This post originally published in  October 2009.  I’m baking a raspberry batch for homeschool co-op and a peach butter batch for the neighborhood kids/my kids today.  I make this recipe several times a month, even for breakfast, and the recipe is frequently requested, so I thought it was worth republishing.

PLEASE NOTE –   I no longer make it in a 9×13 pan, but instead on a large jelly roll pan with the parchment on the bottom – I freeform a rectangle in the middle (it will not fill the entire pan).  This makes it easier to cut and serve afterward.

These raspberry oatmeal bars were a hit with the kids, so I thought I’d share the recipe.  It’s an adaptation of this recipe, which can also be found in Martha Stewart’s Cookies. The original recipe called for a more complicated raisin puree in the middle,  and my girls weren’t so thrilled with it.  Also, I found it didn’t fit the pan requirements very well,  and made a few other small changes.

Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

For the filling:

approx 2 to 2 1/2 cups raspberry preserves (Edit 2011 – or any berry preserves or fruit butter)

For the bars:

1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg (edit 2011 – a great way to use our duck eggs!)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups old fashioned (not quick-cooking) rolled oats

organic sanding sugar, to sprinkle on top

Directions – 1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a 9 x 13 casserole dish with parchment paper and grease with butter.

2.  In a large bowl, combine flours, salt, baking soda, oats.  In a stand mixture with paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening until fluffy.  Add brown sugar and beat thoroughly.

3.  Lightly beat egg and vanilla together.  Add to the mixture and beat until combined.  Reduce speed to low and slowly add the flour/oat mixture and beat until just combined.  Mixture should be crumbly (see above).

4.  Spread half of the flour/oat mixture into the bottom of the pan.  Push thoroughly into the bottom of the pan.

5.  With a spatula, spread the preserves in a liberal layer over the flour/oat crumb mixture.  Lastly, add the remaining half of the crumb mixture until over the top, gently pressing it down.  Sprinkle with sanding sugar (optional).

6. Bake approximately 30-40 minutes (rotating half-way through) until bars are beginning to brown on top and preserves are bubbling up around the edges.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting into 2-inch squares (this is a very important step, if you cut them while the preserves are hot and have not reset, the bars will crumble.)

Enjoy!

I let the kids sleep in, and worked on tidying up a bit since the neighbor boys are coming over this morning for a play date (Bend-a-roos and Playmobils and sofa-cushion forts are on the agenda, according to the girls).  Chickens and ducks were let out and fed a breakfast of mashed, roasted pumpkin, scratch and oatmeal.   It was too rainy and cold to do any yard chores this morning, so after poutry-duty, I got to come in and have a few minutes to get a nice breakfast going and read my book.

Breakfast this morning is a new recipe I’ve been tweaking – Oatmeal-Honey-Molasses Bread.  My kids really like the flavor of molasses (in the winter, we make some kind of gingerbread a few times a month), and we have a good quantity of honey on hand at the moment, so I thought I’d alter the oatmeal bread recipe we make frequently.  Here’s the work-in-progress recipe (although, it taked pretty darn good this morning, and had a lovely caramely-color):

Larksong’s Oatmeal-Honey-Molasses Bread

1 1/2 tsp dry active yeast

2 cups high-gluten bread flour

1/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1 Tbsp vital wheat gluten

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1 1/2 Tbsp hazelnut (or olive) oil

1 1/2 Tbsp molasses

2 Tbsp honey

4 oz warm milk

6 oz warm water

Directions:

1.  Proof yeast in warm milk for 10 min.  Combine dry ingredients in KitchenAid with dough hook.

2.Slowly add wet ingredients (including yeast/milk), except water.  Process on slow, drizzling in water until good doughy consistency is reached (it will be a little sticky.  You may need a teaspoon or two more or less than the recipe indicates, depending on humidity in your house.)

3.  Knead with dough hook on medium speed, or by hand, for 10-12 minutes until dough becomes less sticky and holds together in a nice ball.  Place ball of dough in oiled pan, rolling to coat, cover with a damp towel or Saran Wrap, and let sit in a warm place until doubled in size (in my cold kitchen, that took 1 hr 15 min, but may take 45 min in a warmer kitchen).

4. Punch down dough, and shape,  rolling edges of dough under until formed into a nice loaf.  Place in well-oiled loaf pan (I like a ceramic 9×5), cover lightly with towel, and let rise an additional 45 min, or until loaf has risen nicely over the edge of the pan (in a warm kitchen, it should take about 30 min.)  During this time, preheat oven to 350, with rack in the middle.

5.  Place loaf in hot oven, and quickly dump 1 cup of hot water in the bottom of the oven.  The steam will make a nicer crust.  Bake loaf for 35 min or until bottom of loaf makes a hollow sound when thumped.  Let rest 5 min and remove from pan and let cool before cutting.

