Monday, January 2, 2012

Starting the New Year with Fireworks and Hope


First Fire of the New Year!! A glass of Prosecco (thanks Liz for the introduction), gloves dirty after a day playing in the garden and tidying the summerhouse. What's with this weather?

We ended 2011, as many Maritimers do, with lobster, fresh caught, just off our own shores .. $5.50 a lb. The Cap does the cracking, making it much easier to eat at the table...a little melted butter, a dish of vinegar  for dipping; that's how we like it.


Thanks Wayne for staying open long enough for all your neighbours to have the best New Year's eve dinner ever!

Lobster is almost a Holy food in our house. Not only have relatives and neighbours made a living fishing them, but when in season, it is the celebratory food of special days. Here on the South Shore, the lobster season opened the beginning of December and so far, the weather has been very favorable.

As a child, we were not given any of the succulent parts to eat like the claws and tails. Us kids got the legs..you know..the skinny, hardly any meat in them legs. I guess we had to prove we appreciated those meagre bits before being graced with a claw..soft, juicy and delicious. The tail, which is always a bit tougher, held more meat but to this day, we always favor claws the best. When we grew to adults you learned to take apart the main body and eat the sweetest meats in there before discarding any part.  I sometimes reduce the shells even further, for broth. One doesn't waste lobster! A few years back, someone realized the potential of all those shells and started grinding them and selling to the garden market.


Did you know lobsters do not thrive on Canada's west coast?  How I missed my maritime feasts when we lived on Saltspring Island in British Columbia.....Christmas wasn't Christmas without lobster.

So today, the second day of the New Year, my hopes are very high. The shed has been cleaned out, a good tidy up waiting for leeks to be started and perhaps some greens. Sun streams through the windows, reflecting this bright, optimistic, New Year.


Thank you, so very much, for visiting, following, joining in the conversation, as we start a  Happy New Garden Year together.  

14 comments:

  1. and a Good New Year to you too

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  2. I like your take on past, present and future, Brenda. Looking forward to a new happy year.

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  3. We had lobster for Gomish in a dip. I had it earlier in the year as well. My son has worked for Clearwater for a loooooong time and keeps us filled up with lobster and scallops. yummy.
    your pictures are divine!

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  4. Hello my friend. It always makes my day when I see that you have a post for us to read. Did you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year?

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  5. Wow ... your summer shed looks so clean and tidy! Hard to imagine that with us being in the middle of a blizzard!
    Happy New year and best wishes to you and your family for 2012~
    Michele

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  6. I don't eat fish or seafood, but I can understand your enthusiasm for Lobster. And I thoroughly approve of the "keeping it local" aspects of your tradition.
    Our local fish here in Hampshire (UK) is the Trout, fished from chalk streams, from where we also source our watercress.

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  7. Happy New Year to you too - must admit though I'm not a seafood fan at all. Not the taste or anything as I've never tasted any it's just the whole idea of them.

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  8. Brenda, being a west coaster I've only eaten lobster perhaps twice in my whole life. It's been a real eye opener seeing how much a part of daily life lobster is for east coasters. It's such a delicacy in other places and yet I've seen people bring in a cold lobster for lunch in my office like it was a can of tuna. Glad you had a wonderful new year celebration and looking forward to seeing what the new year brings in your garden.

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  9. Happy new year! Your lobster feast sounds like a perfect way to ring in the new year. (I wish I could eat them, but have a rather severe allergy to them!) I love your sunlit shed with the potting bench. I look forward to seeing the progress of your seedlings.

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  10. Happy New Year Bren - starting with fireworks and hope seems good to me. But to start with Lobster too - now that's sublime!

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  11. Is the roof of your summerhouse glass, plexiglass, or some other material? We are looking to put a new roof on our greenhouse and checking out different options.

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  12. Thanks so much for all the wonderful and exuberant comments! A new year...what a gift.

    Anonymous, to answer your question, the windows are glass..industrial grade glass, which were hugely heavy and difficult to install. Think I might have done a blog on that...not sure. Plexiglass seems a good option. We had these left over from a reno in our kitchen so used/recyled them. They leak a bit, I won't lie. We have to fix that. It was a huge learning curve installing them, so must go back and fix mistakes. Job 210 on the list ;-)))

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  13. Those lobsters look beyond delicious, Bren. And, such the perfect color for a Celebratory Meal! I especially love throwing the shells and sundries into a large pot of spicy tomato sauce, which is then luxuriously splashed over homemade pasta....It is the perfect way to extend the preciousness of the meal.

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  14. We don't have lobster often but when we do we always enjoy it. Dipping it in vinegar is new to me and it never occurred to me to boil the shells for broth...but I will be doing that the next time we have a feast...what a great way to add flavor to a pot of seafood chowder! Thanks.

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