Tuesday To Happen

Oh, it is a lovely place to be these days – at Rock Bottom Homestead – and all the good things start to outweigh the bad (I’m convinced it’s in the New England water – the memory wiping of the Winter woes and the extra powerful elixir of the Summer loveliness). The butterflies are here (the Yellow Swallowtails arriving with the late Lilacs, Painted Ladies with the ‘Foils – Bird’s Foot Trefoil & Cinquefoil, and Monarch caterpillars on the Milkweed) – the Junebugs are here, the Lightning bugs are here, the Dragonflies have been here for a bit with the Hummingbird Moths – all lovely and amazing bugs to maybe make you forget about the bad bugs for a minute (Black/Deer Fly, mosquitos, ticks – just for a minute).

The Bee Balm is shooting straight up into the air like red fireworks this year, spreading like wildfire – soon the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds will come and make their nest in the Willow tree above them. I hear Nuthatch, Catbirds, and Doves frequently, the Song Sparrow and Phoebe have already laid eggs and their chicks are off – and I just heard the crazy cry of the Pileated Woodpecker out back. The clover is growing at top speed – I’m foraging red, white, and pink for tea along with my bursting chamomile, a few random lovely mullein (the primrose has the year off), and awaiting the calendula. I should get out there and get some young raspberry leaves before they fruit. The drying racks are filling up with good stuffs.

And the shelves are filling, too! With whatever the Farmers Market is brimming with (and may I say, the FM here at Augusta is doing a great job at making it easy and safe to shop and support local living, I hear Portland is really good, too – please take advantage of all the hard work the farmers and purveyors are doing to get real food to you! I have to say, I think this shift has been good for my engineering our foodstuffs – I may never have to go to a big store again). This last week, basil, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, beets, scallions, rhubarb, and cukes are readily available. We made pesto pizza (with homemade ricotta and Maine Mushroom Co mushrooms), strawberry cake, pickles – all kinds of goodies!

Please don’t forget to check out and share (unfortunately for this endeavor we are not on social media, but if you are – feel free to pass us on!) our Community Hearth project – we think it’s a great step towards building new connections to our food systems and our peoples! The Queen of Scapes thanks you so much (as do we all)!

Monday’s Muse

During the blaze of noon, between two sumptuous thunderstorms, the mud of Russian roads serves as a drinking establishment for the male Blues, but not every damp spot is suitable; the intensity of visitation is determined by a certain average saturation of the soil as well as the greater evenness of its surface. On an attractive spot like this, with a round, runny border and a relatively limited diameter (rarely exceeding two feet), a group of butterflies settles at close quarters; if one startles the gathering, it rises en masse and remains suspended in a “sorting” hover over the given spot on the road, descending to it anew with mathematical precision….
Only the air cooling toward evening, or the arrival of clouds, puts an end to the banquet. I have had occasion to observe the presence of one and the same specimen of Meleager’s Blue sitting from eleven in the morning until a quarter to six in the evening, when the long shadow of a nearby oak had reached the very spot where, besides my friend and a few other engrossed Blues and a handful of golden adonis, there remained (from three in the afternoon) a small cluster of boyarishnitsa (Black-veined Whites), whose general appearance was reminiscent either of little paper cockerels or a regatta of sailboats heeling this way and that. In all those hours the composition and size of the gathering would vary and more than once I inadvertently shooed away my Meleager while fishing out some trifle I needed from the general heap.
Now, with the onset of shade, it would soar with elastic grace and, having chosen a bough to perch on — a choice not at all typical for Lycaena in a normal state, but quite characteristic as a temporizing maneuver for a butterfly that has left a “drinking place” — would settle on a Rubus leaf, as if hoping that the dusk and the chill were but the passing influence of a cloud and that, in a moment, one could return. In a few minutes I noticed that it had dozed off; with that, the observation ended.
~ Vladimir Nabokov

Tuesday Happenings

Sometimes the happenings are subtle – sometimes not. I’m reading this lovely book which channels the Japanese and Chinese calendar custom of tracking time via the changes in nature (the Japanese alter the classic Chinese, in lieu of their different weather/flora/fauna/environment and awareness/fashions) – the author tries to explain some of the enigmatic phrases which describe a 4-day ‘natural shift’ and compare them to her own experience in California’s Bay Area. It makes you think about how you would name your own 4-day stretches (from June 21-25, the book marks this time as when ‘deer breaks antlers’) – for us in our little micro-eclime, it might be when ‘all the roses appear’ (or rose chafers, depending on your attitude – little devils that eat everything – apple trees, lilacs, grape leaves – little jerks, though if I started on the bugs I could do a whole calendar for sure – just tracking the bug cycles – good and bad, mostly bad – around here).

