We have a small farmer’s market across the street from our house that, until this year, ended in December. This winter, however, they have teamed up with the Can Factory Market so that we in the neighborhood can have our fresh veggies and pickles year-round. Mia, Claudine and I ventured over on an especially cold Sunday to check it out. I was actually a bit surprised by the selection. Lots of fresh herbs, good apples, and this beautiful orange cauliflower. Orange cauliflower is a bit sweeter than the standard white variety, which makes it perfect for roasting or sautéing. Make sure to get it nice and caramelized for the best flavor. We ate it with foccacia, roasted beets and salsify soup that day. Makes for a perfect winter meal.

Orange Cauliflower with Garlic and Lemon (serves 4)

1 head orange cauliflower, broken into florets (other colors of cauliflower can also be used)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Coarse sea salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the cauliflower and blanch for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside. Heat the olive oil on high heat in a large sauté pan. Add the minced garlic and fry until it just starts to brown. Add the cooked cauliflower and continue to cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally. It should start to brown a little bit. When the cauliflower is brown enough for you, squeeze in the lemon juice, cook for another 30 seconds, and serve immediately.

These are local. Like really local, off of the tree that grows in my parents’ front yard. Don’t ask me how and where the tree came from, but my dad did grow it from a plant and it started bearing fruit maybe 4 years ago. There may even be another young persimmon tree growing on the side of the house that is still maturing, but I haven’t seen it. That’s the rumor anyway.

So have you ever had these? They are different than the smaller, more squat varieties that can be peeled and eaten like an apple. These have to be super ripe in order for it to be consumed and if you didn’t know that and tried to eat it, you may have been turned off persimmons forever because it leaves you with a fuzzy tongue and an unpleasant texture if it’s hard and unripe. But when it is soft, squishy and ripe, it’s the sweetest, most delicate tasting fruit ever. Just like eating jam.

Have you had? Because if you haven’t you should try it. These weren’t supermarket grapes, but rather ones bought at the farmers market. Mark’s mom introduced it to us and it is divine.

OK…I never really thought to go fruit picking before we had kids. Sure, I spent a month picking blueberries in Maine one summer during college, but that was hard work for money and the chance to experience something different than my upbringing in an urban environment. But for fun? No. We did really well with various U-Pick activities this year though: strawberries, peaches, lavender, and now apples and raspberries. The kids really dig raspberry picking: “5 berries for me and one for the basket”, “No! I’m not picking for the basket, I’m picking for the eating”. Ok, Miss C. Whatever gets anything fresh and healthy into your stomach is fine with me.

Some of you have asked where we’re staying. We’re at the North Fork of Long Island this week in a town called New Suffolk and it’s beach, farm and wine country around here. Since the early 70s, vineyards have been popping up all around the east end of Long Island and now there are over 50. It’s definitely a slower pace out here and the beaches aren’t crowded unlike some of the other public beaches in central Long Island where every little bit of sand seems occupied, but it’s also more rocky, with more seaweed, shells and marine life. Surpisingly, Claudine has not minded and she is loving every minute in the water.

The North Fork is also farm country and late August is blackberry, corn and peach season. Like any fruit picking trip, we ended up with waaaaay too many peaches. We’ve already made ice cream. Maybe we’ll make a pie. So has this trip been relaxing? Can’t really say with 2 kids. There’s still a lot of fighting and whining. It’s also making me rethink that maybe we should save our trip to Paris for when the kids are a little bit older. I don’t know, I’m still undecided.

Not much too say about them, except they’re pretty, and we just roast them and throw them into salads or eat them with goat cheese. I find they have a very subtle bitter aftertaste that I don’t find with regular red beets and they don’t turn your pee red, which Mia always gets a kick out of, but has put me in an absolute panic more than a few times when I was pregnant and had forgotten that I had eaten beets the night before. Good grief.

No, this isn’t our garden (I wish), but it’s my dad’s, so close enough. We also had a garden growing up, as well as a small greenhouse in the backyard of our old house, but I don’t really recall this much variety. My dad grows tomatoes, japanese eggplants, red and green leaf lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, squash, pumpkins, persimmons, and a bunch of Korean greens that nobody seems to know what the English equivalent is. He’s even successfully grown watermelons and cantaloupes. Summers in the burbs are the only time that Claudine will even consider eating a cucumber, which she gets to pluck herself. Being the self-proclaimed lettuce lover (remember the lettuce-themed birthday party she’s planned for next year?) Mia loves to eat lettuce wrapped with rice, meat and a little soybean paste, just like the grownups. This is usually the summer time meal in the evenings. After dinner, the girls sometime sit out in the porch with popsicles.

We come out to the burbs whenever we can because it’s really the only way we can get away from work. And completing the perfect trifecta in equipment and electronics fail this week, Mark’s iphone fell into the bathwater. We stuck it in a bag of rice because that’s what you’re supposed to do, apparently, to try to draw the moisture out, but the verdict is out still on whether or not it’s gone for good. I didn’t bring my phone charger with me so we were both iphone-less this weekend. It was fine, actually.

Picked up some fresh cherries at the little farmers market across the street from our place. I’m glad that Claudine likes them, but I’m not particularly fond of how she eats them - taking small bites on one side till she gets to the pit, then abandoning them as she goes for another. So I get to eat half eaten cherries. I think if I had to rely on eating what the kids leave on their plates at each meal, I’d be fine. This is why I don’t really eat breakfast anymore - someone is bound to leave food behind (usually C, no surprise).

I’ve been thinking about this blog a lot the last few days. I really enjoy the space here. There is something cathartic about documenting your life, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that on rare occasions I get a wee bit weirded out that strangers know so much about our family, particularly when the kids get recognized on the street. I’ve created it, though, so I can’t complain…and I’m not. I am not such a private person, though some people who know me might think this is surprising. I don’t feel the need to guard my personal experiences so closely, and therefore have never had any qualms about sharing anything with other people if asked, whether it’s about dealing with scoliosis as a teen, or my bout with anorexia, or the miscarriage I had in between the 2 girls, or anything having to do with starting this business (though it would be nice to get a thank you email. Seriously folks, I don’t mind sharing anything, but just send a return email back with some acknowledgment that you got my email so I don’t feel like I’m writing to a void.)

This blog too, has evolved over the past year. It stands on its own and is less about supporting or marketing the business (and anyway, how boring or annoying would it be to read about the mundane details of packaging cookies all the time?). I would love it if we still kept up with posting recipes, but that’s simply not possible with the workload we have these days, which is really disappointing since the initial plan for the blog was to document our meals as much as possible. So what has the blog become? I’m not completely sure other than a space to post photographs. Look, I’m no writer and I’m an amateur photographer at best, but what I do know is that I have gotten to know a lot of people I have never met, which is both odd and cool, and from what I’m hearing, there are many of you who can relate to whatever it is I’m rambling about. Maybe you too have started a business, or you’re also working parents seeking the infamously elusive family/work balance, or you’re also raising biracial children, or maybe you’re missing NYC and this blog makes you homesick. Whatever it is, I didn’t think that when we started this blog a little over a year ago, that I would be making so many little relationships. My only hesitation at times is that I get a bit self conscious that this whole thing is one narcissistic exercise (and I’ve expressed this before), but I suppose most blogs are. So why do we blog? What is this all about anyway?