Generations of flavor

I thought this was going to be a typical Saturday morning visit at The Indoor Winter Market at Shaker Square. But something incredible happened …

I made my usual stop at Sirna Farm for my weekly fix of their homemade peanut butter. When someone bumped into me, which I’m eternally grateful to whoever you are, and pushed me forward into this eight-foot-long table filled with assorted confections.

There were tiny, fruit-filled tarts, medium sized tarts and big tarts, as well as peanut butter cookies, almond bark, banana muffins and whole-wheat, buttermilk bran muffins lined up for the taking.

The owner and baker of Hillfarm Feast, Deb Carlson Klain, came over to offer me assistance because she could tell by the perplexed look on my face that I was beyond making a decision.

“Can I help you?” said Carlson Klain.

I finally asked about the tarts. She offered me a piece of shortbread first; it melted in my mouth with a burst of fresh, creamy, buttery flavor.

“That’s about six days old,” Carlson Klain said. “I do that on purpose so that you can taste the difference between the freshly made shortbread. There’s not much.”

She was right. She gave me a piece of the shortbread that was made earlier, and it tasted the same.

The tarts are made with jam, fresh fruit and the family shortbread recipe. That’s the secret to the wonderful tasting goodies she sells.

“The shortbread recipe is a few generations old,” said Carlson Klain. “My grandmother came from Scotland when she was a teenager, and she brought the recipe with her.”

Carlson Klain only sells her tarts, specialty items and cookies at The Indoor Winter Market at Shaker Square and The Shaker Square Market. She also owns a bookstore called Leonardo Arts & Sciences on Lee Road in Cleveland.

Carlson Klain chose the name of her bakery to celebrate her roots in Scotland.

“I named it Hillfarm Feast because in Scotland historically people lived on hill farms,” said Carlson Klain. “And the people that lived there did all sorts of different things, and that describes me exactly. I do a lot of different things, so, I’m like a hill farmer – sort of.”

I decided to try her peanut butter cookies and WOW! They were incredible. Not too sweet, but you could taste the peanut butter and something I couldn’t put my finger on.

Carlson Klain smiled and said, “They’re made with amaranth, which is a really high protein grain.

I bought four cookies and finished all of them within 10 minutes. I didn’t get hungry until that evening. The amaranth filled me up and kept me going for hours.

Make sure you stop by the Hillfarm Feast booth and try some six-day-old shortbread; then buy the fresh stuff. You won’t be sorry.

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