Angela Baker, Author at Parkrose Permaculture

A Morning Indoors

Hal is at ReWild’s Nature Immersion program on Fridays. It’s the highlight of his week. He gets to run around outside all day, learn primitive skills, and engage in loads of imaginative play with his friends. He comes home tired, filthy, and very, very happy.

It’s not just a benefit for him: In a house with lots of kids, sending just one kid off for the day has lots of perks. It not only provides him with adventure apart from his siblings, but it also reduces the conflict, mess, noise, etc in the house by a significant portion. And considering that resolving sibling conflict normally comprises the bulk of my “parenting” lately, Friday is a day I’ve been looking forward to, as well. I get so much accomplished on Fridays, all while having a quiet, peaceful morning.

I got a loaf of sesame-spelt bread baked early this morning. It has 2 cups of unbleached flour, and 1 cup of spelt, so it takes longer to rise, but it gets some loft eventually. It is much less dense than an all-spelt bread, with the nutty flavor of the spelt still coming through.

While the bread was rising, I worked on a pair of top-down mix-n-match socks I started ages ago. I’m down to the toe on the last sock, and then I can block them! (Joining Ginny’s Yarn Along. These are 100% wool yarn my sister-in-law gave me some time ago. They’re leftovers from another project she did, so I’m not sure of the brand.)

While I’m knitting this morning, George has been alternating between working on a puzzle and playing with items on the nature shelf. He loves to look at the agates and limpet shells we collected at the beach last month, and added some hazelnuts from the backyard.

It seems that everywhere you look in the kitchen, there are medlars strewn about. The kids and I keep bringing them in as they fall from the tree. They need to sit on the counter for a few weeks to soften and be edible. I can’t wait to eat them: they taste intensely of autumn to me. (See my new video about growing and eating medlars here.)

This weekend is packed with derby. I’m officiating four bouts, in three days, as well as a few scrimmages. But next weekend I’m taking the weekend off to work on fall garden clean-up and transition some of the front yard garden from annuals to perennials. The plan is to add two new pawpaw trees, another pomegranate, and a “Nikita’s Gift” persimmon amongst the shrubs and herbaceous perennials I established the last two years. Finding derby-life balance is hard for me, especially as autumn in the garden is still a busy time, but I’m looking forward to a crazy derby weekend starting today and a permaculture weekend next weekend.

Fig + 3 Citrus Jam Recipe

The dry summer and mild autumn here in Oregon have produced a pleasant surprise: the main crop of Negronne Figs have ripened! In our cool climate, the only figs suitable to grow are those that produce a delicious breba (first) crop. Many figs produce small, mealy breba figs that aren’t sweet and aren’t worth eating. Some varieties – like my Desert King and Negronne figs – are prized for their sweet, abundant breba figs. Most years the weather turns too cold for the later, main crop of figs to ripen. However, this year the Negronne’s main crop has been producing about 10 lbs of figs per week the past three weeks.

With the unexpected abundance of figs so late in the season, I’ve been cutting and freezing and preserving them, because we cannot possibly eat them all fresh. Truly ripe figs that have the most complex and fully-developed flavor only keep for a few days, and must be utilized quickly. One way to use up a significant portion of the bounty is to make jam.

Figs are the sweetest fruit, with a Brix rating of 20-30, and rarely as high as 40. (A very rough, untechnical definition: Brix is a measurement of sugar content, with 1 Brix = approx 1-2% sugar by volume). They have no acid and can by cloyingly sweet. I find plain fig jam almost overwhelmingly sweet and like to eat it with salty cheese to cut the sweetness.

Another option is to add a highly acidic ingredient to fig jam, so that its sharpness will cut the intense sweetness of the fruit. I’ve made fig and balsamic vinegar jam, and thoroughly enjoy it – especially over ice cream. The flavor is sophisticated and refreshing, but not particularly kid-friendly. This time, I had citrus in the fridge, and so chose that for the acid component of the jam. (If you like your jam quite tart, feel free to double the lime pulp and lime zest in this recipe.)

Fig + 3 Citrus Jam

Makes 4-5 half-pint jars

Ingredients:

4 cups of finely chopped fresh figs (I cut them into 12ths)

2 1/2 C white granulated sugar

zest of 1 lime

2 limes

zest of 1 Meyer lemon

juice of 1 Meyer lemon

zest of 1 large orange

1 large orange

1/2 tsp sea salt

Optional: 2 -3 Tbsp Grand Marnier

Directions:

In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the chopped figs and sugar, stirring to combine. Allow to macerate while you prepare the other ingredients.
Using a microplane, zest the lemon, orange and one lime. Juice the lemon. Set zest aside.
Remove the peel/pith from the orange. Section out the fruit, and chop it. Squeeze the remaining membrane and reserve the juice. Repeat with the two limes. (Total reserved juice = about 3 Tbsp)

4. Prepare a hot water bath and sterilize jars, lids, and rings. Recipe makes 4-5 half-pints.

5. Turn heat to medium on the figs and sugar. As it warms, stir in the citrus ingredients and 1/2 tsp salt.

6. Bring mixture to a full boil, and cook, stirring frequently to avoid scorching. Periodically mash with the back of the spoon or a potato masher to break up the pieces of fig. In 45-60 min, jam will thicken to desired consistency. Keep in mind, this is an old-fashioned jam without extra commercial pectin, and figs are low in pectin. The citrus contains pectin and will set the jam, but it will be a little thinner than jams with added pectin.

