Fun With Family…

June 30, 2014

As you may have noticed, I didn’t post to the blog last Thursday.  Even though I’m no longer “working outside the home” there still never seems to be enough time to do everything that I want to do.  

Last Thursday was designated as a “girls get-together day”.  This has been a fairly regular event for a small group of women in my family.  Two of my sisters, three of my aunts, two of my cousins and I all met at my Aunt Mary Jane’s house for lunch.  Although we all live either in the same town or neighboring towns and see each other individually on a regular basis, it was really nice to get together as a group for a few hours of uninterrupted chit-chat.  There was plenty of great food in a cozy atmosphere.  No restaurant could compare to Aunt Mary Jane’s.

At one point, old pictures were being circulated and we spent a while trying to guess who was who in the photos.  There was also a lot of reminiscing about our grandparents and great-grandparents.  Since I was the youngest there and never had the pleasure of knowing my great-grandparents, it was intriguing to find out that my great-grandmother smoked a pipe and also chewed snuff.  According to the stories, she was also a very small woman who, in her old age, could squat on the ground to work and stay there for hours.  (At half her age, I have a hard time kneeling in the garden to pull weeds.  Boy, those mountain women were hardy folk!) 

Speaking of mountain women and the old times reminds me that I haven’t given you an update recently on the progress on my braided rug.  It’s grown quite a bit since I last showed it to you.  It now hangs off of the four-foot table that I use as a work surface.  (This table is also the one that will be used in my kitchen when Charming finishes the renovation.)  I still have about five more rounds to go, and it’s slow going at this point, but it should be finished within the next month or so.  Below is a picture that I took a couple of weeks ago. 

Regarding family…all I can say is if you get the smallest opportunity to spend some time with your family…grab it!  All it takes is a few old photos and the merest mention of the old days and the conversation will flow like a river.  Trust me, you’ll enjoy it and come back for more as family is more important than anything!

A close-up of the rug.

The rug is big enough now that it hangs off of the table.  (Our
cat, Walker, gets to go for a spin as I rotate it to lace the braids.
Strange, but he doesn't seem to think that's a lot of fun.)

I think it looks rather nice under the table and should look even
better once it's finished and actually in the kitchen.

The Beauty of Lemon Balm…

June 23, 2014

  

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is a member of the mint family.  For the past few years, I have grown it in my herb garden where it has expanded and expanded and expanded.  When it finally made the leap across the cinderblock barrier, which lies between my herb garden and the yard, I knew I had to do something.  So this year I dug it up and unceremoniously plopped it into a good-sized planter.  At the time, I didn’t care if it survived or not.  However, it seems to be thriving. 

I don’t mean to disparage lemon balm.  It’s a wonderful herb and has many uses.  First of all, it has a light refreshing lemon scent.  It has been used commercially in furniture polish, cosmetics and medications.  It can be dried and added to potpourri to make your home smell nice.  It can also be added sparingly to salads or when cooking pork to add a light lemony taste.  It has been studied for its effectiveness in lowering blood pressure, as an aid in the healing of both oral and genital herpes due to its anti-viral properties, as a sleep aid and stress reliever, as a digestive aid, and even in treating agitation associated with Alzheimer’s disease. 

I make a tea of lemon balm by collecting four or five sprigs from the plant, wash them and remove any questionable parts, then add them to a medium-sized sauce pan of boiling water.  I let it steep for about seven minutes (with the lid on the pan to preserve all the good stuff before it evaporates).  I then remove it from the heat and let it sit for about a half hour.  The tea can be flavored with honey, agave syrup, sugar, or your favorite sweetener.  You can drink it hot or cold; either way, it’s a pleasant and natural drink.

The prolific lemon balm plant seems to have a lot going for it and although I would stop short at saying you should plant it in your herb garden, I firmly believe it is a great container plant that you can sit next to your garden.

A close-up of my lemon balm.  The leaves are rough and smell
like lemons when you rub it between your fingers or crush it in your hand.

Although I usually cut it off with the weed eater, I let this "escapee"
lemon balm grow for a week so you can see how a crop of it can
develop rather quickly.  (Remember...it's definitely a "thinks
outside the box" type of herb, so keep that in mind when deciding
on a location if you choose to add it to your garden.)

A container of lemon balm that sits near the edge of my garden,
beside the compost bins.  My particular plant seems to be tolerant
of almost any condition...dry, wet, sun or shade.

A cold glass of lemon balm tea is refreshing after working
in the garden on a hot summer morning.

