In the Month of September

Some things I'm enjoying this season...

~Lots of fresh blackberries, every day. Our cultivated crops may have been a bust this year, but the blackberries that grow wild around our property have been as prolific as I've ever seen them.

~Knitting still more pilot caps! This time in wool. I think this red one is my very favorite.

~Making more herbal oils...I have calendula and rose petals steeping now and it's going to be absolutely divine! Next week I think I'll do lots of healing herbs in olive oil and see if I can't finally get around to that batch of salve I've been meaning to make.


~All of the late summer wildflowers. It's hard to believe that it's the time of goldenrod already. The purple asters, that are my especial favorite, are all starting to bloom at the bottom of the driveway. Time to stop pinching back the mums and let autumn really be on it's way...


~Knitting, knitting and more knitting. Oh so much knitting! Someone in the comments recently asked me how long it takes me to complete a project. I'm afraid that I can't really accurately answer that question. It totally depends on the project and my mood. Also, I may knit a rather large something over the course of a few days and then, as experience tells us, take 6 months or more to work in the ends or sew on a few buttons. It also depends a lot on how much I'm sleeping, which can vary greatly.


Right now I'm in knitting while walking mode. As in the baby is on my back and I'm pacing the floor with a ball of yarn tucked up under my arm, knitting as I go.

I go through phases like this every once in a while. This one I think is being fueled by an uncertain future and a strong innate desire to just keep my children warm this winter. I knit in the car while Steve drives, I knit while I wait for the water to boil so that I can wash dishes, I knit while I wait for pages to load. I try to sneak in a stitch or two around a nursing babe. I knit a row in-between helping the boys with their lessons. I knit a round while they set the table.

I met someone at a party a couple of weeks ago.
With a slight smirk he said to me, "Yeah, I think I saw you at the lake recently. You were standing in the water, knitting, with one baby on your back and the other splashing your legs. I thought it was a pretty impressive display of multitasking." (read as: I thought that you were totally insane.)

Yup, that sounds about right.

Calendula

Despite everything that's been going on, I'm trying to find little ways to continue to appreciate and mark the season with and for my children. Our harvest this year has been a sad one and I'm working on the assumption that will be plowing under the tomatoes (our last significant crop) any day now. Late Blight has already destroyed the entire potato and tomato crop at our CSA and it's rapidly spreading through our town. As those of you in New England probably already know, local, organic tomatoes are going to be a great rarity this year. But as I said in my last gardening post at least there are still flowers!

And I do love to grow my sweet and cheery calendula! One night last week, while dinner was in the oven, Galen and I went out and harvested a bunch of flower tops from both his garden and mine. They are steeping in almond oil on my window sill now (with a bit of lavender added in for good measure), soaking up a bit more sunshine, the oil growing more and more golden all the time.

This summer (if you can call it that) has been shockingly low on vitamin D and I'm thinking that a little bottled sunshine might come in handy this winter, for massages and boo-boos and just breathing in the sweet smell of summer during the dark days of winter.

Violets

It's that time of year again...

I've been fooling around with my violet syrup recipe this year (oh and last years did end up being a syrup, but as it turns out, we liked it that way). I'm looking for something a little different. I actually really liked what I did with it last year. It was tangy and lemony and quite good. And I'm hoping that there will be a second bloom, as happens some years, so that I can do a batch of that sort as well.


But I also find it sad that the flavor of the violets themselves is mostly lost. I want my syrup to taste like violets. Like those tins of french candies that we used to get at that little independent film theater. Remember that? Becky? Molli??

This was my first experimental try:
2 quarts packed violets, soaked in three cups a warm water for about an hour, pureed with 1 cup Agave Nectar and frozen in jam jars.

While it tastes just like intermission at 'Hamlet', there is still some tweaking to be done. For starters I would use pectin in the future; Pomona's being the pectin of choice in the household. For some reason I thought that the violet to liquid ratio would leave me with a much thicker concoction then it actually did. My other issue was with the foam. You are supposed to skim the foam off the top. But this particular recipe produces so much foam that it feels wasteful. I don't think this is an issue when you strain out the violets instead of blending them in, though I don't know for certain, having never tried it that way. I've always been of the opinion that I wanted all the nutrients and flavor I could get from them. I'm wondering if blending the water and violets, skimming the foam and then stirring in the agave wouldn't be a better option. At least that way it wouldn't be a waste of the agave. Something to bear in mind for next year.

