The Toad & The Butterfly, a Blog

Last week about half of the Butterfly Bakery crew headed down to Honey Field Farm in Norwich for our annual Farm Day. Once a year we trade sauce making for farm chores.

When we sat down to decide what we wanted to do for Pride this year, I knew I wanted to do something different. One person suggested that we simplify things. Then another suggested we make it more complicated.

If you’re putting together your own picnic condiment kit, this sauce pulls it all together.

There are two kinds of dessert people. The ones who plan ahead, bake from scratch, and have a cooling rack situation. And the ones who remember dessert about five minutes after dinner.

We don’t boil maple syrup or work in the woods ourselves, but we get to work with some of the best people who do. And this is the weekend that reminds us just how much work goes into that one perfect ingredient.

All over the state, sugarhouses are firing up evaporators, steam is rolling out the roof vents, and people who know what they’re doing are turning tree sap into one of the greatest foods on earth.

Running a food company that sources directly from small farms means we actually get to know the people behind the ingredients. These women are wonderful, thoughtful, funny, wildly capable humans who care deeply about their land, their animals, and their communities.

I just finalized our projected needs for the 2026 growing season. I send our totals to the farms we work with, they tell me what they can grow and at what price, and then I spread our orders across all of them.

I think that Valentine's Day is as much about joy as it is about love. Joy for others, joy for yourself, joy for existence.

When you cook with alcohol, especially in caramel, you concentrate everything. Good flavors get better. Bad flavors get louder. With only five ingredients in our Salted Bourbon Caramel, there is nowhere for a bad bourbon to hide.

4th time's a charm. We're back on Hot Ones. Meet Smoked Serrano Squash Reaper X!

Every once in a while we make a sauce that folks just can't get out of their brains.

It’s just as good on a cheese board as it is as a snack at the counter while dinner’s in the oven.

My husband is stretched out on the other one, and my daughters are being wonderfully goofy while working on a bunny-in-an-umbrella puzzle at the kitchen table. It’s nothing special. It’s everything.