Above the Dam Jam

Lemon Marmalade

2012-02-18T15:58:00.000-05:00

We're heading to Florida in the spring with the kids. Although we have plans to go to Sea World and otherwise bask in the sun by a pool or beach, I'm really hoping I can convince the family to take a little citrus tour. In the spirit of those hopes, I picked up a bunch of lemons (ok, they're from CA, not FL), and I've made my first batch ever of lemon marmalade. Only two ingredients go into this recipe I merged from about.com and The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook: lemons and sugar. It's an awesome, if not slightly uppity, gift for a culinary friend, and it's fantastic on toasted anadama bread. Directions are below.

What you'll need:

a dozen lemons

4 cups of sugar

4 cups of water

6 to 8 half pint mason jars and lids, sterilized

First thing: Buy your lemons at the market, or pick them if you're lucky enough to have access to a tree. If bought at the market, whether or not they're organic, they may be coated with some kind of wax used for the purpose of preservation. You don't want that in your final product, whatever you're using the lemons for, so you'll want to remove the wax. I boiled a pot of water, poured it over my lemons, scrubbed each one with an unused plastic kitchen scrubby, then rinsed them again with super-hot water.

Now onto the marmalade adventure, and it was an adventure. First peel your lemons.

I used a small cheap paring knife, as my veggie peeler didn't do the job. Make sure to cut the peelings into small thin pieces, appropriate for the size you'd want in your marmalade.

Then make sure the white bitter stuff is off of your lemons. Yes, I used the same paring knife. Next, cut your lemons cross-wise into 1/4 inch pieces, making sure to remove every seed along the way. This is a time-consuming process, but don't fret! The end result is worth it. Now put the peelings, lemon innards, and 4 cups of water into a covered container, then into your fridge overnight.

Take your container out of the fridge in the morning, stir up the mixture, and bring to a constant simmer over medium heat for about an hour. Then add the sugar, and bring the mixture to a boil until the sugar has dissolved. Bring again to a constant simmer for about an hour, checking the temperature with a candy thermometer as it cooks. Once your temp reaches 215 degrees, make sure to keep an eye on your mixture and stir constantly. When it reaches 220 degrees, remove your pot from the heat. Fill sterilized jars, add lids, then boil in a water bath for 10 minutes.

I am an inexperienced marmaladian; however, I was assured by trustworthy marmalade aficionados that my efforts resulted in the right amount of sweet balanced with just the right amount of bitter. It was a fun and different task for this New Englander, and one I will try again with oranges upon our arrival home from Florida. Can I bring fresh-picked oranges back with me on a plane? Next task.

Making Fortune Cookies

2012-02-13T16:24:00.002-05:00

Addie told me she thought it would be cool to bring something other than cupcakes to school for her little birthday celebration in her kindergarten classroom. And that is what we did. Rather proud of myself, I must say.

It started out by me frantically Googling "How to make fortune cookies" after promising them to my almost-six-year-old. Most of the recipes are similar. Here's my version of some of those recipes combined:

2 egg whites

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/3 tsp almond extract

3 Tbs veggie oil

8 Tbs flour

1 1/2 tsp corn starch

1/4 tsp salt (not sure this is necessary at all)

8 Tbs sugar

3 tsp water

Make sure to create your fortunes first. I wrote them myself, but you could print them off too. A glass of wine may be required for the creativity necessary for completing this part, or invite a good-humored friend over to help you. Make them fun!

Beat together the egg whites, vanilla, almond, and oil until bubbly. Then stir together the flour, starch, salt and sugar in a separate bowl. Then stir in the water. Add the flour mix into the egg mix and stir until it's creamy. Now, here's the important part. You have to be super-quick once the cookies come out of the over so as to not allow them to harden before you add fortunes and fold them up. Because I tended NOT to be super-quick in my first try at these, I only baked 5 at a time. Otherwise I was too late. So, for each cookie, you'll put about a Tbs-sized dollop of batter on your greased cookie sheet. Once you have as many as you think you can handle, put your sheet in the oven at 300 for 12-15 minutes. When the edges are just starting to turn golden, take the cookies out of the oven. Quickly use a spatula to transfer a cookie to your hand, then place your (extremely creative) fortune in the middle. Fold the cookie over the fortune, then fold the middle fold back on itself again. It was helpful for me to look at a photo of an actual fortune cookie while doing this. Then place the hot folded cookie into a muffin pan, where it is more likely to keep its shape until it firms up.

Once the cookies are cool, go ahead and melt some chocolate, add sprinkles, and throw them in the fridge (on wax paper or tin foil) until the chocolate firms, then remove to a covered container.

For the purpose of bringing them into Addie's class, we put each cookie in a cupcake liner. A little warning: Some of the fortunes seemed to stick a little bit to the cookie. It's all about making sure the cookies are baked just enough but not too much.

Oh, and did you know that fortune cookies are an American invention? One story goes, a Chinese-American baker in California saw that many people in his town were struggling, so he decided to make cookies with positive "fortunes" enclosed to brighten their days.

I love this idea and intend to use it myself. Confucius says, good fortune (cookies) to you!

Breakfast of Champions

2012-01-09T08:40:00.000-05:00

Several years ago, when Joe and I both had great jobs and we weren't penny pinching so much, we bought several of the best small appliances a kitchen could need. We picked up a full-sized Cuisinart, a very rugged blender, and an electric citrus juicer, among other necessary kitchen items. Today we still have the blender, having replaced a few parts over the years, but all the other items went out in the trash with broken motors. Last year at my mom's church yard sale, we picked up an old-school citrus juicer-- you know, the kind you just stick half an orange on and smush into a small cup underneath. Yesterday morning we made fresh orange juice and ate fresh wood-fired oven bread (thank you Robin, of Wildflour Breads), spread with fresh peanut butter I whipped up in our cheap no-name-brand food processor. Talk about the highlight of our weekend. The kids loved it, and now I'm thinking of saving up for a real peanut butter processor. I mean really-- jam and peanut butter. Why didn't I think of this sooner?

The New Kitchen

2012-01-06T11:36:00.001-05:00

I have no excuses for not writing, other than that I really have been making a ridiculously humungous amount of jam and pickles for holiday orders. Oh, and the guys have been building our new kitchen in the basement. Seriously, I have a kitchen now just for making jam and pickles, and for whatever else I might choose to cook or bake in small or big amounts. Just yesterday I made a batch of strawberry jam, using the same old-school recipe I've always used-- oh but 8 times the called for ingredient measurements -- and poured out just about 60 jars of the sweet stuff. SIX. ZERO. This might not be a big deal to our local jam gurus Stonewall Kitchens, but to me it is an amazing feat. Normally a batch of jam produces five to seven half-pint jars. Now I can make bigger batches, and I do not have to forfeit any quality in doing so. And if being super-psyched about the kitchen wasn't enough, I made Joe (well, he did it willingly really) set up a television in the kitchen so I can peruse my Netflix options while cooking. He is certain that once I'm officially using the place commercially, I'll set up a cot in there and will never be seen again. I've told him that I will likely have to come upstairs to use the bathroom once in a while, so no worries.

Here's a glimpse.

You only get one before photo, and you don't get any of what is the horrifying reality that is the rest of our basement.

And After.

And the equipment. 12 gallon steam kettle. Gas range.
What more does a girl need?

Don't judge. I'm getting organized.

Blueberry Wedding

2011-10-17T13:38:00.001-04:00

A customer who found me on Etsy sent this lovely photo of her wedding favors in action. Thanks for sharing your presentation with us! I'm thrilled to have been a part of such a meaningful and memorable day.

Making Grape Jelly

2011-10-03T18:56:00.001-04:00

Thanks to my cousin Jason, who dropped off a ton of Concord grapes a few nights ago, I'm now making batch after batch of grape jelly. I use the simple recipe straight out of M & S Meyer's Saving the Seasons, my latest favorite preserving guide. We're thinking about mashing some of the rest of the grapes we have into apple-grape juice using our little cider press. On the other hand, wouldn't it be so fun to just let the kids mash them all up with their feet? I'll let you know how that goes...

Jar Swap, 2011

2011-09-19T10:30:00.001-04:00

Our house was full of excitement last night as the 15 of us examined each other's jarred bounties. I can't specify the highlights for me this year, as everything turned out to be so incredibly awesome! I'll have to report back on the jarred grape juice, as that needs to sit for a couple more weeks. However, you can be certain I'll be critical, as I enjoy giving my cousin Keith a very hard time. Here's what we ended up with:

A table full of incredible stuff:

A few photos of individual things... I couldn't get shots of everything with the chaos of babies, kids, and adults all surrounding the table.

Keith and Ange brought this super-cool looking grape juice in jars. Can't wait to try it!

Laurie's salsa. It goes without saying that this stuff is hot! And yummy of course.

Can't get any better than raw honey. And I'm pretty sure Sarah wins the award for presentation.

Matt's beet-pickled eggs. A well-executed adventure for my brother.

Sarah's red tomato piccalilli. No cukes in this fall favorite.

This funky sauce goes awesome on grilled chicken and is chunky enough to eat with chips.
Thanks to Holly, I made out with an extra jar!

Here's a family favorite and my favorite item from the night. I swear it's not because my Mom made it!

Peach Raspberry Jam made by an incredibly talented jamasseur. Oh, it's mine!
I definitely feel humbled by all the effort that went into everyone's creations.

Other jarfections not shown here included Aunt Judy's Adirondack pickles, Erin's Caramel Apple Jam, Trish's Chocolate Raspberry Jam, Shellene's Pasta Sauce, Amy's Apple Sauce (last year's favorite), Aunt Carol's Caramel Popcorn, and Jady's Piccalilli. Jady was new to the swap this year, and I am SO GLAD she participated. It's always a nice treat to have newbees, and this woman can cook! I can't wait to try everything!

Vanity Plates

2011-09-17T19:45:00.000-04:00

Something needs to be pretty personally amazing to specialize your license plate with it, don't you think? The other day I saw a LADYGA plate, and a young guy was driving the little car. Was it his car, Mom's car, the girl-friend's car? Here are a couple others I've seen lately, and ones I personally prefer to Gaga.

and

Keeping up with Kennebunk

2011-09-11T19:33:00.000-04:00

If you haven't yet had the chance to check it out, the Kennebunk Farmers Market is an awesome place to find local food, eat breakfast (or lunch), and spend a Saturday morning. It's kept me extremely busy this summer as well, as the locals and summer visitors just love jam and pickles (and other goodness too, of course)! At the moment, I'm sealing hundreds of jars of preserves and pickles (OH THE PICKLES!) each month, and we're ~~considering~~ making plans to build a new kitchen set-up to meet the demand. Here's a wee glimpse at what I've recently brought to market and the stands:

Aside from the usual popular goodies including bread & butters, the berry jams, and anything with rhubarb, I've had a great time making batches of hot stuff. Most recently I've cooked a ton of Cranberry Hinkle Hatz, named for the very hot pepper with the same name. Thanks to Pam at Trailside Herbs for introducing these spicy gems to my garden. Local cranberries, a few strawberries, and some sweet and hot peppers go along way spread over goat cheese in a little dish with fancy crackers. Yum.

When Being Busy is Good

2011-08-17T16:47:00.000-04:00

I haven't blogged in a long time now, and I'm happy to say it's because I'm super busy with the jam and pickle gig. Also, we're doing a lot of summer stuff with the kids. After all, we live in Maine, and it's summer, and who wouldn't take advantage of that?

Here's what we've been up to, and this is just the stuff I have photographed!

The usual river swims with my girls.

Bubba versus the Porcupine AGAIN.

Preschool Graduation... sniffle sniffle.

Our annual (should be more frequent!) visit between the Rubys and fams.

Ferry Beach with the Sims.

Below the dam with Cam.

Storyland with cousin Lily and Camden.

Who woulda thought that three college roommates could come up with this number of kids after 17 years?

A whole lotta bike riding.

Lemon Cukes. Pickled in vanilla and lemon juice. Just one example of something new and funky I'm enjoying making.

The farmers market circuit. Loving it!

Farmer's Daughters Farmstand Fridays. Can't believe I get paid to work here.

Jumping around with family and friends on the big new pillow at Pumpkin Valley Farm.

Addie's and my old past time: making cookies.

Chocolate Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce

2011-07-20T09:45:00.001-04:00

This bit of yumminess is brought to you by a big mistake I made while cooking a humungous batch of strawberry rhubarb jam. I forgot to put the pectin in with the fruit before putting in the (you really don't want to know how much) sugar. So, I added lemon juice, grabbed a bunch of unsweetened chocolate, and went for it. Oh, let me preface the actual recipe by assuring you it's fine to halve or quarter the recipe to make a smaller, more normal-sized batch.

3.5 lbs rhubarb plus 1 cup of water
5.5 lbs strawberries
10 lb bag of sugar, plus 6 cups (if you must know, it's about 28 cups)
1 cup lemon juice
8 oz unsweetened bakers chocolate

I used a 20 quart stock pot. Cook the rhubarb (and water) until it's nice and tender. Add the strawberries and mash to your liking. Boil and add the sugar quickly. Stir in the lemon juice and chocolate, then bring all of the above to a boil again. Once the chocolate has melted completely, turn down the heat and simmer for 40 minutes. This will give the mixture a jam-like consistency. If you prefer a saucier consistency, I'd simmer for 20 minutes instead. Once cooked, pour the mixture into jars and seal. Always bathe in boiling water for 10 minutes if you're at sea level.

