Plarn Bag

I finally finished the plarn shopping bag that I started! It turned out pretty good though I think I could have made it a bit bigger. It used about 35 plastic bags! Preparing the plarn took much longer than the actual crocheting part. This one is going to be for my mom but after Christmas I think I will make another one for myself.

What to do with all those pumpkins????

Well here is one thing we did!! Meet Jack, the scarecrow. His head is made from that super cute little Jack-o-lantern pumpkin that grew at the side of the house - the only one of the lot that was actually planted on purpose!

The kids are going to carve some more jack-o-lanterns this week out of the volunteer pumpkins that we have about 10 of! And next year - I will NOT let ALL the volunteers grow!!!!!!! I will transplant several to the front garden where they can sprawl at will and the rest of the space will be used for EDIBLE squash!

Mmmmmmm, Baked Beans. . . .

This year we grew so many dried beans that I decided to try canning some. I love the dried beans in soups and chili but I don't make baked beans often because of the time it takes. I'm always looking for new ways of using dried beans - they're so healthy and incredibly easy to grow.

So I tried canning a couple of small jars of beans - expecting the whole time that they would just end up a yucky mushy mess. Was I ever surprised! I had precooked them a tiny bit (I did not want them to expand too much and burst the jars) packed them into jars and covered with a small amount of water. After 30 minutes processing in the pressure canner I took them out and could see that they had at least held their shape, though a few looked quite split. That was 2 weeks ago. Today I opened a jar and dumped it into a pot, added about the same amount of homemade ketchup (that I had also canned a couple weeks ago)a dollop of molasses, a pinch of dry mustard and a handful of chopped ham. I heated it up for about 5 minutes and Ta-Da - "baked" beans! I did not add any extra sugar and no salt so really this is a very healthy and very quick meal. The beans had canned PERFECTLY! They had held their shape well and were firm but soft, not at all mushy. They were almost indescribably good!

Blue cornbread.

This year I grew a couple of varieties of corn for flour. The Six Nations Blue was probably the coolest one of all, though I have yet to harvest and try the Mesquakie Indian. This blue corn was great right from planting to eating! It grew very well, produced better than any of the other corns I have planted, looked very cool on the cob as it was drying and even cooler in the jar after I shelled the cobs and best of all it tasted AWESOME! I have never eaten cornbread made from fresh ground, homegrown corn. There is just nothing like it. The only drawback to it that I have considered so far is that it pretty much looks like a big pile of mold on the plate!!! Looks are deceiving though - it tasted wonderful!

Full pantry!

Well it is nearly the end of September and once again we managed to fill our allotted pantry space to capacity. Every year we get a bit more out of the garden and stored for winter and this year is no exception. A few things did not do so well this, like the apples! This is the first year in many that I have no applesauce :-( But we made up for it with more cherries and apricots -thanks to my friends who shared their bounties! We have enough beans this year for many pots of soup, stews, casseroles and chili. More dried fruit than ever. And some news things to try such as naked seeded pumpkin seeds (yummy!) and blue corn for flour! I will be processing tomatoes and pears for a few weeks still and there is still more beans to bring in and shell.



This is the jar of corn for flour - I can't wait to make some cornbread with it!



And part of our pumpkin harvest! There are still 3 more in the garden. These are all volunteers and while it is kind of cool to have them I really would have rather had edible squash in their place!!



Mmmmmmm. . . dried fruit!

Finally some garden produce!

We've been eating from the garden for a while now but it seems like everything took forever to grow this year. The lettuces did great with the cool, wet spring but everything else is just starting to produce now. The poor melons are half the size they should be! We picked and ate the first ripe tomato on Aug 15th - several months later than my original plan!! At least we seem to be getting lots now.

Here's a sampling of whats in the garden now . . .

These are Vermont cranberry beans. Only one seed germinated of the six I planted (I did put them in very early) so I am saving all the crop for seed next year. It is by far the prettiest bean I have ever grown!



These are the Jeune De Joubs yellow carrots - the kids really like them. I liked the taste too but more importantly I liked the fact they grew better than any other carrots I have grown to date! I hope they store as well as they grow.



And some yummy broccoli. I am going to try growing some under a hoop house this fall as well.



Isn`t this the cutest little pumpkin? I can't wait til it turns orange but in the meantime is is the most wonderful shade of dark green. It is smaller than the other pumpkins from the volunteer plants but it is so perfectly round!



And a random picture of a beet! I ate all the beets already. Mmmmmm beets. I love them roasted with garlic. Mmmmmmmmmm. I did plant some more a few weeks ago, I hope they get big enough store for winter.

