Cover me
With a blanket of
Citrine stars and moonstone pearls -
Priceless treasure
Culled from
An onyx sky.
Cradle me
In your nest -
Golden bowl
To hold us tight
In the night.
Press your body
Close to mine -
Soft forms spooning
In a puddle
Of light.
{Jill Lurie 11/29/11 – crescent moon}
My uncle likes to laugh at me when I tell him how much I love coming to visit him at his house out in the country. He vehemently maintains that he does not live some rustic country life (as I see he does), but that he resides in the suburbs in northern California.
Well, as we all know, everything in life is relative. So to someone like me, living in the middle of Los Angeles, the fact that he lives on two acres of land, has kept chickens and goats, and has farms, cows and horses as neighbors, definitely qualifies as country living.
But whatever you want to call it, it’s total bliss to me. I’ve loved visiting him and my cousins since I was a kid. The 400+ mile drive is still no deterrent to the lush trees, open fields and clean blue sky that await our arrival.
This past weekend was no exception. We left the city in the dark at 5:00am Thanksgiving day and arrived early afternoon to find my uncle’s little slice of heaven as inviting as ever. His property is home to a beautiful old Spanish-style house, majestic live oak trees, a beehive, old barns, flower gardens, a raspberry patch, a woodshop, prolific fruit trees and a recently removed lavender field that I still miss. Currently, my cousin is growing a patch of gourds that she planted in May, which she’ll soon be harvesting and drying out for a year before painting them as art. Another one of my cousins is apprenticing as a blacksmith, and yet another makes his own bows and arrows. Yes, we’re a hands-on kind of group.
Before sitting down to an amazing Thanksgiving feast with my adorable and very lovable family (all 20 or so of us), we spent the afternoon watching the sun set on my uncle’s land, picking figs, playing fetch with Teddy the dog and exploring all the plants and trees. I was totally overcome with beauty and joy.
Holidays are often filled with obligation and frustration – expectations far outweighing what you get in reality. I guess my lucky number was picked, because I had one of the nicest, sweetest, most beautiful holidays I can remember. Very thankful, indeed.
perfect green field and blue sky
I love things that look worn
the next generation
fall foliage
old chicken coop
little grove of fruit trees
a year from now those gourds will be dried and painted
harvesting figs
warm figs topped with cheese
beautiful bees
One day
When it all fades
And the sun goes down
On what
We now think
Can’t be extinguished,
I’ll think of
The fire we started -
How it
Lit the way
Through many dark nights,
Revealing where we needed to go,
And what to do
With all that light.
I’ll think of
How we scorched the land
And took everything down with us,
The taste of ash and grit
Lingering in our mouths.
How we created
New life
Where before
There was none.
A new path, a gentle glow
Nothing left to burn
Between us.
{poem/photo: Jill Lurie}
Living in LA we have to put up with hideous things like traffic, smog and flashing LED billboards at most major intersections. In exchange we are gifted with near perfect weather and a year-round growing season. Given the latter, I’d say it’s more than a fair exchange.
That means that on an afternoon in mid November, you can still go strawberry picking on a gorgeous, sunny, blue-sky kind of day. And I’m not talking mealy, green strawberries either. Bright red berries so juicy and sweet you’d swear it’s July.
I recently had the pleasure of visiting McGrath Family Farm for the first time where I met a friend and her kids to enjoy a picnic lunch, farm tour, and visit with goats, geese, hens and a bunny. Adorable.
Those of us in and around LA are probably familiar with Underwood Farms, which certainly offers a great adventure. However, sometimes it can be a bit much in terms of scale and kid chaos. McGrath Farms was totally different, yet had all the same components you enjoy at Underwood. Their fifth generation farm was a manageable size, quaint, beautifully maintained and had a farm stand that was to die for. (I’m a sucker for a good farm stand). I’d seen their gorgeous produce at farmers markets around LA, but had yet to visit the site itself, which is located a bit north in Camarillo.
When we arrived at the farm I was taken with the expansive open fields, blue sky and pretty wildflowers that dotted the edge of each crop. We spent a good two hours there eating a lunch that we’d packed from home, looking for the perfect strawberries, feeding the animals greens and carrots, and making our selections at the farm stand. My son and I purchased heirloom garlic, black currant balsamic vinegar, gorgeous greens (three varieties), plums, a copy of the “Vanishing Bees” DVD and two types of strawberry jam.
May I just tell you that as much as we loved the visit, the unexpected highlight was getting home to try the jam: strawberry with lavender & rosemary and strawberry with rose geranium. Oh My God. They were truly the best jams I’ve ever had – hand-made by McGrath Farms themselves. Perfect sweet strawberries picked from their fields, with the underlying hint of herbs that tasted so fresh and vibrant. I’ve tried A Lot of jam in my day, and this was hands down the best I’ve ever eaten. No exaggeration. Luckily, for some weird reason, my husband doesn’t eat jam, so my son and I are hoarding the two jars for ourselves. I’ll be surprised if they last through the week. We ate some for breakfast on whole grain toast, and I’m already thinking about topping it on Greek yogurt for an afternoon snack.
I’m so happy to have found yet another great spot to escape the city and spend a fun and yummy afternoon out in nature. The kids had a wonderful time, and my friend and I loved soaking up the sun and fresh air, then going home with healthy food that our kids picked themselves.
PS – I’m not sure if they allow picking on the weekend, so be sure to check ahead.
Quiet bird
Crowded room
White wing -
Peace flag.
{Jill Lurie 11/20/11}
What’s not to love about Burrata? It’s a cheese lover’s dream, and now that it’s readily available at places like Trader Joe’s, the dream is a reality. Yes!
