Our June Adventure

Bud, Zoë and I set off on a road trip to visit Mimi on Straw Dog Farm in central Missouri. I dreaded driving across the flat, empty plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas but of course, we discovered they weren’t empty at all. There were flat, straight sections on I-70 that made it hard to stay awake but we also encountered unexpected things to see. We drove through Post Rock country where, lacking wood for fence posts on a treeless prairie, early settlers had quarried limestone posts and strung them with barbed wire. The posts are weathered and irregularly shaped, fascinating. We finally got some elevation as we passed through the Flint Hills, a preserved tall-grass prairie stretching for miles of glorious rolling green hills.

We planned a midway stop in Salina Kansas, six and a half hours from home. I had booked a table at a restaurant that I hoped would suit us – Yaya’s Bistro. It did. We had a lovely meal of Mediterranean flavored food. We looked forward to returning for dinner on our way back home in a week.

Mimi welcomed us at the trellis marking the entrance to Straw Dog. We got settled in the house then had a walk in the gardens. Everywhere wildflowers attracted butterflies, moths, bees and other pollinators. She told us that many local folks consider these plants weeds. They don’t recognize that she has cultivated a paradise of native plants where the bugs and other critters thrive.

We walked the mown paths beside meadows of wildflowers buzzing with activity. We admired the thoughtfulness with which Mimi has organized her cultivated garden beds, letting a bit of chaos reign as the plants have their way.

Zoë noted that the once bare acreage she remembered from her last visit as a college student now has many mature trees. Sweet gum and redbud, sassafras and dogwood and many other trees foreign to our arid Colorado foothills. Much has changed in the forty two years Mimi has worked this land.

We cooked together using the bounty of the gardens. Peas, asparagus, herbs, lettuce, berries. Mimi made her delicious flour tortillas on the wood stove top in the summer kitchen. We ate bean and veggie burritos for Zoë’s birthday dinner.

We had a lentil curry, watermelon and feta salad, spring rolls with three sauces, and day lily salad. Zoë and Bud prepared handfuls of orange day lilies by pulling the petals from the stamens to make a beautiful salad dressed simply with olive oil and vinegar. The taste was magical, crisp and vegetal. After that first salad, Zoë insisted we add day lilies to each meal. I thought of how the deer love them too. Here on Blue Mountain Road I dare not plant them.

The blueberries, raspberries and black currants were producing masses of fruit so we picked berries each morning. And ate them. Mimi cooked a mess of currants and made a black currant fool. After cooking she passed the berries through a sieve/colander with a wooden pestle then combined them with sugar and whipped cream – an English recipe from Elizabeth David. So good.

Mimi sent us home with two quarts of blueberries and a recipe from her friend Jesse who had it from a Benedictine monastery in Vermont. I adapted it a bit.

Blueberry Tart

Prepare a tart shell. I used my favorite based on one from Patricia Wells. Combine 1¼ cups unbleached flour, ¼ cup sugar, pinch of salt, 1/2 cup melted butter, cooled. Press dough into tart/pie pan and chill while the oven heats. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes until brown and cooked through.

For the filling:

5 cups fresh blueberries, 1 ½ tablespoons
cornstarch, 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon
juice, ½ cup sugar, pinch of salt 

Reserve 1 cup of the prettiest berries for the
topping.  In a medium saucepan, bring ¼ cup water and 1 cup berries
to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat, simmer, stirring
occasionally, until berries begin to break down (3 to 4 minutes).  In
a small bowl, mix cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water. Stir into berries in
pan.  Add lemon zest and juice, sugar and salt.  Bring to a
boil then reduce heat.  Simmer, stirring, just until mixture begins
to thicken (30 to 60 seconds).  Remove from heat.  Stir in
remaining 3 cups fresh berries.

Immediately pour hot berry mixture into
cooled tart shell and smooth with a spatula.   Scatter reserved
berries on top, pressing down lightly to help them
adhere.  Refrigerate until cool.

One morning we helped mow the paths in the park. Here are pictures of the beds Mimi lined with old letters, before and after, now filling with volunteers until she decides what to plant.

I took a break and tipped off the end of a bench into an ant pile. Ouch. I jumped into the shower to dislodge the tiny critters feeling very foolish.

Each day on the farm I noted my sister’s serene attitude to everything around her. She observes the pace of life on the farm, the weather that determines what grows when, and the unexpected – the seeds that suddenly sprout, the patch of native plants that become a thicket. Mimi takes such pleasure from all the things she sees. I learn a lot about expectations, patience and laughter from my sister. She lives a simple, rich life full of wonders. Thank you for a wonderful visit.