Yogurt review

I picked up a quart of Ronnybrook Farms plain yogurt at the Greenmarket on Wednesday: they're a nice local dairy, and the price on their whole milk yogurt was about what I pay at the supermarket for Dannon (and less than the supermarket price for Stonybrook Farms). I opened it this morning.

It's thinner than the Dannon (so is the Stonybrook Farms), and noticeably sharper/more sour. If I were making tzatziki, or using it in a curry, that might be an advantage (though the thinness would be a disadvantage for tzatziki). For breakfast, yogurt with fruit, I don't want that sharp edge. I'll probably finish this, but not buy it again.

Ronnybrook Farms also sells milk (including a full-fat chocolate milk), butter, ice cream, heavy cream, creme fraiche, and a few other things. When I wanted to try papersky's suggestion that ice cream would taste better if I made it using cream without carrageenan, I went to Ronnybrook Farms. (I couldn't taste the difference, nor could cattitude.) I haven't tried their butter, because I doubt it would taste twice as good to me as the Land o' Lakes we're getting at the supermarket, and it costs about twice as much. (We're following Consumer Reports's advice on brands of butter: there are differences in flavor, and we like the one they recommended.) Mostly, I stop by their stand and get a single serving of ice cream or a pint of chocolate milk, and eat or drink it while wandering through the market shopping for fruit and vegetables, or just wandering for its own sake.

Yogurt review

I picked up a quart of Ronnybrook Farms plain yogurt at the Greenmarket on Wednesday: they're a nice local dairy, and the price on their whole milk yogurt was about what I pay at the supermarket for Dannon (and less than the supermarket price for Stonybrook Farms). I opened it this morning.

It's thinner than the Dannon (so is the Stonybrook Farms), and noticeably sharper/more sour. If I were making tzatziki, or using it in a curry, that might be an advantage (though the thinness would be a disadvantage for tzatziki). For breakfast, yogurt with fruit, I don't want that sharp edge. I'll probably finish this, but not buy it again.

Ronnybrook Farms also sells milk (including a full-fat chocolate milk), butter, ice cream, heavy cream, creme fraiche, and a few other things. When I wanted to try papersky's suggestion that ice cream would taste better if I made it using cream without carrageenan, I went to Ronnybrook Farms. (I couldn't taste the difference, nor could cattitude.) I haven't tried their butter, because I doubt it would taste twice as good to me as the Land o' Lakes we're getting at the supermarket, and it costs about twice as much. (We're following Consumer Reports's advice on brands of butter: there are differences in flavor, and we like the one they recommended.) Mostly, I stop by their stand and get a single serving of ice cream or a pint of chocolate milk, and eat or drink it while wandering through the market shopping for fruit and vegetables, or just wandering for its own sake.

Music to get

Over on Making Light, pnh tnh included a link to Chumbawamba's new album. Having listened to most of the sample bits, and looked at some lyrics, I'm sold, and not just by the remarkably sweet love song "When Alexander Met Emma" (few love songs mention propaganda by deed). I'm going to try a couple of local record stores first, I think; the exchange rate makes ordering directly from the band less appealing. (12 pounds, plus three for shipping, comes to thirty dollars in U.S. money.)

In the meantime, I have downloads of a few of their older songs, including a wonderful extension of the Beatles' "Her Majesty."

Music to get

Over on Making Light, pnh tnh included a link to Chumbawamba's new album. Having listened to most of the sample bits, and looked at some lyrics, I'm sold, and not just by the remarkably sweet love song "When Alexander Met Emma" (few love songs mention propaganda by deed). I'm going to try a couple of local record stores first, I think; the exchange rate makes ordering directly from the band less appealing. (12 pounds, plus three for shipping, comes to thirty dollars in U.S. money.)

In the meantime, I have downloads of a few of their older songs, including a wonderful extension of the Beatles' "Her Majesty."

Warm, slow autumn

cattitude and I went for a walk in Inwood Hill Park earlier today, just to get out, see and smell and maybe listen. There were quite a few violets in bloom: the one under the willow is still there, and we saw several on the strip between the soccer field and the hills. Jewelweed is also still blooming, some pale yellow and a few bright red. Dandelions aren't a surprise, even much later than this. The odd little flowers one reference called "lady's thumb" are there in quantity, both pink and white. The clover is still in bloom, mostly white, but we saw one large pink flower.

We saw kinglets in the trees again, passing through on their way south; a bit late by the calendar, but seeming synchronized with the leaves. Mallards and geese, of course.

The dominant color of the trees is now yellow; it was still green a few days ago. There are nice bits of red, again, and the foliage is sparser. The willows are bare, and the berries are more visible on the hawthorne.

We haven't had a frost here yet, though I wore my travel cardigan under my fall jacket on Friday. (That combination will keep me down to freezing, or a bit above and windy, which Friday was.)

I pointed out Cattitude that one of the recently planted pines on the slope between Indian Road and the inlet is mature and healthy enough to have dropped a few pine cones, which I noticed a few days ago. (The other three near it haven't, and one of them looks a bit sickly.)

Warm, slow autumn

cattitude and I went for a walk in Inwood Hill Park earlier today, just to get out, see and smell and maybe listen. There were quite a few violets in bloom: the one under the willow is still there, and we saw several on the strip between the soccer field and the hills. Jewelweed is also still blooming, some pale yellow and a few bright red. Dandelions aren't a surprise, even much later than this. The odd little flowers one reference called "lady's thumb" are there in quantity, both pink and white. The clover is still in bloom, mostly white, but we saw one large pink flower.

We saw kinglets in the trees again, passing through on their way south; a bit late by the calendar, but seeming synchronized with the leaves. Mallards and geese, of course.

The dominant color of the trees is now yellow; it was still green a few days ago. There are nice bits of red, again, and the foliage is sparser. The willows are bare, and the berries are more visible on the hawthorne.

We haven't had a frost here yet, though I wore my travel cardigan under my fall jacket on Friday. (That combination will keep me down to freezing, or a bit above and windy, which Friday was.)

I pointed out Cattitude that one of the recently planted pines on the slope between Indian Road and the inlet is mature and healthy enough to have dropped a few pine cones, which I noticed a few days ago. (The other three near it haven't, and one of them looks a bit sickly.)