Frost

We were down in Texas for a pediatric brain injury conference to see what we could learn for Jaron. We were gone for almost a full week. I did a quick sweep of the garden before I left, mostly picking ripe tomatoes. At one point, the forecast showed a frost while we were gone, but the last time we checked the forecast before we left the temperature had gone above freezing. I thought it would be safe to leave some of the tomatoes on the vine to ripen. 

Unfortunately, the forecast changed back and it got very cold. I came home to a very dead garden. 😅

Crispy tomato plants (although that made it very easy to find the tomatoes). 

Stiff basil. Good thing I picked most of it before I left. 

Bye bye peppers.

My oregano and rosemary weathered the frost okay.

Looks like the kale got munched by deer.

Some of the summer lettuce reseeded and is now ready for eating! 

I ended up with quite a few green tomatoes and shriveling hot peppers. Gonna have to scout the Internet for a couple of recipes. 🤔

RMH Meal

It's been a busy few days! On Wednesday this week, we served a meal at the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester in honor of Jaron's one year birthday. 

The night before, G and I made six batches of gingersnaps to bring to the NICU staff and also share with the Ronald McDonald House staff. 

This is the second time we baked a massive amount of gingersnaps, and I'm happy to report that it went even better the second time. Seems like we are getting our system down! I measure everything out and G stirs. I roll cookies into balls and he mans the oven. 

Wednesday morning before we left, we prepped apples to make homemade applesauce. We got to Rochester around noon and I immediately started making homemade bread. In the end, I made 10 loaves of bread. We made 10 batches of goulash soup, a gigantic roaster of applesauce, lettuce salad with tomatoes from our garden, and frozen chocolate chip cookies. G wanted to have everything be homemade, but I told him there was not enough time to make homemade cookies and homemade bread, so he would have to choose. It was an easy decision to choose bread over cookies. 

Thankfully, we had some help in the kitchen. Every time a family serves, there is a host volunteer. Ours was Jill and she was amazing. Derek is a staff member at RMH specifically working with nutrition and kitchen stuff, so he stuck around to help us as well (prior to RMH he worked as a chef).

Once I got the bread rising, we took a break to visit our NICU nurses and doctors. The visit took longer than expected, so some of my bread was overproved. You can see those flat loaves in the picture below. 

Thankfully I had the idea to put some of the rising bread in the fridge to slow down proving. That worked really well and the final four loaves of bread were a lot more shapely. 😅

Jaron hung out in the baby carrier for a while, spent some time in a rocking saucer (he loved that!), and got held by a lot of the staff. He had a great afternoon. So great, he skipped his nap. 

Whole we served the meal, another volunteer entertained him. I fed him supper and the volunteer took him back. She eventually got him to sleep at 7:45pm! 😳 Normally bedtime is 6:45. 

So, no pictures of Jaron from the day. We almost didn't get a picture of us either. The host usually takes a picture of the family serving the meal, but it was so busy, everyone forgot. We took a picture after cleanup by our sign. 🤷‍♀️ 

We served 55 people and had about half the food we prepared leftover. So, note to self, next year make half! Leftovers got boxed up and put in kitchens for people to eat as leftovers in future days. We were able to take some home too and send some home with volunteers. 

All in all, it was a very fun experience and brought us so much joy to be able to give back to the organization that helped us so much just last year. We plan to make this an annual tradition around the time of Jaron's birthday. 😊

Harvesting Nettle

The last time I was at my parents house I took the opportunity to harvest some nettle. It had gotten chopped down a while ago, so there were a lot of small regrowing plants.

I harvested with gloves on and stored the leaves in a ziplock. 

When I got home they went straight into the freezer since I didn't have time to work with them. I will probably put them in soup when I do get around to using them!

Garden Update

A few things linger in the garden...

Carrots coming along nicely: 

We thought this was a watermelon that didn't develop all the way. G actually brought two to the goat pen to give them and smashed one before he realized they were spaghetti squash. 😩

Turnips and rutabaga look pretty similar. The potatoes are the ones grown in ground in the garden. I'll dig the container potatoes soon. I have a feeling there will be many more in the containers...

