some winter time occupations

 Even though winter is our down time, there is still quite a lot of activity around the farm. There are blueberry bushes to be pruned, equipment to be maintained, and paper work to catch up on. One of the more pleasurable of the winter time tasks is sampling the farmer's experimental baking. Since we have a booth selling baked goods at the Salem Indoor Market every Saturday, as well as doing custom baking for Christmas and other occasions, the farmer stays quite busy in the kitchen. Today's experiments were a white chocolate cranberry tart (with almonds in the crust) and a chocolate tart topped with candied walnuts. Pictured above is the cranberry tart. It was so, so delicious! Fresh cranberries, spices, and orange juice make a wonderful topping, especially good paired with the creaminess of the white chocolate.

 As good as the cranberry tart was, the chocolate tart was, dare I say, even better! The chocolate flavor was so intense, and the sweet crunch of the walnuts provided a wonderful contrast. Paired with a cup of hot, strong coffee, it was the perfect mid-afternoon snack!

My only complaint is that with baked goods this delicious coming my way so often, those pesky twenty pounds I need to loose are going to be so much harder to shed! I went for an after dinner walk this evening, which was great, but ever since watching a scary movie at Halloween, I spook myself out very easily. I usually only walk for ten minutes or so before imagining footsteps behind me and running back to the house.