Clean.

Recipes for Wild Ramps.

It has been a heck of a week around here. Pete has been gone for four days. (Fishing in the snow. Fun.) Here it has been sleeting and wicked cold, and I've been busy juggling the business, home-keeping, and homeschooling as a solo-gig.

So when insanity strikes I head to the woods. We spent yesterday at a local county park foraging with some other homeschooling friends. Nettles. Catnip. Ramps. The earth is kind to us. My tension melted away and I found my bliss there, mud under my nails, kids playing confidently alone in the green. We talked. We were silent. We harvested. We breathed.

I came home with two heaping cloth bags: one of ramps and one of nettles. Soon I will share more with you about nettles (in a heartfelt and difficult post I am working on regarding radiation) but for now we'll stick with ramps.

Ramps are wild onions. They grow in woodlands from North Carolina well into Ontario. Ramps are heavenly.

Last year I shared some recipes with you that I had somehow already forgotten. I am sharing them again in case you have forgotten too. If the recipes don't pique your interest, tonight we added chopped ramps to a stew (along with nettle and seaweed, bone broth, beef, cabbage, carrots, garlic, and onions). Yum. I also filled two large lasagna pans with sliced ramps and popped them in the freezer. I'll scrape them off and into jars tomorrow and we'll have ramps in our soups in January. Putting food by has officially begun!

In the spirit of self-sufficiency and as a celebrate local eats, here are two wonderfully simple recipes for you to create using ramps, purchased or foraged. Ramps are an wild onion and have a garlicky-oniony flavor. You can eat the ramp - bulb, greens, and all. It is easy to identify as it is the only lily-type plant with an onion smell when you crush the leaves.

If you don't have ramps in your region feel free to substitute a bunch of flat leaf parsley, a clove of garlic, and a small onion for the ramps. Or better yet the leaves of the invasive species Garlic Mustard. That makes a wonderful pesto and you'll be doing the forest a service when you remove it. (Be sure to take the flower heads with you or the dead plant will still set seed.)

I chose to use sunflower oil, sunflower seeds, and honey (instead of olive oil, pine nuts, and sugar) in the recipes below to make a more local pesto and dressing. Go with what you've got!

Hot Ramp Pesto

I make big batches of pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then I transfer the cubes to a jar or bag and we're set for the season. 

Ingredients:

Three handfuls of ramps (maybe 30 or so ramps), sliced across the grain into thin 1/2" strips(greens, necks, and bulbs)

1/4 C sunflower or olive oil

1/4 C sunflower seeds or pine nuts

1/2 tsp Coarse Salt

Place sunflower seeds in food processor or blender and process until chopped finely. Add ramps, oil, and salt and process again until it has a smooth, pesto-like consistency. Taste. It will be HOT in comparison to basil pesto. If it is too spicy for your palate, add a big handful of raw spinach. The flavor mellow when it cooks (on pizza, in bread, etc.).

Wild Goddess Dressing

Ingredients:

1/4 C apple cider vinegar

1/3 C tahini

3 Tb soy sauce (add a tsp of salt for GAPS families)

1 Tb honey

3 Tb ramp pesto (recipe below) or minced ramps, with greens

1 pinch of salt

1 Tb lemon juice

1 Tb plus 1 tsp honey

1/4 C sunflower oil

2 Tb fresh parsley, chopped

1 Tb fresh chives, chopped

Combine all ingredients except oil, parsley and chives in blender of food processor. Process until smooth, then add oil in a thin stream. Taste and adjust flavor as needed. Add chives and parsley if desired and quickly pulse in. Serve on your favorite salad, wild or tame. Will keep well in the fridge for several days.

Simplicity Parenting Book Club, Chapter Two.

It has been over a week and the converastion of and surrounding Chapter One continues here on the blog and also over at our facebook group. How lovely! I am in awe of you all and what you are bringing to this conversation. I look forward to your reflections on our current chapter.

Simplicity Parenting, Kim John Payne

Chapter Two: Soul Fever

Do you take notice when your child is experiencing what Payne has named a "soul fever"? In contrast to a physical fever, a soul fever is emotional or spiritual in nature. Your child is not feeling like themselves and is acting out in their own (sassy? sad? angry? controlling?) way. A soul fever speaks of being overwhelmed and disconnected and begs for quieting down, being nurtured, and turning inward.

Simplicity Parenting urges us to focus on and honor our instincts. Just as our intuition guides us to the proper care of a child with a physical fever, our inner knowing also leads us to the path of care for a child with a soul fever. We are reminded during these times to be truly present with our children - not overwhelmed and overstimulated ourselves. We need to be attentive, present, and free of distraction. That sounds ideal for parenting under any circumstances.

