Independence Days challenge: green beans

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge, already? I've been a slacker blogger this week! Sorry. Summer's a crazy time around here, and it's been hot, hot, hot!! (Makes me grumpy.) Here's my meager update.

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Grape tomatoes. 11 lbs. green beans from our CSA.

3. Preserve something:
4 1/2 pts. pickled beets with anise. 25 pts frozen green beans. 2 qts. frozen stock.

7. Eat the food:
Lots of zucchini-nut muffins. A rice-lentil-carrot-cabbage-basil salad that came out surprisingly well (with mayo/lemon juice dressing). Another, also good (I think I may actually be learning how to make up recipes--finally, at 41!): chick peas, lemon juice, lots of basil, grated carrots and turnips, chopped lettuce and scallions. Delicious zucchini cakes (our new favorite recipe is from Nourishing Traditions). Sweet and sour chard over rice.

Independence Days challenge: the container garden is working!

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
Well, I haven't planted anything this week. But I've tended my pots, and I'm thrilled--they're working! I grew things from seed and they're actually growing. Look at those beans, reaching for the sky! And the kidney beans and cucumbers are covered in blooms. Yay!

2. Harvest something:
3/4 lb. purple potatoes (total harvest from one trash can; very disappointing! Wonder what I did wrong this time...). A few more grape tomatoes. Sunflowers, basil, and rosemary from our CSA.

3. Preserve something:
7 1/2 pts. plum jam using this recipe (way more sugar than I normally like to use, but I liked this recipe's simple plan for seed removal and don't trust myself enough to mess with recipes yet). 5 pts. plum jam using the low-sugar Pomona pectin recipe. 4 1/2 qts. dill pickles. 2 pts. anise beets. Dried a bit each of carrots, rosemary, and greens for the chickens.

5. Preparation and storage:
Had a bit of good luck at tag sales this weekend: got a hand drill and a collection of drill bits, a life jacket, and a child-sized spade. And I got a handful of wonderful vintage children's sewing patterns at a thrift store, as well as a pile of great children's books.

7. Eat the food:
A good potato salad with green beans and hard-boiled eggs. Raspberry-plum-lettuce popsicles. Lots of carrots and zucchini. A pretty-good grilled zucchini pizza (would have been really good if I could learn to make a better crust.) Tomatoes straight out of the garden. Nothing particularly interesting, but fresh and good.

Independence Days: filling the freezer with fruit

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
I'm just happy I didn't kill anything more this week! The container garden loved the heat this week--I can't believe how much the beans grew!

2. Harvest something:
12 qts. cherry plums foraged from a nearby park. 6 qts. raspberries from a pick-your-own farm. Eggs. The last few of our snap peas. The usual garden snacking (Lucy's learned to ask "mint?" just before picking and eating some). Our first grape tomato (which was then cut into 6 equal portions to be shared by the kids at lunch) :-).

3. Preserve something:
5 pts. pickled beets. 8 qts. frozen raspberries.

4. Waste not:
I've started tucking re-usables into my shopping bags so I won't forget them. Yogurt containers and berry boxes go into our CSA bag, because they'll re-use them. Coffee bags go into a specific bag for the co-op, so we can re-fill it. Makes remembering much easier!

5. Preparation and storage:
Our stores are woefully low. We're re-stocking slowly: a few extra jars of coconut oil, a few of peanut butter, a few recycled bottles filled with water.

6. Build community food systems:
I told several people about the cherry-plum discovery. And, of course, being the wacko on the side of the road with a basket always invites looks and inquiries. It feels like my small little contribution to educating the world about the possibilities of foraging.

7. Eat the food:
Lots and lots of popsicles. Favorite flavors this week:
strawberry/yogurt
strawberry/spinach/coconut milk
blueberry/summer squash/spinach/water
Lots and lots of kale. Kale chips, of course. And a surprisingly-good what's-in-the-fridge concoction that all the kids liked (loose recipe below). It was such a hit, I made it again today, and the kids kept saying "this is my favorite rice!" Potato salad, cucumber salad, green salad (salad was clearly a theme this week!). Lots of berries, just straight up. And just tonight, I conquered a fear of mine: I made a pie crust. I know, it's supposed to be easy. But I've always hated things I have to roll out--they get stuck to the rolling pin and rip and break. So I buy pre-made crusts. Or mostly, just avoid anything that requires a crust. But today, I did it! It's baking now, but it looked like it worked!

