Glass Houses…

April 28, 2014

  

For years, Charming and I have been talking about building a greenhouse.  A greenhouse would free up space in our home by allowing us to grow seedlings in the greenhouse instead of in Charming’s office.  It would also allow us to extend our harvest.  It is possible to have home grown tomatoes during the winter months if you take cuttings (that have already been pollinated) from a late summer garden and let them continue to grow in a greenhouse or a very sunny and warm window in your home. 

Since the greenhouse can’t be built right away, we’ve had to improvise.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’ve used a small hoop house that Charming built and it has done a remarkable job of extending the harvest of our cabbage crop over the past few years.  However, the heavy snows this winter did some damage to the PVC pipes that form the base of that structure.  Although Charming will make repairs on that when he has time, we needed a quick fix to get some of our tomato seedlings out of Charming’s office.  (His office is not the neatest or biggest room in the house and the potting soil, watering cans, and trays of plants make it hard for him to move around in there.) 

Luckily, due to the kitchen renovation, we had some old windows stored in our shed, so Charming came up with a cold frame design that would fit the bill perfectly.  We needed something that could be constructed quickly, that would protect the young plants, and wouldn’t cost a lot (we’re both into cheap and easy…hmmm…maybe this is the reason our marriage has lasted as long as it has).

Charming used four of these windows along with a huge heavy plastic bag that he had saved after purchasing a new mattress.  The only hardware needed were screws, finishing nails, and two hinges for each cold frame.  With some minor disassembling, the hinges will allow us to store the cold frames flat when they’re not in use.  Tools that were used to put the cold frames together included a saw, a finish nail air gun, a drill, screws, and scissors.  With these items and the help of his “Lovely Assistant” (me!), Charming constructed two cold frames that only took a couple of hours to complete. 

The end product is functional and gives a “shabby chic” look to the garden.  You could really put these almost anywhere in your yard or beside your house.  We put our seedling trays into really large cake pans that I got from our local thrift store for $1.00 each.  We then added water to the bottom of the cake pan and placed the cold frame over the tray.

With a little sweat equity and a few recycled items, our seedlings can now enjoy the warm sunshine!

Lay windows flat and arrange hinges.

Use drill to fasten hinges in place.  (How 'bout that
"Lovely Assistant's" drilling capability?)

Hinges in place and ready for the next step.

Rolling plastic around wood strips and fastened in place.

The plastic will hold the heat within the cold frame so
the plants stay warm at night.

Adding a plastic flap to cover the gap at the top of this
cold frame offers extra protection to the fragile
seedlings in the event of an unexpected late frost.

Empty cold frame in the foreground.  Cold frame in background
houses about 18 seedlings.  Cold frames can be propped open
with bricks on warmer days so the plants don't get too hot.
They can also be lifted and moved for easy access to plants.

Dandy-Lions…

April 24, 2014

Yesterday I was dragging the fruit tree branches from the late winter pruning out to the street so that the good men employed by our Town could pick them up and take them to the landfill.  As I was tugging the branches through our shin-high grass, I made a mental note to give Charming the o.k. to cut the grass so that I could put the clippings around the snow peas, cabbage, and onions in our garden.  (As I’ve said before, this goes a long way to keeping the weeding to a minimum.)  Anyhow, as I walked across the lawn, I couldn’t help but notice the smiling faces of hundreds of sunny yellow dandelions that were scattered across our garden. 

Now that I’m older and my Momma and Daddy are both gone, my mind will often connect the dots between some ordinary item that I happen to see and immediately bring back memories of my childhood.  Dandelions are one of those things.  So when I saw those sunny yellow faces looking up at me from the lawn, my mind went back to the times that my Daddy would make “dandelion wine”.  Well, I guess I should specify that Momma was the one who actually made the wine.  Since she was the undeniable “Chief Cook” in the family, Daddy would tell her how to make it and she would carry out the process.  I guess it was a joint family effort.  I remember us kids picking the dandelions and a vague recipe that called for dandelions, water, sugar, and yeast.  There may have been more than that, but I vividly recall that it all got put into a big 5-gallon crock that would sit in the corner behind the wood stove until it was finished “working”.

