And It Begins Again....

Life is back to normal here at our farm. It's hard to believe that summer is drawing to a close. School has started for Julia and for me that means days are hectic. The rush to get out the door in the morning is the biggest challenge of every day. Trying to cram all my projects into the school hours isn't really long enough. At least I'm not working on a book right now to make me extra crazy.


After school, three days a week, Julia and I are still selling our lamb at Farmer's Markets in local towns near us. If you are interested, here's our schedule:
Tuesday - Bernardston
Wednesday - Turner's Falls (we don't always make this one)
Thursday - Northfield
Thursday - The Farmer does South Hadley

Have you all seen the movie Julie/Julia yet? I loved it. Although critics panned the "Julie" part of the movie, I loved it. I think that the comparison between both women and their environments were fabulous. Brooklyn in 2002 vs. Paris in the 1940's. Of course, Paris wins. But the way that cooking and learning about cooking threaded its way through both Julie and Julia's lives was wonderful.

A couple weeks ago we were riding in the car. I was trying to give Julia one of my little talks about how she really does need to start learning some life skills so that she can get a job when she gets older. Julia is totally set on the fact that she is going to be a famous movie producer, having Miley Cyrus starring in all her films. I told her that it is always good to have a fall-back job, just in case the dream job doesn't work out. I asked her what she thought she would like to start learning about for an alternative. She surprised the heck out of me by telling me she wanted to learn to cook. Me, sitting in the front of the car, driving along, nearly swerved off the road. "Okay, Julia, I can help you with that."

So we began with Julia's Reine de Saba. We made it right after the first day of school so that we could have a special dessert.

It was fabulous and now I think will be our go-to Chocolate Cake recipe.

I've got my Sunflower/Knitting/Stitching Immersion Weekend coming up on Saturday and Sunday. Posting here will probably be a bit spotty because I have lots to prepare for the guests. Still working on my "to do" list from the last weekend in August, truth be told.