Tart Cherries: Picking, Pitting, and Processing!

Our final foray up to northern Michigan for the summer included a mamma-mandated trip back to Rennie Orchards to pick tart cherries! Homemade cherry jam is one of my favorite things to eat all winter long, and there is just something about the fact that I hand-picked and pitted these cherries that makes the jam even sweeter for me. I love preserving the season for later!







Jackpot! Low-hanging fruit!

We ended up with about 18 pounds of fresh tart cherries to take home to Chicago with us, and the next day we got right down to business. (Tart cherries don't like to wait around.)

With this new cherry pitter in hand, we pitted and pitted and pitted! Anne helped, of course. Never underestimate the enthusiasm of a toddler for an excruciatingly tedious task.



Once pitted, the cherries were processed in one of three ways:

1. Maraschino Cherries, a half batch of this ginormous recipe, using about 5 pounds, and yielding 2 pints and 8 half-pints: http://leapphotography.com/blog/2015/06/maraschino-cherries-home-canning-recipe-boise-photographers/

Assemble booze, etc:



Bring to a boil:



Pack the pitted cherries:



Pour over hot, sweet, boozy goodness:



Voila!

2. Tart Cherry Jam, doubling this trusty recipe that I've used for the last 2 years, using about 8 pounds, and yielding 3 pints and 8 half-pints: http://foodinjars.com/2009/07/sour-cherry-jam-recipe/





3. Frozen pitted tart cherries for pies, etc. Two pies' worth, about 2 pounds per pie.

The final product:



Not pictured: one exhausted, cherry-stained, and happy pregnant mamma.

Maple Tapping at Growing Legacy Farm

A couple of weeks ago, I saw that Dwija and her family were tapping the maple trees at their new house. Never one to miss an opportunity to engage in a seasonal activity, I decided to do a little investigating into our options for seeing a maple-tapping, sap-boiling operation. By investigating, I mean that while we were in Traverse City last week, I asked my mom if her friends, who own a farm nearby, tapped maples. They do! They were doing it last week, and invited us to come by and check it out.

Fred and Barb Weber started Growing Legacy Farm seven years ago because they wanted to give their grandchildren the opportunity to see where their food came from, to live close to the land, and to be in community with family all the time. They started small, raising broiler chickens, and more recently purchased their current farm, where they have been expanding and improving every year, adding goats, more chickens, a no-till vegetable and herb garden, and grass-fed cattle. They converted their farmhouse so that they have semi-private residences (they live downstairs while their kids and grandkids live upstairs), and their passion for what their doing, not to mention the joy they are experiencing in living out this particular dream just radiates from them.



When we arrived on the farm, we were welcomed inside for a brief history, and then Fred took us on a little tour of the farm while Barb stayed inside to finish baking bread. First we visited the chicken coop, where the girls were chattering happily and staying warm. We saw the goats, then walked across a field to the main attraction: the maples! They have 40 or 50 trees tapped this year, each outfitted with plastic tube that diverts sap into buckets. The sap looks just like water, and we all dipped our fingers in for a taste, which was like barely maple-scented water. Not sticky at all!











After we collected a bit of sap, we brought it back to where they boil it down to make syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of maple sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup! After a pass through a filter, we added our freshly-gathered sap to the boiler, took a peek at the blazing wood fire they use to heat it, and then headed inside for a little taste of last year's finished product.





On the way, my sister took Anne to the chicken coop to collect some eggs! Anne was absolutely delighted, and proudly brought her little bucket of eggs to show us all.



It was a fantastic outing, and we're looking forward to coming back when the farming season is in full swing. If you're in Northern Michigan and you're looking for sustainably-raised meat and eggs, please check out Growing Legacy Farm!

Farm-cation

Today, rather than celebrating Halloween with you, I would like to celebrate the final day of National Cheese Month by telling you about Liberty Hill Farm, where we spent two wonderful nights a couple of weeks ago!

Liberty Hill is situated on the edge of the Green Mountain National Forest near Rochester, Vermont.  It's surrounded by lush mountains which, when we visited, were tinged red and gold.  We arrived in the late afternoon and were welcomed by Beth's warm smile and the delicious aroma wafting from the kitchen.  While we ate dinner in the cozy dining room, Beth shared some of the farm's history with us.

The farm was founded in 1780 by John Emerson.  Bob and Beth Kennett purchased it in 1979, and have been taking in guests since 1984.  You could say they were pioneers of the now-popular agritourism industry!  They raised two sons--David and Tom--who went off to college, then returned to the farm to work and live with their growing families.  Bob and Beth both come from old farming families - Beth's ancestors starting farming in Maine in 1641, and Bob's in New Hampshire in 1742.

The inn is clean, homey, and deliciously quiet, especially to our noise-conditioned city-mouse ears.  It really felt more like we were staying with extended family.  In the morning, we awoke to a pink sunrise over Rochester Mountain.  After a delicious hearty breakfast, we borrowed some of the rubber boots that are kept on the front porch for guests and started exploring. 

Liberty Hill Farm is a member of the Cabot Co-operative.  Every morning before dawn, a truck comes to pick up the milk.  I was amazed at the volume of milk the farm produces every day - each cow produces about 60 pounds per milking, and they milk about 100 cows twice a day.  That translates into 12,000 pounds, or about 1500 gallons every single day!  100% of Cabot's profits go directly back to Vermont family farms.  Many of their products are only available locally or online, but you can get their Cheddar in the fancy-cheese aisle at most grocery stores and Costco.  And their butter is the best I've ever tasted - the second night at dinner, I ate extra bread just so that I could eat extra butter.

Kitten on the prowl!  They have tons of barn cats who just wander around.  This one was so teeny!

This calf was only about a week old!  The little ones (about a month old or younger) all have their own little calf pens, and they get fed a calf formula (cheaper and more consistent nutritionally than milk) twice a day.  When they hear the food coming, they all start mooing like crazy!  I got to help a little by putting the buckets of formula into their little calf-house windows.

We had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to come back with our kids someday.