Finishing our Maple Syrup

We have been boiling down the Maple sap every day outside using fallen branches from the garden and finishing off inside on the stove, filtering between each step. As the sugar concentration rises, the boiling point of the solution rises. When it boils at 7.1 degrees Fahrenheit above the boiling point of water it's ready to filter one last time into glass jars. When these had cooled down we had lovely amber Maple Syrup! We boiled down about 50 gallons of sap to get just over a gallon of syrup.

Next step - try it on the Buttermilk Pancakes.

The Sap Is Rising

Here's Nadia "tapping" one of the two giant Sugar Maples in front of our house. At this time of year Maple sap can be collected and boiled down to make Maple Syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup. Let's see how much we get!

This weekend and next there are many opportunities to see Maple Syrup production in action - go to http://www.mapleweekend.com/ for a list of locations. We want to drive into the Catskills to 'Oliverea Schoolhouse Maple' (picture at top) and 'Remsburger Maple' are also just 20 minutes away at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck.

The Hudson River at Saugerties Lighthouse

Winter Wonderland

A bit of a cliche maybe, but there are many wonferful winter activities very close to us in both the Catskill and Shawangunk mountains. Ice Climbing and Hiking with routes from easy to hard, or take the kids to Sawkill Family Ski Centre , just 15 minutes away, for Snow Tubing, Skiing or Snow Boarding (845 336-6977). Belleayre Mountain Ski Center has 47 trails, parks and glades (from beginner to expert), with almost 200 skiable acres and offers great deals, such as $25 lift tickets. Hunter Mountain is not much further away. Or try Cross Country Skiing on the beautiful Mohonk Preserve .

If you fancy something a little warmer try the 12th annual Chilli Bowl Fiesta in nearby Rosendale on Feb 28th. At UPAC in Kingston we have Emmylou Harris tonight, and Garison Keillor and k.d. lang both coming soon.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Recently I made the Linzer Torte from the current Joy of Cooking. Everyone enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd try and adapt it for some Valentine's Day cookies. These are nutty and spicy, with a raspberry jam that gives just the right amount of sweetness. In an airtight container in the fridge they keep well for a week.

1. If you can't get ground almonds, use a clean coffee grinder to grind blanched almonds. You'll need 3/4 cup.

2. Combine with 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar (optional), 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.

3. Add 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, 2 egg yolks and the grated zest of 1 lemon - the easiest is to blend it all in an electric mixer/food processor if you have one.

You have to wrap the dough and put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days. Then roll out (with plenty of flour to avoid sticking), between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick, and cut out cookies using a heart shaped cutter. Make a small round or heart shaped hole in half the cookies. Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for about 15 mintues, and sandwich with raspberry jam after dusting the cutout cookies with powdered sugar. (You need to boil the jam first for a couple of minutes, and then let it cool down again). This makes about 20 2 inch cookies. Enjoy!

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It's cold out there.........

Today it was between 5 and 16 degrees Fahrenheit, or about -15 and -9 degrees Centigrade/Celsius. Last year there was hardly any snow, this year we've had our drives snow-plowed about 6 times already! There's about a foot out there right now. We often go to the Shawangunks, where friends are actually cross-country skiing to visit each other - the snow's been just right for laying new tracks.

As we're right next to a rail trail that leads to High Falls, we're thinking of getting our own skis and doing the same. High Falls (about 15-20 minutes by road) is a great place to go eat, and has a surprising wealth of furniture, antique, culinary and gift shops, perhaps partly due to its proximity to the Mohonk Mountain House. Many guests at that famous hotel come down the mountain to shop and eat there. Here are some good photos of the Shawangunks taken in warmer weather: http://shawangunks.org/photographs/ .

Cooking and friends

The holidays are coming to an end, but the Christmas cake may stay awhile for us to look at a little longer.....English Christmas Cake's are rich fruit cakes that keep well, wrapped in marzipan and royal icing. I love being creative in the kitchen, and sometimes wish I had more time for it....one of my dreams is to eventually restore the beehive oven and bake artisan bread in it, but that's not going to happen anytime soon!
Tecia Poulas found us this house, and continues to be the most amazing resource for us. Apart from anything else, she's an excellent cook and we often swap recipes. I'd recommend the book she found us on breakfast menus, but perhaps that should be a trade secret. What more can you say about a realtor that leaves hot buttermilk pancakes and champagne on your doorstep on Christmas morning? Here she is holding up another book she found us recently on the history of these houses.
Our new business venture in this house has been blessed with the enthusiastic help of many people, but Tecia stands out for her resourcefulness, exertion and genuine joy at what's possible when you try. http://www.nutshellrealty.com/agent-tecia-poulas.php or mailto:orTecia@nutshellrealty.com

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Strange to think this house has seen about three hundred Christmases.......We had fun this weekend putting up all the lights and finding the decorations stored in the cellar. We call this the 'breakfast room', but it's large size makes it both a dining and a living room. The fireplace has a seventeenth century cast-iron fireback, dating back from the time of the original jambless fireplace. On the left of it are the sofas, with books and games (boardgames, cards, a croquet set), as well as a display cabinet with old photos and artefacts that we found as we renovated. On the right are the dining tables and chairs, and other antiques. The beams in the large downstairs rooms of this house are massive - about a foot wide and one and a half feet deep.

