i've got sunshine on a rainy day...

this has been a non-stop week for me...on the road 3 times this week, 2 more than usual for me.

i have lots of photos to upload, i'll have to break them up in posts. i also have some exciting news for some partnerships with herbal roots and some other local mamas. i'll be announcing the first one tomorrow!

yesterday was my birthday and i was given some of the most creative wonderful gifts...

this was a card nina made for me...the cake is mud, decorated with dianthus blossoms, the candle stems are violet blossom stems and the flames are dandelion blossoms...the wishes are dandelion seeds. isn't is beautiful? i'm going to try to frame it.

this is a drawing rebekah made of me. isn't it amazing? she is so talented. it's full of symbols all about me. the herbs at the bottom are chickweed, bluebells, yarrow, motherwort, violet and dandelion.
she also makes these awesome pendants. this one i picked out. it has a forest scene with mushrooms on the front:
and a darling owl on the back:
jaden picked out this beautiful butterfly:she sells these in her etsy shop. she's out of town this weekend but she'll be back online on monday.
greg got me a really neat spirally windchime. i need to put a hook up so i can hang it and photograph it.

what i like about you...contest winner

jaden drew a name and this month's contest winner to receive a free copy of may's herbal roots is leslie and evan at comfrey cottages! congratulations!

leslie wrote about her experience with violets:

this weekend 3 of my grandchildren and i spent the day gathering violets. wish i could post pics here, but since i can't here is the link to the picture of evan, age 8 gathering
http://s148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/lesliepostin/april2009/?action=view&current=HPIM3397.jpg
he ended up being my most diligent picker. anyway, i guess we have enjoyed the comraderie of working together harvesting and then making the beautiful violet jelly! the stories have been a huge hit also, and i am sure none of the kids can walk by violets without viewing them with a new eye. an eye like a budding herbalist kristine. so i guess my favorite thing about violets as they have been an easy way to get the kids involved in learning to gather wild plants for food and medicine. we love herbal roots!!! thank you so much for the time and effort that goes into creating each issue! great big hugs to you:)

scowl...computers!

for some reason, the color settings are off when i scan in the images for my herbal roots packet. i am not very computer literate, i know just enough to be dangerous. it appears the blue and red are not picking up.

anybody know if this would be a scanner issue or a computer issue? or how i would go about getting it fixed. it seems to have just gone wonky on me in the past day. grrr!

Herbal Roots - May 2009 Issue

may's edition is finished and ready to go! this month, is all about that infamous 'weed' dandelion. just in time since they are popping up like crazy!

this is such a great herb, i could have written twice as much about his many virtues. i hope this edition will give you enough of a taste of dandelion that you'll seek out more information, uses and recipes. the resource section is crammed full of links for extra crafts, recipes and lore!
all the recipes this month are food oriented. dandelion is so versatile, his medicine is best taken in food form. but don't worry, there is such a wide array of uses for him that you'll not be disappointed...chai, coffee substitute, syrup, fritters, soup, wine...the list goes on and on.

as usual, there are fun activities to make learning exciting. a word search, maze, crafts, stories and much more are all waiting to help with the discovery of this wonderful herb, one of nature's best gifts!

a great little book to get you started, most likely available through your library, is dandelion adventures by l. patricia kite. it's a fun little story about how the seeds of the dandelion travel and end up in 7 different landscapes and flourish, regardless of the life they are given. great food for thought!

as usual, you can order herbal roots directly from my website!

not buying it - week 7

thanks again kathie for the button/banner!

this week found me spending more than i have in awhile but mostly on gardening goods which i see as an investment in my food and medicine future. i need to start filling this out daily because by the end of the week, my brain is mush and i can't remember what i did all week.

clothing
-started a mend pile. need to get busy.

food
-harvested morels, asparagus, weeds! for salad...

household
-reusing plastic bags for trash bags

utilities
-diligently shutting off power strips each night for computer/dsl and tv/dvd player (this is especially important right now while we are incubating eggs and raising chicks with grow lights which sucks the electricity)
-making sure lights are off when we are not in the room

gifts
-

exercise/self improvement
-knife throwing
-hooping
-saw krishna das in person. normally, i would put this under weaknesses but it was such a spiritual experience for me that i think it was very worth the 25$. i wish he'd visit every week, or month at least!

