Summer Duendesday

{a day to check in with a 10 yr old’s doings}

Our gal is a fish. Not only is she a water sign (Cancer) but absolutely loves water – bath, pool, lake, ocean, river, puddle, bucket – water. She swam the English Channel in a past life, or was a pearl diver, or is related to Jacques Cousteau. Maybe she was a sea dragon in the Great Barrier Reef or a Coho Salmon returning to its Alaskan home.

When she was 2-3 we lived in a single level apartment complex that had a saltwater pool. I made a friend (hey, it can happen) who had a child about the same age and we would take them to swim every day. Every day. They loved it, we could sit around and chat or be in the water like relative adults and they were entertained in their little life jackets. I hated that complex but man, we loved that pool.

Every year we go to the beach – I spent my teenage years on the Jersey beach so I have a love of the ocean – it was quite exciting for Josh and I to go to the Moroccan beach in Mohammedia; to be on the other side of the Atlantic (beach to beach). For a couple of years with Duende we used to hop down to Old Orchard Beach, sneak in the back way (to avoid the boardwalk/traffic) and had a friend with kids who stayed in the same summer place every year on the beach. Duende and I would also just go to East End beach when we lived ‘on the hill’ and I could actually read a magazine while she played in the sand or surf. Other friends of ours had a family place out on Long Island (Casco Bay) with lovely beaches. And then last year we hauled our cookies to Popham Beach and had a nice time.

Our favorite camping spot – the Grafton Notch Campground has a nice river bend the kid plays in when we go but it’s also right around the corner from a lovely covered bridge (and pebble low spot to play in the water, like when Josh and I lived by the Rio Grande) and the Screw Auger Falls with lots of little pool spots and creek walks. We were going to go earlier this year but with the craziness we put it off, and now we have chickens (anyone want to chicken-sit?!).

She loves any water though – the neighbors have a pool she gets to be in occasionally, and a friend has a camp up in the Belgrade lakes where she loves to go (I actually have a problem swimming in lake/pond waters – I’m blaming reading too much Stephen King as a teenager) and Josh is a southern VT king of swimming holes but we’ve yet to find uncrowded ones here (and you would think in my area we could find this…) so lately our gal is left with the kiddie pool I managed to order online for her. Between the chicks and the pool, she’s mostly entertained these days – but it’s going to be a long season if we can’t find her a real body of water! Ha!

May your summer give you your favorite activities!

What’s Happening – Tuesday

With the drought to drown weather lately, Rock Bottom is looking a little wild. It’s very romantic looking with its woolly lawn, it’s deep green nooks and crannies, wildflowers swaying in the breeze topped with fat bumbles and butterflies. Volunteer medicinals popping up everywhere (the earth really wants to take care of us, if we would just let it). And it’s funny, I look around and love it – but then, there is something very special about the homestead when it is trimmed/mowed, and intentionally cared for (back) as well, a sweetness gets to emerge. That’s how it is around here, either sweet or wild.

Some business-oriented and news bits:

  • This is the last week for seedlings; it’s likely we don’t have enough time to put babies in to grow any more this season, but maybe you have season extenders – let me know if you need some summer/winter squash, lemon cukes, heirloom tomatoes, melons, bell peppers, basil/borage/johnny jump ups…
  • All store orders (bread and the like) need to be in by Tuesdays at the latest – most of your goods have to begin days ahead (to make sourdough essentially gluten free, the shaping/proofing is a 2 day process).
  • Another small batch of foraged Kimchi is going in for next week: lily buds, red clover, yarrow leaves, plantain, lambsquarters, purslane, garlic scapes, and maybe some other lovely findings. And some pesto! Delicious variants – sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, pistachio, and the classic pine nut…try it with our (soon for sale) gnocchi/gnudi/and egg pasta!
  • It’s going to be a good small fruit year – we have opposite years between apples and blackberries and it is not a big apple season this year. We will do fine for cidering (likely collecting errant world apples, as well) but it won’t be a big year. But the blackberries! They are green berries now and exceeding plentiful even with our reshaping and reducing the bays (for better airflow/access). The grapes are also graping up nicely. And with a little bit of care, we’ve increased and brought back a few scraggly (and hidden) raspberries, black raspberries, and blueberries. The garden strawberries are doing pretty well and though we nibbled through wild strawberry season, we didn’t collect much. We’ve even seen some action on the new plums and pears (the former have already dropped but the latter we may see a couple!).
  • The new chicken coop is almost up, needs a few bits like doors, windows, nesting boxes – the chicks are ready! And then the meat chicks can get a chicken tractor – we used to let them freely mix with the layers but have found that is more problematic for chicken politics and too much temptation for passing random dogs. Our regular girls will still have to navigate all that but we got a few breeds that are good at hiding and taking care of each other. It’s a shame that our biggest predators are uncontained domestic pets.
  • And please – pass on our Hearth hopes – our stability and adaptability as a homestead depends on its success! Thank you for all your help and community care!

