Peat Pots
You know those little pellet like things that you put in a greenhouse tray, fill with water, and they puff up into little pots? They have a netting around them that supposedly the roots can grow out of, and are a really convenient way to start plants.
I don’t like them. Not one bit. The first year I used them, things looked great, the plants were beautiful. I hardened everything off, planted them in the garden, and they died. Almost everything died, and what lived didn’t look too good. I had started some perennials, and the next year they didn’t perk up much. Some fizzled out that year, and when I pulled them up, I pulled up little pots. No roots had gone through, and they looked just like they did when I planted them over a year ago. That was when I decided that they just don’t work.
Some people say you have to remove the nets. That sounds like WAY too much work. I’d rather start with something in a pot and not deal with removing the nets. Laura has had about as much luck with them as I have, so it’s not just me. I’ve met only a few people that have a lot of success with them. I’m starting to think that they might work in a sandy soil, where the roots have an easy time poking through the net and going into the soil. I’ve got clay, and I think it just keeps the roots all bound up in the net.
I just don’t think it’s worth it. I use plastic pots filled with a nice seed starting mix. It’s mostly peat, but starts out loose. It’s easier to mosten, easier to transplant, and it works.
Food Coloring
Evil stuff. Pure evil. It’s in everything, and it’s not necessary. And it’s bad. Really bad. It sounds completely harmless. And then I heard about a friend’s son who has a bad allergy to Red 40 or one of the red dyes. She has twins, and one of them turns from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde when he gets some. We’re not talking about a super health conscious person, just a normal mom who discovered that this stuff is bad. And then Laura noticed the behavior in our 2 year old, and said it looked like the behavior of her oldest when she ate food coloring. Really? So we gave it up, all the food coloring and artificial flavors.
And their behavior improved. A lot. And I’m convinced. No more artificials here. I’m becoming one of those crazy, super strict mothers, but not just because. It really makes a huge difference.
The corn is here!
Today I got a phone call from the semi company telling me that I will be having a delivery today. The driver called me to say that there was no way he was coming down our street, and to meet him in town at the lumber yard.
So I met him in town. We now have what we hope is the years supply of corn seed, neatly stacked right in the way. Tonight will be busy, packing up all the backorders waiting for most of our corn varieties.
We hate backorder season. It’s really unavoidable, but we try to minimize it as much as possible. This will go a long way to getting everyone’s orders out complete. It’s such a relief to be able to put SHIPPED by someone’s order number instead of the dreadful PARTIALLY SHIPPED.
Grain Free for Good
So we ran an experiment this summer with the kids. Grain free for a couple of months. I suspected that we had some sensitivities, and what better way to find them? I figured that we probably could eat some grains, so after getting everyone off of everything, we slowly tried different grains. The results were surprising. Our 2 year old can’t really have any grains. She loves them, absolutely loves corn and rice. She happily downs risotto, and the next day crankiness begins. Horrible terrible twos for days. Gone is the happy, cheerful 2 year old, and out comes the bossy, whinny, cranky, disagreeable daughter that I don’t want to deal with. Not worth it. Not at all.
Our oldest started having problems with asthma this summer. The most obvious problems happened after we ate Chinese. Not at a restaurant, but some that I made at home. High quality ingredients, no MSG, but still problems. Then we noticed that he was having problems after eating sushi. I figured it was the bad soy sauce, so I made some sushi at home. He got asthma from that too. Then I made a soy-free sauce for it, and he still had problems. We finally concluded that it’s the rice. He is most sensitive to rice and soy. I guess we don’t eat Asian anymore.
Finally, I concluded that we just don’t need to eat grains. Sometimes I’ll make something with rice or corn. The 2 year old doesn’t eat either of those, and I make sure that she’s got a potato. If it’s corn, I let our son eat a little, and really limit the quantity for everyone else. That’s about it. Maybe once every month or two we’ll have tortillas or risotto. I just don’t have the time or inclination to deal with bad behavior and asthma from grains.
Creamy chicken and pea casserole
Thursdays are busy for us. The kids have choir practice from 4:15-7:00, and that means we don’t even get home until 7:30 on a good day. Yesterday we had snow, and we didn’t get home until 7:45. Needless to say, dinner is late. I needed a casserole that I could have Scott put in the oven so it was ready for us when we got home. Shepherd’s pie is my go to dish for this, but I wanted chicken instead. I used to make a chicken and tarragon dish, years ago, and this is a combination of the two.
