Apple exasperation, or, How'd I get to be the grasshopper?

Please forgive me today's tirade - it really is one big, long, grouchy whine, but:

Why, oh why, is it so hard to find an unwaxed, organic, New York State apple???

I do so love apple season.  Crunchy, sweet, tangy.  I tend to go for the tart ones, but any apple will do so long as it's not a Red Delicious, which I am not convinced should even be called an apple.  Mushy apple = bleeeeeeeeech. 

Spouse and I betook ourselves to the Ithaca Farmers' Market a while back, and found a farm stand there that had absolutely, spectacularly delicious everything.  Organic, local, all that jazz.  I got some of the best spinach I have ever eaten in my life there.  They even had a painfully cute Bernese Mountain dog puppy in tow, rolling about all fluffy and floppy.  He was not for sale, thankfully, or I probably would have bought him, too, and stuffed him in the back seat of the car with the Basset hounds.  (Our awesome old dog who died about a year and a half ago was half Berner, and I have a wicked soft spot for them).

That farm stand's apples were to die for, and we bought several dozen.  I was in the mood to purchase bushels of the things for eating, freezing, and baking, but saw that they didn't have terribly many left and was conservative in my purchase, idiot that I am.  I also failed to ask them if we could get more from them.  There were surprisingly few apples for sale at the Ithaca Farmers' Market, or we would have bought some from other folks, too.  Of course, the apples we did get were so good that we plowed through them in a shockingly short time.

We went to the Regional Market in Syracuse for a couple of successive weekends after that, and found a few organic apples at the one organic produce stand there.  They were good, but not nearly as good as the Ithaca ones.  And now that stand is about out.

Which leaves me...

appleless.

In autumn.

In Central New York.

Which strikes me as being ludicrous.  And exceedingly irritating.

Wegman's is our grocery store of choice, mostly because they do a better job than a lot of their competitors when it comes to organic produce and local produce, although those two seldom seem to overlap.  But a stroll through Weggies yesterday evening left me feeling Decidedly Disgruntled.  The vast majority of the apples were not from New York State.  But, wait - we're IN New York State, surrounded by apple orchards.  Is it really cheaper to purchase apples from Washington State and ship them across the country?  Our modern day food distribution network sucks from an environmental point of view.  Or are there no more New York State apples left?  Apparently one or the other or both. 

And of course, every single apple in the grocery store is coated in "food grade wax" to "preserve freshness".  First of all, the idea of eating wax at all is just icky.  But second, food grade wax is largely made from corn,  because corn is so heavily subsidized that everything possible is made out of it.  Do you know who cannot tolerate eating corn, even in tiny doses?  Yours truly.  It makes me feel incredibly crummy, with digestive discomfort and a variety of symptoms you surely don't want to know about. 

I can technically peel and slice those waxed apples if I do so veeerry carefully.  Even so, I tend to get trace amounts of corn that are transferred from the peeler, or the knife, or maybe even soak in through the skin.  It's less than ideal, and means I miss out on that incredible satisfaction one gets from just biting into a big juicy apple.

I also refuse to buy apples from the other side of the continent and support the gratuitous burning of all that diesel fuel to get them here, when there are local orchards that could use the support.

I can't seem to find a local organic farm to pick apples at.  I need to start looking harder.  Perhaps the Bernese Mountain Dog Farm allows people to pick apples?  Or even sells bushels directly at the farm?  It would help if I had made an effort to remember the name of the farm rather than just referring to it as the "Bernese Mountain Dog Farm". 

Sadly, we can't make it to Ithaca this weekend, and it's gotten past prime New York State apple season through no one's fault but my own, which doesn't make me any less grouchy.  I spent too many autumn weekends playing in the mountains, and not enough time working on my winter food stores.  Yup, just call me the grasshopper.  (You remember the old Aesop's Fable about the ant who builds up food stores all summer, and the grasshopper who plays all summer and has no food come fall.)  In fact, I think knowing I can largely blame myself for this predicament just makes me grouchier. 

Further investigation is definitely called for, if nothing else so I can have my fill of apples next autumn.  For now, though, it's looking like I may be appleless until next apple season.

Unless, of course, I find some diligent ant whose food stores I can raid...

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Oooh! Shiny!

While you've surely already gathered that I'm an outdoorsy chick, which is mostly what this blog is about, I most certainly have another side, too:  fashion-loving diva.  No, seriously.  Couture clothing makes my heart skip a beat.  And shoes!  Oh my.  How I love them.  I have been known to appear in public in "spike heels, full assault make-up and an enormous fur collar".*  Yes, I will climb an Adirondack high peak one day and appear at a silent auction fundraiser or symphony concert the next night in 4 inch tall Stuart Weitzmans.

My husband says I am the antithesis of myself.

With regard to jewelry, he says I'm part crow.  No matter what I'm doing or discussing, the world grinds to a screeching halt when I see sparkly gems:  "Oooh!  Shiny!"

So, after our Saturday morning frolic at the Farmers' Market, and before our walk at Taughannock Falls, we stopped at one of our other Very Favorite Places: Micky Roof's.  If you take my advice and plan a Saturday outing to the Ithaca Farmers' Market, I highly recommend stopping at The Jewelbox (or see blog here).

Dangerous, dangerous place.  Over the years we have spent way too much money there, including having had Micky design our wedding rings.  Is it a bad sign that when we walk in the door, the faces of Micky and her two employees, Sarah and Steve, light right up?  Hm.  Probably is.