But back to the roses – this property has rose abound. When we moved in there were many ‘cultivated’ roses – little red rose bushes lining the drive in a railroad tie bed with a trailing/climbing rose at the end that could make it up the railing (and eventually engulf the front door). I’m sorry to say, I am not a rose fan. They are thorny, high-maintenance, and only ‘surface pretty’, and there can only be one of me like that around here! We started finding more of them here and there in small gardens that needed tending (i.e. moved).

And then we realized that we were also surrounded by wild roses, in every thicket, along every wall, behind every tree – the tiny white wild rose (which bears no useful rose hips, creates hedges, chokes everything and is basically a giant weed). So we got the bright idea (ding! see the lightbulb?!) of using all the roses to ‘fence’/hedge in the front road line. It’s a busier road than we had anticipated and many people seem to think it’s a good place to throw trash (we’ve quite the collection of lottery tickets) and we don’t want our wandering chickens to wander into the road. They look lovely that way (though we keep finding more, and Josh trims great 2-story tumbleweeds every year and burns all the refuse despite the fact that they grow right back if you don’t keep an eye on them). I also envision a great Sleeping Beauty thorny hedge that keeps our little faerie land safe and sane.

May you be able to notice the subtle happenings in your life. It’s all in the details.

 

 

Monday Musings

Despite its so-called progress, our modern society tends to look back to a simpler time, even though pioneer days were probably harder and more isolated than life today. This yearning isn’t nostalgia, which is a longing for an airbrushed memory. It is a genuine subconscious draw to knowledge that has been obscured by innovation, progress, and improvement. We don’t need to remove or reverse modern innovation and give up our sidewalks and television sets and computers. What we need to do is discover how to connect in our modern environment to that earlier knowledge that is waiting for us to find it again.

~ Arin Murphy-Hiscock

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Duendesday!

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

Conversation around the kitchen island this morning (I drinking a second cup of tea, D sipping on hot chocolate, Josh making crackers and trying to call the State Dept but frustratingly being on hold for over an hour/dropped/phone dying – losing it) revolves around what we’re going to be doing when we are old (along the lines of not ‘wearing purple’). Josh, in his morning frustration, says he’ll start morning drinking when he’s old, I want to be the old lady who swears a lot on the public bus, and Duende is going to be surrounded by hundreds, thousands, millions of cats (Oh Wanda Gag!).

Now she’s wandering the house lamenting the flash heat wave because she “doesn’t want to be a french fry” and eating rhubarb jam on sourdough toast. And dressed for the disco – she’s waiting very patiently for Daddy to get off the phone so she can blast some Beyonce (Who Run the World? Apparently almost 10yr-old girls) and Katy Perry (Whose child is this?) and dance like a crazy little wonderful person.

And what is she doing these days besides stealing my phone to play the Singing Monsters game? She’s reading the Diaries of the Wimpy Kid series, anything by Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants creator), Bone and Peanuts comics books. She’s got a funny bone for sure. When Josh goes to burn brush she builds stick shelters, providing picnic lunches and entertainment. She’s inventing and building things – birdhouse/bird bath poles for Nana’s birthday (in collaboration with Uncle Cameron and Daddy), a cupholder for the tractor, and wooden sculptures galore. When I can’t find her she’s in the garage with a power tool or a hand saw, goggles, gloves, building something blasting Glee Cast singing ‘We Built This City’ – hilarious.

Happy Almost Summer!