 

Seed Saving

I found a radish in the garden with seed pods. Why not crack them open and save the seeds? 

Each pod has roughly three seeds. It takes a while to bust the pod open and carve them out! 

I've also saved a bunch of calendula seeds (a pretty and medicinal flower), dill seed, and coriander seeds. Calendula is easy to collect; those seeds tend to drop, so just brushing your fingers over the seeds drops them into your hands. 

I thought dill and cilantro would drop their seeds too, but it seems like everything stays attached. It's fairly painstaking to pluck every seed off the plant and I still have a container of dead plants in my garage waiting for me to process the seeds. 

Releasing the Trampoline Chickens

Our littlest chicks are ready to be released with the other chickens. We were going to do a big "blending of the flock", but time got the better of us and G just opened the trampoline door to let them go out on their own. 

They're doing great on the outside, foraging in the pasture and paying no attention to Jip. He doesn't pay them any mind either, so all is good on that front. 

The only downside we've come across is that every time G brings them food, Svetlana comes running. She can smell it from the far end of the pasture! We need to show them where the chicken feed is on the other side of the fence. 

They are getting more comfortable exploring our property. I've seen them as far west as our pasture fence and they've wandered into the pasture to the north. The other day I had the garage doors open while I cleaned and organized, and two chickens decided to help clean up the spilled chicken feed. 😄

Jaron is One!

It's hard to believe one year ago (at this time of day even!), I went into labor with Jaron at 25w4d. 

He's come a long way! Praise the Lord! 

Early December -

Early January -

January 31st- home a day before his due date!

Today, one year later!

Pastie Pie

I thought it might end up a disaster... 

Pastie pie is a favorite recipe of ours, and while the recipe allows for some alteration, it's best not to mess with perfection. But, sometimes you have to! 

All my lard was frozen solid in the freezer, so I went with the tallow in my fridge. What's the difference? Lard is made from pig fat and tallow from beef fat. 

I also didn't have any meat thawed, so it ended up a veggie pie. I shredded potatoes, carrots from the garden, onions from the garden, and turnips and rutabaga from the garden. Eggs from our chickens were the binding agent. Salt and pepper to taste. 

To check if it was finished cooking, I broke through the crust in the center to check the tenderness of the potatoes. 

Once it had finished, it seemed a bit dry, so I used chatgpt to come up with a quick sauce. We actually had a half cup of goat milk cream languishing in the fridge (it had definitely turned to clabber, the precourser to cheese), so it gave the sauce a delightful tangy flavor!

Apple Cider Vinegar

I finally have enough apple scraps collected to make apple cider vinegar. 

As I've made dried apples, I've been storing the scraps in a ziplock bag in the freezer. I know that'll make good stuff. The jar on the right is full of the peels and cores from the last batch of applesauce I made. I'm not sure how it will turn out using apples that have been cooked. 🤷‍♀️ If it turns out bad, I can always use it to catch fruit flies. 

I'll let it sit in a dark place for two weeks, stirring every day. Then strain it, let it sit for 1-3mo, then pH test it. It's ready when it has a pH of 2-3. 

Quest for a Cake #3

Recipe #3 is No Sugar Added Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes. This recipe is the easiest one yet. At least, the batter is. Three ingredients - smashed bananas, almond butter, cocoa powder. That's it! 

No rising agent, so they stayed pretty flat, more like disks. I guess that's why they're brownie cupcakes. 

The frosting is what's complicated with these bad boys. Avocado, sweet potato, and dates. Steam the sweet potato, let the dates soak in boiling water... 

We opted for homemade whipped cream to top them when Jaron celebrated his birthday with G's parents. They won't be around for his actual birthday, so they celebrated early. Got some pretty cute pictures of Jaron enjoying his birthday cupcakes. 

