a sustainable life

Winter projects

2012-03-09T08:23:00.002+01:00

I feel very much like a hibernating animal just coming out of its burrow. And rejoicing that it is SPRING! I all ready have 11 varietes of seeds starting inside and another 4 to be directed sowed hopefully this weekend. But that is another post.

This post is meant to catch you up on some projects I did over this thankfully mild winter. Two of the projects were making lamps out of repurposed and salvaged materials and the other was a repurposed organizing thing-y. (Just as an aside, is there a better term than repurposed? Re-do? Recycled?)

So, the first one was a lamp we did. We made the lampshade out of a piece of wood veneer salvaged from the wood some friend's roof tiles were wrapped in. We made the base from an old pepper grinder that no longer worked. And the working bits were cannibalized from some old lights we had found at the dump. A repurposed light at all levels. And a nice hygge (cozy) atmosphere it gives. It's a bit hard to tell in the photo but the cracks actually have these fine strands between them as you can see in the shadow.

And then we also finished another lamp, this time a pendant lightshade. We've beenthinking about this lamp for ages (like 18months maybe) and have tried variations withdifferent wood veneers, different widths,different forms etc. For this actual light, we used the salvaged wood veneer although the red cord is new. For the steaming we usedthe shower and hot water and various bucketsto form curves. It was best to curve themwhile still wet so there was a lot ofdrilling in the bathroom. There was also a lot of wrestling or assembling which took ages to get it into this form. Oh and then dicovering once we had a form we liked that we had to take it apart to do the sanding. Sigh. But further wrestling after the sanding and veneering did make a lightshade we really are quite happy with.

And finally, a quick little organizer. Our rag stash and plastic bag stash were housed under the sink in the utility room. Of course this meant that when putting away rather than reach under the sink and put the rag or bag into the bag, they were just thrown into the cupboard. So the cupboard was a teeming mess of rags, bags, and cleaning supplies. In a typical fit one evening, I felt it needed sorting. And here is how we sorted it:

We used an old sham pillowcase (a pillow case with the opening in the middle rather than at an end) and sewed down the middle to create two sides. A little careful cutting to create a top of the bag, a little sewing on stress points, the sham (fringe) bit cut open, some cute labels sewn on, and then we mounted it on some old bamboo we had. The process of doing this did make us sort through the rag stash and since the new system provides less space than the old cupboard system, we had to decide what to keep. One thing we did was go through the old underwear which had been thrown into the cupboard and cut any good elastic off (especially the wider stuff from the men's underwear) and save it for sewing projects. (And cut and throw out the gussets but that is probably too much information!). We also cut into more manageable pieces the bigger scraps like shirts. Hopefully this will keep us a little tidier!
What were you up to this winter?

summer dreaming: viking food

2012-01-30T13:05:00.000+01:00

i've been going through some old photos in my big iPhoto library and i came across these from the viking festival at the viking ship museum in roskilde a couple of years ago. it was late summer, the sun was shining, and with snow on the ground at last, i'm feeling a bit wistful for those light, bright days.

this coming summer, i want a setup like this...a place to make pancakes over the fire in the garden. tho' i think i'll stick with my normal clothes.

to grill delicious food, using local produce and maybe even a plant or two found in the forest.

grilled meats, served up viking style in a rustic bowl on a bed of mashed root veg and grain.

maybe not quite so many chickens at once, but a chicken grilled outdoors would be awesome.

and a big bowl of heritage grains with cabbage and herbs.

summer dreams. and really, it's not THAT far away.

dreaming of an herbarium

2012-01-16T13:12:00.002+01:00

at judith's recommendation, i've been reading ellis peters' cadfael novels. they're set in 12th century england and the main character is brother cadfael, a monk who came to the cloth late in life after having been to the crusades. he solves murders and other mysteries and is an appealing character who is a bit of a rebel but no one ever really catches him at it. but most fascinating about him is that he uses all kinds of natural herbs and plants for healing. and he has a wonderful little herbarium in the abbey gardens. he uses it as a refuge and of course, a place to keep his stores and make his tinctures and medicines. i think i read the books as much for the descriptions of this magical place as anything else.

i told husband yesterday that i want an herbarium of my own in the garden. and you know with husband, it's never that far between talk and action and his eyes lit up at the idea. he was soon mumbling to himself about roofing materials and how much ventilation the building would require to keep the herbs dry.

the steps i can take towards this magical herbarium already now are lists of herbs to plant in my expanded herb garden. i've got the usual suspects, like parsley, 3 kinds of thyme, rosemary, sage, tarragon, coriander, oregano, lavender and marjoram. there's quite a lot of wild chamomile around the garden as well. but i want to add some flowers - like echinacea. and i have a whole lot to learn, as i figure out what else to plant - both edible and medicinal.

so with learning in mind, i went looking for herb-related resources and found henriette's herbal homepage, which seems to be an absolute wealth of information. last year, i bought the amusingly-titled grow your own drugs, but will admit that i didn't do that much with it.

i love the notion of using less medicine and more natural remedies. i love the idea that some of it could be foraged. i've also found a great foraging resource in the first ways blog, which i also follow on facebook. (i'm increasingly finding facebook useful and not only social, are you?).

i can't wait for spring to come in earnest so i can get planting!

i'd love any suggestions you may have of useful sites or suggestions for what i should plant! please share!!

Stress Your Veg!

2012-01-07T00:48:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure about all of you, but here in the Great Lakes area of the U.S. it has been a crazy early winter. Well, more like spring. Today was 50 degrees! We have had a trace of snow all season, and it has been all around lovely. We'll just have to see what that means for our real spring later on, it may be snow covered!

Anyway, a garden thingy that we've learned this season, push your cold weather greens! Our Lettuce's, Spinach, Kale, Bok Choi, and Swiss Chard have had ups and keep coming back with this crazy barely freeze, thaw into spring weather. A couple of times we figured, this is it. It looks limp and sad once it thaws, then the weather stabilizes and it just perks back up and keeps going.

Before this glorious 50 degree day we had a couple of days where we were at 10 degrees, so B went out and harvested all of the remaining Kale...it won't come back from that kind of cold. Tonight he made Kale Crisps......a MUST try if you haven't done them, they are fantastic and the kids love them! Stressed Kale equals something akin to the sweetness of a carrot, yet green lush crispiness and with a sprinkle of sea salt. Ahhhh

Moral of the story: experiment, stress your cold weather veg and enjoy!

Kale Crisps

Wash, De-stem and chop up Kale.
Toss in a little of olive oil sprinkle with salt (or whatever seasoning your heart desires)
Turn out onto a cookie sheet and bake at 275 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 min.

This can go from perfect to burnt in no time, so watch it, touch it and feel for crispness. It maintains its gorgeous green color and every oven is a little different.

~ Amy

Are you dreaming of living in a barn?

2011-12-30T19:46:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago I asked you: Are you in need of a hobbit house? And just now, while I was researching for a jeans-project, I found this:

A barn got a make-over and became a 700 square foot familyhouse. Interested? You can read and see more about it here.

But if you like a house of shipping pallets is more your taste than you have to jump here.

Have fun.

Elizabeth

Some inspiration

2011-12-21T22:33:00.000+01:00

A few days ago Anneli was so kind to send me a link on re-using everyday material that normally ends up with the garbage.

(picture from Nítdia of the blog Comparte tus Ecoideas)

The picture is one of the examples given on the blog called Comparte tus Ecoideas. Unfortunately the blog is not in english nor does it have the google translator but the pictures tell the story very well.

Thanks Anneli for your contribution of re-purposing materials.

Elizabeth

Some inspiration

2011-11-02T20:00:00.000+01:00

Today I found Peak moment television, here one can find all kinds of interviews on various subjects. Some of the titles are:

Managing the 21st Century's sustainability crises
Your money, your life, your happiness
Four acres and independence
Your personal baker
And several interviews on community-gardens and gardening.

With a click here you can start browsing around, when you don't have the time right this minute you can always find the link at our linkpage under eye-opener.

Enjoy yourself.

Elizabeth

Are you in need of a hobbit house?

2011-10-24T20:00:00.000+02:00

Today I read in the Mail online a story about a family that built their own version of a hobbit-house totally eco-friendly.

For someone without any experience I think he did an amazing job as you can see in the picture. Simon Dale has also a website with more information and pictures, if you click here you are able to see it or you can look at the youtube-video below.

Have fun while looking at a sustainable home in Wales.

Elizabeth

charming chickens

2011-10-11T08:41:00.002+02:00

svensk sortehøns (black swedish chickens) - this rooster (aptly named "blackie") is my favorite.

as you know, we got chickens back in june. and then husband built them a veritable mansion that we dubbed chez poulet, because it's so fancy. the coop has two entrances - one into a totally enclosed area, where we give them table scraps and one into a back yard, where they can fly (and yes, i assure you they can fly, tho' it's not the most elegant sight) over it and get out to explore.

in fact, they were letting themselves out to explore so often, that we've just left the gate open of late, to make it easier for them. it's nice to have them wandering in the garden, cleaning up, tho' i have found them as far afield as over in the shelter belt near our bees. but charmingly enough, they come running from wherever they are when you go out there and talk to them. i hadn't expected that. they're really quite charming. and a bit funny. and their plumage makes a perfect fall fashion statement.

dansk landhøns (danish land chickens)

the three roosters can spend hours trying to outdo one another with their cries of cock-a-doodle-doo. and the other day one hen was a rather insistently clucking midwife to another one who was in the nest and clearly laying an egg. it was as if she were a little chicken cheerleader. later, i realized it may have been more of a complaint, because i found that hen in the same box, laying an egg of her own, so she was probably just telling that other hen to hurry up. there are five nest boxes, but as they've begun to lay eggs, i've noticed that they stick to the first one and the fourth one. it's hard to know what chickens are thinking, so i'm not sure why that is.

we're getting 2-3 eggs a day and they're starting to be a little bit larger now (they were pretty tiny at first). i've already checked an all-eggs cookbook out of the library, as once all 9 hens start laying, we're going to be eating a whole lot of eggs around here! at the moment, we can keep up.

in all, i'm enjoying this chicken thing much more than i thought i would. they're easy to have around. plus, we've cut back significantly on the amount of garbage that goes into our bin on a weekly basis, because so many scraps go to them - the only thing we don't give them is chicken, but otherwise, all greens, leftover rice or couscous, cheese, other kinds of meat go to them, anything we didn't manage to eat all of ourselves. in return, we get plenty of eggs and quite a lot of amusement.

the moleman cometh

2011-10-10T18:44:00.001+02:00

there are a lot of amusing aspects to living out in the countryside. like that the way to get 100+ straw bales is to casually mention to the neighbor that it might be nice to have some for winter. not because he has any, but because he will talk to the guy down the road, who lives across from hay jørgen, whose son will come by one evening, in a rush to deliver the straw bales, fresh from the field, just before dark and before the rain starts. and then there's also the widespread rumor (which i'm not doing anything to dispel) that i'm canadian.

but my favorite thing is, hands down, the moleman. he's a marvelous elderly gentleman with a rusty old ford escort full of mole traps and various pans, bowls and buckets. sometimes you look outside and see him wandering across the lawn, setting mole traps. he digs them in and then covers them with an old pan or bowl or bucket. he seems nearly psychic as to when moles have put in an appearance (tho' that's also obvious, of course, by the fresh dark mounds of dirt on the lawn) and he shows up and suddenly instead of mounds of dirt, you have old pans here and there on the lawn. he doesn't knock and he doesn't announce himself, tho' he will say hello if you happen to be outside.

we don't actually have his phone number, the neighborhood retired pilot originally contacted him for us. but all you need is the initial contact and you're a customer of the moleman for life. he comes by, sets traps, checks them, and notes it all on a scrap of paper in his pocket. he comes by once in awhile, shows you the tally - 30 kroner per trip he's made out here, plus 10 kroner per mole - and wants to be paid. each mole that's met its maker is carefully marked on the scrap of paper, which he's happy to show you as proof. he caught 47 moles over at our friends' house. he's probably gotten around 30 or so here in the past year.

the only bad habit he has is that he leaves the dead moles lying around. however, our barn kitties think that's just fine.

how do you get rid of moles at your house?

Farm Bags Year Two

2011-10-06T13:36:00.000+02:00

Last week I announced the end of year two's farm bags. This year was quite a ride. The weather was unusual, to say the least. We were very cool until July, then began ~~searing~~ much warmer than normal temperatures and zero rain, it was capped off by a return to very cool temperatures just as the tomatoes should be ripening (we had our first light frost September 4!). Despite the uncooperative weather we had a very successful season. This is especially illustrated to me by the number of home gardeners who I talk to, that had little to no success with anything this year.

We had changed our planting volume this year to specifically accommodate the number of families that we had taken on. Even with this pre-planning, each week when I would announce a new farm bag was ready (half of the group would pick up on say a Wednesday and the other half on a Friday), I would begin to have some anxiety. Would I have enough so everyone could have the same volumes? Is everyone perceiving value from their bags? By the time delivery would take place, each bag seemed to have grown exponentially from what I had envisioned on it's announcement. We had eight successful farm bags when I closed last week. We do have all of our fall planting, which has been loving the cool weather, so I informed the families that later in the fall we may have one or two more bags available for those interested in greens and sweet potatoes.

What lessons from year two? I need to focus on our own consumption and preservation. We did fairly well, but my main concern was meeting the commitment I made to the produce families. So when the season was less than ideal, I wanted to make sure they were accommodated. I don't think I would change the planting strategy. We had plenty of plants for the families. The season dictated the yields and I feel fortunate we got the volume we did! We had green beans coming out of our ears, which I feel quite proud of, since so many said they had none. We have a lot of work ahead. We won't begin fall prep/tear down until later this year because we are still nursing things along. We began a gorgeous Indian Summer yesterday and it's set to last for another six days. We hope to ripen enough tomatoes to get some canning done. Whatever doesn't ripen, we are going to process all of the green tomatoes.

