After a long winter

It is a good thing that the larder was full this winter 2014.
We had record snow fall AND cold temps!

The new veggie drying/storage tray was most useful during the fall and early winter processing.

Instead of trekking to the studio to see what was ripe (or not) we were able to store more of the harvest in the kitchen, without the harvest taking over the kitchen!

The squash lasted until May this year, with garlic and onions still holding on. Plenty of comfort food to keep us through the long winter.








I was fortunate to scavenge some frozen citrus from a friend.  Her brother had them sent as a Christmas gift and they sat out in the freezing temps for several days.  Of course I could not stand to see her just toss them.  They deserved a chance at re-purposing.
I took them home, allowed them to thaw, and squeezed the juice into…grapefruit martinis!!  What a mid winter treat.

In February I took a Bee Keeping class at the University of MN Extension Bee Lab. I was ready to buy my bees after the first day of class.  After the second day of class, I realized this was not something I should rush into!  I DO want to keep bees.  They are amazing and brilliant collective creatures! Quotes from class: honey bees are a female based society-only 5% are male- males only purpose is to mate- "males don't work or pollinate- only eat, wait for sexual maturity and then fly out every afternoon to mate"-queens spend 1-2 afternoons mating with 10-20 males and store up all if the sperm they need for a lifetime. Amazing stuff!!! Maybe next year...

The maple syrup season was late (again) which was fortunate as March was busy with travel.  Mom moved to Duluth in November and participated in her first ever maple syruping season.  At 71 she is still going strong. She was part of each phase of the process.

We tapped 23 trees on April April 5, the day after UMD and all of the locals schools were closed with another snow day.  A record number of "closed due to snow and cold" as well!




It was a slow drip start - but a "warm" spell in mid April made for a full 40 plus gallon boil on Easter Sunday (April 20.) The sap had risen!!









The second boil Mom and Sara had to do while I was at work!  Not until May 5, record late for us.  Less syrup than a normal year but enough for us.  It really IS about the process, not the product.  Or trust me a person can buy this stuff MUCH cheaper than making it this old fashioned way!




The seeds were pulled out of the freezer on April 11. It took a couple of weeks to get the "6-8 prior to planting" seeds into pots and under grow lights.   Somewhere during the process I turned 50!! Yikes!!

Squash were planted on May 10, just as the last Red Kuri was baked and turned into a lasagna. I am grateful that my seed saving (even pulling these gems out of the compost bucket Sara!!) meant no seed purchases this year!



Now that the warm temperatures are here and I am able to get my hands into her soil (potatoes planted May 18; cold weather greens and crops May 10), I am looking back over the hard winter …




...still further back to the beautiful fall harvest... Like the earth, I am awakened once again!


Let summer 2014, and another season of blessings from Nammah, begin!

Ode to the pollinators

 As this garden blog reaches its 1 year anniversary, I am aware of the silent but beautiful and all important inhabitants - the flowers.










Without these flowers, the pollinators would be less compelled to visit, and thus make possible, the harvest that we otherwise take for granted.

I confess that before Sara, I considered flowers a waste of precious garden space. "We can't eat them - they just do nothing but look pretty!" 

Oh how wrong I was!

In and around the vegetable garden and fruit orchard - plus surrounding the house, we are graced with magnificent flowers.


Most were carefully planted and tended by our predecessors on this land.

Thank you to Dean and Nancy Lettenstrom (and for the bird bath).

Ode to the pollinators!

The hummingbirds that flock to our 5 feeders each spring are less evident as the flowers bloom.  I was irritated at their desire for the flowers instead of the sugar water I provide for them UNTIL...out of real limes, I tried lime juice in my gin and tonic.  Ah ah!! Now I understand their preference for the real thing!








The cherry tree planted as a memorial from my step-father (grandma Carson had amazing cheery trees - and pies) looks like it will produce fruit for the first time this year.  THANKS to the pollinators!










As my own sabbatical nears the end, I am trying to be more intentional (again - like the beginning) to take time to stop and smell the flowers


Reading in the hammock in the gazebo

Even spending the month of July sleeping in the tent in the back yard.



It all seems to say "summer - enjoy it!" and right in my own back yard!







Meanwhile, across the road in Nammah's garden, WE reap the benefits of THEIR labor!

Full circle - Nammah comes alive...slowly

May 24 it finally felt like summer - or at least spring - but for sure NOT winter!  The snow is gone, followed by days of rain and cool temps. The earth is turning that translucent color of green once again.

The gazebo is open for summer living and dining (5/24) and our first grilling for the year.  Usually I am in the Badlands at this time so summer feels early in some ways.  I was here when the hummingbirds returned (5/19) and am able to watch the ferns unfurl each day.  These are the little things I have missed witnessing each spring during this time.