Rocks and Fossils

Last week we went and collected a few big boulders (OK - maybe it was a bit more than a few!) from near Monte Lake. We brought them home so the kids could search them for eye agates without fear of being run over. We dumped the rocks on the cement and leisurely picked and hammered away until we had collected a nice selection of agates that looked promising. I've done this a few times and each time I manage to find a few nice pieces but I am still eagerly looking for something really worthy of a collection!

Anyway - into the tumbler they went for the first round. Today I washed them and checked to see what we got. Although the elusive collectors specimen has still not made an appearance we did manage to get a few nice pieces. I separated out the ones that are ready for the next step and put the rest back with some other miscellaneous rocks that needed more time in the coarse grit. I think I will take another trip out soon and see if we can get some more.

These are some pictures of some of the nicer ones we got.

Spring . . . .where are you!!!!

Aggghhh, Is it ever going to warm up this year?? Last year we were harvesting lettuce from the garden in late March - this year the plants are barely 2 inches tall in the middle of April!

Fieldtrip to Gorts Gouda

We went on a fieldtrip this week with our homeschool group. It was a great day and the kids had a ton of fun playing with the baby calves and lambs. And the cheese was pretty good too!

Pantry's Looking a Little Lean!

As I was gathering ingredients for today's lunch I realized that my pantry is starting to look a little empty. I still have a ton of Rhubarb and relish left though! I did pretty well last year, we got more of just about everything that I normally can - especially fruit. We actually still have another couple weeks worth of peaches and a few jars of applesauce so I can definitely say this has been the best year to date for saving our own food. I will be doing some construction in our pantry/root cellar room this year as I plan to have a LOT more root veggies and squash to store this year. Also plan to have more dried beans, fruit and grains this year. Ryan is really getting into making beer so I want to have lots of space for that as well as our wine. I am also going to try making cider this year if we get enough fruit.

The thing that prompted this post though was the fact that I used the last jar of Mayan squash that I canned 2 years ago. This squash was enormous! We ate a small amount of it fresh and it was ok but not the best I have had. Most of the rest I cut into 1 inch cubes and canned. I did dry some and grind it into flour to use in biscuits. The canned squash made the best puree for soup, muffins, pumpkin pie and even cheese sauce! It is so SMOOTH! What makes me sad is that I have been trying to find some seed of this squash variety but no luck so far.

I only got one squash from the one plant that I had but it lasted 2 YEARS!! This is a picture of it a few weeks before harvest - it got about twice that size.

Art Fair

Stephen participated in his first art fair this year. Each year the CHEK homeschool group does a different "fair." Last year was a geography fair but Stephen was still too young and we had just joined the group and didn't know how it worked. This year was art so he did a project on shading techniques. He did a super job presenting his project to the marshal. I'm so proud of him. Next year will be a science fair and this morning he asked when we get to start his project for that!

Seedlings

I have some seeds started. I couldn't wait. I have managed to hold off on the tomatoes and melons so far but with the sun shining outside today I don't think I can wait much longer. At least it is March now. I usually get tomatoes started in early March but boy is it hard not doing it in February!

The lettuce I have started will get hardened off and planted as soon as it is warm enough in my cold frame (that I have yet to build : )Broccoli will probably go out in sheltered "tents" when its a bit warmer. I don't usually get transplants out too early but I was inspired last year by the crop of volunteer lettuce that started growing as the snow was melting. We also pulled a few leftover carrots out of the garden a couple weeks ago (the week we THOUGHT spring had arrived!)It has made me realize that cold hardy veggies like lettuce and broccoli are a lot tougher that we give them credit for. If they don't like their little shelters and end up dying then I won't be any farther behind than if I start them when I usually do and who knows - maybe I'll get lucky and have fresh broccoli in May this year instead of July!

Art Project

Stephen is doing a project for our homeschool group's art fair this year. His project is on shading techniques and he is doing a fantastic job! Today he got the hardest part done - the written description of his project. It was the first "essay" he's ever written and I was so pleased with what he did. He is only 5 so writing is not something that comes easily yet. He had a hard time getting his thoughts represented as sentences so I had him dictate to me what he wanted to say, I wrote it down, then he copied it onto his page. I have no idea what the judge at the art fair would expect of a 5 yr old but I am more than happy with his work on this project and that's all I care about! He still has to get a few last minute things done - like gluing the title to his project board and I am going to frame the picture of the flowers that he did showing his favourite technique but this is what he's done so far . . .

