Two Frog Home

We’ve been blessed with another gorgeous, bright day with temperatures near 70.  We’ve been busy, too.  We finished turning over the soil in the veggie beds.  We found lots of worms in the process, and I always get so excited to see that.  We used to have these 3 little boys that lived next door, and the days we turned over soil, they were always watching for worms to pick up - their poor mother would reach into their pockets unaware for a slimy handful often in the spring and summer.  The soil seems light and beautiful, though it did feel like we picked out a ton of rocks.

There are signs of life everywhere.  New growth on the chives, fresh buds on the raspberry canes, rhubarb leaves unfurling, and bits of green and sprouts just about everywhere you look.  Including:

The first daffodil bud.

The first and only (so far) dandelion to appear complete with a little insect life.

I was visiting over at Moonmeadow Farm earlier today, she always has interesting news tidbits on her sidebar.  Today, I read a good bit of the ones she had posted, including several on recession/depression and rising food prices.  All of which go hand in hand with my thoughts on self-sufficiency and the need to be more so.

Do I believe, Jeff and I will see a time where we don’t shop at stores? No.  I don’t know that we’ll ever have the kind of property necessary to raise everything we need, especially grain.  However, I do believe we can work on growing and preserving as much of our own as possible.  I also believe we can work on bartering and buying from within our own community.

The folks over at Path to Freedom, have been doing a lot of writing about the need for a resurgence of the victory gardens concept.  I understand gardening is a lot of work and its not work everyone enjoys (unlike the gardening addict that I am).  However, with the price of food and fuel these days, I don’t know how long many people can hold out before gardening becomes more than a hobby and it becomes necessary for survival. 

For me, everything starts at home.  Home is more than just the building I live in, home is my heart, it is the center of my love with Jeff, simply home is everything.  So what can I do beyond gardening and canning?  Jeff is fond of saying “its time to tighten up the belt,” and while I think we already have the belt pretty tight, we can and should do more.  Frugality isn’t about deprivation in my mind, however; a person does need to learn the difference between deprivation and making do.  In learning to be more frugal and making do with what we have, we can be more prepared to not only help ourselves in times of struggle, but also help others, and donate to more worthy causes.  We can buy more food for the food pantry, spend money on necessities for shelters, etc.  We can grow an extra bit of food and donate the saved seeds.  We can do all this from home and maybe, soften the blow of whatever this way comes for us and those around us.  And if it doesn’t soften the blow, at least we’ll have given it a shot from home and have done our best to take care of ourselves. 

Last week one of our local grocery chains had their biannual case lot sale.  The sale is exactly what it sounds like, good deals on entire cases of goods, traditionally its things like canned veggies, bottled water, sugar, all purpose flour, canned chili, ramen noodles, etc.  Looking at our depleted pantry we decided to take advantage of a few of the deals - mostly we bought canned green beans, corn, peas, and mushrooms.  We also got some 4 gallons of distilled water for $2.50 (I only use distilled water for ironing and my new iron really puts out the steam hence the water needs refilled often).  We don’t buy things like canned chili or cases of condensed cream of mushroom soup.

The deal on canned veggies was good and a case of each gets us a long way until we can start harvesting some of our own again.  I do always feel a little guilty about stocking up on these non-local, non-organic goods, however my pocket book thanks me and it is always good to know that we have a well stocked pantry, just in case.  The purchase did remind me of how much further we have to go in producing and canning more of our own and/or locally grown goods.  

Our growing season is so short here, and I’m learning to do with it what I can, but oh I’m so jealous of all of you who are already planting outside.  We’re still getting snow.  Jeff and I canned a good bit of stuff last summer (check out my pantry building page), but we have a long way to go to get us through an entire Montana winter.  I need more jars, too (honestly I can’t believe I’m saying that - I can’t imagine how many jars a large family must need).  I’ll be on the lookout for those as soon as yard sale season begins in another month.  I like to can more than freeze simply because freezing requires a stable power source, and I’m not sure we’ll always have that, freezing also requires a lot of freezer space, obviously and that isn’t something I want to invest in (see my thoughts on not always having power).  I don’t dry enough foods and that is something I may start dabbling in again this summer.

This winter just seems especially long to me, and I’m experiencing my own version of cabin fever.  Cabin fever seems to be expressing itself in the fear of not being self-sufficient enough alongside the urge to just start digging in the dirt and getting my hands dirty.  The upside is the daylight hours are getting longer and longer (that is something that is so sublime about Montana summers).  Even more on the upside is that seeds are started indoors and soon, I’ll be canning again.  

