Kitchen / Garden / Sanctuary - Urban Homesteading to Nourish Body + Spirit

Author: Lindsey (Page 34 of 88)

Gratitude Sunday * February 26, 2012

~ I’m once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition. ~

Gratitude Sunday is a time to slow down and remember those thankful moments that graced our week. One reason I love keeping a daily gratitude journal is because it helps keep things in perspective for me. Each Sunday, I open my journal and share some of those moments with you here. If you’d like to join in, just leave a comment!

Gratitude is powerful energy. I love hearing others’ gratitudes!

***

– So many delicious fresh vegetables in our fridge right now, like the asparagus above. I just love vegetables.

– A fantastic back rub from my hubby!

– Having a great week. Feeling so normal and non-sick!!!

– Getting my first round of seeds started in the flat on the heating mat.

– Planting some things outside.

– Mixing a batch of Russian Caravan tea at the sunny table this morning; that felt really homey.

– The warm wind yesterday that melted all the snow off my garden beds in record time, allowing me to pull back all the mulch so that the soil can start warming up. I didn’t think that task would be able to happen for a while yet… so, yay!

– Feeling excited for Spring.

– A wonderful day yesterday; I loved it.

– Eating a favorite snack — chopped mushrooms braised in a little soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and red wine vinegar… and then topped with homemade raw sauerkraut and Dijon mustard.

– Watching snowfall with a mug of steaming tea in my hands.

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What gratitudes have graced your week?

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On This February Day…

This (snowy) morning...

It was a true February day today — gray and humid and chilly and snowy. But it was a spring snow — drippy and slushy! Over the weekend it just began feeling more like spring here. The quality and angle of the sunlight, the buds on the trees, the tulips pushing through the ground, and definitely the particular birdsongs that we’re hearing outside our window of late.

I was up and at the kitchen table by the window fairly early this morning with a steaming mug of tea, watching the snowflakes falling gently. I’ve rediscovered a CD I have called The Tranquil Harp by Paul Baker. It was perfect for this peaceful, snowy morning.

The streets were still warm from yesterday’s balmy temperatures, and so this afternoon most of the snow was gone from them, making my quick trip to the health food store a much easier proposition. Much as I love the snow, clear streets really are very nice.

Okay, so remember how yesterday I told you all about my great restraint in not buying more varieties of tomato seed? Well to demonstrate that iron will, I suppose I should show you what I bought today:

🙂

So anyway, I thought I’d also show you a great seed catalog I picked up yesterday for Southern Exposure. I’ve never ordered from them but I like their philosophy: “Our mission is to ensure that people retain control of their food supply, that genetic resources are conserved and that gardeners have the option of saving their own seed.”

Looks like they sell almost all heirloom or open-pollinated stuff (I really like that), and have some pretty interesting offerings. Their catalog also gives detailed growing info for each type of vegetable. It looks like a company worth ordering from.

Well it’s dusk now, and time for some tea I think.

It’s been a good day. Hope it was for you, too…

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In Garden Mode!

Man, these past few days have flown! I’ve been in almost an altered state, with a one-track mind focused solely on this year’s vegetable garden. There are big bags of dirt in our kitchen, and open seed catalogs have littered the living room floor like banana peels waiting to snag unsuspecting passerby (sorry honey!).

There’s been much reading, researching, figuring, dreaming, decision making, studying of past garden notes, and starting of seeds. The energy, enthusiasm, and time that seemed absent last year are all right here in front of me to be feasted upon — and I am feasting.

Yesterday I bought seeds for a couple fun last-minute additions to the garden plan — leeks and romanesco cauliflower — and today my mom & I got seeds for a few more things that’ll be new to the garden this year too — tarragon, bok choy, and onion seed (I’ve always grown my storage onions from sets in the past).

I also counted up that I have 37 different varieties of tomato seed. Lest you think that’s excessive, let me tell you that it takes great and continuous restraint to not buy more! But it’s already hard enough choosing only 16 varieties for the garden…

Yesterday I started all my wall-o-water tomatoes as well as my cabbage, romanesco cauliflower, regular cauliflower, yellow bell peppers, and leeks in their seed tray over a heat mat. That was a good accomplishment.

And today, even though my main spring planting time is still a few weeks away, I planted some radishes in the wall-o-water I had set up a couple weeks ago, along with some arugula in the open space next to that. I’ve found that walls-o-water are a great way to sneak in an early crop of radishes, which are in and out before it’s time to put the tomatoes in.

It felt great to get my hands into that cold, fragrant Earth.

They’re calling for snow tomorrow, and I think it’ll be a good day to get the broad beans started, and then come back down to earth a bit by going over my moneymaking work and preparing for a Friday meeting.

I hope you’re all having a nice week. And tell me — what’s currently going on in your own garden??

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Gratitude Sunday * February 19, 2012

~ I’m once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition. ~

Gratitude Sunday is a time to slow down and remember those thankful moments that graced our week. One reason I love keeping a daily gratitude journal is because it helps keep things in perspective for me. Each Sunday, I open my journal and share some of those moments with you here. If you’d like to join in, just leave a comment!