homestead
-

education
-

weaknesses
-bought dinner at whole foods. $21 for the two of us the night of krishna das (see i had to fit it in as a weakness somehow!!)
-bought herbs: rosemary, sage, lavender, pansies plus pansy and poppy seeds

purging
-packed up a box of books to get rid of, misc. other items as i cleaned
-signed up for paperbackswap and cdswap so i can get rid of books and cds i don't want anymore and get some i do want!

independence days - week 51

since i'm struggling to get the garden in again this year due to my rambunctious toddler, i thought taking the id challenge would be a good moral booster for me. i try to practice this idea anyway during the growing seasons so it's a great reminder of how much i really do even when it feels like i do nothing.

thanks to gina for prodding me back into this challenge! i believe sharon (the creator of this great challenge) is starting up again too at her blog.



1. plant something
~planted raspberries given to me by a friend
~planted sage, rosemary, lavender and pansies

2. harvest something:
~eggs (chicken and turkey)
~dandelions
~violets
~various leaves for making my morning tea: sage, bergamot, thyme, oregano, echinacea, motherwort, dandelion, lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint, rosemary
~grass from the lawn to feed to the sheep and goats
~milk
~morels
~asparagus

3. preserve something:
~

4. prep something:
~working on the newest flower bed by the house
~planning out living tipi for kids and flower/herb beds and walkway leading to the tipi
~planning out sand pit for kids

5. cook something:
~asparagus and morels

6. manage your reserves:
~weeded garlic bed and mulched heavily with weeds
~weeded asparagus and strawberries
~weeded and thinned/relocated chard and cabbages

7. work on local food systems:
~eggs and milk to friends for barter
~worked on my herbal roots to teach children about using herbs medicinally and for food

8. reduce waste:
~use canvas bags at grocery store
~re-use egg cartons for our nest run eggs
~use plastic shopping bags for trash bags

9. Learned a skill:
~

when i need inspiration...

i read rhonda's blog.

here's some food for thought.

daze

that panicky...i've got too much to do and not enough time to do it all feeling is here...it must be spring!

i even forgot to mention i am posting over at not dabbling today about mullein.

last night, i cooked a meal from our backyard...asparagus and morels, weedy salad (cilantro, chickweed, baby radishes, baby lettuce, lamb's quarters sprouts, dandelion leaves, violet leaves and flowers, dandelion blossoms, baby carrots, mint), barbequed chicken and breaded okra (frozen from last summer). yum!!

planting, weeding, sowing, etc.

amazing

last night we got the honor of seeing krishna das live. it has got to be one of the most spiritual evenings of my life. he was is amazing. three hours went by in a heartbeat. listening to his cd's will never be the same again...there is no comparison to being n the same room as him and chanting with him. totally amazing.

incubating puzzle

i turned off the incubator last night and took the eggs out today and smashed them one by one to determine fertility rate. it turns out, there were 19 more eggs with almost fully developed chicks. that means, out of 42, we had 38 fertile eggs.

i'm puzzled. why did they stop? did i stop turning them too soon? the literature said stop 3 days before hatch and i did. then i had eggs start hatching w/in 24 hours of stopping. perhaps i should have kept turning them for another 2 days and stop it 1 day before hatch? it really is sad that we lost out on 1/2 of our chicks because of possibly the last 48 hours.

if anyone can help me out with this or point me in the right direction i'd really appreciate it. while i'm happy we got 19 this year, i'm sad that it could have been double and they were snuffed out so close to the end of the cycle. (there were 2 chicks that were very tiny and died a few weeks back it seems but the rest were full size).

violets - what's your favorite thing about them?

we have a large patch of violets out by the barn. they keep growing and growing and they are so beautiful that i let them. i am also transplanting a bunch to grow by the sidewalk next to the back door. they are very hardy so once they are established, if people walk on them, it won't hurt them. plus, there will be a beautiful splash of color to greet us when we walk outside. i can't think of anything better than that!

today's activity in herbal roots is for its readers to share their experiences of violet with me for a chance to win a copy of next month's edition for free! tell me herbal roots subscribers, what have you enjoyed most about violet? what crafts or recipes were the most fun for you?

please submit your experiences by monday, april 27. on tuesday, april 28, i will pull 1 name out of the basket!

good luck!!

independence days - week 50

since i'm struggling to get the garden in again this year due to my rambunctious toddler, i thought taking the id challenge would be a good moral booster for me. i try to practice this idea anyway during the growing seasons so it's a great reminder of how much i really do even when it feels like i do nothing.

thanks to gina for prodding me back into this challenge! i believe sharon (the creator of this great challenge) is starting up again too at her blog.

i am now focusing more preparedness & solstice gifts.