This will give you about 30 half-pint jars of sauce. The reason I go for a thicker consistency is to allow myself the opportunity to spread it on a biscuit like jam. It's much easier to make jam thinner than thicker once it's in a jar. Heat it up and load it onto your hubby's ever-so-boring vanilla ice cream. For yourself, of course. Well, I guess the hubby could have some too.

The Devil's Portal and Vacation in Virginia

2011-07-13T23:29:00.001-04:00

Today I cooked a LOT. I made a couple batches of bread & butter pickles, dill pickles, cherry pie jam (TO DIE FOR), blackberry jam, blueberry jam, and strawberry-rhubarb jam. I also whipped up a quick facebook page for Farmer's Daughters Farm Stand in Waterboro, as Ed and Sarah do not yet use facebook, or, what they fondly call the devil's portal. I think it's because between us, we know of more than one married couple who have broken up as the result of spouses reconnecting with old flames through said portal. Scary! Anyway, it was a busy day and a good one. Normally I get caught up in some dramatic tv series to obsess over while jamming, but today I mostly reflected on our vacation in Virginia last week. We visited with Joe's family for a few days and had a fun and easy time, just the way a vacation is supposed to be.

Did you know that Joe was a Rescue Swimmer in the Navy? Do you think he learned this move in survival school? We're definitely framing this one!

Would you believe that four families, including all of these children (our kids, 2-year old triplets, and our little 1-year old nephew), all vacationed together in the same home? Thankfully Grandpa has a big house!

Oh, Charlie. She gets such a kick out of herself! We do too, of course.

Cutting Onions and Looking Hip

2011-07-11T08:30:00.001-04:00

Thanks to the Achorn Farm kids, I can now cut onions ALL day, which seems to be happening lately, as it is finally pickle season! Seriously, I wore these ski goggles for the entire day on Friday. Not only didn't I tear up at all, but it was a very good conversation starter.

Garden Update, June 2011

2011-06-29T19:43:00.002-04:00

Some things early, some things late. Weeds everywhere. So far no sign of bird damage to the fruit, but we'll see what happens when it gets really ripe!

What would YOU do if 24 quarts of just-picked Anderson Farms strawberries showed up on your door step? Start eating? Make jam? Both. Thanks, Sarah! Soooooo yummmmy. It all started tonight with no-sugar, all strawberries and local-honey-sweetened jam. Next, on to more SR while the R (rhubarb, of course) is still aplenty.

Kennebunk Farmers Market in June

2011-06-18T20:35:00.003-04:00

The Kennebunk market is well underway, and I'm having a wonderful time of it. It's terrific to be so close to so many great farmers and other vendors. Pop by for a visit any Saturday morning from 8:00 to 1:00 in the middle of town for awesome seedlings and new veggies, a wide variety of dairy items, all kinds of meats, baked goods, and other yummy and creative stuff. Here's just a glimpse at our end of the market-- next time I'll run down and grab some pics from the entrance. Hope to see you there!

Groundwork Farm

The Sweet Specialist

Chick Farm

Trailside Farm Herbs: This stuff really works. Our whole family is using it this summer.

Barn Swallow Farm

Tracy and her girls from Maple Ridge Farm

Rhubarb Pie

2011-06-13T13:20:00.001-04:00

One of my best-sellers right now is Rhubarb Pie jam. Did we determine yet if I'm personally allowed to judge my own jam as sooooooo good? Well it is, and of course the idea came from my neverendingly favorite kind of pie, which must be baked at least a few times during the height of the rhubarb season.

If you're not a pie-baker, don't be afraid to try this super-simple kind. For real, it's easy. You can do it.

When it comes to crust, if you're a pie-baking newbee, go ahead and get yourself a box of rolled up crust from the grocery store. No one will know, and you won't tell anyone either. When someone asks if you made the crust, you say, "Why yes, I did bake it." You did. Otherwise open up any recipe book to find a crust recipe you're comfortable with and go for it.

In addition to the crust, you'll need:

1 2/3 cups sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

5 cups rhubarb, cut up in 1/2 inch pieces. Do NOT peel the rhubarb.

1 Tbs butter

Set your oven at 425. Place one pastry in bottom of 9 or 10 inch pie plate. Mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Turn half the rhubarb into the pastry-lined plate and cover with half the sugar mixture. Cover with the rest of the rhubarb, then the rest of the sugar mixture. Drop little bits of the butter around the top of the sugar mixture. You'll want to put slits or decorate small openings in the top crust before you cover your pie with it. I usually put 4 little leaf-shaped holes around the pie, and an x-shaped slit in the middle. Seal your crusts well and cut off excess pastry. Oh, I almost forgot this very important part! Beat an egg then paint it on the top of your crust. Next sprinkle sugar or cinnamon-sugar on top of the egg. You will not be sorry you added this step! Next, I cover the entire pie with tin foil to avoid burning the crust, but it is important to put a large slit in the tin-foil where the middle of the pie is so your crust doesn't get soggy. Keep the foil on for about half an hour before removing it, then baking your pie another 15 minutes. You'll know the pie is done when juices starts bubbling through the slits in the crust.

Feel free to eat this pie for breakfast. Joe and I have determined that it can't be less healthy than a muffin, and doesn't rhubarb look healthy? It is! You will love it.

Why did the turtle cross the road?

2011-06-04T16:39:00.000-04:00

I saw this little guy trying to cross our road yesterday. I was so worried about coming home later and finding him smushified that I pulled over and waited for him to cross before I left again. When he saw me walking toward him, however, he went into hiding, which did not at all help my cause. So, I got back in the van and moved up a few yards, then watched until he finally did go for it. This is not the first time I've stopped traffic for a turtle-crossing. One time Jesse and I got out of my truck in the middle of busy route 28 in Wolfeboro. Summer traffic was stopped on both sides of the highway while we used a towel to sort of "tempt" a tiny turtle across the pavement. I like to think all the beeping cars were cheering us on.

Raising Broiler Chicks

2011-06-02T08:11:00.001-04:00

Matt (bro) and I decided to raise broiler chicks this year up in his barn. Our spouses announced from the beginning that "The Jo(e)'s are not involved!" However, right away JoAnne was worried about their welfare in the pen, and both she and Joe have been helping out quite a bit. Here's your first glimpse at our little meatlings.

They're cute, aren't they? It's been a good lesson for our girls so far. They understand we are going to eat these birds when they are "big and ugly," but for now we can visit and take care of them to keep them healthy.

A Big Scoop of Heaven

2011-05-27T06:33:00.001-04:00

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love malted milk balls-- malted anything really, but mostly malted milk balls. I also love ice cream, of course. I really don't associate with anyone who doesn't. When we're out of ice cream at home, I usually get two boxes. I tell Joe, "This one is mine, and the other one is mine, but you can ask me if you want to have some." Imagine my glee (can't stop using the word since I started watching season 1) when I found this at our local grocery store:

Rainy Day Kid Fun

2011-05-21T19:20:00.001-04:00

With the weather being the yuck-fest it has been over the last several days, my brain has been drained of all interesting and creative thoughts. Thanks to High-Five Magazine and Williams Sonoma Kids Baking cookbook for providing some basic entertainment for my girls while I helplessly stared out the window. Ok, I didn't really just stand there and stare. I pouted over the stove while the girls put these tidbits together:

Paper Bag Town, complete with preschool and diner, among other favorite landmarks, as well as the addition of several dollhouse toys, a community piano, and three pools for local enjoyment. Apparently the sun is shining in PB Town.

And on to this most-awesome, and equally most-easy, Puffy Apple Oven Pancake, which Addie made for breakfast AND for dinner.

What you need:

an apple
4 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp vanilla

Stir together 2 Tbs sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and peel and chop up the apple. Stir the sugar mixture and the apple together, then dump the apples in the bottom of a greased pie dish. Bake it at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. While that's baking, mix everything else together until it is smooth an frothy. The WS recipe called for use of a blender, but I didn't feel like getting that dirty, so we just stirred the stuff like crazy, one kid at a time, until it was frothy. Pour this into the pie dish with your apples after they've baked for 5 minutes, then cook for another 25 minutes or so. The pancake should be puffy and turning brown. It should look like this:

If you want, sprinkle confectioners' sugar over the pancake. We didn't have any, so we used regular sugar. Not as pretty, but it did the trick. The girls loved it-- for breakfast AND dinner.

Spring and Other Stuff II

2011-05-15T12:04:00.001-04:00

Signs of spring at our house...

Boogie pointing at this bumble bee for 45 minutes before learning his lesson.

Peeps Casserole a la Keith

Front porch masterpiece painting on Daddy's face. (I think he actually took a nap.)

Confidently wearing sunglasses Ruby picked out for me at Reny's. Oh, and publicly showing off the new paint job.

Ruby doing all the labor involved with making dandelion jelly.

A Secret SO Big

2011-05-10T11:50:00.002-04:00

I brought Sour Fiddlehead Pickles to the Kennebunk Farmers Market this past Saturday. The market was a big success, and I met a ton of awesome people. A lot of people asked what a fiddlehead is and where you can pick them. Truth be told, I needed help finding some fiddleheads myself, and in differentiating them from their unedible neighbors, so I reached out to family, begged and pleaded until I got answers (and used some blackmailing techniques), until I finally got what I wanted: Fiddlehead foraging with the family.

No, I will not let you in on the location of the fiddleheads found below. I will be banned from all future family happy hours if I divulge any information on the whereabouts of local fiddleheads.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, a fiddlehead is a fern just like all other ferns, except it's a specific fern. Confuse you enough? It's officially called an "ostrich fern," and you can tell it apart from other ferns by the "v" shape of its stem and the papery stuff on the outside of the head. I won't go into more detail. More detail is all over the internet. (Thanks Keith and Ed for not making me look all over the internet.)

Kennebunk Farmers Market

2011-05-04T17:45:00.013-04:00

It's a sure sign of the season when the summer farmers markets start posting their "Open" flags all over Maine. I myself am a newbee in the market world and am SO excited to head down to Kennebunk with a whole boat load-- well, Fiesta-load really, of jam and pickles this Saturday. I'm thrilled to be outside (hopefully it will be beautiful), and equally as psyched to be a part of something that was voted Maine's Favorite Small Farmers Market by the American Farmland Trust. If you'd like a glimpse into the Kennebunk Market, check out their web site or facebook page for a list of vendors and upcoming events. Oh, and look forward to Saturday's Kennebunk May Day Festival, including a parade and face-painting, among other fun stuff for kids! See you on Saturday from 8:00-1:00.

This is what I'll have to offer on opening day:

Strawberry, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Raspberry, Blackberry, Blueberry, Low-Sugar Triple Better (also known as Dam Fruity), Maple (no-sugar) Apple Pie, Peach Habanero (best seller), Dam Hot Pepper, Chocolate and Raspberry, Strawberry Basil, among other specialty jams. Oh, and Bread & Butter Pickles. How could I forget them???

No-sugar varieties are SO beautiful. Do you think Crayola would consider creating a new color called No-sugar Raspberry Jam?

Chocolate Raspberry Jam

2011-04-30T19:12:00.001-04:00

How do you eat it? On a scone (or good old toast), atop vanilla ice cream, as the "J" in your PB&J, or right out of the jar with a spoon. It is what it is. Chocolate and Raspberries. Maybe a little sugar. Yum.

Spring Things and other Stuff

2011-04-20T07:41:00.002-04:00

It feels like forever since I've written. I used to feel this way about writing letters, but thankfully we have e-mail now, and I can sort of keep up with that. Anyway, since the pickled eggs (NOT an April Fools joke), a lot has happened. The Biddeford Market has gotten busier, the kids are wilder, and spring is popping up all over the place. Here's a glimpse at what we've seen of spring so far. Oh, and yes, next up- I'll change my banner up there from winter to spring. I promise.

Can you guess what this is? Auntie, you are exempt from guessing, you cheater.

How about this? Hopefully I can keep this one alive.

Introducing... Rock, Movie Star, Lipstick, Holly-Egg-Mama, Tia, and Dave. I prefer Dave to Tia, which is why one chick has two names. Obviously, the Easter Bunny arrived early in the form of us driving to Andy's Agway and picking out our new little ones.

And back to "Can you guess what this is?" I won't make you guess. It's parsnips we found at the Biddeford Farmer's Market, brought home, and cooked up in some olive oil, cinnamon, salt, and sugar. The girls loved these little apples of the earth. I know, I know. That's what the french (or is it French) call potatoes, but these actually taste a bit like apples, so I'm going with it.

And lastly, I can not get enough looks at these incredible bracelets Anne made from bicycle parts. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with the purple one before the market sees its winter end. Actually, did you know we're going to give a shot at pulling off a spring market in the same parking lot where the market currently exists? Thursday afternoons, 3-6. Check it out!

Pickled Eggs

2011-04-01T13:42:00.001-04:00

We only have 5 egg-laying chickens at the moment, but with them all laying an egg a day on average, we've got plenty of eggs for our family. So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to cook up some pickled eggs.

