Tools of the Trade

So the question is if you have a bit of money at this moment; but, you know that you will not have this money in the future, which tools would you purchase to improve your self sufficiency?

For the sake of this post I think that we should consider tools that someone just at the beginning of this journey would need.

This is a partial list. I invite you to include your ideas and I will post an updated list with everyone's ideas on it.

So this is my partial list:

One hot water bath canner. If you did not have the canner maybe you could find the rack to put inside a big stock pot at a Goodwill or antique shop. A pressure canner is nice but can be a bit pricey. I find that when I first started canning I would can anything and everything. What a lot of work. Now I can tomatoes, jams, jellies, some vinegar pickles, some salsas and chicken stock. The pressure canner gets used for some tomato product, salsas and chicken stock. But I use the hot water bath primarily.

Which brings me to my second important food preservation tool. A dehydrator. I started using a small electric dehydrator from RONCO ( off all places). But ideally I would like to make a solar dehydrator. Dehydrated food retains its nutrition. It is so much easier to chop some veggies or fruit than it is to heat water on a warm August day.

Jars. Canning jars for canning but any ole jar will work for dehydrated food. Most of my canning jars have been purchased second hand. I just make sure that they are not chipped. If I had my druthers I would purchases some TATLER reusable canning jar lids and use them for those foodstuffs I know I will be using just for myself and not giving as gifts.

5 gallon buckets have many uses around the homestead. I use them for making compost tea, rhubarb leaf tea. These teas are used in the garden for amending the soil and garden pest control. They can also be used for growing tomato plants on a deck or patio, thus saving you room for other crops if you have a small garden.

A rain barrel. I can not say enough for water storage. We have lost our water several times due to power outages. Water from the rain barrel can flush a toilet, it can be used for washing.

Chainsaw, safety helmet, ear protection, chaps and a good ax. Especially the chaps. Mark wears his everytime he uses his chainsaw. Safety first!

I love my pitchfork. I use it for harvesting some food, turning compost, loading up the wheel barrow with soil amendments. A couple of good hand tools for the garden.

A small lunch box sized cooler. I use this for making yogurt.

If I were to invest in any home improvement I would consider building a rootcellar. If you do not want to dig a big hole in the ground you can build a small room in a cold part of your cellar to preserve food for the winter. With a rootcellar you can store winter squash, potatoes, apples, onions, garlic, cabbage and so much more.

Or a chicken coop. Chickens are cheap to obtain, they eat food scraps, they provide compost for the garden, the eat slugs from your garden and they provide eggs. Some of they can be a source of meat.

Finally, the ultimate resource of knowledge The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. This book has all sorts of information on growing and preserving food. It also is a first resource for information on livestock and homesteading skills.

So, are there any other suggestions? Please share your ideas in the comments.

Thanks!

A rambling update...

So even though I have not been blogging here regularly I have been very busy on the homestead. Our computer is still on the fritz so it will be a while longer before I can be in this space on a regular basis. But while I have the time now I will let you know the many things we have been working on here.

Most recent and most exciting is the open house and lacto -fermenting workshop I participated in this past weekend at Koviashuvik Local Living school. It was a very inspiring weekend. The school itself is just a wonder; with an earth bermed root cellar and green house, amazing compost bins, awesome garden, solar dehydrator. I left the open house thinking that moving off grid does not have to be all that complicated if you just keep your systems simple. Food for thought. The class was great, in that, it answered some questions for me about long term storage of fermented veggies. The ease of this method of food preservation is going to find its way in to my food preservation regimen for the simplicity and low energy technique it provides. Lacto-fermented foods are also really good for you and do not rely on many outside imputs such as vinegar and sugar. Just salt and a few good sized jugs and I will be good to go.


This summer has given our family a good chance to relax after the last couple of busy summers. Each morning I go out to collect some wild foods, herbs from the garden and summer produce. The garden is not as bountiful as I hoped this year. I think it may be a matter of building up fertility. It is our first year in the space so it may be a matter of investing labor and good portions of compost. I just heard on the radio yesterday that Late Blight has appreared again this year so we will be keeping a close eye on our potatoes and tomatoes for any sign.I have hedged my bets with a CSA share this summer to make sure that we put up enough food so that we can cut our grocery bill in half by fall. We have ordered broiler chicks and they should be arriving soon. Our thinking is that we can grow them quickly and feed them with a lot of the by product from the garden.

Last week a friend invited a group of us over to make mozzarella cheese. We each brought our gallons of milk. Mine survived the the curdling but would not pull together. It was still good for putting on homemade pizza. Now that I have worked throught the process I plan to try again soon. I will use the recipe from "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. This should save us a good amount of money. The cheese weighed nearly a pound and cost about 5.00 to make. Much cheaper than a pound of mozzarella at the supermarket and made from mostly local ingredients.

The cupboard shelves are filling up. I find myself with a good rhythm. Each morning I fill the dehydrator. There is plenty of chicken stock, jams and dried kale. I have begun planting my fall garden. There is more broccoli, chard, spinach, beets and carrots in the ground with more spaces to fill with spinach. My favorite new crop to grow are shallots. I love planting 10 seeds and getting 50 shallots in return. I can save some of these for planting next spring. Also the shallots last longer than keeping onions so will be the last onion we eat before spring onions are planted. A good crop for closing the loop.

