Category Archives: Food

When life gives you green tomatoes…

make green tomato chutney!

I just couldn’t bear to see all of the green tomatoes on the blight infected plants that we pulled go to waste. Roughly 28 plants with nothing to show for it was just too disappointing, so we gathered up what usable fruit we did have and made a big double + batch of chutney (those are just some of the jars on the window sill, there were more behind me on the table. Oh how fondly I remember those days of having kitchen counters…).

I’m not putting up nearly so much this season. Between the poor harvest and the time consuming aspects of trying to find a place to live, I’m just not up for a year like last year. But I’m still putting things by here and there….some strawberries, blueberries and peas, blackberries, greens and herbs. I’m hoping to get up a big batch of pesto next week. I’ll admit that I was just as surprised as anyone to see fresh jars appearing on my bookshelf (I do miss kitchen cabinets too) and a jam packed freezer, in this year when I’m thinking about anything and everything but. It’s just such a normal thing to me now. I don’t even think about it, it’s just what one does. Little bits of summer here and there, all saved up for the winter to come.

By
Food, Gardens
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Blueberry Picking


It’s nice to have little bits of normalcy fit in-between everything else that’s going on right now.


I’m really, really glad that we managed to get in some end of season blueberry picking…on our way to check out a house in the area, but still!


The farm where we pick is just so darn pretty. Unfortunately the last two years we’ve gone it’s been cloudy or stormy on our chosen day. This year it was our only option, so we were happy to make the best of it.
It is decidedly odd to be picking blueberries while wearing woolens, but there you have it. That’s just the sort of strange summer that we’ve been having.


In a way it was was actually kind of pleasant; apple weather for blueberries. I just kept thinking back to that one year where we were broiling under the sun and getting faint while picking, and cloudy with a bit of a drizzle? Well in comparison it seemed alright.

Pictures taken on a dark and dreary day just don’t do it’s beauty justice. We’ll have to pick a sunny day to go next year so that I can show you all of the views of the mountains. The vast fields themselves are a sight to behold. It puts me in mind of Scotland (though I’ve never been). It has the feel of a moorland full of heath and heather.


So, lots of picking and sorting and eating.


And the blue teeth that go along with that!


Then on to see the house and check out the area.

With a brief stop for a snack.


Then back home for dinner and yet another reading of “Blueberries for Sal”, one of the all-time best children’s books ever.


Iain and Elijah actually got them all ready for freezing themselves while I put the little ones to bed. It was their idea and it was great to come down to everything being all packed up and ready to go!

Hurrah for blueberries for the winter!

By
Food, Kids
6 Replies

baby bibs

Thank you all for your supportive comments on yesterday’s post. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more about this process in the future.


Would you look at the newest little foodie in town??

Yes, the Wee Girl has decided that some additional sustenance is desirable. And the first person who mentions to me that this is the first step towards weaning and independence is looking to get pinched, hard. We are opting to ignore that connection for the moment, got it?

Really, I do love this time of watching them explore and branch out, even if it did come upon me so quickly that I think I got whiplash. So, ready or not (for me) and quite ready (for her), food is becoming a regular part of her days.


But hey, at least it’s still Mama-made, right? It’s such a sweet time, when their diets are so simple and unadulterated it feel so good and wholesome to feed her something pure and lovely and have her just go crazy for it.


She likes the peaches and blueberries that I canned last summer quite a bit (and for those of you who are shaking your heads at me for feeding a little baby berries, it’s really strawberries that are the significant allergen, with the other berries being much less so and in our family’s individual scheme of things, berries are a low allergen while many common first foods are high allergens.) but I think that her favorite so far has been mama’s chicken broth. I’m very excited by this because now that my Vitamix is fixed and the carrots are flowing in at that farm, it seems the perfect time to make a whole bunch of the carrot soup that I love so much. Yum. And it will be so much fun to share and watch her eat it all up!


But while this post is a bit about food, it’s also about sewing…sewing in my very classic style…meaning entirely unplanned and off the cuff.


This is how this project came about: I was clearing the dining room table, getting ready to sew up the pair of pants that I had cut a couple of days prior. I snatched up Màiri’s bib and as I was walking to the hamper with it, I got to thinking about how it’s really the only bib that fits her properly at this stage. I still have all of the knitted bibs that I made for Galen, but they’re too big for her right now and what’s more, still being used by him (it took me four kids to get there, but I’ve come to the conclusion that having toddlers and preschoolers who completely accept bibs as a give-in makes life a lot easier. As a side benefit, it also keeps me a lot calmer when I’m watching them eat gazpacho in a white shirt that it took me three weeks to sew.)