Happy Tuesday!

Monday’s Muses

Haudenosaunee legend of the Three Sisters

Very long ago, there were three sisters who lived in a field. The youngest was so small she could not yet walk; she crawled along the ground, dressed in green. The middle sister wore a bright yellow dress and darted back and forth across the field. The eldest sister stood tall and straight, and her body bent with the wind. She had long yellow hair and wore a green shawl. The three sisters loved one another very much and could not imagine living without the others.

One day a little Indian boy came to the field. He was very handsome and knew the ways of the land. He could talk with the birds and the animals and was straight and fearless. The three sisters were very interested in this boy as they watched him use his stone knife to carve a bowl or hunt with his bow and arrow.

Late in the summer of the boy’s first visit to the field, the youngest of the three sisters disappeared. She was the one who could only creep along the ground; she could not even stand unless there was a stick she could cling to. But she was gone, and the other two sisters mourned her until the fall.

The Indian boy returned to the field to gather reeds that grew at the edge of a small stream. He used the reeds to make arrow shafts. The two remaining sisters again watched him, fascinated. That night, the second sister disappeared, the one who always wandered hither and yon.

Now there was only one sister left, the tall and straight sister. She did not bow her head in sorrow, though she mourned deeply and thought she could not live in the field alone without her sisters. As the days grew shorter and colder, her green shawl began to lose its color and her yellow hair became dry and tangled. Night and day she sighed for her sisters, but her voice was low like the wind, and no one heard her.

One day in the harvest season, the little Indian boy heard the third sister crying, and he felt sorry for her. He took her in his arms and carried her to his home, and there a delightful surprise awaited her: Her sisters were there in the lodge, safe and very glad to be reunited. They explained that they had been curious about the little Indian boy and had followed him home, and they had decided to stay because winter was coming and his home was warm and comfortable.

The sisters also were making themselves useful to the boy and his family. The youngest, now all grown up, kept the dinner pot full, while the second sister, still in her yellow dress, dried herself on the shelf so she could fill the dinner pot later in the winter. The eldest sister was so pleased to be with her sisters again and so impressed with the help they gave the boy that she too began drying herself so the family would have meal to use as the winter went on.

And from that day to this, the three sisters were never separated again.

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Recipe Thursday: Fish Fry

I always tell Josh that when he’s gone (because we took an internet test once and it says I will outlive him by about 10 years after we’re 70, and you know that’s got to be true) that I am going to move down to Mississippi, get a nice Muumuu (ok, who else is excited by all those letter multiples a muumuu in Mississippi?!!! yesssss), drink mint juleps and open up a Fish Fry.

As a kid, catfish was the fish fry fish in my house (yes, we had sauteed whole trout a lot – brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout – our area was such a great trout habitat eventually Orvis bought half the county for trout farming), but for a good fry – catfish was king. With corn on the cob, potato salad, three-bean salad (does anyone even eat yellow wax beans anymore?), pickles, and someone – there’s always someone – who will bring some jell-o monstrosity (or an old lady sweet salad like Waldorf, Ambrosia, or some strange combination of the three like my Aunt Mayme). Visiting was a thing – there was no specific organization to it, it just sort of happened – but sometimes our house, sometimes Grandpa’s, sometimes the summer people at camp, other family, other friends…on early mornings in the weekend the men would go fishing, come back with lots of catfish.

This is my go-to fish fry recipe, though up here in Maine I tend to use a lot more cod and haddock, but sometimes I’m able to get some catfish…mmmm, catfish.

