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)! ;)

Good night Nammah

Thanksgiving day we went from the 50's to snow and cold.  Nammah is tucked in for the winter. The newspaper said 12 inches in South Range.

 

The end of the season, perhaps I should introduce Nammah to you. Her name comes from a sermon I heard at the Duluth Unitarian Church several years ago. It was spring and the story was about a Jewish midrash telling of Noah's wife - the woman who saved the seeds from the great flood! Her name was Nammah. We do some seed saving of our own. I appreciate the full circle on so many levels.

So, for the next few months the musings will be about the continued feast from Nammah's bounty this year. We are sure that we eat something from the garden every day. The larder and freezers are full-plus overflow in the studio turned root cellar.

Much gratitude for a bountiful harvest!

Mid November

The ground is still workable and the garden harvest, clean up and canning continue.  Last year the first snow was Nov. 20 and the garden was put to bed by the 6th.  Though we are behind schedule, so is winter!

Due to the overgrowth of tomatoes, new products are emerging from our kitchen.  5 quarts of BBQ sauce from Sara's favorite cookbook
"Sacramental magic in a small town cafe."

Plus 3 pints of tomato paste!  Just puree tomatoes in the crock pot for a couple of days. This is the end of the green harvested - studio ripened tomatoes that are usable. The rest...into the compost.  Our studio floor is now open for yoga!

What happened is that my heritage tomatoes planted from seed went from beautiful and lush to "OMG what is wrong with the tomato plants" prior to transplanting in the garden. Hindsight Sara thinks we need more air circulation in the nursery - it looked fungus like. I was teaching in the Badlands so she did two things: re potted ALL of the tomato plants (I think there were between 40 and 50 - you never know how many will survive!); PLUS she bought and planted more tomato plants in case none of them survived.  And our friend Kathleen gave us her extra plants!  They ALL survived and we have been canning tomato products like crazy!

Friday I harvested the remaining Kale. It was a difficult kale year. Little flea beetles would eat the seedlings (one tiny hole at a time) until there was nothing left to grow.  There were about 4 plants that produced well. I will just cook it up and not bother to freeze any this year.

Some went into mom's favorite Whole Foods "super food salad" and some into the harvest bread pudding (brussel sprouts, carrots, turnips, sweet potato).  I also used the top of the brussel sprout head instead of cabbage in the salad.  It seemed to work. There were a few cherry tomatoes left to put in the salad.  I added red quinua for even more super food.

There were still brussel sprouts in the ground until Sunday (18th).  These are the tallest I have ever grown.  They produced a lot!  Some went into the roasted vegetable bread pudding and a quart bag worth blanched and into the freezer.








The garden is officially put to bed for the winter.  It is a bittersweet feeling.  Gratitude for the harvest and for beating winter with a thorough clean up - yet a melancholy as we all (garden and tenders) head into the darkness for reflection and regeneration until spring.

First week in November

It's not winter yet which is a good thing because as usual, we are not ready! A few days at home (finally) helped to get closer to that place of never quite ready.

Stan, our local mechanical man, came over this week to fix the riding mower (becoming an annual event) so we can move it into its new home in the garden shed!  He also brought his air compressor and they blew out the pipes that run under the road to the garden.

Lots of tasks to prepare for winter...I rolled up the hoses and put them away, stacked and covered the gazebo furniture to protect it from snow, put away all of the outside sitting places (I think I sat in them all this year), washed the front windows and put the storms on (a bit late but oh well), dumped out the bags of leaves from Joan onto the new garlic bed (built and planted a few weeks ago).

I also finished the last of the raised beds inside the fence and planted more garlic on a few of the ends. All 18 are now double-much easier to add the composted cow manure from farmer Ed.  We get milk and poop from the same cows that eat the grass from the field just outside the garden.  Ed bales it once a year and brings us poop in exchange.  We give a donation for the milk!

