Week of December 22

A TAProots CHRISTMAS includes all sorts of goodies produced at either TAProots Farm or our Florida Home.  I love to share things that aren’t bought at the store.  The big story this year is the bumper crop of citrus, especially grapefruit.  My fruit baskets included two pink grapefruit, two ruby red grapefruit, and a mix of honey murcot, ponkan tangerines, and tangelos.  This helped the trees greatly, as they were weighted down by the heavy crop.  Another favorite gift is my assorted jams from the summer at Keuka Lake.  The flavors this year were triple berry (red, purple, and black raspberry), red plum, Illini (the thorned blackberry), blackberry plus (with half the seeds removed), peach, and Concord grape, as an excellent topping for a Christmas morning scone.  For friends with grandchildren visiting, my Swedish hand-painted almond cookies featured a new selection of farm animals  (pig, chicken, duck, lamb, horse, cow).  A special gift in Florida were small jugs of our own maple syrup from our maple forest surrounding our Lakehouse, perfect for that Christmas pancake breakfast.  Finally, a few bottles of Reisling wine from our friends at Ravines Winery introduced  a few Florida families to Finger Lakes white wine. Christmas is a great time to share the bounty of TAProots.