Such a sap! December 1, 2011

For we can make liquor to sweeten the lips from pumkin and parsnips and walnut tree chips.  

An old song quoted by Thoreau in Walden~

Winter isn’t really here for another few weeks- officially that is.  Winter Solstice feels like the true ‘New Years’ to me and this year it will be the mark of our 15^th marriage anniversary.  Wandering in the woods, skating on the river, sledding… the cold, bare bones beauty of it makes me high.  It is my favorite season.  Our monthly ‘calendar of events’ on the farm mark the seasonal plantings and harvests of life and I certainly enjoy the countdown to the coming cold.  Some time in February, we usually start tapping the Box Elder trees that form a fantastic grove on the other side of the river, below the cave and bluff line.  Commercial producers may laugh at our primitive set up but, it has cost us little and produces rich and delicious syrup.

Box Elders are native here and often line the river banks.  They belong in the Maple/Acer family and like most trees, can be tapped. You see, a warm, sunny, 40 degree or above day after a very cold nite in the teens, will create pressure in the tree and this pressure causes the sap to flow out of the tree through the tap hole. During cold snaps, when temperatures fall below freezing, suction develops and draws water into the tree replenishing the sap.

Box Elder Stand in early spring ~

Out of the hundreds of trees available to us, we tap about 50 each year.  Buckets are washed and equipment retooled each time for the harvest.  55 gallon peanut oil drums are cut in half and used as evaporators.  The spile is inserted into the the sunny side of the tree at a slight angle about waist high and set to drip the clear, mildly earth tasting, watery sap into the buckets.

Marcus and Qik inserting spiles~

A good drip starting~

Buckets up~

On a good flow day we hear the music of nectar dripping steadily into the buckets and start the fires burning.  Box Elders are also called shedding Maples because they loose their outer limbs constantly throughout the year.  This is the fuel for the fires of its own sugar in the making.  We use our backs, friends, our 1953 Johnny Popper, and Boone, our wonderful draft horse, to haul the logs through the woods to the fire for constant stoking.

Qik and Tim getting the fires going

Marcus and Ollie keeping watch~

JD hauling logs to the burn site~

Qik and Boone hauling logs to the burn site~

Every 2 hours or so, we collect the buckets from the trees and add its contents to the barrels until the temps drop and the sap slows.  There is usually about 1 ½ gallons by that point.  The idea is to boil off the water content of the syrup.  Once the level gets low in the barrels we can’t risk it burning so we transfer it to a stainless steel pot and finish it on the stove back in the house.  By ‘finish’, I mean we bring the temp to 215 degrees, test the viscosity to assure its syrupy nature and seal it in canning jars.

Sealed and on the way to the root cellar~

It is often a 12 to 16 hour day of wonderful work which may begin again just a few days later or not for another week depending on the weather.  60 gallons of sap may boil down to 1 gallon of syrup on an average for us.  We might burn 5 or 6 times to get our years supply worth of liquid gold.

Qik and the pups - sap is boiling~

a 2 barrel day~

The work is tiring but well worth the time and effort.  Eagles are visible more often this time of year, the river is rushing and there are days we get to work in the quiet, whiteness of snow.  The magic of the woods seeps into our bodies and warms the cockles of our souls.  Or, maybe that’s just what it feels like, standing too close to the fires.

Use Freely~ November 28, 2011

Rosemary Hydrosol

Floral, with a slightly sharp fragrance. Rosemary hydrosol is good to go as a mental and physical stimulant, a powerful antioxidant, a wonderful skin toner and a scalp tonic and good tasting too!

Hydrosols are to essential oils as homeopathy is to herbs – at least, I see it as such.  They possess a magical in road to healing and can be used safely without the irritants that some may experience with essential oils.  Hydrosols/hydrolates/floral waters – the names all mean the same.  Made from all parts of herbs, shrubs and trees depending on the constituents desired, hydrosols are the condensate water co produced during the steam distillation of plant material used for healing purposes.  I use them much in the same way I would the essential oil of the same plant.  My daily power houses are Lavender, Rose and Helichrysum.   Here is an article from Jeane Rose on hydrosols – she lists so many wonderful uses for them.  http://allnaturalbeauty.us/jeannerose_hydrosols.htm

Last week as the weather started hovering around freezing day and night, we began using floating row covers on the greens in the season extender and the rosemary was too tall to allow for full coverage in the rest of the bed.  So, although it is not the right time for pruning – there were sacrifices to be made.  ½ the shrub was cut back and I decided to make hydrosols with it even though the oils might have not been at peak.

