apples | I live on a farm ...

The foods that bind us

February 17, 2011 at 4:12 pm | Posted in blogging, cookie recipes, country life, country living, faith, family, food, gifts, Holidays, knitting, Life, love, marriage, recipes, relationships, shopping, yarn | 10 Comments
Tags: apples, country living, culture, dating, faith, family, farm, friends, home, inspiration, knitting, Life, love, marriage, personal, relationships, women

I made twenty dozen of these scrumptious cookies to send off to loved ones this Valentine’s Day. A chocolate-based cookie, I used premium bittersweet cocoa powder, doubling the amount the recipe called for. In addition to a standard dose of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips, I added one bag of large Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate morsels so that each cookie would have one or two extra chunks of premium bittersweet chocolate. With other interesting ingredients like whiskey and coffee, these cookies seemed the perfect choice for a Valentine confection. Everyone who received them seemed to agree.

I gave my husband his own private stash, and I sent dozens out in various directions via U.S. Mail. For my son, I sent a couple of dozen cookies plus a dozen dark chocolate brownies baked as shallow cupcakes.

Knitting Related Side Bar: I posted all of my remaining Country Cotton (nine different colors) at Etsy yesterday. Everyone who placed a special order, your yarn is in and I will have it ready for shipment shortly. After I sell the yarn that is posted at Etsy, I won’t be carrying yarn any longer–I just found out my supplier has gone out of business. I still have some of the Deluxe Limited Edition Blanket Kits, which I will continue to sell until they are all gone, and then that will be the end of Biscuit Blanket kits as well. Sorry for such sad news.

Back to the Blog: I love sending out care packages stuffed with homemade goodies to family and friends, especially as an unexpected treat. The first Christmas on the farm I sent homemade apple preserves and dehydrated apple slices to my family out West. We are surrounded by apple orchards and I wanted my family in California and Colorado to have a taste of the beautiful New York apple crop so bountiful here. Two years later my younger brother told me he and his sons were down to their last serving of those apple preserves. He treasured the preserves so much he only served them every other Sunday morning on biscuits he baked — one teaspoon for each person.

When you learn that something you baked, or made by hand, means so much to someone else, it is rewarding and heartwarming to the nth degree. My brother of course has won a lifetime supply of homemade preserves from my kitchen for treasuring my creation so dearly.

I started baking when I was eight years old, the year Santa brought me an Easy Bake Oven–I think it may have been the first year Easy Bake Ovens came on the market. (Note: This is not a photograph of me and my father. I found this photo at Wikipedia when I searched for more info about the year the Easy Bake Oven became available.)

I have told parts of this story before, but it has been a while and I figure I will tell it a bit differently this time and different people will be here on the blog reading my tale. Besides, any truly dedicated story teller will tell their tales many times over to many different audiences, or anyone they can get to sit still long enough.

Oh, how I loved my Easy Bake Oven. It opened up a world of creativity and responsibility to my chubby little hands, heart, and soul. I loved the little pans and the little packets of mix. Mix it up, put it in the pan, slip it in through the little slot and let the goodies bake under an ordinary light bulb. If that wasn’t magic, I couldn’t have imagined what was.

I vividly recall the sights of my little oven and my first experiences with baking. In my recollection, I can still smell the baking mixes and finished products. But, the Easy Bake Oven was merely a start for me. Soon I graduated to Jiffy brand biscuit and cake mix along with use of my mother’s oven. Each week I would save my allowance and go to the A&P Grocery store with Mama to buy a box of Jiffy mix, my favorite was biscuit mix. At home I would mix up my biscuits, cut them out with a little round cutter and bake them in Mama’s oven. The biscuits I was making were cute little things about an inch and half in diameter and very tall and fluffy.

After baking them to a perfect golden brown and removing them from the oven I would toss them into a brown paper lunch bag and run all over the neighborhood sharing them with my friends. The kids gobbled them up graciously and proclaimed me the best baker in the neighborhood.

When I was about ten or eleven years old I started holding bake sales during the summer months. Mama would take me to the grocery store to buy my ingredients — usually some biscuit mix, cake mix and icing, and CoolAid to serve for drinks. The next morning I would get up early and do my baking, then set up a table out front under a tree with an assortment of my offerings laid out very nice and pretty.