7. Optional:

Immediately before pouring jam into jars, stir in 2-3 Tbsp of Grand Marnier (taste, if you want more, add another Tbsp), and stir thoroughly. Allow to cook for 2 minutes. (be careful, too much alcohol will thin the jam too much.)

8. Pour finished jam into hot sterilized half-pint jars, wipe rims, place lids and rings on, and process in a hot-water bath for 10 minutes. Jam will continue to thicken in the jar over the next 24 hours.

Enjoy!

Pear-Quince Butter Recipe

Yesterday I spend the morning making Pear-Quince Butter. It’s a twist on the traditional apple butter because I’m using the ingredients I have on hand. I have an abundance of quince trees in the garden, and the fruit is now beginning to ripen up. I also have basket full of pears right now – some from our Seckel pear tree, but most the girls picked up in Hood River this past weekend.

I make membrillo out of quince every year, and also Caramel-Spice Pear Butter (sorry, the recipe is top-secret!), but with the quantity of both in my kitchen right now, I thought I’d try mixing them together. I’m quite happy with the result. Here’s my recipe:

Spiced Quince-Pear Butter

5 large quince

10 pears (I used a mixture of Comice, Seckel, Barlett, and Red Anjou)

1/4 C water

6 C sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp kosher salt

Juice of two lemons

4 Tbsp brandy (optional)

Directions

Wash the fruit, peel and core it. Cut the quince into 16ths and the Pear into 8ths (quince are harder and take longer to cook, cutting them into smaller pieces insures they will cook at the same rate).
To a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch Oven, add the chopped fruit and water. Cover, and cook on medium until all of the fruit is tender (about 30 min).
After fruit is tender, remove lid and reduce head. Here you have two options: for a super smooth butter, process fruit in a food mill. For a more rustic butter, mash thoroughly with a potato masher. Measure pulp. You should have 8 cups.
Clockwise from far left: salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger.
Return the pulp to the pot. Add spices, salt, and sugar. Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, until the butter cooks down to a desired thickness (depending on the heat and frequency of stirring, about 45 min to 2 hours)
Butter halfway cooked down
Halfway through cooking down the butter, Heat up the hot-water bath canner. Place clean jars in the canner and bring them up to a boil. Place lids and rings in a small saucepan and warm them (do NOT boil, it damages the rubber seal).

I use a lid-rack I found at a thrift store ages ago to keep the lids from being in direct contact with the bottom of the pan. It also makes them easy to grab when filling jars.
When butter is ready, stir in lemon juice (and brandy, if desired). Cook 2-3 minutes.
Fill half-pint jars, clean top of the jar, place lids and rings on snuggly. Process 5 minutes in a hot-waterbath canner. Remove from heat and let cool for several hours. Makes 9-10 half pint jars.

Off the needles…pale blues.

Thrifted yarn and easy patterns = two finished shawlettes.

I think this yarn is alpaca. It’s two shades done in stripes to get enough to make a shawlette. The knitting is easy, mindless, meditative.

This yarn is a wool/alpaca blend. Simple feather n fan style shawlette. Wish there had been more to make a larger shawl. I’m just about done with a larger autumnal shawl in worsted brown and purple with a feather n fan border, and will post pics when I get it finished (maybe next week?)

This one is a birthday present for my mom next week (Shh! Don’t tell!). I used to dislike feather n fan patterns and favor more delicate, intricate lacework. But with four busy kids, and needing to put my work down frequently, I have learned to appreciate a simple, predictable pattern.

I’ll be in Salem tomorrow reffing a derby bout, but will be back Sunday with a new recipe.

Blessings on your weekend!

Chanterelle and Gruyere Tart Recipe

I’ve made this Chanterelle and Gruyere Tart a few times in the past few weeks. It’s quick and easy, and uses ingredients I’ve had readily on hand in the pantry, and in the garden. It only takes a few minutes to put together, and is packed with autumnal flavor. If Chanterelles aren’t in season, you can substitute with any fresh, meaty mushroom, thinly sliced.

Chanterelle and Gruyere Tart

1 piece storebought puff pastry, thawed in the fridge

4 oz chevre, crumbled

6 oz gruyere, shredded

One heaping cup chanterelles, thinly sliced

Four pieces of curly kale, stems removed, and torn into one inch pieces

Balsamic vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

Pink Himalayan salt

Cracked black pepper

1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsp heavy cream

Directions:

1)Preheat the oven to 375 F. Roll out the pastry. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper and lay the pastry on top. Brush the edges of the pastry with egg wash mixture and fold over 1/2 inch. Press with a fork to seal and crimp the edges. Add more egg wash to the outside crimped edge. Return to the fridge to chill for 10-15 minutes if the pastry has warmed too much during this time.

2) Carefully spread the chevre across the bottom of the pastry. Sprinkle with half the shredded gruyere, the mushrooms, and the kale. Top with remaining gruyere. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, then sprinkle lightly with pink salt and liberally with cracked black pepper.

3) Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes or until crust is browning. Place under the broiler for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and turning golden. Remove from oven and immediately place on a wire cooling rack.

Cut into 16 pieces. Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!

End of Summer Salad

A friend from derby is recovering from a broken leg and I’m taking her tomato bisque and homemade bread for dinner and needed a salad for the side dish. The garden is bursting with tomatoes and peppers, the mint has spread everywhere, and the fall curly kale is ready to start harvesting. I have a big block of feta in my fridge and a lot of Israeli couscous in my pantry. And thus, this salad came together.

(Note: The recipe serves four, but some of the quantities look large in the photos because I made a quadruple batch to share with my parents and so our family could have some for dinner, too.)

End of Summer Israeli Couscous Salad

Serves four

2 cups Israeli couscous (sometimes sold as “pearl couscous”)

2 1/2 C water

2 tsp salt (I prefer pink Himalayan)

1 1/2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 C chopped tomatoes (I used a mix of cherry and beefsteak tomatoes)

1/2 C finely chopped sweet peppers (I used pimiento and part of a yellow bell pepper)

1/4 sweet onion, very finely chopped

2 large pieces curly Scotch kale, washed, ribs removed, and chopped

2 tsp fresh mint, cut in a fine chiffonade

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1/8 tsp cracked black pepper

6 ounces feta, crumbled

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the couscous, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes or until couscous is tender and cooked through. Remove from heat, remove lid, toss gently with the olive oil, and allow to cool to room temperature.

2. In a large bowl, combine all chopped veggies, mint, pepper, vinegar, and feta and gently toss.

3. Gently fold the cooled couscous into the bowl of veggies. Add salt and additional pepper to taste. Garnish with sprigs of mint, and serve at room temperature or chilled – your choice. Enjoy!

Returning

I’ve always been a sporadic blogger. Honestly, the last several months, it’s been easier to Instagram. After a long, unintended blog break full of

officiating roller derby,

working in the garden,

and writing for Azure Standard,

the change of the seasons always draws me back here. I have recipes and knitting patterns in the works, and hope to be back to blogging on a semi-regular basis…for a while at least…until derby and work and unschool life with four kids gets overwhelming again.

Blessings on this tail end of summer. Back tomorrow with a recipe to share.

Chai-Spice Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

My youngest child, George, loves muffins. Several mornings a week, he requests muffins for breakfast. And he wants variety. Sometimes I make banana-tahini muffins, sometimes blueberry with streusel topping, sometimes molasses spice muffins. Thanks to G’s desire to be surprised with new types of muffins, I am always working up new recipes.

We have a lot of chai tea mix leftover from the holidays, so I have been working up a recipe for Chai-spice muffins. Our chai mix contains powdered milk, black tea, sugar, cinnamon, clove, cardamon, anise, and ginger. Over the past week I’ve baked several revisions and the kids gave me their honest feedback of every attempt. Here’s the winner:

George’s Chai-Spice Applesauce-Oatmeal Muffins

1 1/2 C old-fashioned oats, uncooked

3/4 C spelt flour (you can substitute whole wheat)

3/4 C unbleached flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp chai tea mix

1 C applesauce (unsweetened)

3/4 C firmly-packed dark brown sugar

1/2 C whole milk

1 egg

3 Tbsp oil (I use hazelnut, but you can use vegetable)

3/4 C chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips

Optional: sprinkle tops of the muffins with brown sugar before baking.

Directions:

1)Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl sift together dry ingredients

2)In a separate bowl, whisk together applesauce, brown sugar, milk, egg, and oil.

3)Fold wet ingredients into dry until just combined, then fold in chopped chocolate. Be careful not to overmix.

4)Fill lined muffin tins with batter. Tins will be nearly full to the top. Sprinkle with brown sugar if desired.

5)Bake at 400 F for 22-24 min, rotating halfway through. Let muffins rest for 5 min before removing from pan and cooling completely on a rack. Makes 12 muffins.

I am behind on my blogging, but it has been for good reason (and for once, that reason isn’t roller derby!). I’ve joined the blogging/writing team at Azure Standard, and have been busy working on my first two pieces. Keep an eye out for my posts in Azure’s new Healthy Living blog. I’ll be writing about gardening, permaculture, beekeeping, poultry keeping, and sharing LOTS of my original, healthy recipes.

January Garden Slumber

This is what gardening looks like in Western Oregon in January.

I’m trying to finish shoveling a giant pile of mulch off my driveway. I’m down the last couple of yards, and even though it was 38 degrees and raining out, today was the day when I had room in my schedule to work on it. So, I got to work.

Most of the garden is asleep in January, but I still make the rounds of all my perennials every week to check on them. Each one gets a visual inspection for weather/rodent damage, disease, state of dormancy, etc.

The Goumi berry (Eleagnus multiflora) (left) and Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) (right) plants may lose their leaves in winter, but they still provide visual interest with upright shape and scores of thorns. The Goumi’s thorns are only on younger growth, but their downward hook means it is easy to snag a hole in your pants as you walk by. Sea Buckthorns are notorious for their spines, but I grow Siberian varieties, which are less thorny than their German cousins. Both species are nitrogen fixers and produce their own nutritious tasty fruits, but their spikey nature means I have planted them on the perimeter of the garden – near enough to the pome fruits to provide nitrogen-fixing benefits, and where their own berries can be easily reached but not where kids will fall into them, or clothes become easily snagged on the spines.