The culprit had grown too big for the bed~

I produce hydrosols by a simple steam distillation process and have a wonderful still gifted to me for this purpose.  The process involves bubbling steam through the raw plant material.  The action starts at around 90 degrees and is in full swing by 215F.  All the hot vapors produced are immediately channeled into a condenser that cools and condenses the vapors and this is what yields the water and oil from the plant.  I take care to note changes and measure the ph to assure the quality I desire.  I am working towards a fuller understanding of the differences of smell between the many constituents the plants contain.

5 gallon pot still. Cool water enters from the bottom and exits from the top of the condenser~

The flow happening- notice the essential oil layer floating on top~

What a wonderful batch it turned out to be.  I have to thank Amy and Jillian, whose bottles from last year were empty and who kept asking for more for the motivation.  I so enjoyed the afternoon distilling and am thoroughly enjoying the results.  This summer I will make my annual trip to California to make lavendar and helichrysum which I cannot seem to grow in quantity here.  On the farm, we have lots of basil, thyme, lemon balm and peppermint in the garden to play with and as always, I am grateful.

Have fungi…it’s the only benefit we can see to come of this. November 4, 2011

In 2009 there was an incredible ice storm in these parts which brought down many trees and wreaked havoc on natural habitat and distressed lots of folks who were on the grid.  We listened to the snaps of branches and falling of live trees for days.  We wore helmets to get out of the house and do farm chores as it seemed  a 50/50 chance (hat tip to Yohannan)  that a bizarre accident could happen with all the falling debris.  It was an amazing site to behold and also quite sad to watch the forest collapse with a twinkling shatter.  The only benefit we could see to come of this, was to grow mushrooms on the mess left behind.

Thank you oh mighty elm for not falling on the truck and for being a great substrate for oyster mushrooms~

Beauty before the melt~

We took the tops and side branches that measured about 5″ diameter and cut them down to around 4′ in length.  This is a manageable size for working all aspects of the mushroom crop for us.  50 logs was the starting goal and we narrowed it down as we used up the mushroom spore to 30 logs.  The Shitake and Oyster sawdust spawn was purchased from Field and Forest Products.  These guys  sell quality and are a great friendly resource for growers. fieldforest.net.

Inoculating the logs is a somewhat sexy and arduous process.  First-  holes are drilled into the logs in a diamond pattern at 6″ intervals along the length of the log, 2″ between the rows and 1″ deep.  The spawn is then inserted into the holes with a specific sort of ‘plunger’ that is spring loaded (and not very kind to the hand by the end of the day).  After the holes are filled with spawn, bees wax from our hives gets heated to liquid and brushed on the holes to keep the spawn from drying out.  Take note that the wax daubing part is the easiest part if you are ever volunteering to help ‘do’ some logs.

Ready to grow~

There are so many different strains of mushrooms to choose from- warm season, cold season, wide range, big, small, plain and pretty with names to entice like Chocoluv, Night Velvet and Happiness. We chose a WR 46 shitake strain which seemed the best  for our seasons and temp ranges and Grey Dove oysters because they are that amazing color that I thought was reserved for those Weimaraner dogs.

Grey Dove Oyster

There is a north facing hollow behind our house a bit and down by the root cellar that seemed like a perfect spot as we often found mushrooms growing there.  Not to windy, stays moist, in the shade and near our regular foot path so we could check on them daily.  We use rain water catchment – gravity fed, to soak the logs if we want to force them into a faster harvest.  The results of natural and forced flushing has provided us with the most delicious delights.  We eat as much as possible fresh- dry, freeze and gift the rest.

Logs soaking for 24 hours in a cast iron tub to force a flush~

9 days after soaking~

11 days later

Thankful as always for the resources that come so graciously from this forest and without harm or havoc on the land, this year we hope to inoculate 40 more logs with 3 new strains and are looking forward to having more mushrooms year round.

Sweet Tater… Fresh Dug Up October 13, 2011

This color, reserved for fall is like no other and I am drawn to it. The sweet potatoes come out of the ground bright orange and fade throughout the day, while sun bathing, to prismacolor terra cotta. As I was digging for the goods, I found one of my nephews man dolls. Strange to see a wrestler in in tight pants a foot beneath the earth.  How did he get there?  Is it a sign?

Today was the 1st real fall feeling day. The ground is now dotted with yellow walnut leaf. Not too many for us to mourn – just enough to enjoy laying in a hammock and watch them fall from great heights.  The taters will cure in the shade in temps of about 75-80 degrees for a few weeks at which point we will move them into the root cellar.

