LEARNING & GROWING go hand in hand. I love learning how to do new things. Between blogs, you tube and other websites, you can learn how to do just about anything. Make a roman shade, update old light fixtures, grow asparagus, prune an apple tree, make compost, try a new recipe, crochet a newsboy cap. Endless possibilities. Interests include- Garden & yard, home renovations, travel, correspondence, crafts, recipes, children, photography...
Another taste of Summer- Strawberry Kefir Ice Cream
Once one starts making Kefir, you have to "feed" your Kefir grains with new milk just about every day. The reason is that the Kefir grains feed on the lactose in the milk. This explains why Kefir is pretty much 99% lactose free; a great alternative for those lactose intolerant folks out there. Once a batch of milk is finished making Kefir, it's time to strain out the grains, store the kefir in the refrigerator, and then supply the grains with new milk. A new batch every day really adds up to quite a supply of Kefir, unless you have your whole household enjoying kefir. At Redwoodshire, I have been adding Kefir to anything that calls for dairy. Last week, I had to put the grains to "sleep" in the fridge for a few days, so that I could use up the surplus of kefir I had made.
When you have a lot of Kefir on hand, it's time to find some new recipes to use the kefir up! This morning I made some delicious Strawberry Kefir Ice Cream from a recipe that came in my email from Cultures for Health.
Ingredients:
2 cups Kefir
1 cup Heavy Cream
2 eggs
3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup crushed strawberries
A gift from the Laird many many years ago! It has been used to make many batches of wonderful ice cream.
First beat the eggs and mix with sugar. Then add kefir, heavy cream, and vanilla. Crush strawberries and add 1 cup to the cream mixture. Then add to ice cream maker. We use a Rival Ice Cream Maker- where the whole base is frozen in the freezer. Churn for 20-25 minutes, or until thickened. Enjoy as soft serve or place in a airtight storage container and freeze until hardened.
This ice cream is so delicious, and it's full of the healthful probiotics of Kefir! It can be enjoyed straight out of the ice cream maker with a soft serve consistency, or it can be placed in the freezer to harden. I was not sure what to expect for taste, since Kefir is somewhat sour- but we were amazingly surprised. It tastes a bit like Strawberry Frozen Yogurt- though I haven't had frozen yogurt in ages.
An update from the Garden at Redwoodshire. We are daily amazed at what a tiny little seed can produce. You simply plant the seed, water it, and it does what it was created to do.
The PEAS- The peas are growing strong and will be ready for picking in a matter of days. Lady genevieve enjoyed a pea pod straight off the plant- which is exciting since she's going through a bit of a picky eating phase. One day this past week, we noticed a bunch of white flowers on our pea plants. Then all of a sudden there were peas! With such small fruit, it doesn't take long for them to appear and then be ready to pick. The peas are another seed that can withstand the cold temperatures and be planted as early as 6 weeks before the last frost. This minor detail we didn't know, so we got a bit of a late start.
Can you spot the little green peas growing out of the bottom of the white flowers?
THE LETTUCE patch- We planted 3 different varieties of lettuce: Tom Thumb (left), Salad greens (right), & mesclun (not pictured). Lettuce are another plant that can be planted by seed before the last frost. They actually do best when they are planted early, when the days are cool and the nights are cold. Lettuce doesn't really like the "hot" hot of summer. Though this is the first time the Laird has ever grown lettuce himself, his experiences with it as a kid made quite an impression on him- he hates growing lettuce. But since we were given a nice variety of lettuce seeds, he decided to give it a try. He decided that he really likes the "Tom Thumb" variety. Our Mesclun mix was eaten by bugs and then flowered quickly- so we never got to eat of it. The Salad greens mix grew well too. We've enjoyed a number of salads from this little patch of lettuce! If we grow lettuce again next season, Tom Thumb wins a spot in our garden- no bugs and no problems!
Doesn't this look amazingly delicious?
The BLUEBERRIES- The Blueberries are netted and growing nice and plump! So far we have managed to protect our berries form the birds with a temporary Tepee netting system. In the future, we will have to decide how to protect the 6 plants (possibly more) we have in our patch. For now, we only have 1 plant old enough to bear fruit so the tepee works for this season.