Sunday was our six-year wedding anniversary, so this time when we stopped at Micky's, I got to pick something out.  I always have a ridiculously hard time selecting one item at Micky's, but I eventually managed.  It's not one of Micky's own pieces, but rather from a new collection they just got in by Bjorg.  Bjorg is a Norwegian company that makes some of the funkiest most awesome pieces I've seen in a long time.  They're full of literary references (e.g. the necklace with the quote "Is this a dagger which I see before me?" that has a dagger hanging in front of the quote) and snarkiness (e.g. the heart necklace that is a heart - as in a human heart, with ventricles and arteries and whatnot).

I think I selected an awesomely funky necklace that is frightfully fitting for me:

He's got sparkly eyes, though you can't really tell in this photo.  I am informed it's technically a raven rather than a crow, but close enough.  :)


*as Renee Fleming described herself in the liner notes of her album Haunted Heart.

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Autumn stroll

Following our Farmers' Market excursion in Ithaca, we decided to take advantage of some of the wonderful places around the area for a walk.  The Ithaca area is full of gorges, created long ago by glaciers.  Many of the gorges have parks and hiking trails.  Hence, the most classic of all Ithaca bumper stickers:

Very punny.

We selected one of our old autumn favorites: Taughannock State Park, off route 89 just outside of Ithaca.

Most people seem to walk the Taughannock Falls gorge trail, right up the bottom of the gorge and to the base of a picturesque water fall that is actually higher than Niagara Falls (but with a lot less water).  While that is a lovely walk, it's short, and we tend to prefer a little more solitude for our woodland wanderings.  Instead, we usually walk the rim trails - this time the South Rim. 

It was a perfectly lovely autumn day, although deceptively brisk.  The hounds, of course, thought it was a great romp.  Well, Lucy did, anyway.  I think Simon did not much relish certain parts of the experience.

You can't see them well in this picture, but can you spot the group of people on the trail ahead of Spouse and hounds?  It just so happened that the SUNY Cortland women's hockey team was engaged in a team-building scavenger hunt along the upper trails as well.  So, we repeatedly ran into groups of 5 or 6 young women at a time, who squealed with delight over our pair of goofy, wrinkly, droopy basset hounds.  Lucy's response to attention is to to try to slurp and climb inside the skin of every person who will pay attention to her.  She just eats it right up.

Poor Simon.  This is generally how he feels about strangers:

Our kids were rescues from the local Humane Association shelter, and given how skittish and hand shy they were we assume they were abused before Spouse and I adopted them.  Lucy has recovered just fine, but my sweet Slimy just tries to hide from strangers.  Poor kid.  He spent parts of the walk wishing Spouse's and my legs were larger and better for hiding behind.

It was no Adirondack High Peak and wasn't much of a workout, but it was incredibly beautiful and nice to get outside.  I'll leave you with one of my more favorite shots of the day.  No idea who created him, but I suspect he may have been one of the objects to be found in the scavenger hunt:

Bat with some frightful fangs?  Angry bunny with a chin hair problem?

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The Ultimate Farmers' Market

Spouse and I used to live in Ithaca, New York.  It's a fascinating place, and while we certainly can't say we loved everything about it, it is a great place to spend a day.  So, Saturday morning we ventured to the Ithaca Farmers' Market, which in my world is THE Farmers' Market, against which all others are measured.  Thus far none others quite match it.

First, in order to understand the Ithaca Farmers' Market, you need to understand a little bit about Ithaca.  It is an extremely liberal little city, crunchy-granola to the core, and its citizens are remarkably politically active.  In fact, Ithaca can almost be summed up by one bumper sticker:

 

Yes, I would definitely say most true Ithacans both eat tofu and vote.  Seriously, half the fun of the Ithaca Farmers' Market is reading all the bumper stickers on the cars in the parking lot. 

Anywho, the Ithaca Farmers' Market is so fabulous for so many reasons.  There are food vendors serving all sorts of organic ethnic tasties and the whole place smells delicious.  Better yet, nearly every farm booth sells organic produce, and it is a requirement that all vendors only sell food grown or raised within a 30 mile radius.  Inside the market:

Plus, remember that Ithaca is in the Finger Lakes region which is famous for its wines, so there are plenty of wine merchants with free tasting, as well as my very favorite hard apple cider vendor ever, Bellwether Hard Cider.  That stuff has an amazing knack of disappearing from our wine rack.

Spouse purchasing organic broccoli raab from one of the many picturesque booths:

 

By comparison, the Regional Market in Syracuse (which we do our best to support anyway) has one consistent organic fruit and veggie vendor, and I'd guess that nearly 1/2 the vendors are merely importers rather than farmers.  (Lemons in Syracuse in October are a dead giveaway that the produce isn't local...  The Regional Market does, however, have some awesome meat vendors for organic buffalo, lamb, veal, and eggs.)

On top of all the amazing food vendors at the Ithaca Farmers' Market, the place is aesthetically pleasing.  The building is lovely, is nestled right against beautiful Cayuga Lake, and is peppered with local artisans selling jewelry, hammocks, photographic prints, paintings, ceramics, glass beads, silk screened clothing (all organic cotton, of course), and other lovelies.  And then there's also musical entertainment:

I spent way more money than I had planned, as always happens when we go there, but as also always happens, left with outstanding stuff: beautiful fresh greens, crisp apples, huge pumpkins, hard cider, and some artisan gems.

As if that wasn't enough to put me in a fabulous mood, on our way out, we spotted this Ithaca bumper sticker gem:

Love it!

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