Wild strawberries

Wild strawberries admittedly have nothing to do with cheese but they're just so darn exquisite. We picked two baskets* (with a little equine interference) and it was definitely worth the sore thighs the next morning.

LC outdid herself with a lemon-raspberry-wild strawberry tart adapted from sassyradish.com.

Life is good!!!

* a note on scale: the two bigger strawberries were grown by a farmer down the road. So, while commercially grown, they aren't those enormous, tasteless monsters (or SSOs -- strawberry shaped objects, as Rebecca Stead writes in her Newbury award winning YA novel, When You Reach Me) held out as strawberries in every grocery store. No siree, the strawberries from Fred's Fruit Market on Hwy 35/115 were sweet, juicy and plump -- but even they can't compare to wild strawberries picked in a horse field.

Artisanal Cheese in Ontario

This past weekend was spent celebrating my mother's retirement with wonderful cheeses from the Prince Edward Country-based Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co. www.fifthtown.ca

Pictured here: Nettles Gone Wild (surface ripened soft goat cheese; semi firm) and a watermelon, mint and feta salad made with Bedda Fedda (a brine soaked Greek-style feta; sheep's milk).

Both were absolutely delicious and I can't wait to go home soon to try the Lighthall Tomme (goat; aged 2-3 months) and award-winning Cape Vessey (washed rind goat; aged 3-6 months). Will there be any left??

Sag Harbor, NY

A few weekends ago in Sag Harbor, the stereotypical Hamptons scene didn't even register on my radar. Instead, we tasted a wonderful tomme and farmhouse cheddar from Mecox Bay Dairy and planted a herb garden and two tomato plants (one is a yellow and green zebra tomato and the other is a pear shaped, cherry tomato-sized). You could even buy a dozen assorted eggs at the Sag Harbor farmers' market. Beautiful, aren't they?

Wooed with cheese

An impressive showing with this decadent cheese plate and an endive & blue cheese salad.