This is a Prescott Fond Blanc Melon from France (well really from Blue Lake, but originally from France.) I bought it this week, and by the time I got around to eating it, it was a little funky.....melon season is practically over.

It's been a busy few days. Technically, today is my last day, but I ate all sorts of weird things on Friday and Saturday, and I've decided to extend my month by two days to make up for it. It's OK, I'm not really looking forward to eating tons of non-local things anyway.

Thursday I had the usual breakfast and lunch. Boiled potatoes are getting harder to eat every day....but they keep me going. For dinner Johnny and I had leftover chili. Just when we were done eating, my friends arrived from Sonoma County.

On Friday I think I probably ate food that originated from every continent except Antarctica. The first Rotary meeting was a breakfast meeting. There was French Toast with a pad of butter and imitation Mrs. Buttersworth syrup, bacon, organic nonfat blueberry yogurt, orange juice, and a bag of Orange Pekoe tea. I can't even really comprehend how many different places all of that came from. I found myself wondering where the flour in my French Toast was grown, and how it was ground.

It was raining and cold, so after breakfast the three of us went out for coffee. I really indulged! I got a Mexican Mocha - which was just a mocha with cinnamon I think - and a blueberry lemon poppy seed muffin. The mocha had Cinnamon from South East Asia, coffee from probably South America, and Chocolate probably from Africa. Oh, and of course don't forget the sugar from who knows where. At least probably the milk came from California.

We then went and walked out in the dunes on Samoa. Both of my friends are avid edible mushroom hunters, so their eyes were glued to the ground much of the time. We saw a few mushrooms, but nothing worth picking. We did find lots of huckleberries though. They're like little blueberries - and they'd just been washed by the rain - our tongues were purple by the time we walked back to the car!

Our second Rotary meeting was a luncheon. It was a lot better than breakfast: a green salad, a slaw like salad with raisin and broccoli, steamed mixed vegetables, and a pasta dish with penne, chicken, and cream sauce. There was also bread, dessert and coffee, but I skipped all that.

I wasn't feeling too well by the time we were done with all this! The sugar especially was a little hard to take. I forget what a weird tweaky feeling it gives me! The corn syrup for breakfast was especially hard to take!

We drove up to Trinidad to explore the beach, and on the way home stopped at a local fish smoke house that I'd never been to. There were all sorts of local fish that had been smoked by hand right there. Score! I got a package of smoked oysters, and my friends got a few large smoked scallops, and salmon. We stopped at a small market and got some crackers, cream cheese, beer, limes, and my friend bought a really nice bottle of tequila to remember the trip we took together to Mexico last May.

A good time was had by all. For dinner we went to my favorite little Italian restaurant. One reason I like it so much is that they use mostly local meats and vegetables. I had the potato gnocchi (made with local potatoes) with wild mushrooms and tomato cream sauce. I bet at least half the ingredients were locally grown.

On Friday we went out for breakfast to one of my favorite diners in town. They use decent ingredients, but I bet nothing about my Eggs Benedict with country fried potatoes was local. My friends and I walked to the farmers market before they left. I got:

• a basket of figs from Orleans
• 3 big Russet potatoes and 2 ears of corn from Arcata
• 5 peaches (yes, they have a late variety!) from Willow Creek
• a "Bursa de Turkey" melon from Willow Creek. This one has a great story that I'll tell later.)

After the market my friends headed home to Sonoma. they drove me as far South as Garberville so I could join Johnny at the Bluegrass festival that he was vending at. I was amazed at how bad the food there was! I got some apple pie and ice cream thinking that since there's so many local apples right now it must be made with local apples: but no, it was a total store bought plastic pie. Later in the day Johnny and I shared a plate with barbecued chicken, a bun, potato salad, baked beans, and apple crisp. It would have been OK, except the chicken probably lived a horrible life, and they put the apple crisp directly on top of the beans. Gross!

Our friends Chad and Erin were vending at the same festival, so Erin and I ended up driving home together. I dropped her off at her house and she gave me 7 eggs and 3 big King apples.
When I got home I tried to eat the Prescott melon, but it was no good, so I ate a fig and an apple and went to bed.

Today the big deal has been the bread. Before I went to bed last night - I started fermenting the Levaine. Basically you add more flour to the cheff and let it sit for 8-10 hours. It's supposed to be 75 degrees though, and it got cold, so it didn't rise too much.

I ended up letting to go more like 13 or 14 hours, and finally it started to rise a little. I measured out two cups of the mixture, and mixed it with flour and water to make the bread dough.

I kneaded it for about 20 minutes and then let it rise for 2 hours. After that I cut the dough into to balls and let them rise for 30 minutes. I shaped the balls into torpedo shapes and let them rise (or proof) for 2 more hours. Then we put them into the oven and they just got done baking.

I know it sounds like I know what I'm doing, but really I've been dubious of the whole process. It doesn't seem to be rising as much as it should, although it's definitely rising a little bit.

I drove into town while the dough was rising a bought a big square baking stone for the oven. The cookbook says that it's a necessity.

The book tells you to make an elaborate "couch" for your torpedo shaped loaves to rise in, but I just put a clean towel in a baking pan, and put the loaves in it with the towel bunched up between them so as to not stick together. It seemed to work, but the ends of the loaves are square rather than pointy like a torpedo.




Here they are going into the oven...








...and here's the finished product

I have a feeling they'll be good even if they're not totally light and airy. I ran out of my flour and had to use a few cups of non-local flour instead. It's probably at least 90% local flour.....

My bread is finally finished on what should be the last day of my local month. How fitting! I'm so glad I've decided to take it 2 extra days so that I can really appreciate it!