Nettles for Lunch

As soon as I read this recipe over at Ripple Rock Cooks, I knew I had to drop my sewing and get out-side to those nettles! I'd harvested some leeks the other day, had a hunk of kabocha squash needing to be used, and a quart of fresh-made chicken stock in the fridge. I didn't need to think twice. 

It's always an exciting time when the nettles appear, because it means Winter is truly ending. Sure, we have months of damp, cool Spring ahead of us, but that's easy to forget when tromping about the woods snipping nettle tops. 

I spied this friendly fauna as I was scrunching myself under a fallen branch. (don't worry...it didn't end up in the soup pot!)

I had my good friend, Louie, helping me out. Isn't he pretty in the forest?

I made a few adjustments to the recipe, using squash instead of potato, and an immersion blender instead of a regular blender. The accompanying side is toasted home-made wheat-free pumpernickel bread with miso-pesto spread. 

Happiness!

Apple Time of Year

A perfect Winesap

 We had a bumper crop of apples this year. We've filled all of these jars and more (over 50 gallons!)with two sessions of apple cider pressing. Sweetie is threatening to pick more apples, so we may do yet another pressing. I didn't take any process photos this year, but if you're curious, it looks like this

Annie T. Lopez (just to show you some Plush!)

Sewin' & Farmin'

Here's what I've been up to these days:

Sewed a new batch of Mitts for Musing (getting ready for Fall/Winter sales).

Sewed a new batch of Pocket Buns.

Tested out a new furry fabric on a bunny...pretty darn cute!

Crocheted and felted; waiting for eyes.

Sewed a new batch of Buddha Bunnies.

Dye experiments with the madder root I grow in a bathtub in the garden. I accidentally boiled the batch on the left; luckily the fiber seems fine, and what a lovely color it turned out! I'm so thrilled to be able to grow a plant in my garden that will yeild such a gorgeous color.

I spun up this yummy yarn from the samples I received in Phat Fiber's May box. The theme was "Blossom and Bark" and there were quite a few samples that were in the pink family. I arranged all the samples in order by color, and just spun them up one after another into a long single. I decided to ply it with another single in green, to balance out all of that pink. This is my first multi-colored barber-pole type of yarn, and I just love it. I'm thinking to use it to make some squares for an afghan. Even though I wish I could spend all the days in the studio, the farm in August requires a bit of attention, mainly in the form of harvesting and food processing. Here's the labor of a recent weekend, left to right: boysenberry-honey jam; super chutney with squash, plums, apples, onions, and dried tomatoes (I know, I know...it's chutney enough for two years!); and sweet & sour Asian plum sauce. Last but not least, August's star....blueberries! (by the bushel!)

cider pressing

Every Fall we press apple cider with a big, old apple press borrowed from a neighbor. Family and friends come out for a day of "appling" and socializing, going home with a few gallons of fresh cider.This year we had about 10 varieties of apples. The best cider is made with a blend of different types of apples.

My job was sorting and washing. I mixed several varieties together in every sink-full.

Next, bad spots are cut out, and large apples cut in half. Most of our apples are smallish, so we didn't have to do too much cutting.

Here Nita is tossing the apples into the hopper. The hopper funnels the apples into the hog, which roughly grinds the apples into small bits to prepare them for pressing. It is loud, and while the hog is going, there's not much conversation. The apple bits fall down into a large, wooden basket.

When the basket is about 3/4 full, we slide it forward under the press. Here Kether tightens the press down. Rather than ratchet the press down all at once, it is more efficient to wind it down until juice runs out, let it sit for a bit, then wind it down some more, repeating several times.

Ambrosial nectar drips. We filter the fresh cider through cheesecloth to remove the chunks of apple. Most of these jars will go into the freezer, to be enjoyed all year. What doesn't fit in the freezer must be consumed fresh within a couple of weeks. Some years we make hard cider, but decided not to this year. We had a few pears, so the last batch pressed was pear/apple, and that was the best! All together, this year we got 29 gallons of cider. The apple crop was slim this year; last year we had enough apples to press over 50 gallons of cider!

After the juice is pressed out, this apple pulp remains. It goes onto the compost pile..the worms love it!

Now I'm sitting here writing this on a chilly, grey, blustery day; looking at these pictures, I can still smell the apples and feel that sunshine on my face...hmmm..methinks a cup of hot, mulled cider is in order.

Harvest Reds

The past few years I've really enjoyed growing these Polish Linguisa tomatoes. They're a large, pepper-shaped paste tomato. The young plants look pretty spindly and frail, and they're some of the last ones to start setting fruit, but once they get going, they're quite prolific, and continue to ripen their tomatoes up until frost. My favorite way to prepare them is to slow-roast them in a 200 deg. oven all day, until they're leathery-soft. Then I layer them in a pint jar with fresh basil leaves and olive oil, squishing them down well to get the air bubbles out, fitting in as many as I can into the jar. They keep several months in the 'fridge. The flavor is so exquisite that they're usually consumed by merely spreading them on toast. The golden tomato is an Orange Oxheart, another favorite of ours. The flesh is firm and sweet, nearly the color of a peach, with a complex, smoky flavor. This year our Orange Oxheart plant was rather sickly, and its fruits somewhat mealy and meager. Generally, though, this is a dependable, delicious tomato. I grew these three varieties of chili peppers this year.

