Fall | CranHoney Apple Chips

I was flipping through a magazine (Autumn Cottage) and noticed that they had a section of apple recipes.I love apples. They are so crunchy and sweet! Probably one of the best snacks ever! :-)  One of the recipes was for apple chips....here it is with the little tangy taste of CranHoney.

CranHoney Apple Chips

What you need:
2 cups of sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup of CranHoney
1/4 cup plus 4 Tablespoons lemon juice
3 Apples (Your choice, I chose Gala)

How you do it:

1. Preheat oven to 200*. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. In a large pan over medium-high heat, combine sugar, water, CranHoney, and 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Bring mixture to a boil, and cook until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat, and cool mixture to room temperature.

3. Fill a large bowl with cool water and add the extra lemon juice to it.

4. Cut the apples crosswise with a manual V-slicer. They should end up being about 1/16 inch thick. Put the sliced apples in the lemon water mixture.

5. Take the apples out of the water. Dry the apples with a towel. Dip the apple slices in the cooled honey mixture. Let sit on a pan for 10 minutes. Put them in the oven and bake for 1 hour , or until they are dry. Turn off oven and leave apples in the oven for an additional hour.

6. Carefully remove the apples and store up to 1 week.

Hope you enjoy!

Sarah

Recipe adapted from Autumn Cottage Magazine

Fall | Mandy's Chili

Here in Oregon we have a lot of rainy cold days and when those days come we all want something hot to eat. My friend Mandy came up with this chili recipe that uses our PlumHoney! Give it a try and let us know what you think!

What you need:

• 1lb of ground beef
• Garlic powder
• Salt and pepper
• 3 cans diced tomatoes
• 2 cans stewed tomatoes
• 2 cans red kidney beans (RINSE!)
• 1 package of chili seasoning
• ½ bottle of plum honey

How you do it:

1. Cook beef all the way through. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper while cooking.

2. Combine the rest of ingredients in a slow cooker. Make sure to rinse the kidney beans. Add meat when after it has browned.

3.Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours in slow cooker, stirring occasionally.

4.Serve with sides (chopped onion, cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips).

Sarah

Harvest Time | Grandma's Plum Cake

Wow! The season of harvesting plums is coming to a close. Yesterday I had the opportunity to make this plum cake with my grandma! It was fun to hear about how this recipe started with her mom (my great-grandma). My grandma handed me a stack of recipes and information about plums to look over when I got home. I found a short paragraph on how plums/prunes came to Oregon:

"The first plum tree sprouts came to Oregon by wagon train in 1847. By 1853, the first Oregon-grown Italian prunes were sold in Portland.*" Wow! I am flat out amazed at that history. Our farm was homesteaded in 1884 which was not long after the tree sprouts came here!

What you need:
1 1/3 cup mixed bisquick
1 cup milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons of Cinnamon
1/2 cup PlumHoney
1/4 cup of condensed milk

How you do it:

1. Wash 2 lbs of Plums

2. Slice in half and remove pits

3. Spread bisquick in the bottom of the pan

4. Place the halved plums in the pan on their side until the pan is full.

5. Sprinkle on the cinnamon.

 6. Spread on the brown sugar.

7. Pour 1/4 of the PlumHoney on the pan mixture.  After this, spread on 1/4 cup of dried bisquick over the brown sugar.

8. Pour on the condensed milk. Pour the rest of PlumHoney on the mixture. Bake in the oven about 45 minutes or until golden brown.

 9. Eat with icecream of just by itself! :-)

I hope you enjoy this recipe! And thank you Grandma for sharing this recipe with me! I am very glad to know how to make this amazing Plum Cake that has been passed on through the generations!

At the Dahlia Festival with my Grandma!

Sarah


*came from the Oregon Prunes are Plum Good article by the Oregon Processed Prune and Plum Growers Association.

