Steak and Berries all of the meat. none of the fat.

Well, it’s been a whirlwind of a fantastic summer and now I am getting ready for one more good night’s sleep before I make my way to the other side of Earth. In about 14 hours I’ll be taking off to Bangkok with Gavin, my sweetheart and trusted travel companion. And we couldn’t be more excited – we’ve been waiting for this day, well, all summer. But at the same time, it’s a very strange feeling. You see, I’ve traveled a good bit in my few years but this is different, this will be an entirely new experience. And this may just be the grandest adventure I have set off on to date… and with adventure comes extreme joy, great challenges and unforeseen growth. All of which I welcome but also all of which can inspire a certain amount of anxiousness. But the single thing that makes me comfortable and confident about this grand adventure I am about to embark on is the feeling that there is nothing else I’d rather be doing tomorrow than making the journey to Bangkok with Gavin and that I am seizing my opportunity to see the world.

And now, after a full summer of small, incredible adventures – farming, party planning, Summer Drama Camp, Des Moines, Oregon, time with my dearest in Torrance and a grand medieval finale, I’m so ready for it. But first, I want to send out a huge thank you and lots of love to all those fine folks who gave me a place to rest my head, a meal (or several) and your company this summer. You know who you are and you have certainly helped a great deal in making this possible for me. So thank you..

Who knows how long we’ll stay, who knows what we’ll find and who knows how it will effect us… But we’re going and to be blunt – bring it Asia. And we want to share it all with you, here, as often as possible. Because that’s the point, right? See the world & share what you’ve learned with as many people as you can. And I’ve got a lot to learn, so get ready… I’m ready, I’m packed, so I’m off. But before I go, here’s a thought for you, my friends – a favorite passage of Gavin’s written by the great and indescribably adventurous Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton…

“Of the gladdest moments in human life is the departure upon distant journey int unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, one feels more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood. A journey, in fact, appeals to imagination, to memory, to hope, the three sister graces of moral being”

The other night I spoke to my best friend, Melissa, on the phone for two hours. The thing is, I’m not that into being on the phone. I’m a face-to-face kinda gal. Don’t get me wrong, I recognize when extended conversation is necessary and I love getting in touch with my dearest and saying hello and/or making a date. But when it comes to casual conversation, don’t expect to keep me on the phone for much more than, say, 20 minutes . So what kept me on the phone that long you ask? Well, other than the fact that Melissa and I have had 19 years of conversational experience together, I speculate that we spent nearly all of the second hour talking about food – Melissa and I share very strong passion for food. Cooking and eating are two things we both do a lot of. And after she gave me a (not-so) brief rundown of the best shows on the Food Network right now and her latest culinary endeavors (all of which made me very hungry), we somehow got on the topic of  breadcrumbs. And, inspired by my BFF and fellow food lover, that is what I want to talk about.

One day, some time ago, I thought twice about the cardboard canister of breadcrumbs that most folks go get when a recipe calls for breadcrumbs. I don’t remember ever using them much but I decided I didn’t like the idea of them – because they just seem kinda sketchy and most people always end up with 4/5 of them left in their fridge after the meal they got them for. So I decided I wouldn’t bread anything if it wasn’t with homemade breadcrumbs. Which meant I had to figure out how to make breadcrumbs. Seems simple enough, right? I mean, you make breadcrumbs every time you eat a piece of toast. I suppose you could just continuously collect those and see what happens. But I found some tips on homemade breadcrumbs and came up with my own way to do it. And I’ve been doing it ever since. Thing is, they never really stuck quite as nicely as I would have liked them to so things didn’t coat very evenly. But they were still delicious. However, the other day when I was making some breaded fish with my dad, I was explaining to him that they didn’t always stick so well. And while the two of us stood in front of a very hot oven inspecting the plate of bread crumbs he said, “They usually need to be drier to stick.” And if this scenario were in a cartoon, this is when the lightbulb would have appeared above our heads and I discovered the final, vital step to very successful homemade breadcrumbs… So now that I’ve figured it out, here’s how I do it:

What you’ll need:

• 2-4 pieces of good sliced bread
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• grated cheese

