1. Tips for cooking with honey.

    November 6, 2012 by Daryn

    There are no hard and fast rules to substituting honey and sugar in recipes, but these guidelines should help you quickly decide how much honey to use in a particular recipe instead of table or cane sugar.

    In general, substituting honey for sugar seems to be a matter of taste. Some people use it cup for cup,  while others prefer 1/2 cup – 2/3 cup of honey per cup of white sugar. Reduce the amount of other liquids by 1/4 cup for every cup of honey used. Lower the oven temp about 25 degrees F to prevent over-browning and add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for each cup of honey to your batter. Honey is naturally acidic and the baking soda tempers it.

    Diabetics should keep in mind that honey does not reduce the calorie or carbohydrate content of the sugar recipe, and thus is not an acceptable sugar replacement for people on diabetic diets.

    Substituting honey for other sweeteners

    • Molasses: To substitute molasses for honey, use exactly the same amount. The resulting flavor and color will be a bit darker and heavier. The reverse is true if you swap honey for molasses.
    • Corn Syrup: To substitute honey for corn syrup, use exactly the same amount, but reduce any other sweet ingredients, since honey has more sweetening power than corn syrup.
    • Dark Brown Sugar: Follow the equation for plain table sugar under General Recommendations, but also substitute a little molasses for a portion of the honey to retain the expected flavor. Brown sugar is just white sugar where the molasses have not been completely removed by refining. Brown sugar, on the other hand, attracts moisture, so it will keep baked goods from drying out so quickly. Also, brown sugar has some molasses in it, which adds moisture, and certainly changes the taste.

    http://www.michiganbeekeepers.com

    Here is a great recipe for a seasonal Pumpkin Honey Bread.

    Category: Bees, Farm in the News, Recipes Comments Off

  2. Farm Post Fall-Winter 2011 Edition

    October 27, 2011 by Bron

    Farm Post Newsletter

    Category: Farm in the News, Recipes Comments Off

  3. Sounds of Quiet on the Farm

    October 21, 2011 by Bron

    Have you ever heard the sound of quiet? When I was a little girl, growing up on our farm in Ohio, I remember trying to listen to “quiet”. My folks were in their 50s (now, I think that was really quite youngish) and my sisters were grown and off in their own lives. I was alone a lot. I look back on it now and see how I thrived occupying myself. My dad mowed and cleared walking paths all over our hilly 160 acres. Paths through the woods and around all the fields. I would spend hours finding just the right spot to read my book or take a nap.

    Sometimes I would take my bright red portable record player out to the barn and sing to records—records like South Pacific and My Fair Lady. We had a little greenhouse radio that would get about three stations on it and had a thermometer. I distinctly remember singing along to Tony Orlando and Dawn and thinking how it had just reached 70 degrees. No head phones. In fact, I tried to get Hannibal, my Irish Setter mutt, to howl along.

    Confession time: I also talked to myself regularly—a habit carried on today. Sometimes I would even read out loud to Hannibal. That sweet dog would try to look interested. My parents and I read out loud all the time. Sometimes the newspaper, sometimes a good book. We all took turns, but  Dad and I loved listening to my mother the most. She could make any story come alive and jump off the pages—still can.

    But most of the time, however, there was quiet. It wasn’t ever silent. There were always sounds in the background. A tractor way off in the distance,  birds, a dog barking somewhere, on our farm it was so quiet you could hear a plane flying overhead heading to Cleveland or Pittsburg almost 100 miles away. I remember lying in bed at night wondering if the quiet could ever be complete and total silence.

    Early this morning around 4:00 one of our dogs barked and woke me up. It got quiet again as I lay there deciding to start my day. Memories flooded back about the quiet times of my childhood. As I started to listen it seemed at first like silence, then I started hearing the quiet noises—a tractor in the distance harvesting corn, birds, a dog downstairs getting up to get a drink then laying back down. I hadn’t heard quiet in a long time.  It was so soothing. Heaven knows how hard it is to listen when we’re bombarded by 20,000 messages a day. Our on-demand lives can rob us of these tender moments if we’re not careful.

    Today at our farm life is busy, a lot to accomplish. But I don’t want to get so busy that I don’t listen to the quiet of life.  Even for just a little while.

    Then a glass of wine and a piece of Apple Pudding—

    Here’s my mother’s recipe if you want to join me:

    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1 cup whole wheat flour
    • 1/2 cup spry (I use butter or vegetable oil)
    • 1 egg
    • 1 scant tsp soda
    • 1 tbl cinnamon (make sure you use a whole tablespoon)
    • 1 scant tsp salt
    • 1 cup chopped nuts (sometimes I substitute rolled oats)
    • Lastly, add 2 1/2 cups raw, unpeeled, diced apples

    Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes and serve with real whipped cream

     

    Category: Recipes Comments (2)