Well the good weather I recently spoke of  certainly did not last! Strong winds, rain, ice pellets and yes, snow, greeted us yesterday. As I walked it started out  clear, then it began to sprinkle, then ice pellets, then later in the evening snow. All the while, blustery winds. This is one result of the strong winds. Unfortunately, we have to have these trees taken down. After over 20 years of enjoying them and being graced by their presence. I love trees and these have had everything from Kestrels to racoons nest in them over the years. When my daughter was 6, she rescued baby birds from these trees. They hold many happy memories and it saddens me that they will have to go. At this point they are simply dangerous, plain and simple. Cotton wood, great to plant and fast growing but certain to cause problems to someone down the line. Our house was built in 1868 and I believe whoever built the house, planted these trees. In the ice storm of 1998 they sustained damage and had to be topped. Lesson learned, topping trees is not always a good idea. At any rate, they are scheduled to be taken down sometime within the next 2-3 weeks. I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes and share the experience. This is the middle tree. Originally there were 4. We had to have one removed about 5 years ago.

On another note, I made my first ever soy pillar candle yesterday. To see this and the process, check out our North Fork Gifts blog at www.northforkgifts.com  Please sign up for this blog and also please “like” my blogs and become a follower. I appreciate those that continue to follow my blog. I enjoy writing and wish I had more time. After being on break, it’s back to school for me today!

Maple Scones

We are very lucky to be able to get our maple products from the Orebed Maple Sugar Shack. These scones use granulated maple sugar, which they have and I put maple crunchies on the top for added flavor. Our Maple scones have been a hit for our breakfasts every time we’ve made them. The recipe will be on our recipe page if you’d like to try making these delicious scones.

This morning’s breakfast featured French Breakfast Muffins served with St. Lawrence Valley Roasters Baker Road Blend coffee. These muffins have a little bit of nutmeg in the muffin and after baking them they are topped with melted butter and dipped in cinnamon and sugar. Our guests just loved them! Once again, I will be putting the recipe on our recipe page so if you’d like to make them, go for it!

The batter is a little bit different and you need to be sure not to over stir when putting them together. Have fun with these tasty breakfast muffins.

On Friday, the last day of school and graduation, I came home from work and began baking for the market. On Saturdays throughout the summer I plan to be at the Green Market in Ogdensburg,NY. Saturday it rained. The rain really ruins Tim’s coffee labels. Tim left early and went down to the market only to find pouring rain. He had to return home. We plan to be at the market on Saturday July 3rd so if you’re in the area, please stop by. I do want to share what’s going to available so far. Hopefully, I’ll have even more to choose from by the time Saturday rolls around!

Here's the dough ready to go on the cookie sheet.

Here’s the finished chocolate chip cookie dough just before it goes onto the cookie sheet and into the oven to bake.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Baking in the Oven

The Finished Product!Frosting a Whoopee Pie

A Filled Whoopee Pie from Baker Road Bakery

This wonderful tall ship was my adventure yesterday. I had heard that it would be in the Ogdensburg port and just had to go and check it out. It’s the HMS Bounty built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia for MGM Film Studios’ 1962 movie, Mutiny on the Bounty starring Marlon Brando. Now I ask you, who could resist climbing aboard the very same ship that Marlon Brando was on?  This very same ship was also used for Treasure Island, Yellow Beard, Sponge Bob Square Pants, and Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean-Dead Man’s Chest.

When I climbed aboard this tall ship, I was taken back to my childhood days and Mystic Seaport where I spent a great deal of time with my grandmother. We would go through and look at and read about everything! It was always fun and always interesting. Many of the children and children at heart, had that same gleam in their eye as they toured this vessel. I just kept thinking about our song and the tall ships and getting pictures to show my students. It was a lot of fun!

The height of the masts is what I always find amazing. The way it all fits together to form a most picturesque ship in full sail. It was a wonderful experience indeed!

The Finished Product

Just Out Of The Oven

Getting Ready To Market

 These photos were from last week when I was getting ready for the market we did yesterday.