Have at this funky old-school favorite. It's the easiest little canning project you'll ever do:

Hard boil a dozen or so eggs. It's best if they're not right out of the coop, as they tend to be difficult to peel when they're super-fresh. Let the eggs cool completely before mixing together the following ingredients in a medium sauce pan:

2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
1 tablespoon pickling spice
1 clove garlic or 1 tsp minced garlic
1 bay leaf

Peel and place all the eggs in a quart jar. Boil mixture for one minute, then pour over the eggs into the jar. Seal tightly with a regular canning lid or plastic lid. Key point on this one: Pickled eggs MUST be refrigerated. I can't wait to give these to my brother Matt as part of his birthday present on the 4th. This is a guy who drinks Clamato juice straight out of the bottle, so I'm guessing he'll at least be open to trying the eggs.

Oh, and by the way, I'm pretty sure the Easter Bunny's going to hook us up with some new baby chicks again this year. It's something the girls have been talking about since last Easter. You gotta love that bunny!

Maine Maple Syrup Season

2011-03-23T10:06:00.003-04:00

My grandfather used to collect sap on the farm and make maple syrup. Since he passed away, and since my brother Ed and his wife Sarah took over the farm, they have taken charge of the sap-collecting in what is now our neighborhood. The old sap house still stands at the bottom of our hill, and our community of siblings and cousins still all take part in celebrating spring by hanging around the sap house on what is now known to be "Redneck Saturday." I think Ed and Sarah decided to formally name their not-so-formal celebration day in lieu of what is more popularly known to be Maple Syrup Weekend in New England. Our little festival entails gathering around the sap house, bringing the kids along on the 4-wheeler to collect sap, taking turns putting wood in the fire, and having a beer or two. It's a terrific family and friends event, and everyone goes home with syrup. The boiling continues beyond Redneck Saturday of course, and you can pick up your own Anderson Farms syrup at their farm stands in the summer.

Gathering sap on the back of "The Flame," Ed's 4-wheeler, is a highlight of the day for our kids.


The Sap House: Where the Magic Happens

Ed and I watching the sap boil. He's probably actually doing something productive while I stand there and get warm.

This really is what it looks like in the house when sap's-a-boiling. And it smells SO good.

Ed filtering sap from the boiling pans.

We miss you, Uncle Brian. Don't worry-- the boiling continues!


Sam takes his dad's seat in the sap house.

YUM.

March at the Market

2011-03-06T13:54:00.002-05:00

It doesn't seem to be getting any warmer outside, but things are heating up quite a bit at this winter's first-ever Biddeford Winter Farmers Market. This week, we had a full house with 15 vendors reaching around the Pepperell Mill, also a make-shift museum of old mill photos, tools, and other items. The locals still seem to be loving the Saturday morning event, we're getting to know some "regulars," and as vendors, we're having a good time too. Here's just a bit of what you'll see if you decide to make your way to the market next weekend.

Everyone loves local greens and other veggies, even mid-winter. Sunset Farm Organics.

Have you ever seen such a beautiful stool? Lovely people too.

When this customer left her jars of jam at the market by accident, we set them aside with a note that said "The Mayor" since we couldn't decide in the cold moment whether there was an "e" in Twomey. Thanks for the business, Mrs. Mayor! Note Chef Gilley and Lisa trying to keep their table stocked with their awesome Zucchini Relish and her jewelry. They've been wonderfully helpful to me as a new vendor as well!

What a great time of year to market Alpaca socks and mittens!

Buck's Nuts. Need I say more?

I look forward to moving a bit farther away from my own table to get some shots of more vendors. These photos do not give due credit to the incredible dairy, meat, and other local artisan vendors who've been to the Biddeford market this winter. More to come!

The Letter I Wish I could Actually Send

2011-02-21T23:38:00.009-05:00

To Whom it may Concern:

You are just a group of fools sitting around a big board-room table if you don't accept Samantha into your prestigious college or university- not that I'm even a little worried. This kid is smarter and wiser than any adult I know, and her sense of what is good and right is eerily angelic. Sam is an outstanding listener, counselor, and friend in general to all her peers. Sam tends to know what's best in most situations. I must admit, this is also true in my home when she watches over my three children (all under the age of 5). While I spend most nights tugging, pushing, coaxing and finally giving up and watching the girls as they finally fall asleep, exhausted from their various tantrums, Samantha pops over for an evening, somehow gets them in their pj's, teeth-brushed, and actually in their own beds on time and-- get this-- they go to sleep almost instantly. This all happens with ease, without fail, every time I leave ~~my hero~~ Sam with our children.

As an obvious aside, the kid is like a genius. She's taken a zillion AP courses in high school, belongs to all kinds of various academic, athletic, and philanthropic groups, and all the while she has time for her family. Oh and she reads The New Yorker for fun. This ain't your average kid. Did I tell you she works too? And on a farm where there's real labor to be done? Samantha is not a complainer. She is hip and classy, fun, beautiful and attractively dorky, athletic and charming-- an all-around wonderful person. I can't say enough about Sam, other than that I can't imagine the rest of the world sees her any other way. She belongs wherever she wants to be.

In conclusion, if Samantha chooses to be a part of your college or university community, you will be luckier for it. Your family will be a warmer, smarter, happier place too.

Sincerely,
Sam's Aunt Sue

Biddeford Winter Farmers Market

2011-02-14T15:55:00.002-05:00

It was preceded by quite a bit of local publicity. All the Southern Maine newspapers covered the story, and the locals were abuzz about the upcoming event. It would be Biddeford's first farmers' market, and in the middle of February at that. The donated mill space is part of the old Pepperell building where we used to go to get factory sale blankets with my mom when we were kids. It's right over the bridge from Main Street in Saco, on the Biddeford side of the river, of course.

I walked in around 8:10 on Saturday morning to find my ample 10x10 space taped off by Deanna Weaver, the market's organizer and owner of Biddeford's Sweet Specialist. While D. and many of the rest of the vendors (including me) appeared apprehensive and nervous about how the day would go, we were all relieved by 9:30 when storms of locals appeared at the mill to welcome our presence. It was a terrific first day. I sold tons of jam, and I'm pretty sure everyone who had food for sale sold out before we closed up at 1:00. Hopefully the trend will continue. More info and feedback in the weeks to come. Thanks, Southern Maine, and hope to see you there next Saturday!

Cabin Fever Anecdotes

2011-02-03T10:54:00.001-05:00

We've been trying to get our cat Woodpile to stay outside more during the day so that he will sleep instead of terrorize us all night with his nocturnal antics. This has led to some desparation on his part. Poor cat. Wants to be in where it's warm now, but he really wants to be out running, falling asleep in the sun, and watching the birds. I know how he feels.

Another cold day, I came out of our bedroom to find this on the middle of our island counter. Joe had replaced the big fruit bowl with this giant troll, which he brought into the marriage, and which I am removing from the marriage. It scares the heck out of the kids.

And finally, I cleaned out the refrigerator. When you make batches and batches of jam, you have little leftover amounts that won't fill up jars, so you put them in jars in the fridge to feed your family and yourself later. Over time, as I am now aware since cleaning, these amount to literally dozens of partially ~~filled~~ emptied jars. Who knows what's in half of these? Now they're empty, and my fridge is emptier too. Can I call this spring cleaning even though it's only February?

3 Days of Peace, Love, and Acidified Foods

2011-01-27T11:12:00.002-05:00

Today I signed up for this fall's upcoming Better Process Control School at the University of Maine. Yeah, I know the fall seems like a long time from now. But it's a course you have to take if you want to sell pickles to the public within the standards of the FDA, they only offer it every other fall in odd years. While talking to the woman at Maine's Cooperative Extension (she was lovely), I learned the course is three days and takes place in Orono, which is rather far from here to travel back and forth for three days, don't you think? She was going on about course details, the acidified versus non-acidified parts of the class, things I would need to plan for, and yet all I could think about was being away for three days, albeit in Orono, with no responsibility outside of the class. No kids. No responsibility outside of the class. I interupted her to ask where I would stay while there. I think I sort of caught her off guard actually. She thought I'd be more interested in what she was saying, of course. Suddenly I imagined myself napping in the afternoon between class sessions, drinking my own personal bottle of wine each night, maybe lounging in a hot tub-- totally uninterupted peace. If you're a mom, you understand that I love my girls. I mean I LOVE them with all my being. But can a girl get a couple days of peace? I shall shout it from the rooftops: "THANK YOU, PICKLES!!!" And thank you, lady at Maine Cooperative Extension, for suggesting several hotels in the Bangor area.

Rice and Beans Sundaes

2011-01-24T08:51:00.000-05:00

I've only really gotten into cooking over the last few years. Something about having kids did it to me. I mean, I've made jam for a long time, but until the girls were born, I really only had a few staples in the house with which to make a few simple dinner recipes. Joe brought this one into the relationship, and we love it to this day.

Rice and Beans Sundae (I'm pretty sure Holly named this after Joe and I shared the recipe with her).

Layer 1:
-Make your favorite kind of rice. We love the brown kind, but it takes a lot longer to cook than white. If you're going for healthy, take the extra time to cook the good stuff.

Layer 2:
-Heat up some black beans, right out of a can. Spoon some on top of the cooked rice.

Layer 3:
-Add your favorite kind of shredded cheese on top of the beans.

Layer 4: SALSA. I prefer the stuff we make and can with fresh tomatoes during the summer, but I've been known to more often use Newman's or even Pace.

-Layer 5: Specifically, Joe says sour cream is not to be replaced by anything else as the perfect topping. However, on Friday night when I made it, we didn't have any sour cream (ha!), so I used cottage cheese (of the non-fat variety), always Cabot-- it's the result of having lived in Vermont so long). Surprisingly, it was wonderful, and it has to be healthier.

Now, we normally just eat it the way the recipe reads above; however, whenever we've gotten together with my brothers to have it for dinner, they scowl at the no-meat factor. So, feel free to add cooked chicken or ground beef or turkey. It is yummy either way.

Drying Cranberries

2011-01-18T12:15:00.001-05:00

Remember how I mentioned buying upwards of 50 pounds of cranberries last fall? Here's a glimpse at what I've done to preserve some of them outside of the freezer. I highly recommend picking up (or borrowing, like I did) a food dehydrator if you're into picking local fruit and/or you have kids who like dried fruit. Our girls love craisins the most, so I tried making some myself. It was SO easy, and they are SO good. Sweet and tart. Yum.

What you need is a pound or so of fresh or frozen cranberries. Either boil them until the skins split (less than a minute), or cut them in half yourself. I found that halving them worked best and didn't add more water to the process like boiling would. In a bowl add 1/2 cup of your choice of natural sweetener. I used brown sugar. I also added about 1/4 cup of honey. Mix it all up, then spread the berries out onto several racks of your dehydrator. Dehydrate for 8 hours or so, then check them. You'll probably need 10 hours, but it's good to make sure you're not drying them too much. They should be chewy inside and out.

Gone SWAT

2011-01-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

I may be way behind on this one, but my cousin Kristin informed me a while back that I am what is labeled to be a "SWAT" mom. Smart. Woman. Available. Time. And of course this is true. I mean, for God's sake, I have a master's degree, was a school administrator for several years, belonged to all kinds of important boards and did professional or otherwise intellectual things smart grown-ups are supposed to do. I was the bread-winner. And, on top of that, I was cool. I went out with friends for dinner and drinks, and I had a cool car-- wait, ok first it was a Jeep, then a truck, then a small sedan, then a sporty wagon. Ok- the sedan was a Neon and the wagon was a Mazda, but compared to the mini-van I drive now, they were cool. Now I'm a SWAT mom. After Joe and I had Addie, we got pregnant seemingly the next day (maybe it was a couple months later), and... who knew? TWINS! The high school where I worked just required too much time, and I really never gave it the time I was supposed to from the beginning, forget about what I could give them with three babies under a year and a half old. So when twins came, and we learned that day care would be- O. M. G. -more than five hundred bucks a week, we decided I would leave my job, we'd up and move back to Maine, and I'd be a SAHM (stay at home mom, in case you're also new at this). So now I am that. A SWAT SAHM. Yep, I have a part time job, which I enjoy fully, which gets me out of the house, and which does not require an advanced degree. And I make jam. I do this because I love it, and I can do it at home, thereby working AND being a Mom, which I also love.

And, having available time also gives me plenty of opportunities to do things I'd never really cared about doing before. Like standing around outside in the winter in my pajamas and Joe's muck boots, trying to determine whether or not my chickens are intentionally mooning me like high school kids out a school bus window. Ah, those were the days. Smart Woman? Available Time.

Canning Squash

2011-01-14T13:31:00.001-05:00

Joe went hunting over at Ed's a few weeks ago, and apparently Ed slipped a banana box full of winter squash into the truck before he came home. We ate a bunch of it, and I thought about freezing some of it too, but what if some crazy catastrophe should wipe out our ability to freeze anything, and I can't use my freezer anymore? Say, for example, we lose electricity forever, or a virus hits and destroys all major appliance brands, or we learn that ice is found to cause horrible diseases. Don't fret! I know how to use a pressure cooker! And stuff looks way prettier in jars anyway, as if you didn't know this already.

