our homestead: readying my greenhouse for spring

Worms still working hard in the worm bin.

Loosening the soil and spreading compost in the greenhouse.

The sun came out of hiding again yesterday, so despite the cold, I decided to get some work done in the greenhouse that I'd been meaning to do for a while now. Ever so often over the winter, I've been casually adding small pails of compost, egg shells and coffee grounds to the soil in my greenhouse, trying to build it back up for spring. Yesterday, I decided it was time to do a more thorough job and haul my entire worm bin (which I keep outside my dryer vent to give my worms a little warmth) and a few full buckets of compost from my other compost keeper, down to the greenhouse. *Phew* that was a workout. I dug three trenches down the length of my greenhouse and then scattered the worm castings, worm juice (rich and black) and compost down each row. Then, I covered each row with dirt from between the rows...to evenly loosen the soil around the greenhouse bed. I plan to keep adding a little bit of compost each week to get my soil ready for when it's time to transplant my tomato plants. I foresee this will be in about a month and a half depending on how big my starts grow on the windowsills and nighttime temperatures. The alfalfa lining the sides of my greenhouse used to have sod underneath it and I used these as pathways last summer. I checked underneath the piles of alfalfa and the sod has now been transformed into dark planting dirt (due to the weight of the alfalfa grass). This year I plan to have my walkway going somewhat down the center of the greenhouse, so that I can use more surface area for planting. I look forward to seeing how much this bed will build up over the years as I care for it. 

DIY almanac: My favorite way to cook kale

My co-op was just delivered some beautiful, beautiful mixed kale braising greens from Highwater Farm of Mt. Vernon, Washington. Their kale is so very fresh and  flavorful- you can almost taste the rainwater and the soil minerals that helped it grow. I brought home a pillow-sized bag of it...and it's empty already. Kale is so good when cooked in a hot pan with a little olive oil and minced garlic, or when transformed into a hearty winter salad with chopped fuji apples and steamed beets (mmm!). Kale chips are amazing too- whether baked or dehydrated...I'll be sure to post a recipe someday, but for now, here's my very favorite way to cook kale. So simple: 

First, you'll want a good few handfuls of kale.

Then you'll want to bring chicken stock, the juice of one lemon and parmesan into the mix. 

Warm your chicken stock and lemon juice in a nice sized pan over medium-low heat. Then toss in your kale.

Lightly cook and stir until just al dente. I like my greens to still have a little bit of crunch left to them. 

Serve with a generous garnish of parmesan and enjoy your brothy kale goodness. 

our homestead: snow and seedlings

Snow on the slough

 It was sunny with blue skies today. Quite a stark difference from the wintery weather we had this past week. We had buckets of snow cloak the whole area...up to 6 or 7 inches at my house and nearly a foot or more at my mom's. My cousin from Spokane is in town right now as well, so she's been my partner in crime these past few days as we've been trying to evade getting cabin fever. I heard they received a few feet of snow on her side of the mountains too. I spent my snowed-in days by walking along the river with my dogs (this was Banjo's first snow), concocting far too chocolatey hot cocoa on my stove, stealthily sledding down my neighbor's hill at night and rolling up giant snowmen with my cousin and watching a marathon of movies while feasting on crockpot stews. 

Even with snow on the ground, I've also been busy taking care of baby tomato seedlings! Yes! I have tomatoes once again growing on my windowsills, except this year I've invested in heating mats to speed up their germination (ooh lala!) and am growing them in some fancy-schmancy certified organic potting soil. These seedlings originate from the very same seeds I saved from the tomatoes I grew last year: heirloom pink brandywine and evergreen. I'm nerdily ecstatic that they are actually growing as funny as that sounds...although that's usually the same reaction I have every time something I plant in the ground starts peeking up out of the soil with its green little nose. Never gets old for me. I'm awaiting some 'cherry fall' trailing tomato seeds to arrive in my mailbox. I'm going to experiment and  try to make some hanging baskets this year with them.

My cousin visiting Mercedes at my mom's house

My cousin's snow man...check out that mustache

Banjo and Oswald playing in the snow

An apple tree peeking over the levy

Baby tomatoes

our homestead: a winter walk on the slough

I took my boys, Oswald and Banjo, out for a dusky walk on the slough today. As I headed down a ridge and looked below, I noticed my woodcutter neighbor now has three small brown pigs in a pen made of wood pallets. These pigs are replacing the giant pig that used to lounge in this pen. As I continued on, another neighbor's cattle (most of them are black but there are a few shaggy long-horned ones) were out grazing by the road, moo-ing at us as we passed. Me and the pups walked all the way to the river, to have our path crossed overhead by a triangle of swans, followed by my neighbor driving down the road on his red tractor.  He was heading over to feed the cows and they all came and swarmed him as soon as he entered the gate to the field. Oswald, Banjo and I relaxed on the river bank for a little while, watching the water slowly move past. We always look for otters peaking up when we come down here...saw two last time. Didn't see any today though.

our homestead: goals and non-goals

Here are a few small scenes from our garden this year:

Our garlic patch 

Celery growing in the greenhouse

Sugar snap pea blossoms

Potato blossoms

One of our many sunflowers

With 2012 just around the bend I thought I'd take the time to write about some of my "homestead" non-goals from 2011 and some of my goals for 2012. I borrowed the idea of non-goals from my sister-in-law, Rachel. You can read her post from her blog here: Nickel Images goals and non-goals. Non-goals are things you might have accomplished or enjoyed or are motivated to continue. Here are my non-goals from 2011:

1) I started my own tomato plants on my windowsills in the wintertime and saw them through harvest.

