Leaf Peeping and A Boiled Cider Tutorial

Yesterday we went north and west to follow Fall.  

Planning our route and trying to look as ridiculous as I do here

 We found a most amiable farm and store called Diamond Hill Farm just west of Concord on 202.  What a happily situated farm and such a barn stuffed with autumn bounty.  We bought a local cheese (can you ever have too much cheese? - we have a lot in our cheese drawer right now), locally baked rosemary cornmeal crackers and some cider.  Not the cider I'll be speaking of later in this post.  The cider we bought at the farm was for drinking immediately.

 After we left that farm we headed northwest on backroads and then found ourselves in the hamlet of Washington, NH.  Adorable.

 Then across the river over the Windsor - Cornish bridge, the longest covered bridge in the US - we did not take a picture of it because there were too many people doing just that but here was the scene below after crossing over.  And it started to cloud up increasingly as we went deeper into Vermont.

Springfield, VT

The world famous Vermont Country Store in Weston - do you get their catalog?  It looks like a cute little general store on the outside but it is really huge inside and goes WAY back.  They carry things you can't find anywhere like Blue Grass perfume, Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific Shampoo, and Tabu cologne.  We just bought more cheese and some huge Wilbur dark chocolate chunks to put in future cookies.  Oh, and small wooden cedar balls which are going to be used to scent drawers after I drench them in essential oils.  How To Coming Soon.

 The sun was not cooperating at all - you can't even tell here how deep the colors were on those hills.  Eventually it started to rain and we couldn't take pictures of glorious scenes we saw but as Dan pointed out; "our eyes have seen them and that's what matters".  Wise man that Dan.

 I took a picture of Dan taking a picture where the clouds kept covering the sun, messing up his photo op - mine too

A charming stream and the B&B next to it below

So we had to cut our route short due to rain and dark skies and we headed over to Hanover NH and toured that lovely college town and ate dinner at the Canoe House where a lot of Dartmouth students were eating dinner with their visiting parents for Parents' Weekend and Homecoming.  

And today I made boiled cider while it rained here at home.  Boiling apple cider is akin to boiling down maple tree sap.  You start with a lot and have a tiny bit to show for it in the end but it is worth it!  Boiled cider is intensely appley!  You use it to pour over pancakes, ice cream, flavor pies, roasted meats  etc and it is pretty pricey.  A pint from King Arthur Flour store/catalog costs about $11.  I bought a gallon of apple cider for $2.49, we drank a few cups from it and then I poured the rest in a large pot, brought it to a boil, let it simmer on lowered heat for about 5 hours until it had reduced to about a third and coated the back of a spoon like syrup.  Our house smells incredible!!!  I also added one cinnamon stick to the cider while it boiled down.  Here's how it played out. 

Syrupy and ready for storing and use

This is a quart jar - had we not drank some cider from the gallon, it would have made a full pint. 

So about a pint for $2.49 and no shipping

                                               
And more cheer for a rainy day - look at that orange color!  Marigolds in the garden are kinda "meh" but here in a big bouquet - captivating.  I keep coming into the kitchen to look at them.

I bought these at Trader Joes