So this morning, I’m looking at a small brown and cream colored crock that has been sitting overnight on my stove.  The crock is covered with make-shift cheesecloth (a laundry bag that is typically used to wash delicate clothes in…this is a great substitute for cheesecloth and it can be washed and re-used many times).  Inside the crock are the dandelions and water.  I did look up some recipes on the internet and am going to improvise and deviate a bit from Daddy’s recipe.  As Daddy would often say to me, “Nothing beats a try, but a failure.”  So here are some fast and loose directions that I’m going to follow for my brew. 

- Pick about a gallon of dandelion blooms. 

- Put the blooms in the crock. 

- Boil a gallon or so of water and pour over dandelion blooms. 

- Cover with cheesecloth (or delicate laundry bag) and let sit for 3 days. 

After the 3 days, strain the liquid into a large cooking pot.  (Squeeze as much liquid out of the dandelions as possible.)

- Add 2 pounds sugar, 2 entire chopped lemons, and 2 entire chopped oranges to the pot. (“Entire” means seeds, pulp, and peelings of the lemons and oranges.)  Boil for half an hour, with the top on the pot. 

- Cool mixture to lukewarm and pour back into the crock.

- Add 1 Tablespoon of yeast (can be either champagne yeast, if you’re already into making wine or regular yeast if you’re like me and just like to throw things together and see what happens).

- Cover with cheesecloth and let sit for 3 weeks until the bubbling stops.

- Filter through cheesecloth to strain out solids, and then bottle.

I’ve read several recipes and it seems you can add just about anything to dandelion wine to add flavor and/or color…this includes things like raisins or ginger root.  I would imagine that you could throw a few berries or other fruit into the mixture as well.  I also read that when you bottle the wine, you should poke a few pin holes into a balloon and put the balloon over the mouth of the bottle.  If you don’t have corks, this would keep out any unwanted pests and the bottle wouldn’t explode due to any remaining fermenting gases from the yeast.  Most recipes suggest that you let the wine sit for several months before drinking it.  That would be perfect timing for Charming and I to sit around the wood stove in the winter while sipping a taste of summer.  (I can envision it now…Vitameatavegamin, anyone?)

Everyone should have at least one of these crocks for
making wine, sauerkraut or other fermented foods.  I have
several that I bought at yard sales and thrift shops.

Close up of dandelions already covered in (boiling) water.

The dandelions and water will sit for three days before I
strain the mixture and then add more ingredients.

Spring Blossoms...

April 21, 2014

The past few days have been really nice here in The Valley.  Lawn mowers are buzzing everywhere around our house.  We haven’t cut our grass yet because we like to let it get a little shaggy before the first cut of the year.  (Yes, we are the nightmare neighbors that nobody wants to live next to…thank goodness we don’t have a home owners association or we’d be run out of the neighborhood for sure.)  As a result of letting our grass grow, we’ll have plenty of grass clippings to put between the plants in our vegetable beds.  If the garden bed is weed-free when you spread the grass clippings between the plants, it will save you a lot of weed pulling later on as the layer of grass will choke out the weed growth.  The clippings will also decompose naturally, which provides nutrients to your garden.  I consider this a win-win situation as you have a real reason to put off mowing your yarn and, when you finally do mow it, the clippings go in the garden instead of in your local landfill.

Our fruit trees are starting to bloom and our berry bushes and grapes are starting to set leaves as well.  As noted in a previous post (February 24, 2014 Fresh Off The Vine), I pruned our grape vine in late winter.  Then later I lightly pruned our little pear and peach trees, which aren’t very old.  We had to prune our plum tree really hard as it had gotten out of control and no longer wanted to be the “dwarf” tree that it was meant to be.  So the poor thing is looking a little ragged right now although it surprisingly has a few blooms on it.  Our “thornless” blackberry bushes are growing like gang busters!  My sister, Betty, gave me some canes from her blackberry bushes a couple of years ago and they have multiplied quite nicely.  We should have a fairly decent crop this year.  In addition, my rhubarb is up and the stalks are almost long enough to cut.  I can hardly wait for some fresh home-made Strawberry Rhubarb Slab Pie.  YUM!!!   (I’ll post that on the “Gluten-Free Recipes” tab within the next week or two when I make that.) 

