Everyday Life for Four Seasons

The abundance of fresh food here is just embarrassing.


Today was great, until bedtime for the girls. Why can't they just clean up their toys? 'H' is completely non-compliant, and it's a personality thing, but in some way I understand it and I can work with it. She just can't go from point A to point B very efficiently (okay, let's be honest - she can't do it at all!). 'A', on the other hand, can go from point A to point B just fine, but there are times when she doesn't want to. She can be arrogant at times and obstinate at other times. Most times she's just lovely. But when she's not lovely, she's demanding and superior. It's essentially a new thing for her. She's acted this way a bit in the past, but not like this. I think a big part of it is her age (mixed with her personality) - she's over 5 now, and she's figuring out how to negotiate for power.

It certainly gives me something to think about!


A big thunderstorm just hit our neighborhood, so I'm signing off and staying away from the electronics until it passes. Have a great night.

I inadvertently made up a batch of holiday gifts today. 'A's nose gets so red and irritated when she gets sick, and I can't put over-the-counter creams on it because she's so sensitive to the chemicals. Even the "all natural" creams irritate her skin. Today I decided to make a healing salve for her, so we headed outside to pick some plantain and sprigs of rosemary. Back inside, I melted beeswax while the girls ripped the plantain leaves and rosemary sprigs into small pieces and put them in a stainless steel pot. I covered the leaves with 4 cups of olive oil, brought it to the simmer, and added 3/4 cup of melted beeswax. I simmered it for about 15 minutes, then strained out the leaves and poured it into 4 oz. sterile jars. I didn't intend to make enough to fill a dozen jars! I really only wanted enough to heal 'A's skin. Now I have enough to use and enough to give away.

We'll head to the farm today to pick up our vegetables, then to the farmer's market to exchange the half gallon of maple syrup I bought last week - when I opened it Saturday morning, a nice, plump fly was floating on top of the syrup. Kind of gross, huh? I'm also hoping that Michael will have some purslane for sale today at his booth.

Pine needle tea for both girls, who are starting a bit of a cold.

Something new and exciting happened on Sunday - I went for a kayaking trip at a local creek and I fell in love with it. I've been kayaking before, but never in a location that was so close to nature, a haven for birds and wildlife, without homes lining the bank.

I went with my UU small group to Fish Creek and paddled along, lifting the oar out of the water often to take in the stillness and listen to and watch for birds. The experience was an awakening for me. Who wouldn't want to spend the day in a kayak? Before Sunday, I never would have considered it. Now I'm excited to get out again.

I saw some children out in their parent's kayaks, one child nestled in front of each parent. Jeff and I could do that - each have a single kayak with a child sitting with us. I want to try it soon and see how they like it.

My cousin is here for a visit and we spent yesterday seeing Saratoga Springs through the eyes of tourists. I like seeing it that way - there is so much to see and do here. The county fair opens today and I'm looking forward to going with 'A' and 'H'. They have artwork on display at Kimberly Leahey's booth and it'll be exciting for them to see it there. I'm sure the animals and the activities will be a hit too!

Yes, we are making more jam. Blueberry this time! Two kinds: straight up blueberry jam and a blueberry-lime jam. Plus a few pickles, just for fun.

Here is our blueberry-basil vinegar recipe. You can make your own wine vinegar, something I'll have to try. For now I buy mine at the grocery store. It is also sold in bulk at some food co-ops, like the one near us.

Blueberry Basil Vinegar

Lightly crush 4 cups of blueberries (I used my hands but potato masher would do) with 1 cup of white wine vinegar in a glass bowl. Add 3 more cups of vinegar. Crush 1 cup of basil. Add the basil and the zest of one lemon to the blueberry-vinegar mixture. Cover the bowl with waxed paper and secure. Let the vinegar steep in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks, stirring every 2 to 3 days. Strain vinegar through several layers of cheesecloth. Heat vinegar to 180 degrees F. Ladle hot vinegar into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust 2-piece caps. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. And a note: 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries can be added to the vinegar before canning.


I finished The Dress for 'A' - the sundress that replaces her very favorite too-small sundress from last year. She picked the fabric, I picked the pattern, and now it's finally ready to wear. She'll wear it to the UU service tomorrow morning. Look at the photo of the inside - I love french seams! They hide all the yuckiness and make the dress practically reversible. I am so happy with the way this turned out!


Today we built a makeshift pulley system for the tomatoes (they're getting a bit tall). I know that building such a structure means we've jinxed it. Is blight going to come to our home again this year and take our crop away? This morning I found evidence of squash borer in almost all of the zucchini, ronde de nice, crookneck and the pattypan squash. I removed the borers and tied up the wounds with old nylon stockings and I'm hoping for the best. It was last year at about this time that our squash succumbed to the borer. This year I planned out the garden with the borer in mind. Surrounding the squash plants I have nasturtium, marigolds and dill, all of which are supposed to keep the borer away. I didn't spray with spinosad as a preventative measure, but now I'm wondering if I should have. I guess you live and learn, right?


