I will have some more pie, please.
October 8, 2009 at 12:33 am | In Cookery, Gardening | 1 CommentI read my new Family Fun magazine today (November issue-looking online I don’t see that stuff up yet, hence no link for this recipe) and there was a recipe in it for a “Swedish Apple Pie.” Since I have many pounds of apples from Monday’s apple picking excursion I thought I’d give it a try. I was a little alarmed by how much butter there was in it (and omitted almost 2 T), but there is no such thing as too buttery. The thing was delicious. In fact, to quote Clark after his first bite: “This is NOT disgusting, this is DELICIOUS.” And I agree.
Although our main garden looks like a big mess of weeds (which we aren’t ready to clear out yet because there is a valiant brussels sprout plant, pepper plant, and carrots still growing), a very pleasant autumn surprise has been the raspberry bush. For the past week there have been about 2 ripe berries a day. Not enough to save, just to pop in the mouth. Today there were about a dozen and they were all delicious.
This and That
September 10, 2009 at 1:27 am | In Big Green Froggie, Botanical Photos, Chickens, Gardening, Sewing | 2 CommentsI’ve been so slow about posting lately (I have quite a backlog of books to do over at The Last Book I Read), but I suppose in part it’s because I’ve been doing a lot of sewing and hobby stuff lately, dealing with a mysterious fever Clark had (swine flu? Lyme disease? It went away and he’s fine), and throwing myself into the change of season. I’m so ready to embrace apple picking, jean wearing, apple eating, and so on. Clark goes back to preschool next week and he’s quite excited about it, as am I for him.
So here’s a rundown of pictures of note and such. First, another bee top for Tabitha. It turned out too large, but since it is summery I decided not to alter it, but to save it instead for next summer. This was my first time making real pleats, which came out pretty well.
In progress: sewing a tote bag
In progress: baby quilt for my dear friend’s baby, who was born today. I’ve got the top and bottom tied together and am going to embroider today’s date and the baby’s name on it now and then bind it. Here’s the top after it was pieced together:
The change in sunrise/sunset and daylight hours is very apparent in the chickens’ laying behavior. During the summer (and as recent as 2 weeks ago) by 9am all 9 eggs would have been laid. However, now they are laying much later in the day and I didn’t get all the eggs today until mid-afternoon. One of the ladies:
Our ladies, by the way, are completely people friendly and always on the lookout for treats. They run up to cars that pull in the driveway. If you call out “here chick chick!” one will run and then all the others will follow. If you are sitting on the front porch, one or two might hop right up there to see what’s going on. They are a delight.
Cooler days are very pleasant for Big Green Froggie-he’s been spending quite a bit of time out on the patio. He was in the pond, though, the other day when a hen fell into the pond! The hen turned out to be fine-I ran outside and scooped her up and wrapped her in a towel.
We saw some interesting fuzzy caterpillars yesterday.
Check out the teeny tiny grippy feet that help it hold on to this thick piece of grass:
And here is Tabitha making the face she does when she says “Nooooooo” Ever since she finally started saying Clark’s name (“Clark-Clark”) she says it all the time. It’s especially funny when she says “Clark Clark No!”, as she is here. By the way, neither of us has ever said “Clark-Clark”, so I don’t know why she does.
In the front the squash plants have run amok, reaching out like a sash across this tree:
What’s neat is the tiny tendrils that reach out to whatever they can and grab on, holding up this big vine and its big leaves and blossoms:
Here is Clark standing next to a very tall…plant. I am holding out hope that it is going to be a beautiful flower (I did plant a lot of seeds here), but I think it just might be a spectacular weed. The other tall plants are zinnias. The black thing behind the plants is our new composter, which Clark won at the Somerset County 4H Fair! Very exciting. We are thinking that by having it closer to the house (and it doesn’t smell, so why not?) we will be more likely to empty our compost into it daily.
Hoping to finish the bag and quilt in the next couple of days, and will certainly have some updates then.
Finally!!
August 27, 2009 at 5:42 pm | In Gardening, Wildlife | 7 Comments
About three years ago we saw our very first hummingbird at our house. It was very exciting for us and we immediately set up a feeder. We did not see one again until the following summer when once again we saw one for one time only. I know lots of people see hummingbirds all the time, but for us it seems the rarest of all bird sightings and it made us so excited. Yesterday we were eating breakfast when I saw what seemed to be a big cicada flying at our window. I realized, though, that it was a hummingbird. He hovered for quite a while, seeming so curious about us, looking right through our big window at all of us. I went outside and set up the hummingbird feeder with food, assuming that as in years past we wouldn’t see it again. Wrong! This morning he came back and went right to the feeder!!! And stayed long enough for some photos. I wasn’t able to catch a picture of him with his wings beating, but I’m hoping he’ll be back. Oh, and when he wasn’t at the feeder he went to the tall hosta flowers (which I think look a bit unsightly, but I have deliberately not cut them because bees like them and apparently so do hummingbirds), visited a bush that didn’t seem to have any flowers on it, and also flew over to a few late summer roses. This, and a very generous recent gift certificate to White Flower Farm, are all the motivation we needed to get started on the bird/butterfly garden we’ve wanted to create since last year. Hooray for hummingbirds!!!
