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Over/Under Hash and Eggs for Breakfast

4/26/2015

Bear here.. COOK OF ANARCHY UNLEASHED. Time for another breakfast that is strange and mostly from our yard. Hash made from our perennial plants and eggs from the neighbors. The hash uses ground nuts (Apios americana) and fiddle heads (baby ostrich ferns.)

The Over/ Under name comes from cutting down the fiddle heads and herbs (they're over the ground) while digging up the ground nuts (from under the ground). I was thinking of calling this Fiddle-Dee-Nut Hash. Let us know which name you like best, or if you have another suggestion.

I am betting this ain't normal... But it is good.

Here are the basics. More details on how to make the hash will end up on another page on our website.

Collect: Ground nuts (brown), fiddle heads (in the middle back), thyme, garlic chives (left), onion chives (right)... the garlic chives have flat stems and the onion have rounded stems).

Saute the brown ground nuts for five minutes then add the green fiddle heads and chopped herbs. Saute for another ten minutes. (I used two pats of butter)

Mise-en-Plase: Get everything cleaned and cut before you turn the stove on to medium heat. (Notice the neighbor's eggs are white, brown, and light blue? So cool....)

Fry the eggs in a separate pan, over easy, and sprinkle with the left over chives. Now you are good to go.

I repeat... good... to... go.

Type at ya later...

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Spring Fling: Homestead Style

4/12/2015

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Bear here...The snow is gone and the first flowers are coming up ready to open. Yard work time. This is when Theresa works her butt off cutting and cleaning off the old dead plants so we have room for the new ones. (Flinging off the old for the new... get it.) (Every once in a while I help.)

Here are some pictures of areas in our yard and some of what we do to get ready for planting. (From yesterday and this morning.)

Rue does spring kitty yoga in the catio.

Planting starts early with seedlings? Go figure...

I am sure Theresa could tell you what these are... ??? ... or, I could go read the labels.

Basil, Wild Thyme, Japanese Parsley, Parsley, Dead Nettle and others...

Front Yard:

In the morning.

In the afternoon.

Crocus.

Native bloodroot.

Stronger support for peonies bushes, ready.

Native hepatica.

The berm says "Clean me!"

Winter critter den in the berm.

Old cut away, new coming through! (Yarrow)

Nettle is edible in soups and teas.

Rhubarb, just starting.

Give em a little more time and the violet leaves will make great salad filler.

Pond Area: Fine... Theresa took the best pond area picture and here it is...

Spring cleaning in the pond area.

See the orange cord? Time to lose the pond heater. OK, Theresa says to put it away...

First pond crops, moss and grass.

Do we pull out the old or let it sit for a better microthingee? (Ask Theresa for the proper term.)

We created a frog home by the pond that a critter filled in with dirt.

The back door the critter made in the frog home.

Top floor, feed the birds, Basement, nest the critters.

The first of many dead twig piles made by spring cleaning.

Time to clean under the bird feeders.

We will eat while you work, thanks.

Back Yard:

A sparrow checking out the real esate thinking "Do I want to buy or rent?"

How to update the birdie condo (aka our supposed to be temporary brush pile that the birds took over for shelter)?

Remembering our past cats.

My job is to get the wood pile ready for next winter's load of wood.

Bloodroot in the morning.

Bloodroot in the afternoon.

Shade garden area...

Yep, more twig piles.

One day nothing then next day...

Four new stock tanks. CHECK
One ton of river rock for drainage CHECK
Three yards of dirt coming. CHECK
Figure what plants to put in them. CHECK
Get trellis supplies. CHECK

Where to put it all? Ummm... CRAP...

It's getting late (almost noon), time to get outside and do some of the work. Type at you later...

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We Found Nice People

4/7/2015

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Theresa and I were at Farm & fleet buying stock tanks to garden in. Our car would hold 1 at a time and some of the tanks were too big for it. While waiting to see if Farm & Fleet would deliver to us we talked to a couple who were buying a trailer there. We talked less than 15 min. about gardening, food and about them being in a hurry to get to their son's (?) home to pick something up. When the manager said how much it would cost to go less than ten miles Brad said "Don't worry, we can do it for you for nothing."

A REAL NICE GUY... Him and Angie got the tanks to our house, no problem, saved us some money and headache. ( We felt like giving them something so we gave them a jar of canned venison and a jar of homemade tomatillo salsa. )

It's good to find nice people out there. Once again,thank you Brad and Angie from Bear and Theresa.

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Spring Projects: Mushroom Garden and More...

4/3/2015

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Bear Here...

It's getting kinda scary around here. Usually Theresa gets some ideas and I go along with them to, you know, keep her happy... you know... This year the projects seem interesting, I am interested in getting them started. Next thing you know I will be the one with the ideas and it will be complete and organized AnArChY!! ... OK I'm better now... Here are some of our plans to get done by next Winter.

Garden project #1, Mushroom garden: Yep, last year I wouldn't eat the things, this year we are going to grow them in our yard. We answered a Craig's list ad from Eric near Dodgeville. He is selling around 1000 logs that were innoculated with shiitaki mushroom spores last year. We bought nine. We should get at least two harvests a year for four years if things go well.

Nice car, thinks it's a truck.

Theresa, keeping the logs damp so we haven't wasted our money.

Keeping them shaded until we can find the perfect spot and better shading material.

Garden project #2 : Gardens in Stock Tanks. We have had wilting problems with our tomatoes and other plants. People tell us the problem is in the soil so we are going to start new gardens in stock tanks on the other sunny side of the yard. We are buying a couple of stock tanks and a LOT of dirt for the project. Theresa knows more about this one than I do.

Big outdoor project: Expand the Catio. We built a 8' x 10' x 8' cage on the house so the cats could go out when they want and be safe. This year we will put up a fenced area in the back yard and connect it to the Catio so the cats have more room and we have more of a chance to be in there with the cats. The trick is going to be connecting them and making doors that the cats can't get out of but unlucky squirrels and humans can. If we could, we would fence in the whole yard for the play area. Wish us luck.

Catio, freshly built in 2010.

A playground for all seasons. (Yes, the cats want to go outside in the snow too.)

Expansion area.

Big Indoor project: Nicer Tornado Shelter. Theresa likes to be prepared for disasters, with emergency supplies and shelter. When the tornado alarm goes off we head to the unfinished basement to wait it out. Usually it sucks because the basement collects dirt and spiders. When our water heater broke a couple weekends ago, we cleaned out the big room of our basement for the first time to make room for a new water heater, then decided to whitewash it since we could actually see the walls. It looks a lot better! Now we need to clear out the small room, do some wall fixing and get it organized so we are willing to use the basement more often.