1. plant something
~sowed oats
~transplanted elderberries to safer place (and then ha! on me, greg STILL tilled them. luckily i was able to salvage them and put a concrete brick next to them so he won't do it again)
~asters, irises and asian lilies (ok, not food but beauty) from rebekah's house
~transplanted violets

2. harvest something:
~eggs (chicken and turkey)
~dandelions
~violets
~various leaves for making my morning tea: sage, bergamot, thyme, oregano, echinacea, motherwort, dandelion, lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint
~grass from the lawn to feed to the sheep and goats

3. preserve something:
~

4. prep something:
~froze violet infusion to make jelly on a rainy day

5. cook something:
~cream of dandelion soup

6. manage your reserves:
~taking care of baby chicks that we hatched ourselves this week

7. work on local food systems:
~invited a woman who lives in our town to visit with the gaots and sheep and chickens. she ended up taking home 6 eggs to try to incubate
~sold eggs to local people
~worked on my herbal roots to teach children about using herbs medicinally and for food

8. reduce waste:
~use canvas bags at grocery store
~re-use egg cartons for our nest run eggs
~use plastic shopping bags for trash bags

9. Learned a skill:
~tried my hand at dying with dandelion flowers

not buying it - week 6

clothing
-sewed button back on jaden's dress to make it wearable again
-patched a play dress we borrowed from a friend

food
-eating lots of dandelions
-made yogurt from our own goat milk
-roasted a chicken (from our broilers) and made 2 meals from it using only items in the pantry
-sowed oats

household
-reusing plastic bags for trash bags

utilities
-diligently shutting off power strips each night for computer/dsl and tv/dvd player (this is especially important right now while we are incubating eggs and raising chicks with grow lights which sucks the electricity)
-making sure lights are off when we are not in the room

gifts
-

exercise/self improvement
-knife throwing
-hooping
-writing in a new journal that i purchased a while back
-soaking in waldorf philosophy

homestead
-hatched out chicks!
-brought home irises, asian lilies and asters from a friend's house to start a new flower garden
-marked off area for temporary sheep pasture (still needs to be hotwired)

education
-borrowing waldorf education curriculums to get ideas for teaching jaden
-borrowed earthways from library to get ideas
-watching muzzy french dvd's and cd-roms (level I & II) borrowed from library
-made play dough with old white flour and iodized salt (that we will never use to eat), kool-aid and food dye for coloring instead of buying some

weaknesses
-got lazy about checking due dates on items and had 40 cent fine at library...this happens much more than i'd like to admit

purging
-lousy in this area but have plans to work on 2 problem areas in house this week and as time permits

anticipation

better than tv!

here she comes!

freshly hatched!

you're crackin' up man!

come here often?

it's my chicks in a box!

current count is 16 hatched, 14 living (the heat lamp got pushed over too far on their box and by the time i realized it, 3 had wilted. i was able to revive 1 but the other two were already gone. today is day 21, they started hatching on day 18 in the evening. this is our best hatch to date by either incubator or chicken (we started with 42 eggs).

ETA: looks like we're at 18 eggs hatching...a bit less than a 50% hatch rate, great for us! but very low compared to the average. better luck this fall!

projects and plans

the warmer weather brings dreams and schemes to my mind! this year, i'd like to:

-make a small water pond (i've been wanting one for about 15 years)

-make a living willow tipi for the kids (check out this cool site for ideas) at the edge of the garden

-create a flower garden next to our house on a plot of land that is compacted earth. i've already started this...it's going to take a lot of compost to build it up. i want the water pond in this area too

-create a sand pit for the kids to play in

-extend the herb and flower garden down a section of the vegetable garden with a path leading to where the living willow tipi will be

now, i just need to find those extra hours to do all that!

an ounce of prevention...

