Speaking of Cucumbers . . .

I'm sooo excited--I harvested our first cucumber today. Sooo yummy. It turned out to be breakfast for me, as I wasn't very hungry. ( Ate a little while later too.) My sweet spirit was it good.
Other garden news: Lots of green tomatoes, beans are getting there, peas have been harvested and another batch due in a few more weeks, baby carrots--OMG are they good---, Lots of kale and collards being washed and frozen for smoothies. Other stuff growing GREAT. Strawberries are done--they didn't do so well this year w/ all the moisture. Time to harvest mulberries. Blue berry lady will be getting a visit from me soon too.

How is your garden growing??? (Yes, I'd really love to know!!!)
~~~Sharilyn

Bring On the Heat!

It’s been super humid-hot the last couple-few days and I’m loving it!! We (Rowan, Rich, and I) have been working outside tending to the lawn, the gardens, and the bugs. Peas went POW overnight. Sugar snaps are sooo sweet and crispy—not like what you get in the store. And Ro-Ro can’t get enough of the sweet pod peas. Every batch I’ve brought in she’s gobbled up, so I guess I won’t be freezing any!! Maybe I’ll plant a bunch more for a fall crop.

Most of the lettuces have bolted, so we’ve had salads, wraps, and green smoothies. What I won’t be able to use up right away is being frozen for smoothies later. Carrots are ready and Ro munches one every time she’s out to the garden. Green beans have a ways to go yet, which is good because I’m still looking for some raw green bean recipes. Anyone know a good one?? Send it and I’ll post it. Parsley’s growin’ well and I look forward to fall harvest and Jinjee and Storm’s tabuli recipe which is one of my favorites.

Rowan’s been in her kiddie pool every day---and mommy’s joined her a couple times as well!! She’s so funny to watch as she tries to squirt me with water from the rubber duckie’s bottom—but get’s it turned the wrong way and squirts herself instead! LOL . . . but she’s learning fast. She also discovered that mommy screams and daddy runs away when she squirts the coooold water from the hose at them. Giggle, giggle, giggle says Rowan.

I made a batch of what have you cookies. Started with the hazelnut pulp leftover from milk and just kept adding. They have: nut pulp, juice and pulp from 3 oranges, cinnamon, raw honey, vanilla, flax seed, black sesame seed, chia seed, hemp seed, and coconut flakes. I can’t wait to taste them as the batter was super yummy. Rowan helped and it was all I could do to keep the spoon and her fingers out of her mouth, then out of the dough again! It’s not like cookies that are baked, so germs that won’t get destroyed in an oven are not wanted in the dough.

Today Rowan ate:
lots of green smoothie—a full blender, as she couldn’t get enough.
two salads—red leaf lettuce, onion, and carrot pulp
lots of peas
a carrot from the garden
hazelnut banana milk with flax oil, vanilla, and sea salt
¼ of a huge watermelon
the rest of the cookies I made on father’s day—about 7 cookies

Enjoy your evening!
~Rowan and Sharilyn

How does your garden grow?

Here’s a pic of the garden, and one of the four foot square beds, which is planted in 16 individual square feet. In this photo there are 16 varies lettuce plants, 32 onions, radishs, 2 collard plants, 3 kale plants, 9 arugula plants, a mix of 16 parsley and cilantro plants, 4 marigolds, and 1 green cabbage plant. Tiny little plot, huge amount of food. :o}

Salad anyone? My spinach bolted w/ in a day and I didn’t catch it, so I pulled all of it out and stripped the leaves to freeze for smoothies. I decided that the other lettuces couldn’t be far behind, so I harvested quite a few leaves off each plant: arugula, dandelion, red leaf, some curly leafed, simpson bibb, and a couple others that I can’t think the name of. To that I added fresh asparagus, radishes, and green onions, and some tomatoes, avos, and sunny seeds from the store. There’s a two day salad there—for at least 2 people!!

Later, Rich helped me did a long bed for all the squash babies that need a homes. 13 plants!! We'll be in squash heaven. Oh, and Rowan helped too. She would get mad if we didn’t leave clods of excavated sod for her to put on the tarp. She was so funny about it!! And she would say ‘Thank you’ whenever we left a clump for her.

Tristen is off to his dad’s for 3 weeks, then home for a short visit, and back again for 2 more weeks. Though Rowan and Rich are here, the house seems empty at night. The ghosts have also been more active of late. Wonder if they miss him too.

Here’s Ro-Ro’s menu for yesterday:

Green smoothie w/ spinach, apples, bananas, kelp

cherry tomatoes with chia seeds

Chocolate Bliss shake

banana

salad as described above w/ ACV dressing (apple cider vinegar, raw honey, extra-virgin olive oil)

leftover smoothie

dried coconut and blueberries

more salad