The cooking continues...this weekend more sauce from the tomatoes (still some left) - cooks for 5 hours and then made into lasagna with layers of roasted vegetables from the garden and a layer of pesto from the freezer made this summer.







All but the onions are from the garden.  I need to figure out why I cannot seem to grow an onion!!















A new Harvest Chutney recipe that used the last of the apples, zucchini and more of the tomatoes!  I made WAY too much chutney this year - but it's nice for gifts and last a l-o-n-g time!

I also waxed the turnips (first year growing turnips) - and put them in the new harvest basket Sara got for her birthday!  More pantry fun!!

Wood splitting day - Oct. 28

A full row of logs cut by Sara last fall/winter and stacked by Paula to dry a bit for the following year.  These were trees that were downed in the storm the previous year.  What a long and work filled cycle to get to our wood stove!

The Godsey's were kind enough to take a sunday to "play" (town folk can be funny) ;) Chris loves to split wood.  Lucky for us...we had wood to split!

Sara built "walls" and Shannon stacked.  I donned an apron over top my carhartts to serve zucchini bread, muffins, coffee and a lunch of venison root vegetable stew!  The neighbor delivered venison just harvested the night before.  It doesn't get more fresh or local!

With gratitude for the help of friends, the pile has been transformed and transferred to the wood shed - outdoor pallets ready for another cycle of wood cut from the forest.

Tomato Overload

 The once green tomatoes in the studio went from barely ripe to "do something now" in what seemed like overnight. Granted, I was out of town for 5 days, but still! So the last 2 days have been about salvaging what is left and making things. We have enough salsa and spaghetti sauce for the year, and then some, plus the peppers are gone...so more creative things were I order.

Four more quarts of canned whole tomatoes, not creative but uses lots of the smaller rounds. Plus four pans of roasted tomatoes for the freezer.  An online search revealed new items such as bruchetta topping and tomato jam.  SO...5 pints and 2 half pints of bruschetta and two batches of tomato jam - 12 jars in all. One has ginger, the other cinnamon and I added some hot pepper mash. Both are sweet.A double batch of tomato bisque soup to finish out the two day marathon on tomato putting up...and there are still four flats left!

Still, there is noting like a heritage tomato fresh from the garden.  I am forever a spoiled tomato consumer snob!

Help arrives!

October 12 - Sara's parents paid a visit and "relaxed" by working around our home and garden.  Elvin trimmed the hedges and attached the last board from the front porch re-hab project.  All 4 porches were power washed and re-stained this summer. The front getting a new kick plate board.  The squirrels did more than kick it - they ate it!

Sara and Carol finished putting mulch around the plants in the side garden (out the living room window).  Sara continues to try to get rid of the snow on the mountain that takes over each year.  This year she got more serious, with a a hand tiller tool and all!

Then all three proceeded to rake up the pine needles and take them over to Nammah's garden for her paths. Years of "research" with different path material has found that 4 out of 5 paths prefer pine needs to any other material (straw, leaves, wood chips, plastic, newspaper, cardboard, etc.)  In order to put them down, they needed to de-brush the "there used to be a path there" next to the road. There were small trees growing amidst the weeds that we just avoided this summer.  The Thomsen family took them down!

Meanwhile, back at the house, I got caught up in the kitchen.  I DID take an outside break to empty the water barrels and hydrate the parched trees and bushes in the yard and roll the barrels to their winter home alongside the garage. Otherwise, I cooked a roast with garden vegies, plus roasted brussel sprouts and beets for dinner. There were some tomatoes on the way out so Carol cleaned out the bad spots and I ended up making 10 jars of salsa and 12 jars of hot pepper jelly (half with raspberries).  That ended the hot peppers that were getting a bit rubbery.  Still lots of tomatoes reddening in the studio.  I roasted a pan tonight. We'll need to get creative with them this year in order to use them all.

p.s. one month since the green tomatoes were brought in for ripening.  Looking more like the colors of Christmas now as Carol Thomsen picks her favorites! Who needs the supermarket anyway?