I was talking food to one of my coworkers and she said "You should write a blog on that!"
So...this one's for you Nadine!
I have traditionally spent Thursday evening looking up recipes, meal planning for the upcoming week and grocery shopping from that list. This past week, I decided to let my freezer and cupboards dictate what I ate.
I was pleasantly surprised when I started to look around, how much I still had left that I had grown.
This week I enjoyed potato pancakes with my potatoes, hamburgers with my garlic, onions, thyme, oregano and topped with my relish, smoothies with my blackberries and blueberries, toast with my jam, I also made a salad dressing with my jam, my squash with stuffing, I used my garlic and tomatoes in a soup, I used my peppers and eggs in an omelette, I ate pickles and pickled beets, I drank my blackberry liquor (Ok so that wasn't in the meal planning!), and had my maple sugar on top of ice cream.
I need to change my thought process and enjoy everything I have harvested from this beautiful land. I have this "save it" mentality. I didn't want to run out of the food I have made or grown or collected. But as maple syrup season is right around the corner I realize the food production year is starting again. I am pulling out my journals to remind myself what went right and what I needed to do differently this year and am so excited to get started.
I need suggestions now. I have so many potatoes left that I will not be able to eat them all before they go bad. What can I do to preserve them? I know freezing them changes their texture, but I think if I cook them I can freeze them mashed. I will also try to save some as seed potatoes. Any other thoughts?
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Monday, February 17, 2020
Feeling Old...
I am so sorry it is late Monday and I am just now writing Sunday's blog.
It has been a great, crazy week. We got lots of snow and some of our coldest temperatures yet. That did not deter Dixie who still insists on playing fetch twice a day, icicles and all! The snow was so beautiful but our path to the apple orchard was almost closed in with the snow heavy branches.
It was another long week at work which means I do not get much accomplished Monday through Friday, however being Family Day/Heritage Day today, I got a lovely three day weekend. I tried to get in everything I possibly could while still catering to my super attention hungry dog. While I did get a lot done, I must admit, this desk job I have been working for the past 10 months is not doing me any favours. I am sooooo sore today! I do not remember feeling this achy and old last year.
I finished 90% of the bedroom: trimmed the window, painted the baseboard, laid quarter round, caulked the trim, and painted the grates. I have some touch up paint to do after the caulking, and although I still have one wall that is unfinished, (I need to hang a door that is so heavy I will have to wait until dad comes in May to finish it and I cannot trim or match baseboard on that wall until the door is done so ....) I will be moving in furniture this week and hopefully will be able to post the finished pics in next weeks blog!
I also kept busy cleaning the chimney, cutting, lugging and stacking a face cord of wood, removing one of the dreaded rose briars, cleaning the chicken coop, and even got in some Netflix!
Thanks for all the calls this week, it was wonderful talking to Brandon, Zoe, Greg, Aunt Judy, Mom and Dad.
It has been a great, crazy week. We got lots of snow and some of our coldest temperatures yet. That did not deter Dixie who still insists on playing fetch twice a day, icicles and all! The snow was so beautiful but our path to the apple orchard was almost closed in with the snow heavy branches.
It was another long week at work which means I do not get much accomplished Monday through Friday, however being Family Day/Heritage Day today, I got a lovely three day weekend. I tried to get in everything I possibly could while still catering to my super attention hungry dog. While I did get a lot done, I must admit, this desk job I have been working for the past 10 months is not doing me any favours. I am sooooo sore today! I do not remember feeling this achy and old last year.I finished 90% of the bedroom: trimmed the window, painted the baseboard, laid quarter round, caulked the trim, and painted the grates. I have some touch up paint to do after the caulking, and although I still have one wall that is unfinished, (I need to hang a door that is so heavy I will have to wait until dad comes in May to finish it and I cannot trim or match baseboard on that wall until the door is done so ....) I will be moving in furniture this week and hopefully will be able to post the finished pics in next weeks blog!
I also kept busy cleaning the chimney, cutting, lugging and stacking a face cord of wood, removing one of the dreaded rose briars, cleaning the chicken coop, and even got in some Netflix!
Thanks for all the calls this week, it was wonderful talking to Brandon, Zoe, Greg, Aunt Judy, Mom and Dad.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Weekend!!
I feel like it has been so long since I have had a weekend off that this felt special!
It started with a "fill your bathtub evening". No, I was not pampering myself, I have come to learn this is code for - the weather looks nasty and we might lose power, so fill your bathtub with water just in case! This whole thought process had meant nothing to me a year and a half ago. We may have had no hot water if there was no electricity, but we always had water. Just another thing I have had to learn about now that I have a well and a pump - no electricity = no water. We really did have a loud storm. Lots of ice and wild winds -poor Dixie absolutely hates the wind. But we were lucky enough to have only a few power flickers. However, when Dixie and I got out in the morning for our walk we found two trees that had been blown over. I still cannot figure it out. Our patio furniture stayed lovely and ready for entertaining on the deck while one hundred feet away an entire tree toppled over!!
New plan of attack for the weekend, forget pruning the apple trees, storm clean up wins out. I had finally gotten all the debris around the fire pit burned and here we go again. This time however, instead of just piling up all the branches, I immediately (ok be honest...immediately after I got a sippy cup of wine) got to burning this pile so it does not get so out of hand again.
The rest of the weekend was filled with dog runs, playing fetch and frisbee, hiking the paths around the house, falling through the ice of the "frozen" stream, working on window trim in the bedroom, cutting more firewood, and a bit of house cleaning to round out a fantastic two days off!
