tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28966937301958302962024-03-13T16:41:55.072-04:00Backyard FarmsAdventures in growing and preserving my own food!CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.comBlogger183125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-17451051873256332372017-01-31T18:24:00.002-05:002017-01-31T18:37:56.218-05:00Happy Year of the Rooster, Let's Eat Fish!<br />
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Back at the beginning of January I enthusiastically signed up for a number of food, canning and reading challenges. You know, that new year, new outlook feeling, full of the promise of all the things you'll accomplish this year. Four weeks later I'm scrambling to get this post in under the wire. This is my first entry for the <a href="http://culinaryhistorians.ca/events/canada-150-food-blog-challenge-2017" target="_blank">CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge 2017</a>. The topic for January is fish and seafood.<br />
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I also signed up for <a href="http://foodinjars.com/2017/01/food-jars-mastery-challenge/">Food In Jars Mastery </a><a href="http://foodinjars.com/2017/01/food-jars-mastery-challenge/">Challenge,</a> however, the deadline for this month came and went and I never did get around to making marmalade. I bought the ingredients to do a couple different recipes but since I'm not really a marmalade fan I ended up eating the grapefruit, drinking the whiskey, and freezing the strawberries. Maybe next month!<br />
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CHC's challenge is intriguing because it's in honour of Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation and the recipes are supposed to reflect aspects of Canadian history and culture. The suggested topics are:<br />
<ul>
<li>An experiment with a historic recipe</li>
<li>An essay on a topic relating to culinary history</li>
<li>A contemporary take on a traditional dish</li>
<li>A report on an event or visit to a historic site</li>
<li>A family story with a recipe that relates to the topic</li>
<li>A discussion about historic techniques for gathering, preserving or preparing food</li>
<li>…or any other similar topic</li>
</ul>
I decided to do a take on the cultural diversity that makes up Canada today. One of the things I love best about living in Toronto is the abundance of cultures from around the world, and the opportunity to partake in food and celebrations that were not part of my experience growing up in small town Canada. As a child, the only holiday celebration I knew of other than traditional Christian-based was Hanukkah. Chinese food when I was young meant chop suey and sweet and sour chicken balls. My best friend in kindergarten was from Jamaica but the most exotic thing her mother served us was peanut butter and banana sandwiches (my mom only put strawberry jam on ours). I moved to Toronto in 1990 and my exposure to new food and cultural activities was blown right open! Since then I've enjoyed eating new foods, participating in celebrations and learning about as many cultures as I can. Canada is a country of immigrants, and the ability to embrace the ideas and cultures and foods that come from many other places is what made Canada what it is today! Lunar New Year which is celebrated by many Asian cultures is one of my favourite adopted holidays and for many years I've been hosting a New Year dinner on the first new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February. This year it occurred Sat Jan 28 and ushered in the Year of the Rooster!<br />
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Many of the foods associated with the Chinese New Year are symbolic for good fortune. Things like dumplings and tangerines are served because they resemble coins, to bring financial luck. Another traditional dish is Longevity Noodles - long noodles are supposed to encourage a long life. The main showpiece dishes are usually chicken and fish, served whole. The character for prosperity, <i>yu,</i> is a homophone for the word for fish, and a whole steamed fish, eyeballs and all, symbolizes abundance and unity.<br />
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<b>Steamed Whole Bass in Black Bean</b> <b>Sauce</b> is delicious, and a simple yet impressive dish to make (as long as you don't mind eyeballs staring at you from the plate!) I found sea bass at my local fish market and picked out one that looked very fresh and a perfect size. The young man working the counter took it to be cleaned and gutted and asked it I wanted the head and tail removed. Without thinking I responded, "No thank you, it's for new year". He looked up, his clearly Asian face seeing my clearly not; he grinned and said "Okay, just the fins then."<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
1 to 1.5 lb whole bass, scaled, cleaned and fins removed<br />
1 tsp salt<br />
1 tsp pepper<br />
3 scallions, cut in one inch pieces<br />
4 slices ginger, slivered<br />
1 tbsp black bean sauce<br />
1 tsp cooking wine<br />
2 tsp peanut or other mild vegetable oil<br />
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Wash fish in cold water and pat dry. Make 2-3 diagonal incisions from stomach to backbone on both sides of the fish. Rub with salt & pepper and set aside.<br />
In a small bowl add scallions and ginger, black bean sauce, cooking wine and oil. Mix til blended. Coat fish on one side only, and insert about 1 tbsp in the cavity. Place fish on a heat resistant plate, sauce side up.<br />
Add 1-2 inches of water to a wok or roasting pan. Place a rack in the bottom of the pan and bring water to a boil. Place the plate with fish on the rack making sure it's above the level of the water. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and cook at full steam for 10 minutes. I have also done it by bringing the water to a boil on the stove, adding the fish as above and placing the entire pan in the oven at 325 F for 15 minutes. Check to see if fish is done by inserting a fork to see if it flakes easily.<br />
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I don't own a wok so I used a large roasting pan that easily fit a canning rack. This photo borrowed from <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/02/chinese-steamed-whole-fish-new-year-recipe.html" target="_blank">Serious Eats</a> shows steamed fish done in a wok, either method works fine.<br />
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I also was so busy getting ready for the dinner, which included multiple dishes in addition to the fish, I neglected to take any photos of the food and only one of the decor as I was preparing. So enjoy this lovely graphic, also borrowed from the internet, and Happy Year of the Rooster!<br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-16708350415353490072017-01-19T15:59:00.000-05:002017-02-02T12:30:28.536-05:00A New Year and a Fresh Start<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So things have been a little dormant around here for a while, sorry if it's a bit dusty!<br />
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Lots of changes too. When I last posted we were in a bit of limbo waiting to see what would happen when our building sold. It took a while to get it ready for sale so I managed to keep my gardens that summer but once it was on the market it sold in a matter of days and the new landlord took possession Nov 2014. Right away he wanted to put his mark on everything and it became a long negotiation to try to keep our apt. One of the first things I had to sacrifice was the backyard -within days of him taking possession I had to rip out the raised beds and clear the space so it could be used for the trucks and dumpsters. So the backyard farm ended in in hurry, but at least it was at the end of the season and I still had the roof!<br />
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For the next 2 years the construction and renovation of the lower units was an ongoing annoyance - the landlord initially wanted us to leave as well but we managed to convince him to extend our lease while he was busy with the other projects. During that time the Russian and I also decided to part ways- we'd been
together 8 years and things had not been great for a while. The split
was amicable and we are still very good friends. He moved out and I kept the apartment for the remainder of the lease extension.That extension lasted til this past summer and in Sept I finally accepted the inevitable and moved to a new apartment.<br />
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So the farm cats and I have a new apartment in a house, with both front and backyard space desperately in need of some love. Moving in Sept gave me little opportunity to do much outside other than survey and clean up a little but there's lots to do! The previous tenants were obviously not gardeners and it's pretty much a clean slate. There's a former garden in the front, sloping down to sidewalk; it's completely overgrown with weeds. There's also<br />
a front "yard" that is currently packed dirt and some chunks of cement, and a small backyard with similar issues and a big patch of Japanese knotwood. The front faces north so not much light and the back is surround by trees and buildings, so even less. I suspect it will take me a full year to figure out if there enough sun at any time of year to grow much but I'm looking forward to the challenge!CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-11412884542850139082014-05-25T23:43:00.000-04:002014-05-25T23:43:27.483-04:00The Downside of Renting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We've had it pretty lucky at our current rental apt. It had the beginnings of a garden when we moved in in 2008 and I've had the landlords permission to do pretty much anything to improve it. I've also managed to take over space on the flat roof without incident. So it was particularly heart wrenching to find out recently that our landlord is selling and with that comes a lot of changes and adjustments. Not all of them are terrible, in fact at first I was delighted because the main floor tenants moved out and the apartment was to remain empty. Also the basement tenant lives on his boat all summer, which meant the entire backyard and garden are mine to do as I please! But then the reason why this was all happening became apparent- the building is to be sold and both of the empty apartments need a lot of work before that happens. To my dismay, that involved a dumpster being set down in the yard and the only way that could happen was to drive it through my raised beds.<br />
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I've had about a month to come to terms with all of the above. At first I tried to convince the landlord to place the bin elsewhere but that didn't work out. I protested that I would lose a lot of my time and money invested and he was sympathetic but it had to be done. So I've been in a state of denial/sadness/frustration for the past few weeks before finally resigning myself to make the best of it.<br />
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In once sense I'm glad it happened this year. Whether because of the prolonged winter or just a genereal apathy, I never started any seedlings indoors at all this year so there's nothing languishing in pots waiting to be planted. I found out about the dumpster just before I was planning on direct seeding my peas and beans so none of those are in. And not a single aparagus crown survived this winter! So the only potential casualties are the garlic planted last fall and now up about a foot, and the rhubarb which I moved to sunnier location just last year. And of course the raised beds themselves.<br />
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Fortunately when I built the beds I did it with screws not nails, so last Monday I admitted defeat and took the larger of the two beds apart. I dug out as much of the soil around the edges as I could and shoveled it into bins. I took the composter apart and shoveled all the unprocessed compost into bins as well. I left three sides of the smaller raised bed intact surrounding the garlic in hopes that the truck could manouever around it. I dug up the poor rhubarb and some wild garlic and left them in pots to be returned once the dumpster is gone.<br />
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The dumpster arrived the next day and it was massive! Thankfully the driver was sympathetic and did his best to work around the obstacles I left. I think he might have been a little afraid of the crazy woman standing over her garlic like they were children! In the end the remaining wood bed had to be removed as well but bless the truck driver, the garlic survived being driven over twice!<br />
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So all is not lost as I first feared. The bin was only here for just three days and after it left all of the garlic was still standing. The frames need to be rebuilt and the soil is badly compacted in places but I will reclaim the entire space. I'm looking at it as an opportunity to correct a few things like moving the composter and digging the beds in better. My veggies will go in slightly later than planned but I will be adding some new soil thanks to the landlord who has offered to compensate me for the trouble.<br />
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This still leaves the sale of the building hanging over our heads but that's an issue that we'll have to deal with when it happens. And if this is to be our last summer here I want to have a garden to remember! <br />
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CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-53133933687990316582014-03-14T10:00:00.001-04:002014-03-14T10:00:41.478-04:0040 bags in 40 days- Decluttering for Lent!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Have you heard of this challenge? <a href="http://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/40-bags-in-40-days-2014/" target="_blank">40 bags in 40 days</a> is a project where you tackle a different area of your home every day during Lent (Sundays are a day off) and get rid of stuff you don't use. The idea is to fill a bag of unnecessary stuff everyday but as pointed out in the details, the size or type of container isn't the focus, it's more of an incentive to deal with the unneeded stuff we acquire one bit at a time. That's good because there are no garbage bags in my house since we stopped buying them a few years ago but I'm sure I have enough reusable bags to take care of 40 days worth. Maybe sorting out those bags is the first place I should start!<br />
