our bread n butta

A beautiful week tho cold nights & mornings. Even a frost warning! I crossed-fingers instead of covered to protect my tomatoes that night... it worked. Had fried-green maters the next day.

Although the birthday gift cheese-making kit from hoeger supply left much to be desired, D valiantly pursued the great art de fromage - a simple goat ricotta with salt & basil. Mild, delicious, easy.

Earlier, I had made bread for the first time, following my buddy megz's recipe, and it was super easy and deelish. This will probably become an ongoing weekend thing to do. In fact, the following weekend I made this batch:

Success again with the wholewheat honey oat. Tonight I shall make more bread to take with me when we go north to visit my family... they'll enjoy it.

small harvests

Even the tiniest skirt-full of garden veggies can make a kitchen sparkle. The initial goal was more like wheelbarrow-fulls, however, I've much to learn... and much to till.

But it doesn't take much to feel thankful toward the earth. That sounds so floaty, but it's just so nice that we can interact directly with the ground, alone, watch the weather, the seasons, and receive the food we eat. It's always there, quietly providing, accepting our nurture with patience and forgiveness.

Mmm... tomatoes for daily sandwiches and pretty photos. Tho am realising the high vegetable content of my photographs these days. Sort of a yawn? It's year one in the garden and I'm renewly amazed by the generosity of the the little seeds I planted mere months ago. Does the feeling of magic wear off? I just made up that word 'renewly' by the way... it's a new, returning, wonder each summer.

place hands on taters

One of the more jarring moments in getting older, leaving the city, living here - leaving the band last week. I admit to a healthy dose of drama-queenness, but it does sort of seem like the end of an era. Music and being a musician has been a big part of my life since I left home over 10 years ago... Even tho I'm seriously small fry compared to so many, it has played a large role in all that I've done over the years. In addition to making music and setting up shows, my friends, my fiance, and even my job, have come to me through connections of living within this world. And it's a world of creativity and doing which is so awesome. I feel lucky to have good friends dedicated to this cause.

Leaving the house to hit the practice space and make music, writing songs, recording, playing shows - I shall miss it. But will continue to work on my own stuff here. We've set up our basement for rockin' (drum kit, guitars, amps, mics) and there's recording equips scattered throughout the house. Maybe D and I will start something... we always talk about it.

Aside from the bummer of no longer screaming each week, I am so happy there will be more time to focus on the farm. Looking forward to more days of gardening, chickens, animals... Also, more time to connect with the community here. There's always so much going on each weekend - hoping we can do the local farm tour in early Oct: Kawartha Farmfest

In other news... Next year I will grow a zillion more potato plants so that we can have a zillion more potatoes! I only planted 6 in the spring, and I have another 6 seed potatoes I'll plant soon as an experiment (maybe they'll over winter?). Going to make a nice potato salad tonight with some of these. The purple are Caribe and the red ones are Roko.

Check this out:
It is the most tomatoey lil tomato plant I've ever seen. Will save its seeds. It's a Jagodka heirloom grown from seed via a trade.

Despite earlier frost/deer/bug damage, a few plants came through. This is Azoychka, also from trade. Should ripen to yellow, hopefully soon. Am anxious to eat real tomatoes!
Just snacking on cherry toms (Koralik) for now.

Ah, TGIF. And finally a free weekend. By free I mean time to clean the house, weed the gardens, run errands, and... go SWIMMING!

garlic '09

Got all the garlic in finally. It's pretty awesome! In total, harvested about 175 bulbs - 125 organic music (planted 5 pounds) and 50 organic german red (planted 2 pounds), with seed ordered from August's Harvest. Weird, the math is solid with 1 pound = 25 bulbs. Huh.

The bulbs are all different sizes so we'll keep the big ones for replanting and the rest we'll store/eat/share with fam & friends. After it cures, we'll be hummus'ing, guacamole'ing, and garlic bread'ing all over this place. Was nice and easy to grow... wondering about ordering a different kind to plant this fall - suggestions?

Apparently chicken manure gives the bulbs a good boost in size. Another reason, besides eggs, to get some hens happening here. Starting to enjoy all the little connections that inevitably happen on a farm.

Might try planting the bulbils. Not really sure how that works, but google will tell me when the time comes (so handy to be an internet-generation gardener). I think they take several years to become full-size, but then you have fresh stock.

In other news, got my love a cheese-making kit for his birthday. My family were like 'really?' but he dug it. Tomorrow I'll meet him in the city for his actual birthday... a day of museums, watching his band play (@ sneaky dee's for wavelength), and a shmancy stay at a hotel. When we get home he'll try making basic chevre I think. It's sort of the research stop on the fork between dairy goats and some other type of husbandry. I've been enjoying reading Twwly as she's rocking the goat/cheese world. We'll see what happens.

streamline

The days are full. Sometimes so full, very little gets done. Balls drop everywhere. Nights are for recovering from the vibrations, in the dark and quiet, but even then sometimes it can shake you, and things need to change.

A busy job and a dirty house do not go well together. Nor do band practices and making time to call your brother. Or laundry and birthday parties. Or dogs and hotels. Or talking late into the night when your love has to work on a roof the next day. So then, there are choices. Priorities now different than then, and always changing. The goal is to streamline: sail through life harmoniously, with the wind. I always thought this solely a frame of mind, but now I see it's more than that. Sometimes the things you do are too much, so you do less to make time for more.