Welcome

Two hours north of New York City in beautiful Columbia County, I find myself suddenly single and living alone with my cat. I'm in a guesthouse on a farm amid rolling cornfields and farm stands that dot the landscape like Starbucks in NYC.

The only heat source - a wood stove. It's warm inside, but it's still November.

The view - Catskill mountains, a stream just under my kitchen window, and lots of corn.

The soundtrack - nonstop NPR competing with the kettle.

The smell - quince butter cooking in a touch of wine ready to be transferred onto wax-papered cookie sheets stacked on bricks over the wood stove for drying into fruit leather.


This is the chronicle of what a woman who grew up in the center of suburban New Jersey (recently dubbed the Olive Garden State on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me) does to keep herself occupied in rural New York - a woman who loves making jam, gardening, knitting, cooking stews for hours, and who has never used a wood stove before.


Recipes, patterns, hunting stories, root cellar adventures, homesteading lore, gardening mishaps, and much, much, more to follow.