Enjoying Winter: Ice Skating and Hot Chocolate

Now, as many of you know, the Farm has Winter for a very, very long time. Sometimes, it shows up in October and doesn’t leave again until April! This year is a bit better though. It didn’t start waving until December. But no matter when it starts or how long it stays, when it’s here, it’s cold. Very Cold.

And the Farmer and his Wife (not to mention two-thirds of their children) are outdoorsy sort of people. The idea of being house-stuck for five to seven months isn’t an option. And while they may acknowledge Winter has its uses (like giving them a bit of rest from all that weeding), they cannot condone wasting half their lives by not living.

So, one of the things the Farmer has done to fix that is the pond. Actually, according to the town and its ordinances, it’s a “slight depression of the landscape”. Sometime the Summer before last, the Farmer and his friend (the one with all the fancy equipment) dug it out, making that “slight depression”. Or technically, an eighteen-inch dip, about thirty feet by sixty. In the Spring, it helps by collecting all the water that would normally try to come up by the house. And in the Winter, it’s an ice-skating rink.

And a very nice, well-kept one, if I do say so myself. Each night the Farmer can be found by the rink, either shoveling or spraying it with water from the hose—not an easy task when it’s, you know, freezing outside.

But because of that, each morning as the sun looks down on the rink, it finds children bundled and hatted and mittened, gliding across its smooth surface.

It finds the Farmer’s Wife gazing out the window, hot chocolate cupped between her hands, enjoying a quiet moment of rest.

Now, you may not have an ice-skating rink in your front yard, like they do on the Farm, but, if you live in a place where the Winter is long, it is likely your town has one. There are several near-by the Farm as well as on it. If you don’t live where the Winter is long, then ice skating and making the most of the cold probably isn’t your thing, anyways.

But if it is, you’ll need a bit of hot chocolate, to enjoy it. If so, may I humbly suggest the following recipe:

A half cup sugar is placed in a pan and two tablespoons of good cocoa are added (over the years different kinds have been tried, and it has been found the variety really doesn’t matter, so long as it is not Dutch process. The Farmer’s Wife has chosen to use Hershey for herself). This is stirred. Two tablespoons butter go in next, followed by one tablespoon corn syrup. A quarter cup half and half and a dash of salt finishes the job. The pan is placed over heat and let come to a boil, and continued to let boil for about three minutes, stirring here and there. After the three minutes are up, the heat is turned off and the pan left for a bit. One and a half ounces of very good chocolate (chopped) is added and stirred until all is smooth. The Farmer’s Wife has played with this, too. Here the kind does matter. She has found the darker, the better, although a good Hershey bar does rather nicely as well. A splash of vanilla is stirred in, finishing the job. Well, not quite finishing. You’ll still need to add the milk. Four cups should do it, stirred in the warm chocolate and set over low heat until it is warm as well. This will make four good sized portions.

I hope you enjoy it; this particular recipe has served the Farmer’s Wife and her family well through many a long, cold Winter.