Getting There

What I Did On My Summer Vacation.

August has been a pretty laid back month for us, for the most part. The weather was lovely (not as hot as July) and we had some really nice times.

One fun thing we did was go blueberry picking with Grandma and Grandpa. The pickings were rather poor, it being near the end of the season, but I did get a good enough amount to freeze for snacking and smoothies. No blueberry jam or pies this year, though.

And after picking, Grandpa took us out for lunch and then for a romp at the lovely park at the Leamington marina.

I did buy a bucket of cherries at the grocery store and made jam, so my shelf of jam jars is looking respectable again. Too bad I didn't have the time or energy to give pickles a try this year. Next year, maybe.

I sighed every time I looked at the two tiny green tomatoes that will apparently be the sum total of our tomato harvest this year. (The other plant, although it is quite large, has zero tomatoes.) Then, a few days ago, one of my children broke off the upper tomato. (And then Owen exclaimed, "Now we won't be able to make spaghetti sauce!") So now, our 2011 tomato harvest = 1 very small, very green tomato. *sigh*

I picked the single zucchini that we got from the garden, and made a big chocolate zucchini cake--which I neglected to cook all the way through (oh well).

We planted sunflower seeds this year--and we got only one flower. It was tiny, to say the least. Yes, it was a dwarf variety, but the seed packet said the plants would reach 20 inches tall, and our plant couldn't be more than 6 inches. Not very impressive.

The garden wasn't all bad though. I've gotten a nice harvest of calendula for my healing salve--it's impressive how long the plants seem to be flowering!--and the pole beans we're growing against the fence are producing lots of tasty beans.

I actually have a surplus of calendula now, and I wish I could bring them into the house as cut flowers--but the stems seem to be covered with aphids as well as various other tiny bugs. I wonder if this is a common thing with this plant? I thought plants in the marigold family were supposed to repel bugs!
But enough about the garden. The past few weeks, I spent a lot of time smiling at the sight of my youngest, who has discovered how to bounce in her jolly jumper...

And bounce, and bounce, and bounce...

My parents gave us a highchair for her, and I can't believe how big she looks, sitting in it! So much for that newborn thing...it apparently lasts only about 5 minutes.

Well, that's about all that we've been up to. Nothing really much, which is just fine for this sleep deprived mommy.

Please dear readers of mine, tell me what you did on your summer vacations!

Raspberry jam.

I haven't been able to think of anything to post lately. Life has been moving along, quietly and well. Amy is 3 and a half months old now, getting chubby, and has started to laugh! Few things are more delightful than a baby's first belly laugh. :)

Today was noteworthy, because although my husband is working a 12-hour shift tonight, he got up early this morning and drove out to the country to pick a whole slew of raspberries for us. We go through a lot, because Chris loves to make his own raspberry lemonade all summer long, and the children and I go through a lot of raspberry jam.

I made 2 batches of jam this afternoon, which went very nicely with the batch of fresh bread I made this morning.

I am continuing to make all of our bread. Because I knead it by hand--and because we go through a lot of bread!--it's rather a time consuming chore. I do enjoy it, but I can see right now that I am not going to be able to manage this during busy times, such as in the autumn when we will resume our regular homeschool lessons, and our toy shop will start getting busy. But when I can, I'm going to do it. I like knowing that my kids are eating bread free of preservatives and other undesireables. And of course, the taste is rather an improvement over Wonderbread. :)

I do wonder though, how some people can manage to make all their family's bread by hand all year round? Mothers with large families must have to make several loaves every day. That's a lot of kneading!

I was pretty enthusiastic about hanging our laundry outside since our dryer broke a little while ago. But today I had to bring everything in still damp because it started raining. I was able to hang two loads inside, but that is the most I can manage. I also have been wondering, how do some of you ladies manage it who don't have or who choose not to use a dryer? I imagine we're going to be calling our landlord to fix our dryer very soon. Because if it rains for the next few days (as the forecast indicates), the laundry is going to start backing up, since we average about 3 loads every 2 days. I just can't fit that much laundry into our back room to dry when things like blue jeans take 2 days to dry indoors.