All shapes and sizes

You can start your own sweet potato slips in the late winter by allowing your taters to grow in a moist mixture of very loose soil or decomposing hay.   They will put out little roots which will grow into beautiful dark green vines. Keeping a dozen or so of them moist and warm in this manner
should give you enough to plant a 20′ x 4’bed w/ 1′ spacing.  In late spring, when the soil temps are up and it is a steady 65-70ish out, you twist off the vines and transplant them directly into your beds.

Sweet potatoes are a nutritional All-Star — one of the best vegetables you can eat in my opinion.  They are loaded with beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin B6 and vitamin C; fiber, thiamine, niacin, potassium and copper. They are also a good source of protein, calcium, vitamin E.

Eat ’em up!

Greens and Roots for the people September 14, 2011

Yes, I brought this weather back from California with me.  No thanks needed, I know everyone is in appreciation.  And now for some rain…

My favorite garden season is upon us.  Everything is planted now for the fall, winter and early spring crops.  Greens and roots for the people.  I love thinning little sprouts and eating them like an herbivore as I move down the rows.   We have kale, collards, chard, spinach, Asian greens, carrots, radishes and beets started and are still enjoying squash and a straggle of  watermelons, cukes, peppers, tomatoes and eggplant.  It is taking about 12 gallons of water every other day to get the crops going right now.  We still have rain catchment but, it is dwindling.

Tatsoi, Kale and Collards with hoops and remay to protect from hungry caterpillars and grasshoppers~

This week, the shade cloth came off the greenhouse and we boxed up the cured garlic.  Ok, some it was a bit over cured.  Lots of it already doing the hard part of peeling itself.  So, I finished the job and peeled about 20 lbs worth.  Some of it got pickled and some chopped, covered in olive oil and frozen.  We shall certainly enjoy the forced convenience of it throughout the year.  Garlic is planted the fall before the harvest in these parts and goes through the winter with a heavy layer of mulch.

The early beginnings for this bountiful harvest~

A mix of varieties in the box - 'Elephant' in bowl~

Still waiting to harvest winter squash and sweet potatoes,  both crops look pretty good.  In remembrance of last years extraordinary damage to the plants in mid September, I have been spraying  a mix of garlic and eucalyptus EO on the crops every morning, watering at nite and covering with remay to deter the grasshoppers-   So far so good.

Walking sticks.  They surprise me constantly- on the laundry line, the door handle, the watering can, chairs and the other day, there were a number of them waiting on our shoes.  Appropriately named.

Not as bad as monkey on his shoulder~

The Elderberries are beginning to ripen.  It excites me to think of sipping a winter tonic of Elderberry wine.  It is quite medicinal in flavor and power. Note from ‘A Modern Herbal’-

Elderberry Wine has a curative power of established repute as a remedy, taken hot, at night, for promoting perspiration in the early stages of severe catarrh, accompanied by shivering, sore throat, etc. Like Elderflower Tea, it is one of the best preventives known against the advance of influenza.

John Evelyn, writing in praise of the Elder, says:‘If the medicinal properties of its leaves, bark and berries were fully known, I cannot tell what our countryman could ail for which he might not fetch a remedy from every hedge, either for sickness, or wounds.’‘The buds boiled in water gruel have effected wonders in a fever, the spring buds are excellently wholesome in pattages; and small ale in which Elder flowers have been infused is esteemed by many so salubrious that this is to be had in most of the eatinghouses about our town.’

Elderflower umbel~

Drooping with berries~

A few days ago, we picked up a couple of bushels of the first crop of Jonathans in this area.  They are a tart, juicy apple that is perfect for wine.  As of about an hour ago, we have 5 gallons of juice waiting for some sugar and yeast action to get it on. 

It’s happening…

Under this harvest moon~

Sugar was never so sweet July 6, 2011

The thing that a bee profits from the most is that it derives its sustenance from the very parts of a plant that are pervaded by the plant’s love life. The bee sucks its nourishment, which it makes into honey, from the parts of a plant that are steeped in love life. And the bee, if you could express it this way, brings love life from the flowers into the beehive. So you’ll come to the conclusion that you need to study the life of bees from the standpoint of the soul.

You can study the matter further by eating the honey. What does the honey do? . . . Honey creates sensual pleasure, at the most, on the tongue. At the moment when you eat honey, it creates the proper connection and relationship between the airy and fluid elements in the human being. There is nothing better for a human being than to add a little honey in the right quantity to food . . . it makes human beings strong.

 Whoever looks at a beehive should actually say with an exalted frame of mind, “Making this detour by way of the beehive, the entire cosmos can find its way into human beings and help to make them sound in mind and body.”

