Spring seems to finally be breaking thru the wet, dreary hold Winter has had on these parts for what feels like a very long time. With Spring comes the hopeful, white blossoms on all the fruit trees around the farm, making me start dreaming of cobblers and pies and other homegrown desserts of choice. Just this last week, we planted four fragile, wee fruit trees- a nectarine, an early apple and two different varieties of cherry-to replace the heirloom fruit trees that have provided for several generations of family on this farm. It will be a few years before we get to enjoy the harvest of those tiny, little trees but thankfully we have the well established, mixed bunch of fruits to pick from come this fall.
Growing up on a farm, I am well accustomed to seasonal desserts to look forward to and savor. As a child, my siblings and I would be sent out in the summer with big, plastic bowls to fill to heaping with plump, juicy blackberries. My dad would make a simple, but delicious blackberry cobbler for many a summer after dinner treat. And come Thanksgiving, there was always one of Dad's famous apple pies on the table spread. I love a good fruit pie or cobbler better than other baked goods and made with fresh, homegrown fruit makes it even better. So I was excited to add the beautiful, new cookbook- Sweeter off the Vine to my kitchen shelves in preparation of long summer days and sweet summer cooking.
The book's description tag line- A cozy collection of heirloom-quality recipes for pies, cakes, tarts,
ice cream, preserves, and other sweet treats that cherishes the fruit of
every season- seems to be the perfect summary of what these gorgeous book consists of. I love that the book is sectioned off by season and shares several recipes for each fruit ripe during that time. I'm excited to get my herb garden blooming again this spring so I can bake up the lemon verbena olive oil cake. When the short Oregon strawberry season comes on in a couple of months I will definitely be making a few of the simplest strawberry tarts. Summer will bring many mixed berries for the multiple berry rich recipes in the book. Of course, Fall will mean apples, pears and grapes that will be put to good use in the books' pie and fritter recipes. The concord grape and plum butter recipe looks really intriguing! I appreciate the all purpose, essential recipes for pie crusts, sauces, etc. at the end of the book.
Yossy Arefi did a wonderful job compiling some homey, delicious and accessible desserts that I'll be adding to my baking arsenal. After reading her author bio, I realized she was very well probably the author of many of my favorite Bon Appetit magazine dessert recipes, so I am excited to have some of her best recipes all together in one beautiful book!
"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."
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