Squashes Galore
August 27, 2009 at 5:42 pm | In Cookery, Gardening | 3 CommentsThe garden is looking a bit beaten down and desolate in these last hot days of summer, but amidst the withered and yellow vines there are plenty of butternut squashes and tomatoes ripening away. Here’s the squashes I’ve picked so far:
I did eat one before this and the flavor not particularly outstanding-not bad tasting, just not as rich and sweet a taste as I would have liked.
The tomatillo yield is extremely small, but they are tasty. I chopped up four yesterday, along with a red tomato, cilantro, and added a can of black beans and couple ears of zipped corn. A delicious salad! I had the leftover today for lunch, along with this other leftover dinner–a frittata with potatoes, green pepper, and onion (potatoes from the garden, eggs from the hens.) Altogether it was like having lunch out, even though I was at home eating leftovers.
On the Road to being a Roadside Stand
August 17, 2009 at 5:31 pm | In Botanical Photos, Chickens, Gardening, Sewing | 1 CommentI just ordered blank egg cartons! We can make our own labels to put on them and then it will be so fun to give eggs to our friends in their very own Debraski Farm Fresh Eggs cartons. We’ll also be selling them. It’s not uncommon around here to see people with “fresh eggs for sale” signs at the end of the driveway. We will be joining those folks by hanging out our own sign. Paul has been working on it:
What do you do with lots of eggs? Make souffles and custards! I found a recipe in my giant binder of recipes I never seem to use for a “Spinach and Parmesan Fallen Souffle.” I made it and it was quite green (the spinach was blenderized). Clark almost had a tearful meltdown that I’d made something so “disgusting” and not what he’d wanted. Five minutes later he requested a tiny taste. He tasted it and declared it “delicious” and proceeded to tell me I was the best mom ever for making it and ate almost all of it himself! I think that may have been the highlight of my week. I will definitely be making more.
Other highlights? This morning in the garden, while picking some tomatoes, I found a cicada right in front of my face. He was cool looking, but what was really awesome? He then proceeded to make the cicada noise! I got to see it in action, which I never have before. It was really neat. His whole big black body shook like a rattle and vibrated like mad. Again, it was just the neatest thing to get to witness so up close.
Things are cuckoo in the garden. We’re at the point of the summer where I feel like we just venture in to pick stuff, but don’t really tend it anymore. The butternut squashes are crazy. I did pick my first one, though I’m not certain it was ready. I also was yanking out the dead green bean bushes and discovered one that had about 6 nice beans on it. I added them to a vegetable soup. I’m sad to say that every single ear of corn we’ve picked has not tasted good. I just keep giving them to the chickens. Here’s yet another squash on its way (truthfully I’m unclear on whether or not this is a butternut squash, a zucchini, or what)
I finally harvested a couple tomatilloes.
A day’s harvest:
I’ve been doing a fair amount of sewing recently. I’m working on a patchwork ball for a baby. I’ve just
got all the hexagons and pentagons cut out, now I need to stitch them all together.
I also made an apron for a friend’s birthday. I loved this pattern and think it came out really well. I took my time and even made sure to switch out my thread to make it match the binding of it. I really like the scalloped bottom.
We went to the park this morning and picked some interesting mushrooms. I want to go back and take photos of them unpicked because I think they look like cool fairy villages. But these are some neat closeups. Mushroom undersides are so incredibly delicate looking, aren’t they?
and look at this little starfish image on the top of one:
And finally, we went to the county 4-H Fair on Friday, which I’ve been going to since I was a kid. I love it that there are things about it that have literally not changed in 25 years. Here’s a cow getting fresh with Paul:
Our Harvests
August 11, 2009 at 11:30 am | In Gardening | 5 Comments
The blackberries are ripening and despite my squeamish anticipation of sourness each time, they are turning out to be sweet and juicy. My issue with many of this type of berries is that they seem to go moldy very quickly after being picked. So I froze the ones I picked yesterday and if I don’t eat today’s berries on tomorrow’s cereal they too will be destined for the freezer.
I liked setting out everything I picked on our newly cleaned windowsill. It reminded me of our first big haul from the CSA and I had to laugh at the difference in quantity. But you know what? What we are getting from our own garden is totally ample. Eggs, berries, cucumber, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, basil, garlic, corn-it’s just right.
