I am a fool. A fool for summer, for preserving… for anything growing within reach of the Kitchen-at-Camont. When walking Bacon down the towpath first thing on these French summer mornings or passing the Garden Shed on the way to feed the Flock, I have been counting the days to ripeness, sampling the wares for sweetness and getting ready to pounce on both wild and cultivated blackberries, as soon as there was enough to harvest.

A plate full was not enough to bother for confiture even with the extra raspberries. So in my usual Gasconne fashion, I turned to drink. Armagnac, specifically.

The ingredients on the bottle of artisan creme de mure sauvage calls for sugar and eau-de-vie. Nothing more. This is the simple life at its best! So I tipped the berries into a canning jar, added a generous scoop of white sugar, and covered the dark brooding berries with a bottle of eau-de-vie (simple clear brandy) and the remains of a favored bottle of Delord armagnac.  Cover and seal. Give a few quick shakes to break up the berries and melt the sugar. Eh voila! Now wait a month- the necessary patience until I taste test the brew.  Filter the fruit and seed out and decant the sweet dark summer liquor into a fancy bottle. Make a label. Write “Summer Fool ’09″

Preserving. These are the summer ways to remember a cool morning spent picking berries and listening to the quiet clucking of a new mother teaching her chicks to hunt and peck for a few stray ripe berries that drape across the chicken wire. This winter, after cursing the wet winter chores of mucking out the coop, I’ll remember summer ’09 better with a glass of Fool in hand.