Today is the longest day of the year- enjoy every minute of it! Happy longest day of the year!
Have you ever made Jam? As lady genevieve and I were strawberry picking last week, I overheard a girl say she would love to learn how to make jam. I felt the same way a number of years ago after I had picked way more berries than my household could ever eat. Lady Sarah, a friend of mine, came strawberry picking with me and then slaved away to help me make 2 batches of jam- Strawberry & Strawberry Rhubarb. That was a lot of jam! After that, I decided that jam was a little too much work for me, and I would stick to freezing fruit for smoothies instead. Since that time, I have come back around and do a little freezing and a little jammin'. Jammin' is much easier is single batches.
Lady genevieve will be moving up to a new class in a couple weeks. With some of the berries we had left from our picking adventure last week, I made a batch of Strawberry Rhubarb jam for her teachers, to say "thank you."
I used a recipe from the "Blue Book guide to preserving".
2 cups crushed strawberries
2 cups chopped rhubarb (about 4 stalks)
1 package powdered pectin
1/4 cup lemon juice
5 1/2 cups sugar
Combine strawberries, rhubarb, powdered pectin and lemon juice in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4-in. head space. Adjust 2 piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yields about 6 1/2 pints.
A simple canning kit has a few handy tools to make canning easier. I only use the jar lifter and canning funnel. But they also include tongs, magnetic lid wand, and jar wrench. They can be found at grocery stores or online. The "Ball Blue Book guide to preserving" has instructions on how to can almost everything, and lots of different recipes. I have found it a great reference over the years. However, you can find pretty much anything you need to know online.
First you need to sterilize your jars & lids. I boil all parts in water for 5 minutes. I do not have a special boiling-water canner, but instead just use a big pot with strainer insert (not sure what to call it?). I boil my jars, and leave the water boiling while I fill my jars so it's still hot when I process the filled jars. It is important that your jars be hot when you are filling them with the hot jam filling.
After chopping and crushing your fruit, mix it with pectin and lemon juice. Bring mixture to a rolling boil.
Jam making pot (left) & Jar sterilizing/ Jam Processing Pot (right)
Once you've reached a steady boil, then add sugar and stir until dissolved. Once dissolved, then bring to a hard boil for 1 minute. Remove from head. Skim off foam and discard. Then using funnel, fill each jar to 1/4 inch from top. Be sure to wipe rim of jar clean & dry before placing lid on top.
Then place 2 part lids onto jar and tighten. Use can gripper to gently place filled jars into the Pot of boiling water for processing for 10 minutes. Allow to remain in pot for additional 5 minutes, then remove jars. Set upright on a dry towel to cool. Leave 1-2 inches between jars. Allow cans to cool naturally for 12-24 hours, before checking the seal.
Testing the Seals- After the jars have cooled for 12-24 hours, test the lids to determine if a vacuum seal has formed. The best method for testing a seal is to press the center of the lid to determine if it is concave; then removed the band and gently try to lift the lid off with your fingertips. If the center does not flex up and down and you cannot lift the lid off, the lid has a good vacuum seal.
So far a success! Hopefully the teachers feel loved and look forward to their next bunch of little ones to love on and teach. I generally like to make a batch of strawberry and a batch of raspberry jams each year. We're still enjoying the labor of last year, with one jar left to spare. The wonderful thing about making your own jam is you know what is going into it- as little or as much sugar as you please; organic fruit if you choose; and no added extras. If you decide to make a batch of jam, be sure to listen to Bob Marley's song, "We're Jammin'" as you are jammin' along!
Thanks to my parents we had a wonderful selection of Heirloom Seeds from Eden Brothers to start our garden. It has been one month since the last frost for this area, and the garden is growing strong. The Laird has been working so hard since before the snow fully melted to get the garden going. Here are some photos of what we've got growing in the nicely fenced garden- the fence seems to be keeping most pests out. As of this week, have been enjoying fresh picked salad greens, kale & of course rhubarb.
TOMATOS- The Laird started his Beefsteak and Cherry tomato seeds inside back in mid-April. After the last frost date in March, he transplanted his seedlings into the garden. Unfortunately a whole crop of tomato seedlings got toasted by a single cold night. Thankfully, he had extra plants and was able to plant the rest in place of what had been lost, and we have both varieties growing strong.