The Apple Ladder

2011-01-13T10:05:00.006-05:00

Over the summer on one of our many berry-picking adventures, the girls and I happened upon a place where a farmer had hung an old apple ladder (from her orchard) from the ceiling in her store, and wrapped around the ladder itself hung strands of little white Christmas lights. It was beautiful. So I've been on the look-out for an apple ladder myself, and you'd think with all the cousins and farms around here I'd have a connection in getting one. Not so. Well, Pete Snell did tell me he'd give me the "family discount" if I should choose to purchase one he had for sale in a Wells antique shop in which he has some high-priced items. I decided to stick it out and hope for a more naturally-occurring situation, as if maybe I'd happen upon one in an old orchard somewhere, and the farmer would let me take it home. Ha! These things are evidently in high demand.

As it turns out, a farmer did let me take one home-- well, it was a Christmas gift from my brother, and he is a farmer, so that counts right? Here's a look at what I've got on my wall. It's stage one of the ladder/lights project. I don't see the lights happening any time soon, but that's ok because I love the ladder just the way it is. LOVE it.

I did end up picking up a few of these hand-forged barn nails from Pete Snell's place in Hollis Center. He got them from a salvaged barn in Buxton.

Blog Addendum: I worried that you'd think I was hanging up a perfectly good ladder on my wall, which thus serves no purpose at all. So I came back to tell you this-- the ladder has seen its day. It's been patched on various rungs, is rickety and old. It is a beautiful example of a tree, cut in half, attached by wooden rungs -no metal at all. The way it used to be. The ladder points at the top so the pruner/picker can avoid damaging the tree with a typical ladder's two sides. It was painted red so the farmer wouldn't lose the ladder in the orchard, and because red paint was cheap. Note how many barns used to be painted red too. Anyway, I would use this baby if I could.

Procrastination Series

2011-01-11T10:59:00.001-05:00

Many of the creative things I do around here are the result of my wasting time because I should be doing some other productive thing that's supposed to get done. So, I figure the time really isn't wasted if I can turn the creative thing into something for the kids or our home right? I'm pretty sure I have at least 15 more years of using the girls as my excuse for doing fun things while I should be doing less fun things-- like cleaning, running errands, or having a job, for example. Here's my first cool ditty (today anyway). It's the direct result of not wanting to do any dishes.

Wait-- this isn't it. This is Joe after falling asleep last night on the ottoman behind our much-more-comfortable couch. We've been staying up pretty late procrastinating (see a theme here?) getting things done around the house. It took a toll on him. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure I was looking for the remote.

Ah-- here it is. Today's little procrastination effort. I coulda made sandwiches, but I had visions of the girls dressing up in tea-party attire, using toothpicks to munch on there not-so-well-hidden string bean bites and other relatively healthy options. We'll see how it goes. Now I'm going for a run. I swear I am. Then I'm coming home to do dishes.

Weekend Funnies

2011-01-09T10:35:00.001-05:00

Our free weekly paper arrived in the mail this week, and Addie immediately found a photo of our friend Dave S. dressed in a lobster suit, ready to dive into the frigid ocean, all to benefit the Special Olympics of Maine. Great job, Dave! Wait-- that's not Dave. It's some other guy who sort of resembles Dave, but Addie is giving full credit to "Abby's dad." See Into Ablivia for more on Dave and Holly's beautiful family.

Lobster Dave

Real Dave

Quinoa Kick

2011-01-06T19:58:00.000-05:00

After stuffing our faces full of Christmas cheer long after Christmas was over, right through the New Year, and up and down the east coast on our way to and from Virginia, Joe and I decided we ought to look at some new healthy food options to start off 2011. And thanks to Reny's (a Maine landmark, in case you're unaware), I stumbled across an aisle full of Bob's Red Mill products marked half off. I picked up several versions of bean soup mixes, special flours, cereals and grains, and quinoa, something I'd only heard of through my gorgeous and ever-healthy friend Rachel. So I brought it home, along with another half-off item from the supermarket-- a big platter of veggies for dipping. Don't worry folks. I checked the dates on all this stuff. We're in the clear. So tonight, rather than start off with chocolate-covered potato chips, devil dogs, or one of a choice of 5 different kinds of Virginia-made cookies, we stuck to veggies and quinoa. It's a little grain, originally grown in parts of South America, not unlike the texture of brown rice, but more like a seed. It's got a slightly bitter after-taste inspired by saponins, a natural coating the plant creates to protect it from pests. Smart plant, huh? So, people who are really into quinoa make creative salads, soups and stew with it, as well as it can be cooked like rice, rather quickly actually (12 minutes), with water or other liquids. For our first try at the stuff, we opted to cook it up in some chicken stock. Our girls love any kind of rice cooked in stock, so we went for it, and it worked. All five of us enjoyed it thoroughly.

This is NOT the quinoa we had for dinner. Thanks to Jillicious Discoveries for both the photo and her recipe for Yummy Quinoa Salad. I'm all over it.

My Favorite Things

2011-01-05T12:44:00.001-05:00

The girls received tons of wonderful gifts from family and friends over the holidays, and we appreciate and love every one. Santa hooked them up with some toys too, of course. Here are some of his choices that represent just what we hope our girls will be interested in as they grow up-- things that are fun, activity-oriented, and inspire creativity and imaginative thinking. Yes, there were lots of pretty pink things under the tree too, but you know what I'm saying. We hope that over time, our girls willbecome smart and active, confident, creative, and kind, all in one package. Well, three packages.

She's smart, fun, and she's normal-bodied. She's veterinarian doll, complete with cute (sick) puppy.

There's nothing like a used pair of skates to get a girl psyched about being outside in Maine in the winter!

I don't know who was more psyched about putting this working clock together piece by piece- Addie or Daddy. Either way, it is awesome, and it really does work.

More to come soon on our holiday, our travels to Virginia and beyond, and our jamming plans for the spring-- yep, I'm already in spring mode. It'll be here before we know it!

Redneck Christmas

2010-12-21T06:41:00.002-05:00

You know it's going to be a redneck Christmas when Santa's wrapping up guns to go under the tree. Seriously-- it's an annual family occurrence. You see, Ed (my brother the farmer) is also an apprentice gunsmith on the side for kicks (note the pun-- totally unintentional). He's a hunter, so he has guns to hunt with. Plus he just likes learning about them, fixing and building them, and giving them as gifts. I can almost guarantee each Christmas that someone's getting a gun under the family tree. A few years ago, Joe and I both got guns for Christmas. I feel like a complete bad ass whenever I say out loud, "I have a Kahr Arms 9 mm semi-automatic pistol" or "Yeah, Joe got a 9 mil Glock". It seems weird to quote my 3-year olds while talking about gangster guns, but "For Real." We are gun-owners. A few days ago I went into a national chain store that sells hunting and fishing equipment. The place does not sound unlike "Rubella," and right now does not feel much different than illness to me either. I had to go check out a price on a shot gun my hubby mentioned ever-so-obviously on the top of his Christmas list. I took a number at the gun counter. Seriously, you have to take a number. When the gun guy arrived to help number 411, I asked him to give me a price on the gun. Well, wouldn't you know there are a zillion different versions of these bad boys. So, to begin with he showed me the $650 version of the gun. I said, "Actually, it's the one you had on sale a couple weeks ago for less than $200." He picks up another one right away, as if he knew all along what I was looking for, but this was was a mere $400ish. "Um, hold on a second." And I call Ed right there at the counter. "Ed, tell me exactly what I'm looking for here." And he tells me. And the guy picks up the gun I'm looking for, and while it still costs too much, it was the least expensive version of the gun, and of course the one I wanted a quote on. I just KNOW the gun guy knew what I wanted, and yet I also know he completely took advantage of my gender and overall lack of knowledge about guns. What a jerk. I can't tell you how much at that moment I wished with every ounce of wishing power I had that I could "speak gun" and completely annihilate the man with my superior fire arm expertise, forcing him to seek a supervisor to help me with my most difficult questions. Still, I was clueless, and I left the place without a gun. His bad. Actually, I ended up leaving there with an equally exciting-- well, to my spouse anyway-- object which I will not reveal here on the off chance (it's really totally unlikely actually) he should read this blog. Sorry, Joe. You'll have to wait for Christmas.

Oh, and just so you know, I never wanted a gun until my first Mothers Day arrived in Rochester, and Joe gave me a class on firearm safety as a gift. No, I did not have a fire arm, but we lived in Rochester, and Joe traveled a lot, and we both thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a gun in the house. I must say, the course, taught by both men and women, was awesome. I learned so much and now feel much more comfortable around guns, which is good, since I expect to see at least one under the tree this year.

Pre-holiday 2010

2010-12-17T10:30:00.002-05:00

Charlie finishing up a painted pine cone wreath.

Ruby working on one of TWELVE painted hollow egg ornaments.

Toothpick meatballs were among the things I made after 12 eggs were hollowed out. If you have a favorite metball recipe, use it, grab a bunch of toothpicks, and set out a bunch of "dipping sauces." The girls love these.

NOT for kids. Cranberry cordial in the making. It should be ready for Christmas Eve.

Addie, Bubba, and Boogie. Priceless.

Woodpile's usual hang out. Yes, that's where he got his name.

The friendliest dog in the "whole wide city," Charlie tells me.

Baby Pies

2010-12-08T22:59:00.001-05:00

It's like this. You have no plan for the kids, you need a nap more than they do, the tv's been on all morning, and they want something cool and fun to do. And they're hungry. So get out the leftover single pie crust you saved from making that pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving-- you got a problem with me using Pillsbury crust? Yeah, I know how to make crust from scratch, and a pretty darned good one too, but sometimes it's just nice to unroll a couldn't-be-easier-or-tastier dough boy and pop it in the dish just like that. How many of you really make your own crust every time you bake a pie? Wait-- how many of you ever really bake a pie? Ha! Got you there, didn't I? So, where was I? Oh, take out the leftover single crust and cut it into 6 equal pieces. Squares, triangles, whatever. Give each child their own flat piece. Then give them whatever leftover jar of jam or jelly you have kicking around-- you can imagine there are a lot of choices in my house, so this part is rather fun. Have them splat on a couple spoonfuls right in the middle of each crust, cut little slits in the non-jammed part of the crust, then fold those parts over to create a sort of pocket of jam. Seal all the edges together. Beat an egg, then let your kids "paint" the egg onto each baby pie such that all the crust is covered with egg. Then let them sprinkle sugar on top too. Bake it in the oven at 350 until the jam starts oozing out the little slits and the crust looks a lovely golden color-- about 15 minutes or so. Take it out and let it sit for at least 15 more minutes. The kids will want to eat their baby pies right away, but they'll be ridiculously hot for a while, so distract them with some less awesome unplanned activity while you wait. While this is not the most nutritious snack in the world, it is a very special treat, and the girls were rather proud of themselves for making their own little pies with their own little hands.

The Sunchoke Dilemma

2010-12-07T19:53:00.001-05:00

Holly dropped off a beautiful sample of her winter CSA supply this weekend, including her recent post subject: The Sunchoke. Ah, the sunchoke. As if I know what the heck to do with the little ugly root, also known as a "Jerusalem Artichoke." No, it's nothing like an artichoke by looks or taste. It is, however, high in iron and fiber, and it's flowers are lovely and belong to the daisy family. Oh, and it's also known as an earth apple, which is weird, since in french a potato is called "pomme de terre," meaning "apple of the earth." Anyway, I sensed a challenge when Holly said that neither she nor Jess (csa partner, blogger, and creator of the lovely items at Barefoot by the Sea) knew what to do with their sunchokes. So what did I do? I made pea soup, of course!

1 lb package of dry peas
12 cups water
1 small onion
2 carrots, chopped
4 Tbs butter
1.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp pepper
1 or 2 ham hocks
3 peeled sunchokes

Rinse peas, then combine them with water, onion, carrots, butter, and hocks. Cover and heat to boiling for 30 minutes. Then add salt and pepper, cover and simmer for 20 more minutes. Add grated sunchokes (I used a small cheese grater) to the soup and cook for an additional 10 minutes. This leaves the sunchokes tender but not soft and adds texture to your soup. Hocks can be removed and boned, the ham placed back into the soup. Cook it up until it's at the consistency you desire. We love pea soup at our house. Well, Joe and I love it, and the girls are in training.

...and the weekend's not even over!

2010-12-05T09:36:00.002-05:00


We called around to make sure everyone's chickens were still living before we realized that Boogie had gotten into some red stain. Oh, puppy.

The girls' tunnel will never get old. They've loved it since they were a year old!

Here's the set-up at my first-ever try at selling jam at a local fair. I had a great time!

Good friends taking a break from tree-hunting at Boiling Springs tree farm in Dayton.

Ruby really takes after her father...

Quadrabatching

2010-11-30T19:39:00.003-05:00

Today I mastered the quadruple batch. That is to say that I successfully made 32 jars of jam in one pot, then processed the jars in two baths. "Success" means that the jam jelled properly, the lids sealed as they should, and it tasted so yummy that I talked to myself at length about how good it was while scooping spoonful after spoonful from the bottom of the leftover jar straight into my mouth. What are you doing making jam in November, you ask? Your raspberries don't live through the late fall frost? Neither do mine. These are local frozen berries, of course. Enough to make a bunch of jars for holiday gifts and this weekend's upcoming holiday fair at the Dayton School. Yep, I'm actually participating in a local fair. Oooo-eeee! I'll let you know how it goes.

