" - Winnie the Pooh
Harvest Festival
The weekend before Thanksgiving, we were inviting by one of the host company employees to a "Harvest Festival" in a park about 30 minutes away. Apparently the employee has a friend that grow sweet potatoes (among other things) and it was time to pick them. Sounds like a good enough reason for a party to me!
We got to the area about an hour early. Then, we ended up driving around completely failing to find the park (turns out there were signs, but there were about 5"x12" and on the wrong side of the rail for anyone to really see) and went back to the "Gathering Place" where we followed everyone else in.
The park was nice. It was a small, open field with a gazebo on stilts at the far end. It had a small parking lot and a small hut with a toilet (not that I used it). They had set up tarps to sit on and were grilling when we got there.
We started with sweet potatoes that were grilled in their skins. We were instructed to grab one, wrap it in foil (since they were HOT - not that the foil helped that...), and then peel the skin away and eat the inside sorta like a banana. They were not the orange yams we get here, but more of a pale yellow. They were the slightest bit sweet. Delicious! Roo couldn't get enough of them.
Then they had rice (onegi, I think) balls that they passed around while the meat was grilled. There were small cuts of meat with a bottled sauce that were quite delicious and tender. They grilled chicken, both on the bone and off. There were even small fish that were grilled whole. Having looked through my cookbook, I suspect they were simply salted and grilled. I tried one - tearing off the head and biting in to the body like everyone else. They were VERY bitter and I couldn't get another bite down...especially with the little bones crunching...ewww!
They had some sort of pickled cucumber salad with sesame seeds (tasted like the dressing we use on salads) which was delicious. They also had what they described as Japanese pickles which weren't bad. I was lauded for remembering to turn my chopsticks around to serve the salad from the group plate. Thank goodness for some reading on culture and etiquette while in the states.
Lastly, they brought out fresh oranges and apples (ringo). Both were deliciously sweet and juicy. The oranges were small and very easy to peel.
After we gorged ourselves, we let Roo run around the field. She had a great time playing in the grass, but never wanting to have to sit in it. Chrys and I played some badminton, Chrys played catch with a little girl and Owl and I played catch with some velcro sets. Roo climbed up in the gazebo and LOVED to lean through the slats and scare me to death. It was a fun day.
For the last game, they hid some little discs in the field with numbers on them. We were grouped into teams of 3 and told to find as many as we could. The highest number total would win some fresh produce from the friend's farm. Chrys says he thinks we came in 4th with 10 points. Oh well...we still had a great day.
We got to the area about an hour early. Then, we ended up driving around completely failing to find the park (turns out there were signs, but there were about 5"x12" and on the wrong side of the rail for anyone to really see) and went back to the "Gathering Place" where we followed everyone else in.
The park was nice. It was a small, open field with a gazebo on stilts at the far end. It had a small parking lot and a small hut with a toilet (not that I used it). They had set up tarps to sit on and were grilling when we got there.
We started with sweet potatoes that were grilled in their skins. We were instructed to grab one, wrap it in foil (since they were HOT - not that the foil helped that...), and then peel the skin away and eat the inside sorta like a banana. They were not the orange yams we get here, but more of a pale yellow. They were the slightest bit sweet. Delicious! Roo couldn't get enough of them.
Then they had rice (onegi, I think) balls that they passed around while the meat was grilled. There were small cuts of meat with a bottled sauce that were quite delicious and tender. They grilled chicken, both on the bone and off. There were even small fish that were grilled whole. Having looked through my cookbook, I suspect they were simply salted and grilled. I tried one - tearing off the head and biting in to the body like everyone else. They were VERY bitter and I couldn't get another bite down...especially with the little bones crunching...ewww!
They had some sort of pickled cucumber salad with sesame seeds (tasted like the dressing we use on salads) which was delicious. They also had what they described as Japanese pickles which weren't bad. I was lauded for remembering to turn my chopsticks around to serve the salad from the group plate. Thank goodness for some reading on culture and etiquette while in the states.
Lastly, they brought out fresh oranges and apples (ringo). Both were deliciously sweet and juicy. The oranges were small and very easy to peel.
After we gorged ourselves, we let Roo run around the field. She had a great time playing in the grass, but never wanting to have to sit in it. Chrys and I played some badminton, Chrys played catch with a little girl and Owl and I played catch with some velcro sets. Roo climbed up in the gazebo and LOVED to lean through the slats and scare me to death. It was a fun day.
For the last game, they hid some little discs in the field with numbers on them. We were grouped into teams of 3 and told to find as many as we could. The highest number total would win some fresh produce from the friend's farm. Chrys says he thinks we came in 4th with 10 points. Oh well...we still had a great day.
posted by Wynnie | 02:44
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