Last long weekend of the summer, and we decided on one last hurrah--a day at the beach. The instant baby CJ was ready to sleep, we headed north, and drove and drove and drove, remarkably peacefully through the rich, ripe farmland of southwestern Ontario, past an Old Order church with the "parking lot" loaded with buggies, past stands advertising everything from quilts to corn to spanish onions, most "No Sun Sale," past fields of cut wheat and those new-fangled gigantic rectangular bales of straw that must be moved with tractors, not unloaded from wagons by hand (a job I did as a kid), through the town of Teeswater which was setting itself up to host the upcoming International Ploughing Match, and coming to a stop, finally, along the road to Kincardine at a little roadside gas station/diner/tanning salon in a fly-through hamlet called Riversdale. We've eaten there before, always and only breakfast, and seen the grandpa who runs the grill peeling potatoes by hand. There's a sign on the wall that says "Any complaints about the cooking?" (or something to that effect) and shows a woman holding a shotgun. When we ate there earlier this summer, A read the sign, then said very earnestly, and a bit nervously, to the woman who came to take our order: "I won't complain about your cooking."
The teenage granddaughter took our order. Pancakes, omelets, home fries, toast, et cetera; by the end of the meal we'd filled our salt quota for the day, but in a good way. Off to the beach. Kincardine has a lovely public beach with boardwalks along dunes. There's some mention of an undertow on signage, but the kids and Kevin always go swimming. (If you must know, I no longer even pretend to take my swimsuit on these ventures because the chances of me being overwhelmed by the urge to put it on and dunk myself completely is so slim it has no precedent). But I like public beaches. I like staking out a little territory in the sand with the umbrella and chairs and blanket and bags, and I like people-watching. People are so endlessly interesting. Baby CJ was a bit of a mess today, and it's because he's suddenly five months and darn near crawling and incredibly mobile and no longer an infant. Note to self: they really do grow this fast.
So that was our beach day. I sat under the umbrella, mostly, though did wade mid-calf into screechingly frigid Lake Huron because the day was a good hot one. The hottest we've ever had at this beach, and this is our third summer going.
We left the beach hungry and exhausted, and cruised the main drag discovering an "Asian grocery" with hot samosas advertised for sale. Which was supper, along with exotically flavoured chickpea-flour chips and some seaweed for good measure. So yah, we were all starved by the time we got home. The kids had watched Star Wars One on the computer, and Baby CJ had screamed for at least forty-five minutes, off and on, despite one stop for a nurse (oh, the relief in his eyes when he realized he'd been freed from the cursed car seat, the joy, the delight; and then the fury to discover this was but a temporary ruse).
Got home to discover the pears on our countertop had spent the day going from green to overripe and gnat-ridden. The kids and Kevin shook these pears down from a neighbour's tree yesterday morning; she offered them to us, and said her tree hadn't borne fruit in nineteen years! (Which, come to think of it, makes me wonder whether our trees were fruit-bearing this summer due to Kevin's google-guided pruning, or because this has been a season of fluky fruit bounty ...).
So I'm making pearsauce. It bubbles on the stove behind me as I type. I had beach-brain, but figured I could do PB and banana sandwiches and supervise showers while peeling and coring and cooking down these pears--otherwise destined to be lobbed by Kevin off our back porch toward our black walnut tree--into something edible for a leaner season. They smell delicious. Okay, update: now I've mashed them with a potato masher (it's a chunky sauce) and will add some lemon juice and sugar momentarily, then freeze in ice cube trays for an easy school lunch treat.
Actually, I almost considered casually canning the lot, then remembered I still hadn't gotten lids ... okay, "almost" being the operative word. But still, I'm putting lids on my list lest the canning fancy strike unannounced. It won't be for peaches, however ... that half-bushel I debated buying from Nina? We're eating our way through those effortlessly, and I'm pretty sure she said those might be the last of the season.
Hello summer melancholy; and it' s not even fall.Labels: canning, freezing, kids, local food, pears, pearsauce