- 1/2 of a large chicken or a whole small chicken
- 4-6 large potatoes
- 8 oz. mushrooms
- 1 c. frozen peas
- a bunch of green onions, chopped
- 1/2 c. white wine
- 1 c. chicken stock
- 2 T. corn starch
- 2 T. sour cream
- 1 c. grated swiss cheese
- 1 tsp. dried tarragon
- salt
First of all, I have large chickens. We raise our chickens, and by 8 weeks, they are huge. Half of a chicken feeds our family of 5. I only use half a chicken for most meals. I like to poach chickens when I need stock and cooked chicken. It’s easy and good. If you are in a hurry, cut the chicken into pieces. Place them in a pot and cover with water. I usually heat it over high heat until it reaches a simmer, then turn it to low for about 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and let sit for another 10 minutes or so. By that time the chicken is usually cooked. Remove from the water, let cool, and cut into pieces. Reserve some of the cooking liquid for your stock. I usually take the rest of the liquid and the bones and put them in the crock pot with some more water and cook on low overnight. That gives me some wonderful stock to make a soup from another day.
Make some mashed potatoes. I like to peel the potatoes, then boil in salted water until they are soft. I usually mash them with butter, sour cream, salt and water to thin them out.
Meanwhile, slice the mushrooms and saute in butter and olive oil until they are cooked. Add the green onions and cook another couple of minutes. Add the peas and warm through. Add the wine and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the sour cream and stir until it’s combined. Add the swiss cheese and then the chicken stock. Heat until the cheese is melted. Add the chicken and tarragon. At this time you’ll want to thicken the sauce. I like to use corn starch, but it takes a little work to get a smooth sauce with corn starch instead of a lumpy one. Take your corn starch and mix it with cold water in a bowl. I usually mix up more than I’ll need. Then pour a little of the cornstarch mixture into your sauce and stir quickly to combine. As it hits the bottom of the pan, it will thicken. Keep adding small additions until the sauce is the thickness you want. Salt to taste.
To assemble, pour the chicken mixture into a casserole dish. I usually use my le creuset oval 3 1/2 quart dutch oven. Gently put the mashed potatoes on top. This can be refridgerated a day or so. Bake the resulting dish in a 350 degree oven until it is hot and bubbly.
Creamy Cauliflower Soup
Creamy Cauliflower Soup
We’re back to buying some vegetables from the grocery store. I would love to preserve everything, but without a root cellar and with our time being so precious right now, we decided it would be best to supplement with some grocery store veggies. I’m very picky about them, so there are only a few that I will buy. Cauliflower and broccoli are two that seem to do well coming from the grocery store. They keep a while, taste pretty good, and are easy to prepare. This is a simple soup that I made last night for dinner. It is the best cauliflower soup I’ve had.
- 1 head of cauliflower, cut into pieces
- 2 small onions, chopped
- 1/2 to 1 qt. chicken stock
- 1 c. grated swiss cheese
- 1/4-1/2 c. sour cream
salt
Saute the onions in olive oil is a stock pot until they are soft. Add the stock and cauliflower. The stock should come close to covering the cauliflower, but doesn’t have to. If you like a thick soup, use less stock, if you like a thin soup, use more. Bring to a gentle boil, cover and cook until the cauliflower is soft, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and puree. I used a stick blender, but a blender would work as well. Stir in the swiss cheese and sour cream. Salt to taste.
A Note on My Recipes
I don’t measure anything. I make everything to taste and I dump. My mom would be thoroughly frustrated with my recipes. When she was trying to get my father’s mother’s recipe for oliebolen, she had to stick a measuring cup under her dumping. I guess that’s where I get it from. If I’m writing a recipe for myself, I just write down some basic ingredients. The rest is done to taste and by feel.
With that said, I’m trying to write up recipes that have measurements for others to use. I’m guessing. I have a good sense of what a teaspoon and tablespoon is as well as a cup. The recipes should work pretty well, but I haven’t tested them with the measurements. If I had to do that, I would never get anything written down. So you get my recipes and my guesses as to amounts. It shouldn’t make too much of a difference with the parts I guess on. There’s no baking here, so approximations are pretty good.
If you follow my recipes, taste as you go. Adjust to your tastes. If it looks out of proportion, adjust. I’m not one to make much that needs a measurement anyway.
Anne’s Learning to Cook
Anne is 6 years old. She has decided that she wants to learn to cook. Earlier this year she decided that cooking was going to be her school. We got busy, and she stopped for a while, but she’s back. Every evening she starts pestering me about what we are going to cook for dinner, and specifically what part she’s going to do. As things start to get busy, I’m thinking about simplifying dinner, but Anne is thinking about expanding it.
