Orecchiette & Arugula

this is a 1 pan meal
easy, quick, nutritious and delicious
compliments to Martha Stewart, where I got this recipe
which of course I altered

Oreccchiette (little ears) Pasta dish

12 oz. orecchiette
1 can mixed beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
2 T. tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 6 inch sprig of rosemary
olive oil
pepper flakes
Salt & Pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan/asiago/reggiano cheese
1-2 cups arugula

Combine pasta, beans, olives, tomato paste, garlic, rosemary, oil, pepper flakes
and 4-5 cups water in pot. Season with S & P. Boil, then cook until pasta is al dente
and liquid is reduced to a sauce and coats pasta.
Remove from heat, discard sprig of rosemary and stir in cheese, arugula and more olives.
Drizzle with olive oil and more pepper flakes.

Arugula is a spicy green
easier to grow than lettuce

New Home Place

Just now the lilacs are in bloom

all around my home of little rooms

and in the new flowerbeds

nearby the garden shed

await the blooms of glory be

viewing all with my cup of tea

lilac bushes

planting perennials

Summer Garden to Winter Table

It is rewarding and warming to be able to eat from your garden while its snowing.
Giving thanks to preserving, freezing, storing and local farmers.  As I am trying to be more self-sustaining in providing more food from the garden and local area and less corporate food from big Agri-business. This results in less chemicals, more nutrients, less cost, less carbon footprint while supporting local CSA (community supported agriculture)


Dinner

store bought                                                          

• oil                                                               
• salt                                                                 
• quinoa                     
• mushrooms                                                     



Supper Menu:
Baked Chicken
Butternut squash with sorghum
Sauteed veggies with Quinoa




• soy sauce                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

From the Garden & Yard & Local Area

Chicken
garlic
onion
peppers
Amish butter
Amish sorghum
butternut squash
locally produced cheese

Locally Grown

Got Seeds?

another year is upon us
take time to plan
the cold will soon be gone
and before you know it
it will be time
to plant
or for the non-growers
to order from your CSA





seed catalogs, Journal & packets of seeds

 

Seeds are really cheap, for all that they deliver.
But remember, a seed is not a seed.
There are heirloom and open-pollinated seeds,
then there are the unstable hybrids and genetically modified seeds (GMO's)
that do not promote diversity.
We must all try, as we can, to re-invent our country's food system, from the Big Corporate Government supported food and farms to more community supported agriculture (CSA),
farmers markets and more organic and heirloom varieties in grocery stores.
We all love food that taste good and that is what good seed delivers.

Variety is the spice of life.


 

The Green River

The Green River flows between our farm house and the farm lands.
This river begins in the Appalachian mountains and flows westward for 384 miles toward the Ohio River.  Yes, the river is green, but its the General Green of the Revolutionary War that the river got its name. It is a beautiful river, as all rivers are. I'll post a few photos from Google images.

A river of Beauty



The River flows west toward the Ohio River.

The river forms the Mammoth Caves
the worlds longest cave system.

Jug fishin on the
Green river lake
is Fun!!!

 Green River Lake
summer fun

 

The river also has a ferry boat crossing, marinas, houseboats, cottages and cabins, campgrounds and horse stables.
The Green is river that we all should enjoy and care for.

A dinner to begin the new year

A farm food dinner

Menu

• Backyard Chicken--Roasted
• Fall Pumpkin Squashed
• Garden Garlic & Potatoes Mashed
• Preserved Beets in a Salad with Onions in a vinaigrette
• July-picked Blueberry Pie with Fresh Cream Whipped

As others have had a food goal: crazy as they are:

• eat all meals for 365 days at Starbucks
• cook all dinners from a Julia Child cookbook for a year
• eat at McDonald's for a full year

Everyday this year I will try to eat food that we produced on the farm.

Totally Delicious

 

Invest in Nature

Nature is the foundation of our well-being.

If we nurture our land, like any other asset or investment, we and our children can profit.

After working and walking the long aisles of the big bazaar of Amazon.com with its tons and billions of goods (>90% from China) sold, I got to wondering about our investment in Amazon vs. nature.

This is a huge Topic, including sustainability, conservation, climate change, organic farming,
all which involves moral and economic choices.

