a little crafty nest

wisdom of the elder

Well, what would winter be like without the flu visiting for (hopefully just) a few days?  I've noticed that when the weather swings from cold to mild back to cold again, the flu seizes its chance to descend upon us with the intent purpose of making us feel miserable.

It seems that Papa and Forrest are the worst off, so far, with Huckley closing in.  Sunshine has sympathy symptoms ~ she's compassionate like that.

Our weekend was spent with lots of tissues, hot water bottles, quilts and liquids.  I always turn to some old stand-by remedies that seem to help ease the symptoms, and at the very least, just to provide some comfort.  Miso soup with generous helpings of garlic, ginger, and seaweeds in a turkey broth base.  Also, each September, I freeze bags and bags of elderberries just for times like this.  Elder trees are abundant around here, and in addition to the berries, I also make a tincture out of the flowers which promotes sweating and helps with flu symptoms. 

A good friend of mine is a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor and she happened to call us this morning.  Her advice was to steep the white parts of green onions with ginger until it was good and thick, then to drink it down, put on a ton of layers and blankets, sit beside the woodstove and sweat!  Josh let me know the concotion was not that pleasant, but sweat he did.  (While I'm not exactly certain about the treatment details, she did mention this only works if one's phlegm is still clear and runny, not yet thick or yellow).

Having sickness move in and take over for a few days, we had the opportunity to just slow right down.  Everything seemed calmer and quieter, with lots of books, puzzles, and card games.  I remember being sick as a little girl, and I was set in bed in a darkened room all by myself to rest.  I appreciate that it was meant to provide calm and quiet, but I remember missing out on family life.  When my children are sick, we make beds for them on the couch with a tower of books beside them and liquids at the ready. 

Even if they are dazed with feverish stares, they are still part of the family life...as long as it remains quiet and calm and peaceful.  Occasionally, they may choose to rest in their own rooms by themselves.  But I like them near, as well.  It's easier to see how they are doing, to give a special kiss blown from across the room, to sit beside them and stroke their backs for a few moments.

Yes, it seems we didn't escape the flu this winter and it's a doozer!  My husband gets really slammed with the symptoms, or so he thinks (ahem)!  One thing's for sure, though, the faster it moves on through, the sooner we can get on with the business of playing and crafting and living!

Elderberry Juice

Simmer 3 Cups elderberries in 9 Cups water (ratio is 1:3) for about an hour.

Strain well.  Add 1/2 Cup sweetener (we use honey) and mix thoroughly.  You may want to warm it up a bit to ensure the sweetener is dissolved.

Drink lots.  And then more.

You can store in the fridge for about 5 days, but I usually freeze any leftovers after 3 days.

It also makes a great birthday drink for little ones!

 

Hoping you all stay strong and healthy during flu season!

 

skeeter frenzy

We live in a corner of paradise with beautiful mountain vistas, a creek running alongside our house, and the tranquility of rural living.  However, every summer when the river level peaks and the nights warm up, something sinister happens to this little piece of Eden.

Skeeters.

Now, I am definately a tough outdoorsy girl, I swear.  I have done my fair share of hiking, canoeing, and camping.  And I love it!  But for six to eight weeks of the year around here, you nearly have to shout to be heard above the droning of mosquitoes.  Even during the sunny heat of the day, it is dangerous to set foot outside.  Oh, I know, you think I'm being dramatic!  But really, I counted twenty-seven mosquitoes on the window of my back door a few days ago.  Twenty-seven!

With such a long, wet spring and early summer, it was beautiful to see the sun shining down from a cornflower blue sky.  For three days in a row we enjoyed the loveliest of summer weather...all the while my three children were sitting on the couch looking at books.  The sandbox has been abandoned, the grass is overgrown, and the gardens are neglected.  Sigh.

Josh grew up in this skeeter haven, but he was doused with the chemical cocktails from our childhoods...Off!  and Deep Woods.   I remember a six week long canoe trip I did as a teen and every night we burned a mosquito coil inside our tent.  Every night. 

