Tasha Tudor, simple life...

 

 Happy Birthday Tasha Tudor!

I just love this picture of Tasha Tudor and some children picking berries.  It reminds me of her simple ways.  Above all things, she lived off the land and made use of everything she grew.  And wasn't it a beautiful life?  Sometimes I think the simplest, quietest, humblest things are the very best things.  Picking berries is an art in itself which probably ended in making jelly or jam, and what is better than homemade jam spooned onto a slice of hot buttered toast?  Simple, but good.

Today my daughter, G., and I worked in the kitchen all day making apple sauce and apple butter.  G's hubby picked the apples from their neighbor's tree, a Cortland Apple Tree, which I am in want of now. The Cortland produces the prettiest red blushed apples -- a cross between a Ben Davis and a McIntosh apple.  (I looked it up.)  The tree is beautiful.  I think it would be considered a semi-dwarf which makes it easy to pick and quite compact and loaded with fruit.  The apples are white fleshed and sweet.  We hardly added any sugar to our apple sauce and apple butter.  We could have probably made it totally without sugar, but we decided it added a little more depth of flavor with the addition of sugar.  The sauce is a creamy color and not as gold as the photo shows here.  The grandgirls enjoyed their small bowls of sauce as we had scrapings and left-over globs that did not round out our jars.  G. and I had a piece of hot toast with a sampling of the apple butter scraped out of the roaster at the end of its baking.  Oh, so good!  Even though we did not plan to celebrate Tasha Tudor's birthday with our apple saucing, we did it quite by coincidence, and we honor her just the same.  We honor all those who continue the simple arts of home making that Tasha held dear.

  

For the record, today we made 40 pints of apple sauce and apple butter combined.  More to come since we haven't totally picked the Cortland entirely.  Good for us!  What are your favorite homemaking arts?

Tasha Tudor, the quiet life....

  Today is Tasha Tudor's birthday.  Born August 28, 1915 was a beloved American illustrator who lived a simple, full life to the ripe old age of 93.  Her first story was Pumpkin Moonshine, published in 1938, but my favorite Tasha books are 1 is One, a child's counting book, and A Time To Keep which tells about the changing seasons.  Her books are the kind that I plan to read aloud to the grandchildren and give for special birthdays and holidays.  (It's almost time to order some Pumpkin Moonshine)

 Tasha was not only a writer/illustrator, but she was a homemaker in every sense of the word.  She loved handcrafts like weaving, knitting, candle dipping and doll making.  She also enjoyed keeping goats and chickens and made cheese from her own goats' milk and cooked delicious, wholesome foods from her eggs and from fruits and vegetables that grew on her land.  Every season had its pleasures and its work to be done, and home was the core of Tasha's life's work. 

Working in the garden in autumn is delightful, with the clean smell of frost-bitten ferns and witch hazel in the air and no insects to bother about.  There are always great numbers of bulbs to be put in the ground -- over two thousand this fall, counting the lilies.  The other day I heard the first Canada geese go over as I was planting.  Their calls give me such a primordial feeling.  And to see a flock of snow geese flying over the white birch trees by the mailbox on a fair day is a sight to take the breath away.   ~Tasha Tudor from The Private World of Tasha Tudor

 It is precisely a comment like this that makes me appreciate her.  Perhaps it's because I live on the land, live in the country, and because I see so much beauty in my own surroundings.  I won't be planting two thousand bulbs this fall, but I will put a few in the ground.  I won't be spinning wool this winter, but I'll be feeding my sheep.  I probably won't be illustrating a children's book, but I'll be drawing little crayon sketches with my grandchildren.  I appreciate what I call Tasha's "quiet life." Not glamorous, not overdone, but instead -- quiet, simple, beautiful.

Tasha Tudor, you've always inspired me.  Happy Birthday!

For more interesting posts about Tasha Tudor Day, click Storybook Woods.
Tasha Tudor & Family

Tasha Tudor Day...

It's Tasha Tudor's birthday today and since I've always been a big fan of her books and art and the way she celebrated holidays, I decided to celebrate!  Clarice from Storybook Woods is hosting Tasha Tudor Day again this year so if you would like to see what others around the world are doing to celebrate this day, check in and read her blog comments.

I honored Tasha Tudor by playing in my watercolors.  I am fairly certain that she did not "play" in her paints since she was a commercial artist who used her art to "feed the wolf" as she once said.  But I'd like to think that once in awhile she took time to just enjoy her painting as a means of recreation and inspiration.  I painted four small cards and I must say that even though they are very simplistic, they took quite a little time to do.  It makes me appreciate the time and effort that artists take to produce a worthy piece.

