Archives for February 2016

Here at les collines we get excited by all the possibilities for our gems and jewels of locally-sourced, small batch jelly & preserves. The savory applications as well as the sweet. The new meat and cheese pairings that we find or come our way– Concord grape preserve with bleu de Bresse, mmm. Scots bitter with a young Pecorino, who knew. Quince preserve with Basque salami and Idiazabal (thank you, Tivoli General!)

But always good to get back to the touchstone of our earliest experiences with preserves, like on a piece of hot buttered toast. Here, sour cherry preserve, a les collines classic, on the wonderful Ella’s Bellas of Beacon’s gluten free sourdough, a revelation itself. A spread of unsalted Cabot butter in between, always appropriate. What more do you need, for breakfast, or in life? Not much. A decent cup of tea, and you are good to go xo

 

Almost halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, we were back in our new Hillsdale space producing two flavors from spring and one from fall. On an early February day that could easily have been pulled from late April at nearly 60 degrees, funnily enough frozen Kinderhook rhubarb– our first fruit of spring– was on the stove in two forms. Juice, for beautiful pint jars of jelly, and chopped stalks, for our preserve with vanilla bean and Harney Earl Grey Supreme tea. And, the near-last of autumn’s garnet crabapple juice.

The pint jars of rhubarb jelly were destined for the Vischer Ferry General Store in southern Saratoga County, where chef Anouk Booneman will be using the jelly in her creations there. The jelly is our only flavor that has proved to be somewhat ephemeral, losing color and flavor over time. It begins as a lovely pale guava color, then fades to a sort of light golden. Perhaps, on this weekend of valentines, a bit like capricious love. Best to savor when fresh xo