Spicy Kale, Eggs, and Rice
Chop a bunch of kale into small pieces. Saute in a bit of oil until bright green.
Push kale to the side of pan; break a few eggs into the pan, scramble, and cook.
Add cooked rice. Pour in lots of watery salsa (or salsa+water).
Cook until water is absorbed or evaporated.

Independence Days challenge: gardening in the heat

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
Oh, dear. Not only did I not plant anything, I may well have killed several things. I tend to be a very lazy gardener; I put things in and hope they'll survive my neglect. That works fine with my perennial garden, but not so well with all the new edible plants I've been putting in. My 20 new salmonberry and thimbleberry bushes all dried up to a crisp this week with the heat and my neglectful ways. Is there any hope?

However, I'm not a complete gardening idiot. The pots we planted on the driveway are doing well, and nothing there got fried. I've been really happy with the "Mel's Mix" we've been using in the pots, described in Square Foot Gardening (1/3 compost, 1/3 soil, 1/3 vermiculite). The pots don't dry up too quickly, even though they're set on hot cement. And I have some tomato plants I bought as seedlings--I planted 4 in a pot, and running out of room, put the other 2 in the ground beside the pot. The ones in the pot are much larger and have green tomatoes all over them; the ones in the ground have a few flowers. I set the kids to work this week with sticks and string to make trellises for the vining plants. They did a great job, don't you think?

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. All 5 of our currants. (Will we ever have a real berry harvest?). Peas, basil, parsley from our CSA. Lavender, comfrey, black caps. Tried to harvest mulberries, but had missed them, they ripened so early this year! (Shoot!) However, I discovered something new--cherry plums--and foraged a few. Just waiting for the rest to ripen.

3. Preserve something:
Froze 4 pints peas. Dried comfrey for chickens' winter feed. Dried lavender.

5. Preparation and storage:
I spent this weekend cleaning, organizing, and weeding out. Took a load of stuff to the thrift store, and am feeling a lot more sane for it.

7. Eat the food:
We're going easy, easy, easy with meal prep. Examples: Local bread with butter, salt, and lettuce. Coleslaw of Chinese cabbage, scallions, and mayo. Whatever we can think of that will use greens and not require much of us. Sauteed zucchini. Carrots. Pesto.

Independence Days challenge: enjoying the last of the strawberries

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. A few black-cap raspberries. A couple peas.
And this is why I need a farm share! Here's one day's "harvest" from my yard:

Now, granted, this was unusually small (and I could have added some greens, but it was farm pick-up day, so they were certainly not needed). But we don't get a whole lot more even on good days! Still working on that. In the meantime, our "harvest" comes mostly from local farms. At our CSA this week, we picked the last of the peas (not nearly as many as I'd have liked to, as we were on toddler-at-the-end-of-the-day time). And we returned to the berry farm and picked 6 more quarts (would have liked to get more, but the pickins were slim this week). While there, we also gathered some red clover growing in the blueberry-field paths.

3. Preserve something:
Dried 1 pt. red clover and 1 1/2 pts. strawberries. Froze 1/2 pint garlic scape pesto, 1 1/2 qts. veggie stock, and 4 pints snap peas.

4. Waste not:
I seem to always skip this section, because we don't do anything noteworthy, just what's become habit. But maybe it's worth mentioning some of it anyway. What comes quickly to mind: all kitchen scraps go to the chickens; everything we can is recycled (not much, as I try to limit purchases, packaging, plastic, etc.); glass containers are re-used for storage of dry foods and leftovers; kids' wading-pool water is emptied with kid-sized watering cans to water the gardens; "craft supplies" lining the studio shelves are actually beautiful stuff saved from the trash; all laundry is line dried; we use hankies, cloth napkins, rags, cloth pads, and cloth diapers rather than disposables... That's some of it, anyway. I think we do pretty well with this.

5. Preparation and storage:
Did some tag-sale and thrift-store shopping this week and found a few basics: cotton sheets, a brand-new pair of shoes for Lucy when she's bigger, a muffin tin to replace my worn-out one (the old one went outside for the kids' mudpie play).