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Not being particularly religious, I don't normally participate in any type of Lenten ritual but this is one I can get behind. Since Lent started over a week ago I'll be a bit late but I had actually been working on this on my own recently so the timing is perfect. The website has tips on areas to focus on (like email accounts and pinterest boards if you run out of stuff in the house) and suggestions to keep you motivated. There are even some forms you can print out to list the areas you'd like to attack, keep track of what you've finished and how many bags you've managed to get rid of. I don't think I'll need that but I'll try to post updates here to keep myself honest.<br />
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I have a few areas that really need work- our landlord recently decided to paint the hall for us and it was a bit of a shock to realize how much had accumulated in that space when we had to move it all out. It's become a pile of chaos in the livingroom and I've been procrastinating in dealing with it because there's a lot to sort out and I want to get rid of a lot instead of putting it all back. So that is definitely on the list.<br />
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Today however I am focused on the top of the refrigerator and the spice rack. I keep a lot of dried herbs and spices and have used many different containers over the years, most of which I hang onto. There's a particular rack of decorative jars on top of the fridge that have out lived their usefulness and I need to part with it. A few of the jars are missing and none of them sealed that well to begin with. Not to mention that the top of the fridge is less than ideal conditions for herb preservation. So all of the tired herbs are headed for the green bin, and the remaining spices are being re-jarred in more practical containers that will fit in the proper spice shelf which also got reorganized. The old jars and rack will be cleaned up and donated to a thrift shop.<br />
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Early spring is a good time to deal with all of this clutter, before the nice weather arrives and I won't want to be indoors! I think the biggest challenge for me won't be filling 40 bags, it will be finding places and time to find new homes for the bags once they are full! <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fOIPcO40QIgQ_RiPdxe3jfxRwcWxH9QlW_g4jXTkhGgbiLFPJlk9xYIkLJgcZHA2txtPKKhvQsqxArsKxQBx1onr8MKKjG3LlR8qIsBTmuMb_CuTi1VSpUsT8wDvCXKgGTe_ky-pBDw/s1600/home+012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fOIPcO40QIgQ_RiPdxe3jfxRwcWxH9QlW_g4jXTkhGgbiLFPJlk9xYIkLJgcZHA2txtPKKhvQsqxArsKxQBx1onr8MKKjG3LlR8qIsBTmuMb_CuTi1VSpUsT8wDvCXKgGTe_ky-pBDw/s1600/home+012.jpg" height="167" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My properly organized spice rack!</td></tr>
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-45181066853131389032014-03-05T11:20:00.001-05:002014-03-05T11:20:36.161-05:00Not So Guilty Pleasures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I fell off the local food wagon today. I went to the nearby grocery chain to stock up on pantry staples and there were fresh green things from far away warm places, calling my name and luring me with their crisp leaves and stems full of chlorophyll. Normally I can walk by the displays of non seasonal fruit and and veg without too much yearning but this winter has killed me. So cold for so long, endless days of snow and ice; even the extra hours of daylight aren't doing much except making me more restless. Suddenly it felt like the only thing that would make me feel better was the taste of dandelion greens from Texas, oriental eggplants grown in California and asparagus from Mexico. I should feel guilty but really, all I feel is hungry!<br />
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Last week I was fortunate enough to escape winter briefly as I attended a music conference in Kansas City MO. While not summer weather by any stretch, it was miles better than here, with temps reaching 15 C on one of the days I was there and the rest of the week it was well above freezing. It was lovely to be outside wearing a light jacket or sweater, no gloves or boots or hats to be seen. I even managed a brief but chilly swim in the heated outdoor pool! But I think it also tricked my body into thinking it was spring because I cannot be content to be warm and cozy any longer. I cannot face any more hearty soups or stews. I swear I will burst into tears if I have to look at another carrot or roasted root vegetable! When I found myself scowling at the sprout jar this morning, I knew it was over.<br />
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The body knows what it needs and mine was screaming for bitter greens which the frozen tundra outside my door will not be able to provide for a long while yet. It's still 20 long days until spring officially begins and I'm not holding my breath that the weather's going to cooperate by then either. Sometime in the next week or so I will start some seedlings for this year's garden and maybe some greens for quick eating but until then I will be feeding my cravings with imports. I needed dandelion greens stat and my favourite recipe is for dandelion greens and goat cheese pasta .<br />
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1 bunch dandelion greens washed well and chopped<br />
2 strips of bacon cut in small pieces <br />
1 onion, minced<br />
1-2 cloves garlic, minced<br />
2-3 tbsp goat cheese <br />
1 lemon- for zest and 1 tbsp lemon juice<br />
salt and pepper to taste <br />
3 cups cooked pasta- I like linguine or fettuccine but any kind works<br />
Parmesan cheese- optional<br />
<br />
Cook and drain pasta as directed, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water.<br />
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Sauté bacon and onions until onions are soft, add garlic and dandelion greens and stir until greens are wilted. Use a zester or small grater to add about a tsp of lemon zest or to taste- I like mine lemony! Add a tsp of fresh lemon juice and goat cheese and stir until greens are well coated; add pasta water a little at a time until it makes a creamy sauce. Toss with pasta and serve with parmesan cheese.<br />
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On the theme of eating local, FarmGal is running her <a href="http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/march-challange-it-the-beginning-2014/" target="_blank">March Pantry Challenge</a> again this year but as much as I'd love to join her, I'm afraid we'd starve this year. Until my doomed trip to the grocery store, our pantry was empty except for a few jars of pickles, and I could see all the way to the back of the freezer but for a few containers of currants and one sandwich bag each of frozen beans and peppers. I don't know if we consumed more or I preserved less but it's an awfully good thing we don't have to live off of stored food this winter. I might have to have closer look at how much I put down this year.<br />
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Update:<br />
I wrote this post last week and never got it posted- the cold I brought back from KC turned nasty and I ended up with pneumonia. Some good healthy food (and some expensive antibiotics, boo) have helped me bounce back quickly and I'm so glad I listened to my cravings!<br />
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Here's a nice meme I found floating round the internet that sums up my feelings exactly- she even looks like me!<br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-16607798837099307142014-02-14T13:29:00.000-05:002014-02-14T13:29:23.351-05:00The Great Backyard Bird Count!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Looking for something to help break out of out of the long winter slump this weekend? Trying to avoid the usual Valentine's Day commercialism? Why not participate in a worldwide event which actually helps the planet?<br />
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This weekend is the <a href="http://gbbc.birdcount.org/" target="_blank">Great Backyard Bird Count</a>! The Great Backyard Bird Count is a revolutionary research project that encourages volunteers to participate by counting the number and species of birds in their own backyards. The event takes place from Feb 14- 17 worldwide and only requires a minimum of 15 minutes. You can read how to get started and register to log in your findings <a href="http://gbbc.birdcount.org/get-started/" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Anyone in the world who can donate as little as 15 minutes can join
the bird count and fill out a tally sheet to help form a real-time,
global snapshot of the health and size of bird populations in their
area.<br />
The one rule is that you have to do it over one of those four days
over the weekend, and you have to spend at least 15 minutes counting
birds. It could be on your balcony, it could be in your backyard or you could go
down to the local duck pond or you could go to Algonquin park!*</blockquote>
<br />
In 2013, Great Backyard Bird Count participants in 111 countries counted
33,464,616 birds on 137,998 checklists, documenting 4,258 species—more
than one-third of the world’s bird species! The information collected from this project among others is used to obtain a big picture glimpse of bird populations and over the long term the information can be used to help scientists discover what effect things like climate change, industrial growth and pesticides are having on birds worldwide.<br />
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Here in Toronto it's been so cold for most of the winter that I haven't seen many birds at all, although two weeks ago a red tailed hawk landed in the tree not 10 feet from the deck! I've been putting out food periodically, which usually attracts more squirrels than birds but I try. Tomorrow looks like it will be the warmest day in a while so the most likely for bird activity. To encourage more feathered visitors I'm making some feeding stations and one my favourite methods is by making homemade suet blocks. I make these with ingredients I have on hand and packaged bird seed.<br />
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Suet is a bit of a misnomer in this case because I have already rendered the suet to make tallow which I keep in jars in the fridge. You could use any edible fat that solidifies at refrigerator temperatures.<br />
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For a small batch I melt about a 1/2 cup in a small sauce pan and add 1/2 cup peanut butter.<br />
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When it reaches a liquid consistency (careful not to overheat!), I add about 1/2 cup of rolled oats, as well a small amounts (1- 2 tbsp) of seeds (flax, sesame, sprouting seeds),chopped nuts and dried fruit. You could use any small grain or cornmeal in place of the oats.<br />
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Stir well and remove from heat- you don't want to cook the additions, just make sure they are well covered in the melted fats. When the mixture has cooled a little I add birdseed until the consistency of the mixture is almost solid but still well covered in fats.<br />
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Spoon the mixture into a mold- I like to use muffin tins to make several small pucks but you could do one big block if you have a method to hang it. Place in a cold place to solidify.<br />
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Once the pucks are solid you will want to suspend them in something that holds the pucks together but still allows birds (and squirrels) to nibble at them. I use empty mesh onion bags to hang them in the nearby tree. The squirrels will try to run away with the entire bag given the chance so I have been experimenting with methods that keep the mesh firmly attached to the branch but I'd admit I've had limited success. For a creature with a brain the size of a nut, squirrels are incredibly persistent and creative at getting what they want!<br />
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I'm also going to pop some popcorn and string a few strands to drape in the trees, as well as fill my feeders. Hopefully the warm weather will bring many feather visitors for tomorrow's count.<br />
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Happy Bird Counting!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="spaced">*Notes from an interview with </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="spaced">Dick Canning, senior projects manager for Bird Studies Canada, by Evelyn Boychuk, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/cbc-news-online-news-staff-list-1.1294364">CBC News</a></span></span>CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-43826186787002415232014-02-05T16:44:00.000-05:002014-02-05T16:44:43.263-05:00February Blahs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Some years when we've had a mild winter or not much snow, I secretly wish for a big snow storm, one that pretty much forces the city to shut down. There's nothing like a a good blizzard to give you the excuse to stay home, catch up on reading and movie watching, drink hot chocolate and cook large pots of comfort food.<br />
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This year is not one of those years. <br />
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Never the less, a big old blizzard is what we have today and all my plans to venture out have been somewhat thwarted. I could of course bundle myself up and trod through the snow that looks to be knee deep and still coming down. But the idea of yet again layering on heavy winter things and slogging through drifts makes me feel tired before I even leave the house. And really there's nothing that I need to do and nowhere I need to be that urgently. I just wish I wasn't so restless!<br />
<br />
