Crunchy's blog

We moved in to our new house (5 acres!!!) in the middle of May. This meant that we didn’t have time to get any gardens ready, but we still did manage to get some things in the ground. PE is working on some lovely permaculture gardens for next spring that we will post pictures of soon! There are already 2 apple trees, 2 pear trees, lots of black walnut trees, and some wild blackberries on our property. Other than that we have a fairly clean slate to work with! As our friends say, we have less work because there isn’t anything to undo :)

After the last post about taking care of our friend’s chickens, the same friend decided that she had the itch to incubate some eggs! She decided that she was going to get Araucanas (they lay light blue eggs) and asked us if we wanted some. We decided that with our new knowledge of how easy chickens can be that we would go for it. We should be getting them sometime in November and are really excited about it! PE junior is also quite excited, he really liked going over and taking care of the chickens (including throwing food down on the ground for them to scratch).

Plant something: 7 tomato plants (from a friend who had extra) using a cool method (direct planting into sod) that some of our favorite CSA farmers taught us! 2 chocolate bell pepper plants and 2 yellow bell pepper plants using the same method. In our fall garden that I made using 3 boards and lots of organic soil (that I bought because I was itching to get things planted!) we have beans, peas, lettuce (several varieties), carrots, radishes, marigolds, and a really small variety of corn. We have 3 whiskey barrels that I planted grape tomatoes (a huge hit with my 2 year old and his friends!), basil (purple and regular), sage, parsley, and spearmint.

Harvest something: Tons of tomatoes, lots of bell peppers, beans, peas, lettuce, radishes, basil, sage, parsley, and spearmint. PE has been experimenting with some hay cutting and putting it up in our small barn.

Preserve something: I did several types of tomato preservation (before we got late season blight ARGH!). A couple of times I made a big pot of tomato sauce for dinner with carrots, zucchini, etc. (from the great farmers market that we have in town) and froze the rest in ball jars for later. I also made salsa and canned it, cold pack whole tomatoes (which I did not like the results of, but I will wait to make a decision if I will do it again until I eat them!) green tomato salsa, and green tomato chili sauce. We went to a friend’s house the day she was working on canning a deliciously wonderful smelling tomato sauce (the kind that baked in the oven for 4 hours!) and helped her so in exchange we got a jar of the sauce. We also made tomato paste using her cool hand powered food mill which she later brought all 3 jars over for us! She calls it PE junior sauce because he was such a good helper making it :) I also went to a friend’s farm with PE and his parents and PE junior and we picked 32 pints of raspberries! So lots and lots of jam in July. It is so good on fresh baked bread. I also made basil olive oil and froze it. The next thing for me is canning all of the pears from our trees! I’m excited to try out some different recipes and figure out what we like. I also need to get the rest of our herbs in and dry them/make something from all of the basil (mmm pesto!).

Waste not: Our usual compost and recycling. We took all of the CFL’s (that we bought we aren’t stealing from the landlord!) from the house we were renting and brought them to our new house. We took the light bulbs from the house here and put them back in the rental house. We are looking forward to having chickens to help with the cleanup of the apples and pears under the trees. For now the bees are in them and the deer come along and snack. The dog also does a great job cleaning up after PE jr. Also using all yard clippings, leaves, etc. on our new garden beds.

Want not: We got a Vermont Castings wood burning stove put in a few weeks ago and are hoping that we can have that be our only source of heat this winter (instead of turning on the propane heater). We also have a great exchange going on with a friend. I babysit for her one day a week when her childcare provider does not work and in exchange she gives us food from her farm, maple syrup that they make, and the latest is firewood. PE goes and uses their splitter and gets wood from their huge pile of wood that they were feeling like they would not be able to get through before it rotted. I also did an order from Raintree, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, loganberries, gooseberries, and some other things I can’t seem to remember at the moment. We have some decent planting coming up in the next week or two! I have also been working on winter type projects; knitting slippers and scarves, making draft dodgers, and my next project is making corn heating bags.

Eat the food: We made the tomato sauce, and I have grand plans for some stuffed bell peppers. We also have lots of salad and beans. I hardly get the peas inside the house before PE junior is chowing down on them, and the grape tomatoes were his favorite snack this summer. I have been considering a special snack garden for him next year.

Build community food systems: I have already mentioned a couple here (friend with chickens, making sauce with a friend, and the friend who has an established farm that we exchange with). PE is working with people at our church to create an indoor winter farmers market either at our church or another church in town. I have also been going with a friend on some farm tours around the area. I get to see what different people are doing and get some ideas for what we should do around our farm, and also meet some more people who are doing lots of the same things that we are doing. I love that we are not the crazy ones anymore!

That is what we have been up to this summer! How about you?

I was out with some other moms today and the topic of soy came up. They were telling me about how it can cause sterility in boys and has other adverse effects. I decided I should do some research on my own and found two very interesting websites. I am going to post them both as they both have very different opinions. One talks about how soy is horrible and the other site refutes the first. I was most concerned about how soy would affect my 4 month old boy, but most of what they talk about is based on soy formula (I am breastfeeding exclusively). I do eat some soy since I have cut out all dairy products from my diet (again because of the breastfeeding, it hurt his tummy!) I eat tofu, edamame, and soy ice cream. I don't drink soy milk though I drink almond milk. Basically what I have decided is that soy is not bad as long as you eat it organically as is the case with most other foods! Also I don't think that you should eat too much of it, again the same as most other foods!

Anti-soy article
Article refuting the first article

Over the weekend we discovered 10 ripe lemons on our lemon tree! While PE entertained PE JR. I decided to make lemonade! According to Rachel Ray if you heat up the lemons it will help the juices flow and make the lemons easier to work with. Since I don’t have a juicer of any form except my hands, I thought it would be a good idea. I heated the lemons up in the microwave for 30 seconds first and then decided it wasn’t long enough, so I gave them another 30 seconds. We were trying to think how you would do that post peak oil and first thought maybe you would boil them but then thought maybe warming them in hot coals or setting them out in the sun for a while might be a better way. So after I heated them I rolled them on the cutting board for a while to get them even jucier! By the time I had juiced all 10 lemons I had one cup of lemon juice. I thought it would be more but I think I had small lemons.

The next step is to make a simple syrup. To make a simple syrup you heat equal parts sugar and water, for this recipe one cup of each. Once you dissolve the sugar you combine the syrup and lemon juice in a pitcher. Then you add 4 cups of water and serve over ice. I have to say it was fabulous, tart and sweet and quite refreshing! I was quite proud of the results… The one strange thing was squeezing all of those lemons made my fingers wrinkly and they were kind of sore from all of the acid! It also started dissolving my nail polish! Strange, I guess I know what to do if I ever run out of nail polish remover! PE is going to try and get some of the essential oils out of the rinds when he has a chance. You can also compost the rinds, or you can throw one down the garbage disposal to freshen it up!