Breakfast of champions

Y'all have simply GOT to make ricotta and candied kumquats and then serve them to yourselves for breakfast.

Fab-o new jam; 18 collard hand-pies; ricotta; scene

The Circle Yoga Arts Market is less than two weeks ago, and so now is my crunch time for final preps. I made 18 beautiful collard green-chorizo hand-pies and popped them into the deep freeze; will bake them fresh morning of. I also made some fresh ricotta as it'd been a while, and lastly, used half our farmers market peaches (best of the season, I swear) in a new jam: peach-ginger-rhubarb. Mostly peaches, a hint of rhubarb, and some crystallized ginger to wrap things up. It is SO divine!

Now I am pooped, and though the children and I had a lovely day, I started shutting down from being talked to about an hour and a half ago. Have mercy! School starts one week from tomorrow!

Ricotta, homemade sausage, Barbara's reading, stylish 6 year old

It has been entirely too long since I made some fresh ricotta, so this morning I made doing so a priority. It's almost done draining, and I cannot wait to indulge! Plus, more whey for my freezer stash. Did you hear the NPR commentary yesterday about whey? It is a super protein, and some dairies now make more by selling their whey -a byproduct- then from their cheese. Interesting! While it drained, I finally got around to making some sausages: fresh pork from the Eco-Friendly Foods butcher at the farmers market, fennel seed, ground fennel, diced celery and celery leaves, a bit of brown sugar and a dash of red pepper flakes. Aren't these handsome? I am looking forward to trying them this weekend.

Though I truly enjoyed attending Barbara Kingsolver's reading last night, I was so tired that when I awoke this morning, I wasn't sure if I'd dreamed it or actually been there. Wow. She came across as extremely smart, thoughtful and, at times, quite witty, and I was engaged by the passages she read from her newest work, Flight Behavior. I admire and am grateful for her commitment to raising awareness of and encouraging action on climate change; as she lives in SW VA on a farm and surrounded by other farmers, she's witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of climate change on agriculture and the enormous financial tolls it's taking on the working poor. As a trained scientist, she has lost patience for those who deny scientific fact and evidence and hopes we'll see a real change, politically, towards action based on belief rather than wishful thinking and denial. Amen!

Y'all, I could not love Jack more. Look at my little fashion-plate sweetheart.