Blackberries. Homemade Yogurt. And the gear you need to brave the thicket.

Good Morning!

Hi!

This photo illustrates a plethora of dramatic truths...

a) Yes, the sunflowers are really taller than me and the last time we talked they were sprouts (b) It is really early in the morning... and (c) it is hay season... which is one of the many excuses for my disappearance...

But really, this is serious now.  What do you think of this new look? Its only taken about 500 hours of pain, a few grey hairs, a few 40 phone calls to Apple and godaddy, and a hero, to get this new (slightly fancy-schmancy) website in action... thanks to my new friend, a certain lovely, smart, fabulous wizardress with impeccably killer good taste, otherwise known as Kelly Dudash... I am actually not going to throw in the towel and go Amish (though it isn't a bad plan, I do like horse & buggy as a mode of transport and I now have a new condition called cord anxiety, derived from all of the flipping electrical widget gidgets around these parts) the only reason being because Kelly explained bucketloads of weird technical mumbo-jumbo to me in "layman's terms" (read - totally right brain-friendly artist explanation style) and took my scribbly pen-and-paper drawings and voila'. She is an extremely talented artist, check out her photography here, WOW... I could go on and on, Kelly is a gem. 

I now know WAY more than I EVER wanted to know about web design and widgets and codes and metadata and all that mumbo-jumbo... (and by "way more" I mean I asked the most basic of questions and I still prefer etch-a-sketch) I have a sneaking suspicion that my impressive knowledge base is only impressive to myself... the person who would still rather see photos printed on paper than the internet and make invitations by hand or paint signs or weed the garden for 72.5 hours straight or dig ditches for two days. Or wallow in chicken guts at 7:30 am...

Just a theoretical figure of speech of course. (And no, for those of you who are concerned, we aren't actually alcoholics - don't worry, the Rolling Rocks didn't come out until 10).

Anyway, the new websites. Thank you Kelly! I have a lot of work to do of course but I think its looking pretty slick and if there is anything to my theories, I'd say that it is about 95 times faster to post a blog thus I will be writing quite often. I said that. And I meant it. Hold me to it. I warn you I will come up with a lot of excuses...

such as having NO time to do anything aside from capturing fleeting imagery such as the above.

And then of course there is haycation...

Ahhh haycation... the hottest and itchiest time of year with the longest days... we often barely make it off the field by 9 pm and beer tastes like paradise... and if you sling bales with us you can have as many Rolling Rock tall boys as you like. And then we somehow manage to eat some dinner and fall into bed only to get up and do it again. I LOVE haycation.

That one was taken nearly two whole years ago, a couple of days before the triumphant, brave, strong, lovely hero of a man balancing on top of the precarious stack of 80 haybales, finally got the courage to kiss me. It only took him 15 years. (OK I suppose I could've brought up the issue a little sooner... but thats another story for another day ;)

Today's story was supposed to involve FOOD. That's probably why you came here right?

Or maybe not... there is always the riveting life of GusGus to keep up with..

I like to call this one kohlrabi reverie.

But I was supposed to be talking about blackberries. And style, wasn't I!?

Clearly we will begin with the latter...

caption: "Deriving extreme confidence from questionable & unknown source, this semi-young warrior dons storm grey saucy emblazoned coveralls and lipstick-red berry receptacle neck accoutrement and heads into ruthlessly thorny blackberry forest which will leave said self-titled warrior with many battle wounds"

Photo ©the magnificent Jessica Burch, otherwise known as the best minion Bliss Ridge has ever seen. (we will view her collection of 2011 garlic braids next time. 

Was it all worth it?

Indeed.

Is it worth making your own yogurt when you can go to the store and purchase perfectly good Greek yogurt to go underneath those beauties? 

Yes! Believe me! And it is SO easy. One should note that it is probably an even better idea to make ginger ice cream to serve as a perch for those beauties... but we did that... and of course didn't write anything down, ended up with a delcious adventure and have no way of repeating it... more on that later. For now, make this yogurt and cover it up with those juicy berries and maybe some sesame-coconut granola... 

Do not use skim or 1% or any per cent or any sort of bastardization of milk... or any product for that matter! Eat and drink whole things! (More ranting on that later...)

So, go to your local farmer and obtain raw organic milk... Seriously, even if you are currently a hater of the cow-juice, I encourage you to try out the raw organic stuff... take it from me - until I stopped by, innocently toting my empty milk-jar, to say hi to my favorite farmer and WOAH - happened to realize that we were desperately in love with each other and had been for the past considerable portion of our lives... I would've rather choked down a glass of puddle water than attempted a glass of milk... 

