"Isn't it a beautiful day?" "No it ain't."

My title for this post comes from a picture book called Cowboy & Octopus by Jon Scieszka My definition of beautiful day has changed immensely from what it was in Rexburg Idaho. In Rexburg a beautiful day is when the sun is shining, a bright blue sky, a gentle cool breeze. In Overton Nevada a beautiful day is cloud cover, a cool breeze, a sprinkling of rain. I am definitely starting to feel the summer heat.

We have started planting the fall crop. We have made beds of several verities of squash, as well as a couple of Watermelon plants. I always thought that watermelon was a summer fruit because one typically has it on the 4th of July.

The tomatoes are starting to be less-ish. Which makes me very happy. Cucumbers are growing in abundance though. So today for a snack I cut up one Armenian Cucumber, Early Girl Tomato, and a gold tomato (that I can't remember the name of) put them on a plate all pretty, and poured some Zesty Italian dressing on it. All it lacked was diced cream cheese to be perfect.

The milking machine has decided to be either R--e--a--l--y S--l--o--w! or just not work. So we have started having to milk by hand. It gets so tiring. I am discovering yet another couple of muscles that I never knew existed in my body. I have been told that your arms can become very toned just by milking goats. Kylee and Hannah (the two other interns with me) are much faster milkers than I am. Last night was my first time milking by hand, and they have both had more practice.

On Thursday after market... us interns had an amazing opportunity. One of Quail Hollow Farm's share holders is a teacher at this chef school. He invited us to come to Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. So we went. In just 10 minutes you can make a dish of food look like an art piece. Going and watching them cook such BEAUTIFUL dishes using the vegetables that I helped pick gave me a new perspective on what and why I pick. Only our share holder's class used Quail Hollow Farm produce. As each student came up to get a couple of cherry tomatoes out of the bag I kept thinking... I hope they don't find slightly cracked ones that are oozing juices. Or... I hope that one didn't have a small bug bite, or sunspot. Our shareholder had also given a small lecture to each of his students saying... "If we mistreat these vegetables by cutting them wrong or anything we are wasting the efforts that the farmers take to grow and harvest these vegetables." ( I am paraphrasing what he said.) This little thing he said also made me more think that if I as the farmer am careless about the produce I harvest I am wasting the time of anyone who cooks with it. Jason Labahn (our shareholder) then took us interns on a tour of the school. One chef in training offered us some fresh peanut butter cookies (they were still warm) they were the Yummiest Peanut Butter cookies I have ever tasted. Also because it was Thursday the catering class always does a buffet style thing for everyone in the school. So we got to go through the line and fill up a little plate with yummy finger food delights. Kylee remembers their French names, I don't though so I will just say what some of my favorites were. There was Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms, Roast Duck on this type of cracker, Quail Egg also on a yummy cracker, and several others that are not coming to mind. The ones I have mentioned though were my top 3 favorites starting with my least favorite going to my absolute favorite. Quail Eggs are soooooooooooo YUMMY!!!! In Jason's class we got to taste scallops and bass. Both were cooked so heavenly. They used our leeks, cherry tomatoes, and either our peppers or onions I can't remember which. Being there made me want to go there and learn how to make food look so beautiful and taste so good. One thing I did learn is that you always want at least two fingers width around the edge of the plate that the food doesn't touch. It makes the food stand out more on the plate and you don't eat too much.

Today I was looking at a Tasha Tudor book and I have decided that what I want when I have a house of my own is... a cottage that looks like a Thomas Kinkade cottage, a large garden like Tasha Tudor's with dress-ups from various time periods, a farm with vegetables and goats (goats are pretty easy to take care of), a cow (I just want the cream, cause I like goats milk better but they don't have cream), some chickens and pigs (for the eggs and meat you can get from them), etc. It would be a TON of work but just think how picturesque it sounds. I know I want to be more self sustainable. And after beginning to read a book called Real Food and watching movies like... Food Inc., The Future of our Food, Fresh, etc. I really don't want to eat a lot of the food we buy in grocery stores. I recommend each of these movies and this book. However be forewarned you will never look at food the same, and you will be wanting to find farmer's markets close to where you live. Plus food from your garden tastes a zillion times better than the produce you buy at the store. The produce from the store is like buying the image of the food and tasting bland.

I have discovered utter bliss in so many little things here on the farm. At Dusk I like to sit on the front porch reading or writing feeling a warm breeze on my face gazing at my surroundings, contemplating life and it's goodness, and thanking my Heavenly Father for the experiences I am having. That is contented bliss. And riding down on the tractor at dawn to do chores is also morning bliss. Then there is every night when I lay my head on my pillow that is perpetual bliss. Or stepping out of the shower feeling clean again that is absolute bliss. Drinking a tall glass of ice water is bliss too. Coming in to an air-condition house after finishing working is likewise bliss. If you are an editor you would probably sat that I have overused the word bliss. I apologize. It is just my word of choice right now as I am writing this.

This is all I have to say for this week. Instead of saying "See ya later, alligator." I am going to say..."got to go, tomato." It's kind of cheesy I know, but it works.