~Steiner

The day after I left the hot sultry Ozarks for Lotus Land, Qik harvested 3 gallons of honey from 1 of the hives. Though I wasn’t there, I still wanted to share the wonders.

Honey is the magic elixer in our home.   Bad burn?  Honey.  Deep wound?  Honey.  Can’t sleep?  Honey.  Emotional, mental, spiritual or physical upset?  Honey!

Extracting Honey

Super sweetness

Foul play July 3, 2011

To preface the glory of chicky babies,  I will recount in brief, the chicken murders we had over the last month sans the gruesome details.  While out dancing the nite away to the funky sounds and sexy sax of Buddhas Groove Shoes @ Dawt Mill a few weeks back,  a raccoon found an opportune moment to get in one of our coops and kill most all the hens.  He (surely it was a boy)  only ate one.  Was he scared the other hens would attack him so, he had to do them in as well?  If you know hens after dark (ooooo a good band name)… you know that wouldn’t happen.   After many ‘have a heart’ trap attempts we were able to catch a few possums but no raccoon.  Seems the little bears can eat the bait then actually open the door and leave.  We moved a few hens around from another coop to keep the remaining rooster happy (that’s what it is all about – right ladies?!) and that nite, I heard an ‘uh oh’ noise at 3am.  I ran down to find the rooster out of the coop and the door open.  He was shepherded  back in and I returned to restless sleep.  An hour later, the dogs were barking and I ran down to the bottom lands again to find all but 1 hen and the rooster killed.  It seems so impossible to imagine anything other than a human opening the different latches on the coop that I could hardly believe it.

Lets end that story and cut to this…

There was a sweet brooder who made some babies around the time we were loosing others

5 babies born June 16th8 days old

There was also a not so cute, styrofoam incubator doing its thing – keeping a dozen eggs warm so we could replenish the flock.

22 days later... a break through

As soon as they started to come out, their eggs were put under the sweet mama in hopes that she would see them as her own-

Good mama- tending 3 stages of life - teenagers, just hatched and eggs still cookin'

low and behold…

5 teens and 6 newborns- better her than me!

Life death life cycles.

Thanks to the many friends who offered to keep us in eggs for the winter if we don’t have enough and even gave us a few more hens to appease the rooster.  Latches are reinforced, trap set nightly – so far so good.

Many mornings of late, as I begin my asana practice I seem to obsess a bit over the animals living around me.  Using their perceived needs to forsake my practice altogether or at least distract myself from my own divinity with thoughts of their potential demise, I know this must change.  Why worry now and later Lauren says.  When you find yourself thinking thoughts born of tension and control, relax.  Relax into the current of that which flows from the hearts intelligence and there you will find truth without fear.  All is well.

I have no tale to tell but tipsiness and rapture… July 2, 2011

I am so drunk
I have lost the way in
and the way out.
I have lost the earth, the moon, and the sky.
Don’t put another cup of wine in my hand,
pour it in my mouth,
for I have lost the way to my mouth.

~Rumi

Having been asked many times how we make our bio-delicious wine, and since I racked a carboy today, I thought I would chronicle this batch of blueberry brew for you.

Started picking berries on June 8th.  By 9am it was 90 degrees already.  Things were starting to buzz around my head (and you know how I feel about that) when we reached our quota for the day. We finished with about 20 gallons to toss over our shoulders.  Most went into the freezer and a few gallons went to friends and family.  Marcus lovingly shmooshed 6 gallons by hand into juice which I put directly (pulp and all) into a 5 gallon bucket lined with a wine bag and topped with an airlock.  To this I added 1 quart of water and 4 cups of sugar, stirred it up with my right hand in a clockwise motion for 15 minutes ;)(that, of course, is the key to the bio-deliciousness) and called it a day.

By the next morning,  the fermentation began.  It is a glorious sound to have wine percolating in the house all summer long.  I made sure to stir the bucket a few times a day to keep the pulp from blocking the air at the top.  Around a week later, fermentation had slowed so, I added another few cups of sugar to 1 quart of water, gave the wine bag some good squeezin’ and let it roll once again.

A week after that, it was time to move the juice into the second fermentation vessel.  After wrestling with the bag for a while, I asked Qik to use his man hands to coax every last bit of the juice out.  I then ‘racked’ the wine into a 5 gallon glass carboy using a simple hose siphon and gravity.  Starting the siphon myself gave me the taste opportunity I had been waiting for and damn if it wasn’t good already!  Since I don’t want a whole lot of surface space, I added about a gallon of water plus another few cups of sugar.  So, at this point, it has taken 6 gallons of berries, 1 and 1/2 gallons of water and 8 cups of sugar to make 5 gallons of wine.