Enjoy this very moist, sweet loaf simply sliced with butter, or use leftovers for really yummy bread pudding or French toast.

…reading a few chapters in Ann Voskamp’s book before the children were up…

…enjoying granola in the breakfast nook after morning chores, watching chickens, ducks mucking happily around the yard  (Cran-Walnut Granola recipe at the bottom)

…quilting for a neighbor’s baby, due in 2 weeks, while the children had breakfast.

A welcome reprieve before tackling the general chaos of the day.

Larksong’s Cranberry Walnut Granola

Preheat oven to 325F, and get out two large jellyroll pans.

In a large bowl, combine:

6 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups unsweetened, unsulfured coconut

1 cup wheat germ

1 heaping cup sesame seeds

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1-2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cloves

pinch of sea salt

In a saucepan, on med-heat, combine 1  cup of honey, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 3 tbsp dark brown sugar, 1 cup veg oil (I use 1/4 cup hazelnut oil, 3/4 cup veg oil), and heat until warm and honey is thin.  Stir vigorously, and then pour over dry ingredients.

Toss all until combined, then spread over two sheets and bake 20 min.

Remove from oven, stir, scraping around the edges especially, since they will brown first.

Return to oven, and bake approx 20-25 min more, scraping and stirring granola every 5-7 min to prevent scorching in parts.

When granola is dark, toasty, and fragrant, remove from oven and immediately stir in 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries.  While granola is still hot, transfer to a glass or other nonstick bowl, or granola will stick to sheets as it cools.  When totally cooled, break up with a fork and put in sealed jars to keep crisp.  Will keep 1 month, but ours is eaten up in less than a week.

(Cost comparison: similar granola at New Seasons Market – $8.99/lb.   Estimated cost of homemade – about $2.50/lb (all items purchased in bulk to cut costs considerably, except walnuts, which were gleaned from a friend’s tree.)

We’ve all been dreaming of them for such a long time, and now they’re finally here!!  3 fuzzy little day-old Indian Runner ducklings came home with us this past Wednesday.

The duckings are just about the cutest things we’ve ever seen!!  They’re comical, inquisitive, interested in people, and love to snuggle their little heads in the crook of your arm.

The little drake and two ducks will make a great slug-seek-and-destroy team, as well as provide us with up to 400 eggs/year (for the pair of females), and endless entertainment.  Besides being good egg-layers with sweet dispositions, we choose Indian Runners over other breeds because they cannot fly (or cross any fence much over 2 ft tall), and do not need a pond.

While Indian Runners don’t go broody easily, and often don’t make good mothers, we got a drake in the hopes that one of our chickens will go broody and raise a few clutches for us down the road if we want to increase the flock (Chickens, especially Buff Orpingtons like Cookie, will sit until the clutch hatches (a few days longer than chicken eggs), and then care for the ducklings with devotion.)

The ducklings were a mix of fawn/penciled and we won’t know exactly how they’ll look for another number of weeks, but they sure are adorable right now!

Things are crazy busy here at the moment, so I’ll just drop in to say that there’s an interview with me and some other ladies (including author Harriet Fasenfest) on the topic of Radical Homemakers in this month’s Metro Parent (you can read the article for free by following the link – we’re on page 22-23).

Be back soon with some blogging about food justice, garden happenings, and a few recipes.

Well, somewhere I’m going to have to find some time to knit this, because I’m going to give one away via the Salt of the Earth Urban Farm Facebook page! When we hit 100 likes, I will randomly select one of those 100 folks to win a mason jar cozy in their choice of colors.  Only 7 spots left, so click on the sidebar link, and like us on FB for a chance to win!  Thanks!

(For those inclined to knit their own, here’s the free pattern!)

When entering our home, there is no coat closet, or even much of an entryway to speak of.   Our kids tend to walk in the door and immediately dump their coats on the floor.  And, of course, the dog promptly makes a nest in them and takes a nap.  Even if they take their coats back to their room, they aren’t tall enough to hang them up in their closet, so they end up in a pile on the floor back there.  It drives me nuts.

The other day, we were at Cost Plus/World Market, because it’s close to church, and I can’t resist going in when we drive by, especially at Christmas time.  (I love everything in that store!)  They had a big bin full of Indian ceramic dresser knobs and little hooks, and for $8 ($2 for each kid, including “Baby Tummy”), we had a solution to the coat problem!

A very small change makes a big difference sometimes, and a little less chaos is very good thing. 

My sister and I have talked about making homemade laundry soap for years – it’s so much more economical, and environmentally friendly, plus it’s so easy to make.  I’d shied away from it because, frankly, the laundry soap my friends were making looked like snot, and I wasn’t up for it.