Every year the Laird grew tomatoes at our old house, blight would rock our tomato plants and diminish the fruit production. I have read that sprinkling crushed egg shells on the soil/ mixing it into the soil helps replenish the calcium and prevent "blossom end rot" of the fruit. I didn't do a lot of research about how to go about sprinkling the egg shells into the soil, as it was somewhat of an afterthought, and just placed a few crumbles at the base of some of the tomato plants. Next year I hope to sow the egg shell into the soil with the tomato seeds/ seedlings. From what I read, it sounds like each plant needs 8-10 egg shells. The egg shells/ calcium seem to help the plant regulate water absorption.
PEAS-
You can plant peas up to 6 weeks before the last frost date. We did not know this, and got a slightly delayed start with our peas. We found this old metal contraption in our woods and it works great as a pea trellis! As can be seen, the peas are growing like crazy. Had we started them earlier, I imagine they would be even taller. We may have to come up with a taller trellis system next year. The flowers that turn into the pea pods have yet to appear on our plants.
BUSH BEANS/POLE BEANS-
The bean seeds are directly sown into the ground. The Laird planted a plot of bush beans and a handful of pole beans around the garden. From past experience growing both types of beans, we learned that the Bush varieties start bearing fruit earlier in the summer. The pole beans spend a lot more time establishing the plant and bear fruit much later. But the size of the plant has much greater potential for bearing a ton more fruit.
PEPPERS-
The Laird started 2 varieties of peppers inside back in April- Jalepeno Early (hot) & California Wonder (sweet). They transplanted into the garden well and are slowly getting bigger. In comparison to every other plant in our garden, these are the snails of the bunch. The pepper sprouts were at least a couple weeks behind the tomato seed sprouts back while we were starting them inside. The plants appear healthy thus far.
SQUASH & ZUCCHINI & CUCUMBERS-
The Laird sowed squash, zucchini, & cucumber seeds intermixed in the same section of the garden. He does not remember which seeds he planted where, so we will be surprised until they begin to bear fruit.
KALE-
Kale is another early plant where the seeds can be planted a number of weeks before the last frost. We've never grown kale before, and are really excited about how well it has grown. We've been picking kale each day for salads, muffins and cooking for the past week. It's so tender & tasty, and so full of nutritious goodness. Kale is so versatile. It holds so well after being picked and washed- unlike garden lettuces that wilt quickly.
CORN-
The Laird has been eager to try and grow corn for some time. In the past we did not have the space or sun to attempt it. But Redwoodshire has both- and the corn is growing! Something special about this corn is that it is the Laird's attempt to grow "The 3 Sisters". The Native Americans grew the "3 Sisters- Corn, beans, & running squash" together. Corn grows into a pole that the beans can climb, and then the squash/ pumpkins grow around the base and shade the soil to preserve moisture. The Laird is growing a combination of sweet corn, pole beans, and cucumber/ zucchini.
CABBAGE-
This cabbage was a Father's Day gift for the Laird. He didn't think to grow cabbage this year, and put it on his list for next year. We picked up a 6 pack of Late Cabbage at Gro-Moore Farm/ Market.
RASPBERRIES-
Though not very big, a few of the raspberry plants have produced their first flowers and are on their way to producing little berries. We have been battling the deer, as they have been eating the new growth and stunting our plants. The new growth are the stems that will bear fruit next year- so unfortunately we may have limited fruit for a couple years. We are working to build a trellis, to drape netting over and protect our raspberry hedge from further damage. In addition to this domestic raspberry row, we also have some well established wild black raspberries growing near the barn. We expect they will be highly productive by the number of flowers/ berries already growing.
We also have 3 different varieties of salad greens growing- though I must have missed taking a photo. The carrots have failed to sprout or are taking a very long time to show themselves. The cantaloupe has also been slow in sprouting- so we are unsure what their outcome will be. The blueberries and rhubarb have been highlighted in prior posts.
