Monday Market Meals - Drunken Cherries

The ingredients for the recipe: Dutch jonge jenever, sugar and cherries (enamel bowl used to be my grandmother's).

Today's guest blogger is Naomi Koojimans from The Netherlands, whose Instagram feed portrays "a visual diary of life in general and food in particular."  An instagrammer for the past three years, Naomi says this "highly-addictive app" has connected her with  a world of kindred spirits from different countries and time zones and rekindled an appreciation for her heritage.  Her insightful thoughts on settling down to build a new life in her own community rather than looking longingly at the green(er) grass on the other side of the fence packs a powerful punch of wisdom. Read her words below.

Cherry season is finally upon us!

With time seemingly going by faster and faster each year, I always worry about food related seasonal oblivion. Plums, rhubarb and strawberries … the fear that I might miss them is always lurking.

Much to my relief our local cherry stall actually just opened. I live in an area where fruit orchards traditionally are aplenty: apples, pears, red currants, the aforementioned plums and strawberries. They grow in abundance here in the clay ground of my area.

From High Heels to Muck Boots

Homemade cavatelli. 

Christy Larsen, a city girl from Los Angeles, used to spend her days in high-level meetings rubbing shoulders with fellow executives in the finance industry. These days, she's traded in her heels for muck boots and you'll most likely find her getting down and dirty on the 60-acre ranch she and husband, Mike, own in the Central Coast region of California. Located in the picturesque Indian Valley next to the mission town of San Miguel, the ranch is a dream come true for this couple who chose to leave the frenetic pace of the big city for slow living in the country.