And that’s all it took, those approximately 15 steps between the table and the hamper. I turned back around, bib still in hand and headed right back to the table. A quick trip upstairs to grab a pile of fabric scraps and then back down to use my “perfect fit” peach covered bib as a template.


And just a bit later she had 6 more “perfect fit” bibs, bringing us up to a grand total of 7, or one for every day of the week.

The pink and purple ones are flannel and reversible. The blue ones are just a quilters cotton backed with either terry toweling or corduroy.

And all are seeing a lot of use!

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Food, Kids, sewing
4 Replies

Strawberries

We’re just going to pretend that this post is full of pictures of ripe luscious strawberries and tidy little jars of jam all laid out in a cheerful vignette. And while we are pretending all of that, we might as well pretend that I actually did get around to making those little felt strawberries for Galen’s kitchen set. Oh yes, do be sure that your mind’s eye includes some charming pictures of those as well.

I did a bit better this year with putting the harvest by…

1 qt of strawberry-rhubarb pie filling
1 qt of strawberry pie filling
9 pints of strawberry jam
7 pints of strawberry syrup
1 gallon of frozen strawberries

And the Wee Girl got a new strawberry print dress to wear for strawberry picking, because as it turns out, I really am just that ridiculous.


Pinafore dress (number 3) from Ottobre 4/2007, with some little red bloomers underneath.


I’m very sad to say that I’ve come to the conclusion that pink is not really her color. Or maybe just this shade? It’s not that she doesn’t look adorable. She always looks adorable! It’s just that I think there are other hues that better complement her, a rather painful admission considering the very pink something currently on my knitting needles…
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Food, Kids, sewing
3 Replies

Father’s Day

Despite the a very busy weekend and all of the rain, I think (hope?) we did alright by our guy.


On Saturday (after trips to the post office, strawberry picking at two farms, the co-op, two grocery stores, the pet food store, shoe store, and dump. does anyone know whatever happened to that theory that weekends were for relaxing???) Steve, Iain and Elijah biked down to one of our many local ponds and went fishing together for the first time. The kids had so much fun that we ended up all going down to the lake on Father’s Day proper as well. I have to admit the ex-vegan in me is still a little squeamish with the fishing, but I’m working on that. And we did have a mighty fine time together, even in the mist and then rain.

Back at home there was a very cozy pair of slippers, that quintessential Father’s Day gift, packaged in home-made swirly wrapping paper. And I dare say some of the most fabulous father’s day cards ever crafted. I’d share those with you too, but at the moment I’m not sure what there owner has done with them.

And there were brownies…oh the brownies!

I have to say, I make some incredible brownies. I just don’t make them very often, because there is not the slightest shred of anything wholesome in them. They sure taste good though!

This brownie recipe started with a killer brownie recipe that a friend posted on a message board. Over the years I’ve played with it to suit my tastes and then to suit our dietary restrictions. Believe it or not, even the gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free version makes people drool. I thought I would share it here with some of the variations that I’ve tried over the years.

This recipe makes two huge pans and freezes well.

In a large bowl mix:

4 cups unrefined sugar

5 chicken eggs or
3 duck eggs or
2 1/2 T Ener-G Egg Replacer beat in 10 T warm water

1 C softened ghee or coconut oil

2 T vanilla

1 1/2 c milk of your choice

Beat well, then add in:

5 C rice flour mixed with 1 T potato flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp sea salt

mix some more, then add:

1 1/3 C cocoa powder

and

one bag of gluten-free/dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips

pour into greased and floured pans and bake at 350. Check them at around 35 minutes. You want them to still be gushy inside. This in important because they will turn out too dry otherwise.

Enjoy! And invite me over when you make some. I’ll take a piece from the middle, thanks.

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celebrations and festivals, Food, Kids, Life, recipes
1 Reply

At the Farm


I know that every year I’m always blathering on about CSA’s in general and ours in particular. And apparently this year is no different! I can’t help it. We look forward to opening day through all of the dark months of winter. How many times have I said, rather wistfully to Steve, “I can’t wait for us to have farm days again!”, only to have him reply, “You know that won’t be for another 6 months yet, right?” How many times have the children stood at the calendar counting the months, the weeks, the days until the farm would open?