7. Eat the food:
The kids ate strawberry "pops" for snacks this week (the biggest strawberries, stuck on a stick and frozen), and strawberry-spinach smoothies. We ate lots of coleslaw, salads, and rice with stir-fries (mostly greens). And more radish-butter sandwiches on yummy local bread. Oh, and a strawberry cuppa-cuppa-cuppa. We've pretty much been eating strawberries for every meal.

Independence Days challenge update: strawberries!

Apparently, I don't blog well on nice-weather weekends! (Didn't help that our camera's acting up and we got no photos of the world's most picturesque strawberry-picking day or our beach-with-friends day...) So, here it is, time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

(back from the farm, we set up outdoors to prep the strawberries for the freezer)

1. Plant something:
Hablitzia (climbing perennial spinach)--I was excited to discover a perennial-vegetable plant stand at the farmer's market this week! I asked what would grow in shade, and this is what he recommended; I remembered having read about it in my forest gardening book, once he mentioned it. I added two of them to my fledgling forest garden.

Roma tomatoes, more double yield cucumbers, and light red kidney beans from seed in pots on the driveway. (My neighbor came home from vacation, and seeing our new pots-on-driveway garden, asked if we needed any more containers. Yes, we do! She lent us two ceramic planters and a metal refrigerator drawer, so we put in more seeds. I know I'm getting a too-late start on some of these seeds, but I figure we might as well put them in and see what happens.)

(peas in our under-clothesline planter box)
2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Good King Henry, swiss chard. Chives and mint by the kids, doing their daily garden snacking. Foraged elder flowers. 15 quarts strawberries (After years of looking, we finally found organic pick-your-own strawberries on a wonderful farm. We'll be back soon; 15 quarts is not enough. But it's what Lucy could stand in the heat.) A few peas from our garden. One black-cap raspberry! :-)

3. Preserve something:
I discovered tons of elder growing at our CSA and worked up the nerve to ask if I could take some flowers. They said yes, so I made elder flower tincture. We also froze 12 quarts of the strawberries.

5. Preparation and storage:
Added a jar of water to storage.

(potatoes growing in a trash can in our garden)

6. Build community food systems:
Nothing much, though we did make plans to bring friends back to the farm to pick strawberries.

7. Eat the food:

(happy strawberry-stained baby)
Salad. Kale chips. Strawberries with corn cake (mmmm). Strawberry lemonade (lemons are my one non-local produce exception, but even still, lemonade is a rare treat for us). Tons of just-plain strawberries. Radish sandwiches. Snap peas. Lots of simple picnic-y fare.

Independence Days Challenge: garden in pots

Lavender, ready to be harvested and dried.

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
The kids and I planted a garden-in-pots on top of our second driveway, in one of the only tiny bits of frequent sunniness we have. I didn't have nearly enough pots for all the seeds we wanted to plant (our planned-for guerrila-gardening raised bed has been abandoned for now, as the location proved to be much shadier than we'd remembered.) But we made do with what we had, and are trying Kentucky Wonder beans, Moonglow tomatoes, Blondkopfchen tomatoes, Straight Eight cucumbers, Double Yield cucumbers, German chamomile, and Boston Yarrow squash (all of these go toward the Growing Challenge). It rained most of the week, and the beans and chamomile are already sprouting.

Chamomile sprouting. Teensy tiny seeds plus toddler hands equals very crowded seedlings!

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Foraged elder flowers.

The herb garden, picked over by children and chickens (notice the nearly-leafless comfrey--you can tell how tall the chickens are by how high its stalk is bare).

3. Preserve something:
Froze 2 qts spinach. Drying elder flowers.

Our first tomatoes appeared this week.

5. Preparation and storage:
Added several jars of peanut butter and coconut oil to the basement, trying to restore our depleted supplies.

My potted Meyer lemon tree has doubled in size with all this rain.

7. Eat the food:
I finally made kale chips (well, I've made them in the past, but I finally made them without burning them...) and the kids loved them. Sure to become a regular lunch item. I used up some of our many frozen-last-year red peppers to make a roasted red pepper sauce for spaghetti. The kids and I ate bread with radish butter and salt (yummy for those of us who dared try it. Gotta do the 10-times-more thing for a few of them...). We're eating lots of greens, of course: salad, swiss chard, bok choy and (new at the market this week)--broccoli!

