Sam is making alfalfa tea to use as fertilizer. Alfalfa meal, water, and some dirt in a bucket. It’s insulated to allow for some heating and fermentation.
Alfalfa tea
Category: activities
Broccoli sprouts
I feel so happy to see these brave little broccoli sprouts! It’s been cold and windy for days now, but the sprouts are getting some light and warmth in the hoophouse on sunny days.
Starts
I moved my seed starting schedule two weeks forward. I think I started too early last year.
So far, so good. My alliums have sprouted and some kale. Still waiting on celery leaf and indigo.
Center from top: kale and cutting celery, cabbage and Brussels sprouts, alliums.
Right: a pot of indigo.
Today I planted brassica seeds: broccoli blend, Speedia Brussels sprouts, and Mammoth red cabbage. All Fedco.
First seeds of 2021
We bought a bag of Sunshine growing mix this year for seed starting. It has coir, which I’ve seen some complaints about. But it’s organic, so we’ll see how it does.
My first flat of soil blocks made and planted. This seedling mix contains mostly Sunshine mix, but I added our own compost, some sand, a little azomite, and a little greensand. The flat contains borettana cipollini onions, leeks, and two kind of shallots.
Bread
Beginning of February. Candlemas. Imbolc. I love these holidays.
I’ve been making three loaves of sourdough using the Dutch oven plus two new Christmas bread pans from Great Jones. They release the loaves so easily.
Happy new year
For our new year’s treat, I made chocolate mousse pie from Forks over Knives.
New gadget for Christmas
Sam got me a food press. Turns out its known as a Torchietto in Italy, where it comes from.
I’m pretty excited about trying this out for oat milk and zucchini fritters and for pressing tofu. We’ll see what else we can do with it. Crush grapes or apples?
Sushi feast, Christmas Eve
It was too much of a good thing, really. But we enjoyed ourselves and addressed the craving for sushi that’s been rumbling here.
In the kitchen, Christmas Eve
I’m spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Really have nowhere else to go.
Big accomplishments this year:
- Found a vegan pecan pie recipe, along with crust, that I really like. I’ve made it three times now. Last pie had a bit of molasses replacing some of the maple syrup, which I find to be a nice enhancement to deepen the flavor.
- Developed a routine for making my own vegetable stock. No more purchasing those overpriced, overpackaged bricks of broth!
My stock is loosely based on Rebecca Katz’s Magic Mineral Broth, although I don’t demand too much precision in ingredients. Both Sam and I have gotten more diligent about savings scraps in the freezer. When the bag of scraps gets full and/or the jars of broth get empty, it’s time to make broth.
I throw the frozen scraps into the stockpot. I usually add some potato, carrot, leek tops or what’s looking old in the fridge. Then throw in peppercorns, juniper berries, and kombu or other embellishments. It will simmer on the stovetop or woodstove for a couple of hours.
Then, after cooling, I use a measuring cup and strainer to decant broth into my two big jars. The jars are the perfect size for the amount of stock I get from a full pot. The jars are missing lids so I use the beeswax wraps and rubber bands.
I don’t bother freezing stock. That was just causing additional headaches that were complicating the process. If we don’t use it up in two weeks, I make some soup or just discard it on the compost. Happy with this process!
Christmas kraut
I removed this beautiful fluffy kraut from the crock yesterday. It’s mild tasting and tinged with pink from the addition of some juice from the previous red cabbage kraut.
