Nelson County Rocks

Winter hasn’t yet officially begun, but we had our second snowstorm on December 16th: about five inches and COLD.  But we were cozy in our house, amidst holiday decorations and our wonderful wood stove.  A more complete set of views, inside and out,  may be accessed here.

In late fall we  visited various friends to learn about raising chickens (for eggs), a project Monika and I intend to undertake in the spring.  We continued to harvest turnips and chard  (see basket above) as well as collards, kale and lettuce until the second week of December, when a cold spell did most of the remaining garden in.  In mid-November Nic and Alison came over and made us  delicious roasted stuffed pumpkins!

For our Thanksgiving turkey, which we took up to family in Maryland, Monika found Open Gate Farm in neighboring Albermarle County, which raises heritage turkeys and sells them fresh (our turkey from Polyface Farm last year was frozen).  We went out to the farm on the Monday before Thanksgiving amd got a delightful guided tour from Tom Ward.  We also got a surprise: our Bronze Standard turkey had turned out to be much larger (38 pounds!!!) than expected.  This posed a series of challenges: locating a large enough roasing pan;  locating a container large enough to to brine it in;  fitting it into an oven just barely larger than the turkey; and figuring out how long to cook it.  Regarding the latter, we were many hours off in our estimation, but fortunately got the turkey out in time and it was the best turkey ever.  Pictures of our Maryland Thanksgiving may be accessed here.

Early morning view from our front deck

Life in retirement is great!

It’s hard to believe that summer is officially over  (despite 90 degree temperatures).  We were pretty focused on Tim’s and Megan’s wedding for the first half of the summer, and the rest seems to have just gone poof.  But actually the second half of summer has been interesting and varied, and below is a kind of late summer photo potpourri.

We’ve stayed pretty close to home, but we’ve begun to explore the Shenandoah Valley, on the other side of the mountains, somewhat more.  One particularly interesting visit, with our friends Anke and Axel, was to the Frontier Culture Museum, a living history museum in the mode of Sturbridge, Shelburne, and others.  But rather than strictly focusing on recreating pioneer life in the 19th century here, it also attempts to showcase the rural culture that immigrants (including those enslaved) both left and brought with them: German, English, Scot-Irish, and West African (Igbo).  It’s very nicely done and we had a gorgeous day to walk and explore the different parts.  Click here for more pictures of the Frontier Culture Museum.

In early September, we celebrated Nic’s thirty-first birthday with his wife Alison, and local friends Virginia Page,  Axel and Anke.  Earlier, we hiked to the St. Mary’s Falls (see previous post), where Nic scared the bejeebies out of me by leaping off the cliff into the deep but narrow pool below.  A few less birthdays for me, I’m sure…  Alison took the picture below with their cell phone.

_________________________________________

With almost no rain all summer, our vegetable garden has been less productive than last year, but surprisingly good overall, with the exception of cucumbers and squash, which were done in by insects that seemed to thrive and multiply in the dry weather.  In addition we bought lots of fruit from local orchards, and Monika made all sorts of wonderful jams, sauces, and deserts for canning or freezing.  Currently we’re getting lots of string beans and peppers, some tomatoes, lettuce, chard, herbs (there’s been tons of basil for making pesto), with fall vegetables–collards, spinach, kale, and kohlrabi coming along.  And we still have lots of garlic and potatoes that we harvested in mid-summer.

One summer project has been to complete a little trail system in the woods that surround three sides of our property.  That and enjoying nature and the beauty of our immediate surroundings.  For a late summer photo potpourri of these things, click here.

In a joyous celebration in Roanoke, Tim and Megan were wed on July 31st.  The long hot and dry summer spell ended the night before, and unfortunately the marriage ceremony had to be moved inside due to a light rain.  But it was still a lovely and lively event.  As at Nic and Alison’s wedding two years earlier, John, Justin, Cally and Sylvia did a wonderful job of supplying the music before and during the marriage ceremony.

Family and friends converged on our home over a two week period before and after the wedding, and it was wonderful to spend time, explore,  and celebrate together.

click here for pictures from these two wedding weeks

Everyone who had been at Nic and Alison’s wedding and had heard Tim’s toast to the newly-married couple agreed that Nic had a hard act to follow as best man at Tim and Megan’s wedding.  But he fully met the challenge with a witty, funny, and moving  speech.

click here a video of  Nic’s toast to the bride and groom
(unfortunately grainy because of poor lighting)

[Note: Tim’s wedding toast to Nic and Alison in 2008 may be accessed here.]

Well, it was more like “homestead-sitting,” but recently we kept an eye on the chickens, goats and sheep of friends for three days while they were away.  Our duties were pretty minimal, but it was a first time for us in dealing with an electric fence and reaching under hens to remove the eggs.  Our life here continues to teach us new things! [BTW, we get our eggs from these friends, and those eggs are the best!  Totally different from store-bought.]

Nic and Alison spent the father’s day weekend with us, and on Saturday we all went to Lynchburg, about 45 minutes to the south.  While Monika checked out Antique Row, Nic, Alison and I took the tour at an old federal-style mansion above the James River named Point of Honor.  We managed to get lost on our way out of Lynchburg, ending up on the Blue Ridge Parkway at the amazing water gap where the James River cuts through the Blue Ridge.  It was worth the detour!  On Sunday the three of us returned to the Parkway father north and took the short hike to Humpback Rocks, with marvelous views and a beautiful day.

