Birthday Wishes Fulfilled...

My birthday was earlier this month.  My husband asked me what I wanted, as any good husband would do, right?  After making a mental list of all the possibilities my answer may hold, I decided to go with simple and inexpensive.

"Honey, I would like to spend a day hiking and exploring someplace new to us in New York.  How about seeing Lake Ontario?  You, me, the dogs and whom ever of our kids is interested."
(And, then, I went shopping, all by myself, and bought 2 pairs of earrings...Takes the guess-work of these things!)

Well, between Don's travels for work.....

Then the dreary, cloudy, soggy weather we experienced for nearly 2 weeks prevented Don from following through with my birthday wish.  Bummer.



However, when we saw that yesterday was predicted to be mostly sunny AND 79 degrees, we decided we just had to do it.  Don would set aside his agenda for completing projects around the farm, and I would pause from school year preparations, cleaning, and processing the veggies from the garden.




We would hike at Chimney Bluff State Park in the morning, enjoy a picnic lunch, then head over to Sodus Point to see the lighthouse and relax on the beach.





 

And, a glorious day it was!!  I want to share with you, my followers, some of the beautiful sights and moments we (Grace, Rosie, Don and I) captured with my camera.  Definitely a place we'll be visiting again!!



I'll try to keep this to my 10 favorite photos, but please forgive me if I go over by 3 or 4!

Mac, fetching a log.  The water is so clear and blue!

My favorite hiking partners in a unique-looking tree.

Hiking towards the bluffs.

Grace captured this seagull on the point of this cool geological feature!






Keep Scrolling....I definitely went over my limit, Folks!  But, you just have to see...

The point from a distance.  Pretty awesome view!

Another beautiful sight captured by Grace!

Looking back at the beach from the pier...

The dogs had a blast swimming.  I wasn't sure how Tig would feel about the rougher, deeper water, since his only swimming experiences thus far have been splashing around our little pond.







Turns out he LOVES to swim - I believe he thinks he's a lab, too!

My beautiful artist!  I hope she will paint one or two of these pictures for me...

A sweet little family on the beach was flying this colorful kite.

And, of course, we couldn't end our day without our little tradition.....

You see, I grew up spending many, many weekends traveling from my family's home in Chester County, PA to the Chesapeake Bay area, where we went boating, crabbing, fishing and water-skiing.  On the way home, we always stopped for ice cream at this great little Mom-n-Pop place called, "The Real McCoy".  Up until a few years ago, I was still stopping there with my own kids.

So, when we saw a little ice cream place that resembled our traditional haunt, I looked at Don.....he looked at me, and.....

You guessed it.....

YUM!!

Thanks so much, Don, for a very lovely birthday!!

Syrup? Sauce? Who cares- It's Heavenly!

About once a month, I serve breakfast....for dinner... at Westbrook Farm.  I have missed the past couple of months, so the kids cheered (a bit too excitedly) when I suggested it on Wednesday afternoon.
William and I stopped at Anderson's Farm Market, about 8 miles from us in Little York, for cantaloupe and sausage to go with our blueberry pancakes.

Since we have an abundance of blueberries at the moment, I decided to make a heavenly blueberry topping for our pancakes.  But.....I'm not sure whether to call it blueberry "sauce" or "syrup".  Here's the recipe - you decide....











JEN'S BLUEBERRY..... SAUCE?

2 cups blueberries
1-2 Tbs. orange juice
1 cup maple syrup





- Dump blueberries in a medium sauce pan and crush them gently as pan heats up to a low heat.  Add orange juice and maple syrup.  Bring to a slow boil.


- Mix about a tablespoon of cornstarch into about a 1/4 cup water.  Add to bubbling mixture.  Allow to thicken for a few minutes.  Remove sauce from heat and let cool slightly, then serve.

This sauce is absolutely delicious on pancakes, waffles, french toast, hot cereal and more!

So, as I was walking through the woods yesterday, I noticed that leaves are beginning to change.   

Already??  Ugh...

There are so many more things I hoped to accomplish this summer, but I guess I have to let them go....very hard for me!