Holiday Photo 2010

2010-11-29T15:47:00.004-05:00

I originally had visions of dressing our three girls in cute white cable knit sweaters, kahki pants, and little girly hiking boots-- oh, and matching pig-tails. I'd bring them to the beach, a peaceful drive of course, and I'd set up something formal-- they'd be smiling as if totally restful, looking longingly toward the horizon, thinking deep 3 and 4 year old thoughts all the while. Needless to say, I didn't even get as far as "Go get your sweaters on." It was a dress-yourself free-for-all in the house this morning, after which Erin and I toted the girls, including Althea, Erin's cutest-ever 1-year-old, out to Devin's camp site for some Christmas card hopefuls. Here are the results. Let me know which one you like the best, if any.

And here are lovely Erin and Thea-Thea, which sounds like "FiFi" when my girls say her name. It was a beautiful day for a walk, and Thea's a good little tree-climber!

Winter Project 1

2010-11-27T22:25:00.001-05:00

You know that winter's pretty much here when I start a series of unnecessary projects around the house. Here's the first.

I never ended up liking the light fixtures I picked out for the kitchen in our house 2 years ago when the place was built. Specifically, I hated the one above our dining room table. So, when the kids were in their most wild mid-afternoon craze, I upped and turned off the power in the whole house, not really knowing which individual breaker to switch for the one light. I took apart the fixture, removed the light bulb and the socket in its entirety, and waited for Joe to get home. Poor guy. He gets in and I say, "Ok, honey. I have this great idea about replacing our kitchen light fixtures with big old ball jars. What do you think?" He took one look at what I had done and promptly replaced the light bulb part of the fixture, then turned the power back on. Oh, he also drilled a whole in a wide-mouth ball jar cover and added a screw top lid to the fixture in case I decided to randomly decide on a jar while he wasn't looking. I know it's hard to believe, but this already looks better than what was there before:

Next, I hopped in the van on a cold and rainy Monday, kids in tow, and ran up to Peter Snell's antique place on route 202 in Hollis Center. Now, if you've ever driven by the place, you might not guess it to be the kind of spot where you'd find fine art or other beautiful vintage items. On the contrary, however, (I always wanted to say that!), the acreage of beat-up trailers, broken-down dump trucks, and other modes of ugly storage is jam-packed (note use of "jam") with tons and tons of old and perfect items. From old windows to ladders, tools to toys, furniture to jars, it is a picker's dream. Yeah, I stole that term right off my favorite tv show, American Pickers. So I drove the van around the dirt roads that wind about the place and right up to the little trailer I know to be filled with antique jars. Ball jars, clear, green, blue, you name it. Malted milk jugs, mustard jars, liniment jars, all kinds of funky old glass stuff. It was awesome. I bribed the girls with their own individual sticks of gum while they waited for me on the steps of the trailer. Oh, and by the way, Peter Snell mentioned that American Pickers will be featuring his place in August next year! How cool is that? That practically makes me famous! Enough about my fame. This is what I brought home:

And this is what I did before Joe arrived home from work on the same afternoon. The photo's not great, but I'm telling you, I love it! I can't wait to use a couple more of the jars to do the island lights in the kitchen.

Fall Randoms, 2010

2010-11-23T16:40:00.001-05:00

The Rubys

2010-11-16T12:16:00.003-05:00

Well, I wasn't sure just how to spell that since the Rubys I'm talking about are two little girls' names. So is it Rubies? I don't think so. I'm going to make up my own rule on this one and go with "Rubys." Anyway, before I get to the two Rubys, here's the back story. A couple weeks after Charlie and Ruby were born, we learned that Ruby's aorta was too narrow in one spot for blood to get through the way it is supposed to. Without getting into too much detail here, the aorta is the big important artery that runs from the heart to other important parts of the body. The doc decided that Ruby ought to have this narrow piece of her aorta removed, and the wide parts sewn back together. Thus, when Ruby was 4 weeks old, she had heart surgery to repair a coarctation of the aorta.

When you have a baby who stays at the Barbara Bush wing at Maine Medical Center in Portland, at least where Ruby was located, you share a room with at least one other baby and her family, if not a few other babies and families. We happened to share our hospital room with another Ruby and her parents. Two Rubys? Ruby R. is 4 months older than Charlie and our Ruby, yet when we met she was just a tiny thing. She had an esophageal condition which prevented her from being able to keep food down in any way. She was hungry all the time, and her parents couldn't do anything to help her. Everything she ate would come back up. I mean everything. So, the two Ruby's were repaired, and our families have stayed in touch ever since. We get together at least once a year, as we truly believe our friendship was meant to be. This year, Meghan, Ruby, and baby Ramona (a year old!) came down for our annual play date, and the kids acted as if they see each other every day. The Ruby's always end up in cahoots, as if they understand at the age of 3 that they have a common bond. I'm telling you-- meant to be. And yes, both girls are super-healthy now.

Can you pick out the twins in this photo? It's getting harder and harder to tell!

Selling Jam

2010-11-05T17:46:00.001-04:00

It turns out selling jam online isn't such a tough thing to do after all. Well, the process of getting your product online for the purpose of selling to the general public isn't such a big deal. Getting customers and marketing yourself is another thing. I was killing myself trying to figure out how to put a stupid shopping cart on my (very basic) web site. It turns out, if you go through a big name web-building company, they make everything to the super-under-educated web builder extremely easy. However, it costs way more money than you want it to. So, I went for linking my page (and this blog) to a little Etsy site where I can give a shot at selling some stuff without putting up (excuse the pun) a lot of cashola. Besides, we really need any Dam Jam money to buy jars and sugar right now. The holidays are coming after all! Anyway, Etsy was super-easy to set up, and I'm also rather into sitting around and looking at everyone's little Etsy shops. It's like when I was first introduced to Facebook. Oh. My. God. It was incredible how many people I could be in touch with so suddenly. I'm still amazed by it really, but I'm more in the maintenance phase of Facebooking now. It's our second stage of the relationship. Etsy-- I'm in love. I want to buy all my Christmas presents there, and I selfishly want all my gifts to come from Etsy as well. Wait, maybe not the kick-ass produce scale I hope my husband will try to surprise me with. I know, it's a weird thing to get excited about, but that's my world now. So, if you haven't already, check out my try at selling jam on the World Wide Web. I love calling it that.

Oh, and so you don't think that ALL I do is sit around and surf Etsy for jewelry, art, and funky vintage stuff while the girls are locked in the basement all day, here is proof that we have left the house recently.

3 girls SO happy to be finished planting bulbs

Ruby showing off her new $2 church fair hat. Seriously. 2 bucks.

Leaf woman playing her leaf guitar, or maybe it's a violin

Cranberries, 2010

2010-11-01T20:58:00.002-04:00

Last year I froze 20 pounds of local cranberries and ran out of them in April. Cranberry bread, cranberry jam, cranberry sauce, more cranberry bread. Mostly cranberry bread. This year I'm making loads of sauce for the holidays, so I opted to freeze 50 pounds of the little gems. Old Grey Beaver Farm is a beautiful old place in Kennebunk on route 35. Bob Nest and his wife sell the berries from their garage by the pound, as well as in the form of cran-apple juice-- they team up with Giles Orchard for the juice. They also sell at other local farmstands, including Anderson Farms of course. These berries are large, and red, and beautiful. The girls and I occasionally try to eat them raw, but I admit we usually opt for cooking them with honey or sugar in some way.

Bird dogs, Bird Eggs, and Bird Guts (you've been warned)

2010-10-19T07:55:00.001-04:00

Bubba truly believes he can climb this tree to follow the nut hatch. With his whole being he believes it.

Joe worked so hard making sure there was enough room for all the chickens to lay eggs. Still, each day we find all the eggs in one box. Maybe we need more chickens...

And turkey season begins. I love the unintentional Deliverance thing going on here. I have to admit, and sorry to all you veggies out there, our family ate this bird the very day Joe took its life.

Saving Seeds

2010-10-17T11:20:00.001-04:00

I've been attempting to dry sunflower seeds in order to eat them. Some people leave the flowers right up on the stems to dry, then cut them off when the seeds are dry enough to fall off on their own. Others cut the flowers from the stems when they are still, well, flowers, then let them dry in the sun or inside in a dry place. I've split up half the flowers to try both methods. However, I already understand that unless you live in a land where no birds, rodents, or other wildlife live, which would really then also be a place where sunflowers probably wouldn't grow, you just can't let the suckers dry outside on their own. The zillion birds picking off every last seed of those helpless flowers are set for several winters as far as I'm concerned. So, I'm going with the indoor-drying method for sure. We don't have the bird issue inside of course, but I must say the seeds have been tough for Boogie to avoid. The new pup eats everything. I loved this when it meant I could throw Joe's ridiculously old Teva's out in the front yard and know they would be shredded in a matter of minutes. However, I did not enjoy coming home to the total destruction of every couch pillow, along with the actual couch arm itself. Ugh. Anyway, back to the seeds. I rinsed off the first batch of seeds, put them in a pint jar filled with water and half a cup of salt, then let it set overnight. Then I roasted them on a cookie sheet, not unlike pumpkin seeds, for 4 hours at 250 degrees. They came out just fine, like you'd expect home grown seeds to taste. A little less salty than when you get them in the store, and a bit smaller too. But do they look gorgeous in a jar! Matt and I prepared some more tonight during happy hour (aka unplanned-opportunity-to-get-together-for-a-beverage). I'll add more salt during the roasting process, then put them in jars to eat later on or give away.

Monarch Release '10

2010-10-15T20:14:00.001-04:00

Well, we finally felt like the poor lonesome monarch ought to have a chance to fly free into the cruel world of birds, bats, and our own butterfly-chasing dogs. So we opened the jar and let her go. What she did next was stick to Addie for about an hour, then crawl back into the jar, before bravely creeping out again and flying away while we were off at the grocery store. At least that's what I hope happened.

2010-10-07T16:19:00.002-04:00

We actually got to see this happen this morning in our make-shift, temporary butterfly home. Charlie wanted to name her Charlotte, Addie chose Alice, and Ruby liked Henrietta. I am a fan of Henrietta myself, but we're pretty much calling her Monarch. The photo above is courtesy of thebutterflysite.com. Here's the "live" version of our new little one.

Jar Swap, 2010

2010-10-03T10:50:00.002-04:00

We had a terrific turn out for our first ever Jar Swap-- yes, I capitalized it. I should probably come up with a different name for the actual event though. Jar Jam? Jar Bar? Extravajarza? Jar Swap will suffice for now. Fifteen of my favorite local ladies showed up with 15 of whatever they had processed in jars to share with the masses. Everyone was so proud of their accomplishments-- especially our first-time canners-- and with good reason! Check out the results:

What we have here is a batch each of stewed tomatoes (grown and made by the farmer herself), apple pie filling, hot pickles, zucchini relish, cinnamon apple jelly, cranberry-apple jam, raspberry jam, chunky apple sauce, peach salsa, cinnamon apple butter, pesto, caramel sauce, hot plum-pepper jam, marinara sauce (thanks, Mom!), and caramel corn (in a jar, gone in moments). A nice variety of seasonal local fruits and veggies. The whole process was truly a highlight of my year. Who knows what next year's swap will bring? Regulars at the farm-stand have been jealous hearing about the event. No, really, they have. I even had one lady tell me on Friday that she was going to show up to my house with 15 jars of canned stew and hope she could snag a few jars of everyone else's stuff on the spot. I told her I'd trade with her instead. Besides, she doesn't know where I live.

Plum Crazy

2010-09-30T08:00:00.003-04:00

Erin thought I ought to name this stuff "Plum Crazy," but I decided to go with "Hot Plum Pepper Jam" instead. That way people know what it is. Inspired by Under the High Chair's 2009 Jam Swap, I invited 15 of my favorite locals to a jar swap, to be held this Friday. Rather than do my recent favorite, Peach Habanero, I decided to make up this new little plum ditty just for the ladies at the swap. Actually, I do like that name: "Plum Ditty." Maybe I'll go with that instead. Who cares if they know what it is. They'll figure out it's hot when they spread a big spoonful onto their toast some early morning. Here's the process:

Canning the Harvest 2010

2010-09-28T19:33:00.002-04:00

It's been forever since I blogged, but for good reason, I swear! The girls and I have been picking raspberries, apples, and plums left and right, and I'm processing more jars of jam than I ever imagined I'd be able to sell. The season has been abundant with fruit and veggies, and I feel lucky to have been able to do something with the harvest. So, what do we have here? Let's see... from left to right, top to bottom, what you see is Rhubarb Ginger Jam, Crabapple Jelly, Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam, Dilly Fiddle-heads, Maine Bog Cranberry Sauce, Peach Jam, Dam Hot Pepper Jam, Italian Plum Jam, Cherry Pie Jam, Red Hot Cranberry Sauce, Apple Sauce, Vegetable Harvest Soup, Apple Pie Jam, Sweet Pickled Fiddleheads, Blackberry Jam, Peach-Blackberry Jam, Pasta Sauce, Pickled Horseradish Hot Peppers, Bread & Butter Pickles, and Strawberry Jam. Oh, and on the other shelves are Zucchini Relish, Canned Tomatoes, Concord Grape Jelly, Raspberry Jam, Peach-Habanero Jam, and Corn Relish, among other things I can't see from here. I swear I made all this stuff over the summer. It was nuts. Well, it was mostly Jam, and some pickles too. About 200 jars of pickles actually.