Chicken update: the girls are awesome! I got 15 eggs today including a new colour - olive green. They are loving this weather, even though it was very cold yesterday and today, the sun was shining and that means they are out and about. I am getting a little nervous about the roosters though. They seem to have lovely temperaments and take good care of the girls, but they are loud! While it doesn't bother me, in fact I kind of like hearing them crow, I am very nervous a neighbour may not like them as much. So far so good, I can only hope it stays that way.
It started with a "fill your bathtub evening". No, I was not pampering myself, I have come to learn this is code for - the weather looks nasty and we might lose power, so fill your bathtub with water just in case! This whole thought process had meant nothing to me a year and a half ago. We may have had no hot water if there was no electricity, but we always had water. Just another thing I have had to learn about now that I have a well and a pump - no electricity = no water. We really did have a loud storm. Lots of ice and wild winds -poor Dixie absolutely hates the wind. But we were lucky enough to have only a few power flickers. However, when Dixie and I got out in the morning for our walk we found two trees that had been blown over. I still cannot figure it out. Our patio furniture stayed lovely and ready for entertaining on the deck while one hundred feet away an entire tree toppled over!!
New plan of attack for the weekend, forget pruning the apple trees, storm clean up wins out. I had finally gotten all the debris around the fire pit burned and here we go again. This time however, instead of just piling up all the branches, I immediately (ok be honest...immediately after I got a sippy cup of wine) got to burning this pile so it does not get so out of hand again.
The rest of the weekend was filled with dog runs, playing fetch and frisbee, hiking the paths around the house, falling through the ice of the "frozen" stream, working on window trim in the bedroom, cutting more firewood, and a bit of house cleaning to round out a fantastic two days off!
Chicken update: the girls are awesome! I got 15 eggs today including a new colour - olive green. They are loving this weather, even though it was very cold yesterday and today, the sun was shining and that means they are out and about. I am getting a little nervous about the roosters though. They seem to have lovely temperaments and take good care of the girls, but they are loud! While it doesn't bother me, in fact I kind of like hearing them crow, I am very nervous a neighbour may not like them as much. So far so good, I can only hope it stays that way.
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Take the Good with the Bad
This has been one of those up and down weeks.
UPS:
I have been thrilled with the girls this week. Most of them are laying now and I have gotten up to thirteen eggs a day!!
I have had a lovely weekend being spoiled by friends. Saturday night I was invited out for Brie, soup, salad, wine and lovely conversation. And tonight I was treated to spaghetti and apple pie (sorry for having a piece Bruce, but who could resist?!) and great conversation with fun, funny people!
The weather has been near spring like. So much so that the back yard is a mud pit. Not so nice for those hour long fetch sessions I have with Dixie.
DOWNS:
My heart goes out to my cousins Karen and Ken whose son passed away. My heart just breaks for them. It is one of those moments when I hate being so far away. I hope they can feel my love and know if I was there I would be hugging them.
Dixie has developed a nasty habit of chasing chickens. Twice this week while we were playing in the back she got distracted by the flapping and took chase. The first time, she got a mouthful of feathers. The chicken is fine, but was a little stressed for the rest of the day. The second time, the chicken was super smart and headed straight for the briar patch. The dog dove in after her and when I finally go a hold of Dixie she was covered in blood. My first thought was she took a bite out of the chicken, but no...her mouth was clean. I took her inside to the bathtub, hosed her down and identified that she tore her ear on a thorn and was still bleeding quite profusely from it. In the process of trying to stop the bleeding, I also noticed a thorn up her nose!!! I wish Zoe was still here to have video taped me with my arm around Dixie, my hand clamped on her ear, tweezers in the other hand, her squirming to beat the band!! In the end I got the thorn, but thirty hours later, her ear is still bleeding. In her crate it stops while she is calm and contained, but
as soon as she gets out of the crate she does that wet dog shake, the cut reopens and the house looks like a murder scene with blood splattered from floor to ceiling!
UPS:
I have been thrilled with the girls this week. Most of them are laying now and I have gotten up to thirteen eggs a day!!
I have had a lovely weekend being spoiled by friends. Saturday night I was invited out for Brie, soup, salad, wine and lovely conversation. And tonight I was treated to spaghetti and apple pie (sorry for having a piece Bruce, but who could resist?!) and great conversation with fun, funny people!
The weather has been near spring like. So much so that the back yard is a mud pit. Not so nice for those hour long fetch sessions I have with Dixie.
DOWNS:
My heart goes out to my cousins Karen and Ken whose son passed away. My heart just breaks for them. It is one of those moments when I hate being so far away. I hope they can feel my love and know if I was there I would be hugging them.
Dixie has developed a nasty habit of chasing chickens. Twice this week while we were playing in the back she got distracted by the flapping and took chase. The first time, she got a mouthful of feathers. The chicken is fine, but was a little stressed for the rest of the day. The second time, the chicken was super smart and headed straight for the briar patch. The dog dove in after her and when I finally go a hold of Dixie she was covered in blood. My first thought was she took a bite out of the chicken, but no...her mouth was clean. I took her inside to the bathtub, hosed her down and identified that she tore her ear on a thorn and was still bleeding quite profusely from it. In the process of trying to stop the bleeding, I also noticed a thorn up her nose!!! I wish Zoe was still here to have video taped me with my arm around Dixie, my hand clamped on her ear, tweezers in the other hand, her squirming to beat the band!! In the end I got the thorn, but thirty hours later, her ear is still bleeding. In her crate it stops while she is calm and contained, but 
as soon as she gets out of the crate she does that wet dog shake, the cut reopens and the house looks like a murder scene with blood splattered from floor to ceiling!
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