Saturday BlogRoll call

Part 1 of my fellow Homesteaders.

Adventures in 100 acre wood, is written by Stephanie. Her blog focuses on family, and raising small children on their homestead. She also hosts a couple other blogs.

False Sense of Security is a blog whose owner found me. Yesterday I made my way over there, and found a delightful and well written blog about his homesteading efforts.

Free Range Living is a blog I have posted about before. {but we are going in alphabetical order here} Cheryl is an Urban homesteader. She has recipes and some of her city adventures posted.

Green Fingers is written by Michelle. Her posts on homesteading deal a lot with the homesteader's garden and the stresses that come along with everyday life and choosing to live a life of simplicity. It's never really that simple.

If you are interested in homesteading, check out my fellow bloggers. Even though we all are doing the same things, we face our world in different ways.

Updates

A few weeks ago we put our chicks out into the nursery. They seem to be thriving, and are getting along just fine with everyone except the turkey.We do plan on keeping all these hens as layers, and not meat birds.



My volunteer pumpkin vine produced a total of 4 gourds.The first one I had made pumpkin butter from. Not sure yet what I will be doing with these. The USDA does not recommend canning pureed pumpkin, not just home canning but commercial canning as well. Pumpkin puree is too thick, and the heat is not always able to penetrate the center, increasing your chances of getting food poisoning. They suggest that you cut your pumpkin meat into cubes and then can them. {another reason to can your own}

On to the apples;

a total of 28 ½ lbs down

3 lbs were made into apple chips and dehydrated. And I use ½ lbs to make some apple muffins.
The recipe needs some work. As soon as I fix it, I will post the new, improved recipe.

Any questions, or need an update from something else I have posted in the past?

From Lynn

Hey thanks, Phelan. If any of your readers are in the Portland, Oregon area, come by for the City Riparian build in my back yard. It's a great way to learn permaculture--free--hands-on, and help a disabled lady--me--get her garden in. :) There will be workshops along with the garden build, and they're suggested donation, but no one will be turned away.

Lynn S ~ The New HomeMaker

You guys heard her. If I was up that way I would gladly stop by. If anyone is in the area and goes, please tell me all about it.

Speaking of HomeMakers, Project Gutenburg has The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Francis Child free for download. {written in 1832} found thanks to Get Rich Slowly

excerpt

The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering
up all the fragments, so that nothing be lost.
I mean fragments of _time_, as well as _materials_. Nothing
should be thrown away so long as it is possible to make
any use of it, however trifling that use may be; and whatever
be the size of a family, every member should be employed
either in earning or saving money.

Too Tired to Think

Work here has slowed down as I try to get my father settled in. I don't expect things to get back to normal until the weekend.

The weather has been swinging pretty hard. On Tuesday it was 96F {35.5c}, yesterday 77F {25c}, last week 48F {8.8c}. I hear people saying that this is caused by global warming. I'm not completely convinced of that. It has always been like this, as long as I can remember. If there isn't an ice storm, or drizzle on Halloween, then I will consider the possibility. But even then, the ice storms are something that only began 10 years ago. Before that, Halloween was always pleasant. I am sure we are causing environmental problems, but I am not willing to blame everything on humans just because I am unable to recall what the season was like the year before. If anything it has been getting colder here, not warmer. let's call that my rant for the day, and the dawning of the new ice age. ~insert dooms day music here~


On to the apples;

25 lbs down!

3 lbs of baking apples were dehydrated yesterday. I thought I could make apple coffee cakes this winter.

Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with: Apple juice was one of the earliest prescribed antidepressants.

I think my oldest son brought an illness home with him, and I caught it. Bad timing

Blatantly sharing links

If you have ever stopped over and checked out Lynn S' blog and site The New Home Maker, you know that she publishes a wealth of information about various subjects that effect you, your family, home and community. Just in case you haven't yet visited Lynn S, she has a post up about her apple tree, and it's unfortunate demise. In it she talks about two projects that she is involved in doing. City Riparian is a great urban project that I thought some of you might be interested in looking into. From their site "City Repair was formed in Portland, Oregon in 1996 by citizen activists who wanted a more community-oriented and ecologically sustainable society. Born out of a successful grassroots neighborhood initiative that converted a residential street intersection into a neighborhood public square, City Repair began its work with the idea that localization (of culture, of economy, of decision-making) is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community-oriented places, we plant the seeds for greater neighborhood communication, empower our communities and nurture our local culture." If your interested, you can look here to find out if they have a group in your area.

