Foraging

I gathered fennel seeds along Los Gatos Creek Trail this morning.

I’m going to use the seeds to flavor the biscotti I’m serving for dessert at The Bounty of Heart’s Delight. I’ll be doing the test baking for that and the crackers tomorrow, I think.

Then it was off to the farm, where I arrived to find corn clearing in full swing.

This is in the original plot, where the stalks were easily 14 feet tall. We gathered the dried ears.

and made a big pile of stalks, that later got hauled away to the compost area, to await chipping, should a chipper grace us with its presence.

In other useful work, I helped make more seed starting blocks, and planted onion seeds. The greenhouse is filled with baby plants getting ready for the winter fields.

Note the lovely handmade redwood trays, made for us by a volunteer. They smell nice, too.

I didn’t cook today, but collaborated with Todd to make strawberry ice cream. Todd was very concerned that the rock salt to ice ratio be correct, and wanted to pack the ice cream with more salty ice after the motor of the ice cream maker stopped, so that it would firm up a bit. I had a better reading of the intended audience, and we just all snarfed down a gallon of soft, fluffy ice cream, served with watermelon and brownies. Sean said it was the best lunch ever.

Afterward, Pete thought about backpacking around Europe with the EZ-Open canopy, which has finally reappeared at the farm, saving us easily 45 minutes of setup and takedown time.