The Jelly Tour

We have finally gotten a freeze in the past week or two, and even a little snow last Friday. Tess insisted on finding her snow boots, snow suit and sled (which in all our chaos it harder than it sounds) and patiently waited for there to be two inches of snow on the roads so she could sled. For better or worse, she is still waiting, and of course I discovered that everything from last winter (except the snowsuit which I bought size huge) is too small.





We have been celebrating fall and harvest. A few weeks ago, Tess, Pops and I went on a tour of our friend Dave's 14 Ranch up Horseshoe. He has done an incredible job of restoring all the old buildings, and it is indescribable the amount of work he has done in an effort to perserve the heritage of the place. Tess's favorite part however was the homemade jams and jellies which Dave had made from mint, apple, chokecherry, plums and rose hips on the place.





Of course, this inspired me to investigate orchards and jelly making. Continuing on our Horseshoe jams and jellies tour, the next week we went to Mrs. Chamber's place. I had actually made a date with her and Pat last spring to look at their chicken house (yet another tangent of mine) so along with checking out the chickens and geese we got to indulge in chokecherry and wild plum jelly and apple syrup. Plus chokecherry wine -- all the more reason for me to harvest those chokecherries next year.

Mrs. Chambers has the old slide from the Glendo school on her place now. My mother and I both remember sliding down it. Tess got to enjoy it too!

Not to be outdone by the Horseshoe folks I decided to make a feast that consisted of what I could find locally grown. So I made bierocks with cabbage and onions from our garden, and elk burger from Eric's elk last year. I used flour from Gaukel's in Keeline (they have awesome homemade wheat products www.gaukelwheat.com), and eggs from Cundall's. We had brussel spouts and corn from our garden and for dessert, pear cobbler made with pears from Wickam's, also up Horseshoe. (Those folks are good!) Now all I need is a milk cow and some bee hives! I have since read that there are chefs in Napa Valley who only serve things that are produced within 150 miles of the restaurant, who knew the Cassa Valley was as cool.