Clean.

Upcycling Works in Progress and a Day Off.

Yesterday was a lazy, kitchen-free day. Yes, there was another trip to a friend's farm for berries for jam and cream for butter, but aside from that the kids and I called an official day-off from putting food by. And we set of to an undisclosed location. A Mystery Wednesday, as it were.

We packed a lunch, grabbed some swimming suits and towels and hit the road. By lunch time we found ourselves in a small "city" less than an hour away and spent the day buying supplies for some wonderful upcycling projects I have up my sleeve and playing at a sprinkler park. (Suggestions for all of these vintage drawers? They are fairly shallow and I have 14. I'd love to hear your ideas.)

And today?

This morning as the sun came up Pete and I harvested some of our herbs (mint, lemon balm, and chamomile) and have them set out to dry in the shade. The rest of the day we'll be inside, making jam and preserving other garden goods until the sun goes down. My fridge is brimming with berries from yesterday and I've got those new Tattler lids to try out for the first time. (We'll be using this recipe for our jam, minus the rhubarb and I'll let you know how I like the lids!)

Hope your today is wonderful as well. Keep cool, northern hemisphere friends!

In My Kitchen: Filling the Freezer.

Yesterday was a kitchen day of epic proportions. The berries and vegetables are rushing in and won't stop until the snow flies. Yesterday's work began with a huge bag of garlic scapes from a friend, (the flowering top of garlic plants, removed to encourage formation of a nice head of garlic), beet tops from our CSA share, a trip to two local farms for strawberries and milk, and some time with my girl in the garden harvesting chard. Then we headed the the kitchen and heaped the counters with so much goodness. Oh, yes. It's June.

I let the kids play outside till way past bedtime (so much for our rhythm!) while I cleaned and processed and put by the harvest of the day. Lupine just woke up and the first question she asked was: "Can we make jam?" Yes, there is more food putting by for today.

Yesterday's productive work included:

• three jars of live-fermented garlic scapes (made like these dilly beans)
• one quart of garlic scape and basil pesto (made like this recipe but with scapes and pesto)
• one large batch of beet greens, blanched and frozen
• our first harvest of chard, blanched and frozen
• twelve quarts of strawberries, stemmed and frozen
• two gallons of yogurt
• and four quarts of kombucha in the works

Not bad for a day's work!

I freeze my pesto by by scooping onto an oiled cookie sheet with a small ice cream scoop, then transferring to a large glass jar. This way I can pick out one or two scoops for each meal without thawing a large jar or bag of pesto.

My freezer is filling faster than I expected (already!), so it's time to brush up on my canning skills and put food into the pantry with some serious determination. It is time to channel my grandmothers. The thought of our kitchen and our pantry slowly filling with jars in the coming weeks is so exciting.

I'd love your help: what books do you recommend for modern canning recipes? I'd love your suggestions. Something with basic formulas and processing times for various foods. Soups, fruits, veggies, sauces, etc.

There were several questions yesterday regarding my process on freezing greens. I find that greens are one vegetable that I buy all winter long that I can easily grow and put by. When I planted my garden this spring greens to freeze was one important component.

Here's my (simple) process:

• Rinse and stem veggies if needed.
• Drop into simmering salted water.
• Push under water until they wilt.
• Remove with tongs to a colander.
• Rinse with cold water.
• Squeeze out excess moisture.
• Chop.
• Spread on cookie sheet.
• Freeze.
• Once frozen jar or bag and return to freezer.

Oh, and kombucha. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Kombucha is hailed as a healing, detoxifying beverage. And ancient fermented food, kombucha has a fairly widespread history in the east. Each new batch is made by fermenting water, sugar, and organic black tea with a "mother" or "SCOBY" (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). Each batch generates a new mother, so it is a beverage that encourages community and giving of what we have. This batch will be fermenting away on my counter for the next couple of weeks. Once the sugar has all been consumed by the SCOBY (but before it becomes vinegar) I will remove the mother, add fresh fruit juice (strawberry perhaps?), and bottle.

What is happening in your kitchen this week?

Strawberry Season. And a Tattler canning jar lid giveaway!

Welcome! If you are new here do take a look around. I post daily on food, parenting, and tips for a natural lifestyle. I know you'll love what you see. ~ Rachel

Oh, summer. Strawberries are officially in season. All year long the children beg for berries when we're at the co-op. And every time I give them the same answer: "We'll have berries when they are in season." And so we wait. And wait. And use up last year's frozen berries in smoothies week after week.

Last night it was finally time. Sage biked to a friend's house with the bike trailer hooked up and came home with more than a dozen quarts of local, organic strawberries. A Burley-full! We had berries for dessert, right out of the baskets, and then an Amish buggy came down our road selling more berries door-to-door. Strawberry season is on.

Today we're off to the farm for more berries, and after a final round on Thursday we should be set for the year. I am reading the book Independence Days right now and I love the concept of planting or putting food by every day (or week in my case) for greater food independence. Feeding ourselves locally, one jar of strawberry jam at a time. While we don't even come close to the level of self-sufficiency that growing all of our food would provide, we are doing what we can week by week. This summer I am filling our freezer with my own garden kale, chard, and beet greens, and there will be green beans, peppers, tomatoes, and broccoli, and also local chickens, berries, and cider. Every bag or jar of food I put by lifts my soul.