Speaking of corn…it looks great but is a a big disappointment-MEALY. Ugh. I was really looking forward to our dinner tonight too (which, by the way, good use for some zucchini was grated into a turkey burger) and I only ate a few bites of my corn. Paul looked it up and apparently it has to do with the weather during the early formation of the ear. Not much we can do about that (though I wonder then how has the local corn I buy at the market been so consistently sweet??)
That great big zucchini has so far been used two ways and there is still some left. First I made a zucchini spice bread from Everyday Food. It turned out great, so I’m thinking I’ll use it as my standard recipe. I added chopped dates to it and made two small loaves and one teeny tiny loaf. To the teeny tiny one I stirred in some dark chocolate covered crystallized ginger, which was a taste treat for sure. For last night’s dinner I made turkey burgers and I grated some zucchini into that, too. It made no discernible difference, though I presume it kept the burgers from being dry and was a good way to sneak in some vegetable.
While checking out the loads of butternut squash (at least a dozen good sized ones!) in the garden last night I saw this fascinating stuff on the underside of a leaf:
What is it? Some sort of bug excrement? Bug eggs or larvae?
p.s. I’ve just read some old posts and it’s crazy how quickly one forgets garden plans, cooking ideas, and so on. I swear I should just read last year’s same time posts to get dinner ideas, ways to use the produce ideas, and definitely to stick with garden plans!
Butterflies, Birds, and Bees
August 9, 2009 at 12:43 am | In Gardening, Sewing | 1 Comment
I was so taken with how easy and successful the bee shorts were that I decided to whip up another pair using the leftover bugs and butterflies knit that I’d made leggings out of this winter. I sewed these up quite quickly and am very pleased with the result. I decided to throw caution to the wind (because let’s face it these are just comfy shorts for the summer) and not finish the seams with the zigzag stitching. Instead I just used pinking shears to trim them. I added a pocket just for fun.
I’m also thinking of adding an applique to a white top to go with the bee shorts.
Our blackberries are ripening, though it’s hard to know when one is sweet or sour. since they are not ripening all at once I think maybe I’ll freeze them and then eventually make sauces or jams from them.
I decided that overall I”m very disappointed in my flowers this summer. It seems like I don’t have very much to cut and bring in the house. The daisies are done, the coneflowers are fading (though the new blooms are brighter), and the zinnies are just not as copious as I thought they’d be. And only a few cosmos 
I am delighted with the dahlias, but can’t bring myself to cut them as I am enjoying seeing them outside.
It’s about an hour later as I return to this and the kids have been tucked in and I’ve gone and done a wonderful addition to the bee shorts. I’d bought an inexpensive white top for her to wear with them and embellished it by cutting out a bee shape (Thank you, Paul) and machine appliqueing it on. Then I embroidered on atenna. This is really my first attempt at machine applique, and it’s certainly not perfect, but I think it’s adorable. I can see myself easily getting carried away making many outfits like this.
This morning I made a special Saturday morning breakfast from my childhood-roll-ups (aka crepes.) Clark is getting to be an excellent egg cracker and check out this suprise from one of the Comets-a double yolker!
It’s August and one of my favorite things about this time of year is the sound at night of the cicadas, katydids, and other myriad insects. Throw open those windows and hear the sounds of late summer!
What’s the Buzz?
August 3, 2009 at 6:46 pm | In Chickens, Cookery, Family, Gardening, Sewing | 3 Comments
Saturday night we had a babysitter and went out to dinner. We followed up dinner out with an exciting trip to Wal-Mart-yes, this is what parents do when they get a few hours to themselves! I picked up a little bit of fabric and Paul chose some bee fabric for Tabitha for me to make her shorts. Yesterday afternoon I sewed them up and I think they came out great! I was really so pleased with them. Paul liked them because he thought they would keep her so busy pointing at all the bees and saying “bee! bee!”, which is indeed true. Here she is in them:
Our chickens are laying like crazy. Now that we are getting NINE eggs a day we see that is a huge difference from a mere 3 eggs a day, even given that two of them automatically go to my friend Jen, who actually owns two of the comets. We need an Egg-O-Mat in front of our house! For those of you who didn’t grow up in Warren, NJ, that would be this.
We have also harvest a bunch of potatoes (why didn’t I take a picture?), the butternut squash are ripening beautifully, the tomatoes are coming in, and for dinner tonight I’m making a tiella-a layered casserole of zucchini, potato, and tomato puree. But I am not Michael Chiarello and so my version is to mix everything up in a bowl and then layer it out, rather than doing his endless step recipe. Check out the far reach of the squash plants:
I’m excited about these bird’s egg gourds:
I am suprised at myself that this month I have much more time to myself than last year, yet last year I did all that canning! Still, this summer I am doing more sewing. I am also looking at my garden a lot in terms of what I’d like to do next year: more flowers, do whatever it takes to get sunflowers and morning glories along the fence, put the herbs in the raised bed with the asparagus, plant more larger perennials in the front, do better with lettuce. I am pleased with what we are producing, though, don’t mean to complain about it!
