Ahhhh – summer! Time of fresh berries straight from the farm! Most of you probably DON’T know that NJ is the Garden State. We have (or at least had) large and small farms all over the state. Everyone grows something edible in their garden. There is nothing as refreshing and wonderful as a fresh fruit salad made with blueberries, strawberries, nectarines, blackberries, raspberries and maybe a kiwi or two. Yum! When I put the berries into my cart somehow I can’t stop, and I find myself at checkout with LOTS of berries. As much as I like snacking on berries, even I can’t always keep up with the amount I’ve brought home. That means pies!
Way back in the fall I discovered the rustic apple cranberry tart recipe. What I loved about that recipe was the crust. It’s a galette – a one crust pie where the bottom crust is overly large and just folds around the filling, no need to cover the entire pie. I used that crust recipe and filled it with berries, using a Bon Appetit Berry Galette recipe for guidance on the filling. I like that crust recipe a lot. I’m not sure why but it always feels just a bit easier than my normal 2 crust recipe, maybe because I am working with less dough. I also made a pie one time with the leftover dough from the 2-crust recipe. I had to stretch that dough to make a rough lattice. I was in a hurry to have it ready for dinner so I didn’t weave the strips, but I assure you that it tasted just fine anyway! 🙂
In the last few years we loaded ourselves into the car and drove to a bridge to watch the fireworks from there (with many others who also pulled over and parked on the bridge for just that purpose). But we rarely headed down to the park itself to join the town celebration.
The police were going to shut down the streets next to the park and block parking as well. I figured we’d want chairs for fireworks viewing so I needed to figure out how to have the chairs there and ready and not have to shlepp them and carry them about while we ate, and saw whatever sights there were to be seen. I arranged with a friend to leave my car, with chairs-in-bags, parked in front of her house, which is about 5 blocks from the park. I drove the car over early in the morning and left it there so that I had MY SPOT all set before the crush for parking began in the early evening. I knew also that at the end of the evening we would not want to be hiking up hill all the way back home. We are at the highest point in town and the park is at the lowest. I was also hoping that I’d parked on the road that would have less pedestrian traffic as that road did not lead directly into the park itself. Now you see why some folks describe my planning as obsessing. 🙂
We were obviously ahead of the crowd still and I saw a BETTER SPOT on the next block down so I moved the car. *grin* It’s PLANNING, really. 🙂 As we reached the entrance to the park we met our friends who were unloading passengers and chairs. A propitious omen for a good time. We wandered on down into the park, perused the food vendors, grabbed food and headed to the lawn to park ourselves in our chairs. I’m pretty certain my chair is broken. It sits VERY low to the ground and closer inspection seems to indicate that a bolt might be missing.
Everyone has a different idea as to what one wears to the 4th of July festival in the park. There was a lot of happy and energy and good vibrations. Hey – we even met the mayor. *grin* My sister and her husband came down and joined us and soon it was TIME.
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