Still hoping to get in a hike or two before it gets too cold for these bones, so stay tuned for photos!

A New Twist On An Old Favorite

We all have our comfort foods, right?  Well, one of mine happens to be blueberry muffins with hot tea.  I love to enjoy this tasty treat on a brisk autumn morning or a snowy, cloudy winter afternoon...... or even a chilly, rainy, late-summer day, like today in CNY! 

I know....I already shared one muffin recipe......but this one is an interesting twist on a classic.  I happened to have some crushed pineapple leftover from baking my mom's zucchini bread recipe, so I decided to play around with my standard blueberry muffin recipe and came up with this:

Moist and Chewy Blueberry-Pineapple Muffins


2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 Tbs. brown sugar
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup crushed pineapple, well-drained
2 cups blueberries





Preheat oven to 375 and spray muffin pans. (Makes 16 -18 regular muffins.)

1.  Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl.
2.  In medium bowl, mix well the eggs, oil, yogurt, syrup, brown sugar, and lemon juice.  
3.  Combine wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.


 



4.  Gently stir in the crushed pineapple and blueberries. Batter will be very thick.  **If batter seems too dry at this point, add 1-2 tablespoons of milk.

5.  Spoon into muffin pans and bake for 16-20 minutes.



**Almost any topping, or even no topping, works for these moist, tasty muffins.  I decided to take about a tablespoon of melted butter and stir in a bit of maple syrup.  Then, I evenly coated about a 1/2 cup of coarse-chopped walnuts and sprinkled on top of the muffins BEFORE baking to create a toasted maple-walnut topper.  






Brew a cup of coffee or tea and....YUM!  Delicious comfort for any day!  Needless to say, these muffins go quickly in my home.....

Check back later in the week for my homemade hot blueberry syrup recipe.  What's better than blueberry syrup on blueberry pancakes, right?

Beautiful Blueberries

Fresh fruits and veggies make eating so delightful this time of the year.  So many juicy, colorful, flavorful fruits are available!



And, who doesn't love fresh berries?  Magenta to crimson to deep violet, luscious berries are readily available in the Northeast this time of year....But, my all-time favorite berry is the beautiful blueberry.  I love its deep blue color just as much as its tart-n-sweet flavor.  I even think the bushes, with their smooth, deep green leaves, are lovely!

And, one of my favorite pastimes is picking my own blueberries on a late summer's day when the sun is warm and bright, but the heat is not too intense....when you can sense that autumn is not too far off.... 

Someday, I'm gonna have 2 or 3......or 20 (knowing my husband!) blueberry bushes on Westbrook Farm, but until then, I have to find someplace else to pick.

Last year, one of my new friends, Julianne, took me to this scenic little blueberry orchard on top of a hill just outside of Cortland, NY, called Hall's Hill. (www.hallshillblueberryfarm.com)  We picked several pounds to eat fresh and we froze enough to make blueberry "delights" throughout the winter.



I mentioned to her, a few weeks ago, that I'd love to go again, but we weren't sure if we'd be able to make it happen since both of us have been experiencing "transportation challenges" of late.






However, last Thursday, Praise the Lord, we made it happen! 




My friend, our daughters, and I grabbed our buckets and baskets, packed into her minivan, and head to the hills.  What a lovely afternoon we had!




Blessed with perfect weather and delightful company, I weaved my way in and out of the rows, tasting the different varieties of blueberries, and selecting the ones I wanted to fill our containers. We moms had the opportunity to chat, relax in the sun, and watch the cottony clouds float by as we picked, while our daughters chattered their way up and down the rows of blueberry bushes, and played with the sweet farm dog.






Now, this farm has at least 4, maybe 5 or 6, different varieties of blueberries.  Who knew there were so many choices?!  Different sizes and levels of tartness or sweetness...  Since they are not labeled, the only way to know what you are getting is...taste, of course!  And, note the rows of the ones you like.

Grace, Rosie and I identified 3, that, when combined, produce an amazing flavor explosion in your mouth!  So, that's what we picked.

 

I'm so glad I decided to take my camera along - such a gorgeous day!!





