One of the nicest things about selling our fruit at the local farmer’s markets is that we get to meet and hang out with other farmers all Saturday morning. We’re all running around to keep up with customers and re-stock our produce displays and so on, but there’s always plenty of time to chat with your neighbours, and by the end of the season, we’re fast friends.

That’s how we met Jim and Ginger Armstrong, of Snowy Peaks Christmas Tree Farm in Foresthill.  Nope, they’re not selling Christmas trees in August and September, when we’re at the market with pears — they also grow hydroponic strawberries and blueberries, as well as delicious New Mexico chilies, which they roast to order. When Jim fires up his gas-powered roaster and loads it with chilies, the smell is absolutely tantalizing! We always look forward to a spot next to their tent at the market, so we can bask in the aromas and chat and swap recipes with Ginger.

But this time of year, there are no chilies and berries at Snowy Peaks…. it’s all about the trees!

Clockwise from top left: A hand-painted sign greets visitors to the farm; a glimpse of Sierra snow through the firs; handmade wreaths decorate the office; the bonfire has a view of the farm and the forest beyond.

You may know that we — Phyllis and Julia — host a radio program, The Homestead Radio Hour, on KVMR FM in Nevada City. Each month, we focus on a particular topic, such as backyard chickens or beekeeping or composting, and bring in guests to discuss it with us. For our December episode, we settled on Handmade Homestead Holidays as our theme… and who better to talk to about homegrown Christmas traditions than Jim and Ginger? We’d all been wanting to take a trip up to their farm anyway, and this was the perfect occasion!

Snowy Peaks Farm is just outside of Foresthill; it’s only a half-hour’s drive from Auburn, but it feels like you’re wonderfully far away from everything. No traffic, no noise, just trees and forest and beautiful Sierra vistas. Jim and Ginger have been growing trees here for 14 years, and it’s plain to see that they love what they do — the office is painted a bright festive red and hung with wreaths, there’s a toasty bonfire glowing, and a hillside of carefully-tended firs stretches out of view. Their farm is the heart of many a family tradition; Ginger told us how they have some families, now into the third generation, who come back every year together to pick out a tree.

We had a lovely time interviewing Ginger and Jim for the show, and it was especially interesting to hear their thoughts on the “green” aspect of real Christmas trees as opposed to artificial ones. It may seem counterintuitive that cutting down a tree is the better choice for the environment, but just think about the ecological impact of manufacturing plastic trees in China and then shipping them to the US. What happens when next year’s “new and improved” model comes out? How much space will those fake trees take up in a landfill?

On the other hand, you have a deliciously fragrant, natural, biodegradable tree, grown by local people on a local farm. Jim pointed out that Christmas trees are much like any other crop; you plant, harvest and replant, taking care of the land and the soil as you do so. The money stays in the local economy, and the land is kept open, unpaved, and undeveloped.

Hydroponic blueberries grow in large pots; strawberries and chilies grow in smaller, vertically-stacked planters.

We also got to see the hydroponically-grown blueberries and the strawberry and chili planting system, which was fascinating. The plants grow in a soilless perlite and vermiculite mixture, receiving their nutrients through the watering system. This makes it easier to control pH, which is important for blueberries, and to grow far more strawberry and pepper plants in a smaller area. It’s an impressive system, and I’d love to see it in action in the summer (when the Snowy Peaks berry farm is open as a you-pick — yum!) …I think another field trip will be in order…

You can listen to our interview with Jim and Ginger here:

Interview with Jim and Ginger Armstrong at Snowy Peaks Christmas Tree Farm

…or hear the entire “Handmade Holidays” episode of the Homestead Radio Hour over on the KVMR Podcast Archives:

The Homestead Radio Hour – Handmade Holidays, December 2011

Our thanks to Jim and Ginger for talking with us and showing us around their beautiful farm! You can see more of what they do, and check their seasons and hours, on their web site: www.snowypeaksfarm.com.

These Comice pears looked so lovely, lined up on an upturned lug box, catching the golden afternoon light, that I had to go fetch my camera before the sun sank an inch further. (Then they went promptly into a batch of pear bread pudding!)

