We began to train for the work ahead once we arrived in beautiful Acworth, New Hampshire. Though some distinction can be made between South Acworth (our home during the summer stay) and the more unsightly North Acworth, the overall town is an active and welcoming place to be in the summer season. Check out the online guide to Acworth, not to mention it's best source of local political information, at the Acworthian.org.
We were present during the middle stages of the growing season and saw many fruit and vegetable crops come to harvest, while also learning how to make savory and useful preserves so as to extend the surplus of ripening produce that can quickly seem overwhelming. We made some basic raspberry preserves, gathering berries from a Elsesser Blueberries, a local pick-your-own treasure. After getting about four pints of juicy raspberries, we ground them through the food mill to separate some of the seeds, added 1.5 cups of sugar to the roughly 2 cups of raspberry juice (a 0.75:1 ratio), then simmered for about an hour until thickened. Proper recipe and instructions can be found in our Recipes Page. At a later trip we also harvested too many pints of plump blueberries and had to find means to store them after having our fill of blueberry pies and pancakes for three days. We settled on a Spiced Blueberry Recipe that has a nice, savory sweetness to it. Apparently it goes well on everything from toast to ice cream to pork roasts. Vegetable harvests will later offer their own sort of preserving wisdom, but for now the trip and it's lessons have begun.
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