Green Mountain permaculture is a great resource to help your create the perfect balance in your food forest. They will teach you how to plant items that will be beneficial to each other. Natural pest control, natural weed control.

Here are some of my own links to help you along the way.

Do you know where to get the best organically grown food in your area, or where the farmer’s markets are? If not check out Local Harvest. Simply put your zip code in, and they will tell you what and where the farms/farmers market are. The USDA also has a national directory to help you find the farmers markets in your state.

Food News has a pocket guide to fruits and vegetables. Keep this list handy when you go shopping to help you avoid the worst pesticide offenders.

Need a co-op? Coop Directory Service: Find A Natural Food Coop Near You is another online resource to help you along your way.

On to the apples;

No apple update today. My father arrived yesterday, and I had little time to do much. Today is another story.

If you have any links that can help simplify the frugal or natural way of life, please share.

Sweet Potatoes and apples part 2

I was recently asked what I had done differently this year than previous years, with growing sweet potatoes. In the past I have talked about using the lazy bed technique to grow potatoes, but I did not do that with my sweet potatoes. Instead we moved them to a new spot in the garden. An area where the weeds didn't grow as well, and created a very large and long mound of earth. And trenches on either side to help run off any water. I waited until it was a warmer time in spring, the ground temps should be in the 70'sF, and did little in the way of weeding. I stopped watering and weeding them altogether once the vines had covered the mound. And I didn't freak out about the invading cooler temps, leaving them in the ground a little longer. {we have 2 more weeks until we should get our first hard frost, the remaining tubers will be dug up by then}.
Here is what is left from my sample dig. Sweet potatoes become sweeter in storage.

I had a few that the potato fork mangled a bit. They needed to be used immediately as they will not store. I went and scoured through my massive amount of handwritten recipes and found one that I was looking for.

Sweet Potato Bake {serves 12}

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 ½ pounds butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2/3 cup light brown sugar, divided
3 large eggs, beaten
6 tablespoons butter, melted and divided
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 teaspoons Cinnamon, divided
½ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
2 apples, peeled and thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 350F. Cook sweet potatoes in water in a large saucepan until tender {20 minutes} drain. Cook squash in another saucepan until tender {10 minutes} drain.
Combine 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, all eggs, 2 tablespoons of the butter, all of the vanilla, 1 1/2 teaspoons each of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Reserve 1/4 cup of the mixture for squash.

In food processor, blend sweet potatoes with remaining egg mixture until a smooth puree. Spread in greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with nuts of choice.

In food processor, blend squash with reserved 1/4 cup egg mixture. Spread over the pecan layer. Arrange apple slices on top of the squash layer. Mix 1/3 cup brown sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon, then sprinkle over apples. Drizzle 4 tablespoons melted butter over top. Bake 45-50 minutes, or until set in the center. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Calories: 285

Total Fat: 14.4g

{I have a new program that will tell me the nutritional value of my recipes}

Onto the apples;

this was not something I wanted to see.

nor this,

2 of my applesauce cans did not seal correctly. The dimple was indented, and the lid did not come off when I removed the band. But at some point it did come off enough to allow air into it. 2 pints ruined. This does not make for a happy day.

Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with; The history of apple consumption dates from Stone Age cultivation in areas we now know as Austria and Switzerland

Holiday Cooking Blogger Style

Click pic for more recipes from other bloggers

Roasted Goose

you will need;
1 whole goose (12 lbs {5.4 Kg}) remove the neck giblets, wing tips, and excess fat, and set aside in the fridge for later use in gravy. Remove the wish bone and prick the skin with a trussing needle, all over

8 cups bread stuffing {apple and sage will go with the goose }

Giblet gravy to serve

To prepare;
Bring a large stock pot that is 2/3 full of water, to a boil.
Using rubber gloves to protect your hands, submerge the goose neck end down into the boiling water for one full minute. Goose bumps should appear on the skin. Remove and repeat, submerging the tail end first. Drain the goose and dry, inside and out. Pat with a paper towel. Place the goose breast side up on a flat rack {one inside of a roasting pan} a refrigerate for 24 hours. {you can chill for 48 hours}

Place your oven rack in the low-center position. Pre-heat to 325 F {162c}. Put your stuffing in the neck opening and sew shut with heavy twine. do the same with the tail end {stuff and sew} Season the goose skin with salt and pepper, liberally.

Using a heavy-duty V rack, place the goose breast down over a roasting pan. Roast for 1 ½ hours. Remove and scoop out most of the fat from the pan. {leave the brown bits} Turn the goose, breast side up, and roast for and additional 1 ½ hours, or until the skin has puffed up around the breast bone and the tops of the thighs. Increase oven temp to 400F {204c}. Move the goose and V rack to a jelly roll pan and bake for 15 more minutes, the skin will now be brown and crisp.

