Perfectly GORGEOUS Heirloom Tomatoes

Amy Goldman's book, The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table: Recipes, Portraits, and History of the World's Most Beautiful Fruit , will simply take your breath. The recipes are "to die for" and the photographs (by Victor Schrager) are artistic masterpieces. The author's expertise is clearly evident. According to Amazon, "Amy Goldman is a passionate gardener, seed saver, and well-known advocate for heirloom fruits and vegetables. She is the author of The Compleat Squash and Melons for the Passionate Grower, and she appears frequently on such TV programs as Martha Stewart Living and Victory Gardens."

http://www.amazon.com/Heirloom-Tomato-Recipes-Portraits-Beautiful/dp/159691291X

If you love to cook, have a passion for local food, or simply want to peruse an incredible feast for the eyes, this book is for you. The sources in the back of the book allow you to order and experiment with growning a wide variety of heirlooms. My experiments are in tiny peat pots and sprouting "to beat the band."

Listen to the Wind....A Beautiful Children's Picture Book

It seems that I always get some of my best recommendations about "books too good to miss" from friends and colleagues. It was only fitting that my good friend and former colleague, Francine Johnston, would come to me at the North Carolina Reading Association Conference in March with a copy of Listen to the Wind in hand. It was Francine who originally recommended Three Cups of Tea...see previous posts. Does this woman know how to recommend wonderful books, or what? Of course, I had to have my own copy.

After perusing this marvelous picture book (you can peek at the book via the active link above via Amazon.com), it not only describes Dr. Greg Mortenson's valiant efforts to provide more than 50 schools for children in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but does so within the beautifully rich context of fabric collage illustrations that will take your breath. The book details the process by which illustrator, Susan Roth, created the collages with cloth fragments, and actual artifacts from Baltistan and surrounding areas.

For those of you who have not read Three Cups of Tea, here is a bit of background information that also provides the basis for Listen to the Wind. In his quest to repay the people of Korphe who helped Mortenson when he lost his way while on an expedition to climb K2, he learned that what the people of this small village wanted more than anything else was a school. He kept his promise to build this first school and subsequently founded the Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace, whose mission is to build more and more schools in this remote area of the world. Mortenson contends that American efforts to fight Islamic extremism in these countries must focus on substantive efforts to address poverty by increasing access to education, primarily for girls. His story offers a message of hopefulness in terms of bridging world cultures, as well as looking beyond one's biases and perceptions, keeping promises, and helping others in need.

Video related to Three Cups of Tea

I f you didn’t have the opportunity to view Frontline: Children of the Taliban (aired April 15 at 9PM on UNC-TV), you MUST view this program. Unfortunately, the UNC-TV rebroadcast is scheduled for April 16 at 3AM, but the video is posted at:http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/pakistan802/index.html

While the video takes 36 minutes to view, I assure you that you will not regret spending this time looking at the world through the eyes of the Pakistani children featured in this documentary. Additionally, the insights that reporter Sharmeen-Obaid Chinoy provides are striking within a country where schools, education, and the rights of women are being greatly influenced by the Taliban.

New Book...New Impact

I have posted little on this blog in recent months due to many changes in my life. Our son's transfer to NCSU and my husband accepting a new job position have turned my world upside down and I still rely on reading significant books to help me deal with the chaos. I am still visiting the local Farmer's Market and eating as much local food as possible, so the impact of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (see earlier posts and genesis for this blog) continues. We rarely eat meat in our home anymore and if we do, it comes from Rainbow Meadow Farms in Snow Hill. I will absolutely NOT buy any more meat or eggs from CAFOs and unless the grocery can document a pasture-raised origin, I will not buy them. (Our three laying hens in the backyard are still keeping our refrigerator FULL of eggs!) Reading AVM and investigating various other resources helped us come to new realizations about how eating meat (ESPECIALLY BEEF) represents a huge waste of the earth's resources. Who could imagine that it takes approximately 441 gallons of water to produce ONE POUND of meat protein. Our son will rarely touch meat and this conviction is linked to his recent decision to explore agroeology as a minor area of study at NCSU.


The most recent book that I am reading, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver was recommended by my good friend, Francine Johnston, a former literacy colleague at UNC-G. I always rely on her book recommendations and she hasn't failed me yet. I'll write more about my thoughts related to this outstanding book in upcoming posts, but Tom Brokaw's comments (from the back of the book) provide an excellent snapshot of WHY every educator (and in my opinion, every American) should read this book.