 
Despite the bloodthirsty insects hovering around the doors, I simply cannot bear to put those chemicals on my children.  So I made my own bug repellant based on a concotion I took with me when I traveled solo around South America over a decade ago.  I sprayed the beds and pillows with a bug juice to ward off unwanted creepy crawlies.  I simply filled a spray bottle with water and then shook several drops of lavender, tea tree, rosemary, geranium, citronella and peppermint.  Ohhhh, this smells sooooo good...to me.  The skeeters actually avoid my wrists and neck when I layer up and spritz myself before venturing outside to harvest dinner from the garden. 

I also rely on my all time favourite herbal by Rosemary Gladstar.  I've tried several of her recipes, including a cough syrup (works!) and massage oil and elderflower tincture.  One recipe included in her book was a bug bite ointment.  Mostly made of green clay, there is also sea salt, witch hazel, and peppermint oil included.  It works ok...especially after an oatmeal bath with a douse of lavender and tea tree oil.

 
I try and use natural remedy's first, before heading to my family's healing basket.  We dabble with herbs, homeopathics, and aromatherapy, though when needed, we also keep some more conventional medicine on hand for late night emergencies. 

When I first entered the world of blogland, I was so excited to see Amanda's healing basket because it was just like mine!  Well, turns out there are so many like-minded mamas here in blogland and I now realize that these healing baskets are pretty common.  I'm so intrigued by what works for other folks when it comes to basic first aid?  What do you rely on for healing your family?

bubble magic

The weather has been warming up and we've been loving the lengthening days.  I've noticed that Forrest is outside sooner in the day, and takes longer to come back inside at the close of the day.  There is so much to do!  However, Miss Sunshine is a little more reluctant lately to venture further than the back porch without me, as she was recently frightened by a neighbour's runaway cow that she watched escape from the herd down into our property.  Whenever she hears them Moooo, she gets petrified!

While I love my kitchen helpers most of the time, some nights I feel pressed for time to get everything ready.  Ten month old Huckley thinks he is now able to help with vegetable washing and climbs way too high on his sister's step to check out the counter goings-ons.  Countless times I am racing over to rescue him from a precarious perch...and so dinner prep drags on and on and on.  It is at these moments that I need a little something to occupy my children away from the kitchen.  But the magic of bubbles lures all three of them outside!  

 

To make a simple solution, combine 2 T dish soap with 1 C water.  Many sources say to let this sit overnight, but I've never had that much foresight.  I've held onto various wands from storebought bubbles, but it's easy to make your own, as I found here. 
 
 
 
It's amazing how time slips by so quietly, punctuated with a few squeals of delight, and dinner gets made on time.   
 
Ahhhh, the magic of bubbles!

white gold

We are so lucky to live where we do!  In addition to all the homegrown veggies and fruits, we supplement our diets with local chickens, beef (from across the road), eggs (from beside our place), honey, and even bacon if we are feeling like it.  Most of these places are within walking distance...like a .1 mile diet.  This summer I am crossing my everythings hoping my dear husband will finally build The Coop for some hens of our own.

We also get local dairy products from various friends.  (For some silly legal (?) reason, we are not supposed to buy unpasteurized milk, but I prefer the real thing to commercial milk that has been overheated, killing any beneficial enzymes and nutrients the milk has to offer.  Oh, and fresh sweet milk is absolutely delicious!)

 
My children and I drink litres of goat milk each week, while my husband cannot stand it!  He says it's goaty.  I think pasteurized goat milk is definately goaty, but the real deal is pure liquid goodness.  It helps that our friend's goat farm is immaculate and the goats are so well loved.  We know this to be true because we've been coming here for years.

 
 
 Josh prefers cow milk which we obtain irregularly from another friend's farm.  She calls us when she has a surplus and then we hit the cow milk jackpot and I make lots of yogurt and whey all at once.  I use the whey in lacto-fermenting other foods, like pickles and kraut.  Also, you can soak your oats and other grains overnight in whey to help in pre-digestion.  A great book on many more lacto-fermentation methods is Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions...a fascinating read, in my humble opinion.