Last year I discovered that "normal" canning jar lids are lined with the estrogen-mimicking chemical BPA. Such a shock and disappointment. This year I committed to canning from now on only with BPA free canning jar lids. So far I have found two options: all glass jars and lids (a beautiful but more costly option), or my ordinary canning jars with BPA-free Tattler lids.

The Tattler lids are made in the USA of BPA free plastic. While I normally go plastic-free every way I can, Tattler lids feel like a much healthier choice for my family. Tattler was kind enough to send me a few boxed of lids - for me to try out and to share with you! I'm giving away a box of wide mouth and a box of narrow mouth Tattler lids with rubber rings for canning to one winner.

To enter your name in the giveaway just leave a comment below of one thing you want to put by this season and what motivates you to can and freeze local food. I'll choose one winner this weekend. Earn an extra entriy for each of the following: emailing a link to this post to a friend, sharing this post via Facebook, sharing this post via Twitter, liking Clean on Facebook, and liking Tattler on Facebook. Just be sure to enter separate comments for each bonus entry!

Comments are now closed! I'll announce the winner on Monday.

Congratulations to Eileen K who said:

I am hoping to put up some pickled cucumbers this summer, but mine have some growing to do before they will be putting on fruits. I can because I love eating things that came out of my backyard all year long.

Also, make a purchase before July 4 through Tattler's website and get 10% off with coupon code "LIBERTY".

Happy healthy canning, friends.

Rachel

A Weekend of Projects.

 

I had a realization this weekend that if I spend my time cleaning my house will get dirty again and I'll be right back where I started. But if spend that time doing projects, in the end I still have a dirty house but I'll also have the satisfaction of those finished projects to appreciate.

With that in mind I ignored the dishes, laundry, and clutter and dug in in a few projects that I have been longing to complete for days/weeks/years.

It all started on Friday evening when I opened Lupine's bedroom door during her bedtime routine. The door was sticking and I gave it a good yank. The force of the door unsticking itself caused a pane of glass to dramatically drop out of her window. Awesome. (I didn't handle it with total grace, but that's how it goes sometimes.) Pete came to my rescue and tacked it back together and in with packing tape to get us through the night and I added "new windows" to my weekend project list.

Lupine's window repair was one unglamorous but necessary project that we completed (along with "mount broom clips on wall in kitchen", "fix lawnmower" and "stake tomatoes"). I also painted the woodwork in our bedroom (a project we "paused" when Lupine was born 4 1/2 years ago. Ahem.), and tackled a few self-indlugent project to brighten up our home.

I made a dry-erase board out of a vintage frame, paint, salvaged glass, and fabric. I also finally completed a tree branch apron rack for my kitchen that has been on in process for no short of seven years. And then, last night in the middle of bedtime prep I bailed on jammies and teeth and let the kids play for an extra 1/2 hour while I quickly repainted Pete's and my nightstands using the leftover paint for Lupine's trim. 

Oh, yes. Progress is being made. Sure, it's Monday and my house is still wearing Friday's mess. But the joy it gives me to see these finished projects (and un-broken windows) makes it all worthwhile.

I'll share more details with you on the dry erase board (and the cork board that goes with it) and the twig rack soon, as well as the salvaged door headboard I have in the works.

Happy (messy) Monday my lovely friends!

xo Rachel

 

Simplicity Parenting Book Club, Chapter Six

Well that was an unprecedented pause from chapters. Hopefully everyone is caught up and plowing through the final pages of the book by know. It's been a great read, I must say.

Like other chapters in Simplicity Parenting, this one struck a nerve several times. This chapter, though, is less simple and concrete to apply to our day to day lives. At least the changes that I need to make. Filling a box with books and clothes and toys is one thing. But filtering out the adult world is woven with so much of our own inner work it seems like a big one to take on.

 Simplicity Parenting, Kim John Payne

Chapter Six: Filtering Out the Adult World

Chapter six was a broad, expansive one. From parental hovering and worry to television and media to sarcasm to too many words, there is lots to digest here.

For me, the screens, media, and news talk is easy. It is a non-issue around here. We don't do movies, television, radio, computers, or magazines for entertainment. We never have. You read that right. We don't do media. It is a slippery slope I never wanted to step onto so we haven't. 

Two experiences when Sage was under two shaped that decision. They are these:

1.  I was an NPR junkie for years before becoming a mother. I listened to it like you might listen to music. Constantly. And then one day when Sage was nearly two I turned on the radio and one horrible graphic sentence hung in the air. It was a war report from Iraq and I turned the radio on and off in one quick motion when I heard those words isolated from all the other talk. I was stunned. Horrified. What was I doing? My son was hearing this terrible information each and every day. And I knew that a one year old understood 90% of what he or she heard. That shook me. I haven't turned on NPR around my children in the seven years since.