"Three Cups of Tea is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of our time. Greg Mortenson’s dangerous and difficult quest to build schools in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan is not only a thrilling read, it’s proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world.” -Tom Brokaw

Day Eight....Egg Number Six!

When I came home before lunch, I checked the Chicken Palace to see what was happening. Amber was planted in her nest and Honey and Molly were strutting about. I knew that I wanted to get the broody Amber on film in her nesting box, so I took several shots. Still no egg.

Stephen arrived for lunch and immediately headed for the hen house. He opened the door and found a warm egg, which he left until the guys across the street could officially DISCOVER it.

The doorbell rang as soon as Jacob and Joseph got in from school. DING, DING, DING, DING! I knew what was in store. Boy was I surprised as I opened the door to find the lone Jacob on our doorstep. "Can we see if there is an egg?" he asked. Jake and I went out in the backyard and opened to door to the Chicken Palace. He walked into the Chicken Palace and glanced downward. The screaming and yelling commenced, "There's an egg, an egg, an egg," with such commotion that Joseph and his friends came from across the street.

The egg was gathered and the count was taken. This was egg number six...and the seventh will belong to the guys across the street! Stay tuned!

Laid today, Eaten tonight...Eggs don't come any fresher than this!

Amber has maintained quite a record! In the past 6 days, she has laid 5 eggs. According to head mathematician, Stephen Atkinson, Amber's production rate is .833 eggs per day! You go, girl!!!!

Egg number 5 was discovered with grand fanfare. Jake and Joseph, the two children who live across the street, pulled in the drive on their bikes as I parked the car. As I opened the car door, they called, "Any more eggs yet?" We walked to the Chicken Palace in great anticipation. As I opened the door, I spied a fresh egg, but didn't let on. I told the boys to go in and look. The both walked in and immediately started jumping up and down yelling, "An egg, an egg, an egg!"

The guys were so excited that I was fearful that the egg might get scrambled before it was gathered, so I told the boys that we needed to go into the house to get the egg basket. In doing so, they called Stephen at work and yelled into the phone that they had found another egg. Their excitement was priceless.

After we took more pictures of the egg, we brought it inside and put it into the refrigerator. Our plans for cooking the eggs had been "hatched" earlier in the afternoon. Melissa would arrive at 6pm and she, Stephen, and I, fully dressed to eat breakfast for dinner, would greet trick-or-treaters and cook Amber's first 5 eggs.
Bacon fried, coffee brewed, mimosas mixed, the Best Drop Biscuits baked (from this month's Cook's Illustrated), and Amber's eggs scrambled ...now we were ready to sit down and enjoy. Divine biscuits, extremely crisp bacon, and everything else outstanding...nothing could top the taste of fresh eggs from Amber's nest. All that we can say is, "Well done, girl. Keep up the great work. While you are at it, clue Molly and Honey into your secrets!"

I BEEN IN TIME OUT, BUT I'M BACK...AMBER FINALLY DID IT!

Yes, I lost the faith. I've been in time out, and now I'm back (in the words of the famous Hannah Kate Davis). The three Buff Orpington sisters, Amber, Honey, and Molly, have been so busy enjoying themselves in the lavish Atkinson Chicken Palace that they have not seen fit to lay ONE EGG since we picked them up! I have been so disgusted with them that I have not posted an entry on this blog in a month and a half. Well, I certainly should have been sent to time out for having so little faith in these fine ladies.

As reported to many of you already, the first egg appeared on Friday, October 26. Stephen went out to feed "the ladies" (as he calls them) and made such a commotion on the way into the house that I didn't know WHAT had happened. When Stephen had opened the door on the hen house to get the feed, the nest box was empty, but a medium-sized brown egg was right in the middle of the floor nestled in the cedar shavings!

Although we couldn't prove that Amber laid the egg, we were relatively sure. Her wattle and comb are dark red and much larger than those sported by Molly and Honey. According to everything that we have read about Buff Orpingtons, no egg laying occurs in this breed until the wattle and comb are well developed and dark red. Never knew that these wattles and combs were so important to chickens (this link tells more about this)! Our recent trip to the North Carolina State Fair confirmed that our buff ladies were certainly not full grown hens as we had feared. The pullets on display at the fair looked just like our chickens! We knew after our fair visit that we simply needed to be more patient. Only two weeks later, we "hit pay dirt." This last picture shows Amber looking rather proud of her accomplishment!