Evan is 5 years old and we were on the fence about whether to homeschool him or not. We have decided to homeschool him and take advantage of music, art and gym at our local school while we get our feet under us.

Finally, the knitting needles took their summer hiatus during the height of gardening season but I have picked up the needles to finish a few projects. I have not forgotten about the Plant A row Challenge. I hope to be back on line by September to hear how everyone has done with their gardens. I hope you are all well.

Peace, Karin

Independence Days Challenge: Everything is coming up green.

Life has settled into a nice summer pace. Mark is home from school. He is tackling several projects. Most noteworthy is he is replacing the transmission in our VW micro bus. At this point all major systems will have been replaced. So, fingers crossed, it will not be just a lawn ornament but a vehicle that transports people and hay:)

Tristan has started a new job this week. He is 18 and would like to work so he can save money for blacksmithing school. The job search has not been easy. Many of the jobs that kids his age used to get are now going to adults who need any job they can find. So he has started a farm job. Each morning he rides his bike to the farm. It is just a few hours every day but it fits in with his GED class. If he has no other commitments then he can head to a local smithy a friend has to pound metal for a few hours. He really wants to enter the adult world and slowly he is getting there.

Evan and I spend plenty of time in the garden. Evan has signed up for his first summer reading venture. There are plans for a small day camp that focuses on bugs at the end of the summer.

And I do the work of summer; weeding, harvesting, putting food by.

Plant: transplanted elecampane and some volunteer mullein. Most of the garden is planted. There are shelling peas pods that should be ready to harvest soon...and broccoli too!

Harvest: comfrey, kale, swiss chard, red clover flowers, yarrow, borage, green onions, cilantro, dill, lettuce, garlic scapes, oregano

Preserve: lacto-fermented garlic scapes, garlic scape pesto, comfrey in olive oil for a sore muscle rub, yarrow tinctured in vodka for a antiseptic, dried red clover for tea, dried oregano, dried kale. Dried borage for tea.

Local Foods: Local meat, local eggs

Eat the food: lots of greens sauteed, lots of garlic scapes in anything we can put them in. Borage tea for ...ugh..nightsweats.

Waste not: We added another bay to our compost bin and I gave the compost a good turning. Soon after we got a heavy rain so the heat is up in that pile. Mark has been cutting down some small pine trees to help me put posts in the ground for a fence around the garden so critters do not eat from our bounty. However we did see a mother turkey hen and her clutch of chicks near the garden the other day. The fence will be up VERY soon.

Want not: I did a big stock up on staples this past week. Oils and flour. I had my yearly physical. I had my tetanus shot updated. My blood work was "boring". My cholesterol is excellent!

Around the Homestead

Lovely Gwen enjoying a summer salad:)

A new Friend has come to live with us. His name is Wilbur. He is a geriatric old boy enjoying his retirement:)

Happy Wilbur sitting in a sunny window.

A big harvest of Garlic Scapes. I think these will make a nice pesto. Perhaps a few small jars or should I freeze it? Decisions. Decisions.

Independence Days Challenge: Dust Bunnies and Weeds.

We have had a few days of rain here after a bit of a hot spell. It has been a good time to catch up on the work that should be done on the inside of the house; stuff like housework. In the meanwhile the weeds have had the opportunity to take over. Dust bunnies and weeds. This time of year it is hard to keep a balance between the two.

Life is pretty good right now. Mark finishes the school year this week. Evan has his first fishing pole. He caught his first fish this week. A little perch. Tristan is finishing up his GED and looking for work. This is not an easy proposition. Many of the jobs that used to go to teens are now being taken by those who were unemployed and needed any kind of job. He has managed to find some work with an organic farmer.He will be helping with haying. But the planting season got started a little late this year; so, the farmer is not ready for him.

However, another opportunity has presented itself. We have met a family through our homeschooling network. They have been going through a bit of a hard time lately and are planning to move. They have asked Tristan if he can do some work around their place. The work would include mowing the lawn, some heavy lifting with the move and filtering cooking grease for their 5 grease cars. They have limited funds and would be willing to barter a grease car for his labor. Tristan just got his permit and hopes to have his license by this fall. He will have a full education of grease cars this summer. And his mother will have significantly more gray hair as she takes him out on the road.

Plant: More tomatoes, more squash. A friend gifted me a mint plant. Feverfew.

Harvest: beet greens,spinach,lettuce, burdock leaves, lambs quarters, basil, parsley, sheep sorrel, french sorrel, swiss chard, rhubarb, chive blossoms, chives, scallions.

Local Foods: Local milk, local meat from the feed store. Local apple cider vinegar.

Preserve the Food: Chive blossom vinegar. I used the local vinegar for this. Dehydrated Strawberry leaf, dehydrated raspberry leaf. Chicken stock.

Eat the food: Mixed greens salad. I peeled and chopped the stems of burdock leaves to use like celery in come crab cakes I made this past weekend.

Waste not: The sheep are still eating the lawn. This means we have not had to really mow the lawn much. I do take the push mower out and mow in front of the house. I used the grass clippings on a sheet mulched keyhole bed that I have as my herb garden. We are replacing the screen in some of our windows. The house needs some new windows but we are not ready to do this yet. So we bought a roll of screen to fix the screens we have. I plan to take the old screen and use them for several other projects we are working on. One is a sifter for the compost bin. Our wheat will be ready for harvest soon. I will also make a screen box for winnowing. I also plan to reuse the screen to dry the sheep's wool after it is washed.