Though we lived outside of the city and on a dead-end street, I always sold out early in the day. I could depend on it that by investing $5 in ingredients I would bring in $25 in sales. It was a nice little business that satisfied my creative nature as well as the early manifestations of my entrepreneurial spirit. My baking satisfied the tummies of many of the boys in the neighborhood — they were my best customers.

I started experimenting with more items to bake including large sheet cakes with icing, cupcakes, brownies, and so forth. I even taught myself how to make popovers, stuffed with a cream filling — they seemed especially magical (if you have never made popovers, you really should try it sometime for the novelty of it).

As a teenager I used to make all sorts of cookies and holiday fruit breads to give to people as gifts at Christmas, and I remember learning how to make a truly delicious, moist carrot cake in teen years as well. A friend of the family’s introduced me to the notion of making yeast bread and gave me a little booklet from Fleischmann’s Yeast with all of the basics of making proper yeast bread from scratch and a bunch of great recipes. I studied the booklet thoroughly and became quite skilled at making a wide variety of yeast breads, much to the delight of my family.

My son took a very early interest in cooking and baking, beginning when he was about two years old. He would drag a chair over to the stove and climb up and look at the pans and so forth. We tried to discourage him from getting near the stove because of the potential danger, but honestly there just wasn’t any stopping him from his many attempts. It seemed more practical to teach him how cook a little something safely. By the time he was three years old he could crack eggs into a bowl, beat them up like a pro, turn on the burner under a pan and make scrambled eggs all by himself. He was very careful about it and never once burned himself or anything else.

All through his childhood he continued to cook and bake, much as I did but with a twist. His “twist” was always in the direction of an interest in gourmet cooking. Even as a young teenager he could watch a cooking show on television and go in the kitchen and use whatever techniques he had just seen demonstrated to put together a delicious and tantalizing meal.

Naturally, he and I began cooking and baking together, always sharing interest in each other’s creations. I loved baking cookies and cake and homemade bread for him, and he loved making a gourmet meal to share with me. At the holidays, he always contributed to the meal and gave me ideas of creative twists and turns I could apply to dishes I was preparing. This subject–cooking and baking–has always been one of the special bonds between us.

Moving to New York five years ago was a wonderful adventure, living here is divine and I have the wonderful fortune of being married to the best husband in the world, for me. However, moving away from my son was a very difficult thing to do and as the years have progressed the separation has become more and more poignantly disturbing to my heart.

Several months ago some circumstances changed and he has been able to spend more time in New York on the farm, we have set up a room for him that his room–as opposed to a “guest” room for him to stay in occasionally. With his baby, The Duke, boarding with us and his more frequent visits, now the farm is a second home of his and he has become a part of the place just like the rest of us.

Of course, when he comes here we always cook together. Sometime in the future I would like to collaborate with him in writing a cookbook because we both contribute different dishes, styles, and flavors to a complete and delicious meal. My style is down-home while his is urban-gourmet and we make the two go very, very well together in my humble opinion.

Now that he has become an Etsy seller (he is the designer FlyingJunction at Etsy), I love the interaction we have together as two shop owners who happen to be family. His store has gotten off to a great start over the past three months, with many of my readers giving some very helpful feedback and encouragement to him.

He and I were talking recently about what he might do to in order to give back a little something to my readership to show his gratitude for their welcoming words. What we decided is that we would both like to share more recipes and techniques with you all to give you a taste of what we cook up together. He will send recipes along with photographs of dishes he has prepared and I will post them on the blog. I will also send him recipes, but share them with you as well.

You can ask questions, make suggestions and special requests and we will see what we can do to accomodate you. It should be fun and … tasty. Each time we post a recipe, I will alert those readers who are on my mailing list. Or, you can subscribe to the blog to receive alerts via RSS feed (see upper right hand area of page).

For today, I have to go. I have a ton of Country Cotton yarn that still needs sorting and labeling in preparation for shipment.

Have a beautiful day!

~firefly

Spring

May 20, 2009 at 6:35 pm | Posted in art, baby, country life, faith, family, gardening, knitting, Life, love, marriage, photography, relationships, romance, summer | 2 Comments
Tags: agriculture, apples, art, children, country living, culture, faith, family, farm, farm life, farming, friendship, gardening, home, inspiration, knitting, Life, love, marriage, personal, pets, photography, Photos, relationships, spirituality, thoughts

20may09_prettyriver2 As the world wakes up outside our windows, many magical sites and moments bubble up to be seen if you catch them at just the right moment. Lately there have many many of those just right moments.