Well, that pretty much sums up what I've been up to lately. Caring for a baby, and baking bread, and doing lots of laundry. The regular stuff. I did stay up late last night with Chris to watch a funny movie, which was nice. I can't remember the last time I had a chance to watch a movie all the way through. I'm glad I did, even though I was a bit tired today, and after the second batch of jam was done I had to take a nap, when what I really wanted to do was make another batch of granola bars and reorganize the toy cupboard. I love the life of a homemaker, but it's a constant frustration for me that I don't have endless energy to do all the things I'd like to do in a day.

Jam and bread.

Last weekend my dear husband carved some time out of his busy day and drove out to the county to pick some strawberries for me, for this year's supply of jam. By the time he finally got back home, I was starting to get worried! Apparently because of the heavy rain we had this spring, many of the strawberry plants rotted in the fields and the local crop was very poor. Chris had to pick for several hours to bring home a decent quantity of berries, and they weren't the best looking ones we've ever gotten either.

I set to work right away to make jam, and I did get one batch done. It was delicious! I love the brilliant red colour of strawberry jam.

There weren't enough berries leftover to make a second batch, only for us to eat a few, and to freeze some for making smoothies.

I noticed that there are Ontario berries in the grocery store this weekend. They're more expensive than pick-your-own, but not too bad. Maybe I will pick some up to make more jam, I haven't decided yet. I do love homemade strawberry jam on top of oatmeal on a cold winter morning!

Also this past week, I made two loaves of regular white bread, because we were out of bread and I knew there was none on sale at the grocery store. (I refuse to pay $3.50 or even more for a single loaf!) I accidentally left the loaves to rise a bit too long, and they turned out huge!

I'd like to make homemade bread more often to replace store bread for sandwiches, but I am confused about a few things. For one, how can I make the crust softer? Whenever I bake bread the crust is downright hard, which makes it difficult to slice evenly, and isn't very nice to eat sideways in a sandwich. Also, is it possible to get loaf pans that are longer, like the length of a loaf of Wonderbread? I just have regular small loaf pans, and my loaves always end up so tall that the slices look silly, like slices of a giant mushroom. Two such slices make an enormous and strangely shaped peanut butter sandwich.

If anyone has the answers to those questions, or even just any general bread-baking tips, please do share. :)

Change of topic: Currently, Canada Post is having a labour dispute, which means we haven't had any mail service in Canada for two weeks. That means that we have had to shut down our Etsy shop. Thank goodness that right before the strike started, Chris got another job, as an industrial mechanic. It isn't quite full time but it's been such a blessing for us. This past week they sent him out of town, down to Tennessee. He brought me back this lovely plate from Cracker Barrel (a restaurant we don't have in Canada).

He knows I love songbirds, and it matches our livingroom walls perfectly. I can't wait to hang it up. Our nest is blessed indeed. :)

Looking forward.

I wrote in my last post that I was feeling good...well that was then, and now, the sleep deprivation that inevitably befalls new mothers has set in...my mind is in a fog much of the time, and my baby girl is keeping me quite busy, which is why I have been absent from this space for so long.

It's more than worth it, of course...just look at that adorable face!

Although I'm mostly happily occupied with the wee one, I do find time now and then to think about my plans for spring and summer. I tried to be realistic and not bite off more than I can chew this year, but I am always trying to learn new skills and find new ways to be self-sufficient. It's just the way we live, now.

I believe I have mentioned that my main gardening project for this year is to grow an herb garden, with a mixture of culinary and medicinal herbs. I'm going to just buy the culinary herbs, since I have limited space and really only room for one plant of each variety. But I wanted to try growing the medicinal plants from seed. So far all I have done is plant some lavendar and yarrow in the window next to our back door. The yarrow came up about two days, and much to my surprise, the lavendar followed about a day later (those are the little green specks in the background).

I was surprised because I had read online that lavender germinates slowly, taking up to 30 days. But these sprouts appeared in about 3-4 days. My seed packet from Horizon Herbs also stated that lavender has a low germination rate--only 5 seeds might sprout out of a pack of 100. So of course I planted the full pack, and now it looks like every single seed sprouted. I guess I'll have a lot of extra plants to give away this year, if even a third of those little sprouts survive.

