Birthday Happenings

My birthday started out very uneventful, just another day. Which is fine, it really is just another day. But after work I met up with Amber in Salem to pick blueberries. She told me about this program which coordinates unwanted fruit trees with pickers and food banks. You sign up for a harvest that you are interested in, and half of what you pick is donated to a food bank. The rest is yours to keep for free. Good deal eh?
Tuesday ate soo many blueberries.

Every time I saw her she was shoving handfuls into her mouth. Luckily I don't think she got sick...


Aaron came after he got off work late and showed us all how it was done with the two handed "milking" method. He had an unfair advantage, he used to work at Blueberry Meadows in Corvallis when he was a kid. His personal record was 126 pounds in one day. When he was 12.


The blueberries boxed up and ready to go on a truck to a food bank. We picked 15 pounds together, so a little over 7 pounds donated. All of the people there that day donated a total of 1055 pounds.


Afterward we stopped by Amber's place - her yard looks great by the way, for some Los Baez Mexican food and a little bit of hang out time. More on the awesome gift she got me in a future post.
Tonight was my birthday dinner with Aaron. I requested that we go to Gathering Together Farm in Philomath. They grow most if not all of the food and get their meat locally. It was so delicious! We started out with a salad of mixed greens with blueberries, goat cheese and almonds. It was amazing how different each green tasted and how each bite was a new experience.


I ordered the flat iron steak. It melted in my mouth. They gave me a steak knife, but it cut with a fork. It was on a bed of smashed potatoes and surrounded by chard and beets.


Aaron ordered the duck breast with a marionberry sauce. Also delicious. Served with polenta and chard.


For dessert we ordered this marionberry clafloutis. It was mediocre compared to everything else.


Creme brulee with cherries. Absolute heaven.



In this picture Aaron has just told me "We should have brought a child cheater." Megan may be the only one that gets that. Aaron grew up calling spatulas child cheaters and did not realize that this is not what the rest of the world calls them until about 4 years ago.


More celebrations to continue this week, and most importantly, full speed ahead on coop construction. Goal is to be done by this weekend, but I think that may be too optimistic.