Posted in Crafting, Homemaking, Learning, Moderation and Economy, Sewing on Jul 31st, 2010
The children went to a Storybook Costume Ball with their cousins last night. We had a two-day scramble to throw together some costumes, but we pulled it off just in time! Here’s a little bit on what we made:
Little Hen wanted to be Amphitrite, the Queen of the Ocean, wife of Poseiden, in Greek [...]
Posted in Moderation and Economy, Sewing on Jul 30th, 2010
Tum Tum is a big boy – off the chart for height and weight, and finding pants to fit him is tough (doubly tough to find pants that fit him with a bulky cloth diaper on.)
The girls and I have spent the last two days frantically sewing costumes for the kids for a costume party [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Moderation and Economy, Playing/ Free Exploration on Jul 28th, 2010
Just a quick post to share the recipe for my favorite childhood snack.
We were given 40 lbs of honey (albeit, crystallized, so I’ve had to de-crystallize it in batches), so I’ve been trying to come up with ways to use it in my cooking. We’ve made several batches of jam, substituting honey for a portion [...]
Posted in Locally grown, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Jul 21st, 2010
It’s late July in the BCS Teaching Garden @ Salt of the Earth Urban Farm! The pumpkin vines have taken over! The runner beans are finally climbing their poles, and we have summer squash setting on every plant!
The garden is really changing – we pulled all of the garlic and shallots from our family beds [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Learning, Locally grown, Uncategorized on Jul 20th, 2010
Little Hen’s new favorite jam: Black Currant!
I’ve always loved a little Cassis in my hot tea in the winter, but this is the first year we’ve tried jam made from these relatives of the gooseberry, which have a distinctive, smoky/ musky flavor.
Black currants are full of pectin, so they are perfect for jam – all [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Locally grown, Moderation and Economy on Jul 19th, 2010
A bit late, but here are some pics from our drive out to Sandy Farms last week to pick sour cherries. (A big thanks to Chris at Lost Arts Kitchen for letting me know about the good cherry picking there!)
This was the first time I’ve cooked with sour cherries, and we made sour cherry + [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Locally grown, The Gift of God on Jul 14th, 2010
The early morning was spent preparing a big batch of Hood River organic cherries for the dehydrator. We ate oodles fresh, and what is left will go in a batch of sweet cherry brandy (makes the best fruitcake for Christmas).
If you don’t have a cherry pitter, check out this tip, and these, for how to [...]
Posted in Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Jul 12th, 2010
We’re harvesting 8 types of hard and softneck garlic this week (and shallots, and pulling up spent pea vines). Despite some of the garlic struggling with rust due to the rainy weather, nearly all of the bulbs are big and well formed and beautiful.
Garlic is so easy to grow, and heirloom garlic come in such [...]
The past week, we’ve been tackling some simple sewing projects (and I mean simple, and even then my seams are wonky).
Most other times of the year, sewing feels more like an obligation, but it’s really relaxing after dinner in the summer – especially after grubbing around in the dirt in the garden much of the [...]