Road Trippin'

So we decided on Friday that we would go away for the Memorial Day weekend. It was only for one night be we were excited to get away from the city and spend some time in the country. Hawthorne Valley (http://www.hawthornevalleyfarm.org/) is a bio-dynamic farm in Ghent, NY. They have a stall in the weekly farmer's market in Inwood and I have started buying several things from them because they offer organic yogurt and salad greens and breads. I knew they had a farm store where they sold their veggies and meat, homemade cheeses and breads, and I also figured that they had pick your own veggies and fruit, or even just an opportunity to have a picnic. So we set out compass on Hawthorne Valley in Columbia County, NY.

We left early on Saturday morning. We were mostly packed up the night before but as you know getting out the door is always the first battle of the war. But before 9:30am we were on our way. Thing 2 slept while Thing 1 watched a DVD. We took the Taconic Parkway north. It's a beautiful drive if you have never done it, lots of farms and fields of wildflowers.

I had no idea how many presidents and historical figures were from this area. I knew about Teddy Roosevelt who was born in Manhattan, but we also passed FDR's birthplace and later in Kinderhook we saw Martin Van Buren's birthplace and Benedict Arnold's home.

Our first stop was Hawthorne Valley. Their Farm store in Harlemville (Town of Ghent) is a lovely little food and supplement store (herbals and the like) where we bought veggies and salami, a baguette and some raw milk Havarti made at the farm. We were disappointed that they didn't have a 'pick your own' option. But I thought there might be other farms offering it, so we took our lunch and went up to road. We drove over to Kinderhook because I knew of another farm that had 'pick your own' fruit. Unfortunately once we got there, the man there said they were about 2 weeks away from being able to offer 'pick your own' anything. He said most of the people in the area were a few weeks away from having their full harvest. We were pretty bummed, but we did get a chance to say hello to the goats and the chickens there, and Thing 1 got a kick out of that!

Close by the farm we found a little park to have our picnic. It was a modest little park, but we got settled and the kids ran wild! There was room to run, flowers to pick (without upsetting anyone-since of course picking flowers is off limits in our city park) and a bench on which to set up our yummies. Everything was organic, but more importantly every thing was delicious! I am also happy to report that we picked up a bag of Hawthorne Valley's homemade crackers, and they were as stale tasting as mine. I started to think that was just the nature of the beast. Perhaps modern crackers are just a modern invention. I even wondered if poor people long ago were called 'crackers' because they were too poor to make bread and all they could make was that stale paste of flour and water. I will have to research this. Sorry to get hung up on the cracker thing, but I really love them.

To make the day even perfect-er, we found a little hotel off the thruway that had a nice indoor pool. The early part of the day was sunny and gorgeous and later it poured. While the sky opened up we were all enjoying the warm water of our heated pool. What more could you ask for? Though of course, getting home is also part of the fun too right?