Walking around today, I noticed that one of the rhubarbs in a particularly warm and sheltered spot has emerged early from dormancy. The new leaves are always a vibrant blend of fuschia and chartreuse, with salmon and tangerine overtones. Simply beautiful.

The rhubarb divisions potted up for our upcoming spring plant sale are all still dormant, but I can spy one in the upper right trying to wake up.

The backyard isn’t much to behold this time of year. One can hardly tell there is an orchard along the U-shaped perimeter of the yard – it all blends in to the fencing with the leaves and fruit absent. The rain garden in the foreground doesn’t impress much at the moment, either. But soon sleeping herbaceous perennials and spring bulbs will start to stir from their slumber.

For the time being, the ducks have the run of the place -the rain keeps the chickens hiding much of the time, and the ducks follow me around as I take care of morning chores, although here they’re happily preening in the rain garden, in the midst of a downpour. Always in their element in wet weather, the ducks.

Working outside every day in winter weather has taken a toll on my hands. Every time I come in, my knuckles seem to be cracked and bleeding. Potting up dormant berry bushes for the spring plant sale, in particular, has been really rough on them.

Because being out in wet, windy, cold weather so much was damaging my hands – and because my dad, a hobby woodworker, was experiencing similarly cracked and banged-up hands – I made up a special batch of lanolin-rich hand salve.

Lanolin is the waxy oil from sheep’s wool – because it is washed from the wool after shearing, and no sheep are harmed in production, it is a vegetarian (not vegan) product. But because it is also an animal fat, made to keep skin & wool healthy out in the elements, lanolin is the perfect choice to use on hands that spend many hours outdoors or in rough working conditions.

Combined together with beeswax, lanolin makes a water-resistant coating against rain and wind. And because lanolin is readily absorbed into the skin, it helps to heal and moisturize severely dry skin as it protects.

I’ll be back later in the week with more from the garden – evergreen plants that provide winter interest now – and nutritious fruit come summer!

If you’d like to order some of this batch of salve, you can find it here.

Little Quilt for Lucky Lola

My dear friend, Trish, from Lucky Lola Studios asked me to make her a little quilt she could use for newborn portraits. Something pastel and gender neutral. My local thrift store is the perfect place to pick up bags of scrap fabric for $0.50-$2. It’s often vintage or good quality quilting remnants from Fabric Depot. If you’ve got a use for little bits of this and that all the way up to fat-quarter sized pieces, their grab-bags can be a good deal.

A while back, I found a bag that was all 5×5 or smaller pieces or strips of Depression-Era reproduction fabric. Most of the pieces were 2 inches or smaller, but some were long strips. I’d been holding it back for the perfect project, and it seemed like just enough to fulfill Trish’s request.

My favorite pieces were these teacup prints! Just enough to cobble together eight squares for the main blocks.

Since we’re on the subject of handwork, I wanted to share these books my sister-in-law got us for Christmas. All of the scenes are made from felted wool! The kids and I have loved looking through them and Ruth has been researching more about how to make felt figures with wire frames underneath.

I finished the quilt with some machine quilting and used some vintage thrift store fabric for the back and thrifted bias tape for the binding. Looking forward to getting it off in the mail this weekend!

January Nature Table

Now that the holidays are over, the kids helped switch the Nature shelf over from “Christmas” to “Late Winter”. With the change of the seasons, I bring out new objects and the children choose which ones to put up.

These little hand-carved camels were a gift from the girls’ preschool teacher, and we cherish them. They live in the tea cupboard with our best teacups, but George insisted we put them up on the nature shelf, along with a handmade cup his cousins gave to us last year. We weren’t quite sure how it matched the theme of the season, but there’s not arguing with a four year-old.

We try to include seasonal objects from nature, but in January, most things are dormant…So putting our Living Stones (which don’t receive water all winter long) seemed like an appropriate addition.

Most of our collection of South African succulents are of the genus Lithops, but two are Pleiospilos, including the one above. They start to look shriveled and a little worse for wear toward the end of winter, but they live in a climate where they receive less than 3 inches of rain per year.

The rest of the time, they are conserving water in their tiny fleshy leaves. Over-watering can kill them, because they lack stomata like other plants – they will drink and drink and drink water until they burst and die, so they only receive a small amount of water during certain phases of their life cycle. You can see from the Lithops above, why they are called “Living Stones”. Aren’t they fascinating?

Hal chose a squirrel jaw and a turtle jaw for the table. To him, they represented “the harshness of winter for wildlife”. I recently found a handmade pineneedle basket at the thrift stire, and it serves as a stand for his contribution.

If you’re interested in keeping Lithops as houseplants, you can order them from Living Stones Nursery in Arizona. Lithops can be fussy as houseplants, but once you learn about their soil needs and their life cycle (they have lovely flowers!) – and as long as you do not overwater them – they make fascinating plants to keep in your home.

