This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
Thank you for all your support over the years!

Friday Favorite: Sunny Days

September 20th, 2013

This time of the year, if the sun is out, I’m out (at least if I can be).  I know that soon enough the days will be short and the sun won’t be as high in the sky.  I’m trying to soak up as much sun as I can to get me through winter.  I’m almost ready to trade my tank tops for sweaters, just not quite.  Luckily the weather is cooperating and I’ve had some really wonderfully sunny days to dig potatoes this week!
sky (1)
I enjoy the sun in winter too, it’s just not as strong as it is in the summer.
sky
The laundry will also miss the heat of the sun, even the clothes I’ve been hanging out recently haven’t been drying as quickly as they did even a few weeks ago.

Do you live in an area where you notice a big difference in the strength of the sun throughout the seasons?

One Year

September 19th, 2013

Yesterday marked our one year anniversary of moving to Maine.  We moved the Wednesday before the Common Ground Fair.  Mr Chiots drove up on Wednesday and I drove up on Thursday.  If you remember, I stayed in Ohio an extra night because Dexter went MIA the night before our scheduled departure.  If you missed that story read this post. Amazingly, I never posted photos of our moving, which I should because we had a great way of packing our truck.
Moving 1
Moving 3
Moving 2
We left our little cottage in Ohio behind, the house we’d fixed up and all the gardens that I’d spent 12 years cultivating…
Front Hillside Garden 2
side garden
house for sale collage 3
house for sale collage 1
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year and yet it seems like we’ve been here forever. We’ve made lots of new friends and the gardens are starting to take shape ever so slowly, mostly in my mind. We’re definitely glad we ended up exactly where we are!

If you could move anywhere – where would you go?

Finally, Almost Finished

September 18th, 2013

It was very early this spring that I settled on a layout for the potager behind the house. There was one small problem, I had planted my garlic in one corner last fall. That meant that I couldn’t finish one of the walkways in the garden.
potager walkway
back potager
All summer it’s been bugging me because it looked incomplete. This past week, I finally finished the last walkway!
potager walkway 1
potager walkway 2
My plan is to keep expanding this garden, surround it with either rock walls or a boxwood hedge and put a greenhouse at the end of the walkway that starts right off the back door (which is the path below). I’m also going to add a composting area behind a perennial border on the upper side of the greenhouse.  The walkways may also paved in bricks.
back potager (1)
There’s something nice about finally finished something you started in the spring. There are so many more things to do, but it’s nice to officially check something off the to-do list!

Have you recently finished up any garden tasks you started back in the spring?

Chopping…..

September 17th, 2013

I was up late into the evening making sauerkraut. For this batch I decided to add a few apples. I read in The Joy of Pickling that adding a few apples to your kraut will lessen the tartness of the sauerkraut. Since Mr Chiots isn’t a fan of the tartness of sauerkraut I thought he might like this version. A few of you asked about this as well after listening to Cultivate Simple yesterday.
making kraut
You can see our microphones are still on the table from recording the night before. It’s nice to have 10 more lbs of cabbage tucked into jars becoming healthy winter food. Sauerkraut is probably my favorite fermented food, I like it cold from the fridge for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I think it’s salty tang goes well with just about anything!

What’s your favorite fermented food?

Cultivate Simple 45: Further Fermentation

September 16th, 2013

In this week’s episode we continue the discussion about fermentation and the things that we like to ferment.

What’s for dinner: Braised Red Cabbage, here’s the recipe on Wednesday Chef (I add a little balsamic to it and a little molasses as well). This pairs perfectly with sausage.

Big Berkey Water Filter

The kind of salt I use for fermentation/pickling is: Redmond Real Salt

Stone Creek Trading – a blog reader’s website. Use code CHIOTSRUN for 10% off.

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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