I think I had stars in my eyes when thinking about this garden. I am pretty sure I thought, that an 80 x 35 foot garden would be easy to plan and get ready. Well as this major snow has melted we've been discussing some MAJOR oversights in the garden design. Namely, water. How are we going to water this thing? By hand, every morning at 4 am before it reaches 100* by 10 am? Or at 9 pm by hand giving a pint of blood to the mosquitoes every night?
Secondly weeds! I like the square foot gardening method. Which is similar to what we wanted to do, only our garden is laid out in mounds. Ok so the sides of those mounds of soil is.... well bare soil = weed city! With Jacob just out of surgery and 2 more scheduled for this year this is starting to sound like disaster. Now don't get me wrong I'm not giving up on getting my hands dirty this spring. I ordered almost $200 worth of fruit, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and grapes! All of these guys get some priority time! We still have to build an arbor for the grape vines and get 2 plastic barrels to cut in half for the blueberry containers. There is so much work to do around here it's kinda stupid. Along with the re-designing of the bed layout and the major water oversight we have some serious planning and brainstorming to do.
We kinda ran out of time last fall, mostly because of canning season which there will be less of this year. I really can't wait until all the snow is gone. It will be nice to see the garden... even if it's just mud.
24 February 2009
18 February 2009
Tortillas
So for Christmas this year I got a tortilla kit. The kit is really unnecessary for flour tortillas. For corn tortillas you must use a press, but flour you roll out. The list of tools is as follows: Flat round 12" or bigger pan, (preferably cast iron) a rolling pin, measuring cups and ingredients.
Flour Tortilla Recipe
2 3/4 C. Flour (I use white flour, but I am going to start incorporating whole wheat flour, just too see.)
5 Tbl. Butter, I used olive oil and they came out fine
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 C. warm tap water
I mix all these together with my hands. Sometimes I need to add more flour or water. The dough should be held together but slightly tacky light bread dough.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead it for 5-10 minutes. Cover and let it rest while you clean up and get the pan, rolling pin set up. Warm the pan up to a medium heat. The tortillas don't cook long and it helps if the pan is already warm. Divide the dough into 12+ pieces. I found I can get around 15-17 tortillas but I like mine a bit thinner. Round out each divided piece into a little ball.
This is the tortilla press, I use it when making flour tortillas but it isn't necessary. Using this if have one or can get one is pretty simple ( but the dough sticks to the metal so I use parchment paper to avoid a sticky mess.)
You really don't need this though, just take a dough ball smash it sorta flat with your hand on a floured surface and begin the rolling process.
A once round ball, smash it with the palm of your hand so it is easier to begin rolling out. I still have to roll out the tortilla even with the press. Because flour tortilla dough is so elastic it must be worked to force it to retain shape.
The smashed result. Then I take this flat (round until I start rolling out) little guy and stick it on a floured surface.
A word about the floured surface. Make sure there is enough flour so that the dough piece can spin in a circle freely. So that the dough rides on a cushion of flour so if you spin it.... the dough will move. This helps when rolling out, rotate the tortilla one quarter with every roll to help keep it in a somewhat round shape. I say "somewhat" because this is where practice makes perfect... and I am still very new at this.
Once it's rolled out it's time to go in the warmed pan medium heat works well, but play with it because every stove is different. The tortilla should only cook for about 15-30 seconds per side. Once it starts to get bubbles or large air pockets it is time to flip.
See what I mean about "somewhat" round? It's an art form I am learning... don't give up they taste great even if there square!
*sings* "Tiny bubbles...."
Sometimes the tortillas have tiny brown spots, that's normal. If the pan is too cool or you don't like the tortillas cooked that long, you may not get the brown spots. Either way it makes for a yummy burrito!
The rack of cooling tortillas. I think I got 15 out of this batch.
The whole process for me with clean up is about an hour. I am sure once I get more practice at it, the time will shorten considerably.
Flour Tortilla Recipe
2 3/4 C. Flour (I use white flour, but I am going to start incorporating whole wheat flour, just too see.)
5 Tbl. Butter, I used olive oil and they came out fine
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 C. warm tap water
I mix all these together with my hands. Sometimes I need to add more flour or water. The dough should be held together but slightly tacky light bread dough.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead it for 5-10 minutes. Cover and let it rest while you clean up and get the pan, rolling pin set up. Warm the pan up to a medium heat. The tortillas don't cook long and it helps if the pan is already warm. Divide the dough into 12+ pieces. I found I can get around 15-17 tortillas but I like mine a bit thinner. Round out each divided piece into a little ball.
This is the tortilla press, I use it when making flour tortillas but it isn't necessary. Using this if have one or can get one is pretty simple ( but the dough sticks to the metal so I use parchment paper to avoid a sticky mess.)
You really don't need this though, just take a dough ball smash it sorta flat with your hand on a floured surface and begin the rolling process.
A once round ball, smash it with the palm of your hand so it is easier to begin rolling out. I still have to roll out the tortilla even with the press. Because flour tortilla dough is so elastic it must be worked to force it to retain shape.
The smashed result. Then I take this flat (round until I start rolling out) little guy and stick it on a floured surface.