Remove the twine and stuffing. Serve stuffing separate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~main dish


Skip the gourmet shops when looking for your Holiday goose. Try contacting your County extension office or your area co-op.

So many things and it's 130 am

I have discovered a wealth of new information and websites. Dealt with introspective. Contemplated different ideas. Wept from soreness and fatigue. I have discovered friends I wasn't aware of having, and some truths about personality clashes. I have learned that I have taken on more than necessary, and have few regrets about it. I have felt the crush of time lines, and crumbling of personal aspirations. I found myself lost and unable to breathe. I was given a hand to pull me out, and slept as the dead. All this over a period of two days.

So many things I want to share, things to discuss, and stories to debate. Unfortunately, that would take up a lot of my online time, and might be too much for even me to digest at once. True, I can be flaky, but now is not the time to allow that to become a common theme in my posts. I will take this week to go over things, taking on only one "deep" thought at a time, besides we have apples to talk about.

Bushels of apples everywhere, but I ain’t got time to spare!
I feel lovely, lovely . . .
Ha! La la lovely, oh-oh . . .

Oops, guess my age is showing. If you didn't recognize the slightly altered lyrics above, it was Lovely by Suicidal Tendencies. And it has been my theme song over the past week. I am in a sarcastic mood, and will try my best not to allow that to affect the feeling of today's post. Even if I normally have some sarcasm in my entries, I promise not to go over board with it.

Onto the apples;

33 lbs. down!

I was unable to process the entire bushel as I had planned. Without the cider press, it became a challenge that I was forced to declare defeat on. Though I quit under duress. My husband pulled me aside, and informed me that I could stop at any time. "Look at your hands." I did, and I saw the overwrought fingers. I could barely squeeze the cheese cloth any longer. I didn’t want to give up. But I wasn't, not really. Taking a break has to be a better way to describe it. There was no reason I had to juice an entire bushel at once. I can do it a quart at a time. I realized I had become obsessed with finishing this apple preservation task, not by one apple at a time, but by one bushel at a time. I had to step back, see the solitary apple and what I could accomplish with just the one, not the entire bushel. I cannot allow things to get out of hand.

Unless you have minions, do not get in over your head with anything. The pleasure of picking apples, and the ideas of what could be done with them drove us into gluttony, maybe greed. {No, not greed, doesn't feel like greed}

22 lbs. of apples got me 5 quarts of pure, unadulterated apple juice. I chose to freeze it instead of canning, just to make things a little simpler on me. {when freezing, make sure you leave some room for the item to expand. If you neglect to do this, the lids will pop off, or your glass jars will break.}
Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with; In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage; catching it was acceptance.

I will make another entry later for the Holiday Cooking Blogger Style post. And no, I have not forgotten about the sweet potatoes, that needs a post to its self. I will talk all about them, and a wonderful recipe I made over the weekend using butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and apples.

{my timestamp seems to be off}

Too big?

Today's guest blogger was a little long winded. I told her she could be, but at least one of the feeds will not pick it up due to this fact.

Jenny O did a wonderful job talking about knitting for the first time. You can read it here at The Neophyte Knitter.

On a homestead note, I found the camera, and there wasn't a single odd photo on it.

Guest Blogger; The Neophyte Knitter

About a month ago, I decided that my book group needed a little spice in their lives, so I suggested that we read Stitch 'N Bitch by Debbie Stoller and told everyone (in my know-it-all voice) to bring "some needles and some yarn" to the next meeting. I ran right out and bought a copy of Stoller's book, read the whole thing--pattern instructions included--in less than 24 hours, and decided this knitting thing didn't look so hard. Oh, how the high and mighty are soon humbled.

Step number one, now that I've read the book, get some needles and yarn. No problem, I think. I head over to the big chain craft store and walk to the knitting/crochet/needlework section. I get my first look at just the needle choices, and am somewhat stunned. There are needles made of hard plastic, flexible plastic, bamboo, aluminum, and rosewood. There are needle sizes from 0 to 25, and everything in between. There are straight needles in 13 inch lengths, 14 inch lengths, and oh-my-god-who-in-their-right-mind-would-ever-knit-something-that-big lengths. There are circular needles, some of which separate into lots of bits so you can swap cables and needles around and basically get everything in an unholy mess. There are the terrifying double point needles. I know they have something to do with socks and the tops of hats, but I'm afraid to go there now. The choices were overwhelming. I ended up grabbing a couple of metal 14" #8 needles. Want to know how I chose them? My six year old liked them because they were pink and shiny. It was good enough for me.

