Kairos—“a right, opportune, or supreme moment in which something special and unique happens”
If you are so inclined, share your “Kairos Moment” in the comment section. I hope you all have a blessed weekend!
sustainable
In the Garden
It’s August! This means we have entered the jungle-phase of the gardening season. In order to move about the garden, one must weave in and out of the labyrinth of branches and vines. And while doing so, one may come across our cat sleeping amongst the beans, or perhaps a groundhog who has found his way into our tomatoes. (Talk about a bit of a fright when not expecting that guy. Oh boy.)
But amongst this tangle of vegetation there is a great deal happening, and our kitchen is finding itself brimming with our garden’s bounty. The tomatoes have now grown taller than me (and standing at 5’11” that is saying something), and for the first time EVER we have been able to grow broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage! We planted ever-bearing strawberries two years ago and we are now reaping the rewards of an amazing second round of these lovelies.
A few weeks back, as I mentioned in this post, I hung some herbs to dry. This week my girls helped to take the leaves off these dried plants, grind them by hand, and then can them for the winter months.
Also in the herb department, our basil and lavender are just beautiful this year. I decided to try out Ashley English’s Lavender Lemonade from her book //ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=makofahom-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=1611801281&asins=1611801281&linkId=XB3HIFBW6PW65FC3&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true“>Quench (using stevia to replace the sugar) and it was delicious! I have also been making basil-lime water infusions and it puts a whole new face on my family’s hydration needs.
I pulled most of our carrots this week and tried my hand at lacto-fermentation. So far, there is a lot of fermentation goodness in the form of carbon-dioxide bubbles rising to the surface of the jars when I burp them each day. I am very excited to taste these in a few more days.
Coming up next week, I hope to share with you some of the recipes I have been working on, which feature so much of this garden goodness. Until then, enjoy the remainder of your week!
A Quick Escape
With all that life placed before us this summer, we had yet to take any sort of a trip as a family. It was important to me that we have at least one small excursion before summer slipped from our grasp. This past weekend we were gifted with the ability to make a quick escape from our routine and visit the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Although the trip was just one full day, we were able to celebrate a 60th wedding anniversary, visit a distillery and brewery we had never before visited, and spend some quiet time in a beautiful bistro while chatting and drinking lots of lattes and hot chocolate. Who could ask for more?
It is with a full heart that I head into this week, trying to hold on a bit longer to the summer, but also looking forward to the adventures that fall will surely bring.
I wish you a beautiful start to your week, friends.
This Space
From the time I was young, my mom always encouraged me to be my own person. Not to be afraid of what others thought of me, but to instead dare to be the person I believed I was meant to be. As I mentioned in this recent post, over the last several years I lost a bit of this independent spirit. More often than not, I began to do what I thought was acceptable by the majority, rather than doing what my gut was telling me.
Recently, while attending a presentation by Joel Salatin, he said, “If everyone else is doing it, I would tell you to do the exact opposite.” These words stirred something deep within me. Am I doing what I truly believe is best, or am I just moving with the current and doing what everyone else is doing? I began to feel this pull deep within me to not fear being different, but to instead embrace those “differences” and run with them.
Homeschooling is something I have had on my heart and mind since my eldest daughter began kindergarten. I never actually considered it a real option because it existed so far outside the realm of my daily life. The people by whom I surrounded myself would never consider homeschooling, and being a teacher by trade, I faced a great deal of skepticism and resistance any time I brought up the topic with other educators.
But I believe God places people and circumstances before us which can aide us in the making of very tough decisions. I believe He is the one that gives us that feeling deep in our gut, telling us what is best. It is just up to us whether or not we want to pay attention to Him. I believe He placed me in my teaching role at Cathedral of St. Peter School the past year and a half to build my confidence in two subjects I often feared. I believe He surrounded me with other educators who were open to non-traditional means of education if it best meets the needs of the child. And I believe He gave me two girls, who like me when I was young, appear eager to try something different and new. And with all of this in my back pocket, I decided to follow that feeling deep down inside of me, and embark upon the road less traveled by, and homeschool my girls this fall.
Now I don’t want to pretend that this decision was met with rosy eagerness by all, because that would be a very false statement. However, throughout this summer I have been working to find fabulous homeschooling resources and create a space that fosters a positive experience for my girls. And it is in the creation of this space that I feel confident to move forward in this new endeavor.