I was lucky to have a very busy January which meant I was out of the house every day during one of the crazy polar vortex deep freeze spells we've been dealt this year. I was producing a number of events at different locations all over the city so I was very grateful to have access to a car and driver for that week! It was one of those times I was even more thankful to live in the city, where it's possible to get around without venturing outside for more than a brief moment!<br />
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All of that activity means I'm having a hard time adjusting to the slower pace now. I have piles of books set aside to read, a bunch of dvd's to watch and there's never any shortage of things that need to be done in the house but none of it appeals right now. Seems like my winter funk has hit and even seed catalogs aren't helping right now. Looks like I need to dream up a project or two to occupy my time.<br />
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Anyone else got cabin fever yet? <br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-90250084247338016272013-12-31T18:13:00.000-05:002013-12-31T18:13:20.986-05:00Reflections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was going to title this post Looking Back, because that what we tend to do as the end draws to a close. We remind ourselves of all of the good things that happened through the year. It's also a good time to acknowledge our mistakes and hopefully learn something from them. It's always good to look back on all of our successes and failures and promise to do better next year. And it's comforting to have this invisible restart, another opportunity to make better choices, or maybe just have better luck!<br />
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Typically I do use the last post of the year to catalog the
moments, good and bad, that made this year notable but since there was a
serious lack of posting this year, I feel like I'll end up explaining
way too much, or worse, I won't find anything to write about at all. That certainly seemed to be the case for a lot of this year. I still did all of the things I normally write about; gardening and canning, foraging and beekeeping. But I did come to a bit of a realization in the past year - if I'm being honest, it's a bit of a stretch to call myself a farmer. When I started this blog a few years ago, I was totally caught up in urban agriculture and I had visions of raising food for us to live on year round. I dreamt of chickens in the backyard and hives on the roof, and of mini hoop houses and makeshift greenhouses to extend the growing season. I bought a pressure canner to preserve things that couldn't be pickled or fermented. I ordered cheesemaking kits and sourced raw milk. I've certainly enjoyed learning all of these new skills!<br />
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In reality however, it's much harder to maintain a lot of these practices all the time in an urban environment and some of them are still just a dream. I love my new raised beds but there's only so much that will grow in the shade that encrouches more each year. The rooftop gets plenty of sun but I'm limited by the size of the containers -too heavy puts a strain on an aging roof- and lack of water- we don't have an outside tap to hook a hose to so all the water has to be carried up by hand. As for livestock, Toronto is a long way from approving backyard chickens but even if they did, there's not really a safe place to keep them at this apartment. Current bylaws won't allow me to keep beehives either.<br />
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Truthfully what I excel at most these days is what I like to call urban foraging. Just like the traditional version of foraging, I make a point of gleaning fruit and other plants from the urban forests. Working with Not Far From the Tree has made me much braver about asking strangers if I can pick from their trees or gardens if they appear to have an overabundance, and there are enough wooded areas within the city limits to do some judicious wild picks on occasion. But to me urban foraging also includes things like taking home the leftovers from events I'm involved with (garbage bags full of leftover freshly shucked corn!) or volunteering for organizations that share the results or 'pay' in kind. Heck, it even includes picking through the discard bins at local greengrocers on occasion- if it's food that would otherwise got to waste, it's still a type of foraging! <br />
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So while I may not always be posting regularly, I'm still here and still searching for ways to to live as close to the farm lifestyle as I can get in the big city. And I hope to find more things to write about in the coming year. After all, it's a fresh start tomorrow!<br />
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Happy New Year! May 2014 bring you luck, joy and prosperity in all that you do!</div>
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-17277216084739598442013-09-02T14:53:00.000-04:002013-09-02T14:53:06.170-04:00Drawing to a Close<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It still feels like full summer here. The temperatures for the past two weeks have felt more like July than July did this year. Thankfully there's also been a decent amount of rain along with the heat, and for humidity lover's like myself it's been a last minute gift when I'd all but given up on having a real summer. The days are hot and sticky, evenings are balmy and the sun still seems to linger in the sky. If I ignore the ever increasing number of fallen leaves on the deck I can almost convince myself it's June rather than the waning days of summer.<br />
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It's the early mornings which bring reality crashing home that summer's days are numbered. I've been having some odd sleep patterns lately which often finds me awake in the early hours and I can vouch that the sun is nowhere to be seen at 5 am these days. In fact the lazy thing is barely up by 7 am, and each day we have about 3 minutes less daylight. That doesn't seem like much but when you add it up, that's 20 minutes less daylight a week and almost an hour and a half in a month!<br />
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Growing things sense the disappearing sunlight better than we do. This time of year the plants are scrambling to complete their mission of recreating their genes; from the maple keys that are turning brown and preparing to launch, to the tomatoes churning out fruit like there's no tomorrow because there really isn't, everything is taking it's cue from the waning daylight.<br />
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In my gardens some things are still in full swing and some have given up the ghost entirely. The tomatoes had a miserable year- I seeded late, I planted late and at one point the raccoons dumped almost all of the seedlings when they were still in small pots. For the containers on the roof I started them with less soil in the buckets with the idea of adding more as the season progressed so they would have fresh nutrients- that didn't work out as planned so they still have a lot less soil than they should have and it shows. Coupled with the not so hot weather and inconsistent watering and I have a bunch of sickly looking plants with a smattering of late ripening fruit, most with cracks. Also thanks to the raccoon dumping I have quite a few mislabeled and it's kind of a surprise until the fruit actually ripens!<br />
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The peppers on the roof didn't fare much better and the raccoons ate most of the jalapenos before I could pick them. The shepherd peppers in the ground are much happier but have a ways to go to ripen.<br />
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On the other hand, the beans were fabulous this year. I've been picking steady stream of green, yellow and purple beans for the whole summer and they are still producing. The edemame did well too. Up on the roof, I had a bumper crop of zucchini but not a single patty pan and only one lone butternut squash before the powdery mildew got them all. Thankfully it hasn't hit the cukes and melons because the biggest delight of the summer is these little jewels of canteloup which, fingers crossed, the raccoons haven't discovered yet. I used the metal frame from an old couch as a trellis and I'm hoping it's confusing them.<br />
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Like every year I had great plans to extend the harvest and plant some late season crops so back at the beginning of August I planted some turnip, beet and rutabaga seeds- some in the ground and some in the now empty zucchini bin on the roof. I had high hopes and pretty good germination, but for some reason I lost almost all the seedlings and the few remaining are sad and spindly. A week later I seeded some on the roof and they came up and promptly died as well. I think next year I will make sure to start them in seedling trays and transplant when they are a decent size.<br />
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I haven't even done much canning yet this year - a few batches of whole
fruit earlier this summer and last week Colette and I did our years
worth of dill pickles but that's about it! The rows of empty jars stare
longingly at me but I refuse to listen right now. While the good weather
holds, I'll be following the call of the beach- there's just 3 weeks of
summer left and I plan to enjoy every second of it!<br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-21578112428445726352013-07-24T09:54:00.000-04:002013-07-24T09:54:08.835-04:00Looking Ahead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You'd think winter would be the furthest thing from my mind in the middle of July. Here in Toronto we just survived our first heat wave of the summer and it was a doozy- temperatures in the mid 30's with humidex values making it feel more like 45 C. Thankfully I managed to escape the worst of it by running away to Sarnia and living at the beach for most of the week. I have the Russian to thank for keeping the bins on the roof watered while I was away. All looks well up here!<br />
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Amazingly the garden in ground needed NO watering- the new raised beds worked even better than I envisioned! The combo of the rotting wood I added to the bottom layer, and the buried seeper hose hooked to the rain barrel provided enough moisture that everything stayed lush and green even through 6 days of record temperatures. Turns out those huglekultures really do work!<br />
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So why on earth am I thinking ahead to cold and snow? Well for the first time ever my gardens are producing more than we can eat fresh. Yesterday I picked a mess of beans and there are more to come. The zucchini, which are loving life on the roof, are providing a fruit a day. We've been eating onions for weeks, the garlic are almost ready to be dug and the edamame should be ready anytime.Which means I'm running out of room in the fridge and I need to be preserving some of this goodness so we can enjoy it when the gardens are long buried under snow and ice.<br />
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The garlic is easy- as the greens die down, I've been digging up the bulbs and leaving them to cure in the sun porch. I've even braided a few!<br />
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Normally I would just freeze any excess beans and edamame Freezing is my preferred method of storing many vegetables - if you freeze them as soon as they're picked and do it correctly, it keeps the texture and flavour better than canning. However an inadvertant thaw/refreeze would turn them to mush and we've been experiencing rolling blackouts ever since the big storm that hit Toronto at the beginning of the month.. So I'm thinking I will pressure can the string beans and I need to look into how that can work with edamame- likely I will have to shell them first.<br />
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In the past I have a had difficultly growing zucchini, which was frustrating, given its reputation for overabundance. This year I am pleased to have a glut and for now at least we've been eating them as quickly as they appear but I suspect that may pale soon. Since it's never been an issue previously, I'm not exactly sure how to preserve them other than relish which I'm not a fan of, or use them in baked goods. Suggestions welcome!<br />
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CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-55928250982723681202013-06-04T17:47:00.001-04:002013-06-04T17:47:45.294-04:00Where Does the Time Go?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I realized on the last day of May, that the month had gotten by me without having done a single post! No welcome to May Day, (which was lovely and warm this year) no updates from the garden (slow to start because of the late spring), not even a mention of my trip to Ottawa and lunch with <a href="http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">FarmGal</a> (more on that in a bit)! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz8hCAyvwhdaom5BL3phnNOKp2BV0gD_PzF_tVSp2yJ7qHWoF9TtKhxd3bHg8a2BagkwjPA7HmmyUj5Dl8-a_QqAX99Q0qdsOmOQQma-2GdGSNHDin5sYzMIu4KFPSWQv2afzgcQdVcXs/s1600/Ottawa+009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>When my contract at FoodShare finished at the end of April I was expecting to have so much time on my hands to do things that I'd been lagging at, particularly gardening, canning and writing.The freedom of a wide open schedule! My first order of business was a field trip for another passion of mine - genealogy. A recent investigation had led me to discover that one of my ancestors was actually born in the Red River Settlement in 1814 so I decided to make a trip to the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa. I spent 5 days pouring over records from the Selkirk Papers and that's a whole blog post and then some, but that belongs to another day and <a href="http://therisingvillage.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">blog</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FarmGal and tulips!</td></tr>