A word about the floured surface. Make sure there is enough flour so that the dough piece can spin in a circle freely. So that the dough rides on a cushion of flour so if you spin it.... the dough will move. This helps when rolling out, rotate the tortilla one quarter with every roll to help keep it in a somewhat round shape. I say "somewhat" because this is where practice makes perfect... and I am still very new at this.
Once it's rolled out it's time to go in the warmed pan medium heat works well, but play with it because every stove is different. The tortilla should only cook for about 15-30 seconds per side. Once it starts to get bubbles or large air pockets it is time to flip.
See what I mean about "somewhat" round? It's an art form I am learning... don't give up they taste great even if there square!
*sings* "Tiny bubbles...."
Sometimes the tortillas have tiny brown spots, that's normal. If the pan is too cool or you don't like the tortillas cooked that long, you may not get the brown spots. Either way it makes for a yummy burrito!
The rack of cooling tortillas. I think I got 15 out of this batch.
The whole process for me with clean up is about an hour. I am sure once I get more practice at it, the time will shorten considerably.
12 February 2009
Beekeeping
I have been doing some extensive research on beekeeping. It was brought to my attention that honeybee's that first year are so concerned with building comb and honey reserves that the beekeeper does little with them. Maintenance but not much else, that as far as local "livestock" goes they are pretty easy to manage. So I looked up my local association to see if there we any classes on basic beekeeping offered, there are but they started the middle of January. YIKES. So I may have missed it. There is however a local farmstead that is offering the same info of the 1 hour a week for 8 weeks class into 4 hour one month compressed class. I have to email her and see if it is possible to get in on that. Then I would have to order my hive and gear. I do have to make this decision quickly however because most apiary's sell out of bees by the end of February. They don't ship them until spring though. Which gives me plenty of time to get everything set up for them. The Spokane County has certain codes around local hives. They have to have a screened off area, and be behind a privacy fence. I think that is so you don't get sued when someone really dumb decides to "poke the ant hill" if you get me.
I had thought about this last year but it was very late in the spring and everything was pretty much closed up for the year. With Jacob's surgery I didn't jump on the band wagon fast enough this time. But all things considered I still might be able to take the compressed class. Which would be totally helpful, considering I haven't the first clue about what I would be doing.
I had thought about this last year but it was very late in the spring and everything was pretty much closed up for the year. With Jacob's surgery I didn't jump on the band wagon fast enough this time. But all things considered I still might be able to take the compressed class. Which would be totally helpful, considering I haven't the first clue about what I would be doing.
11 February 2009
Hodgepodge
I am going to end up at the Recycle Center today and out of curiosity find out when they start selling there compost. I think it is late April or early March but still, that date is best added to the calendar. I did find some clipper blades for my lovely Bahco pruners, I think I might have gotten the last pair on earth! ( They were that hard to find ) I am excited to get them, we had lots of heavy snow this year and many broken branches need trimming up.
I did make another Farmhouse Cheddar loaf. I think this one will be more crumbly than the last batch. I let the milk, when setting get to, to high of a temperature. But that's ok it will still be super yummy, I just don't think it will be incredibly sliceable.
Not much other news is going on round here. Jacob is healing nicely post surgery. The chickens are mad because of the snow covered garden ( they think it's my idea.... I am pretty sure ). Kai, is really board because our nightly walks have stopped (surgery) and Me well I am catching up on my reading.
I did make another Farmhouse Cheddar loaf. I think this one will be more crumbly than the last batch. I let the milk, when setting get to, to high of a temperature. But that's ok it will still be super yummy, I just don't think it will be incredibly sliceable.
Not much other news is going on round here. Jacob is healing nicely post surgery. The chickens are mad because of the snow covered garden ( they think it's my idea.... I am pretty sure ). Kai, is really board because our nightly walks have stopped (surgery) and Me well I am catching up on my reading.
07 February 2009
Laughter and Eggs
Chickens should be owned by everyone. They are seriously one of the easiest things to manage and they give so much in the way of humor and eggs. A great gem of an article by Jenna Woginrich all about back yard chickens makes some really good points about these yardbirds. How intrenched in our American nostalgia they are but no one seems to own them. My chicks make me laugh every day, they see me coming with the cup of scratch and get all birdie excited. Bird brained to the last they topple over each other in an effort to get nowhere. They are giving us 3 eggs a day pretty consistently. What little givers they are. Eggs and humor for some feed, scratch and the occasional bowl of oatmeal. Life is good.
06 February 2009
The Hummers of fruit
With Jacob going into surgery yesterday we made some exceptions about what we would normally eat. We decided about 8 months ago that we were only going to buy fruit from the USA or locally and freeze it. We have done amazingly well with this goal of ours but it does mean giving up some of our most favorite things. Pineapples and bananas have the farthest to travel. Most are not grown in the USA. So we gave them up. But for his first two weeks after surgery I wanted the health benefits that these two lovely things carry. Seeing these exotic fruits on my counter is kinda like having some sexy visitor take up residence in my kitchen! I ate a banana yesterday the memory of it just doesn't compare to the perfectly ripe fruit. I can't wait to break into the pineapple later today. Most of the fruit is reserved for Jacob but I do get to sample the exotics!
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