May 15 - I finally pulled and plugged the three birch taps and finished the birch syrup (or medicine). After over 2 weeks of continuous condensing on the hot plate in the garage, we ended up with a couple of quarts of the "syrup."  My idea to mix it with the maple did not work as the birch start running about the time that the maple stops!  I wanted to try it. I don't think I need to do that again.

May 19 - Spinach planted outside - we are eating our indoor planting of greens. Sara raked leaves and hauled them over to the raspberry bed while I moved raspberries from the garage to the orchard area. A new Dolgo Crab tree was planted (with wedding money from my cousin in Iowa). A sweet gift that allowed us to expand the wedding orchard - 3 years and counting!

May 24 - 180 onion sets planted plus flowers in the two center beds on each end of the bench. We are cutting down this year to allow Nammah, and us, to rest a bit.  Last year's harvest and canning efforts are still overflowing in the pantry. We will only plant what we can eat and share - along with a few canned items that ARE running low.

May 25 - New rough cut tamarack replaced the railroad ties on the south side of the garage. All of the raspberries there were moved over to Nammah last week, leaving only rhubarb for now. Tulip bulbs from Amsterdam were planted in the circle outside the iris ring.








And a re-design of the middle bed (which was the old fence line before the expansion.)  Growing vine crops there did not work so well because it shaded other plants in the garden.  I took the fence out and we put in new timbers for a cleaner look!

It was my best year under the grow lights.  Sara's idea to run a fan to keep the air moving made a huge difference.  And I was good about not planting things too early. Just 4,6 and 8 weeks before the last frost just like the seed packets instruct!  Everything looked beautiful when it came out of the protected studio environment.

Everything (except the potatoes) were planted by June 10, but no one foresaw the June 17 frost! We discovered the damage on June 19 and were leaving town on the 21 for family reunions in Iowa.  We bought replacement peppers and squash - leaving the damaged.

It is times like this when I enter what my colleague Sandy calls my fruit fly phase! The cycles of life, and the seasons, seem more like a burden than a gift.  "Why bother?" I can think. It is an expanded version of the childhood "Why make the bed if I am just going to sleep in it again the next night!" I can take this lack of impermanence into everything I do - especially Homestead tasks when they tend to overwhelm me. And especially when months of work goes to waist via frost!

Fast forward to July - our first strawberries on the 1st!  The rest is coming along slowly but surely.And what do you know....some of the frozen peppers just might recover.  The fruit fly comes to life!

Spring: Seedlings, Sap...and Snow?

Spring is late this year. At least when compared with last year when I already had greens coming up in the cold frame.  This year there is still snow on the ground and even coming down the first week in April. I thought we would miss maple syruping this year (what kind of true homesteader would leave the country the last 2 weeks in March?). It was a rare opportunity to travel with a citizen diplomacy singing delegation to Kurdistan in Northern Iraq.  

An extra week in Turkey including 2 days sailing in the Aegean Sea...worth the risk of missing the season!

But mother nature wanted us to have our sap and eat syrup too! She delayed spring, and the sap run, until we returned!

25 taps this year - 23 are maple and 2 birch (first year).  I attended a Birch sap workshop at FonduLac Reservation in March and learned about the medicinal qualities of birch sap.  The same qualities found in Chaga, a mushroom that grows on the birch tree, learned about from my mushroom foraging class last fall!  No wonder the Birch is such a sacred tree for the Anishinaabe people; the gifts it provides are countless. Though I did not like the taste of the syrup that much (more like molasses) I appreciate the health benefits.  My idea is to mix some birch sap into my maple and see how it tastes.  Every year is a new adventure filled with trials - few tribulations.

Our fourth year of maple syruping out here, some say it will be time to give these trees a rest and find some new ones for next season. While the idyllic image of maple syruping includes the old tin buckets with T top tin roof hanging from the spigot, the fiscal reality of these quaint collection devices keeps them in the fantasy category for us.

We have a combination of blue plastic bags purchased from the store (they are quick and easy as well as economical) AND the freebie option is the recycled mayonnaise and frosting buckets from the local grocery deli.

They are FREE but have required a few years of figuring out the best way to hang them.  After trying drip tubes and rope tying them - Sara got the drill out!  The spigot goes right into the hole and last year she figured out to make the hole a wee bit bigger so it could hook right over the spigot lip and hold itself at the same time!

Brilliant!!

In the past it has taken about a week to collect the 30-40 or so gallons required for a boil (animal guard Rubbermaid trash can to the rescue).  As long as I can keep the sap cool enough, it stays fresh for that long.  This is where snow still on the ground comes in handy!

