Ever since my husband received The Art of Fermentation for his birthday, it has been a fermentation frenzy in our house. Today I present to you a bit of a photo journey through our fermentation experimentation…
…a little beer…
…and mead (a.k.a honey wine)…
…and sauerkraut.
It seems as if it has been a very long time since I posted a recipe in this space, so here goes nothing. As I’ve said a lot over the past few months, finding my grandfather’s recipe box has been a fun adventure filled with cooking experiments and taste tastes.
This particular card has been one I have played around with quite a bit over the past few weeks. And this weekend, after a lot of testing and even more tasting, I think I’ve come up with a great pumpkin bread recipe that allows you to forget about adding in all of that refined sugar and unhealthy oil. Enjoy!
Pumpkin Bread
1 1/2 cups honey
1 cup coconut oil (melted)
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
15 ounces pumpkin puree
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the honey and melted coconut oil with an electric mixer. Next add the eggs and beat until smooth. Then add the water and beat mixture again. Set aside.
In another large bowl, mix both flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture slowly, beating with an electric mixer. Finally, beat in the pumpkin puree. (I add dark chocolate chips at this point sometimes too 🙂 ) Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bake for 55-65 minutes.
Some of you may remember that I purchased a great deal of yarn from my favorite Northwoods shop when we were visiting my husband’s grandparents last spring. Well, the silky alpaca yarn has been sitting by patiently awaiting fall, and now its time has come. I had been saving these eight skeins of yarn for something special for my little girls.
And now…ta da
…new hats and cowls! Sure to keep them cozy {and stylish 🙂 } on the playground. I love the idea of the cowl instead of a scarf because with the way these girls run around, a scarf wouldn’t last a day of tag-playing or swinging at recess.
We all know the routine: Pick up the dishes, and the clothes, and the books, and the toys. Ok. Now you can see the dirt and dust. Now, find something to occupy the kiddos so that you can actually move around the house without hearing, “Mommy” yelled five thousand times, each time rising to a higher decibel because how could you hear them when the vacuum is on. Next, lug out the rags, buckets, and the other miscellaneous cleaning supplies. Whew. I know, I’m tired already too. And now…it is time to begin. Ah. Gotta love cleaning day.
One thing that is very important around our house when it comes to cleaning is to use little to no chemicals in our cleaning products. The idea of having my little girls take baths in a tub that has been cleaned with bleach and other harsh chemicals makes me cringe. And not only that, cleaning products can put quite the large dent in the pocket book.
Over the years I have tested a wide variety of all-natural cleaning products. Some I have purchased and others I have made at home. And I have to say that after nearly six years of being a mama, I have settled on a few homemade concoctions that I use on a daily and/or weekly basis.
I hope you find these as useful, safe, and affordable for your family as I have found them to be for mine.
All-Purpose Cleaner (I use this for everything from kitchen counters and table, to bathroom surfaces.)
In a plastic spray bottle, fill it with half water and half white vinegar (known for its strong antibacterial properties). Then add 20 drops of grapefruit essential oil (known for its anti-viral and anti-microbial properties). I also like to add about 10 drops of orange essential oil to add a bit more of a citrus kick to the cleaner. Shake the bottle before each use. Spray on surfaces and wipe with a clean cloth.
Wood Cleaner (Use this very sparingly. I spray a very small amount of this on a rag when cleaning wood furniture. I also use this to clean my hardwood floor. Be sure to wipe the surface completely dry after each application.)
In a plastic spray bottle, fill it with half water and half white vinegar (known for its strong antibacterial properties). Then add 20 drops of peppermint essential oil (known for its antibacterial properties). Shake the bottle before each use.
Ceramic Tile Cleaner (I use this to wash the floors in my kitchen, foyer and bathrooms.)
In a large bucket, fill it with half very warm water and half white vinegar (known for its strong antibacterial properties). Then add EITHER 30 drops of peppermint essential oil (known for its antibacterial properties) OR 30 drops of lavender/tea tree oil (known for their antibacterial properties). It just depends on the mood you are in. Peppermint oil in more invigorating while the lavender/tea tree mix is more soothing.
Toilet Cleaner
Pour about 1 cup white vinegar into the toilet bowl. Then add about 1/8 cup baking soda (You will get a nice little science experiment in your toilet bowl.), and 10 drops of peppermint essential oil. Then scrub by hand or with a toilet brush. Flush when complete.
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A great resource I have found that contains a lot more DIY cleaning products and much, much more is Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills by Raleigh Briggs
As the mercury begins its descent, we are spending a bit more time indoors these days. So with that, we are making every effort to bring a bit of the outdoors in. I truly believe a great deal can be said for the tactile experiences of interacting with nature, and when the late fall and winter months do not allow for such easy access to these experiences, I think it is important for people (children especially) to not lose that intimate contact with nature.
For that reason, we have been gathering outdoor artifacts and putting them on display in just about every room of our home. The girls love this activity, because they get to have a direct hand in “decorating” the house. They have been filling up Mason jars with water to display mums and lavender, collecting rocks to sprinkle on tabletops, and picking gourds in the garden to create their own fall adornments.
