#100HappyDays :: Day 82

The eighth annual chili cook off is now one for the books.  Another fantastic year with wonderful families, truly a highlight of our summer.  We had nine chili entries and six pie entries.  Everyone takes their tasting quite seriously, numbering cups to make sure that they can keep track of favorites.

In the last eight years we have had two years where there has been a tie.  Once for a chili, and then most recently in 2011 for a pie.  This year amazingly we had ties in both the chili and pie competitions!  The winning chills were a Five Pepper Southwestern Chicken Chili, and a Chili con Carne.  The winning pies were a Cherry Breeze Pie with a graham cracker crust and a Hey Der, Hi Der, Pie Der, Cream Puff Pie with a brandy old-fashioned glaze.  All of the entries were amazing, and it was a tough choice for all.

Beyond tastings, there were games, running, and a lot of generalized play with not a single kid plugged in.  The kids were beginning to gather here for a very heated game of capture the flag, only identifiable by their glow sticks as they raced across the property.

This year's bonfire was spectacular, and fortunately still going this morning with only a little stoking. The very definition of a happy day.

A Chili Saturday

Seven years ago when we moved to the farm we wanted to have a kind of welcome party and decided to make it a chili cook off.  Over the years it has developed into quite a party and something we look forward to hosting and attempting to make bigger and better each time.  This year's chili cook off was a wonderful event!  Each year we try to dial it in more, so that it becomes something very manageable, yet with some fresh new ideas.

This year was especially exciting because we had a blogger from The Boston Store come out to feature us in a little farm to table spread that they will be blogging early this fall.  So much fun, I cannot wait to see it!

Of course, I could not resist taking a few pictures of them taking pictures of us.  Hi Lisa! :)

Since just more than half of our 111 guest this year are kids we added a couple of new games to the standard  basketball, badminton (I had absolutely no idea it was spelled this way!), volleyball and trampoline.  We did a lawn painted twister game, and a space for giant Jenga.  Both of the new areas were well used, and fun to watch.

We had nine chilies and six pies this year and I have to say that all of the contenders out did themselves!  The winning chili was a chili verde and the winning pie was key lime.  Each of the winners got a couple of goodies to take home as well as bragging rights and the trophies (the stuffed pig and golden rolling pin in the first picture) for their event which they will sign and bring back next year.  I wonder what little touches we will add for the next one?  Stay tuned.

It Never Fails

It does seem the 'Murphy's Law' of it that multiple things happen at once.  This week we are preparing to host close to 100 people on the farm Saturday, and then pack as we are leaving on vacation 36 hours later.  Guess what?  It is also the week where it seems the garden is in a huge boom.  We picked 26 eggplant just yesterday.  So if packing, primping, and getting the kids ready for school (as they start the day after we get home) isn't enough.... we have tons of harvest to preserve for winter enjoyment!  I know, I know, first world problems.  It does give me a slight excuse for not posting here as regularly as I would like this week.   Please, if you have tried and true eggplant recipes, do share!

Good Morning August!

Well hello August!  It is hard to believe that you are here already and even harder to believe that I spied the first blush of color on the trees three days ago.  As you can see from the picture above, the trees are not the only things that are beginning to blush this first day of August.   The light is lower and more golden, and school starts in less than three weeks.  I cannot say that these are necessarily the dog days as we have had such a mild summer, yet it is crunch time.  We will spend our weekend knee deep in prep for our Seventh Annual Chili Cook-off, which is one week away, and the perfect event to kick off making the most of the end of summer.  Happy Weekend!

Chili, Pie & Tradition, Oh My!

We could not have asked for a more perfect night for the chili cook-off.  At just under 100 guests, half of who were kids, the farm hummed.  The kids just ran and played, while the adults socialized, ate, and enjoyed a libation, or two.  We had eight chili entries this year and five pie entries. 

Everything went very smoothly with the exception that a game of capture the flag went awry after a brief interlude with a ground wasp nest (I guess that turned out to be a good, yet dangerous place to hide the flag).  Thankfully, everyone is just fine, but there were some stings to the evening.  All upset seemed to fade in memory as the sky darkened and the glow sticks emerged,  we had our own little fireflies running far and wide. 

The chili winner was a White Chicken Chili and the pie winner was a Gin and Juice.

Congrats to all of the winners, and a special salute to our wounded (stung) warriors....
Chili Cook-off 2013, over and out!

Random Five Friday

1.  We are officially in the midst of soccer season.  What could be better than to watch his dedication coupled with pure enjoyment.

2.  These brown sugar oatmeal cookies of PW Woman, are fantastic!!

3.   Remember our bumper garlic harvest??  Well, I sold 60 heads of garlic to a local organic grocery store this week!  So exciting!

4.  Our larder is filling nicely with beautiful canned goods.  My hope is that we can keep our energy high through mid-fall to increase this exponentially. 

5.  One of the first things that we did when we moved to the farm was have a big party and to give it a twist, we made it a chili cook-off.  Over the years it has taken on a life of its own and tomorrow is our 6th installment.  We are running around finishing last minute preparations for around 80 people (almost half of who are children)!   This year we have 7 chili entries and 5 pie entries for their respective competitions.  Who will get to keep the chili pig and the golden rolling pin this year??  What better way to spend the final weekend of summer!?

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