Wildacres, 2011

Another summer at Wildacres came and went without my remembering to blog about it here.  So I'm going back and gathering the photos and thoughts I have from another memorable adventure to share with you.  That's Donnie in the video above.  Donnie helps us with all the equipment that we need during our stay and is always there to lend a helping hand...but watch out when he's got that whip in his hand!

This year was a special time at Wildacres because it was Jean Stark's last summer teaching there.  Jean had been there every summer for 25 years!  Everyone who loved her as a teacher looked forward to this time every year, so there were quite a few tears shed this week.  Jean took a liking to Donnie's whip, trying to convince us that she was going to come down hard on us if we didn't behave.

Jean taught a class in enameling this summer and we all learned how to create lovely little pears.  She brought along lots and lots of examples:

Leslie and Karen were very proud of their creations:

Gail (sniffling a bit) and Robert have been in Jeans class without fail every summer.  I hope they come back in 2012.  

This is one of Jean's enameled pieces that I find stunningly beautiful.   Maybe someday I'll be this good (hopeful thinking).

And here's me with another one of my favorite teachers, Julia Woodman!  She's always kind, encouraging and has a magical bag of forging techniques.  I'm presently back in her class at Spruill and feel like I've returned home again.

My friends, teachers and classmates:

Would you like to see my pear?  It's amazing that it took an entire week to complete two pears (I haven't set the other one into a bezel yet), but enameling can be a very long process.  

Okay - goodbye for another year, Wildacres.  I hope to be back in 2012.    

Tired of Smoothies? Try Energy Soup!

One of the things my teacher, Julia Woodman, is famous for (besides her master skills as a silversmith) is her Energy Soup. She whips it up and has it for lunch every day (truly, every day). I think it must be doing good things for her because she appears to have an abundance of energy and a zest for life.

I finally took the time yesterday to buy what was needed at Whole Foods. It's a wild concoction of ingredients that you simply can't imagine tasting good...but it DOES taste good!

If you don't have every single ingredient, it's okay. Just make sure you use a gluten-free soy sauce instead of the one listed below if you are gluten-free. Julia likes to add her leftover salad ingredients from the previous evening to her Energy Soup bowl before lunch, so I guess this is one of those recipes you can do whatever you want with, but the recipe below seems to have the just the right amounts of everything to balance the assortment of flavors and ingredients.  



Energy Soup

1 avocado
1 apple
1 medium Vidalia, or sweet onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 inch of ginger root (peeled)
1 three ounce container of Vonnie's sunflower sprouts
1 three ounce container of Vonnie's buckwheat lettuce
1 whole cucumber
1 peeled stack of broccoli
1 bunch of washed spinach OR 4 collard green leaves
1 large swiss chard leaf
2 tablespoons almond butter OR 2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons sweet miso
1 tablespoon of grade B maple syrup
1 tablespoon of raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Nama Shoyu organic unpasteurized soy sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
1 3/4 cups filtered water
Several sprigs parsley, a little dill weed.

Blend all ingredients in a food processor. Large leaves may be bunched together and cut across into 1 1/2 inch segments and pushed through the top of the food processor. I would suggest using the pulse command so it doesn't get too soupy. You want it to have a nice, somewhat chunky consistency.

Yields 4 generous servings. Freezes well. Will be okay in refrigerator for 2 days.