dreaming of spring

tired of snow.

longing for green and growth.

I want to build this.

new birth

Lily

the best sandwich ever

I am not a fan of winter...but I am surviving. Part of what is getting me thru is the food that I was able to preserve and put up in the pantry during the last growing season. I am finding so much joy in the preserved taste of summer; organic and free of high fructose corn syrup. It makes me so happy when I open my pantry and see all the beautiful colors in the clear mason jars. I have been gardening for 4 or 5 years now, but this is the first year I have really figured out how to preserve the harvest so that it lasts all year. It has opened up a whole new world for me and I can't imagine gardening any longer without doing it. We live within walking distance of a grocery store and would survive just fine without doing the work or growing and preserving our own food, but I can't even find words to explain how much our lives are enriched by the process of intentionally growing, tending, harvesting and preserving our own foods.

Here's a sandwich I made the other day from things we grew this summer:

Dehydrated tomatoes

along with dehydrated zucchini, eggplant and red peppers soaked in a little olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette with a little dried basil and kosher salt.

I added some minced garlic and made a paninni with provolone and feta cheese.

topped off with some pickled banana peppers and fresh fenugreek sprouts!

Soooooo good, I felt like I was back out at the farm eating a my picnic table!

I am beginning to dream and plan for the upcoming growing season. I can't wait to get my hands dirty again and watch the little seeds sprout and grow! I plan to begin starting seeds in the next month or so. We are planning to grow as much as we can in our very small yard and work in the midtown neighborhood community garden as a family. I hope to preserve by canning and freezing even more food than we did last year now that I know how much we eat in one winter. My goal is that every year we would become just a little more self sufficient in how we eat. How rewarding to walk out in to my yard for my lunch rather than start up the van (I am going to be honest with you, I don't really walk there, although riding my bike there more is one of my goals this summer!) and go to Family Fare!

Come back! In my next post I will share how I canned over three dozen cans of applesauce and applebutter in the outdoor kitchen while living in our camper!

Farm Life

...is very busy. I have not had time to spend in front of the computer. I have been busy cleaning up things, building fence, cooking meals, and planting the garden. It is very hard work living out here, but today is rainy and since I can't work in the garden like I had planned (I am very grateful today for the rain actually, it is just what the garden needs and it offers me rest) I thought I would share a little bit of our farm experiences so far. Our family is learning so much and really enjoying being out here. I hate to think about how fast summer is going to go by. I am already amazed by how spring has slipped so quickly into summer. Time seems different out here, it moves in a strange slow and yet so fast kind of way, one I have never experienced before.

This tree is the first thing I see when I look out the window from my bed in the morning and every day it has changes. Now it has all it's leaves.

The lilacs are already gone. I am so glad I took some photos. The smell was so sweet and beautiful. There are many large trees out here and many bees buzzed around them. Now that I am growing I appreciate the bees in a new way realizing how necessary they are to the plants. Farmer Brian also keeps bees here on the property.

When the sheep first arrived here the lambs were so small. Now they seem almost as big as their mothers.

We also measure time by the growth of sweet little Solaya. A baby growing happens in the most amazingly fast way. She is 8 weeks now I believe.

We have been working ground that has not been worked in years, and praying that our hard work will bear fruit this season. First we had to pull trees and overgrown bushes out with the tractor, then we used this plow to begin to break up the earth.

It is a strong ancient looking thing and when I look at it I think of how old it is and how amazing it is that it is being used all these years later for the same purpose that is was created. It has been resurrected. I think of how God promises to resurrect all things and I feel a little closer to understanding.

Next we used this disc to break up the soil even more.

In all I think that we plowed the garden twice and went over it with the disc at least 4 times. There are so many roots that after all this we still had to rototill each bed before we could begin planting anything, and there are still big clods of dirt to work around. So far we have planted more than 50 pounds of potatos, oinions, lettuce and spinach, and tomato, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and bean transplants from David's greenhouse. This week we need to plant our pumpkins and hopefully some grains. We are going to expierament with gluten free grains such as quinoa, millet and teff and see if they not only work for food, but also as mulch for next years garden.

This is the outhouse that Rich built. He is really developing the handyman skills out here!

Here is Rich and his new toy... I mean "farm implement". He sold his motorcycle and used some of his profit to buy it. I sure like it better than the motorcycle though! He has been using is to haul dirt and things for the garden, but he sure does enjoy riding it on the trails too.


Amy was out this week helping in the garden and she has put together a great blog post about it. She takes such beautiful photographs, it makes everything look so romantic. She also has some photos of Rich and I hard at work. She also posted about our trip to the farmer's market so take a look at that too.

We are planning to head to the Fulton Street market again this Saturday, so come on out and buy some plants! Amy and I are also baking some gluten free goodies to sell. MMMmmmmm, penut butter cookies!