mervindervin

Goodbye to an old friend

2011-01-18T08:44:00.004-05:00

I'll be back to posting soon, I promise.

But, meanwhile I had to say goodbye to my sweet Zeke yesterday. It was an awful decision to have to make, but it was past time and it was very hard.

Michael will fondly remember the way Zeke would slyly muscle his way into a diagonal position in front of the food bowls, effectively blocking Farley from any food until Zeke had taken his fill.

And the strange and all-encompassing love that Zeke had for Michael's guitar case. Zeke was immediately draped on top with his paws wrapped around, rubbing his cheek and purring whenever the case was lying flat.

I have too many fond memories to count. But, mornings at the back windowsill watching the birds with my boy and a cup of coffee were a favorite.

And watching him jump into any freshly emptied container, paper bag, box, basket, cooler and claiming them for his own, always gave me a laugh.

He made the last 15 plus years fun, full and freaky, with a bit of snooty-kitty pizazz.

Goodbye sweet friend, safe trip back to the Mother ship.

Ah, August!

2010-08-18T15:06:00.008-04:00

Here in the late summer garden, things begin to go a little wild!

Some of the plants have truly taken over, spreading out, flowering and fruiting daily—keeping us busy every evening with our colander and harvest baskets. The weeds are enjoying the season as well, and we're not quite keeping up with them the way we would like. Too busy harvesting food!

Right now we are gathering lots of tomatoes, green beans, and cucumbers. The native sunflowers that we grow for the Bee Project have really had a wonderful year. They are a small branching sunflower and the gold finches come around every morning and again at twilight to snack on the seeds.

We have great expectations for our first crop of popcorn as well as potatoes and pumpkins.

The delicata squash are coming along nicely this year, and we're looking forward to some delicious roasted delicata with balsamic vinegar. Yum!

The beans have been one of our mixed blessings this season. Our bush beans have mostly succumbed to a bean blight, which we've had in other years in other areas in the garden. It doesn't kill the plants completely, but slows growth and cuts way down on the yield. Luckily, the three bamboo teepees of bush beans in the middle of the bed seem to be unaffected. And we've been harvesting a variety of lovely fresh green pole beans, Kentucky Wonder, Cherokee trail of Tears and Purple pods.

A good lesson in the wisdom of growing a diverse selection of crops. Even if some fail, other's will thrive.

After last year's gloomy outcome in the tomato department, we were more determined than ever to have a good crop of tomatoes for fresh eating and putting up for winter. We planted many varieties this year including Brandywine, Martian Giant, Sophie's Choice, Arkansas Traveler, Italian paste and Matt's Wild Cherries. Everything is coming along really well.
And the Matt's Wild Cherries have come out an absolute favorite. They are branching and shooting up all over the place with no end in sight for the flowering racemes which quickly develop into branches of tiny sweet red tomatoes. Delicious to snack on by the handfuls.

So, here's to more wild times in the garden.

Jammin' on the one

2010-06-22T10:03:00.009-04:00

I've finally tried my hand at canning. It has been a long time in coming...trying to overcome some strange little trepidation I had. But I discovered a lovely patch of wild black raspberries at my neighbors house the other day. Neglected, and unpicked. I made a point to introduce myself and get permission to pick. She doesn't like the bushes and would love to have them chopped down, but her husband won't let them go, although he doesn't pick them either. So, I've now been over to pick three times and there will be one or two more forays before the berries are all gone.

This gleaning was about 1.5 Quarts.

This bounty of found, wild food was just the kick in the seat I needed to nudge me into my first canning experience. With newly purchased canning pot and accessories, sterilized jars and Pomona's Universal Pectin in hand I made a batch each of red and black raspberry jam, sweetened with local honey.

The red berries come from our own raspberry patch that we planted when we moved in three years ago. It is bursting with fresh juicy red berries, and we've been out there picking every day, with no sign of letting up!

My first batches...10 jars of summer goodness.

And this morning before work I was off for another check of the black raspberry bush. This time another 1.5 quarts. Enough for a batch of black raspberry cordial or half of another batch of jam. The bushes have a few more pickings left in them, so into the freezer these will go for now.

The colors of the garden

2010-06-01T16:29:00.007-04:00

Sorry for the radio silence but, life and the garden have conspired to keep me away from the blog. Here are a few shots of the early season here. These colors are slowly being replaced by yellows and brighter reds and hopefully I'll have more pictures to share soon.

For now the last hurrah from the chives...

and the crimson clover which has since been brewed into a lovely clover syrup with local honey, just the thing to add to a cup of green tea!

The indigo columbine was a favorite in late May

Not to be overshadowed by the lovely rose pink columbine nearby

And sea pinks bobbed their cheery heads near the driveway.

Updates in planting, knitting, and cooking coming soon.

Knitting in shades of Spring

2010-04-21T10:09:00.006-04:00

Stress knitting, or rather knitting to un-stress has been my thing these days. Especially knitting little bitty things that give me quick results and cuteness. And with the seemingly endless waiting that is such a big part of our life right now in the world of domestic adoption. (waiting for "the call" waiting for a match, waiting for the Goober to find us...) I've done quite a bit lately!

First in pictures is this little baby cap the Fixation Newborn Hat from Ravelry. I love this pattern for the simplicity and cuteness factor. And since I was knitting and sitting and listening alot, at a performance my sister-in-law was in, this was the perfect thing.

And then I discovered the Milo!

I know I'll be making many of these little vests. The pattern is so easy once you see how it goes together and it is a total stash buster, using such a small amount of yarn. I love it! The cable variations that the pattern suggests will make for some nice little changes and with different yarns and sizing from 3 months to 4 years, I'll be knitting these for years! This one reminds me of celeriac so that's what I call it.

So, as for the news on the adoption front, there's no baby to report. We have now been officially waiting for over 17 months and trying to keep our spirits up. Our agency is going through some major personnel changes, which is very disconcerting. And it seems that many folks are waiting a very long time, not just at our agency. We did just attend a big Adoption Conference and immersed ourselves in classes and conversations about birth families, open adoption and openness in adoption. We did meet up briefly with the new director of our agency, which was a nice surprise and spent a few minutes catching up with our social worker as well. We'll be meeting with the new director next week to discuss where things stand and talk about opportunities for networking and anything else we can do to ease the waiting.

Luckily, we're heading quickly into planting, harvesting and preserving season. We have plans for garden and season expansions, as well as gaining some new food preserving skills. And maybe starting to plan the chicken coop! So, we'll keep ourselves busy and out of trouble as much as possible...but always ready to drop everything at a moment's notice to go and meet our Goober.

Spring socks and seedlings

2010-04-13T10:56:00.004-04:00

I finally finished Michael's Valentine's Day socks. They are a basic top-down sock recipe made up in a lovely sock yarn called "Smooshy" in color Blue Lagoon by Dream In Color. Not totally dye-fast. My fingers and bamboo needles had telltale signs of blue, but lovely stuff none-the-less. And now that Michael is a convert to home-made sock goodness, I need to keep this thing going!

I'm prepping another round of seedling pots for the next week of seed starting in the basement.

I'm happy to say the halved TP rolls with newspaper strip bottoms have worked out pretty well. This is the second year I've used them filled with purchased seeding mix from Gardener's and I've had pretty good luck. A little bit of a mold thing happens on the sides of the pots, but my chamomile tea spray and setting the trays out when it is sunny, seems to keep it in check. Hard to say wether that has something to do with the cardboard, the plastic trays or the basement itself. But, it doesn't seem to be holding us back. This week the tomato and basil seedlings are starting to take off!

So, onto the IDC update...

Plant something – Planted turnips and parsnips outside. Cleared out and amended a few more beds for planting. Started more sprouts in the kitchen.

Harvest something – Asparagus

Preserve something – Started a new Sourdough starter and started a new yogurt culture.

Waste Not – The usual.

Want Not – Pulled out a bunch of clothes for mending. Finished making another pair of socks and a few bits for the Goober.

Build Community Food Systems – Wrote the first article of the season for the organic garden at work. Helping on the Earth Day Committee at work.

Eat the Food – Made a fresh batch of yogurt, enjoyed the first warm slices of a fresh loaf of sourdough bread, enjoyed steamed asparagus a few times this week, great with local eggs!

Signs of Spring!

2010-04-06T11:30:00.007-04:00

Raspberry canes leafing out.

Garlic coming up in rows.

Asparagus heads poking up last week...

...and this morning.
Rhubarb last week...

...and this morning.
And as for the IDC update, things are beginning to gear up!

Plant something – started tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, flowers and herbs inside under grow lights. Spread clover on a few beds for green cover. Cleared out and amended a few beds for planting.

Harvest something – Chives

Preserve something – Nothing this week.

Waste Not – Using more TP rolls and newspaper for my seedling pots. Saved rinsed out paper coffee cups from work for repotting some seedlings. Started another compost pile. Brought my Nana's sewing machine in for a tune-up.

Want Not – Found another pyrex small casserole dish with cover and a large pyrex measuring cup at Salvation Army.

Build Community Food Systems – Volunteered to help with the garden at church. Scheduled a meeting with a friend to help her plan her garden.

Eat the Food – Down to the last of the beets, sweet potatoes and butternuts from winter storage. Planning some meals around those... butternut parmesan soup, butternut pecan muffins, sweet Potato fries, sweet potato pancakes, maple roasted beets and beet slaw...not all at once!

The planting begins!

2010-03-23T09:46:00.004-04:00

Yippee!!!

Thanks to the generosity of a very kind friend, we now have a lovely set of grow lights in our basement. This is a serious step up from my DIY seed starting center of previous years! I'll still be using that. But, now I can start twice as many seedlings indoor.

So, after sorting seed packets by variety and then planting/starting dates, ordering additional items and plotting it all out on the calendar, Michael and I managed to get the first seeds going over the weekend. (Pretty momentous since we had the stomach bug around these parts—ugh!) We started 3 kinds of basil, some herbs and some beneficial flowers. Next week will be tomatoes and peppers and the beat will go on and on from there. I love when we get to this time of year, when something (planting, preparing, harvesting) is on the calendar every week until late into next Fall. We'll be trying to push the envelop even more this year, with more food grown at home, and extended seasons on both ends. Pretty exciting stuff!

So, for this week's Independence Days Challenge update

Plant something – Planted basil, chamomile, verbena, vining petunias, violas and yarrow. Cut back the herb garden and fertilized the asparagus and strawberry beds.

Harvest something – Nibbled a few chard sprigs and some new kale leaves.

Preserve something – Soaked and dried another batch of crispy pecans.

Waste Not – Made seedling starting pots out of egg cartons and half-t.p. rolls with newspaper strip bottoms.

Want Not – Picked up three more small Corning ware dishes with lids at the thrift store. Perfect to replace plastic-ware for leftovers in the fridge.

Build Community Food Systems – Attended the first meeting of the organic garden team at work.

Eat the Food – Used the last rutebaga in our Irish Stew. Made fudge babies with dried dates, pecans and cocoa (a good food storage treat!)

The Rising River and an Update

2010-03-16T17:18:00.006-04:00

Well, the Shawsheen River has been swelling into the surrounding wetlands for days now. And as of Monday morning had topped the rise down our street and begun to spread out and up the road. This photo, though not the clearest, shows water well up to the third house on either side of the road. I took that at about 5pm Monday evening, well before the river was scheduled to crest. Normally, you cannot see water at all from this spot, and certainly not on the road and in the yards.

We are the seventh house from the river, but it does curve through our neighborhood and swings a bit closer behind. Right after taking this, we stepped around the corner to find the intersection full of water and the neighbor wading in his driveway, wrestling with pump hoses and generators in an effort to stop the flow into his house.

Many homes in our neighborhood were flooded, people evacuated and roads closed. We were truly lucky to avoid any flooding, literally by a few yards! As of this morning the river has begun to subside, the roads are reopening and folks are beginning to dry out and assess the damage.

Today the sun is out, the temperature is warming up to the 60s and things seem a little more cheerful in the neighborhood. A little quieter, fewer pumps running, fewer generators. We started our St. Patrick's Day with a bowl of steel cut Irish oatmeal and a few jigs in the kitchen, before donning our green and heading out for the day. Michael in forest green scrubs and me in shades of sage and pea green paisley.

And an Independence Days Challenge update for the week:

Plant something – Wrote the seeding schedule and organized seeds by planting dates. Got in one of my seed shipments

Harvest something – Nothing yet.

Preserve something – Made a big batch of crispy walnuts.

Waste Not – Just the usual.

Want Not – Cleaned up old seeding trays and recycled pots for this years seed starting.

Build Community Food Systems – Became a member of the Organic Garden Planning Team at our office.

