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Visiting Four Season Farm

November 20th, 2010

While Mr Chiots and I were in Maine, we decided to swing by Eliot Coleman’s Four Season Farm. I’ve read all of Eliot’s books, and find his work to be very inspirational. When it comes to winter gardening he’s pretty much the best there is. I wanted to stop by particularly during this time of year because I knew his fall/winter planting would be in full swing.

It was a gray rainy day, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We were happy to walk around in the drizzle. We even chatted with Eliot for a while and Mr Chiots spent quite a while talking to one of the workers. Of course his gardens were all brimming with beautiful fall/winter produce; radicchio, lettuce of all colors shapes and sizes, lots of spinach, brussels sprouts, carrots, kale and a variety of other things. Here’s a look around the Four Season Farm in early October.










Of course I took particular note of all of the crop protection techniques he describes in his newest book The Winter Harvest Handbook, which I’ve talked about a lot here. It was very interesting to see them in person. They were actually building one of the big cold houses while we were there.





I also picked up a great idea while there: writing the panting date on the plant label. This is such a great idea if you forget to write it down in your garden journal as I often seem to do. I usually write the planting date on the back of my seed packets, but I often forget to write them down elsewhere.

We really enjoyed our visit to Four Season Farm. I was quite happy to see that my fall spinach looked just as good as his. I also noticed a few weeds in his garden *gasp*.

What do you think, impressive isn’t it?

Friday Favorites: Fabulous Fungi

November 19th, 2010

I couldn’t do Friday Favorites for very long without talking about mushrooms. I’m a huge fan of mushrooms, one of my favorite ways to eat them is simply sauteed in butter, I could eat them every day, and do several times a week.

I love mushrooms of all shapes and sizes from the regular old white button mushrooms to the lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms that I buy at my local farmer’s market. I think my favorite of all are crimini, or baby bella mushrooms. There’s just something about these little beauties. Recently I just discovered hen of the woods mushrooms and I’ve been enjoying them in some mushroom lasagna.

In the spring we hunt for morels, but not for any other varieties. This winter I want to spend some time reading about growing my own mushrooms and hopefully in the spring I’ll inoculate some logs and give it a go. I’m hoping to go visit our local mushroom grower to get some tips and maybe I’ll be able to buy spawn plugs from them.

One of the best parts about loving mushrooms so much is that they’re super good for you. Eating mushrooms regularly can help you fight off the cold and flu and help you fight all sorts of things like cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. Here’s an interesting article about mushrooms and immunity.

So what about you, are you a mushroom lover or a hater?

Taking a Break Today

November 18th, 2010

I’ve been so busy this week, today I’m taking a break from blogging. No need to worry though, I wouldn’t leave you without a cute picture of Dexter keeping me company while I’m working in the office.

I find myself to always be too busy this time of year, there’s so much to do in the office, we’re still filming a lot for our business, and there’s still tons of work to get done in the garden. I can’t wait for the slower pace of winter! Hopefully I’ll have time to go through my photos and write a post about visiting Eliot Coleman’s farm for you tomorrow.

Do you have a specific time of the year when you’re busier than others?

The 2011 Chiot’s Run Calendar is now Available

November 17th, 2010

I spent a few hours putting the final touches on my calendar yesterday. It was very hard to choice the photos from the thousands that I have taken this past year. Next year I may make a few different calendars, one with quotes, one with just edible harvests, etc. I’m also considering making one with zone 5 planting dates this year, for both spring and fall planting, let me know if you’re interested in this and I’ll try to invest the time in setting it up.

I want to thank all of you who purchase this calendar, I get a small amount from each sale and this helps me keep this blog ad-free and it helps me pay the bills associated with this blog.

A note from Mr. Chiots: Mrs. Chiots will not brag on herself so I will do it for her. She enjoys producing this blog for all of you almost as much as she enjoys gardening and cooking. She pours hours into taking and editing the photos, writing the posts, and approving and replying to comments. The results show it. Monthly ChiotsRun.com gets over 12,500 unique visitors, with over 33,000 page views using up about 100GB of bandwidth. Recently we surpassed 11,000 comments. That is a lot of work. Show your appreciation by purchasing this awesome calendar. In fact buy two, it will make a great Christmas gift. Thanks!

If you’re interested in buying a calendar Lulu sent me a coupon that you can use to get 40% off.

This is what you do:
Enter code CALENDARVIP305 at checkout (you have to enter paying info before coupon)
This will save you 40% off your calendar, up to $10
Offer ends 2/28/11

This coupon makes the large (13.5″ x 19″) calendar $22.48 with shipping and the small (11″ x 17″) calendar $15.98 with shipping. Here’s a look inside the calendar.












I don’t know if I have a favorite month, I love the June strawberries, the July chamomile and the August tomatoes.

What’s your favorite month? Would you be interested in a zone 5 planting calendar?

Bread for Every Occasion

November 16th, 2010

Most of the bread the comes out of my oven is sourdough, baked into boules and eaten by the slice. I occasionally make traditional yeasted loaves in pans, but not very often. I’m really partial to the crusty artisan type bread, it’s my preferred type of bread for almost every instance.


There are occasions however when you want a soft roll, for holiday meals, for hamburgers and hotdogs and for the occasional egg sandwich. On these occasions I make a soft dough enhanced with buttermilk, butter, eggs and a little sugar then I shape it according to it’s final purpose. I always get rave reviews with this dough whatever I make with it.

This is a very versatile recipe, you can use milk or buttermilk (I always use buttermilk since I have lots from making butter) you can add whole wheat flour to make wheat rolls and you can shape them any way you like. I use it for hamburger buns, hot dog buns, mini burgers, as rolls for holidays, for cinnamon rolls and other sweet breads. You can even use this dough to make pigs in a blanket.

BASIC ROLL DOUGH
1 cup milk or buttermilk
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
4 1/4 -4 43/4 cups of flour
1 packet of yeast

In a large bowl, mix 2 cups of flour and yeast. In medium saucepan, heat buttermilk, sugar, butter and salt just till butter starts to melt (120-130 degrees). Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with eggs. Mix until flour is incorporated, then beat on high speed for 3 minutes.

Mix in as much remaining flour as possible, but you want the dough to be a fairly soft. Knead for 4-5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball and place in oiled bowl. Let raise in warm place till double, about 1 hour.

Turn dough out onto counter and divide into the size of dough balls needed for whatever final bread you’re making. Shape dough into desired rolls and place on baking sheets or pans. Cover and let rise in warm place till nearly double in size, about 45 minutes to one hour.

Bake in 375 degree oven until golden on top, will be about 12-15 minutes for rolls, 15-20 minutes for cinnamon rolls, 15-17 minutes for hamburger buns, etc.


I’ll be making a lot of this dough during this holiday season. Mr Chiots can hardly wait for holiday bread stuffed with cranberries and apples.

Do you have a special roll recipe that you use for a variety of breads?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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