We did not do Secret Restaurant in August.
I (Andrew) was away for half of the month of August, visiting college friends in New England. Those college friends are beginning The Runnymede Project, a farm/homestead/arts organization in North Hampton, New Hampshire. I will be joining them next year, and this Secret Restaurant project will morph into something new when located out east. Here is what the barns look like:
I wanted to do a post about my time at Runnymede because the gorgeous vegetable bounty, communal atmosphere, frequent visitors, and constantly reunited friends was sort of like a perpetual Secret Restaurant. Less fancy, more spontaneous, more collaborative– but similar all the same.
I did a lot of cooking in New Hampshire, primarily with one large electric pan. Here I am in the late afternoon one day:
These communal meals we ate were all over the place– mashed turnips with fresh goat's milk and butter, rainbow chard and spiced red beans, covered in sunflower seed/thyme gravy; grilled cheese sandwiches with grilled corn on the cob; candied carrots; a mediterranean feast; rosehip jam from wild rosehips gathered nearby; broccoli with cheese sauce made using lobster butter... Some of these photos show food I didn't even have a hand in making– the point is that everyone was sharing the freshest, best foods at the best time of year to be eating right out of a garden.
19 of these 22 photographs were taken on with a 1970s Canon 35mm camera by Aria Mikkola-Sears. The other 3 were taken by me and don't have borders. Enjoy.
