T'is the Season for...the Yule Log

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Among other things, this week's major project turned out to be the making of the traditional "Buche de Noel" or Yule Log. This is something the matriarch of the family (Grandma Scholaert) was determined to introduce to the Tea Room menu.

Having operated a Tea Room and Pastry Shop in northern France for many years (a shop which was in the family for many generations), Grandma had fond memories of making hundreds of Buches de Noel around Christmas time. So this week, she was determined to teach us how to do this.

You would not think it, but the making of this traditional cake turned out to be a heated debate. Grandma was determined to replicate what we had in France and everything from the butter cream to the sponge had to be just right. In fact, it took a few logs to actually get close....and we're still not there according to the expert.

In the end, everyone chipped in. Grandma, Gloria (our Tea Room cook) and this writer himself.

With a determined look, Grandma had to get that butter cream just right.

Gloria worked on the  eggs for the special sponge cake

In the end, we assembled something that looked about right....down to the Meringue mushrooms.

Grandma working on the final assembly

The Ridge Berry Buche de Noel

 However, the completion of this first log required a serious taste test.

The moment of truth...the taste test

The final results: looks good, but we're not quite on the path to replicating my father's original French version.

I actually fear that this may be almost impossible. The reason: our ingredients. Operating a restaurant in Ontario means that we are somewhat restricted. Legally, we can only use what we would term "industrial" eggs and butter....and these are far from being of the farm fresh quality you can still get in parts of Europe.

In any case, we expect that these types of pastries will become standard fare in the Tea Room as we proceed on the development of its menu.

As we near closing for the Season (scheduled for December 21st), we are already planning for next Spring. These plans are extensive as we now expect to be open later for light dinners (after all that is what High Tea is all about) and for special weekend brunches. Furthermore, now that the Tea Room is licensed to serve alcohol, our menu will expand to include such things as a Champagne High Tea (using the best local sparkling white wines of course). So we are now diligently trying to create our menu using our key principle: as local as can be (in line with our commitment to the FeastON program).

Elsewhere on the farm, the weather permitted us to continue on trellising our "feral" Kiwis, turning a mess into something recognizable.

Going back to transforming this Kiwi mess....

...into vines ready for horizontal trellises

In the process, we found this week perhaps the largest of all of our Kiwis so far. This vine has a "trunk" of almost 8 inches in diameter!

One massive and well established Kiwi

In previous blog entries, we highlighted that the vines had self-propagated in the same manner as a Grape vine. We found evidence of this everywhere. This week, we also discovered that the fruits have done so well, they have also self seeded. Small plants not at all attached to existing vines have been discovered between rows.

Entirely new vines growing between rows.

It is clear that both our weather and the soil are ideal for these plants, to the point where they could become invasive.

We'll end this week with another of our many food related "experiments". Earlier, we reported our planting of a small Apple orchard. This orchard will produce a variety of Apples for eating and cooking, but it was primarily designed for Cider making. So it was time to experiment with Cider production.

In North America, the word Cider is often used to refer to unfiltered Apple juice. The original Cider however is a mildly alcoholic beverage made from that juice. This was very popular over the ages as a drink to replace water (often questionable in terms of its cleanliness) ...much like beer was.

Although we have now been producing our own fruit wines with a certain degree of reliability, making hard Cider has its own peculiar process particularly if it is to be a sparkling brew.

Since we do not yet have Apples to crush, we decided to get unpasteurized, unfiltered Apple juice from one of the many orchards that surround us.

So our first batch has now been started ...and should we succeed we'll be reporting on how to make an easy Cider at home in the coming weeks. Hopefully, we'll not blow up any bottles!

Our first batch of Cider ....to be reported on as it progresses.