This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
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Capturing…

January 30th, 2019

Every winter, I order a case or two of grapefruit. It’s probably my favorite citrus, with lime coming in very close in the race. I’m always trying to find ways to make use of the peel as well, since I’m buying organic fruit, I want to make sure I can capture and use every bit of it. As I said last week, I’ve been making candied grapefruit peel and grapefruit peel vinegar for cleaning. I also decided to dry some of the peel to make grapefruit peel infused jojoba.

So far, I have the peels of one grapefruit fully dried and 6 more are drying under the woodstove. Later this week I’ll crumble them a bit, put them in this jar, then top up with jojoba. In 6-8 weeks I should have a lovely grapefruit peel infused jojoba, which I plan on using in a variety of skincare products, one being a hair oil that is also infused with rosemary. If the infused jojoba smells half as good as the dried peel does I’m going to very pleased.

What fun things are you doing to make the winter more interesting?

The Universal Language of Plants

January 28th, 2019

When we were in Israel last November, I spent some time walking around the Kibbutz we were visiting. I noticed this little area where someone was propagating plants. It’s funny how gardeners are similar around the world, we all love plants and propagate them to share with others.


I was told by the lady that was taking me around, that the guy that grows these plants takes the pods from a leguminous tree to use as potting compost. I’m not positive on the name of the tree, but we had them in Colombia, it has quite a distinct smell (which I immediately remembered).

Do you notice gardens/gardeners when you travel?

Giveaway: Agatha Christie Book

January 23rd, 2019

If you remember, I found a lovely complete set of Agatha Christie books from Heron Publishing. I printed off the Miss Marple series and set to work reading through them. After finishing them, I moved on to the Poirot series. When cleaning the bookshelf, I came across this copy of ‘Murder in Mesopotamia’ from Bantam Publishing that I purchased and read a few years ago. It’s nicely bound with gold printing and page edges. Since I no longer need this copy as this book is in my other collection, I figured I’d give it away to a blog reader.



Comment below for your change to win, let me know if you’ve ever read any Agatha Christie books and what book you’re reading currently that you love. I’ll choose a winner randomly from the commenters in a week.

Blizzard Breakfast

January 21st, 2019

Earlier this week I made a batch of rough puff pastry. Originally, it was supposed to be for dinner that evening, but I didn’t finish it in time. I was hoping it would a good batch, but wasn’t sure since it was my first time making any kind of a puffy pastry. I’ve been wanting to make the recipe for egg galettes from the ‘Jerusalem’ cookbook a few years ago, since I had a batch of pastry, I figured I’d give it a try.

It was well worth it, the pastry puffed nicely, the roasted red peppers and onions were perfect, and thankfully the chicken have been laying a few eggs once again to top it all off with more homeraised goodness. It’s a great recipe and would definitely be quick and easy if using store bought pastry. I was happy to have red peppers in the freezer, herbs from the basement garden, onions in the pantry, and eggs from the chickens to make it mostly produced on the farm.

What delicious goodness have you been trying/baking/eating lately?

Jojoba Fields

January 18th, 2019

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that Mr Chiots manages The Jojoba Company . In November, the main reason for our trip to Israel, was for him to meet with the growers/processors and for me to take some photos of the jojoba fields and processing. These are jojoba fields, jojoba is a large shrub, similar to a hazelnut in growth. I found the shrubs very beautiful in growth, the trunks are particularly spectacular. I found the foliage reminiscent of olive foliage, in color and shape. The shrubs grown in an agricultural setting, in neat rows on the rolling hills of southern Israel definitely played to my love of organized vegetable gardens.









Jojoba is technically not a nut, but a seed, which is why it’s non-allergenic for people with nut allergies. The liquid extracted from the seed is also not an oil, but a liquid wax ester, which is why it doesn’t go rancid, has a long shelf life, and is great for the skin (it’s the closest thing in nature to the sebum that your skin produces).

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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