Enjoy the Fruits of Yours or Someone Else's Labor

Summertime is Beach time, BBQ and best of all Berry time. And Peaches. And Plums. And all of the wonderful fruits that are ready to be savored  fresh from the tree, preserved to enjoy this winter when you need a taste of summer and now while you relax with a favorite book. Visit us at the library and at the Lake Forest Farmers Market. We can help you "pick" just the right titles.
  The Apple Orchid Susan Wiggs Fiction  Set to inherit a one hundred acre apple orchard and to meet a half sister she's never heard of, Tess Delaney discovers a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family.

Best Food Writing 2013  641  For a taste of the Midwest pull up to the table and tuck into these and other food related essays:  Cincinnati Five-way Chili, The Sandwich that is Chicago, Coke and Peanuts and The View from West 12th.  

50 Best Plants on the Planet Cathy Thomas  641.6578  Simple recipes for sides, breakfasts and dinners that include memory boosting blackberries, antimicrobial chili peppers and vitamin A-rich watermelon. This book is a valuable resource for cooks looking to add more fruits and vegetables to their table. Nutritional tables, tips for buying and storing food and gorgeous photographs make this book a wonderful resource.

The Four Season Farm Gardener's Cookbook Barbara Damrosch  635
                                              Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie  641.5977
                                                      From the Great America Pie Expedition to recollections of once a week meatloaf dinners and visits to the Minnesota State fair this is a collection of heartland food stories. Humorous, nostalgic and mouthwatering essays of food, family and place.  Start your grill, shuck your fresh picked corn and get ready to enjoy celebrating Midwestern cuisine.

The Fruit Hunters  DVD 634    Travel across culture, history and geography searching for and finding ways of saving exotic and endangered fruit.

Hoosier Mama Book of Pie Paula Haney  641.8652  From sweet to savory this is a gorgeous, easy-to-use guide to make delicious pie from Chicago's nationally celebrated Hoosier Mama Pie Company.

The Orchardist Amanda Coplin  Fiction  Set in the early years of the 20th century Pacific Northwest in a landscape of plum, apricot and apple orchards this beautifully written novel tells the story of the effects of two dramatic losses played out within a strikingly beautiful landscape.

Saving the Season Kevin West  641.4
A Cook's guide to Home Canning, Pickling and Preserving.

Fruit and Lettuce Seasonal Salad

Ingredients:

·         50/50 lettuce mixture

·         Strawberries

·         Cucumber

·         Tomatoes

·         Red onion

·         Dried cranberries

·         Crumbled feta cheese

·         Walnuts

Preparation:

Cut strawberries, cucumbers, tomato and red onion into pieces and arrange on lettuce.

Add cranberries, feta cheese and walnuts.

Toss with Brianna’s Blush Wine Vinaigrette (This dressing compliments many kinds of fruit.  Add/substitute other fruits as desired.)

(submitted by Pam, Circulation)

New Technology at the Library

The Lake Forest Library has officially opened its new study space and Media Lab. You may have known it as the Garden Room or that room that has been under construction for a long time. Now we have four tables for individual or group work that will always be open. The walls are white board walls with dry erase markers available for use!

For thirty hours a week, the glassed off area in the lab will be available to anyone with a Lake Forest Library or Lake Forest College card. This lab has a nice, new Mac Pro with access to lots of computer programs and special equipment. We have entry and professional level software to edit and create graphics, music, and video. There is a VCR to digitize VHS home movies and a high quality scanner for slides and photographs. We also have a keyboard and microphone for recording audio and music.

While the lab is open, we will have lab assistants available to assist lab users. You can make a reservation 24 hours in advance to reserve the space or to have instruction in using all of the new tools and software. You can find more information at the Media Lab's site.

Pack These Picture Books

Great Picture Books to Take on Summer Vacation Trips

Even though you’re trying to keep your packing to “just what we’ll need”  remember to take along some picture books for the younger children.  Vacation trips are made for books rich in detail, or lengthier than usual, as you have time to relax over a book.  You’ll also want to take books that can bear repeated readings: stories and illustrations that reveal new layers of meaning and detail each time they are read.  Match books to destinations, to whet appetites and prepare for what you’re going to experience.  The following books should hold up well.  

 Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm   Details the wide variety of animals, both tame and wild, that occupy tranquil Maple Hill Farm.  We learn about the individual dogs, cats, sheep, geese, horses, cows, and wildlife that surround the tranquil farm.  From Max the Cat to Pearl the Pig, the veritable menagerie of animals’ behavior is detailed in simple language with full pages of detailed illustration bringing to mind Richard Scarry’s Busy World.

 Are any of the World’s Biggest on your trip’s itinerary – Mt. Rushmore, or the Jolly Green Giant?   In The Giant Ball of String, the town of Rumpus Ridge has accumulated the World’s Largest Ball of String.  But then catastrophe strikes - a storm blows it downriver to another town The residents of Rumpus Ridge devise a complicatedly humorous scheme to retrieve their pride and joy.  Geisert draws from a bird’s eye view, illustrations in a world in miniature to pore over as we follow along in this wordless story.

 Chester the Worldly Pig   Like many of us, Chester longs for fame.  He just knows he is meant for more than ending up as somebody’s ham sandwich.  So off he trots to join the circus. The talented pig  becomes famous and has exciting and scary adventures encountering lions, bears, hobos, butchers and carnival owners.  Bill Peet’s books are quite lengthy for picture books, with realistic colored pencil drawings complementing humorous stories that will delight all ages.

Adele & Simon in America   In turn of the century America, Parisian siblings Adele and Simon take a cross country trip,  stopping in various cities of historical interest.  Sharp eyes can also keep a look out for young Simon’s  belongings as he loses them along the way.

 Mossy  A garden of water plants grows on the back of  Mossy,  a beautiful box turtle. She is taken to a nearby nature museum by an admiring scientist and her niece as a very special exhibit .  Sadly, Mossy pines to return to her pond and friends.  The scientist’s niece devises an original way to show Mossy to the museum visitors after she has been released back into her natural habitat.  Brett’s lush pictures with her trademark borders will provide hours of delightful examination as we explore both the nature center and the home Mossy has left behind. 

Munschworks   These treasuries contain 5 or so stories about kids getting in and out of trouble.  Breezy and humorous, the misadventures become even more hilarious with large bold illustrations.  Luckily, the humor never pales, as they will surely be requested over and over.

Camping Trip That Changed America   Taking a car trip out West to visit some of our spectacular National Parks?  Read about how they all began, with this picture book version of Teddy Roosevelt & John Muir’s successful  attempts to save our wilderness.