...in the form of dandelion soup!

today i'm writing about cream of dandelion soup over at not dabbling in normal. think of it as a sneak peak into next month's edition of herbal roots!sage cooking up jaden using dandelions and violets in his 'soup' circa 2007

clay play

sage is really starting to become a kid now...the other day, he asked me to get out the clay so he could play with it.

'you make us have fun mom!'

she says it like it's a bad thing...






you can make some too...it's super easy!

weekend report

we had another doe freshen this weekend...another single birth buckling. grrrr! and he's so cute too. i really wish he'd been a doeling so we could keep him. alas, life on the farm, he's a boy and we've no use for him so he'll be eaten.

we also attended a friend's birthday party and made him a cloak/cape out of a blue velvet curtain panel i purchased a year ago at the thrift shop. it was such a hit here i had to make one for jaden and nina too. i'm still working on nina's because i'm making hers fuller and that means the hood is fuller. i'm trying to wrap my mind around how to adjust it easily to make it a bit smaller.even though we don't celebrate easter, our family does so we spent most of the day running around visiting everyone. quite annoying considering greg and i both had a long list of items we wanted to tackle, including butchering the remaining 5 broilers. i guess that will wait until next weekend.

we had hoped to till up the garden so i could plant onions and potatoes but the 2" of rain we received on thursday and friday prevented us from doing so. we got more rain last night and more is predicted for today, then a 3-4 day dry spell. we are planning on tilling on friday if the weather holds.

i did get my blackberry patch moved. it's always standing in water this time of the year so we decided to move them to a bit drier spot since they haven't really flourished in their location. i'm hoping they will take off now. we have a huge wild blackberry patch at the back of our property which gives us loads of delicious blackberries but we pay the price every time with the thorns. the ones up in our garden are thornless. i'm hoping to add raspberries this year. i have tried twice, in the former location and they didn't take, probably because of the water. so, hopefully putting them in the new location will resolve that problem as well.

Herbal Roots - Violets

violets are very soothing and are great for helping the respiratory and digestive systems as the leaves are very mucilaginous. this is useful for treating coughs, even those from bronchitis, as well as throat infections (used as a gargle). it treat urinary infections and rheumatism quite well too.

there have been studies done showing violet's usefulness in treating some types of cancer. you can read more about this in susun weed's wonderful book 'healing wise.'

because violet contains large amounts of rutin, she works well for treating varicose veins. this is best treated externally and internally at the same time, using a salve or poultice made from the leaves and a tincture or infusion daily.

violets have lots of medicinal uses but are also great enjoyed as a food, the best way to take your medicine!

one of our favorite things to do around here is make a springtime salad using chickweed, dandelion, violet and plantain mixed in with some lettuce or spinach. then, we add violet blossoms, dandelion petals, day lily petals and various herbs such as mint, lemon balm, thyme, oregano and bergamot.

delicious! top it with a lemon juice/honey dressing and grate some parmesan on top for a salad sure to rival any.

not buying it - week 5

clothing
-mended a pair of sage's pants that had a hole in them

food
-sowed calendula
-transplanted blackberries to a less watery area
-transplanted goji berry to more suitable area
-made tortillas to replace our bread while we were out of biscuits

household
-reusing plastic bags for trash bags

utilities
-diligently shutting off power strips each night for computer/dsl and tv/dvd player (this is especially important right now while we are incubating eggs and raising chicks with grow lights which sucks the electricity)
-making sure lights are off when we are not in the room

gifts
-sewed a cloak/cape out of blue velvet curtain panel i had purchased from a thrift shop about a year ago to give as a gift for a friend's son; jaden and nina liked it so much that i am making them some too since i had 2 panels and only used 1/2 to make ian's cape

exercise/self improvement
-knife throwing
-hooping
-writing in a new journal that i purchased a while back
-am trying to take tasks such as ironing shirts and using pastry blender to make biscuits, etc. and turn them into meditative moments

homestead
-

education
-pulled out a box of wooden beads and cut a length of hemp twine for sage to string beads

weaknesses
-

purging
-

glad we got that straightened out!

just out of my 4 year old's mouth:
"his LAST name is johnny depp mom!...his FIRST name is jack sparrow!"

***

today i'm posting at not dabbling about how i make mozzarella.

