Explore the Orchard
Want a cool refreshing drink that is perfect for a hot day? Start with a raspberry shrub (a mix of berries, sugar and vinegar) add ice and sparkling water. Kick it up a notch with your favorite liqueur if you like
Below are some photos of the shrub-making process. Super easy, just need to work ahead and definitely worthwhile having some cheese cloth on hand.
The apple trees are simply loaded with fruit this year. We can’t wait to share this bounty with you come fall.
What to know what’s happening at the orchard? Below are some shots we’ve taken during the off-season to give you some idea of how things progress from month to month.
July 4th Update – We took time during the holiday weekend to get the drip tape in the pumpkin patch. We’ve found it’s the most effective way to get them the water they need on a consistent basis. And, a week later, the plants have doubled in size. We can already see some young pumpkins forming.
On the apple front, the trees are covered in little green apples. Everything is green at this point, but that’s how it is supposed to be in midsummer.
Things are quiet at the orchard right now but the plants are busy growing by leaps and bounds
May Update: Those blooms from last month have turned into what looks to be a promising apple crop. Check out these – they look somewhat like a nest of baby birds chirping for their mom to bring them some food.
Encouraging to see the apples set. Also encouraging is to wrap up our planting duties. We’ve got several rows of new trees in the ground and are glad for the recent rains that will help them get a good start.
April Update:
Woohoo! Beautiful blossoms. Not too early, which is awesome. Bees are busy as are we 🙂
We’ve planted 200+ new trees this spring. Think you will like these varieties. Good to see the growing season underway. Bushels and bushels of apples in the making!
March update: We are full on into planning some new surprises for you this fall. And, we are into spring cleaning – a lot of pruning going on!
That’s Barb with a hydraulic trimmer powered by the International we bought back in ’83.
The trees don’t look like much without their leaves, but trust us . . . if we can prune them so the fruit gets lots of sun, we’ll see a great crop
What’s this? Alex went a bit heavy-handed with the pruning? No. This is us removing some trees that haven’t been performing well and we’ll be replacing them soon. The new trees should be arriving any day now. Anyone want to help plant some trees?
We can’t wait to see what the bloom looks like this spring and will be sure to share that with you here
We decided to try out another “Pioneer Woman” recipe. You can pretty much rely on her to deliver something scrumptious and fairly buttery 😉 And, this recipe does not disappoint.
Unintended Short-cut: We could only find instant pudding in the little country store in our town, so we went with that. On the upside, that substitution allowed us to skip the cooking process. We just mixed the instant pudding with the half-and-half/whipping cream and added the canned pumpkin. The texture seemed just fine and it saved a few steps.
My that homemade graham cracker crust is just delicious!
And, who doesn’t love adorning with crushed grahams?
We probably should have added a dollop of whipped cream on top for the photo-op. Next time, next time.
This scrumptious offering is from the Food Network’s “Pioneer Woman”. The cake is super moist and the cream cheese frosting is divine. The finished product is almost candy-like.
If you are looking for something that comes together quickly but still tastes fantastic, you should give this a try!
FYI – The sheet pan Ree references is 18 x 13 inches. If you don’t have anything that particular size, a 9 x 13 baking dish would work. You’d just need to plan on baking it a bit longer.
about. Not something to do every day but if you have some extra time, say on a rainy weekend, it is worth a go.Making this recipe required several trips to the store due to lack of planning on the part of said “test kitchen”. I find it frustrating when you think to get the special ingredients but assume the staples are in ready supply back at home, only to find out they are NOT.
Please forgive the missing piece in the back left of this photo. We just couldn’t wait for the camera shot to try a bite. Tasty. Love the pumpkin spice flavor and the gorgeous color!