Payne lays out a process to remedy a soul fever as this: 1) Recognize it. 2) Quiet down the child's life. 3) Seek connection. 4) Allow it to run its course.

Noticing

How to notice a soul fever? Your child's quirks become magnified. It is the exaggeration of their inner self, based on their unique personality. Some move towards isolation, others towards tantrum, anger, or controlling behavior. They become an out-of-balance caricature of themselves.

Quieting Things Down

Break your obligations. Stay home. Cancel your plans. Just as with a physical fever, Payne believes it is appropriate to essentially call in sick to your life's obligations to care for your child.

Bringing Them Close

I love what Payne laid out in this section. To me it is what we should be doing regularly as parents, but what many don't find or make the time to do. Connection. Quiet time. Listening. Payne also implores us to focus on our child's golden self, their "good" side. Should this not be what we do everyday? To imagine them as their highest self, their most kind, authentic, and radiant being? Of course. But I loved the reminder all the same, soul fever or not.

Payne talks about kids needing affection most when they "deserve it the least". Thought I believe that they always are in a place of deserving affection and connection, the point to me was that at the times when we're pushed to our breaking point by our kids behavior is when they are begging us for connection.

Running Its Course

It is not our job to fix what is not working. Our work is to create a nurturing and calm environment, connect with and unconditionally love our hurting child, and allow them to heal.

This chapter, to me, had two main cords: slowing down and connecting fully. The slowing down was the most applicable piece around here. Even my (simple, old-fashioned, handmade) life feels fast-forward sometimes. My mom was visiting this week and I realized last night as she and I relaxed on the couch that I had not sat on my couch since my birthday. Almost two weeks before. We are busy. Really busy. And all of that doing has a cost. For many weeks I have been feeling that doing less would be good for me, for Pete, and especially for our kids.

And as to connecting fully, much of what Payne discusses in this chapter rings true to my goal of a parenting path based on validation, connection, and kindness. We strive to practice non-violent parenting, meaning we don't punish our kids with time outs, jailed toys, or other loss of privileges for acting out. Our goal is to find the root of the behavior and work backwards from there to seek solution.

What about you? Do you have time to follow his advice when someone in your family is out of sorts? Or do you often find yourself addressing the behavior rather than the underlying cause? What stuck with you in Chapter two above all else? Share your thougths on soule fever.

Some Time at the Workbench.

I've been meaning to share this project with you for a week or so. The snow makes it look like it is from ages ago, but really it has just been a week!

When Pete and the kids were buying supplies for my potting bench Pete added a stack of pine lumber to their cart. The pine was a gift for Sage - his very own project boards. I was amazed that it had never occurred to us before to buy Sage his own lumber. He has always had access to our lumber, but there is the necessary permission before digging in and the pieces below his own workbench are small scraps, limiting the scope of his projects.

Sage is a child who would likely trade every toy in the house for a stack of lumber. He was in his bliss and set to work immediately. While Pete built my birthday gift Sage worked at his own workbench, transforming the lumber, two old balance beams, some wheels and rope into this:

He had some papa help with the angle of the seat (the concept was his own but he needed help with putting that part together). The front wheels pivot and it is steered by the rope. As I watched the kids playing on their new cart I realized: we could have bought him a little ride-on cart. I'm sure there are plenty of ready-made carts and scooters and other toys out there, just waiting to be purchased.

And that, of course, would have entirely missed the point. He didn't get a new cart - he got an amazing experience of building, tweaking, completing, and succeeding. In reality, it isn't about the cart at all.

Spring: Simple Childhood Magic.

How was your Easter? Ours - which is simply our Spring Celebration held a few weeks late to dodge the usual un-spring-like snow - was nothing short of magical. It always is.

There was the Easter Bunny hiding baskets, the magical egg hunt out in the yard, and our adored Wish Bunny's appearance during the egg hunt (more on that later). Oh, yeah. Our spring celebration is loaded with magic.

We're magic junkies I guess. A spring celebration with not one but two magical rabbits is the giveaway. At other times of year you'll find us welcoming Santa Claus, Saint Nick, and the Tooth Fairy. Even the Winter Solstice Elves, the Pumpkin Fairy, and the Rhyme Elves. We're almost always entertaining folks from other realms over here.

 We made a conscious choice when Sage was a baby to keep the magic alive and to invite all of these mystical folks into our world with each season. I know parents who have opted against this form of magic in childhood. They take the honest road with their kids, and don't participate in the customs that surround these myths. I was almost one of them. Years ago I argued that "magic" was just a friendly word for "lying" to your kids. Why on earth would I lie to my kids?

