Free Range Friday - Foraging

Well, if you don't peek in the basement or the new office, the combined household here is looking beautiful! Is it romantic fate when his teapot matches her counters? Whatever the case, after being able to spin around and say wow, I met up in town with Lynn/LaMadre (her son gave her that nickname and her grands call her that as well) for drinks and tapas.

We sat at the tippy top of La Bistro until the rain started, both of us glad because of the gardens, but not glad enough to get soaked, so we moved down a level to a sheltered spot. Lots of stories of how one falls in love with Culebra. Spending more than a few days a year is a driving passion for Lynn and her husband, one I have no doubt will come about. Feet on dreams usually helps a lot toward making them a reality.

On the way to the car there was a building all lit up and Lynn asked if I'd seen 'that'. I had thought it was a candy making store (there is one next door), but it turns out to be a bowling alley. A candlepin bowling alley, which I'd never heard of before, that's been around since 1947. According to Wikipedia, I've never heard of candlepin bowling because it's a way up north thing, along with the fact that I've never been a bowler...lusted after a couple of cool guys who happened to also be bowlers and I didn't hold that against them. At all. This place was like a weirder fun fair sort of spot...I liked it a lot! The original owner, who is 95, comes in every day just to check on things. I'd love to meet him;  I bet he's got some great stories...

But first...am I the only one who sees the boy's face in the roots of this tree stump? Like a cut out from a year book clear?

If you don't see it, never mind. Ok, on with candlepin (I keep wanting to write stickpin) bowling!

Through the window of Romar Bowling Lanes

Log building - really

 Red shoes peeping

Father and son bonding...

I didn't look to see what they were shooting

I'm not sure where the tippy line is in this picture - 

either the whole place is tilted but the stools or...I have no idea

This is what one reviewer on Yelp says about Romar's:

Ah, candlepin bowling by the sea; there's nothing like it. The building has incredible character. It's a shabby old place which has been fighting off the destructive effects of the salt air for decades, and I suspect that some of the lanes are warped a bit. But it's still a lot of fun.

Peter M.

Woonsocket, RI

He says more but you'll have to go read it for yourself, I think his first paragraph does it justice.

The food bounty here is incredible in summer, which is seriously on the wane, if you can believe it. There are trees that are really turning fall colors, at the same time that rhododendrons are getting ready to bloom for a second time (which is not supposed to happen until next Spring), so the seasons are fairly wacky these days. Acorns rain onto the roof like little bb's and are really unpleasant to step on barefoot, just so you know. But I'll sacrifice that for the black, rasp and blue berries that keep pouring onto the roadways and stores. Lots of home grown goodness around and all the more enjoyed when winter is around the bend. Which means I'll be heading west and then home, where winter's just another word for nothing left to lose!

So go buy something local - support your local farmers and gardeners - and do something delicious with it! Tonight we're going to make fried green 'maters, which around here they call end of season tomatoes!, and at least a salad will come out of the garden here. Maybe some green beans too. It's time!

Here is a simple, fairly classic recipe for fried green tomatoes:

• 1 extra large egg (or 2 medium)
• 4 tablespoons milk (whole milk, please)
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Bacon grease is best, but use olive oil if you must - at least enough for half the tomato to be in the fat
• 4 green tomatoes, sliced about 1/2 inch thick

1. In a small bowl whisk together egg and milk. In another small bowl mix cornmeal and flour.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat; use more or less oil to reach about 1/4 inch in depth.
3. Dredge tomato slices first in egg mixture, then in cornmeal mixture. Carefully place slices in hot oil and cook until browned on both sides.