Brook View Farmers Market

There is nothing nicer than getting out of Bed early on a Saturday
morning and head out into the country side for some farm activity. Only
about five years ago this would have sounded pretty alien to me.
Probably because I lived in the country and getting up before the sun
was at its highest point on a Saturday would just have been down right
CRAZY!!
However, things have changed. Friday nights are no longer spent at Stallones
or Star Lights or New York Delis or what ever those places of sin call
themselves these days. No...we have learned to appreciate the home
life. The quiet dinner at home. The family gatherings. TV nights. Bed
early. 1 or 2 beers...some ice cream.
Anyway, Brookview Farm celebrated Earth Day and we where there when they opened their gates - at 9am on the dot;-))
The farm is out in the Goochland area, Manakin - Sabot, to be precise. There was a ton of things to do and lots of great food for in between.
In between photo shootings with a gorgeous Brahman bull, a very shy donkey, a pony, a hen on the run chased trough the undergrowth by Finley, thousands of escaped bees and their keeper Alfredo from Columbia and of of course little Finley, his daddy and me, we indulged in organic beef sausages and ginger ale.
There
was a beekeeper lecture, which included the catching of wild bees and a
lecture on solar powered energy. Finley got to ride a pony, sit on a
tractor and roll around in the green, green grass.
The farmers market takes place every Saturday from 9am and its well worth going...very pretty area;-)))

Lemon-Lime Bars

Ingredients

* 2/3 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
* 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
* 4 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel, divided
* 6 eggs
* 2-1/4 cups granulated sugar
* 1/2 cup lemon juice
* 3/4 tsp. baking powder
* 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
* 1 tsp. finely shredded lime peel
* 2 Tbsp. sifted powdered sugar

Directions

1. Prepare Candied Citrus Slices or Strips, (see recipe), if desired. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with heavy foil; set aside.

2. For crust, in large mixing bowl beat butter on medium to high 30 seconds. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Beat in 2 cups of the flour until crumbly. Stir in 2 teaspoons of the lemon peel. Evenly press on bottom of prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, for filling, in medium bowl combine eggs, granulated sugar, remaining 1/2 cup flour, lemon juice, baking powder, and nutmeg. Beat on medium 2 minutes. Stir in remaining lemon peel and the lime peel. Pour over hot crust. Bake 20 minutes more or until edges are browned and center appears set. Remove to rack; cool 1 hour. Refrigerate, covered, 2 hours.

4. To serve, sprinkle evenly with powdered sugar. Lift from pan using foil; cut into bars. Add Candied Citrus Slices or Strips, if desired. Store, covered, in refrigerator up to 3 days. Makes 16 to 20 bars.

5. Candied Citrus Slices: In large skillet combine 1/4 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar; bring to boiling. Add 2 lemons or 10 key limes, thinly sliced. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 1 to 2 minutes or until just softened. Transfer to rack; cool.

6. Candied Citrus Strips: Cut strips of peel from 2 lemons or 2 limes. With spoon scrape away white pith. Cut into thin strips and cook in sugar mixture as above.

Enjoy!!!

Thomas the Tank Engine

The huge suitcase from England has arrived - in it, Thomas the Tank Engine
-Thank you auntie Fiona;-))
Finley was mighty excited about it and immediately started putting it together - with hardly any help from his daddy;-)))
It
is a great day for playing indoors as it is chucking it down since this
morning...at least 3 inches!!! This is of course great for the garden
and as I am writing, my beautiful new landscaped garden is turning into
the Amazon Rain Forest
Everything is sooooooo green, it is amazing and all my plants are growing, well at the moment it looks more like they are drowning;-((
No
worries, I will just plant some new ones. After all it is only April
and we had nearly 30C yesterday. So it looks like we are in for a VERY
long and probably very HOT summer!!! We'll see how much of it I can
take before madness sets in. I might have to build a tunnel from the
refrigerated house to the equally cold car in order to avoid the
scorching heat while my friends and family over there in Europe have
to wear little jackets, once the sun sets, so they don't get
cold***??!!**. Man, I'll miss the summer over there and I hope you guys
have snow till at least July and than again from mid August;-)))))))It
looks like I have gone mad already...oh well, never mind. Life is a lot
easier if you are crazy;-)

In the meantime I'll enjoy the lush vegetation before it turns all brown again in a couple of month.

