These have been our 2 fruits of choice of late. Mia’s crazy about eating pomegranates and we happily found some really big ones at Costco (a box of 6, of course). We’ve been going through them like mad. Claudine is intrigued by them as they look so appealing, like little ruby nuggets that are edible, but she can’t get past the hard kernel inside. And the persimmons? They are from my dad’s tree. He jokes that nobody steals them off his front lawn because nobody knows what they are or what to do with them. Persimmons may not be so commonly eaten here, but when they are perfectly ripe, they are like sweet custard with a most unusual flavor. We break the skin and scoop it up with a spoon. Claudine ate one a day last year for a whole month when she was a baby, but she won’t go near them this year.

It’s cold today. I’m sitting here with a big sweater on and a blanket over my lap and my feet are still cold. But the sun’s out and it’s dazzling outside. The kind of day that makes you glad that you live in a region where you can fully experience Fall. There’s a block-long playground across the street from our place and our sidewalk is wider than usual so it’s double lined with trees. This means that when the leaves finally turn colors, as they are doing right now, there’s a pretty spectacular display of Autumn right outside our door. At the top of the park is a little Farmer’s Market with less than a dozen vendors every Sunday, but you can pretty much get everything you need: fruits, vegetables, flowers, bread, and pickles. Most vendors set out samples and the girls love to go over and graze the tables at every season: peaches and berries in the summer, apples and pears in the Fall (and pickle samples - Mia’s favorite!). And I love how kids can turn any mundane object into building blocks.

In years past, we have gone apple and pumpkin picking a little too late in the season and the farms we’ve visited have looked a bit sad and picked over. The worst was when we tried to go pumpkin picking on a weekday 2 years ago right before Claudine was born. We drove up to the Hudson Valley on a blustery cold day and to our surprise and disappointment, the farm that we had in mind was closed during the week. Determined to get pumpkins, we headed down to another farm we spied down the road, but we didn’t see a soul around, nor any pumpkin patches, and only a lone goat and horse stood in a gated pen near the side of the farm stand. The only pumpkins we could find were from 2 display bunches near the farm entrance, so we grabbed a couple of rather sad pumpkins, dropped money into the bucket (yes, this farm operated on an honor system, at least during the week on a cold day) and headed back to Brooklyn feeling totally lame that we failed to give Mia, who was then 2, a memorable pumpkin picking experience.

We’ve marked our fruit-picking days on the calendar this year and made a visit to one of our favorite farms, Seven Pond Orchards, out near Southampton. They have a dozen or so varieties of apples, but what makes it fun for kids is that these are all dwarf trees. None are taller than 7-8 feet and each compact tree is densely clustered with apples. The farm isn’t sprawling so it is quite manageable with small kids, plus there are also raspberry and blackberry bushes to pick from, (and remember how much the girls love berry picking?). The weather has been truly glorious - perfect for spending the day outdoors, in fields surrounded by fruit and flowers.

The thing about the NW that I will miss most when we get back on a plane tomorrow are the berries. They are everywhere - on the side of trails, in people’s gardens, in farms. Mark’s mom has a rambling bush of blackberries covering her entire side yard and the first thing we did when we got out of the car was pick blackberries, sweet and ripened from the sun. Every morning Claudine would beg to go outside so she can pop blackberries in her mouth. On a visit to one of our old college music teacher’s house, the girls went crazy picking wild strawberries, small and red, out in his back garden. And finally, a blueberry farm on Sauvie Island, right outside Portland where we took a day trip to meet an old school friend and former housemate. The girls are expert berry pickers now and there’s nothing cuter than watching a toddler picking berries off a bush, with mouth halfway open in anticipation.

We’re back in Seattle today. We leave at an ungodly hour tomorrow morning. It’s been a long trip, but I don’t think we’re quite ready to leave. We could have spent more time in Portland, for example. It’s been about 12 years since we’ve moved from there and the city is barely recognizable. Next time we’ll need to spend more time. By the way, if you’re ever in Portland, check out Lolo on Alberta Street in North Portland, a Tapas Bar where we sampled pretty much everything on the menu. The food was pretty outstanding.

After our trip to Chelsea Market the other day I was left with a bounty of vegetables, but no plans for how to use them. I decided to make a Soupe au Pistou, especially because I bought a giant bunch of basil. Traditionally, Soupe au Pistou is just a light vegetable soup with pesto mixed in at the table and perfect with a nice loaf of crusty bread (which I happened to have as well). I toasted the bread in the oven with some olive oil, sea salt and freshly grated parmesan cheese. The soup turned out fine, but we were left with lots of bread and pesto when the soup was gone. What happened next, you ask? Pesto was slathered on bread and not a speck was left when we were finished. I should have skipped the soup and just had bruschetta for dinner. Next time I think I will, with the addition of some nice heirloom tomatoes.

I like my pesto with plenty of parmesan cheese and just a little garlic. Here is the recipe.

Basil Pesto (makes about 1-1/2 cups)

1 really big bunch of basil, or 2-3 smaller bunches
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 small clove of garlic
1/3 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Wash the basil until completely free of dirt. Dry well. Place in a food processor with the cheese, pine nuts, and garlic. Process until finely chopped, then gradually add the olive oil until your desired consistency has been reached. Season with salt and pepper.

We took the girls to the Chelsea Market today and bought a bounty of vegetables for real cheap. These beets were just 50 cents a pound. Since we’ve been eating so poorly, we decided to make a simple, healthy vegetable soup for dinner with some Rosemary bread we picked up at the little Farmer’s Market a block from our place. Not sure what we’ll do with the beets, but they were hard to pass up at that price…and look how beautiful they are - the colors!

Claudine and Mia loved running around the place and I hadn’t been back to the Market since I freelanced in-house at a firm in that building when I was 7 months pregnant with C. Some shops seemed to have changed hands, but we stopped by my favorite spot, the fish store and had sushi and lobster bisque. Mark and I can’t seem to catch our breath on all the work and orders that are coming in daily, so we’ve made it a point to take some time each day to spend together, all 4 of us. Can’t say that these moments are relaxing - the pair of them have become a terror together!

We are mighty happy to see cherries at the markets and stores, and while they are still a bit steep, you can always find everything cheaper in Chinatown. We polished them off in one sitting and they were firm and sweet. By the way, a cherry pitter is a handy gadget to have around if you’re feeding cherries to small kids.