"It's A Question Of Lifestyle . . . . . . . " or Love's Labour Found, Part II.

Red Coleus

Sunday Morning, September 12th, 2010

As I was saying, it's a question of lifestyle.  Fall always seems to be an introspective time for us.  It's also when we suddenly feel the Season's changing, or beginning to change.  And for us we know that Winter is coming and that there is so much to do before we are ready!

Like eating as much fresh local organic lettuce as we can!

Bowl by Sandra Wells Rolland,

purchased at the October 2009 Guild Fair.

A couple of decades ago my Mom gave me a large envelope stuffed with some of her favorite recipe clippings.  My Mother was a phenomenal cook and baker.  She could cook anything and everything, and she cooked it superbly.  I guess, in a way, I grew up in her kitchen.  I don't really remember helping her that much.  But I was with her, watching and talking and learning a lot more than I realized at the time.

We looked and never were able to find the rest of her recipes.  I thought they were gone forever . . .  Last Fall I found them!  They were stuffed in the back of the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet we inherited from her.  A different manila folder for each type of recipe: cakes, breads, main courses, salads, and on and on.  So many recipes that I remember!  So many recipes to cook.  Oh my, so many taste to recreate.

Pat caught me!

Slicing organic Market cukes by hand.

My favorite large bowl by David Grant, from 2009.

I was in the grips of a Fall Compulsion!  Last year was the first time I had ever made pickles and they were wonderful and fun and I am hooked!  And we'd actually been buying pickles for a month!!!  So now, armed with Mom's recipes I was determined to re-make her incredible Bread & Butter pickles.

Sliced onions and garlic added.



I pressed a beautiful bowl by Tom Turnbull into service for the overflow!

Packed back into David's bowl, salted and iced and

into the fridge for 3 hours.

In the meantime I sliced more cukes for dill pickles

as the brine heated.

A few hours later Bread & Butter pickles heating through before hot packing.

I never knew that turmeric gave them their wonderful color and flavour!

Pat's partial to dill pickles.  Mom's Bread and Butter Pickles have always been my favorites.  After checking some other recipes I changed her recipe by slightly reducing the sugar content.  (No wonder I loved them!)

I also learned just how much work they are.  What an incredible Labour of Love Mom did year after year after year.  She supplied us with pickles, cookies (oh the cookies!), cakes and pies, some of the greatest healthiest meals of my life were made by her.

7 half-pints and 1 pint of Almost-Mom's Bread & Butter Pickles!

9 half-pints and 3 pints of Almost-Kosher Deli-Style Dill Pickles for Pat!

As I said, it's all a question of lifestyle.  It's pretty simple.  What's important?  How do you want to live?  What do you want your life to be?  Every choice, large and small, determines who we are and how we live our lives.

And I wanted homemade pickles back in our lives again!

Sure, some choices and decisions take a little longer to grow to fruition.  But isn't it worth it all???  So, these views are for Terry . . .

Inky and I had an idea, May 23rd, 2010.

Planted June 14th, 2010.

Nearing the end of the Season, September 2nd, 2010.

Because, you know, my Dear Sister Terry is right.

It's a question of lifestyle . . .



"It's A Question Of Lifestyle . . . . . . . " or Love's Labour Found, Part I.

I can't remember just how many years ago it was, but I can still very clearly remember that when Pat and I expressed amazement at Terry and Dave's work and barn schedules my Dear Sister patiently explained that, "It's a question of lifestyle . . . "

For years I would hear her voice say, "It's a question of lifestyle . . ." Sometimes I bristled when those words would float, all unbidden, through my mind.

We're A Matched Pair

Balloon Flowers June 29, 2010.

Pat and I woke to a wonderfully cool and drizzly morning.  A chorus of crickets and other buggies were serenading us and suddenly, somehow, we knew deep-down-inside that Fall is coming. Fall is coming and it's Market Day! Despite the wet (like my Father before me, I melt) we headed out ~ telling ourselves that maybe it wasn't raining as hard on the other side of Beaucatcher Mountain. And, well, frankly, I was in the grip of a Fall Compulsion. (Pat really can be so patient with me.)

The North Asheville Tailgate Market, at UNCA, is our favorite. (The trees and the tents and canopies, and our hats, kept most of the drizzle off.) Actually it's the only Market we go to now: though the Wednesday Weaverville Tailgate Market, at Lake Louise, would probably fit into our schedule . . .

The sweet couple at Country Fields Farm came up aces! Our first stop almost satisfied my Fall-driven compulsion. We also came home with some more great spinach pasta made by Pasta Momma; a perfect fresh Garlic Dill Goat Chevre made by Spinning Spider Creamery (incredible on the Spelt loaf from Annie's bakery we picked up Friday ~ ah heck, it's incredible on anything!); delicious Lion's Mane mushrooms from the Mushroom Lady;

some perfect locally grown organic garlic;

(small platter by Hank Goodman,

purchased at the 2009 Guild Artists' Sale)

and these irresistible local organic onions.

(Bowl by Dede Vergot; gift of the artist many years ago.)

It was a good Market run.

We stopped at Ingles on our way home for a couple of necessities, and for a few more essential ingredients to satisfy my "compulsion".  Fall really is coming.

I'm pretty sure that Terry will still tell you that, "It's a question of lifestyle . . ."  It's that simple.  And, so many years later, Pat and I find ourselves repeating her truth to ourselves more often as each Fall passes.

It is a question of lifestyle.


More of today's Fall Adventure, tomorrow, in "It's A Question Of Lifestyle . . . "  or Love's Labour Found, Part II.