Blog Archives - Our Tiny Homestead

Yard Shrooming Adventures

6/30/2015

Bear here.... Some of you may recall that Theresa and I bought nine mushroom logs this spring that were inoculated with shitaki spoors last year. We set them up and were ready for the big hauls of edible shrooms, one in late spring and the other in the fall. Let's see how much 80 bucks can save us. During the "mushroom season" in early spring we got... 1 f*ing mushroom, a small one. Theresa picked it and I left the damn thing in the refrigerator too long and we had to throw it away. I was not amused.

This is the unamusing pile of logs. We walk past it often since it's in our front yard and notice fungus that shouldn't be there. Until today. I was talking crap to a squirrel that was on the logs and I noticed something strange...

AMUSEMENT! There was a large mushroom that looked good enough for picking. With further inspection I noticed 5 (yes, count 'em, 5) shrooms that were good enough to harvest and eat. (After Theresa rescued the bugs off of them.) And...

Other spoors were bulging. It looks like we could get many more shrooms in the near future. We will see.

This is a bad picture of other shrooms or fungus on the log. If anyone knows what these are or if they are edible, let us know, thanks.

All you need is patience, and good timing, and good things will come to you. I am frying these shrooms tonight! I have also stopped thinking that these logs would make a nice, large bonfire and am instead waiting to see what the total bounty will be. Type at ya later.

More Summer Solstice, Sunday 6-21-2015

6/25/2015

Bear here... The weather cooperated and we got to spend the whole day of Summer Solstice outside. In celebration of the Sun, we thought it would be fun to see if we could rig up a solar oven. Theresa had some gardening time and a reminder she sometimes gets a sunburn easily. I goofed off and cooked in my kilt over the fire. We had friends over for dinner. Here are some pictures and more details...

Our nephew Jeremy gets to enjoy the hammock that Theresa vacated when she went to work in the garden.

IMPROVISING A SOLAR OVEN:

I like to experiment with cooking in different ways and Theresa is always looking for ways to save energy, so in honor of the Sun on the Solstice, she suggested we build a solar oven. Simply put, a solar oven is a tilted box with a glass lid that you point towards the Sun so it will heat up enough inside to cook food. Theresa has instructions on how to build a more permanent one that we hope to try, but today we wanted to improvise with the items we had and see what would happen.

First thing you need is the big heater. Yep... sunshine. Find a place in your yard that will be in full Sun most of the day. We used our driveway.

Here's what we used:

the cooler we use for hay box cooking (emptied of insulation)
the storm window from our back door
2 chairs to set the oven on because I don't like bending over that much
various (yet stylish) pieces of wood to help hold oven at the correct angle.

The tricky part is that you want the box tilted so that you have the least amount of shade in the box. To keep it at the right angle, you'll also need to be able to move the oven as the Sun moves across the sky. We checked every hour and adjusted.

We both had ideas on how to improvise the set-up. Theresa says she had it just right and then I came along and changed it. Each of our "I know what I am doing" attitudes made this part take a while (40 min.).

In spite of disagreements, we got the oven working and it topped out at 200 degrees F. We tried cooking rice (1 c. rice to 2 c. water) in two different ways. One pot we did hay box style (boiled the rice & water on the electric stove for 10 minutes, then put in the solar oven to finish cooking). It was done in 1 hour. The second pot we just filled with hot water from the tap. It took around 4 to 5 hours before we noticed it was finished.

We balanced both pots on a folded dish towel, since the bottom of the cooler was tilted. Above is the first pot of finished rice. Don't be fooled- you need hot pads to touch these dishes.

Theresa also realized that the temperature was right for drying herbs. This catnip dried really quickly, so now she's devising plans to build a solar dehydrator (if we ever find the time).

I tried to bake whole potatoes in the solar oven, but there wasn't enough heat or time. Next time I'm going to try lining the cooler with aluminum foil to create more reflective heat.

Archie the visiting dog thinks we are strange but cool. (Ivy the cat thinks Archie is OK, for a dog, but our other cats did not appreciate the visitor.)