Learning to Spin

Yesterday as I was working on spinning some of the angora wool I harvested, my daughter informed me that she wanted to try it. I had a big pile of sheep wool that I was using to mix with the angora so I pulled a hunk off the pile and started showing her how to card it. I use a couple of dog slicker brushes to card as I have not been able to afford proper cards yet but they are the perfect size for a 3 year old! When she had it combed to her satisfaction I showed her how to make a rolag and then how to pre-draft it into a roving. She was so proud of her project that she carried it around all day. Needless to say it is no longer a nice piece of roving but a smooshed up ball of quite matted wool . . . and now she is determined to knit her piece into something!

Beatrice, Brianna and Rhett

Today I started grooming my new rabbits. I say started because after an hour with each bunny I could see that it is going to be a long process! I could just shear both the does but they have such wonderful coats and it is sooooo cold here right now! I got a lot of the mats out but there are a lot more to go. I did manage to get a big ziploc bag full of good wool from Beatrice and Brianna, and a lot more that I might be able to salvage for felting. I also managed to get a great picture of Beatrice after combing her good wool over the mats!! And a really sweet head shot of Brianna.

Rhett is going to be quite a project to get groomed but what a sweety! He is the most lovable, cuddly thing I've ever met. I can't wait for his hair to grow out. He was clipped when he arrived yesterday but the wool he still has left is matted badly. I spent over an hour with him and you can hardly tell I've done anything!The best thing is it appears he is actually copper and not red as I had thought! Copper is my favorite satin angora colour.

Yeah - new bunnies!

Last summer I got a pair of Satin Angora rabbits. I can't have chickens here in the city yet so I thought rabbits would be a great choice as "livestock!" I also love to spin and wanted a breed of rabbit that I could actually use. I had several mini rex at the time and love them but when I saw an add for satin angora's I had to get them. Penny is the most gorgeous, shiny copper colour and Mocha is a handsome and friendly chocolate. They have grown into wonderful adult rabbits and I have harvested enough wool from them to actually start a few projects! I finished a toque that was supposed to be for me but ended up just the perfect size for my 3yr old daughter instead.


Today I got another buck and two red does. My goal with these rabbits is to try and improve the wool (the satin angora generally has the least amount of wool per harvest of any of the angora breeds) I plan to start a breeding program with these rabbits. The satin angora is quite rare still  but in my opinion the most beautiful of all the angora types. Their shimmering wool is simply stunning.

I can't wait to get a brush on one of the red does as she looks like she is starting to molt - maybe my toque will be red instead of the copper I had planned on!

Preschool math concepts

So today I witnessed, not for the first time, a preschoolers concept of time. As I was waiting patiently for my 3yr old to use the toilet I had to hold onto her panties (don't ask!) I figured out with my first child that pulling your underwear down but not completely removing it it a skill that apparently takes even longer than the actual potty training. When I asked her how long I had to hold them for she answered with a very prompt and definate "for 100 whiles." Huh? I then asked "well, how long is '100 whiles?'" To which her response was to open up one hand and count five fingers, answering with "It's 5!" I am still not sure how long 5 fingers is and even less clear on how long "100 whiles" is but now I have a better idea of why, when I tell the kids that we are leaving in 5 minutes, after 5 minutes they STILL do not have their shoes and coats on! Maybe I need to start telling them we are leaving in 5 "whiles!"

Seed Trading

For the past few days I have been eagerly looking and sorting through my seed selection for this coming season. I did manage a few days of work outside in the yard this week when it got warm enough but as I impatiently await springs official arrival (-8 and snowing with a windchill of -19 this morning?!?!? No we're not quite there yet!) I have to do something that is at least a bit more springlike than sledding and skating. Don't get me wrong I do love sledding and skating but as the end of February rapidly approaches I am finding myself itching to get outside and start some gardening.

For many years now I have grown open-pollinated and heirloom vegetables. I save my own seed from as many varieties as I can and rarely have to buy new seeds. I usually end up buying a few packets of something new that I want to try each year but this year I have discovered the wonderful world of trading seeds! For the past few years I have received several different tomato and bean varieties from a wonderful, generous fellow in the USA who has been sharing his seeds for the past ten years for free, with only a request that we send him postage. I have taken advantage of his offer again this year and plan to send him a package of seed envelopes in exchange. I also found an amazing forum a few days ago that is strictly a seed/plant exchange list! You list the seeds you have to trade and a list of what seeds you want to aquire and then start looking for another member to trade with. I managed to find several people who have something I want and have arranged a few trades already. It so much fun!

First Blog!

OK, so I have decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. I have never been much of a journal keeper so it should be interesting! I have read so many blogs in the past few years that have been a wonderful source of information on everything from homeschooling to gardening so I thought I would try and do my part to contribute something useful. We'll see what happens!