The final outcome:  9 and half pounds of juicy, blue deliciousness!

Blueberry recipes to come, I promise!  I've already made some muffins, but mostly we've been adding our blueberries to our yogurt, hot cereal and vanilla ice cream.....yum!

Oh, My! Chickies!

I have a little story to share, so please stick with me.....

About a month ago, we went to PA to visit some friends, and, as you previously read about, my children were baptized at our home church.  Well, during those days we had a friend "farm-sitting" for us up here.

He did a super job, but he didn't realize he would need to look UNDER the hens that happened to be in the nest boxes in our coop, therefore, when we got home, one "broody" black australorp was setting on a pile of eggs!




I decided to have Grace mark five or six with a sharpie and let the hen sit....just cuz.... It was an experiment, really.  I wondered if my rooster was still.....doing his job....if ya know what I mean!


I carefully counted 21 days, chickens' incubation period, and marked it on the calendar.  August 2nd.  We'd let her tend the eggs until the evening of August 1st, then, bring them inside and place them under the heat lamp to watch them hatch....or not.




On July 31, I send Will and Nate out to clean the coop.  Moments later Nate comes rushing back into the kitchen gently holding something between his work-gloved hands....a chickie!!  Alive and well.  The girls swiftly set up a plastic tub with shavings and rigged up the heat lamp, as the boys went out to gather the other eggs.

Unfortunately, another was halfway hatched, but had been dragged out into the chicken yard, presumably by one of the young hens;  maybe she was confused by that noisy broken egg in the nest box...

We put the traumatized little one under the heat lamp, but we believe the new nursery got too warm, too fast, because she died, as did one other that was just breaking out.  DARN!  I wanted to have everything prepped ahead of time and the temperature adjusted properly to 92 degrees, but that just didn't work out.  I hadn't factor in the day on which we left when I counted....   

Stuffed rhino was supposed to be a comfort while waiting for live friends!

So, we had one live chick and two eggs left.

Anxiously, we waited for almost 48 hours to see some signs of life from those eggs, but....nothing.  Don decided it was time to see what happened.....Were these two eggs even fertilized?  The first was not.....but...

"Peep, peep!"  Indeed, the second had a fully-developed bird in it!  Sadly, however, we discovered that it was deformed and the little guy didn't make it through the night.




So now, we have one very spoiled chick....

Oh, my....This just won't do! We learned, from another backyard flock owner, that single chicks usually fail to thrive.  Chickens are designed to live in groups and interact with each other.  They rely on each other.

Wiggles, that's what Grace named the feisty little one, appeared healthy and strong at 3 days old, but could he/she last until mature enough to go to the coop?  And, would he even know how to interact correctly with the other chickens when he did?


So, at 6:45 in the morning, with our coffee in hand, Don and I logged onto Craig's list to see if we could find Wiggles some friends.....


We ended up at this great, little family-operated hatchery called Beardsley's Pick-a-Chick Farm, in Whitney Point, NY. (beardsley.wix.com/pickachick)


Only $2.00 each for these healthy-looking two-day old chicks!  A $.50/bird discount due it being the last hatching of the summer.  And, what a colorful variety of cross-breeds!





We explained our "situation" and asked if there was a minimum purchase...normally six, but...
"Great,  we'll take five!"  I said with a grin, "But, can you help us pick pullets?" (Females are called pullets, males are cockerels)

One-by-one we chose the breeds/colors we liked, then checked their wing-shape to try to determine gender. (There are other more accurate methods used by professionals, by the way.)

Pretty sure this is a pullet.

Hoping we're wrong, but pretty sure Wiggles is a cockerel!

 Here's hoping we bought 5 hens, because we're pretty sure that Wiggles is going to be a rooster!













Did I really need 6 more birds this year?  This late in the season? 

Probably not.

With CNY winters being what they are, these new hens won't even lay until next spring.....









But, I couldn't bear the idea of Wiggles, literally, dying of loneliness.  Just as we are designed to need each other, so are chickens.  Besides, we are supposed to be working on building our flock so we can offer "farm fresh" eggs to the community, right?

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!