~~~Sharilyn and Rowan

Happy Mom’s Day

Goji babies!

Hope all you mom’s did exactly what you wanted today. We were outside most of the day morale hunting and enjoying the sun.

Garden news: I dug the Jerusalem artichokes up ---I planted 3 tubers last fall. Three. Tres. Toi. I dug up . . . around 30. I hope I got them all. I’ll be replanting a few out in a separate area. Talk about invasive!! Perhaps I’ll move my mint over with it. The mint shoots along in the top three inches of soil, while the Jerusalem artichoke tubers grow about six inches down, so they sort of compliment each other.

Tristen has finally gotten his garden dug and planted. He’s growing: 16 carrots, 9 spinach, 9 radish, 1 fennel, 9 bush beans, 1 popcorn, 2 cucumbers, 1 tomato, and 4 basil plants. This is all planted in a 9 square foot bed.

The strawberries aren’t doing too well—I wondered when I saw the rootstock if I should return them. Perhaps I’ll try seeds yet this year. 5 of the 9 blueberry/raspberry bushes haven’t leafed yet. X yer finga’s for us.

Beyond food stuff: I’ve been working on a shade garden under the two big maples. I’ve split 4 large hosta into at least 50 plants, maybe more. I’ve added some transplanted wood ferns collected from the forest, and have recently found columbine as well, so that will be added soon. I have 8 seed trays holding between 30 and 40 seedlings each coming along, and I can’t wait until I can have cut flowers for the table (and for salads) every week.

Morals abound. The family’s collected over 10 pounds this season, and as none of us really eat them, they’ve made great gifts for neighbors and friends. Tristen found an extremely large moral this week—as big as a dollar bill. Kudos kiddo. What we haven’t given away, we’ve dehydrated to pass along later.

Other activities: Soccer season in here, and this is Tris's first year at it. He does well, particularly as goalie, and is picked often for that position. It’s so entertaining to watch all the kids running after that little black and white ball!

Rowan and I often go foraging in the woods. I'm trying to identify as many potential wild edibles and herbals as possible, as well as locate any thing else of interest--Like the fort on the top of the hill (really just a deep ditch surrounded by shrubs) which Tris has claimed as his own.

Hope you're keeping as busy.

~Sharilyn

We’re Back!

It’s been a busy, busy month. The garden, of course, has taken up most of my time, digging new beds (all with a shovel, not a rototiller—we love our worms!), planting seeds and transplants, moving sod from the newly dug beds to the bare patch in our yard, and so on. Illness struck Tristen for about five days—fever and sore throat, then hit Rowan, though she was sick only a day. (Hmm, could that be because she eats 99% raw and he eats only about 75% raw??) Car troubles, tax return troubles (The IRS screwed my return up, still haven’t received our refund and it was in by the 2^nd week of February. Hrrmmmph! ), other paperwork issues, yadda, yadda, yadda, rent, rent, rent.