Our children grew up on Tasha Tudor books.  I was always grateful that our library had an extensive Tasha Tudor book collection  and I'm sure we checked out every single one of them.  I always liked the way Tasha created borders around her pictures.  Tasha said:

I've always done borders of sticks or ribbons or flowers around my illustrations and I don't even know why I decided to.  I don't even remember when I didn't.  People like to find things in them.  Another appeal of my drawings, I think, is that they are done from actuality, not imagined.  I know which side a cow is milked from, and what side you should mount a horse from, and how to make a haystack.  It's not made up.  The people in my pictures are my own grandchildren and friends, and the surroundings are drawn from my surroundings.  The flowers are growing wild in my fields or are from my garden.  People who come to visit say, "Oh, it's like walking into one of your illustrations."

 This picture comes from a book I own called The Private World of Tasha Tudor

I love to identify all the wildflowers and garden flowers from Tasha's borders, and I know that the flowers she chooses for her borders are the very ones blooming during that time of year.  She doesn't just slip in a daisy or a strawberry because it would look pretty.  If it isn't in the season of the illustration, it does not belong.

This afternoon I enjoyed a simple Tea for One -- Chai tea served in a kitten china mug and banana bread with butter.  I imagined that Tasha would have fixed herself a simple tea like this after a morning of painting illustrations.  Do you think she would have liked my kitten mug?

Happy Birthday, Tasha!  It's been fun knowing you!

Take Joy!

Tasha Tudor Day

Today is Tasha Tudor's birthday.
My friend Clarice at Storybook Woods organized the first official Tasha Tudor Day last year on August 28th and the tradition continues on. Celebrate the amazing woman, Tasha Tudor, with me and others by having a cuppa tea in the garden, by doing a little handiwork like embroidery or knitting, by working in your garden or by making homemade jelly or jam, or simply by appreciating the simple joys of everyday living like our dear Tasha did.

I used to dread the end of summer. As soon as the goldenrod bloomed it meant I had to go back to school. I hated it! But it's a beautiful time of the year when the southwest wind blows with a distinctive sweet scent and the crickets' chirping starts to slow down and the constellations shift in the night sky. Spring's chicks and ducklings have grown into fine plump specimens and the geese gather under the apple trees looking for the first ripe apples to drop.

~Tasha Tudor from the book The Private World of Tasha Tudor

In celebration (and because it's time), today I plan to go to town and buy some fresh sweet corn from the local farmer in the Valley. I'll shuck it, cut it from the cob, and blanch it for freezing so that we'll enjoy that sweet summer corn even in the dark winter days. I'll use my Grandma Kathryn's Recipe which is so easy and delicious. I also have a few apples that I plan to sauce and make into apple butter. Of course, I'll take time to appreciate the last of the summer flowers and have a cuppa tea while reading from one of Tasha's many books.

For more about this special lady, click here.
Happy Birthday Tasha!

Remembering Tasha Tudor, Part III

"Baking"
By Tasha Tudor, 1991

Tasha was known for her home cooking and in fact, she created a cookbook called The Tasha Tudor Cookbook: Recipes and Reminiscences from Corgi Cottage. I don't own it, but I am sure you wouldn't be disappointed in owning it. Tonight for dessert, in honor of Tasha, I made Lemon Tartlets from her receipts (recipes) taken from the Tasha Tudor Family website. I didn't have the convenience of buying lemon curd for this recipe, so I made my own from scratch. I'll share it with you.



Lemon Curd

1 c. sugar
2 t. cornstarch
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
4 T. butter

In a stainless steel pot, mix sugar and cornstarch together. Next, whisk fresh lemon juice and eggs and egg yolks together. Turn on the heat to medium-low and begin to cook the mixture, whisking constantly. Add butter in pats. Continue whisking until the lemon curd thickens. Remove from heat and cool completely. You may refrigerate lemon curd for about 2 weeks.

Lemon Tartlets

1 jar of good quality lemon curd (or homemade)
1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 sticks (one cup) of butter, softened
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
1/2 c. ground almonds
pinch of salt

Cream sugar and butter until smooth. Add vanilla and beat well. Mix in flour, salt, and almonds to form a soft dough. Chill dough. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Form dough into small balls and press into tartlet/mini muffin tins. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Spoon lemon curd into cooled tartlet. You may garnish with edible flowers like violets or pansies for a beautiful tea presentation. (I added a little whipped cream to mine. ~J)
This recipe made 10 tartlets in a regular sized muffin tin.

