the hungry pear

The other day I told Mike, if we're going to make the best of our teeny budget and the one weekend day off I have, we’re going to fully explore upstate once a month and Long Island as often as possible. So I began my research. Turns out, this state of ours is pretty amazing. I found botanical gardens, midsummer night garden performances, historical cooking classes, arboretum, after arboretum, after arboretum, pick your own berries, organic farm stands, bird sanctuaries, light houses, windmills, museum farms, and a big duck. Of course, I sent all these (and more) in one big email to my fiancé titled “adventures!” with the intent of visiting every single one in our weekend together. Knowing how much we love sleeping in, enjoying the company of my in-laws (and their cable television) and central air conditioning, we compromised on doing at least three.
We headed out on a gorgeous day with a full tank of gas and met some incredible little treasures on our way. Driving out east I felt relief and nostalgia for my hometown upstate; I’ve never seen this side of Long Island. No shopping malls, no double-exhaust revved engines at stop lights… just acres of neatly farmed just-getting-there sprouts, vineyards and mom and pop stands. I was squealing. We stopped first at the farm museum, where I met the loveliest cow by the name of Stella. I spent some time giving and receiving some blissful animal energy with her, toured the houses, talked to the chickens (the rooster had the most to say) and bid adieu with promise to return. Half way down the road we stopped for organic bunches of asparagus to put on the grill later and the most delicious rhubarb square from Briermere Farms. Delicious does not do this justice. Crumbly, buttery, sweet, sour, salty; my mouth was alive with flavor and let’s not even get into the pie we took home for after dinner. I’m going back ASAP. With our mouths and hands stained from strawberry snacking in the car, we found the big duck with much excitement, then realized there’s not much to do at the big duck, so we drove to the first Hampton beach we could find.
All I needed was the smell of the Atlantic for a good twenty minutes and we were headed home with the windows down. That night we grilled our farm market finds to perfection, ate pie under the stars and were treated to a private “drive-in” movie projected in the backyard.

Life is good, and sometimes, really, really good.