Dear Chickens...

I know there have been some changes around here lately that may have caused you a little stress, however, this whole "let's get together and only lay 1-2 eggs a day for the humans" thing is completely unacceptable.  There are five of you currently laying!

STEP. IT. UP.

You were brought into our yard to help us be more sustainable, not to add to our monthly costs.  If it is costing us more to keep you than you are giving us in the form of fantastically yummy eggs, I have to warn you, you will become a yummy stew.  No joke.

Also, this strike of yours is completely unfounded.  The stresses I spoke of are not even real stresses!  New rommates?  A new Chicken Mansion?  You have food, water, shelter and attention.  What else could a chicken want?!?  Figure it out, my friends, or I will have your heads.  Literally.

I thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Bee Girl
(AKA The Management)

Harvest Monday

This weeks Harvest Monday (hosted by Daphne at daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com ) will be shown in meals instead of just raw harvest...

We had a staff potluck at work last week and I brought a wonderful (if I do say so myself) spinach salad.  I wish I could say I grew the strawberries and walnuts, too, but I didn't...just the spinach.

This is one of my current favorite breakfast items...scrambled eggs with spinach and toast with butter!

Below is the spinach that still remains in the bed, waiting patiently to be picked and eaten...

This weeks harvest totals:

Spinach - 2 lbs 3 oz

Yep, that's it...only spinach this week.  Our CSA provided a ton and a half of greens and other veggies so I have (once again) left a lot of what could've been harvested in the garden so it doesn't get wilty.  I do, however, need to start freezing some of our spinach to use next winter...maybe next week!

What's All That Buzzing About??? - Part Two

We have battled getting the video of our bee experience uploaded onto this blog for most of the afternoon. We finally broke down and decided to create a youtube account in order to better facilitate the uploading of videos!  So...here's our very first video!  Warning...it involves lots of buzzing bees!!!

There are a few details that we weren't able to capture on video because the actions required three or four hands which left zero hands for holding the camera, but you can read about all the missing details here :-)

What's All That Buzzing About???

Our bees have finally arrived!!!  We are so super excited!!!

The funny thing about the weekend is, I've been practicing leaving my phone in the bedroom so I can have some "unplugged" time...no calls or texts or randomness to worry about.  So, I did that this morning.  Then at about 11:20, while putting away laundry, I checked my phone (don't ask me why, I just thought I should) and saw I had a couple of voicemails, so I decided to listen to them.  Lo and behold, it was Abe at the USPS calling to say I needed to pick up my bees before 11:00 or I would have to wait until Tuesday (tomorrow is Memorial Day after all).  SHIT!  So, I called him back and he didn't answer...because he was leaving me another message on the other line saying he'd wait until 11:30...so I called him back again and Tool Lady went screeching out of the driveway to pick them up!  Luckily, we only live about 5 minutes form the Post Office!

YAY!!!  Bees!!!  And only 3 weeks late!  Stinkin' drought!

This pic is a little fuzzy, but I couldn't resist adding it!  SO MANY BEES!!!

 We took them outside, scraped some crystallized honey into the hive, cracked open the top of their little carrier, removed the syrup can they came with, removed the queen and shook out the bees.  It's a pretty crazy experience to hold thousands of bees in your hands with all the buzzing they do!

We didn't wear our protective gear this time since we'd read and heard that right now is the safest time to be around the hive because the bees have nothing to protect or fight for, so they're pretty docile.  They were completely chill.  At one point I probably had about a hundred on the hand that was holding the Queen and they were very calm.

Then, we popped the cork on the Queens' little cage so her workers can eat her out of her little prison and placed her in between two of the slats.

Tool Lady checking out the Queen

The little silver rectangle you see is the clip to the Queens cage :-)

The remaining bees trying to figure out what the hell is going on!

Add caption

 Finally, we took a seat across the yard from them, had a beer, ate a few hotdogs, and watched as they all started to chill out, explore, and drink some water from the bucket (with hay floating on top so they don't drown themselves) we put next to their new home...we figured since we were drinking, they should, too ;-)

Now, all we can do is wait, hope they accept their Queen and our hive and be patient with the backward beekeeping process.  I figure in about 6 months to a year I'll be able to post about our first harvesting of honey!!!