Depending on the amount of food you’re breading, put a few pieces of sliced bread in a food processor and process until you have fine bread crumbs. *I like to use multi-grain breads – they’re very tasty and they crumb in such a lovely way. Add a bit of olive oil to your mix, something like 1/2 tablespoon per two pieces of bread, and run the food processor just a little more until the crumbs are evenly oily. *Add a bit more oil if they are still dry and repeat. *Also, try different oils depending on what you’re making, i.e. I used walnut oil the other day for breading white fish. And here’s my big secret: I add cheese to the breading. So far, parmesan cheese is my favorite. You can add it to the food processor when you add the oil, and you can add as much as you like. Just grate it and throw it in. And now for that final step – spread the bread crumbs evenly on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for just a couple of minutes. Check on them (with your fingers) to see when they’re dry. Then start breading.

And watch those breadcrumbs gloriously, evenly coat your food. Whatever food you want… How about green tomatoes?

Seriously though. That evening I had decided to make fried green tomatoes after buying some green tomatoes at the Torrance Farmer’s Market. I’d never seen green tomatoes for sale before and when I saw them, I knew something had to be done. When the very nice tomato vendor saw me (fascinated, curious, and full of desire) looking at them, he suggested that I try making fried green tomatoes. So I did. I followed This Recipe from SimplyRecipes.com (a recipe site I like more and more all the time). Just a few notes about the recipe – don’t worry about measurements and MAKE YOUR OWN BREADCRUMBS!

The Fried Green Tomatoes were delicious. I’ve mastered my breadcrumbs. And now I’m hungry again.

Happy Eating!

Last time I was in San Francisco, I had the pleasure of spending a sunny afternoon with my pals, Jeremey & Abby Lavoi of Team Jaded, and Whit & Claire Scott… which was simply lovely. When I asked Jeremey if anything new and exciting was going on, he humbly told me that a film he and Abby had made was going to be screened at the Skateboard Film Festival in Seattle. So when they put it online, I watched it. And I liked it a lot. It’s visually awesome and a pretty cool story. Even if you don’t skateboard. Congrats on making it to the festival, amigos.

… enjoy.

Make It Happen: Lowcard from TeamJaded on Vimeo.

Last time I was here (here being Silverton, OR, where Gavin grew up and where his folks still reside), Gavin’s dad was working very steadily on a new vegetable garden. Now, just a couple of months later, the garden has exploded into a lush, green and fruitful carnival of healthy, grown vegetable plants. Just about anything one might need or desire at this time of summer. Among these vegetables are most of the ingredients necessary for SALSA! Big, juicy red tomatoes, white onions, red bell peppers and *hot* serrano peppers. So, in response to a request from Mama Lord, I took on making some fresh salsa as an afternoon project on one sunny Oregon summer day. I did some ‘roasted tomato salsa’ (my favorite kind of salsa) research, picked the aforementioned delicities from the garden, added a few other goodies to the mix and came up with the following recipe, which resulted in a very tasty summer salsa.

(This should be enough to get you and some cronies through one large bag of tortilla chips… and *maybe* have some leftover.)

You will need:

• 7 red tomatoes
• 1 white onion, quartered
• 4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• 1 red pepper, cut in half and de-seeded
• 1 serrano pepper
• 3-4 green onions
• 8 sprigs of cilantro
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon cumin

* Adjust the amount of each ingredient to your liking as you go along – particularly the garlic, serrano pepper, salt, cilantro and cumin. (since you will, naturally, be consistently taste-testing your salsa as you prepare it)

Begin by setting your oven to broil. While it’s heating, get out a baking sheet (with rims) and spread out your tomatoes, onion quarters, red pepper halves, serrano pepper and garlic cloves on it. Put your veggie covered baking pan into the oven and broil until the veggies are roasted, about 15 minutes. But keep checking because it all depends on the heat of your oven. And some things may take longer than others so take things out as they are ready until everything is done. The tomatoes should be pretty soft and have black spots on them. The serrano peppers & garlic should be soft inside.