Ode to Dunkin Donuts

2010-09-05T09:57:00.001-04:00

It seems like

Every time that I drive thru
For coffee, latte, donuts too,
I see a plate reminding me
That I like making jam for thee, or in this case, 3.

Sunflowers

2010-09-04T12:05:00.001-04:00

Last weekend I left my camera at Abby's birthday bash, so this weekend I made Laurie take pictures of my sunflowers with Shea's camera, just so you could get a look, and for proof that they exist of course. Yes, the sunflowers really are this beautiful, and next year my plan is to plant an acre of them. I can't believe I haven't actually counted how many individual flowers I have, but there have to be a couple hundred anyway. My mother, who regularly lets my girls cut gorgeous flowers from her own beautiful gardens, asked if she could cut a bouquet of these babies, and I firmly said NO. Just please let me bask in the glory of what is my first real success in growing something from seed to flower! Besides, I know she'll cut some anyway while I'm not looking.

Keeping up with Putting Up

2010-08-25T00:27:00.002-04:00

It seems like forever since I last blogged, but I've been pretty darn busy in the meantime. Here are a few highlights of our last couple weeks:

When the Easter Bunny brought us 5 Easter-eggers and 1 Hubbard Isa Brown, we knew we'd have some good layers on our hands. Then we learned a little more about the Isa. Apparently this is a genetically engineered egg-laying chicken manufactured by the company whose name it bears. The girl lays AT LEAST one brown egg per day, if not two. This doesn't seem natural, does it? She seems happy, but she does eat a lot! Meanwhile, our Easter-eggers just started laying their cute little blue eggs right up in their cozy boxes.

Addie asked me if we could go blueberry picking, so we wandered up to Blueberry Hill. The picking was good, but what was better was running around, playing with the farm dog (an energetic and friendly pit bull), and eating lunch under this apple tree. Also, after I gave the farmer a jar of blueberry jam, admitting the blueberries I used to make it were from Libby's, he drove the girls and I across the farm to his enormous and beautiful crab-apple tree and told us to have at it. We picked a five gallon bucket full of the little gems, then ran home and made crab-apple jelly.

Now, I won't be selling any crabapple jelly to the general public, but you can pick up lots of other kinds of good stuff at Anderson Farm's newest farm stand in Waterboro. They've named the place The Farmer's Daughter, and so far it has been a great success. The town has received the stand so well, and everyone who stops by is happy to be there. It is a wonderful place to visit, or to pick up some yummy produce or jam! And speaking of canning, I've been doing a lot of it, not only to sell at the stands, but for our family. After making the 150th jar of pickles for the season, I decided to put up some tomato sauce, as well as pickle some hot peppers. Do you think it will bother anyone that they look like brains inside jars? Oh, and did I mention that we got another dog? I didn't feel like we had much going on, so why not add to the family! Welcome Jackie Jethro Junior. We call him any of these names individually, but I'm thinking we'll pick just one of them in the next few days and stick with it. And yes, he looks just like Bubba, but this guy has a tail.

And let's see... how does a mother sum up a day at Story Land? How's this:

Ok ok, I can't lie. This photo was actually taken after a terrific morning at Ferry Beach a few days before the Story Land adventure, but you get the idea. They all loved it, and we were all exhausted at the end of the day.

So there you have it. A whirlwind tour of life at my place over the last couple of weeks. I promise next time I'll be less confusing and random. More details on the farm stand coming up, as well as my obsession with our sunflowers.

peaches

2010-08-10T09:59:00.001-04:00

Mud Pies

2010-08-10T07:24:00.006-04:00

While Joe spent the last few minutes of sunlight planting a peach tree out in the field, Charlie and Ruby "helped" him by gathering dirt around the tree and making mud pies.

Meanwhile, Al Cole gave Ed 60 pounds of his least pretty peaches for me to make jam. WHOA. This is NOT a box of bananas shoved into my fridge. I'm working on them as fast as I can get to them. My fingernails have an orange tinge I can't seem to remove.

Blackberry Season

2010-08-05T15:15:00.001-04:00

I've been stocking up on blackberries over the last couple of weeks. I've managed to make a few batches of jam, as well as I've thrown a few gallons, yes gallons, into the freezer. They are plentiful around here to be sure, and our whole family mostly just loves to pick them and eat them on the spot. Thanks to a little help from the incredible season we're having, and to the coolest-ever-pie-decorating tool, we had an awesome blackberry pie at last Friday's happy hour.

Oh, and look who decided to make a little home out of our patch of berries. One day we found there were two eggs in this nest, and the next day there were two baby finches and one very protective Momma looming in the blackberry patch. Don't worry-- no birds in the pie.

The Summer Rush

2010-07-27T21:35:00.002-04:00

On our way home from VA, while venturing through a Dunkin Donuts drive through, we saw this license plate. Joe stuck his whole self right out the window to get this shot just for you-- and me, of course. So, along with making tons of pickles for both the farm stand and the restaurant, here are some other things I've been doing while not blogging.

Dutch Oven Campfire Shephard's Pie: All veggies and beef fresh from Anderson Farms and Dayton Place. Really, I wrapped it up, put it in the coals of our campfire, then covered it with some more coals. 20 minutes later, voila. Straight from the earth to our bellies. I'm psyched it turned out this good.

Raspberry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Peach, and a variety of jams that feature a little som'n som'n from a few habaneros. Ouch. Yum. Not necessarily in that order.

Got Scales?

                                           When you have leftover fruit
                                           And do not want to freeze it
                                           Just add some sugar, spice, and crust,
                                           And everyone will seize it.

                                           I knew I got that English degree for a good reason!
                                           Now I'm off to cook up some Peach-Habanero Jam.

Virginia II

2010-07-17T16:41:00.002-04:00

This is Grandma's Pantry, at the Shenandoah Heritage Market, Harrisonburg, VA. It's a bulk foods place that caters to people who are into baking, cooking, canning, and eating candy. In other words, people like me.

I swear, when I saw the Country Canner for the first time, angels floated down, took my hands, and led me into this little heaven. I am always very inspired to get right home and put up a zillion jars of whatever is available after a visit here, also a shop in the Shenandoah Heritage Market.

Check out the dozens of samples the Country Canner provides each day to its customers. I can't think of a flavor these folks haven't thought of.

Now, as much as I'm always in favor of creating something original, this did not please the taste buds one bit. Still, it's a good effort, and what's wrong with getting a little funky?

Virginia I

2010-07-14T00:30:00.001-04:00

We left for Virginia on the 3rd, and we just arrived home on the 11th. It was our longest trip away from home with the kids, and I hereby admit it was a success. The girls are getting easier and easier to travel with, so we were able to throw in some fun events on the way. I took 400 photos while we were gone. I overdo it with the camera completely intentionally all the time, as I figure I'm bound to get a few decent shots out of the hundreds I take. Here are some of the things we encountered during the first couple days of our vacation.

The Crayola Factory, Easton, PA. We had a good time here, and there were plenty of arts and crafts to be conquered. Our girls were not prepared to sit still for any amount of time however, so we mostly took in the on-your-feet exhibits and programs designed for younger kids.

The Canal Museum, Easton, PA. This place was just as fun for our kids as Crayola. Interactive physical fun is the way to go after several hours in a minivan.

Easton, PA Farmer's Market, the oldest farmer's market in America, is right across the street from Crayola on Saturday mornings. It delivers terrific local peaches and plums, Amish fare and wares, and local jam at 6 bucks a jar. No, I didn't buy any. It just made me want to buy a crate of peaches and make some myself, but I didn't do that either. Next time, I swear!

Maine Visits Virginia, Summer '10

2010-07-07T09:08:00.001-04:00

We're visiting family in Virginia, and you can imagine why I haven't blogged in a few days. Triplets, twins, and one tough singleton.

River Castle

2010-07-02T01:10:00.004-04:00

There's nothing like spending time down at the swimming area at my Mom's place in the summer. I have looked forward to it all year. This summer has really just begun, and I'm already excited for next year.

The girls and their cousins created this river's-edge masterpiece recently. I don't think my mom was completely aware that the girls were using her flower garden, along with other local greenery, to decorate their castle.

Here's a view of the Saco from the castle. The girls have made me promise that we will swim at Grammie's every day this summer. I'm pretty sure we'll come close to every day.

Cherries

2010-06-25T17:25:00.002-04:00

Yesterday the girls and I trekked up to Dole's Orchard for some of whatever might be in season there. They do a pretty big berry and apple-picking business, but we were lucky enough to pick some of these beautiful, super-tart cherries. We brought them home with a bunch of rhubarb and strawberries. We ate just a few of the cherries before cooking the rest into jam. Best right out of the pot, it's like eating cherry pie without the crust. Next: Cherry pie (with the crust).

Father's Day, 2010

2010-06-23T08:34:00.001-04:00

We LOVE the Riverhouse in Portsmouth. It's the second time in a week that we drove an hour to go out to dinner at the place. Joe and I (left, in case you don't know) had only been out to dinner twice all year prior to last week.

Next up, beach day with the girls. Joe is an incredible dad. I don't tell him enough.

And finally, we took the girls to their first real movie at a real movie theater. We saw Toy Story, which was all it was said to be (decent). We were that family. You know- the ones making all the noise, switching seats left and right, kids getting up to use the potty every other scene. It was perfect. No photo of all that, sorry. Happy Father's Day.

Lavigne's

2010-06-21T22:06:00.002-04:00

When I learned that for many local farmers strawberries would be 2 or 3 weeks earlier than usual this year, I had to make plans to go picking. I know I'll be psyched when the best local berries are ready-- Anderson Farms, of course-- but until I see 'em, I'm relying on Lavigne's. Sorry-- no web site. Just big signs all over southern Maine marking where to turn in order to get there. It's a relatively large operation not too far from here, and while I had been there years ago, I didn't remember their fields being so ridiculously plentiful. We ended up with about 30 pounds in less than an hour, and we had 5 girls under 5 by our sides. All of them had to pee throughout, not-a-one at the same time, and either Holly or I (mostly I) had to constantly quit picking in order to re-explain how eating parts of strawberries, then throwing them in our containers, was not ok. Still, we had a great time, as usual, especially since it was all followed up by a fabulous ice cream lunch at Shaw's Ridge. Thank you very much, Mocha Chip.

Good effort, Olivia!

Strawberries I

2010-06-17T07:47:00.001-04:00

We bought, yes bought, local strawberries a couple days ago so I could get going on the jam-making. I'm waiting not-so-patiently for the arrival of strawberries at Anderson Farms, but clearly I can not control myself since I have plans to bring three preschoolers picking today in what is likely to be rain. Oh, and we're meeting friends, including two more kids under the age of 5. I'm pretty sure I have a diagnosable condition when it comes to my desire to make jam. OJD? Yes, most likely. Besides all that, it's just fun to go picking with friends. Off to Lavigne's today.

Maine Wildlife Park

2010-06-12T21:17:00.003-04:00

When I'd had enough of kicking around the farm with the girls this week, I spontaneously decided to surprise them with a trip to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray. Now, if you don't appreciate local wildlife up and close, then it's just that you don't remember at the age of 3 or 4 how incredibly cool it would be to not only see a baby deer, but to actually feed it. Then right around the corner a white porcupine and his neighbor the scary fisher cat waddle over to visit you. Not to mention the enormous black bears, moose, mountain lions, and bald eagles who live in the park. This place is a thrill for our kids every time we go, and it's a cheap one at that, since it is free for children under 4, and just a few bucks for everyone else. Oh, and you really feel like you're supporting something good, as most of the animals in the park are there because they were orphaned, injured, or suffered some other personal tragedy. The park provides safety, recuperation, and space for them to live.

Ploughman's Lunch

2010-06-10T08:41:00.018-04:00

Check out the deck this summer at The Run of the Mill in Saco for good food, terrific beer (brewed on site), and wonderful service, if I may say so. Also note that if you order the Ploughman's Lunch, you'll get to try out my Bread and Butter Pickles, along with some other pub favorites. Yippee!

Pie Boxes

2010-06-08T07:02:00.003-04:00

I was on Craigslist over the weekend looking for a small wall cabinet in which to keep jars of jam to display for sale at a local restaurant. I didn't want to spend tons of money on it, but it needed to be sturdy enough and rustic looking to fit the place. I found what I was looking for about an hour away in NH and picked it up on Saturday. I'm psyched to get it cleaned up and (hopefully) on the wall of the restaurant. Either that or it'll make a good farm stand display.

Consider this a "before" photo.

But even more exciting was the this find in Westbrook, Maine, not too far from here. A guy was selling two antique Table Talk pie boxes. Yep, pie boxes. They were literally used to carry several pies, 16 each to be exact, from the Table Talk operation to places where the pies would be sold. The guy had acquired them through a friend who thought he could figure out something to do with them, but he couldn't find an appropriate purpose. They don't fit sheets of paper well, so office use was not right, and the actual shelves do not come out, so putting anything taller than, well, a pie, wouldn't do. He was psyched to learn that I might actually use these to carry pies, or at least to keep pie plates in. When he saw the glean in my eye when I finally saw the boxes, he said, "Wow, you must really like to bake pies." Now, I do like to bake pie, and I do intend to (try to) sell some over the summer, but 16 pies, or 32 pies? That's a lot of pie. We'll see.

