Apple Butter and Autumn Gleaning

Friday! The 8 am-4:30 pm day called for work for Mike and a meeting for me, Charlotte (which was cancelled), and thus instead entailed working on the manuscript and making apple butter in the slow cooker with a portion of the apples we shared with you here yesterday.

Contrary to yesterday, today was a beautiful, cool, sunny, clear day, so I biked across the bridge over to Portsmouth to meet Mike for lunch at the Red Ginger. Yum!

Post-work, we headed over to our beloved community garden in Dover for the "Big Autumn Gleaning" where we harvested everything that was left in anticipation of the frost. Afterwards, we went up the hill to Jim and Carlo's (two stewards of the garden) for a delicious potluck dinner. We had a cozy evening with all of them, and it was a nice reminder of why we love Dover, NH so much (such an amazing sense of community).

We're Back! Again!

After the longest hiatus on our blog yet, we're back!

We've been busy, though! Among many fun summer adventures, numerous visits from family and friends, and settling into our new lovely abode, Mike graduated with a Juris Doctor from Pace Law (yay!), studied for and took the bar exam (woohoo!), and I wrote and defended my thesis, and graduated with a Master's degree in Natural Resources from the University of New Hampshire (yippee!).

Currently, to bring you up to speed, Mike is working as a legal advisor for the City of Portsmouth, NH and I am teaching a few labs a week at the University and working on writing a manuscript on my Master's research. So good things all around.

Now that we have some more time to fully take advantage of the wonderful place that we're living in, we decided that we would try our very best to remember to bring along the camera when we go out. That way, we can hopefully update this blog daily, or at least every other day, with a photo or two to keep you (family and any other mysterious onlookers of the blog) updated. And if you are following, let us know! We'd love to hear from you. And if you're ever in the area, come visit us!

So...to get the ball rolling, I thought I'd post a picture of the TWO GORGEOUS BUSHELS of apples that we picked up from UNH's Woodman Farm early on this gloomy morning, before Mike went into work. We got a bushel of Empires and a bushel of Honeycrisp (for cheap!). The farm is amazing and we were astounded by the number and varieties of apples they grow, and with which they supply the UNH dining hall.

We're excited to make and can some applesauce!