Our Wind-Driven Holiday Adventure

I’m sorry to say we didn’t take many pix this holiday at The Farm. My excuse is that we were too busy socializing and enjoying the company to pick up the camera.

Anyway, we had a lovely visit and, yes, another good meal (or two…the sour cream/buttermilk pancakes and polish sausage and leftover mashed potatoes were pretty good if I do say so myself). Probably not too much new food to report. The Farmgirl fudge was out of this world. And my aunt’s date pudding, yum, was exceptional. It’s really a good thing that only she and I like it. More for us.

The deviled eggs were noteworthy too. I really think that’s because they are homegrown. Indeed, the layers and finding their rhythm and gone from 4 eggs a day to more than 9. I brought home all the ones I could find today.

I also got to bring back some elderberry wine made by a family friend. It wasn’t as sweet as the cherry wine, but more fruity than the dry white I tried. [Thanks to Playful Spirit Potter for giving up the elderberry after our kitchen tasting party.]

The wind picked up and temp dropped on the way back to Chicagoland. To avoid the dangerous gusts along I-65 we took the scenic route up Hwy 35 and Hwy 24 through Logansport and Monticello.

We saw lots of places we’d like to check out in season, including Deer Creek Orchard near Galveston. It’s hard to tell if it’s still active. Their Local Harvest info hasn’t been updated since 2001.

The Italianate-style Wolcott House near Monticello (built by the lawyer-founder of Wolcott and designed by a Chicago architect) also looks like it’s worth a stop. It was all decked out for the holidays. On the more bizarre side, we will probably check out, at some point, The Great Cats of Indiana sanctuary, which apparently houses rescued tigers, wolves, and other animals that become too much for their owners to handle.

Speaking of fruit, we had a conversation about raspberries, especially black raspberries. That’d be a great crop if we can afford the starters. We’ll be looking at seed catalogs this winter.