Meet Stacia Moffett - My Favorite Recipes 4/14/2011

Wawawai Canyon Winery

In the warmer climes of Wawawai Canyon, Stacia Moffett has found a very fruitful life.

With an abundant variety of fruits, berries and grapes, Stacia’s year is spent making wine, jams, jellies and more from the wild and cultivated produce of the canyon. Stacia and her husband David moved to the area in 1974 when they were both hired at Washington State University.

“We came out here just to sample this part of the country,” she said. Stacia is originally from Tennessee. They have lived in Mississippi, Miami and North Carolina.

When they moved to Washington, they were expecting apples and coastline. Instead, they found a country different from the Washington they had heard of with big sky and a wild freshness they quickly grew to love.

They bought property in Wawawai Canyon so Stacia could grow the things she had loved in Tennessee. She noted that she had wanted somewhere to plant a garden and ended up with more than 100 acres of wild country in the canyon.

The Moffetts planted an orchard with a variety of trees, trying some things that didn’t work out and others that have survived.

“You name it; we planted a lot of things,” Stacia said. Apples, pears, plums, quince and other fruits grow in their little acre orchard with wild plum trees scattered about the property.

They considered planting organic garlic, but decided to try grapes because the climate and soil turned out to be perfect for it.

In the 1990s they planted an experimental vineyard, trying different varieties of wine-making grapes. They now cultivate eight varieties of grapes they use in making their Wawawai Canyon Wine. While they hadn’t planned on going into commercial winemaking, their whole family is now involved in the process.

David is the manager of the vineyard with son Ben the winemaker, but everyone in the family is involved in the operation. Their wine is processed in a facility next to their house. The vineyard is across the road on the slopes of the canyon. They were licensed in 2004, the same year as their first crop. That wine was brought out in 2006 and 2007 when they opened a tasting room.

With the climate of the canyon, the Moffetts produce grapes that are high in acidity which makes a longer lasting wine, but the wine takes longer to make. They supplement with grapes from other areas that produce wine faster and don’t have the higher acidity.

Stacia noted that when it’s time to pick grapes in September and October everything else takes a backseat. The grapes are then processed for fermentation which can take weeks. The skins are pressed off and the wine settled in barrels. When the time is right, the Moffetts gather to taste and mix the different barrels. Stacia noted that making wine, especially white wine, is more of an art than a science. After they are mixed the wine is bottled and labeled.

Then it’s back to pruning which is done this time of year. The vineyard will need to be irrigated and once the fruit starts to grow it has to be spread on wires to get as much sunlight as possible.

“Meanwhile, we’re trying to get a garden in,” Stacia said.

While the grapes are soaking up the sun and growing, Stacia keeps busy harvesting the other fruits of the canyon and turning them into her jams, jellies and preserves.

The year 2010 marked her retirement from WSU and her first season making her jams and jellies to sell.

“I’ve got a lot of jellies made,” she said. Stacia estimated in one day she can make four to five dozen half-pint jars of jelly from scratch. She then sells her jams, jellies, preserves and marmalades at the Dahmen Barn and Uniontown Market. In addition to jellies made from wild blackberries, grapes and other fruit, Stacia also makes herb jellies.

With the variety of grapes at her disposal, she said it is marvelous to blend the grapes and make jelly out of the flavors. She has had enough experience that even her experiments turn out well. She mixes other fruits but, being as her family are purists, she makes a lot of straight blackberry. Stacia added that the fruit for the jams and jellies is grown on organic certified land.

“We love the canyon,” she said.

She also likes to write, read and listen to music. David’s family has always been involved with jazz, so they were pleased to come to an area where jazz was alive and celebrated.

Recipes:

Citrus Rind Candy - Quick Method

Ingredients: Grapefruit, orange or lemon peel. Collect peel over several days, keeping it refrigerated. Do not mix different kinds of peel - orange is more fragile, lemon and grapefruit more bitter (see below). Slice into long wedges or strips and measure volume by pressing gently into a cup measure. Process 2 to 4 cups at a time.

Pre-measure a volume of white sugar that is half the volume of the rind.

Prepare waxed, parchment or butcher paper with a generous sprinkling of granulated sugar for rolling the peel.

Preparation: Using a heavy kettle, cover the rind with water and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer until the pithy part of the peel is less white and the rind becomes more flexible (approx.

15 min.) Pour off the water.

This boiling step (without the simmering) can be repeated with fresh water 2-4 times, depending on the kind of citrus: grapefruit and lemon require more boiling to extract the peel’s bitterness, and V2 t salt/cup rind can be added to the first boiling to aid in bitter extraction.

If no salt is used in the processing, a very light sprinkling can be added (if desired) when the sugar is first added (see below) to enhance the citrus flavor.

Oranges like Mineola with tasty peel can be processed with a single boiling.

After the final water treatment, pour off the water and return the rind to medium heat. It will begin sizzling, and you must immediately add a scoop of the premeasured sugar and lift the peel to let it under. It will extract fluid from the peel, forming a syrup. Add remaining sugar from time to time as the fluid is absorbed, very gently turning the upper layer into the syrup. Stay with the candy! Toward the end, the sound of the boiling will change, as the syrup is reduced to a bubbly froth. When little fluid is apparent when you tilt the vessel, turn off the heat.

Lift the peel with a slotted spoon or tongs and transfer to the sugar-covered sheet. Roll the peel in the sugar and add more sugar as needed - all sides should be covered, and the pieces shouldn’t touch. Leave overnight or at least several hours, for the peel to reach the desired combination of internal chewiness and external dryness. Store in sealed containers.

Egg Custard

Ingredients:

2 c whole milk

1/3 to 1/2 c sugar

dash of salt

3 eggs

1 1/2 t pure vanilla

sprinkles of freshly grated nutmeg for top

Preparation: Preheat oven to 325 degrees E Mix sugar, salt, eggs and vanilla thoroughly. Add milk and stir. Place individual cups into a deep baking pan (you can use custard cups, ramekins or ovenproof coffee cups). Divide the mixture into the cups - it does not expand significantly. Grate the nutmeg on top of each cup’s contents. Add hot water to the baking pan to within an inch of the top of the cups and slide it into the hot oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes or whenever the custard is set. Sometimes a nice brown edge develops. Leave in the water bath until it cools enough to lift out. It can be served warm or made ahead and refrigerated before serving - I like it best chilled.

Banana Bread:

From Mississippi, With Love

Ingredients:

2 c flour

2 eggs

1 c sugar

1 cup ripe banana, mashed

1/2 c butter

1 t soda

1/2 t salt

1 c walnuts

1/2 t vanilla

Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together or sift flour, salt, soda. Combine all ingredients, adding nuts last. Transfer batter into greased loaf pan and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or longer (test for doneness with a toothpick).