Independence Days challenge: first visit to the farm

(my big huge swiss chard "plot"--but hey, I grew them from seed in my shady yard; I'm proud)

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
Beans in a feeding trough atop my driveway.

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Lettuce. Guomi berries (our first harvest from this planted-last-year bush. Each kid got to taste one.) Chives, lemon balm, thyme, parsley, lovage.

6. Build community food systems:
I went to a town meeting about some nearby fields the town wants to buy, curious about the rumor that part of it might become community gardens. So far, I was just catching up, in my ignorance. But next time, I will be a more vocal advocate.

We went to our first CSA pick up at "our" farm. (In the past, I bartered for food with a organic-farming family in my program, so didn't have need of a CSA; and when that ended, I couldn't get in to the farm I'd chosen, so I stuck with the farmer's market. But I'm thrilled to be there at last.) What an incredible place! We're very excited to meet some of "our people" there--you know, enviro-conscious, local-eating, food-preserving freaks like us. And we're thrilled for Lucy, who gets to hang out weekly with goats, ducks, and crowds of chickens, and to play on the cool play structures they've rigged up for the kids. And me, I get to eat shaved ice with maple syrup while I choose whatever goodies I want to fill my bag! Mmmm. (If I had a spare $1,500, I might have to buy one of those cool machines myself!)

7. Eat the food:
We had a giant bag full of fresh produce this week. What unusual bounty, after the winter! And we bought 6 quarts of strawberries and some asparagus this week, too, so we were in produce heaven. We ate strawberries alone, strawberry muffins, strawberry-oatmeal bake, and strawberry-chard smoothies. We ate roasted asparagus and pasta with asparagus. And fried rice with bok choy, turnips, radishes, and eggs. And green eggs with chard. And stewed rhubarb with honey. Guomi berries off the bush. Lettuce from our garden with dressing made with our herbs.

Independence Days Challenge: planning ahead

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

(Lucy checks out the lavender, Meyer lemon tree, and beach roses)

1. Plant something:
I haven't planted anything, but I dug out lots of compost and used it to prepare a square-foot-gardening-type potting mix for an old feeding trough (?) I'm going to use as a raised bed atop our driveway. Will plant after vacation. Also, I've been pacing the gardens every day, checking for progress, and realized that I'd given up on my "dead" thimbleberry, salmonberry, and elderberry bushes too soon. Most of them are showing signs of growth. Yay!

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Lettuce, lovage, thyme, parsley, sorrel, chive blossoms.

3. Preserve something:
We've begun drying the greens of carrots and radishes from the farmer's market, which will be added to the chicken's winter feed.

4. Waste not:
Please help us out here. This time of year, our freezer is nearly bare. But it's still got bags and bags of frozen peppers (green, red, yellow). I guess those winter stews and chillis we thought they'd go into just never happened. What should I do with all of them? I need a good idea that doesn't involve cheese, and I haven't got a clue.

I prepared a lot of food ahead for our vacation, to help us cut back on driving, purchasing, and packaging while there.

5. Preparation and storage:
We store a lot of dried beans. Yep, store them. Never eat them, because that takes forethought. Soaking. Long cooking. We never do it. We've got to be the least-bean-eating vegetarians around. So I'm proud to say that I soaked, cooked, and froze 4 pints of black beans this week, so maybe we'll actually eat some! We brought some on vacation with us, because they're such an easy, happy meal for Lucy.

6. Build community food systems:
Nothing.

7. Eat the food:
Salad with fresh herb dressing (mayo, lemon juice, lovage, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper). Maple-parsnip soup from this cookbook (so good!). Amazing roasted carrots from the farmer's market (didn't realize how much I'd missed carrots, and these were especially sweet...). Pumpkin bread with the last of the frozen pumpkin puree.

Independence Days challenge: onions at long last!

(Lucy shops the Tuesday farmer's market)

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
Potatoes. Grape tomatoes. Moved the potted Meyer lemon and fig trees to the gardens from indoors.

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Comfrey. Sorrel, kale, lettuce, good king henry, lovage, violets.

3. Preserve something:
Dried comfrey and carrot greens for winter chicken feed.

4. Waste not:
Planted the last of our stored potatoes, which had sprouted profusely!

5. Preparation and storage:
Mended the chicken coop, which was is starting to fall apart. Finally cleaned out the winter's buildup of deep litter and spread it on various garden beds.

