It's nearly Christmas and snow is covering the orchard and gardens. In fact a generous snowfall over the weekend guarantees insulation for the vines and herbs through the winter.

Ron's been busy in the vinegary. He's bottled new flavors: horseradish, habernaro and catnip. They're amazing to which visitors on Saturday will attest. We only tasted drops of the habernaro but in any quantity it's apt to knock your socks off. The horseradish is as horseradishy as can be. It would be the perfect accompaniment to sushi. Most people have never tried catnip in any form; thinking it's only for cats. Well, cats are stimulated by it while it's said to have a calming effect on humans. We don't know for sure about that but we think it will make vinegar lovers purr!

We've had some delightful press coverage recently. Country Home magazine had a little promo in the November issue which has generated orders from all over the country. We really appreciate that. Last week the Minneapolis Star Tribune called and will have an interview with Ron in their food section one day this week.

We had lots of visitors this summer with buses and cars spilling enthusiastic visitors onto the lawn, orchard, garden and vinegary. The tours of the outside have concluded for the season but we'll still welcome vinegary guests. We're planning for lots of visitors next year. My winter project will be to finish my book about this little enterprise, Leatherwood Vinegary.