Self-Sufficiency 101…

June 19, 2014

I woke up this morning and couldn’t think of one thing to blog about, so I cut myself some slack and told myself that it wouldn’t hurt a thing to skip a post.  There.  That decision was made.  However, later in the day I was reading through a “freebie” magazine that I had picked up at our local Tractor Supply store and there was a quote from John Seymour that read, “You do not need 5 acres and a degree in horticulture to become self-sufficient…self-sufficiency is about taking control and becoming an effective producer of whatever your resources allow.”  That really resonated with me as I had read his book, “The New Self-Sufficient Gardener” about a year ago.

For those of you who don’t already know…John Seymour was an English author (and much more) who was born in 1914 and died in 2004.  He worked many different kinds of jobs during his lifetime, but he is best known as one of the first to promote the “self-sufficiency” movement.  He wrote books that covered the topics of self-reliance, personal responsibility, growing your own food, and living the joys of living a simple life. 

After I thought about his quote, I took a walk outside around our small, in-town, .33 acre lot with a run down ranch house and took stock of the things that Charming and I have accomplished over the past six or seven years.  The first thing we did when we settled in here was to establish a small back yard garden.  Then Charming built an arbor-type structure that would support a grapevine.  After that, we put in an herb garden and enlarged our garden to include thirteen 4’x8’ vegetable beds with walk ways in between.  Over the years, we added a pear tree, a plum tree, and a cherry tree.  Then we added a blackberry patch, which will grow bigger each year unless we thin it out.  We also added a rhubarb plant and two blueberry bushes.  In addition, several years ago we started composting our kitchen scraps and catching rain water to use for our garden.  None of this was done overnight.  We started small and have added a little each year and are slowly making our way towards self-sufficiency.  We see being self-sufficient as the “Holy Grail” of modern day living, especially in these tough economic times. 

I often hear my Daddy’s voice telling me (when I was a youngster) that I should learn to do as much for myself as I possibly could because “even if you never have to do it, you’ll know how to do it.”  These are words to live by, especially as it relates to growing your own food and working towards self-sufficiency.  The knowledge you gain on the pathway to becoming self-sufficient/self-reliant is something that no one can take from you.

John Seymour’s words are also true…you don’t need to own a farm, a tractor, or a herd of animals to become more self-sufficient, you just need to make up your mind to rely a little more on your own skills and a little less on the skills of others.  

Over the years, our garden has grown from a small, straight-row
garden to this easy-to-maintain multi-bed garden with paved pathways.
Although you can put as much money into a garden as you can
afford, all it really takes to grow vegetables is dirt, seeds, and a little elbow grease.

Charming built this arbor-type structure to support our Concord grapevine,
but grapevines can also be supported by attaching them to an outside garage (or shed)
wall or a deck post.  (Just be sure to keep them pruned so that they don't get too
heavy for the support.)  Beneath our grapevine is an herb garden with parsley,
rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme, dill, sorrel, chives, and lavender.  Most herbs
can easily be grown, from seeds, in planters on a deck or in a windowsill.

Our grapevine is full of grapes that should be ripe in the
August/September time frame.

Our blackberry patch was started with just a few free canes
provided by my sister, from her generous-sized blackberry patch.

We bought two blueberry bushes from the "end of the season"
bargain bin at Tractor Supply a couple of years ago.  If you look
really close, you'll see that the bush is producing berries.

This cucumber plant was a "volunteer" that came up on its
own, in the same spot where we had cucumbers last year.

We bought these compost bins at Costco.  They were a little pricey,
but it's now much easier for me to turn the compost by simply rotating the bin
than it was when we had the compost in bins on the ground and had to turn it
with a shovel.  Compost is made from kitchen scraps, grass clippings, dried leaves,
etc.  It's great for your vegetable plants AND you can make it for free!

We just purchased this wood splitter last week (from Tractor Supply, of course).
I finally convinced Charming that the cost of the wood splitter would be much less than the
cost of rotator cuff surgery if he continued to split truckloads of wood with an axe.  (He
just told me the other day that he was glad I convinced him to buy it.)  And
considering that our heating bill last year was about $125 vs the thousand or so that it
would've been had we heated entirely with oil, I think the wood splitter will actually pay
for itself.

