Quote of the Day: Michael Perry
Downstairs, and out the door. Eastward the gray band is lightening, but the sun remains well sunk. Drawing the cool breath of morning into my lungs I think of my father, whom I do not believe has missed a sunrise in some forty years and would be startled to find me up and about at this hour. I still love the dark heart of night when it is possible to believe you the world to yourself, but I can understand why Dad loves to watch the day come in. And I find I am a little less breathless working from this end of the cycle than I am trying to find my way through some some of bleary-eyed finish at 3:00 a.m. There is the idea that you have a head start.
Michael Perry, Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting
One of the lovely featurs this about this place is that we can see the sunrise from the living room and I can watch the sunset from my desk in the office. Back in Ohio, we couldn’t really see the sunrise, I’m certainly enjoying it every morning now!
A head start, that’s exactly how I feel when I get up early. Especially this time of year when getting up early means being up before the sun comes up. There’s something wonderfully peaceful and quiet about being up before the sun, it is a lot like getting a head start. A perfectly wonderful way to start my day!
Can you see the sunrise from you house?
Share this:
Making Mulch
The fall ritual of making mulch has begun. When we came back from Ohio, our trusty mower came with us. Mr Chiots has been out every evening mowing a portion of the lawn and collecting the lawn & leaf clippings. Generally, I’m the one doing all the mulching in the fall, but this year I’m busy planting so Mr Chiots has taken over the task.
When it comes to mulch, this is my favorite kind. Nothing promotes earth worm activity like a mix of grass and leaves. This mix also suppresses weeds in the spring as well, which saves me valuable time. If you put down some rock/mineral dust underneath it, you’ll notice marked improvement in your soil with just one winter. I have found a combination of about 25% grass to 75% leaves to be ideal.
Over the past week, we’ve been mulching like mad, all the walkways in the garden, the foundation borders, the chicken run, etc. Any we have leftover we’ll put in a big pile somewhere for use in next spring and summer. At our previous place in Ohio we didn’t have a ton of lawn and we collected leaves from the neighbors.
We have more than enough of each here, which makes me happy because the less I can bring in from elsewhere the happier I am. I love knowing exactly where everything comes from!
What’s your favorite kind of mulch to use in the garden?
Share this:
Keeping the Freezer cold in a Power Outage
With all of the talk of electric outages, I’ve been thinking I should share what we do to help keep our freezers running more efficiently and help them keep food frozen longer during power outages. My mom has been doing this for many years and it’s something I’ve been doing as well. It’s so easy you’ll wonder why it’s not more common knowledge.
A half empty freezer like this one is not as efficient as a full one. It will also thaw out much faster when the power is out. Keeping your freezer running more efficiently and helping it stay colder longer is as simple as filling the empty spaces with containers of water to freeze as big blocks of ice. I use plastic milk jugs, my mom always used large square gallon freezing containers. I’ve been considering buying a few of these large plastic rectangular containers because they’d fit more efficiently in my freezer, but gallon jugs are FREE. A few years ago we received our dry month milk from the farm frozen for winter use, so my freezer was always full of milk instead of water. Each fall we also also purchase 8-10 reserve gallons of apple cider and freeze it as well. During these times we don’t need the jugs of water.
When we moved to Maine, I emptied all the containers and recycled them. I’m slowly building back up my stash of frozen ice with apple cider jugs. It’s a good thing Mr Chiots loves cider so it’s going rather quickly!
Essentially, this turns your freezer into a cooler when there’s no power. If you have enough of these in your freezer you could also move some to your fridge to keep the contents colder during a power outage. These containers of ice also come in handy for traveling. I always throw a few frozen half gallon jugs in my cooler. They keep things colder for much longer than loose ice and they don’t allow the water to get your food soggy when they do.
When you need to add food to your freezer, you can simply take out a few jugs of frozen water and set them beside the freezer. When you take out food and have space, put them back in. Another handy benefit is that this water could also be used as emergency water in a pinch. You might want to refresh it occasionally if you want to use it in this way.
Any great tips to share for those times when the electric is off?
A few more freezer/freezing posts:
Freezing in Glass Canning Jars
Keeping Your Freezer Organized
Share this:
Can’t Find It? Grow It Yourself
Last year I started making kimchi and Mr Chiots and I LOVED it. The only problem was, I couldn’t find the Korean peppers to use, so I used my homegrown cayennes. Since I couldn’t find any, I decided I’d just have to grow them myself.
I ordered seed for Korean Chili Peppers from Baker Creek last fall and almost forgot about them when spring planting time rolled around. Luckily, I remember just in time and I ended up with 10 beautiful plants. They produced quite prolifically and I ended up with a bounty of both red and green peppers.
The red ones I have been drying and the green ones I’ll probably pickle, but I may dry them as well (depends on how much time I have). Yesterday, I finally got around to mixing up my first batch of Kimchi and I can hardly wait for it to be done.
Why do we eat kimchi? Because it’s full of all kinds of healthy goodness with the garlic, ginger, onions, cabbage, peppers and probiotics. It boosts the immune system and helps keep us healthy all winter long. I’m really excited to try this batch with real Korean peppers, the week can’t be over soon enough!
Have you ever grown an ingredient specifically for one recipe?
My kimchi recipe is now posted over on Eat Outside the Bag.
