The Wool Goes 'Round: Food and Drink

May has been a crazy-busy month here at Strauch Fiber. We've gone to four great fiber festivals, and we've introduced a new product. (More about the new addition in another post.)

Maryland Sheep and Wool was a blast, or a blast furnace, depending on your point of view. Yup, it was hot, hot, hot! But as always, we had fun reconnecting with Strauch friends and fans from previous years and meeting lots of wonderful new people. Demos at Carolina Homespun, Earth Guild, Stony Mountain Fibers, Misty Mountain Farm, and The Mannings were well-received. It's great to get to spend a little time with those folks that bring our equipment to the fiber world at large.

Lawre and I were also thrilled to meet some rock stars of the fiber world. Here's a photo of Lawre with her spinning wheel idol Gordon Lendrum, maker of the fabulous Lendrum Spinning Wheels. Lawre loves her Lendrum wheel and was pretty darned excited to meet Gord. (That might be a bit of an understatement.)

We also had a chance to go out to dinner with Owen and Glynis Poad from Majacraft. They were at Maryland to launch their new wheel, the Aura. What lovely and fun people they are. Otto and Joanne will be spending some time with them in July when the Strauch World Tour heads to New Zealand and Australia for their big wool festivals.

Of course no Strauch adventure would be complete without going out for great food and drink. We had a couple of good dinners at the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company in Ellicott City. Robin is a great waitress - be sure to ask for her! But the real stand-out dining experience was at Pure Wine Cafe, also in Ellicott City. Really. Beautiful. Food. Go there, eat Tapas, and by all means get some White Peach Sangria. You won't be sorry.

I'd also like to give a shout-out to David and Susan at the Wayside Inn. This is our home-away-from-home when we go to MD. S&W. We love staying with David and Susan. Not only is the Inn fabulous and the breakfasts very yummy, but they are fun people and gracious hosts.

Lawre, Liz and Joanne having fun at Pure Wine Cafe. We're not normally this blurry. Must have been the sangria... Or maybe Otto was just laughing too hard when he took the picture. Yeah, that must be it!

See all the photos from Maryland S&W on our Flickr page, or watch the slideshow, below!

Twenty three pounds of lasagna!

Here's a picture of Joanne with her culinary masterpiece - the main part of our Easter feast at the Strauch's house.

The usual cast of characters where there. Otto & Joanne (of course), Lawre, Adam and his family, friends Hugh & Rae Jean and Betty Lou, yours truly with my husband and mother-in-law.

Everyone brought a dish to share, so we had quite the feast. There was a nice fresh veg and olive platter and Rae Jean's famous deviled eggs for starters; the main course, lasagna, along with sausage and chicken cooked in tomato gravy (a.k.a "sauce" for those of you of non-Italian origins); braised greens, asparagus, salad, yummy bread; and for dessert, Lawre brought two of her special family recipes - pecan chiffon pie and ice cream with caramel sauce and salted cashews.

The weather was glorious and warm so we dined al fresco on the deck. It was a lovely, relaxing day.

Thanks to Otto and Joanne for another great holiday with our family of friends!

See more photos from our Easter celebration in our Photo Album.