Charming and I continue to work on the pavers in the garden.  It’s coming along nicely and we should have it done by the time we get everything planted in our garden.  I will post a picture of the finished product some time next month.  So far we’ve planted sweet potatoes, red potatoes, white potatoes, and blue potatoes.  (How’s that for being patriotic?!?!)  We’ve also got onions, snow peas, and lettuce coming up already.  We’re just waiting for warmer weather to set out our peppers and tomato plants, which are currently growing nicely in Charming’s office.

Spring is definitely the finest time of the year!

Despite our going crazy with the pruning shears, our
poor plum tree is still trying to give us fruit.  What a girl!

Last year, our pear tree had six pears...looks like we may
get a few more this year if all goes well.  

Heaven is a place where you get to eat
all the blackberries, sugar and cream that you
want...without getting a belly ache.
(Ooooohhhh...there's Max the Wonder Dog
in the background!)

Tart rhubard is a great addition to strawberry pies, but
the leaves are toxic so dispose of them properly.  

Oriental Noodle…

April 17, 2014

I missed a post on Monday because Charming and I decided to take a mini-vacation.  We loaded up our camper and drove to the small town of Oriental, North Carolina where they were having a boat show on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Oriental is a lovely little town that is located on the “inner banks” of North Carolina along the Neuse River.  The town is small and quaint with a population of about 900 people. 

For months now Charming has been reading books written by a guy called “Captain Fatty Goodlander”.  I’ve heard so much about Captain Fatty so often over the past few months that I’ve come to think of him as one of those extremely annoying family members who come to visit and just won’t leave.  I frequently hear Charming say things like, “Captain Fatty once bought a boat with a cannonball-sized hole in it for $1.57, repaired it with bubble gum and toothpicks then sailed it around the world without a smidgen of trouble”.  Of course, I’m exaggerating a bit here about the cost of the boat as well as the materials used to repair the boat, but that’s the way my ears heard it.  I think Charming is looking for the same boat deal.

When I married Charming almost ten years ago, I don’t recall him ever telling me that he has this great fascination with the sea.  If he did tell me, then it must’ve been one of those things that went through one ear and out the other one due to my being blinded (not to mention deafened) by love.  Nor did I think I’d ever be faced with having to set foot on a real boat as I’m a bit scared of water.  It’s all I can do to get in the shower and stay there for five minutes.  Because of what I like to call “The Baptism Incident with Pastor Andy,” I steer clear of water that’s over three inches deep.  “The Baptism Incident with Pastor Andy” is based on a real-life story…my story…as I remember it. 

I was six years old and my brother, Andy, was twelve.  Six of us kids had snuck off to the swimming hole that was about a quarter of a mile from our house.  I figure we had probably been to a church baptizing the previous Sunday and Andy got the idea that the rest of us were all sinners and needed to be “saved”.  So, like the sheep we were, we all lined up blindly ready to take our turns at being dunked under the holy waters of the Rush River in anticipation of being absolved of our sins (or such sins as the under eleven-year-old crowd can commit).  Terrified of the knee-deep water, I kept jumping out of line and going to the back…Jeff, Jim, Edie, Emily…all were quickly lowered into the water with a few words of the gospel recited to ensure that their little souls would make it to Heaven.  When my turn finally came (because there was no one left to hide behind), I stood there trembling in my little red shorts and striped top.  Pastor Andy put his hand over my mouth and nose and pushed me back into the cold water.  When the water rushed into my ears, I started to thrash and struggle in the water as if my life depended on it.  Pastor Andy tried to hold me still, which prevented me from getting out of the water.  Over forty years later, I can logically reason that he was trying to keep his hold on me so that I didn’t float on down the river…or at least that’s what I hope he was doing…but at the time it seemed like he was trying to get rid of an annoying little sister.  I’ve never liked the water since and subsequently have never learned to swim. 