Yesterday a water lily was blooming and it was lovely. The comets are really enjoying spending time perched in the Japanese maple:
We’ve started work on Clark’s 4th birthday movie. So far we’re in the “selecting photos and videos” phase, which takes a while. We’ve reviewed photos from July, Aug, Sept, and Oct of 2008. If you asked me how Clark is different today as a four year old from a year ago as a three year old, I would have said not at all. But looking at pictures I see that I am wrong-last year his hair was practically a different color, his face looked so much more babyish, and his voice was higher and more babyish. And as for Tabby, well my goodness! First no hair, then finally hair that stood straight up, and now it’s flat and long. Also, when she was a baby she had such a round face with big cheeks. Amazing how easy it is to forget these things. Reviewing the summer photos also has let me see how our yard/garden is different and the same as last year.
OK, must go bring in the two day old laundry from the line (curse you unexpected thunderstorm!).
But wait…You know who else grew up in a year? Our black chickens! I had completely forgotten that when we got them they were small, had tiny combs, and were the same size as our little Comets are now.
BOOOOO! As I was typing this I watched one of them walk up onto our porch, over to the cherry tomatoes, and pluck a ripe one right off the plant!!
When we got them:
And now:
Hot, Wet, Hot, Wet
July 31, 2009 at 1:09 am | In Chickens, Cookery, Family, Gardening, Housekeeping (or Lack Thereof), Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Seems everyone is having weather woes, and here in New Jersey it’s been torrential rains, revolting humidity, and freak tornadoes and storms. We were lucky to have just one tree down in our yard (and not a beloved tree), but many of our neighbors had full mature trees uprooted. It’s been quite spectacular driving around and seeing it all. The upside of our fallen tree is that it has become, of course, a piece of playground equipment for us! We’ve all had so much fun walking up and down it that we want to make a little obstacle course for the kids. Every time the kids play in our yard like this (hitting sticks against a tree, for example) and they look a bit grubby I feel like they are Appalachian kids and we now have an Appalachian playground.
Our corn got knocked down again yesterday. It must be very frustrating being a corn farmer! Paul thinks that their corn grows closer together so it doesn’t tip over so easily as ours. I’m hoping we’ll be able to eat some corn soon. In the meantime we just picked a bunch of lovely tomatoes. (and update: for dinner I cooked a couple with basil, garlic, zucchini, and had it with pasta.)
The day’s haul:
The brown hens are all laying now, which means we are getting maximum egg output: 9 eggs a day! (two of those eggs go to my friend who actually owns two of the brown hens). As I’ve mentioned the comets’ eggs are small and dark brown, but they are getting larger. Today two of their eggs were the size of the black hens’!
Last night I stepped outside and felt something wet on my shirt. My immediate reaction was, “SLUG!” and then I thought “that’s a stupid thing to think-how would a slug get up on your shirt? why not think just wet spot from hand washing or a booger from a kid (which is also gross, but more likely)?” I looked down and apparently my instincts were spot on because it was a teeny tiny slug.
Nothing has made me feel quite so old-fashioned/housewifey/homesteady as this: this week we began line drying our clothes. I’ve wanted to for a while since I read constantly about how the electric clothes dryer really uses so much electricity. I couldn’t figure out a good place for a clothesline, though. A broken fan belt of the dryer force me into action. With two wet loads of mildewing laundry I had to go out to Home Depot and buy a clothespole (and my request for one seemed to cause a lot of confusion-is it really such an odd thing??). I was delighted with the results. The clothes dried way faster than I would have thought and I got three loads dried and folded before we had yet another storm that made everything soggy and wet and knocked the pole over. With pole repaired I headed out again today. It’s definitely not a speedy process but there was something inantely soothing about hanging each piece of clothing (and strategically arranging the underwear on the inside lines so no one sees it, as well as distributing the weight evenly) just so. I have to say I’m enjoying it.
Went to the beach yesterday:
Tonight Pippin was barking and barking and it turns out it was at this lovely large Toad:
Great summer days!
Dinner from the Garden
July 22, 2009 at 12:56 pm | In Cookery, Gardening | Leave a Comment
Bruschetta made with tomatoes and basil from the garden. Salad made of chicken, big toasted croutons, parmesan, olive oil, white wine vinegar, and cucumber and lettuce from the garden. All delicious, and actually the bruschetta topping was delicious on top of the salad, too.
And, completely unrelated, we went to a local fair the other night. Wonderful and fascinating people watching, including this “tattooed” prosthetic:
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