The colors of Fall in Berkshires

We visited The Berkshires in western Massachusetts over the long Columbus Day weekend. The leaves were just starting to change colors...so we saw more yellow/orange than red. Nevertheless, it was still a beautiful sight!

Here are some of the photos...hope you'll enjoy the beginning fall colors as much as we did! And if you think the photos are nice...wait till you see it in person. Come visit us next fall to find out for yourself!

A whole lot of effort to produce a little red berry....

Last Saturday and Sunday was the 6th Annual Cranberry Harvest Celebration and we had been looking forward to it for a long time. Unfortunately, it was a wet and dreary Saturday morning so we waited till the rain had stopped before making our way to Wareham where the event was held. There was already a huge turnout by the time we reached. While the sky was still slightly overcast, we could see the sun peeking from behind the clouds...and we knew it was gonna be a beautiful afternoon at the bog. Entrance fee to the event was just $2 per person.

First some background information - Wisconsin is the biggest producer of cranberries, with over half of U.S. production. Massachusetts is in second place and it produces as many cranberries as the rest of the world combined.

One of the key attractions of the event was the bog tour. There were numerous ways to get to the bog - via bus, wagon or helicopter. The bus service was free whereas you'd have to pay for the wagon or helicopter ride.

We chose the free bus ride. There was a volunteer guide on the bus to tell us more about cranberry production and to answer all our queries.

When we reached the bog, one of the very first things we saw was a HUGE pile of sand. We were told by the guide that sand is very essential in the production of cranberries. When a layer of sand is spread over the soil, it not only helps the plant grow new roots/shoots, it can also prevent pest by burying the weeds, fungal spores and insect eggs.

Below is how a cranberry bog would look before flooding takes place.

Can you spot the little cranberries amidst the vines?

During the harvest season, the bog gets flooded up to the top of the vines. A lightweight harvesting machine equipped with balloon tires is then driven through the flooded bog. The reels from the harvesting machine will spin down into the water and will cause the berries to separate from the vines.

Being less dense than water, the little cranberries will float to the top of the water once separated from the vines.

The berries are then coralled into a collection point (what the man on the top right corner of the photo was doing) where they'd be pumped out from the water.

Rounding up all the floating berries ain't a simple job when the volume is huge. The guy below was seen to be using all his might to tug at the rope while trudging through waist deep water. He had to be assisted by another worker subsequently.

Just look at how many berries there were!

The men below were trying to push the berries towards the "mouth" of the pump (as indicated by the 4 green flags shown in the photo below).

Once the berries get pumped out of the water, they'd be transported onto this conveyor belt machine where they'd get rinsed and for any debris to be removed.

At the end of the conveyor belt, the berries will take a plunge......

....into a huge wagon where they'd be transported to another location for drying, sorting and packaging. Just look at how many cranberries there were....and the wagon was not even half filled!

These are the crates where the cranberries would be stored.

Apart from the bog tour, there were also many other activities to keep the adults and kids occupied.

Exhibitions to show how cranberries were packed in the olden days....

"Train ride" for kids......

Pony rides....

Pumpkin painting.....

Suspender juggling performances...

"Make your own bog" activites...

Harvest equipment exhibits...

Sale of food and crafts...

See these huge bags of cranberries for only USD4 per bag.

Well....we did a little shopping as usual. Our loot included some chocolate coated cranberries, triple berry cake, fresh cranberries and a bottle of cranberry sauce!

It was an extremely educational and fun-filled experience for us. We are already looking forward to the next cranberry harvest!

The taste of home....

I'd be lying if I say that I don't miss the food back home. Although there are food places that sell Chinese or Indian food here, they all taste kinda funny as they've mostly been altered to suit the tastebuds of the Americans. Occasionally, we'd crave for some mee goreng, indian curries, tom yum soup, MEE SIAM etc...especially when the weather is starting to get chilly.

Imagine my joy when I found this online shop http://www.efooddepot.com/ located in Oklahoma that sells all kinds of food from all over the world - including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia etc. The online shop carries a wide range of Asian Home Gourmet and Prima sauces that I occasionally used back home in Singapore. While, I'm a tad disappointed that my ABSOLUTE favorite Brahim sauce is not on their list...I'm still grateful for whatever that I can get hold of...hey, beggars can't be choosers right?