What do you have up on your Nature Table or Nature Shelf in late winter? The kid and I always love to see what other families are gathering for their tables.

Snow Day Knitting

Joining Small Things for the Yarn Along today. We’ve had what my eldest calls “knitting weather” the last few days – it’s been icy, and you just want to hide under a blanket and knit, knit, knit.

The last few days we’ve had snow, followed by ice and more ice which made the roads undriveable. The kids initially did a lot of sledding and playing outside until the falling snow turned to ice and everything became a dangerously slippery mess.

The backyard garden isn’t much to look at, but I put out some seed for the birds and within minutes a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos had landed to fill their bellies.

The chickens hid inside their coop most of the day, but the ducks seemed to really enjoy the snow. Even when the weather turned to freezing rain and their feathers were coated in ice, they stayed outside, looking contented.

Much like the chickens, I spent the bulk of my time staying out of the weather. Afterall, it was “knitting weather”.

I finished knitting a few pairs of mitts, women’s S/M for my Etsy Store.

At the cuff, they will get needle-felted designs, but I’m still working out exactly how I’ll decorate them. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

Back tomorrow with more crafting from winter break.

Apple Cider Vinegar Caramels Recipe

I’ve always loved making candies at the holidays – particularly nut brittles and toffees. This year, I’m trying something different. And I have the Portland Village School to thank for the inspiration: Earlier this month, I had a table at that school’s craft fair. During the last hour, the volunteers brought each of us vendors a couple of apple cider vinegar caramels to help us get through the last bit of the afternoon. The caramels were delicious, and I loved how the ACV cut the sweetness of the soft, rich caramel. So, I set out to come up with my own version to make for gifts this year.

Angela’s ACV Caramels (with Pink Himalayan Salt)

Ingredients

-4 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar (you can use Bragg’s or homemade) (Note: when making this recipe for myself, I prefer a stronger ACV flavor, and use 6 Tbsp of vinegar)

-3/4 C brown sugar

-3/4 C granulated sugar

-3/4 tsp sea salt

-1 1/2 C heavy cream

-2 tsp vanilla extract

–Pink Himalayan Salt for sprinkling

Directions:

NOTES ON SAFETY: Candy-making involves boiling sugar, and can be dangerous and cause serious burns, so work carefully. Always work with a bowl of ice water nearby in case boiling sugar splashes on your skin. Also, as the caramel boils, it will bubble and foam up quite high in the pan – make sure your saucepan is deep enough to prevent the boiling sugar mixture from overflowing.

1)Line an 8×8 square pan with parchment paper, and butter the parchment.

2)In a saucepan on medium heat, add the apple cider vinegar and simmer until vinegar has reduced by half

3)When vinegar has reduced, add the sugars, heavy cream and sea salt to the saucepan. Continue to cook on medium, and add a candy thermometer to the pan.

4)Cook, scraping down the sides now and then, until the mixture reaches 240 F. This will take several minutes, and the boiling mixture will foam and rise up quite a bit – if it approaches the top of the pot, stir it back down.

5) When the caramel reaches 240 F, immediately remove from the heat and carefully stir in the vanilla extract. Quickly pour into the parchment-lined pan.

6)Let pan of caramel sit on the counter for 2-3 minutes and then sprinkle with desired amount of pink Himalayan salt. Transfer pan to the refrigerator for a few hours until caramel is set.

7) To cut the caramel: Turn caramel out onto a lightly buttered cutting board. Coat both sides of your knife blade thinly with butter. Cut into squares. If you find the caramel is tearing or sticking instead of cutting, re-apply butter to the knife.

Place each square in a rectangle of wax paper and twist ends to close. Store caramels in the fridge and eat within 2 weeks.

Recipe Variation: Omit apple cider vinegar. Heat caramel mixture to 245 F, remove from eat and add vanilla extract to the caramel, also add 2-3 Tbsp whiskey (be careful, the alcohol will boil immediately when it contacts the hot caramel). All other directions are the same.

Top Bar Lip Balm

It’s dark so early now, I have plenty of time for indoor projects – this weekend it was making up a batch of lip balm for Parkrose Market.

Our lip balm is called “top bar” because we are top bar beekeepers, and the honey in our balm is from our bees.

As someone who is outside, working in windy rainy weather on a daily basis, I need a lip balm that will soothe and heal chapped lips and offer good protection. I so make Top Bar Lip Balm with beeswax, organic sunflower oil, organic coconut butter to moisturize lips and fair-trade raw shea butter and vitamin E oil to help heal and protect them.

Bea loves to do woodworking with her Grandpa Bishop, and together they made me a little wooden lip balm holder for the display table at the craft bazaars I’m working the next few weekends.

She learned how to set up and use the drill press, and put 12 holes in a block of maple wood we picked up at SCRAP last week.

It makes for a neat and simple display, don’t you think? Very much appreciate them making it for me.

You can find out Top Bar Lip Balm here.

Hats and History Lessons

Joining Small Things this morning for her Yarn Along. I’ve been knitting up a storm in preparation for craft bazaars later in the month, but took a break from those projects to make a little hat, on request, for Bea. I have an abundance of odds and ends of grey wool, and she requested a grey hat with a sunshine on it, so it seemed like a perfect chance to use up those little balls of wool.