We’ve tried a few new raw recipes--strawberry granola, sour cream and salsa, corn-lime chips, bbq chips, garlic-almond crackers, cashewbutter squares, goji-maca-cacao bars, and Portobello sausages. All turned out great. I plan to attempt a mashed potato using jicama. I’ll let you know how that transpires. The best discovery was the garlic almond crackers. This has the BEST TEXTURE of a cracker, and with some tweaking, I could probably come up with a good soda cracker. Here’s what I do, to the letter:

First I make almond milk using a cup of almonds. I grind almonds with water and pour this into my nutmilk bags (I use doubled up paint thinner bags --MUCH cheaper than nutmilk bags, 2 for a buck and a half). I squeeze the milk into a bowl then I pour the milk back in the blender and finish adding my salt, oil, honey, and water, and dump the pulp into the bowl. Nutmilk done, I grind about half a cup of flax seeds in the coffee grinder and add it to the pulp. At this point, I could mix and spread for a plain cracker (soda crackers!), but I blend a clove or two of garlic with just a little water and add that to the batter. You may need a little more water, but I like a thick consistency. This is then spread with wet hands on dehydrator sheets (the wet keeps your hands from sticking) in either small round spoonfuls or larger sheets that are then scored before drying. Sprinkle on a little salt, and again later when you flip ‘em. Again, the texture is remarkably like a Ritz or a heavy soda cracker. But don’t take my word for it!

The berry rootstock is/are planted: 40 strawberries, 5 blueberries, 4 raspberries, a gooseberry and a boysenberry. Most of my veggies are in or started indoors for transplant later. Next on my todo list includes digging beds for flowers—chamomile, bachelor buttons, zinnias, cornflowers, and other cut or edible flowers. The herb garden is pretty well established. The best surprise was finding out how much rootstock I had in my overwintered parsley! Whew! I was able to plant 16 plants in the veggie beds and kept about 5 larger plants in the herb garden by the house. I will definitely pot some up again next winter.

Hope you’re keeping as busy! We’re off to hunt for morales.

Keep it raw,

~Sharilyn

DID YOU KNOW: The Jerusalem artichoke contains inulin. which helps stabilize wildly erratic blood sugar levels, keeping them smooth and even. Diabetics, take note!

UPDATE: Another plant that contains up to 36% inulin is chicory--you know, the common roadside weed with the stunning blue flowers. You can add the leaves to a salad. The root is used medicinally, and some add the roasted root to flavor coffee.

Warrrmmm!

Well the snow lasted all of a day, totaling about an inch. Yeah!! Now maybe it’ll warm up and I can plant the rest of the gardens! Unfortunately the cold and the potato shoots didn’t mesh well, but I’m hoping those taters ‘ll sprout new buds.

Sunday’s menu:

strawberry flax xrs

pear apple banana parsley smoothie

banana almond milk

romaine and celery ‘crackers’ with sun-pumpkin-almond-lemon-sesame-garlic-pepper-broccoli spread

apples w/ cashew butter and blueberries

veggie salad-broccoli, cuke, celery, romaine, onion, garlic, carrot

bananas

mulberry lemonade

~Sharilyn

A Loong Week

Sorry I haven’t blogged lately, but it’s been busy around here! I’ll make up for it with pictures!!

O.K. Sap: Well we were able to collect about 2 gallons total, which I boiled down to about a cup.


Here’s the sap partway boiled.


Here’s the finished syrup. I must say that it doesn’t taste like maple at all—more like a caramel with just a hint of maple. It is soooooo good. It took . . . I’m guessing about 5-6 hours to boil down. I didn’t really keep track. I just boiled the first gallon down, then stored it in the fridge and added the second gallon the next day and boiled that down to what you see in the pic. Fun! Though if there had been much more, we definitely would have had to boil it outside.

