My Garden

My garden has been booming lately with all the rain so I thought I'd share it with you.  You'd never believe how much stuff can be packed in such a small garden!

[caption id="attachment_1627" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The blackberry bushes are going insane this year![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1628" align="aligncenter" width="297"] Looking like blackberry jam to me![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1629" align="aligncenter" width="640"] A few more weeks...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1630" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Small plant but huge blueberries[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1631" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The cucumber off on it's own from the other garden plants[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1632" align="aligncenter" width="640"] I hope we get some blueberries from this but they got hit with the late frost[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1633" align="aligncenter" width="640"] I love those blackberries![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1634" align="aligncenter" width="640"] First zucchini![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1635" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Zucchini going wild on the trellis[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1636" align="aligncenter" width="640"] First tomatoes![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1637" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Mint after being cut back[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1638" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Dinosaur kale has been SO good this year. We've harvested a lot from these plants.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1639" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Eggplant. The bugs really seem to like this one. Time for a DE dusting![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1640" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Peppers...and there are actually some flowers[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1641" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Lettuce! SO GOOD!!!![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1642" align="aligncenter" width="640"] First year that the corn looks like it might actually do something...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1643" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Strawberry plants. We've gotten about a quart and a half from this plant.[/caption]

Milk...What Do You Drink?

I get asked this a lot.  What kind of milk do you drink?  And it has changed dramatically over the past few years.  Right now if you look in my refrigerator there is organic soy milk, homemade almond milk, organic chocolate soy milk, raw milk and cream line milk.  Quite the variety, and I'm sure much different than the average household's gallon of milk from the grocery store.  There is a reason for our crazy variety though...in our house is a teenaged son who is an omnivore, me; who's mostly vegan, my hubby who is vegetarian but will eat my vegan meals too and six children who spend the day with us Monday through Friday at my home child care.  With that grouping, a variety of milk is a necessity!

The raw milk is a newer addition to our mix though.  I have been intrigued by the raw milk claims and started to seriously do research after watching Farmaggedon.  There are a host of health benefits to raw milk and since we live in Pennsylvania, raw milk is available to us.  Even though I hate the taste of milk, and have avoided it for years, I am trying to use raw milk in different things that I will eat from time to time to gauge my body's reaction to it.  So far, it is much better than my body's reaction to processed milk.  I have recently discovered my B-12 deficiency is back, so in addition to supplementation, I am trying to slowly add a bit here and there of the raw milk.  We get ours from the farmer who delivers our milk since they sell it all...pasteurized, creamline and raw.  We no longer get the homogenized milk though and have replaced it with...

Creamline milk is just what it sounds like - there is a cream line on top of the milk because this is full fat as it came from the cow milk like raw milk is, however it's been pasteurized.   I would love to serve the daycare kids raw milk but am just not sure yet how the parents would react.  This is my step toward that.  And the kids LOVE it!  It's a very rich milk and has all the natural, healthy fats that ordinarily would be skimmed off.

We also organic soy milk in the house for a few reasons...when I'm out of almond milk and don't want regular milk, I will swap it for soy.  Soy milk is thicker than my homemade almond milk and works better in recipes if I'm trying to keep it vegan.  And the chocolate soy milk is hubby's go to after run drink.  I will occasionally swipe a bit of it for my coffee but other than that, it's his.  Our soy milk tends to stay in the fridge longer than anything else because it's used so sparingly.   We are careful what brand to buy though to be sure it's organic and not supporting any company that contributed to defeating Prop 37.  Sorry, Silk.  Not in my house.

Lastly, I make my own almond milk.  It is better than anything I've had from the store and I love that I control it.  No emulsifiers, no sweeteners, nothing but raw almonds and water.  I get the almonds in bulk from the local natural food store and buy organic when it's available.  First, I soak a cup of whole almonds for about 2 days in the refrigerator, rinsing them every 12 hours or so and refilling the water.  Then, I put about 6-7 cups of water and the rinsed and drained almonds in my Vitamix, blend it for a minute or so and then use a cheesecloth to strain off the almond pulp.  What's left is my milk.  I go through this process about twice a week and usually have almonds in the fridge soaking, ready to go.  I use my almond milk on everything...in coffee or tea, on my granola, and it works great in most cooking applications where milk is called for unless you need something a bit thicker.

So, there's my milk rundown.  I know it sounds like a lot to keep track of, but it's just how we do things.  What does the milk situation look like at your house?

Sheri

 

Tuesday...and I'm thankful for the rain!

Since planting the first garden bed over the weekend, I almost forgot to water it yesterday.  Call it old age or whatever, I mean I did turn 4-0 a few weeks ago, but these types of things slip my mind.  I'm a bit out of practice too having our "winter" off.  Speaking of the mild winter, I am still getting massive amounts of beautiful swiss chard from my garden!  It never wintered over.  A friend is picking some up tonight, we've been using it in our smoothies and I will get some frozen by the weekend because there is just too much to use fresh.  It's something completely apart from anything else I've done to go put a seed in the ground and watch it become a plant and then to be able to feed your family and even others with it.  It's magical!

Want to know what else is magical?  Heavy cream.  I am completely in love with the stuff these days.  Since I discovered how easy it is to make butter, I've been on a mission to find organic heavy cream.  Not an easy feat for some reason.  Half and half?  No issues but not heavy cream.  But I've discovered a creamery that sells direct from their farm half gallons of cream.  Half-Gallons.  Hurray for me.  And I went right to work making butter.  This stuff is so thick you could almost use it as is but I still made some of the most delicious and beautiful butter I've ever had.



I made about 3 pounds of butter out of 2/3 of a half gallon and I got 2 full cups of buttermilk as an extra.  And that is a wonderful perk because it adds a wonderful flavor to most any recipe. It's not the same as cultured buttermilk so don't think it can replace it in a recipe.  And I had no idea that sour cream really was sour cream.  Oh my...now I have to be able to let some of my actually spoil.  I don't know if I can manage it or not.

Really, I feel like I've stepped into a whole new world.  One filled with piles of mess in the kitchen as I head from project to project to project.  I'm trying to get myself on some sort of schedule now that bread making, butter making, wheat grinding and a host of other jobs fill my already jam-packed day. Wait, jam?  Oh yes, it's almost that time of year too!  I am making so much strawberry jam this year that I'll be sick of it.  It was the first thing that went from my canning stock this past year, so I know it was in demand.  That and black raspberry jelly.  It takes a lot of black raspberries to make jelly, not jam, but the result was amazing.  I will have to make some of that too!

Well, for now, the butter is made, the bread is rising and I think the coffeemaker just beeped.  Time for a few minutes of caffeine infused downtime for this busy lady.