The Green Chamber of Commerce series

As you know, Hidden Valley Retreat and Spa is committed to being a green venue. We work hard to have environmentally-friendly practices at the Retreat. We've joined the Green Chamber of Commerce, a community dedicated to helping green businesses succeed. They've recently been working on a YouTube series of green businesses, and we were lucky enough to be featured on it! Fiona had a chance to talk about all of our green practices while they filmed beautiful shots of our property!

Check it out:

The New Reception Area!

We have completed the new reception area! It's been done for a while now, but we've been waiting for our first bride to test it out!
The new Reception Area is a 20x40 ft space just below the wedding stage. In the vain of the rest of Hidden Valley Retreat, we did our best to keep it natural. It is lined with hand-set rock walls, just like the other tiers of the property. We used decomposed granite to "pave" the surface, giving it a natural look while still being hard enough to dance and lay tables. This space has plenty of room to seat 100 people at round tables.
Check out the photos from our most recent wedding!

Reception Area below the Wedding Stage

We loved the paper lanterns around the stage!

Tables set-up in nature

It's Apple Season!

It's that time of the year again: Apple time! We have 6 mature apple trees in our orchard, and we've had delicious, organic apples for the last few months. When groups stay on the property, we always encourage them to enjoy, but we have so much that there's more than enough apples left. Our staff is always excited to take the fruit home to make delicious new recipes. We've made sweetened cinnamon applesauce, apple pie, apple crisp, and much more. One of our staff is a canned fruit expert, and she cans the apples to last throughout the year! Recently, my sister, an acclaimed pie maker, came to visit, so I took home a bag full of apples. My sister, Jane, has a peculiar technique of making her famous apple pie- no recipe! She throws in a little of this, a little of that, some secret spices, throw it in the oven and BAM, she's got some sweet apple pies for the whole family. 

Jane and Rebecca with their pies

For those of you who like to keep their recipes precise and measure things out, here is a tried and true apple pie recipe:

Old Fashioned Apple Pie Recipe

• Prep time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
• Cook time: 55 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Crust Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
• 1/2 cup finely ground blanched almonds or almond flour (can substitute 1/2 cup flour if you don't have almonds)
• 16 Tbsp (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, chilled in freezer for at least 15 minutes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 heaping teaspoon brown sugar
• 3 to 6 Tbsp water, very cold

Filling Ingredients

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 pounds of 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices of peeled and cored
• 1 1/2 tablespoons brandy
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Egg Wash

• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp cream

METHOD

1 In a food processor, combine flour, almonds, salt and brown sugar, pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add water 1 Tablespoon at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready, if not, add a little more water and pulse again.

Remove dough from machine and place on a clean surface. Carefully shape into 2 discs. Do not over-knead the dough! You should still be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These bits of butter are what will allow the result crust to be flaky. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

2 Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 375°F.

3 Combine sugar, flour and spices in large bowl. Use your hands and mix in the apples so they are well coated, then add brandy and vanilla extract.

4 Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle some flour on top of the disk. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12 inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, use a metal spatula to check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. Add a few sprinkles of flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking. Gently fold in half. Place on to a 9-inch pie plate, lining up the fold with the center of the pan. Gently unfold and press down to line the pie dish with the dough.

5 Spoon in apple filling, mounding slightly in center.

6 Roll out second disk of dough, as before. Gently turn over onto the top of the apples in the pie. Pinch top and bottom of dough rounds firmly together. Trim excess dough with kitchen shears, leaving a 3/4 inch overhang. Fold dough under itself so that the edge of the fold is flush with the edge of the pan. Flute edges using thumb and forefinger or press with a fork.

7 Stir yolk and cream in small bowl to blend. Brush over top of pie. Cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape. Bake pie until crust begins to turn golden, about 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F. Tent the rims with aluminum foil or a pie protector if the edges are browning too quickly. Bake until crust is golden and juices are bubbling, anywhere from an additional 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the type of apples you are using. Transfer to rack; let stand 1 hour. Serve pie warm or at room temperature.

Introducing: Aimee and Michael

Couples have been carrying on the trend of creating their own engagement and wedding websites for years now. As a wedding venue, we've seen a lot of our brides and grooms create unique, amazing websites, and we absolutely love exploring them! From photo stories to fun descriptions, our couples have the best ideas! The purpose of these websites is to provide information about the couple, their wedding party, the location of the ceremony, and even their gift registry. We recently saw a couple's website that we just had to share: Aimee and Michael. They are getting married at Hidden Valley Retreat on April 21, 2012. Like all of our couples, they will be hosting their very own weekend wedding. 

Aimee and Michael's website stood out to us because of their description of our property. Their website not only explains how our property works, but gives specific directions on how the weekend will play out for each of their guests. They allow their guests to choose if they will be staying at Hidden Valley or at a hotel. They also give their guests the option of being part of the "cleaning crew" to pay for their stay, or to donate money to alleviate the cost of the property. 

Here is what they said about us:

"The Hidden Valley Retreat has some accommodation onsite to the tune of about 40 spots for April 20th and 21st. A little over half of those spots are group bedding situations: combinations of bunk beds and rollaways. There are 4 small single bedrooms, and then a combination of a few Queens and Twins to make up the rest.

Once we send out invitations and begin receiving RSVPs we will start divvying up the spots, prioritizing the wedding party, the out-of-towners, and the immediate family who are arriving at Hidden Valley Retreat on the 20th of April, and working out from there.

If you’re willing to actively participate in the wedding preparations and clean-up, then your spots at the facility are complementary for the nights of the 20th and the 21st. If however you would rather take that time to enjoy the surrounding countryside or the facilities of the property then we would ask that you instead make a financial contribution to the tune of whatever you feel is appropriate for the accommodation. Any money received in this manner will go directly to offsetting the costs of the facility.

It should also be noted that there are only six bathrooms on site and thus if you are a particularly picky person who wouldn’t necessarily appreciate the dorm type atmosphere you may want to consider alternative accommodation. There are hotels relatively near the site and once we understand how many people are interested in hotel accommodation we will begin looking into obtaining group rates and possibly a shuttle service to go between the wedding and the hotel."

On top of the great description they have about Hidden Valley Retreat, they also have fun descriptions of their wedding party, and stories about themselves. Following in the ways of the eco-friendly couple, they have the option of viewing their Save the Date online, and having their guests print it out themselves.. On top of that, they are holding a group cruise as part of their honeymoon, how cool is that?! 

Aimee and Michael are an exemplary couple, and we fully encourage our future couples  to emulate their description of our property. You can see how perfect their website is HERE.

More to come in April! Congratulations to Aimee and Michael, we can't wait to have you!