Henny Penny Farmette

This newest offering in the Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries provides a recipe for pure pleasure.

Take one medium-sized volume, mix up an ex-cop turned lady farmer, toss in one small town, and add the murder of the local herbalist. Combine a little mystery, add the angst of an old lover, sift in a new admirer, and squeeze in the bitter juice of one uptight New Age guru. Let the pressure build until the top blows. Enjoy with a cup of tea.

Novel #2 in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available September 27, 2016

THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE
Author: Meera Lester

Review Issue Date: July 15, 2016
Online Publish Date: June 30, 2016
Publisher:Kensington
Pages: 288
Price ( Hardcover ): $25.00
Publication Date: September 27, 2016
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-1-61773-913-2
Category: Fiction
Classification: Mystery

Kirkus Reviews July 15, 2016

A beekeeper gets a second chance at love and solving a murder.

Former police officer Abigail Mackenzie and her ex-partner Kat Petrovsky are supposed to be having lunch at Abby’s farmette with local shop owner Fiona Mary Sullivan, who’d asked to have a talk with Abby. Fiona recently split from a New Age group whose new leader created a cultish atmosphere, leaving her husband, Tom Davidson Dodge, behind at the commune. When Kat gets a call reporting a burning car with a body, both of them rush to the scene to discover that the body is Fiona’s.

The police chief wants no interference from Abby, but she can hardly help investigating the murder of a friend. After being nearly forced off the road and shot at, she’s not in the mood to discuss relationship problems with Clay Calhoun, the sexy carpenter who loved her and left her heartbroken. Clay evidently wants her back. He plans a fabulous bathroom makeover as a gift to help win her.

Meanwhile, Abby helps Fiona’s brother, Jack Sullivan, straighten out Fiona’s affairs and seeks to discover what lock a mysterious key Abby found in one of Fiona’s diaries unlocks. Though there are plenty of suspects for Abby and the police to check out, Abby naturally finds it hard to concentrate on murder while she’s trying to decide what to do about Clay and her newfound attraction to Jack.  The second from Lester (A Beeline To Murder, 2016) is long on romance, sweet tips, and honey recipes. There’s a thin little mystery, too.

The peaches are ripe now and beginning to fall from the tree. I decided to whip up a fresh peach cobbler from scratch. It’s easy and won’t take more than 15 to 20 minutes to get the cobbler made and into the oven.

Elberta peaches are firm and juicy. That makes them perfect for cobbler, pies, tarts, and jams.

All you need to make this super-simple summer dessert are a few fresh peaches and a basic cobbler batter.

The cobbler crust forms as the fruit and batter bake. The dessert is even tastier with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

RECIPE: FRESH PEACH COBBLER

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup of milk

5 to 6 medium to large fresh peaches (peeled, pitted, and sliced)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon or ground nutmeg (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Select a baking dish that measures 13 x 9 x 2 inches and pour the melted butter to coat the bottom.

Combine in a medium bowl the dry ingredients (set aside 1 cup of sugar for the peaches). Pour the milk over the dry mixture and stir gently to combine to create a batter. Do not overmix. Pour the batter into the butter-coated baking dish.

Put peaches into a saucepan and cover with the remaining cup of sugar and lemon juice. Over high heat, bring the peaches to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour the peaches over the batter in the baking dish, but do not stir.

Sprinkle the cinnamon and/or nutmeg over the fruit. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The cobbler batter will become a crusty topping through which the hot peach filling bubbles through. Serve it hot or cold, plain or with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream. Serves 4-6

An amazing wild plum tree sprouted up and grew tall at the back of our property with a full canopy of gorgeous burgundy leaves. This, without any attention or coddling from us. It’s now three-years-old and loaded with red plums.

Making a test batch of a few jars is advised when you are not sure about a fruit jam

The fruit itself is quite juicy and sweet, but the skins are tart. I made a small test batch of five jars and then waited 24 hours to sample the jam. After I tasted the test jam and realized how exquisitely delicious it was, I vowed to can at least a couple dozen jars.