Cheers!!!

The Great Pile Up

I have addressed a couple of my addictions here on this blog before (you know, my addictions to black tea and seeds...)  but I have never before talked about my addiction to magazines.  This is a real problem.  Why? Because I have way too many and not enough time to read them all, so they sit around and wait for me and then they wind up looking like this...

I find it ironic that, on the very top of that massive pile of magazines and tear outs, is Mother Earth News' Living on Less and Loving It! Hilarious!

Gross.

One might ask, "How the heck did you get so many magazines?!?"  Well, it started off innocently enough.  I've always loved magazines and have subscribed to Oprah since it first came out, however, all other magazines were purchased directly from a store (usually when I would go grocery shopping).  This would limit me to one to four magazines a month.  No biggie...I could whip through those in no time flat!

Then, I had the brilliant idea that I could get subscriptions to all the magazines I regularly purchased, save some money and not have to think about it...they would just magically appear in my mailbox once a month!  I like magic!  So, I subscribed to no less than 10 magazines (my original Oprah included) about a year and a half ago.  Some subscriptions were for one year, some for two.

Since this brilliant idea of mine was implemented, I have slowly gotten busier and busier with house and yard stuff (you know, that whole growing a garden thing takes a lot of time) and I have discovered how truly silly a lot of those magazines are.  So magazines have continued to pile up.  Really, it's to the point where I don't even want to read them, but I feel like I have to so they're not being wasted.

Alright, so what can I do?  What are my options?
Read them
Give them away
Recycle them
Throw them away
Put them on a bookshelf for future reference

I think I'll try to do a little of everything except the throwing away.  You might be thinking, "Why the heck would you keep a magazine for future reference?"  Well, while I have not renewed any of my original subscriptions (not even Oprah), I have subscribed to Urban Farm and Mother Earth News and those guys can be used for years to come!

The Great Clean Up is happening today...wish me luck!  And hey, anyone out there want some magazines???

Random Garden Happiness(es)

Here's what's happening in the garden this week!  It's been so incredibly dry (and cold up until a couple of days ago) that I'm still waiting on the sweet corn, squash, zucchini and peanuts to peek (along with a few other veggies), but all these other happenings make me very happy...

The Honey Suckle is so happy!!!

The first pumpkin sprout!

Our over-wintered kale still going strong!

More Sugar Snap Pea flowers!  I am so super excited for these babies to mature!!!

The Beet Forest

The first Butternut Squash sprouts of the year!

We won't have many strawberries this year, but here's one of the few :-)

The next round of spinach just starting to  peek!  This is in a pot.

Apples on one of our Frankenstein Trees

Basil and carrot happiness!

Happy gardening!!!  Cheers!!!

Seed Saving, Cosmos & My Mom

In the past, seed saving has always been something I have thought about only in relation to crops.  The strongest/best fruits and veggies whose seeds are harvested in order to preserve their awesomeness and feed the people for generations to come.  I guess I have always thought of seed saving as an act for the future and have, until recently, forgotten the fact that your have to preserve the past in order to secure the future.  I have also only recently realized that seed saving in any form is a link to the past.

"In search of my mother's garden, I found my own" 

~Alice Walker

I always think of my mom when I am in the garden.  She had the greenest thumb I've ever seen and always grew the best tomatoes and the prettiest flowers.  She was completely at home in the garden.  She always encouraged me to get out and dig in the dirt with her.  In my silly youth I was always too busy or just not interested.  In hindsight (damn that whole 20/20 thing) I wish I would have taken the time to learn some of what she could have taught me.

Cosmos in our garden for the first time last summer!

Last winter, on our way back to Santa Fe from a day trip to Taos, we stopped at my Aunt's house in Picuris to give her some seeds we had saved from last summer's garden.  In bringing her the seeds I was simply thinking about bringing her a gift that she could use, that was cheap and had some meaning attached to it.  She was so happy to get the beans, corn, sunflowers, morning glories and squash and, in turn, gave me some kota tea seed and some cosmo seeds.