***

the barn swallows returned yesterday...2 pairs! they were almost 2 weeks later than usual arriving. i sat in the garden with tears rolling down my face, i was so happy to see them. sage loves watching birds and when he saw them swooping down he started screaming.

spring is now officially here.

tortillas

i ran out of yeast last week and i refuse to pay $8 at the store for a tiny jar when i have 2# worth arriving today in my coop order. so, i've been making lots of tortillas lately. the kids helped get in on the fun, rolling them out and flipping them in the pan. the downside to making your own? they taste so good you'll never want to buy them again.


basic recipe:
3 c. flour
1/2 t. cream of tartar
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 c. warm water.

mix together and knead a few times. divide into 8 -12 balls, depending on your size preference. roll out until very thin. cook on a hot cast iron skillet that is ungreased. place on a plate and cover with a cloth napkin to keep warm. devour!

Herbal Roots - Fun with Violet Water

today jaden and i did the litmus test (it's the first craft listed in my april edition of herbal roots).
did anyone else try the litmus test today? how did yours turn out? we did not let the violet water sit overnight...i may save the leftover and do another test tomorrow and see if we get different colors. in the meantime, looks like we've got very alkaline soil!

not buying it - week 4

spring is definitely here...things are in full swing even though there's snow and freeze advisories out for this evening, i will NOT lose faith! this time of year is exciting for me because there is so much potential and regeneration.

i am impatiently waiting for the barn swallows to return. we usually have at least 2 dozen that live here. they are the real signal that spring is here. they are usually here by now. soon!

clothing
-repairing a few articles of clothing
-getting ideas from a friend to jazz up items, picturing a new skirt in my future...

food
-sowed more seeds outside: kale, poppy, stinging nettles, calendula
-transplanted valerian to divide it
-harvesting violets and dandelions
-made tortillas by hand for lunch. yum!

household
-reusing plastic bags for trash bags

utilities
-diligently shutting off power strips each night for computer/dsl and tv/dvd player (this is especially important right now while we are incubating eggs and raising chicks with grow lights which sucks the electricity)
-making sure lights are off when we are not in the room

gifts
-jaden and i decorated greg's gift with drawings and blessings. she handmade him a card (i bought him 2 books a few months ago)

exercise/self improvement
-knife throwing
-hooping
-writing in a new journal that i purchased a while back
-sketching ideas for my next 8 or so tattoos (they are addictive and i'm behind). i hope to barter tattoos for herbal salve for them to sell to their customers. i have been wanting many more for a long while and i've finally started putting the ideas down on paper. and deciding where i want them located on my body.

homestead
-

education
-borrowing a friend's waldorf curriculums to get ideas for jaden

weaknesses
-went out with a friend and only spent $1.25 on some tea so we could sit in the coffee house all evening and talk...alone!....without kids tugging at our skirts....heaven!
-bought an ice cream cake for greg's b-day (a real treat for him, he LOVES those things)

purging
-

finally!

yesterday, i finally got my seeds started...a bit behind, i know! i wrote about using soil blocks over at not dabbling today...

i sowed:

22 rose tomatoes
28 amish paste tomatoes
4 ground cherries
4 yellow pear
8 pimento peppers
12 diamond eggplant
12 rosemary
6 luffa
6 zucchini
6 yellow squash
12 sumac
2 boneset
2 belladonna
1 eucalyptus
1 uva ursi
1 anise
1 eyebright
1 caraway
1 black cumin
1 cinnamon basil

plus, i direct sowed kale, poppy and stinging nettle. of course, now that i've gotten my act together, it is supposed to get down to 29 monday night. my peas, chard, spinach, lettuce, radishes and cabbage will need to be covered. i can't do anything about the fruit trees though, they are too large to try to cover. i'm hoping 1 night won't hurt them. it really sucked 2 years ago when we got that bad freeze for 3 nights. no fruit that year.

today, 2 good friends are coming over. there will be 5 boys and 1 girl running amuck while we sit and chat it up. thursdays are always fun days! better go make some bread so we have something good to munch on!

foolishness!

so happy to be back to milking. calendula is seriously skittish about milking and i have to hobble her. i hate doing that but it calms her down enough that she will stand still and let me milk her.

our turkey laid her first egg yesterday! in another month we are going to try to hatch some. it's a lovely pale rose color with purple speckles. it's a lovely spring day today. i see sowing in my forecast!