Kitchen Fails Turned Into Hits in the Pumpkin Patch!

 

One of our pumpkin displays inspired by the cover of Harris Seeds catalogue!
Cute model not for sale! 

Daughter Beth takes her inspiration from all kinds of things, and cool garage sale finds! Now back to our regularly scheduled story!

I cannot be interrupted while baking for the pumpkin patch, it seems.

I've messed up a couple of standard recipes when folks interrupt me, then I come back wondering did I put all six cups of flour into the cookies or only three?

That leads to chaos... and some goofy cookies! 

But sometimes it creates opportunities!

The latest mess up was a combination of errors where it started with no mistake...

But I thought I made a mistake! So that was enough for me to then outsmart myself, make the first half of the recipe in Mixer #2, and then blend it with recipe in Mixer #1 and then.... 

Baked the first trays.... 

Only to realize I'd messed up.

Christina repurposing a former chicken coop that's now a firewood crib for customers!

So I adjusted and did sample trays, but by the time I got the ratio back to where it needed to be, I had six trays of these thin, crispy chocolate chip cookies that TASTED GREAT!!!!! But they weren't our norm, so I couldn't just sell them as our norm.... so I cut them into pieces and fed the masses and they loved 'em! So that was a good outcome, right???

Then my new baking partner Jon (let me say in Jon's defense, this kitchen is crazy on fall weekends, because there's always food being made for workers and baking and approximately 7 children under age 11 running here and there).... messed up a peanut butter cookie recipe that is now going into the file as a total and saleable success.

He halved the butter by thinking it said two sticks, not two cups.

Oops! 

Unloading pumpkins from the trusty pickup truck with workers of all ages!

But they were so good that I melted chocolate frosting, dipped the cookie tops twice, cooled them and sold them and people loved them! 

And I probably don't have pics because it's so busy then that I'm never thinking of pictures. Silly me!!!

I'm actually making those cookies again today to prepare for our upcoming busy, busy, busy weekend.

At least we think it will be busy. Beautiful weather and pumpkins and cookies are an amazing thing!

A fun weekend afternoon! 

My fifth graders that visit me 3 days/week... We've got this! 

I am not above tackling folks for photos because this mom had THE LOOK! Great pants, the saddle bag purse, the hat, and the wrap-around sweater. :) And yes, she knows I'm posting it! 

My 5th graders and donkeys!!! 

We're gearing up for another busy weekend this week... gorgeous weather predicted and we've got pumpkins and squash to sell... and other fun things, too! We are so blessed with the joy this venture brings to people. The chance to be outside, in a big, open environment, masks or no masks (their choice) and good friends gathering to make all of this happen.

Our volunteer crew on the weekend is amazing and we couldn't make this happen without them. They are the backbone of this business... well, them and Farmer Dave! 

And right now, in the thick of this, we see these blessings and the joy this brings to so many, and we are already talking about how we can expand for next year. But first... we're going to enjoy the work of so many hands this year!

Every fall, multi-published, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne dons her farm and baking hat and works on her Western New York pumpkin farm doing jams and cookies and schmoozing customers because she loves schmoozing people while writing books in the middle of the night... She'd love to hear from you! Email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com, visit her website ruthloganherne.com and friend Ruthy on Facebook!