Food process

The nice thing about living in tree fruit land is, well, all the tree fruit.
Summer began with cherries, and once we bought a cherry pitter, we were pitting pitting and freezing cherries for winter … and thinking we ought to get ourselves a dehydrator.

Peaches and nectarines came a month later. Because I work for the tree fruit research center, we got to go pick free (post-researched) peaches in one of the center’s orchards. And so after bringing home way too many,
we tried peaches in brandy -- but didn’t use enough brandy, so they botulism fermentedized rather than preserved… grumble grumble.

Next came free almost-overripe plums from Mike’s work at Farmhouse Table, the new town CSA (community supported agriculture) that packs local produce into weekly shareholder pickup boxes at its cute downtown storefront. We tried crock-pot plum butter, but ended up with a somewhat burned, sour, mealy mess – one more sacrifice to the learning process...

But then, success with peach butter!
And now, well into apple and pear season, success with applesauce! And success with oven-dried fruit leather!
We’re waiting for one more shipment of plums from our friend Michel, who is overwhelmed with them in her backyard, for trying plum butter yet again. We need to buy more canning jars.
Outside the fruit realm, we decided that if we have goats, and if we’re hoping to milk them eventually, we should really know how to make cheese. Started with lemon cheese, a soft cheese curdled with lemon juice and hung from our pieced-together kitchen string contraption to solidify.
It ended up being a lemony ricotta/cream cheese type blend.

We have just been invited to a cheese making party next weekend at the house of two chefs recently moved into town. And this weekend brings an apple cider making party at another friend of a friend's house, and a potential mushroom hunting outing next weekend... so much food to squeeze in before winter!

If only we had more freezing, canning, drying, storage space, we’d be all set. Or on second thought, maybe it’s better to start small.

P.S. Stay tuned for pending updates on hiking travels, goat escapades, and people pictures.

P.P.S. Speaking of food, hope those of you who celebrate had meaningful yom kippur fasts and a shana tova.