Josh Kilmer-Purcell's Blog, page 115

Wining & Dining

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Dining al fresco is one of the real pleasures of the summer season, and if all is timed just-right, the last crumb is consumed and last drop drank just as the sun sinks beneath the western hills.

Pot-luck dinners instill a sense of camaraderie and community like no other occasion (and insure that no one person is left with the unfair burden of all of the clean-up).

Food & Wine Magazine paid a visit to Beekman Farm and captured some of the people and places that drew us to Sharon Springs.

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These are some of the photos that didn't make the August 2011 issue.

For a peak at some of the images that did, click here.  And pick up this issue to see the full article and the delicious recipes.

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Don't even think about outdoor entertaining without our Summer Trio!

What's Your Go-To Pot-Luck Contribution?  Tell us in the comments section below.

Love Me Knots

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Somewhere in the corner, there's usually a box sitting undisturbed.  Neatly folded, ironed and starched, pieces of linen, clothwork and lace are housed in plastic zip lock bags.  When opened, a whisper of air rushes out making a sound vaguely like the words "use me".

Like most others, when browsing through antique stores we would casually walk right past these boxes.  But a recent gift changed all of that.

For the past year, Jackie Purcell and Lois Mapes have been working on a table covering for The Table (click here to see it naked)

The Beekman Mansion Crocheted Tablecloth–the stats

Total woman hours                                             1,173 hours

Total thread used                        17,280 yards (9.82 miles!)

Total stitches                                             1,165,270 stitches

For over a year, this mantra went through their heads (and likely their dreams):

Round 1:  Chain 8.  Join with slip stitch to first chain to form ring.  Chain 5 .  double crochet in next chain.  Chain 2.  Repeat

When she presented the cloth, Jackie wrote:

"Lay the cloth, there is company coming."  Lay the cloth………why? The table cloth covered table scars, muted the clatter of utensils, protected the table top from more wounds, and perhaps even enhanced the china to be used.  "Lay the cloth"…..not an easy task when the table top is 6 1/2' x 8'.

Where to begin………how about searching for months for a design that would help showcase an already beautiful space……the dinning room at Beekman.  Of course this cloth would be hand crafted like the mansion itself.  Small squares that could be carried with ease and ready to work on at any time.  Square to match the sharp, clean Federal lines of the woodwork and mantle in the dinning room.  Ahh………yes, add a spiral centered within each square to mimic the wavy lines in the wall paper……confined, graceful motion.

These squares were crocheted by three women; some never having met. Not even living near each other.  There were some days a square was a balm to loneliness, grief or just disquiet.  There were times when crocheting a square hastened travel time to a foreign place, or seemed to lessen the wait time before a physicians appointment and diagnosis. Fingers learned pattern by repetition.  No need to carry directions. They had learned the dance.  Merely a ball of thread and a hook; a hook to hold onto.

Even after carefully washing hands before picking up "the work", the memory of a faint scent might linger.  Perhaps sun tan lotion, or a salve for sore joints, or onions and garlic paired with freshly stripped rosemary. Maybe a lavender lotion for chapped hands or baby lotion from a visiting grandchild.  On a few days……a tear or two from the frustration of being a woman!  All the scents of a woman's day.

This cloth is done.  So many new hands will now wander along the stitches as they seek to join in a circle to pray for the bounty placed before them and give thanksgiving for every living thing at Beekman. They will reach to share a dish to pass and slide a glass to be refilled.

So "lay the cloth" to welcome the future of Beekman hospitality.  Amen.

The saddest thing about many "heirlooms" is that we find them so precious that we never use them…the china, the crystal, the silver…but to what end?  So they can sit in a pristine "as new" state…in the corner of an old storefront a century from now?

If you have them tucked away in a cabinet, go get them this instant.  So what if their fate is a stain, a chip or a scratch?  Who are you saving them for?

When we look at our table now, it is evident.  Each knot holds together not just a piece of fabric.  It binds and protects one generation's love for the next.  And love should not be unrequited.