Eat the Food – Made Kale and Sausage soup (adapted from Joan Gussow's book This Organic Life with some of our delicious hot italian sausage from Pete & Jen's sausage sampler from the winter. Made my first few batches of fudge babies...oh my! What a great way to use dried fruit and nuts from food storage!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Gearing up for Spring

2010-03-09T11:15:00.005-05:00

Well, three gorgeous days in a row, with temperatures in the 50's have me itching to get going in the garden. But, I've been in New England long enough to know not to uncover the beds or set anything out, no matter what the temp. There will be more winter before it's all over.

The image above was taken last year in late April. Imagine this same scene right now with no green anywhere and you'll have the present view from the upstairs window. But, Michael and I went searching on Sunday and did discover garlic and onion shoots beginning to poke up under their blanket of mulched leaves, harbingers of the growing season to come! And a good 2 weeks earlier than last year!

So, I'll have to keep myself busy with creating the seed-starting schedule for the grow lights dreaming of those growing days to come.

And here is our update for the IDC for this week...

Plant something – Sprouting some mustard and radish sprouts.

Harvest something – Nothing yet.

Preserve something – Made a big batch of sour dough pizza dough and froze in pizza-sized packages.

Waste Not – Began collecting TP rolls for cutting in half and using as seedling cups for under the grow lights. Still enjoying last summer's pickles!

Want Not – Found an old mouli (hand food mill) at the local thrift store.

Build Community Food Systems – Helping a friend plan her first raised bed.

Eat the Food – Roasted butternut squash, maple-teriyaki glazed beets, apple calvados, yum!

Getting back into the swing of things with the Independence Day Challenge

2010-03-01T11:54:00.005-05:00

By late last season I'd seriously fallen short of my weekly updates on ways I'm meeting the Independence Challenge. In a nutshell, it is a way to record and motivate ourselves to do sometimes small or seemingly insignificant things, over time, to make a big difference in our own lives, our local communities and our planet. If you're still curious, swing on over to Sharon's website to get the full details. I'll be posting my updates here every week, most likely on Tuesday, but hey...let's be flexible.

So, here's the first update of the growing season:

Plant something – Nothing yet.

Harvest something – Nothing yet.

Preserve something – Made a batch of yogurt from some dated milk.

Waste Not – Used some leftover Fall apples from the freezer for a tea-cake for the Lenten luncheon at church. Sent the tea-cakes off to church on some cookie trays reused from a Christmas holiday party. Took a batch of dryer lint, TP rolls and newspaper from packages out to the compost.

Want Not – Assembled the new grow lights (gifted from a co-worker) for seed-starting. Placed our order for summer chicken and fall pork from our local meat CSA. Made up another batch of "shampoo" and "conditioner."

Build Community Food Systems – Started planning a workshop for our local church on local food, food storage and security.t

Eat the Food – Roasted some of the last beets for a maple teryaki broil tonight. Made two oatmeal-tea cakes from a slightly altered family favorite recipe -- using up food storage oatmeal and fruit and nuts. Baked up another roasting pan full of the butternut squash from food storage--delicious packed with lunch or whipped up into butternut pancakes or muffins.

Hang onto your hats, here comes Spring!!!

music 'round the house

2010-02-22T22:04:00.003-05:00

One of the most important elements of our home life is music. Whether it be traditional Celtic or Mountain music, contemporary folk and Americana, rock, pop and theatrical songs from our youth or songs we've written ourselves. We listen to it, make it and participate in it regularly.

We have no TV in our home and making music in the living room is a frequent activity. Sometimes we're rehearsing for a gig, learning some new songs to add to the repertoire or working on a new piece that we're writing. But, sometimes it is for no particular "reason" at all other than the joy of it!

Lately we've been adding back a few Spring songs, now that we're nearing the end of Winter, and we've tucked away the holiday, Christmas, and Mid-winter songs for another year. There is room for "Red Winged-Blackbird" by David Francey, "The Circle", a song Michael wrote, and brushing up on a few Celtic songs for St Patrick's Day. Too bad there was no one to photograph the little jig I was attempting while Michael played the Bodhran!

Here's to songs of Spring and making music with friends and loved ones!

Adventures in Doll-making

2010-02-10T17:16:00.004-05:00

I've begun a little adventure in doll-making. I'm not sure what exactly set me off, perhaps the beautiful cloth dolls I'm seeing around the blogosphere, perhaps the Waldorf dolls that keep catching my eye, and certainly the final straw of finding this book on doll-making in my studio a few weeks ago. So, armed with this lovely book...

...and some natural muslin, beige flannel and chocolate flannel, I'm making a beginning. Now my ponderings are filled with musings about embroidery versus painted features, simple or detailed, hair styles, outfits...lots of fun!

The first few bodies are now sewn up and awaiting permanent features. Here they are with pins marking potential placement.

More dolls coming your way soon.

A belated holiday review

2010-01-09T13:10:00.010-05:00

My apologies for being so long absent with nary a word or picture of the holiday festivities around these here parts. And as I face "breaking up Christmas" around the house, here are a few images and notes about our holidays.

Bells on the doors to add a little jingle to the days.

My mother's milk-glass sleigh takes pride of place on the Dining Room table.

The annual Christmas Amaryllis from my sister-in-law takes up a post on the bookshelf to begin its glorious growing process, hopefully to grace us with lush red blooms by Valentine's Day.

Our little Christmas tree with a strange menagerie.

Some images of the evergreen garland we hang around the living room door frame to display our Christmas and Winter Solstice ornaments.

A few more little corners from around the house.

Our stockings hung on the banister with care. (For that was the tradition in my house growing up)

Three lovely cross-stitched santas from a bell-pull my mother made that graces our front door.

I hope yours was merry and bright and full of joy and the light of good friends and family.

My review of the Shared Harvest Winter CSA

2010-01-08T10:23:00.006-05:00

I put a review up at Localharvest for the Shared Harvest Winter CSA. It has been such an important addition to our local food sources. And it is a valuable local resource that we'd like to see continuing to flourish and grow.

Farley and Zeke checking out the first share.

Here are a few photos of some of the delicious produce and food we've made from our shares.

Some baked egg custard and acorn squash steaming away in the oven.

A lunch of winter minestrone, multigrain home made crackers and fresh fromage blanc.

Kale and carmelized onion pizza with sourdough wholewheat crust.

Three sisters stew in our magic soup pot.

A French apple tart made with a yogurt and fresh egg custard and sliced Macoun apples.

Today, while a fresh pot of soup simmers in the red soup pot, I'll be reviewing last years calendar for planting and harvesting dates. I'll be looking up the first signs of rhubarb and asparagus from last year, looking through what we planted and harvested and feeling great about the local farms and resources we've found to fill some of the gaps in our home-grown produce. Thanks to folks like Gretta Anderson from Shared Harvest CSA, Jennifer Hashley from Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds and Kristin Nicholas and Mark Duprey from Leydon Glen Lamb, we're staying much closer to our local foodshed and feeling the rewards!

Inspiration and Obsession

2009-11-23T12:30:00.006-05:00

A meme for this quiet pre-holiday Wednesday...

Saying no to:

* Another cup of caffeinated coffee, what was I thinking!
* Too much chaos this weekend. Here's to home and hearth.
* Shopping of any kind in the next several days.

Saying yes to:

* A quiet day in the office for archiving and catching up.
* Knitting, crafting and puttering this weekend.
* Blessings all around.

Giddy about:

* Sleeping in tomorrow morning...and Friday...Saturday...Sunday!
* The carrots and beets still hiding under their fall covers, sweetening with everyday.
* The one-day-soon when I'll be smelling a little baby head.

Scared of:

* Being paralyzed by fear. Better to say "no" to fear all around.

Deeply inspired by:

* The Charter for Compassion (see link at the bottom of this page).
* My darlin's gentle and patient ways.
* Everything written by Wendell Berry.

Obsessed with:

* Beautiful yarn
* The colors of roasted pumpkin, butternut squash, cranberry cordial, kale...gorgous!

In love with:

* The man with the auburn ponytail and the beautiful hazel eyes

Haunted by:

* The thought of all of those who won't have a heaping table full of feasting tomorrow. And those that have never had the incredible luxuries that we enjoy everyday.

Saved by:

* Hope and determination.

What about you?

What the World Needs Now...

2009-11-18T16:43:00.006-05:00

I came upon this Charter for Compassion in my few minutes of checking in with my cyber-neighbors today. I am inspired. Maybe you will be as well...

http://www.youtube.com/CharterforCompassion

Some longies and the wait gets longer...

2009-11-14T08:48:00.004-05:00

I find knitting calming. To me it is a moving meditation. Especially if I'm not working on something too intricate. And these days, I find myself reaching for my knitting frequently, as we've just reached our One Year mark of officially waiting for the Goober. For those not familiar with the adoption process, this significant time span necessitates the renewal of your home study. Which involved new physicals recorded and submitted to our agency, new background checks (to ensure that we are still not felons or abusers) and a renewal fee. We did not meet this date with any enthusiasm, never truly imagining that we would be waiting this long. Yes, we were told that the average wait for our program was about a year and that it could sometimes happen more quickly and sometimes take up to two years...but you tend to think of yourself on the positive side of those statistics. Well, we met a few couples the other night at an adoption lecture, one had their first placement in 5 months and had now been waiting over a year for their second, and another couple was now into their third year of waiting. Hmmm, statistics.

We also attended a local lecture given by physicians from the Floating Hospital for Children. The lecture was about medical issues in domestic adoption. And after two hours I thought my head would explode! More statistics! Some daunting, some encouraging, all sobering.

So, the latest piece off my needles is the above diaper soaker longies. These are not yet felted, but should felt up nicely like the short version below. The yarn is Fisherman's Wool by Lion Brand Yarns and the pattern is my riff on the Spare Rib Shoaker pattern at Ravelry.

We have made some progress in the Goober's future room, clearing off the changing area, and allocating some storage shelves for the room. We're still not planning to go crazy into the whole baby room thing, since the Goob will be cosleeping, we'll have time to create a well suited room before he/she will need it. So for now this is a bit of a baby stuff storage area, but the changing area will be critical, so here it is.

Michael is also finishing up the shelving in our second changing/bathing area in our first floor laundry room. Now if only I can find the time to finish the curtains we can check that area off our list.

Abundance

2009-11-12T10:16:00.008-05:00

Alternate titles: What to do with all of these lovely vegetables!

Farley and Zeke checking out the CSA boxes and bag.

Zeke is mostly interested in the box itself.

Carrots, acorn squash, and cabbages topping off this box.

It has been a few weeks now since we received this, our first distribution of the bounty from the Shared Harvest CSA Winter Share.

To give you some scale, my two feline helpers are big boys, so these boxes are huge!

Delicious apples!

To get my head straight and get myself organized about what we had, how and where to store it and how quickly we'd need to use it, I first had to explore the boxes and get everything out on the counters. It took up my whole little kitchen. But, casting my eyes over it all at once, pouring myself a cup of tea and getting out the notepad was exactly what was called for to integrate all of this into our kitchen and food storage.

Gretta Anderson, the mistress of ceremonies and organizer extraordinaire for the Shared Harvest CSA had kindly offered up references for how to store vegetables as well as some wonderful recipe links. Two incredibly useful services when faced with vegetables to last well into the winter including some new and unfamiliar items.

Brimming counter-tops. Let the games begin!

Once I had everything spread out, I began to list items on my notepad and indicate where it was stored with a hypothetical expiration date...(use by this Wednesday, use by first of November, etc.). I had my trusty instructions for how to store and got to work bagging in our reusable miraculous green bags, to stow in the fridge, laying out on trays for basement storage and planning our first few meals.

Since then, we've been enjoying lots of wonderful meals, including the delicious Three Sister's Soup, and Mexican Casserole from Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair; Broiled Beet Slices with Maple Teryaki from the Shared Harvest Recipe Wiki, Kohlrabi stir-fry, sauted Kale and mushroom topped pizza, oven roasted potatoes and more. We have two more shares of the winter CSA coming our way, one this weekend and one in December and I am determined that with good planning, nothing will go to waste and we'll be well-nourished through the Winter.

We also picked up our share of delicious sustainably raised pork, our usual supply of organic eggs, and a Capon and stew birds from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds, so we are really fully stocked with the chest freezer topped up.

This wonderful, locally grown and raised food, carefully organized and stored has been one of my greatest weapons against the continuing economic news, job stress and flu-season worries. All of this and a stocked pantry of healthy canned and drygoods (oatmeal, tomatoes, beans, honey, etc) are better to me than money in the bank. This is piece of mind, and a different kind of health insurance.

