We’ve past the Winter Solstice, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Here we are nearly a week into 2025 and it’s been pretty dreary, damp and on the cold side of the thermometer. Let’s hope that these cold days are killing off harmful pathogens and insects that are lurking in the soil. We are also hoping that the natural predators are doing a good job controlling the rodents, rabbits, and garden invaders.
Speaking of nature, we’ve been seeing a lot of wildlife here! There is a pair of opossums that we see regularly and I put out any fruit & veggie scraps for them along the tree line. There are coyotes making noise late at night, and we saw a beautiful red fox on a hike yesterday. I don’t want to talk about the deer. Our bird feeders are seeing a lot of diners every day, too. My time has been spent cleaning, organizing/purging, reviewing new recipes, making products for my booth, and thinking about spring. I’m surely not the only one waiting for truly longer days to arrive. Some sunshine would be great, too.
Next weekend when the temperatures are warmer, I’m planning to start jamming! There should be fresh Blackberry, Very Berry, Sunshine, Raspberry Apple, and maybe a couple more for the following week. The shelves still have some jams, including Peach Jalapeno and Raspberry Jalapeno which is unusual for this time of year. There are banana pepper rings, hot pickled peppers, and green tomato pickles on the shelf, and I have a good inventory of chai latte mix. Just get in touch if you want any canned goods.
Let’s talk about baking. You all know that I really enjoy baking and creating new, better recipes. So, let me tell you that I did some testing of a slightly sweet focaccia bread and added a ripple of brown sugar & cinnamon, folded it like a letter and it became Cinnamon Roll Bread! I will admit that the first one was not good, and I had a feeling from the recipe that it would not live up to the name. But, when I mixed the best parts of three different recipes it was a winner! I’ve also got a French bread recipe that will be tested today. My only concern is the crust. Similar recipes have vastly different treatments for the crust. One uses a beaten egg white brushed over the loaf, and another uses oil or butter. The last one was really interesting and uses either ice cubes or a pan with boiling water in the bottom of the oven. It says that having more steam during the baking process gives it a chewy crust, but there were lots of warnings about opening the oven door with so much steam inside. Batch one will probably just use a little oil. Sounds like a good place to start. If the bread is good, and the recipe seems on point, then the crust can be evaluated.
Do you want baked goods this month? If you do, give me some feedback. I’d be happy to take requests and then bake up enough to have extras. You tell me what to bake: cookies, sweet breads, English muffin bread, focaccia, cinnamon roll bread, French bread, single serve fruit crisps – you tell me and I’ll bake it!
Oh, Daisy and I spent some time in the barn this morning. Wait until you hear this. I cleaned off my counter and have 2 heat mats, lights, and two half flats of seed trays filled with seed starting mix ready to go! The trays have clear domes and the entire setup has heavy frost fabric over it to help retain the heat. Let’s hope that lettuce seeds will sprout and that they’ll be happy in that little “tent” environment! My goal is to get little sprouts planted in pots and have enough out there to harvest a couple of bags a week. But, first, they need to germinate. Fingers crossed!!
Well, it’s nearly lunchtime and then that French bread needs to get started. After it’s baked, there may be a list of spring tasks started, some pondering about the garden layouts and rotation, and some thought given to the annual question: how can we make this better?
We send wishes from our home to yours that this is a year filled with good things and great people!