Shaking the Sunday Blues

Does anyone have a traditional nine to five Monday through Friday job anymore? I don’t think that’s still a thing. Yet ideas like the weekend still exist, as do long standing traditions about the days of the week.

Monday still sucks. Wednesday is still hump day. Friday still marks the weekly finish line.

One of the lingering holdouts of the five day, forty hour work week is the idea of Sunday afternoons, which are always problematic. I suppose that for some people there are sports to watch in front of the television, which may or may not be an excuse to drink beer, eat chips, and yell at the TV.

But the Sunday blahs are real, even for those who don’t have a traditional schedule. And last Sunday I found myself a bit down in the dumps. However, thanks to social media, I found a path to contentment and serenity that I thought I should share in advance of another pending weekend.

There are so many great events these days in the Capital Region, it’s not even funny. I often find them on Facebook, but I do try and put a few up on the Yelp Events page too. Still, some fall through the cracks.

I had heard about the Sunday cookouts at Indian Ladder Farmstead Cidery and Brewery, and saw pictures of the giant paella they were cooking over the fire a couple weeks ago. But for some reason didn’t quite connect the dots that it was an ongoing weekly thing.

Last Sunday, they were making porchetta.

But it was an Instagram post by princessmege of local brewer Scott Veltman enjoying a cold glass of sangria, and the news of a special $4 beer can sale that day, which pushed me out of the house and into my happy place.

The drive to Indian Ladder Farm is beautiful. I took some back roads, rolled down the windows, and turned the music up in the car. And when I pulled into the farm, there was a giant grill, large joints of meat, and even a seat at a picnic table in the shade.

There’s an inside area of the brewery too, and that was even air conditioned.

After grabbing my can of Daniel Driscoll Pale Ale, a collaboration between ILF and Threes Brewing in Brooklyn, I grabbed a seat. There is waitress service available at the picnic tables, so you can order anything off the kitchen menu, which includes those marvelous deep fried cheese curds. But I was there for the porchetta.

For about $10 I got a delicious slice off the roast, some corn, and roasted potatoes. I wish I wrote down what farm the pig came from, but came from relatively nearby. And this perfectly seasonal meal was more than enough for my dinner. Although I did get one of the last slices around 5p when things were wrapping up for the day.

The specifics don’t really matter, because every Sunday it’s different. This week, the team is going to cook a steamship round of beef. That is a giant joint of beef and an ambitious thing to cook on a grill. If you get there at 11a when the biergarten opens, you’ll get to watch it cooking in the giant oil drum grill. But it’s done when it’s done. Typically, that would be in the early to mid afternoon. But there’s music, beer, and fried cheese curds to keep you in your happy place until it’s ready.

This Sunday, I’m heading down to New York City, so I’m going to miss the festivities. And I don’t recall what ambitious cooking projects are in the future. Dammit, I should have written them down.

What I do know is that our local farm brewery is awesome, and doing everything right. They’re growing their own hops, which you can see from the biergarten. They’re growing their own barley and bringing it to a local malt house for processing. And they’ve created a chill spot on the farm to sit and relax and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

And now, you can even take an Uber or a Lyft out there. I had plenty of bars while out on the farm to share my own experience at the time over social media.

Anyhow, heading into this weekend, I thought you all should know. Just in case your own Sunday creeps up on you and tries to drag you down.