The how to, from scratch, growing, harvesting, preserving, fermenting, savoring food farm blog
Ok, starting a blog post with a quote from “Buffalo Bill” in The Silence of the Lambs is maybe not the best lead in. But admit it, you did laugh a little bit. Alternative title: If you can make salad dressing, you can make lotion. Seriously. It really is that easy.
This was for one batch of lotion. You don’t need to get this carried away. I was just trying to use up what I had on hand.
Ready to go into the oven
I’ve tried a lot of granola recipes over the years, and rejected my fair share as well. Granola is supposed to be healthy and good for you. So recipes that call for tons of sugar and fat just don’t cut it, in my book. I once saw a recipe that called for a cup of oil. A CUP. Well of course it tasted good. It was practically deep-fried! I’ve also tried recipes made with just fruit juice to cut down on the sweetness, and those were not sweet enough. It’s hard to find just the right balance. Read the rest of this entry »
As I have mentioned here several times, I was not a very adventuresome eater for the first part of my life. One of the “no way” foods was avocado. Then I discovered Super Taqueria on 10th street in downtown San Jose California when I was in my early 20’s. A grab and go Mexican place that I walked by every day for a year before I was brave enough to go in, and then only because someone I trusted recommended it. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been a quiet week. According to the Johnny’s Seed Catalog, once you reach 10 hours of daylight, you can plant cool season greens in a cold frame. My favorite sunrise/sunset calculator says that for my latitude, this occurs on February 15th. Alas, while that may be true on paper, we have a nice sized hill to the west, so even though sunset yesterday was supposed to be 5:01 pm, we actually lost sun in the yard at about 4:15 pm. We ARE gaining about 3 1/2 minutes of extra daylight a day right now, so it IS coming.
In the meantime, we do our best to take full advantage of the sunlight we do get. The best thing about February? It’s NOT January.
Miles Away Farm Blog © 2011, where we’re sucking it up, one photon at a time.
The last of my mother-in-law’s red potatoes, grown this year, and a Yukon Gold as well. The skins on both were a bit worse for wear, and so the potatoes ended up mostly peeled.
This was actually three different carrot varieties, including one called “rainbow”. Why seed catalogs don’t just put together a mixed color carrot packet like they do with lettuce is beyond me. My current favorite carrot (at least for Colorado) was Napa, which had great taste, wasn’t too long, and grew well (no splitting) in clay soils.
I am a connoisseur of seed catalogs. I spend hours pouring over them, comparing prices and circling what’s on my “wish list”. Ever wonder why anyone would order from a catalog and pay shipping when you can just go down to your local hardware store and pick up a packet of seeds? One word. Selection. You just can’t beat a catalog with 18 different varieties of carrots, complete with information on type, length, season, soil preference and color, along with a tantalizing picture. Read the rest of this entry »
Clean? Seriously, who cares? Now rub my belly.
Or… more than you wanted to know about me and natural cleaning products!
I hate house cleaning (OK, who doesn’t). When I was a pre-teen, my mother had this wonderful pen and ink drawing of a woman in a long dress. In her hands was a broom, broken in half. The caption read F*#K HOUSEWORK. (Click here to see a copy if you’d like.) I understand exactly. It’s not the actual work which I mind. I love jobs where I can really see the results after I am done, and my detail oriented side will get out a toothbrush to get into that grimy corner that a sponge won’t reach. It’s just that it never ends. You sweep the floors, and a few days later, they need to be swept again. Such is the nature of entropy. Read the rest of this entry »
All plants in the cole family (also known as brassicas) have this clover-like appearance when they first come up. This is some type of mustard.
I love to grow things. I really think it’s genetic. When you trace my mother’s ancestry back to my great great great grandfather, who lived in the Yorkshire area of England, and look at the census form under occupation, it says “gardener”. This same grandmother ran a floral shop in Twin Falls Idaho for years. Read the rest of this entry »
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with Christmas. On the one hand, I understand the feeling of belonging, joy and contentment everyone is striving for, and at times, have experienced them myself. But the mish-mash of obligation, sentimentality, rampant consumerism, outright greed and a religious story I simply do not buy into (no offence meant to those who do) often leaves me understanding what Scrooge meant by “bah, humbug”.
What I DO love, of course, is the cooking. Nothing like a great pot of soup on the stove and cookies baking in the oven to make me feel all warm and snug and allow me to share my love with others in, what to me, is a genuine way. One of my favorite holiday traditions is drinking wassail, which really just means a hot mulled cider of some sort. Read the rest of this entry »
This is NOT all of them – but most of them are in here somewhere.
I have a lot of herbs and spices. A lot. At one point, in an attempt to get all of the little bulk bags organized many years ago, I ordered glass jars from Penzeys spice company, and made spread sheet labels for all of the jars. (That may seem a little extreme, but I’m a terrible speller, and this allowed me to spell check everything. Is Rosemary with one R or two? You get the idea.) I had 75 labels! I think when I was teaching myself to cook, buying a new herb or spice made me feel all grown up and sophisticated. I
Years ago, I was able to visit the island of Grenada, and see an actual nutmeg tree. This is what the spice looks like on the tree, before the hull breaks open to reveal the nut inside.
remember buying some mace for a recipe, and then having it sit in a cupboard for years until I realized it was related to nutmeg, and I could just substitute it in until I had used it up. I’ve never bought that one again. Read the rest of this entry »
MilesAwayFarm
Miles Away Farm Blog 