Want not: Mark picked up a 50lb pound bag of spray malt for making beer this summer. Mark has found out that he is lactose intolerant. This runs in his family. We are learning to adapt to this change. One thing he can eat is yogurt. I usually make yogurt using dehydrated cultures. But I have been experimenting with taking a little bit of yogurt from a prior batch to make the next. I have read varying recommendations about this. One source, Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz, tells of a yogurt culture that has been kept alive for 100 years. But I have heard of other folks who found that the quality of the yogurt degrades over many uses. Yogurt was made before the age of commercial cultures. I think this will take some further research. I started a new sourdough starter. The last one was killed when life got really busy. I hope to put keep one going in the kitchen but put some away in the fridge if the kitchen starter should be neglected.

Eating my lawn: Strawberry Leaf

After a week of rain it is a difficult task to ward off the man of the house and his lawn mower. Fortunately, the mower did not start today and he had to resort to scything some grass for the goat and ram. We set up the netted electric fence to move the ewes into the orchard to start fertilizing some of the trees. They enjoy the fresh green of pasture and after a week of rain they are grateful for the change of scenery from their damp shed. Mower! We don't need not stinky mower!

The sun is still a little shy today and we are supposed to have rain for a few more days here. A lot of seeds have sprouted in the garden but they all could use a little sun and heat to really take off. In the meanwhile I am still collecting dandelion greens and flowers and strawberry leaf.

We have an abundance of wild strawberry in our yard. I have been collecting bunches of the leaves to dry. Strawberry leaf is very high in vitamin C. Juliet de Bairacli Levy, in her book Common Herbs for Natural Health, recommends strawberry leaf tea used internally for fever, improving vitality, anemia, improving your appetite, regulating menstruation and as a stomach aide. Externally the tea can be used as soothing lotion for eczema which my little guy is prone to have during the winter and spring.

My goal this year is to provide all our herbal tea needs. We drink a fair amount of it in our home;especially, in the winter. I have spearmint, lemon balm, bee balm( aka bergomot), chamomile and catnip. Some wild foods will fill out this collections of teas. Dandelion and strawberry leaf are just the start. This week I hope to collect wild raspberry leaf too!

Dandelion Dreams

Is there really any other flower more sublime than the dandelion? Oh, sure, there is the bold rose with its lovely fragrance. A vast array of perennial flowers bless my garden; echinacea, peony and bee balm. Their wild sisters; Daisy, Indian paint brush and Black Eyed Susans, are great for gathering into summer bouquets. Sun flowers are truly wonderful. But I have thing for dandelions.

When I was a child I have memories of concocting magic potions from dandelion heads. I used to cringe when a boy would grab the flower and say, "Momma had a baby and it's head popped off" and decapitate the flower from its milky stem. I used to weave those stems and flowers into garlands for my hair.

Now as an adult with a home of her own I am warding off the man with the mower. "No dear, you can't mow until the dandelions have passed." Each morning I walk along the orchard and collect the young greens for the dehydrator and a salad for later in the day. This past week I collect the heads for a small batch of dandelion wine. A wine we will enjoy next spring when it is fully matured. I dig dandelion roots to make a tincture of dandelion.

According to Deb Soule, in her book A Woman's Book of Herb's, Dandelion root tea or tincture is "valuable for woman going through menopause to take on a regular, long term basis for helping regulating hormone changes." Dandelion is also great liver tonic which helps with the transition from a winter diet; heavy in fats and meat, to a spring/summer diet that is lighter and filled with more fresh veggies.

Dandelions are the perfect wild food. Abundant, easy to identify, and most parts of the dandelion are edible. The greens make salads and teas, the flowers can be cooked to make a tempura, and the roots can be used as a coffee substitute. In terms of food storage it is a nice crop to start the preservation season with. This blog post has a great recipe for dandelion jelly I would like to try. Alas we are supposed to have a week of rain. I hope there will still be blossoms to pick after the rain has ended so that I can try it.

I am just a sucker for a cheerful splash of yellow on a canvas of spring green:)

Preserving 2011

PRESERVATION 2010

• Apple Dehydrated 2 quarts
• Apple sauce 10 quarts
• Beans frozen, 9 quarts
• Beans, Dilly 14 quarts 2 pints
• Blackberries, wild, frozen 1 quart
• Blueberries frozen 7 quarts
• Blueberry syrup 6 half pints
• Broccoli frozen 36 quarts
• Carrots Pickled 4 quarts
• chive blossom vinegar 4 pint
• Corn frozen 3 quarts
• Dandelion greens dehydrated 1 pint
• Dandelion/Peach wine 1 gallon
• Garlic Heads 84
• Garlic Scapes dehydrated 1 pint
• Maple Syrup 1 gallon, 3 quart, 3 pints
• onions, dehydrated, 2 quarts
• Oregano dehydrated 1 quart 1 pint
• Peach Salsa 9 pints
• Peas, shelled, frozen 19 quarts
• Raspberries cultivated, frozen 4 quarts
• Raspberries wild, frozen 1 quart
• Raspberry jam 3 pints 1 half pint
• Raspberry wine 1 gallon
• Rhubarb salsa 6 pints
• Rhubarb Syrup 5 half pints
• Spinach dehydrated 2 quart
• Spinach frozen 13 quarts
• Strawberries, frozen, 4 quarts
• Strawberry jam 6 pints
• strawberry wine 1 gallon
• Tomato puree 9 quarts
• Tomato Salsa 13 pints
• Tomatoes, roasted,5 pints
• yarrow tincture 1 quart

I am taking care of a little blog house work today. This is last years preserve tally. With the sugaring season in full swing it is time to keep a record of this years preserving efforts.