So, if you haven't joined a CSA, or grown food to put by for the Winter, or you don't feel like you have the space... give it some thought. Supporting local farmers, having good food tucked away in your own home, knowing where you food comes from... it's good medicine!

First Frost and graham crackers

2009-10-15T12:19:00.005-04:00

Well, it came. The first frost of Fall. We've been watching for it and trying to gauge when to clear out the last of the green tomatoes and eggplants. And luckily we got them out and into the kitchen just in time. Our first frost came on Tuesday evening, and we awoke to 29° F at 5:30 on Wednesday morning. Brrr! We're trying to hold off a little longer before turning on the furnace, for both environmental and economical reasons. Time for layers in the house!

Meanwhile, this adoption waiting has been sitting heavily with both of us. We've passed our 11 months of officially waiting and soon we'll need to update our home study. We know that the average wait with our agency is a year, but had hoped (and heard encouraging words from the agency) that it might have been sooner. I know that when you think of all the stories of people waiting years, this doesn't sound like that long...but it sure is feeling long right now.

The blue funk we've both been in called for a little extra attention (chocolate). On my way home from work the other day, Michael let me know that we were critically low on chocolate, and that some was needed. Meanwhile, I'd been fantasizing about lovely english whole wheat biscuits coated with chocolate ( I think they were called Hobnobs or something), or even the dark chocolate dipped graham crackers from Starbucks. Things we try not to eat, since we try to stick with good wholesome foods from home. But we were clearly hankering for a chocolate treat.

So, after stopping to replenish our supply of organic dark chocolate from Trader Joe's, I found a recipe for honey graham crackers in the MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook changed the brown sugar to sucanat, and commenced to baking. I used a jar as a cutter, since I had round cookies in my head. The outcome, crispy, wheaty, delicious and so I took the next step. Melting a few organic chocolate chips on each round at the end of the baking and then quickly sandwiching two together. Oh, glory be! They totally scratched my itch. And made for a delicious and only moderately decadent treat. Good for what ailed us.

I highly recommend this book for inspiration and recipes for a homestead kind of life. The photography is beautiful and the recipes I've made, delicious!

And the humble graham cracker has been elevated in status at our house to a new fav.

Shades of late summer greens and yellows...

2009-09-23T10:32:00.005-04:00

...and a bit of belated catching up!

A dragonfly resting on a bean leaf

A lazy bee on the native sunflowers

The surprising polka dots of Tansy flowers waving over the drying Yarrow

Many many jars of refrigerator pickles...with my honey herb recipe...yum!

The first of the Fall crop of Mizuna.

Well, between the incredibly busy work-life right now, gearing up for singing at the Harvest Fair, a big birthday bash for Michael and just the everyday busy-ness of home...with (truth be told) a little bit of the waiting-for-baby-blues; I've been sadly remiss in keeping up with the blog. My apologies! Above are a few pictures of what's going on in the garden...and the kitchen.

And as far as at least 3 weeks of the Independence Days Challenge:

Plant Something:
buckwheat, clover, transplanted Calendula and Mint

Harvest Something:
Eggplants, cucumbers, dill, calendula, beans, radishes, radish pods, carrots, tomatoes, onions

Preserve Something:
Calendula oil, apple cordial (Calvados), yogurt, sourdough pizza dough, refrigerator bread & butter pickles, pumpkin and apricot breads for the deep freeze

Waste Not:
Using up all the whey from the yogurt for various lacto-fermented breads and pancakes, used up oddments of veggies in a huge mexican casserole, used all compostable paper goods at our party and topped up the compost piles with them, Sent off 75 used books to Powell's for credit towards our Christmas shopping.

Want Not:
Reading "Gardening When It Counts" by Steve Solomon, Topped up the pantry with this month's "big shop", Organized more jar storage and hung the garlic braids for winter storage, found some Patagonia organic canvas pants on a good sale for Michael's birthday

Build Community:
Preparing to sing at New Entry Sustainable Farming Project , working as a volunteer "farmer" at work on the organic raised bed project, donating food to an emergency center in Quincy, MA.

Eat the Food:
Sourdough pizza dough for our weekly za, yogurt, radish green fritatta, garlic green beans, mexican casserole with all the bits of beans, cabbage, etc.

Meanwhile, Michael and I are working our way through the list of late Summer into Fall projects around the house, and trying to focus a little attention each week on preparing for the baby. Things like, putting up shelves in the kitchen to hold pots and pans and make room for a little energy star dishwasher, improve drainage around house foundation, replace a few rotted shingles, look into getting the woodstove brought up to code so that we can use it, create more storage in the Goobers room for clothes and diapers, move bookshelves, build a cold frame for cold weather veggies, etc.

I'll be back again soon!

Gearing up for the Harvest Festival

2009-09-16T11:01:00.002-04:00

Well, I've been neglecting this blog shamelessly due to incredibly busy times. I'll be updating lots of planting, harvesting, music making, birthday celebrating in the next few days. But, for now an it's all about the New Entry Sustainable Farming Projects' 8th Annual Harvest Festival. Michael and I have been asked to do all the music for the day, so we've asked our good friends Gail and Allen Wiegner to join us for an afternoon of old-timey live music.

The festival is all to support a great cause, training and supporting new farmers in their endeavors to bring sustainable farming back to their own countries. Jennifer Hashley, the Director of the NESFP is an awesome and inspiring soul as well as the supplier of our delicious farm fresh eggs, assorted organic produce and most of the meat we eat. She and her husband Pete are the Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds .

So, if you happen to be around the Boston area next Sunday, particularly near Dracut. We hope you'll come on by for some delicious food, games, a farmer's market and some old-time music by yours truly. For all the details, go here.

Adult t-shirt to Baby Gown Remake

2009-08-28T12:53:00.005-04:00

In honor of taking the 6 months pledge at Wardrobe refashion, and since the challenge doesn't start until September 1st, I thought I'd post a project I did a little while back.

This used to be a favorite t-shirt of my husband's that went the way of most of his t-shirts...getting too worn at the neck to be acceptable peaking out of his scrubs. This one also has some sentimental value as it is from a friend's (mentor and producer of my CD) tour company. So, I thought I'd take the plunge and try a remake.

I used McCall's 8574 baby layette pattern. I only have a straight and zig-zag stitch on my old Singer workhorse of a machine. So, I used zig-zag stitch for all the the seaming. The neckline is a little wonky, but I figure it'll be covered in spit-up and drool, so there's room for a little imperfection. Now I just need to sew in the casing at the bottom for a piece of cord or elastic and it's all set.

While I was in the re-purposing mode, I took another t-shirt to make some baby wipes. We have some gifted to us, that I used as a rough guide. The purchased ones are terry on one side and flannel on the other. So, I backed these with some ultra-soft flannel scraps I had lying around. I figure it's a great thing to use up my flannel and cotton-knit scraps. And someday they'll do extra duty as dust and clean up rags. A win, win, win!

Now, I wonder what I can do with the rest of these old t-shirts?

A few days behind and weekend updates

2009-08-26T20:46:00.007-04:00

Hard to believe that it is already Wednesday evening! Yikes, where has the weekend gone??? It was a busy weekend (and week!) so here are a few pictures...

Sunny, freshly picked calendula blossoms drying on a thrifted railroad plate in the window before becoming the main ingredient in a bottle of calendula oil. Great for dry, irritated skin.

My first attempt at lacto-fermented pickles. I found the recipe in Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions. A very easy process using yogurt whey, salt, herbs and water. This fermentation method is supposed to maintain and promote lots of beneficial probiotics. Good for overall health and easy to make. Read more about it at the Weston Price Foundation. The jury, however, is still out on the taste tests. Tastes a bit like old-fashioned deli style dill pickles but, too early to tell for sure.

Some fresh dill for the jars...

Some of the dried dill seed heads from the garden, harvested when I was out getting the fresh sprigs. I'm thinking with the number of seeds I'm harvesting, I'll have plenty to top my home-made crackers and still be ahead of the game for next year's planting.

I made a big batch of sourdough pizza dough. The humid weather was just right for rising!

And my finger is finally fit enough for a bit of knitting so I thought I'd start on the beautiful sock yarn that Michael gave me for Valentines Day...Malabrigo Sock Yarn called "Chocolate Amargo" or as my bilingual friend translated..."bitter chocolate" mmmm nice. I'm using the free Jaywalker pattern from Ravelry. Should be just the ticket for a nice new pair of socks for Fall.

And a tardy but well-meaning update for the IDC challenge...

Plant Something:
buckwheat and clover

Harvest Something:
Eggplants, cucumbers, dill, calendula, beans, radishes, a couple of carrots and potatoes

Preserve Something:
Calendula oil, dried dill, made sourdough pizza dough and lacto-fermented pickles

Waste Not:
Just the usual

Want Not:
bought a few more homeopathic remedies for the medicine cabinet and picked up two books on foraging for wild food and medicine plants

Build Community:
Met with the organizer for the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project about providing the music for their annual harvest festival. Looking forward to singing in that beautiful field!

Eat the Food:
Sourdough pizza dough for our weekly za, granola, yogurt and radish green and local sausage fritatta

Hope you're having a good week!

The Pledge

2009-08-19T11:06:00.003-04:00

I took the pledge. See below and check out the awesome blog itself at Wardrobe Refashion

The Pledge

I Marie, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed me.

Maine, Fudge and catching up on the IDC Challenge

2009-08-11T16:25:00.008-04:00

Last week, we had some much needed time away on the ocean, in Kennebunk, ME. It was a quick get-away and we did our best to appreciate the beautiful weather in Maine.

We found our way to a great little farm for some berry picking! Would have loved to have stayed longer, but since time was so short, we picked for about an hour and ended up with a little more than 3 Quarts! Nice!

We also spent some nice time walking, reading and enjoying the beach. A great little breather.

And when we got back home, we found that my pound of fudge had arrived. I contributed some flavor ideas to a contest that Roberts Roost was having to come up with some new goat milk fudge flavors. My Chocolate Espresso idea was a hit and so they sent us a batch by way of thanks! So incredibly good!!! Sorry, no pictures. Some is hidden away in the freezer and the rest went too fast!

Then, this weekend, we were off to New Hampshire to perform at the 6th Annual Peach Festival. The sun was blazing and the weather was fine. Nice after the heart-stopping thunder storms of last year. We had a great set and enjoyed meeting up with Dan the wonderful sound man again. We came home with some delicious peaches, tomatoes, pies and jam.

And managed to accomplish a few things for the IDC as well...

Plant Something:
Nothing this week

Harvest Something:
summer squash, eggplant, beans, cucumbers, calendula flowers

Preserve Something:
Making my first batch of calendula oil

Waste Not:
Processed a whole lot of paper, dryer lint and fabric scraps into the grass clipping compost

Want Not:
Did the big monthly shop. Topped up the cupboards with oatmeal, dried beans, maple syrup, olive oil and other staples. Made a new blouse out of remnant fabric.

Build Community:
Bought this weeks produce from a small farm in New Hampshire after our set on the festival stage.

Eat the Food:
Sourdough herb bread, lots of cucumber salad, grilled eggplant and zucchini

So Happy that the Sun is out!

2009-08-04T11:16:00.005-04:00

I guess that's what a month of straight rain will do to you. I'm still recovering! I feel such a boost every morning that the sun graces us these days...and so do the plants.

So, with this new burst of sunshine and energy, we've been getting lots accomplished on the Independence Days Challenge.

Plant Something:
Planted Kale, cabbage, mizuna, carrots and spinach

Harvest Something:
Picked lots of beans, a few straggling raspberries, a few small turnips, garlic, herbs and lots of cucumbers

Preserve Something:
Froze green beans, hung sage, oregano and garlic to dry, made more yogurt.

Waste Not:
Yet another bag of clothes for donation. Layered the grass pile with paper and cardboard to compost.

Want Not:
Not much this week

Build Community Food Systems:
Bought eggs, greens and beef from the local farm. Bought peaches, potatoes and beets from the farmer's market. Gave a friend some whole wheat sour dough starter.

Eat the Food:
Blueberry Cobbler, cucumber salads, sourdough herb bread, fresh oregano and carmelized onion fritatta, crock pot beef shanks and vegetables over rice.

What about you?

Monkey Mind

2009-07-31T10:37:00.010-04:00

So, to keep the monkey somewhat under control, I'm going to create a "Monkey Mind" post once a week... a little recap or list of sorts. Just a way to sum up the bigger thoughts and activities occupying my mind each week. Maybe you'll be thinking of some of the same things, maybe you'll have ideas of your own or ideas for me. We'll see how this goes. Since the Independence Days Challenge keeps me pretty regular about posting at the beginning of the week, I'll try for Fridays for Monkey Mind to use as a bit of a recap but also a spring-board for the weekend. Let me know if you decide to do your own Monkey Mind list, please leave me a comment or lead us over to your post.