I meant to plant some chamomile and calendula today, but as it's already getting late it looks like I won't get around to it until tomorrow.

One thing we have firmly planned for this summer is to pick a lot more berries than we did last year. It seemed last summer that we were picking a ridiculous amount, and yet our jam has reached pathetically low levels, and it's only April! We have only 1 jar each of blueberry, grape jelly, strawberry, and apple butter, looking all lonely on the pantry shelf.

And the raspberry and cherry jams have been gone for a while. I finally broke down this past week and bought a jar of raspberry jam at the store. It just didn't feel right! This year I'll be sure to make a lot more jam, and freeze a lot more berries as well, since Jasper adores frozen blueberries for a snack every morning.

I can't wait for the local strawberries to be in season!

Another thing I'm looking forward to is starting to sew my own clothes--when I have the time! I recently purchased the book Sew What! Skirts, and the Homestead Blessings DVD on The Art of Sewing, both of which contain easy to understand instructions on making a long tiered skirt. I love wearing long skirts, and my husband loves it when I wear them too. Besides, I really need new clothes...not only has my regular wardrobe gotten very shabby over the years, as I never wanted to spend money on clothes, but my post-baby body fits into almost nothing in my closet anyway. So a few long skirts with an elastic waist are just what I need. I just have to get the fabric, which means finding time to make it to the fabric store or the thrift store...it's definitely on my to do list.

We're also just about to redecorate our dingy looking livingroom, which is pretty exciting since I have loathed the colour of paint in there since we moved in to this house 5 years ago--but perhaps that merits a post of its own. :)

Well, those are the things on my mind lately...with spring in the air I am itching to do so many things, but of course I have to spend most of my time with the baby...which is not so bad at all!

2010 in review.

When I started this blog back in March, my goal was to use this space to chronicle my family's journey towards a simpler life--in one way, by learning the skills to be more self-sufficient, like people were in the "old days"--and in another more literal way, by saving up to buy a piece of land in the country where we could have our own homestead.

So here on December 31st, it's natural that I ask myself, "What progess have we made towards these goals?"

I think we've done very well where it comes to learning new skills to allow us to do more for ourselves. In fact, saying we've learned a lot this year is really an understatement. A few highlights:

• I learned how to can homemade jam, and it's so delicious we'll never go back to store bought! I also put by a great deal of homemade applesauce and apple butter for the first time. 
• We also learned that when pick raspberries, strawberries and blueberries in the summer, we need A LOT more to last us the year. It's quite amazing how much one family can consume--I greatly underestimated. For example, Jasper loves to eat frozen blueberries as a snack pretty much every day--and here we are in December, and we have been out of blueberries for several weeks. Now I am buying store bought berries for him, which is not at all what I had planned.
• I continued to learn how to make more meals from scratch, and I learned how to make my own sprouts and granola.
• Chris has greatly expanded his self-taught woodworking abilities to include turning bowls, plates and cups. Just now he is experimenting with making spoons, and we hope this will give a boost to our family business.
• We learned a lot about growing vegetables this year. Or rather, how not to grow them! For example, do NOT grow potatoes in pure compost, because it will be too nitrogen rich and you'll get all leaves and no potatoes. Do NOT try to grow pumpkins in a tiny back yard, and do NOT plant four cherry tomato plants when only one person in the family eats them!
• I finally figured out my sewing machine, and have sewed many projects already, including a doll quilt. I have been reading a lot about quilting lately so that I can begin soon on a "real" quilt. 
• Chris and I discovered how much fun it is to create handmade gifts for holidays and birthdays.
• Chris has greatly expanded the number of songs he can play on the guitar. (I consider playing a musical instrument to be a form of self-sufficiency, since you can then create your own entertainment).
• We're learning ways to be more frugal all the time, and make some of our own cleaning and personal care products.
• We've learned how important it is to our sanity to have a daily routine to our family life, and that it's very important to take a break from technology sometimes (i.e. the computer and tv) and just enjoy the peace and quiet together.

Some of these activities have saved us money, but more than that they have all been very satisying. I love the feeling of creating something with my hands--it's something that was missing from my life before.