Strained violet infusion results in a bright blue liquid, add in lemon and you get a rosey red, while pureed and citrus free syrup takes on a dark blue-ish green. Not the prettiest option, but the flavor is delightfully delicate and sweet.

Not wanting the wee girl to be left out of all the floral fun, she got some violets of her own, in the form of a new sun bonnet...

Made using this pattern and a scrap of fabric leftover from my mother's apron.

Gathering in the Last Little Bit of Summer....

News that our first frost was imminent sent us out into the gardens yesterday, bringing in house plants, transplanting herbs to be brought indoors for the winter, harvesting tomatoes, basil and sunflowers....lots of sunflowers. There are now sunflowers spilling out of every vase in every room of the house, and I must say, it's rather pleasant!

Moon Tea

I have no idea how this tradition started, or even where the idea originally came from, but at least a couple of times every spring, summer and fall you will find us making Moon Tea.

After dinner, on the night of the full moon, we all head out into the garden. We pick through the herbs, both wild and cultivated, and add a little bit of whatever sounds good to our jars. Wild mint and anise hyssop are always favorites. I like a bit of lavender in mine, and the sweet heirloom thyme that we are growing this year is just delightful. During the gathering there is always much excitement and many exclamations of "Oooo, smell mine! It smells so good!" When everyone has finished gathering, we fill our jars with water and place them where they are sure to be steeped in moon light.

We like to sip our moon tea all through the next day. It's such a lovely little ritual and we've also been finding some really yummy combinations of herbs! I think we might try drying some of our own custom blends for the winter.

The Challenge

With the cost of food these days, it seems like it's always getting increasingly harder to provide a family with wholesome, nutritious food. Even more so in a family with multiple food allergies and other restrictions. With this in mind, we've extended our gardens, both at home and on our two plots at our newly created community garden. Between those and our regular CSA membership we will have lots off access to fresh organic produce all summer long. And my goal is to preserve as much of that bounty as possible.

Over the past couple of years, I've fallen out of the habit of canning and freezing and otherwise putting food by. With my kitchen at the other house and my life and well-being up here, it just didn't make sense. But as of two weeks ago, I now have both an oven and a refrigerator, and while I'm still lacking easy access to water, it's time to get back on my game. And oh, if Craig's List will only provide me with a working freezer at a reasonable price, I promise to preserve as much as I can for the long winter to come.


Up first was our first attempt at violet jelly. I suspect we'll find it to be more of a syrup then a jelly. I forgot to specify the low/no sugar pectin on my shopping list for Steve, and I opted to use just a bit of honey rather then cup upon cup, of white sugar. Though it did seem to be showing signs of starting to jell right before we placed it in the freezer.

This was a fun begining for the kids, as even the littlest boy loved helping with the harvest. And all of the colors swirling in the blender and sending up their sweet and tangy aroma, were a sensory delight. As an added bonus we had steamed violet greens with dinner and they were a big hit! YAY! Violet greens are just chalked full of vitamins and minerals and they are readily availible in our very own yard. Score one for Mom.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN

A quick recap of "Celebration: Year 6".

Riding new bike from Mama and Daddy...

Major kudos to the Papa on this one, for swooping in and saving the day, when all of the Mama's big crafting plans went kurplunk....

Presiding over his castle party as queen...

The menu was entirely planned by the Queen, of course. Though his head cook did threaten to quit, when individual twice baked potatoes for every guest in attendance was requested. His Majesty, acting fair and true, as protector of all his servants, submitted to roasted potatoes instead (as well as, roasted vegetables, baked macaroni and cheese, curry roasted chickpeas, and a large selection of interesting olives...the cook was plenty busy, all the same). His majesty remained largely unconvinced of the attributes of a primarily green dish...until the morning of the banquet when he announced his over-whelming desire for baby bokchoy. Which to the best of the cook's knowledge, was not readily availible within walking distance of the castle and so, without green, they welcomed their guests.

The dessert course (highly important I'm told) featured a triple layer, gluten-free carrot cake, with cream cheese icing and fresh violets on top. Also, strawberries with home-made maple whipped cream, and ice cream from a favored local dairy farm, that had pleased the queen in the past.