My mom and Aunt when they were Littles in NYC

This was happy trade that was made even happier by the the fact that, apparently, my mom, aunt and grandma had been saving and trading cosmos seeds for about 40 years!  Now, my grandma passed about 15 years ago and my mom passed 5 years ago, so the fact that my aunt continued saving the seeds from her garden, sowed from seeds they had shared for so many years, is (in my mind) super cool.

Baby Me and my mom (with her larger-than-life attitude and super cool '70's boots)

I brought my new seeds home feeling like I was now part of this awesome cycle.  A couple of weekends ago, I put those seeds in the ground and I am now anxiously awaiting their germination.  This spring has been very dry and pretty chilly, so everything's delayed a bit, but I'm sure they'll peek soon!

My Grandma Eve in the '80's

My hope is to grow some fantastically beautiful cosmos, collect their seeds, and take some back to my Aunt in order to help continue the cycle.  How cool will it be in 5, 15 or 25 years to see cosmos growing in my daughter's or (still imagined) grandchild's gardens that came from seeds that  were planted by my mom, aunt and grandma?!?  Super cool!

Cheers!

Cash as Trash

If you were given $30, would you throw away $10?  According to this article this is exactly what we're doing around the world with our food.

Now, I know that I don't consider myself one to have money to simply toss in the trash, however, I essentially do this by buying coffee, going out to eat and splurging on magazines on a fairly regular basis.  In addition to these splurges, I also find we throw away a ridiculous amount of food as it goes "bad" in the fridge.  This has gotten better since we can give all of our leftover fruits and veggies (minus avocados) to the chickens and anything that can't go to them can go in the compost heap and anything that can't go there might be able to go to the dogs, but if it can't go into any of those places, it definitely goes in the trash.  Perfectly good food that could continue to feed us or that could feed other people is just thrown away.  Money spent on said food, tossed in the trash.

We live in a nation of excess and have grown to expect only the best from everything, including our food.  This can be a good thing unless it involves throwing out lettuce that might be a little wilty or tossing out leftovers just because they might not be appealing as a meal a day or two later.  I know that we, as a family, are guilty of this and have a lot to work on but  I am going to do my best to focus on not only the money factor of all this, but also on the human factor.

According to worldhunger.org there were 925 million hungry people in the world in 2011.

To bring it a little closer to home, according to the Food Depot 117 million meals were "missed" in New Mexico in 2010.

That's a lot of hungry people and I intend to think of each one of them the next time I start to throw away perfectly good food.

To CSA or not to CSA, that is the question!

According to localharvest.org, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is:

...a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

and the benefits of CSAs are:

Advantages for farmers:

• Get to spend time marketing the food early in the year, before their 16 hour days in the field begin
• Receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm's cash flow
• Have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow

Advantages for consumers:

• Eat ultra-fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits
• Get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking
• Usually get to visit the farm at least once a season
• Find that kids typically favor food from "their" farm – even veggies they've never been known to eat
• Develop a relationship with the farmer who grows their food and learn more about how food is grown

We had talked about joining a CSA for a long time before making the plunge and when we joined our local  program, Beneficial Farms last fall and were very, very, very excited about it.  We signed up for the weekly veggie share ($25) as well as the weekly meat share ($5) and arranged to pick up our shares at a local food bank every Thursday at lunch time (they offer a variety of pick up places and times).

In our weekly shares we have gotten a variety of foods that have been familiar (onions, potatoes, salad greens), not so familiar (swiss chard, bok choy, sun chokes, blue corn flour) and absolutely fantastic (garlic braids & local ground beef).

We enjoy the feel of community each time we pick up our CSA, knowing our food is local (or local-ish...sometimes items come from as far away as Colorado and occasionally as far away as Hawaii if you consider the ginger we got a couple of weeks ago).  We like knowing that we are supporting farmers.  We enjoy the variety offered, not only with the veggies we get each week, but with the honey, flours, jams & peanuts that show up as happy surprises from time to time!  We are learning about new (seasonal) veggies, what they look and taste like and how to cook them.

