The les collines Manhattan

After a few deceptive spring-like days March is blowing in with some impressive heavy snow and wind. Spring, we are ready for you. There are two full moons this month, the Worm and the Sap; one hopeful note, by the time of the Sap it will in fact be spring. The Sap also is a blue moon, second time this year after January. Could just see the Worm behind the incoming storm clouds last night: it will still be bright and pretty on the snow once those clouds disperse.

But where have the past few months flown chez les collines?? Well…holidays and post- saw us collapsing. Lots of eggnog. Some cocooning, some satisfying streaming by the fire (among others Big Little Lies, so, so good). Then back to work!!!

The saga of the Sevilles: this included weeks of delays followed by their delivery truck getting storrowed (no one hurt, including Sevilles) followed by a night of USDA impoundment…the beauties (and as Mike at Guido’s told me, never seen such pretty Sevilles) finally made it to the Berkshires, and our 2018 Scots Bitter is ready and dare we say better than ever.

We’ve been continuing to develop our Ginger Preserve, which is just about perfected and is a pot-licking keeper. A very limited edition Elderberry Jelly is up next. Promises to be tasty, but may not be revisited: I now have grasped that the Monty Python and the Holy Grail timeless insult “and your father smelt of elderberries” is not as meaninglessly absurd as is commonly believed…just another way working with so many fruit has expanded the subtleties of my knowledge base.

After giving up hope due to the lingering blight, we did procure some really beautiful quince from our friends at Fishkill Farms. The Quince Preserve is lovely and also limited.

The Berkshire Grown Winter Markets were in January and February, sorry already past…but we’ll continue to appear at other indoor markets and events: this weekend at Cold Spring Saturday for their market and Adams Newburgh Sunday for the food fair that culminates their garden show. Follow our social media for dates and updates. 

In other news, the wonderfully revived Copake General Store hosted us for a great tasting with local cheeses a few weeks ago, complete with wine pairing suggestions from our friends at Copake Wine Works. Our Lavender Jelly did triple duty, appearing in a glaze for Sam’s Valentine’s cookies and out-of-this-world cream puffs. 

So excited to be joining other fine local products on the shelves of White Hart Provisions in Salisbury, CT and at Ella’s Bellas in Beacon, NY. And to be sending our Strawberry Preserve with Lapsang Souchong to the women of The Wing Soho– including a special large format for Chef Dani Dillon at their new Dumbo location. Continuing the amazing women theme, we’re honored to have les collines featured with amazing female artisans Daughters Design House, Nell Goods, and Alexandra Stafford, in perfectly curated Upstate Crate Co. (also woman-owned!) gorgeous gift groupings.

We love hearing from our customers about how they use les collines: our most recent favorite is from Joyce in Brooklyn, a fan of the SLSP– that would be the Strawberry, yasss– from the beginning. She told us it is great on banana pancakes. We tried it for ourselves one chilly Sunday, and it sure is. Have also been eating a lot of the Scots Bitter, with peanut butter and sometimes banana, and Cabot White Oak Cheddar. The Scots and the Ginger are also both incredibly good on simple, classic, comforting buttered toast.

Hope you are staying warm and well this winter, wherever you are. Don’t forget your daily spoon (or two) of les collines to keep any chilly blues at bay, and before you know it March, and winter, will be trotting away like a lamb xo

So cool to have been included in the Rural Intelligence 2017 Holiday Gift Guide. We are delighted!

Below, our tastings and special events through the holidays. We will update with additions and changes as they happen…merry and bright xo

Saturday December 2 The Chef’s Shop, Great Barrington, MA – tasting 11:30-2:30, select jars available in the store

Sunday December 3 Copake Falls Winter Walk (in the Taconic Wayside Inn) Copake Falls, NY – tasting & sale 1-4pm

Friday December 8 Indian Mountain Holiday Marketplace, Indian Mountain School, Lakeville, CT – tasting & sale 2-6:30pm

Saturday December 9 Hillsdale General Store, Hillsdale, NY – tasting 1-2:30, jars available in store

Saturday-Sunday December 9-10 Winter Work:shop Winter Market at Wickham Solid Wood Studio, Beacon, NY – tasting & sale Saturday 12/9 10-6 Sunday 12/10 11-5

Thursday December 14 Sierra Lily, Poughkeepsie, NY – tasting & sale 4-7pm

Saturday December 16 Berkshire Grown Holiday Market, Monument Middle School, Great Barrington, MA – tasting & sale 10-2

Saturday December 16 Fishkill Farms Holiday Market & Fair, Fishkill, NY – tasting (including cocktails!) 12-4, select jars available in the farm store

Sunday December 17 Harney & Sons Millerton, NY – tasting 1-3, select jars available in the shop

 

Coming to the tail end of harvest now this mid-October but we are playing catch up on all fronts with September. That usually sweet month of back to school energy and crisp mornings, golden light and shortening days blew in bitter and no sweet about it cold on the personal plane at les collines. We’ll write more about that over on the daily grace side, suffice it to say here that as always we’ve found solace in the natural world, in the farmers and other folk who like us have chosen a life closely entwined with it, and in our wonderful customers and stores who support what we’re doing.

