Locavore

Feeling like much of our food lately has been more local and self grown. This morning we jarred 4 jars of sauerkraut that had been fermenting on our counter for (6?) weeks.

Just now I came inside from planting garlic for next year :) We had bought our stock this year from seed savers but they ran out when we went to buy more a couple weeks ago. So we went to our beloved garlic farmers at the farmer's market and bought a few types there and I used some nicer bulbs from our own garden this year. Some of the cloves are smaller than ideal, but it's fun that it all our garlic planting came from West Bend this year.

When Mom & Dad were here a few weeks ago they bought us a Foley Food Mill (yay!) and Mom helped me make my first batch of tomato sauce with my own tomatoes ever. The smell of cooking down tomatoes, the splash of steaming sauce getting run through the mill and all the leftover seeds and skins brought back pleasant memories of many childhood summers. The 4.5 quarts of sauce we yielded was probably 1/10th of what we made back then with the Victorio strainer and Dad's 60 tomato plants. I went on to make sauce twice more (9 quarts one time and about 7 another) this season, and also took a couple dozen pounds of tomatoes for Chris's mom & grandma too. That doesn't count all the tomatoes we ate on their own either. Amazing what 11 tomato plants can yield. I've been quite proud of my garden this year, can you tell? Especially since all my italian tomato plants (4 san marzano, 1 roma) were from seed and did even better than some of the plants I bought. Definitely a success for my first garden at the house. And excited to make some improvements and try new things next year.

We will certainly miss the farmer's market over winter as a resource for all the fantastic produce we didn't grow ourselves. Last week was the market's last day until spring. But we have been stockpiling the red and fingerling potatoes we love, garlic, onions, and some squash in the basement. Going to try to avoid having to buy more from the grocery store for as long as possible. Store bought is just not the same when you get spoiled with talking to the people that grow your food or better yet, growing it yourself. I feel like we're going back to the roots of self sufficiency & food storage before supermarkets where you can buy (flavorless & mealy) strawberries 365 a year. It brings an appreciation for what grows seasonally in your own region and the effort put into cultivating the food we eat.

A few weeks ago I put in some snow peas, lettuce and salad mix, swiss chard, and radishes since I had the seeds lying around. I was curious to see if anything would yield despite the cold. All of it is definitely coming along nicely, though I've never done peas/beans before so I'm not sure if the plants will die before it's too cold. Still fun to watch it all. Thinking about having some of my little salad greens this weekend.

I should get back to clearing out the warm weather stuff with the daylight growing short- still have some dead pepper plants that need to be pulled and it would be good to rake and work in some compost. Thankfully it's not so cold in the sun. 47 right now. High of 56 tomorrow. After tomorrow's time change it'll be dark by 5pm. Yuck.

P.S. Chris used the food mill for mashed potatoes the other day and they turned out incredibly smooth. Think that thing will come in handy. Ooh, we can use it for cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.

Mosquitos Are The Devil But Summer Is Worth It

Had a great extended weekend, but as usual, it wasn't long enough. Friday we took care of some of those errands that you can only do during business hours. Bryce and Shannon stayed over on their way home to Iowa from a 5 week Adventure with Lincoln. We played Mario Kart & Super Mario Bros, conversed about herbs, food, communes, natural birth, and other hippie stuff. Enjoyed Lincoln's cuteness, sweet demeanor, and strawberry curls I couldn't stop touching.

Midday Saturday I made a breakfast tofu scramble with spinach and onions, and my stand by casserole of hashbrowns, mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, and a crumbled breakfast patty. They had seconds so it must have gone over well. Kind of cliche to do tofu as we don't even eat it very often, but it was nice to hear Shannon's first and only experience with bad tofu was turned around. Bryce took a picture of his plate of food so it passed the photogenic test too. They watched as we worked on some business stuff in the afternoon, and we showed them the health store we work with. I'm glad to know I have a way to text Bryce now and also another online Mario Kart competitor. :)

I think Shannon really wants the composter we recently got. Chris really didn't want a big bulky tumbler outside, and despite the price, I was thrilled that he found an indoor and extremely easy and accessible solution. I had been cringing at throwing away food lo these last few years since living on my own. It's incredible how much less trash we throw out now. Going to use our first batch of compost this week on some plants outside!

Sunday & Monday Chris and I were amazed at how much more yard work we got done (and realizing there is still quite a bit left to do). We've now made it all the way around the house with our hand built stone edging, weeding, and mulching. Just a few more yards of mulch to finish around the patio. We're also going to pull up some of the mulch we first installed and put down landscape fabric since we already have some weeds poking through the mulch we put down 2 weeks ago. Once we're done with the landscaping, we'll hopefully get rid of the crab grass once and for all so the grass can fill in the rest of the way. And maybe the yard will be done for the summer except mowing and fun things like harvesting crops? Crossing my fingers.

Can't believe how huge the tomato plants are - especially the ones I planted from seed which makes me proud. :D I got a few smaller tomato towers but I need bigger ones for most of them.

We noticed the landscaper must have snuck in over the weekend. They were 2 firebricks short of completing the fire pit last week, and Sunday we saw that it was done and ready for use! So last night we treated ourselves to a job well done with a long overdue burn-in of the fire pit. The mosquitoes were horrendous as they have been many evenings we've been working outside, so it was great when dusk passed to night and they weren't so rampant. And once we got the fire going they were virtually inconsequential. Chris brought out the thurible so we had incense to go along with our christening of the firepit which uplifted the mood even more. It was so peaceful, quiet, and calm that at nearly 10pm we decided to just cook dinner over the fire and stayed out until midnight.

On the horizon.... Wisconsin State Fair with Chris's family this weekend. Looking forward to the Perseid meteor shower coming up next week. Last night I found out my mom will be stopping for a visit in 2 1/2 weeks after a wedding in LaCrosse. We're hosting friends for Labor Day. Mom & Dad are visiting at the end of September, Chris and I are participating in a big Health Expo at the State Fairgrounds in October, followed by family Halloween in KY. Then it's practically winter! Lots of fun stuff coming up. Wonder why I feel like there's never enough time? Loving this long hot summer since I felt cheated last year, but looking forward to the changing seasons (but not the days growing shorter).

Home grown

I'm eating turnip greens I sauteed in olive oil with a garlic and lemon pepper seasoning and crushed red pepper. Pretty good. Topped with chives from the garden share, too. We also got red romaine, spinach, dandelion greens, mizuna (which I'd never heard of but now love), mint, and dill. I'll probably be eating more of these greens than Chris, but hopefully asparagus and some other things he loves will be in soon.

Chris has been making an amazing tomatillo salsa recipe from Rick Bayless. It's nice and spicy with arbol chilies and garlic. I think he made the 5th batch today since he first tried it 2 weeks ago.

I'm taking a break from painting the half bath downstairs. It's a deep purple-pink. Looks nicer than it sounds, haha.

Going to plant the few vegetable plants I got this week in containers since we weren't able to prepare a garden this year. But we have a huge patio tomato plant, an heirloom beaver dam pepper, cherry pepper, tabasco pepper, and italian cubanelle peppers. Can you tell we like peppers? These are all varieties that are hard to find in the store so it'll be nice to have them home grown.

I'm also soaking raw cashews and flax seeds I'll be using in my first attempt at raw bread made in my food dehydrator. Phew, busy day.