High today: 83
Low today:55
High tomorrow: 55
Low tomorrow: 34!!!
I am feeling panicked about needing to get the apples and the grapes in, and the tomatoes under cover, before we lose them all...
Naturally, J is in Flagstaff.
In other news, a chicken got out of the run yesterday, and was promptly mauled by the dogs. That's the first time in a couple of months that's happened. She mostly just lost clouds of feathers, and seems otherwise fine. Their little bird brains never learn. Dogs are on the OUTside of the coop. Chickens should stay on the INside!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Lessons of Abundance
It's harvest season on the ol' urban homestead, and the food is coming in faster than we can handle it (almost!). Tomatoes, summer squash, peppers, basil, basil and more basil. Two apple trees will probably be ready to go by the weekend, and the grapes a few days after that. Our CSA box comes every week on Tuesday, filled with good things from our community supported farmers, Jeremy and Shae East. And the temptation to buy vast quantities of all the gorgeous produce at the Farmer's Market or at Cochran's is almost irresistable.
And then some very good friends offered us peaches---as many as five bushels! Emboldened by our earlier efforts, we said, 'We'll take two!' (We actually did look it up in advance, so we knew that two bushels is 100 lbs, by the way!) And so for the last two evenings, we've been putting up the peaches. Peach jam, canned peaches, peach pie filling... We are about a quarter of the way through the second bushel. That's a lot of time with busy hands and floating mind, and it set me to thinking about the lessons that can be learned from abundance.
We make a religion in this country of believing that lessons can be learned from adversity, from want, from loss. 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger', and so on. But there are also lessons to be learned from abundance, from having enough, from feeling that you are in a position of strength and safety.
When faced with 100 pounds of peaches I stop spending a lot of time trying to carefully carve out the bad spots. Instead, I just whack 'em off, and move on to the next peach. This broadens my view, so that I'm not continually distracted by the infinitesimal details. I see where I'm are going---I need to peel, core and cut 25 cups of peaches tonight, preferably before the water in the canner has come to a boil! And this results in a waste of maybe 5%, (based on the volume in the compost heap versus the volume in the canning jars). Insufficiency is a trap that sets me worrying about getting every last little bit of peach into the canner. And sometimes I lose more in opportunity cost than I gain. I certainly lose sight of the big picture!
Which brings me to opportunity costs. The first time I ever heard of this was when someone told me that they lose money every time they stop to pick up a dime from the sidewalk, because they could have earned more than that by using that time to talk to someone and make a deal. This is a particularly snotty thing to say, really, but it introduced me to the idea that if you are fully engaged, every minute, you have no room to look at the things you are not doing, and see if those are better things to do. An abundance of time, and a sufficiency of security, makes this kind of thinking possible, and makes it possible to try on different futures, to imagine how they might fit. Abundance gives you the emotional space to ask, 'What if the world were different than it is?', 'What if I had 100 pounds of peaches? What would I do with them?'
The most important lesson of abundance is that it's ok to take risks. If I have 100 pounds of peaches in my kitchen, I'll try adding cinnamon to the jam. I'll swap out ingredients and spices. I'll try something I've never had, just to see... maybe I will love it! Learning to look at the possible outcomes, judge the likelihood of success, and then take a leap, is a lesson of abundance. It's a lesson of safety, and security, and feeling like I have enough, and maybe even more than enough. Insufficiency makes this kind of risk-taking impossible, because I feel even a small risk is too big.
Insufficiency is, in part, a mindset. It's a way of thinking about things as though there is not enough to go around. As though I'll never get what you need, and so I have to protect what I have against all comers. But that mindset keeps me from saying, 'Heck, yes, I'd like 100 pounds of peaches! Who knows WHAT I'll do with them?! Anything could happen!' because I'm so busy fretting over what I haven't got that I can't imagine taking the risk of trying something totally outrageous.
And then some very good friends offered us peaches---as many as five bushels! Emboldened by our earlier efforts, we said, 'We'll take two!' (We actually did look it up in advance, so we knew that two bushels is 100 lbs, by the way!) And so for the last two evenings, we've been putting up the peaches. Peach jam, canned peaches, peach pie filling... We are about a quarter of the way through the second bushel. That's a lot of time with busy hands and floating mind, and it set me to thinking about the lessons that can be learned from abundance.
We make a religion in this country of believing that lessons can be learned from adversity, from want, from loss. 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger', and so on. But there are also lessons to be learned from abundance, from having enough, from feeling that you are in a position of strength and safety.
When faced with 100 pounds of peaches I stop spending a lot of time trying to carefully carve out the bad spots. Instead, I just whack 'em off, and move on to the next peach. This broadens my view, so that I'm not continually distracted by the infinitesimal details. I see where I'm are going---I need to peel, core and cut 25 cups of peaches tonight, preferably before the water in the canner has come to a boil! And this results in a waste of maybe 5%, (based on the volume in the compost heap versus the volume in the canning jars). Insufficiency is a trap that sets me worrying about getting every last little bit of peach into the canner. And sometimes I lose more in opportunity cost than I gain. I certainly lose sight of the big picture!