Then, a friend told me that she had started making Amanda Soule’s recipe for powdered laundry soap. It was like a revelation!  I didn’t have to make snotty noodle soup soap!  I could make laundry powder!

I did some fishing around on the internet, and tried some recipes, and here’s the one I like best (a blending of several):

Larksong’s Laundry Powder

1 Bar Fels Naptha Soap

1 Bar Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint or Lavender Soap (it’s 3x as expensive as Fels Naptha and I found two bars is too strong of a scent for me) OR you can use 1 bar Ivory soap.

4 cups Washing Soda (soda ash)

4 cups Natural Borax

(you can also add 1 cup of Baking Soda if you need it – I sprinkle it on diapers in the pail,  so I didn’t add it)

Directions:

1.  Unwrap Fels Naptha soap, place on a paper towel, and microwave for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes.   (Caution!!  Soap will be very hot!!)

Here’s a bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap straight out of the paper.

This is what it looks like after 2 min in the microwave – it puff up, and is very easy to quickly grate.

Repeat with Ivory soap.  Note: Dr. Bronner’s is a castile soap, and tends to melt in the microwave more than puff up, so I just grate it as-is.  It takes a little more elbow-grease, and the kids usually aren’t up for it – they much prefer to grate the “puffy soap”.

Let soap cool thoroughly (about 10 min), and grate into a bowl.

Measure and stir in borax, washing soda (and optional baking soda).    Stir thoroughly, and pour into a sealable bucket.   Makes 32-64 loads, depending on whether you have a conventional machine or an HE machine.

Soap flakes have a tendency to settle to the bottom, so I invert the bucket a few times before measuring.

You may have to fiddle with the measurements a bit – depending on your machine, and how dirty your laundry is -

I use 2 Tbsp per load for our HE machine, and 3 Tbsp for diapers (since it’s low-sudsing, it’s perfect for HE machines), and I had read that folks with conventional machines use 3-4 Tbsp per load.

Next time I think I’ll use ivory instead of Dr. Bronner’s mint soap, and add a little orange or lemon essential oil – while the mint is nice, I think I prefer my laundry to smell like citrus.

I estimate my total cost per load is about $0.09!  Not too shabby!

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 Mythology.

Her costume:

$0.50 -A blue velvet skirt from the thrift store (with about 12 holes in it that we had to mend)

$0.00 – a tank top from her closet with a seahorse on it and a “seaweed” looking scarf from my closet

$0.50 – 1/4 yd of ocean print fabric, from which we made part of her crown and cut out sea creatures to tack to her “ocean” skirt

$0.00 – more ocean creatures to sew onto skirt, which she drew out of cardstock and decorated with glitter glue.

$0.00 – scraps of leftover fabric from her brother’s costume to make her crown

$0.00 -some body glitter leftover from Halloween

—————————————–

Total cost $1.00!!!

She helped me cut the pieces and sew her crown out of scraps from her brother’s costume – the middle of the crown(to make it stand up) is 3-layers of very ugly flannel that came in a big bag of thrift store scraps.  We whipped it up in about 15 minutes (you can’t see the sea creatures she cut out and sewed to the sides and back from this shot…)

Firecracker wanted to be a mermaid.  With no pattern, limited time and $, here’s what we came up with:  She didn’t want a tail-shaped skirt, because they are difficult to walk/run/play in since they are awfully narrow at the bottom.    We decided to sew her a skirt with blue fabric, which would be the sea she’s swimming in, and then make a two-piece apron “tail” that she could take on and off if she wanted.

We lucked out at the thrift store and found an adult size 4 skirt with blue fabric (yes, it’s butterflies, but Firecracker said it looked “oceany” to her!), so I didn’t have to make a skirt from scratch – I simply cut it up and resewed it in her size, with an elastic waistband.  Voila!  Sea skirt!

$3 – blue skirt, cut down and resewn to fit a 5 year-old

$0.10 -thrift store elastic

$2.00 – 1/2 yd of clearance fabric at Fabric Depot (turquoise with swirls, Firecracker thought it looked like scales)

$0.00 – 1 yd very ugly flannel from a previously thrifted bag of fabric, for the double layer batting in the tail – to give it rigidity.

$0.00 – random snippets of green fabric for tail decoration plus a scarf from the dress up box for the tail, piece of blue tulle for her hair from dress up box

$0.00 – white leotard and blue bikini top from dress up bin

$0.10 – turquoise bias tape from the thrift store (for the apron-tail ties)

————————————————————–

Total cost – $5.20 (plus, some turquoise fabric leftover for doll quilts, etc, and it includes a perfectly good skirt for her and Little Hen to wear anytime)

Since his big sister and cousin both wanted to be mermaids, guess what Tum Tum wanted to be?  MERBOY!!