Our water storage system for watering our garden is made from three
trashcans that we purchased at Walmart.  Charming cut a hole in the lid
of the trashcan (on the right) and cemented in a kitchen strainer to
filter debris out of the water as it comes down from the gutter.  He also added
spigots to the front of each trashcan with short lengths of garden hose
that make it easy to fill the watering cans.  There are also "overflow" pipes that go
from the highest trashcan to the lowest one so that the water spills over from one trashcan
to the next as it rains.  Each trash can holds 96 gallons of rain water, so we
normally have plenty of water for our garden even during dry spells.
(NOTE:  Many Cooperative Extension Offices hold free or low-cost workshops on how
to make your own garden watering systems.)

More Snow Peas, Please…

June 16, 2014

I’m sure most of you are tired of me going on and on about how much I love stir-fried vegetables, but I can’t seem to help myself.  My love of stir-fry is only exceeded by my love of growing vegetables for my stir-frys.  These two things go hand-in-hand and make for a healthier lifestyle.  A little brown rice, vegetables from my garden and some meat for flavoring and I’ve got myself a cheap, tasty and healthy meal.

A great addition to a spring garden and stir-fry is snow peas.  I absolutely love them!  Since I don’t use pesticides or anything else on my garden, I often eat a few of them right off the vine as I’m harvesting them.  I don’t worry so much about bits of dirt on them.  I just brush ‘em off and eat ‘em.  (As my Momma would often say, “You gotta eat a peck of dirt before you die.”)  Fresh snow peas are sweet and crunchy with a little bit of Heaven thrown in for good measure. 

So far this year hasn’t been great for my green beans or asparagus beans, but my snow peas are growing like gangbusters.  I started harvesting them last week and we had our first stir-fry with them.  It was awesome!  I have also frozen five or six packages of the snow peas for later use.  This morning, I was out in the garden at 7:30, picking another batch for the freezer.  I’m telling you, there’s nothing more beautiful than looking at snow peas with the early morning sun as a backdrop.  Their bright spring green color and the silhouette of seeds against the sun is absolutely amazing…at least it is to gardeners and lovers of stir-frys like me.

Our garden beds are 8’x4’ beds.  We’ve had good rain over the past few weeks, so our snow pea crop is bountiful.  I’ve been picking the snow peas every other day and that seems to make them happy…and, of course, it makes me extremely happy as too soon the snow pea season will be behind us. 

However, always planning ahead for the next growing season, I am letting some of the snow peas stay on the vines for next year’s crop.  I have tied string around the ones I intend to save for seed.  These particular pods are big, have 7 – 9 peas within the pod, and do not have blemishes on them.  Just like people, the healthiest seeds will usually produce healthy offspring so you’d want to save the best in order to have the best chance for a good crop in the future.  Ideally, the tagged peas will produce nice, fat peas/seeds.  After they dry on the vine, I will pull them off, remove the peas from the pod, and place them on a tray to dry completely.  Then I’ll put them into an envelope and label and date them.  (I don't know if this is the way everyone does it, but it works for us.)  These seeds will be stored in the freezer with the rest of our seeds until next spring when we’ll, hopefully, have…more snow peas, please!

Snow peas in the early morning sun.  Now tell me that isn't
one of the most beautiful sights on earth.

Before freezing, I wash the snow peas and snip the ends off.

Then blanch them (dunk them in hot water) for two minutes.

Using my handy dandy FoodSaver to vacuum-seal them before
storing them in the freezer.  Yummmmmm!

Seed Saver…

June 12, 2014

In my post entitled “Good Food” (January 17, 2014), I showed a picture of a Napa cabbage that we over-wintered in our garden.  We let that particular cabbage continue to grow so that we could save seed from it.  The cabbage produced blooms and was absolutely covered with seed pods.  Since obtaining Napa cabbage plants at local stores and nurseries in the spring and fall is hit or miss, it’s great to be able to count on growing our own from seed.

We eat stir-frys quite frequently and Napa cabbage is the absolute best cabbage for stir-frys.  It keeps that nice green color and retains a nice crunchy texture when cooked.  We throw in a few onions, the Napa cabbage, and a few snow peas (which are growing like gangbusters in my garden right now and will be frozen for use later) and you’ve got a great, healthy meal.  Napa cabbage also stores really well.  We’ve left it in the garden under a cold frame and ate it in January…any place cool or refrigerator-like will keep it stored for as long as a few months. 

