These Days

The mama and babe of the house have been completely derailed by a very stubborn flu bug.  Here are a few things that have helped us pass the time, and some others that look like fun once we're back in action. 

:: Sparkle Stories are new to us, but I do believe they are here to stay long after we're well.  Great fun for the little and big ears. 

:: We have many wild nettles popping up all around, and this bit on nettle foraging has got me inspired to give them a go this year. 

:: Some DIY on NPR.  I never thought to make our own lox, but soon this will happen.

:: Would love to grow enough daffodils to try this dying process out.  

:: Warming and comforting teas from here.

:: I'm loving these new cups we added for the little man. Why did I not think of these before now?

:: Wishing this book was already released for my extended stay couch-side. 

:: This book and this book also look like great fun.

Have a wonderful weekend.  And, if you're out-and-about, and you see someone that's sick...run as fast as you can in the opposite direction.  You do not want to catch this one. 

Calming

The Quiet Space.  It's a safe place, a calming place, a familiar and inviting place.  It's the place where the little creature in our home heads when the need to take a step back occurs. A place many of us adults would actually love to have.  As a mother and wife I find myself at times needing to just close the door and sit quietly by myself for a minute or two - to re-gain the patience, love & strength I may need to get through the day. The act of taking a side-step is a simple concept, and it's one that works beautifully in the parenting of our 3-yr old.   We direct him here when we feel his behavior is inappropriate, yet the decision to return and act appropriately is his.  There is no timer, no counting the minutes from one of us.  On occasion he comes out a bit too soon, and needs some directing back, but most often he gets it right. It's discipline without punishment or shaming.

About a year ago, the two of us invested in a parenting class called Redirecting Children's Behavior. Now, we did not do this because we were having particular parenting challenges with Ezra at the time.  He had just turned two years old when we took the class, and the thought of using a naughty chair, time-out, or something of this sort was foreign to us.  But, I knew the time was coming, and we wanted to be ready. I wanted to have the tools ready and waiting in the tool-belt, able to be pulled out when the time came.  It was in this class that we learned about the use of a quite space. 

Earlier this week, Ezra and I made a calming jar that calls the quite place its home.  It is quite simple to put together, and it seems to induce a deep breath almost instantly. This little jar could be pulled out in any situation, in any area of your home if you do not have a quiet space. 

 Combine the following in any water-tight jar you have.  
        Water
        Glitter
        Glitter Glue or Glycerin (which ever you may have) 
Wisk all ingredients together in bowl.  Pour into jar, seal, shake and let the peace begin.  

We are fortunate to have the Indigo Village here in San Diego that offers not only these particular classes, but it is a haven for parents and children in so many ways.  This class, and its theories are not unique to the Indigo Village, and the classes are offered in numerous cities by certified teachers. Though, our teacher, Susie Walton, was absolutely great.  And, her own personal knowledge coupled with the teachings in the class were invaluable. This book was followed during our class, and this book was written by Susie herself.  They are both essential parenting books in my opinion, with the latter being a bit more straightforward, easier to follow and more entertaining.  I think most any home can benefit from a bit more rhythm & harmony, and you can be assured this class will deliver.  

Harvest Monday 3.26.2012

Our harvests from the garden this week were peppered all throughout our meals and snacks.  We are coming to the end of our lemon guavas for the season, and they will certainly be missed when snack-time calls.  Our lettuce is coming in beautifully - we can't quite remember exactly why types these are, but they are great for our nightly salads.  
We still have lingering passion fruits falling from the vines, and this week we made them into a syrup.  We boiled the belly of the fruit in a simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar), strained it to remove seeds, and were left with a bounty of passion-fruit syrup.  It's delicious atop ice cream, yogurt, waffles and I am sure we find more excuses to pour this syrup.

Our chard continues to grow and grow, as does the celery.  Commercial celery purchased in stores has most likely been through a blanching process to mute the flavor in an effort to appeal to the average consumer.  You can purchase self-blanching celery to grow, or you can put your variety through the process to mimic the store-bought versions. But, in this house we love the full, flavor-packed celery and wouldn't dream of changing. Our artichokes are slowly coming in and have become a favorite of our little man.  He got the one and only artichoke that was ready for harvesting this week.

Harvest Monday is a place for garden bloggers to share there harvests. Please come join the global harvest. 

Weekending

The Second City's touring show, Laugh out Loud,at the La Jolla Playhouse.

