Bliss Beyond Naptime

Elderberry and Hair Follicles

After visiting an old dear friend of mine one spring morning we were chatting by her front door saying goodbye and I smelled the smell I detest most in the world. It smelled like cat marking going on. I asked her if she got a cat and she said it was her elderberry tree that was situated right next to her front door. I never heard of such a thing. So just in case, do not plant an elderberry tree by your front door. These trees grow in abundance in our area, all along the roadsides even, and we have about five of them growing wild on our property. But I never noticed them smelling like anything less than heavenly; especially when the pretty miniature flower blossom clusters open in the summer. Perhaps there’s an angry cat in my friend's midst she’s not aware of.

 So in the summer we carefully collect these blossoms that smell like the tops of the heads of newborns and cook up a syrup to use as a concentrate in ice filled glass of water. This is Craig's favourite. I think it talks to the Kool-Aid kid in him.  And then at this time of year we pick off whack loads of the berries to make jelly, syrup and tincture. The jelly is probably one of my favourites of the jam and jelly persuassion of treats but the bonus is it is full of antioxidants and immune enhancing properties that even my naturopath suggests the whole family taking a hit of everyday to keep illness at bay.

For the jelly I followed this basic recipe and it was made in time for when Edie caught that double whammy of nasty soul fever/stomach bug. A little bit of the jelly on fresh baked bread brought comfort to both ailments.  On that same link there are directions to make syrup you can administer to whomever in the family needs a sweet boost either administered straight up or drizzled on yogurt or pancakes.

And the tincture is a cinch; pick enough of the well washed berries off of their stemmy  clusters and fill a quart sized mason jar to the brim with them.  Fill up the jar with enough vodka to cover and then seal tight. Keep the jar on a sunny window sill while remembering to give them a gentle shake every day. In about three weeks, strain out the berries, place the purple vodka into a sleek flask you can tuck into your coat pocket rockstar style (wipe that Smirnoff your face – I was just joking. Any kind of glass bottle will suffice) and give yourself and your adult partner a teaspoon a day and your kids half that dose.  Other health care providers suggested I dilute the kids’ dosage into a glass of boiling water first to evaporate the alcohol content but nothing gets the kids aligned with early bedtimes then mommy’s special ‘movie time with daddy’ medicine. (Again, kidding.)

And totally not related to elderberry fixings but just about the cutest thing I’ve seen all weekend (other than Daisy and Meatballs joyfully jumping through a massive pile of leaves Craig built for them in the middle of their pasture yesterday. Over and over again. I  almost died from the cuteness of it all)! Miss Fab from Fig and Me  shared with me yet another creation of hers that she utilized one of my art yarns, Moe,  in one of the most delightful ways; as hair for her amazing Waldorf-style dolls.

That Fabs is one talented lady. See the before? I never in my wildest dreams thought that this would end up as hair. But it works! Just like the elderberry tincture. See how I smoothly linked these two topics together?

Fascinating Garden Tour

Father and son were having a pretty precious bonding moment harvesting the garlic together. That is until I busted in with camera, tripod and fasinator in hand and asked Craig to video tape me for a vlog post. Whoa, did I ever just date myself saying video 'tape'!

And there's the bounty. Eighty bulbs of garlic should last us the winter - considering the vega machine at the naturapath informed us that Edie's was 'sensitive' to the stuff. I knew she was goth all along.

Here's the last installment of our garden tour. There's still much more of the property to explore and share with you so hang on to your bloomers! We actually have a professional cameraman staying with us and I asked him last night if he'd be keen on filming Craig and I staring deep into each others eyes talking about how we met and the shared journey of manifesting this dream life together. He (the camera man) seemed keen. Craig, on the other hand, just kind of stared off to space' mouth breathing for a bit' so can't promise you that's going to happen. I'll keep trying.

Ooo, before I go, I wrote a guest post for the lovely Leya over at Curious Bird while she and her sweet little family are embarking on a big move. I share my love for Kombucha time. If you have the love already, pour yourself one and enjoy the tour, if not, check out the how to and try it out. If I know you you'll love it! Then come back and enjoy the garden tour with cool one in hand.

 PS Craig wouldn't let me finish my break down swimsuit purchase story on the video but basically I would get a discount if I spent a hundred bucks so I had to pick a little something extra for my cart ~ thus the fascinator. Looks fabulous with  my new swimming trunks!