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I had messaged FarmGal of my visit and she braved the downtown traffic to meet me for picnic lunch which included some of her lovely preserves and a fabulous home cured ham. The weather was unseasonably warm but worked in our favour as most of the fabled tulips were in full bloom. We had a lovely visit and even managed to squeeze in some photo ops!<br />
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On my return home things took an unexpected turn however. The building that houses our apartment is an old turn of the century row building, with our unit being the 2nd floor flat above a former retail space. Over the years most of the infrastructure like wiring and plumbing was redone but a lot of the original structure remains. Our bedroom ceiling had seen a number of leaks from the ancient skylight; though the roof had been repaired, the lath and plaster ceiling had been patched but not replaced. A large crack directly above the head of our bed had been growing ominously for a few months previously but was gauged safe by the landlord. While I was away there were several heavy storms and the Russian pointed out to me that the crack had widened considerably and that section of the ceiling was now hanging a good 6 inches lower than the rest. Of course late on a Saturday night there was little we could do, so I fired off an email to the landlord and the Russian and I set about moving the bed so we wouldn't be sleeping directly under it. We even discussed moving into the livingroom to sleep but I was trip weary and really just wanted to sleep in my own room and bed. NO such luck however; whether our timing was perfect or the moving of the bedframe hastened it's demise, the ceiling came crashing down just as we finished getting everything thing out from under that area. We were lucky to not be directly under it but we were both startled, covered in plaster dust and soberly aware that the amount of debris that fell could have easily killed us had we been sleeping- 100 year old plaster is thick and heavy as bricks! The remainder of the month was a mess in every sense- all of our furniture and clothing had to be removed while the ceiling was replaced, the entire room had to be cleaned and repainted and the ceiling fan/light was replaced. Even now we are still sleeping the livingroom as there a few last touches that need to dealt with. I tend to function well with chaos in my working world but not so much in my home- frustration and weeping were common place for a few weeks as I struggled to find anything in that much disorder. Gardening was my main solace, as at least out side I could control my surrounds to a point, although I still couldn't control the cold snaps that kept many of my seedlings still in pots.<br />
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So here it is June, which is always my busiest month of the year and not surprisingly, I'm way behind in everything! There's a mess of cooked rhubarb in the fridge waiting to be canned, ditto a bowl of tiny onions that have been brining for over a week.<br />
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The tomato and pepper seedlings need to be planted in their containers and join the squash on the roof. The raised beds are at least planted for the most part although I still have leek seedlings and rutabaga seeds to go in. I hope I can at least manage to take care of all of that before the madness of working with <a href="http://www.pridetoronto.com/" target="_blank">Pride</a> takes over my life.<br />
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Happy June!<br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-65304658132695975162013-04-23T11:19:00.000-04:002013-04-23T11:19:01.206-04:00Raising the Beds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Like most people, every year I feel the need to improve my gardens; to grow more and have better results that I did the previous year. Last year I extended the backyard garden right to the edge of the yard and finally ran out of room to expand any further in any direction. But as the space expanded so did all the surrounding trees so I still had issues with not enough sun, and being so close to the alley and not fenced in, I've had a lot of problems with dogs and the occasional human wreaking havoc in my veggies. Building a ladder up to the flat roof gave me better options for my sun loving favourites so a good portion of the veggie production now happens up high. There's still critters to contend with up there, raccoons and squirrels for the most part but there's less plant damage and lots more sun.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">April 17 2:20pm</td></tr>
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I wasn't prepared to totally abandon the earthbound garden tho, so when an opportunity for a lot of free lumber came along, I jumped at the chance to build some raised beds. The wood is from a old building that is being renovated near by and it was destined for landfill, so I feel doubly happy at being able to create something useful and repurpose some lovely old boards that have survived close to 100 years! <br />
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The Russian helped me build two overlapping boxes and we have enough left for a cold frame. To fill them I'm using a combination of hugelkulture and lasagne bed techniques. The bottom layer is composed of sticks and chunks of rotting wood, followed by a layer of partially composted materials. Then a layer of mixed soil and coir, and a top layer of mulch, likely straw.<br />
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For now I'm only filling the larger bed in this manner- the smaller box currently contains the garlic I planted last fall so I don't want to bury them completely. That bed will get filled in slowly over the summer with compost.<br />
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The soaking hose is laid out on top of the bottom layer and will be hooked to the rain barrel as usual. If it works as planned, the water will seep out right at the plant roots where they need it and the rotting wood will retain the excess, making it available as it decomposes. None of the water will be lost to evaporation and this should help the plants stay evenly watered, no matter what the weather.<br />
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The larger bed will be for beans of all kinds- it gets better sun than the small bed so I may even include a tomato or two. I've also earmarked a corner for an asparagus crown. The smaller bed has garlic already up as mentioned and last week I planted 4 rows of onion sets in between the garlic rows. Before the trees begin to fill in with leaves , this bed gets a decent amount of sun but it will be mostly shade during the summer months so I'm not sure how the onions will fare. I plan to tuck some root veggies (turnips, beets, carrots) in between the rows of both beds and see what works. Gardening is always one big experiment!<br />
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Having raised beds won't change the lack of available sunlight but I'm hoping they'll allow me to take advantage of the early spring and fall growing when I do have more light. By using plastic sheeting to warm the soil earlier in spring and potentially, hoop houses to extend growing in the fall, I may be able to make this garden a bit more productive than I have previously. To aid in this plan I have taking photos and noting where the sun is at different times of day which I can use to plan better for next year!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">April 22 8:45 am Full Sun</td></tr>
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-41777821923772522852013-04-11T17:11:00.001-04:002013-04-11T17:11:58.011-04:00Garlic Sprouts in the Snow<br />
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See those little spiky things sticking out of the snow? Those are my poor little garlics shivering in the ground. Lured out by warmer weather and tons of rain we've been having, I sure hope they can withstand cold and ice. It's absolutely miserable out today, temperatures hovering around zero, freezing rain and snow. It's enough to make me want to crawl back into bed and never get out. <br />
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Thankfully there are a few bright spots keeping me from succumbing to permanent hibernation. One is this lovely package of heirloom beans that arrived in the mail earlier this week. A gift from KB over at <a href="http://myoldnewhouse.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">My New Old House</a>, there are a dozen different varieties, including some rare ones! Nothing I like better on a lousy day than a little seed research...<br />
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Speaking of seeds, gazing on these other little beauties also makes things a little less dismal. I held myself to eleven varieties of tomatoes this year and gambled on a single pot of 2 seeds for each. Considering the poor germination I've had in the last few years it was a pretty big gamble but so far it seems to be paying off. At the moment I've got at least one healthy seedling per pot; only the Jaune Flammes have yet to emerge and may have to be reseeded. Nothing from the peppers yet but I sowed extra of those and they always take a little longer. I started everything much later than usual but considering the spring we're having I think I'm right on target to have things ready to go when the gardens and weather are ready.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyF_NfoJ3H9W02l3E9haaNb-4jPI-moE0xrR-oN9MWWUSWYrc8hsVVktuB5511UUVHB1UgrtkXXxWXamL9zURbV57LzoCelL-QZ0GVZA-4rse2EajZHrtl30ooVy54Qkr81MfOxAsAtdg/s1600/April+010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyF_NfoJ3H9W02l3E9haaNb-4jPI-moE0xrR-oN9MWWUSWYrc8hsVVktuB5511UUVHB1UgrtkXXxWXamL9zURbV57LzoCelL-QZ0GVZA-4rse2EajZHrtl30ooVy54Qkr81MfOxAsAtdg/s320/April+010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The garden themselves are in the middle of an overhaul. As you can see from the top photo I've finally decided to build raised beds out back. An opportunity came up for us to obtain some free wood from a reno project a few houses away. It's old and weathered but still solid lengths of true 2 x 10's, which would cost a fortune to buy so I am happy to save it from landfill <i>and</i> save my wallet. When it stops raining we'll hopefully be able to finish 3 boxes so I can fill the beds for planting. I have plans to do a modified hugelkulture, creating a bottom layer of chunks of wood, sticks, twigs and other plant matter before filling it with compost and top dressing with a coir and organic soil mix. More on that as it happens!<br />
<br />
I promised Farmgal I would post the directions for making homemade mayo in a
mason jar. It's been all over the internet recently but if you haven't
seen it, it is quite possibly the easiest thing you can make in a jar! The Russian puts mayo on everything so it's been a real time and money
saver at our place. This version requires a hand blender but I might try to see if it's
possible to replicate using my eggbeaters, if they'll fit in a jar. Here's the link to Northwest Edible's <a href="http://www.nwedible.com/2013/02/magically-fast-and-easy-homemade-mayonnaise.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NorthwestEdibleLife+%28Northwest+Edible+Life%29" target="_blank">post</a> where this video is from, with recipe and full directions. <br />
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Looks like we have a few more days of nasty weather to look forward to so I'm grateful to be warm and dry with things to do inside, even if I'm eager to be outside. There's a pot of turkey stock simmering on the stove, a stack of library books to be read and garden designs to be finalized. April, do your worst!<br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-3220021618158316252013-03-20T12:24:00.000-04:002013-03-20T12:24:59.863-04:00Spring?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdiJEYZjsQPCogcFNIz0iESL6ErLF90TNomqwKAobzsglu025pLf3BsNHQusTFZ2Z6b2w-g0leuKkpG84fCVwWeQ5pKqc_bPp64MncQlnAzHrwodkbCf4_JU8BhFz75zAkZh4aKGPJNQ/s1600/Equinox+005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdiJEYZjsQPCogcFNIz0iESL6ErLF90TNomqwKAobzsglu025pLf3BsNHQusTFZ2Z6b2w-g0leuKkpG84fCVwWeQ5pKqc_bPp64MncQlnAzHrwodkbCf4_JU8BhFz75zAkZh4aKGPJNQ/s400/Equinox+005.jpg" width="400" /> </a></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If I see that ground hog, he's dead!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Spring arrived at 7:02 this morning but you wouldn't know by the weather. Seems like we have a few more days of snow and cold to get through before we'll see anything resembling spring-like temperatures and the long term forecast is for a late cool spring season. Which means I don't feel quite so disorganized about not having a single vegetable seed started yet!<br />
<br />
But everything outdoors is more than ready for it. I took a little spring advance in the form of some plum and dogwood branches and it didn't take long for them to burst out in blossoms.<br />
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Throw in a few hot house iris and you can pretend that spring is in the air instead of just more snow... CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-62314948171730808482013-02-28T13:09:00.000-05:002013-02-28T13:09:26.853-05:00Boxes of Goodness!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl97TE1aZEY_EuHSupNaPvcUlnLbFprITERo4apWPecVK7GhYzUDG1sgmplIMuUooDikExb52dcfvzOODwdqM2rrsQve90HnjDNqrdaYUIV-3AyvQkm1VKeg8PusctyAzrV6Btc9nkLTQ/s1600/FEb+084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl97TE1aZEY_EuHSupNaPvcUlnLbFprITERo4apWPecVK7GhYzUDG1sgmplIMuUooDikExb52dcfvzOODwdqM2rrsQve90HnjDNqrdaYUIV-3AyvQkm1VKeg8PusctyAzrV6Btc9nkLTQ/s400/FEb+084.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