The nice thing about pears is that there are so many varieties — we begin the season with Bartletts, bright and juicy, then wait for heirlooms like the breathtakingly beautiful Conseiller de la Cour, and finally harvest the late-season varieties like Comice and Winter Nellis. According to my grandfather, the winter pears used to be carefully packed for storage in wooden crates, nestled in straw. I just might try that this year with a few of the “Nellies” we picked yesterday…

Cider-making is one of those things that are best done with company; we team up with our friends Paula and Eric, who have a beautiful little cider press. Last weekend we hauled 400 pounds of apples over to their backyard, where we spent a lovely morning chopping and crushing and pressing apples… and of course talking and cider-tasting and swapping mushroom-hunting and mead-making tips. Paula and Eric’s yard is completely entrancing, with their handmade ceramic sculptures tucked among the trees and bushes.

Pressing apple juice isn’t complicated, but it does take work! Friends Donna and Tom join us to help as well. We start by chopping the apples into quarters, so they run easily through the hand-cranked crusher. Sounds easy enough… until you calculate that there are several thousand apples sitting there in those lug boxes. And that’s just step one!

A mixture of Black Arkansas, Green Scrumptious, John’s Delicious, and Granny Smith apples gives a well-balanced juice, both sweet and tart.

Tom, Eric, and Tom run the crusher

Next, we dunk the apple chunks in a bath of citric acid and water to keep them from browning. The apple chunks then go into the hopper, where they head down the chute to the hand-cranked crusher. They’ll emerge at the bottom as a coarsely-ground mash, ready for pressing.

The crushed apples are then pressed to expel the juice. As fresh as you can get! The pressed-out apple mush piles up quickly, though the volume is far less than the apples we started with… we’ll add some to the compost, and give some to the chickens. The juice goes into clean jugs; Paula and Eric make delicious hard cider with most of theirs. We’ll make some cyser (cider mead) and freeze the rest for later.

Left: the hand-cranked crusher. Right: the leftovers.

Hard work, yes, but fun work, too — and ever so satisfying to go from this…

…to this!

When we finish, Paula conjures up a fabulous lunch, complete with  toasted homemade bread spread with homemade cheese and topped with dried cherry tomatoes. (Somehow, I neglected to take a photo of that!) We raise glasses of bubbly apple-pomegranate cider toast a good day’s work, and good friends, and all the bounty of Fall. Cheers!

So many pears! This is the time of year when we pick pears, carry pears, polish pears, sort pears, pack pears, sell pears, dry pears, eat pears…. every single day. It’s a short season, though — just about a month, really — so by the time you’re feeling slightly tired of pears, it’s almost time to start missing them. And that, to me, is precisely the joy of seasonal eating: nothing gets old. And everything, every bite, is wonderful. Which brings me to today’s recipe.

As soon as the weather begins to cool ever so slightly, it’s time to make my favourite brandied pear bread pudding — simple and cozy and delicious, the kind of recipe where every ingredient shines in its own right. Needless to say, it starts with good ingredients: a dense, crusty loaf of country-style French bread, or a rich challah; perfectly ripe pears; whole milk and fresh eggs for the custard; and, if you are lucky enough to have some in your pantry, pear brandy. We’ll get to the recipe in a moment, but first, about that brandy….

We always get a kick out of bringing one of these pears-in-a-bottle to the farmer’s market and setting it somewhere on our table. It never fails to set people to talking — and to tossing around all kinds of wild speculations on just how that pear got in there. “Did you light a match in the bottle, like with an egg?” “I know, you put a pear seed inside!” Of course, the real explanation is quite simple…. any guesses?

Growing a pear in a bottle (shhhh, it’s a secret!) is amusing enough on its own, but the real fun starts when the pear is ripe, and you fill up the bottle with brandy. The sugars and flavour of the fruit infuse the alcohol; we let the bottles sit for a good 6 months before opening them. Pear brandy makes a lovely after-dinner drink, and it’s a sublime baking ingredient. You can make a just-as-good, if not quite so spectacular, version by setting a ripe pear in a mason jar and topping it off with brandy. For this recipe, you can use regular brandy if you don’t have pear brandy ready-made, or even omit the brandy altogether. It lends a subtle and compelling warmth to the pudding, and the smell as it bakes is absolutely divine. I highly recommend the leftovers (should there be any) for breakfast!

Julia’s B-H Ranch Pear Bread Pudding

•  6 to 8 Bartlett pears (I like a mixture of firm-ripe and soft-ripe)
•  8 to 10 slices firm country-style French bread or challah
•  1 3/4 c milk (I use whole milk)
•  3 large eggs, beaten
•  2/3 c sugar, or a little less if you like it less sweet
•  1/4 c pear brandy (see note above)
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
•  1 tsp cinnamon
•  1/2 tsp nutmeg
•  1/4 c butter, melted and cooled a bit
•  1/4 c chopped walnuts (optional)
…and a deep 9″ square baking dish.