Will we continue on? Absolutely. As with anything, we need to find the balance to handle it all. But it is the direction we are going and sometimes you need to juggle while creating a new life path and maintaining the old. I was so inspired by The Chef's Garden from Julie's post yesterday. I wonder if we will get there someday?

The above shot is our lazy housewife green beans drying. These beans make amazing dried soup beans and I can't wait to shell them at the end of the season. They will be a warm creamy winter treat!

already dreaming of next year's garden

2011-10-05T14:47:00.000+02:00

200 new strawberries

our gardening year is winding down. we've just had 4-5 days of sunshine and warm temperatures (in the 70s), which breathed a bit of life into the tomatoes and eggplants in the greenhouse, so they're not as done as i thought they were, but they soon will be. we're also hoping that the sunshine will prove to have ripened the sweetcorn so we can actually eat a few ears of that before the season is completely over. but largely, the garden is in its last stages.

waiting for the corn

big successes were strawberries, raspberries, artichokes, kale (until some kind of caterpillars took it), swiss chard (which strangely was right next to the kale and the worms ignored it), borlotti beans, broad beans and runner beans. my herb bed, which is over closer to the house, did very well - apparently cool, rainy weather is perfect parsley and sage weather, as my parsley and sage have been phenomenal.

less successful were the patchy carrots (tho' i'm feeding fresh carrots to the bunnies every morning these days). not a single beet came up, nor a single leaf of spinach (i planted that twice!) only a single kohlrabi grew, our brassica bed resulted in 3 small heads of white cabbage and tho' the red cabbages are leafy and lush, they're not actually forming proper heads. the broccoli was only enough for a few spindles in the odd stir-fry and the cauliflower, which started off beautiful went strange and black - possibly because of the wet, cool weather. my onions are small and the tops died off quite early, tho' some of them are growing new tops no (which i can't explain). the onions themselves are ok when you pull one to use in a salad or to cook with, but they should have been much better. some of this, i don't know what to learn from it other than to say that we'll just try again next year.

kind of a lot of grass grew up in the paths!

in the greenhouse, we had enough tomatoes for salads, but not enough to can any. the aubergine had loads of blooms, but i think the cool temperatures prevented them from really growing into something, tho' we've had enough to be hooked on home grown aubergine as opposed to store-bought. plus, some of the kinds i bought were actually petite varieties, so the size didn't matter that much. the cucumbers produced well, after we saved them from the aphids, but with a cucumber-addicted child in the house, there weren't enough for pickles. it's partially because we had a cool, wet summer and partially because we didn't have the greenhouse up 'til the end of may, so we missed quite a lot of the growing season. next year, it will be better.

black plastic on the left is where next year's garden will be.

we have super sandy soil and while it has great drainage, it seems like the nutrients quickly wash away as well. we conducted a few experiments, putting horse poo only on one squash and not another and learned that horse poo is KEY. we've prepared a large area for next year's garden - loads and loads of horse poo went into freshly-turned soil and then were covered in black plastic to prevent weeds. luckily, our neighbors have eleven horses and love to be rid of their manure pile. husband has built an elaborate composting area, so we'll have compost to add to the soil next year as well.

the new compost staging area

but i find i'm already thinking about what to plant next year. i want to try some new things and do better at some of the old ones. we planted 200 new strawberry plants, so i'm going to be busy making marmalade next june. i want more herbs and i want to try some unusual things, like mustard and horseradish. i'm also feeling pretty inspired looking around the chef's garden website. and despite our dark winter, i would like to try to extend the season a bit by planting lettuces and things inside the greenhouse. hmm, maybe i'd better go pull some weeds in there...

Sweaters anyone?

2011-09-25T19:07:00.000+02:00

It's been some time that I contributed to our blog but just a few minutes I saw an amazing project which involves our old sweaters.

Hope you will have fun with your old sweaters in the future.

Elizabeth

second harvest honey

2011-09-25T17:50:00.000+02:00

our second harvest honey is in the jars. we only got 15 kilos the second time around, which is less than the first harvest. that's not how it's supposed to work - usually, you get twice as much honey in the second harvest as in your first. we got 22 kilos the first time, so we were hoping for 40+. however, having one lazy queen (who we have now replaced) and it being a very rainy, cool summer, 15 kilos it was. apparently with the bad weather, the bees spent all of their time indoors, eating the fruits of their labors.

the second harvest honey is quite different. i suppose it has to do with different flowers being in bloom, tho' honestly, i'm still learning this and i don't really know why it's so different. the honey is much darker, thicker and richer and just tastes deeper and more complex somehow. we made a jar with pecans and one with walnuts, to have with some nice cheese this winter sometime.

we've learned so much this year and it's very satisfying to use our own honey in our morning tea and to take a jar as a hostess gift when we go for a visit. we've decided to have five bee families next year, now that we've learned the ropes, so we should have even more honey next year. maybe even enough to be able to sell some.

Petri dish meat, vegetarianism and conscious consumption

2011-09-19T11:14:00.000+02:00

There was an interesting article in the New Scientist recently about petri dish meat, vegetarianism and conscious consumption. Yes, petri dish meat. Or invitro meat, or lab meat, or synthetic meat, or cultured meat - all terms for meat grown in a lab. The idea is that through tissue engineering, scientists can produce meat at a grand scale that would meet the meat demands of the world in a more environmentally and humane way. Starting with muscle stem cells, scientists are able to grow muscle cells and then muscle tissue of various animals. One lab even exercises the tissue by stretching it so that it is more like muscle from a living animal. In addition, they can grow meat from a variety of different animals, not just cows and pigs, since all they need are muscle stem cells to begin with and these can be taken without killing the animal.
It is more environmentally friendly and when compared to 'conventional meat', as it uses less energy, lower CO2 emissions, lower water use and perhaps obviously much lower land. Indeed, it is estimated that cultured beef uses 99% less land than beef farming. It also has the potential to be more humane. So much so that PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is running a contest offering $1 million dollars to "the first scientist to produce and bring to market in vitro meat." Their logic is simply that synthetic meat would relive those animals currently kept and slaughtered for food.
So, what do you think? I will admit I am totally, well, grossed out by the idea of lab meat. The image of these tissue strips getting exercised by stretching just to mimic muscle tissue has been with me for days. I am not a vegetarian but my husband is and I am essentially a vegetarian cook. But every once and a while, I like to eat meat. Like last night, my son and I had spaghetti and meatballs, which I made from Danish organic ground beef, of course. I can manage ground beef because there aren't bones, nerves, skin and all those things that remind me that it comes from an animal. So if I am squeamish about the actual meat when it reminds me that it does come from an animal, then I should be happy about lab meat, right? Why can't I celebrate this new way of producing meat? I mean are hot dogs or chicken nuggets much different? They are made with industrially recovered meat and full of chemicals to preserve, colour, and flavour. (Although, I don't actually eat these either).
As a practitioner of conscious consumption, this in-vitro meat has me re-examining and thinking deeply about what I eat. I'd like to know your thoughts.

Adventures in Wine Making

2011-09-13T20:08:00.001+02:00

About ten days ago we began a crash course in wine making. When we planted our berry patch last year, we included elderberries with the intent of doing elderberry wine. Suddenly, we realized that the elderberries were ready and if we didn’t act fast, the birds would wreak havoc. We ran down to our local old time feed shop/brew supply and got a quick crash course on starting the fermentation process.

We plowed through the information, bought the different components that we needed and began our primary fermentation. Last night, we went to strain the fruit, and transfer the already wine like liquid to its secondary fermenting container. Since we began with only a small amount, approximately 1 gallon, we decided to pour through a funnel, rather than siphon the wine-in-process, once we had strained out the poached fruits. Everything was going swimmingly, until the darned bowl just would not cooperate, and about half of our first batch ended up down the drain. So now instead of 5 bottles worth of fermenting juice, we have only two and a half. Ah well, yet another lesson learned…siphon even small amounts to avoid ~~catastrophe~~ frustration.

Never fear, we have been collecting loads of the still ripening fruit and will be putting down our second and much larger batch this weekend. On the bright side, B tasted the batch and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor and complexity already developing!

What have we learned so far?? When dealing with fruits like rhubarb and berries freeze them first, then as they thaw they are already squishier and the juice flows out more freely. Be sure to kill off the natural pectin’s that are there (they may or may not be of benefit in the finished product and you don’t want to risk the outcome of all your hard work in the end) and then add back a wine grade pectin. Make sure everything is spotlessly clean using a special detergent. There are many kinds of yeast, each one works best at a different temperature and will help to provide different alcohol contents, so educate yourself. Finally, do not let small setbacks frustrate you; it is all a grand, and hopefully tasty, chemistry experiment. What is next on taps? More wine adventures, and mead...oh I wish I had some of Julie's honey!

pressing cider

2011-09-05T08:31:00.000+02:00

this weekend, we sent the child up the old apple tree in our back yard to get those hard-to-reach apples. it's a very old tree and so the apples weren't as plentiful as we would have liked, but there were enough for a first run of our cider press.

eventually husband went up the tree too and they managed to shake down all of the apples. in all, there were 50-60 some. they are a bit on the small side, but delicious, crisp and juicy.

we'll prune back the tree significantly this autumn and hope it encourages better apple growth next year. it's quite a charming little old tree, so we're definitely not cutting it down all together, as it gives atmosphere to the back yard.

the next step was to send them through the chopper. we learned that the chopper has an awful lot of vibration, so it's a good thing husband sunk those legs of the bench 50cm or more into the ground.

we also realized that the little grinder's engine isn't going to be up to the task of many more apples than we processed. each apple we fed in slowed it down significantly and we had to pause in between to let it get up to speed. it also threw apple chunks around quite a bit (hence the towel over the top of it).

this is a shot of the clean plastic ikea container where most of the chopped apples end up, below the chopper. that worked pretty well.

the 50-odd apples resulted in this much chopped. we didn't weigh it, but i suppose it was about 5 kilos.

we readied the press. the oak grate in the bottom took quite some rinsing before it stopped giving off an oak-color to the water. we wanted our cider to get its color from the apples, not from the oak! after many rinses, also with boiling water from the kettle, the water ran pretty clear from the oak.

the next step was to make the "cheese." we put in the frame and then laid in a polyester netting cloth (we're going to experiment with different kinds of cloth, but tried this to start with, as it's what many of the sources we've read recommend). the cloth was 150cm wide by about 150cm in length.

next, we filled it with our chopped apples. the entire bucket of chopped apples fit in one cheese, tho' the press can take more than one at at time.

next step is to fold the cloth over the chopped apples. we folded each side over and then the ends, to carefully enclose all of the apples.

it's a great activity for kids. sabin was so happy to help with it. she actually did a lot of the work.

once it was folded carefully, husband lifted out the frame (you can see the little nail "handle" there underneath his right hand. the cheese stood well on its own.

next, we placed an oak grate on top of the cheese and then, since we only had one, three large pieces of 4x4 and then the jack. husband has made a little frame for the jack to stand in, so it doesn't shift out of place during use.

then we began pressing (or rather, we used child labor to do the the pressing), the cider running out into a large bowl underneath the sink's drain. we pressed until sabin couldn't pull the jack handle down again, even by hanging her whole weight on it.

our 5 kilos of apples resulted in approximately one whole liter of cider (these are 750ml bottles). it's sweet and delicious and we're hoarding it a bit until we get our hands on some of the apples promised by a few neighbors.

we fed the apple remains to the chickens, but with the next batch, i'm going to make cider vinegar. apparently it's pretty easy - you just take these apple remains, put them in a big crock with some water and let them ferment for a month or so, until the vinegar is the strength you want. sounds pretty easy to me. i just washed up the cloth and it's ready for the next go.

we learned several things:

~ it takes a LOT of apples to make not very much cider.
~ the engine of our chopper isn't powerful enough.
~ the oak is a bit difficult, since it wants to contribute its color to the batch (how do they keep chardonnay golden in oak barrels?)
~ i thought husband's cider press was a bit over-dimensioned, but it needs that strength to withstand the pressure from the jack and stay together. it did this with flying colors.
~ the repurposed sink makes a great receptacle for the juice.

we've managed to pick up 4 beautiful old-fashioned glass wine balloons here and there over the past week or so and we're ready to fill them and make hard cider, as soon as we get some more apples.

if you have any questions about any of this, just ask in the comments!

