What came first...

With fall drawing so close it sometimes seems like its time to gather walnuts and acorns and start stuffing them under mattresses and in between the sofa cushions and maybe even hide some amongst all the hanks of yarn that are already stuffed everywhere.

Some days lately have been a bit gray and quite chilly and its enough to make me consider hibernation when I think about what will befall us in the next few months... snow boots, wet feet, cold noses, and lost mittens.

But there are still lots of warm sunny days to enjoy and I like to think that the gray days are here to remind us to enjoy the warm sunny ones while we still have them.

And far from drawing to a close the season is still giving plenty... apples, raspberries, and for us our first eggs! The little chicks we hatched in the incubator back in the spring are now grown and have begun to lay eggs. I've never been so stink'in excited about an egg in my life.

And just when my urge to bake kicked in a friend gifted us with a bucket of homegrown raspberries and there's lots more where they came from. This is another one of those perspective situations I like to analyze so much... our friend has so many raspberries that she's pushing them off on anybody that will take them and we are so thankful to have them. She's tired of looking at them because they're everywhere... and we can't wait for more!

We made Fruit Platz (Simply in Season) with a little tweaking to include more whole wheat flour and some oats. Tater calls it Fruit Plops which makes it even better. By the way... I love this cookbook and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys cooking with fresh whole foods and simple recipes that turn out fabulous. Its divided into seasonal sections so the recipes include what is readily available at a given time. I really like that so many of the recipes can be fiddled with to accommodate whatever is on hand and that the recipes don't call for weird things you can't find. The Fruit Platz recipe can be used for all sorts of fruits... peaches, sweet cherries, blueberries... yum. And its really simple so the kids can help.

I'm planning to grab another bucket of raspberries while they're still available so we can make a Raspberry Upside-Down cake (my recipe).

And speaking of simple things that turn out fabulous... I'm whipp'in up a end of summer top-down raglan for Tater in Vermont Organic's Balance which is a heavenly blend of organic merino and organic cotton. (Its being modeled quite nicely by that egg.) The pattern will be available in sizes 2 to 14 and should be available about mid October.

Comments

[Debbie]

YUM.

[bezzie]

Oh freakin' YUM! I love this season...