First Garden Post of the Season
Friends, I do believe this is the my first garden update of the summer. How is this possible? Oh my. There is so much happening out there right now that I struggle with where to begin. Let us begin with the herb garden…
I am trying out some new herbs in our herb garden this year and, although it appears to be quite “junglish” right now, I am happy with what is coming out of it at this time.
We are growing lemon balm for the first time this year, and I have begun drying it for tea and some other medicinal salves I hope to make this winter. Lemon verbena is also new to our herb selection this year, and I have a liqueur in the works right now. I promise to share the details of this venture as the process nears an end in three weeks. We also grew quite a bit of stevia this season, and this week I ran it through our dehydrator and then our spice grinder. We now have a fine stevia powder to use in drinks throughout the remainder of summer and into fall.
Next, along the south side of our house, we have a raspberry bramble that is booming this year in a way I have never seen. The bees flock to the raspberries each day, and at any given time we can count almost 50 of them swarming the forming fruits. I cannot wait to see the bounty we receive from these plants this year.
Our apple trees are actually producing some fruit this year, which is very exciting. However, the Japanese beetles have slowly began taking them over, and each day I find more and more leaves have fallen prisoner to their wrath. I fear we may lose all our apples before fall.
Finally we move into the main garden space where our beans are also finally coming in. This year we are growing Bountiful, Purple Pod, Golden Wax, and Dragon Tongue (our family favorite) with it’s beautiful purple stripes.
The extreme amounts of rain this summer have led to some of the tallest tomato plants we have ever had, but unfortunately they bear very few fruits. My hunch is the cool temperatures this summer have inhibited fruit production on these plants. My hope is as the temperature rise this week, we may see some tomatoes begin to form.
Thank you for joining me on my first garden tour of 2015! I promise it will not be long until we venture into the garden again.
Cherry Crisp
Last week my girls and I, along with my sister, ventured to my in-law’s home and spent the afternoon tangled up in branches and brambles. It was picking’ time! By the time the day was done, we ended up with two giant bowls of tart cherries and black raspberries. Simply marvelous!
The black raspberries quickly became freezer jam, with the help of my six and eight-year old sous chefs. And the cherries, well, the cherries ended up going into an absolutely amazing cherry tart. I don’t often like to toot my own horn, but friends, it was good. Very good. Let me share the recipe…
Cherry Crisp
6 cups pitted tart cherries (This measurement was taken AFTER the cherries were pitted.)
1 cup local honey
2 T Non-GMO corn starch
Mix these ingredients in a large bowl and pour them into a 9×9 baking dish. (I use this baking dish because then I can serve the crisp table-side and it looks as good as it tastes.)
2 cups oats
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick cold butter cut into cubes
Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl (such as one of these sustainably harvested bamboo bowls) using a pastry blender. Pour the crumbled mixture onto the cherry mixture.
Bake at 375 degrees for one hour. Allow 20 minutes to cool before serving. Enjoy!
*A note about all my recipes: I use all organic ingredients, local when available. I use non-homogenized milk, and all of the dairy we use is from animals raised on pasture. I also use oils that are non-GMO verified. All our meat is raised locally on organic feed, and our beef is grass-fed, grass-finished. All our spices and cane sugar are fair-trade certified and purchased through a cooperative.
Kairos
Kairos—“a right, opportune, or supreme moment in which something special and unique happens”
If you are so inclined, share a link to your “Kairos Moment” in the comment section. I hope you all have a blessed weekend!
Need
When faced with difficult situations in life, some people need to work out, others need to chat with friends, while others need to indulge in a chocolatey treat. Me…I need to weed. To some this may seem a strange act, but for me there is nothing more therapeutic than crouching down amongst all that green, plunging my hands deep into the soil, and pulling out those weeds from the root. It almost feels as if this simple act helps me to get to the root of my problems, and as each weed falls in my bucket, a small piece of that grief and frustration falls into the bucket as well.
And so I have found myself in the garden a lot lately. Pulling out my struggles, piece by piece. And in the end, I am left feeling a little bit lighter, and find myself surrounded by a beautiful miracle. One that will provide my family with beauty and sustenance for many months ahead. And one that I know my mom is looking down upon with a smile on her face.
Pesto with a Kick
I love making pesto with early summer greens. It just makes me feel good. It’s green. It’s a great way to pack tons of vitamins and minerals in my kids’ bodies. And, there is cheese in it, and anything with cheese is a must have in my book.