~ julochka

a windmill fit for a house

2011-08-20T21:35:00.001+02:00

back in january, i mentioned that we were planning to get a our own little (5.5kw) wind turbine. soon after that, we filed papers with the municipality for the permit. it's a good eight months on and we've not yet heard anything official from them.

husband talked to the person responsible for the permits at the municipality back in march and he actually said, "that's an awfully pretty area you live in, so we're disposed to turning down such requests." instead of encouraging people to be more environmentally-friendly and less dependent on fossil fuels, the municipality is inclined to turn down such requests for aesthetic reasons. i'll give you a moment for that to sink in and leave it with a resounding silence on my part, which should speak for itself.

this weekend, we were invited to an open house to see one of the little turbines the company (eurowind) has installed at a farmhouse here in denmark. this one is on a 24 meter steel tower and is similar to the one which we would like to install. the cost of this one was 166,000DKK ($32,000) and that's about the same as the one we would like to install, tho' we were planning on a 20 meter tower.

the components are surprisingly small and quite simple when they're all laid out on the table. it gave us the sense that you could very nearly build it yourself.

gratuitous shot of the free hot dogs they were serving. i could do a whole post that is an ode to the perfection of a danish hotdog, but that would probably be more appropriate on one of my other blogs.

we were surprised at a number of things. for one, it was really quite noisy, which was surprising because the big, commercial wind turbines are quite quiet. for another, the tower was in fact, pretty ugly and the foundation took up quite a lot more space than we had been imagining/planning on giving it. we had also expected better quality for the price. it struck us as pretty flimsy.

we left feeling much less sure that we want to invest in our own turbine at the moment. it seems like there is a lot of room for improvement, in the product, in the regulations, in the attitude of the municipality. we're definitely going to be looking into other manufacturers and alternatives. we apparently have plenty of time while we wait for an answer from the municipality.

i had to share this photo of their van, only in the wind industry can you write "erection supervision" on your van with a straight face.

waiting for the apples

2011-08-19T13:12:00.002+02:00

over the past week or so, husband has been hard at work building an apple cider press. he searched online, watched a couple of youtube videos and then went to work. we've got grand plans for hard cider and regular cider production and tho' we only just planted our apple orchard this year (and 4 of the 10 trees we ordered died), husband thinks it's never too early to get started.

we had an old sink from the old house and he cleaned it up and repurposed it for the press. what's great is you can take advantage of the drain and drain the cider into a clean bucket as it's pressed. the construction is very sturdy, as you can see, but the jack that places the pressure on the apples (which are wrapped in lengths of clean, unbleached fabric), will put a lot of pressure on the frame.

husband loves french screws (that's his name for them - in my opinion, they look like bolts), so he used plenty of those. we don't have apples that are ready yet, so i can't show you the press in use, but as soon as we do (we've arranged to get a bunch from a neighbor since our baby trees aren't producing yet), i'll be back with more pictures and more about how we're going about this.

last friday, husband had a little encounter with this big, mean table saw, but it didn't stop him for long and he got to work making a little machine that will chop up the apples so that we can get more cider out of them and i won't have to stand with a big dangerous knife and chop them up, likely necessitating another trip to the emergency room.

husband loves to work with wood, so he created this little chopper, repurposing an old bench grinder for the bit that does the chopping. you can catch a little glimpse of his bandaged left thumb here.

he placed screws at regular intervals on the wooden drum inside and so they chop up the apples as you feed them through.

we're not sure if this little engine is actually going to prove too wussy in actual practice - we've fed a handful of apples through and it was up to the task, but we don't really know it will handle a major apple chopping job.

husband built a bench out of an old pallet to fix it to, as it's got quite a lot of vibration.

the chopped apples come out below and fall into these plastic ikea tubs. the chopped apples will be enclosed in big squares of fabric and then pressed. ultimately, we'll put the cider into those wine balloons so it can ferment into hard cider. but more about that process when we actually get to it in a few weeks. this project has actually made me excited that autumn is in the air!

i just wanted to share this project as it goes along, mostly because of how creatively husband has repurposed items - the sink, the car jack (not pictured) that will provide the pressure, the pallet, the old grinder. now that's what i call living sustainably! you never know what you might be able to build with things you already have around the house! it's easier on the environment and much more economical. even if it is, at times, hard on your thumb.

A road trip involving lettuce

2011-08-18T10:04:00.000+02:00

This is a story about the dangers of reading too much about gardening. It starts with a mad idea to do a road trip from where we live in southern Denmark through Germany to Alsace, France. This trip is mainly premised on cravings for warmer, sunnier weather and to sit at a cafe having delicious croissants and cafe au laits. All very good, if somewhat impractical, reasons. After many hours of driving, we find ourselves in Scherwiller, Alsace camping in a vineyard. On the Saturday we are told of a great local market at the nearby town of Selesat. The market is laid out simply in two rows facing each other. We start at one end and work our way up purchasing local goats cheese, yogurt, freshly picked wild blackberries, and eggs. I can see at the other end an elderly lady with small living lettuces in trays in front of her. And here is where too many gardening books comes in, I assume that she has in front of her a mesclun bed. A mesclun bed is a mixture of salad greens grown closely together and harvested as young leaves originally from France. I approach her thinking I will buy a bag of mixed salad leaves which she will harvest in front of my very eyes. Because, in my excitement of being in France at a French market, I completely assume she is selling French salad leaves from a French gardening technique. Although the sign in front of the leaves says, "12 pour 2Euro" which makes little sense if you are buying a bag of leaves, my husband goes ahead and tried to order some leaves. She is very agreeable and asks which of the types of lettuce we want. She starts selecting our choices and instead of cutting the leaves, puts the whole living lettuce in bag. She then gestures to the sign and indicates we have a lot more choosing to do to get up to 12. Oh no! We realize that we are in fact buying 12 starter plant size lettuces while on a camping holiday. We can't walk away, she's elderly, she's already put four lettuces together for us, we're too polite to do anything else but complete the transaction. And so we leave the French market with 12 lettuce starter plants all because I've read too many gardening books, and because I leapt to conclusions based on those books!

As a gardener though I can't throw out 12 lettuce plants so I tend to them. They have some soil around their roots, they are wrapped in some newspaper and then in a plastic bag. So, I water them, I place them in a sunny location while camping, I make sure they are brought either into the car or into the tent's vestibule at night so they don't get soaked by the nightly thunderstorms. And on the drive home, I carefully place them on the back of the car behind my son's head so they get light on the drive. At the camping spot on the drive home, I take them out of the car before anything else so that they get some fresh air and aren't damaged. I am sure that some of the people at these campsites are telling their friends about this strange lady who seemed to be coddling a yellow plastic bag. My son can't believe that on a camping trip, I managed to have a garden.

But they made it home and are now planted out on my terrace and we harvested some leaves last night for the salad. And they were delicious!

As an aside, we know driving 2500km is not great for the environment but we had an environmentally friendly car and there were three of us in it so it was better than flying but not taking the train or bus.

--- Jude

Traveling Locavore

2011-08-13T16:05:00.000+02:00

I love a car trip! There is nothing more exhilarating, and exhausting at the same time. It gives you the freedom to pack with much more flexibility. I have some wonderful friends who are pitching in to take care of our precious garden while we are gone. Since we are taking a family vacation with our friends in our gourmet club, there will be loads of cooking in addition to hiking in the fresh mountain air. As I empty our produce-filled fridge into a cooler for our long drive to the Rockies, I ponder, then I giggle a little. After all of this work, what will my food miles be? Is it still local once I drive with it 1000 miles before I cook with it? The things this traveling locavore thinks about!

Have a great week all!
~Amy

eating less meat

2011-08-09T09:41:00.001+02:00

i was feeling pretty bleak about the state of the world yesterday and what we can do as individuals to affect change. whenever i feel that way, i watch some TED talks and it usually makes me feel better. and while i realize that in posting this video here, i'm preaching to the converted, i wanted to share it anyway. i think the biggest surprise in it for me was that we should only be eating half a pound (250grams) of meat per week (if we're not going wholly vegetarian) and instead, many of us eat that per day! i know that at our house we've cut back significantly...for example, making a roast chicken stretch over 3-4 meals - from the initial roast to boiling the carcass for broth to use in soups or risottos to using the leftovers in salads and sandwiches and perhaps also a risotto. but i'll also admit we're not there yet. we're definitely going to make this half pound/250 grams of meat a week a goal around here.

how we saved our cucumbers

2011-08-08T15:43:00.000+02:00

these little puppies...phytoseiulus persimilis - or spider mite predators - have rescued our cucumbers from blight and all four plants are producing again!! they're a natural biological, organic and safe deterrent against that nasty little spider mite that makes the little baby cukes turn yellow and fall off before they even get a chance to grow.

if the leaves of the cucumbers have some white residue on them (check the underside), you probably have spider mites and need some of these little predators...they come in a little vial in the mail and you sprinkle them on a few of the leaves of each plant and they spread out and do their work, quickly, efficiently and seemingly like magic.

now if i could find something to use against the little green worms that are eating up my tuscan kale...

Quick Tasty Tip

2011-08-07T14:51:00.000+02:00

A while back I posted about a by-product of a plant that has gone just past it's peak; edible flowers from arugula. Here is another tasty tip. If you have too many radishes, or they start to bolt too soon, let them go. Let them get scraggly, leggy tops and form seed pods. Then, take those deliciously sweet/spicy pods and throw them into a stir-fry. Fantastic!

Blight

2011-07-31T15:57:00.002+02:00

Every season the garden has taught us something new. We have been very fortunate to have a fairly pest free experience up until this point. This year we have seen asparagus beetles, eggplant fleas, and some random parasite effected a row of our garlic and is wreaking havoc on some of our celeriac. Both of the latter two, have no real known natural predator! Though we have had our fair share of pests this season, everything overall is healthy and made it past the danger zone for these problem creatures. Everything except our beloved cucumbers.

I blogged last year about how excited we were to be doing tons of old fashioned crock fermenting for all of our pickles; we could hardly keep up with the production! So this year we planted double, so that we could still have a large pickling harvest as well as accommodate our farm bags. Suddenly just as production was getting in it's groove and the baby cucs were growing up, our plants began to die. Upon research, we found that if we had a few cucumber beetles early on, then the plants would have been effected by blight. The result would be that the cucumbers wouldn't mature fully and the plants would die. The above pictured plant is showing the first signs. We're not sure if the four plants we have remaining are strong enough to weather through, or are just going to be the last to give up the fight. We have had plenty of fresh cucumbers for Greek salads and for farm bags, but alas, there will be no pickling this year (at least of the cucs).

We aren't sure if our strangely cool early season, where we saw one warmish week at the beginning of June and then cooled off to spring temps again, is the culprit. Or maybe the way we left the beds insulated with straw when we winterized last season is to blame, but this year we are going to approach our fall garden prep a little differently. We are going to burn all of the straw that we mulched with, compost all of the plant material (as we have done before), and plant more beds to cover crops. Then we will see if we run into the same issues next season. Not only are we ever in tuned with the weather, we inspect our plants constantly as we walk the garden, and are always learning something new. We have now had an education in blight, and though disappointing, we are better for it!

If you want to see some of what is coming soon in our garden click here :)

den klog kone

2011-07-25T23:21:00.000+02:00

mushrooms

rowan berries

in the sixteenth century, danish villages often had a person they called "den klog kone" (literally, the clever wife). to be den klog kone was a positive thing - they knew about herbs and worked to heal people who were sick - these women were strong and capable and essential to a village. but there was a fine line between being den klog kone and being a witch - get on the wrong side of someone in the village and that line would be crossed and one would be persecuted (and maybe even killed) for being a witch.

i've been fascinated this year by foraging. the idea of finding food along the roadside, in the forest, or on the beach is very appealing. partly, it's about getting something for nothing, but even more, it's about that knowledge that den kloge kone had. it's about knowing what plants are good for what. if they have medicinal qualities. are they edible? what flavors they have and what flavors they go with. how the plants can be used.

it strikes me sometimes that we've lost so much knowledge - so much that people once knew. so much about nature and how to really do things and make things. all those things that den kloge kone of the village once knew. or ma and pa in the laura ingalls wilder books.

for me, a big part of living more sustainably involves relearning some of those things. which mushrooms are edible, which of the plants growing in the ditch might be used to spice up some schnapps or make a tasty jelly or if those flowers would make a nice cordial. i'd like to know just enough to be den kloge kone, but definitely not a witch.

garden lessons

2011-07-14T11:59:00.001+02:00

i suppose we're at the halfway mark with the garden and it seemed like time for some assessment.

we had a month-long strawberry harvest. i learned from it that i am a horrible judge of when the strawberries are finishing, as i kept thinking, "this must be the last time i'll pick this many berries" and then the next time, i'd pick two buckets instead of just one. we ate strawberries every evening and in many different ways and i put up a dozen jars of strawberry marmalade (several quite large) and had a big jar of strawberry porridge (jordbær grød) in the fridge that lasted for a week's worth of desserts. and we never bought a single strawberry from the grocery store. so i think we can safely say that the strawberries were a success. the next step with the strawberries is to do a thorough weeding and then prepare to take the little fledgling strawberries for new beds next spring. this we do by digging in a little plastic pot below the runners, settling their roots into some good potting soil and encouraging them to take root. in the spring, we dig up the little pots and move them to a new bed.

as for other things, we haven't yet begun to havest in earnest. our weather has been rainy and a bit cool, so some of the expected lush growth hasn't yet happened. nearly every day, tho', i can add tuscan kale to my dishes, as it's thriving in our cool, rainy weather. we will soon have more broad beans and runner beans and borlotti beans than we know what to do with (i'm already planning on canning them various ways). and the raised bed of brassicas is looking good and the cabbages finally appear to be forming heads of cabbage - we were a bit worried for awhile that they were just going to keep making leaves. i've been harvesting small stalks of broccoli for stir frys for a couple of weeks.

moving our rhubarb didn't seem to hold it back and all of the plants have come back and are producing in earnest. you can get some ideas as to what i've done with it here. we now have three rows of asparagus going - the row you can see on the left was asparagus we bought in pots last autumn - it should be ready to begin harvesting in two more years (one lesson from gardening is patience). there are two additional rows of asparagus i started from seed back in march. i didn't read the instructions on the packet, which made it sound quite difficult, but just planted them in little pots. every single of one of them came up and despite their tiny stature, they are all thriving very well, even after i planted them out. so the lesson in that - don't be scared away by difficult-sounding planting processes, just jump in and try it. it will likely be 5 years before we can begin to harvest from those, but i'm hoping the wait is worth it.

we had a number of things that just didn't come up. primarily beets and spinach and kohlrabi and parsnips. our carrots are extremely patchy. what's frustrating is that we don't really know what lesson to take from the experience. was the soil too cold when we planted? did birds eat the seeds? did we not plant deep enough? too deep? not enough fertilizer? not enough water? too much? is our soil too sandy? i would love to learn from the experience, but feel that i don't know what the lesson is. i find that a bit frustrating.

our artichokes, which are a perennial, are doing very well. they took off like mad after husband put a load of horse poo around them. you have to be careful doing that, as it can burn them, but the artichokes seemed to love it! as to the eggplants in the greenhouse - we can see that their roots have reached down to the layer of horse poo and have taken off like mad.

our sweetcorn is pretty patchy as well, as you can see in this photo, but it just hasn't been warm enough for corn. we do think part of it is that one brand of seeds - Albertine's Have - were duds, as i think that all of the seeds which didn't do what we expected were that brand. in all, i think the garden should be farther ahead and more lush than it is and i'm not sure how to ensure that next year. we're talking about more raised beds for the more delicate items as one measure. more pre-planting indoors and in the greenhouse to prepare for planting out. we will work more horse poo into the soil this autumn - actually, that yellow-ish patch to the right (i just mowed down the tall weeds) will be next year's garden and we're soon going to be plowing in some manure in the coming weeks to prepare for that. another thing we're going to do is more continuous planting. planting new rounds of salads and radishes and things and daring to replant what didn't come up. we definitely haven't done enough of that this year.