Here's to you Tasha! Happy Birthday!

Remembering Tasha Tudor, part II

Tasha loved her Corgi dogs.
I love my Border Collies -- Jessie and Sue.



Jessie (the mom) in back and Sue (her daughter) in front.



Sue jumps over the fence to get to her next job.



Jessie watches the sheep to make sure they go through the gate. Our dogs helped us work sheep today and they LOVE their job!



Tasha was no stranger to hard work and she did it heartily with her family. We work together as a family too. Here's Grampa, Dad, and two sons. I helped too, but spent a little time behind the camera.



What does working sheep mean? It depends on the season, but today we sorted the ewes away from their lambs to wean them. We then sorted the ewe lambs from the wether lambs (male sheep made into "steers") and marked the wethers with a dob of paint so they'll be easier to distinguish when sorting down a sheep alley when we're ready to sell them. The mother ewes were bagged and mouthed. That means that Third Son checked every ewe's bag (udder) to see if there were any problems, and then he opened their lips to see if their teeth were good. Sheep with bad teeth don't fare well on the prairie and are therefore culled and sold from the flock. Any ewe that has a a varied paint mark on her back is likely a Crazy Old Girl that will also be culled and sold. She's marked for a reason. After all of this, we sprayed the flock with an insecticide to ward off disease. There is a disease that sheep can contract called Blue Tongue. Wildlife like deer and antelope first get sick and die from this disease and then it is passed on to other similar animals -- domestic livestock like sheep and goats via flies. We've been noticing that some of the antelope are dying out on the prairie which is a warning sign that we need to spray our flock to keep the diseases at bay. It doesn't guarantee protection, but it helps.



Tasha raised chickens and called them by name.
My chickens, pictured above, are enjoying the left-overs from our corn freezing marathon. I call some of them by name.... Henny Penny, Little Black Hen, Goldie, to name a few.


"The young couple (Tasha and her husband) aquired a decrepit but beautiful seventeen-room farmhouse in Webster, NH. Here, Tasha continued her career in earnest and raised four children without benefit of plumbing or electricity until the youngest was five, while somehow finding the time to make the house livable, milk a cow, care for a lively collection of chickens, geese, sheep, and pigs, and tend her vegetable and flower gardens. Once again, Tasha thrived on difficulty and hard work, but her husband did not, and the couple, like her parents, eventually divorced. As a single parent, she worked with even more determination to "keep the wolf from the door," through sales of her illustrations, portrait commissions, and by performing marionette shows with the help of her two sons and daughters. Once her family was grown, and with the proceeds from the success of Corgiville Fair, Tasha purchased a plot of abandoned farmland across the Connecticut River in Vermont. Her older son, Seth, built the house and barns according to her plans and work began immediately on the walls for the gardens and the planting of flowering crab apples, pears, and apples in the orchard. Now, after twenty years of Vermont weather, the buildings have mellowed sufficiently to trick any visitor into assuming they are from another time, and the gardens have reached magnificent maturity. And Tasha, living in the surroundings she has always wanted, continues to work from dawn to dusk, gardening, milking her goats, spinning and weaving, and above all, painting."

~Introduction to The Private World of Tasha Tudor

Remembering Tasha Tudor...

In the spirit of Tasha Tudor, I have begun my celebration of her birthday first by setting the table with fresh cut flowers from my flower beds. These are what's in season at my house and like Tasha, I prefer their old-fashioned common names to their scientific names. The vase holds Black-eyed Susan, Cosmos, Baby's Breath, larkspur, a big red zinnia, and a light pink stem-flower that I'm calling Fairy-pink Beardtongue because I can not seem to find it's name or a picture of it anywhere! More celebrating to come later.........





"Because I gardened as a little girl, and my mother and grandmother were passionate gardeners before me, I grew up with flowers, knew them by their look and feel, and called them by all their old colloquial names. Dame's rocket, sweet William, monkshood, and meadow rue -- the old-fashioned names are so much prettier. Delphinium were always called larkspur. Clematis autumnale was virgin's bower. The sound of "foxglove" is so much pleasanter than "digitalis."

~Tasha Tudor

The Private World of Tasha Tudor

For more celebrating of Tasha Tudor's birthday, please go to Storybook Woods for others who are joining in the fun. Also, visit Tasha Tudor and Family for more about this special lady.