PS: I’m starting to think folks who practice home canning have their own seasons - preparing to can, canning, and eating the canned goods.

Gardening season here in Northwest Montana, that is.  Today we started our pepper and tomato seeds.  Oh, what an exciting thing that is for me.  We planted three varieties of peppers (two sweet and one hot), and three varieties of tomatoes.  We use a seed-starting soil mix and add a little bit of worm water to each pot before sticking them inside my little indoor greenhouse (someday I’ll have a real greenhouse) to germinate, hopefully.

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I’ve been thinking, planning, and dreaming of gardening lately.  I’ve been reading lots of other blogs in other climates post on all of their planting adventures, as well, and jealously thinking about moving in with those bloggers.  Mother Nature reminded me to stop all that thinking of planting outdoors for a while longer with a nice spring snow (with more predicted through the weekend).  I know the tulips and daffodils can take it, yet I always feel so bad for them.

I don’t have an Irish bone in my body, but Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you that do!

While it may be almost spring according to the calendar, we continue to get snow.  Promises of the gardening season to come, arrived via mail today, however.  I got my order from Seed Savers as well as a little love from Laurie over at slowly she turned in the form of Hungarian hot wax pepper seeds!  Thanks so much, Laurie!! I can’t wait to start some seeds in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I’m taking advantage of some creative juices and working on a few projects, I’ve had in mind for some time.  I started working on this quilt yesterday, the top is about halfway pieced at this point.

 For those of you asking about my sourdough recipe, I more or less used this recipe from Mother Earth News.  My starter is made from 100% freshly ground Montana wheat and our well water.  I’ve only fed the starter with whole wheat - the bread after 1 cup of starter was removed for future use - was a mixture of whole wheat and white flours. I’ll continue working on using 100% wheat, a little at a time.  Honestly it just felt right - I used that recipe from Mother Earth News as a guideline and it really helped.  I spray the oven with water before adding the loaves (I spray the water and shut the door, then slash the loaves, then insert the loaves into the oven).  I spray the oven with water again immediately after adding the loaves and that seems to help me get those super crusty loaves, we enjoy so much around here.  I hope that helps, everyone a little.

Here in Northwest Montana, we still have a ways to go before its officially spring no matter what the calendar might say.  However, today was a wonderful day in the 40s with sunshine.  We spent a good bit of time outside, cleaning out perennial beds, pruning raspberry canes, and just generally soaking up those rays.  We spotted tulips, daffodils, and rhubarb peaking out of the soil, that’s definitely a nice spring sign.

Last summer we bought two large bags of Feline Pine at a charity yard sale.  Our cats just didn’t take to it for whatever reason.  The bag mentioned that the litter made excellent mulch and so we dumped both bags onto the daffodil and tulip beds.  It does make a very nice mulch, though its not something I would normally buy or have on hand.

Before we went outside, I spent some time baking this morning.  My first attempt at sourdough bread was a complete flop - I have a good sense when it comes to bread and while the one recipe I was using just didn’t “feel” right to me, I followed it anyway, sadly the bread didn’t turn out at all.  Next week, we’ll try again.  I also made some miniature loaves of pumpernickel to give as samples to a few folks who buy bread from me on occasion. 

Jeff and I don’t eat a ton of beef, but we do have it now and then.  We also occasionally use beef broth in soups, however; its something I’ve never attempted to make until yesterday.  We’ve been saving beef bones for months now, and freezing them.  I took those frozen bones out of the freezer yesterday, filled a giant stock pot with water, added some carrots, onions, and celery and let the whole pot simmer for hours.  Then I drained all the solids out and put the stock in the refrigerator overnight.  This morning, I skimmed off the solidified fat, reboiled the stock and canned it.  I tasted a bit of the broth and it turned out well.  I’m looking forward to using this in some soups in the near future.

Not bad for a Sunday, I’d say.

My mail today only consisted of catalogs and I was surprised that I got two seed catalogs already.  It’s only November and in Montana I have a lot of winter left yet before I can even really start dreaming of my garden.  Oy, if this is the new trend, seed catalogs before mid-January,  the winter will seem years long.  I think I may need to just put these away in a folder that says do not open until February 1, 2008.

Does anyone know of a source that lists all the seed catalogs that sell Monsanto products?  I read something recently and was surprised that a company I had purchased from in the past is really a subsidiary of Monsanto and I can’t place the article know and I don’t want to have the companies confused.  I may have to stick to Seed Savers and a few other very trusted sources.