Farm Stand, Fabric and Morels

We've been working everyday at the market garden trying to get things ready,  I've been busy in the field and greenhouse, and my family has been working hard on the farmstand.

It is such a treat to look up from my work and see my boys working with S at building a gorgeous stand.  It's going to look wonderful when it's done.  Yesterday they put the roof on and did most of the shingles, today they will do the siding.  Our signs were ready this week as well and it really feels as though everything is coming together - we've even got irrigation up and running in half our north field so we were able to plant half our main potatoes.

I've been planting, planting and planting some more and potting on loads of tomatoes.

I did take time out yesterday to go for a walk with a friend along the creek.  We were walking back along the path and saw a man with a bag in his hand and we both guessed that he was collecting mushrooms.  We talked with him for a bit- saw his bags of loot! - and then we also started looking for mushrooms.

It was interesting to both of us to see how many mushrooms we'd walked right by the first time when we'd been so busy talking and catching up that we weren't looking for anything else.  Once we knew there were mushrooms right alongside the path we started seeing them everywhere.

Over a month ago I started cutting out some fabric to make a pennant banner for the farm stand.  It seems the stand will be built before I get it sewn together...actually, at the rate I'm going, it may  well be built before I even finish cutting the triangles out. ;-)


Life is very busy but very, very good.

What I Love About Right Now

Sunrises...that I don't have to get up super early to witness.

Pumpkin bars.

Erm...photo here if you'd like to see them...apparently these don't always last long enough in our home to have their photo taken.
Saving seeds from E's heirloom carrots - did I mention how good it feels to me to save seeds?

Burdock root and tincture.

(some dried, some frozen and some tinctured)

Scalloped potatoes made with our homegrown Kennebecs.

Rubber boots!

Rides in my car with bags of leaves for mulch! (sorry boys, no room...I'm taking the leaves to the garden)

Also loving having the floor of my laundry room back after months of stepping over flats of ripening tomatoes.  I'm down to two flats now and have put them on top of my freezer so that we could have the floor back.  And grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches made with the last of our German Stripe tomatoes.  Delicious!

Chickweed

Chickweed is a pretty unassuming plant.  It can hide in the garden beneath other plants without drawing any attention to itself. I was looking for some a few weeks ago and managed to find some beneath some closely planted tomato plants.  I enjoy nibbling on it fresh but was wanting to bring some home to  make some chickweed oil. 

I gathered some up and tucked it in my "potions" pot with some olive oil.  It simmered away while I made the plum butter and for a while longer.  Throughout the summer I've done this with comfrey, calendula and plantain so now we've got all the skin oils that I like to have on hand.

Strained and bottled it makes a simple healing oil for skin ailments.  Usually I make all my oils into salves by adding a bit of beeswax but his year I've noticed that, having not made time to get to that next step, we are using the oils quite nicely as they are. So...sometimes not having the time to do something can show you that there is no need to do that thing. ;-)

Ah, Summer

Somehow time always gets away from me in summer.  One minute it is the first weekend in August and the next thing I know it is somehow nearing the end of August.  It is at times like this that I am ever so grateful the boys have never gone to school and that the end of August doesn't feel like the end of summertime for us. 

We've had all sorts of things to enjoy lately.
A trip (for all of us except one of use who went on a fishing trip to Haida Gwaii) to visit with lots of family where there was creek time, beach time, good food, garden time, Rummoli night, games and, of course, visits from Russel the Crow (he much prefers when we're not visiting and our dog isn't there).

A crazy rain storm with lightning, thunder and hail.  We watched as the lightning made its way across the lake towards us and then were amazed by the amount of rain that came down in only half an hour or so (at least 3 inches possibly 4) - we felt like we were immersed in the rain clouds.  We also had hail and some of my veg here are showing a little damage but nothing major at all and my garden in town is fine.  E was quite happy that this time we were able to just watch the lightning and not have it strike a tree right outside the house.  This sunroom looking over the lake makes this house spectacular for storm watching.

(Mother Nature washing the windows for us)

(you can see my solar fruit dryer just at the bottom of this photo - not a lot of solar drying going on just then)

We've been eating cucumber everything.  Cucumber sandwiches, cucumber salad, Greek salad, cucumbers straight up while standing in the garden...

The cukes are so plentiful that I've been drinking cucumber juice each day in an attempt to use up the ones that grow to enormous sizes when we are away.

And I was excited to pick my first-that-I've-ever-grown cauliflower.  I've always avoided the Brassica family because I didn't want to worry about the bugs but the cauliflower were absolutely pest free, easy to grow and delicious.