End of Febuary, must be time to eat shredded zucchini

There is a really good supply of frozen rhubarb in my freezer; one nearly empty quart bag of blueberries; plenty of strawberries I plan to make some fruit leather with; and an abundance of shredded zucchini.

Each summer I find overly large zukes in the garden and at the farmstand for a steal.Sometimes they are abandoned like babies on my door step. Each summer I shred these zukes. It is a laborious task. Often while at this task I ponder why I preserve the zuke this way. Those large zukes would make good chicken feed. The growing piggie would enjoy them too. So why do I do this?

Once we are no longer eating from the garden we start eating the veggies we have preserved the summer before. The corn and tomatoes always seem to go first. One of these years I will figure out the proper amount of corn and tomatoes to put up. There is the broccoli, peas and beans a worthy replacement for the greens we crave. Inevitably, those frozen quarts of zucchini get tossed about until they sit lonely at the bottom of a nearly empty freezer; hidden under bread butts saved for making bread crumbs and containers of soup put aside for Mark's lunch for work.

When I was shredding those zukes I thought about the muffins, soups and sweet quick breads that they will be. Tonight, however, it is the only vegetable available until I can get some local greens at our healthfood store. Yes, the end of the veg is nigh! Oh, sure, there are plenty of pickles but out of all the free veg gleaned from my farm job last summer, all the veg I harvested from my garden, out of all the food preserved in my freezer and canned; all that remains is the lowly shredded zuke. Granted it was not nearly as much as what I have done in past years because of our move; but, oh boy, it SEEMED like a lot. What is a resourceful homesteader to do?

Zuke patties!

All measurements are approximate.

1 quart of shredded zucchini, defrosted and left in a strainer till it is dry-ish

3 tablespoons parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic minced and sauteed in olive oil until soft

about 1/2 cup bread crumbs, I also threw in a little wheat germ

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a bowl adjust amount of bread crumb until you have a firm texture. Form into small patties. I used a couple of teaspoon to shape. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Drop patties into pan and brown on both sides.

These would be good served with a chutney or mustard.

Enjoy!

This morning...

I woke this morning to the song of Evan's voice as he sought the warmth of my bed. A quick, blurred check of the sky out the window informs me that it will be a cold, gray day. I lovely day to be at home. Mark left for work early this morning and I have no place to be....

Already, my mind goes to that forever to-do list. This may a good day to finish preserving those apples. I should probably work on someone's Halloween costume. After living here for two months, I am still trying to find a place for everything in this small house. There are couple of more corners I could organize...

I fumble for my glasses as I share a conversation with Evan about his plan for his day. We head downstairs. I read two chapters of Stuart Little to him. We make a plan to finish reading it today.

It is chilly. So I decided to start a small fire. I will close off the upstairs room. There is a door at the top of the stairs and a vent in the ceiling over the stove. If I close these then the downstairs will get warmer, quicker. I am learning how to use this passive solar berm house. I will open the vent and the door this late afternoon so it is warmed for our bedtime.

I put the kettle on for tea, slice some sourdough bread for our toast and ponder this weeks grocery list. I would like to get some pie pumpkins to preserve some puree for quick soups and breads. Our days have been busy and our regular evening dinners have been interrupted with Mark's and Tristan's schedules. So I need to have ingredients that are easy to use so some quick meals could be easily pulled together but still wholesome. The farmer's market is nearly done for the regular season. So I try to think of any other crops I might want to get for preserving for the winter. Maybe some more carrots for pickling or maybe some beets.

Tristan joins us around the breakfast table where boy banter gets around to plans for playing with legos. But first Tristan will tend to the animals and take care of some studying.

After breakfast I find Evan some clothes to put on and I begin morning chores. I fold some laundry that has been hanging on the rack. My regular housekeeping routine falls apart on the weekends and I play catch-up on Mondays. Sweep the floors, tidy, make beds. Evan shares his desire for Blueberry Muffins and I agree if he will help me. He is a willing assistant both in the preparing and the eating.

I throw another log on the fire when the eternal question of," What is for dinner?" is answered in this regular chore of tending the fire. I will bake beans on the woodstove and make a pot of corn chowder later in the day. Maybe a small green salad with the arugula and spinach I found at the farmer's market the other day. The beans will be made with local maple syrup and applesauce, local leftover pork. The corn will come out of the freezer. Our local dinner.

While the muffins bake and I prepare the beans for the stove, Evan plays with playdough. My kitchen table becomes a major construction site. Until...the muffins are out of the oven. The boys enjoy their share and I save a few for Mark to take with him with his lunch tomorrow.

