Today marked the first nut party of the fall season. The quince and almond tart was baked this morning, and ohhhh it tasted good. Then again, any recipe that uses an entire pound of butter can’t taste too bad.  I bought some nice cheeses–Scottish Arran Truckle, Lemon Stilton, Irish Sharp Cheddar and Cambozola. Those little slices of imported heaven….if you ever want to try something wonderful, go pay the $8 for the wedge of lemon Stilton. I’ve never tasted anything like it, it doesn’t even taste like cheese. It has lemon rind in it and the impression is of lemony crumble melting in my mouth. Highly recommended!!  This nut party was odd. Good friends from work came, we harvested 2 trees. It was windy and that helped take a lot of the misery out of the job. We shelled some nuts but then we mostly went on a pick-a-thon. People went home with big baskets of huge heriloom tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, peppers and cut flowers. I am going to have to make salsa tomorrow, there are gallons of tomatoes staring at me.

The dehydrator from eBay came yesterday, and last night I won the auction for my 1930’s food mill. $3.49, woohoo! I am afraid I am eBaying and I can’t stop….  by way of excuses, though, I am saving a lot of $$ not driving around to antique shops and garage sales hoping to find this stuff. I am on the lookout for vintage food processing items. I have my sights set on a nineteenth century fruit press and will win one eventually.  These are 8 quart, cast-iron monsters that could squeeze a pumpkin for juice if you wanted it to. I lost the auction on the last one I bid for, it sold for $475. Pricey, but not compared to the $750 one we were planning to purchase eventually. I’ll cross my fingers that I get lucky on one at some point. I have also been scoping out iron cauldrons (15 gallon size). This is the sort of thing that can make slaughtering birds a lot easier–ever try to stuff a dead turkey into a 16 quart pot that you had to drag off the stove while full of boiling water? I rest my case. Someday I want to have an outdoor kitchen area, basically a fire ring with a permanent heavy duty metal tripod, for those big food jobs.