Fish Fry

Serves 4 with Summer sides

1.5 – 2lbs. firm fleshed fish, skinned and fileted, cut into 2x4ish” chunks
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
2 cups medium to fine NGMO Cornmeal (not too coarse)
2 tsp Sea Salt
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Chili or Cayenne Powder (depending on how spicy you want it)
1 tsp ground Black Pepper
2 cups Buttermilk or Whey (or even just Milk with a Tbsp yogurt mixed in)
Oil for frying, = about 1″ in wide frying pan (cast iron skillet is best)

Heat oil in skillet over Med-High heat (you’ll want the oil to come up about halfway on the fish). Soak cut filets in Buttermilk/Whey/Milk mixture for about 20 min – meanwhile mix dry ingredients together in a wide shallow bowl (or a 9×9 baking dish works well, too, or pie plate). To test oil readiness, dip finger in mix mixture – then dry mixture, drop bit of batter into oil – if it sizzles and rises to top after 1 min, you are ready for frying (if it browns quickly, turn stovetop down to Med, remove pan from heat for a minute or two, try again).

When oil is ready, lay ‘milked’ filets into dry ingredients, cover and press a bit of batter on all sides (you might have to line up a few to make this next bit easier), dip again into milky mixture and re-batter with dry ingredients (it might look like all your first battering goes into the milk but trust me, it doesn’t). Gently put battered fish into frying oil, giving each filet a minute to cook before adding next (keep temperature even). By the time you are done adding filets, it should probably be time to flip the first filet – depending on thickness of filet, should only take 3-5 min. Continue batches as necessary (I generally get 2 batches, cooking 5-6 filets in pan at once).

Serve with tartar sauce (we chop Bread&Butter pickles into Mayo), or spicy Mayo, or Garlic Aioli if you are feeling decadent. These days I prefer German or vinegar based/red Potato Salad with fresh peas and fresh herbs or last week’s Lemon Kale Salad.

Happy Summer Eating!

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Duendesday: New Duende Order

{a day to check in with a 10 yr old’s doings}

It’s officially official – She’s 10! WOWZA! Where did all that time go?! And why couldn’t each phase, each age, just been a little bit longer…she is marvelous and we love to watch her grow but it still has a bit of sadness with it. My little babe is a lovely young peach.

It was a great birthday weekend (she said it was the best she could remember!) – thank you to all who celebrated safely with us. It was so good to see Dave & Pear (we were getting used to seeing them at twice a month or so throughout the year, this was the first we’ve seen them since February!), the girls have such a good time playing together (like country mouse and city mouse) while the ‘adults’ get into animated and enjoyable discussions about history/philosophy/politics, and eat good food – this birthday I made D a big Pink Panther cookie (at least she could see the Pink Panther in it – ha!). And Nana, Uncle Cameron, & Angela came for strawberry cake the next day to blow out the candles and open presents. Duende’s dream came true when Nana got her a couple of little ‘confetti cannons’, too (she loves confetti, I mean, it’s a little crazy – ha!).

As for those presents – she was ridiculously happy to get a disco light that hooks up to her music (matching flashing pulses – ow!), and her own handcrafted hammer for her projekts, and to make sure she’s not using it for rocks we got her a rockhounding kit (bag, book, rock hammer/chisels, jewel loupe, goggles, whistle with compass) and some other goodies.

The big present was a 10gal fish tank – resplendent with castle, glow plants, and then Glofish – however, (and yes we set it up 24 or so hrs in advance) the first batch died within hours. Oh, how my peach cried. So, we got another couple of Tetra skirtfish after ‘more’ advice, adding some beneficial bacteria and they died by bedtime. Then we did more research and found that ‘New Tank Syndrome’ can be a thing, and you can either treat it with an ammonia/nitrite (which are toxic to fish) fixer or you can keep sacrificing fish until the beneficial bacteria overpower the bad. I wish we would have known about the former instead of basically the store’s recommendation to do the latter – it seems like a better solution for children and fish, if you ask me. Though the treatment takes longer, it seems kinder all around – hopefully the next couple of fish in a few weeks make her happy. I should’ve just got her a karaoke machine.

All in all, it was a good birthday. She’s outside making ‘potions’ now, I’m sure soon she’ll come in for a smoothie (we’re all smoothie obsessed in here), and request some family game time…10 it is, so 10 it must be. ❤

Homestead Happenings

We like ‘cracker day’ around here – Josh baking all the different flavors of crackers – Duende and I stealing them as we pass through. It’s always food food food around here – ha! And that’s the running conversation – food as health and medicine, food as politics, food sovereignty, local food, food as a family, preserving food – right now we are simultaneously having a conversation about how amazing the body is to break down the energy stored in your food to use (but only if you chew it and are able to process it – enzymes! prebiotics! probiotics! ooooh, metabolic processes…and versus a 10 yr old who thinks she can just chuck tiny cheese cubes into her mouth and swallow, like cheese vitamins, she used to do it with frozen peas when she was 3 – she decided she needed one a day, every day).