We are enjoying some of the sweetness of our labor, and look forward to the next round of fruit to ripen. As our "pilot" gardening year, we are learning a lot and keeping a journal of the process to remember everything for next year. A number of months ago, I found an old book called, "The Garden Song". A cute children's book about the classic "Garden Song". Enjoy this video of Pete Seeger singing, "The Garden Song".
The Laird loves loves loves Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, as does his father. To celebrate these fathers & the start of strawberry picking season, the little lady and I got our baskets together and went picking at Gro-Moore Farm Strawberry Fields. We do wish that there was a place to pick organic strawberries, but alas, there is none such place near Redwoodshire. We will have to establish a strawberry patch down the road, and then will have the pleasure of organic strawberry picking and eating. But for this year, this will have to do. We soaked our berries in a water, lemon juice & vinegar solution for 20 minutes. Though this does not take care of the pesticides on our strawberries, my hope is that it was able to cleanse them even the slightest bit. We picked a bunch of rhubarb from our garden. We have 2 fairly nice sized plants. After the 2 pies we baked today, we will have harvested enough rhubarb for 5 pies! Pretty awesome considering the price of Rhubarb. We've been enjoying a pie a week since Memorial Day. Though this is our first pie made with fresh picked strawberries. Over the years, we have tried recipe upon recipe to find a good one for Strawberry Rhubarb pie- to no avail. Our pies have always come out watery. But this year we discovered an amazing Strawberry Rhubarb Pie recipe!
INGREDIENTS:
3 1/2 cups strawberries (hulled and halved/ quartered)
3 1/2 cups rhubarb (cut into 1/2 in. pieces)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup Cooking Tapioca
a few shakes of salt
Pie Crusts- I have a good recipe for pie crust, but have found that the ready-made roll out crusts are "oh-so convenient" when you have a little one pressing you for your attention. I found this one at our local grocery store- Wegmans. Seems a bit more healthy than some other brands.
Cut fruit, mix all ingredients together. Place 1 pie crust into pie dish. Fill crust with fruit mixture. Then slice 2nd crust into 1 inch strips. Alternate & weave the strips to create a lattice top. This process works really well with 2 people.
Some people glaze the top pie crust with egg white before baking- I don't worry about it.
Bake @ 400 degrees F for 20 minutes. Then reduce temperature to 300 degrees F for 20-25min. Covered edges of crust with foil if turning brown too quickly. When the pie filling is bubbling, it's finished! Allow pie to cool completely before enjoying.
Pie can sit at room temperature for up to 3 days- though ours never last that long. Hope you enjoy this pie as much as we do! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. You are truly necessary to each of our lives.
The various "June Blooms" that we've discovered around Redwoodshire are amazing than we could have imagined. We love plants, and it often feels as though we have at least one of everything growing here. As I strolled around the property this afternoon, I snapped a few photos to share some of the beautiful plants in full bloom .
Bright Pink PEONY & White ROSE
I have been watching and waiting for the Peonies, Roses and Poppies to bloom. Each day, Lady genevieve and I take a tour of the grounds, talking about each of the plants we see. It felt like they were blooming before my very eyes. When we checked the Peonies in the morning they were still a bright pink ball. By afternoon, the flower looked like the above photo! It was amazing! All of a sudden we had flowers.
Orange POPPY
Any ideas what these pink flowers are beside the Violet foliage?
Pink RHODODENDRON & Deep Red CLEMATIS
The Rhododendron did not look very healthy at the end of winter, and we were unsure whether or not it would produce flowers or thrive. It came through and survived the harsh winter, and produced bunches of beautiful blooms. Clematis are one of the Laird's many favorites. One of his goals is to learn how to propagate it into more plants.
Lambs Ear-
The Laird grew up calling this the "Toilet Paper Plant"
Varieties of HOSTA
Our interest in different varieties of Hosta began while we were learning how to build a "shade garden" at our old house. One summer, we made it our goal to buy every different variety of Hosta that we found at garden sales. With them we started a Hosta Garden (see below).
Hosta Garden at our former house
The wonderful thing about Hostas, is that they are able to be split and spread every few years. They grow wonderfully in shade or partial sun, and create wonderful borders in every garden. In mid-summer they bloom with beautiful purple flowers. The various textures and shades/colors are complimentary to other plants growing in your garden. They are so easy to grow! We are delighted to have discovered a few different varieties growing around Redwoodshire.