what lessons is your garden teaching you? and if you have any ideas as to what lessons i should be learning from our garden failures, i'm all ears!!

first honey harvest

2011-07-12T22:02:00.000+02:00

on thursday last week, our bee mentor said it was time for our first honey harvest. he came over (that's him on the right) and helped us take the honey-laden frames. only one of our bee families had produced anything, the other one seems to have a lazy queen and has not been doing their job (more about that in a separate post).

but our well-functioning bee family is doing very well. twelve frames, heavy with golden honey, were ready to be harvested. here, the sun shows just how full and beautiful the frames were.

husband constructed the box you can see. you need a box to transport the frames in. husband made one that fits six frames, as honey-filled frames are heavy and to carry more would be pretty hard on your back. he estimates that the boxes cost approximately 60DKK (about $12) apiece to make in materials - wood and hinges. the box has a bottom and a lid, as once you take the frames, you don't want the bees to find their way into them and try to come along to the harvest.

the bees indicate that they are finished with the frame by sealing it off, as you can see in the photo above. i found out the hard way that the bees are not at all pleased to have their hard work removed. i was merely the photographer and thought i was at a safe distance, but i got stung on my cheekbone. i can tell you it was VERY painful. the kind of pain that actually takes your breath away (tho' i didn't have an allergic reaction) and i actually had to lie down for awhile - it made me feel quite ill.

we transported our two boxes, which contained the twelve frames, to our bee mentor's house. he has a centrifuge for extracting the honey, so we did all of the work there. the sealing wax must be scraped off with a special tool. sabin loved that part.

each frame is spun in the centrifuge three times and the centrifuge holds four frames. the honey is spun in one direction, then the frames are turned and spun again. then you return it to the original position and spin one last time.

at this stage of the year, the frames are returned, wax intact, to the bees, so they can fill them again for the later harvest (some time in august). i didn't get photos of the empty frames, but they look a bit forlorn and messy, but the bees very quickly remedy that when you give them back to them.

the centrifuge has a tap at the bottom and you capture the honey in a clean white plastic bucket. it's then strained through a large mesh sieve to get the last bits of wax out of it. i somehow neglected to photograph that part as well.

i wanted some honeycomb along with the honey, so we cut the middle section from one of the frames. the bees will quickly build that back again (and hopefully won't lay any drone eggs there). i had to have some because i wanted to chew on a bit of wax, like when i was a kid.

we got 22 kilos - or 45 pounds of honey from our 12 frames. a pretty good harvest for the first time and for only one bee family. the honey has to stand for a couple of days before you put it into the containers. we got a big stainless steel stirrer that husband fits onto his drill and you stir it to aerate the honey, to help along the natural process, which i guess is a sort of fermentation (we're still learning). after two days of stirring and settling, we tapped the honey into the containers. we had friends visiting and the kids loved that part of the process. we filled 32 glass jars and 10 of the plastic ones with our first harvest.

we don't expect to sell any of it this round, but use it for our own consumption in tea and baking and in making cordials and preserves. i expect to be experimenting in the kitchen very soon.

* * *

further investment we made to get ready for the first harvest included purchase of a bee brush, for brushing them off the frames to put them into the box - 35DKK ($6.50), a special tool for lifting and separating the frames - 68DKK ($12.75), protective bee clothing for sabin - 200DKK ($37.50), 90 plastic containers with lids for the final honey product - 156DKK ($30) and 36 glass jars with lids - 96DKK ($18). the stainless steel stirring implement was 200DKK ($37.50). we need several good buckets and the bucket with a tap on it (tho' our bee mentor gave us that one), so there will be some investment in that as well. eventually, we will get our own centrifuge, but at this stage and on the small scale we're working, we will use our bee mentor's equipment. that raises our total investment thus far to 4610DKK ($864).

The Evolution of Farm Bags

2011-07-11T23:45:00.001+02:00

When we moved to the homestead and were contemplating creating our garden, in a much neglected space where one had once been, we approached a few friends and asked if anyone was interested in trading labor for produce. One couple enthusiastically offered, and that began our first farm season 3 years ago. We worked very hard, and had more than enough food for both of our families to enjoy the whole season and most of the winter. It was during that time, that I began to blog, thinking it would be a great outlet to catalog our garden each year.

Last year, we offered the idea of farm bags to a handful of friends who wouldn’t mind being guinea pigs. Five took us up on it and we started delivering produce once the season began, about weekly. We learned a ton last year and as a result adjusted our approach this season. Firstly, I researched CSA’s in many different areas of the country to get a feel for the quantities that were provided with each allotment, as well as how they were pricing. In most CSA’s you purchase a share at the beginning of the season that helps cover the farmers costs, and then receive the boxes weekly. These prices averaged anywhere from $400-$500, in our area of the country, for 16-20 weeks. It was important to us to include some value added things in bags so I spent time this winter, laying out and printing recipes and food tips to include with our bags. I also experimented in appliquéing kitchen towels, soap making and a number of other things that we could include as little trinkets of the farm.

This spring after I excitedly ordered seeds, I sent out a mass email to everyone who participated last year as well as a number of other’s who had expressed an interest, and laid out some guidelines for our season. At the end of the email I asked for a response if interested. I figured we could handle eight families this year, first come first serve. These are the guidelines that we put forth this year:

:: Each bag will be $15 ($18 for egg families) weekly to every other week depending on the season. Some bags early on may be smaller, and later on may be extremely bountiful. (It really concerns me to get money upfront, I would rather people pay per bag. I am already a little twitchy about being sure I stay in touch during slow times and try to flesh out the bags early in the season, so that people feel the return for their investment).

:: We will supply a farm bag to be refilled weekly and will pack delicate produce in green bags, to be rinsed and returned for future bags.

:: Farm bags need to be picked up at our house or place of business. (Last year I delivered bags and that added a whole other layer of stress, as I would race from place to place in between work and home and deliver the bags and then worry about leaving them on porches in the heat if someone wasn’t home.)

:: We made sure to be clear that our harvest would be directly related to the season and how cooperative our cooler northern weather was.

:: Instead of simply planting an abstract ‘more’ than what we need for our two families (us & our friends who come out weekly to help), we took a more scientific approach and planted either a row per family(carrots) or a plant per two families (eggplant) depending on the item.

:: We brought a second refrigerator to the main floor to help hold produce overflow. Last year, every time we opened our main fridge it was an adventure in Jenga to get something in or out.

B and I spend some time each morning and evening perusing the garden, spot weeding, making sure things aren’t too dry or that there aren't any bugs. We are always amazed at how quickly everything grows this time of year. It happens literally before our eyes! End result, we have 10 farm bag families and an ever growing waiting list. As I go to post this, I'm headed out to stake all of our pepper plants that were hit by wind sheer in a severe thunderstorm this morning. I am certain that we will learn even more about logistics this season, one thing is for sure, it is quite a ride!

~Amy

Garden Bag One~ Delivered!

2011-07-07T18:13:00.000+02:00

This past weekend was crazy busy. We hosted our annual chili cook-off for just over 70 people (adults and kids) and it was the Fourth of July here in the U.S. and in our little town that is a big event. We also delivered of our first garden bags to the eight families that are participating in our little CSA experiment (at some point I'll feel more comfortable dropping the word experiment).

It has been an incredibly cool season, and as a result we are averaging 2-3 weeks behind last year's harvest. So our plan was for the first bag to be small and a taste of what's to come. It surprised both of us, that it ended up being a fairly decent sized bag even with the little tidbits. The inaugural bag included: Micro-greens, mustard greens, green onions, garlic scapes, rhubarb, sugar snap peas, a few baby squash & a jar of our rhubarb ginger jam. I would say size wise, the everything except micro-greens, rhubarb, and jam could be used to make a good sized stir fry meal for a family with some onions and scapes left over.

We did have some excitement though. Most of the farm bag families were at our cook-off, so we planned to hand out bags there. There had been an apartment sized refrigerator left by the previous owners here and B moved it downstairs into the mudroom for the season for produce overflow. When I reached in to pack up the first bag the top two shelves had frosted!! UGH! Lesson learned, and now the fridge has some new settings. The micro-greens had to be replaced, but an interesting note~ mustard greens survive a frost both outside when their in the ground and once harvested inadvertently in the fridge.

Overall, we are off and running and I think with the warm weather that we have finally had the last ten days or so, we may just have another bag headed home this weekend!

homemade vanilla extract

2011-07-04T14:56:00.003+02:00

Recently I read on another blog how to make your own vanilla extract. It so super simple I couldn’t believe it! 2 ingredients….vodka and vanilla pods. No artificial colorings, corn syrup, water or added sugars. From what I have read, it doesn’t matter if you use inexpensive vodka or pricey. I am going for money saving so I will pick the least expensive.

After pricing vanilla pods, (I’m going to call them pods…isn’t what you scrape from the insides the beans???) it looks like Ebay is the cheapest. I ordered 20 Tahitian Vanilla Pods for a little over $7 (that included shipping). Even through their vacuum sealed package they smelled divine!

Lets get started on the extract:

750ml bottle of vodka
12 whole vanilla pods
Dark Rum (optional)

If you want to make a smaller bottle:
2oz bottle
1/4c Vodka
1 vanilla pod

Split your beans lengthwise using kitchen shears or a sharp knife. Leave at least 1” connected at one end.

Push the beans into the vodka bottle (I decided to use a mason jar...it held all of the vodka with room to spare) If you use the vodka bottle the beans are going to displace some of your vodka so add a splash or two to your orange or cranberry juice.
Screw the lid on tightly and store in a cool, dry place. Shake the bottle once or twice a day for the first couple of days. It will take a couple of months for the beans to steep in the vodka, you can use it sooner if you are in a rush. Store it well and it will last for years.
Use a funnel and transfer it to smaller bottles if you would like. Add a splash of dark rum if you choose while the beans are steeping. If you use some of your vanilla while its steeping add more vodka. When the 2 months are up you can remove the pods, dry them and use them for other purposes. I am thinking of making vanilla sugar.
Some recipes I have read say to strain the extract after you remove the pods. Why would you do that? I am going to leave as is….straining would remove the delicious flecks of beans, right????

Organic vs. Non-organic….sure, you can pay more for certified organic beans if you wish. Different countries have different standards for organic certification. From what I have read certification is done by the country that the product is grown in….for example for those of us here in the US, the USDA cannot certify Mexican vanilla pods as organic. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Virtually all vanilla pods are grown in third world countries…the orchids are pollinated and harvested by hand. These poor rural farmers cannot afford pesticides and fertilizers. You choose J
And just think...for a little over $13 you dont have to use this

You don’t have to limit yourself with vanilla extract…you can also make orange, lemon, cinnamon and almond extract. Maybe more, but that was what I had came across.
In about 2 months, this should be done...don't forget to give it a shake.

Incubator Inspired

2011-06-29T01:50:00.002+02:00

Back when our son was very small, about 10 years ago we got our first chickens. We ended up with lots and lots (did I say LOTS?) of chickens! There were 50+ free range chickens….3 of us in our family so that meant lots of extra eggs. Back then you couldn’t give farm fresh eggs away, let alone try and get $1/dozen for them. Now farm fresh eggs seem to be all the rage.

Once our chickens started to lay (we didn’t start out with 50) we began to think about incubators and hatching our own chicks. We did our research and purchased our incubator. 30 days later we had an ok success rate….we candled, turned the eggs and watched the humidity. We were very good broody hens.
One morning the husband woke up and was very excited about the dream that he had. How to make our very own incubator and we wouldn’t have to buy anything. I am going to have to guess here, as this was several years ago, but I’m thinking that we spent about $35 for our Styrofoam incubator…no fan, no egg turner just basic plain jane. But, this is how we made our own. We had an old food dehydrator that had the fan and warming element on the bottom try (as well as the temperature control). Next we got a cardboard box, we had one from a computer monitor that it slid down into perfectly. One modification that we made mid-way through the first hatch was we lined the box with a heavy trash bag, it helped to hold in the moisture. Some smallish door shapes were cut in the box, just a couple of them to help control the temperature/humidity. Pop it open for a bit if it gets too warm/humid. The incubator trays were lined with cheese cloth to try and keep bits of shell from going down into the heating/fan tray. When it got close to the hatch date we put a picture frame over the top of the box so the little boy could watch the peeps break out of their shells.

Po-Tay-Toh** Po-Tah-Toh

2011-06-28T02:27:00.000+02:00

After reading this article this weekend over at domestic sensualist, I began to really think about the good old potato. Years ago when my mother-in-law was diagnosed with diabetes, we jumped on the Atkins diet craze when she did. We began to look more intricately into the carbs we ate. I guess it was out of that habit that to this day we dramatically limit the potatoes that we eat.

Fast forward 15 years and we begin this grand homestead and garden adventure. Low and behold, potatoes are one of those crops that grow abundantly and will store in the root cellar fantastically. We have done well growing and storing, but haven’t kept up on eating them as well as I think we should. It all goes back to that low carb time.

Aren’t potatoes one of the perfect foods? I went in search of information this evening and am a little disheartened. Most information is put out there by either the potato growers, or the authors of diet books. Simple or complex carbohydrate, pish posh, let’s talk about the glycemic index. Sheesh!! Do any of you have the answer to this question?

Maybe it is best to take the everything in moderation approach…and preparation is the most important part. After all, I minimally process everything that I harvest. Honestly, I am just trying to make healthy choices for my family and don’t want to feel guilty growing and stocking potatoes. Thoughts??