Gifts prepared for His Majesty, were plentiful and well-thought out. Including, three of the home-made variety, thus saving a crafty mama in despair from the horrors of a completely mass-produced birthday. Some serious fodder for the dress-ups trunk (see the fresh flower scepter and matching arm bands above, as well as the star covered cloak. Also, the hand-dyed purple play silk in the second photo, arrived earlier in the week, direct from Canada, via his penpal. sweet.). And while all of my pics of the other bit of hand-made goodness turned out blurry, it's lovely, and you'll just have to take my word for it. It pays to befriend people who went to school for costume design. Trust me.

Capes, pine cone scepters, and the like aside, there were some fabulous art supplies, including, a very well loved set of window crayons...

Which also serves as a two word explanation for why I can no longer see outside....

squinting,
"Can you tell if it's still raining out??",

*shrugs*

"window crayons"

A Very Good Day

I'm finally getting to my "first day of (home) school" post!

Because we started on labor day, we had the pleasant experience of having Steve home for our first official day of the school year. He offered to run to our local co-op to pick us up breakfast and I agreed. We had gluten-free peach muffins, coconut tapioca pudding and herbal tea. Everything tasted wonderful, but I had a belly ache for the rest of the day, which I suppose is my own fault for taking the easy way out, even when I know the high likely-hood of being exposed to an allergen. (bleh)

The boys were so excited! They had trouble falling asleep the night before and there was lots of jumping up and down and yelling "Yay!!"

Breakfast was followed up, as it always is (alright, as I aspire to always have it be!), by 20 minutes of chore time, tidying up our space and preparing it for the day.

Steve joined us for our nature walk after chore time. We brought pails to begin gathering acorns for making acorn muffins at a later date. We had a lovely time searching under the trees. Poor Galen was feeling fussy and restless (molars can be so bothersome sometimes). But goodness, he looked cute picking up random things and putting them into his little pail!

By the time we came back home, B the Builder had arrived and Steve went off to work with him. I stopped by the kitchen to start some chickpeas roasting and then headed up to the house to start our day.

We began with the yoga story Jungle Adventure from the book "Fly Like a Butterfly: Yoga for Children", mostly because I hadn't gotten around to writing my circle yet! We've continued with the yoga over the last couple of weeks and I see a lot of value in doing this with them right now. However, I don't want it to be at the expensive of circle time, which I also believe to be valuable. I'm still refining this. I think in the end we might end up doing yoga a couple of days a week at a different time, separate from our morning circle.

By the end of yoga, Galen was beside himself and I was forced to put him down for a nap an hour early. When I came back down, I felt a snack was in order. I fixed us each a bowl of shredded cabbage with herb roasted chickpeas, avocado and roasted red pepper dressing, as well as a green smoothie (I think it may have been cantaloupe and wood sorrel, but I don't really remember). I put Galen's aside for when he awoke.

Then down to business. I started Iain off with a form drawing. After presenting the form and supervising him while he traced it with his finger, I left him to practice drawing it until he felt he had mastered it well enough to draw it in him main lesson book.

While Iain practiced, I told Elijah his own little story. Very short and sweet it was. Inspired by the mother mouse we found nursing her young in our tool storage bin, I wrote him a little sing-songy poem/story in three verses. Each day I told a bit of the story and wrote it into his own little main lesson book for him and then he would add a new element to the page. This first day he drew a hollow tree and cut out construction paper leaves to line a nest. He's so very meticulous about these things! Each leaf was shaped just as an oak or a maple should be, and everything was place 'just so' to form a perfectly round little nest.

While Elijah worked on his project, I went back to Iain and started his main lesson work for the day. As I am typing this out, it all seems very scattered and confusing, but it really had a lovely flow to it. Each child was working on his own project, at his own level and I was just able to step in where needed to direct them. It's really a beautiful thing.

Anyhow, for Iain's first main lesson block we are working with Aesop's Fables. For our first day, I chose to tell the 'Lion and the Mouse'. I had my own drawing up on the chalk board. I told the story and them he drew his own version in his main lesson book. The following day he wrote out a summery of the story.