Last week our neighbor phoned to tell me she had spotted a nest of bunnies by “the third tree from the road” on our little strip of property across from the farm looking over the river.

My daughter and I headed over to see if we could sneak a peak, but neither of us had ever seen a nest of bunnies so we had no idea what to look for. We went to that third tree from the road and we walked around and around it but saw no hint of sign of a bunny of any kind.

We looked all around over there for any other tree among a stand of trees that could logically be described as “the third tree from the road”, but no other tree made sense.

20may09_appletree The other thing that didn’t make sense was that if there were a nest of bunnies at that tree, why? There was absolutely no cover of any kind. The bunnies would just be huddled up against the trunk of the tree with no shrubbery or flowers or anything to hide behind should a predator come by.

Not that these concerns mattered at any rate, because there were no bunnies.

So, we went looking around the bases of other trees that looked more logical as hiding places for bunny nests, abandoning altogether the instructions about looking for the third tree from the road.

Still, no luck.

Then a thought struck me, and I said to my daughter, “Wait a minute, don’t rabbits go down holes in the ground?” So we went back to the third tree from the road and I looked around on the ground for a hole and suddenly I saw a little hole with little bunny faces staring up at me.

20may09_bunnies Oh … my … goodness. It almost looked magical, as if there were a little portal there to a bunny world and the bunnies from that world were pressed up against the portal looking back at me.

Fortunately I had a long lens on my camera so I was able to maintain a somewhat respectable distance from the bunny hole nest and get some great photos of the little guys.

I realize that soon those cute little bunnies will be leaf eating, crop nibbling pests that I might not like to have around very much. Hopefully, the cats and dogs will help keep them at bay, but for now I think they are awfully cute and I worry as to their safety.

Speaking of crops, the farmer who rents our land has planted clover this year. Later, the clover will be made into haybales but for now it is lush and green and sprouting little flowers everywhere. My husband tells me that at some point there will be millions of flowers out in the fields and thousands of butterflies will be flitting around. That should be beautiful, and more magic for the journals.

20may09_bunnies3 We have finally gotten our six varieties of pumpkins going, and their seeds are busy germinating (hopefully) this very minute down on our sun porch; we had so much fun planting them together. While my husband gathered small plastic pots and filled them with soil, I held Sweet Pea in my lap and showed her all of the varieties of pumpkins we would be testing on her behalf. As I showed her the seeds, I also made little signs to stick in the pots with the names of the varieties on each.

Then there is the magic of Sweet Pea herself. She grows, she smiles, she makes an ever increasing number of dear little coo’ing sounds. Her favorite thing is to lie beneath her Care Bears Mobile watching the little bears fly around above her to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. We have that mobile on her changing table, so she sees the Care Bears quite frequently.

Last Friday afternoon I helped my husband mow our three acres of lawn. It had been nearly a year since I have driven the tractor and helped with the lawn so it felt great to get out there and go round and round while surveying all of this loveliness.

20may09_prettyriver I could see the fields of clover stretching out north and east of the sections I mowed. I could see the house wherein my sweet family resides and our memories are being generated. I could see the lush lilac tree in rich contrast to the backside of our 200 year old barn. I could see the grand old willow tree, the piece of land near it where we Sweet Pea’s Sincere Pumpkin Patch will be planted and hopefully thrive. I could see the apple trees, the mulberry trees, the birds, the bees, and Blu dashing about the yard.

At one point I looked up as I mowed a section of lawn facing south toward the house. There was my husband working on a section of lawn with a push mower. I raised my hand and waved to him from way back behind the barn. He lifted his hand and waved back, smiled, then continued with his work.

When we were looking forward to our marriage a little over three years ago, before we had even met, we were both anticipating the joy of the little happy moments of a shared life in this peaceful, rustic place just like that brief wave a few hundred feet away from each other as we worked the lawn together.

I knew that moment meant quite a lot to him, just as it did to me.

