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When we moved to Ithaca from Brooklyn, I had grand visions of our family homestead. There would be a big backyard for dog and kid. We would have a pond for winter hockey and summer fishing. There would be a bonfire for s’mores and a hill for sledding. And most important, there would be a garden. A garden filled with summer squash, sweet corn, green beans, sugar snap peas, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers for picking, and tomatoes for canning. Rachel and I would be living off the land. We would watch our seedlings grow into towering vegetables, harvesting to share with our friends and family.
Oh, did I have a lot to learn. Thoughts and lessons from year one of gardening:
- Gardening takes time. You can’t just pop your seeds in the earth, hook up the sprinkler and expect mother nature to work her magic. Nope, you need to be ready to commit to that garden day in and day out.
- Taking on gardening with a full time job, work travel, a new house, and a new baby, was a little ambitious.
- Don’t buy 30 packets of vegetable seeds in your first year. Try five, see if you can get those right first.
- A 12 ft. by 3 ft. space is not enough room for 30 packets of seeds.
- Check for holes in your garden fence. If you don’t look for them, the groundhogs and rabbits will.
- Gardening is war. A war against weeds, varments, pests, fungus and weather.
- It’s hard to make weeding fun….although Rachel did spend 2 hours hacking and yanking at them one night. So, maybe you can take some pent up aggression out on them.
- The book “Second Nature” by Michael Pollan is a great essay on the challenges of amateur gardening.
- The most important crop I planted all year was the grape vines. When they are ripe enough for producing wine in 3 years, I will really need the drink after a summer of battle against weeds.
And a few highlights:
- Seeing the first stem sprout up through dirt in our kitchen window in April. This is especially welcome after a long Ithaca winter.
- Watching the different plants take shape. It’s wild to see the range of plants take form from these little packets of seeds.
- Harvesting my first vegetable: A single green bean. It was the only one the rabbit left me after shearing the rest of my plants in early June. (see comment about war above).
- Sharing that single green bean with my family of four (dog included).
- Building a compost and dumping our first bin of waste outside instead of in our garbage can.
- The first pluck and taste of a sun gold tomato. The most rewarding crop in our garden.
- I’m hooked. It’s like golf. You can spend a whole year sucking, but then you hit one great shot….or in gardening, you eat one sweet tomato, and you know you’ll be back next year.
Below are a few pictures from the first year of gardening. (The massive harvest from August, the homemade compost, the young vineyard, and the skinny amateur garden plot.)
I took a trip to Milwaukee last weekend with my brother and a few friends, in advance of his wedding next month.
A few thoughts from the trip:
- Milwaukee: My new favorite city in the midwest. No hurt feelings, okay Chicago? At least you have Carlos Boozer. Overall, a nice-sized town, with waterfront, green spaces, great food, and a friendly people.
- Best Brunch: Trocadero Gastro Bar – Great food, cool neighborhood and an awesome garden patio.
- Best Bar: The Old German Beer Hall. While you’re there, be sure to play a game of hammer-nail-into-stump. It’s a pretty bizarre yet gratifying game.
- Cheese Tasting: Wisconsin Cheese Mart. Conclusion? Wisconsin cheese good. Very good. German cheese bad. Now I know why it was funny that my grandfather used to stick limburger cheese under my mom’s pillow as a kid.
- Frisbee Golf: We stumbled on a store after brunch called “Art Smart’s Dart Mart.” Obviously, we had to go in, and Art convinced us to take up the game of Frisbee Golf. 4 frisbee sales later, a city bus ride to the park, and we were on the first tee of an 18 hole frisbee golf course. It was nearly as fun as regular golf, but much less frustrating-and free.
- Best Breweries: Rock Bottom Brewery for best outdoor space on an inlet, Lakefront Brewery for best brewery tour and fish fry (so we’re told…we only tried the beer), Milwaukee Brewing Co. for waterfront patio and a real nice flight.
- My Brother: Could you really be getting married? How can that be? It feels like just last week that we were catching fireflies and playing GI-Joe football. Natasha will have a life of fun and laughter living with you. (Okay, there will be some headaches too). But it was great to have a weekend to be kids again. Congrats little brother.
We took a trip down to Cape Cod with my father’s side of the family. It was my first visit to the area in 15 years and Eli’s first time to the Atlantic. At a time when we’re living through the worst oil spill in our nation’s history, it seemed appropriate to bring him to some clean ocean water while we still have it.
