Meet me in the garden

"I found a little plot of land

In the garden of Eden

It was dirt, and dirt is all the same

I tilled it with my two hands

And I called it my very own

There was no one to dispute my claim"

-Joanna Newsom ( '81)

Later than I would have liked and forgetting a few key items (potatoes!?! how can you forget potatoes!?!),  the garden is IN.  Though at this point it appears that we are only growing wooden stakes with bits of brightly coloured binder-twine sprouting off them and an old utility sink.  You see, I devised a plan this year, every year I plant beets because I love beets, and every year something eats my beets, from underneath first and then the tops.  It is as if I never even planted them.  So while cleaning up the yard last weekend I came across one of those big double utility sinks, the legs were all broken off but one, so I finished the job and sunk the disabled sink into the garden and filled it with soil where I then sowed my beet seeds.  Take that you beet loving varmint, I shall dine on beets this fall and congratulate myself on outwitting you (I hope). 

On the garden roster this year is:
Sweet corn
White spanish onions
Celery
Carrots
Kale
Cabbage
Mesclun mix and green leaf lettuce
Zucchini
Squashes of mysterious origin
Green beans
Edamame
Cucumbers
Asperagus
Garlic
Herbs - chocolate peppermint, oregano, sage, basil, thai basil, rosemary, summer savory

Golden and detroit red beets (hah)
Thai peppers and bell peppers in the green house
and a small donated amount of tomatoes as all of our seedlings failed miserably. (all three varieties!)

I am really excited about the Kale, its the first year that T&T seeds has carried it and I do love me some kale, sauteed with some balsamic and olive oil and garlic.  I wonder if its too late to pick up some seed potatoes?

*note to self: dragonflies showed up the weekend before may long weekend this year, I am not sure when exactly they showed up last year but it seemed way later in the season.

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Spring has Sprung!

In the last few days we've been noticing something strange happening...green hues, bumps on the dogs and blue streaks everywhere! this can only mean one thing. it's spring! if you look at the forest all the tops of the trees have a light green hue to them which will turn into full on leaves pretty quickly, no offence Oak trees you are damn ugly when you are naked and I can see why they use you in all halloween/scary movies, but one thing that is great about you is that you drop accorns which in turn bring the blue streaks of the bluejays! in the spring we get waves of life passing through, just as the wave of dark eyed juncos had their fill from the feeders and moved on the next wave came, bluejays everywhere...screaming! and with it another spring time call..."Ken I found another tick can you come and pull it off the dog!" Yup Spring is here. Hurry up summer, I forgot how much I missed you!

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October and March resemble each other in every way

It's the kind of weather that calls for a warm fire, a good book and maybe a nice pot of home made soup simmering on the stove. It's not a day I feel like going outside and working on projects in the yard, so instead, I will write a list of the things we need to accomplish this season so that I can look back on this list and feel accomplished or it can serve as a nagging reminder of the things we never got around to.

Fix Gates:
A lot of the gates around the property are in serious disrepair, the wood used to build them was probably old and reclaimed from some other project when they were originally built.  Years of rain and snow has made many of the gates start to collapse on themselves, the bottoms are rotting and the corners are disintegrating.  It's a bit of a tricky fix on some because the man who built Lower Fort Bauer was extremely fond of nails, big ones, and lots of them.  Each gate is held together with no less than 47 large, rusted and bent nails.

Create club chook:
The Chicken coop is in need of some updating, the gaping cracks, lack of insulation and dripping roof is sooooo 1694. Having bought everything that came with the farm we also have things like piles of brand new shingles and pieces of metal roof hiding around every corner so this summer we are going to dig around and see how we can create a more comfortable home for the chickens in preparation for next winter, and I wouldn't want the current chickens to be embarassed to have their new houseguests move in. oh yes, the new house guests...we have 9 peeping chicks in our house which are getting bigger and bigger every day. The current chickens are just for laying eggs, so this time around we've decided to get Brahma chicks which are a dual purpose breed...I will let you figure out what the other purpose is, and i'm sure there will be MANY seperate posts on that learning experience.