So, the syrup turned out, and there hasn’t been any more sap as the weather has gotten warm here—it hit 72* when I checked on the 16th. Now, while I was boiling the sap down to the syrupy finish (which has to be watched closely, especially with so little), I was also making two loaves of bread for Rich. Well, something was smoking on the bottom in the oven as it was preheating, so I shut it off as it’s a gas oven, stuck my hand in a mitt, grabbed a butter knife, and proceeded to scrape out the offending substance. I then popped the ready to be baked bread in the oven, shut the door, and went back to watching my syrup. Did I mention that I was also making almond milk, flax crackers, and smoothies for the early morning? I also called my mom and we chatted a bit. About an hour later the syrup was done, and I remembered about the bread—oops—and rushed to remove what I thought would be very, verrrry, well done bread. It wasn’t. It hadn’t baked. Well not much anyway. (I cut the one on the left open to see what was going on inside. It was gooey.)


So I popped them back in the oven, turning the oven ON this time, and crossed my fingers. I was laughing my ass off at this point. The bread made it to edible, but didn’t rise up at all beyond the where it was at. Here’s a pic. Rich came home with a loaf of bread from the store the next day. ~giggle~


Rowan has been helping me with all the babies—they’re really coming along, faster than I would have thought. She’s also fascinated with the overabundance of boxelder bugs that arrived just in time for the warm weather. Go figure. Anyhoo, this is her bug friend and she (bug’s on her elbow). Things are gearing up, moving towards full swing for spring plantings, getting gardens ready. No more lazy days on the couch with a blanket and a movie or book.

Yesterday was chillier, about 42*, and Rich had the day off, as did Tristen, so we all ventured out to the store—strawberries, bananas, blueberries, watermelon, romaine, oranges, apples, cukes, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and more. Nuts. Big trip, lots on sale. Then off to the big playground and skate park.


The kids have had a plethora of vittles this week: Banana-avocado pie w/ butternut-date crust, lots of different salads, cucumber, radish, mixed veggies, parfaits with carob-avocado pudding and fruit and buckwheat, garlic-almond and banana-carob flax crackers, and lots more.

Today their menu includes:
green smoothies w/ cuke, romaine, carrot, celery, apple, banana, mulberries
strawberry shortcake, raw of course
strawberry-banana almond milk
cuke and carrot slices
chocolate parfaits with blueberries, strawberries, and bananas, and buckwheat groats
watermelon chunks
carob-banana flax crackers
anything else they feel like munching on

Have a great day!
Sharilyn, Tristen, and Rowan



P.S. I guess I was wrong--sap is flowing again!

Thawing Out

It’s finally warmed up enough to thaw all the snow. Today I think it actually hit over 70*!! I was busy with making my shelf for the seedlings . . . the one that got put off. But the babies need to get started if we want the warmer weather fruits and veggies like peppers and melons.

The gardens got their mulch pulled off so they can start to dry out a bit. Rowan and I took a walk to the top of the hill that overlooks our house. The pic is from last summer from up there—it’s quite a climb. Later I got 4 flats worth of seeds planted, then did a little poi dancing. I’m a bit rusty after the long winter and knocked my glasses off my face! (I use tennis balls on the end of ropes. Ouch!) Rowan had fun talking to the cows and chickens and kitties. We found some bugs to play with too. Ah, the joys of warmer weather.

I was perusing through one of my seed catalogues and found Luffa! Yes, you can grow a Luffa, and you can eat it too!! How groovy!! I never knew. Or of course you can dry it out and use as a scrubby sponge. I also found my all time fave flower: Passiflora, or Passion Flower. And guess what—you can eat parts of that too. Other edible flowers include: bachelor buttons, calendula (marigolds), nastersium (leaves and buds and seeds, too), Salvia viridis, Hollyhock, sunflowers—seeds and petals, monarda (Bee balm), and Violas.

My Disclaimer Note: Always make sure you know your plant before you eat it!! Wouldn’t want anyone to get sick from eating the wrong plant!!

Today the kids chowed on:
bananas
grapes
figs
raisins
goji berries
honeydew
cantelope
watermelon
strawberries
kiwis
plums
spinach
carrot shreds
celery chips
cukes
tommies
pumpkin seeds
sunny seeds
walnuts
almond milk w/ flax oil and honey (w/ carob for Tris)
buckwheat groats

Hope you have a fruity day!! We sure did!!