 

Around the Farm Video Tour

I've been meaning to share a tour of the outside of our home for a while and now that the greens are finally starting to make their presence known (it's been a cold spring) the garden's a little easier on the eyes. And what perfect timing! I just noticed that Farmama's hosting a Thursday feature called Around the Farm. Check it out to explore farms and gardens from all over the world and perhaps share your own. Here's our little corner of the Edible Universe:

 

PS: And that little number I'm sporting? It's part of my Sunday Best collection. My spring/summer 2011 line inspired by our current obsession with all things Heidi. Heidi Ho!

Feeling Dandy. Not Lyin'.

The kids get pretty excited when I tell them it's that time of year for their favourite lunch; Dandelion Soup! The yard is amass in a cloak of yellow and fuzzy white halos but we must head up for higher ground for Daisy has been going free range in the back yard as of late (as we figure out pasture management). We took our gathering excursion up Grouse Mountain to get weed without any of Daisy's autograph.

I love how I feel like a cow myself grazing through the tall grass seeking out the bitter sweet stuff. So funny how something so beautiful and nutritous is seen by some in our culture as unsavoury and is usually sprayed to death. Yet dandelion leaves can be found at the organic grocery store neatly bundled up and shipped in from California! Crazy times.

Not to mention they're so darned pretty. Reminds me of a rave party I was at once and this uber tall beautiful woman was dressed up as a giant dandelion ~ weeds are hot! Boots, boots, boots, boots... uh, oh. Got them beats stuck in my head now! Where's my whistle necklace?

And speaking of beats, you can't 'beats' a springtime bowl of Dandelion soup. Here's how I make it:

2 liters of homemade chicken stock (I like to simmer a chicken carcass or two overnight in enough water to cover)

chopped onion

sliced shitake mushroom

slicked burdock root

1/2 cup of peas

couple of big handfuls of freshly picked dandelion leaves

egg (optional)

Saute the onion in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for about ten minutes without burning. Sprinkle genorously with salt and pepper. Toss in mushroom and burdock root and saute for ten more minutes. Pour in chicken stock and bring to boil. Add peas and dandelion leaves and simmer for about ten minutes.

This part is optional. I skipped it this year because we had eggs for breakfast:

Lightly beat egg and pour into soup while stirring. Turn off heat and contiue stirring for about a minute. Ready to serve! Enjoy :)

Why Do I Even Blarter?

I found a pretty nifty blog; Blarter Blog. It's blog and barter all mixed up! I'm on the verge of doing a major purge in my sewing space so the wiley Universerse convieniently presented me the perfect venue to display my wares (is that being self-centred?I can't tell anymore). I just emailed the host my offering last night so I'm not sure how long it will take for it to be posted. If you're interested in the meantime I'm requesting some vintage fabric sheets, Ottobre magazines, or Japanese sewing books in exchange for this teepee pattern.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the teepee pattern it's just that I'm too busy with other sewing projects, gardening and, well, we have two teepees out back right now so we're a little teepeed out I guess.

 We've had a glorious weekend working in the garden. Talk about the ulitmate classroom! Edie got over her reluctance to pick up worms, Kale learned chickens like to eat kale the vegetable but not Kale the boy,  and Craig and I embraced a lot of team building skills including putting a smile in your voice when talking to each other. I learned that trick directing on-hold commercials back in my suit days.

The kids were helping out very sweetly for a surprisingly long time but after a while Kale was showing signs of believing the garden bed we were building was the beginning of a brand new sandbox for him and Edie. Poor little guy was so dissappointed. He's quickly outgrowing his little plastic turtle sandbox.

And then a fabulous idea landed in my head. When this happens I hear this loud gong go off in between my ears. GONG! Let's build a sandbox for the kids in the big teepee! That way they can stay happily playing while I can keep a gong ear out for their happiness factor. When the sun starts to get spicey I can clothespin a sheet to the side of the teepee to keep my marshmallow-skinned ones safe from getting too toasted. And the way Craig and I work together now with our new found relationship tool box it'll even be a romantic endevour! Bonus gong.

Moss-ive Attack

We've been spending greater parts of the day traverssing the backwoods much since all the snow has dissipated. And here we have that little window between chest high snow and head high ferns that makes it possible for a two and a half year old to frolic through the forest relatively easy and without his mama lugging him around like a sack of potatoes for most of the time.

 

I'm really in love with cush and green  carpeting much of the forest lately, and since I love staring at the terrariums over on Etsy , I decided that whipping up a couple of our own would be fun with the kids. Plus, it would be pretty cool to have some fairies as roomates, don't you think?

Off we go seeking the fattest, greenest globs of fairy lawn to house our fairy friends. Check out Barney, the Barnyard Cat. Guarenteed that kitty is by our side on any venture in the woods. I swear that cat is part dog!