HOMEMADE ICE CREAM AND COBBLER IN A DUTCH OVEN:

Theresa and I figured that home made ice cream would be great to make for the longest (hottest?) day. We decided to make it while our guests were here instead of the day before, because Theresa thinks it tastes best straight out of the ice cream machine, right after it's done and still soft. I like it when it has been in the freezer and is more firm. I am not going to argue with her, though, because either way, as the ice cream maker I get to "clean off" the paddle (aka lick all the ice cream I can get from the thing.)

Our friend Reed reminded us that we have his canned pie filling in our basement and suggested we cook some cobbler in his dutch oven to go with the ice cream. First he lined the pot with foil, then dumped in one quart of pie filling. You can also use chopped fresh apples or peaches. We used a rhubarb pie filling he canned last year.

The topping is 2 c. biscuit mix with butter or Crisco cut into it, with sweeteners added in to taste (such as a couple tablespoons of brown sugar and some cinnamon).

Then place the dutch oven in the fire pit over coals. The trick is to get the heat even on all sides. If you know one side is hotter, you will have to turn it periodically. Reed told me dutch oven cooking is more of an art form than a science.

How long? Don't know. Depends on the coals. Thus an art form. (I am guessing around 1/2 hr.)
When the top was bubbling he pushed it down with a spoon...

... to mix better, then he added more topping and put it back on the coals. I noticed a lot of liquid, so I am guessing you let it cook until there is not much liquid.

We didn't eat it right away so Reed took it out of the fire, but put some coals on top of the lid to keep it warm. It looked and tasted real good with the ice cream.

FIRE PIT (GROUND) GRILLING, in a kilt:

The set up is easy. You need an old usable grill grate (the bigger, the better), bricks to set in the fire area to prop up and level one side of the grate, and two metal poles stuck through the grate into the coals to hold the grate still while you cook.

Other helpful tools include gloves for moving the bricks and something long handled (aka a fire stick) to move coals around with.

Put the potatoes in first. Wrap them in foil and put them by the coals. I would turn them every 15 min. or so to keep the cooking even. They should be soft in an hour.

Then... bring on the meat!

Proper food, fire, and attire...

Just like on the grill, only lower.

The fruit of my labors.

Enjoying the fruit of my labors (they say I don't leave enough meat on the bone for a dog to want it afterwards).

BEGINNING OF THE LONGEST DAY:

END OF THE LONGEST DAY:

The view from the bike path across the street. Good night Sunshine.

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Beets, its whats for Dinner

6/25/2015

Bear here... I WANTED A BURGER... A BACON BURGER. My last experiment with deer meat didn't work too well. Time to go with something I KNOW will be good, the beet burger. Not so surprising that we have a book on that and we have had a a lot of beet burgers. ( I don't feel right telling you how to do it since the idea and the ingredients are not mine, sorry.)

Finished "burgers" and the book.

The salad Theresa harvested from our yard.

Our idea, melt cheddar cheese and put bacon on them. (OK, the bacon is on mine.)

Top the beet burger like a regular one. (When there is no buns, improvise with the next best thing.) More good news... We freeze the left overs for later use.

Hmmm... Starting to drool... Type at ya later...

Weekend of the Longest Days 2015

6/20/2015

Bear here... Good weekend so far. First thing in the morning, we walked to the chicken neighbor's house to get eggs for breakfast. We got to see her birds. She has lots of different types of chickens. (We didn't bring the camera, but some time this summer I will get pictures.) It is so cool to see someone who treats her poultry like pets and little feathered friends.

To the right are the eggs we got this morning. Theresa will be making a dozen into deviled eggs (see her mom's deviled egg recipe) for our Summer Solstice feast tomorrow.

Feeling Scottish today... Man in a kilt, ready to cook breakfast. Seasoned deer steak, hash browns with onions, eggs over easy. ( Well... most of them were.)

Had a lot of meat left over so I chopped it and seasoned it with two types of mustard, onions, a little vinegar and brandy. Tonight I am going to process it into burger meat and grill it.