The long, shapely ones are Cayennes. The medium-sized ones are Thai Dragons, a good standby for these parts. They always bear much fruit & ripen well. I'm not sure what type the tiny ones are; they're suuuper hot. They're about the size of my pinky fingernail, and even just one of these peppers in a dish really heats it up. The plant is smallish and covered with tiny, red peppers. I plant my chili pepper plants in pots, so I can move them around to the warmest sunny spots during the summer, and then when the weather cools, I bring them into the house or greenhouse to finish ripening.

This year I'm drying my chilies, but sometimes I pickle them in half-pint jars. This batch has five different varieties in it! Those leaves in there are mint leaves. I make a super easy and yummy hot-sauce by opening a jar of my pickled chili-peppers and whizzing the entire contents in the food processor. The result is a vinegary, thin hot pepper sauce perfect for dripping on anything that needs pepping up. I can't resist sharing this photo with you.

I took it just before sunset, after I'd finished harvesting and cleaning out the winter squash bet. Mmmm....I see many pumpkin pies in the future.... I've been wanting to introduce you to the ducks, but they're quite shy about getting their picture taken.Here they are so busy nibbling lettuce seed in the garden that they didn't notice me with the camera. The brown duck is a Khaki Campbell named Peep. The two Black Runners are Lady and Sir Ernie Longneck. I kinda' have to coerce them into the garden, but once I get them in there, they get into foraging and eating slugs. Probably their favorite garden treat is Brussels Sprouts. They like the leaves and love the sprouts. It can be quite a game, me shooing them away from the Brussels Sprouts bed, them scooting & clucking around the garden, only to return to the Brussels, me chasing them again....gotta love them quackers.

Fourth of July Harvest (oh, and more hats)

This morning I got up at 6:30. With the weather being so hot this week, the only time to really do anything out in the garden is in the morning. Today was harvest day and here's the haul: Red Currants.

I'll dry these. Last year, I used the currants for home-made pectin. It took many currants to make just a little pectin! Green Shallots.

Calendula blossoms.I'll dry these and have them on hand for adding to baths, soaks, and hair rinses. I'm also saving a few rhubarb seeds, and some lavender.

Beet thinnings.

These will get soaked & swished in cold water to clean them, then we'll add them to salads and stir-fries.

Li'l B was very sweet, keeping me company during my rounds. It's a special day for her, 'cause exactly one year ago, we found her under a currant bush and brought her in...such a teeny tiny little thing! I've been bringing her out to the garden with me ever since she was big enough to get around. Now she loves it when we can all be in the garden together.

Salad for tonight's dinner. My favorite...fresh fava beans! Mmmm...I love these sooo much.Jaquie and the beanstalk! I'll blanch and freeze these for later use. They're perfect right now, and we have more than we can eat fresh. If I wait too long, the inner skin on the beans will become too tough to eat. They are super delish, just boiled a few minutes, with butter & salt. A handful tossed into a stir-fry gives some nice texture and flavor. Fava bean hummus is divine. I could eat it every day. (I have, been, actually, for the past two weeks!) Even though it's hard, I'll make myself leave most of the rest of the harvest on the plants to mature for seed for next year. Large-seeded fava seed is expensive, so it's worth it to save seed, even though it means I get to eat less of them. Peas. St. John's Wort. I'm so happy how this plant has been naturalizing around the farm and in the gardens. How luxurious to leisurely pick the blossoms at the peak of their bloom, from chest-high plants in my garden!

I've read that St. John's wort makes a good dye; I tried it last year, with poor results, but since I have such an abundance this year, perhaps I'll give it another go. This little harvest I made up right away into a tincture.

I blended up the flowering tops with some rum (normally I'd use vodka, but this rum was all I had on hand today). This slurry will go into a glass jar for a couple of months, then I'll strain it and have a year's supply of tincture. St. John's wort has great anti-itch properties. A little of the oil or tincture dabbed on bites, rashes, or itchy skin gives good relief. I like to add the oil to my hand-made salves, too.

Here's the 4th of July harvest!

You can bet that I was ready to sit down and rest with a nice glass of sun tea, after all of that, but picking is only 1/3 of the job (growing:1/3; harvesting:1/3; processing:1/3). As any of you with gardens know, processing all the bounty can be lots of work. In addition to all of the above, I also made a little batch of blueberry jam (was I inspired today, or what!) This is from last year's frozen berries; I'm working on using them up before this year's harvest starts coming in. I used the hand-made currant pectin in this batch. It seems to have jelled up fine; I'll have to wait and open a jar to know for sure.

Okay, now I can rest with my tea and....spin! (more on that, later!) Meanwhile, I also want to show you some new hat ideas I've been working on. I love these two new patterns!

This one is red wool on the outside, and turquoise velour on the inside. It's kinda hard to see, but it's covered with metalic gold top-stitching. The flaps button up on the sides with matte-silver leather buttons.

This one's a velvet driving cap. It looks fantastic on. Thanks for stopping by!