Oyster mushrooms. New chickens. A mess.

Oyster mushrooms.

Its started!

One of my several containers of oyster mushroom spawn mixed with used coffee grounds has finally started pinning! This container is actually only one week old – very impressive.

At some point I will post details of this experiment.

But first, I have to figure out what’s going on with two of  my buckets:

Do you see those crazy cauliflower looking growths? I was thinking that those were the beginnings of oyster mushrooms, but seeing what’s going on in the picture prior I feel pretty confident that these are *not* oyster mushrooms starting. However, I have absolutely no idea what it is!

So I’m going to let them continue, and I’m also going to post to one of the mycological forums to see if someone can identify it for me. Its certainly pretty – I just hate to think that these two buckets will be failures. We’ll see though…

Chickens.

Our new additions are adapting beautifully! Pete, the rooster, has developed quite a…uh…fondness for one of my barred rocks, much to her dismay. The little hens are finally starting to wander around and hang out with the other hens. Certainly not a big happy family yet, but I have hopes that they’ll get there.

A friend of mine is starting to get eggs from her hens, so I’m hopeful that we’ll start seeing some soon, too.

A mess.

Definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed today. We have *way* too much stuff. But it is all good, usable stuff…lots of reference materials, lots of fabrics and projects-in-process. Nothing I really want to get rid of…

Storage is our biggest issue. I have no doubt that if we had proper bookshelves and a hide-a-bed or murphy bed that we would find ourselves in a great position. But as it stands right now we are covered in boxes and just general crap everywhere.

I am seriously considering converting our screen room into a real room – maybe an office for Jason. He is fairly against the idea – after all, we both enjoy sitting out there in the spring and summer. But we are definitely short one room, and that might be the way to take care of it.

Plans.

Snowed in. Tomato pickles. Farmcar. Oyster mushrooms. Sewing.

We're home, in the middle of Snowpocalypse 2011. The city is pretty much shut down, and the city’s 10 salt/snow trucks aren't able to keep up. The roads are treacherous and I am so glad to be in our warm, comfortable home with our animals. We are some of the lucky ones.

So while we've been snowed in, I've had the opportunity to catch up on some of the projects that have been "needin' done".

Tomato pickles.

The first week of December I had set up a batch of green, unripe cherry tomatoes to ferment. It was purely an experiment after successfully fermenting sauerkraut (YUM!).

Here’s the before, with green tomatoes, several whole cloves of garlic, lots of dill seed, five whole cayenne peppers, and a brine of 4 cups water with 3 tablespoons kosher salt. I covered it with a brine-filled ziplock bag to hold the vegetables under the brine and let it sit.

After two weeks, it looked like this:

The tomatoes started turning to a duller green, but the peppers were still beautiful. It smelled strongly of garlic and dill. I tasted one tomato and thought a pepper had exploded in my mouth. It was HOT!

I was a little afraid at this point – they smelled great but were much too hot.

This past weekend, I checked them again and they were absolutely amazing. The heat had mellowed, and they now have a slightly garlic-dill tang with a bit of heat. The are luscious.

Processing fermented foods kills the wonderful microbes that are so healthy for you, as well as mushifies everything. It will keep for many months refrigerated, unprocessed, so I packed them into glass jars that’s where they went. 

Farmcar.

Farmcar finally died. I can’t complain – she had almost 220k miles on her and had treated me exceptionally well.

It was still sad when the tow truck hauled her away for donation.

We are now a one-car household…with a little two-door Honda Civic. Another great car, but will definitely be putting a crimp on my projects. I can’t fit two full size bookcases in her like I could in Farmcar. We’ll find a way to make-do.

Goodbye, Farmcar.

Oyster mushrooms.

On December 18th, I mixed some oyster mushroom sawdust spawn (from Fungi Perfecti) into used coffee grounds. I have four buckets of the stuff down in the basement as well as two small containers in the kitchen. Aside from a slight bloom of mycelium on the surface, they weren’ t appearing do much…

…until yesterday.

See all that white-ish stuff? That’s oyster mushroom mycelium. That is Good Stuff.

This has been yet another of my experiments, and so far it looks like its going to work. I’m hoping to see some actual fruiting take place soon – no idea how soon, anywhere from days to another two weeks. Keep your fingers crossed!

Shower curtain.

It doesn’t take much to make a big improvement, especially in a small room.

I’d found a duvet cover at a Goodwill that I frequent and absolutely fell in love with the print. From it, I made a shower curtain for both the master and hall bathrooms. The hall bath is in sore need of repair – its going to be a massive project. But in the meantime, a pretty shower curtain made a huge difference.

Before:

 

After:

There have been some other things going on, a new crocheted hat and scarf for example, but I’ll save you from those.

Are you working on any projects? How are you spending your winter?

Love to you all!