(By the way... The kilt tartan is Forbes clan. It is the same kilt I got married in. Today is the first time I put it on in over ten years. The last time I had it on I was 80 lbs heavier.)

(Note from Theresa: Don't you love a man in a kilt?)

Theresa was harvesting salad (lettuce, kale, lamb's quarters, nasturtiums, onions) for us while I got breakfast ready. She's really liking our new stock tank gardens, because this is the first time she's grown enough lettuce to make a big bowl of salad that came entirely from our yard.

For those interested in the toad watch 2015, Everyone is getting bigger and staying near the surface. It seems like they are coming up to breathe the air:

Tonight, we are going to make home made ice cream (see our recipe for the World's Best Honey Vanilla). Theresa is working on creating an herbal 1st aid kit to put with our emergency supplies. Sunday we will be gardening (it's been so wet that we haven't even gotten all the plants in the ground yet), harvesting herbs, and relaxing around our camp fire if the weather is good.

Longest Days... Celebrating the Summer Solstice

6/13/2015

From Bear:
Next weekend is the Summer Solstice (Sunday, June 21st), the longest day of the year. Here are some random Summer Solstice pictures and thoughts...

An early morning start to a long day.

Cookin' outside makes everything taste better.

Time to harvest some herbs, the real heat is coming soon.

Might have to go to bed while it's light out.

The close

to a good

long day.

From Theresa:
We celebrate the longest day by connecting with the Sun. We like to camp at Blue Mounds State Park, where we can watch the sunrise from the East observation tower, stay outside all day watching the Sun move slowly across the sky, then watch the sunset from atop the West Observation tower.
Click to see our Summer Solstice celebration from last year.
These were my thoughts at the end of the day:

Watching the Sunrise and Sunset on a magical day is powerful,
because it helps us reconnect with our visceral understanding of the changing seasons.
We need to remember how long the longest day really is (around 16 hours of Sunlight in our area).
We need to be reminded of the gifts that are offered to us freely by the Sun- warmth and food.
The Sun heats the Earth just right- our Mother planet is habitable for many life forms,
instead of being frozen or on fire. The Sun's light becomes our food. Plants soak the rays of the Sun into their green leaves and miraculously photosynthesize it into food,
becoming the basis of the food chain that feeds the rest of the world.
On Solstice, we are reminded that the Sun is life. We celebrate and give Him our thanks.

Even after
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,

"You owe me."

Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.

- Hafiz
a Sufi Mystic from the 1300s

Eaten Garlicscapes tonight

6/12/2015

Bear here...Tonight we will be having pasta with butter, garlicscapes and much much more...

Anybody want to guess which plants are for dinner tonight?

This is a garlicscape in our garden. The time to pick is before the bulb flowers.

The first one I pulled right out of the stem. The next five or six snapped off. I am guessing neither way hurts the plant.

(Left) Is most of what we are having tonight.

Garlicscapes are on the left. ( there is a single one below the rest so you can see it better.)
Portabella mushroom and / or shittaki mushrooms from our co-op.
Sugar snap peas ( Also from the co-op)
Parmesan cheese
Green onion from our garden.

( Steam the peas, chop and saute everything but the cheese. When ready grate cheese over pasta... Good to go...)

No picture of finished dish...Why you ask? I type too slow and when we are done cookin' we want to eat, not blog. Have a good weekend everybody... type at ya later.

Toad Watch 2015 In the Beginning...

6/10/2015

Bear here... We gots lots of life in the pond. The mating songs are almost over and tadpoles are in sight. I am planning to take some pictures of them developing into toads. The momma looks like an American Toad ( And yes, that is the name of the species). If I can figure out how to use the movie part of our camera I will try to post movies. (Don't hold your breath. Just sayen.)

I am going to blog most of the changes and am hoping to add to the pond section of the website in the fall. We have read that the changes could be done in 90 days. Let's see what happens...

The American Toad with duckweed on her back.

The Babies (The little black dots w/tails)
First count: Many
Next count: Very Many
Night count: Even more, near the surface

To the left is a dragonfly watching me, watching the baby toads. I'm not a little creeped out... Nooo. I wonder what she is thinking?