So the next time, you are in an antique store, look for that box in the corner.  Thumb through the parcels.  And if you come across one with a design that speaks to you or that displays your  family's monogram,  buy it.

Use it.

Love it.

Which family heirloom do you vow to use more often?

Playing for Keeps

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This photo of a Botta's pocket gopher was taken by Stephen Shankland at Point Reyes, California. Thanks, Stephen!

"We're Playing for Keeps Now"

Gopher Wars Part II

The idea of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is that you approach a pest problem with a series of steps so that the solution to your problem causes the least harm to the environment. Think of it as the gradual escalation of hostilities. They say there are six steps:

Proper identification
Learn the pest and host life cycle and biology
Monitor activity
Establish an action threshold: how much damage is tolerable?
Choose a combination of management tactics: Cultural, Biological, Mechanical and Chemical Controls
Evaluate results

Identify and Learn

Depending on your source, they will express the steps of IPM differently but this just about covers it. The first two may seem obvious but not so much. Consider this:

Every spring, this bug shows up on one of my plants. It eats like crazy and if you find one, you'll find a dozen. You can actually watch the little monster grow before your eyes until it is huge and fat on all the leaves it has eaten, leaving the plant looking all raggedy. Then the bug disappears for a while until the cycle starts again, over and over through the whole growing season. What would you do?

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The Monarch Caterpillar on my Milkweed (Asclepias physocarpa)

Think again. That's the monarch caterpillar chowing down on my milkweed. Last year was the first time we planted milkweed and I totally freaked out one morning when I found about 18 fat caterpillars on two plants. The caterpillars pretty much stripped the young plants but – guess what – milkweed doesn't seem to mind. It regenerates so quickly that there is no real loss.

Not all critters are pests and not all pests are intolerable.

But let us get back to gophers. It is easy enough to identify the critter even if you don't see them. We were seeing "feed holes" and mounds of freshly dug dirt. A gopher's feed holes are usually just large enough for a gopher to pop up from its run and eat the plant material right around the hole. Gophers' mounds are crescent shaped around a plug.

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Gophers' Feed Holes

The damage to plants is also an indicator of gophers. They will eat the roots below ground and the plant above ground will die. Gophers will also start with the roots and then pull the rest of the plant into their burrows. A friend was telling me that his wife heard a noise in the garden and turned just in time to see a plant descend into the ground. Gophers!

Monitor and Establish an Action Threshold

Beneficials and other biological controls are the reason the next step is "Monitor." We have a new tree that is being plagued by aphids. Rosalio, the man who helps us 'round the yard, wanted to spray it immediately with an insecticide. I favored blasting the leaves with a hose to wash off the aphids. Even as we were debating this, we saw a ladybug land on a branch near our heads. Since natural predators were starting to gather, we decided to do nothing. Since then, the damaged leaves have been replaced by new growth and the aphid population is in decline. Sometimes, the wait-and-see approach is all you have to do.

I gotta tell you, though, monitoring gopher activity is a problem for me. Though an established plant might be able to tolerate some damage to an extensive root system, young perennials and annuals don't have that advantage. Even young trees can be felled by gophers when they girdle the trunk. Gophers have tremendous power in their jaws so they can also chew through below-ground irrigation and electrical lines. Their tunnels can undermine a slope and accelerate erosion. They can even destabilize the foundation of a building.

For years, our backyard was part grass and part dog run. Though there was some gopher activity, we didn't have much in the way of ornamentals to protect. Our gopher control efforts were irregular and ineffectual but we didn't have much to lose. When the last of our dogs lived out her life, we decided to take back the backyard. With dozens of new plants and more going in all the time, we have a lot to lose.

Now, we have zero tolerance for gophers. Spend a little time monitoring them, and you may lose significant plant material and have other damage. My advice is don't wait.