So, here we go...

Monkey Mind
Next to my reading chair:

• I'm really enjoying everything written by Laurie R. King. I've had my nose pretty much constantly in one of her books for the last several weeks. I have become a complete fool for the Mary Russell series and enjoy the Kate Martinelli series almost as much. I've been alternating between the two series and am coming to the end of the King pile. Boo. This week I read "The Game," "With Child," "Locked Rooms," and I'm in the midst of "Night Work." Sooooo good!

• Michael gave me "the Encyclopedia of Country Living" for my birthday and I'm itching to dive in. I plan on reading the first chapter tomorrow morning over coffee.

• I cracked open "Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health" last night. I'm wanting to read up on ways to harvest and use the plants and herbs we grow most efficiently. We have so many things growing in our garden that can be brewed into soothing and medicinal teas, tinctures and supplements. I'm not wanting to waste a bit of that goodness!

• And on a connected note, this morning's reading was the beginning of "Gaia's Garden" an interesting and inspiring book on permaculture, to help us utilize and vitilize our little quarter acre for growing food, conserving energy, welcoming wild-life and restoring a little positive environment. I'm really excited about what this books holds in store!

In the Garden:

• I'm feeling the need to get a better handle on what's going on and growing in the garden. We've had some crop failures with the wet and cold Spring, but some things have fared well, and others are perking up. I need to spend some time on weeding! Cutting back the raspberry canes, and drying the raspberry leaves for tea and medicinals, pinching off suckers and spotted leaves on the tomatoes, weeding, planting some fall crops, weeding, stacking the grass cutting compost ...did I say weeding?

• Wouldn't it be cool to build an outdoor Cob Oven or fireplace...for solstice gatherings, outdoor cooking and cozy music making. I would love that!

Keeping my Eye Out:

• for canning jars and bottles for preserving food.

• for interesting garden statuary that we BOTH like!

• for picnic/garden furniture...benches, tables, etc.

• good sources of local meat, eggs and milk. Trying to cut down my weekly wandering for sustainable food.

On the Baby Front:

• I need to get a handle on the vaccination issue. It is so daunting and huge I have been trying to think of it from a place of education and empowerment...not a place of fear. But, GOSH! There is so much scary stuff out there! So, since we may not have all of the choices of biological parents and since this is too big for a single approach. I'm going to chip away at the puzzle, one shot and one disease at a time. Beginning with the Hep B shot they will likely try to give the Goob on the very first day!!! I've got my hands on "The Vaccine Book" by Robert Sears, "Natural Baby and Childcare" by Lauren Feder has a great section on vaccinations, and the National Vaccine Information Center and the CDC also have lots of information. Whooh! Alot to absorb. But, we need to make the best decisions possible for this new little life, when he/she comes.

• Need to finish up the little green scrap baby jacket I'm making. I keep running into obstacles, like wounded finger, not enough yarn, etc. But, one way or another I've got the get that done!

• Need to get leg extensions for the co-sleeper

• Need to line up cat-care options now that we're losing our amazing cat sitter.

Other Monkey Miscellany:

• I really need to find the perfect pattern and whip up a few summer-weight nightgowns. My preferred summer sleeping attire. I've got lots of great bits of fabric lined up. Maybe this?

• Gotta finish sorting through and getting rid of too many clothes that I don't wear! Cut down on the chaos in the bedroom.

• Thoughts on curtains for the Dining Room and bedroom. Finish the kitchen/laundryoom curtains!

• Organize the recipe, baby-care, house and knitting binders.

Okay, now! That seems to be the big stuff. What is on your monkey mind?

Making yogurt and a little of the harvest

2009-07-27T20:30:00.005-04:00

I've now got my yogurt making routine pretty well down. And it's such a good feeling to be making this myself. It sure cuts down on the plastic to be recycled! And since I've been able to find grass-fed, low-heat pasteurized, un-homogenized milk from Sky Top Farm, we've got a healthier, tastier yogurt! I'm diggin' the french canning jars I got. They work really well for making cordials as well as making yogurt.

I'm using a starter "bulgarian" I found at the New England Cheesemaking site. And I have a very low-tech process.

I heat 1/2 gallon of milk in a stainless steel double boiler to 185F while stirring. Meanwhile, I've filled a small six-pack cooler with hot water – about 120F, and close the lid. I've also sterilized my jars by pouring boiling water in them to the top (and in the lids as well) When the milk is at 185F, I remove it from the heat and cool in an ice-water bath in the sink until at just 120F. That's when I add either the dry starter or approx. 1/2 cup of yogurt from the last batch. I use an old-fashioned egg beater to make sure the milk and starter are well blended. Then I pour the boiling water out of my clean jars, pour in the yogurt, close the jars, place in the cooler, checking that the water is still between 110F and 120F and only comes up to just below the lids. I close the cooler, wrap in a towel and let it sit for about 7-8 hours. The yogurt is not as thick as store-bought but very tasty.

We like our yogurt thicker so I place the jars in the fridge over night, to stop the culturing process. Then I pour the yogurt into a butter muslin lined strainer placed in a pitcher to catch the whey. I fold the butter muslin over and cover with a plate, weight with a jar and place in the fridge. A few hours makes a greek-style yogurt and a day makes a rich creamy yogurt cheese. delish! my favorite is throwing some raspberries fresh from the garden in the thick yogurt and drizzle with a little local honey. A scrumptious snack!

And as for this week's IDC challenge:
Plant Something:
Planted some raspberry and borage transplants

Harvest Something:
Picked the last of the peas and started prepping the bed for cabbage and mezuna, picked raspberries, and lots of beans. Harvested the last of the garlic.

Preserve Something:
Froze raspberries and green beans. Bottled another batch of raspberry cordial. Braided the first half the garlic crop for storage. Hung the second half the crop for storage.

Waste Not:
Michael brought another bag of clothes for donation. Whipped up a peach/blueberry cobbler with some peaches that had started going over to the dark side.

Want Not:
Picked up three chickens from the local farm (meat CSA) for our freezer. Had one today. Delish!

Build Community Food Systems:
Bought eggs, greens and chickens from the local farm. Talked with a friend about "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".

Eat the Food:
Cobblers, salads, chocolate chip zucchini bread, turnip green fritatta, garlic green beans

And a few gratuitous shots of the garden...

A lacy dill flower

A an echinacea bloom

Stay cool!

Cordially yours

2009-07-14T06:59:00.007-04:00

We're working on a new craft around here. Its a way to save some fruit in a form that we'll enjoy. We're not really big jam eaters, so I haven't felt the need to throw myself into the jam-making arena just yet. (But, I can tell it's in the wind and once I figure out the method that is most "whole", least processed and sugar-sweetened, I'll be there.) For now, we're jumping into the world of cordials, alcoholic cordials to begin, and maybe some non-alcoholic cordials to follow. In particular I'm inspired by our prolific raspberry bushes and this website. So far the going is easy. We've bottled our first batch of Raspberry cordial, have another batch in it's first sitting phase with the whole fruit still in. We've also started a small batch of cranberry cordial with some frozen organic cranberries we had hanging around.

Perhaps, someday we'll get into brewing the alcohol ourselves. For now we're purchasing the brandy and or vodka that goes into these recipes. Otherwise its fruit (home-grown mostly) and local honey. Considering all the anti-oxidants, and health benefits packed into our little berries, and the goodness, immunity boosting, allergy-aiding of our local honey...well we're doing this for our health. A little sip of "Mama's medicine" on a cold night could just do the trick to keep off the chill! At least that's what we're telling ourselves.

And the first small sampling of the filtered, un-aged first batch of raspberry was delicious; fruity with a little extra glow. Yum! Now we'll try to wait patiently and officially open the first bottle for Michael's birthday in mid-September. Maybe there'll be a little nip in the air!

Meanwhile, now that we've had some sun...let me say it again...SUN...in the past week, the garden is really beginning to show some summer spirit. The bush beans have taken off and we should be into daily harvesting very soon. The pole beans and cucumbers are close behind. I'm also happy to report some signs of life in our second planting of all the root crops (the first lot were decimated by cutworms or some other evil) and the tomatoes, surviving eggplant and pepper plants are beginning to perk up. Sadly our entire crop of basil looks to be lost. I'll start a flat this week to see if I can get any in the ground.

And an Independence Days Challenge update.

Harvest Something:
Raspberries, peas, lettuce and a few bush beans. Also our first two heads of garlic...we'll leave the rest a little longer.

Preserve Something:
Froze raspberries made two batches of raspberry and one batch of cranberry cordial.

Waste Not:
Used yogurt and cheese whey for pancakes. Michael found an over-the-toilet cabinet on Freecycle and refurbished it for our upstairs bathroom, freeing up a small (trash-picked) cabinet in the upstairs hall for front porch storage, which moved the mission-style low bookcase (also trash-picked) to a place of honor in the living room.

Want Not:
Lots of lists

Build Community Food Systems:
Bought eggs, meat and greens from the local farm. Talked with a friend about seed-saving.

Eat the Food:
raspberry-rhubarb cobbler, rasp-blueberry cobbler and blueberry crisp. so good! Fresh salads. Sourdough pancakes (made with whey from cheese and yogurt making) Home-made yogurt with fresh berries and a drizzle of local honey. Local grass-fed steaks on the grill served over a bed of wilted home-grown greens. Mizuna, garlic and cheese fritatta.

Hope your summer is filled with lightening bugs, light and laughter!

Rain and rain and more rain

2009-06-30T10:53:00.003-04:00

Ah yes, the rain! Feels like we’re all growing a thin layer of mold. I thought about taking pictures of the mushrooms and strange molds and particularly the Caca de Luna, Fuligo Septica or (not to be gross, but) "Dog Vomit Mold" which is loving all the wet mulch and raised beds at our house. But, I really didn't have the stomach for it. Nice!

A few quick snaps I took between raindrops...

The marguerite daisys have begun to bloom. These are called "Kelway"

And these antique black violas seem to have self-seeded below the hanging basket from last year. Love these!

And we did manage a few things between the showers. So here's our IDC update for the week.

Plant Something:
Planted carrots, turnips, beets and onions round two. Planted some perrenials. Transplanted borage.

Harvest Something:
More strawberries…although the rain is turning most of them into moldy mess, the first of the raspberries, lettuce and peas.

Preserve Something:
Froze strawberries and raspberries (saving up the raspberries to make cordial)

Waste Not:
Used cheese whey for bread and pancake dough. Started two hot compost bins. Made berry picking buckets out of milk jugs for two handed picking.

Want Not:
Found some french soda bottles with rubber ring tops for cordial making. Scored a new baby wrap and baby sling as well as a very nice diaper bag at the local thrift store.

Build Community Food Systems:
Bought eggs and greens from the local farm. Loaned “In Defense of Food” to a friend.

Eat the Food:
Strawberry rhubarb pie, oh yeah! Made sourdough bread and sourdough pancakes. Lots of fresh peas, and salads.

Happy Summer!

Enjoying the sweetness

2009-06-17T07:31:00.005-04:00

We are well into the midst of our first official strawberry season. Last year we had to pinch off all of the blossoms to ensure good root development. This year we are reaping the harvest. 1 to 2 pints of delicious berries a day!!! for the past 11 days. whoohoo!

Here's the haul from just one evening. Two pints before we tossed them in the big strainer for a quick shower.

Then some got capped and cut up and ready on a tray for a quick freeze before bagging in the freezer.

And the rest of the bounty, slightly macerated with a potato masher, topping some home-made sweet biscuits and crowned with home-made whipped cream slightly sweetened with maple syrup. Simply heavenly!

And fast on their heels, the quickly ripening raspberries.

I'm reading up on cordial making (the alcoholic "American" kind as well as the non-alcoholic British/Australian versions. I'm also preparing myself to dip my toe into the jam-making arena. Nervous and filled with trepidation...but almost ready to take the plunge.

And our update for the IDC, we've had a busy week, with much rain. Here's what we've managed this week...

Plant Something:
Planted broccoli, kale, cabbage, marigolds, transplanted hosta away from the workshop to help the drainage and ant situation around the workshop. Brought out eggplant, pepper and basil seedlings to harden off in makeshift cold frame.

Harvest Something:
1 to 2 pints of strawberries a day, peas, lettuce and herbs.

Preserve Something:
Froze strawberries

Waste Not:
Read up on using more of our discarded paper for composting instead of recycling. Planning the location for a new hot compost pile.

