Tiger Through the Trees
Last Saturday morning, Veronica and I headed to Madison’s free Vilas Zoo. We met our friends Yi Hong and Steve there shortly after opening time, hoping to beat the crowds. Little did we know that the Green and Gold Training Camp was going on that morning, and hundreds of little Packers fans and their parents had descended on the zoo. Luckily, the crowd mostly stayed occupied with things other than looking at the animals.
Iguana
Although we’d been to the zoo a couple of times before, we’d missed out on a few animals and areas. This was the first time we saw the tiger in its enclosure; previously, there had just been signs up saying “Exhibit Closed.” We also ventured into the herpetarium, in which you can get pretty close to some of the snakes and reptiles (see left). A new Children’s Zoo with a playground and carousel opened a year or so ago, but we hadn’t realized that the area actually houses more animals — a red pandas, a pair of meerkats, some white cockatoos and a huge African porcupine.
Click the photos above for larger versions, or check out the whole gallery here.
The Contents of Our Third Box
This morning, we picked up our third CSA box of the summer. This box was the biggest yet — 3/4 bushel, whereas our previous boxes were only 5/9 bushel. Plus, this time our farm offered basil as an ‘option’ crop, meaning that they left a huge box full of it at our pickup location and said “take as much as you want.” Since I neglected to bring a bag, I literally stuffed my pockets full of basil. Tomorrow, we’ll make a big batch of pesto and freeze it in single-meal portions with the help of a couple of ice cube trays. Our goal is to make enough while basil is in season to make it through the winter (we eat lots of pasta).
While we have no doubt what to do with the basil, we’re not so sure about some of the other items. What, if anything, can you do with pickling cucumbers other than pickle them? Can the two of us possibly make it through four regular cucumbers before they go bad? What should we do with beets? Can we find a way to prepare our cauliflower that we’ll actually like? What’s special about Cippolini onions? But, we’ve done pretty well with unfamiliar veggies so far, so I’m sure we’ll have some interesting culinary adventures this week!
In honor of Independence Day, here are some shots I took last night of the Elver Park Fireworks display in Madison:
Click each pic for a larger version
