What's on the basement shelves?

So why all the food preservation talk around here? A few years ago, (after reading Barbara Kingsolver's then-brand-new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, of course), we decided to make a much more concerted effort to buy only locally-produced food. As with many other decisions we've made, we decided to see how far we could go, and never turned back. For us, it's come to look like this:

We eat only locally-grown produce (with the exception of lemons, which we haven't been able to do without. And dried coconut. We all have our weaknesses.) Because we live in New England, this means we have to preserve a lot of food in order to eat in the winter.

We try to choose locally-produced other foods, whenever possible.

We try to avoid buying packaged, processed foods. We do better or worse at this depending on how crazy our life gets. This winter, I am determined to return to baking bread, and making yogurt, for example, but for now, we're buying those.

It became clear early on that we'd need a system to keep track of what we'd stored, to help us use it up efficiently, and to help us remember from year to year what worked and what didn't. Above, you can see the system we're using now, our food storage inventory. On graph paper, we keep track of "item," "date," "source and recipe," "quantity and status," and "notes." (You can click on the picture to see it larger.)

Under "item," we list the name of what we've stored, using specific recipe names if applicable so we can remember which recipe we'd used. We list everything from dried herbs to frozen veggies to canned jam to storage squash all on the same inventory. Some day, I might further organize things by type, but for now, it's all organized chronologically.

The "date" part helps us remember what's in season when so we don't miss mulberry season, for example.

Under "source and recipe," we note where we got the food--which farmer, friend, or foraging spot. And we write down where we found the recipe so we can find it again. "CBHP," in the photo above, for example, is the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Under "quantity and status," we make a slash in a box for each item, and write below what size it is: gal. bag, or 1/2 pt. As we bring it up from storage, we put another slash through it, making an X, to mark it gone. This way, we can see at a glance what we have lots of and what we should use sparingly. As I plan meals, I use this tally to help me figure out what we should eat.

In the final "notes" column, I write down if we loved or hated it, if I altered the recipe, if I bought too much and it all rotted, or whatever might be useful the next year.

Now, back to the kitchen. There's lots more pages to fill if we're to keep to this commitment this year!

Independence Days challenge, week 21

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

1. Plant something: No.
2. Harvest something: Eggs. Mystery squash from the compost bin. Crab apples from a local park (with the kids). 4 pecks pears and 1 peck peaches from Quonquont Farm.
3. Preserve something: Canned 3 qts. pears, 3/4 pt. pear butter, 16 qts. tomato sauce, 3-1/2 pts. peach salsa, 27 1/2-pints crab apple jelly, 1/2 pt. peach honey, 10-1/4 pts salsa, 6 qts. tomatoes, 5 pts. tomato juice. Froze 2 qts. green pepper, 2 qts. red peppers.
4. Waste not: Saved money and waste by picking up "drops" under pear and peach trees rather than from the trees.
5. Preparation and storage: Worked on cleaning and organizing canning shelves.
6. Build community food systems: Gave canning advice to a parent in my program. Taught two friends to can and helped them can their first batch of tomato sauce. My proud moment of the week came as we walked back from the park and one tired child asked "is your house close?" and another answered "you just have to turn after that mulberry tree." It's true; I'm raising 4-year-old foragers.
7. Eat the food:Nothing new here.

Canning central

Friday was a gorgeous fall day, and the kids and I, joined by some friends, walked to the park to pick crab apples.



Today, it's canning central in our kitchen, with us and two sets of friends canning in shifts. Here you see 2 pots of Barbara Kingsolver's "Family Secret Tomato Sauce," a pot of peach honey, and another of crab apple jelly, all boiling down at once.



On these marathon weekends, we can all day and into the night. Here's our outdoor set-up around 10:00 this evening: still processing.

How to make felted-sweater diaper covers

I had a request for more information about how to make diaper covers from felted wool sweaters. There are several good tutorials out there, so I'll point you in that direction rather than re-write what's already been said. But I've picked up a few tips along the way and combined two patterns last time, so I'll share some of what I've figured out here.



This is the first tutorial I came across for making wool "longies" (long pants that serve as a diaper cover). I've followed this basic design for most of the longies I've made. They are really cute and useful. (Lucy's modeling a pair, above.) As she gets bigger, I'm finding that these are sometimes too short in the back. I'm going to experiment with some different waistbands. I loved these--how smart to use the cuff of a pair of pants as the waistband! Other tutorials I've seen use some of the waistband of the sweater to make a waistband for the longies--a great idea I want to try. And I've never tried this pattern, but it looks very promising; I like the fitted bottom.

