A few days behind and weekend updates

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!

Our weekly bread

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.