Our Beet and Orange Salad had a little fashion session just now.  It will be in the July (I think) issue of WNC Magazine.  The photographer came up from Charleston (I certainly hope that he was shooting other things too.) 

 

Martha raided her home garden yesterday and filled the vases for our cafe tables.  What a difference this breath of spring makes.  I can see the smiles as people come through the door. 

 

And at my house the various pots and garden beds are filling out.  I noticed the Iris opening up just this morning.  Columbine are in full flower and are being visited by my bees.

 

Here are our dinners for this coming week.

 

Monday, May 2

Fried Chicken with Broccoli and Bacon Salad 8.95

 

Tuesday, May 3

Chickpea Cakes with Tabouleh 5.95

 

Wednesday, May 4

Local Lamb Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries 9.50

 

Thursday, May 5

Chicken Croquettes with Applesauce 7.95

 

Friday, May 6

Mountain Trout with Ramps and Hushpuppies 13.95

 

Order by noon and we'll have your dinner ready to pick up by 3. We're open until 7. Nice!

 

Salad and bread can be added if you wish. Salad is 3.25 and bread is 1.25 per person.

 

We make a special casserole and a special lasagna each week.

 

Order by noon or so. Order a half if you have around 4 folks. If you have a bigger group, or you just like leftovers, order a full-sized one.

 

Then come pick up between 3:00 and 7:00.

 

The Casserole this week is for Wednesday, May 4:

Tamale Pie with Local Beef

Full: 45 Half: 22.50

 

The Lasagna is for Friday, May 6:

Chicken and Herb Lasagna with Local Sausage

Full: 48 Half: 24

 

These days in my thoughts everything is for my bees.  I am planting my garden with them in mind.  I am urging people not to use any pesticides because, when the bees eat "treated" flowers, it makes them sick.  Bees pollinate a third of everything we eat so, in my mind, the very least I can do is try to provide something sweet for them.

 

Miracle of miracles. 

 

A dried up old bean, tucked into the ground, emerges as a bean plant.  These 9 cuties are in my new raised beds. 

 

April 30, 2011

 

Good morning (oops – good afternoon.) It’s a busy day here at the end of April. It is also a spectacularly beautiful day. People are getting married today. People are getting Christened today. And, yes, some people are having a Memorial Service today. On it goes.

 

Earlier this week we hosted 60 local 4th graders for lunch. I stood out on our sidewalk with them before they came in, telling them what they were going to eat and, later, how they were going to throw out their paper plates. I told them about putting the plates in the compost pile, about letting them decompose, and about how the compost would then get put back into the ground.

 

“It’s a BIG Circle!!!!” a little boy hollered, erupting with enthusiasm at this realization.

 

Absolutely. Absolutely.

 

I’m relieved to have bees again. Well, some of my bees did make it through the winter but they do not have a Queen. My mentor gave me three frames of “brood”, newly hatched eggs that the workers will coax three of those eggs into queendom. This is one of the many amazing things that bees do. If they realize they do not have a queen, and they manage to get some eggs (a gift from another hive, as in this instance), they will build a larger cell and, when the bees who are in charge of feeding babies get near that new cell, they’ll see it is a Queen Cell and will give it more Royal Jelly than they would if it was a regular-sized cell. That extra Royal Jelly will help that egg grow, filling its larger than normal-sized cell, and turning into a Queen.

 

Unbelievable.

 

So, shortly I can see if there are Queen Cells and, if they are, I’ll know that I’ll have a Queen in another week and a half (or so.)

 

In the meantime, I am getting two new colonies for two of my other hives. They’ll move in next weekend. In no time at all my yard will once again be filled with bees. it’s felt a bit too quiet without them.

 

The book project is still underway. Stay tuned.

Spring is underway.

Life is underway.

 

Tye Masterton is such a sweet friend.  My friend Marilynne captured her at one of her finest moments, reveling in some treasure that, though invisible to me, sends her into these sorts of eruptions of pleasure.