Because, I discovered, the magic of childhood sparks the imagination of the child in a way that nothing else can.

Children are born into magic. They live in a creative, imaginative world where anything is possible. The magic we allow into our customs helps to show our children that yes, anything is possible. Imagine it and it will be yours. Magic helps children be carefree - as they are supposed to be - and lets them dance in the joy of what only they can see.

Magic is vital. 

In case you are curious yesterday's magic went something like this at our home: To celebrate the equinox the children woke with the sun and searched the house for their baskets, hidden in the night by the bunny. (As I talked about here, the treasures we put in our baskets are simple, natural, and modest. Yesterday Sage and Lupine found this items pictured above plus some a couple of fruit leathers, and honey sticks. They were beside themselves with happiness and played with the dolls all day long.)

We set the nature table to resemble an egg hunt and later in the morning (after the eggs magically appeared) we enjoyed that search as well - the highlight of the day for us all.

The final bit of spring magic happens during the hunt at our house with the appearance of the Wish Bunny. There is only one Wish Bunny to be found, hidden somewhere in the yard. She use to be made of chocolate but these days she has transformed into a great big needle felted rabbit. When one of the children stumbles upon her everyone gathers around and the kids offer her something from each of their baskets - a thank you or offering of sorts to bring giving (as well as receiving) into the day. Then they whisper a wish in her ear and accept a treat that she has brought with her (yesterday she brought lemon-almond cookies that were ridiculously good).

Sage absolutely lives for the Wish Bunny. He says that he can hear her talking in his head when he talks to her.

My boy believes in magic to a degree that makes me believe too. Because really, I do. There is magic everywhere if we slow down enough to feel it. But I believe in magic in an adult abstract way that I could never explain adequately to Sage or Lupine. Not half as well as the Wish Bunny can.

Would I readily trade all of this wonder for "mom and dad hid the eggs and baskets" or "mama made the dolls and the bunny?" Not in a million years. Magic belongs in childhood and I will be the last person to try to break that spell.

Sponsorship Spaces Now Open!

Hi friends,

I've for some time had a carefully selected group of sponsors posted to the right. I made the decision this week to open Clean up to additional sponsors who are in line with the vision and mission of Clean. I think that a carefully selected group of family-owned, positive businesses will be a great blessing for us all.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of Clean, drop me an email or leave me a comment here. I'll get some information off to you right away. In the meantime:

Thank you for coming here, day after day to read what I have to say.

Thank you for valuing my words.

Thanks for sharing your trust with me each time you visit.

I know we aren't all carbon copies of each others lives, but your participation in mine means a great deal to me.

Love,
Rachel

Around Our Home: Lupine's Room.

Lupine's room. The magic realm of a four-year old. Ethereal magical fairyland.

I spent some time in her space last weekend cleaning, simplifying, and rearranging. And it is wholly transformed. I moved out many "treasures" that have yet to be missed and rearranged a bit.

In Lupine's room you will find...

~ Costumes in the closet, organized on pegs beneath a shelf for shoes.

~ Dolls: arranged on a single playstand beside her dresser. Too many, but we're whittling the crowd down, one by one.

~ Play Kitchen: the play food is gone but I left a single jar of acorns and Lulu added a jar of wooden beads. Two pans. Four tea cups. She cleans it up herself when she is done playing. I'd say we hit the magic combination there, seeing as when we had a wooden refrigerator full of wooden food she told me "I'm just too young to put it all away. It is always a mess."

~ Girl Treasures: On her dresser top are her adored music boxes and ceramic figurines.

But that is all. I moved out the matryoshka dolls that I loved but were always toppling onto the floor. I quietly removed her jewelery box that was constantly vomiting its contents onto the table and floor. I removed the superfluous decorations and opted for a fair trade greeting card from the coop in a second hand frame. That $5 card was the most expensive part of her room reworking. Even the curtains were free, an old bed sheet and some vintage fabric from my stash.

Her bed is an antique Jenny Lind bed that has been in my parents' basement for as long as I can remember. My mom offered it to me and I warned her that I was going to paint it pink. She gave it to me anyway, despite her antique-savvy better sense. (Thanks, Mom.) And the bed itself is just an old futon on a wooden frame pushed against the wall to hold the headboard in place. Who says we need fancy new things?

I have spared you the before photographs, but it wasn't pretty. And now? We have not cleaned in a week. Really. When your things are precious and few you take care of them. Even at four.

P.S. The walls are Benjamin Moore Hibiscus, the bed and ceiling are Benjamin Moore Pink Piggy (or Little Piggy... I don't recall).