6. Build community food systems:
Nothing big, just our usual supporting local farmers at two farmer's markets.

7. Eat the food:
Green smoothies. Parsnips, leeks, scallions, and ONIONS from the farmer's market (we missed onions a lot since we ran out a few months ago!)

Independence Days: not very productive this week

Oh, dear. It seems I wasn't quite ready for regular posting yet. I'm sorry I've been so absent this week! But it's time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge, and somehow I must post that, even when I've done very little. Let's hope it's the jumpstart I need to get back into the rhythm...


1. Plant something:


I went to my favorite annual plant sale this weekend in the pouring rain. Little plants, dug from local gardens, and so nearly guaranteed to thrive in mine. I love it! This year, I tried to show restraint, and focused on edible plants. I got licorice mint, lavender, "bloody sorrel," lemon balm, and horseradish, and planted them all as soon as the rain cleared.

I'm sad to report that the bushes I planted over the past two weeks aren't doing very well. I didn't care for them as well as I should (hard to water things so far from the house, especially with a broken hose nozzle...) and only about half of them are leafing out. Pooh.

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Lettuce thinnings. Daily chive snacking in the garden for the kids.

6. Build community food systems:
Well, I supported local farmers by braving the farmer's market in the cold pouring rain. Does that count?

7. Eat the food:
Lots of rhubarb cuppa-cuppa-cuppa (Lucy can now say "rhubarb"--with a big smile; she loves it). Parsnip souffle. Not much else interesting.

I'm back, with my Independence Days update

I'm back. Thank you for forgiving my absence for a bit; my family had a bit of a crisis, but we're pulling through. And thank you so much for your kind comments; I was amazed at how much it helped me to have sympathetic words from strangers. It's time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge, and that seems like as good a time as any to start again...


(peas, surrounded by branches to keep the chickens from uprooting them; so far, so good)

1. Plant something:
I have been very busy in the garden; more edible-plants orders arrived this week, so I planted a meader persimmon tree, 10 salmonberry bushes, 10 thimbleberry bushes, 3 elderberry bushes, 2 huckleberry bushes, creeping oregon grape groundcover, bunchberry groundcover, more good king henry, roman chamomile, and stinging nettle. And from the farmer's market (open at last!), I added lemon balm and lemon thyme.

(one of the many sticks I planted this week; can't wait until they're more bushy!)

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Good king henry, ramps, garlic mustard.

(my perennial garden, pretty much ignored since I began planting edibles; thankfully still looking beautiful!)

4. Waste not:
Cleared some food out of storage that we're not eating, for donation to the post office's food drive.

6. Build community food systems:
The farmer's market opened again--yay! We got parsnips, leeks, scallions, and--to my great delight--wheatberries (we've never had grains there before; I was so glad to see them!)

7. Eat the food:
It's asparagus season, and therefore we are eating asparagus as often as possible: we've had lots of roasted asparagus and some stir-fried tofu and asparagus. More rhubarb cuppa-cuppa, this time using local honey rather than sugar (mmm...and I think I could cut the sweetner down next time). Roasted parsnips and leeks, wheatberry salad with scallions and sorrel.

One post, three challenges

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
Resina calendula and sugar snap peas from seed (good toward the Growing Challenge). Highbush cranberry, golden horn tree, salal, and nagoonberry (that's what was in the big box).

2. Harvest something:
Eggs, dandelion greens, violets, good king henry, sorrel, sweet cicely, and chives from our garden and yard. Garlic mustard foraged from a nearby abandoned yard (this is a new food to us).

3. Preserve something:
Made garlic-mustard pesto to freeze.

6. Build community food systems:
Some of the kids went home talking about the green smoothies--which turned out to be a new idea for some of the parents--and some kids are now gathering dandelion greens and giving them to their parents to eat. So I shared the "recipe" for our smoothies in one of my daily emails to the families in my program.

7. Eat the food:
I served the kids green smoothies three times this week, with mixed results (some love them, some don't--but I fear a bit of that is peer pressure). Lucy continues to love them. And all the kids love the idea of them, and love gathering greens for them, so it's going to become a regular snack around here (I trust that their taste for it will come with time--and with the arrival of fresh fruits!).

