Rainy Day

Hurricane Sandy greeted us yesterday with a good deal of rain and some seriously high-speed winds.  I was able to leave early from work to get home before the storm hit its peak, since nearly all of our clients had called to cancel anyway.  We did lose power at about 8:30 last night, which was not restored until thirteen hours later, but we had plenty of candles and board games with which to entertain ourselves.

Settlers by candlelight!

When we ventured out this morning we discovered that the cause of this was a pine tree that had fallen across one of the nearby cross streets, taking power lines with it.  Thankfully, we made it though with no damage more serious than the loss of my squirrel baffle on the bird feeder.  Our newly raked lawn and clean driveway are now covered with wet leaves that must be cleared in time for Halloween tomorrow, but that is a small price to pay.   The tiny little creek at the very back of our property is not so tiny at the moment, though.

I (and just about everyone else at work) was actually given the day off today due to the storm, so once we had determined that we had no leaks or structural damage, I took the opportunity to get a few things done around the house.  I reorganized the bookcases in the front room to my liking, and moved in a small table to make it a more guest-friendly space.

You may notice the pumpkin in the window in the last photograph.  I had to bring my pumpkin inside because the squirrels are eating it and ruining the carving.  Furry little bastards...

Today's other project was adding handles to the drawers and cabinets in the hall bathroom.  The lack of handles has been bothering us, because the vanity is constructed such that there is very little space between the drawer facings and it is actually difficult to get one's fingers between them to open a drawer.  A few weeks ago we bought hardware that coordinated well with the existing hardware, and it has been sitting on the bathroom counter waiting to be installed.  Today we actually got it done, and it looks pretty good!

Before

After

Culinarily Overambitious

Nick's grandfather, who lives in Vermont, owns a quince tree.  Or perhaps two quince trees?  Regardless....Nick's parents were visiting him recently and asked us if we would like any quinces.  "Danielle would be glad to have whatever you and Jim [grandfather] don't want," my husband told her. 
"Are you sure?" she asked me.
That should have been my first clue.  But I, awash in dreams of quince ice cream and membrillo, a delicious quince paste that I acquired a taste for in Spain (try it with Manchego cheese and Marcona almonds), said, "Absolutely!"  Never did I dream that when they came to visit this past weekend they would be bearing this:

I honestly had a little trouble lifting this bag.

That is a standard-size shopping bag full of quinces.  Full.  At this point it occured to me that I might be slightly in over my head.  But did I let that slow me down?  No way!

The quince, if you are not familiar with it, is related to apples and pears.  It is a rock-hard, bruised little fruit with a fabulous perfurmed aroma of pears and flowers and I don't even know what else.  They smell AMAZING.  And they taste delicious, but only after cooked.  You can't eat these raw.

So I decided to cook them.  What I should have done was to prepare and cook 1/3 to 1/2 of the quinces to make membrillo and quince syrup, while saving the rest for next weekend to make...I don't know, something else.  What I did was to prep and cook all of them Saturday night.  This was not my smartest idea ever. 

The quinces have a core at the middle, like that of an apple or pear, that you don't want to eat.  Way too hard and far too tart.  So after you wash them and remove any fuzz (like peach fuzz but less), you have to cut them off the core.  Did I mention they are like little rocks?  Some recipe call for peeling them but it's really not necessary.  So I chopped, and chopped, and chopped.  Thankfully, my husband let me borrow the gigantic stockpot that he uses for homebrewing.

Before and after chopping.  I chopped for hours.

Who gets a blister chopping fruit?  I mean, really.  That's just sad.

I am very glad that we have the compost pail now, because I filled it twice over with quince cores and I would have hated to throw those out.   Anyway...

Cooked the quinces in water to cover until they had softened, about 30-45 minutes.  Then I pulled out the quinces with a slotted spoon and pureed them. 

This puree is the basis for what becomes membrillo, but here I finally exercised some discretion and decided that I was not making both quince syrup and membrillo in the same day.  So the membrillo went into the fridge for the meantime.

The cooking liquid at this point tasted strongly like quince, and was just as tart.

For the next few hours, I slowly simmered it, adding sugar gradually to adjust it from eye-watering tart to merely lip-puckering tart.  You don't want to know how much sugar it took.

 

As quinces or quince juice cooks, it gradually turns in color from yellow to a deep orange or ruby red - a beautiful color!

 Nearly there...

Done!

There is enough natural pectin in the quince that the liquid thickens up nicely into a lovely syrup that can be used make ice cream, add to drinks, put into foods, etc.

After sterilizing some jars and lids (with Nick's assistance since he's more experienced at canning), I finally got to sit back and enjoy a job well done.

I foresee quince ice cream at Thanksgiving.

Here is but one of the giant trays of membrillo I made the next day....

this is totally turning into Christmas presents.

And that is the story of how I managed to use 13 pounds of sugar in one weekend.

Yes.  Pounds.

Preparing for the Storm...Maybe?

Nick and I have not exactly been battening down the hatches in preparation for Tropical Storm Sandy and the "monster storm" she will apparently be bringing.  Our forecast includes heavy winds and rain, with a flood warning from this afternoon through Tuesday.  Heavy winds could bring down a tree, so we could potentially lose power, but we already have more candles than we know what to do with, as well as a pair of flashlights.  We don't have a generator but we're not about to run out and get one.  We are, however, very glad that Nick had a tree guy out to take down the dead trees in our backyard a couple of weeks ago.  There is also the possibility that a tree could come down and block the street, but that will either happen or it won't; there is no point in worrying about it.  The tiny little creek at the back of our property could flood, but even if it does, the 100-year water mark is nowhere near our house, so we're not concerned about that.

