Panciuto leaves the kitchen and Clover's new friend

So Stuart and I were thrilled to have Aimee and Aaron Vandemark of Panciuto come out and visit our farm last week. Not everyday does this man step out of the kitchen, and not every day does Bluebird Meadows have the best chef in town (and one of our best customers) come to visit the farm. In fact, Aaron is the only chef so far to visit our farm. He makes a concerted effort to buy as much as he possibly can from local farmers and for him and Aimee to come see our farm (in the middle of nowhere) shows their dedication. So we were honored and delighted to have some company besides our crazy goofy human-dog Clover.We also think it is important for us as farmers to reciprocate the support we get from local chefs by going for a meal at their restaurants. For Valentine's Day this year we treated ourselves to a meal at Panciuto--meaning potbellied in Italian--in Hillsborough. I will go so far as to say it was the best meal ever.The meal inspired us to raise quail as soon as we have a house on our property and also to return to the restaurant at least twice a year to celebrate slow-food in its finest form. Here is a link to the current menu at Panciuto... http://www.panciuto.com/menu.html ....maybe we should make that a three time a year visit. They also brought us a six pack gift of Peroni, a lovely way to end a long work day on the farm. Hats off to them for coming out.
So I can't resist; I have to post a picture of my younger brother's very unique dog Jizarah. Clover got to spend the long Memorial day weekend with her so they are best buds now. Jizarah is seven months old and weighs 110 pounds. Her mother weighed 130 pounds and Jizarah looks bigger every time I see her. She is super sweet and I prefer her company to most humans. I'll never forget when I was doing my taxes on my brother's computer and Jizarah was with me on the couch and all of a sudden !THWACK! Jizarah rolled off the couch. So funny. Freaked me out for a minute cause I thought it was an earthquake. For some reason Clover looks like such a little redneck dog next to Jizarah. When UNC was playing in the NCAA tournament my younger brother Aubrey picked up a kid's size UNC jersey for Clover and maybe it's the image of her wearing that jersey that makes her out to be a redneck dog around Jizarah. He couldn't find a jersey to fit his girl so the hoss remained jersey-free. Stuart was not thrilled to say the least as his blood runs duke blue. poor fellow. how embarrassing. so next blog I hope to post pics of our Memorial Day weekend adventures up in northern Virginia. We visited Stuart's sister's boyfriend's vineyard where he works, Linden, and saw the winemaking process and machinery. We also did a little hike on the Appalachian trail. more on that later! And as I must include at least one pic per blog of some flowers, here is a pic of market last week. Carrots are in!!! Purple haze carrots for this weekend....