Harvest

Waking up with a migraine, I've allowed myself to be cozy on the couch with a cup of my new favorite tea- The Tea Guy's Coconut Truffle Black Tea.

This has been a busy summer.  Once again, I quit my job (unsafe work environment!), so I have had a bit more time to keep up with the garden and fiber arts.  Somehow, all of this 'free time' does seem free at all!  I've been busy canning tomato sauce and pickles, harvesting dried beans, playing with baby rabbits...

I've named the grey one Sterling and the blue and cream one Pika, both males from the same litter.  We also got another grey male, Firari (runaway in Turkish after he nearly escaped!), who is six months old now.

Firari has bonded with the two kits, and I think they will do well together.  Tavie, our two and half year old male, is kept separate due to his age and inability to bond well with other males.

Why do we have so many males?  Our large outdoor hutch originally had three separate pens, but when we moved, we took those out so that everyone could have a large run and keep each other warm.  We couldn't keep any does with our male without the inevitable happening!  It turned out that our original male was too old or his personality didn't allow him to bond well with our new ones, but these new rabbits seem to be happy and carefree, so I now get to have four angora rabbits =)  I do plan on breeding them in the future.

The garden has been producing well, especially since we had only amended the newly overturned soil with loam.  I've never seen so many cucumbers!

I have probably 20+ pints of pickle slices and three gallons of sour mustard whole pickles in the basement fridge.  Tomatoes had late blight and didn't produce well at all, but I was able to buy 60 lbs of canning tomatoes from Sapowsky Farms and I put up 8 pints of ketchup and 7 pints of sauce from that.  Canning a couple pints of sauce at a time from my own heirlooms, I think we will have enough to last at least into the next year.  Next summer, I hope to have 30-40 tomato plants instead of 15, and I will find a drier spot to ward off rot and blight.  I have also put up 40 lbs of peaches (sliced and jam) from Breezeland Orchards.  If I can get another couple bushels of apple drops from Mt. Pleasant Orchard, I think we will eat well this winter!

One last summer market on the 23rd, and then I might been a vendor at Northampton's winter market!

I think the rest of today should be spent avoiding shelling more turtle beans, finishing the hat that I've been knitting, and watching classic Doctor Who.  Also eating cupcakes because it was someone's birthday and I made sure there would be leftovers.

Next post will be about buying half a freezer pig from Mockingbird Farm!

Baking all day

I've been meaning to write here again for some time, but every time that I sit down at the laptop, I remember that the dishes haven't been done, there's knitting in the basket next to me, that laundry is still in a huge pile on the bedroom floor, Jon calls me over to discuss cabin plans again...or I am just too exhausted to fill a blank page before me.  My job at the farmstand is only part time.  That is quite enough for now.  I am only working in the bakery now and survived making hundreds of pies through the end of the year and now am figuring out how to make shelves look full without over-baking.  I still am having a very hard time waking at up 4:45 am and now eat two meals a day because my stomach can't handle being awake so early.  However, this is one of the best jobs that I have ever had and I am so very thankful to be paid to bake all day.  Even if it does mean that when I get home I feel like a blob and go lie on the couch.  And neglect cleaning and making dinner, especially baking again.

Jon is at home for now and very forgiving of my blob-ness.  There are some days that we only eat rice and kolbasa.  Tonight we are eating homemade baked beans and roasted butternut squash and anadama bread, not only because it is delicious, but we can also eat it for days.  I don't mind keeping this job for a while until we can save up or Jon gets a really good job.  I'm hoping that once the days get longer and warmer my energy will increase and I will once again be able to do everything around the house and keep up with my massive garden plans.

I think ahead to the future, a one room cabin, spinning wheel in the corner, bread in the bake oven and the warmth of the hearth.  Goats grazing the lawn, and maybe children playing on the porch.

Oh, and I finished the sweater-thing.

Urban gardening, composting and other ways to upset the neighbors.

To solve the basement flooding problem, bring in an excavator and dig out a massive trench from the basement door to the end of the backyard.  Build retaining walls.

Get some local boards and make raised beds.

