apples

Though our new trees are still young, small, and not making fruit, we had the opportunity to pick a few bins of apples at the orchard which our friends Terry and Sarah tend. Another perfect autumn day and would you get a load of them apples!

Pick me!

You've met the cookie monster, well, here is our apple monster (and cookie monster).

Pay no attention to the state of her ragged fingers! Maybe you can't see it with the picture this small. Oy!

They are Empires and they are perfect and sweet and juicy. In a moment of pork-on-the-mind, Jonny actually thought we might give some of these to our pigs. Uh-uh, they can eat the drops, I want to press these babes. I want to drink them sweet and hard.

Apples seem to make me happy in a way that no other piece of fruit does. How did they get so dang pretty!

old and new

Back in the 60's, I imagine, there was a woman sitting in a factory who was a member of the Women's International Ladies Garment Union, and she was fashioning this amazingly loud pair of pants for some nice American girl about let loose.  The waist was low and the bottoms belled. Then that girl bought the pants and wore them a few times, but maybe was nearly as shy about them as I would be today, if I were to consider leaving my house in such an eye catching number.  Well, somehow, these pants made it into our local Salvation Army with only the Union's label inside, and I snatched them up.  Three or more decades later I marveled, washed, and unceremoniously cut these pants into the most fabulous set of napkins I've ever made.  

I will have them for sale in my etsy shop, along with sets of other cloth napkins, if anyone is interested.  I wonder if anyone will ever be wiping their spaghetti sauce mouth on any of my coveted clothes that end up at the Salvie?  

So, I came home with fabric treasures and Jonny came home with, apropos of him, old glass bottles, screen printed with the names of some long gone soft drink companies from our area, still in the original wooden cases.  They have inspired us towards the idea of screen printing our cider bottles, rather than using a paper label.  Look at these simple beauties.

I really love the simple graphics painted on these.  There is something substantial and honest about them.  Something to consider.   Especally for us folks who are known to, perhaps, buy a bottle of something because we like the label.  I mean, what tastes better, a tall thin bottle of coke pulled from one of those cold metal machines, or a coke in a can tumbling from an illuminated billboard style machine?

a New Year's first post

A Happy New Year. My first post, which I am realizing is the manifestation of some unspoken- until now- resolution for the expanse of a year that is placed before me. Why not? I am a person who is forever up for improvements and seeking inspiration wherever it may bubble up. I have found so much of that inspiration in the blogesphere and want to add my thoughts and experience to the conversation.

I live in a home a super-duper creative types. My husband, a man spilling over with vision and ideas, a 9 year old daughter whose art and writing never ceases to floor me, and a 4 year old son who can create personae with boas, tutus, swords and hard hats like no other I've seen (I imagine those flamboyant costumes are generally isolated to the privacy of people's homes).



My family (well, my husband) is in the process of starting up a hard cider business. We have a 38 acre orchard and have planted 1500 trees desirable for hard cider. We acquired the orchard about 5 years ago, planted the new block of cider trees this past spring('08), and used our recently erected 100 year old cider press for the first time a few weeks ago (with apples we bought from an orchardist in Vermont who had the varieties we wanted). It was a great! A huge step in the whole story and now my cider obsessed man, Jonathan, has about 100 gallons of juice to ferment into something truly beautiful. Really, his cider is goo-ood. Take a look at our press and a bit of the process.Check out my little shop on www.etsy.com called a golden apple. I have been making skirts out of 100% cotton jersey fabric cut from clothing I bought at the Salvation Army. I decorate them by doing reverse applique and they are the most comfortable and flattering things ever (not to mention super cute!). Here are a few pictures of them.