Another week and the process had slowed again. We racked it into a clean carboy avoiding about an inch of sediment at the bottom and added 2 pints of water.  I don’t really want to add anymore sugar unless I have to so, I will wait to see what happens tomorrow with this and will continue to update this post as I go along.   Feel free to ask questions – and start making your own wine.

So, after that transfer, the natural yeasts started eating up the sugars again like crazy within 24 hours.  My assumption is that in 2-3 weeks it will need to be racked again.  Taste will tell what we need to add.  Hopefully not too much more sugar.  I like a dry wine but, not too dry with the blueberries.  We may just add honey if need be.

The Lovers
will drink wine night and day.
They will drink until they can
tear away the veils of intellect and
melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don’t even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love,
and you will not be separated from God again.

~Rumi

So here we are, almost 2 months later. The fermentation seemed to have died about about 2 weeks or so ago.  All is well tho, no need to add anything,  just one more racking before bottling time.  It is tasting good  already so, I think this will be a good batch to get us through a potentially perilous winter ;).

Late winter update.  This has been a frighteningly warm winter.  Here we are under the new moon in late February and hardly enough has happened to kill the ticks.  But, that is not the point.  How is the wine?  Ok-la.  Not the best batch for some odd reason – in fact, there was a period of time where it sort of smelled like corn chips before we bottled it.  Oddly, I was the only one that didn’t enjoy it.  Most folks said they did and asked for a wee bit more.  The apple wine turned out better this year for my taste.  Last month, we opened the last bottle of Elder/blueberry/mulberry from 2009 and that, my friends, may have been the best I have ever had.

Thanks for the rain dance ya’ll June 28, 2011

June 28, 2011

3am, rolling thunder, crazy, booming bolts of lightening.  The clouds finally had something to say and boy are we grateful for the release.  1 3/4 inches fell in an hour and ran off without absorbing much.    The scramble to close windows and grab laundry off the line got me out in the thick of it and I loved the nightlight, vibrant intensity of it all coming down.   Water catchment is a bit fuller, the potatoes (which were slowly dying back and had just begun to flower)  got the drenching they needed.  Everything feels happy and refreshed today.

Happy Garden

About a week ago, while the moon was in the earthly element of Capricorn (great for root crops) we harvested around 400 heads  of garlic and hung them to cure in various places.   Glad to have that work guided by the celestial bodies to get them up and out before this rain came.  Hoping the amount will give us enough for the year and a good seed crop.

Garlic drying in the greenhouse

Looking forward to new discoveries at the creek today.

Hey friends! June 25, 2011

June 26, 2011

7pm and 90 degrees in the shade.  It was 101 again in the bottom lands of the Barren Fork Creek.  Luckily, it  is still flowing , fed by a large watershed and cool springs .   Though it has been dry, we still have hundreds of gallons of water catchment for the garden during this time of rain wishes.  The weather isn’t just polite, small talk here.   Summertime hits and I am often cursing it ad nauseum.   I am most definitely sweating while writing this and swatting a mosquito buzzing in my ear.

The Basil is ready to harvest.  Pesto, hydrosols and dry herb from a powerful plant.   I should mention that we have had much success using its essential oil for neutralizing the toxins of copperhead and cottonmouth bites.   Yes, snake bites.  Sure,  friends get bit while walking along the creek but, more often than not, it is the dogs that get it.  Interesting that they only get sick for about 24 hours while we tend to take it hard and go down for a week.

Non poisonous water snake who shares our swimming hole~

Wild-crafting time

Needing a boost of chlorophyll and minerals?  Yes please.   How about some nettle tea? It’s just about time to put on big gloves and wade through the creeksides to harvest stinging nettles.  Check out some of the wonders of this pot herb by visiting-http://www.farmtotableonline.org/2010/03/stinging-nettles-are-good-for-you/  We love the magic of the silica, the boost and healing they provide to our family.  That being said, I am often less than thrilled to get out in the thick of them, clothed from head to toe in 100 degree heat and heavy humidity.  I do grin and bare it as I know how soothing they are to my women ways and drink the cool tea all year long.  My wonderful husband clears the path and sings their praises as well.  We cut the tops off just before they flower, de-stem and dry them in our solar dehydrator.  The hairs no longer sting after that and are easy to powder for tea or to add to sauces.   If you are motivated, you can let the stems dry and  practice twinning the fibers to understand how they can be used to make cordage and clothing.

Peace Nettles drying in the solar dehydrator~