It’s Mother’s Day and I’m missing my mom. She lives in Montana. I live in PA. A bit of a distance for brunch.

Even with the distance, she manages to make me feel more loved than any kid has a right to be loved. When I moved 2,000 miles away from home after college to do an internship in Maine, the boxes started arriving. For a woman who is used to showing her love through cooking, no distance could stop her from continuing that. It started with chocolate chip cookies, then a delivery of carrot cookies. A few weeks later apple cookies and then ginger snaps.

10 years later and having moved my way only further down the east coast to land in Philadelphia, the boxes are still coming. We get a lot of cookies, but we get even more CARROTS! Tons and tons of carrots, I can’t even count how many pounds of carrots have arrived on our doorstep.

First, you should know that my mom grows the best carrots in the world. They are seriously sweet and delicious. She grows a bunch of them and then stores them in a dry well by the garden. About once a month through the winter, they open up the lid and my dad climbs down the ladder and brings up 2 gallon bags of carrots. My mom calls with the good news and within a few days, the delivery guy knocks on our door and 25% of our fridge turns to orange. We make carrots juice, carrot salad, carrot soup, roasted carrots, and anything else we can think of. There is always an endless supply and it’s fantastic.

Better than all the carrots, the cookies and even the box of antlers that just arrived for our dog Doc, it’s thinking about my Mom filling that box that makes me so happy. She is such a generous, selfless person and I feel very lucky to have her as my mom.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

My mom and my adorable niece.