We are so delighted to have such an amazing collection of plants already established here at Redwoodshire. We have the opportunity to build upon a great foundation of gardening. This is our "Year of Discovery", as we watch everything spring to life for the first time.
Our Kefir grains are activated and our first batches of Kefir have been produced. On day 7 of activating the grains, I discovered that my normally liquid milk had become very thick and separated into curds and whey. That meant the grains were ready to make Kefir. Generally it takes 12-48 hours to make a batch of Kefir, all depending on the temperature of the room and the grains themselves. Our first batch took about 24 hours. I decided to try a Second Fermentation process. This involves removing the grains from the Kefir, and then allowing the Kefir to sit at room temperature and continue to ferment for up to 12 more hours. This is said to mellow the flavor of the Kefir and also increases the B vitamin content and makes other vitamins more bio-available. This is also when you can flavor the Kefir. I sliced up a few strawberries and let it ferment away. And the results were interesting. Like I have read on many sites, homemade Kefir tastes very different than commercial brands. This is indeed true, and I have to agree that it is an acquired taste. Needless to say, each and every batch will come out it's own way, and will not be exactly the same any two times. So while that batch was in Second Fermentation phase, a new batch was fermenting with the grains. While commercial Kefir is delicious due to the sugar flavoring, it only contains about 10 different bacteria that the company has chosen to culture. Homemade Kefir may have up to 50 strains of bacteria! Amazing! I must say that the new batch that went through a single fermentation of about 12 hours, turned out much more to my taste preference. It was much smoother and better flavored than that first batch. I think I will stick with the single fermentation for a while.
While I am not an expert about Kefir, I am learning a lot. I stumbled upon this very informative website today. Kefir: A Wonder Beverage from the Ancient World. It's a wonderful read and may inspire you to give Kefir a try.
Though Lady genevieve does not care for the taste of my homemade Kefir yet, my hope is to find a flavoring that both she and the Laird love. She does not care for cow's milk, which has made weaning this 13 month old an interesting process. Trying to find an alternative for my baby who don't like cow's milk, is how I discovered that you could "make your own Kefir", in the first place. Some have suggested flavoring her milk, which is an option. However, if I am going to go the route of flavoring milk for her, then why not flavor a probiotic rich drink for her consumption instead? I flavored a small bit with some homemade raspberry jam, and the Laird humored me by drinking it. He does not like commercial Kefir, and will likely not prefer mine either. But one can hope that I will discover many ways to get this healthful probiotic food into my loved ones tummies. Even a little bit a day, can make a difference. I drank a small portion my first batch last night before bed. A few hours later, I noticed a lot of activity and noise coming from rumbling in my intestines. Having just finished up 10 days of antibiotics, I can only wonder if that Kefir was busy at work restoring all the good bacteria to my gut after having been wiped out by the antibiotics.
Got milk? Got Questions? Leave them in comments & I will respond.
Finished Kefir w/ canning lid (left) & new batch of Kefir (right) w/ coffee filter & rubber band
The littlest lady of Redwoodshire is going through a challenging food phase. Meal times can be hit or miss as far as balanced nutrition goes. She likes some things a lot, but to many things I try to offer her, she shakes her head at me and says no. I try to hide the good stuff in bites of things she likes- but she's no fool. The whole bunch comes out as soon as she detects something she does not prefer. But this much I do know, lady genevieve loves muffins! So we've been experimenting with muffins over the past month. I try to find alternatives to white sugar for sweetening, and it's been quite successful so far. We've had Banana Blueberry, Banana-Honey-Peanut Butter, and today we branched out to include a few more food groups. I found a recipe for Fruit-Veggie muffins that I used as a model- however the process looked more like throwing things in the bowl until it looked like muffin consistency.
