Live & Learn

This is a report back on the fruitcake from my December 8th post ....... well, we had always used Taylor's Port as the wine for the fruitcake because that's what we've always used. Soak the cheesecloth in the wine, wrap the fruitcake in the dampened cheesecloth, wrap the whole thing tightly in aluminum foil, and seal in a tin to mellow in a cold closet. Unwrap with anticipation, admire, slice, & eat.
It was all going well right up to the "admire" part ..... when the fruitcake was unwrapped it had dark splotchy irregular patches all over it. "You burned it!" was the cry from the family. Luckily we have the pics here to prove that it wasn't burned!
Here's what I think happened. This local wine - as opposed to the larger scale New York wine - probably should have been decanted and maybe even filtered through cheesecloth before using it to wrap the fruitcake. It looks like the sediment stained the highest areas of the fruitcake.
Bottom line - no pictures! Despite the appearance of the intact cake, once it was cut up into serving pieces it tasted just fine and it disappeared (no comments please from you fruitcake haters out there)!

Holiday Colors!

Who wouldn't love browsing through the poinsettias at Janoski's Farm & Greenhouse in Clinton? http://janoskis.com/ Several people were leaving as I got there, hustling their poinsettias into warm cars & vans on a cold & windy day. Today was a sunny day and I timed my trip to coincide with the Steelers game and to miss the crowds. Steeler Sundays ..... you'd have to go back to my October rant on a bye week to understand!

With such a great variety of colors, sizes, and varieties of poinsettias that it's hard to pick out just one. I usually buy 2 pots that each have a red, a pink, & a white plant and put them side by side in a copper boiler. Just turn 2 empty pots upside down and set the poinsettia pots on top of them to lift them to the right height in the copper boiler. Then it's just a matter of what else I like to fit in the other rooms ........ hopefully you've visited a local greenhouse grower for your poinsettias ---- I know that my poinsettias will last until Valentines Day! More info on poinsettias http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/poinsettia/

Farewell Farmers' Market!

Saturday, December 13th was the last market day of the season for the Beaver County Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association in Beaver, PA. Goodbye 'til next spring from the farmers' market! Next market is May 2nd, 2009 ...... check the calendar and make sure that it's a Saturday.
We picked up apples since I'm on the hook to make apple pies for a Christmas luncheon party. We also bought cookies, a large butternut squash, carnival winter squashes, & some parsnips. PARSNIPS, you say? I've never had parsnips in my life before, so I decided to try some ..... I'll report back on the experience once I figure out what to do with them! The butternut squash went into "Butternut-Lamb Deluxe" - a recipe from the Garden Way Zucchini Cookbook. This recipe is about as local as you can get, since the lamb comes from my farm.

If you enlarge the picture, you might be able to see the price on the book --- $3.95. I've had this one for quite a while .......

O' Christmas Tree, Local Christmas Tree ......

You know that you're close when you start to see the rolling fields of Christmas trees in all sizes! What a picture perfect day it was to get out and cut your own fresh Christmas tree. The sky was overcast, but yesterday's snow made it a winter wonderland for the families out selecting trees at Hozak Farms in Clinton, PA. http://www.hozakfarms.com/.
The lighted lot next to the Christmas Barn was full of trees, but everyone seemed to be taking a wagon ride out to cut their own Christmas tree.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08342/933047-51.stm
Since we get a tree from our own farm, we go to Hozak's to get pine roping & other greenery. They have a big selection of greens, pine roping, wreaths, and swags out on the front porch of the Christmas Barn. I even noticed some eucalyptus bundles this year ......

The barn porch overhang is full of wreaths, display items, and yard cut-outs. Inside the barn there are all kinds of decorations from table runners to nativity sets to ornaments to nutcrackers ........
Open any newpaper now and you're bound to find ads for local Christmas tree farms. Or check out this link to find local farms in your state and area.
http://www.christmas-tree.com/

Roadtrip Local Wine Tasting Follow-up!

This post takes us back to the September roadtrip ...... http://localfarms-localfoods.blogspot.com/2008/10/roadtrip-somerset-farmers-market-part.html. While in Virginia, we picked up a local wine to use in a Christmas fruitcake. If you look in the blog background behind the tomato tasting platter, you can see a bottle of "Snort", a 2006 Virginia Red Wine from The Winery at La Grange. It was the last wine of the tasting that day and we felt it would serve perfectly for the port wine that we use in the annual holiday fruitcake. http://www.wineryatlagrange.com/

For the fruitcake doubters among us, I've included the recipe for the fruitcake. Double-click on the picture above & you can actually see the recipe. We're not wishing to start a debate (!), but you'll note that this recipe doesn't include any nasty candied citron, dates, brown raisins, or walnuts. Nor any embittering hard liquor ..... by the way, spare yourself the "mixed candied fruit" and get the red & green candied cherries and the candied pineapple individually and do it right!

Mixing the candied fruit, golden raisins, & pecans into the batter is best done in a stock pot with your hands. It's like mixing mortar. You end up by dropping it by handfuls into the foil lined pan and nudging it into place. When it's cooled and done baking, you can "knock wood" on the surface .....
Time will tell, but for now the fruitcake is swaddled in wine soaked cheesecloth, over wrapped tightly with aluminum foil, and gently mellowing in an old cookie tin on the bottom of a cold closet.

Thinking about next year already?

Here's a clipping about the demand for local food & farmers' markets. The message continues to be that it looks like there's room for everyone ......
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20081130/ARTICLE/811300337/2055/NEWS?Title=Local_small_farms_continue_to_grow
How about this story about growing food locally? http://www.dowagiacnews.com/articles/2008/12/01/news/dnnews5.txt If you want to venture deeper into really making $$$ on small plots, follow up on the comments about SPIN Farming out of Philadelphia's Somerton Tank Farm.
http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/features/2006/0606/somertontanks/sullivan.shtml
I saw a presentation on this method at the PASA Farming for the Future Conference in State College, PA a couple of years ago. Lots of practical ideas that don't involve a tractor or investment in heavy equipment.
Anyone want to wager on when the 1st seed catalog shows up for 2009?