After their main lesson work, I sent the big boys outside to play, while I fed and changed the little sleepy head who had decided to join us again. Then we headed outside as well, me with my knitting and the wee one in the sandbox. In between knitting a round here and there, I pushed children on swings, watching various 'tricks' on the trampoline and had the hilarious experience of watching Galen discover caterpillars! He couldn't stop giggling as he watched one crawl up his bare arm. Then he picked one up and put it on his head! He's a little comedian already, that one is...

I had planned on bringing everyone back inside for a story, but it was so beautiful outside that we decided to bring the book and a quilt out with us. We cuddled up on the quilt under the trees and read several chapters of "Little House on Rocky Ridge" (one of the sequels to the "Little House" books written be Laura Ingalls Wilder. These last two were written by a different author based on journal entrys and the like).

When the last wall went up on the second floor, we let the children go up for the first time. They stood in their bedroom and looked out the "windows" and were just delighted with the whole thing.

For lunch we had baked yams with ghee, cinnamon and cloves. It made the whole house smell wonderful. In fact, the house continued to carry that pleasant spicy smell from many days after. I suspect, just maybe, that had something to do with Galen dumping the entire container of cinnamon on the floor....

After lunch the boys went out to play for a bit longer and then we made little felt mice with finger knitted yarn tails. A certain little gray mouse scampered away before he had a chance to be photographed, which is rather a shame since he was particularly cute.

Steve and B the Builder kicked off from work early. Iain and Elijah helped Steve to build a fire, while I spent some time alone with Galen. We mostly cuddled and looked at "Autumn" by Gerda Muller, which was his own little "first day of school" gift. Then we all roasted sausages over the fire pit for dinner, as a little celebration to kick off the start of another school year!

Can you tell I'm really excited about this??

Frost Advisory

I've just come in from gathering up all of my potted plants by flashlight and plopping buckets over the tenderest of my green beloveds. I kindled our third fire of the day as I was beginning this post.

Sundays are the only mornings that Steve is home. I take this rare gift as an opportunity to stay snuggled up in bed with our baby, for as long as humanly possible, knowing that my early-bird son (Iain) soon followed by his drowsy, but afraid-to-miss-a-moment brother (Elijah Rain) are safe in the care of my ultra early-bird husband. They relish this time together and I, a life-long night owl floundering at reformation, am more then happy to not have to bounce out of bed first thing.

In the last month or so, they've taken to building a fire, in our stone-ringed fire-pit, which is a pleasant sort of thing for me to wake up to.

This morning I was restless, and creep away from my still snoozing babe to sneak in a bit of time knitting by the fire. Even with the blaze my hands were too stiff to work the stitches well. When we came in for breakfast we decided that a fire was needed inside as well, as I had no desire to change our little one in such a chill. And so we had our first fire of the season. The house soon became very pleasant and cheery and I was sorely tempted to devote the rest of the day to knitting by the fire. I did finally rouse myself, granted it wasn't until after I had finished the glove I was working on. One of our favorite local harvest festivals was today, and as much as it pained me to leave home, I knew that we would enjoy ourselves once we were there. Steve stayed behind to help B the Builder start sheathing the roof.

The children and I did have a lovely time. There was a fabulous story-teller performing. I'm awfully fond of a good story! We had a lot of fun playing with a huge collection of home-made hula-hoops. Galen was hilarious in his attempts to mimic us. Eventually he took to picking the hoop up from the inside and walking around in circle with it! We had maple cotton candy. They use pure maple sugar in the machine instead of that pink chemical crap. I'm sure that it's still dreadfully awful for us (so much sugar!), but it's such a treat! We came home with two varieties of gourmet garlic to plant this fall and a special variety of Italian beans to plant in the spring. I can't wait to get it all in the ground!

Now if you will excuse me, I have a dragon's wing to mend and my lesson plans to work out for tomorrow, before I collapse into bed. 5:45 a.m. is going to be here awfully soon!

For Kyan

Last month, a dear friend of mine from high-school gave birth to her long awaited first child, little Kyan Thomas.

This weekend we finally had the pleasure of meeting him.


During her pregnancy I had offered to make her whatever she pleased as a gift for the baby. She requested the Edwardian Carrying Cape by Oat Couture that I had made for Galen. I kept the basic shape the same, but changed some of the stitch patterns a bit this time around (using moss stitch instead of seed stitch for the edging, for instance).