2. The second shaping experience had happened a few months before. We had never done TV with or around Sage. We gave ut television a few years before so it was a non-issue.

Pete was leaving for a week away and I wondered how I would eat, bathe, or survive during his absence. A well-meaning and loving friend sent me some Baby Einstein videos to help me through the pinch of his absence. Baby videos were something I never would have bought myself and I was a secretly excited about the prospect of having them - like finding a tub of really sassy ice cream in your freezer after your friends visit. I wouldn't have brought it into my life, but let's not waste it. You get the idea.

I thought maybe I'd use them while Pete was gone, just once or twice during the week to get a shower in. But I wanted to see how Sage would handle them first. We dug out a DVD player we had and an ancient TV from the attic. We put the disc in. And an amazing/disturbing thing happened. Sage was first excited. He smiled and bounced to the music. He signed the animals he saw: dog, cat, rabbit. And then ever so slowly, the joy drained from his face and he sat staring, expressionless. He stopped dancing. He stopped signing. He zoned out. This took all of maybe 30 or 40 seconds, but that was all it took. I took out the disc, threw them back into the box and sent them away forever. I don't remember if I showered that week, but I wasn't willing to numb my boy on TV so I could wash up. He could shower with me. I could wash up at the sink. But that glazed eyed look on my baby was not worth it to me in any form.

Instead of Instead of screens or other media we read books. We play. We draw. We bike. We live our lives in other ways.

That being said, I am not the typical American mama. I think for most families limiting screens is a huge step towards more simple parenting. What about in your home?

 

There were indeed parts fo chapter six that spoke to me regarding areas where Pete and I could make great strides. We talk too much. (Way too much.) We worry too much. (Now and then.) We don't filter as well as we could. (Frequently.) There is always room for improvement and for us it is here. These are the places where we need to work on filtering out the adult world. We also run a home-based business and homeschool, so there isn't much time or space away from our children to carve out time to have adult conversation. We need to stay aware of what we say and when and make time happen apart from the kids.

I have long loved the very Waldorf approach of not complimenting or critiquing my children's experiences. I am not silent and nodding as they run to me to share something, but I have worked hard to quiet the compliments or value-laden statements that pour forth over each cartwheel and drawing. I want the experience to be the joy in itself - not my response to what they have done that feeds their souls. I lean towards, "Tell me about this picture." or "You have been drawing many different animals lately." Simple observations.

How do you do on filtering out the adult world? Share with us.

Weekly Rhythm Chart.

 

I've been working on rediscovering our family rhythm in recent days. I understand the value or rhythm. I really do. And yet, I find myself feeling burdened by it at times. Maybe I've taken it too far. Too rigid or nearly a "schedule". Too much included in our rhythm leaving little room for the free form days we gravitate towards.

My resistance to schedule has me protesting my own rhythm. How helpful.

When Sage was small he taught me the value of a solid rhythm. Transitions were easy when he knew what was coming well in advance - I learned that lesson early. In contrast, transitions were downright painful when he did not. I prepaved, I honored our rhythm, I made sure he knew what was on deck well before it happened.

To reinforce our rhythm, I made the rhythm chart above for Sage and I when he was two. (Back then I could only find six colors of wool felt but when I did I thought I had struck gold.) The idea came from my mom, an occupational therapist (OT) who was helping us maneuver some of the challenges of Sage's early years when his behavior teetered more towards/onto the autistic spectrum. The idea was an instant hit and helped him know when we were going to the park, when friends would visit, what came before bedtime. It created ease for us both. The rhythm chart brought a tone of ease to his childhood if you believe it.

As Sage grew up we hit our groove without it and eventually stopped using the chart. Somehow it ended up in a bin of random stuff in storage until yesterday. Lupine discovered it during a recent purge and begged me to keep it and bring it upstairs. I was going to get rid of it but with her prodding decided to make new tags for it and put it to use again. After all, our rhythm is suffering this season, so why not give it another go? It's dirty and old, but what the heck. It's still pretty cute if I do say so myself.

The anchors of our day are formed by meals and bedtime. Some tags we use everyday, or even twice a day (checklist for example or daily chores). After completing that task we simply move the tag to its next location.

I made the tags pictured out of a rainbow of wool felt yesterday, cut out and glued together with tacky glue. A few are done with Sharpie on felt. Felt sticks to felt, so for now we just slap them on the calendar and let them hang their by their own magnetism. I may add velcro to the backs later on if they drop off too easily. (Last time our tags were printed out from an OT program that my mom had then laminated and velcro attached. A friend made one with drawings and stickers and magnets and stuck her chart on the fridge. Use your imagination to create your own.)

This bach of tags include: housekeeping, morning checklist, art, outside time, quiet time, reading our chapter, and special activities for our homeschooling week (farm day, horseback riding, piano, bicycle club, homeschool group, etc.). We attached it to a bulleten board and hung it low in our homeschooling/play room. The kids gravitate towards it, craving the rhythm that we have created.

Before the felt was put away Lupine added one more tag to our our set, letting me know her intentions for the coming year: Ballet. I'll bet you didn't see that one coming.