As I write this post I realize that what was going to be a record of our morning is a study in home economics. Sometimes I find that I take what I do at home for granted. As a stay-at-home mom I do not always give my work the same credit as Mark's work outside the home. But it is the work I do at home that saves us money; feeds us real, wholesome foods; keeps order in our home and takes care of my family.

The muffins are eaten and I am going to turn an audio book on for Evan while I tidy the kitchen from our morning. It is almost lunch time...

Independence Days Challenge

Well, busy is still the word and work of the day. Today there is a heavy rain, the farm called to tell me I do not need to work today. This gives some time to pack more boxes and maybe take care of some handwork.

Our grocery bill is starting to shrink again as we eat most of our veggies from the garden now. The chickens are really starting to lay. The other day we got an egg for each chicken. 7!! The pole bean are up and climbing. The first garlic flavor of the season has graced our plates in the form of garlic scapes. I love picking them because my hands smell like garlic afterward.

Tomorrow we go to Farmington and begin the heavy work of taking down an old woodshed and taking out the old bathtub for a new one. My father-in-law came up last week to deliver our wedding present...a clawfoot bathtub. We will be married 5 years in August. The new house is the perfect house for such a tub and by the end of the move we will be so grateful for its deep warm waters;)

Plant: I did not get anything planted this week but I do need to get some greens planted in the ground.

Harvest: green onions, garlic scapes, mint, oregano, yarrow, lettuce, swiss chard, strawberries, peas

Preserve: strawberry jam, frozen strawberries, frozen peas, dehydrated garlic scapes,

Local food system: I went strawberry picking at the u-pick day at the farm, workers could pick for a dollar quart. Bought a peck of peas for shelling. Local burger.

Eat the food: I made a cheese strata with swiss chard, green onions and garlic scapes. Local burgers on the grill with a pasta salad with garlic scapes, green onions and green peas. Evan ate more peas than he shelled, he ate more strawberries than he picked:) Evan's new composition is the song,"I stole a pea from Tristan"

Waste not: I freeze the ends of bread and usually use these for bread crumbs or croutons. I used this bread for the bread layer in the cheese strata. We feed the pea shells to the sheep and goat. The chickens got the hulled tops of the strawberries. Still making piles for the thrift store.

Want not: The Kiwanis club in town has an annual auction and yard sale. I found old canning jars that use the rubber rings. I use these to keep herbs and small portions of beans and grains. I also found and old popcorn tin. Because we buy large bulk quantities all the food needs larger containers The new house has a little mouse problem. Once our cats are moved I am sure that the ratio of mouse to person will be balanced. But I want to make sure that all food stuffs are in airtight containers that can not be chewed easily. I also found the cookbook More with Less Cookbook for .50! It is the 1979 edition and has rings on the binding. It is my new favorite cookbook. Simple meals from simple ingredients. I also found a nice 70's vintage tablecloth that I might make a skirt from..when I have the time..oh some time around January:)

Kitchen Memories

When I think of how I reached this homesteading life I lead, I can point to an evolution in a life from single mother to married homeowner. I can think about those times when I daydreamed with a MotherEarth News on my lap. I can remember the feeling of satisfaction as I learned new skills that allowed me to be more self-sufficient; gardening a small community garden plot, learning to knit and purl, the first batch of strawberry jam..err syrup. I learned to trade time at work with time spent using my own skill.

But really the journey begins in the kitchens of my childhood.

I have memories of my mother in a frenzy of flour, sugar, molasses and chocolate chips as she baked cookies for Christmas presents one year. My mom was not the best cook. She could cook a good porkchop into shoe leather. She would get in a rut with menus where every week we could rely on tuna noodle on Tuesdays and chili on Fridays. Wednesdays really were Prince spaghetti nights in our house. But cookies, she could bake. My memory of my kitchen at home is always of me standing so high to the kitchen counter, waiting for a little hand of chocolate chips as they tumbled from the bag into the bowl. She was so adept at scooping a consistent amount of dough from the bowl to the baking sheet with two teaspoons. Cookies were a real treat in our home. Dessert was not something that showed up on our table on a regular basis. But when it did appear, it often appeared as cookies.

When my mother worked on weekends my brother and I used to spend the weekends at my grandparents house. This was where the real lessons took place. I would help my grandfather in the small veggie patch he grew in the backyard. My grandmother taught me how to embroider and crochet. Food is so connected to my memories of my grandparents. My grandfather always made us soft boiled eggs for breakfast. Only he could cook it just the right way. My grandmother used to make spam ( yes spam) and egg salad sandwiches with bread and butter pickles. My grandfather was designated potato masher. But there was one smell that IS Saturdays at my grandparents and that is the smell of homemade tomato sauce simmering on the stovetop all day.

And then there were the pickles. Every Christmas my Aunt Lil would give our family a pint of bread and butter pickles. My Aunt always had a big, big veggie garden. During the summer we would be gifted with paper bags full of corn, tomatoes, cukes and the ubiquitous zucchini. For so many years I wondered at the pickles. How did they find themselves in the jar? Finally one year when I was around ten years old I was welcomed into the kitchen to help with the pickle making. I was given chopping duties because the pickles could be thick and my unexperienced hands could manage thick. The cooperative effort of everyone in the kitchen is the greatest memory of pickling, even if after the pickle magic was diminished.

