On Good Land

I have been reading On Good Land (thanks Mary-Sue) and I have enjoyed it so much that I want to read it over again immediately. There is so much to like in this book and I would like to share a few bits that really stood out for me. (just a couple of them, there are far too many good bits to include here)

It has always been important to me to have my kids involved in growing their food - to me, it is one of the most basic and most important life lessons they can have - so when the author wrote this bit about city kids coming to his farm on a field trip it really spoke to me.

"...and watched their brains cells exploding with new information as they harvested and ate vine ripe tomatoes for the first time in their lives. We split open watermelons still warm from the sun and feasted on their hearts. This was real education - no plant identification exercises or in-depth lectures on soil, just the experience of seeing and eating food in context."

I can just picture the looks on the faces of those children as they tasted just-picked food for the first time and this bit, "seeing and eating food in context." I love that. I wonder how different our world could be if we were all seeing and eating food in context, if it became a real part of our lives instead of just some abstract thing...another errand or chore to be taken care of.

I also like this bit written by the author's son.

"I guess like anything else, when you are part of the process it grows on you. I think that kids who have a close connection with their food, who understand where it came from or took part in the process of growing and preparing it, have an easier time understanding other things as well."
I think that that is my hope for my sons, I hope that if they can know and understand this most basic lesson of growing food - supplying nourishment - and connection to the earth then they will go through their lives with a greater understanding for all things.
So, even though it just looks like we're growing veggies, what we are actually cultivating are hopes, dreams and, hopefully, a greater understanding. :-)

More tomatoes

I had to repot some more of my tomatoes today. I've been putting them outside each day and some of them have put on quite a spurt of growth . Several of them had to go into the biggest pot that I am willing to put my seedlings into so it is a good thing that I can put them in the garden in three weeks. 3 weeks?!? Where did April go?
This plant on the right is an example of how big most of my good sized seedlings are, these are from seeds that I bought. The seedling in the middle is one that I call Andrea's Large Round Italian and it is huge. (I can't wait to see what the tomatoes look like.) I buried most of the plant in the tallest container I could find. The one on the left I call Andrea's Large Pointed Italian and it is almost as big. These are seeds that a friends saved from her best tomatoes and shared. I am so happy to have these.

He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me...

Remember that thing with the daisy petals? Did we all do that? Why were we all wondering about who loved us when we were still in elementary school anyway? These days I don't need to rely on the daisy thing to figure out if he loves me. Here is how I know.That's right...coffee grounds!! And not just one bag, but three bags full. All for my new blueberry bushes, that's how much he loves me. ;-) And if that wasn't enough, hubby is also starting a composting program at his office, and bringing all the compostables home to me. Now that's true love...other people's apple cores. ;-)

Fresh from....the freezer?

Last Summer we picked and froze a lot of corn. I have always cut it off the cob to freeze it but last year I thought I would try freezing a dozen right on the cob, just to see if they would taste good. (I love corn on the cob - my mom likes to tell a story of me at two sneaking off behind the camper to eat the cold leftover corn out of the cooler.) Well, we decided to try some the other day. They looked lovely, the taste was actually very good...but the texture was disappointing to me. It seemed somehow watery, not crisp. So, even though E quite liked it (he has my corn loving genes), I don't think I would use the freezer space to do this again. I will stick with cutting it off the cob because the texture is much better that way.

Still, we enjoyed it well enough, especially with a curry (somewhat modified) from John Bishop's cookbook Fresh.

Rhubarb and apple muffins

I picked up the February issue of Harrowsmith Country Life from the library on Friday and decided to try out the apple rhubarb muffin recipe they had published. My rhubarb is growing quickly in the garden now and so I wanted to make sure all of last year's rhubarb was used up out of the freezer.I intentionally doubled all the other ingredients but added a little less sugar than the single recipe called for. I have this thing about muffins being muffins, not cupcakes and so I don't like them to be super sweet. I tried one as soon as they were done and thought that the boys might not like them because they were definitely not very sweet, so I was pleasantly surprised when W declared them the best muffins ever and E agreed that he really liked them too. I think the secret to success was that instead of using sugar and butter in the crumble topping I used a bit of maple syrup and coconut oil.
**I also used grapeseed oil instead of melted butter in the batter, oats instead of wheat germ, and I grated the apples instead of using chunks (it made for really moist muffins).

Learning at home

There are so many things that I love about learning at home with my boys, so many benefits that I could never list them all...I probably couldn't even begin to imagine them all. One benefit that has always been clear to me though, is how close my children are because of this time together. Of course they have their moments of discord - who doesn't? But those are few and far between. E adores his big brother and W loves his little brother.

Yesterday afternoon W went for dinner and a evening at the pool with a friend. E was sad when they left and spent some time on his own (I didn't know what he was doing) then he came up and seemed content. Later that night I asked him to get his jammies on; when he came up to brush his teeth he asked if he could phone W to find out when he would be home. I was just about to remind him that W was in the pool (not the best place for a phone call) when we heard the door open. E called out for W and ran to the door for a big hug and I could tell that W was pleased to be missed. Isn't that what we all want in life? To love, to be loved for who we are, and to be known? It made my heart so glad to see them.

When W sat down for a second dinner (swimming makes you hungry, don't you know) E gave him another hug and a card that he had made earlier. Here it is.
On the front is a picture of E with tears because he is missing W. Inside are pictures of both of them going out to bounce on the trampoline together. See the happy faces? When you ask people what is the most important thing in life, most people will say their family, their health, their friends/sense of community. If someone were to ask me what my kids are learning by "homeschooling", I think that I could say that they are learning one of the most important things life has to offer.

**I love this so much that I had to post it on both blogs. :-)

To feel a connection

For me, it is of utmost importance that my kids feel a connection to the Earth; I believe it is one of the most important life lessons that I can help them to learn. I do not believe that we can expect people to truly care for our earth if they have no personal relationship with nature. I feel quite certain that time spent outdoors is vital to good health. I also believe that there is no easier way to instill a sense of wonder and feelings of peace and joy in our children than to get outdoors. We are coming into the time of year when we come inside to get food and to sleep...that is about it. Most of the rest of the time we will be outdoors; that is the way I spent my childhood and it is one of my wishes for my own children. Most of our time outdoors is spent just playin'. The boys will often help me in the garden or we will get to work on some project. The other day we got our nature notebooks out again. We were inspired to do so when reading this book. Both boys got in on the action and quickly marked off their squares in my flower gardens (Hey, watch my tulips!!! The whole huge yard and you guys have to choose to put your squares in my flower beds?) The idea is that you mark off a square and then observe all the action going on throughout the year. They can record anything of interest in their notebooks. E quickly found some critters in his square and made a list in his book. See his baby millipede there.W decided that he would gather all our identification guides so that we could put them all in a basket with our notebooks, binoculars, magnifying glass and pencils. While we were out there reading some other interesting nature books he noticed a bird in our hazelnut tree. We had noticed the same kind in our garden a few times last year but hadn't identified it. The bird book was right there in the basket and so we took it out and realized that it was a yellow-rumped warbler. We spent some time sketching and then got back to some more reading.