Preparation and Storage:
Did the big shop for the month. Added to the long term food storage, more legumes, applesauce, seasonings. Moved some vases and china around in the basement to double our basement pantry storage.

Build Community Food Systems:
Located a great listing of all the farmer's markets in our state to post on our company's green page. This will go along with an article encouraging people to buy locally and eat fresh! Communicated with a local farmer about providing the entertainment at their fall harvest festival. Whoohoo!

Eat the Food:
Had MORE fresh strawberry shortcake with whole wheat sweet biscuits and organic cream. Still delicious! Had fresh salad mix from the local farm under our grilled salmon. Made a fritatta with fresh farm eggs, braising greens and shredded raw milk cheese. Heavenly. Made my first successful batch of yogurt. Drained some for Quark cheese.

A few tentative stitches

2009-06-10T11:51:00.004-04:00

Now that my finger is officially on the mend (no more bandages). I couldn't resist the urge to get out a knitting project and see what I can do. Hmmm, this is going to be a challenge. With weakness and hyper-sensitivity in my middle finger as well as a desire to put less stress on that joint. I'm realizing that I'm going to have to teach myself a new way to knit. I did 8 rows on this baby sweater this morning and it was painstakingly slow and a bit tweaky. Ah, well...a new challenge!

this little sweater is a pattern that I've xeroxed too many times and no longer know the origin. It's a simple thing that you knit flat with some nice garter edges and sew up the sides. If you are recognizing the green main color, it is the leftover Berkshire by Valley Yarns from my hoodie, thrown in with a few bits of Malabrigo in other greens (vaa and lettuce) since I didn't have enough of any one of these yarns. It's looking great so far in an alternating stripe. Now if I can only get my knitting mojo back I'll be in business.

And since I'm all about all things green today. Here are some new pictures from the garden. We picked some of these sweet yellow peas to have aside our fritatta last night. Very yummy!

The bush beans that Michael planting are loving this weather!

I can't resist the eye-popping color of these petunias. They make me smile everytime I see them.

And here's our IDC Update for the week, lest you think that we were quietly sitting and knitting the week away.

Plant Something:
Planted tomatoes, peppers and eggplants from seedlings started indoors, direct seeded butternut squash

Harvest Something:
5 pints of strawberries…all eaten as fast as we could pick them, as well as all the lettuce that was big enough to cut.

Preserve Something:
Made veggie broth from ends, scraps and peelings and froze in ice-cube trays for quick usability.

Waste Not:
Cleaned out the fridge, made a huge pot of lamb broth with the lamb bones we had in the freezer. See veggie broth above.

Preparation and Storage:
Found some large “cookie cans” in the closet, perfect for mouse-proof storage in the basement pantry.

Build Community Food Systems:
Received some extra squash and cucumber seedlings from a neighbor, left them so home-made rhubarb coffee cake by way of thanks.

Eat the Food:
Had fresh strawberry shortcake with whole wheat sweet biscuits and organic cream MANY times this week. So delicious! Fresh picked lettuce on the home made gyro sandwiches. Attempted to make yogurt. Made ricotta instead. Used whey to lacto-ferment some wheat flour for apricot pecan quick bread. Baked 4 mini loaves and 6 muffins, some for immediate use and some for the chest freezer.

Happy early summer!

Some baking and the latest Independence Days Challenge Update

2009-05-31T21:12:00.004-04:00

I came home from the farm on Saturday loaded down with fresh eggs and greens and a nice big bunch of rhubarb. We only got a small yield from our plants this year since they are still young. So, I thought I'd take advantage of the local bounty to get a little more of this delicious tangy vegetable. (Treated as a fruit in this household).

Armed with a great recipe from Farmer's Almanac for rhubarb cake, I undertook some afternoon baking. I healthied it up with a few substitutions, organic whole wheat flour, sucanat and honey instead of sugar and made a double batch to get four mini loaves (one pictured above) as well as a dozen muffins. Really tasty!

Since the oven was on, I took advantage of the heat and energy and threw in a couple of loaves of honey banana bread, to use up our seven smooshiest bananas. Now the freezer is backed with goodies and we're set for a little while.

So far, we've only gotten a few ripe strawberries, but any day now there'll be a nice big harvest so I'm getting my shortcake mojo on for sometime in the next week. Can't wait!!!

Meanwhile here's our update for the IDC for this week:

Plant Something:
Planted eggplant, squash, and cucumber seedlings and direct seeded some sunflowers and nasturtiums

Harvest Something:
Picked the first few strawberries and a little lettuce and oregano.

Preserve Something:
Put up some oregano for drying, froze some rhubarb from the local farm.

Reduce Waste:
Attended a lecture regarding the local watershed, water conservation and restoration of the local river. Attended a river blessing for the Concord River.

Preparation and Storage:
Purchased some bulk dehydrated black beans and whole wheat biscuit mix both organic from maryjanesfarm.com for food storage.

Build Community Food Systems:
Shared four bean salad and home baked banana bread at a luncheon before the River blessing. Bought fresh eggs, greens and rhubarb from the local farm.

Eat the Food:
Baked rhubarb coffee cake and muffins, some to eat now, some to share and some to freeze for a rainy day, baked banana bread with whole wheat flower, local honey and lots of old bananas to share at a luncheon and freeze for later. Made from storage, more four bean salad and some delicious spaghetti sauce with dried mushrooms and fresh herbs from the garden.

Hope you're having a good week!

A chilly week, a few blooms and an update

2009-05-28T06:53:00.004-04:00

It's been chilly few days here, cool and rainy. I'm finding it hard to come up with the perfect work wardrobe for cool spring days. But, the plants seem to be loving it. I'm happy to see that the Wee Willie heirloom pinks I seeded last year are coming back. And we added a few more perennials to the bed, some indigo and mauve columbine, some coreopsis and more sea pinks. It should add some nice color and attract lots of beneficial insects to the garden.

Kind of a quiet week here with finger recuperation still going on. We did get a chance to visit with a few family members last night over a nice dinner in town. A rare occasion and one that we were glad to be part of!

And once again, thanks to my dear husband, we still managed to get a few things done by way of the Independence Days Challenge (IDC). So, here's our update for the week...

Plant Something:
Planted pole beans, squash, luffas and perennials

Harvest Something:
herbs and a little lettuce

Preserve Something:
not this week

Reduce Waste:
Created a list of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle tips for the office green page. Harvested a load of used printer paper to cut down and use instead of post-its in the office

Preparation and Storage:
Stored a water-proof supply of candles and matches in the basement storage area

Build Community Food Systems:
Working on a "raised bed" team at work to create and maintain an organic garden at work

Eat the Food:
Made a big bowl of 4-bean salad, a great way to use food storage!

Hope you're having a good week!

A few pictures and an update

2009-05-19T07:00:00.005-04:00

The last of this year's rhubarb harvest. Just a tease of years to come.

I'm saving it to partner with the first succulent crop of strawberries coming soon!

The first of the crisp mint lettuce is up and beckoning to be included in a spring salad.

The sea pinks by the drive are our first real color besides the luscious bits of green popping up all over.

And the dratted finger. Feeling a bit better than a week ago when I got home from the surgery. Looking forward to a week from now when the bandage comes off. For now, I'm a little limited in the hand-use department, and looking a bit like I'm carrying around a chicken drumstick...but on the mend!

And thanks to my wonderful husband, we still managed to accomplish quite a lot. So, here's our Independence Days Challenge update for the week...

Plant Something:
Planted carrots, onion sets, beets and beans. Transplanted more tomatoes and butternut squash, as well a pepper, eggplant and luffa seedlings to bigger pots.

Harvest Something:
rhubarb

Preserve Something:
not this week.

Reduce Waste:
Repaired a reusable shopping bag.

Preparation and Storage:
Did our big once-a-month shop, Added some additional oatmeal, beans, broth, honey, tomatoes, applesauce and seasonings to the long-term food storage.

Build Community Food Systems:
Talked to a co-worker and sent her some links about food storage for small spaces.

Eat the Food:
Sourdough apricot/pecan bread, liver and onions from the spring lamb we bought, more delicious local farm-fresh eggs.

A little hand-work and the IDC challenge update

2009-05-11T14:13:00.003-04:00

So, about my middle finger...lots of joking aside (over-use injury, flipped it too many times...etc), I've got a bit of a cyst and some bone growth on the top joint of my middle finger and tomorrow I'm having it taken care of. Sounds like such a small thing really, but this requires some "getting down in there" kind of work so I'll be operated on in the hospital and needing some time to heal afterwards. This all stems from osteoarthritis. Not a term I was hoping to hear for some years yet. But not a surprise with my family traits and my constant use of my hands.

With the "impressive dressing" I've been promised by my surgeon and limitations at least until the stitches come out. I'm looking at some serious down time for any and all kinds of hand work. Now, while this sounds pretty good when it comes to litter box duty and dish washing, it is a serious bummer for my knitting, sewing, cooking and gardening. So, I've been on a bit of a push over the weekend to catch us up and get us a little ahead.

I've been trying to finish up another little sweater for the Goober and started a batch of bread to last us a week or two.

And here's our list for another week of the Independence Days Challenge:

Plant Something:
Planted potatoes and chard. Weeded, planted MANY shasta daisy divides along our fence line. Planted the annual flowers by the front steps. Transplanted tomato, luffa, butternut squash seedlings to bigger pots.

Harvest Something:
Harvested herbs for drying.

Preserve Something:
Made a batch of power bars and packaged for the freezer.

Reduce Waste:
Made a tote bag out of some fabric scraps and remnants.

Preparation and Storage:
Purchased a few medical supplies to add to our emergency supplies.

Build Community Food Systems:
Bought eggs and meat from a local farmer. Making this a weekly habit.

Eat the Food:
Baked some sour dough flat breads. Very good. They've been added to the regular baking list. Made a few batches of cabbage slaw, one with home-made mayo, yogurt and cider vinegar and the other with dried fruit, olive oil and cider vinegar (no mayo). Both delicious warm weather sides.

Time to get out in the garden!

2009-05-08T07:48:00.007-04:00

The garden has been beckoning me. It begins. I don't hesitate to grab my beat up jeans and a sweatshirt, throw on boots and head out to the garden every morning and evening. Sometimes there's time for a little weeding or putting in a few things (like a bunch of shasta daisy divides from a friend). Sometimes it's just about looking, seeing what is emerging, what needs doing. At this time of year, my days in a beige office, cube-land, facing a computer for long hours, are intolerable without these morning and evening forays into the green growing, living world.

Here are a few pictures of what I saw last evening and this morning.

The view of the big garden from our upstairs hall window.

A ground level view of the garlic coming up in one of the wedge beds in the big garden.

New canes in the raspberry beds and our first time growing potatoes in bags. They'll fill out as we top of the vines and eventually be brimming with red-skinned caribe potatoes. Yum!

Growing food not lawn in front of our house. We've put in asparagus and rhubarb in a border along the fence and four raised beds across the front of the house for a rotation of vegetables. These two are waiting for beans, tomatoes, peppers, basil and the like.

A look at our second year rhubarb with a few long leggy asparagus going to seed. Since we're only in year two for both of these crops, we can only "pick a few" to let the root systems have most of the energy.

Our raised strawberries overwintered really well and are showing off their new blooms.

Berries won't be far behind!

The golden peas are reaching for their trellises and the lettuce is beginning to show true leaves. There'll soon be fragrant blooms and lots of fresh spring greens here.

Our newest addition, four cranberry bushes in their own raised bed. They should be productive this year and add some lovely color in the fall.

One last look from the window before getting ready for work.

Thanks for stopping by the garden. Come again!

Some sadness and Week 2 of the Independence Days Challenge

2009-05-04T10:46:00.004-04:00

We had some sad news last week of a friend's sudden and very premature death. So Saturday morning was spent at a beautiful and sorrowful memorial service for Paul. We had a chance for sweet recollections, a few laughs and some comfort with our music friends. Paul was a loving and generous guy and he will surely be missed.

I find it interesting and very sobering how each death conjures memories from all the other experiences I've had of losing friends or loved ones. This news of Paul's passing was no exception and we found ourselves feeling a little bruised and tender for much of the weekend. Some solace, peace and energy were waiting for us in the garden and I spent a good part of Sunday and this morning there.

Things are beginning to take off in our garden. The raspberries overwintered well. And we've got lots of new growth and clusters of buds all over. We saw the first blooms in the strawberry patch so we're beginning to anticipate all the lovely bounty to come from there. The garlic has been shooting up and looks a bit like a gangly bunch of teen-age boys out there. I'm looking forward to the scapes that we'll be harvesting to make some nice early summer pesto. The peas are reaching for the trellises and the lettuce is showing true leaves so it won't be long before we have some nice fresh greens for the table.