 

Tuesday Happenings

Whoooosh – and it’s Tuesday already! Summer is almost upon us, though the weather is already here: sunny, hot, lush, with immediate needs to tend the garden. Most of the squashes are in – I’ve got to get those Wee-Be-Mini-Pumpkins and Delicata in, and the Summer smaller squashes are ready – pattypans, lemon squashes, and ronde de nice, most of the beans are in – still to get the rest of the True Cranberry dry vine beans and haricot vert in. The herbs are almost ready – lemon and purple ruffle basil, cilantro, oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage but I like the weather to be strongly Summer when I get to them. Otherwise – the corn and potatoes and peas are growing nicely. I got a variety of melons and hard squashes and some tomatoes in. The strawberries are ripening, the blackberries are blooming like crazy, and there are even a couple of tiny apples and plums plumping up. I’ve been harvesting chamomile flowers (along with foraging a ton of red clover – which I use both for dried Winter tea, though I am considering some red clover wine – hmmmm). The baby chicks are feathering out (but still so cute).

In the kitchen, we’re working on another batch of Foraged Kimchi, Rhubarb Jam, Sourdough hamburger/hot dog brioche buns, and recipes to use more delicious ricotta (Lemon Ricotta Pie or little gnocchi-style gnudi, anyone?). It’s a relatively quiet moment to get a few projekts done – still need to build the chicken coop, but burning a lot of brush and getting some homework done. We still have some great seedlings for sale (giant zucchini/spaghetti squash/kabocha/green tomatoes and mini-but-ready-to-go lemon cukes, johnny jump-ups, a few cherry/green/goldie/cherokee heirloom tomatoes, calendula, orange bell peppers).

The end of this week is Summer Solstice and Father’s Day so it will be a full weekend of lovely fun and celebration!

Recipe Thursday: Breakfast Fried Rice

What do they say – that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Most days at Rock Bottom breakfast is a banana and a piece of sourdough toast, or some homemade yogurt with a little maple or honey on top and an apple – and coffee (though I have switched to black tea mostly, saving my coffee for a cold afternoon cup – my body likes it that way better). My favorite ‘weekday’ breakfast is toast with kimchi and an egg but cheese bagels (sometimes with an egg and wild greens) are a close second. We are terrible parents, our child generally starts with something absolutely inappropriate like ice cream or cake or pirate puffs but then quickly makes up for it with all the same bits we eat (to be fair, she eats the majority of her calories in small meals through the day ending around 4pm, and we don’t believe in ‘dessert’ for our child – I’m not interested in giving her sweet bits before bed, defeats the purpose of some alone time – ha!).

But sometimes we go all out on breakfasts – Josh and Duende make amazing scones (of course), and biscuits (sometimes with honey and jam and bacon, sometimes with gravy and eggs), and pancakes (D has her own special recipe that makes perfect yummy pancakes – and I’m not generally a big pancake fan and I like these!). For special holidays (like my birthday) I love French Toast (Josh made it one year with peanut butter inside – so delicious, I love peanut butter) and now we have the stovetop waffle maker – yay Waffles!

And then there are always leftover breakfasts – which are really my favorites. Leftover roasted potatoes/sweet potato gratin/roasted veggies of any kind or mushrooms or extra greens all become hash when chopped small and sprinkled liberally with salt and fresh ground pepper and served with eggs and avocado. Leftover mashed potatoes mixed with an egg and a little flour, maybe shredded cheddar and greens, become potato pancakes when sauteed in butter with a little oil. Last night’s spaghetti gets mixed with eggs and shredded cheese and whatever leftovers sound good (a little of the sauce and a meatball left, some leftover chicken, that lonely forgotten green pepper chopped up) mixed and baked into a pasta frittata. And my absolute preference is for leftover rice, I have all these oddball things on hand (that’s the kind of gal I am, and I highly recommend if you are in the Portland area – Sun Market on Congress – a lovely family business) but feel free to substitute your own favorite additions and alter the amounts based on what you have. It’s got a lot of bits but comes together quickly and deliciously.

