Missing Willow Farm

Actually, quite a lot.  More than half a gallon.

It’s all about cherry tomatoes and hot peppers these days.  It sure makes for a gorgeous display.

We do an annual farm/garden/winery tour with friends every August.  This weekend’s farm tour included piggies, cattle, turkeys and ducks.  I officially want ducks.

We’ve got them growing on the deck and in the garden.  When it gets cold out we’ll move them into the greenhouse, which should give us a jump on next year’s crop.

is that we finally got apples from the trees we planted in 2005.  The bad news is these are all the deer left us.  I think we need to be spraying them with some nasty chemicals or something and fortressing the trees if we want edible fruit.  In related news, we have pears about 30 feet off the ground that the deer couldn’t reach.  Luckily, we have a ladder.

A James Beard award winning food writer wrote that the roast lamb that Brian prepared on Saturday was the best he has ever had.  Way to rock it in a pasture full of amazing chefs, Brian!

http://www.vice.com/read/lambstock-leaves-me-weak

Lambstock was over on Tuesday and I am still recovering.  I didn’t get a chance to take photos until the last day, here are a few of my favorites.  VA wine and cheese, oysters, kobe beef burgers with lamb belly from a food truck, lamb cooked asado style, succotash,  lamb ribs, boudin.  And that was just Monday.  The chef who made us biscuits with lamb sausage gravy on Monday was on the Today Show yesterday morning for their cooking segment.   I’m already looking forward to next year!

We were fortunate enough to be present for the premiere of a beautiful short documentary film about our friend Craig last Saturday night.  It took place in one of his sheep pastures and was projected onto some sheets with straw bale seating.  How perfect is that?  Nicole Lang and Christophile Konstas, the lovely ladies from Pared Pictures, did an amazing job on the production.  If you’d like to see it yourself, you can find it here

We found these blackberries growing in our back yard in a spot where they definitely were not growing last year.   They are thornless and close enough to be able to pick them from the back deck.  I am thinking the birds are responsible.  Thanks birds!