We also ate a yummy yogurt dip made with chives and teeny bits of other herbs from the garden (all I've got so far): plain yogurt, lemon juice, herbs, salt, pepper. It was great on green beans (1st day) and on roasted cauliflower (2nd day). And ate garlic mustard foraged from a nearby yard. Hated the recipe I used, but think I could like the greens. Will try again.

And then there were these. Oh, my goodness. Don't make these if, like me, you have trouble with--shall we say--portion size. I found the link here. Not the slightest bit local or sustainable, I'm afraid, but a good made-from-the-pantry treat.
...
Outside today, I finally removed a terracotta planter which sat at the base of this tree for a few years. We'd failed to take it in over the winter, so it had cracked to pieces, and it was so root-bound, I could barely get the soil separated from the pot shards. But I tackled the task today. To watch me, Lucy was inspired to climb up on the base of the tree, a new accomplishment of which she was very proud.

Once the pot was removed, there was a treasure-trove of insect life left behind: pill bugs, centipedes, and various larval creatures. Here, Lucy watches as the older children scramble to catch the fast-moving bugs to feed them to the chickens.

Independence Days challenge: hello, green smoothies

(a spot in our herb garden, with lettuce sprouts and comfrey squished in there; will need to rearrange!)

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

2. Harvest something:
From our garden: Eggs, good king henry, sorrel, lovage, dandelion, sweet cicely, parsley, violets.
From a friend's garden: asparagus, rhubarb, mint, scallions, sorrel.

5. Preparation and storage:
Added 1 more bottle of water to storage.

(I called it lemon balm in past posts, but it turns out to be bee balm. I tend to forget what's in my garden in the winter, and have to re-learn it in the spring!)

7. Eat the food:
I've been serving the kids green popsicles (frozen green smoothies) for two years now, but never really got on the green-smoothie bandwagon for myself. But we're turning over a new leaf here, trying to eat more greens. One problem I've had with smoothies is that when the greens are coming up, I'm just about out of fruit (we're down to a few jars of peaches and pears and have no frozen fruit at all). But I made a smoothie this week using an apple (local, from the co-op), grape juice (our last jar), good king henry, sorrel, lovage, dandelion, sweet cicely, parsley, and violets. It was good! We all drank a glass with dinner, and Lucy was practically licking the glass to get the last drops (admittedly, there is sugar in that grape juice...). A good start, I think. Our greens supply is still low; I used up all I thought I could pick for that one glass each. But there will be more to come. (Edit, later in the week: I made another: grape juice, canned peaches, and all the same greens. Yummy!)
We're getting really low on canned and frozen fruits and veggies; can't wait for the farmer's market to open! Used up the last garlic this week, and have been relying on our small supply of ramps for garlicy flavor. We have lots of frozen red peppers, so we've used those in a frittata (lots of eggs right now!) and in a "lentil enchilada" recipe (yummy, though not a bit like enchiladas). We were lucky to have a meal from a friend's garden today: spaghetti with sauteed scallions and asparagus, followed by rhubarb cuppa-cuppa-cuppa.
...
Today...a long walk around town with mama:

Independence Days challenge: everything's coming up!

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge. It's been an exciting week in the garden: suddenly everything is coming up.

(one of the raspberry canes that somehow survived the winter frozen in a pot and is now thriving in the ground)

1. Plant something:

(the lettuce I planted two weeks ago)

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Chives. Sorrel. Good King Henry. Dandelion greens.

(last year's kale, which still looked green when I cleared out the bed this spring, so I left it; sure enough, it's re-leafing)

4. Waste not:
An obvious thing for better cooks than we are, but something I was proud of: faced with the rock-hard leftovers of a loaf of bread, I made a bread pudding of sorts for the kids' breakfast, using eggs, dried blueberries, and dried mulberries. It was a hit. Normally, that bread would have gone to the chickens, or, at best, be used as bread crumbs.

And I cut way down on disposable paper this week by putting a bag of hankies within easy reach in the kitchen: a fresh one handy whenever needed. Now I'm using those for family and the tissues only for the kids in my early childhood program.

7. Eat the food:
I made a yummy end-of-storage-beginning-of-greens meal this week: mashed potatoes (colored and lightly flavored with turmeric) topped with sauteed greens (chives, sorrel, good king henry, dandelion), garlic, and toasted pine nuts, with a peach crisp for dessert. Lucy approved!

