The Cookies of New England

http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2014/10/share-your-cookie-tips-and-tricks/

It may be after the holidays, but baking season is still in full force as I look out my icy winter windows. Now that so many of us have relaxed on our New Years resolutions a teensy bit, let's talk baking. There is almost nothing better than standing by a warm oven on a cold January Day, and doing so in a cloud of sweet-smells wafting from anticipated warm cookies, to boot! 

Taken from a recent Bobs Red Mill blog, here are some incredible New England cookie recipes, by the state. Though my family's goal has been getting to all six New England states this year, I think I may just have to add trying a cookie from each!

Connecticut: Nutmeg Log Cookies

Maine: Lemon Blueberry Cream Cookies

Massachusetts: Boston Cream Pie Cookies

New Hampshire: Molasses Cookies

Rhode Island: Cranberry-Walnut Stuffed Shortbread

New-York-the-Adopted-New-England-State: Apple-Pie-Stuffed Snickerdoodles

Vermont: Maple Frosted Sugar Cookies

My Secret Desire to Eat Soap...

 

Ah, I love small businesses.

Custom-order-custom-made-obsessed interior designer aside, a number of times in my life I have been able to tackle a personal-challenge with the help of a small business willing to learn just what I am looking for and tweak things to my needs. When I called Sparrow Soaps recently, it was entirely with one of these personal problems in mind. 

I have a dear friend who I'll call Sam who is chemical, VOC, and perfume sensitive. Well, that may be putting things lightly. She's so allergenic, she can't go into most public buildings anymore because of carpet, paint, and construction VOCs. She has used the same unscented shampoo for fifteen years because she knows it's the only one that hasn't made her sick. And she can't have people who use scented laundry detergent or fabric softener enter her home.  You can imagine how difficult it was when she suddenly found out that the unscented soap she used in her home for the previous two decades was discontinued.  She tried unscented soap after unscented soap, each time breaking out in a different horrible list of symptoms that immediately told her she needed to keep searching for a new product. Each soap had its own chemical concoction, and with so many ingredients one was liable to not agree with severely sensitive skin.

I recently came across goat's milk soap. Sound gross? Okay, I'll admit, I'm not a goaty person. Some people are; I'm not. So I had no idea what to expect when I was gifted an albeit gorgeous bar of handmade goat's milk soap. But how happily surprised I was! With no goaty smell, I suddenly found myself enjoying washing my hands, feeling fancy with my handmade little treasure next to the sink. It was so smooth, my dairy-free brain had a strange desire to eat the glossy, creamy yellow bar that felt like thick heavenly custard! (Shh, don't tell anyone.) If you're like me and have enjoyed a mouthful of soap or two as a kid, you know how quickly I put that thought out of my mind!

My thoughts began to turn to Sam whenever I washed my hands. Could she use a product like this? Was there any way I could contact this small local business and beg them to make a batch for Sam with no dyes or perfumes?  Maybe if I promised them she'd buy a certain amount... What an awesome thing to be able to call a local small business and ask for their help.

I called Sparrow Soaps, a locally loved goat-soap company snuggled in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut. Though I'm sure the two fantastic ladies that make this soap probably would have bent over backwards to accommodate Sam, in the end they already had without knowing it! Acutely aware of the fact that not everyone could handle their amazing menu of scented varieties, Sparrow Soaps already had a line of unscented soaps in place that was just the answer to all of Sam's problems at the sink and in the tub.  I was directed to Sparrow Soaps' website for not only one unscented product, but six!

Much to the awesome advantage of people like Sam, small businesses often offer products that are more hypo-allergenic and chemical-free. Being closer to the goods that are used to make their products, employees of small businesses are more likely to use less complex-processing in their goods, trading chemical concoctions for simpler materials.  Sparrow Soaps may say they make "Old Fashioned" Goat's Milk Soap but in my book they are really quite ahead of the industry!

Thanks to Sparrow Soaps on behalf of Sam and myself. We have both been converted to the goat's milk soap camp for sure!

Want more info on the incredible benefits of local goat's milk soap? (Who knew there were so many?!) Click here!

Small Trips: Supporting Local in Huge Ways

Want to hear what really shocked me last week?!

We live in Connecticut's Quiet Corner (2.5 hrs from NYC and 1.5 hours from Boston).  While sitting around a table of fifteen local adults, I discovered that only three of them had ever been to Boston or New York City.

What?  You're. Kidding. Me.  More people had been to the Bahamas than to a city an hour and a half away. 

I was floored.

It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it. Having lived all over the world, I am still amazed every time I realize that many of the people I live next to have never experienced popular things to do in their local area. Tourists can travel from all over the world to see special sites, and yet it often is the person who lives twenty miles away that has not taken the time to visit. Supporting local is not just about buying knick-knacks and small, artisan products. Supporting local is also about ways people interact with their community.

My recommendation to those who truly desire a way to embrace small businesses and the local economy? I'd encourage them to figure out ways to use a local geographical map or local tourism bureau to discover things sitting in their own backyards. Activities like making use of skiing passes, restauranting with friends, attending a local performance, hiking a local state park, checking out a local farm, touring a nearby winery, and seeking out a local museum with friends are excellent ways to give gifts that support local community... and in the process often builds it, too!

