Yesterday was part 2 of our 2010 grape harvest experience. For the past few years we’ve helped some friends who live on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River harvest their acre of grapes. This is certainly a much larger operation than our one concord grape-vine! Six of us worked most of the day, stopping only for lunch, and made good progress. It’s delightful to work amongst beautiful scenery, with good conversation and good laughter. Certainly makes the harvest much more enjoyable and fun. We spent the day harvesting frontenac gris, although we were treated to tastes of all the varieties of grapes our friends are growing. The alpenglow grapes that are pictured here are a beautiful shade of soft yellow/green, that develop a light blush as they ripen. I can attest to their most wonderfully sweet and juicy flavor. After the sun had set and we had been in the vineyard all day, we retreated inside to a delightful meal and were able to lift our glasses to toast this year’s harvest with a glass of wine from last year’s harvest.
Minnesota
Concord grapes – the sweet smell of summer
Our harvest of concord grapes was plentiful. With pans and trays of the purple grapes everywhere, the sweet smell of summer has been wafting through our kitchen. Their fresh aroma is strong and intoxicating, and it strengthens as the grapes simmer on the stove, crack open, and release their juices. For now we’re enjoying a deliciously flavorful concord grape sorbet that melts in the mouth — a small taste goes a long way. It’s a deep, dark color of rich purple; almost (but not quite) too beautiful to eat. And we also have a plethora of concord jelly ready for the upcoming months. When the snow is piled around and the temperatures are cold, we’ll open a jar of grape jelly and be quickly transported back to the waning days of summer.
A day at the Fair
Yesterday it was me and 234,383 of my best friends spending a cool summer’s day at the Minnesota State Fair and setting a record for single-day attendance. The Minnesota State Fair is the second-largest State Fair in the country. With the fairgrounds covering 320 acres it’s imperative to allow at least one day to see your favorite things. There’s the Mighty Midway with its games and carnival rides, the food, the Giant Slide, Machinery Hill, the food, the animals, the exhibits, the Space Tower, the Grandstand, and the food. We refer to the Fair as the Great Minnesota Get-Together, and we celebrate with friends and food. Anything and everything is available on a stick, from fried pickles to pronto pups. For many the Fair is a day of grazing from one food booth to the next. I especially enjoyed the animal barns. The pigs that weren’t being shown in competition were sleeping lazily, the sounds of the roosters were echoing off the walls in their building, and the goats were busy nibbling on the shirts of the passers-by. People who attend the fair are always in a good mood, as are the vendors, and the employees at the fair. Even the woman at the information booth who helped me three different times — she too was in a good mood. I even found two special friends from the Minnesota Twins – Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau – who “stood still” while I had my photo taken with them. What a great ending to a fine day at the Fair!
The fog comes
Yesterday I awoke to a rare treat — a cool, foggy morning. For me, there is a special stillness and quietness that settles over the landscape when everything is shrouded with a soft blanket of fog . I found myself walking quietly so as not to disturb the air and the peacefulness that surrounded me. And because it was an early Saturday morning, the usual hustle and bustle of work routines were non-existent with few people out and about. Since moving to Minnesota I’ve realized that fog is one of the atmospheric conditions of the Pacific Northwest that I miss. As I was photographing this scene, I was reminded of the beginning of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” where he writes “The fog comes on little cat feet.” It moves in quietly, settles, and then travels on. And as was the case yesterday, the sun and heat of summer eventually broke through the fog and we returned to blue sky and bright sunshine.
Looking out through the rain
Our summer has been one of rain, heat, and humidity. This past week I was on my way to the YMCA for yoga class. As luck would have it, it started to rain, or more correctly, it started to pour. The rain came down in buckets. I arrived at the Y, parked my car, and it was still pouring so I decided to sit it out for a while and wait. I sat in my car looking out through the windshield, across the street, to the tree on the other side. Granted, the tree wasn’t anything spectacular, but as I changed my focus from the tree to the windshield I saw something beautiful and fluid. As the rain was pouring down the glass, there was a gorgeous effect on the subjects across the street. They too became fluid and took on a “watercolor” effect. I pulled out my camera and spent the next three minutes photographing this watery scene until the rain stopped, the sun came out, and I walked into my yoga class without getting wet.
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