Day 1

Well, let's start with what I ate today:

Breakfast:

1 scrambled egg with onions and cheese
vanilla yogurt with blueberries
1 glass of whole milk
1 hard-boiled egg (I had just finished boiling them for later in the week, and who can resist a nice, warm, hard-boiled egg? Not this gal!)

Lunch:
Because I was out running errands and stocking up on food, my lunch was really just snacks:

2 apples
Sunflower seeds
Palatine cheese curd
1 glass of whole milk
Also, I got hungry on the way back from the cider mill and bit off Mr. Maple's head.


Dinner:

Roasted new potatoes
Salad with lettuce and cucumbers fresh from my garden, peppers and onions from the farmers market, and a yogurt dill dressing
Oh, and fresh from the Cider Mill:

Topped off with a small dessert - Mr. Maple said goodbye to his legs.

Where did I get all this wonderful food? A few places. First stop was Fly Creek Cider Mill, just West of Cooperstown, which I usually will not go to before September because cider mill time means we're only a stone's throw away from Christmas.

If you are also from Central New York, or have had the privilege of visiting the cider mill, you know that as soon as you enter you are greeted by more than 40 free samples of dips, dressings, mustards, and jams ready for the tasting in little dog dishes filled with tortilla chips and pretzels. On a Monday there are so few people that you can actually make a meal out of this. Resistance was difficult, but not futile. Other impulses got the better of me; once I discovered the plethora of wines made from local produce I bought four bottles without checking the prices - yikes. Besides the wine, I left the cider mill with one gallon of cider, a half peck of apples, Mr. and Mrs. Maple, and one burning question:

Do the ducks with fluffy butts battle against the ducks with the fluffy heads? I imagine it to be a West Side Story-esque dance battle where they shake their fluffy parts at each other.


As much as I love Fly Creek Cider Mill, I've always been a fan of the underdog. So when I was driving home and saw Dyn's Cider Mill in Richfield Springs, I had to stop.

What they lack in wine, free samples, ducks and geese, Dyn's makes up for in being much more friendly and knowledgeable. The owners of Dyn's are approachable and I felt comfortable asking about the origins of their products, and actually trusted that they knew the answers. I left with a gallon of cider vinegar, cheese curd, and evidence that I was there.


I had one last stop to make. I picked up some fresh garlic and corn on the cob at this roadside stand in Richfield.


Other than the free samples, and the fact that my salad dressing isn't very good, today was a breeze!