So, after one mad online shopping spree, I'm close to a hundred bucks poorer. But hey, I figure it'd not only be more troublesome to get my parents to ship these stuffs over...it'd probably also cost much more than what I've paid for my online purchases after adding in the shipping charges. I ordered the stuffs last Thursday and I received the package via FedDex today. I could hardly contain my joy and excitement as I fumbled to open the box.

Hmmmmm, I counted 33 packets of sauces....maybe I went overboard this time? But it really really made my day!!

Stay tuned for what I'll be cooking over the next couple of weeks...or months.

[NB: I just found another online shop that sells Bah-Kwa!!!]

Me and my cookbook fetish

Ohhh I love cookbooks so much that it has become a fetish. And I've been feeding this fetish for so long that it's almost impossible for me to leave a bookstore without buying at least 1.

I have accumulated so many of them over the years. Some of my less favorite ones have been given away and many have been loaned out to friends and never made it back to my shelves. (DEAR FRIENDS: If you are reading this and are reminded that you still have my cookbooks, please return them to me as soon as you are done with them. Thank you!)

When we were renovating our tiny apartment, we were actually considering to sacrifice already scarce space in our puny kitchen to build a floor to ceiling bookshelf just to accommodate all of my cookbooks. But alas, the head rule the heart in the end.

When we left Singapore, I didn't bring a single cookbook along with me...to date, I still have no idea what came over me at that time to make such a crazy decision! My urges started the very minute I started unpacking my shipped boxes...and I had to run to the nearest Borders to buy a few of them to satisfy my urges for the time being.

Now that we've been in the states for almost one and a half months, I've only bought 8 cookbooks, a huge pile of cooking magazines and still counting!

Just today, I've received the bread baking book that I had ordered through Amazon and RG also came home with an autographed copy of Chef Yan's cookbook as he was in campus doing a special cooking demonstration. Isn't he such a darling? I mean RG of course, not Chef Yan!

The thing I like to do best is to flip through the pages of my cookbooks (from front to back and back to front x10) while watching TV, just before going to bed. The truth is, I rarely cook/bake using any of my cookbooks...I just like to oggle at pictures of the yummilious food...and then, I'm the happiest gal in the world!

Letting go....for better things to come....

My landlord really has a green thumb and her garden is just beautiful with the many amazing blooms that she has planted. Over the last weekend, she flew back to tend to her garden as winter is approaching. She mentioned over her email that she needed to "winterize" the garden and I obviously had no clue what she was talking about. My only experience with plants was limited to killing them! So I volunteered my help in hope to learn a thing or two from her.

So early Monday morning, I was all geared up in my garden clogs and gloves, eager to start my "apprenticeship" under my shifu. To my horror, she started yanking out all the still pretty flowers. She must have noticed my expression as she stopped to explain that in order to prepare the garden for winter, she had to cut back the fading blooms, stalks and leaves.

By doing so, not only can pests and diseases be prevented by not leaving plant debris to decompose on the ground, cutting and trimming some of the perennials will also ensure that they grow more hardy and vigorous come next spring. She also mentioned that by trimming the plants and removing all garden debris, weeds and invasive plants now (which is a back-breaking task by the way!)...the garden will get off to a good start next year and there'd be less grooming to do in the spring when new shoots are trying to poke their way through the soil.

So all these beautiful blooms....GONE!

And we are left with these almost empty and unattractive plots....

Just look at the huge pile of leaves, branches and weeds that we had removed from the garden! It took me more than 10 trips to/fro with a huge wheelbarrow to clear out all of the garden debris.

While I thought the empty plots looked horrible, my landlord had exclaimed "look at how beautiful that is!". I guess for me, all I could see were the ugly stumps and dirt...whereas my landlord was already seeing the beautiful spring blooms in her head knowing that her garden is all prepped.

In that half day, I have not only learnt about gardening...but also several life philosophies. That sometimes in life, you need to let go of good things for even greater things to come. And if you work hard now, you'd reap the rewards later even if you can't feel/see them now. Finally, enjoy life to the fullest while it lasts.

Letting go is always hard....and to console myself, I've taken several of the last blooms and put them in little vases/bowl...perhaps my way to hold on to beauty/summer/warmth for that little longer....