June 28, 2009

In the last month, we have spent one weekend in Tahoe, one week camping and three weeks doing an internship at StoneLake Farm. The weekend of the Summer Solstice (june 21) marked the end of our  internship where, each day, we worked in their organic garden and cared for their farm animals. Clearly, we were constantly reminded of the extraordinary workings of nature that I think we overlook all too often. I can’t begin to explain how much I learned from that experience but I can say that I’ve come out of it feeling great, with a whole new perspective on the land around me and perhaps a better idea of who I might like to be in this world.

**To be clear, Gavin is now in Oregon taking math and science classes and brewing lots of beer, the first in a handful of steps to him becoming a real-deal Brewmaster. I am in Torrance for a couple of weeks before I head to the Santa Cruz mountains to teach film at SDC summer camp for my third year.**

Naturally, the thing that stands at the center of everything I’ve learned in the past month is food - how it’s grown, where it comes from and what I ought to be eating. So you can imagine my excitement for the plan I had made with my dad to head to the Torrance Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning. We went to get almost everything we’ll need to feed the 60+ people that will be coming to our house on Friday evening for the engagement party we are hosting for my dear brother, Gannon, and his lovely fiancée, Andrea. I must admit that, until now, I have not been in the habit of going to Farmer’s Markets for my food (Although I had been receiving produce from a local CSA called Planet Organics for my last year and a half in San Francisco). But now that I realize the value of regular visits to the Farmer’s Market, I’ll never turn back.

We arrived at the market just after 8am and I was pleased to see that there were already plenty of folks there as happy as I was to find booth after booth of fresh California produce. Let me take a moment to focus on the California part - we are blessed with a landscape and climate that enables our farmers to grow a stunning variety of delicious food with amazing timing. We started by strolling through the market to check out what our choices were before making any purchases, passing by fruits and vegetables in green, purple, red, yellow and even pink. Soon enough, we were more than ready to start filling our bags, which we did with great enthusiasm and an incredible medley of edible gems that included leafy greens, chard, asparagus, beets, heirloom tomoatoes, pluots, peaches and cheese! The samples were as delicious as the produce was beautiful and the prices took me by surprise. I imagine you are taken by surprise too when someone asks you for $8 for 6 heads of lettuce and two bunches of beets. And on that note, I felt really good about handing that money directly to the friendly farmer, or even his or her 12-year-old daughter in between her greeting her regular customers.

After getting a few incredible homemade tamales from my dad’s favorite tamale seller, we headed home with a trunk full of yummy, fresh, local ingredients for our party. As we walked away, at about 9:30am, I noticed that the crowd in the market had grown significantly since our arrival. I was even more pleased at that moment to see that all those people seemed to have made a habit of spending their Saturday mornings at the Farmer’s Market, tossing warm greetings around to sellers and other market-goers. Aside from the familiarity they shared with each other, the sunny outdoors provided an energy all it’s own and one that is far removed from the cold sterility of many grocery stores. Needless to say, our Farmer’s Market adventure was highly successful and fun and gave me hope that people might change their food-buying habits for the better. And I couldn’t be more excited about the fresh summer menu we’re preparing for the party! I’ll let you know how it goes…

June 17, 2009

written by Gavin

Producing the brew of the Gods (beer) has kind of consumed me lately.  The sound of several billion yeast cells happily processing sugar to produce a delicious elixir, that perhaps has never been brewed before, never fails to tickle me pink.  So being that it had been nearly a month (gasp!) since I’d heard that lovely sound, and that I just happen to have everything needed to brew a batch of beer with me here at StoneLake Farm, I decided to brew a farm beer.  yes.  delicious.

Giselle and I decided it fitting to brew this batch outdoors.  And seeing as there were no other options, that’s what we did.  We used an independent propane burner on a picnic bench and it went swimmingly.  I would have liked to have brewed over a campfire, but as that presents a number of issues (and it happened to be raining), I decided against it.  The brew is a liberty pale ale with a couple of twists.  The first is that, due to unforeseen circumstances, our arrival at StoneLake was postponed for a week.  I did my best to keep my little vial of pale ale yeast happy but to no avail.  Three days after pitching there was nothing doing.  Meaning that through negligence I had killed my poor defenseless little yeast.  I did not realize this though until a day or two after the beer was brewed and in the primary fermenter. Luckily, our comrade and (one) owner of this lovely farm, Melinda Stone, had some champagne yeast which I immediately pitched.  This was followed by a week of vigorous fermentation that made me very happy indeed.  The second twist on this otherwise run of the mill (although delicious) pale ale is that we made sure to include our hosts’ intuition of flavor in the recipe by adding their homemade Elderberry Syrup to the mix as well as a tincture of local herbs and spices.  yes.  delicious.

