Posted in Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Uncategorized, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Mar 10th, 2010
Seems like we’ve been living in our wellies this week as we spent most of our time planting in the garden. This week we’ve started:
Peas, round two, this time in the front yard – Little Marvel, Tall Telephone, and Oregon Sugar Pod II.
Potatoes, in three beds in the backyard, near the larger coldframe – German [...]
Posted in Learning, Our home, Playing/ Free Exploration, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Mar 1st, 2010
We scrapped all other plans for today,
and simply played in in the dirt.
As Firecracker said, “There’s nothin’ more natural than gettin’ dirty.”
Somehow, in the midst of playing “dirt fairies”, “cruel dirt queen who makes her workers dig all day”, “climb dirt mountain”, “search for worms and buried treasure”, and “fill and empty buckets of [...]
Posted in Changing Seasons, Locally grown, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Feb 26th, 2010
You know what they say – “Good things comes in small packages.” I think tomato seeds are just about the best small package around -they contain the promise of wonderful meals to come.
I know our garden is going to be growing food for more than our nuclear family, and therefore we’ll be starting more tomato [...]
Posted in Books and Reading, Changing Seasons, Learning, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Feb 24th, 2010
The girls are listening to Daddy read The Mousehunter at bedtime, but our daytime book selection reflects the unusually sunny, warm weather that has us all thinking of anything except the tail-end of winter.
We just finished listening to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Which is why we’re starting an asparagus bed - Little Hen was fascinated by [...]
Posted in Building Community, Changing Seasons, Nature Table, Playing/ Free Exploration, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Feb 22nd, 2010
We’re working on a converting our front lawn into veggie beds, and the unseasonably warm and dry weather has helped us get a jump start on sheet mulching. Goodbye lawn, hello permaculture landscape! While Tum Tum and I spread cardboard, straw, manure and compost, Little Hen and her Daddy were busy building cold frames out [...]
Posted in Building Community, Changing Seasons, From my kitchen, Giving, Weaving, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Nov 21st, 2009
A morning spent baking a pecan pie thank-you.
An early afternoon spent planting hyacinths and digging earthworms with the girls.
A late afternoon of immense blessing – We have been given an enormous maple loom, made right here in Oregon. We spent about two hours getting it dissassembled, carried up our narrow stairway, and reassembled.
It will need [...]
Posted in Nature Table, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Nov 19th, 2009
I found these other-worldy fungi while mulching our future veggie garden on Saturday (these are a species of Inky Cap). The children were resting, and the sun was shining, so I dashed out to work on our sheet-mulched, mounded rows that will be next year’s kitchen garden (the garlic, shallots, onions, leeks are already in [...]
Posted in Changing Seasons, Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Outings, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Oct 30th, 2009
Some pictures from the cider pressing party last weekend. It was also my husband’s birthday – I’m so glad he had a great time! (We all did!)
Most folks brought apples from their own trees and also gleaned many from abandoned orchards along country roads.
Apples were washed, wormy parts and bruises removed, and then cut in [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Locally grown, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Oct 29th, 2009
I’m feeling so much better – and very grateful that none of the rest of the family became ill. In an effort to get back into the kitchen and make something nourishing and comforting, Firecracker and I started with something easy but wholesome and cooked up a big pot of bean stew. Here’s my recipe [...]
Posted in Building Community, From my kitchen, Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Outings, The Gift of God, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Sep 7th, 2009
Saturday, I was blessed with the opportunity to ride with another family of volunteers out to Mosier, OR (in the beautiful Columbia Gorge) to glean pears for Birch Community Services. The weather was very rainy, windy, and chilly, so I was grateful that the children could all stay home, snuggled up reading their latest chapter [...]