The herbs are doing great. Today I harvested 14 bunches of thyme and told Jeff that I would love to run an herb farm and grow more thyme than I can ever imagine. Shortly after that conversation I spoke to my mother on the phone and without me saying a thing about the thyme, she told me about an herb farm she just discovered near her home, and she said we'll just have to take a visit out there the next time I come to see her. "It's right up your alley!" she said. What a great mother-daughter flow.


I've got jam cooling on the counter, babes in bed, two cats snuggled up for the night, a tired husband getting over a cold, and a beautiful dress ready to be worn tomorrow morning. My work here is done for the day. Have a great night.

Today was a treat! I had a chance to do a lot of things that make me happy, including making a fresh batch of blueberry vinegar (new batch is on the left, the one-week old batch is on the right). The recipe is straight from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving and it looks so delicious that I keep making more. I won't know how it tastes for sure for another few weeks though, after it has a chance to properly infuse. I'm planning to get some bottles like this to make it look nice while it awaits a yummy salad.

I made it to the gym, played with the girls, splurged on some 140 lb. watercolor paper so they can make beautiful art at home (I loved it when 'A' asked while cleaning up, "where should I put my work of art, Mommy?"). I sat outside while they swung on the swing and played baby dinosaur and I worked on 'A's dress. I'll post a photo of it tomorrow, I promise! I'm almost done. Just the hem is left. I'm really proud of this dress - proud of how it came out. I ripped out a million stitches along the way, but it was all worth it. It's got 3 tiers of gathers and french seams throughout. It looks great inside and outside.


Other things that are on my mind:

I'm reading Half the Sky and will discuss it with my UU small group at the end of the summer. What a heavy book! It's about women around the world: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; violence and rape; and maternal mortality. I knew that these issues existed but until I started reading this book, I didn't know they existed in the way that they do! The authors bring it all to life and it's not a pretty scene. It's a must-read, however, because it's real and it's happening all around the world. We can't close our eyes to it.

I discovered this blog through Hip Mountain Mama's contest and in an instant my eyes got big with wonder. I would love to live this way! I can just see me and Jeff with the girls waking up on our own farm, spending the day working in the garden and around the house. What heaven!

I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day!

Today I am loving:

...all of the local produce coming into our home from our garden, from nearby farmstands, from our CSA farm and from the farmer's market;

...turning the fresh produce into something delicious, like blueberry vinegar, blueberry jam, zucchini burgers, pickles, and steamed, sweet ears of corn for dinner;

...reading the entries for Suzy's contest on her blog -- and by the way, you can go there and vote for me, #23;

...learning more about how to live garbage-free from this couple;

...sneaking in an hour at the gym;

...and listening to my girls make up stories about where they're headed on vacation this summer.

Hi there,
I'm back (again). Summer is in full swing around here!

Suzy at Hip Mountain Mama has challenged me once again to assess what I'm doing this summer that is "green" and to write it all down. What am I doing that's green? Of course, the same old stuff - eating local produce, trekking to a local farm once a week to pick up our share of organic veggies, bringing my own bags to the store, using the rain barrel and the day's kiddie pool water to hydrate the garden when I can, using the clothesline instead of the dryer on days when it doesn't rain, harvesting and drying my own herbs, making my own Earth-friendly cleaning products and laundry detergent, limiting my driving where possible, composting, limiting air conditioner use...

I've noticed a change in my mindset these past few months that has pushed me to do more. For one thing, ever since the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico began when the BP oil well ruptured in April, I've become much more aware of my consumption of oil. Did you know that Elmer's glue, scotch tape and Crayola crayons are made from oil? I never gave much thought to it until now. I buy those products at the end of each summer at a ridiculously low price and my children use them for art projects. Do I want to continue to purchase products that are made from oil? No. There are some parts of my life where I don't feel I have much of a choice right now (okay, okay, I do have a choice - I don't have to drive a car, I don't have to live in this home filled with oil-derived products. But right now I do live this life. Don't think I haven't ruled out alternative lifestyles for the future though!). There are other parts of my life that are much more flexible, and where there are alternatives, I have decided that I will seek them out. Art supplies are now one of those areas. Why do I want my children to make art using oil, smearing dead dinosaurs all over their paper and thinking it's beautiful?

Another thing I've become much more aware of is packaging. Most of the packaging for food and goods makes heavy use of plastic. When I can, I opt to not purchase the plastic-encased product, and I make an effort to frequent stores where I can buy food in bulk.

I put a lot of emphasis on food, don't I? I do that because food is a big part of our everyday life, and also because food is a big part of the cause of climate change. Everyone eats, and each time we make a meal, we vote about the kind of world we want. Do we want to poison the air, the water, the soil and our bodies by choosing CAFO meat or conventionally-grown produce? Or do we want to heal the Earth by choosing to eat food that is grown in a more natural way?