Also tried a new recipe--good for spring with lots of eggs and stored tomatoes--which was a big hit with the kids (it was one of their lunches, with toast and green beans on the side). And I made a not-as-yummy casserole (would have been so much better with dairy!) of potatoes and eggs and ramps. Disappointing, but I was pleased that most of the meal came from our yard.
...
And outdoor play? One of today's projects was trying to move this great big log a friend salvaged for us. It's headed back to our digging area in the woods, where I hope to eventually have many more logs for use as tables, chairs, jumping-off places, and whatever else the kids might need.

Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree! Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players- lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy

Independence Days challenge: getting greener

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge. It's been a big week for the garden; seems like every day something new is up or beginning to leaf: sprouts of peas, lettuce, chard. Bigger dandelion and Good King Henry and sorrel and ramps (these may be big enough to harvest some in the coming week). Emerging yarrow, comfrey, garlic, lemon balm. Chives being picked daily for snacking on by the kids.


(more, larger ramps in the "forest garden")

Here's what I did besides watching the garden come back to life:

1. Plant something:
More lettuce, beets, peas, and chard from seed. Transplanted the parsley that's all that's left of my "winter herb garden" into the herb bed outdoors. Rhubarb, a transplanted gift from a friend.


(new rhubarb)

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Parsley. Sap. Chives.

3. Preserve something:
*!#@*! I burned the little bit of sap we were able to harvest this week. The pan might not even be salvageable.

4. Waste not:
I've been working on using up all the old stuff that gets buried at the back of the freezer (3 opened bags of hamburger rolls? Really?).

Can't remember if it belongs in this section, but this week, I've been crocheting quite a bit (progress report on that soon!). I've completed my first diaper cover, which cost me $5, as opposed to the $25 I spent to buy some. A good money savings, as well as being very satisfying!

7. Eat the food:
Inspired by last week's cheese cracker success, I decided to try some more crackers. These didn't come out nearly as well as those did, probably because they're significantly less decadent and because baking with 4 small children in the house is always tricky (i.e. they're nearly burned. Yes, burning food because of too many distractions is a frequent event around here). I'll try again, though. They did come out crispy and crackerish and I loved knowing they were safe for my dairy-allergic baby and had only wholesome ingredients. The kids loved them, too. We're eating lots of dried fruit, applesauce, potatoes, and frozen veggies, using up the end of the stored foods.

Independence Days challenge: first foraging

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
Grandpa Admire's Lettuce (from seed). Raspberries (from a neighbor, delivered midwinter, frozen in the pot. They survived!). Green Arrow Peas (again; the chickens dug up the originals). Peas and lettuce apply to the Growing Challenge, as well.

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Dandelion greens. Chives. Bits of sorrel. The sap didn't run this week, but I don't have nearly enough syrup; am hoping for another chance this week.

4. Waste not:
I got that great pile of books this week, which (in addition to being a passionate hobby for me and useful for my work with children) will be a part of my children's education, so I consider it "preparation." I got that great

7. Eat the food:
The kids and I had the first green eggs of the season, made with foraged dandelion greens and chives and sorrel from the garden. I made these cheese crackers twice this week, and oh, my gosh, are they amazing! Crackers is one of those packaged foods I just hadn't learned to make yet, but now I can't wait to try some other recipes (got any good ones?). These are like Cheez-Its, but much more delicious (and real). I also made two batches of wonderful granola this weekend (one with dried elderberries, one with dried strawberries). And I made a batch of bread dough to have on hand this week (something I'd like to do every week--not quite there yet.) I need to have more baking weekends like this, so the house is full of goodies and we're not tempted to buy meals out.

Challenge updates: first days of spring

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge. I've decided to combine these Monday posts with updates for the Growing Challenge.


1. Plant something: Golden Chard, Green Arrow Peas, Chioggia Beets. (From seed, so these apply to the Growing Challenge, too.)

2. Harvest something: Eggs. Maple sap.

3. Preserve something: 3 quarts maple syrup.

4. Waste not: I made 2 new pairs of longies and a dress from felted wool sweaters this week. (Need to blog those soon; it's almost too warm to wear them!)

