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Daily Ramble
Friday,
20 April 2007
It's
amazing how fast the world begins to grow again. It seems to happen
overnight! One day the land is barren and brown, the next it's full,
thriving and colorful! This week we got some planting done and Peer
continued with his double digging. Remember the apple trees we planted
last fall? Well here they are with gorgeous pink and red blossoms :)
One of these trees gives an early harvest the other gives a late
harvest so we'll be covered for apples the whole year round.
Peer has got the planting beds pretty much ready now...
This was taken yesterday, he planted potatoes in this section. We've
got
a variety called "Linda" and we also planted some blue and red
potatoes, talk about strange spuds....lol! I've heard that they taste
good and have alot more nutritional value than regular spuds so we'll
give them a try.
Here's a picture of what he planted, the blue ones are especially
strange looking...
He also planted pumpkins in one of the compost piles. He soaked beans
and peas overnight and is outside planting them as I type...
So, things are coming along well this spring, better than we
thought they would a few months ago after the flood. In a few hours
we'll go and get the bee hives and put them in their new location. We
need to wait until it is dark and they are all in the hive for the
night so we don't leave any behind.
Monday,
16 April 2007
Well now...it seems that a few months have gone by haven't
they? lol! It's ok, not much happened this winter anyway.
We got a big load of firewood a few months ago which was
conveniently pre-cut so Peer only needed to stack it. So, he spent the
last few weeks stacking it on the other side of the house. He made a
beautifully artistic ring-type creation... it was about 7 feet tall and
6 feet wide, it looked like this....
....well... last week, I heard a huge clattering outside and Esme, our
youngest cat, came flying into the house as if the Hounds of Hell were
on her trail. I went outside and saw one whole side of Peer's beautiful
pile laying in a jumble on the ground and some young girls trying to
hurriedly pull an agitated dog down the street.... I can guess what
happened :/... Anyway, Peer is one determined person, I'm not saying
that he didn't pitch a fit when he got home and saw his pile, because
oh my, he certainly did! But after that, he got into his work cloths
and just started all over again...
See why I love this guy? :D
Also a few weeks ago... Peer decided that he would get his bees this
year. He got 2 wooden hives and just last week, he took them to a
beekeeper in the area and got 2 hives worth of bees. He brought them
home and set them up in the yard where, the very next morning, they
immediately set out to explore their new area and begin collecting
honey. Here they are as close up as I am willing to go without special
clothing...
Well, even though we live out in the country and don't really have any
neighbors, we did have one neighbor complain. The funny thing about it
is that this is a farmer, he has fields all around our place, we
figured he'd be happy to see bees so close to his fields to help with
pollination. Well, you'd think that wouldn't you? Ha! No... he is
concerned that they will sting his cows...ok, whatever. So now Peer is
building the bees a new place, farther back on our property, beside my
studio. We had to take the bees to a new location which is 3 km from
our house. It seems that once you set up a beehive, if you want to move
it, unless you are moving it 3 or more km from the old location, the
bees will continue to return to the old location, even if the hive is
actually only a few yards away. So, last Tuesday, we got up at the
crack of dawn and loaded both hives into our tiny car and moved them to
another beekeepers land. That's where they are now and that's where
they will stay for a week or so while Peer gets the new place ready for
them.
The picture below was taken yesterday. Peer was checking to see how
much progress the bees have made so far. The yellow honey comb that
they are working on is almost entirely new. Peer had originally
attached a piece about a quarter of the size of the whole frame, the
bees have created all the rest themselves...busy little guys aren't
they? :D
On the gardening front...
Peer worked on turning the beds yesterday. The flood undid alot of the
work that he had done last year so he is having to redo alot of it. I
think we'll begin planting a few things this weekend. We've got trays
of seedlings that he started a few weeks ago, they are sitting on the
veranda where they get sun during most of the afternoon, it's our
makeshift greenhouse, maybe we'll get a real one next year. He's got
some tomatoes, leeks and other onions and several types of cabbage
plants in here.
Saturday, 11 November 2006
I need to get outside and takes some pictures,
although it's been so dark and rainy this week they probably wouldn't
turn out anyway. Peer planted our hedge plants this week. We wanted a
thorn hedge, like they used to plant around the villages and
settlements here, to help keep invaders out. The ones they used to
plant were wickedly nasty things. A tall thick tangle of thorns, some
thorns curving outwards and some curving inwards, so once you got stuck
in one, you were definitely going to leave a bit of your hide behind,
not to mention your clothes, before you got out again :p Ok, were
aren't planting anything quite as fierce as that. We do have all of the
traditional plants but ours will be much shorter. Hedgehogs and other
little critters love to live in these and we want to encourage
hedgehogs, not only because they are cute, but also because they eat
slugs and snails, and we have a ton of those around here. Next summer
they are going to have a huge feast on our garden if we can't keep them
under control. Ok, back to the hedge plants. The traditional plants are
hawthorn, blackthorn, and wild roses, we also added a few bush sized
apple trees to help with pollination. Anyway, as Mr.T would say, I pity
the poor fool who falls into this hedge...lol!
