growing

Snug House Bug House

/ makingofahome / 1 Comment

My girls have always loved the children’s book Snug House Bug House.  Last summer the love of this book became so strong that my then four-year old constructed her own bug house.  She worked for weeks on the project, and I must admit that it turned out just fabulous for such a little one’s construction!

This year our backyard is flooded with monarch butterflies.  Now when I say flooded, I mean monarchs flying everywhere…getting caught in our hair, covering our patio table, swarming in the girls’ playhouse…everywhere.  So my eldest little one decided that all of these butterflies needed a place to rest and sleep so she brought out last year’s bug house, added some new embellishments and tada….a snug house butterfly house!

Farm Visit

/ makingofahome / 2 Comments

Saturday morning greeted me with the sound of rain pounding against the roof of our house.  I couldn’t believe that, yet again,  the weather was not cooperating with our planned trip.  We had been arranging to visit a nearby farmstead for over six months now, but every time the day arrived,  the weather was poor, the kids were sick, an unexpected errand popped up, and our trip was put on hold.  But this past Saturday, despite the rain that was coming down in sheets outside the window, I decided we were just going to go for it.  And I’m so very glad that we did!

This past weekend we had the absolute pleasure of visiting the Nadig family’s farm.  Although the weather was a bit chilly, the rain stopped when we arrived, and we were immediately greeted by the warmest of families we could have ever hoped to have met.  This family of seven seemed to completely embrace that which is true stewardship of the land in a way that can only help to enrich the earth and everything she has to offer.

John and his wife Charlotte have a vision to “provide healthy, chemical free food to [their] children and practice what [they] consider to be godly stewardship over the land and animals under [their] care.”  John visited Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm and has adopted many of the farming practices that Salatin and his family practice in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

We spent the morning walking the farm and learning a great deal from John…and three of his young children, ages eight, six and five.  Let me tell you, these little ones knew more about the life cycle of plants and animals than most adults could ever hope to know in a lifetime.  My girls were immediately swept up in their discussions of life on the farm and as I assumed would happen, my five year old asked if she could stay there and live with them 🙂

After what was an amazing morning, we pulled away from the farm with 35 pounds of grass fed ground beef, eggs, beautiful hand-dyed, hand-spun wool yarn, and minds filled with information and wonderful memories.  Thank you Nadig family for a wonderful visit!

Jerusalem Artichokes

/ makingofahome / 5 Comments

After reading an article in Mother Earth News a few weeks ago, I felt inspired to try a new veggie!  The article discussed a variety of perennial vegetables, in addition to asparagus and rhubarb which tend to be the perennial veggies that people are most familiar with, but the one that caught my eye was the Jerusalem artichoke.  I was very intrigued by these perennial tubers.  Jerusalem artichokes (also known as sunchokes because they produce beautiful yellow flowers similar to a sunflower) can prepared in much the same fashion as a potato.

I was thrilled when I walked into my natural foods store yesterday and found a giant basket of Jerusalem artichokes nestled in amongst the locally grown kale and spinach!  I grabbed a bag of these little guys and headed home with an idea in my mind to create some form of soup with them.

So yesterday, with a tiny two-year old sous chef by my side, I started my experimental run with Jerusalem artichoke soup.

I first put 4 tablespoons of butter in a stock pot.  After the butter was melted I threw in one diced yellow onion and 2 diced leeks.

I cooked these veggies down until tender.  Then I added 10 medium Jerusalem artichokes that I had diced (I left the peels on for added nutrition).  I then covered all of the veggies with about 2 quarts of pork stock that I had on hand.  I then covered the pot, and let the veggies simmer for about 20 minutes.

While the veggies simmered, I fried up a pound of bacon. (A note…my girls ate about 2 strips each, so it ended up being a bit less than a pound of bacon that I actually ended up putting in the soup 🙂 )  When the bacon was cool enough the handle, I chopped it up into bite-sized pieces.

Once the Jerusalem artichokes were tender, I ran an immersion blender through the soup.  Then I added 1/2 cup heavy cream and 8 oz Havarti cheese (shredded).  After the dairy was incorporated, I added the chopped bacon to the soup.  I flavored with salt and pepper from there are viola…Jersusalem artichoke soup!

I hope you enjoy this great little veggie that has gone unnoticed for so long here in our house.  The soup had a very similar texture to that of potato soup, but with a slightly sweeter taste.  I would say that this experiment turned out to be a success.

Generational Wealth

/ makingofahome / 7 Comments

As I sit here to write this post, I am not thinking of generational wealth in the form of monetary currency passed down from one generation to the next.  Instead, I am pondering the wealth of knowledge, the wealth of history, and the wealth of love that is exchanged when multiple generations of a family spend quality time with one another.

This past week my family was fortunate enough to spend many days up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with my husband’s grandparents.  While on the trip my girls were able to hike and fish with their great-grandfather, cook and feed the wild life with their great-grandmother, and ramble about the woods with their second cousins.  There truly was a great deal of “wealth” passed from one generation to the next on this short vacation.

