Home Sweet Home

I came home this weekend, mostly to take care of my Dad post-surgery, (hence the lack of posts). Since he’s drinking greens juices and V8 through a straw at the moment, It feels a little torturous to fill the house with delicious aromas from the kitchen, if you know what I mean. 

My brother apparently called it as it was however. He said to my Mom; “Caroline is going to get home, ask for money, and take the truck to Adam’s.” He was right. Going food shopping is like going to Disney land for me. I spend way longer than most normal people like to, dreaming up recipes and reading labels; rarely coming home with what I intended on buying. I love running into customers from the market while food shopping and sharing this guilt trip of buying out-of-season produce, whilst exciting each other over how FAST this winter is going and how soon I’ll be handing them a brown paper bag of strawberries at the market. 

Everybody asks me WHAT my family does in the winter? Believe it or not, everyone is still incredibly busy and working hard. (Minus my dad who is out of commission for a few months.) 

My mom is ordering seeds, trees, and equipment, doing field measurements, cleaning EVERYTHING, doing jam/honey/vinegar orders, to name a few things. I can say without hesitation, she is the hardest working person I know.  "Man may work from sun to sun, but women's work is never done", as she always says. I wish I had her work ethic.

 Adam is taking over the job of pruning since my Dad is out. He’s building things, chopping wood, doing paperwork for the cidery, etc. 

Today I thawed out buckets of red raspberries and seeded them for jam. Using the leftover seeds and pulp, I prepared big mason jars for vinegar. (Making a mess...surprise surprise)

 At night, everyone gathers around the wood burning stove in the living room (the heart of the house as we call it) and we throw around more ideas and plans for the upcoming season. It never stops, but it’s what we love!  

The idea of blogging/sharing my food adventures with you all once the farm is brimming with fruits, vegetables, and flowers is SO exciting to me! As soon as the first ramps start peeking out from under the leaves, watch out. I plan on experimenting with each crop to the fullest, taking you places you’ve never been before. Of course it’s easy to say this now, when I seem to have a bit of time on my hands. Summer is another story…Then again, I'll have the Marzullo sisters around me; my life coach/ inspiration gurus! Marissa who knows everything about food, cheese, wine...and anything else for that matter. Noelle who is a health and wellness goddess through and through.

First it’ll be asparagus, then strawberries, then raspberries, cherries, blueberries…AH! I have to stop. We still have awhile of hibernation time. It’s hard to not sort of obsess over what the future holds, while planning and ordering seeds with my mom. All the sunflower seeds came today…Wow did we got a lot. We also had a family meeting to discuss which heirloom tomato varieties to UP or let go.  Any requests? Now with my raspberry-stained hands, I'll head back to the city, so excited for the upcoming season.