Our other goal was saving up for our homestead. This has been very difficult for us since not only are we paying fairly high rent to live in the city, but Chris was in college for the first half of the year, and after working throughout the summer was laid off in September. However, these past few months, even though we were living only off of our Etsy shop, we managed not only to get by but to save a tiny bit. And I find that in itself encouraging. I know that we are working towards our goal, even if our progess seems painfully slow at times, and I'm proud of us for making our family business work.

Next year we are going to try even harder to live frugally and save every penny. But I'll talk about 2011 in a post tomorrow. For now, I'll just say a big "Thank You" to all of my readers for joining me as I wrote about our struggles and successes in 2010. I'm so grateful and humbled that you lovely people take the time to stop by, and I sincerely hope to enjoy your company more in 2011.

On that note, I hope everyone has a joy-filled evening tonight, and I'll see you next year! :)

 

Recipe for green tomato relish.

I went ahead and made the recipe for the green tomato pickles from my Joy of Cooking cookbook.

In case anyone was curious, I'm posting the recipe, although I decided it should be called "relish" instead of "pickles," because the end product, delicious as it is, tastes too strong to be eaten by itself--it's obviously meant to be a condiment.

Apparently you can use this relish the same way you'd use chili sauce--on meatloaf, hamburgers, etc.  It is rather sweet, with a delightful spicey aftertaste. And I have read that it's very good if you put it through the blender and mix with cream cheese to make a spread for crackers. I would love to try this, but I am all out of cream cheese today. I also saw some similar recipes online which claimed this stuff is awesome on ham sandwiches. I'll have to try that!

Anyhow, here's the recipe:

First, take half a peck of green tomatoes. That's around 5ish quarts. All quantities in this recipe are approximate. :)

Thinly slice the tomatoes, along with 6 onions, and place in a large stainless steel bowl. Sprinkle with a generous 1/2 cup of coarse salt.

Let sit 12 hours or overnight.

In the morning, you'll have something that looks like this:

Drain this stuff and rinse well in a colandar.

Then, add to a large pot, 6 cups of vinegar. I used half and half white vinegar and apple cider vinegar, although the original recipe called for all apple cider vinegar.

Heat this to the boiling point. While it is heating, chop up 6 cloves of garlic, and some sweet peppers. The original recipe called for 6 green and 3 red peppers, but as I don't have these growing in my garden and have to buy them, I cut it way down to 1 large green pepper and two red peppers. I think though that I should have cut down the vinegar too, because I probably ended up with more vinegar than needed for this amount of veggies to float in.

Add the chopped veggies to the vinegar, along with 2 cups of brown sugar (the original called for 4 cups, but I cut it down). Add in tomatoes and onions. Make up a spice bag, by placing in a piece of cheesecloth: 1 tbsp dry mustard or mustard seed, 1 tbsp whole cloves, 1 stick cinammon, 1 tbsp powdered ginger, 1/2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp celery seed.

Doesn't that look pretty? Tie up the bag with cotton string and place into the pot. Simmer for about 1 hour or until tomatoes are translucent. Stir often.

Ladel into sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace, and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

There you have it! A real old-fashioned recipe which is an interesting way to use up those green tomatoes that we all have this time of year.

Green tomato pickles.

A few days ago I went over to my Grandma's house to pull out the small group of tomato plants we had grown there this year in a corner of her yard. She helped me (even at age 92 it's impossible to keep her out of the garden) and as we worked, and filled a bucket with the remaining green tomatoes, she told me of the green tomato pickles her mother used to make, and how much she used to love them--especially piled thick on homemade bread and butter.

She told me how the green tomatoes were chopped first, sprinkled with coarse salt and left in a crock overnight; then drained, and cooked with onions, brown sugar, vinegar, and spices. When I came home I immediately looked for a recipe within my cookbook collection. I found a recipe in my 1972 copy of The Joy of Cooking that sounded identical to the one my grandmother described. However, it called for a peck of tomatoes...I know that is 1/4 of a bushel, but how do I measure that? The recipe sounds huge, using a dozen sweet peppers and a dozen onions...I would like to cut it down, but I have no idea how many green tomatoes to use.