Burrata cheese is a lemon-sized ball of mozzarella filled with cream. It’s divine. The mozzarella exterior is soft and inviting, and when you cut it in half and all that cream starts to ever so slightly ooze out, you’re in heaven.
A couple of days ago I needed applesauce for my son’s lunch, so I headed to Trader Joe’s. But when I got there, suddenly, all I could think about was Burrata. Go figure. Luckily they had some left, hidden at the bottom of the cheese case. I went home thinking about what could I do with all that yuminess.
Though I probably could eat the entire sphere at one sitting, even I know that less is more sometimes. So I cut the thing in half and decided to eat one part for lunch and other part for dinner (by the way, if you do this too, don’t put the second half back in the water-filled container, just gently wrap it in plastic wrap and consume as soon as possible).
I decided to go salad for lunch and something heartier for dinner.
For the salad, I’m proud to say that I was able to put together an entire plate of gorgeous home-grown greens (ok they were procured from my son’s school – but I’m the garden lady there, so I feel I deserve a few perks from time to time). I took about ten leaves each of green leaf lettuce (which is very mild) and Mizuna (a delicious and bitter Japanese lettuce) along with a lot of parsley from my own garden. Then I nestled the cut half of Burrata in the mound of greens, drizzled the plate with a little olive oil, sprinkled with a lot of sea salt, and called it done. It was absolutely delicious. The crunchy greens – both mild and bitter – mixed with the soft cheese, salt and peppery olive oil was refreshing, satisfying and totally delicious.
Then, for dinner, I went ahead and tried something new, inspired by a side dish I had recently at a west LA café called Lemon Moon. In the café they’d fried cubes of polenta and added sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and sage. Delicious. What I did was to take a pre-cooked log of polenta (also from TJ’s) cube it and cook it in a cast iron skillet with olive oil. To that I added sliced sundried tomatoes (also from TJ’s), LOTS of garlic and sage and a jalapeno from my garden. I let everything get really golden and sizzle-y and crispy (crispy sage is the best). Then I plated the hot heavenly mixture and topped it with my second half of Burrata, which immediately started to get ever so warm from all that steam coming off the polenta. A sprinkle of salt and I was done. It was so good that I almost shed a tear of joy. I wouldn’t let anyone talk to me when I was eating it. I went into my own little food ecstasy daydream. Seriously, that good. You can see the picture at the top of this post.
If you have any other tasty or unusual Burrata recipes, please, let me know!
Running the garden club at my son’s school is a weekly highlight. Every Friday we meet right after class to water, weed, plant, prune, sweep and – when the time is right – harvest. It’s really fun to teach the kids where real food comes from, and they seem to be getting comfortable with growing and caring for the basics like lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries and herbs.
Each week, I try to give them at least a little sample of what’s growing. I know that they eat things like lettuce, for example, that they wouldn’t necessarily consume in another situation. But when you grow something yourself, it just tastes better, and I can’t tell you how many ‘bouquets’ of chard, lettuce and Minzuna I’ve sent home with proud kids and their parents for dinner.
I wanted to put a fun twist on this week’s lesson, so today I introduced them to the beautiful, delightful and magical world of edible flowers. Most of the kids didn’t know that certain flowers can be eaten, and it was really fun to see their glee-filled reactions.
Last week I had the unsuspecting kids plant an entire bed of violas, knowing that I’d surprise them this week with a sweet treat: sugar cookies topped with a single colorful bloom. We had so much fun today – the kids lined up to pick the perfect bloom and then I topped a homemade sugar cookie of their choice (rocket ship or heart-shaped) with a dot of icing, which served as the ‘glue’ to hold the flower on top. Too cute.
The kids loved it, and for whatever reason, they were extra helpful today raking and watering before smiles and waves (and even a couple hugs) when it was time to go. I really feel that it’s the small things that make a big difference to kids, not the grand gestures that we sometimes expect as adults. Today, something as simple as a flower-topped cookie stole the show.
How do you do that?
Pour
All that light
From your eyes into mine.
Pools of soft, liquid quartz
Puddle
In my throat,
Trickle down
To the pit of my stomach
And beyond.
The way you look at me -
Milky sea
Ready to
Part
Between us.
{Jill Lurie 11/17/11}
When I first started writing poems, a good friend suggested that I post some videos of me reading them online. She liked the idea of the contrast between reading the verse on the page, and hearing the author speak it first-hand.
Well, in honor of my fancy new phone camera, here goes. This may or may not work, which is part of the fun – the not knowing.
“Firefly Nights” is from my book of poems, Ginger Roots: Plantings of a Future Dreamer. You can read the verse below, or see me read it in my living room in the attached video.
In honor of my first video post on this blog, I have a free book to send to the first three people to email me at jill[at]TheNakedTurtle[dot]com. Thanks and enjoy!
“Firefly Nights”
After spinning
My big city wheels
In the same lane
For God knows how long
I seem to have finally
Turned a corner.
Now I’m cruising down
This old country road
I’d only seen
From a distance.
It’s a backwoods type of place,
No street lamps or sign posts.
It’s bumpy, dusty and dark.
And I soon realize that my street smarts
That once served so well
Have no home here.
This is the place
Where intuition and faith
Can feast on a field of green
And sleep on a sky of moon.
The big city lights
Can’t hold a candle
To the rustic beauty
And firefly nights
That make my heart sing
In this little Eden –
An old country road.
self portrait
Yesterday I posted black and white pictures from my Portrait Project. Though I love the look of these vintage-inspired images, I did manage to capture a few shots in color.
Many of my friends are artists and creative-types, which makes it fun to photograph them in their natural element.
Here they are….