End Rant :)

~Amy

chez poulet

2011-06-26T12:58:00.000+02:00

the chicken enclosure was finished this week, so we could finally move our chickens from the rabbit hutch where they were temporarily living over to chez poulet, their posh chicken coop. the outdoor part is lined with zinc, repurposed from an old refrigerated container that was on our property, to make it rat-proof. apparently rats love eggs. we haven't seen any rats here at our place, but we have seen them at the stable next door, so they're in the neighborhood.

i was able to pick up the black swedish chickens yesterday - four hens and a rooster. they're completely black - including their combs. i read that even their meat is black! but we want them for the eggs. they're a bit smaller than the others, but they seem to get along quite peacefully when we put them together.

the dansk landhøns have really grown since we got them. they're nearly ready to begin laying eggs. and now they've got nesting boxes all lined with straw, ready for them to begin.

the black swedish rooster. i think he's actually quite cute.

husband got to indulge his inner engineer on this project and he has built a rather ingenious door that we can lower to let them out during the day.

he was inspired by castles and draw bridges, i suspect. he didn't even spend endless hours looking at designs online (like someone else in this family would), he said he had a vague picture in his head and he just started building it, modifying along the way as he encountered problems. i do admire that about him.

the chickens were pretty suspicious about going in last evening, but we managed, between the two of us to shoo them in. we want them in at night, so they don't get eaten by a fox, tho' husband has built quite a secure enclosure, so they should be ok anyway.

the door is raised and lowered by this handle on the outside.

here's how the mechanism looks on the inside. the chickens managed to open it sometime last night and let themselves out, so husband has made some more improvements so it can be locked into place and they can't get it open.

i couldn't resist showing you the beautiful door he made, repurposing one of those old round windows we've collected. it really is a cool chicken coop. on the righthand side of this photo, you can see the turning device for the door that's on the other side, where there will also be a pen they can be let out into. but that will be for another day. you can see he used a bit of a different design on that side.

woody was pretty interested in the whole project. he was wondering if they were a bit big to be an afternoon snack.

Swiss Chard

2011-06-21T19:56:00.004+02:00

One of my garden favorites! Swiss Chard is one of the newest additions to my garden, this is its 3rd summer with us. Maybe it’s the small town that we live in, or maybe swiss chard doesn’t travel well to grocery stores….but I don’t remember seeing it in available in our grocery store (which is very small). If memory serves me right I read about it on a blog out there on the web. I am always willing to try new things in the garden, especially since we love spinach.
Swiss chard is easy to grow and was one of the first things that went into the garden this spring. The chard seeds got planted at the same time the spinach seeds went in the ground. The spinach has been gone for a couple of weeks now. We had a hot spell, the spinach bolted…we only got 2 pickings off of it before it was gone. The chard has flourished. No need to worry about bolting with this green! It will tolerate our hot and humid summers and we can pick until the first hard frost.

I have substituted Swiss Chard for spinach in lots of recipes (like hot spinach dip). Creamed Swiss Chard is fantastic….we have made it and added precooked pasta, also used it as a dip for flatbread, homemade of course. Chard dehydrates wonderfully as well. Just rinse the leaves (I save the stems for something else) pat them dry and put in a single layer in the dehydrator. The dehydrator is set on 95º F (35ºC) this is my herb setting on the dehydrator. I just dry them until they crumble. Time depends on humidity and how large the leaves are. The chard then broken into pieces and put into a jar. I put it in soups and dips and have even put it in bread. Husband one time thought the jar had basil in it and we had it on pizza, that was good too.
If you haven’t given swiss chard a try and like spinach or other greens give this vitamin packed plant a try. It grows well in containers too! If you have grown it before and have recipes to share we are always looking for new ways to incorporate it into our menu ☺

Spinach Rice Salad with homemade Bread (Swiss Chard instead of spinach) The only thing I had to buy for this dinner was the rice and the celery.

harvesting honey

2011-06-20T00:44:00.004+02:00

it was strawberries & honey day around denmark today. the national beekeepers' association sponsors the day early every summer - to take advantage of the beautiful seasonal strawberries and the first honey harvest of the year. we went to our bee school to see how it was all done. we'll be "slinging" (i cannot find what it's called in english (centrifuging? spinning?) and i even searched an entire online bee dictionary) our own honey early next week, together with our mentor.

how most of our bee "lessons" function - here, one of the experienced guys explains to one of the other newcomers how to check whether the frame is ready and going to be easy to "sling" or not.

when the bees are finished making the honey, they seal it in. you have to scrape that off with a special tool before putting the frame into the centrifuge, otherwise, no honey will come out.

the front frame has had the sealing wax scraped off, but the ones behind it have been emptied of their honey. they will be placed back in with their bee families, and the bees will fill them up again by about august or so. after that second harvest, the wax will be melted off and repurposed and the frames cleaned and made ready for next year.

this is the hand centrifuge we used today. it holds three frames. after the first spin, you turn the frame around, so the other side is facing out, then you put it back and give it another spin, for a total of three spins. the honey collects down in the bottom and you open the spout and let it pour into a clean bucket.

as the honey pours out here, you can see there are still bits of wax. you then put it through a large cloth strainer into another bucket (which i must not have photographed, because it was a rather boring big white bucket), from which you can then fill the containers with honey.

the honey is runny and golden and absolutely delicious (we ate it with heart-shaped waffles and fresh strawberries). and i can't wait to have our own.

one last shot of our bee mentor explaining to husband how to build a box for transporting the frames. it's ok to harvest the frames if they're about 2/3 full of honey, the bees don't have to be finished with them before you take them, since you're going to give them back. we also learned it's important to have a box where you can enclose the honey-laden frames, otherwise you'll have a whole lot of bees that want to come along for the ride.

that's the update for now, i'll tell you more next week after we harvest our own honey. as you can see, we enjoyed some fresh honey together with our dinner...we made pancakes with elderflower blossoms out on the grill table (using a pan, don't worry, we didn't try to grill pancakes). fresh honey, strawberries and elderflowers from the garden = summer bliss.

Edible Flower Heaven

2011-06-16T02:55:00.000+02:00

I'm so excited about this new find that I am doing a first (and a rare). I am double posting this little tidbit both here and at Eat Right Racine. I figured that I needed to share the wealth of this new found (to me) information!

Tonight, as we are prepping to leave town on vacation, we wanted to eat some of our left over winter cold frame greens that are approaching their end. Arugula, is a favorite, and when it bolts/goes to seed, the leaves get very spicy. Tonight B came in and said "oh, google arugula flowers and see if their edible. I just ate one and it's great!" So, here's the gem....arugula flowers are amazingly sweet spicy and a phenomenal treat! We went to an old standard tonight. Did your grandma make salad dressing with mayo, vinegar and sugar?? Well, mine did and we did a similar variation with the chive flower vinegar I made after Palmer's post and all I can say is heaven!!

Bottom line....try arugula flowers---and chive vinegar, for that matter!

~Amy

let the chicken adventure begin

2011-06-13T13:48:00.047+02:00

at last, progress was made on our chicken coop this weekend. it's just been a foundation for awhile, but now it's beginning to look like an actual building with a roof and everything! those poles sticking up at the back are for the fenced enclosure where they'll be able to be outside. according to danish law, you have to have even the outdoor areas completely enclosed, in case there's a bird flu scare - so you can keep your chickens separate from wild birds. it will also undoubtedly help secure the chickens against the mama fox and her two babies that i've seen meandering in our field in the evenings.

i, of course, couldn't wait to get the chickens 'til their coop was done, so i found an ad in the blå avis (our craig's list equivalent) and went off on a chicken acquisition mission. i think i was also hoping to speed up the building process on the chicken coop a bit by having the actual chickens waiting in the wings, as it were. luckily, they can live in the outdoor bunny cage 'til their coop is finished.

i went to the chicken farm, intending to get a 1.4 as they call it - four hens and a rooster - but while i was there, i was talked into one more hen and they threw in an extra rooster for free. there was also a possible commitment on my part to buy a very cute little pony, but thus far, we're just whispering about that. we are going back to get some cool swedish black chickens that are a nordic heritage breed and good egg-layers - they weren't quite big enough (you couldn't tell which were boys and which were girls as of yet). the chickens we got are 2 months old and are dansk landhøns, another old nordic breed. tho' i do still want a couple of araucanas, which aren't a nordic breed (i need those martha stewart blue eggs).

the poultry farm was a marvelous place and next time i will take my camera (how i managed to get out the door without it is beyond me). they're raising all sorts of traditional nordic breeds and contributing to bringing them back to commercial viability. they also had all kinds of turkeys, guinea fowl and even some gorgeous peacocks! they were really fowl people! (sorry, i couldn't resist) i'm always so excited to meet people like that - people who are passionate about what they're doing, have loads of knowledge and enthusiasm for it and are contributing to sustainability. all of their birds had a great life, with lots of fresh air and outdoor space to run around in. they had electric fences to protect against the foxes and said they hadn't had any trouble with them.

it's funny, my high school boyfriend knew all about chickens (he'd been in "country school" 'til the 7th grade) and i remember teasing him endlessly and thinking he was a bit of a geek. and now, some thirty-odd years later, i find having chickens to be cool.

Chive Talkin'

2011-06-09T19:51:00.007+02:00

Chives have been a staple in my garden for several years. They are easy to grow, and here in Iowa, are one of the indicators that it is spring :)

There are 4 chive plants in my herb garden. Three are "regular chives" the other little plant is onion chives. Garlic chives are another option too, which I really really want to try. Chives are easily divided to share with family, friends are just to have more for yourself.

Things got busy around here this spring and the chives got neglected. Once I got around to doing something with them they were just starting to flower.

A quick search online and I came up with some interesting options! I blogged earlier about the sweet apple blossom jelly that I made and it made me wonder if I could do something with the chive blossoms. Sure enough you can and much much more! I had enough blossoms to make both chive jelly and chive infused vinegar. Both are really easy. I also put some chives in the dehydrator. Since I had waited so long to harvest the chives some of them were rather tough so I composted those and only dried the smallest most tender chives. Dried chives I use in all sorts of recipes...breads, dips, mayonaise based salads (such as potato and macaroni) where they can rehydrate. I know that Im forgetting some options so please chime in. :) Chives can be frozen as well, but for me its much more convenient for me to dry them, snip them up and put them in a canning jar where they are easy to grab. No digging through the freezer.

Chive jelly (left) Chive Vinegar (right)

Chive Blossom Jelly (Jam)
1 cup chive blossoms

2 cups boiling water
1/4 cider vinegar (you can use 1/4 lemon juice but I was looking for savory)
4 cups sugar
3oz liquid pectin
Clean blossoms and pour your 2 cups of boiling water over them. Cover and let steep. I left it overnight and then strained it...there were lots of little bits so I strained my "chive tea" twice. It was a pretty pink color.

Once strained add to a heavy stock pot along with the sugar & vinegar (lemon juice). Bring to a rolling boil, once the sugar has dissolved add your pectin. Return the mixture to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off any foam. Fill your sterilized jars and process for 5 minutes (small jars)

Chive Blossom Vinegar

Pick a generous number of chive blossoms. Soak in water to remove any bugs or dirt that are clinging to them.

Dry well and pack into a jar. I only had about 1 3/4 cups after I made my chive jelly so I put them into a quart sized canning jar. I used about 2 cups of heated distilled vinegar to make my chive vinegar, you could use white wine vinegar as well.

Let your mixture sit in a cool dark place for about 2 weeks. I shake it daily. When your 2 weeds is up, strain your brew and pour it into a non-reactive container. (When making my chive blossom vinegar I made sure I used a canning jar with a plastic lid.) It turns a gorgeous bright pink color!

Delicious on my spinach salad!

Vegetable gardening is the new 'it'

2011-06-06T15:01:00.000+02:00

Although we all ready know that growing vegetables is THE thing to do, this has now been confirmed by the gardening elite displaying at the Royal Horticultural Society's, Chelsea Flower Show. So, I thought I'd summarize three of the gardens I found interesting and relevant to us:

B&Q's garden from:www.shootgardening.co.uk

The B&Q (Home Depot in North America) garden was entirely vegetable based. Their garden was "designed to encourage individuals and communities to develop sustainable food growing spaces and enhance urban greening, no matter what the size of their plot." For them, this meant building a 9 metre high vertical garden! The window boxes off the tower attempted to show how vegetables can be grown anywhere. Although I am not sure how practical a 9 metre high garden is, I love the cleverness of it. One side of the tower was the garden while the other side was a potting shed that included "composting, rainwater harvesting and storage, a thermal chimney, photovoltaic panels and a wind turbine." Now, that's cool! They also had a adjacent "insect hotel" made by school children. And the judges loved it too, awarding it a Gold Medal.

M&G Garden from: www.mandgchelsea.co.uk

Another garden featuring veggies was the M&G Garden. This one was more traditional and I think beautiful than the B&Q garden. It featured, as they say, "a modern take on a traditional kitchen garden." In the above photo, you can see the terracotta pots and the willow framed raised beds. The raised beds had 20 different vegetables and there were 6 different fruit trees (lemon, lime, apples, pear, fig and medlar). They also squeezed in 16 different herbs as well as some beautiful flowers. It was very evocative of the classic French potager garden.

Daily Telegraph garden: from society.ezinemark.com

And finally, the Best of the Show garden by the Daily Telegraph, featured vegetables too. Amongst the flowers were leeks, fennel, and parsnips in flower.

These beautiful landscaped gardens make my little hodge-podge terrace container vegetable garden look, well, little and hodge-podge-y. But here it is:

From the front, in the shorter black pot is chard and peppers, next in the black trough is tomatoes, peppers and eggplants (aubergines), behind that in three purple pots are tomatoes, bush green beans, dill, cilantro, and basil. Way in the back in the terracotta pots are spinach (in two pots) and some thyme in a third pot. Somewhere back there is also a lavender. Of all the plants, the dill is doing the best:

I am off today to get some more soil as I need to plant out some more eggplants and rearrange some of the beans, chard and peppers. I tend to do that sort of repotting which I know you shouldn't but I just can't help myself. I like to reposition plants. Makes me feel like I am doing something! I might post more pictures if I can make the garden look more appealling!

