“It was a dark and stormy night……’ in Walker, MN, but God stepped in and made it al fine!

What a fun day this was. After “It was a dark and stormy night” of lightening, thunder and pounding rain (a town near here got 1” in 5 min.) – the morning turned beautiful and off we went to the Walker Farmers market.  So many friendly, knowledgeable vendors.  Except one who thought Minnesota could raise better Walla Wallas than Washington!!

 Bought lots of veggies – patty pan squash, huge Daikon (probably roast with onions and ?) and have with a grilled steak. Plums & peaches for just having some fruit, a loaf of sourdough bread and 2 more jars of Chokecherry jelly to play with.   A container of Canola (not the oil!) honey – it’s white and looks like the honey we used to get in waxed cardboard containers when I was a kid – tasted of honeycomb. A lb. of tomatillos – so pretty, but have no idea what I’ll do with them.  A few Jalapenos, 2 ears of corn and lettuce all of which will ensure no scurvy in our travel trailer.

Also, met a delightful lady, Kathy Connell, who is a fantastic local gardener and gives seminars on growing/planting/preserving seeds/all related to this ‘genre’.  I bought a Ruby Gold huge Heirloom to used on a Burger in the next day or so – it’s beautiful.
   http://www.redferngardens.com/

 Denise Fennell, you especially would enjoy ‘talking’ with her – she is so knowledgeable.

 There is a cute little ‘tourist trap’ store, Christmas Point Wild Rice in Walker, that had loads of consumables (only thing I’m allowed to buy…) – a red pepper sauce (for pizza),  a pkg. of Wind & Willow Lemon Cheesecake Cheeseball & Dessert Mix. Wow, is this tasty – they had it mixed with cream cheese and butter and I’m thinking mixed with a little D.Q. soft ice cream and I can pretend I made cream cheese ice cream of a few years ago.

http://www.christmaspoint.com/our-story.html  (Christmas Point Wild Rice) – great store with lots of goodies that can be ordered.

Finally it was 11:30 and time for wine tasting!! On to Forestedge Winery –

http://www.forestedgewinery.com/wine_list.html

We usually pooh-pooh fruit wine wineries, but Forestedge is outstanding. We have a 1 bottle rule per winery – we bought  6 bottles – Cassis Pommes, Apple Wine, Black Currant, White Cranberry,  Chokecherry and Rhubarb!!  It’s owned by a couple, Paul & Sharon Shuster and John Wildmo. Sharon is the winemaker and she is just excellent at her craft. We all chatted (a couple staying in the same RV park joined us) – the six of us for at least an hour and a half.

From there on to lunch at Walker’s Lucky Moose Bar & Grill    ttp://luckymoosebargrill.com/bar.htm

It was “Meat Raffle Thursday” whatever that means – but, the appies were half off. So we loaded up again so we could bring some goodies home. They also have a special drink – Colorado Bulldog: Kahula, Vokda, Coke, 1/2 & 1/2. We split one to end the lunch and is it ever good!!

While we were there a regular came in with a jar of pickles to share with his friends at the bar. He told everyone they had a secret ingredient and he wasn’t going to tell them what it was. I had our server call him over to our table and told him we were out of state and wouldn’t tell a soul (except the world on facebook & C@H) if he would tell me his secret. His secret is a pinch of cinnamon (just the tiniest bit) and a larger pinch of powder ginger. There was a little different flavor to the pickles, but you sure could not tell what it was – they were delicious. 

 Now, here comes the personal and sad part of my tale. As he was coming over to our table you noticed he walked with difficulty with a cane and his face had a lot so stuff going on and especially with his eyes, like it was hard for him to focus. After we talked for a while, he told us what had happened to him. He used to be a cook at this Grill and a few years ago he was crossing the highway (out front of the restaurant) and was hit by a car. He was told he would be a paraphaligic (sorry, have no idea how to spell this and spell check can’t figure out what I mean) – but, he can now get around.

 Roy and I looked at each other and we both just shivered and almost ended up in tears. Years ago, our favorite in the world son-in-law, Larry (Tracie’s husband and father of our grandkids Jimmy & Mandy) was crossing Highway 101 in Sunny Valley, OR going home from his job as a cook at a restaurant on the other side. He was hit by a truck and killed instantly. Can you imagine what went thru our bodies when we heard this fellow’s story????????  After he had gone back to where he was sitting and we collected ourselves, I walked over and sat next to him and told him Larry’s story and how lucky he was to be alive and oh, how we wish Larry could have had the same luck. What a beautiful little guy he was and he ended up with tears in his eyes also. Jesus, what an emotional lunch that was!!!

And, that was our day exploring Walker, MN.