An 8-12 hour day tending the wood fire around the simple outdoor "stove" - followed by some finishing off on the hot plate on the back porch and whaa laa...syrup!  Amber gold that should cost $50.00 a pint considering the labor involved. But priceless knowing how it came to the table.

I LOVE maple syruping!  It typically starts before any seeds can be planted (even under indoor lights) and feels like a jump on the season.  The idea that nature provides such goodness with no effort or design on my part - a generous offering for those who are willing to accept it. While I love gardening, I am becoming more and more interested in foraging and the lack of human intervention it requires.  They both help me to feel more grounded and connected with the earth, but there is something about maple syruping that also evokes the sacred.  Collecting the sap is my daily meditation, each drop an earthly offering, transformed by fire into sweet manna.

End of April report...a record four boils to go along with a record 50 inches of snow for the month (my birthday month by the way!) We pulled the taps the last weekend in April, though they were still dripping!  We have enough sap and syrup for more than the year.

Sara likes to track the phenology of our boils, as it really does afford a window into spring unfolding.  April 6 it was cold but clear - friends Joan and Akiko joined Paula at the boil.  Less than a gallon of the clearest and lightest syrup I have ever produced. April 22, Earth day, with three full garbage cans of sap and still lots of snow on the ground, we used 2 full cans in one boil-adding an extra half as it boiled down-a mistake as 12 hours later it was still far from ready for the final stage!

Sara finally back from her busy month of gigs and travels, we spent a lovely day together in our woods. We added a tarp since more snow was in the forecast. It was a wise move as the heavy wet flakes began to join us around 5:00pm. We called it around midnight - finishing the rest in the house and garage!

April 27 was the perfect day to spend around sap camp. Almost 70 degrees and lots of melting.  Sara wants to call it Silver creek syrup or bird syrup.  The little creek, above ground only in the spring, made us feel like we lived along a river.  And the birds were out is full force - starting with juncos who were strewn along the sidewalk eating up the last of the birdseed used months earlier for some traction in the ice. A beautiful purple headed finch joined the white throated sparrows at the feeder. And the robins are out, reclaiming their nests and copulating for this years' hatch! It is definitely spring in South Range...finally!

Our last boil will need to be this week, as the weather gets warmer and next weekend is busy with Three Altos reunion activities!

Speaking of gardening and bringing Nammah's blog full circle...Nammah's bounty is underway. The 8 weeks prior to planting seedlings (tomatoes, peppers, celery, parsley and onions-April 6) are growing well and the 6 weeks prior (brassica's) joined them under the grow lights in the studio April 26.  Let the season begin!

Winter Wanderings

Yes, this IS the name of the new CD - but it also pretty accurately describes how winter looks around here.  We don't get over to the garden much, except to check on the solar connections once in awhile. Most of our time is on the Hawthorne side of the road (Nammah and the power are on the sunny side of the road in Oakland.) 

We continue to eat well, thanks to Nammah - and to stay warm, thanks to our supply of wood harvested from the property (and gifted from neighbor Bob).

We have had a lot of freezing and thawing including some 20 and 30 below zero temps. with little snow. It makes me wonder if the perennials have enough cover to keep them through the winter.  The blueberries have pine needles, the raspberries a combination of straw and leaves, and the strawberries have straw (of course)!

The weather has also wreaked havoc on my bathwater luminaries this year.  I have replaced the ones to the sauna three times now!  I take plenty of baths so that is not a problem, it just gets a bit discouraging when they continue to melt! Some think me crazy for making my luminaries out of bathwater.  To me it is the perfect use for this greywater that isn't even that grey!

A sampling of our winter foods includes a variety of pizza. The pesto with slow roasted tomatoes is a personal favorite.  This picture is of the squash with roasted beets and goat cheese (no we don't make this cheese. There are no goats in the neighborhood)!

Pesto pasta is also a good stand by. But I love the slow simmered spaghetti sauce (I made LOTS this year) with ground beef (the collaborative efforts of neighbors Ed and Dave - each a mile on either side of us) atop either noodles or spaghetti squash.

A different squash lovers favorite is to make the sauce out of squash, with parmesan cheese and milk from Dottie down the road plus some garlic and dried herbs from the garden. It is best over noodles.  Something about the squash sauce on top of squash noodles seems wrong - like mad squash disease or something!

And what else to do in winter but to strain and organize the variety of schnapps we have been making over the years. Infused vodka that is...blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, mixed berry, chokecherry, wild plum, apple, jalapeno and hot pepper PLUS some interesting herb experiments including anise hyssop and lemon scented geranium. It appears that we make more than we drink...of THIS anyway.  I also brew beer with my pal Julie; much more popular and does not require sipping.