This is the bucket of tomatoes I have:

The bucket was originally for 5 kg (11lb) of cherries. So that's probably about the weight of the tomatoes I have too. Would that work out to about a peck? If someone knows the answer, do tell! I'd like to get started on these green tomato pickles because I love to try new things--and I'd also love to give a jar to my grandmother and ask her if it tastes anything like she remembers. :)

Something else new I tried canning last week was apple butter. I had never even tried apple butter, but hey, I had lots and lots of apples, so why not? I don't think it turned out very well. Probably because I  doubled the spices the recipe called for (in a tired late-night moment of "inspiration") and because I think I left it in the slow cooker a bit too long. Well, good thing my oldest child loves extra spicy food! I tried a bit smeared on bread and it is indeed quite spicy. I think most of the apple butter is probably going to be used as a filling for cinammon rolls!

(That's the apple butter front and centre. It turned out so dark!)

Last night I also made up one last batch of applesauce. Kira was very helpful to me and peeled each and every apple herself, while I chopped them. This system worked very well--however, I think I'm going to ask for one of these apple peeling devices for Christmas this year, to make the job go even quicker next year. Even 5 quarts of appleauce requires a lot of peeling!

I've really been enjoying canning this year. Even though I haven't done very much--only jam, apple butter, applesauce, and soon tomato pickles--it's downright fun to place those jars on the sturdy wooden shelves Chris made for me in our utility room. It's a great feeling to know we have that food preserved and stored for the winter; and it's a great feeling to know I made that food myself, from produce we picked ourselves. This is definitely a way of life I want to continue to pursue. It's my dream that someday, very little of what we eat will come from the store.

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Today was rather disappointing.

First, this morning we drove out to the county with the children and went blueberry picking. After reading so many posts on other blogs the past few weeks about the wonderful fun of blueberry picking, I admit I was looking forward to a lovely morning picking these tasty blue jewels with my cheerful children.

But alas, we arrived too late in the morning, and it was already very hot. All three of the children were complaining pretty much constantly that they were too hot and they wanted to go home. Jasper escaped us more than once. The worst time, we couldn't find him for about five minutes. The only reason we were reunited was because someone who was picking near us recognized him and brought him over. I think Jasper had gone looking for the car, where he knew there was water to drink.

After that he took off his shoes and socks and tried to stay in the shade. I knew the kids were hot, so I was trying to pick as fast as possible. Right when my bucket was just about full, Jasper dumped it out--on purpose! Already being hot and sweaty and slightly grumpy, I almost lost my cool right there...good thing my level-headed husband was there to keep me calm. ;)

We made it home eventually with about 20 lbs of blueberries, and they are delicious. Tonight I'll be making jam, and freezing most of the rest. So it's not like the day was a loss--but it just wasn't as much fun as I had hoped it would be!

Then this afternoon, we decided to try harvesting the potatoes that we have been growing in the backyard using the box method . Many of the plants' leaves turned brown a while ago, and we have reached the length of time specified on the box of seed potatoes, so we thought why not? Hashbrowns would be nice for supper tonight.

So Chris pulled off the screen and wooden slats off the box, and started digging through the dirt...and digging...and digging...

This is what he found.

Yep. That's it. Our entire 2010 potato harvest. To put this picture in perspective, those really little ones are about as big as my baby fingernail. So there isn't even close to enough here to make one single meal for us. One serving, maybe.

This is really a big disappointment. The box of seed potatoes alone cost $5, and we probably spent another $10 in soil and compost to fill the potato box. Just to get a small handful of potatoes! I'm not sure what we did wrong. The green part of the plants grew very fast and got really lanky--maybe the plants were putting all their energy into the above ground part instead of below ground, for some reason? I can't figure it.

Well, that's life. I guess its good that I'm making these mistakes now, rather than a few years down the road when we have a huge garden and I will have the opportunity to make mistakes on a huge scale. 

In the meantime, we now have a large quanity of rich soil in that corner of the garden, so I think I will sow some green onion seeds since I still have some left, and the green onions we've been growing in the shade of the enormous potato plants are pathetic to say the least.

This and that.