Get out a bowl to toss all your ingredients into after you do the following: Chop the tomatoes to get a proper salsa consistency (they will be pretty mushy so you won’t need to chop much), dice the onions, chop the red pepper, remove the seeds from the serrano pepper then mince it THOROUGHLY, peel the garlic and mince the clove.

Stir those things around in the bowl before adding the rest of your ingredients. The green onions should also be chopped and the cilantro should be de-stemmed and chopped. Add the lime, salt, sugar and cumin and mix the whole concoction to your heart’s delight. Give it some time (at least half an hour) for the flavors to set in and meld together. Then bust out those tortilla chips and ENJOY!

A lot has happened since I last posted because, well, I haven’t posted in quite a while. I promise I was thinking of you folks the whole time though… So I’ll start where I left off and try to only include the really good stuff.

After summer camp ended, which was amazing yet again, I headed back to San Francisco where I met up with Gavin and a couple of friends before we made the journey to Mendocino to join our dear friends, Eve & Jesse, at their wedding. It was beautiful. Lots of love, beautiful views of the luscious California North Coast, and plenty of good dance moves. Eve & Jesse are clearly very happy and we are so happy for them because they’re pretty much the raddest. Congratulations again to Evie Waffles & Jesse Blue Eyes!

Here’s a quick craft project for you that I came up with in putting together their wedding gift… To go along with the funky-delicious cookbook we gave them, I picked up a couple of sweet oven mitts and decided to personalize them. To do that, I stitched an ‘E’ into one and a ‘J’ into the other (for the first letters of their first names, in case you didn’t catch that) with colored embroidery floss and a good stitching needle, all of which you can find at any basic craft store. Upon witnessing the oven mit high five that took place after they opened their gift, I decided it was a good one. But it’s also a great, simple way to personalize pretty much anything made out of fabric.

I left San Francisco and drove back down to LA for an extremely short but very sweet visit with my loved ones before embarking on a journey to the Midwest that I had been anticipating for quite some time. I went to visit one of my best girlfriends from college, who is living in Des Moines, Iowa. It was my first trip to the Midwest and, consequently, would be my first State Fair… I just happened to be there while the ten-day Iowa State Fair was in full effect. And I loved it. It was a gigantic whirlwind of fascinating Midwesterners, a variety of artery-clogging food on a stick, and stunning contest displays (think quilts, lots of cows, dollhouses, butter sculptures, very fat pigs, and so on). Instead of trying to describe it further, I will simply say that if you have not yet attended a state fair, you must. And if you have, well, you know just what I’m thinking.

The State Fair was not the only thing I enjoyed during my trip to Iowa. At the top of the list is the time spent with Stephany at her beautiful Des Moines apartment, particularly the chatting on the balcony overlooking the tree-lined street that hosted a handful of beautiful, old, colonial-looking, brick houses while listening to the symphony of cicadas that characterizes an Iowan summer. And then there was the Des Moines Art Center, which houses a small but impressive collection of amazing prints by Japanese printmakers, a unique Lichtenstein piece called Three Pyramids, and much more.  Joined on this list by a picnic, swimming in the very hot&humid weather, a visit to the farmer’s market, dinners with family, a bladder bust at an awesome dive bar, and a stroll in downtown Des Moines (Highlight: East Village and it’s many, very cool boutique stores. Favorite Store: Smash, a t-shirt store with an attitude, check out their website.)

So to wrap this all up, my visit to Iowa was everything I’d hoped it would be and I feel better about myself now after having had a proper Midwest experience. I left Des Moines a couple of days ago and am now back in Oregon with Gavin and his family. We’ve got several fun things on our agenda for the coming days that I won’t reveal just yet but I’ll give you one: the Oregon State Fair. And with that, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite photos from the Iowa State Fair…

So, as it turns out, I totally lied in my last post. I do have internet. Though i’m still hoping that my guest writer will have something for you soon but in the meantime, here’s where I’m at…