While Eli is still only 7 months old, I’m beginning to understand what it means to live through your child’s eyes. As I get older, and a trip to the beach gets a little less exciting, I now get to watch my own son go through all these experiences for the first time. On top of that, we’re able to share his happiness with our parents and extended family. And there was something about having him around that made everyone feel a bit closer.
Rachel and I took one afternoon for ourselves and a trip to a town called Wellfleet near the tip of the cape. The town was recommended to us by a friend from the office where Rachel and I met each other. Her family lives in the area runs a seafood business called Mac’s Seafood. Welfleet is a perfect little coastal town and Mac’s is a perfect little seafood shack. We stuffed ourselves with fish tacos and fried clam strips. Then we bought 4 pounds of scallops and cooked them up for the family meal that night.
All in all, a perfect break from the giant to-do list that keeps filling up at home and Rachel’s big work event in NYC coming up next week. Eli- For the record, you hit a few milestones on this trip: First toe in the Atlantic, first taste of watermelon, first meeting of the Clark family, and first 6 hour road trip. You’re a blast to have around, little buddy. Even after 6 hours in a car.
Dough
Bread
Thanks to our friends Matt and Genna, we received the book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes. We made our first loaf last weekend (a Deli Rye), and the results are to the right. It took about 20 minutes to make the dough, plus 2 hours to rise, and then 30 minutes to bake. You can keep the dough in your fridge for up to 15 days. Then you just pull out a grapefruit-sized chunk anytime you want fresh oven-baked bread. I sound like an infomercial.
One drawback of moving from Brooklyn to Ithaca was the drop in culinary choices. (Although I did hear a stat that Ithaca has more restaurants per capita than NYC). But while we’re not going to new restaurants every weekend, we are spending a lot more time in the kitchen. And once you’ve worn through the recipes your mother passed down, you start to get creative. And with that creativity, comes some gratifying evenings at the dinner table. And at the end of the day, a great meal crafted from your own hands is more rewarding than one you paid someone else to put together. I’m pretty sure that’s a universal law. Like gravity. I wonder if Newton baked his own bread?
I was down in New Orleans for a work conference this week. This was my third visit to the city in the last 7 years, and my second since Hurricane Katrina. A few thoughts from the visit.
1. There is something I love about New Orleans. It was the first vacation I took with my then girlfriend and now wife. The architecture, the music, and the smells coming out of the French Quarter, transport you to another time and place. Then there’s my favorite street and area of the city: Frenchman Street & The Marigny. An area with great food and live music…and a little sheltered from Bourbon Street. My favorite music spot from this trip was The Spotted Cat. Here’s a video I shot (on my new iPhone!) at the jazz club.
2. The city feels more like it did on my first visit than my second. The second visit was still relatively soon after Katrina, and while the French Quarter and Jazz Festival seemed ‘normal’, they seemed like props in an otherwise wrecked city. This time, most people I spoke to sounded like they were moving on. While some felt they should rebuild in the 9th ward, most felt like it was best to just let it return to nature. Oh, and they love their Saints.
3. While these medical conferences can be pretty stilted and textbook by nature, this was the most interesting meeting I’ve attended. It was a conference for the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons. 40,000 doctors and industry professionals descended on New Orleans for 3 days. It felt like they took over the city and the city seemed to appreciate the business. But the interesting thing about this meeting was an exhibit open to the public at the conference center. The exhibit was about the earthquake in Haiti and the response from volunteer surgeons. The exhibit featured a series of pictures, quotes and thoughts from surgeons that volunteered their time to help the people in Haiti. The pictures were pretty wrenching; raw images of the mass amputations, and the crude equipment used to perform them. Many of the surgeons commented on the horror of the experience, and the comparison to working in a war. They wrote about the destruction, the lack of resources, the anger, and the amputations. But then they spoke of the one thing that kept them going.
This was a quote from one of the surgeons while in Haiti: ”…and I saw it many times, a sight more emotionally charged than the destruction spreading for miles in every direction. A child’s smile. Sound a bit sentimental? Maybe. But the sight of such simplicity, the essential human ability to feel happiness in dire circumstances, and the unbelievable sound of laughter – here on the backdrop of all this misery, well it changed me. ” -Daniel Ivankovich, MD
4. With that quote and those images in the back of my mind, it sure felt good to come home and walk through the door to this…
Food Inc. should be required viewing for anyone that eats food. We watched it tonight, and will never walk down our grocery store aisles the same way. The film takes a close look at where the majority of our food comes from and the dramatic changes that have taken place over the last 40 years. A few facts from the movie:
- In the 1970s there were thousands of slaugterhouses producing the majority of beef sold in the U.S. Today there are only 13.