Level these beds with scrap wood/stone blocks left from previous projects.  Helps if you know a stone mason.

Throw in some sod clods or roots in the bottom.

 Fill raised beds with the dirt pile left from excavation (this will take several days).  The rest of the dirt for the compost beds will be delivered by truckload in the spring.

Don't forget to plant garlic in the fall!

Add some stone sculpture.

Fencing will happen later on.

Build a compost pile out of a branch you take down.  Line with burlap and cover with a weighted tarp.

Make pretty paths to the doors, but leave the extra stone piled up against the house.

Spread out whatever dirt is left around the back lawn in anticipation of tilling that area in the spring for another garden.  Add sculpture that looks suspiciously like a gravestone.

By now, the neighbors should be standing in their driveways shaking their heads and asking if you have a 'real job'!  Just wait until spring when planting begins.  I can't wait to see the looks on neighbors' faces when I'm out there, barefoot, talking to the plants.

I've been keeping busing working on projects and I am still processing things that I brought out of the garden before we moved.

Herb garden.

 Sugar beets, peeled and chopped into small pieces, to make into sugar beet molasses.  I also have been freezing the pulp to add to baked goods later on.

 Chicken stock.

Haven't even made it halfway through taking the sunflower seeds from their heads yet.  I think we will be set for a while.

I have also been working on Jon's sweater...again.  This time, I am designing the pattern myself (except for the cables).  This is the back.  Handspun wool, of course.

I also have a job at a farmstand.  Some days I work at the register, some days I am left alone in the bakery to make the day's breads, cookies, coffee cakes, doughnuts, and whatever else I think people will want to eat.  I am very happy.

New house, old harvest Yarn and fiber for sale.

We are all moved into a nice two bedroom house in a quiet neighborhood of a large city.  It was a very long process involving lots of sorting, cleaning, moving things, and of course, lots of stress.  Hopefully this situation will be a good one, and so far, it mostly is.

There are lots of new shops and markets to discover.  A middle eastern grocery sells Halal chicken and extremely large bags of rice.

25 lbs of jasmine rice

 I might have to turn this into a tote bag.

There are two Russian grocery stores nearby.  At the smaller store, a very nice Russian lady with limited English has conversations with me about the need for each of us to practice our new languages.  She also helped us find the very best non-expensive kolbasa in the meat case.  I LOVE being able to find affordable Russian food again and hope to be able to discover new recipes while practicing my Russian.  They also have extremely large bags of flour.

How could I pass up 50 lbs of flour?

You can see a theme here.  Now that we have a whole house, why not start buying goods in bulk?  The local doughnut shop sells food-grade buckets.  We have a small chest freezer.  I am very much looking forward to a winter of plenty.

We are taking this opportunity to go out more, explore new shops, take walks...this is already becoming fun.  I don't know how long we can keep up eating 2-3 dozen doughnuts a week, though...

Because we moved again during harvest season, I have had to improvise food storage methods.

Sunflowers and onions hanging.  The sunflowers weren't ready when I cut them, so they are drying near a dehumidifier in the basement.

Carrots, green tomatoes, sugar beets, and rutabaga.

More green tomatoes, and Amish pie pumpkin, and some winter squash.

 Dried and canned goods

More dried goods and spice cabinet

Before and after the move, I have also been saucing apples, dehydrating apples, canning tomato sauce, sorting dried beans, and soon I will start making a molasses-type syrup from the sugar beets.

 I processed 60+ lbs of drops apples

 Glorious apple peeler and slicer.  I don't know what I would do without it.

 Just two batches of unsweetened applesauce.

Kidney and yin-yang dried beans.

The backyard is one giant retaining wall project, but after that is over, Jon and I will be making a small garden space.  I get to really think planting over and practice some French intensive space-saving methods.

I will also be selling yarn, fiber, and knit things on ebay.  Some are made by me, some are from a farm back home.  I am very happy to sell things outside of ebay, too.  I have lots of boxes to go though, but please comment here or send me a message if you're looking for something specific.  I can also knit custom items.  There will be niddy noddies and antique carders listed, too.  My ebay page is located here. *Page is now active and has several items listed.