Oddly enough, Anne is my veggie hater. She doesn’t really hate veggies, but she is really picky about them. She hates cooked carrots, beets, poblano peppers, and grudgingly eats some others. But she does love swiss chard, peas and green beans, and never throws a fit at adding lots of onions to everything. And this is the part of dinner that she’s decided is hers to do. I can cook the meat, but she’s cooking the veggie. Part of this could be an attempt to steer the vegetable choice towards her favorites, and part of it is because this is something I have directed her towards. Anne refused to eat a lot of vegetables when she was little, so I encouraged her to help make them. She’d be given the task of heading out into the garden to pick the salad, and from the first day she did that salad became one of her favorite foods.
How do you get kids to eat their veggies? Make them participate. Going out with a basket and picking a salad and some cherry tomatoes gives them some ownership in the food. It’s neat, fun, and they get excited about eating it. I got a very, very picky child to eat salad because she helped pick the lettuce. She didn’t eat much, but she tried it.
We’ve gone one step farther with Anne. Now she cooks the vegetables. Last night Anne decided she wanted Swiss Chard, and I wanted broccoli. Anne made both. She cut up the broccoli, steamed it, and then made a swiss cheese cream sauce for it. She also sauteed garlic in olive oil and added some frozen swiss chard and then seasoned with salt to taste. Both dishes turned out really well, and she was SO proud of her contributions to dinner.
Anne’s Broccoli Cheese Sauce
- grated swiss cheese
- sour cream
- white wine
- salt
Heat 2-4 T. white wine for a few minutes in a small pot over low heat. Add 1/4-1/2 c. sour cream and 1/2-1 c. grated swiss cheese. Stir until the sour cream is combined and the cheese has melted. Salt to taste. Pour over steamed broccoli.
What to Plant?
I’ve learned that I have to start planning the garden earlier than I used to. I need to have everything new ordered and here long before I need to start tomatoes and peppers. Last year I explored companion planting, and that worked very well. I will never again garden without flowers. It’s just too enjoyable to see beautiful flowers mixed in with the vegetables, and I love not having as many bug problems as well.
I have two holes in my garden that I want to fix this coming year. I need to find the best heirloom potato varieties, and I need to find an exceptional storage onion. The potatoes are ordered and will arrive in the spring. The onion is going to be difficult. I have found a large number of very rare onions that could work. I haven’t found one that is in commercial production that compares to the standard hybrid storage onion as far as how long it keeps. That’s my goal, to find the absolute best keeper. I don’t have a root cellar, and I keep my onions in the basement. It’s not ideal, but I did keep one hybrid for the entire winter that way. It’s possible, and I’m hoping that I can find an heirloom that comes close.
I was surprised to see how many onions are available, so I have to focus on one type. As much as I love red onions, I think I need to focus on yellow/brown ones this year. A great yellow onion is hard to beat as far as versatility.
I ran out of onions already. I just didn’t grow enough of them, and when they are home grown they taste so good that I throw them in everything. I really need to find the perfect onion and then grow enough of them so that we don’t have to go back to eating store onions.
Back Again
It’s been a long time. I have plans to start back up again, with hopefully a little more time to spend writing. This fall has been a busy one. Laura got her first nursing job, which is great for her, but I definitely miss her help and companionship. As soon as I got back from taking care of my mom, I was on my own.
This fall was spent getting the garden ready for winter and getting the house picked up and organized. This year we also started up a lot of activities for the kids. The oldest two are getting old enough to want and need some activities to do. Because we homeschool, I feel the need to get them involved in things. They need to get out and make some friends as well as learn different things. This year Carl and Anne are in karate. Carl has his orange belt, and Anne her yellow with a stripe. Anne does dance. I think this is her last year in a combination class of ballet, tap and jazz. Both of them are in a local youth choir associated with the local symphony. That has been a wonderful experience, learning to sing well. Carl even performed in a series of 5 Christmas concerts with the symphony. Aurelia isn’t old enough to do anything yet, but next year she’ll start dance.
Needless to say, I have had to do some adjusting. 5 years ago, I was a stay-at-home mom who farmed. We only had one car, so I was stuck at home all day. I didn’t mind. I had 2 small children, 30 acres, a garden, chickens, cows, goats, sheep, and 30-40 milk customers that came to visit daily. Now I’m a chauffeur mom, with driving 4 afternoons a week. I still have 30 acres, but far less chickens and cows, no goats and sheep, no milk customers, a big garden, and thousands of wonderful customers to interact with. I love what we do. It is fun to watch everyone’s gardens take shape. It is good for the soul to hear from everyone, their successes, failures, and dreams.
With farming, this was the beginning of vacation. Time to relax and recover from the summer of hard work. Now, it’s the low before the storm. March is rapidly approaching. It’s time to plan my garden so that I have time to send out everyone else’s come early spring.