Last month <a href="http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">FarmGal</a> wrote about having some of her farm raised lamb for sale and I lamented that I wished I lived closer so I could purchase some. She immediately emailed me about the possibility of shipping it and after a lot of back and forth we finally figured out a way to get it here to Toronto. So last week a box of frozen meat (lamb, pork and beef), along with some special treats made it's way here, only to find me holed up in hotel, working night and day at a Folk Music conference! I finally managed to retrieve my box on Tuesday and was overjoyed with all the bounty!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ott3F8Ebxl-w9DQ0h6g3VXWhIL3LK1OMnznXrRQtalg9sqv8XwWZljwp6RVtnFg6-gC1cuMV_akUhFZX7WWXCPlV5EZjgDm1QeQBCzMfw55eFEUURpKWBa9fURi97umXfEsvmAFsU_s/s1600/FEb+085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ott3F8Ebxl-w9DQ0h6g3VXWhIL3LK1OMnznXrRQtalg9sqv8XwWZljwp6RVtnFg6-gC1cuMV_akUhFZX7WWXCPlV5EZjgDm1QeQBCzMfw55eFEUURpKWBa9fURi97umXfEsvmAFsU_s/s320/FEb+085.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In addition to the meat I purchased, FarmGal included some curing salt, 3 bars of her homemade sheep's milk soap, a garden sign and a ball of the prettiest wool ever!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcG-ua3A5z2OJoTUHwJLO-D6HRnGa8P4prZaRXAKiYtE70tU834JDSdvT-7SZHtY1VWimVOY94cpUxXTes_CT9nohkm7R3Rj-PRmak8FYTUkLBcAo9KCnh_lir1yH9OyXHHtQCQIR1G-0/s1600/FEb+087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcG-ua3A5z2OJoTUHwJLO-D6HRnGa8P4prZaRXAKiYtE70tU834JDSdvT-7SZHtY1VWimVOY94cpUxXTes_CT9nohkm7R3Rj-PRmak8FYTUkLBcAo9KCnh_lir1yH9OyXHHtQCQIR1G-0/s320/FEb+087.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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As if that wasn't glorious enough, that same day FoodShare decided to gift all of our employees with a large box of organic produce, so along with all the delicious meats I also arrived home with a box full of lettuce, red peppers, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, swiss chard, bananas, apples, oranges, lemons and 2 avocados! And to top it off, the friend who transported the box of meat all the way from near Ottawa (and kept it in her freezer for a week!) also brought me another dozen of the beautiful eggs from her sister's farm. It was like Christmas, only better!<br />
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Since we are still without an oven, last night we had dinner with friends who cooked up a feast of roasted leg of lamb, sautéed chard, mashed turnip and steamed potatoes in browned butter. The lamb was the best I've ever eaten! It was a fabulous meal, made better by sharing with good friends, and the knowledge that the food we were eating was grown with pride and care. I brought the leg bone home and it is currently simmering in the stock pot to make a rich lamb broth- I don't want to waste a bit of the goodness that Farmgal lovingly put into that lamb!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZidN1EKFDYlZdg02sixlo2HEp_NFW4xZO3tCAG8bXepW-zSgZYqZ-3bWm-oMHXEpPEoKRaQ5dgwZEHKiPsaJh9ZO7tOjus1oKWEW4FSjZQ4D61EeqZbDKLb_qse2ceSvebwJRV06Wr0/s1600/FEb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZidN1EKFDYlZdg02sixlo2HEp_NFW4xZO3tCAG8bXepW-zSgZYqZ-3bWm-oMHXEpPEoKRaQ5dgwZEHKiPsaJh9ZO7tOjus1oKWEW4FSjZQ4D61EeqZbDKLb_qse2ceSvebwJRV06Wr0/s320/FEb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-67950373134116444522013-02-27T15:02:00.000-05:002013-02-27T15:02:35.086-05:00Homesteading skills list<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxmuLxe_HXpD14rfnR1rom_ofU5KB0x0gxtT1eJ4hYDDB_cB1Mw7aMn8G8vc352I9t08JoUEH0SXd-YK9S4H2uRDUGuFYA0MOHxOTnNvqA4X-qowuoocNr-TC0U7UK_zFxlh4SSQbYLk4/s1600/Jan+038.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxmuLxe_HXpD14rfnR1rom_ofU5KB0x0gxtT1eJ4hYDDB_cB1Mw7aMn8G8vc352I9t08JoUEH0SXd-YK9S4H2uRDUGuFYA0MOHxOTnNvqA4X-qowuoocNr-TC0U7UK_zFxlh4SSQbYLk4/s400/Jan+038.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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</xml><![endif]-->Canadian Doomer posted the <a href="http://www.canadiandoomer.ca/search?updated-max=2013-02-25T08:00:00-05:00" target="_blank">original list</a> on her site and others have added to it. Farm Gal did her link <a href="http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/homesteading-skills-list/" target="_blank">here</a><br />
The ones in bold are the tasks and skills I have done/can do myself, with notes in red.<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Safely use an ax and hand saws.<span style="color: #990000;"> (</span></span></b><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">years of camping)</span></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />
</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Split
firewood and kindling.</span><br />
</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Stack
and age firewood.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Grow a vegetable plant.</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Plan,
plant and grow a vegetable garden.</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b> (every year!)</b></span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sharpen any edge tool – knife, axe, hoe,
chisel etc. </b><b><span style="color: #990000;">(took a basic woodworking course which included sharpening techniques)</span></b><br />
Basic firearm safety and gun proof your children and grandchildren. <b><span style="color: #990000;">(no guns, never)</span></b><br />
Raise a chicken.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Shovel snow without putting out your back.</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
Read the weather.<br />
Spin wool, cotton or flax into thread or yarn on a spinning wheel or with a
drop spindle.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Use a garden shovel, spade or hoe
without hurting your back.</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Light a fire indoors or outdoors. <span style="color: #990000;">( again with the camping/backpacking)</span></b><br />
Go to a country auction and not get skinned.<br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Crochet.</span><br />
Butcher small livestock like rabbits or chickens.<br />
<b>Hang clothes on a clothesline. </b><br />
Basic tractor maintenance.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Know the difference between trees and
the unique properties of various types of wood.</b><br />
<b>Cook 10 basic meals from scratch.</b><br />
<b>Pasteurize milk.</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Divine/witch for water with a forked
branch or a bent metal hanger. <span style="color: #990000;">(not very successful but I've tried)</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Distinguish healthy plants and animals
from unhealthy plants or animals.</b><br />
<b>Basic sewing skills.</b><br />
Set an ear tag or tattoo for animal identification.<br />
Determine an animal’s age by its teeth.<br />
Cut and glaze glass.<br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Drive a standard transmission vehicle.</span><br />
<b>Thaw</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> out frozen pipes without busting
them.</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Know how and when to use hybrid
seeds.</b></span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Sew your
own clothes with simple patterns.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Hand thresh and winnow wheat or oats and other
small grains.<br />
Train a working cattle or sheep dog.<br />
Read the moon and stars.<br />
<b>Make soft or hard cheeses.</b><br />
<b>Live beneath your financial means.</b><br />
<b>Fillet and clean a fish.</b><br />
<b>Use a wash tub, hand-wringer and washboard. <span style="color: #990000;">(My grandmother used a wringer for years and I own a washboard)</span></b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsm4yaYroS1v5zFFc5yEfV90ZvNUlIABlFzpmdlguISPTCF_IdUISgv13FLSfeTD7Ktck62WCGZ2gPXnV7_Kxt5nI7N60bCvJSAhVUg3Pd3wtaQXXZ4nb7xNU7wCp7ou0g47FeSX_ILy0/s1600/FEb+089.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsm4yaYroS1v5zFFc5yEfV90ZvNUlIABlFzpmdlguISPTCF_IdUISgv13FLSfeTD7Ktck62WCGZ2gPXnV7_Kxt5nI7N60bCvJSAhVUg3Pd3wtaQXXZ4nb7xNU7wCp7ou0g47FeSX_ILy0/s320/FEb+089.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A beeswax apple candle, the last piece of my tallow soap and a beautiful sheep milk soap sent to me from FarmGal!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Make soap from </b>wood ashes<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> and animal fat.</b><b> <span style="color: #990000;">(store bought lye with home rendered beef tallow)</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lay basic brick or build a stone wall.</b><br />
<b>Basic home canning and food preservation. <span style="color: #990000;">(That's a given!)</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Save open pollinated (non-hybrid) seeds.</b><br />
De-horn livestock.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Use an awl and basic leather repair.</b><br />
Make long-term plans for the future – plan an orchard, a livestock breeding
program, or plan for stored energy sources.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jury rig anything with duct tape, baling
twine and whatever is on hand</b>. <b><span style="color: #990000;">(That's in my job description)</span></b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Be comfortable with emergency/home birth.</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> <b><span style="color: #990000;">(I've attended 47 births and even caught one impatient little thing!)</span></b><br />
Read an almanac.<br />
Euthanize large livestock.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Use flat cloth diapers and wool soakers. <span style="color: #990000;">(</span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">my mom didn't believe in disposables)</span></span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Cook on a
cook stove. <span style="color: #990000;">(lived in a cabin without electricity, running water or a stove for 5 months - I can cook on anything!)) </span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Entertain yourself and live without
electronic media.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Shear a sheep.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Manage
human urine and feces without plumbing. <span style="color: #990000;">(no outhouses in the backwoods)</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Swap, barter and network with like-minded people. </span></b><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">(all the time!)</span></span><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Generate electricity for home use.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8Wefm-O0aQ4KdLllYhk5VaTUzfXB1TyiR5taSI63yXR5VR6NBPiiFfSwOHYVlDTiNtvXXlnLvv6vpLV0p2vp61x6gzn0IGLs-xQrYRyEfQJKIXLF3jC_PeoJEVTE_pclPXc22AaNdwE/s1600/FEb+088.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8Wefm-O0aQ4KdLllYhk5VaTUzfXB1TyiR5taSI63yXR5VR6NBPiiFfSwOHYVlDTiNtvXXlnLvv6vpLV0p2vp61x6gzn0IGLs-xQrYRyEfQJKIXLF3jC_PeoJEVTE_pclPXc22AaNdwE/s320/FEb+088.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dipped beeswax candles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Make a
candle. <span style="color: #990000;">From beeswax and </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">other waxes</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Dig and properly use a shallow well.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Refinish
furniture. </span></b><b><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">(pretty much everything in this house is a found item that we've refinished or modified)</span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8H2T2Iu2je7KfLeXd74t_c-qpW60U1KhXdS4WbHvYXq7b3wPTgcGRPFpY1pIFsrNw9J5ab02ws1ZW-WOSjlhLcflFRSA9e7-VdLbavyruIGQ6n-SNZistqeg62t_2C_QqjUZ5TZTGqII/s1600/FEb+091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8H2T2Iu2je7KfLeXd74t_c-qpW60U1KhXdS4WbHvYXq7b3wPTgcGRPFpY1pIFsrNw9J5ab02ws1ZW-WOSjlhLcflFRSA9e7-VdLbavyruIGQ6n-SNZistqeg62t_2C_QqjUZ5TZTGqII/s320/FEb+091.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Found wardrobe, refinished.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Drive a draft animal.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Realistically deal with life, death and
failure.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Use non-electric lighting.</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Butcher a pig or goat.</span><br />
Restrain large livestock.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Slaughter livestock.<br />
<b>Use a treadle sewing machine.</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Give an injection.</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Use a handsaw, hammer & nails, screw
driver, wire cutters, and measuring tape. <span style="color: #990000;">(I own lots of tools, both power and hand and can use every one of them properly)</span></b><br />
<b>Know when to ask for help.</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Know how and when to prune grapes and
fruit trees</b>.<br />
Hatch out chicken, duck or other poultry eggs.<span style="color: #990000;"><b> (Quail, hundreds of them. I also once kept duck eggs in my bra for two days til they could get to an incubator)</b></span><br />
Use a scythe.<br />
Skin a furbearer and stretch the skin.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell the time of day by the sun.</b><br />
Milk a goat, sheep or cow.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Use a smoke house.<br />
Stomach tube a newborn animal.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Build
basic homestead buildings (sheds, etc.)</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> <span style="color: #990000;"><b>(I still need to post photos of our new addition!)</b></span><br />
Break ground and plough.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Use a wood stove and bank a fire. <span style="color: #990000;">(Cabin, winter, only heat source, nuff said)</span></b><br />
<b>Make butter.</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Knit. <span style="color: #990000;">( lots of hats and scarves, more detailed projects are a challenge to finish)</span><br />
Make and use a hot bed or cold frame. <br />
</b>Deliver a foal, calf, lamb or goat. <b>(I haven't but I'm sure I could!)</b><br />
Know how to tell when winter is over.<br />
P<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">lant a tree</b>.<br />
Brood day-old chicks.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dye yarn or cloth from plants.</b><br />
Haggle like a horse trader.<br />
<b>Bake bread.</b><br />
Use a pressure tank garden sprayer.<br />
Halter break a horse or cow.<br />