Gratitude is powerful energy. I love hearing others’ gratitudes!

***

– Audio books, so that I can multi-task!

– A really nice Valentine’s day, spent at my parents’ place since F. was out of town. My mom always does such a nice job of making holidays special and different from all the other ordinary days of the year. I love that. She decorated & bought a big balloon, and my dad came home with flowers, pizza, and some incredibly decadent chocolate-covered strawberries!! We played Dean Martin’s Love Songs CD. It was really fun~

– Going to Colorado’s new IKEA with my mom — having lunch at their cafe and then shopping!!! SO FUN! I’ve always gone to IKEA when on vacation in other states, so naturally I felt like I was on a mini vacation that day!

– At IKEA, finding exactly what I’ve been looking for — a small, portable desk/table that I can transport around the apartment according to where the sun is! I LOVE it. It’s a one-person desk, but then it also has a fold-up leaf that slides into place to make it a two-person table! So I can do my art & moneymaking work at it anywhere in the house, but F. and I can also sit at it together! Currently it’s right next to the kitchen window, and I seem to be spending all my time at it right now! I’ve wanted a kitchen table by the window for so long, and I am absolutely loving this thing! The simple things, ya know…

– The beautiful miniature living rose bush that F bought for Valentine’s Day! It has soft peach-colored blossoms; you can see it there on the table. ♥♥♥ That was so sweet. I love having a blooming plant here…

– Getting so many errands accomplished this week! That feels wonderful.

– Getting my garden planned! That’s always a big project that I don’t really enjoy very much. It really helped that I was already at my parents’ house while doing the planning, so that I had access to all my seeds, and I could just walk out the back door and count up how many pots there are to work with. Plus just seeing the raised beds in person helps me envision the plant spacing better. (To read how I go about planning my garden, click here.)

Planning the garden!

– Having my cat take a nap with me, which is an unusual thing for her to do. She kept pressing herself closer and closer into my face that I had to keep moving her fur aside so I could breathe! She is such a little sweet one…

– F. getting home from being out of town and walking through the door, safe and sound!!

– Rearranging our living room… again! It’s even better now than before. I love newly rearranged rooms.

– Chipping away at projects that have been languishing unfinished for a very long time.

– Ideas for new ways to do some things in the garden this year — that breathes some excitement into my plans!

– Cutting up our beloved (but worn) lobster-print bed sheets into strips of fabric that will be used to tie up plants in the garden this year. I love re-purposing things like that partly because it makes my life much simpler since the solution to a problem is right there in front of me and I don’t have to go out and hunt something down at a store. And instead of throwing away our Lobsters, which would be way sad, they get to begin a whole new life by helping me out in my garden.

– Drinking tea, sitting at the sunny kitchen table today, doing a long-overdue project, with soft music playing on the stereo next to me. I think I’ve got a very nice little set-up here now with window-table-sun-stereo! Yay!

– Pu-erh tea with milk! My tummy still isn’t really wanting regular black tea, but pu-erh is the thing I really go for right now — interesting — could it be because it’s fermented and not as harsh? I have no idea. But I do love it.

– Speaking of tea, the eucalyptus that I put into my nettles tea just now… oh it adds such a nice element, and unearths sweet memories of being in Australia and surrounded by the scent and majesty of so many eucalyptus trees in the Blue Mountains. What an incredible & special place that is… I’d go back in an absolute heartbeat.

– Artichokes! I’ve been on an artichoke kick; I’ve eaten four of them in the past couple days. They are so good!

– Reading my Mother Earth News magazine next to the space heater.

– Taking a nap on F’s back. It felt so nice, and kept us both warm.

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What gratitudes have graced your week?

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Minestrone Soup

Minestrone - a variation on the recipe below

This soup is delicious. I sometimes alter the recipe depending on what I have on hand, so feel free to play around.

The recipe makes a pretty large pot. Cut the amounts back if you like!!

Minestrone Soup

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 large carrot, cut into 1/2″ dice

2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2″ slices

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 small zucchini, cut into 1/2″ dice

1/2 lb potatoes, cut into 1/2″ dice

4 cups shredded green cabbage

4 – 6 cups chopped kale or swiss chard (1/4 – 1/2 lb)

28 oz canned chopped tomatoes with their juice (or feel free to use fresh tomatoes!)

2 to 3 tsp salt-free Italian herb seasoning

4 1/2 cups vegetable broth (but homemade grassfed beef bone broth is delicious too!)

1 1/2 cups cooked Great Northern beans (or 1 15-oz can, drained)

Salt/pepper to taste

***

*It helps to have everything chopped and ready before starting*

In a very large pot, heat the olive oil and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until softened.

Add carrots, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring for 4 minutes.

Add the zucchini and potatoes. Cook, stirring, for another 4 minutes.

Add cabbage and kale (or chard) and cook till cabbage is wilted.

Add the tomatoes with their juice, the veggie broth, and the Italian seasoning.

Simmer, covered, for one hour.

In a blender or food processor, puree half the beans with some liquid from the soup. Stir the puree along with the remaining beans into the soup.

Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Salt + pepper to taste.

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