So, here's our list for week two of the Independence Days Challenge:

Plant Something:
Weeded and cleared in the garden. Turned over a few beds. Planted chard, marigolds and more lettuce outside and seeded a large array of seeds in the basement...tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, eggplant, kale, broccoli, basil, flowers, etc.

Harvest Something:
Harvested our last asparagus - year two, pick a few. Also harvested our first rhubarb, more chives, some overwintered sage, thyme and oregano.

Preserve Something:
Picked some herbs for drying. Must set up some drying lines on the front porch or in the pantry.

Reduce Waste:
Used egg cartons and toilet paper tubes cut in half for seeding cells in trays. Much better than spending money on peat pots.

Preparation and Storage:
Uploaded Open Office to my home computer to put our food storage, shopping and inventory lists on a database for easy sorting, creation of shopping lists and storage.

Build Community Food Systems:
Talked with the green team at work about building some raised beds at the office.

Eat the Food:
Baked a honey rhubarb coffee cake with the first of the rhubarb, used some of the freshly picked herbs in a big pot of beef stock I made from beef bones frozen after a meal last week. Used the last of the asparagus with home-made sourdough and cheese for a delicious pizza.

What could you do this week?

In on the Independence Days Challenge

2009-04-28T12:16:00.004-04:00

I recently came across the blog Casaubon's Book and have been inspired, engaged, challenged (and even sometimes a little scared) by what I've read there and where it has lead me in a quest for a better handle on where we are in the world and what we can do to help ourselves and our communities. Sharon's approach has inspired me to think a little bit more about how to deal with the scary stuff instead of just trying to ignore it or shrug my shoulders.

She organizes an Independence Days Challenge that seemed like just what I wanted to keep me moving forward with our efforts to reduce waste, grow more of our food, reuse what we have instead of buying new, prepare ourselves better for the coming years and the economic distress that we're all in, etc.

So, I've joined her challenge and will be posting my little "report" of what we've accomplished every week in seven general categories. If you're at all curious or interested in getting involved, check out her site. That's also where you'll find the longer clarification of each of the categories that I'll be reporting on.

So, here's our first list:

Plant Something:
planted parsnips, turnips and radishes outside. Prepped some indoor seedling trays. Built, filled and planted a raised bed of cranberry bushes

Harvest Something:
Cut chives from the herb garden for egg dishes and salads
Harvesting asparagus as it shoots up

Preserve Something:
A little intimidated by this. One of our challenges for this year.

Reduce Waste:
On our last roll of paper towels with no plans to buy more. We're replacing with baskets of clean rags and cleaning cloths in strategic places.

Preparation and Storage:
Expanded our basement pantry and updated food storage inventory. Located an old storm door and some plans online for making our own food dehydrator

Build Community Food Systems:
Talked with a few friends about how to take the next step with organizing their pantries and expanding them. Helped a friend plan her first vegetable garden.

Eat the Food:
Ate all the asparagus that we've harvested so far. Loving the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies from Cynthia Lair's "Feeding the Whole Family" great food storage cookies. And a very tasty treat!

What could you do this week?

Some lunch box crafting

2009-04-23T10:36:00.004-04:00

I finally found some nice sets of cutlery at the thrift store (knife, fork, teaspoon and soupspoon) for $1. The stainless steel is nice and sturdy and has a good weight. I've been wanting to make some designated cutlery roles for our lunch bags so that we wouldn't risk losing our everyday to the office when and if one of us forgot to bring them home. We try to avoid using disposable plastic to save on landfill. So now that I had the cutlery it was time for something to contain them. I took a little piece of a landscape print from my stash (a reject sample for the kitchen curtains) and matched it with some heavy upholstery linen remnant that I picked up for .25¢ a while back. stitched a little forest green twill tape into one of the rows of stitching and we now have neat and tidy silver-ware rolls that live in our lunch bags. Next on the agenda may be some little scrap muslin bags to toss the dirty silver-ware in when bringing it back home. I'll have to check the stash.

All in all this was a very easy project to whip up with no pattern, and we've both gotten lots of good use and nice comments from using these. And it makes for a little bit greener world to boot!

Time in the studio (recording that is)

2009-04-23T10:19:00.005-04:00

A belated post about a little project Michael and I recently completed. We put the finishing touches on our new Demo called "the Circle", which you can download for free from my music site. It's a song inspired by our visit to the Carter Family Fold, the home-place of a lot of good, old-timey music. It was originally the home-stead and little store that A.P. Carter ran after he left singing with the original Carter Family. And has become, with the care and management of his daughter Jeanette and then his grandson Dale Jett and granddaughter, Rita Forrester, a wonderful locale for old-time fiddlin' buck-dancing, clogging, flat-footin', good music! Here's the link.

We really enjoyed writing this song. From the original notes sketched out on the car ride home to the fine tuning of lyrics, melody and harmony over the span of time since then. When we finally came to record it, we were very pleased to have the help of our talented friends Gail and Allen Wiegner on vocals and bass and Jackie Damsky on fiddle. We're pleased with the recording and hope you'll enjoy it too!

Getting ready for St. Patrick's Day and a bit of green

2009-03-12T07:30:00.004-04:00

Well, St. Patrick's Day is nearly upon us! And my mother would never forgive me if I didn't plan a nice Irish meal and some green to wear. We were never much for the green beer drinking, kelly green wearing, rowdy crowd. More of the sage or forest green with some nice tweeds or a gansey sweater to wear, a piping irish stew for supper, with brown bread and a pint or two with some live fiddle tunes or a session going on nearby.

I even remember a year when my mother hastily cut green shamrocks out of felt and pinned them to our clothes since none of us seemed to have a spec of green to wear to school.

Michael and I now live down the street from the local irish/american-ized pub and restaurant, and the kelly green rowdies will come a-parkin' on our lawns and in our driveways come Tuesday night so we'll be pacing the ramparts and watching for the wayward reveler who may inadvertently wander into our garden looking for God only knows...

I'm planning a succulent lamb stew with taties and root vegetables and a slosh of stout to tenderize the lot, accompanied by some whole wheat Irish soda bread (from the Farmer's Almanac) and some more stout to wash it down.

We've got a great new disk to play while we eat (the Green Fields of America with our good friend Robbie O'Connell and other masterful players) and if my fingers hold up a few more days, I'll have my new mistletoe-green raglan hoodie to wear to do my mother proud.

The lamb will be local, sustainably raised and procured through the knitting goddess Kristin Nicholas and her husband "the farmer" from their new endeavor selling lamb directly to the customer at Leydon Glen Farm. It's so nice to have the opportunity to support local agriculture, sustainable practices and purchase healthier food! They are just getting going with this new business, so if you're interested in lamb, I'd recommend that you e-mail Kristin through her blog Getting Stitched on the Farm.

And for a few other bits of green, I've just finished up my first wool soaker for the little goober and I love the pattern, found on Ravelry and available for free.
To check out the size, I've compared it here to a Bummis super brite in size newborn. Just can't wait to see these on a little one.

Enjoy your weekend and St. Patrick's day!

Slainte!

All buttoned up

2009-02-23T20:03:00.005-05:00

I've just finished up the baby bunting that I've been working on since before Christmas. Whoohoo! I found the perfect leather knot coat buttons to match. The pattern is a freebie from Garnstudio, and can be found here. The pattern was simple and I love the feel of the Valley Yarns, Berkshire bulky that I used for this piece. The colors are stone blue with coffee bean I-chord trim. Sadly, it looks like the baby may not be coming in time to get much wear from this. Hopefully we'll be parents before the Fall, but I'll try to knit on patiently and accept whatever time frame this journey to parenthood takes us on.

Meanwhile, I've also finally found buttons to finish up two projects from the fall. They are Baby Surprise Jackets designed by the late Elizabeth Zimmerman. If you are connected to Ravelry you can find all the details of these projects here.

More coming as I bind it off the needles.

Starting from seed

2009-02-23T19:56:00.006-05:00

Well, the sun is creeping up a little earlier every morning, much of the snow has melted off of the tops of our raised beds and the raspberry canes made it through the winter. There's talk of another winter storm coming this weekend, but no worries. I'm swirling with ideas for this years planting. We had some definite winners last summer...purple bush beans, red skin potatoes, sugar pumpkins, butternut squash, some good cherry and plum tomatoes...we had some trials that we'll give another year's effort before giving up on them...eggplant, corn, broccoli. And some additional things to add...elderberries, cranberries, a cold-frame for a winter crop of hearty greens and root vegetables next fall and winter...hmmm. Much thinking going on.

But before too very long, we hope to be seeing our first asparagus shoots coming up, watching the unfurling of the rhubarb and witnessing the tender green scapes of the garlic.

Time to send in the seed order, dust off the seed-starting area in the basement, fill the potting trays and get ready for new beginnings.

A little crafting for the little goober or babywearing diy

2009-01-25T21:48:00.004-05:00

In my on-going quest to remain (some what) sane amidst the angst of waiting for a call from the agency. And with an incredible urge to research and prepare for all manner of parenting...I found some great baby sling/baby carrier patterns and whipped up a few to start us out.

Please forgive the overly warm photos... a little digital camera challenge.

Above Michael and our pal Teddy are modeling the lined pocket sling I made to Michael's dimension from Handmade-Adelaide-Baby. I made one for each of us. Michael's is a brown stripe (with orange and teal) on one side and a teal and indigo ikat fabric on the other. Mine is a poppy, persimmon and turquoise stripe on one side and a blue and poppy print on the other. And since all the fabric either came from my stash or from the sale table at the local fabric store we've really saved some money over the designer slings found at most baby boutiques. They are truly comfy and feel very secure. We'll see how we do with a real little one inside. We suspect a learning curve will be involved.

And below we are modeling our "minou-wraps" my interpretation of a very simple set of online instructions for a moby-type wrap.

I can no longer find the link but there are many sites with the basics for a baby-wrap style carrier. I bought 3 yards of an all cotton light weight t-shirt knit. Which is about 54" wide. I folded it in half down the length making a 3 yd by 27" panel. And cut the length of the fabric along the fold. Then I sewed the two pieces back together down one short side with a flat-felled seam using a short zig-zag stitch on my grandmother's old Singer. This leaves a lovely structured center seam which gives a little extra support and helps you to know where the center is when wrapping yourself in yards of stretchy fabric. On both wraps I tapered the tails for easier tying. Since these are t-shirt knits, they don't need to be finished along the cut edges. They roll themselves up a little and won't unravel. We've printed out some directions for different wrap style for various carries and have been trying them out. Check out the babywearer site for lots of great information on buying, making, trouble-shooting and the benefits of babywearing.

Our social worker and most of the books and sites we've perused for parenting tips and adoption tips, encourage baby wearing as an important step in forming healthy early attachment. We're looking forward to giving our baby carriers a try for real.

Now I'm off to finish up another pair of booties.

Sweet on a snowy day

2009-01-25T21:45:00.008-05:00

What better on a snowy day than a warm bright kitchen and some good homey treats.

When we were little, my mother always baked when it snowed. I think some people around these parts even refer to it as "baking snow". I just couldn't resist with the white stuff piling up outside the window and me at home with time on my hands.

When we were feeling a bit pooky as kids, or needed a sweet little something, my mother would open up the cupboard, take out the ingredients and whip up lovely little vanilla egg custards in small custard cups. They made the kitchen smell heavenly, and with the hot water bath around the dishes in the oven, the kitchen got nice and steamy. ( A great place to give those sore winter noses and sinuses a break!) Well, since Michael had to work and was battling a bit of a cold, I hunted down this recipe so he'd have something nice to come home to. My mother's version used evaporated skim milk and I've replaced it with fresh whole milk.

Vanilla Egg Custard

serves 6

Ingredients:
2 Cups whole milk (we use organic)
3 Large eggs
1/2 brown sugar (or Turbinado)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
cinnamon sugar for sprinkling (we use evap. cane juice instead of ultra refined sugar)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease 6 custard cups with butter (or cold-pressed organic coconut oil) and set aside.

Whisk all ingredients together in medium bowl. Make sure you've broken up all the egg white and yolk. Mixture should be light lemon yellow and frothy.

Divide evenly into custard cups. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (optional). Place in 13" x 9" baking pan or other to hold all custard cups. Place on center rack of the oven and pour hot water into pan 3/4 of the way up sides of custard cups to make a steam bath for the little dishes.

Bake until custards are just set. About 40 minutes. Remove from water bath and cool or rack. Serve warm or chilled. Will last up to 4 days in the fridge if covered.

