Well, my phone is not happy these days and my son borrowed my camera, so I'm not sure if you'll get pictures, but this was too marvelous not to share!
We have a wild blackberry patch on the rock pile.
The rock pile isn't a metaphor.
It is a rock pile.`
It seems that a gazillion and three years ago, the earth heaved up a glacier or two (Imagine that!! Melting glaciers!!!) and they kind of steamrolled their way across New York State leaving us amazingly delightful Finger Lakes and smaller lakes, and the detritus of their long journey in rocks... So while most of our farm is thick (like 10 to 12 inches of topsoil) sandy loam (and may have been the bed of Lake Ontario a long time ago but not quite as long as the dinosaurs and/or those glaciers) we have an upper patch that is rock-studded.... and the rocks find their way up to the surface and get put on the rock pile.
The good news is that the rock pile cannot be seen from space, so it's relatively small compared to Staten Island's garbage dump....
But it's rocky and it sits there, growing weeds... but now it's growing blackberries, so this year we've already canned five pints of Blackberry jam and made one amazingly delicious fruit crisp/crumble.
I picked the berries.
Me.
I took the truck out back, climbed out and waded into the brushes and briars and brambles and picked about six quarts of berries.
Okay, maybe five....
And by the time I picked through them (staining my hands purple!!!) three days later, it was more like four usable quarts, but then I took those delicious berries.... laid them out in a lightly greased 15" x 11" Pyrex pan....
Sprinkled them with sugar....
And then this topping based on my favorite apple crisp recipe from Betty Crocker.
2 cups oats (rolled or quick, either is fine)
2 cups flour
1 cup softened butter (2 sticks or 16 oz.)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in butter until mixture looks like meal... Spread crumbly mix over top of berries from side to side and sea to shining sea!
Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. Berries should be bubbling, topping should be golden brown, light golden brown. Not dark golden brown.... Don't ruin this, darlings, check your oven...
Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream... or just eat it on its own, it's amazingly delicious!
And we celebrated Cousin Palooza not long ago.... A day to celebrate our grandchildren, (and a few others, too!) where we all gather, eat great food, let the kids play games, ride in Grandpa's truck and bounce in the bounce house we rent for the day... and we just have fun. But Grandpa decided that day would be a good day to take down three big branches from an old tree... Yes. On Cousinpalooza day. Do not ask. We have never been able to figure this out. It's not like the branches haven't been up there, needing trimming for A Very Long Time. You gals know what I mean! So this is Beth, clearing debris!
Fourteen grandkids... (we stole one and we are not ashamed to admit it!!!) and a passel full of parents and beloved people....
It all makes for a special, inexpensive, let's celebrate family kind of day!
And it helps to keep down the crazy throughout the school year, when fitting in individual parties for all the kids would be tough in already tight schedules... So we went with a Carnival theme this year and it was so much fun to have a whole day of kids!!!
We've found that changing schedules was clutch as our family grew. How did you have to readjust things as your family grew?
And Circus/Carnival themed cupcakes by Lacey!
We're bringing pumpkins up so I'll post some of the pics next week... the hills are alive and so is the yard of Blodgett Family Farm!!!!
Until next week and more blackberries!!!!
Multi-published author Ruth Logan Herne loves baking, painting (not like art... like rooms... that kind of thing) and sharing sweet stories with all kinds of people. The author of nearly 50 novels and novellas, Ruthy lives a very busy rodent-filled life in the Eastern woodlands of Western New York ... Original rodent visitor a few weeks ago: Baby gray squirrel. In my cupboard. Must be put in a book, right?
Newest rodent visitor: Flying squirrel. Raise your hand if you didn't know that flying squirrels lived in Western New York!!!! Well, neither did Lacey and I until one scampered across the kitchen! OOPS! The video of us chasing along after this very active and agile rodent is hysterical and purely embarrassing!
Let's just say that we got him trapped with a bucket... and a couch cushion.
Yep.
That's how we roll. :)
I'm not sure how he got in.
I do not even want to think that there's a hole that big.
So I'm opting that the cat brought him in.
We named him Harvey.
And we released him into the great unknown past the donkey shed.
#mylife
#mylifewithrodents
Oh Ruthy you could have had a flying squirrel pet! That crisp looks amazing! I might just save this for the topping recipe!
ReplyDeleteKatie, I love this topping recipe... and if you could have seen our faces when that thing glided across the room from the couch.... WHAT?????? It was hysterical!
DeleteHe was a cute little thing, but almost bat-like in the face. A more triangle face than the gray squirrels have. And littler!!!!
And potentially rabid. :P
DeleteLove you, Mindy Obenhaus, because that was my first thought too!
DeleteI never even thought of that!!!! EEEK! :)
DeleteI didn't think of that either! You guys are right. It is better off outside.
DeletePurple hands? Sounds like me with our wild dewberries back in the spring. At least it comes off. Eventually.
ReplyDeleteSo who was the clown? I love the circus theme and I'm sure the kids had a ball. No matter what their age. And this crisp? Well, I've rarely met one I didn't like. I can't wait until things cool down here and feel like fall so I can make one. I still have dewberries in the freezer, so perhaps I'll make a dewberry crisp. Or maybe a dewberry-peach crisp. Okay, at this rate, I may not be waiting til fall.
Lacey's mom is Freckles the Clown... isn't she adorable? She took up clowning when Lacey went to college... because she was going to be lonely and she always wanted to be a clown. And she's wonderful!
DeleteThis looks like so much fun - the cousinpalooza - NOT the squirrels.
ReplyDeleteAnd the topping, YUM, I could eat that just by itself.
Right??? Like granola!
DeleteRuthy, I love your cute rodents!! I wish I could see that video. Did you post it on FB?? :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like another great counsinpalooza! I think it's such a wonderful idea!
Christina took it, the brat! I don't know if she posted it. What I did notice was that neither one of us looked real fat!!! :)
Delete#totalgirl
#womanresponse
#firsthingsfirst
Fun times on the Blodgett Family Farm!
ReplyDeleteSome day I'm going to be driving along the back roads in Western New York State and I'll see a lovely farm stand along the road. "Oh," I'll say to my dear, patient hubby, "let's stop here! Look! They have donkeys!"
I love your farm life and the Cousinpalooza. :-)
And that fruit crisp...oh, my... I need to find some blackberries.
Of course any berry or apple will do. Or PEACHES!!!! Yum! Peach crisp is amazing!!!!! Now I need peaches.
DeleteCousinpalooza day sounds amazing filled with so many having fun playing, visiting and eating. Perfect holiday for all.
ReplyDeleteYour blackberry crisp crumble looks delicious. I agree, peach crisp is amazing. I did a peach blueberry crisp--oh my goodness what a delightful treat.