Do I wish I was in Pennsylvania tonight, over-nighting at County Bridge Campground on my way down to West Virginia tomorrow? Sort of yes, though it would be wet and miserable tonight in Penna., but I still made the most of the afternoon into the evening.
Most of the afternoon I was dragging my butt, showered and aired up the tires on my bike to 50 PSI as they had gone below 40 PSI. Boy, oh boy do they ride rougher at 50 PSI. And I wonder why my truck rides like shit running the tires at 42-45 PSI. I run them hard too, a lot of people run them closer to 35 PSI but I’d rather reduce fuel consumption and tire wear, though that doesn’t help with the natural toe out that those big tires have. At any rate, hard tires ride hard even if they are more efficient.
Sort of raced out to Indian Ladder Farms along the bike trail, though traffic was fairly light due to the cloudy and cool weather. I heard the 4 PM chime as I was heading into Font Grove so I knew time was tight. But when I got to Indian Ladder Farms, it didn’t seem like they were packing shop up at 5 PM it was packed, with a swinging rock band and crowds at the hard-cider place. Me on the bicycle just locked up my bike on the split-log fence next to the entrance and walked. Disappointed with the selection of apples, it seems like more and more of the store has been taken over by gifts and knick-knacks, and they only have a tiny selection of what-seemed like overpriced-apples and even less of vegetables.
I was so spoiled by Golden Harvest Orchards in Kinderhook what now was almost two weeks ago with their cheap prices and wide selection of fruits and vegetables. Excuse to ride the Albany Electric Trail and spend more time poking around that O-K town! Though I probably have to drive at least part of the way there. At any rate, I got my half-peck of apples for eleven bucks at Indian Ladder,, got in line and got out of there craziness. I had no interest in the cider doughnuts, in part because of the line but also because it’s just not my thing anymore. I’d much rather savor good apples, fresh, shredded with lots of cinnamon and ginger or fried in some olive oil with aforementioned spices and maybe a dash of stevia in the friyng pan. I want to enjoy my fruit, not have it bathed with so much sugar and saturated fats, even if occasionally a little sweetness doesn’t hurt. I think next time in a week I might just get apples that are on sale in bag at Hannaford rather then ride out to Indian Ladder, though it was a very scenic ride towards the end by the orchard, despite the gray skies, heavy traffic and piss poor leaf color this year. Good ride though, 17 miles round trip.
Stopped at Hannaford on way back to stock up on brown rice and green lentils again as I’m almost out, and that’s an essential as the work week is coming up sooner then I want to admit. After I got back home, put the oatmeal-whole wheat bread in the oven, along with spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, a couple of chopped up apples in a separate pan. Baked for 40 minutes to an hour, the bread was done first. I kneaded the bread this morning after breakfast — another good simple wholesome bread containing just whole-wheat flower, water, yeast, oatmeal (not ground) and some sea salt, topped with a bit of sea salt and several flakes of oatmeal — allowed to rise all day.
To serve over the spaghetti squash I made red lentil soup — probably the Indians would call it curry though not following any recipe in particular. It was made by boiling the heck out of a bad red lentils until they were basically mush, frying up some onions, tossing them in, along with a bunch of frozen spinach, and frozen stir fry vegetables. Added a bunch of turmeric and smoked paprika and cooked it down, it was amazing over that spaghetti squash with that oatmeal bread dipped in, some sweet potatoes on the side, and baked apple for dessert. I won’t say it was an instant TV dinner though I did have a Youtube streaming on my phone in the kitchen, but I doubt I spent an hour cooking and I was very happy with the results and have many more good meals to eat in the coming days just ready to be pulled out of the cupboard or the refrigerator.