PassionHoney Chicken Salad

Liz came up with this recipe last week! We absolutely loved the tropical taste of PassionHoney blended into this salad. It's super easy to make, which is really nice when you have absolutely no time to think about how to make something. :-)

What you need:

4 cups cooked chicken, diced.
3 celery ribs, chopped (like the photo above)
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup toasted pecans
1 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1/ 3 cup of PassionHoney
dash of salt
dash of pepper (or more, I love adding more pepper)

Lettuce or green salad mix

How you do it:

1. Chop celery
2. Cook chicken, dice (you can do this early in the day and just leave it in the fridge till you need it.)
3. Chop pecans
4. Combine chicken, celery, cranberries, pecans, and PassionHoney in a bowl. Set aside.
5. Stir together mayo, salt, and pepper. Combine with chicken and stir together.
6. Put it on some lettuce or a green salad mix.

Enjoy!

Sarah

CranHoney-Apple Cake

The day felt like fall. We all agreed that it had finally arrived. Leaves crunched beneath our feet. The cool crisp morning warmed up to a warm afternoon. The men in the family spent the day working on our harvest equipment. The women were cooking, cleaning and chasing children around the house. It was what I imagine a perfect Autumn day to look like.


For me, it was wonderful to hear the chatter and conversations float through the house. Just two weeks prior, I had returned home from a summer spent in Europe. I missed the family conversations, the projects we worked on around the house, cherry harvest on the farm, the summer markets where we sell honey and, most of all, the family dinners where we share our happenings of the day.


I loved to cook. So, I pulled out this recipe for a Honey-Apple Cake that I had wanted to make. I love dabbling in creative cooking, so I adapted this recipe from Southern Living just a bit to create a CranHoney-Apple Cake. The smell of cinnamon, apples and sweet honey soon filled the house.


The cake turned out wonderfully. It tasted as good as it smelled. And, paired with a little vanilla ice cream, it quickly became the perfect finished to a hard day's work on the farm.


From our farm to your house, enjoy!


Elizabeth

CranHoney-Apple Cake

Yield: Makes 1 (10-inch) cake

Ingredients

1 cup chopped pecans, divided

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup CranHoney

3 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups chopped Golden Delicious apples

CranHoney Sauce (recipe below)

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Preparation

Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pain; sprinkle bottom of pan with 1/4 cup pecans. Set aside.

Beat sugar, oil and honey at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in vanilla, remaining 3/4 cup pecans, and apple. Spoon batter over pecans in pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan, and place on a wire rack over wax paper. Pour 1/2 cup CranHoney Sauce over warm cake. Cool.

Heat remaining CranHoney Sauce. Drizzle over a slice of cake and, if desired, ice cream.

Honey-Apple Cake recipe adapted from: Southern Living - September 1999

CranHoney Sauce

Yield: Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup CranHoney

1/4 cup milk

Preparation

Bring all ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.

Honey-Apple Cake recipe adapted from: Southern Living - September 1999

CranHoney Popcorn Snacks

Throughout the generations of our family there has been a trend which will probably never fade away. The love of eating crunchy popcorn. We would eat it for movies, family scrabble games, or whenever we needed a good crunch. :-) My mom came across these crunchy popcorn balls in the magazine: eatingwell and we decided to make some with our CranHoney. 

We all hope you enjoy these as much as we all did!

What you need:
1/4 cup of CranHoney
1/4 cup of Peanut Butter
1/4 cup of Craisins
1/4 cup of Dried Apples, chopped
1/4 cup of Cashews, chopped

6 cups of popped corn


How you do it:

Make 6 cups of popcorn, set aside. *make sure that the kernels that don't pop are taken out

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Fill a bowl full of ice water.

In a small bowl combine Craisins, Dried Apples, and Cashews. Set aside.

In a stovetop pan, heat up the CranHoney and Peanut Butter on medium heat. Stir constantly. Once it starts to bubble, stir for another 15 seconds.

Pour the CranHoney mixture over the 6 cups of popcorn. Make sure all the popcorn gets coated. Once coated, blend in the Craisin Mixture.

Dip you hands in the ice water and then grab a handfull of the popcorn mixture. Roll into a ball and set on parchment paper. Do this till the popcorn is gone.

You can put a stick in it to make it not so sticky while you eat or you can just eat it with your hands. :-)

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Sarah

Wild Blackberry | Jam + Crisp

Wild blackberries are beginning to ripen! On our farm the wild blackberries grow everywhere! We could pick buckets full and never get them all. One of our favorite dishes is the blackberry pie/crisp with a little icecream melting on top. Here are two recipes that we made with our fresh blackberries!