So instead we've been going about our business.  Yesterday his parents came over and helped us rake the front and back lawns and clear the driveway.  They even brought their own rakes!  Very kind of them.  Then we cleaned up and went wine tasting at a couple of local vineyards, which were absolutely gorgeous this time of year.  I am also impressed at the quality of photos that our camera takes from a moving car.

 

 

At Hume Vineyards

 

 



 

 

At Chateau O'Brien

 

 

At Stribling Orchards, adjacent to Chateau O'Brien.

 

 

Queen of the Leaves

I had forgotten how much hard work raking leaves can be.  I remember now.  Whew!  Nick has injured an elbow from repetitive yardwork already (sawing through trees and raking/sweeping a couple of weeks ago), so today it was all me.  I raked and Nick used a push broom and a tarp to clear out what I raked up.  We're not done, but we cleared the area between the street and our embankment at the front of the house, the driveway and alongside it, and most of the front yard (excepting the area under the trees we decided to leave covered in leaves).  Combine that with the hours Friday and Saturday spent clipping out trees and pulling weeds and vines from the embankment, and I am wiped!  Looks good, though.  And I managed not to get poison ivy!

Before and After

The detail isn't terrific, but you get a decent idea of how much overgrowth on the embankment
has been removed.  We also thinned out a few of the smaller trees.

As previously mentioned, we definitely had help last month from Nick's parents on this one - thanks! 


Our front door is ready for fall as well:

Next weekend we might be carving that pumpkin for Halloween but for now it's time to just enjoy the colors of the season.

Farm Tour

This morning we left the house at about 9:30 and headed down to Falmouth, VA for a tour of Walnut Hill Farm at Elm Springs.  They are a meat and eggs vendor at our local farmer's market, and their meats are delicious (lamb, pork, beef, and chicken).  A couple of weeks ago they had posters up advertising a pair of weekends for farm tours.  $5 a person to tour the farm, check out their operation, and enjoy a hayride.

I was interested, but Nick less so until he went to their website and actually read up on who they are and what they do.  Then he was very excited to go visit.  It's a family-run operation that raises many of their animals on pasture with as little grain input as possible.  The pigs are on dirt for now but they hope to pasture them eventually.  They do not use hormones or antibiotics, but for me the most exciting part is that in additional to some traditional breeds (ie. Angus cattle), they are also raising Heritage breeds!  They have a small population of American Milking Devon cattle, Tamworth pigs, and the world's largest population of Hog Island sheep .  They have done a lot of work with the SVF Foundation, a group that I'm familiar with because the veterinary school at Tufts works with them as well.  In fact, I was wearing my Tufts fleece and Jeff, who runs the farm with his wife Ginny, immediately recognized it and wanted to know if I had visited SVF (sadly, no).  He then had me pegged as a vet student before getting the chance to ask if I'd actually finished school.  That turned into a bit of a conversation about vet med on the farm and all the excellent educational seminars and services the vet school at Virginia Tech provides to him and other farmers.  They are nice folks, and it was a pleasure to tour their facility!

The barn that this bell used to hang in burned down,
but the bell was found in the rubble.  Ginny's father gave it to her.

Beautiful mums for sale; we bought one, as well as a pumpkin.
We'd planned to get a pumpkin anyway, and with these purchases they
waived the farm tour/hayride fee.  Good deal!

Yummy local apples - we bought a few.

Friendly geese - who knew?

Thanksgiving turkeys; they only have fifty for the season and they are
taking orders now.  We've already got plans for this year, but perhaps
next year we'll save up for one of their birds!

Jeff giving us some history.

The pig barn - the sheep like to hang out in the aisles here too.

Tamworth piglets, 10-12 weeks old.

Their beautiful pond, fed by Elm Springs. 
It is fenced off so the pastured animals cannot foul it.
This means they can't drink from it either, so there is a system set up
to connect multiple drinking stations to the well water system
(the same system that provides water to the proprietors).

Chip and Dale, their oxen team.
They are very friendly and very curious -
came right up to the hayride to say hello!

Say hello, Chip!

Jeff demonstrating how well-trained Chip is.

Jeff had me hold Chip's lead, "C'mere and hold this, Miss Vet Student"
while he put a kiddo and his mom atop Chip.
Now that is a well-trained animal.
Dale is in the foreground soliciting head skritches.

The farmhouse.  The four barren-looking trees near it are
the walnut trees that earned the farm its name.

Hog Island sheep.  Both males and females can have horns
or be polled (no horns).  The males' horns are more impressive, though.
 

These sheep are gorgeous, and badly endangered.  The farm has done well
with breeding them, though; they've even loaned the SVF Foundation
multiple rams and ewes to further the embryo collection and breeding program.

You can learn more about Hog Island sheep here and here.

Next it was off to see the burros - a friendly bunch!

 

We know Jeff gave you burro snacks - please feed us!

Cookies?  Please?  Nose rubs are great and all, but I want cookies.

That was a morning very well spent.  After that, we came home and spent two and a half hours doing yardwork until we were so tired we could barely move.  More on that tomorrow!