His daddy even made him a trident from coardboard and foam and duct tape (which was a bit of a dangerous idea, but he loved it!) (Please ignore the mountains of fabric in the background, as long as the sewing machine has to be out, I’m going to sew, sew, sew!  Wish I had a sewing room!)

$0.00 – Blue knit pants from Tum Tum’s closet plus blue leather moccasins

$0.50 – 1/4 yd ocean print fabric for his sash (mermen don’t wear shirts!)

$ 2.50 – 1/2 yd of blue “waves” fabric Firecracker found at Fabric Depot on clearance for the tail.  (Yay, kiddo! )

$0.10 – thrifted seam binding for the ties

$0.00 – 1 yd very ugly previously-thrifted flannel for the double-layer batting to add stiffness to the tail(s).

$0.00 – scraps from making Firecracker’s tail(s) used to make his fin and decoration on the front.

——————————————————————–

Total cost – $3.10!!

We had a great time!!  Thanks for inviting us, Aunt Kristi and Cousin Ruby!!

It’s late June at Salt of the Earth Urban Farm (home of the BCS Teaching Garden)!  Finally, some warm weather (mid-upper 70’s) has settled in (the tomatoes,  summer squash and bush beans look much happier) and everything is flourishing. 

The harvest is increasing – every week, we are taking a few dozen cartons of organic snow and sugar snap peas, as well as boxes and boxes of lettuce, chard, kale, bitter greens, and a few choice boxes of herbs and strawberries to Birch Community Services.  We are still looking forward to the coming months and being able to take in more and more food to share amongst the families at BCS (loads of organic bush beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and summer squash will be coming soon!).

Here are a few shots from around the yard – mostly in the front yard -

A few shots of the front yard, here.  Can you believe just a few short months ago, it looked like this? —>

(And a day before this, it was just weeds and lawn!  Taken late-February 2010.)

Front to back in this shot – variegated land cress, beets (with a few Butternut starts peeking thru on the right and a crate of potatoes to the left), Italian kale, cardoons, salad greens, Oregon Sugar Pod II peas, California poppies and De Milpa tomatillos.

Tomatoes in the front are underplanted with beets and cosmos.  In the backyard, with nasturtiums and lettuce (the shade from the tomatoes will keep the lettuce from bolting in the July/Aug heat.).

Mature artichokes and cardoons take up a lot of space, but while they’re still growing, I’ve underplanted them with daisies, nasturtium and chives (winter squash, dahlias, sunflowers, fennel, and wildflowers are visible in the background.)

Not shown – I planted an herb bed in the front yard – three types of lavender (two culinary, one for sachets), three types of rosemary (I love rosemary!), tangerine sage, tricolor sage, lemon verbena,and curry plant from starts (when pinching pennies, get the 4-inch pots – they were $3 each, versus $9-10 for the next size up, and $30 for large rosemaries and lavenders in gallon pots.  They’ll grow big, too!  Be patient!)  I also transplanted in two types of thyme, oregano, Greek basil, Thai basil, and Genovese basil that I started from seed a while back (for a savings of about $15 over buying potted starts).

Much of the back isn’t so pretty yet, but here’s a shot of the linear beds near the house  -front to back – garlic; parsnips, kale, chard, carrots; peas and poppies underplanted with kale.  I didn’t take any shots of the bush bean, asparagus, potato and squash beds, which make up about 60% of the backyard.

Out back, we’re still doing the fairly miserable work of ripping up bamboo (rhizomes and all) for a future raspberry patch (to the left in this picture) and quince and pear stand (where the current volunteer hazelnut currently resides.)  The far NW corner of the yard (not pictured), which will eventually be our Zone 3 fruit orchard,  is currently overrun with weeds.  I did manage to get three apple trees and a Desert King fig planted back there, and my husband expanded the chicken run (while protecting the young trees), so the hens could make short work of the weeds and give me room to underplant the trees with red clover and more lavender.  We are still hunting for a persimmon, a dwarf apricot, and black currants to put back in that area.

More shots from out back in the coming month – the rows of bush beans and summer squash are quite small, and the limas and runner beans are barely reaching up their poles).

If you’re interested – we’re having a free hands-on workshop on  Saturday, July 17th here at the garden from 9:30-11:30 and follow up with a potluck luncheon from 11:30-12:30.  We will be doing a garden tour, discussing high-summer garden needs and prepping for a fall garden.  We will be starting seeds for fall crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc), possibly harvesting potatoes, and doing regular garden maintenance.   Bring your garden gloves, shovel, and a dish to share.  Children are welcome.

Contact the garden coordinator for Birch Community Services, Tiffany, at  tiffany.mach@yahoo.com to sign up.