Bea is very interested in pre-Civil War history and instead of reading while I knitted and needle-felted her hat, we watched The Abolitionists on American Experience’s website.

I finished the hat before the end of the documentary, so for the last part of it, I put labels on the latest batch of salves and lip balm. I reformulated the salves a bit to make them more shelf-stable in cold weather, updated the labels, and can’t wait to get them packaged for the upcoming craft bazaars at The Portland Village School and Bee Thinking.

For now, it’s back to finishing knitting projects for the bazaars, spreading mulch in the garden, and thinking ahead to the menu for Thanksgiving.

Beeswax Polish Kits

Introducing our new line of Beeswax Wood Polish and polish kits! Made with local beeswax from natural beekeepers and sweet orange oil, our polish protects and conditions wood, and is safe for children.

Natural wooden toys, bowls, and furniture need to be buffed with polish a few times a year to keep their shine and prevent over-drying and cracking. In Waldorf education, children take responsibility of their possessions through The Practical Arts: this is where children are given child-like versions of adult responsibilities in order to master skills, increase independence and confidence, and prepare for adult life. Kids learn to care for their toys, play kitchen items and utensils by polishing objects themselves. This form of handwork teaches fine motor skills and teaches even very small children that they are capable of contributing in a meaningful way to family life.

Our 2 oz tins of polish are available on their own, and also in kits for children. The kits include a tin of polish, a handsewn 100% cotton flannel polishing cloth, and 2 natural palm wood child-sized spoons ready to be polished.

We’re proud to add our polish kits to the inventory of local beeswax products for the Portland Village School’s Craft Fair and Bee Thinking’s upcoming holiday bazaar.

The Garden Keeps Giving

It’s nearly November, and yet we’re still finding fresh food in the garden every day.

George helped me pick some green tomatoes so I could make a batch of lacto-fermented pickles with them.

I picked the last of the quince for the year and have membrillo simmering on the stove right now. Can’t wait until it is ready to pour into a pan and set up and finally EAT. Nothing goes better with a cup of tea on a rainy afternoon than membrillo with cheese and smoked-paprika-spiced crackers.

Bea helped me dig a few sunchoke tubers for dinner later in the week. Sunchokes are an easy-to-grow perennial food-crop that are ready late in the year. They contain about 110 calories/cup and one serving contains 28% of your daily amount of iron. They are also a good source of vitamin C and potassium. Sunchokes also contain a lot of inulin, and while they are tasty sliced fried in ghee or bacon grease, they can cause gas in some people unless cooked for long periods of time. The best way to prepare them that helps break down the inulin is to simmer them in the crockpot in chicken or veggie broth and then make a mash with other root veggies.

Bea found an exceptionally large sunchoke while we were digging. She was awfully proud of it.

While I was cutting back some rhubarb plants – whose leaves are beginning to die back due to the cold night temperatures, I noticed one of the ground cherries nearby still going strong. One quick shake and full cup of ripe fruit fell onto the ground. We ate most, but I kept a few back in order to save the seeds.

On Monday I picked over 50 lbs of pumpkins for Birch Community Services, but today I picked just a few for our family. These are (my absolute favorite) Burgess Buttercup on the left, and on the right a kabocha-type variety whose seeds were gifted to me, which I want to say is Confection, but that might not be correct. I look forward to trying the one on the right and seeing how it compares to the excellent texture and flavor of Burgess Buttercup.

I’m very grateful for this late-in-the-year gifts from the garden, and look forward to a few more weeks of nourishing foods and healing herbs from the garden before it is put to bed for the winter.

Rooting Up

No rain this afternoon, so it was time to take cuttings and root up a few perennials I hadn’t gotten to in the past few weeks. Today I was rooting goumi (Eleagnus multiflora) and silverberry (Eleagnus commutata), both of which are excellent nitrogen-fixing semi-evergreen shrubs that also produce edible fruit. Goumis produce copious amounts of tasty red fruit the size of a blueberry or larger, and I have three becaue the children enjoy the fruit so much. Silverberries produce smaller fruit which are gold with silver speckles. I don’t find the diminutive fruit worth harvesting for us to eat, but the chickens and ducks love them, so I grow silverberries in the orchard where the birds can get the fruit, and the apple trees can get the benefit of the nitrogen the shrubs fix.

Some plants will root easily on their own from cuttings (Ribes, grapes, for example), but some need a little rooting hormone to encourage the formation of roots.

After stripping all of the leaves off, and pruning off any side branches, the cut ends are dipped onto the rooting hormone and then planted. Over the winter and early spring, they will form roots and you have a new plant!

Since I had a few extra minutes, I rooted some additional herbs, and a dozen blackcaps.

George, age four, insisted on making all of the labels for the raspberries. He asked me to tell him what to write, so I said, “Munger Blackcap Raspberry” and then he wrote out his tags. He may not be the easiest four yr-old, but having him for a garden helper is always a real delight.

More tomorrow with some of the foods the garden is still producing this last week of October.

October handwork

It has been a long time since I’ve joined The Yarn Along, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy knitting. The children slept in this morning, and I made some progress on fingerless mitts (the WIP ones are for Bea’s upcoming 11th birthday. I will needle-felt designs on them when I’m finished.