Yum!!!

And since we couldn't just focus on dessert...

I pulled some of our own sourdough pizza dough out of the freezer, and we had this yummy calamata olive spread, carmelized onion, spinach and goat cheese pizza for supper. Nice!

the Humble Hermit

2008-12-11T21:30:00.008-05:00

Sadly the picture doesn't do these delicious, chewy, spicy morsels justice. They've truly become the "house cookie" around here. Very simple to make and as our electrician observed when I was baking some a few weeks back..."man, your house smells just like Christmas!" Pretty high praise! They also pack really well for care-packages. Historically, sailors wives made these goodies to pack off with their guys when they went to sea. The molasses kept the cookies moist and they held up well for travel.

My recipe is a modified (health-ified) version of the chewy hermit recipe from an old spiral-bound cookbook of my mothers. Here's my version...

Chewy Whole Wheat Hermits
makes 24
Ingredients:
3 Cups flour (this recipe works great with white whole wheat or even stoneground whole wheat)
1 1/4 Cups sugar (we use organic turbinado or brown sugar)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 Cup raisins or mixed dried fruit
1 egg
1/2 Cup vegetable oil (we use organic cold-pressed sunflower oil)
1/4 Cup molasses
6 Tbsp. water

Grease 13" x 9" pan. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine first eight ingredients in a large bowl. Mix and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine next four ingredients. Whisk together and pour into dry ingredients. Dough will be very thick and hard to handle. Use dampened hands to mix if necessary.

Spread dough in pan. Press down firmly. Bake 20-25 minutes until firm. Cool on wire rack. Original recipe said it makes 40 bars!!! We make 24 and they seem the perfect size. Enjoy!

On a simple life in this crazy world

2008-12-02T21:20:00.004-05:00

As things start to heat up for the holidays with the frenzied shoppers and crazed schedules, and messages about the economic crisis become more and more dismal, I'm finding relief and words of hope and sanity in welcome spots and hidden corners.

Thankfully not everyone has embraced the MORE mentality and many are looking for connection and peace instead of just another flimsy piece of something that won't last, that they don't need, that was made far away by people who were badly paid or ill-treated and that will land sooner than later in the landfill.

Grace writes a powerful and extremely timely and eloquent post about her feelings in her post titled "Bear with me", which many, MANY people share. Take a moment to read it if you can.

We made a conscious choice to celebrate Buy Nothing Day last Friday. We've been moving for some time to a simpler lifestyle where we buy much less, so avoiding malls and stores on Friday truly wasn't that difficult. But hearing the buzz all around me from people gearing up for their shopping and planning their strategies for hitting as many stores as possible did bring the message home more deeply than ever for me.

A few friends have expressed curiousity (and some frustration) about how to truly make a difference and get started living a simpler life. And I read a wonderful post titled small steps which speaks to this more eloquently than I can. Rhonda Jean lives in Australia and writes many inspiring posts. I hope you'll enjoy discovering her.

These two are only a little sampling of the many, many people around us who are choosing to think about what they do, how they live, what they consume and what they really want. So, the next time the latest news from Wall Street smacks you in the head or you hear someone on the train panicking over how few shopping days there are left before Christmas...remember there are other ways to celebrate and enjoy the true meaning of whatever holidays you choose to celebrate at this time of year.

And since I don't want to leave you with dreary page of text...

Here is Kate

a little knitted critter I made for a friend's baby shower. Welcome to the world little Kylan!

Enjoy

An update and some knitted goodness

2008-12-02T20:52:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm sorry to see that it has been so long since I last posted here. Lots going on in our world and in fact in the big wide world as well.

We've officially completed our Home Study and have the papers to prove it. Which is a nice but slightly surreal feeling because now it's just down to the waiting...and waiting. And I know we haven't even waited that long yet!

So, for me that means assembling fabric and thread and patterns for some baby clothes, that you'll hopefully be seeing in posts in the coming weeks. And more time spent with my knitting.

My wonderful Mother-in-law, Nancy, saw a beautiful skein of sock yarn while she was shopping in Western, MA one day and she bought it for me. It is a skein of Dumbledore from the Harry Potter line by Opal, and it makes a lovely little tulip hat for the wee one.

The photo doesn't really do justice to the rich color-way and I'd hoped to show you a better view of the shape and construction of this little chapeau but neither Farley nor Zeke was a willing model. The pattern is from here the Drops site is FULL to bursting with projects I can't wait to try. Right now I'm half way through this bunting for the baby in a soft gray blue color with cocoa blanket stitch trim. And I recently whipped up this little number with some alpaca/silk blend that I had in my stash. It looks a little big for a newbie, but we'll soon see...the pattern is a free one I found here at Ravelry for those of you who are hooked into that mighty world of online knitters.

For now, I'm off to answer the call of the bamboo needles and that bunting.

The Last of the Peach Cobbler

2008-10-10T15:53:00.003-04:00

I'm so sad to see the last of the fresh peaches and nectarines at the farmer's market. Now, don't get me wrong, I surely love me some apples...but, this was the year of the nectarine and peach cobbler. The year I discovered that four juicy pieces of fruit, and less than ten minutes of prep made for a delicious and dreamy warm cobbler dessert. True confession, we went for it MANY times this season. And, OH, so good!

I'm not much on mixes of any kind. Since we don't eat anything overly processed or containing white sugar or flour. Well, Maryjane Butters has the most wonderful organic, whole wheat basic budget biscuit mix. And I'm so glad I found it!

No, I don't have any affiliation, and sorry if I sound like an ad, but, in a household where convenience/fast foods aren't allowed and cooking and dishes are always on the schedule. This stuff has really come in handy when time and tempers are short. The ingredients are few, simple and of the whole foods variety. Plus I'm supporting a small organic farm with every purchase. So, even though they are making this stuff in Idaho, and shipping it to me. It is not refrigerated, I buy in bulk and I'm supporting a good thing. So, if you haven't checked it out...wander on over to MaryJane's Farm and poke around. We also stock up on her organic black bean flakes, felafel mix and a few other pantry staples that keep this kitchen running when things get tough. The recipes in her magazines are excellent, and that's where I learned to make cobbler!

So, anyway, here's to the last pan . It was mighty delicious.

Hmm, now what to do with the lovely sugar snap apples and red pears I just picked up at the farmer's market...

Birthday Happy Feet and other knitting goodness

2008-09-24T12:42:00.011-04:00

I finished the birthday socks for Michael in the nick of time (read 2 hours holed-up in the bedroom knitting fiercely to get these puppies off the needles and ends woven in. The pattern is Thuja. They knit up quickly to make a nice cushy, chunky sock, great for hanging around the house in slippers or clogs, not necessarily scrunched into work shoes. I knit them in a silk/alpaca blend and they are yummy! Michael loved them and wore them immediately. (Thankfully, the cold snap in the air that morning made it all that much more appealing.)

We celebrated the day with an official "Do Nothing Day" followed by a delicious and decadent dinner at the awesome Lumiere Restaurant. Well worth the price for locally and sustainably procured deliciousness. We left happily sated from corn fritters, fabulous mesclun salad, grass-fed steak and an incredible chocolate torte. Wonderful! And a fitting way to celebrate an auspicious birthday event for the most awesome and inspiring man I know. (Sorry, for the gushing, but I can't hide the fact. I adore him) Happy birthday, Michael. You are da bomb!

In other knitting news, meet Tito, the elefantito that I just finished for my little friend Mariana who just turned two. He is a spanish elephant (a very unusual breed) knit from this Safari Friends pattern. He is unaccustomed to this strange New England weather, and immediately requested a scarf. I hope Mariana will approve. The pattern is from Knitting at Knoon which has great patterns and wonderful tutorials. This is a perfect pattern to use for gifts for little ones.

And a little something for me...

No, despite the slightly sinister look. This is the first of a pair of Maine Morning Mitts (scroll down to the bottom of the link to download the free pattern), knit it Noro Kureyon. Now if only the cold snap would return, I'd have a chance to give the completed pair a run.

And in non-knitting news, we had our first Home Study visit today. We scurried around all weekend, madly organizing, and bringing the house to a new level of order and cleanliness, not seen since we moved in last year. Neither of us had a great night of sleep, what with the stress of not knowing exactly what sort of meeting lay in store today. Happily, all went well and our social worker really put us at ease. She did leave us with homework (a letter to write to the Expectant Mother and a photo album to assemble). After today and 3 more scheduled meetings, she'll write up the home study report and we'll become "waiting parents" gulp... Another check on the adoption to-do-list and on we go!

Singin' in the Rain

2008-09-10T20:58:00.005-04:00

Well it has been awhile since August 16th. I guess time has gotten away from me a little bit lately. Or more accurately, time has got me firmly in it's vice-like grip. And it is hard to wrestle myself away from it. Between taking a little trip to New Jersey to visit my mother, and much time spent working on tracking down adoption paperwork, I haven't had much time for writing.

So, that is my reasoning for taking so long to post about our latest festival. Michael and I are a folk duo, singing in and around the Boston area whenever we get the chance. And we were booked to sing at the Annual Peach Festival for the Church of Our Saviour of Milford, NH a few weeks back. Never ones to turn up our noses at singing old-timey music on a truck bed stage, we jumped at the chance. We were excited and ready for some sun, some good songs and the fruits of the harvest. What we weren't quite expecting was the rain. Or to be more precise, the thunder, lightening and rain. Not my favorite combination when standing on a damp floor (truck bed) surrounded by electric sound equipment.

When we arrived the skies had opened up and it was pouring and crashing down thunder. We left the guitars and CDs in the car and ran to the tents to get the lay of the land and wait for instructions. It was hard to miss the very damp and slightly forlorn looking performers sitting on the stage waiting for the rain to stop. I feared that did not bode well for our stint on the stage. We met with the organizer, Lisa, standing soggy but cheerful under a tent, who pointed towards the couple I'd already seen, and said "I think you guys are next"

So, we grabbed our gear (no roadies in this outfit) and headed over to the little damp square of tent behind the truck bed that made for the "green room." Where the musicians get themselves prepped and ready to go on. I was awfully glad I'd chosen to wear boots with my outfit for the day. Much easier to slog through the puddles. But, I'm afraid that my straw cowboy hat may have seen it's last gig.

Anyway, the show must go on as they say. And it did, and we did. These shots were taken during quick gaps in the rain.

Sadly our audience was mostly deterred by the torrential showers and electrical storms that kept sweeping through. Don't know if you can see the puddles on the empty seats. But, the folks munching away on BBQ and peach cobbler under the dining tent did give us much praise and appreciation when it was all over.

We sang and glanced nervously over at the sound man, Dan and his son and assistant Adam, every time the lightening got close. But, they just kept cheerfully giving us the thumbs up! So, we sang on.

We did get a few brief moments at the end of our set. Just in time to see my cousin Maryanne, and her husband Dave, showing up to cheer us on.

We were fed BBQ and sent on our way with delicious peach pies and peach preserves, with many thanks and the hopes for a sunnier festival next year. This and the telling, are all that remain of our set at the 2008 Peach Festival Fund Raiser. Everything was delish!

They might be giants

2008-08-29T07:43:00.005-04:00

Well, the garden is in high season, literally as this picture will attest. Michael is 6' tall and surrounded here by Benary Giant zinnias and Russian Giant sunflowers. This part of the garden is making a little bit of a spectacle for the neighbors. People stroll down our street in the evening and often stop to observe the giants and the wild array in the garden. Its fun to be sitting in the house and hearing their observations, amazement over the height, glee over the squash growing in the chainlink fence, interest in the giant spider-web bean poles.

We have never grown corn before and are anxiously awaiting the first picking, probably this weekend, as our corn went in a bit later than most local corn. But, our three sisters planting of corn, beans and squash/pumpkins has been a success and there are many ears ripening on the stalks!

We're managing to keep up with the kale by making lots of wilted kale salad, sesame greens with rice, yum! from Feeding the Whole Family, Cynthia Lair's great whole foods cookbook, which we use regularly and by making Colcannon, an irish dish mixing mashed potatoes with kale and onions and sometimes cabbage. This recipe is great when there's a little cool snap in the air. And the leftovers can be reheated as patties in olive oil for really delicious savory potato pancakes.

We have about 6 weeks to the frost date here and are excited to see how much wonderful food keeps growing steps from the front door. Here's what I picked when I came home from work the other night...

Happy Harvest!

Papa's got a brand new (old) car and the latest look at the garden

2008-08-20T12:00:00.012-04:00

Well after a couple of weeks of very frustrating, demoralizing searching, Michael found a new (used) car to replace the one he totaled. His mission was a pretty tough one. He needed to find a reliable, safe set of wheels that didn't cost any more than the insurance company paid him for his old one (not much!) and we were hoping that he could find something that got better mileage than his Mercury Sable.