Since he was due in August, I decided to go with a lighter fiber then wool. The yarn is mostly silk. I wish I could find the ball-band to post the details on it. I know I put one aside just for this purpose, but honestly, I'm far too tired to go searching for it right now. Perhaps in the morning.

It's a really beautiful yarn. One strand each of green and blue, spun together.

My only complaint is that the stitch definition wasn't quite what I had hoped it would be.


Galen very, very briefly modeled it for me. I was trying to get a good shot of the hood. I got this one picture before he took it off and toddled away to resumed his ill-fated attempts at picking peaches (having successfully removed all of the ones that were actually at his level a long time ago).

And for Mama:

A jar of my favorite nursing tea.

This blend is featured in several of Aviva Jill Romm's books. It's so lovely and soothing. I really adore it.

Toward the end of my last pregnancy I mixed up many different teas and healing baths and the like, to have on hand once the baby came. Steve made me a cup of this tea every night for the first week or two after Galen was born. I can't smell it or drink a cup of it without thinking of those early days with my wee babe snuggled up against me in the rocking chair or tucked up all cozy in a sling. Such sweetness.

Ever since then I've been sure to send a bit to every new mother I know.


Mother's Milk Tea

1 ounce of Cat Nip
1 ounce of Chamomile Flowers
1 ounce of Lemon Balm
1/2 ounce of Fennel
1/4 ounce of Lavender

Around the Garden: June into July

This is the time of year where the flower gardens tend to slip into a bit of a lull. The spring bulbs are long gone, the pansies are looking a bit weather worn and the full splash of the true summer garden has yet to hit. Honestly, I don't know that our garden ever gets quite that flashy. I tend to think that it has more of a subtle beauty, more dignified and graceful.

We now have four beds like these and another smaller one. Two are down with the fruit trees in the lower yard (we often picnic down there) and two and a half are off behind the new house. They are full of all kinds of delicacies and I am really quite pleased with them.

The fruit trees have done well this year. Thankfully, our proficiency at pruning seems to have been adequate. None of them have shown signs of any kind of irreparable harm!

The peach tree seems to be particularly productive. It was so tiny when we planted it last year! It is Galen's placenta tree and I can remember writing in his baby book about how it was so dainty and sweet and pink all-over (in bloom) just like him. Not but a year later and it's nearly 7 feet tall!

The plums are quite covered in fruit. We had enough cherries for everyone to have a few. Next year the cherries will be more productive. The blackberries are starting to form on the canes and we've started to come across a few ripe raspberries here and there.

We added four new trees this year, two mulberry and two hazel nuts. There was a very kind man in town who had a great many extra trees and donated them to any one in town who was interested.

I've never tasted fresh mulberries before. I've only ever had dried. It will be exciting when they are large enough to fruit! I'm hoping that the hazelnuts will form a hedge with the yew (also a gifted plant) I have in the lower yard to define the area and give us some added privacy from the street.

Despite all the debris created by construction and the projects of very active little boys, the garden is a peaceful, pleasant space to just be. The air is sweet and fresh, full of birdsong and sound of swaying trees. There are rainbow hued dragonflies and butterflies darting about. The whole place is full of life. We've been blessed by a pair of great blue herons nesting near our land this year and it's always a delight to watch them fly over. It is a daily reminder of why I so love being here.

A soup fit for Spring

Saute one sliced large onion in olive oil
Add 3 small-medium potatoes (peeled and cubed)
2 pieces of kombu broken into smaller chunks
1 bunch of chopped asparagus
1/2 cup of almonds (pine nuts or cashews would work equally well)
2 quarts of water
and a medium sized mixing bowl filled with equal parts: dandelion greens, plantain and nettles (or whatever wild greens you fancy)

Simmer for approximately 25 minutes. Puree, season to taste with sea salt/fresh cracked pepper and serve with a garnish of chopped almonds and fresh chives (I'm the kind of gal who frequently disregards instruction to garnish something, but trust me, add the garnish on this one, you won't regret it).

Packed full of nutrients and it makes a great finger paint too! What more could you ask for?

And the other culinary delight I discovered today?

Fresh strawberries dipped in raw black tahini blended with a bit of agave nectar and orange oil...words fail me. I suggest you try it for yourself today!