We are getting the fledgling chicks out in a daily playpen right now, too – they are loving it – they love to find a bug and then relay fight for it, they get so excited and animated. Hilarious! The tiny meatbirds are still too little, still cute and fluffy yellow, snuggled up together in the corner of the brooder. Meanwhile the chicken coop is coming along for the former and chicken tractor plans being made for the latter.

The garden is looking pretty nice, I still keep finding seedlings to throw in but the bulk of the planting is done for now. I may consider succession planting the green beans or replacing the peas with haricot vert in the near future (I’ve given up on brassicas/cruciferous – the cabbage moth/caterpillars and aphids really get to me, and my beets failed – or rather, I failed to keep them properly weeded and therefore competition-free) – though I have too many eggplant/gold – green – and cocktail tomato/lemon cucumber/celery/melons/orange bell peppers and still huge amazing summer and winter squashes that are no longer seedlings but full-on fruiting plants and still some companion plants – borage/marigold/johnny jump ups/basil…

Let’s keep crossing our fingers that the oven works another week – please feel free to share our soon to be desperate need and community building projekt for the Rock Bottom Homestead Hearth.

Monday Musings

Lost in the Milky Way

Some of us are like trees that grow with a spiral grain
as if prepared for the path of  the spirit’s journey
to the world of all souls.
It is not an easy path.
A dog stands at the opening constellation
past the great helping hand.
The dog wants to know,
did you ever harm an animal, hurt any creature,
did you take a life you didn’t eat?
This is the first on your map. There is another
my people made of  the great beyond
that lies farther away than this galaxy.
It is a world that can’t be imagined by ordinary means.
After this first one,
the next could be a map of  forever.
It could be a cartography
shining only at some times of  the year
like a great web of finery
some spider pulled from herself
to help you recall your true following
your first white breath in the cold.
The next door opens and Old Woman
counts your scars. She is interested in how you have been
hurt and not in anything akin to sin.
From between stars are the words we now refuse;
loneliness, longing, whatever suffering
might follow your life into the sky.
Once those are gone, the life you had
against your own will, the hope, even the prayers
take you one more bend around the river of sky.
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Recipe Thursday: Lemon Kale Salad

I joined a book club a few years ago. I knew better but I dream about compatriots that share the same sort of ideas I do and want to get together and talk about them. I was uncertain about this group – though they were all very nice and funny and smart, we were just very different. They had a way about them that I will never have, I can’t really articulate what way that is, I just know I don’t and won’t have it. Their ideas came from Atlantic Monthly and likely The New Yorker, mine come from anywhere and everywhere – the weirder the better. I stayed for about 4.5 books and then we parted ways. But up until our realization that we were not a good match, we drank some wine, ate some foodstuffs, and vaguely talked about the books we read.

I didn’t get any really good new authors out of our brief relation but I did get this salad. It’s so good. It’s crazy good. My child loves it, I love it – everyone who has tried it, loves it. It’s addictive – there is something about the massaging/salting/garlic & lemon process that makes it impossible to stop eating. In fact, if I ate this salad as often as I want to, I’d probably fit in an airplane seat better (not that I’m going on an airplane any time soon). It’s smashing – and holds up really well, even until the next day.

Lemon Kale Salad

Serves 4-6 as a side, unless you can’t stop eating it yourself

2 bunches Curly or Red Russian Kale (stems removed, ripped into bite-size pieces, rinsed)
a shake or two of Coarse Sea Salt
drizzle or two of Olive Oil
1 Tbsp minced Garlic (or more to taste)
2-4 Tbsp Lemon Juice (or 2 Lemons, to taste)
1 little tub (8oz) of Ciliegine Mozzarella Balls (halved, saving a little juice from tub)
2 cups (or 8oz) of Cherry Tomatoes (halved)

Optional (to make it extra sexy, though it doesn’t need it):
1 cup Kalamata Olives (pitted and halved)
1/4 cup toasted, sliced Almonds

The secret is really in the process: massage your rinsed/ripped leaves with a shake of Coarse Sea Salt and a drizzle of Olive Oil until you feel the leaves start to break down a bit (sometimes a little liquid is in the bottom of the bowl when you are done) – you don’t want them mushy but you want to feel them give (about 5 minutes of good rubbing).

Add all the other ingredients, stir, and taste for seasoning – feel free to add more lemon, garlic, salt to the bowl as necessary.

I think we’re going to put some Salmon steaks on the grill and eat this tonight! Enjoy!

birhday girl