Management Tactic: Cultural Control

I think of Cultural Control as your good gardening practices. It has to do with the plants you choose, the design of your garden, and your maintenance practices. One of the good examples of plant selection is selecting resistant varieties of tomatoes if you have nematodes in your soil. The design of your garden might include companion plant practices – combining plants that help each other. French Marigolds are often touted as an antidote to nematodes. Basil is said to improve the flavor of tomatoes while repelling some pests. Other design considerations are the cultural requirements of groups: plants with like needs of light, nourishment, and water will grow better in a bed designed to meet those needs. For example, over-watering one plant while under-watering another will put both at risk. Maintenance practices includes proper watering, feeding, and tending so that your plants are not stressed and more susceptible to pest but also sanitation, meaning keeping your garden clean of debris that might be harboring pests. Litter in a garden is a great place for snails, slugs, and earwigs to hide.

But how does this work with gophers?

Plant selection is a tricky one. I want to dispel a myth: gopher spurge doesn't work. I have heard variously that the smell of the plant or its poisonous parts take care of gophers but numerous scientific studies don't support that idea. In Gopher Alley, we planted Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) and they have been totally unaffected by the gophers. Our best guess is that the gophers sensed or learned that the roots are toxic and just went around the plants to other, tastier selections.

If you are just starting a vegetable garden and installing your beds, you can take some preventative measures as part of your construction. In raised beds, line the bottom with hardware cloth. I was talking to a gardener who had just built raised beds because of his gopher problem but he lined the bottom with chicken wire. That is almost no barrier at all for a gopher. The wire is thin and with just a couple of breaks – either when it rusts out or if the gopher chews on it – it's like an open door. I have heard of something called Gopher Wire that is similar to chicken wire in appearance but thicker and galvanized. Perhaps that would counter my objections but I have never seen it myself. I use hardware cloth, available at any hardware store.

Besides lining raised beds, you can also line planting holes. This usually works best with larger plants but it isn't infallible. We planted two magnolia trees in Gopher Alley three years ago and both have been struggling ever since because gophers managed to get by the barrier. It has worked for other plants, though, so it is worth the effort when it works.

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Cans of Gourds

We also adapted a planting tip we heard two years ago when we lost several bougainvillea in Gopher Alley: cut out the bottom of the pot and plant bougainvillea in the original nursery container without disturbing sensitive roots. Ah ha! We realized that this might also give the plants just enough protection from the gophers. Our bougainvillea are now huge and lush.

This year, I am planting gourds along the fence in Gopher Alley and any damage to their root system would be intolerable. I decided to plant the vines in large food cans with lots of drain holes and then plant the cans along the fence. So far, it seems to be working.

We can't create a gopher proof barrier in our vegetable garden because it is 12 by 20 feet and raised only about eight inches. It is more like an in-ground bed that we raised slightly to improve drainage and to create a level, defined planting area. Last year, when we put in this bed, gopher activity was minimal. Retrofitting it with hardware cloth now would mean excavating the whole site and that's just not practical. Another gardener told me that she, frustrated by the gopher attacks on her in-ground beds, grew her vegetables in nothing but EarthBoxes® set in the old in-ground garden. It became, in effect, a container garden.

You can install some kind of fencing or other barrier in a trench two feet deep in the soil to keep the gophers out. Rosalio, who grew up in an agricultural community, said that when they were preparing a field, they dug a trench around it and fill it with horse manure. Apparently, gophers don't "like" digging through manure. Someone else told me about a similar method used but the trench was filled with very soft soil so that burrows would collapse. Frank is against anything that involved digging a trench that deep through Gopher Alley and I can't take on a major project like that without marital accord.

There is a school of thought that you can repel gophers with the noise from whirly birds (those spinning plastic flowers) or battery-operated sound probes stuck in the ground. We have tried both but neither worked. A vertebrate expert told me that if the sound produced by either startled the gopher at first, they would quickly become accustomed to it. This reminds me of car alarms: the first time you hear one, you react with concern; eventually, if you react at all, you wonder why that idiot doesn't turn the darn thing off.

Sometimes everything you do to prevent an invasion doesn't work. So what's next? Stay tuned for Gopher Wars III: Au Revoir, Gopher.