And then we get back there into those wide open fields, under that bright blue sky and it’s just glorious. And there is so much to see and to smell and to taste. There are old friends to greet and new people to meet. There are always sightings of interesting birds. The low open land of the valley attracts such a different variety from our mountain home in the woods. And there is so much sky in which to watch them!


Little Rosebud had her first taste of life at the farm. I think that loving the farm is kind of a prerequisite for being a member of this family. Thankfully she had a wonderful first trip, which is a good thing, because I’m kind of rather attached to her.


A woman even pulled me aside in the Farm Shop, after watching me gathering greens with the Wee Girl on my back, to tell me that she was the coziest looking, most contented baby she had ever seen.

And we stopped by a new farmer’s market on the way there, which turned out to be delightful as well, so the trip was doubly nice (the grocery stores that followed were less so).


We had a big, gorgeous, fresh salad for dinner.


We brought home lots of chive flowers to infuse some vinegar with. I’m hoping to make a nice base for dressings and things for the future.


And what would a trip to the farm be without stopping to play in the mist from the sprinklers??

In case you couldn’t tell, he’s “washing” his hair…
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Food, Homeschooling, Kids, Life
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Violets

It’s that time of year again…
I’ve been fooling around with my violet syrup recipe this year (oh and last years did end up being a syrup, but as it turns out, we liked it that way). I’m looking for something a little different. I actually really liked what I did with it last year. It was tangy and lemony and quite good. And I’m hoping that there will be a second bloom, as happens some years, so that I can do a batch of that sort as well.


But I also find it sad that the flavor of the violets themselves is mostly lost. I want my syrup to taste like violets. Like those tins of french candies that we used to get at that little independent film theater. Remember that? Becky? Molli??

This was my first experimental try:
2 quarts packed violets, soaked in three cups a warm water for about an hour, pureed with 1 cup Agave Nectar and frozen in jam jars.

While it tastes just like intermission at ‘Hamlet’, there is still some tweaking to be done. For starters I would use pectin in the future; Pomona’s being the pectin of choice in the household. For some reason I thought that the violet to liquid ratio would leave me with a much thicker concoction then it actually did. My other issue was with the foam. You are supposed to skim the foam off the top. But this particular recipe produces so much foam that it feels wasteful. I don’t think this is an issue when you strain out the violets instead of blending them in, though I don’t know for certain, having never tried it that way. I’ve always been of the opinion that I wanted all the nutrients and flavor I could get from them. I’m wondering if blending the water and violets, skimming the foam and then stirring in the agave wouldn’t be a better option. At least that way it wouldn’t be a waste of the agave. Something to bear in mind for next year.

Strained violet infusion results in a bright blue liquid, add in lemon and you get a rosey red, while pureed and citrus free syrup takes on a dark blue-ish green. Not the prettiest option, but the flavor is delightfully delicate and sweet.


Not wanting the wee girl to be left out of all the floral fun, she got some violets of her own, in the form of a new sun bonnet…

Made using this pattern and a scrap of fabric leftover from my mother’s apron.

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Food, Gardens, Herbs, Kids, recipes, sewing
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The Colossal Birthday Post

“Now Elijah is seven and he can read big books and write books and letters to his friends. He can saw and split wood with a hatchet and knit an entire scarf. He can “conquer” a baseball and do tricks on his bike. He became a big brother again when Màiri was born and rocks her and takes care of her. Elijah has grown strong and beautiful, smart and kind and we are happy to be here with him on his 7th birthday!”

~from Elijah’s Rainbow Bridge story

Iain’s 7th birthday inspired a rather long-winded, picture packed post, so it seems only fitting that Elijah’s should do the same. Don’t worry, you’ve got a few years before you have to sit through Galen’s 7th birthday post.
The Private Celebration:

My Mother was visiting on his actual birthday, which was a special treat for him. In the morning we hiked to a friends house to buy some more plants for our garden; sungold tomatoes and a variety of sweet peppers, yum! We were in the woods for a long time, most of the day really.


Since Steve had to go to work, we waited until the evening for our official celebration. We did a reading of his rainbow bridge story as well as the marking of symbols as blessings. I’m so glad that we managed these things. I hate the stereotype of doing all the special things for a firstborn and then not bothering for subsequent children. I’m hopping that this just becomes the things we do for a seventh birthday. We’ve got at least a couple more shots at it, so I suppose time will tell. We did the Wonder Book thing as well, though I will admit that I didn’t write a poem for him, mostly because I was busy working on his baby book. Perhaps I’ll do one for when that first very wiggly tooth finally drops out.

And, as with Iain’s birthday, there was a bit of younger sibling involvement too.