After the seed pods had matured and turned brown, I cut the stalks off at the base and placed them in a clean, dry wheel barrow to finish drying.  I left the wheel barrow in a hot, dry area until the seeds started opening.  Yesterday I sat down and removed the seed pods from the stalk.  I did this by holding the stalk upside down over an up-turned trashcan lid and running my hand down the length of the stalk.  The seed pods readily fell into the trashcan lid.  I then simply crunched the seed pods lightly in my hand.  This worked well and almost all of the seeds fell out of the seed pods.  It was then easy to just separate the seed pods from the seeds.  I put the spent seed pods into my cabbage bed where they will compost on their own.  The seeds were then taken to the kitchen and dropped into a colander (the type you use to drain spaghetti) and that took out almost all of the bits of chaff that were left over from the seed pods.  I then put the seeds on a plate and put it in a safe, dry place where it will not be disturbed for several weeks (on the top shelf of a metal plant rack in Charming’s office where pets can’t get to the plate).  After that, I will package the seeds in envelopes that are clearly labeled and dated.  Seeds can be stored in the freezer.

In July, I will plant some of the seeds and we should have Napa cabbage for stir-fry meals during the winter.  If you’ve never saved seeds from your favorite vegetables, you really should give it a try.  It’s easily done, saves you a little money, and you get to see the entire life cycle of the plant.  It’s an absolutely amazing experience.

Napa cabbage seed pods.  One plant will produce
hundreds...maybe even thousands...of seed pods.

Separating the seed pods from the seeds.  (You can simply
shake them, run your hand down the length of the plant
stalk, or hitting the stalk against the inside of a container
such as a bucket or trashcan.)

Separating the seeds from the seed pods.  Tilt the trashcan lid
and the seeds (because they're heavier than the seed pods) will
roll toward the bottom of the lid, making separation of the pods
easy.  Empty pods can be composted or thrown into your
designated cabbage bed. 

Seeds can be dropped through a colander to further separate
them from bits of plant matter.  After drying the seeds for
several weeks on a plate or tray, they are ready to be
packaged, labeled, and dated.  Seeds can be stored in the freezer.

Toasty Toes…

June 9, 2014

As I mentioned in a previous post (March 20, 2014 Switch Knitting), I’ve started knitting in the “Continental” style.  This has proven to be much easier on my hands and I knit faster so projects get completed much sooner than before.

Last Tuesday, I started knitting a new pair of socks.  I had bought some sock yarn at Michael’s craft store because I really liked the teal color.  The yarn I purchased is Lion Brand’s Sock-Ease.  The color is called Taffy.  It is wool yarn, but has aloe added into the yarn.  I’m guessing that the added aloe is intended to make the yarn softer next to the skin. 

So I started the socks last Tuesday and will finish them today.  This is record completion time since I usually only knit when I’m waiting at doctor appointments, at local political meetings that I attend with Charming, or when I’m a passenger in a car.  The pattern that I normally use for socks was given to me by a friend.  It’s pretty much straight knitting (except for the knit 2, purl 2 ribbing at the top of the sock) in the round, using size 0 circular knitting needles.  I knit both socks on the circular needles at the same time.  Much of the sock yarn available these days is self-striping.  This means that the colors (stripes) are dyed into the yarn so the knitter doesn’t have to change yarns in order to change colors.  This allows the knitter to blissfully continue to knit, without the hassle of deciding what colors to add next. 

I have made many pairs of socks over the years.  Some I have given away as presents, some I have entered into the local county fair and won first place ribbons.  Most I have kept for myself.  Right now, I have twenty-five pairs in my sock drawer.  I also have three “trophy” pair hanging on my studio wall and several pair just lying around the house in odd places…sort of like spare change.

If you’ve ever had a pair of hand-knitted socks, you’ll know that there’s nothing like the comfort that you get from wearing them in the winter time and they last forever.  I have even been known to match my sock to my shirts, which makes for a really nice look when I wear open backed clogs/shoes in the fall and winter.  The “Prepper” in me also takes great comfort in the fact that I have a month’s worth of beautiful socks, without ever having to wear the same pair twice.  Now how many people do you know who can say that?

My latest pair of nearly-completed socks.

TaDa!  My sock drawer...twenty-five pair of warm and cuddly
socks just waiting for cold weather.  (Note the green and pink
pairs folded at the top right of the picture.  Those have yet to
be even tried on.)

My trophy wall of socks.  I have other knitted projects
such as a felted purse, baby sweater set, a scarf, and
a knitted-then-braided rug that have won fair
ribbons as well.  (Oh look...to the left of the bottom
pair of socks, on the desk...there's a "spare change" pair
of blue socks that haven't yet made it to my sock drawer.)

