Somehow I missed out on the first book in Peg Cochran’s Farmer’s Daughter mystery series, but am thankful that her second book, SOWED TO DEATH, found its way onto my Kindle! This delightful cozy features protagonist, Shelby McDonald, a blog writing farmer who is also a widow, trying to raise her two children. I enjoyed that Shelby is a bit older with a unique family situation different than the typical heroine. She has a lot of stressful responsibilities that the author weaves in to the murder mystery surrounding a neighboring farmer. Shelby’s blog, The Farmer’s Daughter, effectively gives the reader an entertaining peek into what it takes to run a farm along with growing and preserving their own food. Shelby also struggles to raise her children, one of whom is a young teenage girl. Peg’s description of the drama involving the mother and her daughter struck home, and left me chuckling at times, as my family is entering that stage with my own granddaughter.
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The character development in SOWED TO DEATH draws the reader in and made me want to spend time with Shelby, her family, and friends. But it is the carefully crafted mysteries that kept me turning pages wanting to see what happens next and how the various threads of plot were going to weave together. There are several believable suspects and I found it a unique twist with Shelby’s brother-in-law being both the investigating detective and a potential suitor. Now having missed the first book (and I’ll be remedying that) I found book two easy to jump in to and didn’t feel like I was missing out on too much information. The story flows with a good pace and kept me entertained!
Peg Cochran includes a few delicious recipes at the back of the book along with mentions of several things that Shelby prepares that I’d love recipes for as well. Peg has graciously allowed me to share her recipe for Apple Crisp. Sometimes simplicity is best and in this case it holds true. The fresh flavors of apples are allowed to shine with a simple light crust topping of flour, sugar, cinnamon and butter. With a dollop of vanilla ice cream along side the warm crisp, dessert doesn’t get any better!
Amazon Synopsis
The county fair is the highlight of the year for the small town of Lovett, Michigan—especially for food-and-lifestyle blogger Shelby McDonald, who writes as the Farmer’s Daughter. She’s submitting jams and jellies she’s created from the produce she grows at Love Blossom Farm in hopes of harvesting a blue ribbon.
But the townspeople get more than just the excitement of hayrides, tractor pulls, and cotton candy when Shelby’s neighbor and volunteer fireman, Jake Taylor, extricates the body of Zeke Barnstable instead of a dummy during a demonstration of the Jaws of Life. The fact that Jake and Zeke were known to be at odds plants suspicion in the minds of the police. As evidence against Jake grows, Shelby knows she has to plow through the clues to weed out the true killer and save her friend.
A special thanks to Peg Cochran for offering a signed copy of SOWED TO DEATH for one lucky winner! Contest ends Monday, August 21, 2017 at 11:59 pm PST and is limited to U.S. residents only. Please use the Rafflecopter box located below the recipe to enter. The winner will be announced on this page and on Cinnamon & Sugar’s Facebook page, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!)
- 6 - 8 apples, peeled and quartered
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
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Arrange apples in a greased casserole dish or 10-inch pie plate.
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Mix sugars, flour, and cinnamon and cut in butter.
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Pack sugar and flour mixture over apples
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Bake for 45 minutes or until golden on top.
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Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
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We thought the apples should be cut a little smaller than quarters, especially if you have large apples like ours were.
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Best eaten warm, the same day it is baked. It's still good the following day but the crisp topping does get a bit soggy the longer it sits.
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I was provided a copy of this book with the hopes I would review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I don’t have a garden or fruit trees. I don’t preserve fruits or veggies.
The best I can say is that we have a window box where we grow mint and parsley. We live in an co-op and the bored of directors has a landscape company that handles the grounds.
I don’t have a garden or fruit trees. I don’t preserve fruits or veggies but I do make freezer jam.
I don’t have a garden but hopefully next year we will. I don’t can fruits or vegetables but I do have friend who cans the best pickles.
Sounds yummy!! I love apple desserts!
Love apple crisp! Anxious to read this book. Thank you for the contest.
I don’t have a garden, but I have friends that share vegetables and homemade jelly with me.
We don’t have a garden this year because we moved. We have had large gardens in the past though and I’m sure we will again – although smaller largely due to age. We have always planted way more than we needed to share. We had two firm rules to receive bounty from the garden – you had to be elderly or handicapped so as to prevent you from gardening yourself. We weren’t for furnishing our hard work for others who could very well have done it themselves. The rewards when we delivered a basket of veggies and/or fruit were great just seeing the faces of appreciation on their faces were priceless. We also put up via freezing or canning for the winter months. Nothing taste better than home grown in the dead of winter.
We used to. Now we do some container gardening. Fortunately we have big windows
My Sister has a garden and I get the tomatoes and squash they bring over which is wonderful. I live in a different area and it would be impossible to garden in this district. This is their first year and they love it. The Cover of this book is wonderful…all that color.
Thank you. P.S. If you see an entry that looks funny it is mine. The contest did not let me check in properly but the links worked.
Marilyn [email protected]
I have some pepper plants and freeze them for winter use.
[email protected]
I used to have an herb garden — mostly basil and rosemary. There’s nothing like using fresh herbs from your garden!
No garden but sure do love garden fresh veggies, they see so much better than what is in the stores. Also love flowers. Try to grow some but do not have what it takes. We didn’t get to live by them, but my grandfather was a vegetable farmer and people would come from miles away to buy his produce. Wish he was still alive and in business!