Preheat oven to 350°. Peel, core, quarter, and slice the pears into bite-size pieces. Slice the crusts off the bread and cut the bread into 1-inch cubes. Put the pears and bread into a large bowl and toss to mix.

Whisk milk, eggs, sugar, brandy, vanilla, and spices in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the butter. Pour this over the bread and pears in the other bowl, gently stir/fold to coat everything evenly, and let stand for 20-30 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn the mixture after 10 to 15 minutes, being careful not to over-mix; you want the bread pieces to remain as intact as possible.

Pile bread mixture into a buttered baking dish (it will be very full; press gently to make it all fit.) If you like, sprinkle chopped walnuts over the top. Bake in a water bath at 350° for about an hour, or until set. (Check with a toothpick or the point of a knife.)

(To make a water bath: set the baking dish inside a larger baking dish, making sure there is room on all sides. Set the nested dishes on the oven rack and carefully pour boiling water into the outside dish, so that it fills one-half to two-thirds of the way up the inner pudding dish. If you fill it too high, boiling water may splash into your pudding, so don’t get too close to the rim of the inner dish. See the photo below if any of that sounds confusing… and don’t skip this step, as the water bath will keep the custard from curdling as it bakes. )

You may need to tent the pudding with foil if it looks like it is browning too quickly — if so, remove the foil for the last 10 minutes or so of baking so the top gets nicely crisp. Serve with lightly-sweetened whipped cream (with an additional dash of pear brandy mixed in, if you like) or vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Come on down to the market tomorrow (if you’re local!) to pick up some delicious pears and honey… Saturday morning, 8am to 12pm in Old Town Auburn. We’ll see you there! (Oh, and Miss Brenda will be home minding the ranch.)

We’ve spent the last few days extracting and bottling our honey harvest — all 300 pounds of it! Here’s how we get it out of the comb and into the jar…

First: getting ready. The labels are stamped, the extractor set up, the supers of honey stacked and ready to go. Ahh, everything looks so nice and neat and non-sticky… but that won’t last for long!

We begin by “uncapping” the combs, so the honey can run out. To do this, you use a heated knife to slice through the wax covers that seal the cells. The knife needs to be just hot enough to cut easily through the wax, but not to burn the honey.

An uncapped comb of luminous blackberry honey, ready to extract:

Next, the frames of comb and honey go into the extractor, which works kind of like a washing machine on the “spin” cycle. This extractor can hold four frames of honey at once, and is powered by elbow grease!

As the basket spins, the honey is pulled out of the comb by centrifugal force; then it collects in the bottom of the tank, where it runs out into a bowl or bucket. With this extractor, you spin the honey out of one side of the comb, turn the frames, and then repeat for the other side. Multiply that by 10 frames per super, 14 supers total… whew!

When the honey comes out of the extractor, it’s full of bits of wax from the uncapped combs. We pour it through a stainless-steel mesh small enough to catch  the wax flecks, but nowhere near so fine as to filter out the tiny grains of pollen in the honey — the good stuff!

It takes a good day’s work to get through all those frames… and the honey-extracting process does seem to attract an audience! Family and friends drift in until the little honey house is cozily crowded.

And, finally, into the jar it goes. Ready for the farmer’s market!

You can see all the action in this swell video Mikail made of the day’s work:

(We’ll be at the Foothill Farmer’s Markets in the next week or so — or drop us a note if you’d like to pick up a jar!)

The honey we’ll be extracting is in the shallower boxes, called “supers,” on top of the hives. Collecting them would be easy, except for one small problem: they’re full of bees! Since we of course don’t want to take the bees back home with us, we start by asking them politely to surrender the honey and head on out of the supers…. well, more or less.

We do get a bit of help in the communication department — see the black-topped little boxes on the hives above? They’re called “fume boards.” (Appealing, I know.) Inside is a sheet of cloth, which we’ve drizzled with a super-stinky solution that the bees absolutely loathe the smell of. Trust me, it’s nasty; I wish I had smell-o-vision here, except that I wouldn’t want to inflict upon you the horrid stench of bubblegum-meets-rotting-socks! A highly disturbing combination, and one which sends the bees running as quick as they can in the opposite direction — downward into the hive and away from the honey box. There are a few other methods of accomplishing the same goal, but they usually involve one-way “escape” doors that the bees have to navigate. These work, but they can take days, and there are always plenty of unlucky bees that don’t quite get the idea. We’ve found the “smelly” trick to be by far the simplest and easiest.

