Soaking up the Sunday

Last night we finally got around to celebrating all the good stuff - my new job in Seattle, sending off the final proofs for my PNAS paper, and a great summer. My Studly Hubby made up a pitcher of mojitos - my new favorite drink, and we watched crappy tv and made out like high school kids right on our couch. This morning we cheered at the sweaty whipped crowds at mile 19 of the Twin Cities Marathon, then went out to a long brunch with our good friends and talked careers and big decisions and moving and all that grown-up stuff. To counter that, we went out to Afton Apple Farm and picked rasberries till our hands were red and our faces were sunburned and we couldn't eat - no wait, pick - any more. We competed for who could find the most perfect one (my Studly Hubby said, "I found the most perfect one of all - you!") and then we battled the hoards of city folk like us at the check-out lanes where we purchased our pickins and bought some apple cider (NOT as good as Sand Road Orchard Apple Cider that can only be found in good ole Iowa City, but close).

The rasberries at this place are from the Twilight Zone. They are growing full-throttle for about three months straight (late July through the end of October), they can survive repeated light frosts and mobs of children and adults and yet the rasberries are constantly ripe and delicious and plentiful (although a little less so at the end of a long beautiful weekend this year than they were at the time of our visit last year due to thorough cleaning-out by the city folk like us). We have now found out the Afton Apple Farm secret: they grow lots of kinds of rasberries, so some kind is always growing (there are apparently summer-season berries and fall-season berries and they have lots of both) and they have a sprinkler system that sprays water in a protective arc over the berries whenever it frosts so they can extend the season a little longer. Genius! And I thought it was smart to put my bread in the freezer so it doesn't mold - I guess I have a lot to learn.