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.

Peach Jam Recipes, Jon's new sweater, ice cream, and...moving again

Where to begin!  So much has been going lately with my family, the garden, and some big decisions.  We are moving again.  This time it is not a rush decision to get out of a bad situation, but instead a thoughtful decision to help Jon's family and finally be able to save up some money.  Jon's Gramma's house in Massachusetts needs to be looked after long-term.  I hate moving, and I'm not looking forward to being in Mass. again...but having a whole yard and house for very reasonable rent is too good to pass up.  Who wants to help me pack?!

And year, the garden seems to get ahead of me.  The apartment garden is right here, I don't need to get a ride, but I kinda gave up on it when I saw how slow things were and that I really should have improved the soil...which wasn't going to happen when I knew we would be moving sometime.  At my parents'...I should have been in there every day maintaining it, but that is impossible for me.  Squash bugs have now gotten all of my cucurbits (squashes, cucumbers).  Tomatoes are just starting to come in.  Rutabagas are the size of a cabbage.  I see two very large Amish pie pumpkins way out in the back.  Sunflowers are tall.  I'm not sure how it will work with moving and things still going in the garden.  I'm hoping to come back before a major frost.  I should have a very large quantity of winter squash, rutabaga, turnips, cherry tomatoes, green tomatoes and dried beans to share/trade if anyone is interested.  My parents also have tons of sweet corn, cukes, zucchini, summer squash, potatoes and tomatoes for sale!

Until I have my own orchard, I keep an eye out for cheap ways to get fruit and preserve it for the winter.  An orchard near Jon's parents', Breezelands Orchards, sells seconds peaches, a file box full for $10.  These peaches need to be used within 24 hours before they start to spoil...and this year, I got two boxes.  This led to a marathon of peach preserving that did nearly last 24 hours.  I took over my mother-in-law's kitchen and patiently worked over the stove, peeling peaches, stirring sugary mixtures, boiling water.  I still have no idea how many pints I ended up with because I have filled an entire cupboard.  Some of the nicer peaches were sliced and canned in a light syrup, the rest went to jam.

I do not use pectin when making jam, so I ended up taking a basic peach jam recipe and then making my own variations.

Base:
7 cups peach chunks
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups sugar

Variations:
Vanilla cinnamon: 1 tsp really good vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon
Blueberry spice: 1 pint blueberries (then enough peach chunks to make a total of 7 cups of fruit), 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp almond extract
Apricot: about 1 cup diced dried apricots -or- 2 cups cubed fresh apricots (then enough peach chunks to make a total of 7 cups of fruit), 1 tsp almond extract, 1 tsp vanilla
Cherry:  about 1 cup diced dried pitted cherries -or- 2 cups cubed fresh pitted cherries (then enough peach chunks to make a total of 7 cups of fruit), 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp almond extract
Mango: 1 peeled, pitted, cubed ripe mango (then enough peach chunks to make a total of 7 cups of fruit), 1 tsp rum extract
Spiced peach: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp allspice

*Try these at your own risk.  These are not proven recipes as of yet, just food experiments =)

I have also been experimenting with ice cream.  My favorite recipes come from David Lebovitz.  Jon's favorite ice cream is rum raisin, and he LOVED David's recipe so much that it lasted one day.  I can wait to try more of his recipes out (when getting the link I just stopped and stared at his recipes for ten minutes).  Maybe tonight will be avocado coconut...but for now, I'm working on Jon's sweater.  Again.  This time, I'm not pulling it out, now matter how silly it looks.  Pictures to come when it actually looks like something.

And yet another move!

We have moved, again!  This is my seventh place since college, fifth since we married.  To quote Scott Pilgrim, it is a "a long story filled with sighs".  So here we are now, in an apartment with a full-sized fridge and washer and dryer!  If you know me in real life, feel free to ask me where I'm now located.  

There is a large window that floods the living room with light, giving little sunny warm spots on the carpet that make me long to curl up on the carpet and take a cat nap.

For the first time in my life, I have a dishwasher.  I have no idea how to use it.  I think it needs special soap.

I am already enjoying the benefits of doing laundry in a washer instead of the tub.

Basically, we are very happy where we are now!

Tavie is rocking out to Gogol Bordello here, exploring his new environment.

Having a full sized fridge with freezer is suddenly a puzzle.  I have almost forgotten how to buy groceries ahead and make large meals to last all week.  I haven't even touched the freezer yet, except to look inside and marvel at how cold it is!  Food is even keeping longer with the fridge at the proper temperature.

Now that I have the luxury of all these modern conveniences, I find that I am used to not relying on them and hardly miss them!  I'm sure that will change with time- the freezer is calling for some applesauce.  And ice cream.

