Basilica's Buddha Booth

Basilica Hudson Farm & Flea

In the shadow of Christmas and impending real estate transactions I'm finding it hard to calm my mind enough to sit down and write.  But I did finally get around to unpacking the bags from our Thanksgiving trip to New York (yes, ten days is pretty much standard for me) and rediscovered a few of the tasty purchases I made at Basilica Hudson's Farm & Flea!

my festive kitchen

The Hudson Standard concocts syrups and bitters using ingredients procured from the Hudson Valley and everything I tasted at Farm & Flea was amazing.  We brought home the Pear Honey Ginger shrub (I've used it in a salad dressing that I'm eating right now!) and I so wish I'd picked up their Spruce Shoot Bitters as well.  Even though shrubs and bitters are easy to make at home, the prices of Hudson Standard's products aren't by any means exorbitant, so I'd err on the side of laziness and buy everything. 

Lady Jayne's Alchemy is apparently a one [awesome] woman operation housed "in a barn in the woods" in Old Chatham, NY.  Her Worcestershire Sauce is phenomenal but she also makes things like perfumes and cold remedies from plants on her property.  Eau de Creeping Charlie.  I am not kidding.  She is nothing if not resourceful, this lady.  I love her.

Flowering Heart Farm had myriad felted toys very carefully and cleverly made and displayed at Farm & Flea.  All hand-made and plant-dyed, Tristan and I really fell hard for everything but came home with just one wee bunny.  He'll be lost in Tristan's bedclothes in no time but isn't that what happens to us all when we're loved? 

And then there's this…

…which I almost certainly paid a hugely inflated price for and which will pretty much definitely mark the beginning of a stupid crazy collecting frenzy.  Being unfamiliar with these charming little Armed Services Editions I was rather intrigued, and whilst being enlightened by a thorough explanation from the bookseller (whose name I have forgotten) I was overcome with the feeling that this book was a personal welcome to New York from my beloved Walt Whitman.  So I bought it.  I am such a sucker. 

reflection is everything