But getting back to my original story…Charming and I drove from where we were staying at the campground in New Bern to the sweet little town of Oriental.  We easily found a parking spot on the street that was really close to the marina.  It was an absolutely perfect day.  The temperature was in the high 70’s and the sun was shining.  There was a wonderful breeze that greeted us as we got out of the truck and walked the short distance to the marina entrance.  After paying our entrance fee, we walked onto the pier and towards the boat slips where each boat was tied.  (You’ll have to bear with me as I may get some of this “sea” terminology wrong…Charming corrected me when I said we “walked the plank” in order to get to where the boats were tied.)  Charming eagerly jumped onto the first “blue water” boat that he saw and held out his hand for me to follow.  “Ummmmm…you go ahead, honey…I’m just going to stay here and look at the outside of the boat.”  After repeating this statement with several other boats, Charming caught on.  He firmly told me that I either needed to step onto the boat or we should leave as my standing on the dock for the entire time would not be fun for either of us.  Seeing the sense in that and not wanting to ruin his day of communing with the spirit of Captain Fatty, I put on my big girl panties and sucked up my fear.  With his assistance, as well as that of the boat salesman, I made the huge one-foot leap from the safety of the pier onto the deck of the boat.  Relief flooded over me, but my knees were somewhat shaky.  The salesman showed Charming the boat’s interior and chatted about his sailing experiences.  I just sort of lurked around the door in case the boat decided to sink.

Fortunately, looking at subsequent boats became a bit easier.  After a few hours, I realized that the inside of a boat looks very much like the inside of our camper.  By the end of the weekend, I could even envision myself sitting on the deck of a boat with my knitting or a book by my side and enjoying the ocean breeze blowing through my hair and waves lapping against the boat…just as long as the boat stays tied to the pier, I’ll be just fine.

View of the marina at Oriental, NC

Boats and more boats!

View from the end of the pier, looking east.

One of the many boats we saw.

Another boat...note the huge leap from the dock to the boat!

View from the boat's kitchen to the back.
Bed is on the left, bathroom is in the back.

Fully functional kitchen.  Note the "cabinets" above the
microwave, stove, and counter.  Refrigerator is built
into the counter top on the right.

Bed on the right with bathroom in the rear.

View from the back of the boat.  This guy is getting ready
to exit the boat and go back on deck, via the few steps
in front of him.

Headed for home!  (Max the Wonder Dog loves to travel.)

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme…

April 10, 2014

This past winter was hard on my herb garden.  We don’t usually have extremely cold and snowy winters here in Virginia, but this year the frigid temperatures and dampness brought on by the heavy snows pretty much killed off everything except my sorrel and lemon balm.  I wouldn’t have minded if some of the lemon balm had been killed off as I have to fight to keep it from putting out shoots to other parts of the herb garden.  Since Mother Nature decided to do a purging of sorts for me, I’m starting over this year.  I pulled out the old lavender, sage, and thyme plants as they did not show any signs of life.  My chives did not come up and nothing is coming up where the basil grew last year.  (Usually it self-seeds from the previous year.)  Oh, well, nothing like a fresh start.  

Yesterday, Charming used the Mantis tiller to till up one third (an area of about 4’x4’) of the bed so that I could plant new rosemary, dill, lavender, and parsley.  The sorrel that survived the winter is on the opposite end of the herb garden, along with the lemon balm.  Since Charming doesn’t trust me with the Mantis (I think he envisions an “I Love Lucy” episode with me being dragged across the yard by the thing), he will till the remaining two thirds of the area so that I can plant basil, thyme, chives, more lavender, and calendula in the coming weeks.

I love growing herbs!  They are easy to grow, most of them are naturally resistant to insects, they release wonderful smells into the surrounding air, many of them have medicinal properties and you can use them to jazz up your cooking.  Rosemary is my favorite herb.  I often make rosemary butter to spread on my gluten-free bread and biscuits.  This butter is great on any kind of bread, but can also be used to flavor vegetables such as cooked peas or corn.  Making herb butter is a snap so anyone can make it.  (It’s a great way to get young children interested in helping to prepare meals as it’s quick, easy, and doesn’t create a mess.) 

Rosemary Butter

4 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature

1 four-inch sprig of rosemary, washed

Holding the rosemary over your cutting board, firmly grasp the sprig close to the tip.  Use your fingers to pull backwards towards the cut end, against the growth of the needles, so that the spikes fall off the woody stem and land on your cutting board.  Using a sharp knife, chop up the rosemary into ¼” to ½” pieces. 