Which brings me to opportunity costs. The first time I ever heard of this was when someone told me that they lose money every time they stop to pick up a dime from the sidewalk, because they could have earned more than that by using that time to talk to someone and make a deal. This is a particularly snotty thing to say, really, but it introduced me to the idea that if you are fully engaged, every minute, you have no room to look at the things you are not doing, and see if those are better things to do. An abundance of time, and a sufficiency of security, makes this kind of thinking possible, and makes it possible to try on different futures, to imagine how they might fit. Abundance gives you the emotional space to ask, 'What if the world were different than it is?', 'What if I had 100 pounds of peaches? What would I do with them?'
The most important lesson of abundance is that it's ok to take risks. If I have 100 pounds of peaches in my kitchen, I'll try adding cinnamon to the jam. I'll swap out ingredients and spices. I'll try something I've never had, just to see... maybe I will love it! Learning to look at the possible outcomes, judge the likelihood of success, and then take a leap, is a lesson of abundance. It's a lesson of safety, and security, and feeling like I have enough, and maybe even more than enough. Insufficiency makes this kind of risk-taking impossible, because I feel even a small risk is too big.
Insufficiency is, in part, a mindset. It's a way of thinking about things as though there is not enough to go around. As though I'll never get what you need, and so I have to protect what I have against all comers. But that mindset keeps me from saying, 'Heck, yes, I'd like 100 pounds of peaches! Who knows WHAT I'll do with them?! Anything could happen!' because I'm so busy fretting over what I haven't got that I can't imagine taking the risk of trying something totally outrageous.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Preserved/Local Food Log!
So we've been trying a lot of little experiments. We have lots of 'good' reasons to do this: to be more independent; to cut down our greenhouse gas emissions; to use fewer fossil fuels, so maybe our students will stop going away and coming back all wrecked; to be a little more prepared in case of emergencies; there are lots more advantages. But mostly, we just really love food. A lot. And it's better when it's fresher. And even better when it's yours.
So here's what we've made (or stored) so far this year, and where it came from!
50 lbs hard red wheat; Honeyville, UT; 36 miles
50 lbs rolled oats; Honeyville, UT; 36 miles
23 pints assorted pickles; our yard
3 pints zucchini pickles; East Farms CSA, 18 miles
18 pints applesauce; our yard
4 1/2 pints peach jam; 'fruit highway', 6 miles
4 quarts whole tomatoes; our yard
11 pints salsa; our yard
6 cups pesto; our yard (frozen!)
1 quart dried cherries; our yard
1 pint dried raspberries; Cache Valley; 30 miles
1 pint dried blueberries; Cache Valley; 30 miles
2 pints walnuts; shelled by me; Ogden
28 bottles of Cab-Merlot blend; kit from G3
60 bottles Black Dog Porter; whole grain from G3
60 bottles Atomic Hop Bomb; whole grain from G3
60 bottles Red Rock Ale; whole grain from G3
60 bottles New Mexican Cerveza; whole grain from G3
28 bottles of Peach Whine; fruit highway peaches
And 100 lbs of peaches just appeared on our doorstep! Eep!
So here's what we've made (or stored) so far this year, and where it came from!
50 lbs hard red wheat; Honeyville, UT; 36 miles
50 lbs rolled oats; Honeyville, UT; 36 miles
23 pints assorted pickles; our yard
3 pints zucchini pickles; East Farms CSA, 18 miles
18 pints applesauce; our yard
4 1/2 pints peach jam; 'fruit highway', 6 miles
4 quarts whole tomatoes; our yard
11 pints salsa; our yard
6 cups pesto; our yard (frozen!)
1 quart dried cherries; our yard
1 pint dried raspberries; Cache Valley; 30 miles
1 pint dried blueberries; Cache Valley; 30 miles
2 pints walnuts; shelled by me; Ogden
28 bottles of Cab-Merlot blend; kit from G3
60 bottles Black Dog Porter; whole grain from G3
60 bottles Atomic Hop Bomb; whole grain from G3
60 bottles Red Rock Ale; whole grain from G3
60 bottles New Mexican Cerveza; whole grain from G3
28 bottles of Peach Whine; fruit highway peaches
And 100 lbs of peaches just appeared on our doorstep! Eep!
Friday, September 11, 2009
The Peach Wine
About 10 days ago, we started some peach wine. Here's what we did:
Peeled and cored 15 lbs of peaches.
I smooshed them up with my hands.
We made a sugar syrup with sugar and about five gallons of water, brought to a boil on the stove, and stirred until the sugar dissolved.
