I had such an exciting invitation! To present my artisanal cheeses and jams and breads ( pumpkin, banana, persimmon and zucchini) at Williams Sonoma and sell them there! What a thrill!
So I prepared for months – literally – preparing all the delicious goodies for the good people who visit that store in Santa Monica CA.
I arrived with 40 dozen jams – yep – 40 dozen. What was I thinking! Well they did tell me that they had a huge crowd and that they marketed and sent out flyers to their local customers – and they were not wrong! It was SUCH fun! And the folks loved the jujube jam, Kei Apple jam ( a South African fruit), Peach jam, marmalades of many kinds – tangerine, orange, navel, grapefruit, citroen, guava jam, apricot jam, caramel apple butter, Saba which is like a cabernet reduction great over ice-cream and more. And ricotta, chevre, feta, camembert are some of the cheeses that come from our little farm too.
I hope they invite me again! And in the middle of the month in time for the holidays I am going to do a Cheese and Jam day for all of our friends and their friends at the Little Farm along with a tasting of all! It should be terrific fun – and of course tours for the little ones who love to pat the goats, look at the fish, hold the quail and so on.
Busy times!
Here is the Pumpkin bread recipe. I tripled it! 6 cups of butternut squash came from 2 large butternuts – just in case you are growing your own!
Little Farm Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup pumpkin purée* ( I use butternut squash)
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/8 cup water
- 1/8 cup of orange juice
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
* To make pumpkin purée, cut a pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, lie face down on a foil .. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh. Freeze whatever you don’t use for future use. Or, if you are working with pumpkin pieces, roast or boil them until tender, then remove and discard the skin.
Directions:
1 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.
2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and cinnamon together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly.
3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
Makes one loaf. Can easily double the recipe. I actually triple it and make it for four consecutive days since we have a LOT OF butternut squash!