The start of a beautiful new year…

I made a change to my thought process regarding the oncoming new year. I decided that instead of focusing on all of the things I hope to accomplish in the new year, I will focus on all of the things I DID accomplish in the old one.  Its funny how changing ones viewpoint on something so seemingly small causes massive positive repercussions throughout my world.
No, I did not lose all my weight and get in shape.
But I did:

*	become a Paramedic
*	become a homeowner
*	go to Italy with my mom – a dream we’ve had for 10 years.
*	move to Atlanta
*	get a puppy
*	get egg-layer chickens
*	raise, and process, meat chickens. From day old chick to the roasting pan. Delicious, and a joy.
*	become a much happier, healthier, positive person
*	enjoy a blossoming of my relationship with my husband. We are closer now than ever before in our 15 year history.
*	meet some incredible people that I am proud to call friends, and reconnect with some friends that I hadn’t seen in well over a decade.

It would be ridiculous to look back at 2010 and not be proud of all the accomplishments. And this doesn’t even take my husband’s massive accomplishment into account; he went back to Berkeley to present his thesis, and is now a full fledged PhD. I am so incredibly proud of him.
And I didn’t completely miss my goal…my weigh in on Friday put me down almost eleven pounds, and my fitness level is much better than it was. I am doing it, and that’s what matters.
So this year I’ve decided to make one huge goal for myself, one that is shared by my husband and that will have a ripple effect thoughout our lives.
My plan is to pay off our debts…everything except the mortgage.
And I even have a plan B. If it takes two years, I will be fine with that, but we are going to do everything in our power to get it done in one.
Its going to be a wonderful year.

The amazing Tuscan Peasant Soup with Rosemary and Pancetta

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/tuscan-peasant-soup-rosemary-pancetta.aspx?nterms=52492

At the urging of my darling husband, I am posting a link to this most amazing creation.

Here's a little hint that I learned about during my recent trip to Italy:
If your beans are tough, throw it all in a blender! It turns into the wonderful thick, creamy soup...it would be perfect with a crusty rustic bread.

Trust me, this one is good enough for even your most important company!

Home.Farm’s true beginnings!

So, today was a big day for us here on the HomeFarm. I can’t quite explain what was so special about today…maybe loading the FarmCar up with HomeFarm’s first bales of straw…maybe the finishing of a never-ending table-building project…I just don’t know.

Doesn’t matter, really – all that’s important is that it *felt* like a big day for us!

Here she is, the famous FarmCar, loaded with five bales of straw fresh from the Standard Feed & Seed Store in Atlanta. As you can probably imagine, after unloading her FarmCar is completely head to toe in straw remnants. I haven’t had time to vacuum her out yet – that’s a job for another day.

Two bales are now in the bed seen on the right of this photo. They will stay baled, but I will be piling the tops with composted manure and watering them for two weeks. After two weeks, the straw will have heated up and cooled down (hopefully) and something, probably greens, will be planted on top.

The beautiful thing about this method is that the bales will continue to degrade and compost, and next year I will have some beautiful stuff to spread in this box.

As for the rest of the bales, they will be going toward making some new beds. More on that tomorrow!

Peanut Butter Doggie Treats

So, I am definitely back on the project-doing bandwagon, only I keep forgetting to take pictures!  I apologize for not keeping updated, and will certainly try harder from now on.

Dexter, our miniature pincher, was about out of his favorite Trader Joe's peanut butter dog treats. Seeing as we are on a very tight budget right now and I absolutely refuse to go shopping, I did a little bit of research. Peanut butter dog treats, it turns out, are incredibly easy to make.  Plus, we happened to have all of the ingredients! 

Here’s the recipe I used.  It is a combination of several recipes on the web, just adjusted a bit for what I had on hand:

1 1/2 cups	organic whole wheat flour
1/4 cup	organic old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon	baking powder
3/4 cup	1% organic milk
3/4 cup	organic all natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon	molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine everything in a mixer and stir until smooth. Dough will be stiff and not sticky, but should still be pliable.

Roll dough to approximately 1/4” thickness and cut with an appropriately sized cookie cutter, or into whatever shape you desire.

Bake for 22-25 minutes.

Store in an airtight container or freeze for longer storage.

Dexter absolutely loves these – hopefully your pooch will too!

And so the Project List begins again!

My move to Atlanta is official, and though I still spend quite a bit of time in southwest Virginia, this is my home now.

Each time I come down, I bring more of our stuff with me. This time I was a car-full of plants and a couple of my old chairs that I adore. 

I love this house, and now it it starting to feel like home. Our living room is now a mix of all kinds of mismatched furniture, and I love the bohemian feel it's getting.

There is still much work to be done, but I feel comfortable here now.

Tomorrow it's back to work on my table for over the washer and dryer. Unfortuantely, I haven't tracked it's progress, but I will try to start now. 

Love to you all!
Petunia