Tappahannock Farmers Market

This past Saturday I had my first ever booth at the 2nd annual Farmer's Market in the town we live.  I started last fall doing some canning.  My father-in-law had a lot of green tomatoes that would have gone bad or gotten destroyed by the upcoming frost.  He called me and asked if I would make him some green tomato preserves, reluctant at first I agreed.  I found a recipe that he described was like his mothers.  I have canned tomatoes (ripe ones) in the past but never tried my hand at preserves or jams.  The green tomato preserves were a success!  Personally I didn't care for the taste, but my father-in-law and his brother said they were very close to what they remember "Nanny" used to make.  This was the start of something!!  I enjoyed myself so much making the preserves, and he had so many more green tomatoes that I had to do something with them all.  So, I remember a recipe that a dear friend who passed away last year gave me and I started on the mission to find it and make green tomato pickle.  This is the best pickle!  The tomatoes are crisp and sweet.  I always remember having a covered dish lunches at church and knowing those pickles would be there.  After the success of both green tomato projects I set out to try my hand at making jams and preserves.  I love it almost as much as decorating cakes!  Last fall into the holiday season I made apple cinnamon jelly, apple pie jam, berry christmas jam, hot pepper jelly, and cranberry apple chutney.  I also did lots of baking and set up my booth at all of the local holiday bazaars with my husbands cousin.  So, when she suggested I rent a booth at the local farmer's market I thought it would be a good place to market my jams.  I never thought they would go over so well.  I started with 7 cases of jams and came home with 3 cases.  Some of the flavors I sold were raspberry lemon marmalade, bumbleberry jam (a mixture of blueberry, raspberry & strawberry), strawberry orange marmalade, apple pie jam, apple cinnamon jelly, hot pepper jelly, grape jelly & strawberry jam.  I have been invited to the Warsaw farmer's market the second saturday in July and I have registered for the rest of the season @ the Tappahannock market the 3rd saturday July-October.  I have plans to prepare jams and preserves with the seasonal fruit I can find such as peach preserves and peach chutney, cinnamon blueberry jam, strawberry peach, blushing peach (peach/raspb.), watermelon rind pickle and sweet pickles.  I will also have cake balls in a variety of flavors. And yes I have samples of the jams as well as the cake balls!

New Photos

The cake business has been very busy lately...when you get a chance check out my latest creations!

Spring has Sprung

Spring has Sprung and I know it has been a while since I posted my last entry but it has been nothing short of craziness in my neck of the woods:)  Spring is here and boy do we know it, all the activities are certainly keeping us hopping.  Since I last blogged, little league season has started.  Two of my Three girls are playing, Brittany is playing Major Girls Softball and Whitney is playing Minor Girls Softball.  My husband and I are Managing and Coaching the teams.  It keeps us very busy but we enjoy it.  Then, to make like more interesting we decided to take the family vacation during Spring Break this year.  Oh, boy nothing like adding gas to the fire!  I booked a bazaar to be in on opening day of Little League and we left the following day for Orlando, FL.  I did very well at my first bazaar of the year.  I made coconut pies, coconut cakes, cake balls and lots of jams and jellies to sell.  The ball games were cancelled that day because of the bad storms in the area.  So, i didn't have to be in 2 places at once and it all worked out very well.  After I finished the bazaar I went home to unpack my goods that I didn't sell only to repack the van to leave for our trip.  We all piled in our van and started on our 13 hour journey at 3 am Sunday morning.  It was a great time to be in Florida though, the weather couldn't have been more perfect!  While we were having a blast at Universal Studios and chilling at the pool, our family and friends back home were freezing during the rainy, chilly days.  We stayed 6 nights and headed home so we wouldn't miss the visit from the Easter Bunny:)  It was great to get away but always nice to come home.  And, why does it take a month to do vacation? A week and a half to get ready, a week to be gone and a week and a half to get straight and back in the swing of things when you get back.  After we returned I had to not only get things unpacked and put away but I had a retirement that I was catering and received a call to cater a funeral, all due the same day!  But, with the help of my mom and my husband and children, we pulled it off without a hitch!  Now, this week I am trying to get back into some sort of normal schedule, if there is such a thing!  It has been a beautiful week here and I think I am on the way to getting back to some type of norm.