Soon it will be time to tap the maple trees and plot out Nammah 2013! I have some new hoop house plans in the making - thanks Mother Earth News for the inspiration! I read that magazine with each issue and marvel at how much of it WE already do...plus have jobs!  Summers off DO make the full time job of managing the 18 - 8x4 foot raised beds PLUS another 20x30 foot squash plot AND potatoes, raspberries and orchard outside the fence...possible. I read, though, about the people who make a living with this same life we are making here. To figure out how to generate some income, beyond our own sustainability, seems to be the key. A CSA is not appealing to me - the food is more valuable to me than people could possible pay! Plus I would worry that the wonder and fun of it all would dampen if it became income. My harvest would become an expectation instead of a gift! The other issue that no one talks about in the magazine is health insurance. Though, according to midrash, Nammah was Noah's wife, she does not come with insurance benefits!

Hannah sends her greetings (I'm sure Eva the cat does too, though she is being aloof next to the fire, and thinking that this whole blog concept is only for needy attention seeking...dogs!) 

Home Grown Christmas

Link to video cutting our first Christmas tree

Sabbatical seemed the perfect time to host our first Christmas in South Range. Paula's mom (Pat) arrived December 13 to take in the Duluth CD release (Winter Wanderings) and Sara's parent's (Carol and Elvin) came up after meeting us in the cities for the 10th annual Judson Solstice concert.  We put up our first Christmas tree, cut from our property.  I prefer the idea of letting the trees continue to grow in the forest, but Sara assured me that this one needed to be thinned in order to make room for others! Now, her and Carol have found years worth of tree stands needing such "tending."

December marked the emptying of LOTS of jars from the larder. I am realizing that I am part squirrel AND part hoarder. While I love filling the jars and stacking them on the shelves, there is some anxiety when I start taking them off and emptying them (can you say psychologist?) We are keeping (trying anyway) a log of our feasting from Nammah with the intention of gratitude and mindfulness. The book sits in the center of our kitchen table - the same table great grandma cleaned chickens on and mom played ping pong with her 9 siblings after they cleared it from dinner. So far, only certain meals have been documented. But the intention has proven our theory that Nammah continues to be with us each day. And I am assured that there is plenty as I assess the re-stocking shelves from the studio. 

As we move from the darkness back into the light, I can hear Erin's violin solo on Sara's Darkness Cover Me song.  Every time I hear it I think about the "party" going on underground as the soil and seeds do their winter dance of restoration prior to new birth.  I used to only see death and inactivity.  The more I learn about the need for us all to go into the deepening darkness of quiet reflection, the more life I see in the process. We might not be able to see or hear it, but there is a LOT going on! Perhaps it is my own sabbatical that offers this perspective (and wishful thinking!)

Along with our Christmas tree, Christmas dinner was a home grown affair.  From Nammah: Candied parsnips and carrots, green beans, beets, baked delicata squash, mashed parsnips and potatoes (spuds from the neighbor), two kinds of pickles and a dessert of yellow squash custard pie.

Appetizers included raspberry hot pepper jam and tomato jam (both on cream cheese with crackers from the store). Corn was bought and frozen from a roadside stand.  Though we have attempted growing corn for two years - between the slow growing season and the meager production ratios (2 ears per stalk?) - it is a crop that takes more than it gives in our garden (space and soil nutrients).

The rest of our meal came from within a mile: prime rib roast from Dave a half mile to the south on Range Line Rd.; milk from Ed a mile to the northwest on Pine Grove Rd.; eggs from Bob and Kay a mile to the south on Range Line Rd.

Beverages from Nammah included bloody mary's from Sara's homemade V8 (tomato, green pepper, carrot, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, jalapeno) juice and Paula's garlic/hot pepper infused vodka along with the Danish customary skol of berry infused vodka prior to the meal. Christmas brunch included a swiss chard and slow roasted tomato egg bake.  My dream is to add our own eggs to the list of home grown.  In the meantime, gratitude for the generosity of neighbors.


To end the homegrown Christmas - a link to the sound of Sara and friend Elias singing all of the carols in one!

New to the homestead is a log splitter!  This pre Christmas splurge allowed us to put another 4 fireplace cords of wood into the woodshed (neighbor Bob gave us two pick up loads of 1-2 year old cut but not split wood) - AND will (Paula's dream) make us never have to buy wood again! There is plenty around here if Sara will do the chainsawing (scares me)!

Also, we had a floating porch put on the sauna for a bit of shelter to our undressing and...(we don't bother to dress - just snowshow back in our own steamy haze)! ;)