Vacation: Bikes, Beaches, and Grilled Pizza

Ah, vacation. We spent the last week in Cape May, NJ. Our family rents a beach house every year for one week in August. What a great place to go! It isn't too far away, the town is bike friendly and the beach is just a few blocks away. Before we left, we spent several days preparing the garden for a week of solitude. We mowed under the fences, weeded the most desperate crops, and watered. We also picked like crazy for the trip. (For pictures of all the produce we picked, check out Liza's [Josie's sister] blog (a)Musing Foodie) We picked heavy for two reasons:
1.) There is nothing worse than the thought of tomatoes rotting on the vine, and at this point in the season they are ripe almost every day.
2.) What is a vacation without fresh produce?? :)

As for the chickens, Elizabeth (a family friend) came each night to close them in and make sure they had enough food and water. She also watered in the high tunnel for us. Jackie, from De La Tierra Gardens, came to pick some tomatoes and tomatillos and so did Josie's aunt, Sharon.
We came back to a (mostly) good looking garden - almost all the fall stuff germinated, yay!

Our vacation was full of all of our favorite things: bike rides, beach days, and yummy food. Here are some photos of the highlights of our trip!

Biking to a beach in West Cape May about 5 miles from the regular beach. The marsh on the way is so pretty.

We were able to fit the tandem in the van and it's a good thing we did - we rode it almost every day!

We even got Linda and Dave on it! Everyone needs one, they are so fun.

Dave pointed out this cloud - it looks a little like our favorite chicken, Trudy. Who looks a little like this:

And of course, the beach.

Now THAT'S a farmer tan.

Mia and Jack, just back from the beach playing with bubble guns.

Last but not least, Shawn's grilled pizza. This was amazing. AMAZING! He grilled the first side of the pizza, pulled it off the grill and added toppings (garden veggies, of course) and then back on the grill. I was skeptical of the gas grill, but it was delicious. We ate so much pizza that night, we thought we were going to explode.

Now it's catch up time. Weeding, watering, tearing stuff out, and planting. Fall, here we come!

Farm Fest Highlights!

Farm Fest was so much fun! We really enjoyed spending time with everyone who came out. Thank you so much for supporting us and joining us for a wonderful day! Here are a few highlights:

Zaw, who works with Linda at Maret School, and his neighbor Shawn rode their bikes from Silver Spring all the way to the farm. (Yes, the Silver Spring in Montgomery County)

LOVE the sign!

The trip is close to 50 miles!!

We were so excited to see them when they arrived, and it only took them about 3 and a half hours! Incredible! Thanks so much Zaw and Shawn for making the day even more exciting!
Shawn and Mark spent several hours cooking pizzas, in a 500 degree oven, on a 95 degree day. Needless to say it was HOT in that kitchen, but they made some amazing pizza - it was eaten up as fast as they could make it. It included toppings such as basil, pineapple, green pepper, beets, and turnips. Regina, from The Farmer's Daughter (oh so famous for her delicious, and huge, cinnamon rolls) made the whole wheat, rosemary and chive dough for the crust. A few days before Farm Fest, we got to help her knead the dough, it was great fun!

Two of the delicious pizzas with basil and parmesan toppings.

This was a Zero Waste event, so we had glass jars to drink from, cloth napkins, recycling and compost bins. It worked out really well, we had no trash at all at the end of the day!

We set up our farm stand and included Linda's new book called "Yellow Bird". The limited first edition is on sale for $18 a copy - let us know if you are interested!! So exciting!

It was a beautiful, but hot, day so many people spent time in the breezy shade overlooking the garden,
or under the oldest black walnut tree watching the kids play on the swing set.

Jack enjoying a cool drink of water.

One of the cutest puppies in the world.

Scott Trexler, who has a stand right next to us at the Westminster market (selling organic chicken, eggs, beef, rose, and pork), brings his lovely puppy with him to market every week. It is great fun to watch her grow! And grow she will, she is half rottweiler and half Saint Bernard...

Here is Regina reading to David, her son, in the shade in front of the farm house.

Smile David!

Some of the many musicians who played at Farm Fest, pictured here are Dave, Joel Hoskins, and Pawpaw. They set up in the workshop and it worked out great! We will have to remember that for the next party.

Thanks again to everyone who came, to Dave and Linda for making it happen and making the property look gorgeous, to Mark for all your help, and Regina for the yummy crust!

Beautiful Roses and Sage Pizza

Linda has planted several beautiful heritage rose bushes around the property over the years they have lived here. She gave us a beautiful bouquet of large, light pink, fragrant blooms mixed with miniature, dark pink blooms! They were sitting on the kitchen table in the evening light and I couldn't resist a few photos. They are unreal!


That same evening, Shawn went nose to the pizza stone once again. We had some sage leaves from the garden and I made some sage chips (hot oil, drop in leaves, remove when they change color, salt) while I was waiting for the delicious pizza. It's a fun little appetizer and as we were munching on them we decided to try them out ON the pizza.

It was tasty! We added them as a topping right after the cheese and then baked them along with the pizza. If we did it again, I think we would just add them after the pizza came out because they turned out a little soggy - fresh sage 'chips' are crisp and dissolve in your mouth. It still tasted great in spite of the different texture.
In addition to our sage pizza, Shawn made a super thin crust crispy pizza. It was SO good! Before he baked it, the dough was so thin you could almost see right through it.

We will be featuring Shawn and Mark's homemade pizza at our Farm Fest on June 26th! If you are here, you will get to experience their pizza expertise.