Wild Blackberry PassionHoney Jam

For 9 pints

What you need:

16 cups of berries
2-4 cups of PassionHoney

( I used 3 cups honey)
1 pkt. pomona’s pectin powder
1/2 cup calcium powder water
(this is 1/2 c. water with the calcium powder pkt. stirred in)

How you do it:

Step 1: Measured berries out into large stock pot.
Then crushed with a potato masher to break up and expose juice.

Step 2: Stir in the calcium water.
** Note – that the calcium powder comes in the box of pectin.

Step 3: Measure out the honey into a separate bowl.
Stir in the pectin powder and set aside.

Step 4: Bring the fruit / juice to a boil. Now stir in the honey pectin mix.
Stirring vigorously for 2 minutes while the pectin dissolves into the fruit.Remove the spoon and let it all come back to a boil, then remove from the heat.

Step 5: Fill the jars to 1/4 inch from the top.
Wipe the lip clean.
Put the hot lid on using a tong to grab, then screw on a ring very tightly.

Step 6: Last step is to seal with a water bath for 10 minutes.

Though I do not do this step at all. Because you are filling your sterilized hot jars with boiling fruit, capping with boiled hot lids and rings and you have tighten them well; the combination of doing these steps carefully will result in your jars sealing with a nice clink sound as they cool down. I’ve never had trouble with doing it this way.

Adapted from: http://seedsofnutrition.com/?p=6391

Wild Blackberry PassionHoney Crisp

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 Minutes

What you need:

6 cups blackberries

1/4 cup PassionHoney

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 Tbsp tapioca flour (optional)

1 cup oats

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

How you do it:

Preheat oven to 350. In a 2-quart baking dish (I used small custard cups to make individual crisps) combine blackberries, PassionHoney, lemon juice, and tapioca. Toss to thoroughly combine.

Put oats, flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse several times to combine. Add butter and pulse until well combined.

Spread topping over berries - it doesn't need to be terrible even and leaving space here and there gives the fillling something to bubble up through.

Bake until the berries are bubbling and the topping is  browned. For about 45 minutes - 1 hour. Let cool and then serve with some icecream.

Adapted from: http://localfoods.about.com/od/crispscobblers/r/blackberryhoneycrisp.htm

I hope you all enjoy these recipes! Check back next week for a Cranberry Recipe! :-)

Sarah

Taste | Grilled Peaches and PlumHoney

A couple customers came by the farmers market and told me that our PlumHoney went amazing with peaches! Sooo of course, I had to try it. One of them told me to try this specific peach recipe.

What you need:

• 1/4 cup PlumHoney
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon horseradish
• 6 firm, ripe peaches, halved
• Vegetable cooking spray

How you do it:

1. Whisk together first 3 ingredients. Brush half of honey mixture evenly over cut sides of peaches.

2. Coat a cold cooking grate with cooking spray, and place on grill over medium heat (300° to 350°). Arrange peach halves, cut sides up, on grate; grill, covered with grill lid, 3 minutes on each side or until tender and golden. Remove from grill, and brush cut sides of peaches evenly with remaining honey mixture.

Adapted from: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-peaches-jezebel-10000001646471/



If you have any peach recipes that are amazing with honey! Let me know and I'll give it a try! :-) See you next week!

Sarah

Sweet | Fresh PassionHoney Lemonade

90 degrees and hardly any humidity...I (as an Oregonian) would consider that hot. As opposed to my friend in Virginia who would say that is a very nice temperature. On "hot" days like today I decided to make some freshly squeezed lemonade.

What you need:
1/2 cup PassionHoney
1 1/2 cups steaming hot water
1 cup fresh lemon juice {4-5 lemons, depending on size}
Ice cubes for serving

How you do it:

• In a heatproof 1-quart pitcher or bowl, combine the PassionHoney and hot water and stir until the honey is dissolved.
• Stir in the lemon juice.
• Add in ice cubes (About 2 cups)
• Let cool for at least 10 minutes or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• Pour into ice-filled glasses.
• Drink up!

