Today, just a typical quiet Saturday here in Austin, left me nearly breathless. That’s the thing about living in central Texas; once summer approaches everyone tries to jam everything into the “last weekend before it gets too hot to do stuff outside”!
We’ve been lucky this year. The past few weekends have each been that “last weekend”, with cold fronts (and by “cold” you understand that temperatures have plummeted into the 60s occasionally, at night anyway…) coming through during each of the past few weeks. Still, I can almost smell those 90+F days…
If my (John Aielli approved) rain gauge was telling the truth, we got just over 3 inches of rain here last night. Yup, dark and stormy but we needed it (and we still need more). This morning, though, dawned a perfect day. Sunny, not too hot, light breezes, a great day for a farm tour.
I’ve mentioned that my friends at Slow Food Austin sponsor farm tours from time to time, right? I’ve missed the last few, but this morning I got to visit Fruitful Hill out in Bastrop. What a nice bunch of folks! And, after showing us all around and introducing us to the family, Ruby the dog, the chickens and the resident cat, they sent us home with a very generous sample of the week’s goodies: eggs, greens (salad and cooking), carrots, beets, cukes, onions and more! Mmmmmm!
Mmmmm – mulch!
I know I’m going to use those cooking greens in a pot of Greens and Beans next week, and I may just throw in the beet greens as well. Mmmmm… hungry already!
Anyway, I got back from the farm in time to put my feet up for a few minutes before heading into town to listen to a panel discussion at BookPeople, one of Austin’s finest independent bookstores about the Austin Food Blogger Alliance Cookbook that I mentioned a few weeks ago. What fun!
I’ve never before had the opportunity to be a part of this kind of community, nor to have my recipes included in a book like this. Ok, maybe I’m braggin’ a little, but I’m braggin’ on Austin and our food community – as far as we know there are no other food blogger groups like ours (yet, anyway… c’mon start one where you live!)!
that cookbook, again
The Alliance has issued a challenge – to cook from the book and report. So, expect my take on that “cheesy grits with horseradish” recipe soon!
I haven’t forgotten that I owe you my take on the (wowser it was good) carrot soufflé… oh and I haven’t forgotten that I haven’t told you about the Thai cooking class I took… good heavens!
No recipe this week, but how about a photo that I really wish you could scratch and sniff:
just another day or two…
Mmmm… They’re almost ready to harvest, but we’ll see. Last year I waited one day too long and some critter got ’em. A few have been bird-pecked, but overall I’m holding out hope! Actually, I think I’ll go check on ’em now… have a good season until we visit again! Mmmm…
and then make soup 
I just ordered a copy of the cookbook from Amazon!
By: Eliana on May 12, 2013
at 3:48 am
I’ll sign it for you when I see you next if you like 😉
By: Rachel on May 12, 2013
at 11:15 pm
We’re just a few hours north, OK about 8. It seems like spring and summer are going to be right on top of each other this year.
By: Rufus' Food and Spirits Guide on May 12, 2013
at 2:44 pm
Mmm, that peach does look just ready to eat! The seasons seem to be very strange everywhere this year.
By: chaiselongue1 on May 12, 2013
at 8:51 pm
Your peaches looks terrific. We used to have peach trees and it seemed that the critters would get them about an hour before I would go out to pick. I hope you get yours first…there is nothing better than a fresh picked peach.
By: Karen on May 13, 2013
at 12:39 pm
The critters got ’em last year but I’ve enjoyed a few this year so I’m happy. Anyway, I can only hope that eating the peaches will keep the critters out of the fig trees! 🙂
By: Rachel on May 13, 2013
at 1:09 pm