The Yarn Along is about what we’re knitting and reading. I’m not currently reading any novels (because lately I’m up typing book chapters late at night while the kids are in bed, instead of reading), but a whole bag full of books we ordered just came in at the library. George is fascinated with camping and bison, so we have several books about both right now.

When Hal finished his Explode The Code lesson, the boys worked on polishing play kitchen utensils with our homemade beeswax-orange oil wood polish while I read to them.

Just like his mama, sometimes it is hard for Hal to sit still and focus on one activity unless his hands are occupied with a task. He does not know how to knit yet, and simple handwork projects like this one appeal to him.

I hope you have a restful and regenerative weekend.

Parkrose Market

I have had much time to blog the last several days, I’m working on stocking our Etsy store (Parkrose Market) with salves and balms and knitted things. Trying to juggle all of my obligations at the moment is proving challenging, and I’m dropping a few balls here and there. But, I’m still making progress and being anything less than busy doesn’t come naturally to me.

I grow all of the herbs here (with the exception of myrrh), dry them in our solar dehydrator, and then infuse them into organic unrefined coconut oil and organic olive oil. We use only local beeswax from natural beekeepers (learn more about natural beekeeping here). Right now, I’m making four kinds:

Soothe Salve has calendula and plantain, which have been used for ages as first-aid for skin conditions, rashes, bug bites.

Besides being great for medicinal purposes, calendula is a long-blooming, repeat-blooming bee-loving plant. Even now, in late October, it is a steady source of food for our honeybees. It also self-sows readily.

We’re a roller derby family, and in the derby world, arnica is the favorite herb for the endless succession of bruises that come with the sport. Vervain (also called Juno’s Tears) is purported to help with inflammation. Together, the two herbs make for good care for bumps and bruises.

(Note, if you decide to grow Arnica montana in your garden – it is toxic and absolutely should not be ingested. And while it is a great bee-plant with lovely yellow flowers, it has a habit of spreading, so don’t put it in unless you can keep it controlled.)

Comfrey’s other name is Knit-Bone. It is an age-old treatment for broken bones, sprains, etc – typically used as a poultice, but also in salves. There is some dispute as to whether drinking quantities of comfrey tea can cause liver problems, so I only use it topically. I do use comfrey salve twice a day, every day, since I broke my ankle last summer.

Comfrey is one of the best herbaceous perennial plants for the permaculture garden, orchard, or farm. I’ve written a lot about it, and we stock sterile Russian Bocking comfrey plants for sale here. Shoot us an email if you’re interested in growing comfrey in your garden.

At the request of several folks, I’m also making a general all-purpose balm as we head into winter, specifically geared for supporting and protecting skin. As a farmer who doesn’t wear gloves as much as she should, this has been a big help to my dry hands.

I’ll be back later in the week with more, and will let y’all know when our Parkrose Market Etsy store is ready to open up.

Autumn Gifts

I’ve been busy the last few days making things for loved ones. I have lots more to share, but am behind on uploading and editing photos. So, for now, a few pictures of the gifts We’ve been making this week.

Above: A little indoor fairy garden as an early birthday present for Bea, who maintains the fairy garden outside in the yard, and is always sad to see it go dormant over the winter. Now she’ll have her own little garden to tend to right in the windowsill.

I have an abundance of beets, and my dad really loves beet salad. George helped me make him this one with candied nuts, bleu cheese, and a balsamic dressing.

Lastly, I finished and blocked a shawl for a friend who is going through a difficult time right now. It’s a prayer shawl, made in 100% Brown Sheep wool.

More soon. Hope your weekend is filled with good things.

Herbal Salves

The past few weeks, I’ve been working on batches of healing salves, both for custom orders and to stock our soon-to-open Etsy store. We grow the herbs with all organic methods (of course!), and dry them in a solar dehydrator, utilizing only the energy of the sun. Other ingredients in the salves include local beeswax from natural beekeepers, and organic oils.

The herbs (such as calendula, above) are infused into organic coconut oil and organic olive oil by sun-infusion or by simmering in a double boiler for 6-8 hours. Don’t the blossoms turn the oil a lovely sunny shade?

All of the salves are made in small batches with custom essential oil scents. As of right now, I’m making four types of salves:

Calendula-Plantain Soothe Salve for rashes, ezcema, and dry irritated skin.

Arnica-Vervain Bruise Balm for bumps, bruises and sports injuries.

Comfrey Bone Balm for broken bones, bone bruises, sprains.

All-purpose Healing Salve with Calendula, Lavender, Plantain, Rosemary, Yarrow.

While the salves are cooling and setting up on the counter (and filling the house with the soothing scent of sweet orange oil and cedarwood), I’m off to print labels for the tins. The rest of the day is filled with prep for homeschool co-op tomorrow, Life of Fred mathematics, and some fall clean-up garden projects.

Blessings on your weekend!

Fall Fruit, Fall Projects

Enjoying some of the last of the fall fruit coming from the garden this week:

George helped me pick quince, which we turned into membrillo.

Ground cherries (Physalis spp.) that didn’t get eaten straight off the plants went into a tart with plums. The tartness of the ground cherries melded very well with sweetness of prune plums.