*edited to add: How embarrassing! I was looking at Lucy's diaper peek above her too-short-waisted longies tonight and realized what was wrong with them. My own stupidity; I forgot to allow for the casing when I was cutting down the side of the sleeve! I just cut it to match the pants I was using for a "pattern," so when I added the elastic casing, I lost nearly an inch. I'd still like to try those other ideas, but now I'll also be able to make these and have them fit! Can you say sewing while exhausted?

I also love this pattern for a "bum sweater". Here's the first one of these I made. Super cute shorties (short pull-on diaper cover), and nice and trim. It fits well under clothing and also looks cute under summer dresses. I don't put in the recommended drawstring, and so far, haven't needed it.

When I made the pink pair, I followed the suggestion to use the cuffs of the original sweater as the leg bands. But that meant that when I later made longies from those sleeves, they didn't have a nice finished edge. For less waste, and a more finished product, for the brown pair I made next, I cut the neck of the original sweater in half and used those strips to make the leg bands. Much better.

The bum sweater is also the pattern I started from to make her latest cashmere longies. Rather than sewing on legbands, I sewed on long legs made from the sleeves of the sweater. The sleeves were long enough that I was able to cut them in half and make two pairs. However, I'd cut the top of the sleeves off the sweater following the angle of the shoulder--so they came to a point--and I decided to try to incorporate that into the design, to see if it would give her more space around the diaper. You can see how the legs come to a point at the top in the pair on the right, below:



I like how they fit, but they come down a bit too low in the front; I think this pair would benefit from an added drawstring.

To make any of these diaper covers, you'll want to start with a largish, not-too-scratchy, 100% wool sweater. I use no special techniques for felting--I just throw the sweater in the washer and the drier and let them do their thing, and then decide what to make out of it based on how big it ends up! Once you've made your cover, you'll want to lanolize it to help it absorb water. I dissolve a few drops of liquid lanolin (from the health-food store) in a bit of hot water, then fill my bucket with room-temperature water, let the covers soak for a while, rinse, squeeze out the extra water by rolling them in a towel, and then hang to dry. It takes forever for them to dry that first time, but don't worry--you only have to lanolize them every month or so.

Well, now, that was wordy! Hope it's helpful! Let me know if there's anything I should clarify or add.

One little flower

I've been enjoying the wonky log cabin tutorials over at Quilt Dad this week. I had pretty much figured out how to make crazy log cabin blocks on my own, but it's always interesting to see someone else's techniques, and he's definitely given me some new inspiration. So even though I felt too tired to move last night, I hauled my lazy butt up to the sewing machine to make another block for Lucy's quilt. I made this:



Now, I know it's not the best block ever. But I'm psyched about it, because I finally used a technique I hadn't gotten to yet--a pieced strip. See that blue piece on the right side? I love that one flower shining out from the middle of it. I went safe and obvious this time, with the solid turquoise and the coordinating bit of vintage sheet, but next time I'll try mixing up some patterns.

These feet were made for crawling

I couldn't resist a picture of these filthy little feet yesterday! This is what she looks like now that she's on the move all the time. Today, the weather's shifted, and she's bundled up in her new cashmere longies and some soft shoes, and zooming those through the dirt and leaves and grass. Filthy. Just the way a kid should be!

Lucy's stool

Several years ago, I picked up a hideous stool at a tag sale. I sure hope it was free, because boy, was it ugly. Here's the sort-of "before:"



The actual "before" included filthy yellow-and-brown shag carpeting used as upholstery. I had to get that off of there fast--too fast for a photo shoot!

It's been sitting around, naked, for quite a while now. And then when spring rolled around and the weather warmed up, I took it outside and spray-painted those legs red to match her room. That's when the stall hit: I never upholstered it, because no fabric I tried was the "perfect" fabric for her room.

But a few weeks ago, Lucy began pulling to a stand on any available handhold. And this week, she discovered the naked stool, tucked under the bedside table in her room. Whenever we're in there (it's "her" room, but she doesn't actually live there yet; just stores her stuff in there), she crawls right over and pulls to a stand. So it was clearly time to get the job done. Last night, I decided "perfect" was never going to happen. I pulled out several choices of fabric, and finally settled on a worn-out piece of chenille bedspread--far from perfect, but lovely in its simplicity. And really, how hard is it to re-upholster a stool? When perfect comes along, I can just change it!

Lucy promptly fell over while testing it out, and was too sad to demonstrate her awesome standing skills for the "after" photo. She was willing to pose atop it, however. I think she likes it.