 
 
Because I have cow dairy sensitivities, I started my children directly onto goat milk...these goat's milk, in fact!  (Incidentally, we have since learned that giving cow dairy to very young children has shown them  to be more predisposed to developing Type 1 Diabetes.)

 
We get a lot of goat milk and when there is enough, we make our own yogurt.  I find that goat yogurt is a bit more finicky, and some batches can have a runnier consistency than others.  Perhaps it's due to the temperature of our cookstove where I place the jars, but I've also read that this is the nature of goat milk.  With granola or on pancakes, though, it doesn't bother us if it's not always creamy thick.  I've also heard that you can thicken goat yogurt with tapioca (a root starch derived from the cassave plant) or with xanthum gum (a natural sugar derived from corn). 

Last week, Rae showed us her clever uses for recycled sweater sleeves.  They are sort of like our milk warmers for incubating yogurt. 

 
After bringing the goat (or cow or sheep) milk to 82C (180F), I quickly remove it from the stove so it will cool down to 44C (110F) and mix in the starter (storebought or a little leftover yogurt).  Then I set the yogurt atop our woodstove, (or beneath, depending on the stove temperature), and let it go to work for about 6 to 8 hours.  Afterwards, I sometimes mix in a little honey or vanilla for flavouring Josh's cow yogurt...he likes it like that.

 
I remember reading that a person can absorb part of the character of the animal that is the food they eat.  This was referring to the type of dairy that one consumes...cow, sheep, or goat.  Perhaps that's why my boy is so full of frolicking good energy...have you ever seen little goat kids leap about after they get their milk?  Ahhhh, it is so adorable!

For our family, I look forward to our visits to the goat farm.  A chance to thank the kids and mamas for the precious milk that sustains my family. 

 
I love knowing where our food comes from, whether it be from a two legged or a four legged friend!

we be jammin'

It is that time of year again, when we pull out our jars and stock pots to put by the  bounty of the harvest.  Not even a new baby nor a kitchen torn apart to make room for a dishwasher (the mechanical kind, that is!) can stop me from this very favourite of Virgo sports.  Yes indeed, I do love to can!  There is something so satisfying about lining up those lovely little jars of various shapes and sizes to be opened on some distant and cold wintry day, or about hearing that little ping! when the seal is vacuumed closed.  That ping! equates to "a job well done" in my books.

One of my favourite canning projects is making jam from the fruits of the summer.  Already we have made a batch of strawberry jam before Huckley arrived six weeks ago...that is a batch for the children and then a batch for the adults. I like to make two batches of each fruit jam to appease the husband's sugar quota while also satisfying my desire for less sugar for the children.  It goes without saying which jam I tend to dip into, ahem.

While we grow our own strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and other tree fruit, I did splurge and buy 20 lbs of organic apricots for my man's favourite jam.

Forrest likes to help out in the kitchen with any kind of prep work.  (You can see how the kitchen cupboards kind of exploded all over the counters and cookstove, getting ready for the dishwasher Josh is installing.)  Here he is wearing his apron I made for him way back when.

I pulled out my trusty canning recipe book which has been kicking around for several years, collecting various recipes over time.  I seem to write everything down, from ingredients to sources for fruit to how much each recipe yields.  It sounds awfully uptight but it saves me a lot of guesswork the following year.

I have tried a lot of jams in the past...from the tried and true standards to oregon grape jelly (yum!) and saskatoon  berry.  Hands down, my favourite jam is raspberry, although, this blueberry recipe is a close runner-up. 

Little People's Boo Belly Jam  

8 C blueberries

6 t lemon juice

1 C honey

6 t calcium water

3 1/4 t Pomona's pectin

(*process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes)

yields : 1 1/2 L jam

Big People's Raspberry Jam

10 C raspberries

1/4 C lemon juice

4 C sugar

4 t calcium water

4 t Pomona's pectin

(*process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes)

yields : 2 1/4 L jam

I can hear the sweet ping! just looking at these jars.  Happy canning!