Poured the sugar syrup in the peaches.
Waited 24 hours for it to cool.
Pitched the yeast.
Threw the lid on.
Within ten minutes, there was CO2 in the airlock.
Last night, we tasted it.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.... it's going to be SO good! Crazy good, in fact! It tastes like a dry white wine with a little bit of peachiness. At the moment, it's still a little fizzy, which is particularly pleasing.
It has to be racked, and then bottled, and then sit for a few months. But I'm very excited about it!
Peeled and cored 15 lbs of peaches.
I smooshed them up with my hands.
We made a sugar syrup with sugar and about five gallons of water, brought to a boil on the stove, and stirred until the sugar dissolved.
Poured the sugar syrup in the peaches.
Waited 24 hours for it to cool.
Pitched the yeast.
Threw the lid on.
Within ten minutes, there was CO2 in the airlock.
Last night, we tasted it.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.... it's going to be SO good! Crazy good, in fact! It tastes like a dry white wine with a little bit of peachiness. At the moment, it's still a little fizzy, which is particularly pleasing.
It has to be racked, and then bottled, and then sit for a few months. But I'm very excited about it!
Monday, September 7, 2009
On the homestead this week
We are getting ready for winter, and reaping the harvest!15 pounds of peaches (and a lot of sugar!) are being turned, by microbe, into 5 gallons of peach wine. It's an experiment, but it already smells delicious.
We finally invested in a pressure canner, and then practiced using it on tomatoes that didn't need to be pressure-canned, just to be sure we knew what we were doing!
So this weekend, we put up:
4 quarts of tomatoes (it would have been five, but one jar cracked in the canner!)
11 pints of mixed dill pickles
5 half-pints of peach jam---I have finally made a jam that 'jammed'! Rock out!
Several pounds of pesto are in the freezer, frozen in ice-cube trays, then stored in a Ziploc for easy portioning.
We've got another batch of anaheims ready to be roasted. If we could just stop eating them all as soon as we roast them, we might actually get some canned up for winter!
Yesterday, we got the first eggplant. And promptly made Thai curry. Mmmmm.... curry. We are now over 100 pounds of produce! There are more apples still to come, and eggplant, and tomatoes and (maybe) corn. Oh. And lots and lots of carrots and winter squash and more potatoes.
Quinoa for dinner tonight, cornmeal muffins for breakfast Sat/Sun, brown rice last night, whole wheat pizza dough on Saturday. We are gradually adjusting to whole grains. It takes a little getting used to, but eventually, your stomach adjusts to the fiber.
We bought 50 pounds of rolled oats at the IFA, for $16. This sounds like crazy talk, and it might be. But I go through at least one of those big cardboard Quaker oat cans a month in the summer, making granola for John, and two a month in the winter when I'm eating oatmeal. This bag should last us until next year, for about the cost of two cans of oats. It might be crazy---we'll see how it goes. We can always feed it to the horses and the chickens! It's interesting to be eating the same things that I feed my horse... maybe I shouldn't think too hard about that.
Many weeks ago, we bought a 50 pound bag of hard red wheat, and are gradually working our way through it. J (the baker!) tells me that it's very different to work with, but he likes it. It's fun to grind it in the grinder, and you just can't get any fresher than that!
It is not lost on us that we get more and more 'Utah', the longer we live here. ; )
We cleaned out under the grape arbor, and moved a table and chairs out there. It turns out to be a wonderful place to have dinner! But we are now out of wine completely. ; ) I sure hope that merlot-cab blend that's ripening in the basement turns out! We have a Mexican Cerveza to make, as soon as we can get back down to G3 and pick up some yeast. Maybe that will be Thursday evening's project.
The CSA box comes tomorrow. I wonder what will be in it?!
Record-setting dressage.
This is brilliant. T and I communicate like this in my sleep when I am dreaming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSHzngVYN2o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSHzngVYN2o
The School Speech Flap
This must be the last gasp of the GOP. I mean, really. Obama is the poster-child for staying in school, studying hard, and getting an education. Why would anyone not want their kid to hear that message from the leader of the free world? I am mystified. At first I was pained---really, physically pained---to think about what it would be like for him and his family to hear this kind of rude, vociferous angst. (I'm quite personally invested in this man, after my adventures last fall.) But then I started to think about aversion trends, and fads. Perhaps we are now at the point where there's nothing left for these people to do but consume each other, and let the rest of us get on with things.
There seems, at the moment to be a very loud far conservative right, and a very loud far liberal left, and the vast majority are getting driven closer and closer together by this pincer of radicalism.
Maybe that means we'll get something done!
There seems, at the moment to be a very loud far conservative right, and a very loud far liberal left, and the vast majority are getting driven closer and closer together by this pincer of radicalism.
Maybe that means we'll get something done!
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