Harley Farms

This past weekend we met up with Brad and Jamee for one of our favorite hikes in Butano State Park.  Afterwards, we explored Pescadero, where we were introduced to the most amazing goat farm / cheese shop ever, Harley Farms.  The cheeses were all amazing, and we had a hard time deciding what to take home with us.  In the end, we went with honey lavender goat cheese and some deliciously salty feta.   Yum!

The garden and farmhouse


Goats!

Matt, Jamee, and Brad checking out the goats

Free samples of ~10 types of cheese, 4 types of olive oil, jam, and local honey

It was a beautiful day for goat cheese tasting

The farm grows their own flowers and lavender for the cheeses (and collects and recycles rain water)

From inside the tasting room

Upstairs where they have super fancy dinners that book up months and months in advance

Matt makes a new friend

Ziggy Jr

more kitties

Goats, cheese, and kitties. What more could you want?  We will be back for more soon.

Bread and Jam

What better way to spend our Sunday than making fresh bread and strawberry jam? Milk Pail had 12 pint flats of strawberries for $8, so we figured it was about time to buy a ton of strawberries and make our house smell delicious.

Strawberry Jam Recipe:

- ~10 pints of strawberries, chopped in half or quarters (astute readers will notice that 2 pints are missing from the 12 pints purchased... yum)

- ~2/3 cup lemon juice

- Zest from ~4 lemons

- ~2 cups sugar

Combine ingredients and simmer in a big pot until it tastes delicious, probably an hour and a half. Boil canning jars, fill jars, re-boil. Enjoy some immediately (after it cools!), and store the rest for later.

Bread Recipe:

- 2 teaspoons of yeast (I finally found bulk yeast for about 1/10th the price of those yeast packets, thanks Milk Pail!)

- 1 cup warm water

- 1 teaspoon salt

- A bit of olive oil

- Roughly 3 cups of flour

Proof the yeast to make sure it's alive - dissolve yeast in warm water, add a small amount of sugar, and let sit for 5-10 minutes. If a foam forms on top then the yeast is happily munching on the sugar, so proceed with making bread. If not, find new yeast.

Combine ingredients, knead for 10 minutes, let rise for ~1 hour, knead again and shape into loaf, let rise for another hour, bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Cover in butter and jam. Enjoy!

YUM!!

Garden update

Lots of activity in the garden recently!

picked last weekend

picked yesterday

the garbanzos that we sprouted are finally producing beans!

green garbanzo beans

cherry tomatoes

"chocolate" peppers, which taste a lot like green ones

tons of baby orange peppers that are super sweet

Ziggy, presiding over it all and soaking up some sun

Matt has a new hobby

I'm happy to report that Matt has a new hobby: bread making.  Readers of our last post may have noticed a photo or two of Matt making bread at the lake house, and once we got home to California, he decided to delve deeper into the field with another loaf. It sure is tough to be the beneficiary of delicious, warm loaves of bread baked fresh daily.  But it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Herb Ciabatta: 

kneading the dough

before the rise

after the rise

seasoning the slab with coarse salt

The bread and the bread maker

The finished loaf, so warm and delicious

Like many good recipes, there is no recipe for this bread.  Matt eyeballed the ingredients, but I am pretty sure he added the following: flour, yeast (1 package in 1 cup of warm water), olive oil, a little onion powder, a pinch of salt, a healthy dollop of wildflower honey, and dried rosemary.  After kneading, he let the dough rise for about an hour or so at room temp, then baked at 450 for about 15 mins.

Lake Winnipesaukee vacation

We just got back from our fabulous 1.5 week vacation on the east coast. We first visited our good friends Mark and Colleen in Boston and enjoyed a warm summer evening with them, followed by a trip to a local farmer's market and craft fair the next day.

Mark and Colleen on the way back from the market

We snuck in a quick trip to my alma mater, Wellesley College, for a whirlwind tour and some reminiscing by the shores of Lake Waban.

Green Hall, Wellesley College

Then it was off to New Hampshire to spend some quality time relaxing with Matt's family by Lake Winnipesaukee.  We all shared a beautiful cabin right on the water, and it didn't take us long to unwind and enjoy ourselves.

Matt attempted to water ski (but instead drank a gallon of lake water through his nose)

John, Isabelle, and Matt's parents spent lots of time fishing (and caught a few fish of considerable size, although I didn't get pictures of those)

We plowed through several books in a handful of days 

We swam in the crystal clear and surprisingly warm(-ish) lake

(self explanatory)

Matt made us all many excellent fires, and we ate far too many s'mores

We canoed and kayaked to our heart's content

We enjoyed a guest appearance from Ames

This enormous snapping turtle emerged to greet us from under the dock, surprising those of us who had just swam a few feet away

We made several duck friends, mostly because we had lots of bread

This chipmunk lived under our deck and enjoyed stuffing his face with blueberries

The cabin, as seen from the dock

Our favorite reading spot right by the lake

The dock on a warm summer night

We were treated to several impressive sunsets

There was lots of pretty moss surrounding the cabin

After a week of indulgence, we said goodbye to the lake and headed north to Mt. Washington.  Matt's parents and sister joined us for the climb.  Matt successfully made it up the mountain barefoot, and we managed to have some great weather on the second day.  More pictures and details to come!

Joe Dodge Lodge, at the base of the trail up Mt. Washington

For more pictures of our week at the lake, see the complete set here.  We were sad to leave such a beautiful place (and especially to go back to work), but hopefully we can do it all again someday.