I arrived in Santa Cruz two weeks ago to start the three weeks of Summer Drama Camp that I am in the midst of right now. My official job here is to teach a film-making workshop, alongside two other lovely and talented staff members, ‘Iceman’ and ‘Zula, and to capture documentary footage of the goings-on around camp. Note: we all have camp names… I am ‘Guatemala.’ But the overall experience of this camp goes far beyond that job description… I am, after all, living here for three weeks. And even though it can be pretty exhausting, it’s something I look forward to all year long and an experience for which I am incredibly grateful. Here’s why: The campers are creative, enthusiastic and highly talented. The staff here is made up of a group of people I admire, respect and love – many of which have become dear friends of mine over the last few years. Sometimes I look at the things going on around me and think, how did I get here? (The answer: Craigslist & a good interview). Basically, at the end of the day, even if i’m totally overwhelmed, I know that I am lucky to be here and am mostly just having a lot of fun!

That said, I am ultimately still here to make movies with my campers. So I thought I’d share with you what we’ve done so far… Last week I worked with seven campers to make a Western (inspired by the genre game we play on day one of the week) titled ‘The Return of Wild Willy.’ We had a lot of fun making it and I hope you agree it ended up being a pretty sweet film…

Bearing in mind that I did not live in the heart of the illustrious City of Angels (I instead lived in a suburb near the coast) I am constantly stunned by the discoveries I have made and continue to make each time I visit this place. This is no dull place; there’s always something to be seen even if you insist you’ve seen it all.

Last Monday I headed to Topanga Canyon, where two of my very best friends from San Francisco, Chelsea and Kerry, have been living for the last year. There is something so great about friends from other places moving to your old stomping grounds – they explore and are open to this place you “know” in a totally different way. I also spent an evening with my dear friend Jessie from high school who lives in an amazing spot on the coast in the Pacific Palisades. And thanks to the adventurous spirits of these very cool friends of mine, the discoveries continued…

Chelsea and Kerry took me to the Will Rogers State Park, the former vacation cottage turned ranch residence of the 1930’s actor. It is now a lovely, green state park that hosts the only polo field in Los Angeles county as well as a 31-room ranch house, a stable, corrals, a riding ring, a roping arena and a two-hole golf course. Not to mention the handful of trailheads that will lead you to beautiful vistas of the area, the city and the coast. We spent a lovely afternoon there, basking in the sunshine in the stunningly quiet, nearly empty park, thinking about Mr. Will Rogers. We used a few of his many philosophies included in the park’s literature to inspire us that day. I’ll indulge you with our favorite, “Every man has wanted to be a cowboy. Why play Wall Street and die young when you play cowboy and never die?…”  The next day I headed to Jessie’s to join her and some of her lovely lady friends for a trip to Hollywood Bowl to celebrate her birthday. Equipped with wine, salads, baguettes and smiles, we boarded a bus in Westwood that carried us to the very large venue (boasting a capacity of 18,000). It was my first time there. I was astonished. I loved it. We enjoyed the Latin sounds of Eddie Palmieri, Poncho Sanchez and Sergio Mendes along with our little picnic in the warm Southern Caifornia climate… Wouldn’t you love that too? To wrap it all up, I found Chelsea and Kerry again in the morning and they took me to The Self-Realization Fellowship, one of their favorite places in the neighborhood. It is a peaceful site for meditiation and the home of Mahatma Gandhi’s World Peace Memorial, among many other things. Another lovely afternoon. And just to tie a bow on it all, we ended the afternoon at the beach and I took a refreshing dip – something I can never resist these days after realizing what a luxury it is to have warm water and sunshine so close to home (one comes to this realization after moving from the ideal Southern California coast to the much colder, unswimmable Northern California coast…).

So next time you are in this area, I would highly recommend any and all of these little adventures and be sure to always take advantage of kind friends who are willing to be your tour guides, whether they grew up there or just arrived. Just don’t forget to say thank you… so here’s a very huge thank you to chelsea, kerry and jessie. I just love you hooligans.

As for the next adventure, I am embarking on a coastal journey to the Santa Cruz mountains tomorrow morning to spend three weeks teaching film and shooting documentary footage at Summer Drama Camp. And I just can’t wait. Unfortunately, I will not have internet access during that time but do not fret! I have invited everyone’s favorite guest writer of this blog to indulge you in his Oregonian adventures for the next few weeks while I am away. I trust he will keep you interested and intrigued stunned but I will look forward to more adventure writing when I return!