I have written about making pesto before, like in this post, where I also discuss how I preserve my pesto for those Midwestern days when there is no green growing outside. This pesto is a bit different in that I didn’t use any herbs to impart flavor. This time I used kale and mustard greens. If you have never had mustard greens, they are amazing. They are incredibly earthy tasting, but very spicy. They are also another one of those cruciferous vegetables that have fabulous health benefits. I like to think of this pesto recipe as a cruciferous cancer-fighting bomb of deliciousness 🙂
This recipe made a giant batch of pesto, so feel free to adjust as needed. You may also need to make it in batches, depending upon the size of your food processor.
Here’s what to do:
1. Wash and spin dry (I adore my salad and berry spinner. Summer would not be the same without it. I use it Every. Single. Day.) 5 cups of kale and 3 cups of mustard greens. (Fyi…I jam packed the greens in the cups when measuring.) Set aside.
2. In a food processor, combine 1 cup raw walnuts and 6 cloves of garlic. Pulse them in the processor.
3. Add the washed greens to the food processor. (Again, you may need to do this in batches.)
4. Slowly add in 1/2 cups olive oil while the food processor is running.
5. Add 1/2 pound good shredded Parmesan cheese to the food processor.
6. Slowly add an additional 1/2 cup to 1 cup of olive oil depending on the consistency you would like.
7. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.
Enjoy!
Culinary Inspirations
Just to give some forewarning, today’s post is going to be Monday-ish. You know how Mondays are? It’s the day when you wake up and have a million thoughts, plans and lists going all at the same time–that’s this post. Monday-ish.
So, here we go…Give me a good book and an even better piece of produce and I am a happy camper. Last week, I reached for two of my favorite books and some of my favorite spring-time produce, and I was off. I have often talked about this book before in past posts, but Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver is a book that will change your world. Not only is it a beautifully crafted piece about Kingsolver and her family’s journey toward eating locally, but it is also filled with the most delicious recipes! I looked out my kitchen window to find our strawberry and rhubarb bed was overflowing with goodness, so I knew this was the book I needed. I went with one of my favorite recipes in that book: the strawberry rhubarb crisp. This recipe is a family favorite, using very little refined sugar, and I love cooking it up in my small stoneware baker because I can cook in it and serve from it. This time, I chose to dish up this gooey creation in our nourish soup bowls, which I thought looked just lovely because of the matching color profiles. The other reason I have so many of these bowls on hand is because $2 of every bowl is donated to Feeding America.
Also growing in our strawberry and rhubarb bed is asparagus. We didn’t have a great crop of asparagus this year, so we supplemented our own with some from the farmers’ market. I tried a new recipe, pistachio-crusted asparagus with feta vinaigrette, from Ashley English’s Handmade Gatherings to showcase this delicious perennial. It was absolutely divine. In fact, every recipe I have tried from this book has been a crowd pleaser.
Now you may have noticed that when discussing the strawberry rhubarb crisp, I mentioned (and linked to) a few of my favorite kitchen essentials. Please understand, it is not my intention to lure you to my blog with discussions of holistic living and sustainability and then try to sell you something. Instead, I would love to share some of the kitchen items I use every day, because they help to make my life easier. My hope is that in sharing this information, I can also help to make your meal preparation easier.
The other reason in sharing this information with you is to provide a means to contribute to my family financially. After 3 years of debate, I have decided to leave teaching for good and homeschool my daughters. I have wanted to homeschool ever since my eldest went off to kindergarten, but always held back because homeschooling was just too very far outside the box at that time in my life. But as I mentioned last week, I need to do what I believe is best for my family, and for us, homeschooling is where it’s at 🙂 I have never beed more sure of a decision in my life, but the fact of the matter is that there will be a gap in our income. I have worked (or maybe I should say dabbled) as an independent consultant with Pampered Chef for over five years, and I believe it’s business model is one that is keeping with my family’s belief structure. It is based in Illinois (where we live), many of the products are made in the U.S., they provide funding to Feeding America and the American Cancer Society, and they allow women and men to work from home and put their families first. So, from time to time, I will share some products that I use, and it is up to you whether or not you would like to link to them and find out more information. I hope you understand my reasoning in doing this.
Well, if you have followed me through to this point, you have made it thought my Monday stream-of-conciousness post. Books. Produce. Recipes. Pampered Chef. Homeschooling. Lots of Action.
I wish you all a wonderful week, in which you can work through all those thoughts, follow through on all those plans, and check off all those items on your lists. Happy Monday, friends.
Making of a Home 