Humbled

/ makingofahome / 2 Comments

Last week I was incredibly humbled, surprised and excited when Becky from Clover and Thyme honored me with a Versatile Blogger Award!  Thank you so very much Becky for this wonderful honor!  Being new to this whole blogging world, your recognition really brightened my day and reaffirmed why I do what I do.  Thank you.

If you get a chance, be sure to stop by Becky’s blog.  It is a joy to read!

So here are the Rules for Versatile Blogger Award according to their site:

  •  Thank the person who gave you this award.
  •  Include a link to their blog.
  •  Next, select  blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
  •  Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to your post nominating them, or to the Versatile Blogger Blog.
  •  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

As I said earlier, I am still very new to this whole blogging world, so I am just beginning to explore all of the wonderful blogs that are out there.  Here are the blogs that I follow regularly and I would like to award with the Versatile Blogger Award.  Thank you all for what you do!

Amanda Blake Soule at SouleMama.  I have been following this blog for nearly a year now and it is utterly amazing!  Her posts vary from crafting to homesteading and everything in between.  I also have many of her books which also contain fabulous project ideas for moms and kids alike.

Ashley English at Small Measure.  I found this blog a few weeks ago via SouleMama and it too is just fabulous!  I especially like the amazing recipes she includes in many of her posts.  Yum!

Paola at Love and Cupcakes.  This is a wonderful blog featuring wonderful recipes.  I especially love the desserts that can be found on this site 🙂

Scott and Kim at Aquaponic Family.  This is a great site about an at-home aquaponic system.  It is full of great information!

And here are a few interesting tidbits about me: 1.  I could live on cheese and desserts alone.  2.  I enjoy reading the classics (must be that English teacher in me 🙂  3.  I fell in love with photography when I was a senior in high school when my parents gave me my first Canon Rebel for a graduation present.  4.  I just saw The Hunger Games and LOVED it!  (The books were of course fabulous as well!)  5.  I have been taking on a more active role in my husband’s fitness company and I have been greatly enjoying it.  6.  My girls and I have been enthralled with the Junie B. Jones book series these days.  She is a hoot!  7.  We just returned from a great trip and I cannot wait to share some of our experiences with you!

Have a wonderful week!

Reading and Soapmaking and Gardening, Oh My!

/ makingofahome / 6 Comments

Last week my husband was in a very minor (thank goodness!) fender bender, so I had to bring the car in this week to get repaired.  This left the girls and I without a vehicle for two days and I must admit that it was a wonderful couple of days!

While sequestered we had the most marvelous of times!  We read a ton, made a few more kinds of soap, and worked a great deal in the garden.  It was wonderful to know how much fun we could have, without ever leaving the comfort of our little home.

 

Diggin’ In

/ makingofahome / 5 Comments

This week the girls and I have been out working in the garden planting beets, carrots and lettuce.  We are trying some different heirloom varieties this year, so we are all excited to see how they work out.  We have ordered all of our seeds from The Seed Savers Exchange the past two years and have been thrilled with the results!

For beets we planted Early Blood Turnip and Detroit Dark Red

For carrots we planted Dragon (This one we have planted in the past and my girls love it because the outside of the carrot is a deep purple and the inside of the vegetable is a brilliant orange!) and St. Valery.

For lettuce this year we ordered the Seed Savers Heirloom Lettuce Collection which contains Amish Deer Tongue, Bronze Arrowhead, Crisp Mint, Forellenschuss, Red Velvet, and Susan’s Red Bib.

(A quick side note on “Gardener Number 2″…She is currently only wearing dresses because she said that jeans are not “girl clothes” 🙂  This summer should get quite interesting with all of the gardening this gal loves to do.  Love her.)

 

Soapmaking

/ makingofahome / 1 Comment

There were many things my husband and I use to do sans children, and one of those is make our own soap.  We loved everything about the entire process:  finding the recipes, making the soap while sipping wine and watching reruns of Friends on our computer, and giving the finished soaps as gifts to our family and friends.

Needless to say once we had kids, our soap making and wine sipping days quickly came to a halt.  But now that the little ones are getting bigger, we have brought it back!  We picked up our oldie but good book, Natural Soapmaking by Marie Browning, gathered a few needed supplies from Brambleberry.com and we were good to go.

Now I must be clear that we have not ventured into the true soap making realm of making our own lye, although we would like to make that jump in the near future. Instead, we start with a natural soap base that we purchase through Brambleberry and go from there.

The process is so fun and even the tiniest of the family is asking Mommy, “When do I get to make my orange and cinnamon soap.”  I love it 🙂

Spring has Sprung

/ makingofahome / 1 Comment

Spring has definitely sprung in our neck of the woods these past few days.  Although we did have those crazy few days a couple of weeks back when it felt more like summer, the last few days have been very “springy” in feel for sure.  Cool in the morning, then toasty in the afternoon, and back to cool again in the evenings.  Love it.  And our flowers and perennial fruits and veggies have been loving it as well.