I got out cases of unopened jars and lids and ran the jars through a hot water wash cycle in my dishwasher. Then I rinsed the plums under water and pitted them before making the fruit into jam. My plan is to not only enjoy eating the jam throughout the summer and fall but to pack jars of it into food baskets for holiday giving this year.

This jam is perfect for spreading on a slice of toast or a croissant. The sweet-tart taste means it would nicely accompany chicken or pork. The taste is sweet but tangy. The texture is lighter and smoother than strawberry.

The smallest dab of this fruity jam goes well with a little goat cheese on toasted sourdough

RECIPE: WILD PLUM JAM

Ingredients:

5 cups wild plums (washed and pitted)

3 cups sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup water

5 Tablespoons Classic Pectin

Directions:

Place the pitted plums into a large cooking pot and add all ingredients except pectin.

Stir well to combine.

Cook on high and bring the plums to gelling point. Stir constantly for 15 minutes as mixture thickens.

Sprinkle in the pectin by spoonfuls and stir after each addition to mix well.

Ladle jam into hot jars. Leave about 1/4-inch at the top. Attach lids and screw rings and then process in boiling water for 20 minutes according to your canner instructions.

With the official start of summer a few days away, I find myself leaving my computer and the scene I’m writing on my third novel to take a break in the garden. Alive with honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, the garden is perfect place for a respite and a cup of tea.

Honeybees love to forage on all types of blooming lavender.

Quite like a potager garden that includes flowers, herbs, trees, vegetables, berries, and grapes, mine also includes a patch of corn.

Climbing Sally Holmes roses with trusses of ivory blooms grow behind the 4-foot-tall corn.

Embroidered around the edges of the garden, there are climbing roses, fruit trees, and lots of lavender. Along the rows of lavender, there are peach trees with fruit the size of softballs and five pomegranate trees, laden with blooms and new fruit.

The pomegranates aren’t quite this large yet, but the trees have so much fruit, they’ll have to be thinned.

As I meander, I discover the trees of red and yellow plums have begun to drop their ripe fruit. I’ve got to make those plums into jelly or jam and ditto on the apricots.

Ripe apricots hang on the tree only so long before they drop.

But that work will have to wait until my late afternoon tea break. My novel won’t write itself. Still, the time I spend in the garden revitalizes my spirit and refreshes my brain cells, enabling me to return to the computer and the scene I’m writing with renewed vision and vigor.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening, keeping bees, raising chickens, and creating delicious recipes, check out my novels from Kensington Publishing.

First book in Meera Lester’s Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries

The Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books, Walmart, and other online and traditional bookstores everywhere. Available in hardcover, Kindle, and mass market paperback formats.

Novel #2 in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available Oct. 1, 2016

The chickens were making a ruckus this morning just after sunup. They often do that when one of them is occupying a favorite nesting box and another wants in. Finally, I got up and trudged out to the chicken house.

My Black Sex Link hen, Blacky

When I let the chickens out of their house into their run today, one of them–the Black Sex Link hen (Blacky)–hadn’t quite finished laying her egg.

But as they always do, the hens made a run for it when the door opened. Blacky included. They hopped out and followed the Rhode Island Red in the pursuit of grass and worms and other things chickens like to eat. That’s when I noticed Blacky waddling along, trailing the other hens. That’s unusual for her.

The Black Sex Link hens lay brown eggs

It soon became clear why. She had a fully formed brown egg halfway out. I’ve seen some strange things since raising these hens from when they were baby chicks housed in a big tub in my kitchen. But this was the strangest.

I reached down to see about giving the egg a bit of pull when Blacky decided to push. I caught the egg before it hit the ground.

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First book in the Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries

If you enjoy reading about gardening, keeping bees, raising chickens, and creating delicious recipes, you might want to check out my novels from Kensington Publishing.

The Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries are available online and in tradition bookstores everywhere, in hardcover, kindle, and mass market paperback formats.

Novel #2 in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available Oct. 1, 2016

The MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE will be released in hardcover October 1.