So, you never know what you might find when you're out milk shopping...

true love, glee, euphoria... none of that is out of the realm of possibility and we're here to prove it.

This advertisement has been brought to you by the American Association of Dairy Farmers.

Hahaha 

Anyway, if you make it past the twinkly eyed farmer to the milk supply and manage to leave without forgetting your sweet delicious drink... 

You should go right home and make this yogurt. 

*note - if you do not live in the vicinity of any farmers - twinkly eyed or not - you can achieve delicious results with store-bought normal old (well hopefully not old) pasteurized milk. I recommend going as local and as whole as you can. 

Homemade Yogurt (no fancy-schmancy yogurt machine needed!)

4 cups raw organic cow's milk

1/2 cup yogurt (yes its weird but this is just your "starter" - from here on out you can use your homemade yogurt to make more batches)

I have found that full-fat Greek yogurt will give you an insanely delicious product

You will need: a candy thermometer (or other type that can take the temp of your milk while it is simmering)

a glass jar or a few, a good cooler or insulated thermos that is big enough to house the jars and pour boiling water around.

basta! (that's it!) Do you feel cheated!? I sort of feel like I should be supplying you with much more but its all about the accoutrements and this very yogurt will be just that in recipes to follow... scones, zucchini cake... most baked goods are better with the addition of yogurt. It is a bold statement but oh-so-true. 

Anyway. Man am I a chatterbox aren't I!?

1. Pour your quart of milk in a saucepan and turn the burner on low.

2. Heat to 170º, stirring occasionally... do not let it boil and do not walk away... like I do every time... 

3. Meanwhile, fill your insulated cooler or thermos with boiling water and let it sit so that it warms up. 

4. As soon as the temperature of the simmering milk reaches 170º, turn off the heat. Leave the thermometer in place and cool to 110º

5. Place your 1/2 cup yogurt in a bowl and while whisking, pour in the milk. Whisk until blended then pour mixture into a quart glass jar (or however many mini ones you want to use!)

6. Place the jars of yogurt into the boiling water in your cooler (if the water cooled down you should boil some more and replace it!)

7. Leave it in a warm place for awhile... I usually make it at night, leave the cooler in the greenhouse overnight and then eat fresh yogurt with those obscenely large & sweet blackberries the next morning! 

 Remember these

Let me know how it goes. My teeth are black and my right hand looks like a tiger encounter gone wrong but alas I am headed back out to the blackberry forest... they will be gone soon. Also, please let me know what you think of saucy's new "look" which will continue to be improved upon... as soon as it starts raining again and I regain some itty-bitty thread of patience... I'd like to buy some of that actually if anyone has some for sale? 

xo Jojo von saucy, blackberry crusader

Comments

[Jojo von Saucy]

testing 1-2-3

[CCvTH]

Jo-Jo,
my favorite blackberry crusader, I adore you AND I adore this fantastic new layout. It sounds like it was quite a process getting it all wham-bammed together...but I tell ya, it paid off! It's crisp, simple and easy on the eyes.

Well you are easy on the eyes too...but that is no new thing.

Loved the yogurt bit by the way. Dairy seems to be quite lacking in these parts. The produce and meat selection is pretty solid...but dairy, dairy and seafoood are not quite up to this green mountain girl's standards. Perhaps I can find some cowboy with a dairy farm and make my own yogurt for now on...

Which kind of round-aboutedly brings me to say a belated Happy Anniversary! It was such a wonderful day last year when we gathered to celebrate the love shared between you two at Bliss Ridge. I think all of us bystanders have learned a thing or two about true love that day...and gosh, can't believe a year has flown by since.

Planning on adding a VT-leg to a trip to NYC for a wedding during the second-to-last week in October and I'd love to see you both and be able to toast you in person.

miss you piles.

Oh and I almost forgot. We're getting a Whole Foods about a half-hour away next summer so if the whole raw-milk providing cowboy bit falls through I can at least buy me some Oma!

[jojo]

Dearest C!
Aww we miss you too up here on the Ridge! thank you so much for your commentary! And we can't wait to see you! It sounds like the wild west is tragically lacking in the dairy farmer dept... and I say there's no better Green Mtn. gal than you to show them cattle-roping cowboys the way forward! I do recall that bleak dairy dept.s from my days at CC... (well bleak supermarket experiences in general rather) but with all that open country, there is no valid excuses for the frontier -- so saddle up boys, my cousin will show y'all the ropes ;) xoxo

[Candy Barr]

I'm feelin' the summer power in all this. Thanks for the recipes!~