Place the softened butter in a small bowl and throw in the rosemary.  Using either a hand mixer or a fork, mix the butter and rosemary until well blended.  I usually let the butter sit for several hours or overnight to let the flavors meld.  You can either let the butter sit on your kitchen counter so that it remains soft (no, you won’t die from eating butter that’s been sitting at room temperature) or you can refrigerate it. 

Prior to going gluten-free, I used to make some really good Rosemary Foccaccia Bread.  I used this bread to make roast beef and provolone panini sandwiches.  Charming thought these were “awesome” and I always got favorable reviews from anyone who tried these.  I’ll add the recipe here instead of under the “Gluten-free Recipes” tab because these sandwiches are not…well…gluten-free.

Rosemary Foccaccia Panini Sandwiches

3 medium onions, chopped
¼ cup olive oil + 3 tablespoons, divided
1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 ½ cups warm water, divided

½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 teaspoon coarse salt for sprinkling

In a large skillet, saute onions in 1/4 cup oil until tender.  Let cool.  In a
large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water.  Add sugar and let
stand for 5 minutes.  Add 2 tablespoons oil, the salt and remaining water.
Add 2 cups flour.  Beat flour mixture until smooth.  Stir in enough remaining flour to
form a soft dough.

While the dough is still in the bowl, knead the dough until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.  Add onions and half of the rosemary; knead until these are incorporated into dough, about 1 – 2 minutes.  Place in a clean greased bowl, turning once to grease top.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 40 minutes.

Punch dough down.  Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half.  Pat each piece flat.  Let rest for 5 minutes.  Grease a jelly roll pan.  Using your fingers, press each piece of dough into a circle, fitting both pieces of dough onto the same jelly roll pan.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.

Brush with remaining oil.  Sprinkle with coarse salt and remaining rosemary.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. 

For Roast Beef and Provolone Sandwiches:

Cut each “loaf” of bread into four equal quarters, then slice each quarter horizontally so that you have a top and a bottom for each sandwich.  Layer roast beef and provolone onto bottom pieces of bread, then add top portion of bread.  Lay two sandwiches at a time onto a contact grill or panini press.  Grill for 5 – 7 minutes or until cheese is melted and roast beef is heated through.  Yum!

Making Rosemary Butter.  Stripping the
rosemary for rosemary butter.

Mixing the rosemary into the butter.

Charming says...Yum!!!!

Pave The Way…

April 6, 2014

Last year at the end of the summer, I got the spectacular idea that our vegetable garden could rival the groomed and manicured floral gardens of Europe…if it only had brick red pavers between the vegetable beds.  Now, it is not lost on me that I’m extremely fortunate to have such a wonderful husband who will even entertain my work-intensive “spectacular ideas,” let alone carry them out.  (However, I must take a teensy weensy bit of credit here for my “husband management skills”.  This is also a labor intensive effort for me that requires some patience on my part.  I start with making a comment about how nice our little postage stamp town lot garden would look if it just had those brick red pavers between the vegetables beds.  Then a couple of days later, I mention how much a “formal” vegetable garden would add to the re-sale of our home thirty years down the road when we have to sell it in order to go live in a nursing home.  Then a day or two later…the clincher…how happy it would make me to eat supper in the open air near the vegetable garden with beautiful brick red pavers between the vegetable beds.) 

So, a little over a week after the spectacular idea occurred to me, Charming and I drove to Walmart where we bought about a gazillion pavers and loaded them into the bed of the truck.  We went home and off-loaded them where they sat for a couple of weeks.  By the time we got around to putting them down, the weather was turning colder.  We decided to put them down anyway, without taking the time to put down weed block…huge mistake. 

Weeds and grass grew up between the blocks with fierceness that I just wish our vegetables possessed.  So this spring we’re pulling up the pavers and putting down the weed block and sand.  Yesterday, we spent pretty much all day in the garden pulling up pavers, cleaning them, putting down the weed block fabric and sand, and then putting the pavers back in place. 