When it comes to growing and eating peppers, many people will opt for the sweet, mild peppers while others prefer the ones with heat. The reasons are varied but may have to do with factors such as cultural (we eat what’s in our environment or what we’ve grown up eating), genes (yes, they play a role in how we taste), and the adrenalin (some folks experience a rush) that can come from eating spicy hot cuisine.

Peppers for my Mexican and Caribbean cooking

A compound known as capsaicin is the active ingredient that provides the heat in hot chili peppers. Capsaicin is most often found in the light-colored ribbing known as pith. The seeds may contain a little capsaicin but taste hot most likely because of contact with the pith.

Cayenne peppers take about 65 days to ripen and average 30,000-50,000 SHU

Capsaicin heat is measured on the Scoville Scale as Scoville Heat Units (SHU). An Anaheim chili pepper might have 500-2,500 SHU, for example, whereas a cayenne pepper might measure upwards of 30,000-50,000 SHU. Then, there are the tiny habanero peppers that can exceed 100,000 SHU. The hottest peppers in the world measure beyond 1 million SHU.

If you like it hot, try growing some heirloom peppers such as the Hungarian Yellow Wax or the tiny Scotch Bonnet, so appreciated in Caribbean cuisine.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening, keeping bees, raising chickens, and creating delicious recipes, you might want to check out my novels from Kensington Publishing. The Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries are available online and in tradition bookstores everywhere, in hardcover, kindle, and mass market paperback formats.

First book in Meera Lester’s Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries

Novel #2 in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available Oct. 1, 2016

The Murder of a Queen bee will be released September 29, 2016 in hardcover and kindle formats and can be pre-ordered. See, http://tinyurl.com/j9vh7vr

Check out  my article about “How to Make a Lavender-Sage Smudging Stick.” See, http://tinyurl.com/jds38e8

What a difference twelve hours makes. When we retired last night, the mourning doves were on their nest atop our tall ladder next to the cherry trees.  It was day twelve since the birds built the nest in our garden, so we expected to see babies hatching any day now. Alas, this morning the dove family had fled and there was no sign of eggs or babies.

Mourning doves build rather flimsy nests; this one on our tall ladder shelf

I believe something raided the nest. It should come as no surprise. Building it on that site seemed like a foolhardy proposition from the start. And to position it on the shelf of the ladder, exposed and near a hole big enough for a chicken egg to fall through seemed a little ridiculous.

And yet, the dove pair dutifully took turns  incubating the eggs, even when the mercury hovered at the hundred degree mark on the outdoor thermometer.

In the spirit of helping the family, I kept the fountains filled with fresh water and threw handfuls of birdseed along the stone retaining wall so the pair would have a ready supply of food. Each morning, I’d hurry out to check on the doves before tackling more chores.

Her nest is exposed for all the world to see and yet the dove chooses this site as home

When  I noticed the nest today and realized it was empty, the eggs were gone, and there was no sight of the doves, I began sleuthing. On the ground near the ladder lay a single long black feather and lots of leaves, knocked from the cherry trees. Not many clues but enough to make a supposition.

I recall that a flock of crows flew in to roost in nearby trees just before dusk last night. They’re both smart and predatory. They’ll raid other nests and eat eggs. I surmised that either they or a local cat or racoon drove away the dove pair and laid waste to the eggs. And yet as I write this, I can see beyond my garden window that a pair of doves are eating the seeds I cast upon the stone wall. Mourning doves can build a nest and lay a set of eggs six times during spring, so there’s still hope.

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If you enjoy reading about wildlife and other topics (including delicious recipes and gardening tips) related to farmette living, check out my cozy mysteries from Kensington Publishing. The first two in the Henny Penny Farmette series are available online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, KOBO Books, and other sites as well as in traditional bookstores everywhere.

BEELINE TO MURDER, see http://tinyurl.com/jo4cxy

First book in Meera Lester’s Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries, 2015

MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE, see http://tinyurl.com/zu8s7pf

Novel #2 in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available Sept. 29, 2016