Monika and I recently attended our grand-daughter Cally’s high school graduation ceremony and helped out with a graduation party for close to 100 friends and family.  Cally will head off to Swarthmore in the fall and of course we’re all immensely proud of her.

For pictures of her graduation and the partying that followed two days later, click here.

Yesterday Nic, Alison and I hiked a lovely 5 1/2 mile loop around and over Cold Mountain, in the nearby George Washington National Forest.  Temperatures and flora were those of several weeks ago in the valleys, with the first flowering trees of spring, Serviceberries, in abundance at higher elevations.  The online trip description compared the hike to being in Switzerland, which seemed a bit over the top.  But once we reached the long summit meadow, and Alison reminded me of the movie, The Song of Music began ringing in my ears, despite the absence of snow-covered peaks.  More pictures here.

Between the forsythia, weeping cherry, crabapple, tulips, dogwood, redbud, and creeping phlox, Easter is a wondrously beautiful time here.  It was great to be able to share it with John and family, along with Alison (Nic was up north).  For more pictures, click here.

At my Rutgers retirement party last spring, my colleagues gave me a generous and thoughtful gift: a gift certificate for fruit trees from Vintage Virginia Apples, an orchard and tree nursery about twenty minutes away, which is trying to keep alive varieties of apples and other fruit no longer commercially available.  We had to wait until the trees were dormant, but on Tuesday we picked up five two-year old trees, and the past two days have been spent planting them and protecting them with deer netting.  (You may click on the picture of me planting the Grimes Golden for a larger view.)

We bought and planted five trees, as follows (descriptions are from VVA’s catalog):

VIRGINIA BEAUTY originated on the property of Zach Safewright in the Piper Gap area of Carroll County, Virginia.  In the 1850s, it was given the name Virginia Beauty.  Large in size and oblate to truncate in shape, the smooth and glossy, greenish-yellow skin is half to nearly totally covered a shaded brick-red with indistinct red stripes in the greener areas… The yellow flesh is fine-grained, tender, and a light sweetness in flavor… In the early part of the 20th century, the Virginia Beauty was popular for not only dessert, but also for processing, especially for apple preserves.  It stores very well and ripens the first weeks of October.

GRIMES GOLDEN was found by Thomas Grimes in Brooke County, West Virginia, 1804, near Wellsburg, West Virginia, where John Chapman, known as Johnny Appleseed, established a nursery with his brother.  One of the parents of Golden Delicious. Roundish or slightly oblong in form, small to medium in size, with a greenish-yellow skin, ripening to a clear yellow.. Yellowish flesh is crisp and tender, with a spicy, sweet flavor. A good all-purpose apple, it contains 18.81% sugar that ferments to a 9% alcohol, popular for making hard cider… Self-fertile and an excellent pollinator for other varieties… Ripens in late September and stores very well.

REINETTE SIMIRENKO may be the same as Wood’s Greening. There is some uncertainty whether it originated as claimed in the garden of P. F. Simirenko in the Ukraine, or in the United States, as Wood’s Greening. It was described in 1895, and was popularized by Soviet cosmonauts, who took the apple into space for dessert. Medium in size, the greenish-yellow skin has a brownish-orange flush, and is russeted in the cavity and dotted on the surface. The finish is waxy. The greenish-white flesh is tender and crisp with a subacid flavor. It bears early and heavily and will also hang long on the tree after ripening. The tree top develops into a wide pyramidal crown and the variety is very drought resistant. It stores well and ripens in October.  [Note: it appears that Wood’s Greening came first, and was developed by a family named Wood (no relation as far as I know, but who knows?)  in Burlington County, New Jersey in the early 19th century.]

We also planted two Black Heart Cherry trees, for which rather little information is available:  “BLACK HEART Cherries are a sweet dark fruit on a large tree. Fruit matures early and over a relatively long season.”  Our understanding is that they have been grafted from a tree on an old farm in this area.

It will take a little patience, but we’re excited about tasting and sharing these fruits in the future.  And heartfelt thanks to my (still-working stiff) colleagues back at Rutgers for this wonderful gift!

Pictures from the Vintage Virginia Apples Harvest Festival

We had much to be thankful for at our first Thanksgiving in Virginia: our transition into retirement and a new sort of life has gone amazingly smoothly and we are loving every minute.  And of course we were thankful that Eleanor and Justin came down by train from New York City, and that Nic and Alison came out from Charlottesville.

Wednesday evening I prepared a “local” meal where the key ingredient of each dish came from our garden (fresh or via the freezer): yellow squash pancakes, pesto with spaghetti, three varieties of sunroom-ripened tomatoes, zucchini bread, and a vegetable medley of garden onions, tomatoes, string beans, lima beans, peppers, yellow and green squash, and herbs (click on left picture for a larger view).

On Thanksgiving Day we took “The Plunge” trail to the overlook in the middle picture, as well as driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopping on the way back for a short hike to Crabtree Falls.  At Thanksgiving dinner, all agreed that the Polyface Farm turkey was the tastiest we’d ever had (also less fatty, since it got to run around in its life).

More pictures may be seen by clicking here.