED nor BLUE, but varying shades of PURPLE?
I was so engrossed recently in an On Being podcast that I missed an exit, crossed over a mountain and only when the podcast was finished did I realize my mistake. The podcast was part of Krista Tippett’s Civil Conversations Project. I have included some of the transcript below.
Ms.Tippett: You wrote on your website in your blog about the relationship between civility and doubt. I’d love for you to say some more about that.
Mr. Blankenhorn: It’s funny that you would ask that. It’s the thing I’ve been thinking about most in the last several months, more than any other topic. And I think that doubt and civility are friends. They go together kind of like, you know, coffee and cream. They’re partners. Um, by civility, I mean treating the other person the way you would want them to treat you. And by doubt, I mean believing that you may not be right even when your position is passionately held.
I don’t know why it is, but I think we’re just at this moment in time where the public conversation is at a particularly low level of quality — the coarseness, the ugliness, the assumption of bad faith, the triviality, the sensationalism. I really think that so many people are aware of this. And I know it sounds small-bore, but I do think that these kind of conversations where you try to dig a little bit deeper and to try to be more serious, it just in these small ways you have a little affirming flame of something positive, a kind of modeling process.
I don’t know that there’s a macro solution right now because I don’t quite know where it comes from. I don’t know where the ugliness at the macro — I can’t diagnose it, really. I don’t have a diagnosis. So all I really know is it’s terrible, it’s bad for the country, it’s bad for our souls. And the only thing I can think of is just modeling it on a small scale wherever you can a different way of talking to one another.
You know, I’ve been wanting us to push deeper on civility because it seems to me that there are at least three levels. One level is be nice, just be polite. Another level is to admit that there may be something you don’t know. And then a third level, and this is the hardest: try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Try to actually see the world empathetically the way that the other person is seeing it. Sincerely make that effort.
(The only purple photo I had in my album was of eggplant. I guess my purple is aubergine.)
Some more music for the commute: I first heard Hurray For The Riff Raff on an All Songs Considered podcast. The lead singer hopped trains until she made it from the Bronx to New Orleans and hooked up playing with some street musicians. I was in love immediately. Her voice belies her age. I imagined Alynda Lee Segarra to be much older, but when I saw this video I realized she was an old soul with more stories than your average 20-something. On a morning drive into town, ain’t nothin’ beats a little yodeling.
Kinfolk, the beautiful quarterly magazine with a manifesto I can get behind, collaborated with my friend Tara’s farm, Deux Puces, for a lovely fall dinner. Partners in the meal included Tara’s FARMBAR, Jack Rudy Cocktail Co., Sugar Bakeshop, Black Tap Coffee, Sweeteeth, Stems, Olivia Rae James, Indigo and Cotton, Fuzzco and Butcher and Bee. With a village like that, its bound to be a magical evening. We were happy to be included in the small, intimate, gathering. I was especially happy to see Christel Green of Greendale Farms in Madison, GA. She brought her delicious cheeses and with her wonderful South African accent, served as emcee for the meal.
Simple, local and intimate seems to be the secret to the success of a beautiful evening. Some of my most memorable events are easy, elegant outdoor affairs: fresh cut flowers, string lights, white linen, mason jars, local ingredients, happy conversation and good music. There is no need for meal preparation – whether for 4 or for 30 – to be a fuss. Keep it simple. Life is already complicated enough.
Manifesto: Kinfolk is a growing community of artists with a shared interest in small gatherings. We recognize that there is something about a table shared by friends, not just a wedding or once-a-year holiday extravaganza, that anchors our relationships and energizes us. We have come together to create Kinfolk as our collaborative way of advocating the natural approach to entertaining that we love.