-- Jude

a temporary greenhouse

2011-05-31T09:02:00.026+02:00

we're still a couple of years away from being able to build our "real" greenhouse, so husband decided to make us a temporary one. he actually built it of such sturdy materials that i suspect it will stand for longer than our regular house - and maybe only need its plastic changed out in a couple of years.

our climate is such that the growing season is very short - too short for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplants to grow out in the regular garden like they can other places. our light and warmth simply don't last long enough for that. so if you want such crops, you have to have a greenhouse.

over the past week, while it rained, husband constructed the skeleton of the greenhouse in his workshop and over in the big barn (where he was supposed to be working on matilde's new stall, but we won't go there).

he revealed his inner swede, preparing i nearly ikea-style, so it could be popped together and easily fastened - he even drilled holes where the nails would go.

he had prepared the ground in a different spot, but we realized that spot got an awful lot of shade, so we moved it to a sunnier place, next to the raspberry canes and beside the raised bed of brassicas.

we covered it in heavy 20mm plastic, fastening it down well, as we've got awfully windy conditions around here most of the time. it's 5 meters long and about 3 meters wide.

the frame is so sturdy, we may eventually put in real glass or perhaps plexiglass, but the plastic should last a couple of seasons and create good growing conditions for our delicate plants.

we're looking forward to it, as we've had a cucumber scare here in europe - with cucumbers infected with e-coli bacteria killing ten people in germany and making countless others seriously ill. what's worrying is that they know the cucumbers came from spain, but they can't figure out how they got the bacteria! i suppose having one's own veggies is no guarantee, but at least you know how they've been tended.

we're looking forward to getting all of the plants in during this long holiday weekend ahead (we've got thursday and friday off). husband will bring in new dirt and we'll plant directly in the ground. more photos of that when we've got it all planted!

what are you doing in the garden these days?

On A Jelly Roll

2011-05-22T01:47:00.003+02:00

Over the past few weeks I have been making jelly. Lots and Lots of jelly. Maybe more jelly than we can possibly use, but it is fairly easy to make and the only ingredients that I have had to purchase are sugar, pectin and lemon juice. More canning jars were necessary too, but only one box since there were loads to be found around here.

Did you notice that no fruits were bought for my jellies? That's because the focus ingredient was found on our land. The garden isn't quite in yet, but there is a harvest out there if you look for it. Dandelions (got plenty here!), Lilacs were in full bloom last week, violets are plentiful in the pasture and our ancient apple tree is in bloom as well. The old gal gave us maybe 8, at the most, apples last year. The blossoms are so pretty and thinking that there might be a use for them...instead of having thousands of pretty petals go to waste why not put them to use and make jelly???? You can use crabapple blossoms as well, if you have them, I dont so apple it was for me.

First you need to pick your blossoms...I made a double batch of "Apple Blossom Tea" so I picked 4 cups of petals. Make sure there are no stems or leaves in the container, from what information I found on the internet it can make the jelly bitter.

The apple blossoms then got packed into a quart sized canning jar. For every 2 cups of blossoms you use 2 cups of boiling water, pour the water over your petals to steep. I let it sit over night and then strain it. I have milk filters from filtering our goats milk so I used that. Anything that will strain out the petals and bits of plant stuff will work, maybe a coffee filter would work too???

Measure out 2 cups of your "Apple Blossom Tea"

1/4 cup lemon juice, I used bottled concentrate

4 cups sugar. Put these first 3 ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Make sure there is plenty of room. Once the mixture comes up to a rolling boil, you will be glad that you have that extra room.

Here we are at a rolling boil. Now is the time to add a 3oz pouch of liquid pectin. Once it reaches a rolling boil again, boil for once minute and then remove from heat.

I skimmed off the foam.

Then ladeled it into my clean and sterilized jars. Leave 1/4" headspace and then put into a water bath and process for 5 minutes.

TaDa!!! Enjoy on your homemade bread, pancakes, thumbprint cookies, etc...mmmmm

Seeds Of Change

2011-05-21T02:46:00.001+02:00

I received a catalog in the mail the other day. A seed catalog to be exact. Comstock Seeds has been in business in one form or another for 200 years, so how did I miss it? Am I the only one???

The man on the front is very very charming, from his dirty straw hat, scraggly beard, crinkly eyes, and those banana melons...I was hooked!

Comstock offers over 250 varieties of vegetables and flowers, all of them are non-GMO, non-patented and non-hybrid. Many of them are well over 50 years old! Am I the only one who didnt know that there are black radishes (Black Spanish) that can be stored in your cellar all winter long if kept in sand. They will "keep good until spring"...I am not a big radish fan, but this certainly sounds interesting. They also have Blue Podded Peas, they are both ornamental and can be used as a shelling pea and cooked like snow peas, who knew? There is a fascinating selection of melons, a nice selection of green beans and a some nice cucumbers. The catalog is free....the prices I thought were very reasonable and they have free shipping.

If you would like to see what they have they can be found at http://www.comstockferre.com/

Next year I will be ordering all of my seeds from them...If I lived closer to Connecticut I would totally be there.

Calling All Bees

2011-05-18T17:50:00.001+02:00

I have been concerned about the honey bee population since I first began to hear about colony collapse disorder. I thought that Bee Movie was a great way to illustrate what a bee free world would look like for my kids. An interesting question; are even those of us most conscious of our footprint on the world, just as guilty of ‘advancing’ these things that threaten us?

I came across a link today through a facebook contact. I thought the article was thought provoking and I was surprised that I had not heard this information, as it ties to cell phone towers before. I Googled it, and the theory has been around for quite some time, so I guess that I just somehow missed the bus on this information. What I like about this synopsis and commentary, is that it has lots of links to sources so it did a good job of compiling lots of resources in one place.

I know that as with anything on this journey to sustainability, there are baby steps and some things that are more conceivable than others for my family to accomplish. I wonder what alternatives are available to fix this problem. Is anyone researching it?

What do you think?

Cell phone towers may be ultimate cause of honeybee population collapse

~Amy

Greetings

2011-05-18T01:27:00.007+02:00

Hello from North Eastern Iowa. I am excited to be the newest contributor to this great blog!

Just a brief introduction for this first post. The husband, son and I have lived on our 5 acre farm for going on 7 years now. We are surrounded by corn and soybean fields and like it that way. We have goats, a horse, loads of rabbits (both for meat purposes and the son also shows them) chickens for eggs and due to be processed next week are our meat birds. The garden isnt huge but provides us with a very nice crop with enough produce to can, dehydrate and freeze (and some to share with friends).

The garden has just started to come up, but I have been busy harvesting flowers from our pasture for delicious jellies. Lilac, dandelion, violet and apple blossom jelly have found a spot in the pantry. I am wanting to make more, but we probably have way more than enough :D

I like to make cheese (when the dairy goats have extra milk to share), we harvest our own rabbits, will soon be collecting farm fresh eggs, the garden will be in full force soon, I like to make homemade bread and do the occasional dehydrating. I am hoping that we will have some interesting bits of information to share.

And finally a question for you....while researching online other flowers that I could use for jellies I found out that lilies are eatable. Has anyone tried them??? We have lots of them in our ditch!

a little bit of steampunk in the garden

2011-05-16T10:46:00.065+02:00

back in the depths of winter, husband decided he had to have one of these old planet jr. planters from the early part of the last century. and if at all possible, he wanted a cultivator too. so we began a search online. we quickly realized there weren't any here in denmark (they were a US phenomenon, after all). husband had originally seen it on DR's bonderøv (bumpkin) - a program that follows a young danish man in his quest for self-sufficiency and going back to basics. but frank, the bonderøv, is a t.v. guy, so people send him stuff. we knew we'd have to track one down ourselves.

many ebay sellers refuse to ship abroad, especially if it's a rusty old hunk of metal you're asking them to ship, so even tho' we saw several of the coveted pieces of machinery on ebay, we couldn't bid on them. but, my sister could, so we enlisted her help (although it may have confirmed her in her opinion of our insanity).

one of the things that worried us about buying one on ebay was that you wouldn't get to look at it before it was sent. what if it was all rusted shut and unusable? so my sister placed an ad on craig's list, saying she wanted a planet jr. no. 3 seeder. she got an answer almost immediately and was able to go look at it in person before buying it for us.

then, my sister (who still thought we were insane), photographed it, carefully took it apart, boxed it in two boxes (one for the handles and one for the actual machine) and sent it to us. our postwoman would have commiserated with my sister as to our insanity as she lugged it to our door. but it even made it through customs without us being charged anything for it. apparently you can import a rather significant quantity of rusty metal without incurring duty.

we used it this week to plant beans (these are borlottis) and carrots and beets and peas. it was a little bit challenging getting to know it and get the right seed distances for the right seeds (seeds must be quite different now, as the hole sizes suggested on the lid are WAY off). but in all, it was very fun and worth all of the effort.

and even children can use it, no problem. and look how it has a clever little attachment that stakes out your next row while you're planting the previous one. then, you just follow the line it made. very efficient.

oh, and we did get a cultivator as well:

the cultivator came from ebay - as there were less things that could be wrong with it. its handles weren't in such good shape, but perhaps next winter, husband will make new ones in his workshop. and in the meantime, it's the perfect size for weeding between the rows.

those of you who live in the US and have big gardens, check your local flea markets, i'm sure these beauties are around and it's so much fun to use a bit of history. i love feeling both connected to the soil and to the ingenuity of past generations. plus, it digs a hole, plants the seeds for you at the right distance from one another and covers them up, all while it's marking the next row for you. very helpful object. and just a little bit fetching in its steampunk design.

gardening is an exercise in hope

2011-05-15T22:38:00.060+02:00

the big overview

husband and i were laughing yesterday as we planted a few more things in the vegetable garden and looked back a year and thought about the few seeds we threw at the ground when we first moved here. we hastily prepared the soil, planted before it was warm enough and most of our peas and beans were surely eaten by birds before they ever came up. this year, it's a different story. tho' the garden isn't there yet, we're moving in the right direction.

the main garden - 12m of healthy strawberries on the left.

the strawberries are going to be a bumper crop - you can see the healthy robust 12-meter row of strawberries on the left and the smaller new ones in the foreground. next to those are rows of potatoes and various kinds of fancy beans. the green weedy-looking bits in the middle are rows of little oak trees and little christmas trees that were left behind by the previous owners and which we haven't had the heart to dig up, except to begin an oak allé across our field and down to the lake. in the top photo (and below), there's a raised bed filled with various brassicas (my new favorite word) - cauliflower, broccoli, white and red cabbage. per amy's advice, i've planted marigolds here and there, since we don't want to use pesticides (or herbicides for that matter).

brassica bed (and tiger the cat)

we've got artichokes down at the far end and a row of asparagus next to the rhubarb (visible on the left of the top shot). asparagus is a vegetable that requires patience. you can't actually begin to harvest it before the third year (talk about slow food!). i even planted some asparagus seeds, completely not following the directions, and every single one of them came up, so much more asparagus will be going in as soon as it has roots enough to set it out. the asparagus should love our sandy soil. we prepared the area last autumn, digging in plenty of good horse manure, and the asparagus seems pleased so far. and it's a good exercise in patience, to wait three years to reap the benefits.

we've planted peas, carrots, four kinds of onions, leeks, tuscan kale, curly kale (which the bunnies and chickens that i hope will come this summer will love next winter), garlic, zucchini, pumpkins, butternut squash, corn, parsnips, beets and several kinds of salad. they keep promising us rain and we got a bit today and hope we get more in the coming days. then we hope the sun returns.

gardening is a kind of exercise in hope. you hope conditions will be right, you hope for sunshine and rain in the right quantities, you hope those tiny seeds will grow into big, beautiful edible veggies, you hope no bugs or slugs will eat it all up before you can. hope and a lot of hard work. but already i think it will be worth it.

Want to move?

2011-05-11T10:34:00.000+02:00

Most of us are moving due to job opportunities or whatever during our lifetime. Sometimes this move needs to take place fast and than all of a sudden owning a home isn't as much fun. Yep, you first have to find a buyer to move on in the direction you want. Maybe there is a solution to fix this owning a house-problem. Just a minute ago I was reading a Dutch newspaper and found this article about taking your home with you when want or need to move. Since I had never heard of it before I thought let's share. The company is called Habitaflex and if you click here, you can see what it is all about.

Elizabeth

Companion Planting

2011-05-09T22:28:00.000+02:00

One of the many tips when working on organic gardening, is companion planting. This can range from the types of crops that you plant in the same row, to different flowers that you can inter plant with your food crops. There are many good reasons for companion planting ranging from the types of nutrients that different crops add to the soil which can benefit one another to natural forms pest control.

We add no chemicals in any way to our garden and are religious about tracking what crops we grow in what row, so that we can rotate rows from year to year. But, in the past have made only basic attempts at companion planting. We have done some easy stuff. Onions tend to be a good plant to have around lots of other plants, and we are careful not to plant crops in the same row that negatively impact one another. We have been so overwhelmed by all of the structural work in the garden over the last couple of years, that we just did not have the energy to do more.

This year it feels like we have made it over the proverbial hump. Even though we are still expanding, it feels like we have as much or more completed than we have left to do. There are enough beds and areas that are permanent that we can add some bling. We may also be spurred on a little by the fact that our garden will be on a community tour this August.

So today, I planted the mother of all blingy companion plants. Marigolds. We have three good walkways that run through the garden between rows of beds. At the end of each bed I planted three marigold plants for a grand total today of 72 plants. By mid-summer they will be large pretty bits of reddish-orange to line the walkways of the garden as we meander through picking loads of veggies for farm boxes. If you are interested in some good information on companion planting check out the Seeds of Change website.

Alternative solutions to buying: quick eye mask

2011-05-09T15:48:00.000+02:00

First, a quick apology for my absence for the last little while. There was a trip to the UK (by ferry, another blog post) and then my mother came to visit for a month. I've caught up on the posts and it's been so nice to see everyone's preparations for spring and, well, to see spring!

Thought that I would do a little post about a quick item I made last night. So, last night, I decided to make an eye-mask for my son. Although we live at the bottom of Denmark, we are still north (about 54 degrees north) and at this time of year the sun sets sometime after 9.00 and it isn't really dark until nearly 10. Trying to convince a 9 year old who hates sleeping anyway that he should go to sleep when it is light out is difficult. So, I had been thinking for a while about how we needed to buy black out blinds for his room. And then it occurred to me, that there was a cheaper (yay!) and more sustainable option, a homemade eye mask.