As I sit writing this the brew resides next to me bubbling away.  She sends her love, as I do mine, confident that few humans have ever produced or tasted anything like her.  We’ll bottle her in a week and after a month or so of aging, she’ll be ready for action.  We hope this letter finds you well, and know that the sound of yeast at work is keeping us tickled and pink here in the woods.

Love,
Gavin Lord, Giselle Kennedy, and The Elder Stone Pale Ale.

p.s. yes. delicious.

June 9, 2009

The sun has emerged here at StoneLake Farm and, oh, what a refreshing thing that is! Not that we’ve been anything short of content since we’ve arrived, the sunshine just presents broader possibilities - like reading in the meadow, scrambling down the creek, and washing our dirty socks&underwear.

Only after a morning of solid poop duty, which consisted of digging a new hole for the outhouse, laying the 3-year-old humanure at the upper edge of the fruit trees, and clearing the chicken and goat homes of their ultra-plant-friendly poop (it becomes high-quality compost, very useful in growing things). And now it’s evening, we’ve fed the chickens, fed the goats, and watered the garden. All we have to do now is work out what we’ll be having for dinner before sunset so we can head back to the meadow to scarf it down while watching our blazing California sun dip back behind the adjacent hills, an awe-inspiring sight, every time.

Since we began our farming adventure here, I’ve thought a lot about food. I’ve mainly been reading two books - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Garden Anywhere by Alys Fowler. And to top that off, I’ve been involved in planting a few varieties of corn, beans, cabbage, radish, flax, wheat and a few flowers (which work in beautiful harmony with the vegetables at hand). I decided that if what I was doing right now was the curriculum for a 3-week intensive study course, it would be called The Earth’s Bounty. Because that is what I am really coming to understand, and, I dare say, it is changing my perspective on a lot of things. I knew I wanted to be a gardener but now, for real, I realize it must be a significant part of my life. It amazes me. The idea that I can grow what I eat or someone else, close to where I am, is growing some of the other things I’d like to have, is inspiring. The realization that there are thousands of vegetable varieties in this world, each with their own flavor and history, is exciting. And the fact that eating has to be a part of our everyday lives if we intend to survive, is awesome. I mean, if we have to do it, we might as well take advantage, right? Eat well. It’s good for you and the people around you. And it’s one mantra I’m more than willing to subscribe to.

Two of the things that we’ve made here have been pretty exciting. First, I made an elderberry dressing with some elderberry syrup Francis gave us for the beer we are brewing here. He keeps the berries delicious and useful past their season by making them into a syrup and jarring them. The dressing involved: elderberry syrup, olive oil, shallots, fresh oregano, fresh lemon-bud mint, lime, garlic and a bit of salt&pepper. It was quite tasty tossed in our fresh garden greens… We also made some delicious chicken soup that started with a chicken stock experiment, something I had heard about for a while and gotten a pretty good idea of how to do in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. We just tossed our leftover chicken bones, from grilled drumsticks, into a pot and boiled it until it was thick, golden, and gorgeous! Then we tossed a small myriad of veggies in the stock, cooked it for a while, and ate it for nourishment and to warm our cold bones in the chilly, rainy weather that came before this sunshine. I might also add that it was delicious.

It’s all working out pretty well here. Needless to say, we’re very content with our lives right now; the work is fulfilling, the company lovely, and the environment stunning. It’s a beautiful, productive, and peaceful place. And these few weeks are turning out to be a wonderful way to shape my dreams and ideas about the land around me, my community and what I eat.

So go to a farmer’s market this weekend, it’ll be fun and you’ll go home with some fresh, local goodies and a little knowledge about your local agricultural tapestry.
Maybe then you can head home to cook up a refreshing early summer meal with friends or family. If I may indulge, I’ll add that that the earth’s bounty might be a good topic of conversation for this meal…

June 2, 2009

Food is a very big part of my life, and of Gavin’s life (thank goodness, otherwise I’m not sure how well this would work out…) so for my first food-themed post on this blog, I’m going to talk about campfire cooking… I hope you didn’t think us being in the woods had any affect on our constant desire to make and eat delicious food? Because we are well in the woods and it was a welcome change from the eating we normally do. Turns out campfire cooking is awesome, as it keeps you outside for the preparation and consumption of a meal, the campfire seems to impart it’s own delicious smokey flavor to everything and, well, who doesn’t love a good campfire? Escpecially when there’s a good eatin’ at the end of it. So here’s our outline for a successful 5-day camping meal plan… We though it would be nice to share this because it seems hard to prepare for eating while camping before you’re actually camping. And sometimes it seems hard to imagine making much more than hot dogs and hamburgers. So here’s what we did. And let me tell you, my body was very pleased with this plan…

For MATERIALS, we suggest the following: A cooler, a small mess kit, utensils, small bowls or plates, a camping knife, small cutting board, a large dish towel, biodegradable dish soap (like Campsuds), tub or bucket, and a sponge. (Oh, and access to ice)

For INGREDIENTS, we had: A dozen eggs, 1 bag of pasta, 1 can of pasta sauce, 1 pack of sausages, buns for sausages, beans, rice, 1 loaf of bread, PB&J, cheese, 1 pack tortillas, milk&cereal, bacon, 1 stick of butter, chicken, cheap white wine, soy sauce (or soyaki, which we used), garlic, vegetables & adult beverages.