I'd say this recipe is the winner! Someday I'd like to make the frosting. That's a lot of chocolate for a baby, so I'd also like to try the recipe without cocoa powder. 🤔

Quest for a Cake #2

Recipe #2 Healthy Baby Smash Cake No Added Sugar. Basically, banana muffins in cake shape. Somehow in my expansive and well stocked kitchen I don't have any cake pans, so I made these as cupcakes. 

The base is almond flour and the sweetener is banana and apple sauce. They baked nicely and are fairly moist. Not the greatest texture in the world. I'm beginning to think I don't enjoy the texture of baked almond flour - too grainy. 

Still, the taste of these muffins is pretty good. Just the right hint of sweetness. Stored in the fridge they remain moist. I will keep the recipe!

Buckwheat Pancakes #3

Same recipe as yesterday, but with added spices on a different pan. 

Again, they taste great. Again, they still stuck to the pan. 

I made sure the pan heated up plenty ahead of time. It helped a little but it didn't seem to matter. They stuck even when I put oil or butter in the pan. 

The spices were a great addition! I put in cinnamon and cardamom. So what to do about the sticking? Could adding some oil help? Flax seed? Hmm...

Buckwheat Banana Pancakes

New recipe for buckwheat pancakes. I had seen this earlier and wanted to try it, but I didn't have bananas at the time. 

Great flavor, easy to make- just buckwheat flour, a ripe banana, and almond milk (or other milk). The downsides- it doesn't make many and my pancakes kept sticking to the cast iron. Granted, I had cooked some potatoes in it previously and didn't wipe the pan out, so the sticking might not be the recipe's fault. 😅

Will I make it again? Yes. I'll add spices next time and try cooking in a different pan. 

Freeze Dried Apples

I used a different apple slicer to make my freeze dried apples. They don't fit together as nicely. I have them slightly overlapping.

These are golden delicious from my brother's apple tree. 

Subbing in 7th

G and I decided that I could step away from my homesteading/homemaking/mom duties every once in a while to sub for a local school, the same one I did the long-term subbing for two years ago. 

Today is the first day subbing and the longest I've been away from Jaron since the NICU. I'm excited to be back in the classroom while also being leery of leaving Jaron for so long. G is taking charge of Jaron for the day. They dropped me off at school in the morning so I could show him off at staff devotions. The whole school prayed for Jaron and me our entire time in the NICU, so everyone was very excited to meet him, students and staff.

The students I taught today were the same ones I taught in fifth grade for the long-term subbing. We were all glad to be back together again. It was a pretty simple day lesson wise. The teacher had me administering mostly tests. I did have to teach a math lesson which was also very simple. 

G brought Jaron over the lunch hour so I could feed him and remind him I didn't completely disappear haha (and also so I could see him 😅). The kids were still eating lunch when they arrived, and when the students saw Jaron, they immediately lit up and wanted to high five him. He was a little overwhelmed by all the hands, but he didn't cry or fuss. He mostly stared at everyone. 

In the afternoon, my 7th graders asked to see pictures of Jaron, so while they took their English test, I figured out how to project from my phone to the smart board. We had about five minutes to see pictures. 

Overall, the day went very well, for Jaron, G, and me!

Honey Tallow Balm

Found this recipe on Pinterest. 

A friend gifted me some rendered tallow, so I thought I'd whip up a batch. Seems like I could use this as a cloth diaper friendly diaper cream. 🤷‍♀️ 

First, I melted down the tallow. I strained it through cheesecloth to remove the last remaining impurities. 

The honey, oils, and essential oils stirred right in. I chose 5 drops of lemon, 10 drops of lavender, and 5 of roman chamomile. The recipe calls for more essential oils, but I don't want them to irritate Jaron's skin. We'll go less is more for now. 

I put it in the freezer with timers set at 15min intervals to check. It only needed 15min! The edges were solidifying and the center was runny, but stirred together was a perfect consistency. I could pour it into my balm containers. Low and behold, one batch fit perfectly in all of these!