Oh So Red, High Bush Cranberries

Brilliant color

Cleaning and Sorting

Along the field

Very easy to pick

Sauce and Syrup

When we first looked at this property, the high bush cranberries were flourishing. Several years later, we found the viburnum leaf beetle, the larvae and adults of which may completely defoliate the plant, and can kill it. The eveidence of the beetles persisted until THIS YEAR. The berries are everywhere along the hedgerows, boundary fence lines, and driveway. The harvest is easy. Making the syrup is easiest... boil in water for 10 min, crush and strain, reduce with sweetener of choice to syrup, add some pectin to thicken a bid. Voila. Vitamin C for the winter, plus the extra benefits for women is proven.

from wikipedia:  Viburnum trilobum (American Cranberrybush Viburnum, American Cranberrybush, Kalyna or Highbush or High Bush Cranberry) is a species of Viburnum native to northern North America, from Newfoundland west to British Columbia, south to Washington state and east to northern Virginia, with an isolated population in New Mexico.Although often called "Highbush Cranberry", it is not a cranberry. The name comes from the red fruits which look superficially like cranberries, and have a similar flavor and ripen at the same time of year. The fruits, sour and rich in vitamin C, can be eaten raw or cooked into a sauce to serve with meat or game.^[2]

The Colors of Harvest

Here comes the Sun

This little collection of pictures shows the what the sun is doing for us these days. It is cooking our compost, growing the plants in the greenhouse, and saving CO2. Now we are going around and checking to see how we can conserve more energy, turning off  the computers from 7 pm to 7 am, for example, turning off things that don't need to run, etc. This is a miracle for us, a dream that came true. The monitoring system is in a small room in the barn where we can connect a laptop and download the energy data to a laptop and take a look at what is going on. BTW, the hurricane only came up with 3.5 in of rain and a 35 mph gust. We are far above flowing rivers or brooks so we did not see the damage they have south of here. One bridge in our town is majorly damaged, a detour to live with for months. We were so lucky.

John's Birthday - Update

The solar project is coming along nicely today. The wood oven is being lighted today to prepare for canning, baking, drying veggies,and sterilizing jars. The greenhouse veggies are starting to turn the right colors and we have found  a good number of berries around the edge of the field that we can cook with the abundant apples for jellies and syrups. Tonight we will treat ourselves to a dinner at   Claire's   in Hardwick, where they serve what we like to eat, but cook it better...! Unfortunately, John got stuck with a tractor repair today, but that will not keep us from having a great day.

Baking In a Wood Fired Oven Class at King Arthur, Norwich, VT

Ciril Hitz led a class in Cooking in a Cooling Wood Fired Oven on Aug 5-6 at King Arthur Baking Education Center. From bagels, to pizza, to cinnamon  rolls, Linzer tart, granola and rustic tarts, we worked with 12 other people to master the art of cooking in a cooling oven. Most of the products we don't normally eat, so have given away most of it. We hope to find a class on baking artisanal whole grain breads someday, more to our liking. However, never having taken a class together like this, we came away thinking that it was fun and necessary if we are going to cook the foods we like. We recommend the classes at KA to everyone.

The Solar Power Project Begins

As we watch the wind towers go up on the mountains in our view, we are starting our own alternative energy project for the summer. Materials were delivered that will be installed in mid August. We expect to be using solar power in Sept.  This is Forest Palombo of Hyde Park, VT helping John off-load the materials. He is the son of Dave Palombo, the owner of the company, Indepent Power, (see truck). BTW, nothing was broken.