On Tuesday evening, Andy and I ventured to the Door Creek Orchard in Cottage Grove. What a lovely place! Sheep, a beautiful apple orchard, and a quaint country store. We will be heading back! The purpose of our after-school detour was twofold. On Wednesday, my colleague, Carol Samuel, and I were hosting our first LOCAVOREContinue reading “Viva Mexico with Applesauce? . . . and Locavores Like Local Apples”
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Final Canning Weekend of the Season?
This weekend, Andy was sick…and we had 25 pounds of Romas and 10 pounds of tomatillos to can. He mustered through parts of the process, but my role was much bigger than normally expected on a CANNING WEEKEND. We canned 7.5 quarts of diced tomatoes, using the same process we’ve used for years. And, weContinue reading “Final Canning Weekend of the Season?”
Chickens and Chickpeas
All of our chickens are in the coop! Despite not hearing back from the State Lab regarding Marley’s illness, we decided (after checking with our vet) to put all of the chicks together in the coop and run. We’re crossing our fingers that Marek’s has not visited the Poquette residence. Tonight, we enjoyed all ofContinue reading “Chickens and Chickpeas”
Pizza and a Good Book
We had to let this cook down for hours and hours. For years, we’ve been searching to find a thick, flavorful pizza sauce to make and to can. Lo’ and behold if my favorite author didn’t include the very recipe in her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Throughout the book, Barbara Kingsolver’s family writes personal narrativesContinue reading “Pizza and a Good Book”
Wow! Stuffed Peppers=Amazing!
Dinner tonight was, in one word, amazing. Andy stopped at the co-op on the way home tonight to get Smart Ground Original, a meat substitute. While I fully embrace the vegetarian lifestyle and philosophy, another alternative is to buy local and as-humanely-as-possible-reared-and-slaughtered meat. It’s hard for me to put the words “humane” and “slaughtered” inContinue reading “Wow! Stuffed Peppers=Amazing!”
Dilly Beans
Carmen’s opinion of canning in 90+ degree weather. Hehe. For the last several years, we’ve bought a 10 pound box of beans from Harmony Valley Farm. This year we canned 6 quart jars of dilly beans and froze the rest of the beans for fall and winter casseroles and soups. Dilly beans are great accessoriesContinue reading “Dilly Beans”
What to do with all of those tomatoes? Can ’em!
Tomatoes chilling in an ice bath. Canning can be a looming task to food preservation/gardening newbies. This blog entry is to reassure those of you nervous ladies and gents out there that it really is quite a simple process that’s well worth the effort. The first food that we ever canned was a batch ofContinue reading “What to do with all of those tomatoes? Can ’em!”
The Dump Garden
My creature empathy extends itself to plant empathy. I can’t help it. We plant little seeds in trays, take care of them, nurture them, feed them, love them, put our hopes into them, and then, when it’s time to plant them into the ground outside, inevitably, Andy says, “We don’t have room for ALL ofContinue reading “The Dump Garden”
Curious Fruits: Sunberries and Ground Cherries
We are always on a quest to grow new fruit. Since we live in a climate with such a short growing season, fruit growing feels challenging. This year, we planted ground cherries for the second time, and sunberries for the first. What are these, you may ask? Probably the more popular of the two isContinue reading “Curious Fruits: Sunberries and Ground Cherries”
Good-bye Marley
Today started off quite sad: we had to put down our little Marley. Over the past two weeks, we’ve watched Marley go from a feisty cockerel to an emaciated, depressed, and withdrawn little chick. The third week in July, we noticed that Marley was limping on one leg. We did some online research and readContinue reading “Good-bye Marley”
The Poquette Zoo and Kitchen 