Last week I was pleased to get one of the 5 kg (11 lb) buckets of Ontario sour cherries at my nearby grocery store, while they still had them. They get a small number of them in every year, but I've never chanced to see them. I made up a batch of cherry jam--my jam shelf is now looking rather impressive, and I haven't even done blueberry yet!--and I made two cherry pies. The rest of the cherries I put into the freezer for a rainy day.

We're hoping to go blueberry picking this weekend, and then I will be getting out the canner again. 

Chris tried teaching me to crochet yesterday. He's quite an expert crocheter (is that really a word?)--when we were first dating he made me a blanket with my name in purple (my favourite colour). I was going to try making a dish cloth. I found it rather frustrating actually, but Chris was enjoying himself, so that maybe I think he'll be the one crocheting the dish cloth. :)

I do have a few balls of cotton yarn in reserve, so I will be knitting a dishcloth or two very soon. 

I know I can do that at least. I am determined to succeed with knitting and sewing, although neither of these things comes naturally to me at all. Somehow my mind is not methodical enough. But I figure if I just keep trying, and doing silly little projects like dish cloths, I will "get it" eventually.

Another thing I am planning is to fix up my little sewing area:

I really want to start doing more sewing projects here, and I figure that if I brighten it up a bit, it will encourage me. This is really the corner of the laundry/utility room, but I think it could be a lovely space with so much natural light. I'd like to get a few pictures I like for the wall, maybe an interesting clock, a more comfortable chair. And I need to paint that homemade desk, which is currently just bare wood and not washable. I wonder what colour I should paint it?

Back in June I made some homemade baby powder using cornstarch and rose petals. It was okay, but the rose petals I had didn't really smell. This time I made a new batch of powder using arrowroot flour (from the bulk store), which I think has a nicer texture than cornstarch, and crushed dried lavender flowers, which smell just wonderful! Now the corner of our bedroom that is the diaper change area smells lovely. I have never used dried lavender before for anything other than a decoration, believe it or not, and I'm very pleased with its effectiveness as a natural fragrance.

It has only been since I've started this blog, really, that I've started doing even small and simple creative projects like these. For many years, I was sort of stuck in a rut of being nothing but Mama, and while that in itself is a glorious thing, it can get tedious with nothing to break up the endless routine of laundry, cooking, cleaning, and dirty diapers. Adding other things to do into my daily routine, things like sewing or canning jam, doesn't feel like I'm giving myself yet more work. Rather, it feels like my life is more interesting and varied than it used to be. And it's awakening my creativity, which I think was laying dormant for many years. I can't wait to learn more skills and do more things for myself. It's so satisfying. :)

In the kitchen.

With the two zucchinis I had in my fridge--first vegetables harvested this season!--I decided to make a chocolate zucchini cake.

I love chocolate zucchini cake--it's so moist and delicious, and it's a good way to sneak some veggies into the children, because the green flecks are barely noticeable at all. And also, because it's chocolate. :)

This is the recipe I usually use:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened or melted

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups shredded zucchini (I use the small holes on my cheese grater)

1 1/2 cups flour

4 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinammon

1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate chips

Cream butter with sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream and mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients. Stir in zucchini. Spoon onto greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle with a couple handfuls of chocolate chips. Bake at 325 F for 40 minutes or until done.

Yum!

Yesterday I decided to do a bit more canning. I made another small batch of raspberry jam, because the first batch I made was so delicious that I know it won't last long. I also made a batch of grape jelly, using organic grape juice from the grocery store. The jelly didn't set at first--it was downright watery. I wasn't sure what I had done wrong. I tried opening one jar and boiling the contents for a few minutes. Then I poured it back into the jar and placed it in the fridge. A few hours later, it was definitely grape jelly, much to my relief. So I guess I just didn't boil it quite long enough the first time. I'll be more careful to boil jams and jellies long enough in the future.

I like my shelf downstairs, which is starting to fill up with jam. It's a lovely sight to my eyes.

We have the makings for a lot of peanut butter sandwiches there! (Actually, this is literally true, because the shelf below is filled with jars of peanut butter I bought when they were on sale.)

I hope, before the summer is over, to learn to can some other things besides jam--dill pickles perhaps, which is something else we go through a lot of around here. There's always something new to learn. :)