And there were presents of course. He received lots of art supplies, very pleasing to my little artist boy. Iain knitted him a teddy bear. Elijah named it ‘Blackberry’. So very sweet!
From Mama and Papa, he got that which he has been coveting most; a guitar of his very own (a chance garage sale find on our part). AND the beginnings of a baby book. Finally. It’s not done, but I did manage to put together 12 nice pages before gifting it.

We had carob cake with the Carmelly Carob Topping from this recipe as icing. We really like that frosting. I add vanilla to mine and I think it’s an improvement on the original.

The public celebration:
When I asked Elijah what he wanted to do for his birthday party, without hesitation he replied, “I want to go biking with my friends.”

How cool is this kid?!?


After a bit of brainstorming we came up with a plan to meet at park at the beginning of a bike trail for a potluck lunch, followed by biking and then back again for the fabulous build-your-own-sundae desert table (we obviously set aside our low sugar restrictions for the party!).


Elijah’s requested potluck contributions were veggie sushi (I told you this kid was cool! And I’m chuckling to myself now because in looking back at the Iain birthday post, I see that he had veggie sushi for his 7th birthday too) and chicken salad in lettuce leaf wraps. No arguments from me on that one! My sushi always turns out looking sloppy. I blame my dull knives. But it sure tastes good!


The sundae thing came about when the subject of sundae’s came up (don’t remember how, probably from a book?) and I had to explain to the children what exactly they were. Elijah wanted to know if he could try one for his birthday and thus the build-your-own-sundae birthday buffet was born.

We had both regular and diary-free “ice-cream” options. My theory on the toppings was to offer a large selection of healthy things and then a couple of less healthy options to make it feel like a very special treat. There were banana slices and cherries, sliced strawberries, crushed pineapple, shredded coconut, sliced almonds, walnuts, raisins, dried apricots, violet syrup, and whipped coconut cream. Also cut up lara bars, apple sauce (this was the one topping that seemed to see very little action) AND much smaller bowls of chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, mini marshmallows, jelly beans, sprinkles and colored sugar*; all organic, gluten-free and colored with fruits and vegetables. It was FUN!


I could just kiss the inventor of the helmet.

I honestly have no idea how it is that none of my children has ever broken a limb.


Galen even got to practice some of his new mad tric-ing skills.

That’s my dad with him!

*I found out the my local health food store now carries these decorating sugars by India Tree. A whole new world of holiday baking has just opened up for us!

By
celebrations and festivals, Food, Kids
6 Replies

Carob Cake

Normally when I bake, I use “natural sweeteners”, more often then not maple syrup as it’s an abundant local resource for us. But as I recently mentioned, we are making an effort to keep the sweets at a minimum. Yeast problems in the children was one of the lovely parting gifts of our old moldy house and one of the things that we’ve never been able to totally kick.

The kidlets have been on a baking kick of late, with Iain and Elijah starting to branch out into experimenting with creating there own recipes. Galen’s always keen on helping to bake. What three year old isn’t?? This one shows initiative though. Yesterday I set him up to mash bananas, while I finished up a few things. With the bananas reduced to mush and me still not quite ready to join him, he started gathering other supplies, or so I thought. First he brought me the baking soda, “Mama we use this when we bake??” Answer: “yes and you may go put it on the table.” Which was met with a bright smile and scampering off. The same thing transpired with the baking powder, shortly after which I made it to the table to find that he had utilized a teaspoon from his kitchen set to measure the ingredients into the bananas, before carefully putting them away. After some questioning I determined that he had put in a teaspoon of each. Not really a bad guess for such a little guy!

Lately we’ve been working on recipes for our own fruit sweetened goodies (since I haven’t, as of yet, screwed up the courage to cut fruit out of our already limited diet).

Yesterday we concocted this carob cake and everyone found it sweet-tooth satisfying, so I thought I would share it here. Some of these measurements are approximate since that’s just the kind of baking I tend to do.

Carob Cake

1 C carob powder
1/2 C shredded coconut
3 C rice flour
1 C gluten-free oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

4 eggs or equivalent*
6 mashed bananas
1/4 C olive oil
2 cups rice or almond milk (or other milk of your choice)
1 tsp vanilla

*I use Egg Replacer by Ener-G Foods

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another. Mix them together and bake at 350 until fork comes out clean. Best served warm, on a cloth napkin, out in the garden.

And if you plan to blog about it, be sure to get a picture before there is only one lousy piece left!
By
Food, Life
2 Replies