We are still unpacking the mountain of boxes that ended up in the basement.  I have no idea where any of my books are.

On another note, Jon and I participated in this event:

It was a lot of fun, and I even sold a bunch of my knitted things while demonstrating spinning!  Jon demonstrated stone and wood carving.  We really hope some of the leads that we got follow through for future jobs!

I have neglected this blog lately, but now that we are almost settled in, I will really try to keep up with all of my fall recipes!  I have also discovered the perfect ginger cookie recipe I will reveal in my next post!

Unpacking, restocking, and garden planning.

Thanks to some awesome family and JenJen, we got everything in a truck, drove three hours, lugged boxes and furniture up a flight of stairs, and unpacked the kitchen and majority of the living room.  We were stocked with some fresh veggies, dry goods, and sandwich things.  We are so grateful for the help, we couldn't have done it without them!

We have spent the last week unpacking the apartment and Jon's two new work spaces there and at my parents', fixing various plumbing issues, getting to know our new landlords, and meeting a lot of new neighbors.  Jon is seeking new leads for work and while I am waiting for a document to translate, I am spending my time planning my garden.

My little notebook is filling up with ideas.  The rain these past few days does not help my eagerness to go out and start planting!  I'd be happy to be out there, but I don't have a raincoat...so I've been planning instead.  I have a bunch of seeds leftover from last year.  Our old apartment was a cave, so I couldn't start any plants early.  I will need to buy some tomato, eggplant, and pepper seedlings.  I might start some seeds in hopes that we have a late season, because I don't want to keep seeds around for too long.  I have a 41' by 44' space in the backyard next to the apple tree.  I also have a garden space at my parents' that I am welcome to use.
-How many seeds can I afford?
-How much are we actually going to eat/preserve?
-Can I sell some at my parents' farmstand?
-Can I grow some staples that I've never grown before?

I am just too excited!  I know that I can handle the work.  My only problems would be affording the seed/seedlings, starting too late, and learning about caring for new plants.  If I can find a cheap source for the seeds I want, find some row cover, and do a ton of research, this is going to be the best garden I've ever done!

For now, I am restocking the kitchen with homemade and natural foods.  I've made yogurt, butter, honey wheat bread (Panera Bread Cookbook), and dehydrated some chives, cherry tomatoes, and scallions.  Rhubarb should be ready in a couple of weeks!  I am going to try dehydrating some.  Dehydrating and canning might be my best resources for preserving produce this year.  We have a mini-fridge with a 2" high freezer at the top.  Fortunately, the kitchen is large and I finally have enough shelf space to store everything.

Time to order some seeds =)

On a break.

We are losing the internet at any moment, and moving tomorrow.  I will start posting again from our new place when we get internet!

Translating spree and emptying the pantry.

Yesterday, I got a large document to translate.  It is technical, complicated, long...and I often wander away to do other things.  Not packing, though.  I've decided that I cannot pack any more until this document gets done.  This may not be the best plan.

I am finding a few things to go to Goodwill in the meantime, though.  If I haven't worn it in a year, my mother did not make it, and it is not formal, it goes in the box.  I get most of my clothes from second hand stores, hand-me-downs, gifts, or I make them.  Besides wedding-related clothes, I went shopping online three times last year for new things- a dress for a wedding, a blazer, and a few clearance items.  I did get some new shoes, though =)  You can never have too many shoes!

We are also slowly eating down our food supply.  This is extremely difficult.  I keep thinking that I need more, we are going to run out!  What will I bake and cook with?!  I have enough to make bread once more, make a giant black bean veggie stew with a ham bone, and maybe if I'm desperate, brown rice with greens.  I am going to have to get pretty creative to only use what I already have.  This reminds me of an episode of Chopped.  Limitations: good enough for Jon to like it, quick enough to finish this document and pack and sleep.  Lunch time grows near...

I am just incredibly excited about this move.  5 days to go!  It will be stressful, and then calm and I can unpack at my own pace.  I have no idea how often Jon will need to commute back to finish up work, or what he will end up doing when he can't go to his old studio and needs to find more jobs.  We will be without internet until I receive our new Virgin Mobile mifi modem (wireless internet anywhere!).  I might just find some started plants and spend all day in the garden.  There is a huge garden area all ready to go, right next to the house!  My father has also offered a garden space at the farm, and I'm thinking of using that for less needy plants/experimentation...sugar beets?  Oats?  Wheat?  Will I be able to get a Level 1 Homestead License to sell baked goods and jam/jelly?  Will I have enough time to devote to all this, go to a farmers' market, keep house, translate, and spend time with Jon?  I am bursting with excitement about the possibilities...

