Jammin' on the one

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.

Knitting in shades of Spring

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!!!

Abundance

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!

Shades of late summer greens and yellows...

...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!

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!

Maine, Fudge and catching up on the IDC Challenge

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

Making yogurt and a little of the harvest

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!