I've also managed to get another batch of comfrey oil made and a small batch of calendula oil.  I think even when the kids are grown and we don't have as much use for calendula salve I'll still make at least one batch each year just because I think it is the prettiest oil to make.

And now as we realize the summer days are winding down we're making plans for how we want to spend the rest of it and...canning like mad.

Lavender Wands

I've been enjoying making lavender wands again.  This is such a lovely thing to do as your visiting with a friend (or watching a movie) because you can do it without much thought, I also love the smell of lavender so enjoy working with it just for that reason.  A dear friend of mine showed me how to make these several years ago and I can still remember spending time with her in my old back yard as she showed me how she makes them.  She makes hers much tidier than I ever have but I enjoy them all the same.

Once they are dry I will remove the white string from the gift ones and replace it with a ribbon.  I still have the original ribbon from the first one my creative friend gave to me and I re-use it each year on one of mine (she made the ribbon as well).

I've got quite a stash now, some will go in our bathroom, some will go in our clothes drawers and some will be given as gifts.

Nettle and Comfrey and Bears...Oh My!

Well, once I found out how well the fresh nettle blended and froze into cubes I knew I needed more.  My friend and I headed up into the hills with our kids for a day of picking.  Since the both of us have serious over-do-it tendencies we came home with A Lot Of Nettle.  In fact at one point after my second day of blending and freezing (I'd long since given up on ice cube trays only and was freezing the mush in large shallow trays to be broken into chunks later) I may have had the thought "too much nettle" go through my brain...but it only lasted a moment.  I googled nettle, came across this site (filled with nettle recipes) and was re-inspired by the thought of nettle ravioli (and me with my $2 garage sale pasta maker) and nettle gnocchi. 

As soon as I had plenty of frozen raw nettle, frozen cooked nettle and a year's supply of dried nettle for my infusions I had time to make some soup.  This is a simple potato broccoli soup that I added several stems of nettle to.  I cook two potatoes in broth then add some broccoli and garlic to cook just until tender.  Then I add the nettle to cook for a few minutes and then blend it all until smooth with an immersion blender.  We like it with a little cheese (feta, gouda or cheddar).

Then it was time to move onto comfrey.

My son's friend was kind enough to bring me some comfrey so that I could make a quick batch of comfrey salve to take to my mom.  This batch I made using the heat from a candle to infuse the oil.

 

It is a quick method (link to a photo tutorial of my son making some) and once the oil was infused I just added a bit of beeswax and then let the oil harden into salve. 

I also filled a quart jar with comfrey and olive oil and will let it sit for a few weeks until I strain it and then use a fresh batch of comfrey to infuse it into a stronger oil following Susun Weed's method here and here.  There is just something so simple and pleasing about gathering wild goods for making remedies and food.  I love it. 

And this is a picture I just couldn't resist sharing.  Unfortunately my reflection in the window makes it a little hard to see what is outside.  Just minutes before I took this photo E went to take the compost out (we were visiting at my parents' house) and when he came back in he said that he thought there must be a bear out there because the middle bin was knocked over...this didn't surprise me (bears are not unusual there) and my mind was moving onto the next thing when I hear him say...and I heard rustling.  Well!  That stopped me in my tracks.  He didn't mean that the bears had been there last night he meant that they were there...now!  I went to look out the bedroom window and sure enough.

Nettle Walk, Nettle Smoothie and Nettle Ice Cubes

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with some friends up in the hills by our last home.  I wanted to find some young nettle to pick and since everything is at least 6 weeks to 2 months behind up there I figured it might be a good time.  We went to where I had found some last year while I was hiking with my Dad and there it was just waiting to be harvested. 

There were sweet little yellow violets.

There were trillium (in white and purple).

And, most importantly, there was lots of nettle - young, tender delicious nettle whereas down here it has all gone to seed.  We all picked some before  heading off for a bit of a hike.

And then I couldn't resist picking a bit more.  I had in mind to try grinding some in my Vita-mix and then freezing it in ice cubes because I wanted to take some to my folks for their smoothies.

I blended it with a tiny bit of water (just enough to get the blender to blend) and then poured it into ice cubes trays and froze it overnight.

I tested one of the cubes out in our smoothie this morning and it worked so well I plan to go pick lots more and make a supply to last my own family through the winter as well.  It will be such a nice way to get some nettle into our smoothies when there is no longer fresh nettle available.

I set this batch aside to dry for infusions (all kinds of nettle love here as well as how I make infusions) and with that and the nettle a dear friend brought me  I should have enough now to last through the year.

Hopefully on the next trip up to get more fresh nettle to blend we'll be lucky enough to find some Shaggy Manes too.