Archive for the 'beverage' Category

Elder Blossom Lemonade

A plant of our hedgerows and abandoned fields that are being reconquered by the forest, the elder favors the sides of ditches and embankments - especially those with a bit of shade. Oh, it grows well enough in full sun, but it seems to appreciate the extra moisture that accumulates in ditches.
Elder is a plant [...]

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S Is For Strawberries

Or is it for Swiss chard?
because my chard is doing quite well, thank you very much. I am now harvesting two big bunches a week, and with all that rain, and that nice temperature, it’s growing and growing and growing - as you can see from the photo taken just after a harvest, a couple [...]

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S is for Super Easy Smoothie

This is why I pick and freeze berries – and other fruit – in the summer when they are at peak flavor. And for cobbler and clafoutis too.Yeah… I suppose nobody needs a recipe for smoothie? Indulge me a little. It’s a locavore post after all, one that’ll provide plenty of vitamins and taste [...]

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Just In Time for Sipping the New Year In

It’s been aging in the dark closet under the stair since July. This morning, finally, it was time for bottling. You do remember the peach liqueur we made, right? YOU did make it, right?, when the peaches were full of flavor and fragrance last summer?
Thanks to the magic of photo editing software I “transformed” one [...]

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Consider the (Cranberry) Shrub

Cranberries are not a shrub, you say? You are right, but they can be turned into a shrub, the sweet-tart refreshing drink that was popular before colas.
Today – if the word is recognized at all as a drink – shrub is often understood to signify a cocktail. And indeed, in colonial times, it was often [...]

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An Orgy of Peaches

This is going to be a good summer for peaches.
Two local orchards I already hit had early peaches in the 2nd week of July. A third said the rain was having them push harvesting by a few days, but that peaches should be coming strong after the 15th. And they did! On Friday, I picked [...]

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Ruby Lemonade

I don’t like to throw out (I mean compost) food - even things that other people may not see as still edible.
I went wild berry picking earlier in the week (that’ll make a post fo another day) and decided to make a sorbet with some of the wild blackberries I picked. (By the way, if [...]

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When you Have Green Apples, Make Sorbet

I love to the capture the essence of fruit in fruit based-desserts, but I don’t care to bake in summer – well, not too much. I also detest wasting food. So here we are, late June, and the apples need to be thinned, or they’ll thin themselves (and what a waste that will be!) or [...]

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