The Dollar Tree

2010-06-06T10:11:00.002-04:00

The girls each earned a dollar for watching Grammie's cat Martha while she was away some time ago. We had a morning of pretend shopping in our house with items I literally dumped out of our junk drawer in the kitchen. They each had three fake dollars, and each item cost a dollar, so, in case you're math-challenged, they could each buy three things. This was great fun for a while (no fighting), and the girls did a pretty good job choosing their goods, so we went to town so they could each spend their real money at a real store. The Dollar Tree was the perfect place to try this out, since there really was no math involved-- it was all just about picking out one thing. Check out the fake fingernails that came with the jewels Addie chose. We taped them around her fingers and she wore them most of the day. Then she realized she could do damage if she poked her sisters with them, so they had to go.

Food Art

2010-06-03T15:12:00.002-04:00

I didn't plan for the rain, so I winged it (as a part of my usual routine) and grabbed a bunch of paper and stuff from the pantry that I either didn't want anymore, or that I really didn't want the girls to eat, and we made art. Check out the difference between the art of 3-year-olds and the art of a 4-year-old.

Charlie calls this, "The Ballet."

Ruby calls this, "Food Parade."

And Addie's art is entitled, "Me as an Acrobat." I guess no one can say these girls aren't original. And by the way, I did let them each have a pixie stick after they were done, just for fun.

The Pickle Lady

2010-06-02T10:34:00.001-04:00

I became instantly jealous when I read this article my mother gave me about another local woman starting a business making and selling pickles. Who am I to actually feel jealous? It is so awesome to see and hear that so many people are starting local specialty food businesses. I remember having one of the Vlasic kids in a school where I used to work, and his folks would send all the teachers who had him in their classes a case of special pickles for the holidays. Aside from the bribery-via-pickle, I remember the pickles being a super-cool and original gift, despite them being from a massive corporate giant, now owned by Pinnacle Foods. It's still great to receive anything for which the maker has personal ownership. After all, Vlasic didn't start out corporate. They started out as a family creamery business. Anyway, back to the massive corporate giant comment-- I admit I shop at Wal-mart and other local giants, so I can't use any kind of valid judgment when it comes to shopping choices. Still, I think we'd all probably rather shop at locally-owned and operated businesses. It's all about money and time, but I think we're moving in the right direction. Congratulations to this pickle-lady at Victory Canning out of Portland, Maine.

In the meantime, I'm sending off my own batch of new stuff to be "deemed safe" by the State of Maine. Look forward to Zucchini Relish, Bread and Butter Pickles, Gingered-Rhubarb Preserve, and Rhubarb Pie Preserve. You should see how this stuff has to be packaged in order to guarantee (never possible) that it arrives safely in Orono!

A Day at the Playground

2010-05-28T18:07:00.002-04:00

Bread and Butter Pickles

2010-05-26T11:02:00.004-04:00

While I love most of all to make jam, I do love to eat pickles, especially home-made pickles. Our family has a terrific and super-easy recipe for sour pickles I'll share later in the summer, but for now it's bread and butter pickles. I tried a sweet fiddlehead pickle recipe recently, but I didn't love it, and neither did anyone else who tried it. We all loved the taste of the sweet juice in the jar, but without the taste of the fiddleheads, or pickle-heads, as my daughters call them. The fiddleheads are much better with dill. So, we got the itch to make good old fashioned bread and butter pickles, with cucumbers and onions. You too can make these-- don't be intimidated! Do it. You'll see the flash of nostalgia in their eyes as they eat their first bite, and from there on you'll be their favorite culinary genius.

3 Lbs of cukes (known as pickling cucumbers in your local market)
1 Lb yellow onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup kosher or pickling salt-- don't use regular salt or your pickles will look cloudy and gross
1 1/4 cup white vinegar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 1/4 cup white sugar
1 Tbs mustard seed
1 tsp crushed red pepper
3/4 tsp celery seed
1 inch cinnamon stick
6 allspice berries plus a pinch of ground allspice
6 whole cloves plus a pinch of ground cloves
1/2 tsp turmeric

If you intend to put your pickles into jars to be shelved, you'll also need:
-6 pint-sized jars with lids (pick these up at any supermarket starting in the spring)
-a big stock pot or canning pot with a rack-- you can make the rack out of screw-bands tied together with twisties
-Tongs or a jar-lifter

Clean the cukes and cut off the ends. Slice them into 1/8 - 1/4 inch slices into a big bowl. Add the onions and pickling salt and stir it all up.

Cover this with a thin towel-- really, just set the towel on top of all the cukes and onions, then cover that with ice so the whole towel is covered. Put the bowl in your fridge for several hours (at least 4, but overnight is good). Take the bowl out and throw away the ice. Rinse off your cukes and onions and drain the water. Do this a second time.

Now-- if you intend to keep your jars of pickles on a shelf, or give them away at Christmas, you'll need to process the jars appropriately. If you're bringing them to a big picnic this weekend, move on to the next paragraph now. Clean your jars and lids with soap and water, then, while you're cooking the pickles, pour boiling water over the lids in a separate bowl. Most people consider the dishwasher to be enough sterilization for jars, so go ahead and just set the jars aside, ready to fill. If you insist on actual sterilization (I do this with everything I put in a jar), place the jars in boiling water in a big stock pot for 10 minutes. Then take them out just before you put the pickles in them so they are still hot.

Grab a 6 or 8 quart pot and bring the vinegar, sugar, and all the spices to a boil. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the cukes and onions and bring this to a boil again. You'll want to stir frequently. When the mixture starts boiling, use a slotted spoon to pack just the cukes and onions into your jars. Pack them up to an inch from the top of the jars. Then use a ladle to pour the vinegar syrup over the cukes into the jars, up to half and inch from the tops. Wipe all the rims of your jars clean with a wet paper-towel, then take your lids out of the hot water to cover your jars. If you're not keeping these on a shelf, go ahead and let them cool, then put all the jars in the fridge. Voila. Done. I hope you got a taste before you sealed your jars!

OK-- here's the important part when it comes to keeping these bad boys on a shelf. Use the same big stock pot you used to sterilize your jars-- the water should still be hot. If you tie together a bunch of jar screw-bands with twisties, you can use these as a rack on the bottom of your pot. The jars shouldn't be touching the bottom, so try to avoid this in some way. Once you have boiling water and a make-shift rack, put your jars into the pot-- you'll want to use strong tongs if you have them-- and let them boil, covers in tact, for 10 minutes. This is known as a boiling water bath in the world of canning. You can do it. When your 10 minutes is up, remove the pot from the heat and do your best to safely remove the jars from the pot using your tongs or other grabbing device. If you intend to do any more canning, you should pick up one of those canning equipment sets-- you can get these anywhere from big supermarket chains to Wally-world. This'll make things easier in the future.

I hope you love these little babies as much as we do! If you just can't imagine canning anything and prefer to buy them from a qualified pickle-maker, look forward to checking out my web site. It's soon to be in-the-making. Until then, leave a comment if you'd rather me send you a jar.

The Corner

2010-05-25T19:00:00.001-04:00

In our house, the girls are issued a time out when they can not change a negative behavior when we ask them to. Right now Charlie is in the habit of saying, "Bad Mommy!" if I say something she doesn't want to hear, such as, "No, you may not eat Jello for breakfast." This is something both sisters have already tried out, but she is starting to follow their lead on these things. So, off to the corner she goes. We don't call it a "naughty chair" (though I do love Supernanny), or make them apologize or anything. They just have time out, which they know to be "Going to the Corner." Don't freak out-- we do give them lots of positive feedback and encouragement, and we redirect them whenever possible-- if it's doable. I know I should probably be sent to the corner for taking a photo of my kid while she spends time in the corner, but I didn't even send her there, so it seemed ok. She actually took herself to the corner after hitting Addie today. You can see she's really been working on her dirty looks.

Fiddlehead Pickles

2010-05-19T00:26:00.001-04:00

It's something that happens in Maine this time of year. People around here go out looking for ostrich ferns, otherwise known as fiddleheads, in the woods, at the edge of the river, typical places you'd find ferns. These look a little different than your average fern because they form a thin crusty layer on their sides, which you peel off before you consume them. They are picked when they're not yet a full-grown fern. They're all curled up, ready to unfold, about 5 or 6 inches tall, and you snap them right off their helpless stalks. Done. Eat 'em up just for a few weeks in the spring. Some of my family members fry them with butter and bacon, but Joe and Addie prefer to just eat them cold and raw. You might steam them and eat them with a little vinegar too. I hadn't thought to go looking for any of the goodies in the woods, though I probably would have had some luck finding them here. Instead I happened upon them at the local supermarket while I stood there annoyed that I couldn't find a decent looking string bean in the place. I'm not sure what I was thinking anyway-- string beans in May? No. Fiddleheads? Yes. So I bought them right there on the spot, then came home and turned them into Dilly Fiddles. But you can call them Fiddlehead Pickles (of the dill sort) if you want to be all proper about it.

Seeing Red

2010-05-17T19:50:00.002-04:00

In flipping through some of the photos I took over the weekend, I noticed a distinctive pattern. What could this possibly mean?

My new incredibly awesome apron, direct from TJ Maxx. Perfect color for jam-making, and has loops and pockets-- oh! oh! And it's even length-adjustable for the shorter-than-average cook. Love it.

Yeah, I know it looks like a blood bath. In fact, it's the top view of my new birthday sieve, thanks to Mom. It's a crazy huge, rather obscene really, attachment for my mixer. It separates juice from pulp, just like using a cheese cloth, but without the endless wringing and smushing. I supposed you could call it cheating. Either way, you get the seeds out, and that's what matters when you're making jelly.

Cranberries, tons of sugar, and red hots. Need I say more?

Planting Sunflowers

2010-05-15T06:27:00.001-04:00

We borrowed Auntie's rototiller a couple weeks ago and finally got around to using it to finish up the area of our lawn that we want for some gardening. I've already mentioned here before that I did not get the "farming gene," but I can't help but want to try it out with the girls. Besides, Ed gave me a couple pounds, yes pounds, of sunflower seed so I can try to grow a little field of massive sunflowers. Several years ago, I remember driving with an old boyfriend through the Hamptons-- I know, it really does sound like I'm making this up, but not so-- anyway, we're driving through this incredible place and we come upon an enormous field of sunflowers. I'm talking acres of them. At the edge of the field by the roadside was this one little bucket filled with cut sunflowers, and a little sign that said $1. It was priceless-- well, it was $1, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, I don't think we'll be growing any acres of the beauties, but it would be nice to see a few pop up out of the ground and grow into flowers.

Dandelion Jelly

2010-05-14T01:30:00.007-04:00

You read correctly. Dandelion jelly. There are a zillion recipes for it, and now that we've eaten it with ham for dinner, I can see why. It tastes like lemon and honey and, well, dandelion yumminess all sealed up in a little jar. Seriously. It's good. And it was wicked fun to make with three little girls on a sunny day.

We would need 4 cups of just the yellow flower parts, so we each brought our own bucket or basket to fill up. You can imagine this wasn't too terribly difficult a task at this time of year.

After plucking off all the green parts from each flower, we boiled the dandelions with some water, then strained and squeezed it through cheese cloth. We then boiled the liquid with a little lemon juice, a lot of sugar, and pectin to turn the sauce into sweet jelly.

I must admit, I was surprised to thoroughly enjoy the taste of this stuff. I figure it would be a wonderful adventure with the kids, which it was, but that I'd have to fake how awesome it was when it was time to get out the spoon. Nope. It really is good. Fun, not hard to make, pretty, and sweet. A success!

Chocolate Bouquet

2010-05-10T23:29:00.011-04:00

Not bad for a couple of 3-year-olds and one scattered mom, huh?

On Mother's Day afternoon, after taking Grammie out to the local breakfast place for some easy eats, the girls and I had a stupendous time working on these little chocolate flower and butterfly pops. It was super-fun for us all, and it really didn't turn out half-bad looking (or tasting!) either. We put them in a small butterfly flower pot, and the girls walked them over to Grammie's for an early evening visit.

Step 1: Melt chocolate for 45 seconds in the microwave.

Step 2: Pour chocolate into the little molds you pick up at AC Moore for a couple bucks. Oh, you can get the pop sticks there too. And Step 3: Cool in fridge for 10 minutes, and Voila! The girls also had fun making up their own pops and chocolate art on wax paper. So fun and VERY easy!

Mint-Chocolate Whoopie Pies

2010-05-10T08:02:00.007-04:00

Last summer, Holly and I took the girls blueberry and strawberry picking up at Dole's Orchard. We did quite a bit of picking (and eating), then sat down for lunches Holly had packed. We felt it only fair to the children that we also purchase some yummy whoopie pies from Dole's stand to celebrate their picking achievements. Ok, really just the adults wanted them and we used the kids as an excuse. Anyway, the pies were yummy, so I found a little recipe online (allrecipes.com) to try to duplicate the treats at home.

