Christmas Tree Farm and Homemade Ranch Dressing

12-04-2011
Today, the Watkins Family and my family headed out Pinetop Farm to cut our own Christmas tree. Here are some details on the farm (it is also where we pick our fresh blueberries when they are in season.)

Pinetop Farm - Blueberries
830 Majolica Road , Salisbury , NC   28147 .  Phone: 704-637-7208. Other Phone: (757) 870-4343. . Open Thurs 5 PM-8 PM, Sat 9 AM-noon(Blueberries);Sun, Wed, Thurs, Fri 1-5 PM, Sat 10 AM-5 PM(Xmas Trees). Typical harvest dates: Blueberries - mid July Choose & Cut Christmas Trees - Day after Thanksgiving White Pine to 9 feet, Leyland Cypress and Scotch Pine to 8 feet. Pre-cut Fraser Fir 6 - 10 feet. Balled and burlaped available for Leyland Cypress Wreaths Garland. Special Services: Hayrides after Thanksgiving Day. Directions: Located on Majolica Rd one mile west of Salisbury Mall off Statesville Blvd. (Hwy 70) or one mile west of Hwy 150 off Sherrills Ford Rd. 

Funny thing was as we found our tree the sun started coming out, I guess thats a good sign ;)



Thats our tree in the foreground!



Caught a ride on the trailer pulled by the tractor to get the tree back to the lot.

The Watkins and Steckler 2011 Christmas Trees Headed Home

Later that afternoon when we dropped off the Watkin's tree, I helped Eric put up his Christmas lights on his house. I look forward to seeing them at night!

We got home and cut off an inch of trunk and got the tree into a 5 gallon bucket filled with rainwater I harvested from my rain barrels. Hopefully we can get it into the house by tomorrow and start decorating.

Now for the "Homemade" section of my blog.

This weekend I did make sourdough bread from a starter I started (wow that is alot of starts) I feed the starter everyday and used it to help make this weeks sourdough bread. As this was my first time doing this, I didnt take any pictures. The bread didnt rise as I would like but man it was delicious. I will definitely make this again and giove you all the breakdown of how to do it.

But what I do have for you all is how to make your own (incredible!) ranch dressing. This was so easy to do, anyone can make it and it is WAY better than anything you can buy in the store (NO CORN SYRUP!!)

Host of ingredients: 1 clove of garlic, 1/4 cup of diced scallions (green onions) (these I grow in my herb garden), 1/2 cup flat leaf Italian Parsley diced, 1 cup of mayo, 1/2 cup of sour cream and about 1/2 cup of fresh buttermilk.

First step, mash and dice up the garlic clove.

Then chop up the scallions and parsley

The put the mayo, sour cream, garlic, scallions and parsley in a bowl



and mix it up!

Then the final step, adding the buttermilk!!! I give a guideline of 1/2 a cup but what you really want is to add enough until you are happy with the thickness of the dressing. Too little and it clumps like mayo, but with just the right amount is flows oh so nice!

and there you have it, homemade ranch dressing! I like to store mine in mason jars, but you could use a dressing bottle you saved from your last Store Dressing Purchase.



Until next time and my next homemade project..have a great one!!

Cheers!