Mary and the Palm

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Mary Beekman is a four-year-old ghost who resides in The Beekman Mansion, and considers Brent and Josh her "imaginary friends." Follow Mary Beekman's Diary each week to learn what it's like to be a young child in early 19th century America

Nell and her Mother and Grandmother visited us at home today.  Nell's grandmother came outside to be with Nell and me when were were playing with our rag dollies.  We like to have her be with us because she tells us stories about so many things.  She sat in between us and we each held a hand while she was speaking.  I have to be still and listen carefully because her voice is not loud. Her hands are soft.  Sometimes I have to look down at our hands to make certain we are touching because they are so very soft.  Even Mother's hands are not like that.  When Nell's grandmother smoothes my hair behind my ear, it feels almost as thought a feather had tucked my hair in place.

I like to gently trail my fingers over the back of her hand.  There are dark blue cords that feel like round ridges that the tips of my fingers have to slide over.  My hand don't seem to have them……I looked.  She told us they were veins.  I do not know what veins are.  I will ask Brent.  On the other side of her hand there are many lines.  She told us stories about the lines in our hands.  One is called a heart line and is near the base of the fingers.  She said it appears Nell and I would find good husbands.  There is a head line too.  This line begins at the base of the finger after the thumb and goes to the outside of the palm.  She thought I would be a smart girl and read many books.  I would like to WRITE a book.  Nell will be very clever and  artistic.  Nell can draw better than I can already. She draws very good flowers.

The last line she told us about was the life line.  I think that line went from the edge of the palm above the thumb and travels in an arc towards the wrist.  Right now Nell and i do not have very big life lines.  Nell's grandmother said they will get longer as we grow older.  She is very old and her hand is not very big.  I think Nell and I will live to be very old too.  We will always be good friends and live near each other.  I just know we will.  We can tell our children about the stories in their hands too.  I hope I can remember to show Josh and Brent about their hands.

8 Prep-minute Strawberry/Basil Galette

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Eight minutes and it's in the oven...

You know how sometimes you have last minute visitors dropping by and you sorta want to just open up a bag of store-bought cookies but you can't really do that because you have a fancy cookbook coming out in a few months, and a website all about good living, and a TV show where everything looks perfect all of the time? We totally know how you feel.

This happened this past weekend, when we realized that the photo crew coming over to take some "high fashion" shots probably didn't have time to stop for breakfast on their way. In situations like these, we think it's always good to have a few standby recipes committed to memory. This blog is about one of those recipes. We can have it in the oven in 8 minutes or less. With only 6 ingredients. And this is our favorite part…all you need to get dirty is a bowl, a fork, and a rolling pin. That's it.

Is the result earth-shattering? No. Will it win you a James Beard award? Probably not. Would you make it if you found out Martha Stewart was dropping by in an hour? Definitely. She would admire your ingenuity. Getting something prepped, mixed, baked, and cleaned up in under 45 minutes will amaze even your most persnickity friends.

May we humbly suggest the humble galette as your go-to recipe de last minute. Most of you probably know what a galette is. It's what would result if a pie and a tart had a one night stand on a camping trip. It's a simple pie crust, onto which some fruit and sugar is piled. The edges are quickly folded up a little bit over the fruit and it's baked. Very rustic. Very simple. Sure you can get fancy with galettes…the internet is full of corn-meal egg-washed crusts, and cream filled custard fillings. But a basic traditional galette is just that – basic. Crust, Fruit, Fold.

We're even gonna help you memorize the process, to save you more time.

Here are the ingredients:

Crust = flour, butter, sugar, water or milk

Filling = Fruit, sugar (plus we use one other simple flavoring per galette. Usually either lemon or orange zest, basil, or thyme. Lemon thyme is even nicer.)

Here's how you'll remember the proportions for the crust, which you make first:

Chunk 1 stick of butter into large pats into a medium bowl. Use a fork, and don't put the fork in the sink when you're done. You're also going to mix the crust with it. Most people will say the butter should be well-chilled. And it should. But you know what? You don't have time. If it's on the counter already because you didn't put it away after breakfast, go ahead and use it.