Potatoes

Preschool choices are a hot topic in this house, and recently Alison and I were watching a video about an outdoor preschool in Norway. The video is pretty radical, and it has a section on growing potatoes. For preschool kids, they are extremely easy to understand, and are a fantastic tactile experience. Seed potatoes go in, plants grow, and then you dig up a bunch of new spuds. I wasn't planning on growing potatoes this year, but after watching the video, I could tell that Alison was gung-ho. I love to plan my garden, so this threw me for a curve, but this is what gardening is all about. I was able to dedicate an entire box for the project, although some veggies were pulled a bit early. We decided on Russian Banana, Chery Red, All Blue, and Russet Burbank. Ezra dug the experience, pun intended.

Tomatomania!

We had a really nice storm move through our area over the weekend, but there was nothing going to get in the way of Tomatiomania! If Tomatomania! is coming to your neighborhood, you should definitely clear the schedule and pay a visit. The plants look extremely healthy, and it was an amazing assortment of heirloom and some hybrid tomato plants.   Yes, tomatoes are quite easy to begin from seed, but we wanted to plant a large variety of tomatoes this year, and it doesn't make sense to buy 12 seed packets and plant just one seed from each packet. I will save my seeds from productive plants this year for next. I can't believe it's already time to kick off tomato season!

  

Our Tomatomania! was held at the San Diego Botanic Gardens, a true gem of the area.  And, since Ezra's attention to the tomatoes had was shorter than his father's, the two of us took a walk to play in the children's garden, and then meandered around the grounds.

Tic-Tac-Toe

After-dinner mango + a little man that loves this game.

Harvest Monday 3.19.12

We had a very wet and windy weekend, and although I didn't get my tomato beds prepared as planned, we did manage to start our spring cleaning. This week should be clear, so the beds await.

Sweet peas that re-seed every year are just a wonderful thing. Zero effort, and fantastic displays.

The strawberry plants are starting to produce, and for the first time, Ezra ate a fresh strawberry. He used to only eat pureed and freeze dried, and I finally convinced him to eat one from the garden. I can't believe it has been so difficult to get a 3 year old to eat a strawberry.

I had to pull a lot of carrots and bunching onions this week to make room for potatoes.

Another week, another few pounds of asparagus.

Crimson bunching onions, pulled to make room for some potatoes. I used some in a stir-fry tonight, and will probably barbecue the rest later in the week. Grilled onions are favorite around here.

Two Valencia oranges fell off the tree during the wind storm, and I managed to get to them before the chickens could peck them.

Harvest Monday is a place for garden bloggers to share there harvests. Please come join the global harvest.

Weekending

Storing Food, according to Jihyun Ryou

After watching this video, I am inspired, in awe, and realize that we need to pay even more attention to the keeping of our produce.  The attention to detail, patience and respect conveyed through this video is most admirable, not to mention the beauty with which it is displayed. Though, I do not believe our refrigerator is going anywhere, this video shows the storage and keeping of produce in a way I've never before seen.  After watching this, I hope we will find fewer vegetables hiding in the bottom of the vegetable bins, and I hope you will, too. 

If you are interested in learning more about this process, and saving food from the refrigerator, you can find her here.

Natural Egg Dyes

With the Easter and Passover holidays quickly approaching, I have been researching various methods of using our natural elements to dye eggs. More so than buying the usual food coloring at the market, I am thinking & hoping the process of actually creating the dye will be quite fun to experience with Ezra, not to mention the act of dying. Here are a few of my favorite spots I've found that give great ideas as to what will create a particular color, as well as tutorials on how to actually create the dye.  Good luck, and happy coloring!  

The Carnivore and Vegetarian:  http://www.carnivoreandvegetarian.com/2010/04/passover-eggs-dyed-naturally-guest-post.html

Two Men and a Little Farm:  http://twomenandalittlefarm.blogspot.com/2011/04/dyeing-easter-eggs-natural-way.html

The Kitchn:  http://www.thekitchn.com/vibrant-easter-eggs-dyed-natur-112957

And, Craftastica:  http://craftastica.blogspot.com/2007/04/naturally-dyed-eggs.html

Local Fare

Our dinner last night was one of the most local meals we've had in awhile. Since our garden generally has something to harvest, it's not all that often we come home from the market with a vegetable. It's hard to believe our garden is at a place where I can say that, I can't remember the last time I filled one of those ubiquitous, plastic produce bags. Our local fare last night was comprised of lobster, artichokes and asparagus.  