I smiled, and continued with my work as well.
20may09_clover550

Taking in Upstate Western New York

September 26, 2007 at 4:37 pm | Posted in art, blogging, country life, country living, dating, faith, family, food, free knitting patterns, knitting, love, marriage, photography, recipes, relationships, romance, yarn | 20 Comments
Tags: Adirondack Mountains, Adirondack Museum, Adirondacks, agriculture, apples, autumn colors, Blue Mountain Lake, children's sweaters, farm, farming, knitting, travel, Upstate New York, wooden boats

An apple orchard on the road to Clayton New York Last weekend my husband and I took a three-day road trip exploring the Thousand Islands area of New York, the Adirondack Mountains, and a drive back home via Route 67 from Saratoga Springs going west toward the Buffalo/Rochester area. Our first day out, we left before dawn on Friday morning and arrived in Clayton, New York up in the Thousand Islands area before noon.

We both love the feeling of being up and out on the road at early morning dark and through the various, sometimes misty, stages of dawn while much of the world is still asleep. There is something exciting about being up and out on an adventure when others are not even thinking yet about their day. I don’t know why, but it has always been that way for me. As a child I used to get up at five or six in the morning and go outside to run around the neighborhood with my dog. I could feel an energy that was all my own, and only my own, running around in the quiet of a new day just beginning to bud. I carry the feeling with me still today, and it is one of the things my husband and I hold in common.

A misty morning lake on the drive to Clayton New York Our morning drive took us along the shore of Lake Ontario much of the time, and through farming communities along the way. The apple orchards flowed one into another and farm stands seemed to be around every bend.

I continue to be amazed at how much agricultural activity there is in the state of New York. Before meeting my husband, and before coming here to see it all myself, I never had any clue that New York was such a farming state … a beautiful, simple, humble farming state.

It is also a state of many old barns, old mills, and factories. I find the old buildings more beautiful than those that are newer. Older building had such character of detail and materials. I know there is a practicality and economy to new methods of building, but the lack of charm stands out in stark contrast when you take a drive through an area like this that is so rich in heritage. You see the old places along the way that are wasting away, and somewhere further on you come across a pocket of “new” and you can’t help but feel a yuk inside … well, I certainly can’t help it.

Door of an old deserted mill on the drive to Clayton New York When we arrived in Clayton we were delighted to find the place we had reservations at was a cute little 50’s/60’s style roadside motel with a few rooms in a one-story building and then, down the hill by the water half a dozen sweet little cottages of the same era. It was clean and tidy with a beautiful view of the St. Lawrence river and the beginnings of the Thousand Islands.

The folks at the motel let us check in early, even though it wasn’t even noon. We were able to take a bit of a nap to the sound of … nothing but a light breeze and a few crickets. Then we headed over to my husband’s favorite museum: the Antique Boat Museum. We wandered around the museum for two or three hours, viewing their wonderful collection of antique wooden boats of all kinds. Another thing I didn’t yet know about Upstate New York until this trip is how prevalent boating and canoeing are up this way and what a rich part of the history of the state they are. Of course, it completely makes sense when you consider the abundant supply of water. Keep in mind though, I am used to living in the desert of Southern California and this thing of being around so much water is a new experience of senses and awareness for me.

It was quite warm that day, so after the boat museum we headed back to our motel so I could change into cooler clothes and get my hair up off of my neck. Then it was off again to do some photography in the countryside and find a place to eat. After driving over to Alexandria Bay and turning back to Clayton, we finally chose to eat at a restaurant in a converted Victorian house across from the Boat Museum, The Harbor Inn. The food was wonderful … my favorite was their fresh homemade hummus served with little triangles of whole wheat pita bread. I would love to know their hummus recipe, because it was some of the best I’ve ever had.

Sunset on the St Lawrence river in Clayton New York After dinner we walked through Clayton (small place, doesn’t take very long) and landed out on a peaceful bench along side the St. Lawrence river where we spent two hours sitting quietly, enjoying the relaxing flow of beautiful river and the little bit of activity that was going on … two or three people fishing, seagulls, a handful of sailboats and other vessels enjoying the last couple of hours of hazy sunlight, a couple of large freighters going by. Oh, I sigh just thinking about the utter feeling of peace and relaxation.

The next morning, we were up and away early again stopping for breakfast at Beefer’s Family Restaurant to try out their “famous” breakfast buffet. We were their first customers and couldn’t have been treated any nicer. An older gentleman greeted us as we came in as if we were old friends. He told us they always wait until their first customers arrive before they start cooking eggs and pancakes, etc. for the buffet because they want the food to be as fresh as possible.