I found these little jars at the thrift store for less than a dollar each and the moss is like dirt cheap (ha, ha) so this project was very much to my accountant's (aka Craig) lichen. Then with some roving from my stash I quickly needle-felted some mushroom houses to reside on this pristine mosstopia. There are front doors and Edie insisted that the button cap cabin have a teeny weeny chimmeny on top.

So now we have them planted side by side on our budding spring nature table. We overheard one little fairy living in one of the houses saying to a friend how he thinks the neighbour is actually quite a fungi. Success! Now we just have to mist it with water every few days to keep it fresh and not crunching up into a super organic scouring pad. Something tells me the kids are going to like taking on that chore!

PS: Today's the last day to sign up for the Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp. Tell your oh sew happy friends, please! And if you seamstressed about not signing up yet, it's not too late. If you could join us too that would be sew awesome! Sign up and more info can be found here.

 

Call of the Booby Bird

There is no mistaking it, spring has landed in this part of the world. The crocus are starting to bust out, in unexpected places even, I witnessed my first swallows and robins the other morning and heard the first frog croak as I was drifting off to sleep this weekend. But instead of giggling with spring giddiness upon sharing these observations with Craig I recieved an earful for not dutifully recording these events in our Lee Valley gardening journal for future reference.

The snow on the forest floor has been replaced by a carpet of other worldly looking moss (I'll take note of that) and those mossless spots will be super frolic friendly for a brief period until that sea of ferns pop up reaching armpit levels, and towering over other family members, come June.

The local seed exchange came and went bringing much anticipation for the gardening season ahead. And last, but not least, the erie call of the booby bird can be heard echoing throughout the forest behind our home:

 

Never ever go out into the forest without your shirt on! Or at least your new favourite handknit sweater!

Hay There

We(aka "Craig") have been frantically busy healing from a creeper cold/flu while getting our property prepared for a new addition who is arriving tomorrow morning bright and early. Luckily the cold/flu has abaded and we're all good to go for thankfulness. It's Thanksgiving here by the way, American friends.

So... any guesses who's arriving?

If you know, because some of you know already, leave a comment worded like you're being cheeky with your guess like you're pretending you know when you don't really like; "Oh, I know, a miniature donkey. I had a dream of you hula hooping and knitting at the same time while riding one last week for some reason."  Or something like that.

Winner who guesses correctly shall receive a free scoop of homemade icecream if they ever feel compelled to come out here for a visit one day. Homecoming shots will be posted tomoorow!

Beans, beans, good for your heart...

We're so silly. We can't serve these without busting out into that song. It's harvest time. I'm blanching and freezing. So I ain't got time for chuckin' and jive'n. I have no idea what that means but I've had that stuck in my head the last two weeks.

That apple-y time of year again. We have loads of wild apple trees along our driveway. They all have names; Pink Tree, Sweet Tree, Sour Tree, Tea Tree, Pea Tree... (kidding about the last two - whoa, I'm in a weird mood today)

And I'm a canning maniac these days. One more tomato canning afternoon to go and we should be hooked up for spaghetti fixins' for the whole winter! Next up, elderberries and apple processing and then homeschooling starts tomorrow too. Wheeeee!!

Bear With Us

Thank goodness for deer fencing is all I have to say! I know it's not bear proof but as long as the abundance of saskatoon berries and wild turkeys keeps them at bay then hopefully the smell of our almost plump for the pickin' chickens won't give Smokey any ambition to climb over. Putting up the deer fencing around three acres of our property involved a day or two of mental arm wrestling then one full day of Indian leg wrestling with Craig. It was exhausting - the wrestling bit. The actually fence raising was just plain expensive. But I was worried about the scary looking pit bulls sniffing around our front door (I know some of this breed are sweet but these one went straight to our next door neighbor's yard  and lay one of their dogs in the hospital) plus I wanted to have unencumbered gardens and flowers sprinkled throughout or permaculture zone one to three without our pet deer dipping into my favorite fauna. Bears are nice to not have right on top of your pansies too.

So many of our friends and neighbors have harrowed tales to tell of the mischief and mayhem bears have caused them this year in particular. One friend's dog got swatted, many chickens have been lost, or at least had their eggs eaten while the chickens just non-nonchalantly go about their chicken business. Oh, those little bird brains. But so far, knock on wood, the worst we got was bear cooties and paw prints all over our car; including the roof of it! I'm hoping that this guy keeps away and minds his own bee's wax! No one lays a paw on our chicken's feathers until their drumstricks are at least one inch thicker. Mmmmm... drumsticks. And juicy pope's nose!