Here's the ingredient list: WET ingredients:
Sweet Potato
Kale
Banana
Blueberry Kefir
Apple Sauce
Apple Juice Concentrate
powder ginger
cinnamon
1 Tbsp. honey
1/2 apple chopped
1/2 carrot shredded
DRY ingredients:
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
a few shakes of salt
a few shakes of cinnamon/ sugar mix
1/4 cup Organic Red Quinoa cooked
PROCESS:
Sliced sweet potato in thin pieces (cooks quicker). Sauteed sweet potato & kale in Coconut oil until soft. Coconut Oil adds an amazing flavor to sauteed vegetables. Season veggies with ginger powder & cinnamon. At this point, an amazing aroma will fill your kitchen. Then place sauteed veggie mix in blender with mashed banana & 1/4 cup Blueberry Kefir. Boil 1 1/4 cups water, and add 1/4 cup Red Quinoa. Cook for 15 minutes. Measure & mix dry ingredients in bowl. Add WET ingredients to DRY ingredients and mix until smooth. I didn't use exact measurements where no measurement is specified. Just added a little of each thing until the mix was like muffin batter. Add Quinoa to preference- I did not use all that 1/4 cup of dry quinoa made. Grease muffin pans- I like to make mini muffins for the little lady. This batch made 12 mini-muffins & 5 regular muffins.
Bake @ 350 degrees F for 18 minutes (both muffins bake about the same time) or until knife comes out clean.
Allow muffins to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and allow to cool on baking rack. If they are not removed soon enough, they will get stuck in the pan.
The muffins turned out awesome! Though lady genevieve won't eat my sauteed sweet potato, kale, quinoa dish- she doesn't hesitate when it comes to this muffin alternative with all the same great nutrients.
Blueberries! We love blueberries here at Redwoodshire, and getting our plants in the ground was high on the priority list when closed on the house last Fall. We ordered a few baby plants online through Gurneys, and bought 2 more established plants from our neighborhood nursery, Gro-Moore Farm. We have 3 Bluecrop & 3 Jersey plants. Once the plants arrive in the mail, we had to decide where to start our Blueberry patch. Blueberries need acidic soil to thrive. Our area sits on top of limestone, thus making the soil very basic. Though not ideal for blueberries, it is still possible to grow them with care and soil amendment.
Mid-May blueberries
We purchased a few soil pH kits at Gro-Moore Farm Market and tested the soil in our garden, the area where for the raspberry row, and the area we'd decided to start our blueberry patch. We decided to plant our blueberries in the space where the giant pine trees used to stand (the same pine trees that the Laird felled in the fall- see post about Felling Trees). Decomposed pine needles naturally make the soil more acidic, therefore it was the perfect place to plant those blueberries. A hundred years of decomposed pine needles right under our feet. After testing the soil their, the pH was only 1 point more acidic than in the garden, but still on the outer range of idea for blueberries. This means we still have to apply sulfur/ acid to maintain the right pH for blueberries to thrive.
As with other fruit bearing plants & tress, it is important to have more than one plant of a kind for cross pollination of the flowers to occur. As previously mentioned, we have the Bluecrop and Jersey blueberry varieties. We planted our blueberries in
the fall, and they seem to be thriving. Unfortunately, toward the end of winter the deer got to one of our more established plants and nibbled it down to sticks. It is currently recovering from that trauma. Our largest plant survived the deer and bitter winter and currently has flowers becoming blueberries. With only 1 flowering blueberry bush, we did not anticipate fruit due to the lack of cross pollination. Much to our surprise, those flowers are becoming blueberries! It is recommended that you pinch the flowers off new plants for the first 2 years, in order to allow the plant to focus it's energy on plant growth rather than bearing fruit. Though this is difficult to do, the plants will have a higher yield in years to come. Our large plant is well established and at least a few years old, so we allowed it to fruit. None of the other plants were old enough to produce flowers, therefore we'll be pinching flowers from those plants for the next few years. Such self control, but it will be well worth it.
There are so many things to do with blueberries- eat them off the bush, bake with them, make jam, freeze them for smoothies... flavor my homemade Kefir! It is going to take a few years of establishment before we have any significant yield of fruit, so in the meantime we need to figure out how to protect our plants from the deer and birds. We also have to learn the process of pruning blueberry bushes. All for another day... and another post.
Early June Blueberries
Mmmmm blueberries! Someday hopefully we'll have a bunch to enjoy every day! And maybe even enough to share with those we love too. We may have to get a few more plants!