So…

For BREAKFAST: cereal&milk, fried egg sandwich [toast, eggs, bacon, veggies], avocado toast, scrambled eggs with sausage slices and an all-american breakfast [eggs, bacon, toast]

For LUNCH: leftovers, PB&J sandwiches, leftovers, quesadillas, leftovers (get creative with lunch)

For DINNER: Pasta Dinner [pasta, sauce, veggies], Sausages w/ veggies, Bean and Rice Burritos, Mama Lord’s Marinated Chicken [marinade = chicken legs, white wine, so sauce, minced garlic], Pasta Dinner Dos [sausages - try meat sauce this time]

So there you have it! Our meal plan. You might take a peek at some of our photos to the right as I included plenty of campfire food portraits. Now get your goods and go camping! It is, after all, summertime!

In other news, we have successfully arrived at StoneLake Farm after a couple more days of good camping. It’s amazing up here, there is no shortage of beauty, knowledge or good clean fun. I’ll tell you all about the gardening, adventuring and relaxing we’re doin’ up here in my next post… Oh, and did I mention there are five goats here?

May 29, 2009

Whit and Claire’s wedding weekend was amazing. We spent Memorial Day Weekend celebrating with them and all of their fantastic family and friends on a beautiful piece of land that sits right on beautiful Lake Tahoe. It was sunny, warm and incredibly joyful the whole time. The ceremony was almost ridiculously picturesque, on the edge of a hill that slopes right into the lake and provides an amazing view of what Mother Nature is all about. And then there was beautiful Whit and Claire and their ceremony cronies standing in front of it all… Claire looking stunning as she is in a dress that must have been made for her and Whit looking dapper in a slick grey suit-set, white suede shoes and pink tie. I could go on forever but what I’ll say is the weekend and the wedding and the couple embodied the true picture of simple elegance. The ceremony made my heart swell with the love that exuded from these two dear friends of ours and was one of those ceremonies that restores all faith in true love and marriage. Congratulations Whit and Claire and thanks for a super-lovely weekend!

As for what’s happening now… We left Lake Tahoe and headed to Lassen National Volcanic Park for a night if camping before heading to StoneLake Farm. However, the morning we were set to depart, we learned that some unexpected stuff happened up at the farm (which we did not know due to our lengthy lack of internet) and our trip was delayed until this Sunday. Gavin and I just happen to be pretty good at adapting so we looked at a map and are currently improvising a Northern California National Park/Lake Tour. A few days ago, we headed to Whiskeytown Lake and have thouroughly enjoyed the last few nights we’ve spent camping ON the lake, swimming, hiking and devising new, creative campfire meals (more on that later). And boy, it is beautiful up here! Now we’re headed for more lakes in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest for a couple more nights of our improvised camping adventure before heading to StoneLake. Don’t worryu about us though, I recently purchased the most massive map I have ever owned of just Shasta-Trinity so we know where we’re going! And now, we gotta get back on that open road…

*About the title:  When asked what they had to offer as symbols of their commitment to one another, Whit answered “Two goats and a camel.” (Correct answer: This ring, which he did have.)

May 18, 2009

Last Wednesday we returned to San Francisco to spend a packing-free week with our homies. Although these days we’re calling them our heroes because we just think they are so cool. We had a “Farewell BBQ” on Saturday to get everybody together in one place on a rare hot&sunny San Francisco day. Before the BBQ, Gavin and I came up with a plan for a photo experiment for the party. These photos will be part of an out-of-this-world photo collage that will be going up in our new Portland home and will be called ‘The Wall of Heroes.’

You can check out the photo collection on my Flickr page if you click on any of the thumbnails to the right… My dear friend JimmyJames also took some stunning photos of the afternoon and you might be able to catch them here.

The BBQ was amazing. We drank lots of beer, ate lots of food and played lots of games.  But the point here is that we love you guys, you’re the best. You’ve been such good friends to me, I’ve learned so much from each of you, had so many amazing experiences with all of you and I will miss having you around all the time. But I look forward so much to you visiting us in Portland, which I don’t hope for but expect, and to seeing what wonderful things each of you do with this life.

So, to the heroes - I love you, we love you, we’ll be friends forever.

…with just a little bit of time and a creative spirit.