Slightly Adapted from emilylevenson

If you need it a little sweeter add in a little more honey. Enjoy!

Sarah

Summer | PassionHoney Smoothie

Ohh the fresh fruits are tasting so good this year! Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, and now Blackberries! For this smoothie recipe it really depends on what taste you like best. If you like a more blueberry taste, add some more in and take something else out. :-) You can do that with any of the ingredients! I used a mixed pack of frozen fruit for this smoothie, but fresh fruit tastes much better. If you use fresh fruit, put in a little ice to make it thicker. If you are using frozen fruit, no need to add ice.

Also, if you like it thicker add in more fruit. If you like it thinner, take out some. Hope you enjoy this recipe!

 

If you have a summer recipe that uses honey let me know and we'll give it a try!

Sarah

Contrast | CranHoney Raspberry Scones

The season of raspberries has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest! It has taken a long time due to the weather, but the wait is always rewarding when you eat your first fresh raspberry. We picked a lot off of our row and there are still more to pick! I looked at Smitten Kitchen and saw the Raspberry Scone recipe she posted today and knew that I needed to try it with the fresh raspberries and our CranHoney.

What you need:
1 cup (120 grams) whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder, preferably aluminum-free
1/8 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/8 cup of CranHoney
1/2 teaspoon table salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 cup (136 grams or 4 3/4 ounces) fresh raspberries
3/4 cup (189 grams) whole milk ricotta
1/3 cup (79 ml) heavy cream
1 bag of vanilla chips.

How you do it:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In the bottom of a large, wide-ish bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, sugar and salt together.

With a pastry blender: Add the butter (no need to chop it first) and use the blender to both cut the butter into the flour mixture until the biggest pieces are the size of small peas. Toss in raspberries and use the blender again to break them into halves and quarter berry sized chunks. Pour CranHoney into the mixture.

Without a pastry blender: Cut the butter into small pieces with a knife and work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Roughly chop the raspberries on a cutting board. In a small bowl, mix together the raspberries and CranHoney.

Both methods: Add the ricotta and heavy cream together and stir them in to form a dough with a flexible spatula.

After mixing the heavy whipping cream and the ricotta pour into the butter mix. Using your hands, blend the mixture together. It will be sticky with the CranHoney so use extra flour if necessary.

With as few movements as possible, transfer the dough to a well-floured counter, flour the top of the dough and pat it into a 7-inch square about 1-inch tall.

With a large knife, divide the dough into 9 even squares. Transfer the scones to prepared baking sheet with a spatula. Bake the scones for about 11 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges.

After the scones cool for a little while drizzle with melted white vanilla chips.  

Adapted by: Smitten Kitchen

Hope you all enjoy this amazing scone recipe! Try it with you favorite tea!

Sarah

Herbs | Lavender & Honey Cupcakes

I'm a little late on this post due to the fact that life has been rather busy lately. We started cherry harvest and are still doing the farmers' markets! I'll post some photos of the whole process of the harvest of a marachino cherry in the next couple of days.

My friend Natalie came up with this idea for a recipe and made the cupcakes. She is very creative and had fun using the Lavender Honey! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we all did!

What you need:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup Lavender Honey
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup warm coffee or strong tea
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup rye or whiskey
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds (optional)

How you do it:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease cupcake pan(s) with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Make a well in the center, and add oil, Lavender Honey, white sugar, brown sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee or tea, orange juice and rye or whiskey, if using. (If you measure your oil before the honey, it will be easier to get all of the honey out.)

Using a strong wire whisk or in an electric mixer on slow speed, stir together well to make a thick, well-blended batter, making sure that no ingredients are stuck to the bottom.

Spoon batter into prepared pan(s). Sprinkle top of cake(s) evenly with almonds, if using. Place cake pan(s) on two baking sheets, stacked together (this will ensure the cupcakes bake properly with the bottom baking faster than the cake interior and top).

Bake until cupcake tests done, that is, it springs back when you gently touch the cake center. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Let cupcakes stand fifteen minutes before removing from pan.

For the frosting, use your favorite brand and spread on top. Sprinkle with culinary lavender and enjoy!