Even so, the exodus takes a bit of time; the usual suggestion is two or three minutes, but we find it takes a bit longer for everyone to find their way out. And we’re happy to cool our heels in the shade for a few extra minutes… and maybe a few minutes more:

photos by PB

Then it’s just a simple matter of loading the boxes into the truck and bringing them back to the Honey House. (Well, you usually have to stop for an ice cream somewhere along the way — it’s part of the deal.)

We’ll have photos of the spectacularly messy Part 2 soon — stay tuned!

Ooooh, boy. Things have been crazy around here lately! Excavation, heavy machinery, trenches and huge piles of dirt everywhere…

But, after 90-plus years, we’ve finally moved into Modern Times. Well, at least in the irrigation department. Sort of.

That’s the pond, where all our irrigation water comes from. Nothing’s changed there… just the rest of it! We’ve always watered the orchard with a system of open ditches that run down the rows of trees, which is quite lovely and picturesque when it works but a major problem when it doesn’t. Rusty pipes, gopher holes, twigs and grass blocking things up — it’s an all-day project, tending the ditches, cleaning them out and making sure the water is running where it’s supposed to. And every generation of kids to grow up here at the ranch has gotten in trouble for making a barefoot muddy mess of the ditches at least once a summer!

So, this revision has been a long time coming. A couple years back we started the grant-application process with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which funds projects like ours. The new irrigation system will be much more efficient and effective than the old one, but it’s something we probably wouldn’t have taken on without funding and resources.

Not to mention the help of our friends!

Trench-meister Dan!

Mr. D, concrete whiz!

And, finally, the trenches have been filled in, the dirt raked back into place, and it’s possible to walk across the orchard at night without risking life and limb. I did enjoy getting an under-the-ground look at the different types of soil we have here, though — thick red clay in one spot, brittle yellow rock in another, rich blue-gray soil down by the creek. There’s a blog post in the making from all the many, many dirt photos I snapped!

And the ducks just love the new micro-sprinklers in the orchard; apparently that pond water is quite delicious. I will miss the old ditches, though… I’m campaigning to run them at least once a summer, for tradition’s sake. It’s nice to have things back to normal around here, and to kick back and relax (a bit) after all that work — it won’t be long ’til it’s time to harvest honey, then fruit… ah, time for a nap!

So that should explain why, when I walked into the feed store for some chicken scratch a few weeks ago and saw two lanky, fluffy, almost-too-big-to-be-ducklings sitting in a pen out front… there was no way I was going home without them.

They’re fawn-and-white runners — just the kind of ducks I was thinking of getting, as they don’t fly and their penguin-like posture is absolutely adorable and rather hilarious. (I did do my research before impulse-buying birds, don’t worry.) The sweet folks at Family Farm Supply here in Auburn were very glad to find these gals a home, as they were the last two ducklings of this year’s batch, and were getting a little too big to keep at the store!

…and as soon as I saw these kiddos, I knew that it was Meant To Be. They’re totally inseparable, too, so it’s extra-nice that they found an new home together!

Ducks need water, and these two absolutely love the creek — they could spend all day splashing and slurping up slimy, tasty swamp things. We’ve dug out a small pond for them there, and a plastic mortar-mixing trough from the hardware store makes a roomy (and inexpensive) pool to play in when they’re in the chicken pen. They’re getting on fairly well with the chickens, who seem to be so weirded out by the ducks that they generally avoid them altogether. I’ve read that chickens and ducks can easily be kept together, and I’ve talked to a few people who have done it; so far, so good! (See how they keep their distance, though?)

And they’re growing up so fast! These photos are from a couple days ago, just three weeks after the first two pictures above, when they arrived here at The Ranch. The ducks are still shy and nervous, but they seem to be settling in well — and, watching them splash and play in the creek, it’s plain to see that they are just about the happiest creatures on earth. I’m so taken with these gals; if I’m not careful, I’ll find myself knitting little sweaters for them soon… ok, maybe not quite that obsessed. Not that they would need them — look at those feathers! It’s hard to believe that they were fluffy little yellow things just a few short weeks ago.

And they’re teaching us all a few things about keeping cool!