I hope all of you are enjoying these first beautiful days of fall! Have a wonderful week!
This past Tuesday, our family gathered for our final “Tuesday Night Dinner” of the season. We were planning to keep the dinners rolling through the school year, but my oldest is finding herself quiet worn out after a full, big-girl day of school. And with dance and tumbling now under way for the fall, we thought it best to take a bit of a break to allow the girls some down-time.
Here is a little glimpse into our evening this past Tuesday…
A sure fire sign that fall is upon us is when we start to find apples popping up here and there at the farmers’ markets. Last week, we found our very favorite farming family at market with their tables loaded down with the most beautiful apples. There were Cortlands, Jonathans, Honey Crisps, and Crimson Crisps. Each more delicious than the next.
With all of this goodness to choose from, the girls and I decided it was high time to start making apple sauce. So yesterday, with much fanfare and hullabaloo, we began our apple-sauce-making soiree.
The girls did all the work, while I took pictures and drunk in the sounds of 2Cellos on the IPad. They used our very favorite apple peeler/corere/slicer to do the majority of labor, and then took turns adding some yummy local honey and spicy cinnamon to the mix. We make our apple sauce in our slow cooker, so we just set it and forget it 🙂
A few hours later, once the aroma of the sweet and tangy apples, floral honey and spiced cinnamon fill the air, we have the perfect apple sauce for our family’s liking. Fall is here.
Upon our return from Disney, it was to the garden we went for some fall harvesting and some more planting. We came home to our second round of beans, ready and waiting for us on the vine. They were a very welcomed surprise after eating a bit too much non-homegrown food on our trip.
There were also about 80 tomatoes begging to be picked, and a whole lot of raspberries ripe and ready for a little princess to pick for her afternoon snack.
We then set to planting our new beds with some cold-hardy greens. We are hoping to add a hoop house or some type of low tunnel over these beds once the frost sets in. (Even though that seems very far off at the moment, as I listen to my air conditioner humming at this precise moment, when it is a whopping 90 degrees again today.)
Amid the labyrinth of power lines and close proximity to our neighbors, we are slowly but surely developing for ourselves a bit of a suburban homestead paradise all our own. When we took possession of this property four years ago, we were given a perfectly blank slate to work with because the previous owners had just filled in their in-ground pool. This left us with a lovely, flat, fenced-in canvas that we are now able to glean a great deal of food from.
{Before. Late July 2012.}
The gardening space we previously had contains 12 4X8 foot raised beds and one 4X16 foot raised bed. Then just outside that space we have a smattering of lavender and rhubarb and some heirloom perennial flowers. Last year we added 2 apple trees, an asparagus and strawberry patch, raspberry bramble and an herb garden to the mix.
And now, here we are…
I am so thrilled by how the space turned out. I must say I was a little skeptical for a while there, when the vision in my head did not seem to match what lay before me. But with a bit of digging, a little building and a whole lot of hauling, I am satisfied to say the very least.
We used the beautiful circa 1850 barn timbers I mentioned in a previous post to create a more permanent border for the existing asparagus and strawberry patch. We used the remaining timbers to create a brand new perennial vegetable bed that will soon be home to more rhubarb (rhubarb wine here I come!), asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes.
We then added three additional 4X8 foot raised beds and one 4X4 bed. This fall these beds will be loaded with cold hardy annual vegetables that we then hope to cover with a hoop house of some sort. We are crossing our fingers this will give us delicious, fresh vegetables year round. We also plan to add some gorgeous tree stumps around the fire pit for prime seating for those s’more-roasting evenings right around the corner.
This past weekend we opted to stay close to home because many of us in our little household of four were getting over the lovely beginning-of-the-school-year sniffles. It always seems so odd to me to have a cold in the middle of a ninety degree heat wave, yet that was our particular situation this weekend. So with lemon tea and honey in hand, we set to having a fun-filled weekend none the less.
The first pumpkins of the season made an appearance at Friday’s market, so we had to buy just a couple. The girls worked hard all of Saturday morning, digging out the seeds and preparing for some roasted goodness.
While the girls worked hard on the pumpkins, I got busy making my homemade granola. We were able to purchase some delicious home-grown oats from Hazard Free Farms, which helped to make the granola extra yummy.
I also tried another treasure from Grandpa Dit’s recipe box: piccalilli. I must say, standing in the kitchen over a giant pot of boiling veggies on a ninety-seven degree day was not one of my brightest ideas, but the final result was quite tasty.
And I chopped the day away, getting food ready to put by in the freezer for the winter months. Andrea Hazzard, from Hazzard Free Farm, gave us a great suggestion for preserving watermelon. Pour boiling water over a bit of honey, making honey water. After cooling down the honey water, pour it over diced watermelon until all watermelon is covered. Then freeze it for enjoyment in the winter months.
Rajah enjoyed finding a new hiding spot. Oh my.
And Tyler enjoyed some brewing time. He concocted a batch of caramel creme ale. Yummy.
I have also been hard at work in the backyard, continuing with our garden expansion. I am so excited to bring you the finished product in tomorrow’s post. Hooray! See you then.
Making of a Home 