Scenes from Nature, The amazing Edwards home, Dinner and Fun!
This Sun ornament greets you on their beautiful deck out back and is only one of many nature themed visuals in their home.
A neon tree on the living room wall finally fulfilled Eve's lifelong desire for something neon, but also says that this is a place where 'nature' is respected and revered.
Eve has a wonderful herbal garden, of which this is just one box. Cliff and I sampled 6 kinds of mint!, thyme, basil, oregano, dill, and several more! Amazing! There are also tomatoes and cucumbers growing on the porch and lots more wonderful edible plants!
A walkway leads right into the woods that surround their property for all of the hiking you could ever imagine...right in the backyard!
A beautiful self built coy pond with 3 big giant coyfish in the prettiest colors with nature oriented names. I remember 'Mercury' was one..., and one big fat goldfish that came from a goldfish bowl, and now just continues to grow and grow!
Rrribbit! Rrribbit! We spotted three big frogs in the coy pond! Frogs help keep the bug population low on the property as well.
A cicada shell that Aaron, Eve and Jeff's son, loves to collect. You can find them all over the property! OOky!!!
Say HI to Aaron! What a lucky boy to be raised by such health conscious and nature loving parents on such a wondrous property!
Say HI to Eve, the wonderful singer/natural chef/natural mom! Cliff and I received such a nice tour of the property by Eve and Jeff, had such a wonderful dinner and had such fun and relaxation later. This is Eve right next to the coy pond!
A view of the side of the house where one sees two strange boxes on either side of the window. That's where the bats live!!!! These are bat houses that Jeff and Eve built! We were not lucky enough to see them flying around later...!!!! ooooky!!!!
Jeff Edwards and Cliff enjoying raw hors d'oeuvres on the deck!
Raw cows milk cheese with yellow tomatoes!
Brad's Raw Chedder Chips, and some Arnolds Way Green Livin' Bread! Great for dippers or cheese!
A raw cashew 3 pepper pate' I made. Why can i never remember to shoot the picture BEFORE everyone digs in??? We finished almost the whole bowl, so I think it turned out really good! Red peppers, jalapeno peppers and light green peppers blended with cashews and white onion, a little raw vinegar, celtic salt and agave. A real winner!
A wonderful vegetable salad Eve whipped up with all farm fresh organic or nearly organic local produce that she purchases from an area farm. She buys NOTHING in a regular supermarket. All of her meats are organic grass fed farm raised free range no steroid no hormone.
Even the butter is organic from grass fed cows!
A local watermelon, bright red, juicy, seedless, so delish!
The raw chocolate pie i made. This turned out really really well...and almost by accident! But a chef never reveals her foibles...!!!! Nah, i can't keep a secret. I put avocado, cacao, agave, vanilla and olive oil in the chocolate pudding. My olive oil is SO olivey and almost ruined the pie filling. I just had to keep adding cacao and more cacao and more cacao. You know what? It came out even better for the foible! There is a pecan coconut crust and it is topped with vanilla cashew cream. A super duper winner!
Wow, I tried my first taste of raw milk. It IS delicious!
Jeff and Cliff enjoying the amazing pool that Jeff and Eve had built onto their enclosed floating deck. Jeff and Eve really know how to LIVE, how to EAT, how to ENJOY life! This is an indoor pleasure palace, a continuous motion pool and a sauna!!!! I can't believe i forgot to get a picture of the sauna! What a wonderful time we had at their home!
Eve Edwards, an amazingly gifted opera soprano colleague of mine, and her husband Jeff, and son Aaron were our wonderful hosts Saturday night for an evening of healthy good food, food and nature-focused talk, fun and relaxation!
The evening was spent in the Edwards' amazing home in Schwenksville, PA, outside of Collegeville. Their home is set back far, far into the woods and not a neighbor or clue of other civilization is apparent from their property. All one sees are endless trees, and all one hears is a plethora of nature and wildlife sounds...birds chirping, leaves rustling, frogs rrribbiting. All of these and many other forms of wildlife happily call the Edwards property their dwelling. Cicadas, grasshopper-like locusts, like to leave their shells after shedding all over the property. And Aaron, Eve and Jeff's adorable son, loves to collect these! Cicadas, we were told, make quite a racket shedding and doing their daily business as well. Bats keep the bug population in check on the property, so Eve and Jeff built bat houses for the bats to sleep in!!! There are frogs in the coypond as well as big colorful coy and one giant goldfish. Eve and Jeff built the coy pond themselves, and a greenhouse, as well! Mice like to take over the bird houses and lots of other critters, including snakes, make the Edwards property a lively place! Rusalke, their beloved 'old girl', a mix of shepherd, coyote and husky, make her grand entrance, but i couldn't snap a picture of her..... There is amazing hiking on their acres and acres of wooded property and lots more wildlife to be found there, for sure!
After a tour of the amazing house and property, which includes an indoor swimming pool, and sauna!!!!!!, we enjoyed a wonderful meal of not only raw items, but consciously chosen local organic or near organic produce, organic butter from grass fed cows, raw organic milk, organic farm raised no hormone no steroid chicken and local corn. I ate my corn raw and passed the chicken to everyone else! I have a feeling if i would eat chicken, THIS is the kind I would want to eat. Eve says, "I can only take half credit for the chicken coming out so well. The Cornell Catering recipe is a coveted secret that i discovered on the internet...but it's the chicken...it actually tastes like chicken and not like rubber. I would NEVER eat supermarket chicken EVER again!"
Dinner Menu at the Edwards Home!
-Raw Cheddar Cheese, Organic yellow tomatoes & Arnolds Way Organic Raw Flax Crackers
-Michelle's Raw Three Pepper Cashew Pate & Brads Raw Chedder Chips
-Cornell Catering Famous Grilled Chicken (i didn't eat)
-Roasted Corn on the cob (i had mine raw)
-Chunky Raw Veggie Salad with simple lemon vinaigrette
-Watermelon
-Michelle's Raw Insanely Chocolate Pudding Pie (wow!)
-Amazing Cabernet Sauvignon Wine, Beer for Cliff and Jeff...and tastes of real raw milk. Wow!
Eve is a self confessed 'foodie' (a food network junkie like me) who seriously CARES about the quality of what she and her family eats. Friday is the shopping day for the Edwards family at the Willow Creek Orchards in Collegeville. www.willowcreekorchards.com Willow Creek Orchards have a marvelous farmers market, all natural meats and dairy, they even sell 'Awesome Foods' raw to go meals and make banana whips and smoothies! I thought Arnolds Way was the only place to get banana whips!!! Eve purchases only the best foods for her family, and let me tell you, you can TASTE the difference! The tomatoes in the salad actually tasted like tomatoes!!!
Eve is going to be my recruit if i ever open up a raw restaurant!!! This lady knows what's GOOD!!!
xoxox michelle joy
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