5. Preparation and storage: I spent a lot of time cleaning up the yard and gardens this week (and obsessively checking to see if anything is coming up yet). I began digging out the (still mostly frozen) compost, and used it to replenish planting boxes. I also added another bottle of water to storage (am slowly working on this, as we empty suitably-sized glass bottles).

6. Build community food systems: We attended a fundraiser for the Survival Center and donated more than we'd expected we would.

7. Eat the food: Oh, my gosh! In the midst of this week's lovely spring weather, I gave myself the most delicious welcome-spring treat--Strawberry Lemonade from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It was perfect!! We almost missed strawberry season last year, and picked very few. I'm so glad we used some of them for this! We've been eating a TON of dried fruit this week, and I made a pretty good cream-of-broccoli soup using frozen broccoli. And I've done a good bit of baking (tried a new quick bread recipe which I liked a lot: "Whole Wheat Muffins" from The Tassajara Bread Book, using crabapple jelly as the sweetner).

Independence Days challenge update: syrup and fruit

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

2. Harvest something: Eggs. Maple sap.
3. Preserve something: 1 1/2 qts. maple syrup.
7. Eat the food: I'm working on clearing out last year's frozen food (and, dare I say, some from the year before? Yikes!) We ate rhubarb "cuppa cuppa cuppa" (recipe below) this week, and polished off a well-hidden bag of raspberries and ate lots and lots of "blueberry oat bake" for breakfasts.

Dairy-Free "Cuppa Cuppa Cuppa"
(adapted from a recipe from my friend Eric)

Melt 1/2 C coconut oil in a baking dish in a 350 degree oven.
Add 1 qt. frozen or canned or fresh fruit.
Mix together 1 C coconut milk, 1 C flour, 1 C sugar (that's the cuppa cuppa cuppa) and 1 T. baking soda, and pour it over the top.
Bake for an hour or until browned.

(This came out delicious with rhubarb. We ate it with company, and all had seconds.)

Independence Days challenge begins again

It's time again for Sharon's Independence Days Challenge. It's my third year participating in this challenge, which is a reminder to do a little something each day towards food "independence." Actually, it was just my own laziness that made me stop posting weekly updates last year; this is really something that can be done year round. I love this challenge, because it reminds me that storing food doesn't have to be some big huge overwhelming task; you can do a little here and there and still end up with a pretty impressive pantry.

Generally, I like to post on Mondays, because I'm most productive on the weekends. However, this Monday was lost to sickness, so I'll start now and get on a regular schedule next week. (Thank you for all your well-wishing comments. I think we're well on the way toward health now.)

Sharon's outlined 7 categories for the challenge. In the spirit of don't-beat-yourself-up, I will post only on the ones I've done. So, here's the beginning of what I hope will be our best year yet:

1. Plant something: Only in my head so far, but I did order many many things to plant! I've already posted about the seeds, and I'll post soon about the bushes and plants I've ordered.

2. Harvest something: What feels like a bounty of eggs, now that the chickens are laying regularly again. And sap! I got a late start tapping the trees this year. But instead of the two trees we've done in the past, I've got 6 trees "on tap" right now, and as soon as I can get my hands on some more buckets, I think I'll add a few more.

3. Preserve something: 1 1/4 qts. maple syrup, the best we've made yet (why is it yummier this time?)

6. Build community food systems: As always, I've got the kids in my early childhood program involved in the process. This week, their buckets of sand and dirt have been "sap" and "syrup." I love seeing through their play how they've internalized the idea of local food. And their parents are curious about the syrup process, too; perhaps I can convince a few of them to tap their trees.

7. Eat the food: We celebrated the arrival of syrup season with a 4-year-old's recipe suggestion: hot maple-syrup milk to warm up after a morning spent outdoors. Perfect. And I've been celebrating the return of my favorite daily treat: maple-sweetened coffee (started this two years ago as a way to make my morning coffee more local and found I far preferred it to white sugar.) Meanwhile, we're eating end-of-winter food-storage meals. We ate the last squash this week, are down to only a few carrots and onions, and so only potatoes remain as "fresh" produce. We've eaten a ton of dried fruit. Today's lunch was a delicious corn chowder made with dried corn and frozen corn stock, frozen green beans, and dried peaches.

What are you doing? Will you join Sharon's challenge this year?