Chipped Pears, Crabapple Jelly and Concord Grape Preserve are in now, they all are looking and tasting gorgeous. The Crabapple was featured in a Hudson Valley Bounty back-to-school bag along with other amazing local products like Bread Alone bread and the Peanut Principle nut butter.

Sadly for the first time we have no quince sources, the blight last year has run into this and thus there will be no Quince Preserve for the first time in les collines history. Pumpkin Confit is still in development, with a pH requiring more tweaking before we can safely release, so stay tuned: hoping by the end of the month. The test batches so far are so good, it will be well worth waiting for. And when we get a bit of a lull we will begin working on some of the rosehip juice we extracted from Jane Iredale’s rosehips growing just behind us at market. Very local sourced.

A fun article about using preserves in cocktails is out now in the fall issue of Edible Berkshires. Penned by the multi-talented Christy Frank of Copake Wine Works in Copake and formerly Frankly Wines in Manhattan and complete with seasonally appropriate recipes using les collines and Berkshire Mountain Distillery spirits. We hope to collaborate on a cocktail class with Berkshire Mountain this winter, stay tuned.

Our demo of Heirloom Tomato Butter marinated rib eye sold out our stock at the Great Barrington Co-op, it was our first time cooking live for a demo so especially glad it went well and nothing caught fire…

We’ll be sad to see the Great Barrington Farmers Market draw to a close the 28th, hard to believe given our feet dragging last spring about committing to a full season. It’s definitely a huge weekly commitment complete with schlepping but so very rewarding in the connection to our customers and other farmers, and we’re grateful to have been there. Two more Saturdays to catch us on Church St.

Otherwise events every weekend now so follow us on social media for locations and times and hope to see you and share some les collines love xo 

with thanks to P. Baptiste, Sheri Kiernan and Hudson Valley Bounty  for contributing photos.

link here for Sinatra’s version of the classic song, heartbreaking perfection.

August of dog days, blackberries, heirlooms ripening at last. Festivals and a frenzy of summertime events and the slant of the sun, hinted at in July, now undeniable. It is a summer of beautiful clouds, many days with rain, and not very hot temps.

At les collines whatever the weather high summer continues, with a recent beautiful batch of Shiro and red plums from fellow Great Barrington Farmers Market vendor Maynard Farms of Ulster Park. We are so glad to have Plum Jelly, we were without last year due to the freeze of stone fruit.

Blackberries from Greig, blueberries and black raspberries from Samascott are in now and combine for that dense, dark, 3-berry pie flavor Black & Blue, my favorite for breakfast with fresh ricotta and toasted almonds. Lavender continues to be a summer favorite, and customers have been telling me they love it with lamb– mix with Dijon and fresh rosemary to glaze, or serve with.

Local yellow and red onions coming in now from Markristo Farm slow simmer for our new batch of aromatic Onion Confit. Markristo also provided us with most of the Indigo radicchio for our Grillsdale offering, Meyer Lemon Rosemary Jelly glazed BC salmon, on grilled radicchio topped with tapenade. We were one of 11 chefs (cooks, in our case!) cooking last Saturday for 500, definitely intense. But a lot of fun and in a gorgeous setting.

Keeping it local, among others an appearance at the market at Falcon Ridge, a cocktail demo at Hillsdale Fine Wines and Spirits and a preserves and wine tasting at Domaney’s in Great Barrington have kept us hopping; we’ll be tasting at the Berkshire Co-op this Saturday right after the Great Barrington Farmers Market.

But back to jelly news…sweet and jalapeño peppers in now from Common Hands means Hot Pepper Jelly is back and in full swing. Concords and crabapples soon. And in a few weeks we are looking to try our hand at a Pumpkin Preserve, stay tuned.

Seems right to be thinking pumpkin now as the weather this past week, while spectacular, is more typical of September than August, with some very chilly nights and just barely sun-warmed days We’ll take it xo 

Gooseberry blackberry heirloom tomato; red onion yellow onion our Confit was approved!!!

The confit debuted to rave reviews at the Great Barrington and Copake-Hillsdale Farmers Markets this past weekend, and for the moment it is on sale now only at Olde Hudson.

Otherwise….this has been a real mixed month of weather with coolness and rains that have felt more like spring or fall than midsummer. For the first time in recent memory lighting a fire in the wood stove (indoors) in the month of July felt appropriate.

But also, the classically spectacular long summer days of warmth and peepers and fireflies. Where getting up at 5 a.m. or earlier feels a gift rather than a chore.

Today was one of those days: for this last day of July 2017 it was what felt like a pretty classic, perfect summer day. Almost hot, a little humid, plenty of sun, and here in the country that delicious coolness to begin and end the day.

Whatever the season it’s high season still and the days, though growing shorter in light, remain long long long for the farmer and producer. So we’ll let the photos fill in the gaps and hope to write more next time xo

with thanks to Paul Amash, Bruce Firger, Keyanna Gaylord and Sheri Kiernan for contributing photos  …

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