Nocino and Squash Marmalade

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Once again the weather has been nasty in Niagara. Temperatures dipped to 15 degrees C below zero a couple of nights and of course we were subjected to our second major snow fall. This has meant that the crew has spent more time working inside and a lot of farm or outside work has been postponed.

Unless it rains or warms up soon, we are just about guaranteed a "White Christmas"

We decided to take this time to open up the experimental jars of Nocino. For those new to the blog, the making of Nocino was an experiment we started early this summer.

Nocino is a sticky dark brown liqueur from Italy. It is made using unripened walnuts. In our case, we used the Black Walnuts that abound in the region.

The basic concept is simple. The young walnuts are quartered and let to steep in a combination of alcohol (grappa) and sugar, to which flavouring is added in the form of spices (such as cinnamon) and some citrus zest (lemon and/or orange).

The process usually takes up to 6 months and is typically complete for Christmas celebrations.

Our experimental "Nocino" ready to crack open

We opened our jars and started to filter the quartered nuts. The results were surprising. First, something in our process or recipe caused the mixture to take on a coagulated consistency (not very appetizing).

The nuts themselves are not edible. Since they are not blanched, they do contain a significant amount of tannin.

The filtered walnuts are too bitter to eat

The liqueur is very strong. We start with over 40% alcohol so that is no surprise. In fact not being used to strong liqueur we had to water it down for the tasting.

The taste is nice (it is reminiscent of the scent or perfume of green walnuts) but it actually has a strong hint of bitterness. As a liqueur, it is certainly not our favourite. We can however see how this might be improved. Doing further research, it is clear that both recipe and process can be worked on.

So in the same way we attempted the Armenian Black Walnut preserve this summer - and failed, we will be attempting this next year in the hopes of refining the taste profile.

In the meantime, we bottled some of our Nocino to see how it might evolve over time.

Our bottled Nocino... not a complete success

This week, we also decided to pursue something we developed last fall: a squash marmalade. This was based on a classic French recipe (typically based on the Potiron squash).

Last year we used Blue Hubbard. With the quantity of Orange Hubbard growing on the property this year, we decided to try it with Orange Hubbard.

The result was a touch different but still very nice. For 3 volume of squash we blended 1 volume of organic oranges from Florida.

In fact, after making our first batch this week we're almost sold out (one jar left!).

A new Seasonal product: Squash Marmalade

We've decided to make this a seasonal preserve. Perhaps next year (to get right into the mood for Christmas) we'll blend the squash with Tangerines or Mandarins.

With the Holiday Season now fully underway, the team continues to be quite busy preparing both corporate and personal gift baskets.

Carol (the Elf) working away at gift baskets

We have had to produce so many of these, we no longer have sufficient space for storage. For the time being our gallery has been used for warehousing.

The gallery is rapidly filling up with gift baskets

Since we are also delivering some of these larger orders, we've discovered we may have another problem: transportation. Our Ford SUV is too small and our pick-up truck just won't do in this weather.

Next year, we're likely to participate in farmers' markets, so with this in mind, we've come to the realization we may need to equip ourselves with a van.

This being the Season of giving, we have also decided to process extra batches of our home made cookies for local charities. Weather helping, this is something we plan to deliver this week.

Our popular Christmas cookies are being readied for local charities

With the grey, cold and snowy weather, we have had some major concerns about the Growing Dome.

The water tank temperature has dipped to as low as 3 degrees and we have had two nights where the dome temperature has dipped to below zero.

Because of the lack of sunshine, snow has been accumulating on the panels and the water has no opportunity to warm up.

Snow slowly accumulating on the greenhouse panels (as well as the solar panels).

We believe we may have lost all of our fish. Nevertheless, the dome is still harbouring an environment conducive to plant growth.

In our hydroponic beds, seeds continue to germinate and seedlings are growing (although not very rapidly).

Beurre de Roquencourt wax bean seedling (still in fine form).

The end result is that we still have a lot of hope for year-round "off the grid" operation once our thermal mass (the water tank) is exposed to a full summer of warming.

So we leave our readers this week with a photo of the dome during our latest snowfall. It is amazing to think that this structure can still shelter life in these conditions.

All is white outside while things remain green inside