Yiiiiii ha!! Cowboy;-)

At long last I have found the farm I had been looking for ever since I moved to the States. It only took 2 1/2 years and a 40 min drive out to Powhatan, but it was well worth it.
Martina and Lilly came along as babysitter while I rode a handsome 17
hand, four year old gelding named Helmet **@#**??. What the hell where
they thinking when they named that horse??
Name aside, Helmet (let's call him Helmi) has only been ridden for about 90 days and needs all the help he can get from his rider. Donna Crossman,
the stable owner took me and him under her wings and guided us trough
our first adventure together. He has beautiful gaits and is a real
sweetheart. Having not really done much in the field of horses ever
since Finley entered the scene, I am happy to be working with Donna and
look forward to learning a lot from her.
Reedwind farm is a lovely place and Donna mainly trains quarter horses, but also has a few boarders and does the occasional lesson.
Both,
Finley and Lilly had a little ride on the farm's 'granny horse' Holly
and judging by the look on their faces, they really enjoyed it. We all
got to ride around in a golf cart. The kids took turns steering, which
was rather scary. Took a long time to get from A to B;-))Finley took a
crash course in roping and mastered it like a pro.
It was a great day and we all look forward to many more days on the farm and lots of riding;-)))))

Transition to Spring

Winter has gone and spring is here...but not quite. It is still
shockingly cold and the lovely blooming fruit trees in our back yard
are shivering in the cold wintry chill. I am actually looking right at
them, admiring their beautiful pink flowers and...what's that little
grey thing there next to the wheelbarrow? Uhhhhhh Finley would love that. He'd probably call it a Hasi,
(German name for rabbit) although the one out there is a little smaller
with a very, very long tail and not domesticated...at least not in
usual sense.
Over a month has past since my last entry. Shocking!!! This just shows that February
and March are pretty boring month...unless you spend them in the
Bahamas;-) However, the Bahamas are already a thing of the past and we
need to move forward to new adventures. Finley is getting more and more
active as the days go by and I need to find activities to fill our days.
There is a lot of playground action and some nice walks with Martina and Lilly. Every Thursday he meets Camille at a kiddy gym. Finley is a bit of a ladies man, just like his daddy;-)
We got a little taste of spring this past weekend. Very conveniently at Easter time. Steve got bitten by the DIY
bug and started digging up the back garden in order to create a oasis
for the summer month. The grass had to go, as it never really grew
anyway and the gaps between the bushes where filled with white pebbles.
This does not only look good but hopefully will prevent the hoards of mosquitoes
from breeding in the moist ground. Not that the ground is ever moist
here...it's a dessert in the summer;-(((((, but our monster mossies find
every drop of water and hang out there until something better comes
along. They really like Finley blood and mine too;-((
Anyway, I
digress. Instead of grass we now have a beautiful sand pit for the heir
where he can go wild and an enormous hole in the ground, which will
hopefully one day be a brick patio. My landscape gardener husband is
very talented and I really mean that.

Saturday
afternoon we celebrated little Olly's first birthday with Katie and
Joel and some of their friends. Unfortunately the weather turned really
cold and we hurried of to the next B-Party, which -O dear- was a BBQ.
Anyway, it turned out be really nice, as Dennis has a huge fire pit where we first roasted our toes and than some marshmallows!!!
Easter
Sunday, we went to Monument Avenue and strolled along the road with
hundreds, maybe thousands (that might be a bit exaggerated) of fellowRichmonders.
It felt a bit like walking along Brighton Peer on the first days of
spring, which in the UK that would be sometimes in August;-))))
There where certainly more dogs than people. Hard work as Finley needed to pat every single one. Luckily
we found some ponies and a petting zoo with lots of tiny goats, cows,
bunnies and a very lazy llama that did not get up once. Mind you it
looked pretty big. At least Finley was able to mount it better, which
the
owners did not like at all. He tried the same with the bunny, which luckily
was in a cage otherwise that could have been the end of the Easter
Bunny;-)))

Some
of the photos are from our latest trip to Nags Head, two weeks ago,
featuring the young boy and the sea, admiring the elements and hanging
out with the surfer chicks!!

Happy Easter everyone;-))))))))))