Discovering the past

This is the bottle I referred to in the previous entry, found lying on top of the knee high wall on the first floor at the front of the house, above the main entrance. Beside it was an old chisel. We looked closely at a couple of macro shots of the remains of the label. These are the only words we could make out:
"For expelling ........... various conditions. Children ...... as they do ................ worms thoroughly without pain cleanse the ...............cure bowel and ................ complaints ............ cheerfulness to the spirits ..... only to the ........ Brothers, Kingston, N.Y.......... restore health ..... darling child whom you would give your life to ........."

Goodness only knows what the bottle contained......

Stages in the renovation process

Hard to remember what this was like when we started. But you can see the beginnings at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ommane/2294690757/ and a few steps along the way at http://www.flickr.com/photos/21748528@N00/2388155477/ . We found an old chisel and what might have been a bottle of laudanum behind the walls when we first gutted this part of the building. This area and another new bathroom next to it were both closet space likely created in the 19th century when the large main staircase to the upper floor would have been put in.

Going for color

Another room has been finished, this time it's an overhaul of one of the two original bathrooms that this house had when we arrived. We kept the bath once we realized we could refinish the old cast iron tub, and used brick shaped tiling in keeping with early twentieth century decor. The two antique Delft tiles you can see were a gift, so no knowing how old they are, but we believe the designs are exact replicas of 18th century ones, showing children at play. As for the color, we just liked it........it's cheerful, and looks great when the sun shines through the window.

Second bedroom takes shape

We used the similar silk fabric and Frette sheets for the bed and canopy as in the first bedroom (pictured previously on this blog) but the effect is quite different. Although the blue check bedroom is bigger and grander, visitors often say they like this room more because the lower ceiling and exposed beams give a stronger impression of the age of the house. Both bedrooms we've featured so far have en suite bathrooms that have exposed beams, wide plank flooring and knee-high stone walls. We modelled the bed canopy on one we saw at the Jean Hasbrouck house in New Paltz. (This house was re-opened to the public this year after extensive renovations and is a great place to visit - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Hasbrouck_House).

All the space upstairs would originally have been used to store grain. If the smoke from the large jambless fireplaces downstairs rose through the plank ceiling/floors, so much the better, as it would have deterred mice from eating the crops stored up there! The large entrance hall and main stairway would have been installed in the 19th century. Just outside this room you can see where the narrower floor planks of that later landing join the original wide planks that are far older. We have Luis at Ulster Hardwood Flooring to thank for the beautiful finish he gave to many of the floors upstairs. Thank you Luis!

The Ashokan

The Ashokan reservoir in the Catskill State Park this morning. This is the main water supply for New York City and is about five minutes from our house up in the Catskills.

Evening Sun

The last of the evening sunlight hitting the rear porch yesterday. This side of the house looks out across across the Esopus valley to the Catskill State Park. The Esopus is one of the largest rivers running down from the Catskill Mountains into the Hudson River. The part of the house to the left of the porch was built shortly after 1700, so this is one of the oldest houses in the Hudson Valley.

Levon Helm Band "The Weight"

More from the free concert Levon Helm gave a few hundred yards from our house a couple of weeks ago at Gills Farm. Found this video of them playing "The Weight" on YouTube:

Delft Cat Tiles

In some places in the house there are original 18th century Delft tiles. To mirror these we used some high quality Delft tiles in some of the bathrooms made in the Netherlands by Harlinger Aardewerk- en Tegelfabriek. These are handmade and hand painted using exactly the same techniques Delft tile makers used hundreds of years ago. In one room we have used tiles of Dutch landscapes, in another, shown above, we have used tiles of cats.

Free Levon Helm concert

Levon Helm gave a free concert just 200 yards from our house this afternoon, at John Gill's farm. Although Levon's a local resident, it can be hard to get tickets to his "Midnight Rambles", so it was a wonderful surprise. Levon Helm is of course one of The Band and has had a prolific solo career - we both love his last album Dirt Farmer, which won a Grammy this year for Best Traditional Folk Album. Here he's playing The Weight, one of The Band's most famous songs. Here's a link to his website: http://www.levonhelm.com/index1.htm . We spoke to John Gill and he said he hoped to make this an annual event. This proves it, Hurley is obviously the place to be......

View of Catskill State Park

This was the view this morning from one of our guest rooms across the garden towards the Esopus Creek. You can see across the corn fields to Hurley Mountain, which is at the south-eastern edge of the Catskill State Park. Our trees here are mainly Black Walnut, which we have found out produce nuts that are quite different to the English Walnuts we're used to. A quick search on google reveals that Black Walnuts are difficult to harvest, but their taste is apparently well worth the effort.......Gathering walnuts will have to wait until next year, though, as we were recently tempted by Farmer Gill's green tomatoes at $10 a bushel.......With 26 pints of green tomato chutney neatly stacked in the cellar, and another 12 pounds of them still in the refridgerator, we haven't managed to do anything else yet. The two giant trees at the front of the house are Sugar Maples, so we'll see if we can make some Maple Syrup in the Spring....