Buck Run Ramblings

Tagine Cooking ~ An Order and Delightful Learning!

We have been working on a special order from Kathy in Mississippi for a Tagine.  We made one for ourselves and  love the way it cooks a one dish meal.  The word can be used to denote the dish or the vessel it is cooked in.  Any number of combinations of grains and veggies and fruit and meats and seasonings makes a great tagine. The recipes can be done in a covered skillet and are still called a tagine but the results in a stoneware Tagine using a slow oven are remarkably different. 

The conical shaped lid helps preserves moisture in the food as the steam condenses on the inside of the lid.  The shape of the lid also creates circulation of heat and steam within the vessel infusing the food with the spices you choose and blending flavours.  The low indirect heat produces a rich unique dish as the food slowly simmers and if you choose to use meat it becomes very tender. The blended flavors and retention of even moistness is delightful and the display of the layered ingredients when the top is removed is beautiful.

When Kathy ordered a Tagine it reminded me to get ours out and use it more.  One of our favorite dishes to make is a wonderful recipe for an Algerian version of Apricot Chicken with pine nuts.  The recipe we found instructs you to pack the prepared ingredients into the top while upside down and then place the bottom onto the top and invert. Popular recipes just layer food and stack it in the base approximating the shape of the top. 

The original photos that inspired us to make Tagines were of a wedding feast with huge pryamids of rice with olives and lamb and fruit and vegetables and nuts baked together and gloriously on display.  There are many fantastic cookbooks focused on this method of cooking available and with garden season in full swing we will be doing many versions of this easy one dish meal in a stoneware Tagine!

 

Louisiana Mud Painting

For all our patrons in and travelers to the Baton Rouge area~be sure to visit the Neubig Gallery.  Henry and Linda have a lovely setting for you to browse the South Louisiana themes Henry produces with the local soil as pigments. Their gallery is a great destination for group gatherings to participate in a demonstration of Henry's technique.  Call and schedule your group for a visit and you will also notice that we have restocked the shelves with Buck Run Pottery as well! 

Visit their website here~  Louisiana Mud Painting and get a preview of the lovely work available.

 

Thank you Lisa!

After joining the ETSY Mud Team we were contacted by Lisa to contribute to her blog featuring stories about potters and the connection between food and pottery.  I hope you will enjoy reading her write up about Buck Run Pottery.  Thank you Lisa.

Lisa's Blog

 

Daylily Smiles

Many of our older daylily clumps are thanking us for all the barn cleanings we lavished on them last year. We have multiple scapes on each clump with as many as 30 buds per scape.  So nice to have such  cheery garden partners.  Many of them are interspersed in the veggie patches so their wonderful perfume breezes by now and then while harvesting and weeding.  Imagine gentle sunshine on your back while you fill a basket full of broccoli crowns (headed for the freezer) with daylilies waving aromatically all the while.  That was my day today! Just a little bit of heaven right here at Buck Run.

The brownish rose eye ring on this variety is one of my favortie things about it.  Somehow that lights up the yellow throat all the more.

The interior ruffles on the petals makes this one rather unique and crumply looking.  They are somewhat battered by the weather we have had but plenty more buds to come.

One of Don's favorites for the drama of the form as well as being richly aromatic- it really does not have the substance needed for an extended day of hot sun so we placed it in the shade of a crabapple tree.  Enjoying these reminders of why we take care of so dang many plants :)

Reviving An Old Item

We have had several requests for trivets to set hot tea pots on so we are back to making this item.  They are also helpful for casseroles and bowls of hot food that could make steam pockets on your table and ruin the finish. So when you don't think table texiles are enough protection consider a footed trivet from Buck Run Pottery which will get airflow under your hot surface and protect your table while looking very cool too! 

These are made by throwing a flat disc of clay and letting it dry to a point where it will not warp from handling and then feet are applied and any design work done.  The piece is then dried slowly to insure a good join on the feet to the bottom and then fired to bisque.  The glaze fire finishes the piece and they can be glazed in tandem with the pots they are to support for a united look.

Here is a recent example of this item and we make them with no cut work and just lots of color.

Here is the same trivet supporting a fluted bowl.

 

Website Changes

Hello!  We have been working to get a new website but with domain change issues and the time it takes to update regularly we are considering just using our blog as a place for everyone to see what we are working on.  Thanks for bearing with us while we go through these changes and look for new and more frequent updates here. 

We also will be updating and adding to our ETSY page and also Don is going to be starting a page for his sculpture so watch for that this summer! 

Check back for our photos of our latest work and the newest happenings in the garden! 

Here is one of our candle lanterns hot out of the kiln!

Happy New Year

We hope everyone had a great holiday season!

Time to get back to work for new inventory for 2011.  We have lots of new ideas and will be re-creating all our old favorites as well.  Thank you for all your support in 2010 and we look forward to hearing from you with your pottery needs!

Follow us on Facebook for our most current updates.

Thanks~

 

New Fall Items

Working on inventory for fall festivals and orders for the upcoming holiday season.

Here are a couple of new items we unloaded from the kiln today.   This footed coffee server is complimented by the shaped serving dish carved and glazed similarly.

 

Our ever popular acorn pieces are a must for fall entertaining.

 

Check out more pieces on our Facebook page and at www.buckrunpottery.com.

Buck Run Butterflies

Don is at it again with that paintbrush in the glaze.  Starting a butterfly series with the following efforts.  He will be continuing with this project until he has the hang of all the natives of Arkansas.  Stop by often to see the newest pieces in this group.

BuckEye

Eastern Swallowtail at sundown

GoatWeed Butterfly

Another Swallowtail

More to come!

Foghorn!

Don's favorite rooster is named Foghorn.  You can imagine why.  He served as the model for the image on this tray.  The painting is done with the same glazes as our functional pottery so the piece is intended to be used.  We are planning more rooster images soon!