1 very heaping cup flour (you always need a little more flour than butter)

A palm-full of sugar. less than a 1/4 cup. couple of teaspoons, really. Just scoop your hand into the sugar bin and whatever stays in your cupped palm is enough.

See? The crust is easy to remember. 1 + 1 + a little bit. (BTW, this works for most any kind of pie crust. Just keep the proportion and double the amounts for a two-crust pie.)

If you want, at this point, and the salt shaker is nearby, throw in a pinch of salt. If the salt shaker is way across the kitchen, forget about it.

Ok…with the flour, sugar, and butter chunks in a medium bowl, smush them all together with the fork. You'll want the butter/flour to be in pea-size chunks. Then add cold milk or water, a little at a time (pour dollops like you would pour into a cup of coffee), and mix in between dollops. When the dough starts to just stick together in a ball, it's done. Don't get too wet, or it will stick to the counter when you roll it out, and be tough when baked.

Now most recipes would say you should let the dough rest in the refrigerator before you roll it out, but you know what? You have guests coming over the hill. If you can't rest, why should your dough be able to?

Throw a fist full of flour on the counter, spread it out a little, and plop the dough ball onto it. Sprinkle a little more flour on top of the dough ball to keep the rolling pin from sticking to it. Roll it out. How? Well you can either watch hundreds of YouTube videos on the "proper way" to roll out dough, or you can do like your grandmother did. She, umm, rolled the rolling pin over it. Repeatedly. Until it was flat. Amazing, right?

For a galette, we roll out our crust in a kinda rectangular-ish shape. It fits a baking sheet better.

Transfer the crust to a baking sheet. It's easier to transfer, we've found, if we fold it into quarters on the counter, transfer to baking sheet, then unfold on the baking sheet. Some it may hang over the side edges. That's fine. You're gonna fold it back over in a second after it's filled.

Now the filling. First sprinkle whatever added flavor you want to use directly on the crust. A little orange or lemon zest. A sprinkle of fresh thyme leaves. For this weekend's galette, we ripped up a few basil leaves. No chopping or scissoring. Just with our fingers.

Then place the fruit in the middle of the crust. This week's galette was strawberry. Now, again, you're going to see lot's a really pretty pictures of strawberry galettes on the internet that have perfect strawberry slices, delicately overlapped in a precise pattern. Screw that. That's how you make a tart. This is a country galette. Don't put on airs.

We just plop a layer of whole strawberries in the middle of the crust. (If you're using the elephantitis grocery store strawberries, cut them in half.) Don't go all the way to the edge of the crust with the berries, because you'll need to fold a couple of inches back over. We do pinch off the hulls from the whole berries, but we swear on our french Uncle's Bob's grave, that if we didn't have the time to do that, we'd throw the berries in, hulls and all, and call it "uber-rustic." The french make cherry clafouti with pits, so I bet they sometimes leave the hulls on their strawberries.

Ok. Berries in the middle. Check. Now sprinkle with another palm-full of sugar. Fold the edges of the crust over the top of the outermost berries. There should be maybe 2 inches of crust folded over all the way around. If there's more, fine. Probably shouldn't be much less, though. Because as the galette bakes, you need the overlapped crust to hold in as many of the released juices as possible. But let's be completely honest. It's gonna leak. And as long as you have a lip on the baking sheet so that it doesn't drip off into the oven, you're not gonna care.

And for God's sake. Don't do anything fancy like an egg wash on the crust. Take that time to run a comb through your hair instead.

Now put the galette into a hot oven. Between 350 – 400 degrees. It doesn't matter. Do you think those french country bakers had a precise thermostat in their wood burning ovens? Bake for about 30 minutes or until fruit is soft, crust is brown, and juices are running. The juices might seem very watery, but they will get more syrupy as it cools.

Maybe all the juices ran out of your galette. It happens. Doesn't matter. When you serve to your incredibly impressed guests, just spoon the juices back over the top. Pretend that you'd meant to drizzle all along. Drizzling is very fancy.

And you're a fancy person.

Because you just baked a galette in a moment's notice. Damn, you're good.