If You Can’t Beat ‘em, Eat ‘em…

June 5, 2014

Still no sign of my cat so I've spent a great deal of time on walking through the neighborhood, putting up posters, and generally fretting about our loss.  I apologize for this and my last post.  Probably not the most interesting stuff for you to read, but it's the best I can come up with while juggling with searching for my sweet little "Powder Kitty" and getting my regular chores done.  Please bear with me...

As you know, I spend a lot of time in the garden.  There are all kinds of chores to do in a garden:  planting, watering, transplanting, pest control, weed control, and harvesting.   Next to pest control, weed control is one of the least appealing chores and I am constantly trying to find ways to minimize the time spent in my effort to rid the garden of weeds.

As soon as our plants are in the garden and stable, we put grass clippings around the plants.  The slow decomposition of the grass clippings provides vital nutrients to the plants, they help keep moisture in the ground and they help prevent weed growth.  I do, however, let some “weeds” grow on purpose.  There are even a few that I actively encourage.  My April 24, 2014 post was about making dandelion wine.  I also occasionally throw the young green dandelion leaves into our salads in the spring time.  They taste a bit peppery, so they add a little zip to the salad and they’re perfectly safe to eat as long as no pesticides have been applied to them.  I also encourage the growth of purslane in my garden; although I do try to keep it confined to a small area until it grows to a transplant-able stage.  I then re-plant it into a dedicated container for this crop. 

Many people don’t know purslane by name, but they usually recognize it as a prolific weed when they see pictures of it.  It is a relative of moss rose, which is a pretty little low-growing plant with brightly colored blooms.  Both moss rose and purslane have fleshy succulent leaves.  If left to grow, purslane will develop small yellow flowers and will then set seed and multiply…all over the place.  Purslane is a "Preppers" dream crop as it grows almost anywhere, is drought tolerant, extremely prolific, readily re-seeds without any help from humans, and you can eat it raw or cooked.  

Purslane is very high in omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid or ALA).  Research has shown that the typical American diet does not provide enough omega-3 fatty acids and the lack of omega-3's has been linked to such illnesses as heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.  Purslane containes more vitamin E than spinach and more beta carotene than carrots.  It's also rich in magnesium.

I often add purslane to salads and also use the tender, young stems on sandwiches.  Sometimes I cook brown rice, add a tablespoon of butter, fresh herbs from my herb garden (sage, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and oregano) and about a quarter cup of purslane (without stems).  I find this quite tasty and I like the idea of eating a meatless meal at least once a week.  Charming doesn't even realize that he's eating weeds unless I tell him.  If you have purslane growing in your yard or garden, give it a try...you might find that you like it, too.

New purslane growing in my garden.  I gently pull this up and
transplant it into containers where it will grow until it's time
to harvest.

A container crop of purslane.  I harvest from this container
to get purslane for my salads, sandwiches, and rice dishes.
(Oh look...on the left side of the picture...my weeds have weeds!)

There Will Be THOSE Kinds of Days...

Today is one of THOSE days.  Charming was working late yesterday evening on the kitchen renovation and didn't close the outside door tightly.  So Powder (the youngest and more adventurous of our two cats) slipped outside when we weren't looking.  We didn't realize that he was gone until I was washing the supper dishes and noticed our other cat, Walker, trying to make a break for it while the door was still ajar.  (It's not that I'm a bad cat mother, it's just that the kitchen is now L-shaped and the back door is not visible from the sink unless one intentionally leans to the left and looks over the shoulder.)  After a quick check of the entire house, we concluded that Powder was gone.  Charming and I spent quite a bit of time outside last night shining flashlights around every possible hiding place where Powder might be.  We did not find him.

We were already committed to driving my brother to the airport (2-hour drive each way) this morning, so it was well into the afternoon when we returned home.  We canvassed the neighborhood calling for Powder and shaking the bag of treats that normally brings him running.  Nothing.  I phoned the local animal shelter and gave them a description of him and our contact info, so we're hoping that he'll come back to us somehow.  Since I'm so bummed out about Powder's running away from home, today's regular post will need to wait until Thursday.  Hopefully, my little bad kitty will be home by then.

An usual "quiet moment" for Powder Kitty.  (Looking like
the angel that he's NOT.)

Powder Kitty on the right and Walker on the left.

Walker on the left, Powder on the right and Max The Wonder Dog
in the background.  They're like the Three Musketeers and
can usually be found together.