Graft baby animals onto a foster-mother.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Weave cloth.<br />
<b>Grow everyday kitchen herbs.</b><br />
Make sausage.<br />
<b>Set and bait traps for unwanted vermin and predators.</b><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Grind wheat into flour<b>.</b></span><br />
<b>Make paper.</b></span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Make ink</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Know when it is more economical to buy
something ready-made or when to make it yourself.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Castrate livestock.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Choose a location for a vegetable garden
or orchard.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Catch and care for
wild yeast for bread making<b>.</b></span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
Weave a basket.<br />
Use electric netting or fencing.<br />
<b>Make fire starters from corn cobs or pinecones.</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Use a pressure cooker.</b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Use a pressure canner to preserve meat and
vegetables.</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
Correctly attach 3 point hitch implements to a tractor.<br />
Trim the hooves of goats or sheep.<br />
Sew your own underwear.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Make your own wine and beer. <span style="color: #990000;">(Honey wine, aka mead)</span></b></span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Darn
knitted or crocheted items.</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
Know basic plumbing and how to sweat copper pipes and joints.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Keep
bees. <span style="color: #990000;">(don't have my own bees and I'm still learning)</span></span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI5hH9ByaY_gwJ1p1B5peibKXokXzEvyan84LWtQrcbsEf0-D_ociUVYWUBLUEerLloVtIfFTy4cSfX4_QN2vRASmZA6c3a-sf4YlQuS60qzUNO6l69lIxPfKnR99_Xm1Nc4ztpe5sIHk/s1600/Honey+033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI5hH9ByaY_gwJ1p1B5peibKXokXzEvyan84LWtQrcbsEf0-D_ociUVYWUBLUEerLloVtIfFTy4cSfX4_QN2vRASmZA6c3a-sf4YlQuS60qzUNO6l69lIxPfKnR99_Xm1Nc4ztpe5sIHk/s320/Honey+033.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Honey harvest 2012</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Change a spark plug.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Cook on an open fire.</b><br />
<b>Make vinegar. (<span style="color: #990000;">I have 3 types at the moment- red wine, apple cider and honey wine.)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Purify water.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Graft trees.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make and use a bow and arrow.<br />
<b>Preserve meat by curing. <span style="color: #990000;">( Still learning but I've done some bacon)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Erect a fence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hang a gate.<br />
<b>Make and use herbal tinctures, infusions and other herbal remedies. <span style="color: #990000;">(drinking one now!)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Replace electrolytes in a battery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Charge a battery.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Change a
car tire.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Repair a tire.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do an oil change in any vehicle.<br />
<b>Build an effective compost pile</b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Correctly set spark
plug spacings.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Change all light bulbs –
household and vehicle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Prime a well pump.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Fix water troughs around the
paddocks.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Suture both animals and
humans.<span style="color: #990000;"> (can draw blood and give injections too)</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Catch a fish without expensive fishing gear. </span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96jj6GFYyNdpUcxBp4XxfyjWQ1j9RveWa0Hg_nfe6x56Qscm6-x1Dw220eBwSgTZaUmgGKouxoNcIMy3QR-qT_aFT7-NM6ccy5pOcWEa7VOCwif8guARjGz8Kdvo9oavB_UTmYkTEiQY/s1600/Cottage+025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96jj6GFYyNdpUcxBp4XxfyjWQ1j9RveWa0Hg_nfe6x56Qscm6-x1Dw220eBwSgTZaUmgGKouxoNcIMy3QR-qT_aFT7-NM6ccy5pOcWEa7VOCwif8guARjGz8Kdvo9oavB_UTmYkTEiQY/s320/Cottage+025.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Gather edible wild greens and prepare them.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Catch and keep a swarm of bees.</span><br />
<b style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Render fat. <span style="color: #990000;">( all kinds in my fridge- chicken, duck, pork lard, beef tallow)</span></b><br />
<b style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Use non-typical fats (lard, tallow, schmaltz, bear fat, etc) in cooking. <span style="color: #990000;">( see above)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Back up a vehicle accurately.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Drive with a trailer attached to a vehicle.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Make whitewash.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Weatherstrip a home.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Set a snare or other simple animal trap.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Set up a gravity fed water system.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">And my own additions:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><b>Tap trees and make syrup (maple, birch)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><b>Clean beeswax (a lot harder than you'd think!)</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">I'm surprised at a few of the skills I hadn't thought of in years but I guess it's one advantage to being a bit older. Some of these things (wells with hand pumps, wringers, wood stoves,) were still around when I was a child and I think this means I could survive for a while, although sources of meat would be a problem. </span></div>
CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-36898057637241330672013-02-14T16:59:00.000-05:002013-02-14T16:59:05.422-05:00Winter Garden<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZLh_QQSvp2FSe8YuaomNndKz6oM4xCocv7Cre6SJx3y5Lcd_grZ50ztdkeBG0hnOF1QI0pvC_salfdmVSdLGAFaYSNY52Da_VW82cejgbij4-BNNI7QGgFgmfi3-WaRnYEi-XApTpLZE/s1600/Winter+005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZLh_QQSvp2FSe8YuaomNndKz6oM4xCocv7Cre6SJx3y5Lcd_grZ50ztdkeBG0hnOF1QI0pvC_salfdmVSdLGAFaYSNY52Da_VW82cejgbij4-BNNI7QGgFgmfi3-WaRnYEi-XApTpLZE/s400/Winter+005.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</div>
Like the weather, the greenhouse has seen some ups and downs this winter. It was the first year I've tried to maintain a number of different projects inside and some of the plans worked better than others. Which is to be expected I guess- it was all experimental to see what would work and what wouldn't, but of course I can't help but feel disappointed at the ones that failed, especially when failure meant the loss of some of the plants.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeareSCmPwyEVir15GNRoVI24F9mQHV0jjgch9UyebD6ojL6dEndbH9aq8u3mech9dvNO8a7NH-Xd3IEVLyGjU8oEXadi5P7QplxoD58ZDazisNdguTVdn9M5lq1hxEOVinO2xIT1ZTnc/s1600/Winter+008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeareSCmPwyEVir15GNRoVI24F9mQHV0jjgch9UyebD6ojL6dEndbH9aq8u3mech9dvNO8a7NH-Xd3IEVLyGjU8oEXadi5P7QplxoD58ZDazisNdguTVdn9M5lq1hxEOVinO2xIT1ZTnc/s320/Winter+008.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Radishes got a bit frost nipped</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The biggest issue is not being able to maintain consistant temperatures. This greenhouse was designed to be passive- it doesn't have a source of heat other than the sun. It also lacks fans for air movement, and supplimental lighting. Previous attempts to maintain it through the winter with space heaters worked poorly- it proved inefficient and there were issues with mold. After speaking with a couple of greenhouse experts we came to the conclusion it would work most efficiently as a large cold frame, with a small heated area enclosed in plastic for the handful of tropical plants. The aim was to maintain a fairly consistant cool temperaure but prevent a hard freeze. This works well on a few levels; because the plants are not exposed to
much light or heat they aren't encouraged to grow and therefore don't
require frequent watering. And without heat and moisture there's less
opportunity for mold to take hold.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZfI5T_6sDDTdsmEr9plu_H8mQjkuCu5NMjZw-Z0RqPPR73MkF6AI3sJSpe0Tj1FECLzAFQGti2ovLIfS0kVa_A8QyOJnhhcUSyNhbWiq9c5XLnjMBa5CpHrsZXsaUI5bhPVX_G_rDKE/s1600/Winter+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZfI5T_6sDDTdsmEr9plu_H8mQjkuCu5NMjZw-Z0RqPPR73MkF6AI3sJSpe0Tj1FECLzAFQGti2ovLIfS0kVa_A8QyOJnhhcUSyNhbWiq9c5XLnjMBa5CpHrsZXsaUI5bhPVX_G_rDKE/s320/Winter+003.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
So back in the fall I brought a number of plants like the hibiscus and olive tree inside the greenhouse and allowed them to acclimatize to the cooler temps and low light naturally. The pergola was covered in clear plastic and small space heater was set to kick in only if the temperature dropped below 5 C. I enstalled a themometer that also indicates a minimum/maximum temp. Other hardier plants like collards and leeks we left in large bins in the unheated areas and I started some cold crops (rapini, carrots and radishes) in cold frames It all worked wonderfully all through November, December and into January. The hothouse plants were lulled into dormancy and the cool crops were growing slowly but steadily. Sadly I failed to take any photos of it all when things were at the ideal. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeKN-YdiuGLc4eq58_CP5H1UNfO2xNt-dB-XFtmkNzn3EenI_QcPD6iM9ACKAcvXhVnzcdez4FNxOsxsDRkza34uR4PlrYZ98UFGVNwGWTEvRhgc2Tg1HYsL6ZzdiLNRVi_woNQ4b0GyM/s1600/Winter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeKN-YdiuGLc4eq58_CP5H1UNfO2xNt-dB-XFtmkNzn3EenI_QcPD6iM9ACKAcvXhVnzcdez4FNxOsxsDRkza34uR4PlrYZ98UFGVNwGWTEvRhgc2Tg1HYsL6ZzdiLNRVi_woNQ4b0GyM/s320/Winter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Then mid January, we had a week of hard freeze with overnight lows in the minus teens, and whether the small heater couldn't keep up or there was some sort of power failure, the temperature at some point hit minus 10 even inside the supposedly heated area. By the time I discovered it, the damage was done and many of the tender tropicals were a wilted mess. Thankfully I have no photos of that either because it was heartbreaking. I trimmed all the dead and damaged leaves and I'm hopeful that most of them will recover eventually but I'm sure I lost a few.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge2kbVBrzql6rNOElU-SyvOgKQ7zttMzVwiDHl9j3qvmQiKtms26AxM0QgeKcKeIOlRqSWBk_Rm0LD-uKkR6O7TsqlRVySZCzRGw9lhgsy-Jouz_CyL-NZGJAIRUARZnKNJEuKYpvFKBw/s1600/Winter+010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge2kbVBrzql6rNOElU-SyvOgKQ7zttMzVwiDHl9j3qvmQiKtms26AxM0QgeKcKeIOlRqSWBk_Rm0LD-uKkR6O7TsqlRVySZCzRGw9lhgsy-Jouz_CyL-NZGJAIRUARZnKNJEuKYpvFKBw/s320/Winter+010.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bay laurels survived but not the spider plant</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Surprisingly, the plants in the unheated areas weren't quite as badly damaged and most of them bounced back. I suspect that is because they were in larger planter boxes rather than pots.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR30F3jjad0YQW9K8Fr6yVg3eFhB-q0vKDMeltlGHDBHf50nsJndmbqZfKxSQ0Hm7yJTom9WG4s6ZBqaV-CbNzgRe6KHQFK88QXPpWmtUSlll0GGGq87T4n-g6W2zju2vriMF6ieYj-ZQ/s1600/Winter+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR30F3jjad0YQW9K8Fr6yVg3eFhB-q0vKDMeltlGHDBHf50nsJndmbqZfKxSQ0Hm7yJTom9WG4s6ZBqaV-CbNzgRe6KHQFK88QXPpWmtUSlll0GGGq87T4n-g6W2zju2vriMF6ieYj-ZQ/s320/Winter+006.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
I'm still harvesting leeks, and collards, the 2 remaining sugar beets are looking great, a few radishes have grown big enough to harvest and the carrots are coming along.<br />
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I missed the peak on the rapini however- should have harvested it all a few weeks ago!<br />
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Now as the days get longer and the sun moves closer I'm faced with another challenge- on bright sunny days the temperature can shoot up to 30 degrees plus! Since it chills off again at night the fluctuation can be quite drastic which is far worse for plants than just cold. It also means the plants require more frequent watering which can lead to mold. When I'm at work I can open the roof vents and turn on the fan but since I 'm only in one day per week currently, I'm not always able to be there to check on things. I'm about ready to seed some early spring greens in the next week or so and I sure hope they can handle the fluctuating temps!<br />
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In the meantime I am happy just to have fresh homegrown produce even when it still looks like this outside.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Food forest in winter- not much to see!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />Of course it would be even better if the greenhouse was set up with year round temperature controls and grow lights- then I'd be able to produce things like this lovely pomegranate! This one was grown by my coworker Liz in the <a href="http://www.camh.ca/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=24" target="_blank">CAMH</a> greenhouse! Happy Valentine's Day!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Valentine's pomegranate!</td></tr>