 

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Good Enough to Eat

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Generally, when we are entertaining at the farm we've already put in a full day of chores in addition to preparing the meal.  Decorating the table usually entails a last minute rush out to the flower garden.

One recent evening we used crystal dessert cups and single peony blossoms at each place setting.

You can re-create this idea with any blossoms you have handy in your garden.  They key to creating something dramatic is "scale".  Use a container whose diameter is slightly smaller than the blossom which creates a voluptuous visual no matter how large or small the flower.

For drama on the table, use a container that you have multiples of (champagne glasses, egg cups, etc)

Need more simple yet elegant bouquet ideas from Beekman 1802?  Click here

 

Tab Hunter Garlic Scape Pesto

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L-R: Brent, Allan Glaser, Tab Hunter, Josh

 

What does 1950′s screen star Tab Hunter have to do with garlic scapes and pesto? Well, we'll be honest…not much. But, as some of you already know, we often name recipes after the person who either inspired or simply ate the meal with us.

Last winter, Josh appeared in a double-billing book reading in Florida with Mr. Tab Hunter, who wrote the magnificent memoir "Tab Hunter Confidential – The Making of a Movie Star." He and his partner, Allan Glaser, were such a pleasure to spend time with that we asked them to please come visit us at the farm. So this past weekend, while they were on a car trip up the East Coast, they did just that.

As usual, when we have guests, we try to create meals using ingredients straight from the garden. Tab and Allen had the good fortune of visiting when our garlic chose to send up their scapes. What are garlic scapes? They're the curly central flower stem that emerges from a garlic plant as the weather turns warmer. It's important to remove these stems before they flower and go to seed so that the plant's energy returns to the bulb and not the reproductive process.

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Sensuous, curvy garlic scapes. The pointy bit at the end is the flower pod. It must be discarded before eating.

 

The young scapes have the consistency of a crisp green bean, and a milder flavor of garlic. They're simply delicious, and one of those seasonal delicacies, like wild leeks, that we look forward to all year.

Usually we chop and saute the scapes and use them as a side dish, or in eggs, but we wanted to try something different this year. To take full advantage of the scape's delicate flavor, we decided to make a fresh pesto out of them. Here's the recipe we concocted:

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO WITH HAZELNUTS

About 12 young garlic scapes – young flower pods removed and roughly chopped.

Approx 10 large basil leaves

1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese (we used an extra-aged Blaak since we had it in the freezer.)

1/2 C toasted hazelnuts

1 C olive oil

Salt to taste

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender, and pulse blend until just before it reaches a completely smooth texture. Add more oil if you like your pesto thinner. Toss with freshly cooked pasta and serve slightly warm, or room temperature.

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The hazelnuts can be toasted in a dry pan over a low flame. Be careful to stir so they don't burn. Some of the skins should fall off once toasted. We don't much care if some skins make it into the final blend.

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We served what we call a "soft salad" along with the pesto. Young Butter Bibb leaves, radish blossoms, young dill, pea blossoms, and rose petals, tossed with olive oil and red wine vinegar. It literally melts in your mouth.

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Along with the pesto, we pan-fried some of our own pork sausage. We finished off the sausage by adding a bottle of beer to the pan and letting it simmer off - leaving a sweet coating on the sausage pieces.

 

We can sincerely say that eating such a fresh garden dinner on the porch while listening to Tab speak fondly about old Hollywood friends was one of the most pleasant evenings we've spent at the Beekman. We hope Allan and Tab return soon…maybe for a nice autumn pesto.

What are some of your favorite impromptu pesto recipes?

 

Goat Milk Cheesecake

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Last year we worked with on of our dear friends, Suzann Kipp, to develop a twist on the classic cheese cake—using goat milk from the farm.  We also wanted to think of a unique crust.  During William Beekman's time, one of the few baked goods readily available to satisfy his sweet tooth was short bread, so why not use that as the base for our tangy new dessert?