I had to laugh at what people were buying:  bronze statues of sitcom anchorman, electric warmers for birdbaths and plastic this & that by the ton. No, we do not need this junk. We need to make better choices, take care of this planet we live on and treasure the resources we are given.

I intend to live with less, get rid of "stuff", garden more and be happy.

 

 

Hoping that 2014 will bring you'll joys from Nature.

Making Soup using a pressure canner

Soup, is perfect as the days grow shorter and nights cooler, it's time to enjoy the warming of a bowl.
Instead of grabbing high calorie "comfort" foods, grab a jar of your homemade soup off the shelf.
A pressured cooker, filled with quart jars, will preserve the soup for a year.

A few hours making homemade soup, using a pressure cooker, will pay off when your home
late and hungry. Just heat and enjoy a delicious cup full of nutrients, flavor and fiber.
This homemade soup recipe has lots of fiber from the peas, beans and sweet potatoes.

Jars of Goodness
ready to be opened and heated
when your short on time.

Recipe

1 cup of dried peas
1 cup of dried navy beans
2 white sweet potatoes
4 carrots
greens, parsley, kale
bay leaf
homemade chicken stock
S & P
spices, thyme, garlic
water

soak white beans in water overnight.
in morning, drain beans, add all ingredients to stock pot
and additional water. keep warm, while sterilizing canning jars.
Follow canning directions using pressure canner.
Add bits of meat if desired.

This delicious soup
can be your dinner
when short on time,
by grabbing a jar off your shelf.
 

 

Ball: a good reference and recipe book
for all canning & preserving

 

 

HEY!, Hay is for horses.

Its the time of year to gather Hay.

Hay is not just for the horses; all the animals use the hay.

Horses eat the most hay.
Goats waste the hay.
Chickens lay eggs on the hay.
Dogs make a bed of the hay.
Deer nibble on the hay.
Cats warm themselves laying on the hay in the barn.
I mulch the hay.

Hauling the hay from field to farm.

Tightly rolled grass for all the animals.

Goats  nibbling the best hay in the middle of the roll.

Hay, a good crop for all.

November Foods

Back in the Kitchen again, after living outside for the summer.

Topping the food list this month is the last of the garden harvest:

• Pumpkins
• winter squash
• sweet potatoes
• Irish potatoes
• winter greens: collards, kale, mustard greens and lettuce
• onions

All these foods will provide much needed nutrients for our busy bodies.
These foods will keep over the winter months.
The pumpkins, squash, onions and potatoes are kept cool and dry out in the garden shed all winter.
The greens will keep out in the garden until January, here in our zone 6.

You've heard an apple a day will keep the doctor a way?  Try adding these colorful green & orange foods a day to keep the doctor away!


Back in the kitchen, oven on, baking the winter squash and steaming the greens.

A bunch of Chard



A row of Winter greens

Winter squash
full of vitamins A & C
antioxidants
fiber
and flavor

 

Time to Sit

With the garden chores coming to an end, there is more time to just sit.
No more hoeing, deadheading or watering as the winter rains have begun.
Time, and lots of it, to think, plan and hopefully create and read.
Got the garden chair, but that won't do for more sitting.
Got the garden beds, but that won't do for relaxing.
What about a bed, out in the garden, to lay on and contemplate, and perhaps bring on more
gardening inspirations? a bed outside with pillows, quilts and piles of books.
Off to the local antique auctions to hunt for and bid on a bed for the garden shed.
A quiet place to hibernate.

A Garden Bed
 

The antique iron bed was found.
 

A back yard retreat
to RELAX
 

All I need is a mattress, quilts, pillows, pile of books and I'm out of here, GONE.

Wake me when it is Spring!

Where Bucks GO.......

Where do deer go.....
read Deuteronomy 12....

Our whitetail bucks go to Hunting Preserves.
Hunters stay at a lodge and go out on daily expeditions with a guide to find their buck.
The Hunts are fair chase in the wilderness of  300 acres more or less.
Whitetail bucks are free roaming among the hills, valleys, forests and meadows.
This provides an amazing experience when two people, from opposite lifestyles i.e.
hunting guide and city person, come together to hunt for a buck.
The city person will have an memorable experience of a lifetime:
hunting, taking home 200# of fresh venison and an antler rack for their wall and most important a memorable experience.