I only have a small deck but I do have 2 tomato plants, a basil plant and a catnip plant. I don’t do any canning. I used to with my mother. She made jams, tomato juice, all kinds of stuff.
I don’t personally have a garden, well not anymore. I did have strawberries, beans, and an heirloom tomato, but I couldn’t give it the love and attention necessary. I did, however, have a classroom of ‘munchkins’ working in the school garden and in-class Grow Lab that gave us all nibbles of some vegetables. And then there were colleagues who would bring in persimmons, grapes, tangerines, and asparagus. I have a friend who liked to grow and share oranges, pears, herbs, and beans. She, however, heads off to the local farmers’ markets to pick up olives she uses to make her own olives…delicious!.
Thanks for the insights into “Sowed to Death” by Peg Cochran. I like this theme…
No I don’t have a garden, I did try container gardening some tomatoes last year and the mockingbird pecked a hole in the few that grew, I told him if he just stuck to the one I’d be happy to share, he was a pig, he wanted them all, LOL. When we lived in PA we did have an apple tree that I made applesauce from but that’s about it. Besides buying fruit in bulk when it’s in season and freezing it. Thanks for the recipe!
I’ve never had a garden but my brother-in-law has one and sends us produce from it.
We had a little container garden but we’re mostly unsuccessful this year. We will try again next year, though.
I don’t have a garden but back in the 60s/70s I did a lot of canning.
We used to have a garden. It just got to be too much for us to keep up with it. And I would love to win a signed copy of Sowed To Death. Thank you for the chance.
I had a small garden this summer with tomatoes and cucumbers in it. Our neighbor raised some corn and shared with us. I like to cut the corn off the cob and freeze it.
I don’t have a garden and I don’t preserve any fruits or vegetables.
I do not but my Dad does have a garden and a peach tree. I love to make peach jam to last through out the year; delish.
I don’t have a garden. But loved to bake with fresh foods.
I don’t have a garden but thank you for the chance!!!
My sister cans & freezes vegetables & fruit. I work up 50 to 100 quarts of rhubarb for her & freeze it.
With cancer and chemo taking up much of our time, we didn’t get a garden in. I really miss it.
I have to admit that this recipe is one of those that screams fall to me!
I do not have a garden, nor do I want one. Therefore, I don’t preserve any fruits or veggies. But I’m always willing to eat & enjoy the fruits of other’s labors. ?
I have read the first book in this series, so I look forward to reading the 2nd.
I’m growing tomatoes I love having a garden. Canning tomatoes and pickles thank you the recipe sounds delicious.
I don’t have a garden anymore or fruit trees that bear fruit. I can’t even keep a basil plant alive. They always get eaten up by insects.
Marilyn
No garden for me. I rely on a dear friend who loves to make preserves and give jars away!
Sounds delicious!
I don’t have a garden or fruit trees but live where it’s very easy to purchase fruit, vegetables and even meat locally.
I miss being able to have a garden but I still have my huge pot of chives and love making my compound butter with them. I can hardly wait for Apple season here in Massachusetts as I love cool crisp days. The big problem is that winter weather with too much snow and ice soon follow fall. Our brand children love to go Apple picking every fall. Riding in a hay wagon is fun for kids too. Thank you for the recipe.
Looking forward to reading this release.
Cynthia B
Yes we do a garden. We preserve everything. Mainly for winter. Love in my snow country
No, I don’t. I’ve been thinking about trying to grow veggies in pots out on my balcony.
We do have a garden thanks to my hubby. We have okra, tomatoes, watermelon, potatoes, herbs, cucumbers and bell peppers.
Recipe looks yummy!
We have a garden with cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, strawberries and blueberries. I love to bake and hubby loves anything with apples. Thank you for the recipe and the chance.
Unfortunately I don’t have a garden and I don’t preserve my own fruits and veges. I do occasionally freeze lots of squash if there is a great sale but those don’t come around too often (super sales). I like Peg’s books, they’re on my must read list, anything she writes.
I don’t have a garden. No green thumb.
Thanks for the chance
Maceoindo (at)yahoo(dot)com
I don’t have a garden or do preserving, but I’d like to start.
I do have an herb garden and grow tomatoes. Right now, my chickens seem to partake in the herbs faster than I can seem to cut and dry them for usage in my kitchen. We’ve purchased horse water troughs for raised beds for next year’s crops. Hopefully, that keeps my chicken ladies away from the bounty and affords us more garden-to-table variety and less moments of, “well… at least the chickens are well fed.” *smile*
I don’t have a garden, but I do enjoy the goodies that other people gift me from theirs; I have citrus trees and I pay it forward that way with lemons and limes!
I live in an apartment, so no garden or fruit trees. However, When my father was still alive , I made freezer preserves. Dad’s favorites were Damson Plum preserves , and Apple Butter. The Apple Crisp recipe looks so good and meets my requirement of 6 ingredients or less!
I don’t have a garden but now that I am retired would like to see if I can’t get one going.
my mother had a wonderful garden…but I did not inherit her green thumb 🙁
I bought my tomato and cucumber plants too late this year. My lemon and orange trees just don’t want to cooperate either.