After many discouraging hours looking at over-priced piles of s.......tuff, being baited and switched, and rudely brushed off by opportunistic used car dealers...hmm is that redundant? We were just at that point when you really begin to think that people suck, when Craigslist came through! We met a very nice man who was selling his older and much loved Honda Civic because he was upgrading to a slightly newer vehicle that his friend was selling him at a good price. Our Honda guy wasn't looking to make a big profit, or rip anyone off. He was completely forthcoming, giving us repair history and even telling us of the next big work that will likely need doing in a year or two. And when we went to sign the papers, he gave us the roof rack and bicycle rack as well as a clean car with a full tank of gas. Our faith in humanity was renewed!

This was all accomplished under the budget that we needed to stay under, and with more than enough money banked for the big repair next year.

Since we also went and met with the adoption agency the other night and found out about the whopping large sum that will need to be found to pay for agency fees, legal fees, medical expenses, etc. , coming in under-budget here was a real big deal. Hoorah!

And I'll leave you with the latest pictures from our burgeoning garden. Hope things are ripening and flourishing around you!

Our weekly bread

2008-08-20T11:32:00.007-04:00

Since last January, we've moved away from eating anything packaged, overly processed, made with white sugar, white flour, trans-fats, additives, etc. Basically we've gone to pretty much a whole foods diet. So far, it has meant the loss of some unwanted extra weight (and more to come), 100 points on my cholesterol reading (I can't remember how much Michael's dropped but it too was significant), better (more consistent) energy, less trash (far fewer food packages) and less consumer guilt.

It has also meant a serious restructuring of the pantry, much more time spent together in the kitchen cooking, more advanced planning on meals and a much better understanding of what we put in our bodies for fuel and where it comes from.

We try to get about 90% of our fuel from plant-based substances, leaves, fruits, grains and allow ourselves one serving per day of organic, wild or humanely raised animal-based food...butter on your toast, milk in your coffee, a piece of meat (swim, fly or amble), cheese, egg, or what have you.

I've always enjoyed baking bread, and now, with the way we eat, I bake all of our bread. At this point that means two loaves of sourdough whole wheat bread a week. And possibly a baked goodie somewhere in there a few times a month. The above picture is fresh from the oven and ready for slicing up for sandwiches or toast for the week. I have many wonderful bread recipes, but my standby for the sourdough weekly bread is Everyday Sourdough Bread from Richard Packham. I use the measures at the end of the recipe for individual loaves, make enough dough for 3 by his calculations, and make two large loaves that fit in the big loaf pans I inherited from my mother. Very nice!

I don't use the powdered milk. When I have fresh milk, I scald it and cool it to room temperature and use that instead of the water and the powdered milk. Just use the same amount of scalded milk as he calls for water. But, if I don't have milk, I just skip it. The bread is not quite as tender but still comes out quite nicely.

Since I always keep a sourdough starter going in my fridge, I just take it out the night before, refresh it with equal parts flour and water and let it sit over night to bubble away. Then I start from there with his recipe. It is a staple around here!

I also make all of our pizza dough from scratch. I find that with my starter, this dough usually does rise to double in size and I cut it into two balls. This works great to freeze and take out in the morning if you feel like a fresh homemade pizza that night.

Another project for the lil' goober

2008-08-12T22:01:00.007-04:00

Finished my first Baby Surprise Jacket designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I used a nice bright colorway in Plymouth Yarn Outback Wool. It feels like it'll be nice and comfy and the wool has a great hand to work on. A fun project once you decode it! Now I'm on the hunt for some appropriate buttons.

Some stress, some relief and some serious gratitude!

2008-08-12T21:34:00.008-04:00

Stress is getting a call from your husband in the middle of the afternoon, telling you he's been in an accident, driven off the road, into a ditch, that he's fine but shaken and to please leave work immediately to rescue him from the side of the road. Low level freak-out in prairie-dog land. I've never shut down the computer, locked everything up, notified the boss and raced for the car so fast!

When I arrived at the scene that Michael had directed me to, I saw a crowd gathered, no husband, and a tow truck straining to haul something out of a deep culvert. Gulp! Luckily, then I saw Michael, leaning against the side of a building, off in a quiet corner, looking rattled and pale.

Relief is seeing for myself that he's relatively unscathed. A troubling back twinge which showed up about an hour after the accident, (soon to be checked out medically) but none of the gruesome possibilities that flooded my brain as they hauled his wrecked car out of the big deep hole. Relief also that the woman who was entirely at fault for the accident did eventually admit her responsibility and was cited with a traffic violation. His poor car even made the front page of the local paper.

Gratitude is looking at this wonderful man who I married ten short months ago, and thanking my lucky stars for every minute of time I have with him safely tucked in our little corner of this big planet. I am truly blessed.

Baby Steps

2008-08-05T21:15:00.006-04:00

Today we made an appointment with the agency that we hope to have handle our domestic infant adoption. This is big—SUPER BIG. And I'm kind of alternating between giddy hyper-excitement and stomach-flipping overwhelm.

Because knitting generally has a calming effect on me, when we really got down to making this step I picked up my needles and cast on a first pair of booties for the lil' goober. Christine's Stay-on Baby Booties from Fuzzy Galore is an incredibly fun and easy way to use up odd bits of yarn. I can't wait until there is a little one to wear them.

Now that they're off the needles, I've cast on a Baby Surprise Jacket which I'll photograph once it looks like more than a hodgepodge of stitches. I realize that there are a zillion more hurdles to jump through before we are actual, official parents. But we have made that first step and we are on our way. Whoohoo!

New projects in the wings

2008-07-28T21:14:00.003-04:00

I've got a serious knitting jones. I've slowly been working on a lovely green hoodie that I'll show once I've gotten it completed. But it seems like old news and what with the weather, and the fussy part I'm knitting right now it has sadly sat languishing in my knitting basket for over a month. But I've been picking up knitting vibes for new projects from all over the creative world, and I succumbed to the siren's song for more yarn. And I did also recommit myself to finishing the hoodie before the first cold snap this fall.

I've picked up some lovely skeins from Webs in Northhampton, MA and Fabric Place in Woburn, MA. Here's a sneak preview of some of the variegated and solid loveliness. All on sale! Which somehow helps me justify the expenditure. I'll give more details as I take it out to actually begin knitting. For now, some flashes of the stash...

Another "Aha" moment

2008-07-28T15:37:00.004-04:00

For any of you who (like me) have been spending lots of time individually clicking on all or your favorite blogs, or typing in URLS every time, to see if they've been updated, and on and on. Well, today I found what is likely old-hat to many and totally new to me, an explanation of blog readers, feeds, subscriptions etc. Since I can't possibly make it as clear as simplemom does...

Go here, check it out, simplify your blogreading!

http://simplemom.net/rss-explained/

I've now allowed subscriptions to this blog which should simplify things, and I established my blogreader account so that I too can streamline my online time. Hope you find this useful.

Who Knew?

2008-07-22T20:36:00.008-04:00

After coming home to yet another big bunch of radishes ready to pull in the garden, it was time to branch out. Until now I've always thought of radishes as those strong flavored things you only need a few of, sliced up thin and put on your salads. But, now that I use so many in my companion plantings (they are good deterrents to many pests) I need to use up a whole lot more of them. And throwing out all those green tops always seemed like such a waste!

Well, after much searching and reviewing different recipes and recommendations, I discovered that the greens can be used too. Who knew! Cuz' I sure didn't! Well then, I decided to cook them the way I cook chard. I snipped off the radish tail and the top stem and sliced the root into quarter-inch segments and tossed them in a saute pan with a little olive oil to begin heating on med high. Then I cut the lower part of the stem off the leaves, washed them thoroughly and gave them a rough chop. They are a bit fuzzy/prickly which can be a little off-putting but, fear not. The fuzzy/prickles seemed to disappear when cooked. Then I threw the roughly chopped (still damp) greens on top of the roots which were now hissing a little in the pan. I sauted the whole lot until the greens were wilted and the radish roots had become a little translucent. Then I drizzled in a little balsamic vinegar, tossed in a few dried cranberries and called it done. The roots had mellowed and no longer had that strong flavor but held up well to the balsamic and the sweet tartness of the cranberries. All in all a delicious way to serve radishes and we're looking forward to having more for lunch tomorrow.

Hope

2008-07-22T11:18:00.004-04:00

Well, I've been doing a lot of reading, seeking, reaching for hope lately. Getting hyper focused on the "news" from media outlets, overhearing too many mindless, soul-less conversations, and even looking closely at the sides of the road on my way to work, all leave me in a dark place. I know it is important to be aware of these realities, if only to push against them and strive for better (for humanity, for the environment, for the future). But it is a tricky balance. And often my eyes and ears are almost desperately casting about for something bright and good to land on.

In a Mind Body Workshop I recently attended, we were encouraged to spend a little bit of dedicated time everyday to appreciating, noting, listing things that brought us joy, gave us hope and positively influenced our day.

Here are a few of mine:

• One bright orange giant zinnia blooming/blazing in a mass of green after a torrential thunderstorm

• A very elderly gent on his daily walk down the soggy morning street in a hot pink t-shirt

• Ten minutes of lovely morning quiet to sip my coffee and read

• Greg Greenway's song "Standing on the Side of Love" with the soul-tugging strains of Pat Wictor's slide guitar...the best kind of music for a morning commute!

• The man with the shiny bald head and twirly mustache who kindly held the door for me this morning

• The discovery of another amazing family making a change at Path to Freedom

What's bringing you hope today?

Growing things...

2008-07-19T15:01:00.007-04:00

Well, our garden is in full swing! Which is pretty exciting since it was all just a big patch of scrubby grass a few months ago. Last summer when we bought the house, I was so excited with the potential for a large-scale garden. And had hoped to get it planned and framed as soon as we moved in. Well, breaking my leg on the day of the closing (whooops), and the subsequent surgery, complications and healing, left all my plans on hold until this spring.

Thankfully, my leg has healed well, and I have a wonderful, supportive husband, Michael, who has done yeoman's duty helping to make my garden plans come to life.

Here he is back in May framing out some beds... (Thanks to brother-in-law Allen and the surprise gift of a power drill. Whoohoo! That sure sped up the process.)

And then we went the lasagna gardening route, using newspaper/packing paper laid over the grass, then kitchen scraps and compost or grass-clippings and then topsoil. And then the planting. My notebook was brimming with sketches, lists and seed catalogs!

Now, here are those same beds, in mid-July. The one that Michael was building is the one on the far side, taller than the chain link fence. It and the one to the right are filled with a "three-sisters" planting. A symbiotic companion planting of corn, pole beans and squash or pumpkins. They are going like crazy! The beds in the foreground were planted later, but have things like broccoli, kale, radishes, carrots, melons and lots of beans. The cobwebby trellis is one I put together for the red runner beans, and inspired by Green Kitchen.

And lastly, here is a close-up of the strange hoopy chicken-wire structure I built for the cucumbers to climb over and shield the mesclun that I've planted inside. We've named it the "cukastoga wagon."

Hope everything in your world is growing and reaching for the light. I'm off to harvest another bunch of lettuce.

Quiet Beginnings

2008-07-19T14:49:00.008-04:00

So, I'm wondering if I should have done something momentous for my first post. But, I've been reading posts (lurking) and commenting (rarely) when I have something to contribute for so long...seemed like I just flowed right into it.

Discovering the world of amazing blogging crafters, and artists, and simple-living folks has really helped me feel connected and hopeful. Which may sound a little odd that the Internet is doing what interactions in my real physical world aren't doing. But, my work world and local neighborhood certainly don't offer the inspiration, creativity, political and social views that I have found on so many relevant, wonderful blogs. That's why I decided it was time to wade in.

I intend this to be a place to document and share my experiments, creations and thoughts. So welcome!

Farmers Market

2008-07-18T15:01:00.005-04:00

Yeah, just got to my first farmers market of the season. I had hoped I'd have enough growing in our own garden to circumvent too much produce shopping, but, although we have loads of lettuce and peas, It'll be a while before we see the likes of the beautiful corn, beans, chard, tomatoes and blueberries I picked up today.

I finally had time to organize a chart of all of the farmers markets that are close to home or work and reasonable to get to at lunch or on my commute. This market, in Newton, MA, took me 15 minutes to get to from the office. I took a friend along to do her shopping as well, so it was a great adventure. Nice! There were three farms represented, a fishmonger, a gelato stand and some information booths. Small but good stuff.

Here's to a delicious summer supper tonight!