You know what's interesting about all of this? I feel like no matter what steps I take and how much I do, there's always so much more to be done. So many more changes to make. When I start to feel as if the mountain before me is insurmountable, I remember these words from Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

A dress for 'A' - French seams, three tiers of gathers, and a lot of ripped out stitches (thank goodness it's almost done).


Pickles for all of us.

I'm back. I've been back, actually. I've just been too hot to do anything at all.


We had a great time at the Cape, lounging around in the bay during the day and even scooting out for a date one night. The sun, sand, salt water and the consistent, light breeze is heavenly.

I'll tell you what is not heavenly: this heatwave that has hit the Northeast! If it bothers me, it bothers everyone. I'm not affected by the heat as much as other people are, but this weather has felt downright hot. The girls and I have spent the days under a big shady backyard tree with our feet in a little pool (oh, we also picked blueberries, canned pickles, cut out paper dolls, made collages, tended the garden, and petted the cats).

This week I was reminded once again of why I love eating local produce. This week we received a head of lettuce - boston/bibb/butterhead, one of those varieties - and it was so smooth, so sweet, so tender and so buttery. The lettuce we have in our garden now is getting a bit tough. The heads we see at the farmer's market are becoming leathery. And here in our hands was this wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth head of lettuce. A few years ago I would have looked at it and wondered what the big deal was. Now I know. I served it with this blueberry dressing and it was delicious.


Speaking of food, I purchased this book and now I want this one too. I have become such a fan of Jack Bishop! His recipes are not only delicious as is, they inspire me to tweak them and extend them to other dishes.

The rain will come tomorrow, and with it, two days of relief. I'll take it.

Here it is almost midnight and it's the first chance I've had to sit down. We had a great day - busy but great. Not a lot of sibling fighting today (wow!) and a whole lot of love and creativity and helpfulness. I took the girls to a homeschool art class this morning and they enjoyed themselves there. I love the way the teacher sets up the class and I love the materials she chooses. Today's topic was the Iroquois Indians and the moons they had throughout the year. I didn't bring my camera because it's not the kind of class that's open to visitors so.... sorry, no visitors!

The rest of the day was spent preparing for an upcoming vacation and included lots of food processing. I blanched and froze all of the squash we got from the farm today (my goodness, a few years ago I wouldn't have known how to blanche food!). I made and froze two different kinds of veggie burgers. I cleaned and packed and when Jeff got home, we laid several feet of soaker hose in the garden. And of course since it's Wednesday, we went to the farm to pick up our vegetables.

Now I'm going to get some much deserved rest!

Finally those first squashes I pollinated by hand have grown to full size. These are Ronde de Nice squash, something I didn't choose purposely, but am happy with anyway. They were sold at our Unitarian Universalist plant sale and I bought two plants, thinking, "why not?" They're round and are perfect for stuffing.

The girls just pushed their chair away and went to play. They had pulled the chairs around me and asked me to tell them a story, to which I said, "why don't I start the story and pass it on to the two of you to finish?" We were Ma, Mary and Laura (from Little House on the Prairie, of course - as if we would pretend to be anyone else!). They're so cute right now. They're not always cute - sometimes 'A' gets very physical and bossy, and sometimes 'H' gets very whiny, but if I can get past all that, I can see that they're very cute.


I'm reading "Diet for a Hot Planet: the Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It" by Anna Lappe and sure, we don't eat factory farmed meat (or any meat, for that matter) and we try to eat locally (and we do, as far as our veggies and fruit is concerned, 95% of the time - 'A' loves frozen corn and peas and buy those at the grocery store), but there is something more to be learned from this book than just the importance of eating low on the food chain. It's startling to see the real numbers... to see what our current food system is really doing to our planet. If we (Americans) don't stop eating so much meat and processed food, it's a matter of time - a very short amount of time (within my lifespan, long before I even become a grandma) - before our environment caves under the pressure we put on it. So much food is fertilized, processed and shipped with help from the oil refineries. Unless your food comes from an organic farm, it's made with oil. Gross! When I connect all the dots - risky deep water oil production, long-distance food supply, the obesity epidemic, the steep rise in food allergies, ADD and the like, high pesticide use, fractured families, stressed out individuals, and our threatened water supply, it's sometimes too much to think about. At the risk of sounding too spiritual (which is funny because I'm a UU and some of us are pretty skeptical of that phrase), I would add the decline of spirituality to that list. Definitely the decline of a sense of local community. And yes, I do put stressed out individuals and fractured families in with the food issue because I do believe that you are what you eat, and you are how you eat. And if you're eating chemically-treated stressed out animals and chemically-treated stressed plants grown in stressed soil, gobbling it down while you're doing 100 other things, then it's just a matter of time before the stress comes to you. And by "you", I mean all of us, not you specifically.

What is going on here?
Where are we - the collective we - going?
What is our children's world going to look like?