I began by searching for some crafty inspiration and patterns. As you may know from other posts, I have, shall we say, issues, with patience. I can be patient with many people and some things, but not with sewing or crafts. So, I ignored all the suggestions for "fabric covered elastics fancy dancy have to use a sewing machine to make" eye masks and simply made one with found items at home. (The photos are from today though).

Goofy modeling of eyemask

The fabric: an old flannel pillowcase that was starting to thin and was in the 'to be repurposed' box. The advantage of this fabric was that it was soft and already doubled up. It needed to be doubled up to be dark enough.

Not everyone can pull this look off.

The elastic: the strap of an old bra that was in the 'things I should throw away but might come in useful' bag. Advantage: elastic and heck, who doesn't want a bra strap around their head?

What I did: simply cut out a rectangle of fabric from the pillowcase making sure to do so from an edge so that two sides would already be sewn up. Cut off the bra strap. Sew the bra strap onto the rectangle fabric. Try on. Cut a triangle out where the nose is (on the open side of fabric). Do a running stich along the open side and bottom. Ta da. In about 10 minutes, there was a eye mask. It's not the most beautiful thing in the world but it used materials I already had, didn't involve measuring, took no time at all, and best of all the little boy was asleep before 9.00pm!

For me the lesson is not about crafts but about how to think alternatively and sustainably about solving problems. The conventional solution is to buy black out curtains. The alternative is to make an eye mask out of materials at home. I like the creativity involved in solving problems the alternative way.

Jude

beekeeping: a word about the investment

2011-05-05T07:32:00.138+02:00

checking the frames in our bee hives.

one of the things we're doing with our little bee adventure is that we're trying to keep track of how much we're spending on it (not something we're usually very good at, i have to tell you). i was thinking that a good way to do that would be to share the tally of it so far with all of you here. of course, these prices are what it costs in denmark (where everything's shockingly expensive), but they may give you a rough idea, or at least a comparison, should you decide to investigate in your area.

lighting the smoker with my williams-sonoma kitchen blow torch!

thus far, our investment has been as follows:

membership in the danish beekeeper's association: 670DKK ($133) for 2011. this is a family membership, so we can all 3 go to the meetings and the lessons if we want to. it also includes a very informative monthly magazine.

once you are a member and you are assigned a local branch of the association, the lessons (bi-weekly from april 2 - september 12) and your mentor are included, so it's very good value for money. the lessons take place at the school hives, which are near a little museum about 15 minutes from our house. it's very hands on, learn by doing. or what those of us who have worked in the training business call legitimate peripheral learning. :-)

the bees are looking good.

as you know, our mentor, who is 84, has not messed around - he took us very seriously when we said we wanted bees already this year. we've been to two lessons and we've already got two hives in full swing. because he's been a beekeeper for years, he has connections and he was able to get us our hives for a song. we paid 250DKK ($50) each for the two - so a total investment of 500DKK ($100) in the hives (they can be around 2500DKK ($500) for new ones!). as you can see, they're used and not the prettiest ones ever, but they're perfect for us as a beginning.

looking for the queen - she's got a blue dot on her back.

we got two bee families as well, which each cost 700DKK ($140) for a queen and 500-1000 bees. tho' both are hard at work, one family is thriving better than the other and working faster and it's an interesting contrast. but our bee mentor says that's quite normal and the family that's not growing as quickly is just fine, so he says not to worry about it. some are just stronger than others.

a view of the frames down in the hive. later in the summer, there will be two "stories" of these.

in order to work with the bees, especially when you're new like we are, you need protective clothing. we bought a set for husband - it's a jacket with a built-in net hat and it cost 350DKK ($70). a pair of good bee-handling gloves for 120DKK ($24) and he was ready to go. we'll eventually get jackets for me and sabin, but for now, we know that husband will be the one handling the bees, so his is enough.

an old basket carries the new frames - you can see the wax plate is attached.

the bees are really busy here with the spring in full bloom, so we needed to quickly get our hands on some frames. the frames cost 6DKK apiece (we bought 25, so 150DKK). you could probably make them yourself, but it would be fiddly and for $1.20 apiece, we think it's totally worth it to just buy them. we bought a roll of the thin wire you have to string on them for 52DKK and a thread tightening tool for 109DKK ($21). you also need a package of wax plates - the bees can build them themselves, but you help them out by starting with a wax plate base. as you can see above, it's already got the hexagon-shapes started to help the bees. and it is made of beeswax, so it's quite natural. we got a package of 100 of those for 300DKK ($60) (included in that price were two boxes where you can hold the frames that are full of honey until you process them). in order to attach the wax plates to the frame, you need a device that heats the wire so that it melts fast. those cost 600DKK at the bee store (yes, there is a beekeeping supply store), which struck me as ridiculously expensive for an ugly piece of MDF with a lawn mower battery attached to it, so i didn't buy one. husband has made one himself, using an old computer cord and some neat ceramic insulators that were lying around in his workshop, so we got a much more steampunk one for free! (strangely, i can't find it in his workshop to photograph it, so i'll have to show it to you another time.)

a gentle puff of lavender-scented smoke calms the bees.

smoke calms the bees and moves them where you want them to be, so we needed a little smoker. it cost 240DKK ($48). i bought a big package of tobacco to put into it for 35DKK ($7) and some little starter blocks that help you get it started for 25DKK ($5). the packages i bought should last us throughout the season. husband appropriated my small kitchen blow torch for starting the tobacco, so we didn't need to buy that. the tobacco has lavender in with it as well, which makes it smell very nice and has a relaxing effect on the bees.

the smoker is going very nicely

so for a total of 3951DKK ($787) we are in business with bees! of course, there is a lot of equipment for extracting honey that we don't even know about yet and i can see a price range on that of anywhere from about $400 for a hand-operated separator to $6000 for a fully automated centrifuge. i think that this year, we can learn how it's done on the bee association equipment and decide what kind of investment we'd like to make.

at the moment, we don't really see this as a business, more as a way of covering our own honey usage and even upping that...i intend to learn ways of using honey in recipes instead of sugar. but we have quite a honey habit already - we use four 450gram containers a week in our tea alone. since our bee families can produce anywhere from 40 to 80 kilos of honey in a season (it's a wide range because it depends on so many factors), we should have plenty for our own use and as presents. i'm looking forward to having the wax to use as well - for candles and possibly to embark on some experiments in encaustic art.

we're in bees-ness

2011-05-01T12:24:00.020+02:00

last evening, a little after 9, there was a knock on the door. i opened it and there was a man in full bee-protective clothing, saying he was here with our bees! i practically jumped up and down for joy. there's something so exciting about this bee adventure, i can't really describe why it makes me feel as joyful as it does. that these little buzzing creatures can transform pollen into the golden elixir that is honey and do so in perfectly mathematical wax combs that they build themselves is somehow magical. and it makes me unaccountably happy to think that we will be experiencing it firsthand.

we placed our bee "stalls" as they're call in danish out in the shelterbelt, facing east, to catch the first rays of the sun as it comes over the horizon. our bee mentor (that's him in the bee garb) told us to do that and we've spent several days observing precisely when the sun is best and moving and placing the bee houses so that they'd be ready when our bees arrived. he said if the sun warms the hive, it gets the bees up and out collecting nectar up to two hours earlier than hives that don't face east!

our bee mentor handled the whole thing, transferring the frames from their carrier into their new home. he has a hand smoker so calm the bees (i wonder who ever discovered that, as i would think smoke would make them angry). he said they were a little agitated by the car ride - we joked that they get car sick, but there probably is some truth to it.

these photos aren't great, as it was really getting dark - my camera at 3200ISO looks deceptively light, but night was definitely falling fast, so that's why these were a bit blurry. there was no time for a tripod (not that i've had been likely to use one anyway). but i couldn't resist sharing them with you anyway!

we got one bee family of around 1000 bees for each of our two bee "stalls." our bee mentor said it's also best to move them in the evening, when they're all back in their box, so you get most of them along, which was why he dropped by so late.

we're already excited about taking out the drone frame in a week and putting in a new one. he also said they really had a good start on the honey, so we'll have to set new honey frames in as well! i'll definitely be sharing more as we learn how to do all of this! (we're still not entirely clear as to which frame is which and we kinda wonder how the bees know.) i think husband is going to be our official bee handler in our family, but i'm looking forward to the part with the honey!

stay tuned!

~ julochka

violet jelly

2011-04-27T15:56:00.001+02:00

as i was walking around the garden during the gorgeously sunny easter holiday (have i been insufferable enough about that yet?) i noticed that there were loads of little wild violets blooming here and there in the lawn. violets make me think of my grandmother, who loved them and all of the little bouquets i picked for her and the assortment of tiny vases she had to put them in.

but instead of picking bouquets, i decided to try to make violet jelly. i'd seen a couple of pins about it on pinterest and so i did a bit of investigation and then figured out my own recipe (of course). plus it totally satisfied my desire for found food. and the violets are quite fetching, don't you think? i just generally enjoyed spending time with them.

the violets in our garden come in a rather wide variety of shades of purple and even white, as you can see here. i think it made my resulting jelly less purple and more pinkish than some i saw online, but it does taste quite delicately fragrant and wonderful. i tried to stick only to the most purple violets, but i had to use a few of the variegated ones in order to have enough.

here's what you need:

violet jelly

2 cups of violets (for my metric friends, fill a 500ml cup with violets)

2 cups of water (500ml)

4 cups of sugar (1 kilo)

1 packet of pectin (or use pectin sugar, like i did, if it's available near you)

the juice of 1 lemon

pick your violets. violets are tiny, so this actually takes awhile. enlist the help of a child if you have one nearby. try to pick just the flowers, don't get stems in if you can help it. put the violets in a glass bowl and pour 2 cups of boiling water over them. cover the bowl and set it out of the way - preferably overnight. the next day, strain the violets in a strainer.

i did a second straining with a bit of cheesecloth, as the strainer didn't catch all of the small bugs that were in with the violets. i hadn't washed the violets at all before i began, not wanting to lose any precious potential color and because i knew i'd be straining them well.

the resulting violet "tea" was a lovely teal green shade in my case. don't be alarmed by this, as the lemon will purple it right up. combine the "tea," the sugar, the pectin and the lemon juice in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat it to boiling on the stove. my pectin sugar advised me to let it boil 3-5 minutes once it came to a boil. it requires some stirring, but not really constant stirring, tho' keep an eye on it, as it can scorch.

prepare your jars by sterlizing them (this can be done on a very hot cycle in your dishwasher if your dishwasher does super hot), or you can lower the into a pan of boiling water. i usually "cook" the lids in a separate pot of boiling water so they go directly from the pan to the jar. ladle the jelly into your prepared jars while it's still piping hot (i got 3 little jars + a partial jar from my batch), skimming off any scum that forms on top (it's normal that some will form). put the lids on immediately. they should seal within an hour or so and if they don't, use that jar right away. as you can see in this photo, i experimented with putting a few new, fresh violets into the jelly as i poured the jelly in, but that didn't work as well as i'd have liked (if i'm honest, they look a little bit like flies).

the jelly has a delicate fragrant taste that i suppose is just how violets taste. i've had it on toast so far, but was thinking about using some in some springy cookies or as a layer between slices of angel food cake with strawberries on it (the strawberry plants are almost setting blooms with all this sunshine). yummy.

On The Window, Through The Window

2011-04-23T16:01:00.000+02:00

Since not everyone can have the glorious weather that is now being appreciated in Denmark (*wink*) I have found that we have spent most of the last two soaking weeks in doors when we long to be accomplishing things in the garden. The kids have completed a couple of eco-projects that I thought were really neat ideas, easy to do and allow for you to dream of warmer and drier days as we gaze out our windows.

The first is this little suet basket. It has been filled with scraps of yarn and loads of dryer lint and hung out next to one of our bird feeders on the porch. The little ones grab bits from here to pad their nests. Fun for the kids to watch, and another lure for avian photo ops.

This second one is a great way to show your kids (or grand kids, or nieces and nephews, or you for that matter), the way that a seed grows. Take a 8 1/2 X 11 business card sheet and punch two holes in the top to insert little suction cups. Then, fill each of the business card spaces 3/4 of the way full with potting soil. Plant any little seed in each pouch and then water (we use a turkey baster to do the watering). Hang in the window and watch the seeds germinate, roots develop, and little plants begin. You can then transplant them wherever you wish. This could be a great way to begin your kitchen herbs!

Finally, not so much a craft as an activity that was sent home from school with Sidney this week. Nothing fills my heart more than to see something of what we are trying to instill in our kids dovetailed in what they learn at school. This week, every fourth grader was sent home with a baby sugar maple tree (Wisconsin's state tree). They were taught about planting a legacy and how to plant and care for the tree in honor of Arbor Day, which is next Friday. Our ground is so saturated from rain, we can not plant it yet, but we are keeping the roots moist and if this rain doesn't stop by tomorrow are going to plant it in a big bucket until we can get it in the ground. What a neat thing to come home from school!

Happy Weekend!

we're going to beekeeping (lessons that is)!