May 11, 2009

We’ve been doing a lot of fun stuff since we’ve been up in Oregon. That’s one of the many things I love about being in ‘the country,’ there always seems to be something to do.  First, we fixed the chicken’s nesting box so it would no longer be filled with chicken poop and eggs… Just eggs. The eggs now stay in the box and the poop falls to the earth. Who knows, maybe the ground below the box will soon be the host of a beautiful bundle of wildflowers because, after all, chicken poop is a superb fertilizer.

Then, while Gavin was working on his brother’s basement with his brother, Carson, I spent a couple of afternoons painting some little wooden chairs. And that’s what I really want to talk about. That’s what the Old is New title is all about. Let me start by saying that one thing that really frustrates me is the inclination to throw out the old and buy something new. Of course, that does not apply to everyone, especially in this new Craigslist era (which I am thrilled to take part in) but I still do see it a lot. So when Colette (Gavin’s sister-in-law) asked me to help her paint the little chairs that Gavin’s mother had given her for their new basement/playroom (chairs that Gavin and his siblings had sat on in in their youth), I gladly accepted. And since Colette is the busy mother of two of Gavin’s beautiful young nieces, I took it upon myself to paint the chairs while she was doin’ her thing.

It was quite simple. My materials consisted of some sandpaper, a few sponge brushes, white primer and some leftover indoor house paints - all things we were able to find around here. I sanded the chairs just enough to get rid of any weird texture, then I primed them with just one coat of primer (for good aging), then I painted them each in a different color. I had to give them a few coats but I let them dry between coats by rotating between chairs. And, well, I hope you agree that they look super cute!

Thing is, these chairs are sturdier than any kid chair you’d find these days at, say, Ikea, they were free and Colette & the girls love them! Colette and I talked about how great it was that these chairs had a history with the family and about the fact that she was more excited about these new-old chairs than she would have been about any new chairs.

And I got to spend some afternoons listening to the sounds on the farm, getting paint on my pants and thinking about how everything old has the potential to be something new. This particular project was very simple but the possibilities are endless if you are so inspired. Just check out some of the projects on Design*Sponge, one of my favorite crafty blogs, to see what new-old furniture you might like to create…

That said, I urge you to resist the temptation to throw away that old, sturdy dresser only to buy a new one and instead decide exactly what you would like your new dresser to look like and turn it into a fun and fulfilling project. I promise you will not be disappointed!

May 4, 2009

We arrived in Silverton, Oregon on Saturday, May 2 via this abominable Budget truck.  By we I mean Gavin, myself and Nico (my 4-year-old fabulous feline).   We left San Francisco on Friday after about a month of almost complete chaos and a solid week of packing everything we own.  I must say though, it felt really good to take that time to ‘cut the fat,’ as we had been saying, and finally trash or donate all those things we had been carrying around for too long but knew we would never use again.  So we came with the “creme de la creme,” as Gavin called it, of all our earthly belongings and stored it all in various locations around the Lord residence.  We did that because after an adventure that will last for about the next ten months, we will be moving to Portland, Oregon.  But before that, we’ve got other plans.

Do tell, you say…

Well, we are staying here for about another week and then heading back to San Francisco for about 10 days to catch one more show at Big Umbrella Studios and have some sort of farewell shindig with our dear, dear friends there.  Then we’ll be heading to Lake Tahoe for what is sure to be a very exciting wedding, that of Whit Scott and Claire Fisher.  After that, we head back westward to spend a month on StoneLake Farm interning with Melinda Stone and Francis Lake, two wonderful friends of ours.  THEN Gavin will be heading back up here to Oregon to take some summer school classes and I’ll be heading to the Santa Cruz area to teach for three weeks at Original SDC Summer Camp for my third year before heading to Los Angeles to spend some time with family, friends and the sunshine.  And finally, in the Fall of this year, Gavin and I plan to spend some months traveling and Wwoofing in Southeast Asia before coming home to Portland.

And that is why I’ve started this blog (only possible with the help of two lovely men, my cronies, Drew and Jeremy) - to write about my adventures and avoid sending mass e-mails to my loved ones who might wonder where I am and what I’m doing in the coming months.  I have felt a lot of feelings lately as many things have been coming to a close and many new things are beginning but in the last couple days, when I’ve finally been able to relax, i’ve mostly felt very content.  I will miss my friends in San Francisco terribly but they are my friends for life and I look forward to us finding each other over and over again wherever we end up in this world.  I will miss San Francisco but it was my time to go and I will take what I learned there everywhere with me for the rest of my life.  I guess the point is I feel good about the decisions I’ve made, I feel blessed to have met the people I have along the way and I feel excited for what is to come.

So if you want, stay tuned and I’ll try to keep it interesting.  I’m running with three main categories - Adventure, Craft, and Edibles, because that’s what life is all about in my eyes…  Oh, and there’s Love.  Which I’ve got.  But I like to think it’s synonymous with adventure…