Gayleen and Brenda
loaded Bucks onto the trailer
to go to the
Hunting Preserve


 

www.kyantlerco.com

www.facebook.com/kyantlercompany

 

Big Buck

lots of fresh venison

antler rack for wall

&
2 happy hunters


 



Food in Jars

My Pantry with Glass Jars of Food.

 

A cupboard today

 

Glass jars  > plastic.
Why not plastic? Start with petrochemicals, then move on to estrogenic chemicals and endocrine disruptor's, you get the picture, why I choose glass.
Glass has been used for thousands of years with no health concerns while plastic has many concerns affecting our health.








A Pantry from the late 1800's










 

Grains & Granola kept in jars.
 

Glass allows the food colors and textures to show. It no wonder we've progressed from open shelving to cupboards allowing us to hide all that junk food and plastic from view.






Injun Summer

 

 

  

 

Prints & Injun story by: John McCutcheon
 

This time of year all the homesick Injuns come back to play.

Their spirits do.

You can see them across the fields, in the haze.

Smell their fires & pipes a-going.

Hear them rustling and creeping among the leaves.

 

Love this time of year.

 

Our last major project is complete!

Now we rest and enjoy this time of year.

Start up the bonfire and see off yonder the Injuns marching and dancing.

Before shot of the tunnel ride down the dirt road to the fields.
 

Same shot after the dozer came through
Now the combine can get to the fields.

 

Enjoy relaxing in Injun Summer, smelling their pipes a-go 'in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Chestnuts

A bowl full of Chestnuts from the spiny burs.
The chestnuts came from our grove down by the river.
The chestnut is the only nut that has vitamin C.


 

We stumbled upon an undiscovered grove of American Chestnut trees down by the river.
This is epic!, because the American Chestnut tree is extremely rare due to a blight that killed this mighty giant of a tree. The loss of the American Chestnut was an environmental disaster since this tree occupied 25% of Eastern Forests.

Chestnuts that are planted today are either Chinese or European.

We are going to cut a twig with leaves and send it off for testing and confirmation to determine if our discovery is the American Chestnut.

Oil painting of Chestnut tree by:
Vincent van Gogh
 

 

The Chestnuts that are found in stores are imported. Hopefully in another 100 years, our Eastern forest floors will again be covered with chestnuts for all to enjoy.




P.S. The American Chestnut Foundation confirmed that our chestnut tree is a Chinese variety.
Of course, isn't mostly everything these days "Chinese". 
We figure the "hippies" that once upon a time ~ 50 years ago homesteaded our land and probably planted the Chinese chestnut trees near their hand dug water well.
The well and the trees remain, but the "hippies" were run off by the locals.
That is another story.

 

 

Pumpkin, a true american vegetable

A Pumpkin pick'n day.
The seed was from  www.superseeds.com 
a variety called: Spookie, a smaller size pumpkin with very good yields per vine.


Took a few pumpkins into the kitchen to turn them into:

making pumpkin pulp
 

Pumpkin seeds and pulp.






Roasted Pepitas  (pumpkin seeds)


Cajun spiced Pepitas

 

Pumpkin Cake


Pumpkin Cake with hazelnuts
 

Pickled pumpkin rind.  The recipe did not seem to sound as good as the name,
so I gave all the rind to the chickens.

The cooked pulp became
a bowl full of delicious squash.


Pumpkin squash
with added butter & maple syrup
 

Didn't know these Spookies could taste soo good!

 

Lilies

a Chinese proverb:   if you have 2 loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily


Lilies (not day lily) are a favorite flower, especially as a cut flower for vases. The flower will last for a good week in a vase.
A lily is not the common day lily.  Lilies have 6 petals and grow on one main stem.  Day lilies have 2 layers of petals and grow as a clump.
Lilies flower from May until mid-August; what other flower can do that?

trumpet lily

Black Beauty Lily

Some good sources to get lilies:

www.thelilygarden.com
www.bdlilies.com
www.mzbulb.com
www.johnscheepers.com
Fall is the best time to plant the lily bulbs.




Lilies rule!