Cooking Quince

I finally got some quince on Saturday, a half bushel. Yesterday as the first snow fell I cooked up the first batch and canned it. The world may going to hell in a hand basket but I've got me some lovely quince.

My 'Heirloom' Food Chopper

  
It was my mother's food chopper and it's the only one I've ever seen that's made of two hinged pieces that open to make it super easy to clean.

60 @ 60

I didn't think I was going to do it this riding season but the weather was perfect yesterday and The Mister was willing to ride with me. It took 7 1/2 hours but I ended up doing 62.2 miles.

The Pub

The black canopy covers the stairs that go down to The Empire Brewing Company. The second floor windows directly above the canopy are those of The Mister's new office. He can actually take an elevator from his floor and walk out into the middle of the pub.

And so we have come to appreciate the concept of 'the growler'.

from The New York Daily News:

HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR GROWLER

Once you are the proud owner of your own jug of beer, American Beer's Jay Steinhauer - who hopes to add even more taps for growlers at American in the fall - offers a few tips on taking care of it.

1. KEEP IT FRESH: Freshly poured beer won't stay fresh for long, says Steinhauer, so “keep it in the fridge,” he says. Unopened, it'll last for a week or two at most, but “once you open it pour it off in a couple of days,” he says, if not that night.

2. TREAT IT GENTLY: “Don't let it jostle around,” recommends Steinhauer of growlers, as that will kill the carbonation in the beer, especially if it has already been opened.

3. CHECK YOUR SUDS: If your growler has been sitting for a few days, says Steinhauer, gently rotate it, as the first beer poured is a little thinner and less flavorful. Or do as Steinhauer does, and serve yourself last.

4. TIDY UP: Most places don't clean the growlers before they refill them for you, so be sure to clean them yourself with lots of hot water. But don’t use soap, says Steinhauer, as it is hard to rinse away and the residue will interfere with the flavor of your beer.

The Pot

This poor pot has had something cooking in it everyday for a couple of weeks. I think it needs a few days off.

Newman's Own

Getty Images

It hit me again this morning when I pulled out my bag of coffee and saw his picture on it: he's gone.

The Goose

Total weight: over 30 pounds.

Elderberry Pond Farm

Elderberry Pond Farm

A friend and I went to the Organic Abundance Event at Elderberry Pond Farm yesterday, a fund raiser for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York. Despite the lack of sun and cool temps it was a great success.

There was however, one aspect of the event that I wasn't able to keep from putting a damper on the day. One of the local chefs happened to be particularly extroverted so while we were eating at his station we learned a bit – probably more than we needed to know – about him.

This very young looking man and his wife, who have in the past few years bought and rebuilt an old farmstead as an inn and restaurant, were graciously contributing to this fund raiser for organic farming but the details of their life seemed to me completely at odds with organic and sustainable farming.

The chef explained to everyone that his wife wasn't at the event because she was home taking care of their little boys, ages 4 years, 22 months and 6 months. When a guest mentioned that the chef couldn't complain about having only boys for obvious reasons, the chef said he and his wife weren't done and they were going to keep going as long as they could.

He was also promoting his inn by listing the amenities including jacuzzi baths and flat screen plasma TV's in each room. And what was he driving? A freakin' Escalade!!

Also this past week The Mister noticed a man buying organic milk and then carrying it out to his Lincoln Navigator.

I know I'm not always consistent myself but these folks just can't be spending much time thinking about what they're doing.

The Season of Bounty

I'm trying to be mindful of my great and good fortune in having such abundance but I'm just so weary after all the time I've been spending in the kitchen dealing with it while at the same time suffering from the worst seasonal allergies I've ever had. This week I've been turning mountains of cime de rapa into rapini and just when I thought I was making progress I received a gift of I-don't-even-know-how-many pounds of fresh wild goose last night.

But goose is a wonderful substitute for wild duck in the ragu, the sugo d'antra, I learned to make in Tocchi so I am right and truly grateful.

Ike

Ike still had a punch when it ripped through here early Monday morning and took out the power. We couldn't sleep for about two hours during the height of the windstorm and I spent a good part of that time wondering how people make it through the long hours of a full-fledged hurricane without going nuts.

Despite the downed tree limbs and general mess left by the storm I really do enjoy the quiet of the house when the power is out – as long as I can pull out my old Chemex and make a good cup of coffee for myself and my neighbor when she remembers I have a gas cooktop.

The Lorings

Lorings are still my favorite for canning. I wish I could preserve the beautiful colors in their skin but at least a good part of it bleeds into the flesh and makes for some lovely jam.

Not Yo Mama's Dilly Beans

Not the recipe I used years ago but one with more spices and in this batch my Metechi garlic and chiles japones. Two long weeks until we can crack open the quart of trimmings...

Fagiolini

I have a windfall of gorgeous organic Blue Lake beans. I was only planning to freeze a couple of packages of my own beans every few days but on Saturday one of the organic growers at the market had a bumper crop and was practically begging me to take a box. I couldn't pass 'em up.

Weather

It's hard to believe that we can be enjoying such glorious weather while the Gulf Coast hunkers down as Gustav approaches. But that's what we've got and we're making the most of it. After spending Saturday at the state fair where I enjoyed an hour or so getting as close as I could to 13 hitches of six draft horses each, we biked up to Oneida Lake yesterday and ended up doing over 40 miles before we went to our final baseball game of the season.

Good Peaches

Really, really good peaches this year and some spectacular red heart plums but they don't begin to make up for the dismal tomato crop. After a few more jars of peaches I'll be moving on to green tomato chutneys & piccalillies, lots and lots of chutney & piccalilly.

Local Olympians Win Gold Again

Beezie Madden aboard Authentic

Sweaters in August

Yesterday's weather felt every bit like October with more rain and cool temps. At least it settles the question of whether or not to bother taking my summer clothes out of the big suitcases I store 'em in.

Rain

We had rain most of the time we were in Vermont and now more rain here at home. The Brandywines are doomed. I should have planted rice.

The Cistern

This is the one part of the house I've never stepped foot in, never really seen until it finally dawned on me last week that I could get a picture of it with a digital camera held over the edge. When we bought the house twenty years ago this was filled with 4 feet of water and every bit of roof on this Dutch colonial had old half-round gutters draining into it where they weren't twisted out of shape.

The first summer we had drought conditions so we'd used most of the water by the time we did the tear-off of the roof (of course thereby breaking the drought) and hung new gutters with conventional downspouts.

The plan was to cut an entryway in the 5 1/2 foot high, 1 foot thick concrete wall and use the space as a root cellar but I've now accepted the fact that it ain't gonna happen. Maybe someday when I'm dead and gone, someone will actually use this again as intended and the fact that we never cut into it will turn out to be a good thing.

My Bad?

I have 20 tomato plants in the garden. In this bed I have 3 Brandywines flanked by 2 Black Krims and the one Brandywine in the center has some form of 'wilt':

One tomato plant out of 20. At this point I'm pretty sure it's my fault. I think I got sloppy when I was pruning them and in taking off some suckers at the soil line at the same time I suspect I gave the soil-born disease a way in.

My dilemma is whether or not to remove the plant now or wait...

Funny how everyone seems to be blogging about tomatoes this week.