Here's a picture for you though, Peer cooked dinner tonight and he
decided to do it on the woodstove. He boiled pig ribs and made a nice
broth which we ate with a fantastic heavy brown bread called farmer's
bread. Super high in calories, but it tastes great :D
Sunday,
5 November 2006
Ok, the day you've all been waiting for...Sauerkraut day! Well,
probably not all of you but maybe someone will be interested.
This really doesn't take long once you've got everything together. I
had a helper, which really is a big help with all the stamping you need
to do. My arms are usually sore for a few days afterwards, but it's
worth it :) It took us 1 1/2 hours start to finish with a small
break in between.
I began by washing the crock with boiling hot water.
So, here is everything you need.
From left to right: A stamper, slicer, knife, salt, crock, cabbage and
a scale.
You don't really HAVE to have a slicer but it sure goes quicker. You
can also just cut up the cabbage with a knife.
I've got 5 medium to large cabbages here, I could of used 6 but that's
ok. I don't wash the cabbages, just tear off all of the outer leaves
and cut away any bad spots.
This slicer is great, the whole head fits in perfectly and makes nice
thin fairly even slices.
I layer my cabbage in 1 lb. layers. So here is my first 1lb. I dump
this into the crock and then sprinkle 1 TBLS. of salt over the top. The
salt I use is not as fine as table salt, it's courser, probably a
medium grade. Once you sprinkle the salt on, then the fun begins! You
need to stamp it good with the stamper. You need to break the fibers in
the cabbage so they will release the fluid inside and mix with the salt
to create a brine.
See? Aren't helpers great? LOL! Once you notice that the cabbage is
getting damp, then you can stop stamping and start slicing more
cabbage. Basically you keep doing this until the crock is nearly full.
Keep laying in 1lb increments, add a tbls. of salt and stamp til the
cabbage is damaged enough to release it's fluid.
Kira is pushing down slightly on the stamper so you can see how much
juice has developed. There is no water in here, it's all from the
cabbage.
Once your crock is nearly full, put the lid on and fill the groove
around the lid with water. The water makes a seal so that no bad
stuff can get inside, but the gas can escape. The crock needs to sit in
a warm place for about 2 weeks, during which time you need to check it
every day. Make sure the water in the groove stays full. Don't open the
lid to look inside, you don't want any bad beasties getting in there!
Just keep the water full around the lid. You will hear little "Blups"
from the crock occasionally, this is a good thing, this is the gas
escaping from the crock which means that fermentation is
happening. After 2 weeks the crock needs to be moved to a cooler
place to stop the fermentation process but to continue the preserving
process. Right now I have my crock sitting in our livingroom and in a
few weeks I'll move it down to the unheated cellar. After a few weeks
in the cellar, it's time to begin tasting it to see if it is ready. If
it tastes like sauerkraut then it's ready. If you don't have a cold
place to store your crock, you can just go ahead and can it after the 2
week fermentation. If you have a cold area for storage, then you can
just use the sauerkraut directly from the crock.
And that's really all there is to it! If you can't get a crock like
this, you can layer the cabbage in a wide mouthed crock, cover the top
layer of cabbage with a few whole cabbage leaves, then cover it with an
upside down dinner plate (or something which covers the cabbage
completely) which is weighted down with something. You want to weight
the plate down so that the fluid comes up around the edge of the plate,
while keeping the cabbage down, creating a seal with the liquid. When
your liquid runs low, you fill it with a bit of boiled salt water (cool
the water down before adding). Cover the whole thing with a clean towel
so no nasties fall in. All the other instructions apply, you're just
using something other than the crock I used.
I hope some of you try this and let me know how it turns out!
Monday,
30 October 2006
Yeah, I know, I didn't make the sauerkraut yet. I'll
definitely get to it this week. I've gotten behind on Ebay so I need to
get some work done in the studio first and then in the later half of
the week, I really will get it made, promise!
Last Thursday Peer brought home our apple trees and we got them
planted. We have an early and a late variety, I'll post the names as
soon as I remember what they are. They are very hardy though and have
been grown in this area for a few hundred years. These trees are about
3 years old now.
We planted them on the corner of the property, in the background is the
cow meadow and behind those bushes is the creek that from this point
goes underground and runs under the front part of our property, we will
eventually put in a well but if we ever have a problem with water, we
have a great supply of clean fresh water right beside the house.
Between the stone wall and the apple trees is our little pet cemetery,
unfortunately we have one little girl in there already, she was the
sister to Samantha, our little grey cat, they both came with me from
the US when I moved here.
Peer ordered our hedge plants last week, he bought wild rose bushes,
blackthorn, white thorn and a few wild apples which will help in
pollinating our apple trees. The future bee hives will go somewhere in
this area too. We are expecting our first frost this week so I need to
remember to get some of my potted plants moved into the veranda.
