a farm in ojai

right around two years ago, i rode down atlantic avenue on a bus with rob, jenny, and the human who later became eggboy. we were on our way from the governor's island gatsby party and so naturally i was dressed like a flapper. the person futurely known as eggboy and i had a conversation that still echoes in my brain every so often:

so what's you're farm like?? i really want to go live on a farm someday! i think it would be so much fun!

oh. um. ok, well are you sure? what do you imagine when you think of a farm?

i imagine myself walking barefoot through rows of dewey fruits and vegetables at sunrise. i'd wear a sundress. maybe i'd eat a mango. it would be foggy and in the distance there would be mountains. perhaps some olive trees. 

oh. well, ok, my family's farm isn't exactly that. it's basically as flat as can be and there are days when all you do is sit in a tractor for 14 hours. you don't ever want to be barefoot. i listen to a lot of radio.

rob: moll, i don't think you could handle real farming.

yes i could! yes i could! i love the radio! i can wear cute boots!

so imagine eggboy's reaction when i told him that after a year on his farm, i'm now staying on the farm of my 2012 dreams. you're never coming back are you. i'll be back, i'll be back, but not before a few more good sunrise strolls through the fields of my host family's farm.

this place is like willy wonka for grownups.

colorful little rows, each with different crops, look like a trifle at the right angle, interrupted only by the volunteer squashes that grow from seeds that have wiggled out of compost. my morning walk yesterday smelled like basil as my host farmer and his team prepared bunches to sell at the santa barbara market. as i photographed the orange trees, a small farm dog romped through the stevia and kale to come say hello. 

mountains in the distance, fog in the morning... dreamy is an understatement. maybe when my host farmer decides he's in need of some snow and the cold, he'll do a farm swap with us. 

-yeh!

rosemary ricotta blintzes with strawberry rhubarb sauce

i harvestedededed the rhubarb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! look, see that above? that is my i-haven't-showered-in-a-week-and-omg-eggboy-has-a-camera-and-i-have-no-makeup-on-but-who-gives-a-poop-i-gots-rhubarbbbbbb face!

rhubarb is my new favorite because i didn't even do anything and, look, it grew in my backyard. how nice of it to show up! ok ready? let's make all the things.

first up: blintzes. 

i never enjoyed blintzes growing up. all the ones i had were soggy and had awful pancake-to-filling ratios. my problem was that i only ever met them in hotel brunch buffet situations. i typically love a hotel brunch buffet, but i don't love a thing that should be crispy on the outside and oozy on the inside at a hotel brunch buffet because that is a recipe for sogginess. so when my girl devra suggested blintzes i was like shit.

but then i made them, and then made them again, and i ate them, and ate them again. and i could not stop because blintzes are actually the best. all it takes is a spot by the stove to catch them in your mouth as they come off the pan, because that is key: they must be as fresh as can be. 

so here you have it, my first ever blintz recipe, all fancied up with strawberry rhubarb sauce and rosemary-infused batter for the upcoming shavuot, a jewish holiday where it is traditional to eat dairy foods. you can find the recipe in the latest installment of molly on the range and it includes not one, but two gifs.

-yeh!

weekend warriors

i bought overalls. i really didn't have an option, did i? how do you live on a farm without them? (how do you have a pee emergency with them?) i broke them in this weekend while standing at the stove, drinking coffee out of a mason jar, and cooking eggs that were laid the day before in a cast iron pan. i know, i am grabbing this farm girl thing by the balls. but i guess my brooklyn days trained me well.

the only downside about living on the farm so far has to do with the plumbing not allowing us to have a garbage disposal. we had to make the adjustment from french press back to pour over because throwing away coffee grounds by lifting them out with the filter is way easier than scraping grounds out of the bottom of a french press.

perhaps one of the most eventful moments this weekend was when eggboy asked me, "do you want to do yard work today?"

no one has ever asked me that question before.

...because guys, i've never done yard work.

between growing up in a suburb where it was just protocol to hire the same lawn mowers that our neighbors hired, having a mum who loved gardening so much that she hogged all the work, and then living in apartments for all of my adult life until now... nope, no yard work for me.

how do i do it? is there a cute yard work outfit that i can buy to make this all go down easier? perhaps a rosemary scented sunscreen?

other weekend highlights: we bought a science box, i discovered a magical patch of rhubarb growing in the backyard, we stole a bite of almond cake every single time we passed through the kitchen, we ate from a chocolate fountain at an egg cousin graduation party, we had arts and crafts night in preparation for mothers' day, we discovered that there exists a really amazing burger place in our town (thanks to brad and danielle, who also brought us those eggs from their own chickens!!), and i had my first attempt at choux, which came out splendidly! 

how were all of your weekends??

-yeh!!!

p.s. if you're looking for your very own overalls, i am in love with the mavi ones i got from one of my new favorite stores, fowler's heritage company, in fargo. dare i say it, but with the discovery of that store, being zillions of miles away from the closest anthropologie is suddenly not that bad.

this morning

we woke up this morning to our new neighbor, mister woodpecker. i think his jump-off is the electrical pole across the gravel road. i can deal with that, especially when his peck peck pecking has such a nice earthy tone that's so in tune with his birdie friends.

it feels like we're on vacation was the first real thing eggboy said when he woke up.

i think this is why people like farms, was my thought as i headed to the kitchen to capture the delicious light that pours in on a cloudy day like today. it's supposed to snow later.

-yeh!