When I think about the abilities I want to instill in my sons, I think the most important skill is knowing how to cook good, healthy, simple food. Tristan can bake bread and is creative in his choice of ingredients for the dinners he prepares for us. But there has not been a bad meal yet. Evan wants to stand so high to the counter and not only sample the chocolate chips but add and stir the ingredients himself. The best lesson and memory I can give him is to allow him to stir to his hearts content....

Swimming in a sea of sap

We are inundated with maple sap! Ten gallons of sap a day for 8 days equals 2 gallons of syrup. The weather is cooperating. Frosty nights and warm days. This amount of sap at one time is a a first for us. This is our third year sugaring and we've never had to handle this much sap at once. We hope it keeps flowing for a few more days so we can beat our prior syrup savings of 2 gallons.
And when we are not feed flames and straining the days collections we sit and work on a new rug ...in the sun! Look at those hard working farm lady hands....:)

This and That

Thrift store score! 2 dozen canning jars for 4.00! Okay, I am easily pleased with a canning jar deal. Simple woman. Simple Pleasures;)

A basket of thrifted jersey sheets and fabric. Soon to be a rug.
Paperback Books swapped and gracing my mailbox this week. We love Duck:)
Gratuitous kitty photo of Lily cat.

Food Friday: Managing food storage

First a caveat. Although I am better at managing food than before I started this food storage endeavor, I am by no means perfect. I will confess right here for the whole world wide web to know that; yes, sometimes, there are unidentifiable, aged, mummified or otherwise altered from the original recipe containers of previous meals in my fridge.

But not as much as there used to be:)

First step to managing food storage is incorporating a routine of regular inventory of our pantry. There is all this food I have put up and I want to make sure that 1) I don't find myself with a pantry full of pickled beets that were lost behind containers of dried beans 2) none of the jars have lost their seal leaving the food inside spoiled 3) that jars did not get moved around; mixing the jars of beets that were canned the year before pushed to the back, while we eat our most current beet effort. So about once a month I go into the cupboard. I bring a damp cloth to wipe down the shelves. I bring my black Sharpie marker and masking tape to replace any labels that may have fallen off and I make sure everything is dated.

If it seems that during inventory, I find we are heavy on one item I will make a note to myself to incorporate that food into our meals more. One thing I have not become very good at is trying not to eat all the tomatoes right away. We always seem to finish those first. Ideally, I would like to better manage the pace with which we consume some things so it last longer through the winter season, but then ideally I would like to not open moldy containers in my fridge too;)

I also take note of those grains, oils, sweeteners are low in order to determine if I will need to put these things on my bulk order.

The freezer gets pretty much the same treatment. We keep our freezer in the garage so if we should lose power in the winter things stay pretty cold. I always bring a flash light with me because the lighting isn't that great and need to see to the bottom to get an idea of what is left in there. If there is anything that looks like it might be getting too frosty it is brought inside and put in a soup or bread.

As for the fridge, this is something that has gotten better with time and especially since I make meals for hubby to take with him when he is gone during the week. The best way I have found to manage this is to batch cook. When I make a pot of rice and beans, or soup, tortilla or hot dish I put a couple of portions in the freezer for him for the following week. I initially started doing this because I found that I would spend my whole weekend cooking for him for the week which detracted from the time we could spend together during his time at home. But a benefit to this has been that there the last bowl of soup that no one wants to eat for the 4th or 5th time does not sit there abandoned.

As for other leftovers, this has been managed with better planning and growing boys. For some things like mash potatoes whatever gets leftover gets put in bread or pancakes. Same for any leftover rice or oatmeal. When we serve steamed veggies they just get divided by the number of plates on the table so that there are no leftovers. If there should be any leftovers we either have them for lunch the next day or there is one meal a week, usually a lunch,that is comprise of only leftovers.

Last time, I cleaned the fridge out I noticed that we had a lot of jars of open pickles in there. So now there is only one shelf in the fridge that is designated for pickles. Same goes for jams and sauces.

Ultimately, I realized that not only is food waste a loss of money but also a waste of all the effort I put into food preservation.

How do you manage your food stream? Do you have a system you would like to share?

Next week, I'll share some menus from the coming week with you.

Food Friday...er..Tuesday... Veggies and Fruits.

Sorry for the late food post. Friday was teen's 17th birthday! 17 ..wow....

We celebrated the day with a favorite breakfast. He spent the better part of the day working in the workshop carving wood. We made cake and a favorite dinner. He received his own coffee cup, a hair brush and an art class at the Maine College of Art. He had wanted to take a metalsmithing class this spring but when he realized it was only jewelry making and not his desired blacksmithing, he opted for a digital photography class. We also marked the occasion with a shaving lesson. I have pictures of his face with shaving cream but I promised not to post them online;)

Anyway, the last element to our food storage is fruits and veggies. We grow a lot of the veggies that we eat. Whatever we don't grow, we purchase at our local farmstand, farmer's market or directly from the farm. We also make use of many of the U-pick farms that are available in our area.

And then, we preserve it all. Along the side bar is a list of all we preserved this past year. Looking at the list seems quite impressive. A vast amount of food was squirreled away. The amount of work and effort that goes into this endeavor is part of the seasonality of the life we have chosen to live. But I'll be honest. We are finding that it may not be enough to get us through the winter and we may have to start buying produce by the end of February.