Anyway... Any dragonfly babies I can get shots of will also be on this page. BONUS!

Type at ya later.

New Life in the Pond: Tiny Tadpoles

6/7/2015

From Theresa:
This is the fourth Summer after we constructed our wildlife pond...
and we're thrilled to see tiny tadpoles swimming around in it for the first time
(see the black spots hugging the rock).
At least we assume they're tadpoles, either that or Bear says they're "sperm dark."

Here's a close up:

This is also the first Summer that we've been serenaded by multiple frog songs as we fall asleep.
Maybe this is one of the parents... Bear met him by our wood pile:

This is also the first year that any plants overwintered in the pond-
we're seeing a lot of native arrowheads popping up (Sagitarria latfolia, which have edible tubers).

This is what the pond looked like this morning.
Click to see how we built our frog pond:

Pop Quiz- Can Bear Identify Today's Harvest?

6/7/2015

From Theresa:
Here's the Sunday morning harvest from our gardens. I've been trying to convince Bear that all the money I spend up front on the garden gets paid back to us in food to eat,
so I asked him to come look at what I brought in.
Just to make it fun, I asked him if he could identify everything I picked.

(Bear here... Tests are fun? Only when food is involved... just sayen.)

1. Here's what we got from our new annual vegetable garden:

Bear correctly thought this was (counter clockwise in the colander):
orange nasturtium flowers, nasturtium leaves, green onions, and lettuce (center).

(From the big guy... Doin the seat dance & showin' off now... uh Huh...)

I harvested these annuals for salads. We're growing them in stock tanks:

Bear wasn't sure about this one from the stock tanks-
and said it was "that weed we've been eating a lot lately"

This is lamb's quarters.
The young leaves are great raw in salads,
or the older leaves are great slightly steamed
and used any way that you would use cooked spinach. We add them to rice dishes.

(Bear here... To be fair... we have been using a lot of LAMB'S QUARTERS lately.)

2. He got this one from our perennial vegetable garden right away (probably because I had pointed it out to him when we were sitting in our bay window eating breakfast this morning):
(Bear here... It still counts as a right answer... so there...)

This is Turkish rocket.
This is the first year we've harvested it, so I am still learning how and when to do it.
You're supposed to eat the flower buds before they flower,
when they look a lot like broccoli, but I am too late this time.
We can also eat the flowers, so I harvested them.
I think this will make more grow back for another harvest.

Here's what the full Turkish rocket plant looks like (this one is 3 years old):

Here's what's the Turkish rocket flower buds look like
when you're supposed to harvest them, before the buds flower.
You use it like broccoli, which it obviously resembles, eating it either raw or steamed.
It feels like broccoli in your mouth, but tastes a lot more tangy.

Bear offered his usual comment to his first bite- "Tastes like plant."
(You know who here...WELL... it does taste like plant...)

3. On the right is more Turkish rocket. On the left Bear wasn't sure if this was parsley or cilantro-
but he said, "Wait a minute," and put a little leaf in his mouth. Then he knew it was cilantro.

(Yep, it's me... Right answer, a little late... Enough said)

4. And here was the real stumper.... Bear blurted out that this was broccoli!!

We got a great laugh out of that, since he knew immediately that he was wrong.
(Me... Duh...)

We've been growing lots of rhubarb around the foundation of our bay window
for a couple years now, where it seems really happy,
but this is the first year we've found the time to figure out how we like to eat it.
Today, I'm putting it in a crock pot with some lamb to make a savory stew over noodles.
Last week we stewed it with brown sugar and almond extract
to make a sweet rhubarb sauce side dish.

It's been wonderful to see Bear get more and more interested
in our gardens as the years have gone by,
because I surely need his help keeping it going
and learning how to cook the harvest.
I'm thankful we're in this homesteading adventure together!

(Me getting the last word... Hah... I got her to blog. Summertime is Theresa's tome to be outside and do the yard stuff. To kinda quote her "Now is the time to garden and take pictures,
Winter is when I can blog about it." Ain't team work grand... Type at ya later...)