After the work, I suggested that Charming take a hot shower and take some ibuprofen to help stave off some of the stiffness that he would most likely feel today.  He took the shower, but declined the ibuprofen.  So today he’s having muscle aches…the pain in the bum type of muscle aches…as a result of the constant getting up and down while working with the pavers.  Guess I need to work on my “husband management skills” a bit more.

This is a work intensive project, both the paver project and the ongoing “husband management skills” project, but in the end both projects will be well worth the effort.  

Weed-covered pavers.

Progress...

Finished section, covered with sand that will fill the cracks.

Shine On…

April 3, 2014

I told you in my last post about a book I purchased entitled “Little House in the Suburbs” written by Deanna Caswell and Daisy Siskin.  In that book there are quite a few recipes for skin care products and household cleaning products.  It’s a good book and reminded me that I should probably share a few “health care” recipes that I’ve come up with on my own.  The first one is for those of you who, like me, feel you may have a little too much shine on your face.  I can’t blame my shine on hormones because it’s been like this since I was a teenager.

I used to purchase facial cleansing cloths from Walmart (the Walmart brand costs between $4 - $5 per pack).  A pack of forty would last me close to a month as I sometimes had to clean my face a couple of times a day in order to control my shine.  An older lady that I worked with when I was in my early twenties once promised me that when I got into my fifties I’d be glad that I had oily skin.  Well, I’ve been in my fifties for a couple of years now and I still am not happy that I have oily skin.  Perhaps the 50’s are the new teens because I still get what the TV commercials politely call “unsightly break-outs”. 

I’ve tried many products to help keep the oil and shine on my face under control, but the price of those products never really justified the results.  So I began making my own face wipes.  I reasoned that if I concocted my own skin care potions the worst that could happen was that my face would…ummmmm…break out.  Also, I reasoned that the lab rats in the beauty product industry would be able to breathe a little easier knowing that one less person was depending on their little hides for experimentation. 

For my face wipes I use paper towels, cut into four equal sized pieces.  I then fold them and let them soak in the witch hazel liquid.  I have thought about using cotton fabric squares for this purpose.  These could be washed and re-used almost indefinitely, but I haven’t found the time in my schedule to sit down and make them.  So for now I just use the paper towels and the following recipe.  I only make enough to last a couple of weeks at a time so that my supply stays fresh and does not develop bacteria.

Facial Cleansing Recipe

4 paper towels (I use the Costco brand, which are a very generous size)

1/3 cup Witch hazel (cheap at Walmart)

1 teaspoon raw honey (often available at Farmers’ Markets or local bee keepers)

3 drops lavender, tea tree, or frankincense essential oil (doTERRA brand is great)

Plastic container with lid to store them in

With ingredients at room temperature put the witch hazel, honey and essential oil the container.  Stir the ingredients until well combined.  Add the paper towels that you have already cut and folded by gently placing them into the mixture.  Before all the liquid is fully absorbed, quickly turn them over in the container to make sure the ones on the bottom get some of the solution on them as well.  Flip them back over.  The solution will seep into all of the wipes and will be moist by the time you use them.  Store the container in a cool area, such as a cabinet or drawer, to further discourage growth of mold. 

NOTE:  This recipe may not work for everyone, but it works for me better than anything I’ve tried so far.  In the rare instance that your face develops sensitivity to this mixture, just discontinue its use.  For those of you who are not familiar with witch hazel it is a natural astringent made from the witch hazel shrub, which grows in the eastern part of the United States from Maine to Florida.  In the past, it was often used by Native American Indians for medicinal purposes.  Today it’s mainly used on bruises, sores, and in commercially made skin care products.  It’s also used by odd ducks like me who lay away at night trying to think of more natural ways to remove harsh chemicals from my home and tread lightly on the earth.

Add 1/3 cup witch hazel to container.

1 teaspoon of raw honey.

3 drops of essential oil such as lavender, tea tree,
or frankincense and stir to thoroughly combine.

Add pre-cut paper towels, flip to ensure all get some
of the solution on them and let sit to soak.  Then they are
ready to use.  (Wipes will be slightly caramel colored from
the honey, but this does not affect performance.)