We split a lobster that was gifted to Erik for his birthday by our diving friend.  The funny part was that he did actually wrap the creature in paper, leaving the antennas sticking out.  This Pacific Lobster was caught just off the coast here in Cardiff, maybe only a mile or so away, but that mile or two is the farthest anything on our plates traveled.  Then, we shared our first artichoke harvest of the year.  Never would I have thought an artichoke would be the first ever, green-colored food item to grace Ezra's lips, but it was, and he loved it.  He must share his mama's love of this veggie, and I am so glad our 10 artichoke plants are all starting to send up their flowers. To finish of this meal, we filled up the rest of our plates with our home-grown asparagus.  These spears are becoming a mainstay on our plates right now, and one I hope does not end soon.  

Little Ladies

Typically, I am the one that visits the feed store and comes home with food for the ladies.  But, what do you get when when Erik happens by?  New. baby. hens.  Oh, my!  Yes, he came home with three, new poulets last week.  And, once they caught Ezra's eye there was no going back. I do suppose they are awfully cute, and really won't need much more than we already provide the elders - but it was certainly not what I was expecting to see on that afternoon.  That brings our official count to nine hens.  I need some new, fresh, egg-centered recipes.

Harvest Monday 3.12.12

The theme of our harvest is randomness. The asparagus keep on producing, and I actually gave away a bunch this past week. I never thought I would give any away, but there are a dozen spears every time we turn around.

Ezra found these two boysenberries, and although they weren't close to being ripe, he plucked them. They were tart, but also hinted of what is coming.

Valencia oranges, really tart, and really delicious. They probably could have stayed on the tree for another month, but Alison gave me a new juicer for my birthday, so I had to to test them out.

Ezra and the new juicer. He figured it out before I did.

The strawberry plants are growing incredibly fast, and we found two red strawberries. One is a seascape, and the other is a quinault. I have been told to pluck the first round of flowers and berries so that the energy goes into the plant, but I just can't do it. In two months, we should be inundated.

I grow all my lettuce under netting because of the birds, and my occasional rogue chicken. This head of lettuce had some small holes, and I was guessing a slug. When I put the lettuce under some running water, a small green caterpillar fell out. The war has begun.

From Ezra's personal garden, we harvested a couple giant Sunshine Flowers, as he calls them. I have never roasted the seeds, but will give it a shot this week.  A few seeds will also go right back into the garden for the next round of Sunshine Flowers.  

An artichoke? Yes, our first of the year. Lovely, lovely thistle. I love spring.

Harvest Monday is a place for garden bloggers to share there harvests. Please come join the global harvest.

Weekending

Celebration

This first week of March is all about celebrating both the little and big men in this house.  With birthdays just one week apart, we are still in full celebration mode over here.  The past few years haven't brought the most exciting or fun birthdays for the Papa of this house, as we have been confined to hospital walls tending to the little man, but this year we are home.  We are home to celebrate our Papa who guides this family, and who holds the bits of every day life that bring us together as a family.   He just knows when to step in and help, when this Mama needs a break, when to take a step back, when to handle the dinner duties, when to have some fun & play, when to bring a glass of wine, when to go for a surf, when to tell me (and ezra) to take a deep breath.  He just knows.  Happy Birthday!  

Health Nuts

Fruit leathers are a sweet treat that we enjoy in this house every so often.  And, our friends over at Korduroy.tv were here recently filming the making of these for their series Health Nuts. We use a dehydrator, which makes it super simple, but you can also use your oven if you do not own one.  Turn your oven to 140 degrees for 8-10 hours, and you will wind up with the same results.


Fruit Leather - Heath Nuts from www.KORDUROY.tv on Vimeo.


We get a ton of use out of our dehydrator, an appliance I was quite hesistant to bring into the kitchen. I am not a fan of single-use appliances, but this one has proven me wrong.  We do everything from making fruit leathers to drying our garden-grown peppers for paprika.  You can do quite a lot with this darn dehydrator. Sometimes I wish I did not like it so much, because it takes up so much space...but there's work to be had with it, and I do think it has earned it's spot in the kitchen.

Taproot

The first issue of Taproot arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and I've only begun to dive into it's belly. Though it's still fresh in my hands, I do believe this publication will be a welcome reminder to take a step back, allow ourselves to breath a bit more deeply, to slow down and enjoy the now.  If you haven't already, I definitely think Taproot is worth checking out.  Whether you live in an urban setting or on a homestead of your own, I think everyone can use a reminder to live fully, and dig deeper.  As a parent of a growing and ever-curious mind, I am becoming more and more conscience what sort of media is brought into our home, and so far, I am willing to clear some room for this one.