A Loaf

Pent-up Farming Energy and Sourdough Bread

As every gardener out there will tell you, this warm winter has brought on the itch to plant a few weeks early this year. Since there's still the chance of freezing weather for the next four weeks or so, I'm turning to this terribly neglected blog as my outlet for pent-up farming energy.

But first, for those who have wondered about our friend Liz, we have good news to report. Liz made it through the surgery as well as anybody makes it through a double lung transplant. She's doing great! A couple weeks ago she left the hospital for an extended stay at a rehab facility. Thanks to all who sent, and continue to send, good vibes of all kinds for Liz.

So spring. It's almost here. I actually have two reasons to exercise restraint in the lead-up to the planting season. Sarah and I may be moving before the end of the growing season. She's graduating from Duke in May and looking for work outside of Durham. So, what would we do if we had to move in the middle of the season after starting the patio garden? I certainly don't like the thought of leaving a patio garden mid-season. So along with my itch to plant, I have a worse-than-normal envy of those with land.

Here's some sourdough starter. I've forgotten to photograph a loaf so far.

Since we don't have land, we're getting more serious about another activity. Cooking and baking. Sarah and I have been discussing how community food security and the sustainable agriculture movement depends so much on maintaining cooking knowledge within communities. If we're going to follow Michael Pollan's advice and eat ingredients, we all need to know how to produce a meal from ingredients. Right now we're trying bread baking and hope to try canning a little later in the season.

Well, I think that's all for now. Look for updates on our kitchen experiments and see whether or not we're able to hold off planting until we have a permanent home. I'm guessing not.

Please help our friend :)

Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a lovely holiday break! My dear friend Liz Rieckmann has been waiting for a lung transplant for some time now... and on Tuesday she finally got one! Yay! If you could please keep her in your thoughts and prayers... we would be so appreciative. She is in serious recovery right now, and needs all the good vibes she can get :). If you also feel so inspired there is a website to which you can donate to her. Please donate as little or as much as you are able. James and I made a New Year's Resolution that we would try to donate a small amount each month for the year of 2012. You are welcome to join us in our resolution, or simply donate whatever you are able. Please visit her website at http://www.transplants.org/donate/lizrieckmann. Thank you all so much for your love and support!

-Sarah

A New Haven Wedding and Parsons Christmas

We took a road trip to Connecticut for the wedding of Sarah's friend from Tucson.

Fun picture at the wedding

Christmas Eve at the Parsons house

Trimming the tree

Family photo

Changes

This week last year it was snowing and 8 lb Kora was out playing in it for the first time. Today, it was 70 degrees, and well, Kora definitely isn't 8 lbs anymore. Things change over the course of a year.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Sorry Christmas. It is the most wonderful time of the year. This weekend, Sarah and I took a short hiking trip near Boone, NC. The spot we found was perfect, and the leaves were getting near their peak. Kora spent a long time running in the meadow pictured below, mostly just doing her spastic Border Collie running but sometimes in hot pursuit of a bug or bird. Pretty sure we'll head back to this spot soon. Bet you can't look at these pictures and not think that it really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Mountain to Sea Trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway

Same

Same

Same

Resting off the trail

We stopped to let Kora run free through the meadow

View from off the Parkway

We're back! I know you're excited!

Yes, it's been a while. No real reason other than blogging got pushed far down the list once a new semester of school started for Sarah and work got busy for me. There's really been nothing big to report from the last few months. But, I'll give it a go here and try to make it interesting, so stick with me.

Sarah's working on putting together a viewing of King Corn with filmmaker Ian Cheney at Duke on Monday. If anyone wants to go, send me or Sarah an email. The film is great and available online for free, so check it out if you like things that are funny AND informative. You know you do.

Sarah's also taking a mycology class this semester, so she's collecting lots of pictures like the one below. I was just looking through her camera to get some pictures for this post, and there were dozens of mushrooms. I do have a serious appreciation for mushrooms now actually, or at least Sarah tells me that I should and I believe her.

A couple weekends ago we went for a hike along the Haw River. It wasn't all that adventurous. Nothing much happened except for my sightseeing and Sarah's mushroom hunting. Really Sarah was just doing a more professional version of sightseeing. It's not that different, really.

Haw River

Haw River

Haw River

Finally, Sarah went off to New Orleans a few weeks ago to present some research she worked on over the summer. She was invited and got a grant to go. Yeah, Sarah does lots of stuff. But, I totally keep up. Totally. In fact, I kind of leave Sarah in my dust most of the time. I'm just too humble to talk about it on our blog. Anyway, the next entry will definitely be about the awesome stuff I do. Definitely.

New Orleans