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CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-59646296952077331312013-02-11T14:04:00.000-05:002013-02-11T14:04:45.962-05:00Won't Be Long Now!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We've been on a weather rollercoaster this winter! January saw highs of 15 C one week and overnight lows of minus 21 c the next. Three days ago we were hit with that big snow storm which dumped a good 40 cm in my neighbourhood and it's almost all gone now thanks to pouring rain overnight and high of 6 today. It makes it a little challenging to know what to wear when you go but at least it's not boring outside!<br />
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The same can not be said for inside. With both of us underemployed, there's a been a whole lot of lazy days and nights and while it's a good kind of boredom, lots catching up on reading and movie watching, too much of anything wears after a while. Which is why I thought it would be fun to take on the $10 grocery challenge to add a little interest to January. I have to say that while it made good sense for the wallets, by the end it did not help with my mood at all. I love to cook and try new things and that means lots of variety. Unlike the Russian who could happily eat chicken soup for every meal, I get very cranky when faced with the same food on repeat. By the last week of the month we still had a fair bit of food in the house but it was a lot of the same stuff and under the guidelines of the challenge I couldn't just nip out and buy that one or two items to switch up the menu.We did managed to keep to the budget (except for the previously mentioned spontaneous dinner party) but I was ever so glad to see the back end of January!<br />
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The arrival of February immediately brightened my mood and not just because I could buy groceries! The <a href="http://www.torontobees.ca/" target="_blank">Toronto Beekeeper's Co-op</a> held a one day workshop on Urban Beekeeping on Feb 2 and it was a great success, full of all kinds of bee enthusiasts and a lovely marketplace selling sweet smelling and tasting goodies. I picked up these beautiful eggs from one of the vendors and I swear the colour alone made me happy!<br />
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Now that we've made it to almost mid February it's time to start thinking of gardening again! I haven't started any seedlings yet but already the days are long enough to want to try and as usual, a few things have started without me. My brown fig broke dormancy earlier than I would have liked but it seems to be thriving even when it's clearly not time yet.<br />
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All the indoor plants I cut back in the fall are sending out new leaves and the crazy onions I overwintered in a pot are providing me with much appreciated fresh salad greens!<br />
So it's time look at seeds, lay out plans and dream of hot summer days in the garden.<br />
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Can't come soon enough!<br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-60403910854430926282013-01-20T12:51:00.000-05:002013-01-20T12:51:22.306-05:00$10 Challenge Week 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I had to think twice about which week this was, since I've only started posting about this challenge last week, but it's actually the end of the third week. Of course, looking at the calendar, there's still two weeks of January left and that seems decidedly unfair, and not only because I'm trying to stretch our groceries. January always seems terminally long; without a single thing to break up the monotony. I know for some February is the worst month because everyone is entirely sick of winter and cold but at least there's things like Groundhog Day, Lunar New Year, and Valentines Day going on so that every day isn't exactly the same as the one before. As you can tell I've been deep in the January doldrums: the lazy post holiday hibernation mode has evaporated and even reading seed catalogs doesn't help. The only good news looking at the calendar brought was the realization that I could totally spend another $10 for that last week of January.<br />
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So it's probably a good thing that I signed up for the challenge- at least it gives me something to think about and plan meals around. (It also gives me an excuse not to venture out into the cold to pick up ingredients!) We started off this week by cooking up the turkey I bought last week. I invited my sisters for dinner but only one, along with her partner, were able to join us. It still made for a nice evening; we drank some of my homemade mead, they brought dessert- a lovely foamy champagne cream with raspberry pureé- and we played Mexican Train and Yatzee! Turkey leftovers featured in most of the meals this week- turkey in gravy on potato pancakes made from leftover mashed, a big pot of turkey soup and there was still enough left for turkey pot pie. When we weren't eating turkey I did up a couple of pasta dishes with ground beef (bought with the remain $5, so no eggs sadly) and another night we had bbq style pork riblets with potatoes and frozen beans from last summer's garden. There were three good size riblets in the package so I sauteéd them all with onions and garlic and touch of maple syrup. The extra riblet I cut in pieces and threw into a pot of dried beans I'd soaked all day to make a nice pork and bean soup, which we had for lunch on Friday.<br />
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The other good thing about the challenge is that it encourages me to be more creative and adventurous. I'm not normally much of a baker since I associate baking primarily with dessert which we don't normally eat. One of the things I've always meant to try but never get around to is bread making. On Thurs I decided to make the turkey pot pie and since the oven was going to be on anyway, I decided to have go at making my own bread. I used a very basic recipe and a package of dried yeast, substituted a bit of honey for the sugar and was delighted with the results. My bread was still pretty dense and slightly sweet ( I'd use less honey next time) but very tasty and not bad for a first attempt. While the bread was rising I made pastry for the pot pie and since there was lots left over (I doubled the recipe to make sure) I also baked a cherry pie with cherries canned last summer. Lots of good smells in the kitchen that day!<br />
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So we were doing well within the boundaries of the challenge and then yesterday we derailed completely. It started out innocently enough; we were both off today so I suggested we invite a friend for dinner, It had been a nice warm day so someone suggested barbecuing, and somehow one guest became two and then four and then suddenly we had 8 people coming by expecting to be fed! Well of course we didn't have anything in the house to feed that many people, so an emergency trip to the yellow store became necessary. We were fortunate to find an absolutely fantastic price on pork shoulder and bought what looked like almost a whole leg for $8! I also picked up some Chinese greens, button mushrooms, a couple sweet peppers -from Mexico of course but very inexpensive for this time of year. I had rice noodles and other veg at home so we had a lovely meal of barbecued pork with stir fried veggies and noodles in oyster sauce, with cherry pie for dessert- all for about $15! It was wonderful to have a houseful of guests, eating and laughing!<br />
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<br />So the bad news is that we completely blew the $10/week budget this week. And it was worth every penny.<br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-28007596874556171262013-01-11T16:24:00.001-05:002013-01-11T16:24:37.660-05:00$10 Grocery Challenge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Farmgal over at <a href="http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/friday-report-ten-dollar-a-week-food-challangeweigh-in/" target="_blank">Just Another Day on the Farm</a> came up with this challenge last year and it's pretty much like it sounds; for the month of January we'll try to spend only $10/wk on groceries. <a href="http://www.canadiandoomer.ca/" target="_blank">Canadian Doomer</a> is in, as well as a few other folks. Two years ago, many of us participated in a <a href="http://backyardfarmsto.blogspot.ca/2011/03/march-pantry-challenge-eat-what-you-got.html" target="_blank">P</a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2896693730195830296" target="_blank">antry Challenge</a> in which we bought no groceries at all in the month of March and lived on only what we had in the house. March probably wasn't the best month to attempt that since a lot of the food I preserved from the previous summer was already long gone but it was a good test to see how long we could last with food we had on hand. By comparison, the $10/week challenge feels like it will be a breeze and it's good time for us to think lean because we've both been on extended (unpaid) holidays. I'd been putting aside a lot of staples while I had a regular paycheque and we've only just started to dip into last summer' s preserved bounty. I currently have about 50 lbs of potatoes stashed in the greenhouse at work, lots of home canned stuff, and the pantry and the freezer are still pretty full. If there's a weak spot, it's in meat/proteins and fresh veg.With that in mind I went shopping at the nearest cheap chain grocery store this week and blew pretty much the whole month's budget in one shot. The veggies were the easy part - Ontario onions, carrots and cabbage are still readily available so I grabbed a 3 lb bag of each of the former and a large cabbage. Meat is always little more challenging- buying from a chain store means not knowing where the meat comes from and without a doubt it's mainly factory farmed. But when utility turkeys are on sale for $.87/lb it's hard to say no. I picked up a just under 10 lb bird for $7.67 and that will feed us for many meals. I also picked up some pork ribs and tenderloin on sale, a 10lb of unbleached flour, a block of cheddar and some canned chickpeas. The total came to just under $35 which leaves me just $5 for the remainder of the month. Just enough to choose between free range eggs or a couple lbs of ground beef from the local halal butcher but not both. These are the times I am envious of all the bloggers on my reading list who have chickens and dairy animals, who raise goats, lambs and rabbits for meat. I would love to be making my own cheese this winter but whole organic milk is too dear to purchase in the quantity needed to make cheese and raising my own meat animals is not even a possibility even if I wanted to.<br />
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So what to do when the best resource you have is time? Make <a href="http://backyardfarmsto.blogspot.ca/2011/03/pantry-challenge-week-2.html" target="_blank">pierogies</a>! I made up a big batch of filling using potatoes, cheddar, bacon, sauteéd onions and leeks, and roasted garlic. Then I made an even bigger batch of pierogie dough. I did up about 5 dozen pierogies and froze them, then used the rest of the dough to make squash ravioli with some leftover butternut squash. If I have any pork leftovers I may make a batch of potstickers as well. Everything tastes good in dumpling form!<br />
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Now if only I could make my own sour cream...<br />
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CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-48226596881442633322013-01-06T15:20:00.000-05:002013-01-06T15:20:35.380-05:00January Reading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We're still in holiday mode over here; my new contract doesn't start until this week and the Russian's place of employment takes an extended break every year at this time so he doesn't go back to work til Thurs. Since we only spent one day doing holiday stuff with my family this year, we've had lots of time at home. Time for cleaning and reorganizing, but also lots of leisure time, for movie watching and sleeping late, games and puzzles and for me, reading. Of course being underemployed also means a serious lack of funds too so any opportunity to acquire reading materials at no cost is an added bonus. So I was delighted to find out about the proliference of free ebooks that are available from many different sources.<br />
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I had already discovered that our library system has many titles available as digital or ebooks and you don't need a separate device to take advantage of these. All you need is an active library card and and an ereader program on your computer. My choice of ereader software is <b>Adobe Digital Editions</b> which you can download for free <a href="http://www.adobe.com/ca/products/digital-editions/download.html" target="_blank">here</a>:<br />
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If you aren't in Canada, the Adobe website will redirect you to the appropriate download link.<br />
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Ebooks from the library don't stay on your computer so be sure to read them in the allotted time (3 weeks for ours).<br />
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You can use Adobe DE ereader to access titles from other sources as well! Kobo has a large library of <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/free_ebooks" target="_blank">free ebooks</a> and all you need to do to access these is register for a free account. Once your account is set up, you chose a book, add it to your library on the Kobo site and click on the button that says Download EPUB and it will open automatically in DE!<br />
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If you're a fan of Amazon.com, you can also sign up for a free Kindle account. Amazon often offers ebook titles for free or small cost, however you must have the Kindle software installed on your computer to take advantage of these. Again the registration and software is free and once you have an account you also have access to their Cloud feature which gives you 5 G of free online storage!<br />
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You can download the software <a href="http://www.amazon.com/help/kindleforpc" target="_blank">here</a> for PC or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/help/kindleformac" target="_blank">here</a> for Mac<br />
