Saturday, July 6, 2013

A fun and tiring 4th of July

 We had a very fun Independence day. We were thoroughly worn out when it was over but it was a really fun day of family togetherness. Here is a little pictorial journal of our day...

We started our day with a breakfast of cheesecake - Very Yummy!. I made the cheesecake from homemade ricotta cheese (made from goats milk), eggs and milk from my parents farm, home ground wheat for the crust and on top we put strawberries that we picked at our place (Most of them were wild strawberries that Mara picked with just a few tame strawberries) and a few blueberries.

We decided to spend most of the day on a bike ride so we pack a picnic lunch and headed out in the morning.
 We ate our lunch in a small community around 15 miles away from home. There is a nice little town hall with some playground toys and a nice picnic spot right on the trail.
 Then we decided to head farther on as there was a little town that has a store with icecream and the kids wanted to go there.
 I was so glad that we decided to go farther as that stretch had many, many Showy Ladyslippers. I haven't seen these flowers for years and since they are our state flower I think they are pretty special. We saw nearly two hundred Showy Ladyslippers.
 We did make it to Laporte and enjoyed some icecream and then it was time to head home.

 On our way home was stopped by the home of an old friend and were able to pick some rhubarb. Mara also had fun making a daisy chain.
  We also found plenty of ticks walking through the tall grass.
 Another thing we found was a bunch of wild strawberries.
 Yummy!
 The day turned into a foraging expedition as I also gathered milk weed blossom buds for our supper.
 When we made it back home we had gone 44 1/2 miles.  A pretty good days ride for us.
 Here are all the things I foraged on our outing: Horsetail, rhubarb, chives, pine sap and milk weed blossoms.

The milk weed blossoms really turned out pretty good.
 After a yummy supper of hamburgers, fried potatoes, watermelon and milkweed we went and met up with my brother and his family to watch the fireworks. They didn't start until after 10:30 pm so it was a rather late night.
We were quite exhausted when we finally fell into bed.

A good day!

4 comments:

The Heart Of A Woman said...

It looks like y'all had a fun day! That cheesecake looks amazing!

Jackie said...

What a fun day! I love that you all go on bike rides together. How special. I am also impressed with your cheesecake and foraging. I am always inspired by you. :)

Anna said...

I didn't know you can eat milk weed. I'll have to try it. We have some growing near here. What is the horsetail and pine sap for?
That is really an impressive ride you did!

Abbi said...

Thanks everybody!

Anna, the horsetail is to use for tea to drink and to put on my hair - it is a really cool herb. The pine sap I gathered because I want to see if I can make my own rosin - and just because there was a bunch of it and I thought it could be useful.

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