Missing Willow Farm

I made this for Brian’s birthday this past weekend.  He sometimes asks for a pie of some sort but the apples are so beautiful right now I’m glad he selected this for dessert.

3 large honey crisp apples
1 bag of Kraft caramels
1 bag of  Ghiardelli dark chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla or vanilla bean paste

Wash apples and set them on parchment paper. Microwave the caramels and corn syrup on medium power at 30 second intervals until the caramels melt. Stir in vanilla. Spoon over the apples then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave on medium power at 30 second intervals until melted. Spoon over the cooled apples. At this point, you can also add nuts, sprinkles, candies if you like.  Brian likes his plain.  A quarter apple is the perfect serving size.

The sauerkraut I made this summer with cabbage from our garden is really delicious!  It’s going to be an annual process here on the farm.  Those are James Beard nominee Craig Deihl’s handmade bratwursts in the pan.  We’ve managed to snag three of his artisan meat shares this year, despite the fact that his restaurant is 6 hours from here and he doesn’t ship.  If you’re within striking distance of Charleston, SC, it’s an amazing treat!

Chicken feathers can be just beautiful.  I can’t have a peacock *pout* so these have to suffice for pretty birds around here.

Tis the season again.  We just filled two raised beds with garlic.  If you want to give it at try, grab some from your kitchen and plant individual cloves about 2 inches deep with the pointy side up.  Wait six months.  Enjoy!

Tomorrow night at 10PM on Bravo (October 24th) check out Life After Top Chef.  You’ll see two former Top Chef All Stars contestants visit a sheep farm in rural SW Virginia.  The episode is titled Shear Today, Gone To Marrow.  You might see someone you know…. just sayin’

Fog rolls off our pond and up the driveway and beyond.  So pretty… and creepy.

This is how we watch TV.  Bindi’s not happy unless her hiney is in someone’s face.

We try not to let anything go to waste around here.  When a few of our mini pumpkins got a little wilted, we took them to the hens to see if they’d enjoy them.  These were gone in a few minutes with just a tiny bit of fighting and arguments.

Our shiitake logs have fruited again.  It’s taken a few years for them to find their rhythm, evidently it’s early spring and early fall.  This is about half of the harvest.  We’re investigating how to preserve them because you can only eat so much risotto!

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We have four compost areas on our farm.  This one is next to our small barn and is where we dump the chicken poop that collects under their roost every morning.  Somehow, a tomato seed made it into this straw pile and grew the most epic tomato plant.  It’s got tons of blooms and tiny fruit on it.  We’re so close to our first frost we’ll never get to harvest anything but, let me tell you, there will be non-accidental tomato plantings in there next spring!