25 and A-live!

Yes, folks, I survived my 25th birthday and I am still here to write about it. Definitely a tame day, but loads of fun, even though it wasn't hot enough to go swimming-- a favorite birthday past time for this summer baby. So what did I fill my day with instead?

It being Friday, Matthew and I made our weekly trip to the downtown farmer's market. The market was hopping! We picked out tons of goodies, including: spinach, cookies, pesto, noodles, cantaloupe, plums, tomatoes, a black bell pepper, squash, carrots, potatoes, and of course, our weekly bouquet of fresh-cut flowers. I spent $7 on this bouquet-- a steal considering how much a similar bouquet would cost at a local store! And they'll last just as long. So far, I'm really pleased with the flowers.

We picked up some wine and I was introduced to Back Yard Burgers, the most delicious fast food chain of all time. I'm seriously confused. Fast food? Delicious? What? I have to give those burgers a serious high-five-- that is some damn good meat.

Matt treated me to a meat-free Indian dinner that included a dish (I cannot spell it) of potatoes, chickpeas, and spinach, an 8-vegetable curry, rice, samosas, and naan. Almost every vegetable in each dish was something that we had locally purchased and Matt had bought the curry spice in Ecuador. Ben baked a chocolate and tamarind cake. I'd never had tamarind before, but I really liked it: sweet, citrus-y, and a little richer and thicker in texture and flavor than an orange. We invited new friends, Jessica and Billy, over for dinner and wine-- it was a great night!



I've been looking forward to today ever since I arrived in Pennsylvania-- the Centre County Farm Tour! I'd been debating farms all week, and had a list narrowed down to seven farms. I was only able to visit three this year; I could have toured four if I had got a move on a little earlier in the day, but I found two farms I'm really pleased with and looking forward to visiting more often! The first farm I visited was the Tait Farm. This is the farm I bought the delicious basil pesto from at the farmer's market, and I was able to take a self-guided tour around the farm. In Vegetable, Animal, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver talks about her asparagus patch and how beautiful it is to see the asparagus grow past their cutting. The Tait Farm had a 4-year-old asparagus patch that I'm assuming will be ready for harvesting early next spring. Check out these long, willowy beauties:

Yes, that is asparagus! Really, a beautiful plant-- and I'm looking forward to early spring when I can chomp down on some fresh asparagus. It's one of my favorite foods, and I wish it was ready today!

At the next farm, Piper's Hill, there were plenty of animals to see: chickens, ducks, roosters, cows, a couple of very handsome dogs, and peacocks! Apparently, there were also goats somewhere, but I didn't see them. This was really my favorite farm of the day, and I bought a dozen eggs, a pound of ground beef, and some Honolulu beef jerky made with pineapple juice-- that jerky was so good, I already ate all of it! I also reserved my Thanksgiving turkey-- one of the cute little fellas sitting on the left-hand side here. Aren't they cute? Little do these guys know, but they will all be on Thanksgiving tables this fall. I guess it helps that they'll grow up to be a lot uglier than they are now!

AND-- it makes me feel really good to know that my turkey will be living a very happy, albeit short, life. He's free range and organic, and he gets to wander around a farm with all of his duck and chicken buddies. That's one happy stinkin' turkey (day) if you ask me.



More pictures from Piper Hill:

Happy cows are from Pennsylvania!

Ducks-- I think I scared the momma duck off her nest, and I felt bad for it!

Peacock!

In contrast to the Piper Hill Farm was the Amish farm I went to-- it wasn't on my original list, and I had never seen them at the farmer's market. I was disappointed in the general farming practices of the Amish. Your natural assumption would be that the Amish practice sustainable farming methods, not just out of respect for the earth, but also because it's more traditional. This is not at all what I observed today-- it was a conventional dairy farm, complete with very unhappy dairy cows living in their own waste, confined to fairly small quarters, and never let out to pasture. This is not the case for all of the Amish, in fact, there is an Amish farm that is a regular at the farmer's market that sells raw milk-- and you have to be a very well kept, organic, sustainable farm with grass-fed cows to be licensed to sell raw (unpasteurized) milk. But what I saw today was just... disappointing. The cheese was good (and I did buy a block-- there has to be a reason PASA supports this farm), but these cows just don't look as happy.

There was a funny moment at the Amish farm, though, when one of the cows got out of her building and went running across the road. Our young guide, Paul, and his older sister had to chase the rogue back into her building. I suspect she knew it was about time to be milked, because she was headed right toward the milking building!














What a day! I'm so thankful for living in a place now that has such a rich and abundant local food supply. There are plenty of places to get local meats, cheeses, and vegetables in Texas, but the communities to support buying locally are not quite as loud and vocal as they are here in Pennsylvania! I do want to encourage all of my friends, especially those of you in Texas, to please visit www.slowfoodusa.org or www.localharvest.org and look into local foods available in your area. It really has been more cost effective for us, and it's been one enjoyable adventure to discover what foods are currently being grown locally and how to prepare them with as few store-bought items as possible. And, when I think about it, with so many food options here, it seems awfully silly to purchase tons of food from California!

Twenty-five and alive-- and eating well to stay that way!