Ingredients for cookie parts: 1/2 cup sugar, 3 Tbs oil, 1 egg, 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup baking cocoa, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 4 Tbs milk (divided)

Beat sugar and oil until crumbly. Add egg and beat for 1 minute. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, then beat this into the sugar mixture. Add 2 Tbs milk and mix well. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on sprayed cookie sheet. Flatten with an oiled jar bottom, then bake at 425 for 5 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack.

Meanwhile, here's what you need for the middle, or the "whoopie:"
2 Tbs butter softened, 1 1/3 cups confectioners sugar, 1/8 tsp mint extract

Combine butter and confectioners sugar until crumbly. Beat in extract and remaining desired milk. Spread on the bottom half of half of your cookies, then top with remaining cookies.
This recipe should really be doubled, as we ended up with only 11 whoopie pies, and small ones at that.

SOOOOooooooo Yuuuummmmmmmy!

Official Taste Testing

2010-05-06T09:55:00.010-04:00

When the girls got up this morning and asked what was for breakfast, I put together a little taste-testing party for us. We had a great time just hanging out in our pj's, judging each sample of jam and other goodness, using a self-devised professional grading process we could all comprehend: Not Yummy, Yummy, or Super-Yummy. I'm happy to say that ALL the jam I made rated Super-Yummy. Yogurt (Stonyfield's, not mine) also rated high, as well as Mott's Cinnamon Apple Sauce. Even the kumquats reached Yummy status, and all agreed that while corn relish is Super-Yummy, it is not great for breakfast. The true test for me was to see which item each girl would choose to put on their toast for their actual breakfast, keeping in mind they had all just eaten a bunch of sweet stuff. Charlotte went for the "Rhubarb Pie Jam," as she called it, and as I will now call it. Addie chose the Rhubarb-Ginger. Ruby, being Ruby, climbed up onto her chair, ate everything on her plate, kumquat and relish included, climbed down and said, "It's all Super-Yummy Mommy," then jumped back down to go play with her stuffed animals.If you've never tried them before, kumquats are funky little citrus fruits that grow on trees and have a taste resembling a combination of orange and lemon. You eat the whole fruit, peel too. They're not for everyone --they can be slightly bitter-- but they're something different and pretty cute too.

Label Day

2010-05-05T01:23:00.004-04:00

And I believe we have a label! The process involved Laurie drawing dozens of 2" circles, and me drawing about a zillion of these canoes, several people, and even more paddles, while Joe got the girls ready for bed tonight. I trashed one label where the three people in the canoe were all hitting each other with the paddles. Seriously. I should've kept it just to show you. This was as the result of my hearing the massive multi-child tantrum going on upstairs while we worked on this little project downstairs.

The image, along with our name and address, will fit atop the lid of a jelly jar. The kind of jelly will be hand-written on a separate label on the side of the jar. So far so good.

And Relish

2010-05-02T21:39:00.007-04:00

Today I had a go at making and canning Corn Relish, something I've never made nor eaten, but which I found in an old cookbook we got from Joe's mom. I love the book. It's so common sense and old fashioned (in a good way), yet it's not even 40 years old. Yep, I'm a little sensitive about getting closer to 40, especially since it's my birthday tomorrow. There's no need to explain in this recipe, for example, the very temperature at which you must boil the zillion ingredients you've piled into the stock pot. You just "boil it for a minute or so" because you know what boiling looks like and you don't need some author to tell you. At least that's what I imagine the author telling me when I read it. And it turned out yummy enough for any burger or grilled chicken, or even alone in its own side dish. And because I'm trying to play by the rules, just so you know, I did use a thermometer. Oh well. So much for rebellion.

I also loved finding three seemingly randomly placed recipes throughout the book, written on notebook paper in my mother-in-law's hand-writing: Impossible Pumpkin Pie, Eggnog Pound Cake, and Mandarin Orange Cake. Yum! I'm definitely putting those on the future baking agenda.

Rhubarb-Ginger

2010-05-01T21:16:00.006-04:00

Rhubarb-Ginger Conserve
Rhubarb-Ginger Preserve
Rhubarb-Ginger Jam
Ruby's Rhubarb-Ginger
Batch 2 Number 1 Ragin' Rhubarb Ginger Mayhem. (you can imagine this is my favorite but probably won't fit on a label)

What about the name? Ideas are welcome!

I was looking all over the place for a recipe for rhubarb jam. Just rhubarb. No strawberries, no raspberries, no nothing. Just rhubarb. I found nothing, except for a few recipes for rhubarb sauce, or rhubarb jams made with strawberry jello. No thanks. I did come across one great little recipe for gingered-rhubarb jam that sounded fantastic, so I gave it a whirl. The first whirl was three days ago. This particular recipe does not require pectin other than that in the veggie itself-- yep, rhubarb's a vegetable, and it has enough pectin in it, once it's combined with sugar, to jell up quite nicely. My big mistake occurred when I allowed the most incredibly-smelling, color-changing, wonder of a preserve to over-boil. When this happens, the temperature raises above the "jell-point," which is about 220 degrees for jams. The next "point" on a candy thermometer is, well, pretty much candy. The fragrance turned to stench, the sauce turned to goop, and the whole mess hardened like frozen taffy. It was terrible. Still, I surrendered to the process, threw some of it in jars while I had the chance, and hoped for a miracle. No such thing occurred. I still have the two jars of hardened rhubarb (and ginger!) on my counter, next to the second batch I dared to make today. And today's batch was much better. MUCH better. So much better that we spread it on our grilled salmon tonight, then opened a second jar to have a couple more spoonfuls. Yum. Need to go running tomorrow.

Anyway, about the name. Jams, jellies, and preserves have to be named according to some FDA guidelines. This is based on fruit and sugar content, along with other specifics. When it comes to the words "preserves" or "sauce," however, the rules are a little more lenient. In this case, I know I can't call it jelly, but I'm sure it can be called jam, preserves or spread. For more info, check out The Nibble.

2 Rainy Days in April

2010-04-28T22:14:00.021-04:00

When it rains, I'm not great at coming up with a good plan. Over the last couple of days, though, we've kept busy by getting into our rain gear and tromping around our neighborhood (the farm) and visiting what the girls call "the milk store," where we get our milk each week. Here are some of our findings.

True barn cats. Look closely!

Raspberry
and
Blackberry
beginnings.

Mmmmmm.
Rhubarb.

And while I'm pretty sure I think this is a whole lot cooler than the kids do, this gorgeous little tree is growing up right in the middle of an old building foundation. I get the idea this was Bill's house, thereby giving the hill where we live the name, "Over to Bill's."

The old pump house, next to which is Aunt Judy's actual well. More later on these
cutest-ever hats.

Gram's Raspberry Jelly

2010-04-26T07:52:00.001-04:00

If you didn't know already, the difference between jam and jelly is that jam has chunks of berries in it, and jelly is strained so that it is smooth and without seeds or chunks. I've never much been a fan of making jelly, since it requires quite a bit more time, and I love the chunkiness of jam. Still, the aunts, especially my mother, suggested that raspberry jelly is a must-have for the farm stand, so I went for it. And, I must say, it did turn out incredible. Thanks to Grammie for the top-secret family recipe. Check out that color! Mmmmmmm...

And this is blueberry jam in the making. I froze just about 20 quarts of blueberries over the summer. The girls absolutely love eating blueberries right out of the freezer, in pancakes, on ice cream, or just mashed up with a spoon. And it makes pretty darn good jam too.

The result of my efforts over the last couple of weeks. What we have here is Hot Habanero Jam, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Raspberry Jelly, Strawberry Jam, Cranberry Jam, Blackberry Jam, and Holiday Cranberry Sauce. Next up? Making an official label, and.... Relish.

Coupe de Poulet, Ou sont Vous?

2010-04-25T12:56:00.010-04:00

The weekend began with a little freedom outside for the chickens while Joe continued to build their extra-extravagant coop-- he calls it a coupe. And by "freedom," I mean pecking around in a small enclosed space while a drooling bird dog points at you for hours and hours.

Poor Bubba. He was exhausted by the end of the day from guarding, pointing, and generally fretting over his inability to get at the birds.

In the meantime, I planned what was to be a relatively successful birthday party for two 3-year old girls. The kids had a great time running around, blowing bubbles, getting their faces painted, and waiting patiently (ok, not super-patiently) for cotton candy and cake. By the way, the flower cake came out pretty darn good. I decided to remove (and eat) the flower pot all together, then create a new big flower out of all the little flowers, and finally add mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips to the empty spots to make the flower look like a brown-eyed Susan. The kids tore into it, leaving the butterfly for the adults.

We're huge fans of keeping things simple, so when the kids needed a break from the yard and house, we took a walk to Uncle Brian's hammock for a quick swing with the girls.

And the day ended with good friends and a little toe-nail painting for Daddy. He is such a good sport!

Getting Greener

2010-04-24T07:33:00.006-04:00

I'm not sure why Joe wanted me to pick these up, but I love looking at them. Ruby tried to bite into one because we were out of apples. She was unpleasantly surprised!
Here's my attempt at making two cakes at once. It's our first genuine birthday party for the twins. Charlie said she wanted a "magical fairy princess" cake, and Ruby said she wanted a "magical ballerina" cake, but I was able to convince them that flowers and butterflies are just as magical and beautiful. I'm going to reconfigure the flower pot cake to look like one big flower-- I'm not in love with the way it came out this way.

I keep saying, "Maybe we should think about a ride-on mower," but Joe likes the old, and I mean old, push mower. It takes him 2 hours to do the whole yard. It was dark when he finished up last night. All in the name of a good toddler party!

Spring Fever

2010-04-23T11:14:00.007-04:00

This is evidence of me thinking I can plant something in the ground and make it grow. It would be terrific if the girls could have the experience of actually planting something, watching it grow, harvesting it, and eating it. Even though we'll be getting most of our produce directly from Anderson Farms this summer, they're still missing the first few steps of that process, so I'd love to fill in the gaps. We'll see how it goes.

You can see why I've been hesitant to plant anything at all. Winter comes and goes through the spring, and I'm terrible about weeding. Still, I picked up a bunch of seeds, and I still have a couple pounds of giant sunflower seeds to plant in the fields by our house. Let the tilling begin!

The Secret Life of Chickens

2010-04-18T09:10:00.017-04:00

Well, it's not that secret. You either hatch baby chicks yourself, or you purchase day-old chicks at a chicken store (Agway or other supplier). Then you bring them home, keep them in a warm and sheltered place for a few weeks, and transfer them to an appropriate coop outside once they have enough feathers to keep themselves warm. Seems pretty basic huh?

Well, in this house, chicken-raising is a new and incredible adventure. Who knew the Easter Bunny would actually deliver 2-week-old chicks to our house in their own brooder (the little warm sheltered place I was talking about). She (yep, the bunny's a chick-- well, she's female) even brought enough food for a couple weeks. That bunny is a serious giver.

When the birds arrived we had 10. On Easter Sunday we gave 4 of them to Auntie Sarah, who already has several chickens, but who thought she could use a few more to "resupply". She has a large dog, a fox who frequents their property, and who knows what else to support the diminishing of her chicken population. When I was looking into getting chickens, for their eggs by the way, Sarah suggested Americaunas. This kind, also known as "Easter Eggers," lays blue and green eggs. Some even lay eggs that are a cute little shade of pink. They are chicken mutts that come in lots of shapes, colors, and sizes, and they happen to be super-friendly. So that's what we ended up with, plus an additional Hubbard Isa Brown. Would you believe the Hubbard is named after the company that created this genetically altered chicken to be a super-layer. I'm serious-- this is what they call Hubbard Isa's. Super-layers. Sometimes they lay 2 eggs a day, which seems completely unnatural and painful to me, but apparently it works for them. So it works for us. And the one we have, Alice in Wonderland, is actually pretty cute and friendly, not at all the chicken robot you'd think an engineered chicken would be.

Alice is the golden-looking chick to the far left. Note how she's posing for the camera. These are the same chicks as those in the photo above, only 2 weeks later. They grow incredibly fast.

And by the way, from left to right, their names are Alice (you've met already), Ally (the white one), Candace (eating), Buddy (Camden's chicken), Dirty Dirty Chicken (we call her "Dirty"), and Princess of the Castle (also known as "Princess" or "Castle") Note how Alice is the only one with yellow feet. Weird.

Our intent is to transfer the chicks to their outside coop whenever Joe finishes building it. This should be any day, but the weather hasn't cooperated over the last few days, so he's just getting out there now to put up the side walls. We figure we'll probably have to use a couple light bulbs to keep the birds warm at night for a few weeks since it is still pretty nippy out. Plus, we've all grown pretty attached to them, so I know I'd be up at night obsessing about whether or not they're too cold out there. The light bulbs should prevent that.

The space under the side wall is where an access door will go so we can get in there to clean out the coop. It's identical on the other side so we can just push or pull everything out easily. The attachment on the back of the coop are where the nest boxes will go, and a side door there will allow us to easily reach in to get the eggs. We'll keep the coop on its stilts and make the underneath an actual shady shelter for the birds when they're out and about. Because of all the dogs in the neighborhood (especially our own bird-chaser), the chickens will have an enclosed outside area. This should also help with any other predators who may be interested in having chicken for dinner.