George picking an apple for an afternoon snack.

Our newest apple tree, a little Liberty, produced exactly one apple this year. Next year there will be lots of Liberty apples, and even more for many, many years thereafter, but this year that one fruit felt very special, and perhaps that’s why it tasted extra delicious.

The next few weeks are intensely busy around here. The girls’ home team season for roller derby starts this weekend, and I’m going back to weekly sports rehab for my ankle to try and overcome some mobility issues that make certain movements in skating difficult or impossible. This weekend we also have a garlic cultivation workshop that’s been in the works for quite some time. I’m finishing up an order of custom herbal salves (made with herbs we grow and dry) and making all sorts of good things to stock up in preparation for opening an Etsy store. I’m taking on more gardening clients, doing fall clean-up and garden consulting and whatever they need done. And last but not least, I’ve been working on a book for quite a while, and have been spending every spare minute editing chapters, test-knitting patterns, test-baking recipes, and writing a book proposal. Just when it feels like life in the garden is winding down, the rest of it ramps up. I’m excited about all of the projects, but attempting to not feel overwhelmed by them all at the same time.

More tomorrow from my kitchen!

Buttercups and Quince

Harvesting by myself in the garden this morning. Picked 65 lbs of produce – the bulk of which was winter squash and quince. The quince are just starting to ripen, so I didn’t pick very many, but a few were definitely ready. Quince (Cydonia oblonga) may not be the most lovely fruit in the world – looking like a misshapen pear covered in shedding fuzz – but the aroma from this crate of fruit was nothing short of heavenly. The scent is likened to guava and honey with overtones of vanilla and rose.

These ancient pomes are a fruit worth keeping in cultivation and in the kitchen. In fact when people ask me what fruit tree they should pick if they only have room for one, I always say, “quince!” Naturally dwarf, with a lovely shape, handsome bark, stunning fragrant pink flowers, quince are an excellent landscaping tree. Most varieties are self-fertile, so you only need one. A quince will also bear twice as much fruit as an apple tree the same size, and the fruit are pestered by far fewer insects than apples. I love them so much, I have five varieties in my garden, although three are too young to be producing yet.

My favorite way to enjoy quince is to turn it into membrillo – a Spanish quince paste made from cooking the high-pectin fruit for hours and hours until it becomes a beautiful orangey-red. It is then poured into a dish to cool, where it sets into a dense, slightly grainy jelly that is amazing on toast or with Manchego cheese.

Quince are very hard and most varieties cannot be eaten raw, but roasted they turn pink and sweet and fill the kitchen with a delicious fragrance. Any apple pie or applesauce is augmented significantly by the addition of quince to the recipe. Any roasted pork or poultry dish would also pair beautifully with roasted quince.

As I was ripping up dead winter squash vines and spent tomatoes, I ended up with the first few witner squash of the season. Most of the vines are still going strong, and there are dozens more squash that will be picked over the next few weeks.

Most of the squash I plant are Buttercup varieties. Buttercups are a type of Cucurbita maxima, and have the benefit of being a meal-sized squash, not a hulking behemoth the modern family has trouble making use of.

The one above is “Burgess Buttercup” and has consistently been rated the best-tasting winter squash variety. It is slightly dry with dense bright orange flesh. It is fantastic for roasting, and holds its shape in soups and stews. I have steamed and mashed it and made pumpkin rolls that were everyone’s favorite at the holidays.

Honestly, I’m looking forward to the end of the garden year. Volunteers have ended their shifts for 2015, and the next few weeks I will be harvesting by myself – more quince, oodles of winter squash, ground cherries, Inca Berries, lingonberries, and the like. Then, we’ll be down to cleaning up the garden, planting garlic, and growing only what our family eats off of for the winter (kale, leeks, etc). As much as I love running the garden project, winter is a nice sabbatical, and a chance to focus on indoor activities and hobbies.

Autumn Nature Table

Hal and George and I sifted through various nature items we’d collected this week and put up the autumn nature table (although, for us, it’s become a shelf, since the “table” has been occupied by Ruth’s budgie, Sunny.)

We have a little box of autumnal items we save and put out every year. Hal really enjoyed taking out things we’d made or found in previous years and remembering how we came to have them.

George needs a stool (kid chair) to reach the shelf, but for the first time Hal is tall enough to reach it easily. It’s hard to believe how quickly he’s growing and how tall he’s gotten over the summer.

The boys are really into Minecraft (in the rainy months, unschoolers tend to get together a lot to play Minecraft. It’s a fantastic learning tool and inspires so much creativity). Hal found the Nature Table a perfect playground for his teeny Minecraft toys.

I love that the Nature Table is such a multi-purpose educational tool – it’s a way to talk about and examine nature close-up, with the hands and the eyes. It is a starting point for research on natural history, ecology, botany, geology. The Nature Table is constantly shifting in contents as the seasons change, so it helps us mark the rhythm of the year and engages the kids in studies of the seasons – their library book selections are often inspired by items on the nature table and the season represented therein. Perhaps most importantly, the Nature Table sparks creative play, storytelling, games, and make believe driven by the children’s imaginations.

Author name: Angela Baker