This is not news to those in agriculture, but California has multiple growing seasons.
The fact is that my wonderful apple tree is starting to bloom for it’s ‘second’ season and it looks like a wonderful harvest. With my first ‘batch’ , we produced 12 wonderful apple pies and apple sauce by the ton. Laura made some delicious cinnamon flavored dried apple slices that were surprisingly good! It is surprising to me as I don’t usually like dried fruit.
One thing woke me up this year when I wanted to fill in with some ‘store bought’ apples…. hmmm … same variety, fresh and grown locally , but they were much less tasty.
In any event, it looks like a lot more fun is coming to us down the road!
When our children have birthdays , it brings back many memories. Kristin’s special day was yesterday followed by Karen’s today.
Looking back I do remember Karen wanting to play with me all the time… jumping into my arms followed by being tossed into the deep end as they got older… and then trying to sneak and grab my beer. I may sound a little prudish, but 2 years old is way too early to start stealing my brewsky!
Another year for Kristin, and a wonderful reminder to me of how this all came about. Yes, I remember it had been a long hard week, we just had friends over and then it happened! Kristin made her appearance on the world, but not right away… I finished my beer and it was off to the hospital. This is how the adventure began…. and continues. Here are pictures of Kristin cooking with me and off at a convention with her mom and sister in Athens this past summer…. always moving.
One of my favorite stories of Kristin have to do with her at West Point. A very nice feature had been done in NY Times Magazine on West Point and … well… I thought I would comment… and the snowball began moving down the hill.
The New York Times magazine published an article on the summer basic training of the cadets referred to as ‘Beast.’ I wrote the following:
The Beauty of Beast Barracks
Published: November 2, 1997
As the father of a daughter who survived this year’s Beast experience, I enjoyed Winerip’s article on West Point’s technique for breaking in plebes.
A big plus for parents: my daughter now knows how to clean her room (in fact, she can clean anything), and her academic work actually gets done!
It was a wonderful article.
Roger Freberg
San Luis Obispo, Calif
The letter had some unintended positive effects.
While many parents and others whined about this or that, my letter engendered sympathy for my daughter… and a protective brotherly nature from the often hazing upper classmen. They thought that she had already been through enough having to grow up with me as her dad! ha!
I am sure this question has come into your mind at one time or another: “can Baklava really have too many nuts?” Some people tackle simpler questions – such as the theory of relativity – but the leading thinkers of our time ponder the subtle universal question of nuts and Baklava! 40 sheets of filo dough with a layer of nuts every 4 sheets make this interesting if not unique.
My daughters – three of the leading thinkers of our time – wondered aloud about how many nuts could be placed into a standard pan size Baklava? Although the math is quite complicated… the answer was 4 cups ground.
In a single blind taste test that is ongoing, this Baklava has proven to be a cure for culinary unhappiness… and another step toward our ‘Greek Night”.
Little did I know that in my own garden was something that I thought little about… grape leaves! Kristin, Karen and Laura brought back a few recipe ideas that I had tried before, but -frankly- I don’t think were made very well. As Laura commented after sampling a few of this creation… “I could enjoy these every day!”
So, one more item explored for our future Greek Night!
