Droughtfruit

This summer was tough on our vegetable garden, a casualty of the drought that affected much of North America. Because we don't actually have vaporators, only about 60% of our garden came to fruition.

Undaunted, we turned to our most prolific produce to see what we could make of peppers, tomatoes and (believe it or not!) watermelon*.

Last year we were (happily!) overrun with cucumbers so I quickly learned how to make preserves and, with the help of Krista and various visitors to Small Pond, made jar after jar of relish, bread & butter pickles, and garlic dill pickles. With nary a cucumber in sight this year, we decided to try our hand at salsa, and last night Krista and I preserved eight jars of it, using a recipe provided by our friend Elizabeth D'Anjou. 

Salsa!

Perfect peppers.

Tomatoes, scored for easy peeling.

Tomatoes taking an ice bath.

Then it was on to a depression-era recipe that a recent visitor mentioned to us...pickled watermelon rinds!

Prepping the watermelon.

Pickling the part you normally discard.

Watermelons in the sun.

Only two jars, but lovely.

And finally, a refreshing and sweet treat...

Fresh watermelon sorbet (secret ingredient: vodka)

If there is a lesson to be learned from all of this, which is dubious, it is this: if you can't pickle the one you love, pickle the one you're with! 

*UPDATE, 06 September 2012:

Our very first watermelon harvest.

That speck near the top is the moon.

Gorgeous and delicious!

Grave Robber

In July 2012 we held our second annual Cornography, a festival of art on the theme of food.

The afternoon included A Funeral for Bad Food, detailed in an earlier blog post.

Are you curious about what food our audience members wanted to put six feet under? Well, I was too, so I dug up all those little coffins. Call me a grave robber if you will, but I couldn't resist. 

Here's what they said (spelling intact!):

- Chicken fingers

- Bottled sauce (had a picture of skull and crossbones)

- Trans fats

- Fast food

- The sardines my neighbour smokes

- Candy

- Onion

- Jelly beans

- Monsanto corn

- Flesh of animals... cute or otherwise

- Peel chopped boiled potatoes

- Unagi

- Salad 

- Potatoes

- A & W fast food

- Brussel sprouts

- Cheese strings and yogurt tubes

- Brocili, brustles sprouts, green beans

- Bologna

- Coca Cola

- Catchya later, ketchup!

- Mushrooms

- Snickers

- All GMO's

- GMO soya

- White bread

- RIP chips

- I wish I wish I never heard of chips!!!

- Chicken McNuggets

- Factory-farmed cows

- Ban Duncan Hines - put some effort into scratch

- Cheese

- Brocili

- Wheat

- Macaroni infused deli meat

- Kraft Dinner

I love the diversity in what people wrote! Everything from the obvious evils concocted by our corporate overlords, to the naughty snacks we struggle to resist, to children's loathing of vegetables. It's a beautiful thing to see people of all ages embracing the opportunity to express their ideas and opinions.

What food would you banish if you could have things your way?

A Place for Writers

Recently we've had a number of writers at Small Pond as part of our artist residency program. I like writers. I get writers; not surprising, seeing as how I've been one for the better part of my life.

Most of our artists in residence hail from cities, so it comes as no surprise that almost all of them comment on how quiet it is here. In such quiet you can hear the stories speaking gently inside of you without them struggling to be heard above the din of traffic or the neighbors' TV set. Quiet is good for writers.

Jennifer Morales and Tina Owen are a couple from Milwaukee who recently spent a week writing here. I was impressed by their focus and drive to realize their personal writing goals. Yet creativity is anything but a predictable process, and both of them found themselves sometimes writing things they hadn't necessarily intended. I love it when surprises bubble up from within us. Jennifer and Tina cooked some incredible meals for us while they were here, and suitably wrapped up their stay by participating in our art/food festival, Cornography.

Sharon Caldwell's arrival coincided with the first pizzas emerging from our new cob bake oven, a most joyous occasion. Sharon is a writer and photographer living in Peterborough who came to Small Pond for a creative getaway. She was drawn - as many have been before her - to spend an inordinate amount of time in our Salon du Silo. It's a magical outdoor space on the site of a former barn that is completely wrapped in nature. Sharon made herself a little nest of blankets and whiled away her days there reading, writing, communing with chipmunks and getting drunk on sunshine.

Chris and Erin Rouse are couple of teachers/artists from Grimsby who spent a few days here as wedding gift from a mutual friend. Erin painted and Chris worked on some writing, and we had great dinner table conversations about film and theatre. One night Milé took them on a creative field trip to the monthly Prince Edward County Comix Jam. Apparently, they rocked it.

Yes, Small Pond is a quiet place. In this quiet you can hear all sorts of things. Crickets, birds, the wind in the trees, bees buzzing by, and your own heart beating as you breathe deep and dare to think big thoughts.

This fall we are hosting our first 'official' writers' retreat, led by the downright lovely Chris Kay Fraser of Firefly Creative Writing. I am honored that Chris has chosen Small Pond as a place to inspire others to creativity. If you'd like to find out more about this workshop, called Spark Your Creative Fires for Fall, you can read about it here. In the words of one of her group participants, "Chris leaves everyone in her wake feeling amazing and healthy and radiant..." and who couldn't use some more of that?