- In the 1970s the top 5 beef packers controlled about 25% of the market. Today they control about 80% of the market
- The average chicken farmer is required to invest $500,000 in their business to meet demands. They make on average $18,000/year
- 70% of processed food have a genetically modified ingredient
- 1 in 3 Americans born after the year 2000 will contract early onset diabetes; among minorities the rate will be 1 in 2
These facts point to a central theme in the movie. That the consolidation and control of our food production by a handful of corporations has resulted in a deterioration of food quality, safety, farming, and environmental protection. While our food choices expand and prices drop, the health of our animals and our people are deteriorating.
As with most documentaries, the movie is fairly one-sided, missing a voice from a big food production company (they declined interview requests). But the movie makes a compelling argument to take a closer look at the food on your plate and the impact of your choices. It also delves into the issue of food prices and the need for large-scale change so that lower income families can actually afford to eat healthy. As with other social-action films, the movie leaves you with a list of steps you can take to help make a difference. If you have the ability to buy locally grown or organic foods, your actions create demand. And that demand is the best way to shift this business of food.
We had a reunion visit to Brooklyn last weekend, meeting our family for dinner at Lucali’s in our old neighborhood and then staying for a wedding at South Street Seaport. Lucali’s was our favorite brick oven pizza place in Brooklyn, which was just ranked by GQ as the second best pizza in the country. Walking into Lucali’s is like taking a step back in time, with candle lit room, no menu, and just a wood burning oven in the back of the shop. The owner stands in the back making pies and offers different fresh ingredients each night for the pizza. Oh, and it’s a bring your own wine establishment. I think I just drooled on my keyboard. Yup, I did.
I meant to add this along with the Purity posting, because they really go hand-in-hand. I’ve been going to Glenwood Pines for at least 20 years and their french bread burgers & bloody marys are the best in town. If you’re feeling up for it, they offer a Pines Burger Challenge. Eat 4 burgers in one hour and receive a t-shirt and photo on the wall.
Last weekend Rachel’s brother and family came to town. We introduced the kids to the burgers and the antique miniature bowling game that my brother and I played growing up.
When family and friends come to Ithaca, there are a few staples we always visit. There is the campus tour, the gorges, the Farmer’s Market, the parks and the restaurants. But then there’s Purity Ice Cream. Purity has been churning out its own ice cream in this shop for over 70 years. They have a lot of unique flavors like Finger Lakes Tourist & Moose Tracks. But do yourself a favor and order one of their three flavors with shavings of bittersweet chocolate. (Bittersweet, Chocolate Bittersweet or Mint Chip). Although Rachel votes for Madigan Mint.
This blog is starting to sound like a Lonely Planet tour guide.
When we weren’t running 26 miles, we were eating in Nashville. A few thoughts on the places we visited:
1) Arnold’s Country Kitchen- This famous Meat and Three cafeteria was low on ambiance but high on southern comfort food. Especially the Collard Greens, Chicken Fried Steak & Fried Green Tomatoes.
2) Rotier’s Restaurant – French bread burgers and milkshakes in a classic family owned shop since 1945. I opted for the grilled cheeseburger which is basically a grilled cheese with burger meat, along with a chocolate milkshake. Amazing.
3) Layla’s Bluegrass Inn – On the music strip on Broadway, this became our bar and music venue of choice. We came back twice to hear the bluegrass band Jypsi.
4) The Loveless Cafe – 20 minutes outside of Nasvhille, on Highway 100, this motel and country kitchen is famous for biscuits & gravy breakfast and smoked BBQ pork for dinner. We came for breakfast, but after seeing the BBQ out back, I wish we had been around for dinner. They make fresh jam preserves to go with biscuits for breakfast. And the gravy was a pretty nice addition to all of our meals.
5) Yazoo Brewery – This was where we celebrated with a flight of beer after the marathon. I was still trying not to pass out from the heat of the marathon, so it was a little hard to appreciate the beer, but I think the consensus favorite of our group was the Pale Ale & Dos Perros. They had a great little tasting room and a backyard patio in what appeared to be an old warehouse or factory.
6) City House – Our favorite restaurant of the trip (although Rotiers burgers put up a good fight). Thanks to a local tipoff from Cousin Judy, we went here after the Yazoo brewery. City House is a southern Italian kitchen with an outstanding menu of brick oven pizza, meat dishes, a few pastas and fish selections. So good.
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