 When we first settled into Connecticut, we discovered a fantastic program called "The Sky's the Limit," a 2015 hiking challenge put out by the CT State Parks Department. Connecticut, like many New England States, is famous for its hundreds of miles of hiking trails; as part of a No Child Left Inside initiative, their challenge was to get hikers who visit CT's highest peaks to take pictures at the base and the top of their climb to show proof of accomplishing all 14 peaks.

I can't rave enough about The Sky's the Limit Challenge. We got out to see pieces of the entire state, becoming more familiar with the changing topography and the special nuances that separate one region from another. Soon our friends were coming with us, and wanting to explore their state, too. Once we completed that challenge, my son Jonas had bigger ideas about finding peaks and parks throughout New England. And thus our 2016 personal challenge to get to every state in New England was on!

This past week we traveled to Peterborough, New Hampshire. We camped for two days in the Greenfield State Park (it's so nice! I recommend it!), where we hiked, canoed, fished, and climbed two Monadnok mountains. Jonas discovered wild blueberries, a New England treat, and spent the weekend collecting them to feed his newly acquired addiction, his invention called the "blueberry s'more." We learned about a new place, supported the small businesses that in turn helped us enjoy a fantastic trip, and made lasting memories that may just bring us back again soon.

It wasn't the Bahamas. I'll give you that.

But, wow.  There is real joy that comes from getting to know the amazingness that lies around you in your own backyard. I heart New England.

A Local Halloween

A holiday gathering is an awesome time to celebrate what it means to value your local community.  Every geographical place does celebration a little differently, and it serves as a great reminder of some of the unique quirks that make home home.

My family enjoyed the first holiday of the fall season, Halloween, with a little extra gratitude and excitement this year for what it means to live in the Northeast.  After having resettled back after being abroad, it was our 6 year old Jonas's first Halloween. He had oodles of costume ideas running through his head, but finally settled on being poison ivy.  Do a google search of poison ivy costume, and you will see about 4,000 images of red-haired women in tight green dresses.  Good thing when Jonas' creativity gets going, it always comes with a strong vision and articulate directions!  

Jonas' idea for a homemade costume ended up being the perfect way to support local.  You may think I am ridiculous when I say that I am talking about Goodwill today on this local blog. 

"Goodwill? But that's a giant nation-wide organization!"

 

True. But one of the main tenants behind supporting local is resourcing what already exists in your region. Reusing, reducing, and recycling are easy to do when creativity and the perfect Halloween costume are involved!  I set out to Goodwill on Thursday with a list in hand for a pair of green pants, a green shirt, and a green hat, all sourced from local donations.  Fifteen minutes and eight dollars and 97 cents later, I swung by my local art store and purchased two small sheets of green paper, returning home with everything I needed to help Jonas' homemade costume visions come to life.

We were happy to enjoy a beautiful evening in the neighboring town of Windham, CT, where our child did his first ever trick-or-treating and (random local tradition) flashlight-egg-hunt at dark in the town square.  We saw oodles of fantastic costumes, happily ran into some great sets of friends, and got stopped by the local newspaper photographer who loved Jonas' locally-sourced, simply-handmade costume.  Though I have a lot of happy memories that take place behind a plastic Halloween mask from Venture or Target, my child's happy memories are not only of his first Halloween celebrations, but of our time making his costume together at home, letting him see his creativity come to fruition in his own hands.

Locally-sourced fun? Extra sweetness added to a very sweet holiday!

   

  

Meet A Local Farm: Buell's Orchard

"Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower." -Albert Camus 

I could not be happier to live in New England during this time of year. The flurries may be starting (sigh), but the landscape's colors are still better than ever.  With an enthusiastic six year old in tow, and having gone without a fall for the last three years abroad, my family has been soaking in as much of the season as we can get.

Our morning pit stop to a Connecticut family farm on Columbus Day turned into what I hope is a yearly tradition.  Known for their yearly Columbus Day bash, Buell's Orchard knows how to do fall.  Though the orchard is open much of the year for a variety of picking, touring, tasting, and shopping, their harvest festival pulls together a number of fun fall activities into a huge family event.  We arrived on a busy Columbus Day morning to fields of cars with enthusiastic locals and tourists wandering about, getting busy with hay rack rides, pumpkin picking in the pumpkin patch, free apple cider donuts and cider, face painting, apple picking, enjoying the barbecue and rolling fiddle and banjo music. As we made our way from the car, I said loudly to my husband, "We have got to know some people here. I think half the state is at Buell's this morning!" And sure enough, fifteen minutes later we were sitting down on  hay bales, gabbing away with old friends in a rustic fall paradise.

 Don't like crowds?  Buell's is known for its for garden-fresh veggies, peaches, plums, pears, strawberries, blueberries, pumpkins, and apples during their picking seasons.  They are open much of spring, summer, and fall for touring, picking, and field tripping, and I highly recommend them if you'd like to see a small family farm producing in a huge way for East Coast Consumers. Family farms that open their doors, sharing exactly where food comes from and how it makes it from the earth to the table?  They have such a piece of my heart! 

I could go on and on, but for more information on Buell's Orchard in Eastford, CT:

http://www.buellsorchard.com/