Chicago Weblog

Local Honey

I’m a big fan of the honeybee, everything that does for American agriculture, and certainly for the honey it can give us.  Today was National Honeybee Day 2012, and one of our local farmer’s markets had a special program in observance of the occasion.  There were tastings of various honeys made from different blossoms, demonstrations of beehives, and I even got to see the American Honey Princess again (she gets around).

And of course, I bought some local honey.  This stuff is so good, it made me feel like a kid again.  If you come by the house soon, we’ll share some.

Another year, another trip to the Kentucky State Fair.

We went through the “Pride of the Counties”, where almost every county in Kentucky has a tourism booth set up.  We discovered that Smuckers Uncrustables are manufactured in Kentucky.

One county had a huge watermelon.

We got to meet Dave Shuffett and his dog Toby, the stars of Kentucky Life, a public TV show that has been invaluable to introducing and orienting us to our adopted state. I was starstruck. Dave seemed a little nonplussed at my enthusiasm, but graciously arranged for this photo.

By now, CVH was getting hungry for a corn dog. We stepped outside to wait for the shuttle to take us around to the Kentucky Proud Producers tent (so named because the Kentucky Corn Producers, the Kentucky Poultry Producers, the Kentucky Pork Producers, and so on, have their cooking trailers there). But the shuttle never arrived, and we ended up walking all the way to the tent.

On the way, we passed the judging for Kentucky’s largest pumpkin.

Best corn dog ever

Then we got behind a group of rabbit raisers (rabbit judging was tomorrow) who apparently had never ordered food before, or didn’t know what a corn dog was, or something. After a lengthy delay, one of the cooks in the trailer called us over to the side and took our order. He couldn’t understand what was so complicated about ordering corn dogs, either. But the corn dog was delicious; you can’t get a better corn dog anywhere than the Kentucky Corn Producers trailer (these are freshly hand-dipped corn dogs, not the frozen Cisco corn dogs that they sell on the midway).

Tobacco

Now refreshed, we returned to the displays of the State Fair. We saw hundreds and hundreds of rabbits. We watched goat judging. Although tobacco is not the crop in Kentucky that it was a generation ago, we saw (and smelled) the crop competing for ribbons.

We saw the pumpkin that ended up winning the contest.

Ribbon winning display

We saw beautiful displays of produce, like this basket of peppers.

I got to meet the 2012 American Honey Princess.

Cow milking apparatus

We saw dairy cows and where they milk them.

We went to the health exhibits. Here we see CVH getting her blood pressure checked before we entered the giant heart model.

Me and the giant colon

Here I am by the giant colon.

Last weekend, I was invited to a birthday party for the daughter of a co-worker.  It was the child’s third birthday.

Lots and lots of balloons

Now, I’ve been to third-birthday parties before, but I was unprepared for the party that awaited me.  There were mass quantities of balloons (a fraction of which are visible in this photo), and the mom had blown them all up – no professional help.

It seemed like half the people in town were there – it was the social event of the evening! – and I met several very nice folks.

Yours truly checking out the appetizers

And the food!  Oh my, the food!  There were two courses of appetizers, including samosas with mint and curry sauces.

There was cake-cutting, of course, and then more food.

Me mugging with the family

Goat curry, mutton biryani, hot pickled cauliflower, sharp onion yogurt, lots of other delicious things that I don’t know the names of, and gulab jamun – those delectable little dough balls soaked in honey and sugar syrup that I can never get enough of.

Roadtrip!  To Fern Creek, Kentucky!

Actually not as much of a road trip as you might think; Fern Creek is a suburb of Louisville about ten minutes down the road from our house.  We only seem to make a trip there about once a year, but once again it was a worthwhile diversion.

First stop on reaching Fern Creek was to check out their Saturday morning farmer’s market.  We picked up some baby Patty Pan squash (my Patty Pan squash plant quit producing), hot mustard, ground beef, blackberries, German striped tomatoes, and eggs.  I talked with a guy who sells rain barrels for gardens and I plan to measure my garden to see if I can install one.

Next we visited the Fern Creek library.  This is a tiny branch library in a strip center, but always seems to have a selection of books that we don’t see at the branch in our neighborhood.  CVH checked out several books, including two cookbooks of grain dishes.  I guess we’ll being riding the high fiber road for a while.

Chocolate Chess pie

Out of the library and down to one of Louisville’s finest traditions, the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen.  A family run institution with several locations in town, it’s exactly what it sounds like.  I picked out a slice of chocolate chess pie, and a slice each of chocolate silk and Italian cream cakes.  CVH got chocolate covered cherry pie.  I could try and describe how wonderful it is, but I’ll just leave it to your imagination.  Your imagination won’t be disappointed.

Finally we ducked into a new consignment store.  It’s one of those kind where they rent out booths to sellers.  The sellers range from part-time antiquers to some that had booths which looked like they just cleaned out their basements and dumped the stuff there.  A fun place to spend half an hour, looking at stuff from the sixties that used to set on everybody’s living room tables.  Not sure if I’ll ever need a green Osterizer or pink pig figurine, but if I do, I know now where to look.