The result was delicious, and became an instant hit when we introduced it on the menu at The American Hotel

Ingredients

Softened butter, to coat springform pan

1 cup Shortbread (buy shortbread cookies and crumble or click here for our shortbread recipe)

¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature

1 ½ cups sour cream, in all

12 ounces (1 ½ cups) soft goat cheese (click here to make your own)

2 large eggs

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons honey

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

In a bowl, combine the shortbread & melted butter until thoroughly blended

& press the mixture into the bottom of the springform pan. In a mixer,

beat the cream cheese until smooth & creamy, about 5 minutes. Beat in 1

cup of sour cream, goat cheese, eggs, & sugar. Continue beating for 4

minutes. Add vanilla extract & lime juice; beat until incorporated. Pour

the filling over the crust in the springform pan; bake until brown &

springy-firm – about 1 ½ hours. Remove from oven & allow to cool to room

temperature. Remove from the pan. In a small bowl, combine the remaining

sour cream with the honey; mix until smooth. Spread on top of the cooled

cake.

Mary and Strawberries

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Mary Beekman is a four-year-old ghost who resides in The Beekman Mansion, and considers Brent and Josh her "imaginary friends." Follow Mary Beekman's Diary each week to learn what it's like to be a young child in early 19th century America

Mother calls it sunshine in a jar.  Whatever berries we cannot eat up, Mother and the girls in the kitchen make into jam or jelly for us to use in the winter.  One time Mother could not find her favorite spoon for stirring the hot jam.  I found it for her.  It was hidden under a soiled apron in the corner.  I am good at finding things.  Most of the fresh berries do get eaten up in pies or just by themselves but the bruised ones or the left over ones are cooked. We all love to smell the jars when they are unsealed in the winter.  When I smell the strawberry preserves, I remember how the berries smelled when I accidentally squished them  with my bare feet in the patch under the hot sun.   My toes were colored dark pink for a long time.

Jams have the pulp of the fruit without skins or pits.  But jelly has the strained juices of simmered fruit without any pulp.  Preserves have large chunks of fruit and "conserves" are a mix of fruit, nuts and raisins.  I like jelly the best because I don't have to chew so much.  It just slides around my mouth on top of the bread.  The colors of the different jellies are so very beautiful.  My favorite one is elderberry.  It is a very deep purple…just like the berries.  Elderberries usually grow too tall for me to pick by myself.  I help to pluck them off the stems once the taller children hand them to me in a basket.  It takes a long time.  They grow in a cluster and the flower before the fruit forms looks like Queen  Ann's lace.  Josh told me that they are ripe by the end of August.  That is when his birthday is.  Brent's birthday is in May.  Maybe I can go to their parties this year.

Summer Pond Reading

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Several people have asked why we haven't put out a reading list since winter. We'll be honest…we don't get much reading done during planting season. But now that summer's arrived, we've been spending a little time with books down by the pond in our favorite chairs. So rather than a Summer Beach Read List, we're giving you our Summer Pond Read List. Hope you like some of them as much as we do. Maybe you'll spot a theme…

Finn: A Novel – This dark, but beautiful debut by John Clinch tells the story not of Huck Finn, but of his troubled father. Wonderfully historical.

For Cod and Country: Simple, Delicious, Sustainable Cooking – A book after our own hearts. Barton Seavor arranges this informative book by fishing seasons, featuring recipes using known and lessor-known fish, and vegetables straight from the farm.

The Garden Wall at Beekman Farm – The stone artist who built the legendary garden wall at our farm, Michael Whaling, has written a poetic book about stones, walls, and their greater meaning in our lives. Beautiful photos by Leila Durkin document the wall's progress. (Autographed copies at Beekman1802.com)

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories: 25th Anniversary Edition

- This book was getting hard to find. We're glad they reprinted this fantastic edition.

Moby Dick – Do we really need to say more?

Summer Rental

- Everyone's gotta read one good beach book every summer. We love Mary Kay Andrews. (In fact, she was a recent Guest Blogger for us.) And her books are always summer fun.

Seeds: One Man's Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton – The title pretty much sums it up. And why we're besotted with it.

What books are you reading this summer?