Earlier last week Peer used the wheelbarrow and hauled lots of cow shit
over for the garden from the cow barn across the street. He piled it on
top of the rows and now he is working on the double digging. It takes
him about 8 hours of digging to finish each row, he has 4 rows
left. I wish I could help him with this but I'd be in traction
for a month if I did! This is really heavy backbreaking work.
Double digging....
Thursday,
12 October 2006
Yay! My stuff came today 
Here's a picture, I put my coffee cup in so you can get a feel for the
size.
My cabbage slicer only has 3 blades but I think it's enough. You can
get these with up to 5 blades but they get really pricey. This one cost
around $50.00. You can get them wider too, to fit a whole head of
cabbage, but we always think about storage space when we buy stuff, we
have a
really small house. I'll only be using these once a year, the rest of
the year they will just take up space. So, with luck I can begin with
the sauerkraut early
next week.
As winter gets closer I'm gently falling back into my typical winter
habits and routines. One of the things that I really love in the
winter is a nice hot mug of something spicy and sweet, something with
a comforting fragrance. My favorite winter drink is Chai, I just
bought a good supply of all the herbs and spices that I'll need to keep
me happy for several months 
The biggest problem with Chai is that it takes a while to make, it's
not as quick as tea or coffee, the spices have to simmer awhile to
really bring out the flavor. I'm the only one who drinks chai in
the house so in recent years I didn't make it as often but this year I
decided
will enjoy my chai! I make a batch and keep it in a thermos,
which I can take into the studio with me, then I have enough to last me
the whole day :) Here is my recipe if you want to try it.
Chai
6 cups water
1tbs. anise or fennel seeds
6-8 cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
5-6 black pepper corns
12 whole cloves
1/4" thick slice fresh ginger
2 tbs. loose black tea (I use darjeeling but use your favorite)
1 cup milk
4-5 tbs honey
Put the first 8 ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil, cover and
simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the tea, return to a boil then simmer for
5 minutes. Add the milk and honey, stir well to mix everything, then
strain into a thermos or other insulated container.
You can also make this with no tea at all.
I ordered some dried chinese ginger and I'm going to experiment with it
as a replacement for the fresh ginger.
Wednesday,
11 October 2006
Well yee doggies! I finally found a sauerkraut masher. I
checked the German Ebay and there is was :) I bought a Krauthobel too,
that's a wooden frame with blades in it for slicing cabbage nice and
thin. It looks like a regular veggie slicer but it's alot bigger. Now
I'm waiting for my order to arrive. I have a class to teach in
Köln this weekend so probably I won't get to the sauerkraut until
the first of next week, but I'll post pictures and recipe as soon as I
have some time to do it.
Thanks to all who have written with tips and recipes and just to tell
about their experiences with canning and gardening. I really enjoy
reading them and also enjoy the correspondence.
Peer was working on the berry patch last night. He added a bunch of
compost and got it double dug and now it's ready for planting. One of
our neighbors is giving us some of her berry plants, raspberry and I
think gooseberry, and we will dig a few blackberry bushes from the
forest. Her plants are old stock and very hardy so they should do well.
Here is where they will go. We will leave this old fence up for them to
grow on.
Friday, 6
October
2006
Yesterday we went shopping. We still need to get the
stove pipes, etc. that we'll need to hook the woodstove up in my
studio. We were also looking for a wooden masher which is used to make
sauerkraut. This is definitely sauerkraut making season but do you
think we could find one? Nope. Ok, we have more stores to check but the
place which sells the ceramic crocks that sauerkraut is made in didn't
have them and can't get them. I found that sort of strange. Their
canning section was also pretty pathetic, although I did find a jar
lifter...something to lift the hot jars out of the boiling water, so
the trip wasn't a total loss. I realized today that canning and other
methods of preserving food for the winter aren't practiced much
anymore, at least not around here. With everything available in the
supermarkets these days, why bother? I felt that way for a long time
too so I understand, but I hate to see things like this dying out,
especially when I think they might become necessary skills to have
again in the future.
So, no sauerkraut making for me this week, if all else fails I'll
borrow my MIL's masher, but I'd rather have one of my own. Peer is a
handy wood carver so if we don't find one, he can make one for me this
winter. I did make a German Chocolate cake from scratch this evening,
so the day wasn't a total waste...mmmmm...was it yummy :)
Thursday
5 October 2006
Another
blog? Well yeah, why not :) I'd like to keep this stuff separate
from my bead and glass blog because I know that not everyone will be
interested in this aspect of my life. Why am I writing all this stuff
down anyway? Well, for one thing, I want to keep track of it...of our
progress as we try and make this new way of life work for us. I want to
keep track of what worked and what didn't. Basically I guess it's a
journal, I could write it in a book and keep it to myself, but I know
that there are at least a few others who will find it interesting.
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