Matt and Zoe... married!

We did it! And was it ever a blast. On June 26th, we had a blowout wedding party at my parents' house.

What can I say about this day, except that we were overwhelmed by all the love and all the fun? I was scared beforehand, because I'm pretty shy... Which I guess is why I never mentioned the wedding here. I might have titled the post "Impending Wedding of Doom," and that wouldn't have pleased anyone, would it?

But it was the strangest thing... in the moments before I walked out to meet Matt at the altar (forsythia bush), my upset just melted away like butter. Having my family, Matt's family, our family friends, and the friends Matt and I have made across the country all in my mother's garden... was beautifully mind-blowing.

Our people trickled into town in the days ahead, and helped with all the preparations. They hefted a 165 pound pig into a brine vat. They hauled kegs, hung parasols, strung Christmas lights, arranged flowers. They roasted pork, and then pulled it - for hours. They cooked and fed the masses, beforehand, and after.

Others grew vegetables, raised a pig, made cheese and chocolates, baked cupcakes, mixed cocktails, selected and transported cases of gorgeous wines, and cooked beautiful, extravagant platters of food.

My mom's cousin sewed me the peach-silk-chiffon dress of my dreams, and crafted a crazy, awesome headpiece to go with it. My new husband orchestrated food for 185 people, and pulled it off with a skeleton crew including the one and only, almighty, Jess (of Soup Chic). My parents planned and hosted the party of our lives, with enthusiasm and artistry.

Matt's father led our ceremony, with his usual gentle eloquence. Our friend Mike spoke a poem he wrote, and blew us away. Photographer friends took pictures - lots of awesome pictures. Our DJ spun the best endless hours of dance vinyl I've ever experienced. (Three weeks later, the soles of my feet are beginning to heal!)

Our wedding was not traditional... For one, I wore little chickens on my head. And for two, instead of being sanctioned by the state, our union was validated by everyone who celebrated with us. Thank you - to all of them - for making it real.

In order, the above photos were taken by:
Michael Mullen (1)
My dad, Michael Poster (1)
Tonia Eden Mayton, of Eden Photography (1)
Rolfe Ross (1)
Tonia Eden Mayton (1)
Michael Mullen (1)
Tonia Eden Mayton (1)
Michael Mullen (1)
Tonia Eden Mayton (1)
Rolfe Ross (1)
Julie Mullen (1)
Michael Poster (3)

Lizzy Tilley, my mom's cousin, made my dress (which I enjoy visiting, in its closet), and my fascinator veil. She owns Sugarcoat Couture in Ithaca, NY, specializes in sweetened vintage, and is fabulously talented.

Ann Hartley of Hartley Studio made our simple silver wedding bands. I've never met Ann, but I know she's lovely, and I admire her work every day.

Music, played expertly, by Walter Lukatchik.

More pictures? See my dad's beautiful slideshows of the event in three stages here:
Wedding Make Ready
Wedding Dressup
Wedding Party

And more of Matt's cousin Tonia's fantastic photos here:
Eden Photography on Facebook

Coming next: Married... the menu!

Fireflower

My mom started this gas plant (Dictamnus albus 'Rubra') from seed. It took years to bloom. But when it did, it was stunning. Handsome, really. Dark leaves, robust flower stalks that do not topple. And... it does a party trick!

The stems of gas plant are sticky with the oil it emits. After you light it and you're just sitting in your chair sipping your drink, a smell creeps up in ribbons: citrus and ozone. Dark magic. I do not know if this plant is edible to deer, but I suspect it is not. On close inspection, the plant in Mom's garden is almost pristine - no insect-nibbled leaves, which is pretty miraculous for any plant at all. I love it.

Three Flowers

These three flowers are all I can muster tonight, and really I didn't have much to do with them. The allium in the front is a wild thing that grew in Nellie's garden, before we ever came here. The zinnia in the middle is maybe 'Queen Red Lime', and the echinacea in the back is one of those that's been The Next Best Thing for five years, but only ever lives up to my expectations for two weeks in June.

The Garden at Hillside Farms

Once a week, Matt delivers bread to the store at Hillside Farms. I have written before about the farm's exceptional heavy cream. Today I shall write about their exceptional garden.

There is something about this garden that lifts my heart when I walk into it. For me, it is a fresh perspective - I would not choose the colors or combinations here, but I am delighted when I see them. They make me bounce.

Part of it is the annuals, which I covet. Interesting and unusual annual starts are not available to buy in this area, so I start my own for my tiny garden... But most of my time is spent in the gardens of my clients, where cool annuals are sadly impractical. I'm stuck using the same old hardy, deer-resistant perennials and shrubs over and over. Booor-ring.

Ann, the Hillside Farms gardener

Pictures are easy here. Doesn't hurt that the gardener is perfectly lovely, and there are abundant cute animals hiding behind oversized leaves and paddling around in puddles. And scampering out of newly renovated antique greenhouses.

A bonus: at least some of the cute animals want you to pick them up! I hate it when cute animals don't want you to pick them up.

Ann's garden is loose and billowy and artistic. She combines ordinary flowers in unexpected ways, and here and there is something fabulous I have never seen before. When I find a new flower, I quickly locate Ann's straw hat in the landscape, so I can ask for an identification.

My intention is to do some progress posts of this garden through the season... So, stay tuned.

How to Cool Off on a Hot Day

(A Guest Post by Laika the Dog)

Bacon, Brought Home

Matt arrived home from Farmer Pete's with bacons! Every girl likes to see her honey come through the door with bacons, right? Well probably not, but I sure do, and it never happened to me before, so I danced around the kitchen with my wooden spoon twirling in the air.

It just so happened that I had mixed up a pizza crust, and all that my fixins were missing was a little smoky pork.

Clockwise from top right: a small portion of
Matt's Five Pound Cheese Block (an incredibly flavorful
monolith of pastured raw milk mozzarella that arrives
with the bakery order on the back of a truck),
sage from the herb garden, bacon!!!,
and last year's final shallots (still firm).

Gluten-free pizza with all delicious things on top!

The story of the bacons starts here, in case you missed it. Since then, as I gather, Pete smoked and froze the bacons.

Strawberries

We are just now finishing the last bag of our own frozen strawberries from 2010, as this season's berries turn ripe and ready for harvest. This is nice to know: our roughly 120 square feet of strawberries now officially keeps us in pink smoothies year round (32 pounds in the chest freezer so far!).

I'd say strawberries are a highly recommendable crop for urban gardeners, because with a small amount of labor and space, you can get a pretty hefty yield. I thin out old plants in the early spring, throw some shovelfuls of compost on them, mulch them with straw if there is any, weed them once or twice, and spend the rest of my summer drinking bourbon on a picnic blanket beside the strawberry patch. (It's that easy.)

In this picture from early spring, the espaliered fruit trees
on the right side are underplanted with strawberries.
There's also a patch of berries in the foreground.

If you are very lucky, you will attract a small basket-worth of baby bunnies who shoot like furry ping pong balls out of the patch when you pass. If you are not so lucky, said bunnies will nip the tender young stems of your berry clusters, leaving the berries to moulder away in the mulch. Blasted bunnies.