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and  Marcy Goldman’s Treasure of Jewish Holiday Baking

If you have any good ideas for the Lavender Honey, let me know!

Sarah

Cinnamon| CranHoney Apple Pie

Ohh the sweet taste of apple pie on a summer night is a taste that we will always love! My friend Courtney baked this CranHoney Apple Pie for a send-off party for my sister who was headed overseas. It tasted amazing and so here is the recipe!

Crust:- Puff pastry or other crust you normally use for pies.

Filling:- 5-6 cups sliced Granny Smith Apples
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp granulated white sugar
- 1tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup margarine or butter (1/2 stick) melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1/2 cup CranHoney

Streusel Topping:- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp granulated white sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 cut cold margarine or butter

Preparation: Preheat oven to 350

Roll out pie crust large enough to cover bottom and sides of pie dish. Brush lightly with melted margarine or butter. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp white sugar, then bake for 10 minutes.

Filling:Slice apples and put them in a large bowl with flour, sugar and cinnamon. Mix, and let rest. Then drizzle melted butter and honey over the apples and toss. Let the apple mixture set while you make the streusel topping.

Topping:Whisk flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Place mixture in food processor and add the cold margarine or butter cubes. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.

Toss the apples again and evenly distribute them  in the pie dish, then top with the streusel topping.

Bake for 1 hour, or until the apples are tender


Serve with whipped cream or ice cream!

Thanks again Courtney! :-)

Sarah


If you have a recipe or product you would like me to try send me an email at: sarah@littleoakfarms.com

Spice | PlumHoney and Ginger Cookies

So this was a very fun recipe to make! I had my friend Hannah and Susanna create this with me! We at first thought of making a molasses cookie with our PlumHoney, but then when we started making the recipe we thought that we should just completely switch out the molasses with the PlumHoney...It turned out amazing and everyone loved them!

What you need:
3/4 cup of oil
1 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup PlumHoney
2 Eggs
2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger
1 tsp. Cinnamon
Addtional flour and sugar for rolling

How you do it:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl stir together the oil and sugar. Mix in the PlumHoney and eggs. Once it is mixed, add the dry ingredients. If needed, add in a little more flour if it looks to sticky.

Flour your hands and roll the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on the pan. Bake for 10 minutes. They will look like they expanded a lot, but they will shrink when they begin to cool. Sprinkle on a little more sugar and then let cool for few minutes. Transfer over to a wire rack to cool completely.

adapted from My Romantic Home

-Sarah

By the way, if you have a product you would like me to try with our honey send me an email at: sarah@littleoakfarms.com

Strawberries and Honey | PassionHoney Strawberry Crepes

Crepes and Strawberries....it definitely does not get better for a morning breakfast!  I've been noticing that the local strawberries are starting to pop up at the farmer's market and stores and it made me excited! The fresh summer fruit tastes amazing! Some of our friends grow the best strawberries in town and if you are in this area you should check out their store. http://www.ungerfarms.com/ 

For this recipe I used a basic crepe recipe from All Recipes, which was super easy and quick! For our family we always need to make things which are easy to make otherwise it would take forever to feed the 11 in our family! Cut up the strawberries first and then make the crepes!

For the Crepes-

What you need:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

How you do it:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.

Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side.

When the crepe is done, take it off the pan and fold in a desired amount of strawberries. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy the sweet and tropical taste of these PassionHoney Crepes!

For the Strawberries-

What you need:

• Strawberries
• PassionHoney
• Powdered Sugar

How you do it:

Cut up the strawberries into a large bowl and add about 1/3 cup of PassionHoney into the strawberries. Stir it together and set aside for the crepes.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! They taste amazing! Let me know what you think of the strawberries and PassionHoney combination!

See you next week with an amazing PlumHoney Ginger Cookie!

-Sarah

Pile of Cookies | CranHoney Spice Cookies

My friend Candace and her husband came by the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago and told me about this recipe! I was super excited about it and told her to send me the recipe! Since there are a lot of us living in our house when a recipe is amazing it won't last a day! These cookies were gone by the end of the day! I love using honey in recipes because it makes it very moist and melts in your mouth. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we all did!