We could hear sizzling coming from the kitchen as the cook hopped right on it, and we were shown to a nice little booth and served piping hot coffee. Within a few minutes the buffet was ready to go and we each had a nice assortment of scrambled eggs, pancakes with hot syrup, house potatoes, and bacon. (I am a vegetarian, but oddly enough bacon is the one meat I eat on occasion). The breakfast was hot, fresh, and delicious. Even though it was an all-you-can-eat buffet we were both fine with just one serving of our choices then off we went, headed for the Adirondacks.

A stand of autumn trees in the Adirondack Mountains While Western New York has been showing early signs of autumn since mid-September, the Adirondacks were in full bloom when we drove through them. There were still some green trees, but the fall colors were glorious. Most striking was the brilliant red leaves which were showing in abundance. I fell in love with the Adirondacks as they reminded me of a perfect combination of North Carolina (where I grew up part way) and everything I have come to love about Western New York. Water, water everywhere, soft old mountains, and trees to delight the eyes.

At Blue Mountain Lake we stopped off at the Adirondack Museum for a couple of hours and I went into sensory overload. I literally could not take any more in, it was all too much. It got to a point where I was feeling quite dazed and “full”. The collection at the Adirondack Museum is impressive in size, and the quality and character of the wonderful old artifacts of boating, sporting, farming, living, creating, etc. is … well, I am speechless to tell you the truth. The entire experience of driving through those lovely mountains and stopping off at the museum left me wanting to return to the area many times in the future to settle out my feelings of being a bit too “full” of everything I had seen.

View of Blue Mountain Lake from a deck at the Adirondack Museum Most exciting to me is the idea of taking our canoe up there next year sometime to do some camping and canoeing along with sight seeing. We both want to do that very much, and had quite a bit of fun as we drove south through the park discussing some ideas and details of the trip we might make.

If you have read my blog since last year, you have heard me mention our friend, Winnie of the Buttons as I like to call her. I gave her that name on my blog because she gifted me with a huge collection of antique and vintage buttons last year before she moved away to Queensbury, New York to a retirement community. Our primary mission on this trip was to pay a visit to Winnie which we promised her we would do before summer’s end (we were only a couple of days late for that).

A peaceful scene on the way to Saratoga Springs New York After leaving the Adirondacks, we arrived in Queensbury about two-thirty and checked into our hotel there. I have to say, and I am sorry to say it, but we were not fond of Queensbury–at least not the part of it where our hotel was. It was a complete contrast to the peace and beauty of both Clayton and the Adirondacks. Busy streets, shopping malls everywhere, crowds of people, wall-to-wall cars.

However, the area where Winnie’s retirement residence is situation is much more quiet and we could tell she is completely happy to be where she is. She drives out into a more rural area to attend a country church much like ours that she left behind and it is great she has the opportunity to do so. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening with her and then it was off to our hotel for a not-so-restful night of attempted sleep in spite of the loud sounds of a drunken fellow who, for some odd reason, decided to sit down right outside of our door with a couple of his friends at one-thirty in the morning. Oh well, the contrast only goes to make the early parts of the trip even more beautiful.

The next morning we were up early again and spent the entire day, from eight in the morning until six at night, making our meandering way back home. Route 67 (and later Route 5) was a picturesque alternative to Interstate 90 as we made our way through village after village, continuing to demonstrate to me the abundance of farms and croplands in Upstate and Upstate Western New York.

The trip was wonderful, scenic, inspiring, educational. Even after all of the beautiful places and scenes we saw, I was still happy to get back home to our farm. It has become my most favorite place on Earth. There is just something about home, a friend waiting for you with open and familiar arms.

A little girls hand knit sweater pattern available soon Knitting News: Here is a photo of a little girl’s sweater not designed or made by me. It was designed and knit by one of the owners of my LYS (Local Yarn Shop for non-knitting readers) and she has agreed to share the pattern on my blog. Today I can show you the photo, and next week sometime I hope to have the pattern available. It is a scrumptious little thing, and quite affordable to make. The materials come to less than $20. The plan at this point is to start utilizing knitted creations by the two ladies who own the yarn shop (they are the source of the yarn I make available on my website) and my daughter as well as continuing to share my own with you. That way I can bring you even more quality knitted items and more knitting content while also continuing to do the other things I do (photography, writing, and painting).