So, I've got needles, now I need yarn, right? I turn around and see three full rows of yarn. Fat yarn, skinny yarn, fluffy yarn, yarn with sequins, yarn with fur, scratchy yarn, yarn that's soft enough for baby blankets. This, too, was a bit overwhelming. I finally find some 100% cotton yarn in a denim color that feels good and looks like a pretty neutral color. I'd read that you should always have enough yarn from the same dye lot to complete your project, so I dutifully check the lot number and make sure they're both the same. They are. I buy two skeins. What I'm going to do with them, I still have no idea.

I get home and flip to Ms. Stoller's beautiful casting on instructions. The diagrams are easy to follow. Ms. Stoller says several times in the book that casting on is difficult and that I shouldn't get frustrated if it takes me a few tries. It takes me one try. One, and I'm casting on like a pro. I'm thinking, "Wow, this is supposed to be hard ? Why did I wait so long to pick up this hobby?" Then, I try to knit my first row. I've cast on so tightly that I have to hold my breath and force the right hand needle between the yarn and the left needle. I finally get it worked in there, flip my yarn around the tip of the right needle, and get ready to draw it back through and make the loop. Hah. After much swearing under my breath and turning red in the face, I get it through. I do this for 24 cast on stitches. It never once occurs to me that I can cast on loosely and save myself this pain. The second knit row is a little easier. I only split the yarn twice. Now I have 26 stitches. This I do not notice, but it doesn't seem to matter all that much as by the time I hit the fourth row, I've dropped at least two more. I'm about even, I think. I enjoy this for about an hour, then pain starts shooting up my right arm from my little finger to my elbow. This is my sign to call it quits for the night.

I pick things back up the next night and try again. Still, not much luck. I decide, "Screw this, I'm waiting until book club to touch it again." Fortunately, we have an expert knitter, someone who actually taught knitting classes, in our group. She sees my frustration, gives me some yarn, and shows me how to loosen up a bit. With her supervision, I whip up 30 beautiful garter stitch rows (garter stitch means all rows are knit; no purling for me yet).

With my newfound confidence, I head back to the craft store. "Must've just been the yarn the first time," I think. I buy some beautiful pink, blue, and green variegated yarn. I look at the label and see that it recommends #10 needles. Okay, no problem. There's a sale this week. I find a pair. I buy blue this time to satisfy my eight year old. I get home and start up with the garter stitch. I'm still not really sure what I'm doing, but I've mastered the art of casting on, and I think I can knit. After a few days, and my first successful join (I had to add a second skein), I end up with this:


I decide that maybe this is pretty fun after all and make yet another trip to the craft store. I buy more needles and more yarn. I start looking for yarn on the Internet. There's some fabulous stuff out there. I mean, I knew about wool yarn, but I didn't realize there were so many types. And I had no idea there was bamboo yarn! I really want to try that. It sounds perfect for the Texas heat.

I discover quickly that knitting can be an expensive hobby if you don't watch out. But I also find that there are lots of people who buy old thrift store sweaters and unravel them to make new and exciting things. I'm not sure yet how to construct a sweater, so I'm not quite ready yet to unravel one, but I'll get there one day.

I'm still pretty limited to rectangle-shaped things. I made a second scarf that added the purl stitch and made stockinette:


I'm on my third scarf now. It's looking pretty good. I think I'm going to move on to hand towels next. Some day in the not too distant future, I plan to really stretch myself and make a hat. Or add fringe to something. I can see how people get addicted to knitting. It's hard to put the needles down. It's seriously cutting into my reading time. Fortunately, there are plenty of books and blogs about knitting, so I can combine the two addictions and get my money's worth from both.

If you think you might be interested in knitting, I recommend the following books and websites:

BOOKS;
Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller

Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne

Websites;
Crazy Aunt Purl - This woman makes me laugh like crazy.


Yarn Harlot

Knitty

And the most helpful site of all, KnittingHelp.com - I love this woman. She shows you how to do everything

~Jenny O

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Jenny O. I know nothing about knitting. I tried crocheting once, but couldn't get the hang of it. I was laughed at "if you can make chainmaille, why can't you crochet?" Because metal is easier to work with. For me anyway. So I find people that can knit fascinating. No, not in the "They have a hand growing out of their forehead" kind of way. ~Phelan

Want to teach me something? Have a neophyte story to tell? email me at eirennaigh at juno dot com and tell me all about it. Please keep it on DIY projects, include your pictures and links.