Dear Future Mr President

Head over to Kitchen Gardener’s to read an excerpt from an article Michael Pollan (author of: Botany of Desire, In Defense of Food, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma) wrote for the NY Times. I would recommend heading to NY Times and reading the entire article, it’s well worth it. Hopefully it will raise awareness of a few things we don’t talk about much in this country. The food & farming issues would be big in my book in choosing a president, too bad the candidates don’t talk about them.

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Algonquin Mill Festival

This weekend I attending the Algonquin Mill Festival, twice. On Friday I went with my parents, my sister and my 2 nieces and nephew, and on Sunday I want with Mr Chiots and some friends.

I had a great time both times, it’s definitely different when you go with kids. The girls love the Little House on the Prairie books so they kept saying, “Oh that’s just like Laura’s”. They had a great time seeing all the old stuff.


There were also thingsfor our little nephew to enjoy. He was fascinated by all the steam engines and the model trains. He’s also a big fan of tractors, and there were a bunch of those there as well.

We had some delicious pancakes made with flour ground at the mill – yum yum. We also enjoyed some ice cream churned by a steam engine, my dad can’t pass up ice cream any way it’s made.

The highlight of the kids day was the pony rides. They loved the ponies, by the end of the ride they knew the names of all the ponies.

I think the ponies liked having their pictures taken. This one, named Shorty, kept wanting to lick or eat my camera.

All-in-all we had a great day (both days). The kids were tired when we got back to my house, it looks like grandpa was pretty tired as well.

Anyone else like little festivals?

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It’s Coming

Fall is well on it’s way here in NE Ohio. The leaves are starting to get really pretty. Hopefully we don’t get a big wind storm or rain storm move through. Looks like it’s shaping up to be a beautiful fall, we’re hoping to be able to spend a few days out enjoying it. We were able to visit the Algonquin Mill Festival yesterday, I’ll be posting photos of that tomorrow.

As I write this post it’s 80 outside, not that I’m complaining it will give my last few green tomatoes a few more days to ripen and it gives my carrots & cabbage some more warm weather for growth.

So what do you do to enjoy the changing seasons?

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Gifts for a Gardener

My mom is an avid gardener, as is my dad. Growing up we had a huge garden and grew most of our own food. My mom canned like crazy in the fall to preserve all of our hard work for winter enjoyment. My parents don’t grow as many edibles now and they focus their time cultivating beautiful flower gardens. So what do you buy for an avid gardener who has everything? A local garden gift membership of course.

For Mother’s & Father’s day I bought my parents a gift membership to Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens. They both love spending the morning there walking around the garden. Now they can go as often as they want (and since they can take guests I can go along as well). I just got the membership since my dad was out of the country till now (I wanted to make sure they get the most out of their membership).

I think these kinds of gifts are perfect. You give someone an experience instead of something tangible.
I will surely be buying more gifts like these in the future.

So anyone else like giving gifts of zoo, garden or museum memberships?

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Beautiful Beneficials

Queen Ann’s Lace was one of my grandmother’s favorite flowers. I know they’re considered a weed, but they are a beneficial plant to have around the garden. They attract beneficial insects and they are edible and can be used for medicinal purposes as well. Most of the plants we classify as weeds were brought our country by immigrants long long ago for specific purposes. This Garden is Illegal has a great post about Queen Ann’s Lace.

I pull some of the Queen Ann’s Lace from my gardens, but I try to leave some around, it’s just too pretty to get rid of it all.

Do you have any weeds/wildflowers growing in your gardens?

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