We have been challenged by the over abundance of potatoes and onions in some shares (how many meals can you really cook with the 15 onions sitting on your counter???) and greens in all of the shares we've gotten now for weeks on end, especially since our own greens are in abundance this spring.  We will have to learn how to store certain foods as they come in in abundance (pickled onions? dehydrated zucchini?) both from our CSA and our garden at the same time.  We've been challenged by a want for fresh beef (as opposed to frozen) for the mere pleasure of the texture it maintains when cooked and by not really knowing the farmers or ranchers who we are getting all this wonderful food from.  For example, if we were to go to the Farmers Market we would be actually shaking hands with our farmers while handing them cash as opposed to supporting them from afar.

All challenges aside, becoming a member of our local CSA has given us a great opportunity to get closer to our food sources, support them in a real way and to eat healthier on a regular basis.  As of right now, we are still enjoying the experience and look forward to our weekly share.  Our intention is to see it through the year (which would take us through the summer and into next fall) while continuing to assess what is working and what is not.

Learn more about your local CSA here. Cheers!!!

 

Garden Happiness(es)

Random happy happenings in the garden over the past week...

The beans, sunflowers and blue corn are starting to peek!

The snap peas are flowering!

I think this might be might very first tomatillo sprout!

The radishes are looking happy!

Tool Lady is looking happy, too!

One of the Newbies has been "roosting" on the edge of one of the nesting boxes.  Silly girl.

Cheers!!!

Harvest Monday

This weeks harvest is full of green (again) in the form of spinach and one lonely stalk of rhubarb.  I am excited to be pulling greens form the garden on a regular basis for salads, sandwiches and snacks but am really looking forward to some color (hopefully) soon!

This weeks totals are:
Spinach - 10oz
Rhubarb - 1oz (not including that huge leaf)
Total = 11oz

This doesn't seem like much and I really should include all the spinach I eat each time I walk through the yard, but I don't weigh it before I shove it in my mouth!

Our remaining kale is out of control but I still have some in the fridge from last week that we need to turn into chips, and I don't want to harvest any new kale until the old stuff is taken care of.

Our very first stalk of rhubarb.  Not really sure what to do with it since it's only one, single stalk...

I've been "picking as I go" for each meal so the spinach leaves are getting quite large, but I prefer this to wilty spinach in the fridge!

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions!!!  Daphne hosts these Monday posts by not only blogging about what she has harvested, but by also allowing fellow bloggers to add their names to her post as well so we can all see what each of us is up to!


Happy harvesting!

14 Day Pantry Challenge Wrap Up

Alright.  It's over.  Let's look at what happened, what worked and what didn't.

I started the 14 Day Pantry Challenge two weeks ago to challenge myself and my family to eat only what we had in our pantry, fridge and freezers for 2 weeks.  No grocery shopping.  No going out to eat.  Accomplishing this would not only help us to make some room in our various food storage areas, but would also save us some money.

First of all, if we were to base the success or failure of this challenge solely on whether or not we ate out over the past 2 weeks, this would be considered a complete failure.  Over the past 14 days we have, as a family of 3, eaten a total of 12 meals (Tool Lady = 6 meals, Bee Girl = 4 meals & Fish Girl = 2 meals) out of the total 126 meals we consumed (3 people X 3 meals/day X 14 days) that were not cooked by us, but instead, by a restaurant.  Most of these meals were for lunch.  However, and this is honest and embarrassing, it's better than we usually do!  Given all this eating out I don't assume we have saved any money in this whole challenge!

Next is the whole grocery issue.  We did mostly OK except for the lemonade for Fish Girl when she got sick during the first week of the challenge and the box of groceries Tool Lady brought home a few nights ago.  She really wanted calabacitas and I didn't blame her at all.  Given that we hadn't been shopping in almost a month, the only fresh veggies in the house were greens from our CSA!  There really are only so many greens you can eat and still be happy with them!  She also bought me some milk and black tea which was quite possibly the best gift ever!