Paint/stain the Fort:
We need to figure out something for the exterior of the addition of the Fort, most of it is holding up very well, but the wood on the west side which is exposed to the setting sun has started to weather and is looking a little long in the tooth.  It adds a special character to the place but at the same time we want this Fort to be standing for the rest of time and it needs some kind of a seal to keep moisture from rotting the wood.
This season we either need to pain it or stain it, as of yet we are undecided what the best course of action is, it's not like we can walk into home depot and ask them how to care for a house built like a turn of the century fur trapper settlement.  Actually, *light bulb goes off above my head* we may be better off calling some of the turn of the century trapper outposts that still exist around here and asking how they care for their stackwalls.
hmmmmm....

Trips to the Dump:
These will be an all summer affair.

Build a solar heater out of beer cans:
We are currently working on emptying the beer cans, more to come on this project...

Small Aesthetic Jobs:
-finishing up the solar shower & wood fired bath tub
-fixing the dock
-beautifying the front gate with addition of wooden stakes (fortress chic?)
-mending the greenhouse roof

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If beer quentches thirst, a sausage (or Challah) quells hunger.

I have never been much of a baker, despite being in a serious love affair with carbs.
I LOVE to cook but I like to make up my recipes and change them as I go and I always believed that because of that, baking, due to the preciseness required, and I would always be star crossed lovers.

But then two things happened in my life.

A) Chickens - with chickens came eggs, with eggs came the need to find recipes to use eggs.

We ate our fair share of scrambled eggs and egg salad sandwiches at first but I grew tired of peeling hard boiled eggs, which, believe it or not is MUCH more difficult with fresh eggs.  So I had to branch out and reach for more diverse egg recipes which meant secret meetings with my ill-fated love, baking , I defy you, stars!

B) The discovery that bread dough is relatively hard to screw up.  Particularly this recipe.

Seriously.

I once let this dough rise for an extra four hours.  Ok, I forgot about it and watched a couple movies.  I came into the kitchen to find it had almost entirely enveloped my Kitchen Aid mixer, I was sure it was a total loss, but decided (with the advice of my friend and personal pastry chef Mel) there was no harm in punching that puppy down and braiding it anyways and you know what? it produced one of the largest, fluffiest loaves I have EVER made.

So without further ado, here is the recipe which I have adapted/mangled/disrespected which, in return has forgiven me for my faults and accepted me into its warm, braided, slathered in butter, loving arms.

Racheli's Deluxe Challah
adapted from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu

Ingredients: 
2.5 cups lukewarm water
1 packet active dry yeast (2.25 tsp if you are like me and buy yeast in giant bags)
1/2 cup sugar or honey
3 eggs  (2 gnomes...)
1 TBS salt
1/2 vegetable oil (plus more for oiling the bowl and baking sheet)
1 cup raisins or cheese, or garlic, or habeneros, or herbs or whatever else you feel like (optional)
8-9 cups unbleached white flour
poppy or sesame seeds for sprinkling  (optional)

Instructions:
This will yield 2 braided loaves.

Place water in a bowl (make sure it's no warmer than your wrist). Sprinkle in the yeast, and let stand for 5 minutes until it's foamy.

Add sugar/honey, 2 eggs, salt, oil and raisins and beat with a whisk for several minutes (or use the whisk on your mixer, turn it on, stand back and do a hand jive because you can!)

Begin adding flour one cup at a time, beating with a wooden spoon after each addition. When you reach the 7th cup, start slowing the additions, adding 1/4 cup at a time, mixing and kneading it in with your hands. Stop adding flour when the dough is quite firm and no longer feels sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead it quite vigorously (like you mean it!) for 5-10 minutes. (or set your mixer on pummel, this just makes my mixer hate me and I usually have to finish by hand anyways) The more kneading the better, but bread dough is very adaptable and will accomodate you.

Oil the bowl and the top of the dough. Place the dough in the bowl, cover with clean tea towel and place in a warm and draft free place to rise until doubled, 1.5 to 2 hours  (or sit down for a movie marathon) 

Punch down the dough, return to the floured surface and divide in half. Knead each half for about 5 minutes, and then divide into thirds. Roll each third into a long rope, about 1.5 inches in diameter, and form 2 braided loaves.

Oil a baking sheet and place the braids on the sheet, about 4 inches apart. Cover with the tea towel, return them to your spot and allow them to rise for about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350. Beat the 3rd egg, and brush it over your loaves. Sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds, and bake for 35-45 minutes. The breads will give off a hollow sound when thumped the bottom, when they are done. Remove from the baking sheet and cool on a rack.


Eat with lots and lots of butter.

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