Stinky Scapes

In our ever-evolving gardens, one thing for certain is our devotion to the stinky bulb.  We love garlic and we eat a lot of it - Josh says we eat it like a vegetable!  We begin in the fall...around our Canadian Thanksgiving and whatever day is in Root descending according to the Stella Natura, our planting bible.  This year we had friends visiting from the coast who helped us plant 300 bulbs of Yugoslavian garlic, our favourite.

 
In the spring, I am always pleased to see the first shoots emerging from the dormant earth.  It seems like some sort of magic is happening, whatever the weather.

By the end of April, while the rest of the garden is awakening, the garlic stands like sentinels, watching over our other crops.

 

And this is what our garlic looks like today, curling scapes readying to flower.  It is best to behead these energy suckers in order to fatten the bulbs that lay below the soil.  Scapes make a tasty side-dish, and can be added to any stir-fry, soup, or salad.
 
 

Tonight, Josh steamed the garlic scapes until tender, about 5 minutes, then tossed them in butter with a dash of lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt.  Oh, my!  What a treat...the children devoured these tender tasties!

In another few weeks, we will be harvesting, drying, and braiding the bulbs.  We usually get twelve heavy braids of about 17 heads of garlic...enough to remain stinky throughout the year.  We also harvest enough that we can plant next year's crop this fall.

If you ever want to feel like a gardening pro, plant some garlic and be patient...it is relatively maintenance free and so satisfying.  Welcome pesto season, just around the corner!

Really Good Greens

There has been a lot of spring rain lately...and I love it!  I love the staccato beat on the tin roof as I fall asleep at night, I love the earthy smell of Life exuding from the trees, grass and gardens, and I love the green blooming that inevitably follows a good few days of showers.  Indeed, there must be a kazillion different shades of green!

With all the fresh and alive energy springing up around us, today was a good day to go nettle picking.  Our own nettle patch is still a few weeks away from a good harvest, so we drove down the road to my mother-in-laws to forage her patch.  Luckily it is up for grabs as no one else in the family seems to be interested in these prickly, nutritious plants.

The children fell asleep in the car so I spent a half hour on my own in quiet contentment.  I suppose I wasn't entirely alone...a person never really is when outdoors.  My most obvious companion was a little snail sliming its way along a nearby rock.

I like what Susun Weed has to say about nettles in her essential herbal companion, "Healing Wise":

My green is my love for you.  What a delicious, dark, deep spinning green I am.  What a lovely lilting green I am.  Luxuriant green!  Creative green!  Sister green.  Eat my green.  Drink my green glow, my green that makes your blood so red, and your movements so flexible!  My green that makes your mother's milk so abundant, so rich.  My green that makes your skin, your hair, so gleaming, so glowing...I feed you.  I heal you.  I teach you.  I offer the best of the earth.

I came home with a plastic bag filled with nettles...and a slight tingling on my hands.  I simply steamed them quickly and then added a little butter and salt and lemon juice...oh my, so tasty!  My son asked for third helpings!  One bag barely fed our family for one meal...in a few weeks we will go for a few good nettle hunts for our winter provisions.

Another useful way I use nettles is to dry them along with dandelion leaves and kale, and then put the whole mixture into a gallon jar in the pantry.  All winter, I reach into the jar, labelled "Backyard Greens", and throw a hefty handful into tomato sauces, chilis, soups, etc.

Rosemary Gladstar has an  amazing book, "Family Herbal - A Guide to Living Life with Energy, Health, and Vitality" and she offers many other wonderful ways to use stinging nettles; in spanikopitas, as pickles, in salads, in iron syrups, liver tonics, and mother's milk teas. 

Our third babe is due in about 8 or 9 more weeks and I love that right now I can nourish him and myself, and the rest of our family, with such abundant, nutritious food.  All available right out our back door.

What do you do with stinging nettles?  Or any wildcrafting at this time of year?