Yesterday Alex and I celebrated the summer solstice (a little early—we took advantage of the perfect weather) by hiking up to the top of Mt.Wantastiquet. It’s a great mountain just across the Connecticut River from Brattleboro, VT with a carriage trail built in 1891 that switches back and forth to the summit.
It was hot, and we didn’t bring water, so we were thrilled to discover that we were the first to find ripe wild blueberries growing around the boulders on the summit. They were warm and sweet and tasted just like summer.
I always get a thrill when I come upon naturally growing berries. It’s like eating local at its ultimate best. Our scene was right out of Robert McCloskey’s Blueberries for Sal, except that our blueberry picking solitude was interrupted not by a bear, but by a Jack Russell terrier and a guy sitting on the summit monument talking for at least fifteen minutes on his cell phone. Welcome to the “connected” world of 2010.
As if that weren’t enough, on our way down, we came upon a young family of four heading up. Alex stopped dead in his tracks, and in his unvarnished directness, accosted them with “Your dog is wearing shoes!” No kidding, their boxer (I think they called her Lily) was wearing what looked like red Mary Janes called Bark’n Boots ($59.95 at Eastern Mountain Sports if you care.) Admittedly, our Golden, Chester, has some sensory issues, but all I could imagine was him rolling in contortions trying to simultaneously chew and scrape those shoes off. Besides which, how can a dog respectably give a squirrel a run wearing shoes with Vibram soles?
A shoe-clad dog is definitely an oddity in Vermont, and between the “bear” and the dog with shoes, we laughed all they way down. Along the railroad tracks in Brattleboro on the banks of the Connecticut River, we found MORE wild berries. This time, they were black raspberries. We picked a nice cup of them and brought them home to make GF raspberry muffins for Father’s Day. So here is my version of wild raspberry gluten free/casein free muffins…enjoy!
Wild Raspberry Gluten Free/Casein Free Muffins
(makes 20)
2 ½ C GF Mix (1/3 rice flour, 1/3 cornstarch, 1/3 tapioca)
¾ C sugar
¾ C powdered sugar
4 large eggs
½ C non-GMO canola oil
1 C fresh raspberries
¾ C chopped pumpkin seeds (or seeds/nuts of your choice)
2/3C orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
Directions:
Combine all dry ingredients; then add wet ingredients and beat on high for 2 minutes. Fold in raspberries and chopped pumpkins. Ladle into greased cupcake pans ( ¾ full.) Bake at 350 for approx 20 minutes.
Note: this recipe does not use xanthan gum.
1 comment:
Loved the post, you can find a guy anywhere now a days with a cell phone, can't you? What did we do before cells?
Cute about the dog, have seen them, couldn't imagine putting them on my dog either. Not to mention the other dogs would laugh at him.
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