Adventures

The fall has swept past so fast, I didn't get a chance to post photos of...

breaking in my new boots:

hiking at Los Padres Dam:

trekking to Lacis, the lace museum in Berkeley with Carmel Crafts Guild:

hiking at Pinnacles:

finally finishing Aaron's hat (handspun natural colored baby alpaca from three different cria, handknit on size 00 needles with double-layered ear flaps and headband, started for his Christmas present when we first started dating and hopefully worth the wait):

This means I also missed the end of summer...

sunflowers:
hopi dye amaranth (which so far only seems to yield yellow):

nasturtiums and arugula growing everywhere:
and beets:
chili peppers:
scarlet runner beans:

triple play sweet corn and rosa bianca eggplant from the Davis garden:
The tripleplay corn was delicious when young:
One of the ears of corn in Davis got infected with smut. I was very excited--huitlacoche is a delicacy, a very grotesque delicacy. Aaron and I met after a smut party, actually...For those who don't live in Davis and haven't attended a smut party, corn smut is the fungus Ustilago mayis which infects corn and causes the kernels to balloon to enormous misshapen monstrosities. It's also known as huitlacoche which appetizingly means "raven's excrement." It is quite tasty, kind of like an earthy mushroom. I had too little for tacos, but it added a bit of oomph to a pasta with fresh thai basil and queso fresco.