Goodbye farm bling. Hello other bling.

I am now departed from Vermont and am essentially going to be on vacation for the next three or four months.

Finally something I can really sink my teeth into.

And now that I have high speed internet most of the time, it now takes me four hours to do nothing each morning instead of ten minutes when I get up and turn on my computer.

I am making real progress in my search for a meaningful vacation. I mean vocation.

So I left the farm two weeks ago just as the first snow of the year began to fall in East Thetford. As I write this entry I am now sitting in my friend Skip’s house in Santa Cruz, after driving 3,646 miles across country. My piece of shit car continues to confound its’ critics. I had to have two tires replaced, but other than the second sun visor falling off there were no major problems. It is quite hard, however, to drive all day using your hand as a makeshift visor.

So I guess I could fill this blog with insightful remarks about my drive across country and the pithy observations I made, but that would be boring. Do you really want to read about how strip malls have replaced the town square as the centre of all human activity? Do you really want to read about the obesity crisis sweeping the middle of our country? Do you really want to read about the terrible state of dental affairs in West Virginia or Wyoming? Well actually that last one might be interesting, for as someone who grew up under the care of the British National Health Service it felt great to have the best set of pearly yellows in town for once.

Instead here is my top ten list.

Ten memorable things about my trip across country.

1. A meal I had at Bob Evans in Ohio.
2. Riding in critical mass through downtown Manhattan with my friends B train and Nicole.
3. Riding past the house where I grew up in Evanston, Illinois and still seeing my name etched in concrete in front (I guess I was also the one who wrote ‘The Cure’ in florid letters right next to it).
4. Riding my bike along the river in Morgantown, West Virginia
5. Being accosted by a nutcase Christian holding a scrumpled up piece of poo paper outside the toilet in a rest area in Nevada. “Have you heard the news………….
6. Staying at my friend Dori’s house in Chicago. All of her pets are rescued from abusive situations and for three days I got to live in a pet version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
7. Getting to wear my new matching sweat pants and top every day.
8. Seeing two coyotes that live in a cemetery in the middle of Chicago.
9. 40 part motet. This is an exhibit i saw at the MOMA in New York. The artist arranged forty speakers in a circle. Each of the speakers recorded a different voice in a forty-part choral piece from the sixteenth century. I wandered around for thirty minutes sticking my ear to each of the speakers.
   
10. Have i already mentioned my new leisure wear? Fashion and Function.
    

A blog at the crossroads.

Now that I have left the farm I find myself torn as to whether or not to continue this blog. I guess we could say that the blog is at a crossroads.

Do I take the road less traveled or the one well trod?

If I stop I may disappoint the tens of devoted readers who anxiously check the refresh buttons on their browsers all day to see if a new post is up. But if I continue, I may be further contributing to the immense amount of mediocre and trivial content on the internets. I originally started this blog to let urbanites know more about farming, but now I am one of them. And I haven’t really talked that much about farming anyway, it’s mostly been a venue for me to vent my frustrations. What to do, I just don’t know. Let think for a little bit.

Ah fuck it, we must continue and in a few months if the content on this blog is completely boring at least there’ll be pictures of hot babes on the beach in Rio for you to look at.

So now we've got that out of the way, how about taking a little visit to that culinary cubbyhole known as recipe corner. In the coming weeks we will also be debuting a new column called ‘Ask a British dude’. This next recipe is inspired by my friend Carrie. I couldn’t find the original recipe she sent me a few years ago, but I think I have replicated it pretty well. And don’t forget to send in any interesting recipes you have. You could be featured in the next ‘corner’.

Recipe Corner #2: Grilled Mice and Avocado salad.

This is a nice salad to serve on a warm summer day washed down with a cool glass of freshly squeezed lemonade.

Dressing ingredients:

1/3 cup minced shallots
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 small garlic clove, pressed
1/2 cup olive oil

Preparation:

Whisk shallots, vinegar, mustard and garlic in small bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Dress right before serving.

Salad ingredients:

2 cups mesquite smoke chips, soaked in water 30 minutes, drained
4 small mice

9 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon minced seeded jalapeño chili
1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel

2 avocados, halved, pitted, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 large tomatoes, sliced

10 cups mixed baby greens

Preparation:

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Place smoke chips in 8 x 6-inch foil packet with open top. Set atop coals 5 minutes before grilling mice. Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Blanch mice in boiling water (1-2 min). Transfer mice to work surface. Remove fur with potato peeler.

Arrange mice, belly side up, on grill. Cover; grill 4 minutes. Turn mice over and grill until just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Cut into ½ inch wide strips

Whisk oil and next 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper (can be made 1 day ahead). Rewhisk dressing before continuing.

Add avocados, tomatoes and mice in bowl. Pour 1/2 cup dressing over; toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Toss greens in another large bowl with enough remaining dressing to coat.

Divide greens among plates. Spoon mouse mixture atop greens and serve.

Serves 4.

Farmer Simon