Last growing season was a hard one in the Northeast. We had nearly a month and a half of rain from early June to mid July. Early on, there were already fears that there was late blight in the air; brought to us by tomato plants imported by Walmart and given just the right moist conditions to flourish. For us, this meant that we had to harvest our potato plants a month early to avoid losing the crop. We ended up with 80lbs of small spuds. This also meant that, although I was able to have an ample quantity of tomatoes on the vine , I was only able to can a couple of batches of salsa. The rest of the crop were blighted before they were ripe. Another staple food for us, winter squash, faired no better.

So we bought several cases of tomatoes at our local farmstand. We also bought corn because it was too cool and wet to get ours to grow. Buying from the farmstand is helpful but given the expense, we did not put up the same quantities that we did the prior year. The same goes for berries. I was able to pick about seven quarts of raspberries and blackberries from our own land. But the field where we had picked blueberries the prior year was not open this past summer, so we were only able to get our berries from a more expensive source.

So this is where we are right now; the peas are gone. There is a half a quart of corn. Still a few weeks worth of broccoli and about half a dozen quarts of frozen green beans. We have yet to touch the frozen rhubarb. There is a local farm still selling apples. We have gone through fresh apples but I can still get some of these and make crisp with the rhubarb.

There are plenty of pickled carrots, beans and beets. Only 2 quarts of pureed tomatoes, 4 pints of salsa. Dehydrated apples are nearly gone. But we have plenty of dehydrated kale and zucchini. I have been using the kale in bread. I re-hydrate the zuke for pizzas and soup. The onions and leeks are gone but we still have garlic.

We still have some canned chicken soup and spuds. But the fresh spuds are near their end.

There are parsnips and jerusalem artichokes in the ground. We had a big rain last night so I may go out to the garden to see if some can be dug up. There are beet greens under row cover and plastic tunnels also. So I will clean the snow off of these to see if they can be perked up a bit before we come out of our January thaw.

I've been reflecting about what I would do if I really had no option but to rely solely on the food I put up. Seeing the bottom of the freezer in January can be a little unsettling. We are lucky to have the choice between working on this endeavor of food preservation or going to the grocery store/farmer's market. My thoughts turn to possible future scenarios where I may need to be more dependent on the fruits of my own labors because there are shortages due to peak oil or food price inflation puts many foods out of the reach of my pocket book. And then there is the whim of the weather and how extremes in weather last summer greatly impacted my ability to get ample crops from my own ground.

I haven't got any answers yet. I am still thinking on this but I think that building up skills in wildcraft will be necessary.

I will next address how we manage our food storage, minimizing food waste.

Let the countdown begin!

Today, I harvested another 5 gallons of carrots. I am going to make another 7 quarts of pickled carrots and can some more up for soup carrots. I went down to the basement to gather the needed jars and realized that I have only 18 quarts left for the season.

This is the first time that I have filled every canning jar.

Well, they are not all filled yet. But we are going to pick some apples this week so I will have another 7 quarts of applesauce, and at least a half dozen quarts of apple pie filling. We are going cranberry picking this week. So I anticipate the last of the 5 pint jars to be filled with cranberry sauce.

I used any jars that were chipped for keeping dehydrated stuffs. I still have the last of the onions and leeks to dehydrated. So I will be scrounging around for some kinda containers for those.

Brother can you spare a jar?

Apple Season and a time for reflection...

My friend, Anne and I ventured to the Orchard yesterday. It was not open for picking yet; but we were able to score a case of early Mac's . With everything that is on the to-do list my hope is to wind up most of the canning in the next week or so; unless some windfall comes our way.

Each year, another skill or recipe is added to the list of methods I use to fill my larder. Each year, my self sufficiency increases. Last year, I made several batches of wine. Following the recipe to the letter, each preparation was an event. This year wine making confidence has built to a point of aptitude and adventure as I explore the wine making of other fruits and combinations of fruits.

This year I have explored the use of several herbs that have just magically appeared in my garden. Mullein has sprouted up all over. I made some garlic and mullein oil for ear aches for this winter. Yarrow has also had quite a year in the garden. I have a tincture of yarrow for wounds and I have dehydrated some for other purposes. The rose hips are plentiful this year and I will make some jelly with it. It will be saved as special jelly this winter when we need an extra boost of Vitamin C on our toast. For many of these preparations I use two books, The Medicine Maker's Handbook by John Green and Common Herbs for Natural Health by Juliette de Bairacli Levy.

With apple season here, I have a long list of things I want to make. New this year is apple pie filling. I think this would be an easy way to throw together a crisp, pie or extra treat on the oatmeal in the morning. I am also going to try making apple cider vinegar from the scraps of cores and peels. This looks like a great recipe. I would add putting a small label with the date on the jar to help keep track of when your vinegar is mature. I will have several jars going over the next few weeks and I want to keep consistency in the making.

All these skills and recipes reflect an older wisdom of the kitchen that has been lost to the microwave and the instant dinner in a box. It is an exciting to learn and practice and hopefully pass the knowledge on.

Independence Day Challenge Year 2, The 19th week

The end of summer is nigh...ooh sounds so ominous!