North Fork Bed and Breakfast, located in St. Lawrence County, is the home of North Fork Gifts, Baker Road Bakery and St. Lawrence Valley Roasters. Our guests can enjoy a peaceful getaway, purchase something special from the area, drink freshly roasted coffee and take in the beauty here at North Fork when they come and stay with us. We are pet friendly and we have free wi-fi. Freshly made sourdough bread and baked goods are available too! We hope to see you when ever you come to St. Lawrence County!!

Rushton Cannoe

This is the Rushton Canoe. If anyone knows about these and the value of this canoe, please send an email to northforkbandb@hughes.net  We would greatly appreciate the information. We do know that they were made in Canton New York.  Thank you!

Rushton Canoe

Rushton Canoe

Well, I’m back and as promised, I have some photos from this morning when I prepared the sourdough loaves to rise. With my bread, you have to feed the base. The base is a potato base sourdough. After 12 hours, you make the dough. The dough rises for 12 hours and then you punch it down and make it into loaves. I took some photos so that I could show the process. It is a sweet tasting bread, contrary to it’s name. I make white and cinnamon swirl. I’ve been making this bread for 30 years now. It’s very popular at the farmer’s market. I will be going this Saturday to the Green Market in Ogdensburg. My husband Tim, will be going to the farmer’s market in Canton Friday to sell coffee. St. Lawrence Valley Roasters roasts the best coffee. You can go to his website and purchase or email him, calls are fine too.

North Fork Bed and Breakfast Sourdough bread after being punched down

This is being prepared as a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread.

This is what the bread dough looks like when it's being rolled out to make it into a loaf. After it's completely rolled out, starting at one end, you roll it up into a log.

This is what the dough looks like after it's rolled

Preparing the bread loaf

After crimping the ends you place it in the loaf pan to rise. In the warm summer months sometimes you can make an entire batch in a day as long as the base has been fed ahead of time. Otherwise, it takes about 36 hours to make the bread. As I’m writing right now, I have the first 3 loaves of white bread baking in the oven. I’m not sure I will be able to stay awake long enough to bake all of them but I’m going to try. I will take some shots of the finished bread as well to share. It certainly is tasty!! There’s nothing like it. After a while one becomes very spoiled by this bread. Guests at the B&B love it as toast and they love the french toast I make as well.

Finally, I have planted the window boxes and they are looking very nice. I’ll be sure to update with photos as the plants grow and begin to spill over the sides of the window boxes.

Over the weekend when we weren’t with our guests, we were working in the yard. The horse shoe bird house, as I have fondly named it, was installed in the memory garden and a wren has taken up occupancy. I was also able to get the planters filled but I still have many more to do. The morning glories at the back of the house still need to be planted. The trellice is in place and everything is ready to go. It’s always fun to get all of these things going. While I was working in the yard, a male hummingbird kept stopping by to check on the progress. It was a lot of fun watching him sit on top of the umbrella. He would eat and then take off only to come back seconds later to survey the progress from his viewing station on the top of the umbrella. The rose breasted grosebeaks are back and this year we have two pair! We also have two pair of wrens and one pair of bluebirds. I put up the bluebird house my mom gave me (which she made and woodburned) as I saw the bluebirds looking for a nesting site. I don’t think they will choose this house because of the wrens but it looks really nice and that wren house is going to be replaced and in a different location next year. Here’s hoping the bluebirds nest in the new house! That new house is the one pictured on the left and all of the art work is done by my mom. A most special birthday gift indeed! I can’t wait for birds to come and nest in this house! Bluebirds take a survey annually at their nesting sites and check out places to nest the following year so even if they don’t pick this one now, next spring a pair will nest there. It’s always entertaing to see the mothers bring their young to the bird bath at the end of the summer. They don’t usually feed from the bird feeders as they prefer bugs and such.

The next photo shows the shed and one of the planters. The humming birds frequent the flowers here and many different types of song birds enjoy sitting on the roof.

I’m also including some photos of the humming bird on the umbrella.

It certainly was entertaining to watch this little guy.