Luminosness,
Sharilyn, Tris, and Ro-Ro

Psychic Plants

I was reading about some experiments done on plants relating to their ability to sense things. I found this fascinating and plan to do some research into it. The gist of it was that one man named Cleve Backster designed a polygraph for plants that enabled him to record the emotions of plants. Apparently, they’re psychic too, as when Cleve began to think about burning one of the plants, the needle on the chart shot upward. This little tidbit makes me think of that movie What the Bleep Do We Know? and the effect thoughts had on water. If you’ve never seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It certainly makes you think, and gives a lesson in quantum physics. There’s also a movie/lesson on YouTube on quantum physics that Tristen absolutely loved. Check it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc.

There was another researcher named Sir Jahadish that, after thousands of experiments, concluded that plants indeed have intelligence, moods, and a marked personality. A plant pulled out of the ground (think weeding the garden) experiences shock similar to an animal or human being beaten senseless. They also showed to have feelings toward their caregivers, and when a well-treated plant’s caregiver experienced pain or anxiety, they felt it too.

How is this info going to affect my planned garden? Not so much. I do think I’ll be talking to all the babies more though, and thank the plants personally when I harvest food from them. I wonder if loving your plants adds to the nutrition value?

The progenies daily consumption of victuals encompassed:

green smoothies-baby lettuce mix, bananas, apples, ojs
banana
celery bites
carrot cake
pumpkin seed milk with carob
strawberry orange juice
carrot n cuke pulp salad with fresh herbs, evoo, acv, aminos, sea salt

Fluffy sweet dreams to you, dear readers,
~~~Sharilyn

Cold Snap

Today it was 2ºF with a wind chill of about 25ºF below zero. Whew!! The heat turns off and then turns right back on. I drove Tristen to school, as I didn’t want him walking the ½ mile to the end of the drive and then wait up to 10 minutes for the bus, BRRRRRR!!!! That was fine, because I wanted to speak with his teacher anyway. What really doesn’t make sense though is that yesterday it was 42ºF. Wish we had had the equipment to tap the maple trees. I think that’s what you call sugar snow, when it warms up for a day or two early in the winter, then freezes again. That way you can get an additional tapping for syrup during the winter instead of one.

Rowan and I kept warm, playing roly-poly and somersaulting. We also took care of the big potted parsley plant(s) by pulling out all the dead or yellowing leaves. Ro-Ro likes to yank handfuls of the green parsley off and munch. She eats the rosemary a little, and the mint, but prefers the parsley. Go figure.

I also repotted the basil that I had started from seed earlier. I’m excited to start seeds for next years garden and can’t wait until January/February. I have so many different plants to start. I’m still waiting on my seed catalogues, which is probably a good thing, as I have soo many seeds to contend with right now. So, I’m starting to plan the gardens for next year. I want to do a children’s garden as well, and plant things like cherry tomatoes and mini cukes. Maybe some mini cantaloupe. Last year, Rowan’s favorite thing to eat was the cherry tommies right from the plant. She’d plop down and start munching. She loved the asparagus too, come to think of it. Anyway, I’ve decided to start as many plants inside as I can, but need to build a shelf to hold the flats first. Rich and I were discussing building the shelf to go in front of our big south-facing picture window in the dining/pool table/library/music room. I think he had some good ideas and know how. Now I just need to find all the materials. Yeah! Project!!

Lentils and a sprout mix of alfalfa, broccoli, etc. were soaked yesterday for sprouting (to eat). Tomorrow or the next day I’ll start some sunflowers for the baby greens.

Rowan ate:
oatmeal with honey and flax seeds
banana milk w/ hemp oil and chia
pineapple
orange pieces
parsley
carrot pieces
apple pieces
pineapple apple banana smoothie w/ spirulina
grapes

Hugs,
Sharilyn