2) I had a hoophouse built and was able to grow lots of tomatoes, celery and cucumbers in it.

3) I learned how to brew nettle tea for my tomato plants.

4) I completed another farmers market season selling produce for Frog's Song Farm. Every year I learn more and more from the markets in regards to the business of farming. This year I was also able to sell a lot of my farmers' produce at our local co-op, granting them another outlet for their labors.

5) I grew so much this year! Peas, potatoes, turnips, spinach, beets, kale, garlic, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, brussel sprouts, sunflowers, marigolds, sunchokes, corn, pumpkins, winter squash and more.

6) I canned jams and fruit butters and made lots of pickles, using homegrown or market procured ingredients.

7) I saved lots of seeds from my garden for next year's garden, acclimating these plant varieties to our area.

8) I established more planting beds in my yard.

9) My husband and I finally brought home the second dog we'd been talking about getting forever. We love our little Banjo and Oswald's quality of life has increased now that he has a playmate and snuggle buddy.

10) I ground my own cornmeal from corn I'd grown and dried myself.

11) I learned how to make soap with my mom. The old-fashioned, saponification-of-oils-with-lye-and-six-week-curing-process-style.


And on to the fun part! My homesteading goals for 2012:

1) To establish rows of interesting berry plants including: goji berries, honeyberries, gooseberries, lingonberries and hardy kiwis. We have already pre-orded three goji plants, due to arrive in April. We'll probably have to build some sort of trellis...but that means I can also throw a few more hops into the yard.

 2) To raise a small flock of chickens, perhaps a duck or three, in the spring. I grew up on fresh-from-the-backyard eggs and nothing beats the flavor. I'm still lucky enough to be able to bring home eggs from my mom's house, but I'd like to learn how to take care of my own hens.

3) To grow even more than 2011! This year I really want to learn how to grow broccoli, cauliflower, fennel and leeks, and  melons in the greenhouse. I've also already ordered red brussel sprout seeds...it'll be fun to see how these turn out. Joe has his heart set on doing a giant lacinato kale patch too. I'm also looking forward to seeing how my saved tomato seeds fare.

4) To grow a massive sunflower patch. Why not? I saved so many sunflower seeds this year that I just might have to grow a big plot of sunflowers to nap underneath. I want it to be so big that you can see it from the road below my hill.

5) To make more soap!

our homestead: merry christmas

Photos from our family Christmas shoot

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I thought I'd post some of our family Christmas photos we had taken this year, including photos of our furbabies, Oswald and Banjo. These photos are the work of my sister-in-law, Rachel, of Nickel Images. You can check out the rest of her photo projects at the Nickel Images Blog.

For a while there we were living in a land cloaked in a thick fog, as you can tell in the photos. My husband and I took our photos on the train tracks I used to sneak down to play upon when I was a kid. I'd leave coins on the tracks and come back later to find them smashed into smooth roundish disks.

Anyway, hope everyone is staying warm and spending time with loved ones and may the eggnog overfloweth in your mugs!

DIY almanac: Homeground cornmeal and corn husk angels

Last night I tried using my coffee grinder to turn my dried corn kernels from the previous post into cornmeal. Success! I just cleaned out my coffee grinder with a dry cloth and then ground one small batch of kernels at a time until I'd achieved my desired consistency. The coffee grinder worked very well. If I wanted to make full on soft and velvety corn flour, I could have made it with the grinder, but I decided to create a coarser meal. The meal I ground is the color of eggshells, speckled with bits of blue, red and gold. Very pretty. I tried baking my first loaf of cornbread with it- another success. Very good flavor and the the colors of the speckled cornmeal became richer.

I also had a bunch of dried corn husks leftover in colors of gold, green and ruby red, so I decided to make a corn husk angel to top our Christmas tree this year. I made her a red and green dress, a husk halo complimented with red corn kernels and even braided her hair. I'm going to try and see if I can make some corn husk ornaments in different shapes to gift to loved ones. Anyway, here's the recipe I used for the 'painted mountain' cornbread:

Painted Mountain Cornbread

1 cup homeground cornmeal

1 cup flour

1/8th cup brown sugar

1/8th cup white sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup of milk

1 egg

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly grease a small loaf pan. Combine dry ingredients, combine wet ingredients, then gradually mix the two together. Bake about 20-25 minutes.