a bushel of gumption, an ounce of grace
The snow finally came, two delayed school openings in a row– that’s more a function of the timing than the amount, but still. Snow, finally.
The deep cold is on its way, highs this weekend forecast in the single digits. Whoa, cold. More wood on the way. Time to get some slow cooking happening….
We have moved our production from Craryville to Hillsdale. Officially just before Christmas, but our first full production day was this past week. Seems a fitting spot to land, as our name, after all, means hills….
January 17, as written here before, is Christmas on the Julian calendar, Old Twelfth Night. Wassailing was traditional on or around this day and still is in some parts of England….
2015 continued the trend of a few years now, bringing many changes and challenges on the personal and professional planes. Status quo is but a distant memory….
Our abundance of quince led to a first time branching out into quince jelly. Lovely in color, and ever true to its quinceness, fragrant and unique in flavor: a keeper.
…
With an unexpected haul of beautiful quince from the Berkshires thanks to friend, chef and meat expert Rob, 
our autumn quartet is complete.
I don’t think I’ll ever tire of cooking quince– as labor intensive as it is (see my posts from last year…you cook and cook quince, and then finally, you’re ready to start cooking it…) watching it change from creamy white to orange-ish to rosy orange is like magic every time.
But if you can’t deal with the scrubbing, peeling, cutting (more like hacking), cooking, just having a bowl of the fruit on the table lends a heady fragrance to a room. We are absolute fans.
Go quince!!!
The season’s first hard freeze occurred over the weekend. Ahead of it, went for Concords Friday; Saturday harvested as much as I could of the tomatoes at home. Unbelievable how many green ones still there, sorry to see the season end. …
Back after two years, so happy to announce the return of our first flavor, the sweet tart, candy apple red jelly that rocks for flavor and color like no other: crabapple.
In a year of extraordinary apple crops, the crabapples too are producing more than we can harvest. Will be all the more for the deer and other critters in a winter forecast to be pretty tough in the Northeast.
But for the moment it is October, just one light frost to date. The trees hang heavy with fruit, the foliage is glowing and les collines await only magical, fragrant quince for the autumnal lineup to be complete.
Coming soon all four: cider sage, quince, crabapple, Concord grape– gold to pumpkin to red to deep purple, reflecting the colors of the season xo
We’re in the last month of summer, that sweet spot when the light has shifted but the heat of summer is still on. Flame bushes tinting red, the occasional leaf change, and some pre-dawn runs that need long sleeves….
Red fruits as a term doesn’t exist in English, sadly, as it usefully groups together some if not most of my favorites. The berries and currant family are all there, cranberries too. Back in the distant day when I was buying preserves (yes, shocking!!) my preferred Bonne Maman flavor was 4 (as in, quatre…) Fruits, perfect for pb&j on up: cherry, strawberry, red currant, and raspberry.
The red fruits of les collines exist in their own separate jars– perhaps one day we’ll mix them, but for now they stand alone in all their glory. Stripes of a season’s rainbow, colors and flavors of summer suspended in time xo