Living like we do in the country, most of our contact with others is when we go to town. The town, by the way, is named Harvest Creek. It's about 5 km from here and it's not very big, but it has most everything we need. If I just told you about the things that happen here on the ranch you would get bored in a hurry. Things are pretty simple here, so most of what I'll put in the newsletter will be about our trips in to "Harvest".

From time to time something exciting happens here or in one of the orchards or in the bush or a neighbours field. When that happens, we'll let you know and you can tell me if it's worth tellin' or not. Picking berries and finding wild fruit is not what we call exciting, but getting chased by a bear or an old bull can make the adrenaline run a little faster. We experiment a lot with different ways to use our harvest-in-a-jar products, and every now and then we blow something up or spill the entire mess all over the kitchen floor and although it may not be exciting, it sure can be humorous.

We have been selling our products for quite some time now, but just to locals and the tourists when they came by. Now we want the entire world to know what we have. We make our "jars" the same way we make preserves for our own table.

Our kitchens are government inspected and all the fruit is gathered at the peak of freshness. Even the garlic is not allowed to hang around too long before it is peeled and chopped. Some things we just can't grow here in the north, and those we watch very carefully where and when we buy them. Shorty, the blacksmith in town, says we should just use whatever we can get for the cheapest price. Like most people, we don't listen to Shorty. If we don't like the look of something it doesn't get in our "jars".

If I explain where we live, maybe you can better understand why we do things like we do. We live on the largest enclosed freshwater island in the world. Manitoulin Island is located in the top of Lake Huron between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. We have a bridge at the north end and a ferry in the summer on the south end. The island is about 160 km long and 60 km wide at the widest point. The permanent population is about 12,000, of which 5,000 live on First Nations reserves. In the summer the place is swarming with 60.000 summer people (cottagers) and tourists. A great place to visit but a better place to live.

We also live on a lake. I know this is hard to picture, a lake on an island in a lake, but we have over 100 lakes on Manitoulin. Maybe that's why we talk too much about fish and fishing. The air is crystal clean, the water is pure and the northern lights are beautiful. The rocks and the hills, the forests and the streams, make not only pretty pictures but the best "jars" in the world. The picture here was taken from the top of 2 O'Clock hill. No, I'm not kidding, that's really the name of the place. Nobody seems to know wh,y but that's what it's called.

Each newsletter will have a variety of recipes for you to try. We won't put any in until we try them ourselves, and we may do some that you can't do because of your location, e.g. roast in the fire pit. We will try to make them as simple as we can but if you want really good food sometimes you have to work at it. This time we are including a old cake recipe and a new muffin recipe.

Pioneer Jam Cake

• 5 eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 Tablespoon soda
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 3 cups plain flour
• 1 cup Blackberry Jam
• 1 cup Strawberry Jam
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 Tablespoon Allspice
• 1 cup grated nut meats (I like pecans )

Cream butter and sugar; add jam, well beaten egg yolks and beat until smooth. Alternately add flour and milk to which soda has been added, mix well after each addition. Add spices and nut meats, mix well. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into mixture. Pour into 3 well greased 9 inch layer pans and bake at 400 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes or until done. Frost with a vanilla or caramel frosting.

Great-Grandpa liked it, Grandpa liked it, Dad liked it and I like it. I'm sure you will too.

Peanut Butter and Jam Muffins

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• Ѕ teaspoon salt
• Ѕ cup peanut butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• ј cup vegetable oil
• Ѕ cup of your favourite Jam ( The kids all like strawberry)

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add peanut butter, mix until crumbly. Add milk, egg and oil; mix just until blended. Spoon half of the batter into 12 paper lined muffin tins. Spoon 1 Tablespoon of jam into the centre of each muffin. Cover with the rest of the batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes, until browned. Serve warm with hot chocolate after the sleigh ride party.

The cake recipe is an old family hand-down and the muffins came from Ethel at the Post Office. If you have any old family recipes send them along to inquiries and we'll try them out. If it passes our panel of experts (family and neigbours) we'll pass it on. If you would like a recipe for anything from road kill to wedding cake just ask. At one time or another we've tried just about everything or one of our local characters has.

We expect to be adding new products from time to time so watch for information about them here. Right now, it's maple syrup time and we had best get to work.