Daddy's Girl

Having a family business isn't always easy. The line between employer/employee, father/daughter is often muddled. We're doing our best over here, though, and this picture sure does warm my heart on this chilly fall morning.

From Bog to Bottle!

Me with the hip boots on in the cranberry bog

Tamarack Tree

wild swans on a flooded part of the marsh

This is how they get the cranberries out of the water, this conveyor belt carries them to a truck, and the truck is like a sieve that lets the water out and keeps the berries



two different types of cranberries in one bog

Dad and I took our annual trip to Wisconsin to buy cranberries from Mary Brazeau Brown and her Glacial Lake Cranberry Marsh. This year the weather was a balmy 64 degrees. As always, I took many pictures.

Bolduc Braised Short Ribs

3-4 pounds bone in beef short ribs
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 medium onion, peeled and cubed
1 garlic bulb, peeled and sectioned
1 Tablespoon flour
1 bottle Sainte Genevieve Winery Bolduc
1 14 ounce can reduced sodium beef broth
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

Season short ribs with salt and pepper. Working in batches in a large pot, cook ribs in oil on medium high heat until well browned. Remove from pot and set aside. Add parsnips, carrots, onion and garlic; cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Stir in flour and cool one minute more. Add wine, broth and Dijon to pot, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Return short ribs to the pot. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer over low heat, covered but with the lid cracked, for 2 hours. Remove cover and simmer over medium high heat for 30 minutes. Season to taste with thyme, salt and pepper. Serve over soft polenta or mashed potatoes. Makes 4 servings.


Recipe courtesy of my sister in law, Amanda, one of the best cooks I know. Yum-O!

Pears

Cecilia helped Dad this morning weigh some local pears.

Bad on So Many Levels

This is me, circa 1986. What was I thinking? I clearly wasn't. Like my side ponytail, or my huge glasses, or the sunglasses around my neck (how did I wear those?)or the photo taker's fingertip? How about those old whiskey barrels, have to blame that one on Dad. Nevermind the blatant underage drinking, the best (or worst) is the plastic cup.

These Are Long Days

We are super busy over here. Somehow we're juggling bottling, labeling, fermenting cherries, crop thinning (a month later than expected), shoo-ing away birds, cleaning bins to put harvested grapes in, getting the harvestor out and running once around the yard to make sure it's working, buying local blackberries, cleaning house to entertain travel writers, ordering yeast, and bottles, and T-shirts, all the while with a baby on my hip.

This is Dad taking a break after we bottles and labeled 56 cases of Concord to be delivered to the Sam's Club in Cape Girardeau.

Bring on the harvest of 2009!

Hooray!

The results are coming in from the springtime Wine Competitions, and here's a list of the medals we've won so far.

Cranberry

Gold- Taster's Guild International Wine Competition

Silver- Finger Lakes and Pacific Rim International Wine Competitions

Traminette

Silver- Taster's Guild and Finger Lakes International Wine Competitions

Blackberry

Silver- Taster's Guild International Wine Competition

Strawberry

Bronze- Taster's Guild International Wine Competition

Seyval

Bronze- Taster's Guild International Wine Competition

In other proud moments, and the reason I missed the month of May for blogging, is this little cutie.

Charlotte Elizabeth, born April 30th, 2009

Family At Work

I like using the word family to refer to my husband and our daughter. Before it was just John and I, or my husband, but now we are a unit; a family. I also like having them around. As I have mentioned here before John is a band teacher, so he spends his summers helping us. This summer he is spending Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the vineyard, and Mondays and Fridays he stays at home with Cecilia. He is the best part-time stay-at-home-dad around. =) She is getting increasingly busy, and next month she will find herself in the care of someone else a couple days a week so I can get stuff done, and focus on harvest, but for now she's still here pretty often.

The first picture was taken this morning. John got in my office early and gave me a vase of Chickory wildflowers. That's a nice way to start the day. =)

The second picture is her sitting up and playing in her pack and play. Sitting up has freed my hands and arms from holding her and she can play by herself for a minute or two at a time, allowing me to power out and gets lots accomplished. I was contacted a month or two ago about parenting in the workplace and how it was becoming more prevalent. I find the whole topic pretty interesting.

Hope you're having a good day today also. I'm spreading the good day love. =)

Distracted

I have been absent from this blog for a couple weeks, but with good reason. On December 26th I gave birth to a tiny little girl. She has instantly become the apple of my eye, and she makes it difficult to think about anything else, wine related or otherwise.

Work does call, and I'll be back in the swing of things soon, but for a little while I hope you'll forgive me for being distracted.