Be well my lovely readers. Enjoy this month of July.

Well, we pulled it off – the engagement party in a week. I learned a lot about what it takes to throw an elegant party for more than, say, 15 people. After our trip to the farmer’s market, I spent time compiling and creating recipes, preparing dishes, decorating, gardening, crafting party favors and making flower bouquets while my mom got the house and yard ready. All that certainly kept us busy for the week but it was all worth it on Friday, when our house was filled with smiling family and friends celebrating what we all agree is a very joyful union. So in case you were wondering after reading about all the goodies I picked up at the farmer’s market, here is the “Summer Menu” I came up with:

Hors d’ouevres – Beet & Goat Cheese Crostinis, Chard & Onion Pizza

Salads – Chinese Chicken Salad (from Bon Appetit, our beloved little local cafe and catering spot where I worked in high school…), Tabouleh (prepared by my mother), and Green Salad with walnuts, avocados, caramelized onions, goat feta and mustard vinaigrette

Main Dishes – Maui Salmon cooked in banana leaves with pineapple (also from Bon Appetit),  and Pasta Casserole with penne pasta, homemade tomato sauce, sauteed leeks, garlic, gruyere and parmesan

Desserts – Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Fresh Fruit and Fresh Whipped Cream

Unfortunately, in the midst of the kitchen flurry that ensued as the party took off, I failed to get photos of all this food. But I’m hoping you’ll use your imagination or even try to make some of it yourself… That said, I thought I’d share with you one of my own recipes from this menu – I’m going with the Chard & Onion Pizza, which seemed to be the most popular. Luckily, it also happens to be pretty easy.

You will need:

• Pizza Dough ~ make it yourself or check out a nearby Trader Joe’s, they’ve got some very yummy already-made pizza doughs
• Olive Oil
• Onions ~ For 1 pizza, I used 1 large white onion and about 10 little spring onions
• 1 bunch Swiss Chard
• 2-3 cloves Garlic
• 3 sprigs Rosemary
  
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 block White Cheese ~ I used handmade Goat Sage Cheddar & White Cheddar from the farmer’s market

***Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Begin by slicing all your onions lengthwise, leaving the slices fairly large. Next, chop the garlic, grate the cheese and pluck the leaves off the sprigs of rosemary. Set these prepared ingredients aside. Blanch chard in boiling water for two minutes. Set aside. Sauté garlic in olive oil for less than a minute, add onions to pan and sauté until they begin to brown and caramelize. Remove from pan. Roll pizza dough out to one medium sized pizza round (toss some flour on to your surface to avoid sticking dough).

**Sprinkle salt, pepper, rosemary and just a bit of cheese all over unbaked pizza dough. Spread chard leaves to cover dough, leaving about an inch at the edge (for crust). Cover chard with caramelized onions. Next, cover onions, with remaining cheese. Put your pizza on a pizza pan and throw it in the oven until the cheese melts and the dough begins to golden.

*Remove from oven, pour yourself a delicious drink and enjoy with good company.

At the end of the day, champagne glass in hand, I was very happy with what we had done. Our family and friends seemed full and content and Gannon and Andrea were sure to let me know how much they loved their party. I had a great time too and was so happy to be a part of such a nice celebration. Recently, I’ve though about something my mom asked me during our preparation – While I was making tomato sauce the day before the party, she asked me if I was sure I didn’t want to be a chef. I said yes, I’m sure… You see, if I became a ‘real’ chef, I wouldn’t be able to shop for ingredients at the local farmer’s market with my dad and my mom, I wouldn’t have three of my best girlfriends and my wonderful boyfriend as my sous chefs, I wouldn’t have my brother and his fiancée stopping in the kitchen to tell me they love me, I wouldn’t be able to serve dinner late or make mistakes and I wouldn’t be able to sit down and eat my own food with a crowd of people I love at the end of the night. So to all the people I know and love, I’ll be your chef anytime, but I think I’ll pass on culinary school for now.

And, once more, congratulations to Gannon and Andrea!

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…

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.