(Area to the right will be my garden at the farm)

The document is calling, and I shouldn't procrastinate any longer.  Dreams of fresh greens, sunshine, and UNpacking are distracting me.  One step at a time.

Homesteading.

The kits are weaned and it is time.  This weekend, Jon and I will be processing Ruby for meat.  The kits are doing beautifully, and I should be able to tell what sex they are soon.  I am also looking to sell Max, and hopefully a fiber enthusiast would love him.

There are mice in the kitchen.  The past two days I have come in to find droppings all over the counters and the dishes in the drainer.  I am very tired of sanitizing everything...but what else can I do?  I put baking soda in the places that the droppings were (they run through it, stop to clean themselves, and there is a reaction in their stomachs that causes gas, but they can't expel the gas, so they implode).  Less cruel than poison or a trap, I think.  I will also put peppermint extract everywhere, which they detest.

I am getting very tired of this apartment (the cave), and am very much looking forward to May when we hopefully move to NH!  We are looking at the second story of a beautiful farmhouse with a view, a barn, and lovely elderly landlords downstairs.  If everything goes well, it would be everything we have been hoping and praying for.  There are lilacs, a space for a HUGE garden, trees, even a farm a few houses down.  We would be close to my parents and many friends.  The landlords used to be good friends with my grandparents, too, as well as the grandparents of my friend that lives there now.  It isn't the biggest place, and it also might have mice, but the worst noise we will have to deal with is blasting "Sound of Music" in the evening.  Thank you, Lord, for watching over us and helping bring us to this farmhouse!  I will also be able to get milk and some veggies from my parents, I might be able to barter my spinning for some eggs and lamb, and I am going to ask  my parents if we could buy meat from them.  I will try to grow as much as I can myself, and I have been working on that list to find other things locally.  So pretty much, I have been doing my knekker-happy-dance for days.

This is pretty much how I dance.
And yes, it is in Norwegian.  Norwegian is cool.

I really did completely forget that I had a blog.

Things got busy.  I started working for a print shop, then quit because some people there were...well...unpleasant.  Then I translated quite a bit.

We had a massive snow storm around Halloween that killed the power for a week.  I learned how to cook mac and cheese on a grill, take a bath in the amount of water that could be heated on a camp stove, and go to sleep at 7 pm.  If we hadn't lost everything in the fridge and freezer, and running water, it would have been really fun!

At the beginning of December, we moved out on our own.  I was SO HAPPY to move, not that I don't love my parents-in-law, but it was time.  I love knowing things don't get moved overnight, I am in charge of cooking/baking/groceries, and I can run from the bathroom to the bedroom in a towel if I want.  Not that I actually do now...its freezing!  The bad part...the apartment itself.  Lovely neighbors cause the cops to show up at all times of the night, domestic fights outside the door, small children screaming until midnight...And then the hot water lasts 10 min. max at lukewarm, the stove pilot roars like a bonfire, it is so humid water runs down the walls and leaves little yellow streaks from the stains in the ceiling, the few windows we have we need to keep the blinds closed because people walk right by them (sketchy people), the bathroom blower just blows up into the ceiling space and grows mold, and the bathroom does not even have a door.  Not to mention there are train tracks in front, a river gorge in back, we park at the edge of this cliff, and two streets go by the front door.  There are just too many things to mention...basically, we live in a cave.

I am very grateful to be living here, but we aren't looking to stay very long.  Once again, we are looking at New Hampshire.  Last time, we decided to stay in Mass. to be around Jon's family and work on Jon's business as a stone mason.  Now we are just looking to save up some money.  I miss New Hampshire!  So the dream apartment that I mentioned in September is hopefully going to work!  We'll see how that goes...

Last month, I worked for a day at a local farm, but that didn't work out.  So now I translate when I can get the work and spend the rest of my time baking interesting things and knitting.  I'm back to being a housewife!  Jon has been getting enough work and I've been translating enough to keep us going, but credit card bills are dragging us down and eating the savings.  Hopefully this spring will bring Jon a ton of work in NH and I will be able to find a part-time that will enable me to make dinner on time and keep weekends free for Jon.  I'm going a bit nuts being stuck in the cave all day.  One of my friends is working on not buying any packaged foods, so I've been looking up her recipes and experimenting with baking things instead of buying them.  Today, I made rye crackers.

Not too bad.  I don't think I'll be buying crackers again!

In other news, my rabbit Ruby had a litter of kits!  Three survived of seven, and they are absolutely adorable!

They are getting bigger every day.  The one with the pink ears has lighter brown fur now.  Ruby won't feed them on her own, so I need to hold them up to her twice a day to nurse.  But I love them.