Crickets. . . What's good for the garden isn't so good for the blog!

Yeah, there's been a whole lot of NOTHING happening on this blog.  That is because there has been a whole lot of everything else happening in real life, so I thought I'd show you all a little of what took up some pretty major chunks of my time over the summer.

 This was our garden plot just after our final bit of planting.  We garden at a community garden, which I LOVE.

 A few weeks later. . .

  More water, more sunshine. . .

 And some of this in the mean time. . .

 And this is what our garden looked like just prior to harvest.

 For those of you who like to know what plants you're looking at.  The pictures above are all taken from the top right corner of this chart.

 We also grew onions in a raised bed on our parking strip, blueberries and herbs in our back yard, peas behind our shed, and lettuce in the flower beds at our house -  because we're crazy like that.

 All that time, effort, and water led to a lot of beautiful things like this. . .

 

and this. . . 

 and a lot of that lead to this. . .

 which lead to a lot of this. . .

 and some of this.

 Other parts of it lead to time spent making this. . .

 and huge messes in the kitchen. . .

 Which eventually lead to beautiful things like this. . .

and one of my favorite photos of the entire year!

It is a TON of work to grow your own food and then process and preserve it, but I am always so happy I've done it when it's all over - and of course eating delicious fresh veggies all summer long is a pretty good perk too!

I'm still working on getting all our veggies properly stored for the winter, along with prepping winter beds and planting winter crops.  Hopefully I'll be back soon with some of the furniture pieces I've finished recently, as well as other things that kept us busy over the summer. 
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This year I stuck to the basics, as it turns out my family doesn't really love fancy chutneys and jams - maybe when the boys are older.  Do you can?  What's your favorite food to preserve? 

Rubber Ducky Party - Leo turns Three

My 'baby' turned three last weekend.  He is OBSESSED with duckies.  So much so that I last summer I drove 12 hours across two states to take him to  the Duck Races in Idaho Falls.  I knew he would love it. 

 

So when it came to choosing a theme for his birthday party, the choice was obvious. 


Sorry about the less than stellar pictures.  It was a very late in the afternoon before everything came together.  

A few weeks ago Leo had picked out that ceramic Ducky at Goodwill for his prize.  He was so excited he insisted on carrying it out of the store.  I was sure he was going to drop it and break it.  He was very careful with his special big ducky, though.  I put it up high in the kitchen and everyday he asked me to get it down so he could pat it and give it a kiss.  What a sweet, silly, boy.

The smaller duckies are ball themed, which is another favorite of Leo's.  He could not have happier.  The duckies hanging from the light fixture are bubbles.  They came from the dollar store and made great take home gifts for his cousins.  (We just had famiy over.)  The paper goods came from Target.

 

I love that three year old's are so easy to please.  This is all I did for decorations.  He loved that there were balloons hanging in the door. 

The craziest thing I did was make a pinata for him.  I wouldn't recommend it.  It is well worth the $25 a store bought one costs, but the boys saw Curious George make a pinata and asked is we could make one.  It did turn out cute.  I'll share pictures of the process in a few days.

I was going to make a flat cake in the shape of a ducky, but a few days before his birthday I was in a nursery picking up some seeds and saw this darling ducky watering can.  It was only $6.  I knew Leo would love it and  it would make the cake amazing without much work.

I made a chocolate cake and frosted it in swirls with peanut butter-cream frosting.   I also tried out marshmallow fondant for the first time and used it to add "bubbles"  to the water.  I love how easy it was to make and to work with.  It actually tastes good too.  I used this recipe except I left out the corn syrup and added vegetable glycerine instead.  From what I've heard that glycerine makes all the difference.

The kids always love cupcakes, so I also make a batch of vanilla cupcakes.  

It was a simple and fun celebration.  Leo was delighted.  I can't believe it has been three years since we brought him home.  He is such a sweet and crazy little boy. 

Frittata, Custard, French Toast. . .

Every person who loving holds one of these,

and watches, delighted, as they grow into one of these,

has been very patiently waiting for the day that she sees. . .

THESE!

Tiny, beautiful, perfect little eggs.  Seven of them in the last two days!  I feel like I have been waiting YEARS for my girls to start laying!  I even watched one of them lay her first egg yesterday.  She was a bit confused, but I gave her some pats and she happily went away to scratch for some treats, leaving me with her tiny little present.

This gives you an idea of how small the first little eggs are.  The smallest one on the left is the first tiny one my girl 'Twinkidink' left me yesterday morning.   The middle one is the largest of the seven eggs and the white egg is a large size grocery store egg.

Aren't they adorable?  What do you all think?  What should I make from our first precious eggs?

ch-ch-ch-CHIA

Link and I love sprouts.  We have found that while alfalfa  sprouts are good, there are many kinds of sprouts with widely varying flavors and we seem to like all of them.

Not long ago I came across this site and learned that you can grow (and eat!) sprouts from, well, just about anything.  How about that.

As I browsed around the site I discovered that you can sprout chia seeds.  I often add chia seeds (known for their high protein and fiber content, in addition to other beneficial vitamins and elements) to my smoothies, oatmeal, and bread.  I always keep them on hand and I decided to try to sprout them!

Hey look!  Cute little sprouts!

Well, what do you know.  I guess anyone who has ever had a Chia Pet would have known this would work, but I've never had a Chia Pet.  Besides, who would have though that you could EAT your Chia Puppy's green fur?  Now Link and I can always have a fresh supply of delicious sprouts for our salads and sandwiches!  I think my kitchen window seal is going to become a dedicated sprout growing spot.  I can't wait to try sprouting other things!

Food

couple of years or so ago Lincoln and I both read this book.

It changed a lot about how our family eats.  While you will still find some processed food in our house, there is a lot less than there used to be.  We are more cognizant of where our food comes from and try to choose food from local sources when ever we can.  Even in Seattle we attempted to grow our own food.  We co-gardened with some friends who had a yard.  The problem with growing food in Seattle, however, is that you need three things for vegetables to grow: water, good soil, and sunlight.  Water we had plenty of, the soil needed help and we provided that, sunlight, however, was in very short supply.  The previous two summers we only produced enough food for each of our families to have a couple of small salads.

Well, I just happened to move to one of the richest farming communities in the country.  There is no doubt where your food comes from when you live on an orchard with a vineyard across the way, horses, cows and sheep aplenty, and all the resources needed to grow a garden and raise animals readily available to you.

I know it's still January, but we are novice "gentleman" farmers.  We are city people.  We are working against a pretty steep learning curve.  (Although, Link's family always had a garden and my grandparents had two small orchards and a large veggie plot, so we aren't TOTALLY clueless. . . we think.)  It's time to get started.

For inspiration I am reading this book.  (Thanks, Grandma!)  The Kingolver family moved from Tuscon to a farming community in Virginia to be able to produce their own food.  Hmmm. . . .

For instruction I am reading this book.  (Thanks, Sarah!)

First items of education on the agenda: chickens, rabbits, and building raised vegetable beds.

For those of you interested in more interesting reading along these lines:

The Encyclopedia of Country Living Blog
Michael Pollen's website (great index of resources)