2011-04-19T10:41:00.002+02:00

so that's what they mean by "busy as a bee."

in denmark, there's an association for most anything you'd like to do. during the darkest days of last winter, in the throes of dreams of long golden summer days, we joined the national beekeeping association. and they assigned us to a local chapter. a few weeks ago, a very nice elderly man came to the door and welcomed me to the club. he also told me a whole lot about beekeeping - queens and drones and changing out honey-laden frames - about 65% of which i understood due to his strong local accent. but i got a very good vibe from him - he was kind and friendly and clearly loves bees.

husband looking rather fetching in bee headgear

i told the nice man that we were total beginners and would very much like to have lessons in beekeeping. i also said that if he came across anyone selling all of their bee supplies for a good price, we'd be interested. he regaled me with tales of others who had gotten their supplies for a good price and assured me he would be able to find a similar deal for us.

in the height of summer, a frame like this can hold 2.5 kilos of honey!

last evening was the first class. there were several other bee newbies, tho' they were all well past retirement age. they seemed charmed that "youngsters" like us were interested. the club has a skolebigård ("school bee farm" if i directly translate) at a ramshackle teeny little museum in an equally tiny town that's not much else. last evening, we checked all of the hives there, to see how the bees had come through the winter. actually, we watched, as the guys who knew about it checked them. he showed us the difference between combs that were full of eggs and those that were full of honey.

again, i got only about 65% of it, but husband was there to catch the important bits. i was mostly taking pictures and feeling that close-to-nature feeling that accompanies such activities. it was an absolutely glorious evening, the sun doesn't set 'til 9 or so these days and it was warm and beautiful. the trees were full of bird song and the bees were humming, tho' they seemed very tame. the little smoker helped, but i also think it helped that the main bee handler was as calm around them as could be. he did warn that if there was a thunderstorm, you should just pack up and go home because it made the bees very agitated.

the guy on the right is the one who came to the door - he knows his bees

so we're going to be getting two of these bee "stalls" just after easter. and then our own bee adventure will begin. i'll definitely keep you posted on how it's going.

strawberries & rhubarb

2011-04-16T19:53:00.000+02:00

when you have a new place, it's always an adventure to see what's coming up around the garden, planted there by those who came before. last year, when we arrived, we saw that there were loads of strawberries. and we heard from neighbors that those who lived here before had actually sold strawberries. we weren't so interested in doing that, but we were interested in saving some of the shoots that the strawberries send out and thereby getting new (and free) strawberry plants. so last year, that was pretty much the extent of our efforts. we cleared a long row and tucked those little shoots into small plastic pots that we embedded into the sandy soil. now it's time to move all of those new little plants with their fine roots over to a new bed. and so we did that this week.

we prepared a bed, taking as many of the weed roots out as possible and turning in lots of horse poo (tho' not too much, because it is rich and can actually burn your plants). we have extremely sandy soil, which makes for great drainage, but isn't the most nutrient-rich soil, so fertilizing is important. we laid down a sheet of black fiber to try to help against the weeds (we have persistent crab grass), then cut holes in for the strawberries and moved the little plants (my hands were dirty and i failed to photograph this part). as you can see, we've stretched a plastic tunnel across it, hoping to both protect from the chilly nights that are yet to come (tho' strawberries can actually tolerate quite a lot of cold) and hoping to hurry them up a little bit - hopefully by a couple of weeks! we have another even longer bed that's not covered, so it's an experiment in seeing whether the tunnel helps and how much.

rhubarb hiding in the grass

while we were at it, we decided to move some of the rhubarb that were here when we bought the place, over to a more suitable place near the other edible perennials (like asparagus). i thought last summer when we arrived that there were 12 rhubarb plants, but it proved there were far more, especially as we we were able to separate some obviously very old roots.

ancient, well-established rhubarb root

seeing these old and very established roots was somehow so satisfying. i felt a little bit like i was next in a long historical line. weird, how seeing a root provoked that feeling in me. a very base and primordial feeling of being very close to the earth. wonderful.

row 1 of the rhubarb (and husband with his precise lines)

and now there are two rows of rhubarb next to a long row of asparagus. they'll no doubt be quite relieved not to have to compete with all that grass anymore. tho' they'll probably be a bit shocked by their move, rhubarb is extremely hardy and will undoubtedly come back very quickly.

and that's what happened in our sustainable life this week.

The Smelly Barn

2011-03-28T21:43:00.000+02:00

My Junior Girl Scout troop has embarked on a large service project so that they can receive their bronze award at the end of next year. We have applied for and received approval to submit items to Terracycle. This company takes recyclable items and up cycles them into other products from bags to clipboards. In fact, this month they had a contest encouraging the public to submit their creations from recycled materials.

Our school has 550 students and the girls have made signs, decorated bulletin boards and made lunch time announcements for the kids to put their used juice pouch containers, zip-lock type baggies, and empty lunchable trays into special containers. Once we have collected 500 of any item, we can ship it to Terracycle and they will in turn donate 2 cents per item to the school, and then create new uses for the “trash.”

Here comes the smelly barn part… since we have a nice large barn, guess which of the two troop leaders was drafted to collect all of the bags of recyclables?? Yep, you guessed it, me! J So here’s to having a smelly barn, in a different sense, for the next 15 months!

seeds of contentment

2011-03-28T15:38:00.001+02:00

tho' there has been quite a heavy frost on the ground the past couple of mornings, it won't be long before that's gone and our planting can start in earnest. so, i did a happy dance of joy today when my seed order from thomson & morgan arrived in today's mail. quite a few of these can be started indoors for planting out in a month or so when the weather is warmer.

i focused on heritage varieties, but i also focused on the unusual and things that said they would grow well in our climate - like kale and others in the brassica family (brassica just sounds so much more posh than cabbage, doesn't it?). tomatoes and eggplants will be grown in the terrace, as our growing season this far north is too short for them out in the garden.

last weekend, i planted herbs in the new herb bed that husband constructed for me. i picked up thyme, oregano and sage at the grocery store, moved a couple of last year's thyme plants and then planted parsley and basil seeds inside of a little tunnel that will keep them warm and protected.

we also planted 225 willow sticks of different pretty varieties - from purple to yellow to red. i'm not sure i have any great ambition to weave baskets, but i will be able to, should the fancy strike. willow is such an amazing plant - fast growing - you can make beautiful, living fences of it or it will serve as part of your water rinsing unit if you, like, we do, have your own well and sewage installation. and if it looks pretty to boot, all the better.

what are you going to plant in your garden?

* * *

oh, and have you heard about lovefre.sh?
the app of the local food revolution.

My eggs

2011-03-22T10:24:00.000+01:00

Our way of having fresh eggs is to take a stroll to a neighbour and buy them there.

Local produce!!!!

Elizabeth

garden dreams

2011-03-17T07:54:00.000+01:00

it's been a bit grey and dismal for the past week, tho' that big ball of fire in the sky showed itself yesterday. it didn't seem that fun because the temperature was still hovering around freezing. still, there are many signs of spring - the chatter of the birds, snowdrops dotting the lawn, the buds beginning to look plump and hopeful on the trees.

there have been enough warm days that the ground is beginning to thaw and we've even had our tiller out and begun to do a bit of preparation for planting, tho' it's still far too cold to begin. as you can tell, these photos are NOT of our garden here in denmark. they're shots i took last fall of a most lovely place called sonia's garden - tucked away down a long winding road in tagatay, philippines. it's the sort of garden i dream of as our greyish brown world only begins to come to life.

little winding paths in a lush, green environment. of course ours will never be the tropical lushness of this garden since our season is too short and our climate all wrong for that. but the notion of little hideaways in the garden - secret rooms in which to listen to the birds and snooze with a good book - that's appealing.

when i think about sustainable living, my thoughts often turn to gardening - vegetable gardening - as there's something about sustainability that is inextricably linked to self-sufficiency. but isn't it also important to sustain one's psyche, to imagine a garden that's a relaxing place of refuge after a long, hard day? to have a place to relax and commune with nature, maybe to eat outdoors. i'm trying to push myself to think of sustainability in broader terms. in terms of sustaining my soul and my family while sustaining the earth. and i think a garden like sonia's garden, which is also a restaurant serving only locally-grown, freshly-made food, is a good thing to dream of...

* * *

some more practical sustainable gardening inspiration at eco etsy

Why Wait?

2011-03-11T22:11:00.000+01:00

We've been pondering different livestock options and thinking about ways to use what they produce. B keeps coming back to goats. One of the things that we've been toying with is making goats milk soaps. Well, we have been pondering this for a while and have not fully decided (there is a lot of ground work structurally we need to get completed to bring them on here).

In this months Martha Stewart Magazine, there were recipes for making soaps from herb and fruit purees. As I was drooling over all of the luscious descriptions, I decided we should just start experimenting...why wait? What is so nice about these soaps is that they are easy, made with a glycerin base (so I don't have to worry about scary lye concoctions with the kids around), and they can have components like goats milk added to them. The craft store didn't have any of the clear soap pieces so I went with opaque. This is after all experimental right? So here goes....

As you can see from the photo, I decided to use some of the lavender that I dried from last years garden. I figured that it would not get lost in the opaque base and would also have a mild exfoliating quality to it. The first thing that I did was strip the flowers off of the dried lavender bunches and then ran a rough chop over them with a kitchen knife.

I then took the soap base, chopped it up, and tossed it in a microwave safe measuring cup (so the melted product would be easier to pour). I microwaved in 30 second increments stirring in between(don't let it boil). It starts to solidify very quickly so you have to be on your toes once it gets to the smooth consistency.

Once it got smooth and liquidy like water, I quickly stirred in 3 tsp. of the chopped lavender flowers and a 1/4 tsp. of lavender essential oil. Then very quickly poured them into apple sauce or pudding containers that I am recycling for this purpose. They measure 1/2 cup each. The article says you can use any kind of container and if you use something larger, then you can slice bars too.

Once in the containers you let them sit on the counter for 20-60 minutes (depending on the size of the container you are using), so they can set. At this point put them in the freezer for 2 hours. This is a great tip, because the soap shrinks away from the container edges just slightly and pops out of the cups easily.

Voila! Soap! I linked the article above, there are tons of cool fresh recipes you can use, or just read through and wing it on your own! I'm thinking these will make it into farm boxes for sure.

**quick tip...The glass container was a challenge to clean, I wouldn't let it sit for too long to solidify once you pour. I think now that I know what I'm doing, I'll probably buy a dedicated container for this task :)

Sharing on different levels

2011-03-11T12:02:00.000+01:00

Recently I found an article called The Gen Y Guide to Collaborative Consumption, with tons of links, over at the Shareable Network. While reading the article and following all kinds of links I ended up with another TedTalks. This time it was the message of Rachel Botsman that got my attention. Now Rachel has her own site with even more links so before I get drowned in another adventure with a surplus of links I thought I'd better share my start with you.

Enjoy!!!!

Elizabeth

Urban gardening swoon

2011-03-10T16:03:00.000+01:00

Rhubarb (May 2010)

As might be obvious from previous posts, I am a huge urban gardening fan. And I just had to share this incredible group I came across today. They are "Food from the Sky" and they are growing vegetables on the roof of a grocery store/supermarket in London. They are profiled in an article in the Guardian today, which describes how since May 2010, they have been growing on the roof enough produce to sell in the grocery store every Friday! Apparently, they are able to grow a huge variety of vegetables: " from peas and potatoes to kale and purple sprouting broccoli – alongside flowers, tiny strawberry and raspberry plants." Best all, they compost the unsold/rotting fruit and veg from the supermarket.
Combined with another group I came across a few weeks ago, I am buzzing with excitement for my own urban garden plans. The other group was Window Farming. "Windowfarms are vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible indoor window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materials. They are designed for indoor home and school settings, and allow growing during the winter season." They are kind of hard to describe: its like hanging a cascade of pots against a window. I am not entirely convinced of the necessity of the hydroponic part but there is a lot to be inspired by and to think about for urban vegetable growing.

I find all these groups so exciting!! I am off to do some planning for my own urban garden - and it will include growing some rhubarb!

What are you finding inspiring today?

Jude

one man's trash is another man's treasure

2011-03-02T09:31:00.000+01:00

certain members of our household spend a lot of time on den blå avis - an online site here in denmark that's actually now owned by eBay, but functions more like craig's list. it's a cornucopia of used goodness and items (and even rabbits and horses and kitties and puppies (but no chickens)) looking for a new home. i am at times dismayed at what husband comes home with and initially, i was a little shocked by the purchase below.

huband bought this big messy-looking pile of wood. it's basically offcuts that a guy who has a little lumberyard had left over. it's the bits that weren't quite perfect enough to be sold as grade A wood to contractors and such. and it looks a bit like maybe he actually paid a guy something for his trash and then will actually need a container (or two) to haul it away. initially i was thinking that it wasn't the best deal he'd ever made.

these big pillars, i was less dismayed about, as they look pretty good and will make a great foundation for a variety of structures around here. he also got 9 pieces of that roofing that's on top of them to protect them from the rain at the moment - and those will make a great roof for a chicken coop, a pig shelter and possibly also my refuge in the garden.

the other day, we visited the wood (hence the photos) and if you look closely, there's a lot of good stuff there. this wood, that would otherwise have been wasted because it wasn't perfect enough for the building industry folks, will now be used by us to build a variety of structures in our garden in the rustic style of the building below. we'll be able to have chickens, a couple of pigs, a place to spend time at the bottom of the garden on a summer day. there's probably even enough for a treehouse for sabin and another rabbit hutch for our bunnies. it's upcycling at its best! purchased via a site that promotes an economy of exchange of goods between local individuals. the more i think about it, the more i like it!

this building was on the site where we bought the wood. we'll use a similar construction technique on our garden buildings. i can highly recommend perusing your local version of the den blå avis - you just might find treasure and you'll be supporting your local community and recycling efforts all at the same time. collaborative consumption in action.

and as soon as it warms up and the building begins, i'll be sharing our progress.

Sunday Morning Seeds

2011-02-27T17:29:00.000+01:00

Every year has been a garden adventure for us. After last years CSA experiment, we are actively dialing things in so that we can accommodate more families and reduce the performance anxiety a little. B and I have spent our sunny Sunday morning referencing and cross referencing what seeds we have, what we need, how many to plant what beds to plant in, are there enough beds, how many days until each plant matures, and how to best time succession planting. Whew! This plan is like a dance, and not an elegant waltz, no it's like a head spinning polka.

So what we have ended up with is designating individual rows or for high yielding varieties a number of plants per family participating. Then we will plant separately what we know we need for ourselves for fresh consumption, processing and storage. We have decided upon 25 different types of produce subset into 45 different varieties. This does not include the onions, potatoes, or lettuces that will also be planted. I'm not sure whether to be excited or overwhelmed! For many of the plants we will begin seeds in the basement this week. Living as far North as we do and with the uncertainty of warmth in our summers, we are going to utilize some black landscape fabric to try to boost the possibility of having a good season for those warm weather plants. With any luck, all of this planning will result in a full and prosperous season. Now off to order seeds! Have a great Sunday!