Category Archives: food

strawberry pickin’

In Ohio we belonged to a wonderful CSA and got boxes full of produce every week.  We haven’t joined one here, but this year I’ve made a goal to find farms where we can pick our own produce and do as much of that picking as we can.  I think its important for my kids to learn where real food comes from and that it takes hard work to get it.  I’m hoping to find some orchards in the fall where we can pick fruit too.

A couple of weeks ago, after swimming lessons and lunch and a little rest, I took the kids out to Berry Patch Farms on the opening day of strawberry picking.  They opened at 8 AM, but we had to go in the heat of the afternoon after people had been combing through the 7 acres of strawberries all day.  I had a baby on my back whose left shoe must have fallen off in the garage as we were leaving our house, so he had to stay on my back.  There was a big thunder storm the weekend before, so the tractor couldn’t give us a ride out to the field because of the mud.   We had to hike, the organic fields were full of thistles, and the strawberries full of holes from hail damage.  As you can imagine, that led to a lot of whining on the boys’ part.  I don’t think Jonah picked a single strawberry because he was too hot and they were too hard to find.  Brenna was a splendid picker, though.  She combed through the plants and found the best berries there were.  After her and I (with a baby on my back who wasn’t super excited about all the bending over) filled up 3 little containers full, we called it a day and good education on how expensive food really is and how hard it is to be a farmer.

I wasn’t satisfied with the amount of berries we had, and promptly gobbled up, after that outing.  We needed more, so Brenna and I got up early Saturday morning to comb through the fields on their final day open.

Berry Patch Farms

We got there before the sun was high and hot, and the hail damaged berries were long gone.

finding the red ones

on the plant

just starting

In half the time we spent picking on our last trip we filled an entire flat.

Brenna had fun searching for the tiniest ripe berries she could find.

tiny ones

I needed the quiet time out there finding sweet treasures with my girl.

ready to head back

When we got home, Barry and I made homemade strawberry freezer jam– one of my very most favoritest foods ever.

makin' jam

yum

veggie pickin’

:)

Our homeschool group took a trip up to an organic farm in Platteville CO to get a taste of what it is really like to harvest your own veggies. (Most of these pics were taken by Brenna.)

see the tractor?

We rode in the trailer behind that tractor up there.  They took us from field to field where we stooped down in search of potatoes, cabbages, beets, turnips, artichokes, carrots, onions, corn, pumpkins, celery, squash…

carrot!

out in the field

big carrot

It was hot, sweaty work, but we came home with quite a load!

the loot

And Hunter had another cozy day of hours spent in a Sweet Pod. (The pattern writing is coming along nicely, just have to finish some illustrations and I’ll be ready for some testers!)

baby wearing

There was also some crazy fun things for the kids to play on back at the home base.

bounce

 dirt sled

dirt sled

fire truck

chickens

pedal tractor

 

in the jar

slippery peels

I have vivid memories helping my mom can peaches when I was little.  The job us kids got, sliding the warm slimy skins off the quickly boiled peaches, seemed like the funnest job of all.

peeling peaches

So I got some of my little men to help me with a peach canning adventure.  We by no means have a year supply ( it’s more like a week if my kids had their way), but we did it.

 I bought a box of peaches at the nearby farmer’s market.  I remember as a kid going with my mom and grandma to actual orchards to pick peaches.  I can totally see my mom standing on a ladder and reaching for fruit in my mind’s eye.  Those trips to Emmet, Idaho eventually stopped as little farms and orchards became big ones or closed down and as more migrant workers came in.  The state of food and farming has sure changed in my lifetime.

in the jars

We’ve got these jars full of sweet, sticky memories though–  for the season at least.

our daily bread

I love making things.  I love the experience of seeing something from raw material to finished product.  I love feeling connected to the things around me, and the things I eat.  I’ve been making most of the bread we eat for years now.  I remember dreaming of getting a Zojurushi bread machine and then one year I had enough birthday money to get one!  One loaf at a time worked pretty well for a long time– as long as I remembered to put a loaf in in the morning, but as our family has grown making all of our bread just one loaf at a time was a constant project.  For a while I was making batches of 2 or 3 loaves and kneading them by hand, but I just wasn’t good at that– and bonking my big pregnant belly against the counter just didn’t add to the fun.  So, this year I got a Bosch mixer.  Love it.  Now I can make 4 loaves at a time, so bread making just has to happen once a week or so.  Much more doable than every day.  Now that I’ve had my mixer for a few months we’ve fine tuned our favorite recipe, so I thought I’d share it.  You can always cut it in half or fourths if you have a smaller mixer or need to knead it by hand.

fresh flour

First, grind your flour, if you have a wheat grinder.  Before I had one I used a combination of King Arthur Whole Wheat flour and White Wheat flour.  Now I just grind whatever kind of wheat that is in my open bucket.  I really love hard white wheat, but it was hard to come by for a while there.  I think our local Home Storage Center has it in stock now, I just haven’t gotten myself out there.

Now you’re ready.

mix:

  • 5 1/3 cup really warm tap water
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 3 1/2 Tbl yeast

add:

  • 1/2 cup oil (I love it with coconut oil, but my kids don’t, so I usually just use canola)
  • 1/2 cup powdered milk
  • 3-4 Tbl vital wheat gluten
  • 2 Tbl sea salt or Real Salt
  • 6 cups whole wheat flour

once that is all mixed up add:

  • 6-7 more cups of flour.

Knead by machine for 8 minutes or so.  (If you’re kneading by hand keep at it for a good 20-25 minutes.)While that is happening, grease your pans.  This is the ONLY thing I ever use shortening for, but it works the best of anything I’ve tried.

Turn on your oven to 350 degrees.  When  the dough is all kneaded, divide it into four, shape it into oblong loaves, and plop it in your pans.  Let rise, covered with a warm damp towel, until the loaves are the size you want.   This usually takes about 30 minutes here, sometimes less.

loaves rising

Pop your loaves in the oven and bake for 25-28 minutes.  27 is the perfect amount of time for my oven.  The timing takes some experimenting I think.

in the oven

That’s it!  Eat your bread, or let it cool and slice it up and put it in bags.  I just use plastic bread bags from the store.  Refrigerate or freeze the extra loaves.

yum!

You can find a couple of other bread-makin’-mama’s bread recipes here and here.