September is a busy month around the homestead. Hubby heads back to work, the back-to school routine is finding its way back into our days, there is a long to-do list, there are heaps of food around and most of our dinners are local and from our own homegrown efforts.

This past weekend I hit up the local farmstand. They are not certified organic but they try to use as few interventions as possible. They always sell in quantities for preserving; which is something I was very aware of the other day while there. As I was inquiring about 40lbs of canner tomatoes, I was aware that there several conversations occurring that centered around recipes for preservation. One woman talked about zucchini relish, another about her pickled cauliflower. One woman's pile of produce grew while she discussed that she had not put up anything yet because she had given up on her garden; but that her Labor day weekend would be spent preserving her purchase of that day. I was gifted dill heads for some dilly beans. Every store in the region has a canning jar display. I know more people are putting food up but I think that food preservation has always been a big part of the culture in these parts.

We are awaiting the final word on the home we hope to rent and we are still awaiting approval from the bank and other agencies for rental of our current home. Financially, it will be a little tight be we should manage to cover all our expenses with enough to still put into savings. But we have done the 2 household thing for a week now and everyone is out of sorts. We need to be together as a family.

In the meantime the work of the season continues. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed with it all. There are 2 dozen ears of corn to process for the freezer, 5 gallons of carrots and 2 more beds to dig up and process, a bag of beets from the farmer's market to pickle. We did not grow a pig this year, so I need to concentrate on some meat for the freezer soon. I go apple picking this week. My hope is to pick 4 pecks. One peck for dehydrating, one for sauce, one for apple pie filling and one for us to eat. I will pick more in October to have for just eating for the rest of the autumn. This year I am going to try making apple cider vinegar from the apple scraps.

Plant: spinach, beets, winter rye

Harvest: carrots, tomatoes ( gotta toss the rest of the blighted plants), zucchini, mint, sage, yarrow, rutabaga, onions, cilantro, early jalapeno peppers, paprika peppers, basil, kale.

Preserve: pickled carrots, diced tomatoes, tomato puree,tomato salsa, dehydrated mint, dehydrated sage, frozen beans, dilly beans, rhubarb frozen.

Local foods: picked up 40lbs tomatoes, 10 pounds of pole beans, 2 dozen ears of corn, dill heads at the local farmstand. A neighbor gave me some kholrabi and rhubarb from her garden.

Manage reserves/prep: restocked sugar and flour, tidied pantry, mowed lawn and mulched the garden...ugh the weeds have taken over...

reduced waste: gave many bags of outgrown clothing to kholrabi neighbor for her grandson. The no money waste plan is working fabulously.

Eat the food: We are eating the last of the roasts from last year's pig. All the veggies we eat are local and from our own garden. Alas we passed our chickens on to a good neighbor. We did not want our free range roosters to get randy with anyone looking at the house and they were eating the seed I had planted in the garden. Their coop was not "show ready" and was dismantled this summer. They had been living in the barn and roaming free. So we will be buying local eggs until we can have birds again. It is strange, they were the first "homesteady" thing we did when we came out here. Now that they are gone, I miss the scavenger hunt for the eggs. It always felt like a gift when I found one in the coop or barn.

Independence Day Challenge Year 2, The 16th and 17thth week

Well, phew, it is a busy time of the year. We are still trying to figure out our housing for the winter. There are numbers flying everywhere. Some of them not so cheerful. Some downright depressing. It is a sordid story of a bubble that has burst, taking all those folks that did the right thing down with those that tried to get something for nothing. Alas, this too shall pass and we will figure out something.

We have been bitten by blight here. We harvested our potatoes just before we left for vacation; saving the harvest as least. We harvested about 80 pounds of potatoes. But gee, the whole time we were digging them up I was thinking," Just a few more weeks and they would have been so much more." But we will have enough for the winter. The real loss is in the seed. I had been saving my potato seed for the last few years. This past spring we bought 5lbs of seed. We planted about 20 lbs of seed. So about 15 lbs of potatoes from saved seed. Next year we will have to start from scratch and buy much more seed.

The tomatoes have been blighted too. I have trimmed all the leaves off the plants. The fruit looks okay, so I hope to, at least, harvest the toms we have; which is not much. I planted 40 plants, I have harvested 1 red tomato and it is almost September. I asked a farmer at the farmer's market if he could sell me a bushel of "canner" tomatoes. He said that it might be slim pickings and could not be sure he would have any by the next market.

This heat has brought humidity ;which is okay, at least it is heat. But it is going to get autumn-like by the end of the week. Short season. Hope the frost can hold off for another month.

Plant: more spinach

Harvest: Basil, kale, tomato ( just 1), potatoes, paprika peppers, early jalapeno pepper, onions, zuccichini, pole beans, blackberries

Preserve: frozen beans, frozen blueberries, salsa, peach jam, peach wine, dehydrated peaches, blueberry jam, dehydrated dill, dehydrated kale.

Manage reserves/ prep: We hit the duty free shop on our way home from Canada and bought 1 bottle of vodka for herbal tinctures. Strained herbal oils and tinctures. Working on a list for another bulk food order in October. trimmed and re-staked tomatoes.

Eat the food: can one eat too much zucchini?

Local foods: Farmer's market and we bought Ontario peaches when we were in Ontario.