OK, enough with what we didn't do right!  We did some damage to our stores of food with the other 100+ meals we made at home or ate as leftovers.  I'm completely out of white flour, our freezer has much less meat stored in it, we were able to come up with some creative meals we normally would have never eaten (mac & cheese with grilled shrimp on the side?!?) and I have learned some important lessons that I intend to carry forward:
~Meal plans are essential.  Inventory what you have, make a plan (write it down) and stick to it.  However, allow yourself the freedom to swap meals planned for night 4 with night 7 and so forth.  That way, if you don't feel like the pasta dinner that's scheduled for night 4, you can instead have the burgers planned for night 7.
~Have on hand foods you actually like to eat.  If you have a pantry full of green beans but they're not you're favorite canned veggie, you'll either get tired of them pretty quick or you'll just not eat them at all (which makes me question why the heck we have so many cans of green beans in our pantry!?!)
~Making bread and tortillas from scratch takes a lot of time and energy.  If you don't have either of those things on a given weekend you won't make them and that fact will greatly affect which meals you can make throughout the coming week.
~I am/we are completely spoiled when it comes to food.  I blame society and the conveniences we have created for ourselves, but I am completely accustomed to having what I want to cook with, when I want to cook it and if I don't have it, I can just jump in my car, go 5 minutes down the road and acquire it!
~Plan ahead.  If it were really the end of the world or we were snowed in for weeks, I would have been out of my #1 comfort item (black tea with milk) within 10 days.  Most emergency preparedness plans (although, not those involving zombies) call for comfort items and I was very sad when I ran out of mine.  If we had been in a stressful/emergency-type situation, I would have been even sadder.

All in all, it was a good challenge for us.  Will we do it again?  Maybe.  Probably.  I would like to.  Next time though, I will take my lessons and make a plan.  Being more sustainable isn't just about growing food or recycling a few things here and there or composting or raising chickens.  It's about planning ahead and making good choices for ourselves while always trying to keep the future of the planet (and my hungry belly) in mind.

Cheers!

14 Day Pantry Challenge Update

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

A huge success of this whole challenge has been the fact that we had a 15 pound turkey waiting for us in our deep freezer!  We purchased this guy last year at Thanksgiving time and have been saving him away for when we need him!  YAY!

Now, how exactly do you you spread a 15 pound turkey as far as it will go with a 16 year old in the house???

Rations!  That's how!  One big turkey meal for all, then separate plates...two for general consumption (one for Fish Girl and one for myself and Tool Lady) and one for turkey & potato burritos.  The General Consumption plates are perfect for Spinach Salad with Turkey as well as Turkey Salad Sandwiches.

We just might make it through this after all!

Dirty Hands & Torn Aprons

A while back I went on a shopping excursion with Fish Girl.  This excursion was supposed to be just for her to spend some of her leftover birthday money.  I was not supposed to shop.  Yeah...right!

We went to TJMaxx and I was just poking around, killing time, when I came across the aprons.  Now, let me start off by saying that I have never been an apron kind of girl.  I'm more of the wipe-my-dirty-hands-on-my-jeans kind of girl.  That is, until recently.  For some reason I've become enamored with aprons and actually look forward to wearing them when I bake or make tortillas!

Anyhow, back to TJMaxx where the aprons were a mess.  There were probably 200 aprons all shoved onto two hooks so the process of looking through them was a pain.  But, all I was supposed to be doing was killing time, right?  So, I looked and looked and looked and finally found one that I thought I might like.  Once I untangled it from the other hundred aprons on the hook, I realized it was torn.  Really?!  Well, instead of just putting it back, I decided to ask if they'd give me a discount (you know, off the already discounted price) and they did!  One whole dollar!  Hey, every little bit helps, right?

Not a huge tear, but definitely noticeable

So, I brought my new, beautiful apron home and promptly hung it in the pantry where it waited for me to mend it.  Procrastination, what?  After a few weeks I finally pulled out my sewing kit and had at it.

TaDah!!!  Now, I officially own 2 (yep, count 'em...one, two) aprons on which I can wipe my dirty hands!