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Once you've installed one or both of these, check out <a href="http://www.storey.com/freshpicks/" target="_blank">Story </a><a href="http://www.storey.com/freshpicks/" target="_blank">Fresh Picks</a> and sign up for their free monthly newsletter. Every month they offer a free ebook and many more titles for a very low cost. I personally recommend ordering Niki Jabbour's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Year-Round-Vegetable-Gardener-ebook/dp/B0061S3XSG/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1357227006&sr=1-2&keywords=year-round" target="_blank">The Year Round Vegetable Gardener</a> for a mere $2.99 - I reviewed it <a href="http://backyardfarmsto.blogspot.ca/2012/02/book-review-friday.html" target="_blank">here</a> and it was my favourite gardening book of last year. Thanks to this book I'm still harvesting fresh greens in January, and if you can't be gardening, you might as well be reading about it! <br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-37444392329005935102012-12-30T10:35:00.001-05:002012-12-30T10:35:20.213-05:00Season's Change<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When I started my new job just over a year ago, I thought that I would still have plenty of time to keep up with blogging. After all, I was only working three days a week, which left four whole days to do my own things at home. But somehow that didn't seem to work out; there never seemed to be enough time to both do interesting things, and write about them. So sadly it was the writing that fell by the wayside most often.<br />
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It was a productive year just the same. I finally made cheese at home, pressure canned for the first time, worked with bees and created an edible forest.<br />
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There was also a few building projects on the home front- the beginning of a roof top garden, and a new enclosed addition on the back deck-. which will (hopefully) be the subject of a whole separate post.<br />
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I learned a lot along the way too. Finally getting to see a beehive up close and personal was amazing, and learning to make mead from uncapped honey was an added bonus.<br />
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Having access to a greenhouse allowed me to try growing different things like sweet potatoes and figs, and researching things like indigenous edibles for the food forest was one of the best parts of my job.<br />
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Of course the things I learned the most from were my mistakes! My tomatoes both at home and at work suffered from things I should have known better of, so those were lesson learned the hard way in the result of poor yields.<br />
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I lost two jars of dried veggies to moth worms- one of cherry tomatoes and one of green onions- because I failed to dry them completely.<br />
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And being stung in the lip for a second time will remind me to pay more attention to my surroundings when pollinators are involved.<br />
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The thing I didn't seem to be able to figure out was to balance my time. Writing wasn't the only thing that got neglected over the year. Photography all but fell by the wayside, both the taking of and doing anything with those pictures I did take. I attended far fewer picks with Not Far From the Tree and I'm ashamed to confess that what I did pick sometime rotted before I had a chance to preserve it. I've also gotten lax on my goals to eat primarily local and seasonal simply because I didn't have the time to preserve as much at home this year. Rather than beat myself up about it, I accept that sometimes it's not possible to do everything in an ideal manner and try to do better next time. It's all we can do.<br />
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In the new year I will be returning to work at FoodShare under a new contract of just one day per week. My main role will be food preservation and maintaining the greenhouse, two things I feel I can accomplish in that small amount of time. And I hoped the lessons learned this year will allow me to do more in the coming year, both in my own life, and in the knowledge I share with others.<br />
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I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful holiday season and I wish you many blessing in the new year! Thanks for hanging in.<br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-33300269050629524612012-12-06T10:39:00.000-05:002012-12-06T10:39:51.722-05:00Never the Bridesmaid...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You'd think with having 12 younger siblings, I'd be inundated with weddings and babies. You'd think the opportunity to be a bridesmaid must be a regular occurrence. Now babies, we have plenty of- I have 9 nephews and 5 nieces, and another due in April. Of weddings, there's been a few. Including my own, almost forgotten now, (although I did have one sister as a bridesmaid and two as flower girls!) And yet, I have never had the pleasure of standing up with a single sibling! How is this possible you ask?<br />
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Here's how:<br />
(Siblings in chronological order)<br />
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Brother # 1 - Very small, last minute wedding, at the same time and church where their daughter was being christened. I was unable to attend. No bridesmaids anyhow.<br />
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Sister #1 - First wedding: Small private civic ceremony - only our parents attended. Second Wedding (for both bride and groom): Small but lovely affair with mostly family, children from first marriage as the only attendants.<br />
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Brothers #2 and 3 - not married, no plans<br />
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Brother #4 - Big church wedding, however bride is from a large family herself so had all her sisters as attendants.<br />
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Brother # 5 - Been engaged for over 10 years. 2 kids. No plans for a wedding anytime soon.<br />
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Sister #2 - not married, no plans.<br />
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Sister # 3 - In a serious relationship but no wedding plans yet.<br />
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Sister #4 - Got engaged last year. Planning a destination wedding, and a big family reception on their return. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sister #5 - GOT ENGAGED LAST NIGHT!!</span><br />
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Brothers # 6 and 7 - no plans at present.<br />
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So I have my hopes raised yet again. There won't be a wedding for at least a year but I'm hopeful they might have a real full blown affair, with flowers and groomsmen and bridesmaids! Both parties have children from other relationships, just the right size to be flower girls and ring bearers! <br />
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Come on family, someone make me a bridesmaid before I'm too long in the tooth to be called a maid! I promise I won't even complain if you stick me in pink taffeta!CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-6132533893132454932012-11-08T09:06:00.002-05:002012-11-08T09:06:25.250-05:00Ryan's Tree<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCHxnuQ9qt8RFYcHFqcBofp3l5ktnyXGduMzxpi1GpasDJI3vFZbc_2s1LMzZQYijlh1q-7lKXojuNkGub2WM8F1qlCe-K-BR6o1rmuMQOnplMvZcB-ZEr4RNqaApcnmaZYR73YB2Row/s1600/Ryanstree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCHxnuQ9qt8RFYcHFqcBofp3l5ktnyXGduMzxpi1GpasDJI3vFZbc_2s1LMzZQYijlh1q-7lKXojuNkGub2WM8F1qlCe-K-BR6o1rmuMQOnplMvZcB-ZEr4RNqaApcnmaZYR73YB2Row/s400/Ryanstree.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
During the summer we had a new co-worker join the Urban Ag team at FoodsShare. Ryan joined us in July to work with Mike in the compost yard. Because we both worked primarily outdoors, I saw quite a bit of Ryan, although a lot of the time he had his earphones on; I'm sure music made working with smelly compost in the heat a bit more tolerable. When we did talk we spoke mostly of growing things- watering schedules, transplanting techniques and his love of bonsai. He helped me out a lot with the food forest, making sure eveything was well watered on the days I wasn't in. He told me about a Siberian birch tree that he had been growing in a container for a number of years which was in need of a permanent home. We decided it would be a nice addition to the forest garden so he brought it to work but for the longest time we didn't have a chance to actually plant it. Finally, on a beautiful Oct afternoon we found the the time and the perfect spot for it- a sunny location beside the dry stream bed where it would have lots of room to grow deep roots.<br />
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Five days later on Oct 14, Ryan passed away suddenly. The day we planted the tree was the last time I saw him. It seems fitting that the tree he grew from a tiny sprout will live on as his legacy, it's roots thriving in the healthy soil he help create and it's branches shading the spot where he worked.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><i>Ryan Dolmage 1975 -2012</i></span></span></div>
CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2896693730195830296.post-50526996739747355862012-11-06T11:48:00.000-05:002012-11-06T11:48:01.274-05:00Preserving Food is a Full Time Job<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpmOorGB0Yyv3E-5WUC4tA5dbJNl1G7Ckv6O2QBofccQOvv0CBjqfselYBHptvb1fTCBvaM2XrmSst-gV84YuID8LGImdCHSBHqWVx6salV2mV9hVKyAi1na2p7EGB30sJ1IsbYlzBqcw/s1600/Preserving+011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpmOorGB0Yyv3E-5WUC4tA5dbJNl1G7Ckv6O2QBofccQOvv0CBjqfselYBHptvb1fTCBvaM2XrmSst-gV84YuID8LGImdCHSBHqWVx6salV2mV9hVKyAi1na2p7EGB30sJ1IsbYlzBqcw/s400/Preserving+011.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Where does the time go? Back in Oct I took a week off work, my second of two paid vacation weeks this year. And do you know what glorious activities I did on my week's holiday?<br />
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I canned.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS_9W-yWcgNdAETKnOR_9gCkzKboFRb0zuQIds0K8ptLhChh_zd98NDcI_jlLx46v4of0I5b3sqnce0rSZZQjArVo7WV9LHR_J-k0joU-AphZwLR9DDESiGQyoQVdaChJzPivIBScRPhQ/s1600/Preserving+008.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS_9W-yWcgNdAETKnOR_9gCkzKboFRb0zuQIds0K8ptLhChh_zd98NDcI_jlLx46v4of0I5b3sqnce0rSZZQjArVo7WV9LHR_J-k0joU-AphZwLR9DDESiGQyoQVdaChJzPivIBScRPhQ/s320/Preserving+008.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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And dried.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwZ_NIRpYBqfhpBYnpzpntwo6x0pBICAjJp8wuhxmHbF4raDZGelsbckf9f9lT34Dp8qbxz5WThwe9w0wVJ9ecblaDa7k8smNiB6rw-izt6St-4RiFjt5QvlZd0MGuX_XnolzX97kGEGo/s1600/preserving+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwZ_NIRpYBqfhpBYnpzpntwo6x0pBICAjJp8wuhxmHbF4raDZGelsbckf9f9lT34Dp8qbxz5WThwe9w0wVJ9ecblaDa7k8smNiB6rw-izt6St-4RiFjt5QvlZd0MGuX_XnolzX97kGEGo/s320/preserving+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And froze.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiufq6ibLV26U71eqQXoKcNXH2nqOfHEAjf5s1NLIQ8bhxhv1lqdBeU2ao05g8XkR2mXrCmqsexh0k7PDFFHffpXnel_189-11vRjAm8IGO8hk2PSGltp2lQ9o4KNGIWkjrkI5UM7Jo4Ak/s1600/preserving+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiufq6ibLV26U71eqQXoKcNXH2nqOfHEAjf5s1NLIQ8bhxhv1lqdBeU2ao05g8XkR2mXrCmqsexh0k7PDFFHffpXnel_189-11vRjAm8IGO8hk2PSGltp2lQ9o4KNGIWkjrkI5UM7Jo4Ak/s320/preserving+004.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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And made salsa<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTe3iyE7MWJIZcuXNy132Wd32m-JP0KqBLWkoaR8_vucNqrYjkdgUz3FB0xX2k7AlC2iAjONgFUz2x-ioKDmlPg8hcXb00U5m86f5k5Lve7Vj_lwjx5kTGmm_AEEJfQnYwZN5BUSZIc0/s1600/FoodShare+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTe3iyE7MWJIZcuXNy132Wd32m-JP0KqBLWkoaR8_vucNqrYjkdgUz3FB0xX2k7AlC2iAjONgFUz2x-ioKDmlPg8hcXb00U5m86f5k5Lve7Vj_lwjx5kTGmm_AEEJfQnYwZN5BUSZIc0/s320/FoodShare+001.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div>
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And tomato sauce </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgc3m18HHP2YHpoAPlVwg_cBuHGCrnEq8YFVusrJQnkC5pC4dTnKKXj5oFyQAINlwKRLsKJuw8MbmqWLDjLp4bPy5epvGbVbOYjLZyXgkgp5_jAwoow2r749XKodOyKUOLp85DPnLqLw/s1600/preserving+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgc3m18HHP2YHpoAPlVwg_cBuHGCrnEq8YFVusrJQnkC5pC4dTnKKXj5oFyQAINlwKRLsKJuw8MbmqWLDjLp4bPy5epvGbVbOYjLZyXgkgp5_jAwoow2r749XKodOyKUOLp85DPnLqLw/s320/preserving+003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />And made cider<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LYirHvCik4quY8n2WOanD5JRaax5l_GLeIFwYBbDcwOj9aKsGSqRj094Cdu8NghhzvIwKAyhwqVBx5lw9YhIyp2rz6wWrnNYOmunVyEpFIgLnzqip3ZLAQzxVrAR7OMcRBVtNk_Cpyw/s1600/Preserving+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LYirHvCik4quY8n2WOanD5JRaax5l_GLeIFwYBbDcwOj9aKsGSqRj094Cdu8NghhzvIwKAyhwqVBx5lw9YhIyp2rz6wWrnNYOmunVyEpFIgLnzqip3ZLAQzxVrAR7OMcRBVtNk_Cpyw/s320/Preserving+006.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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And canned some more.<br />
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A week wasn't enough to do it all and I still couldn't find the time to post this. I finally finished the last of the canning yesterday (except for beets and maybe some more red onion jam) If, in previous posts (back when I didn't have regular employment outside of my house) I ever sounded a tad smug about my preserving activities, I take it all back. And to those of you who have kids AND jobs- I don't know how you find time to preserve anything at all! <br />
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<br />CallieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04991717349717389292noreply@blogger.com2