Breakfast Fried Rice

Serves 4ish 

3 cups cooked cold Rice (you can make fresh but it really does work better cold)
1 heaping Tbsp lard/bacon fat/ghee/high point oil (maybe more for later additions)
1 cup chopped something green (a quick fix for me is frozen broccoli florets, but fresh will work, or spinach/chard/dandelion/kale/mizuna/tatsoi/baby bok, green pepper, etc)
1-2 Med-Large Carrots, scrubbed and sliced angled on a bias/julienned
big handful (maybe 1 1/2 cups) frozen Shrimp (or any leftover meat or tofu) (optional)
2 tsp Sesame Seed
2 tsp chopped Garlic (or just smash 2 cloves and chuck them in)
2 tsp diced fresh ginger
1-2 eggs (depending on how much protein you need/people you are feeding)
Splash of Soy Sauce (I’m a Bragg’s Amino Acids gal), more for seasoning later
Sprinkle of Chinese 5-Spice Powder
Dried Red Hot Chili to taste (optional)
drizzle of Sesame Oil
Kimchi as topping (optional)

Heat fat in a big frying pan (I tend not to use the cast iron as cooked rice is a job to soak out) over Med-High heat. Add cold rice and stir until coated. Add garlic, ginger, sesame seed stirring often until fragrant. Add carrots (moving to the bottom if you can). Cook each addition 1-2 minutes. Add broccoli or other greenery and shrimp/other meaty bits – if using frozen, I generally bury under hot rice and add a splash of soy sauce (can cover for a minute or two and steam in, if you like).

Then – here’s the fun bit: make a circle in the middle of the rice, clearing a space, add a little more fat and crack your eggs into the circle – scramble quickly in the space adding a splash of soy sauce and as the eggs set start mixing them into the rest of the rice mix until dispersed throughout. Take pan off the heat, sprinkle the top with 5-spice, cover and let sit a few minutes (This helps the flavors develop and the rice steam from the bottom of the pan). Stir in spice and drizzle with sesame oil.

How I do it: not everyone likes the hot and spicy, so I break up a dry red chili into the bottom of my bowl and ladle the fried rice on top, then stir it up a bit, adding a nice little cold yummy pile of kimchi on top. I find it very addictive and will likely have it for lunch the same day, too. Hopefully, you will dig it just as much.

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Duendesday!

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

And what could be better than new chick day? Not much around here. 17 happy healthy little kooky chicks arrive in a little cozy box at the Post Office, ready for pick up at 6:30am (I’m sure they can’t stand to have them there long – peeping, peeping, peeping). Duende is over the moon (she loves little chick day!), it’s been awhile.

As they rest up under the red warm light, she is off preparing them a mud cake. I’m sure it will be decorated with yummy red clover flower and molded into a particularly pleasing shape. Later this week, we will make a real cake for Nana’s birthday (and work on her gift which is extra special and requires a lot of Duende’s beautiful handiwork). But right this minute it’s all about the chicks.

The new brooder Josh built is fantastic. It has pocket doors, lift latches, removable insulation, 2 rooms with an optional separator (we’ll get meat chicks in just a few weeks but hopefully the coop will be ready for our layer pullets by then). In another week, we’ll make a playpen for the chicks to be outside in some partial sunshine in the dirt and grass and D will be the babysitter (which she loves, for the first 10 minutes).

But for right now, it’s enough to love the little chicks for the small soft bit of life and fluff they are…

Tuesday on the Homestead

What’s Happening?

  • Seedlings are still on sale – available for your gardens: melons, Summer and Winter squashes, tomato seedlings are up, peppers, calendula, borage, cukes, marigolds but it’s official, the early cabbages bit the dust. Oh well, I’ll try again for succession cabbages.
  • New Summer Syrups – Lilac and Honeysuckle, and they are both certainly more potent and floral than the subtle violet and forsythia. Up next: wild strawberry!
  • Chicks should be here today or tomorrow. After a couple of delays, they will finally be here in all their cute and fluffiness. Now, all we need is a coop – ha!
  • New bean/Winter squash beds ready for planting. We’ve got to get those suckers in before they don’t have time to grow! But they are beautiful beds with lots of potential! (Thank you Josh!)
  • More rhubarb jam going up and another batch of seasonal foraged Kimchi going into the crock. Meanwhile, pickles abound with stuff coming in (early beets, radish, turnips, asparagus, carrot, scallion, etc) – thanks in part to our wonderful CSA from Farmer Kev (from them to us to you! sharing all around)
  • And if you get a chance, we thank you wholeheartedly in advance (please share) – we’re moving forward on some big dreams (and some desperate needs) for a community wood-fired oven (and upgraded in house oven for baking) with our new funding request for the: Rock Bottom Homestead Hearth

Be well, be safe, be sane, and productive!