The yellow apron is my TJMaxx find.  The Strawberry apron was a super find in St. Louis last winter.
Throw backs are the best!

Harvest Monday!!!

This is my very first Harvest Monday post hosted by Daphne's Dandelions!!!  Daphne hosts these Monday posts by not only blogging about what she has harvested, but by also allowing fellow bloggers to add their names to her post as well so we can all see what each of us is up to!

While there are really not many items ready to harvest in the garden yet (beyond the wonderful greens of spring), I thought this might be a good time to start posting!

This week we harvested:
6oz of spinach
1lb 5oz of mixed lettuce
4oz of kale

There's nothing quite like fresh picked spinach  in...well, anything!

In harvesting all that lettuce, we pulled many of the plants (they were getting too bitter) and gave it to the chickens.  I left one of each kind, though, to allow it to go to seed.

Remarkably, the spinach is still going strong and I am hopeful I can get another few weeks out of it before replacing it with turnips and broccoli!

Happy harvesting!

Twisted Berry Nut Bread (minus the berries, plus whatever you want)

To date, this is probably my favorite bread.  It is not a quick bake, but it is more than worth the effort.  I originally found this recipe in Family Circle a couple of years ago and have since played with it in a variety of ways...the most recent being a no dairy version that is not only fantastic but Fish Girl can eat it, too!

This bread is fantastic for breakfast, as a snack (with tea is my favorite, of course) or as a dessert (warm) with ice cream!

Here's the recipe as written plus my changes in italicized bold.  By the way, I tried to post a link to the original recipe but FC wanted me to sign up for all kinds of crap to access it, so this will have to do :-)

Ingredients:
Dough-
3/4 milk (or Almond Milk)
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp unsalted butter (or Earth Balance vegan "butter")
1/2 ts salt
1 packet active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
3 eggs
4 1/1 cups all purpose flour (or whole wheat flour, or some combination of the two)

Filling-
3/4 seedless raspberry jam (or any jam or fruit filling you like...today I used frozen cherries & apricots we've had stashed from our CSA since last fall, chopped up into 1/4 inch-ish pieces)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (or any nut you like...today I used sliced almonds)
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup warm honey

Process
Dough-
1-Heat milk, sugar, butter & salt in a sauce pan over medium heat until the butter melts.  Let cool 30 minutes
2-Sprinkle yeast over warm water in large bowl, stir to dissolve
-Add milk mixture, 2 of the eggs & 1 1/4 cups of flour
-Beat for 3 minutes, then add 3 cups flour to form dough
3-Turn dough out onto floured surface & knead until smooth & elastic (3-5 minutes)
-Place dough in a large oiled bowl 7 turn the dough to coat
-Cover with plastic wrap & let rise in a warm place for 1 hour
*while the dough is rising, you can prep your fruit and nuts
4-Punch dough down, place on floured surface, cover & let rest for 15 minutes
5-Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray, oil or butter

Filling
6-Roll dough into a 14 inch square (or break up the dough into 3 pieces and roll them out separately)

  -Brush with jam (or brush with warm honey & sprinkle with chopped fruit)
  -Sprinkle with walnuts (or almonds or pecans)

7-Beginning with one edge, roll the dough up, jelly-roll style
-Pinch the seam closed
-Carefully transfer to your prepped baking sheet, seam-side down

-Reshape into a roll if it's lost its shape
-Cut roll in half lengthwise

-With the cut sides up, begin in the middle and work toward one end loosely crossing the strips over each other (keep cut sides up as much as possible)
-Pinch ends together and under to seal them

-Repeat with the second half of the loaf
-Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes

8-Heat oven to 350 degrees
-Lightly beat remaining egg and brush it over the top of the loaf
-Sprinkle with sugar
9-Bake for about 30 minutes (until lightly golden and it sounds hollow when knocked on)

If you break your dough into a few pieces, you can fill each loaf to suit the likes of whoever you might be baking for.  Today, Fish Girl only wanted honey and apricots, while Tool Lady honey, cherry & almonds and I wanted honey, apricots & almonds.  Everyone wins!

Happy eating!!!