Petaluma Urban Homestead

Wild Plum Sorbet

2012-02-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

It's February and we're already thinking of sorbet and Scrub Jay fledglings.

Yes, it's early February and the Wild Plum outside our kitchen window is in full bloom. It's always the first tree to bloom on our little homestead. It grows on the shady North side of the house and gets it's water from the underground spring that also feeds the giant Redwood further back in the yard. It is always the indicator of approaching Spring. It has served as the sunning spot for the resident Scrub Jays for years and years. It was here when we bought the place and was probably planted by earlier generations of these same Birds. It's smack in front of the "garage" doors and no human in their right mind would plant it there.

We feel blessed by this tree in so many ways. The blossoms, the birds, the fruit, a beautiful natural dye from it's leaves, plum jam and... sorbet!

A couple of years ago my Wild Plum jam did not set and as disappointing as that was it lead to a new discovery. I realized I could simply pour it into the little Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker (a Recycletown find and easily found in thriftshops) and make sorbet. I add some dried ginger but you could add fresh grated too. Plum Ginger Sorbet is a huge hit around here. We always make it during our Spring Herb Camp and the kids love it.

"Thank you" little plum tree for being so giving...

Make your own Yogurt

2012-01-26T13:54:00.000-08:00

At our house we make two and a half quart jars every two weeks. We are blessed here in Petaluma to be surrounded by organic dairies. The Clover processing plant is literally a few blocks away. We pick up a half gallon of organic milk at the grocery store. My friend Karen has a cow-share here in town so she's getting raw milk. I keep meaning to look into that. That would be the way to go.

So, most recipes have you heat the milk to 114 degrees. The milk we buy at the store is already pasteurized. So, I only heat it to 80 degrees just to get it warm enough to warm up the culture I'm putting in it.

I take a few tablespoons of my previous batch of yogurt and put it in each jar. Into that I pour my 80 degree milk and stir. I then put the lids on the jars and stick them in the oven overnight. We are blessed to have an old stove with a pilot light. It stays 150 degrees in the oven all of the time. I know that if you search for alternative methods of keeping the yogurt warm you will find many options. My friend Karen heats towels in the dryer, wraps them around her jars and puts them in a cooler.

It all takes 5-10 minutes to do. In the morning we have fresh warm yogurt for breakfast. I often do this in the evening before bed. It only needs to stay warm for 8 hours or so. I've forgotten it in the oven for up to 18 hours and it's just fine.

I have heard that if you use the same culture strain too many times it will eventually be unable to culture the milk fully. I have not had this happen but every month or so we end up eating all of the yogurt in the fridge and I buy a small container of plain yogurt and start over. Straus is very tart, Siggie's is sweet, Nancy's has the largest variety of cultures and is recommended following a round of antibiotics. We like the mild taste of Clover's organic yogurt so that's what we usually pick up.

I make yogurt for my neighbors and their kids like it thick so I add some powdered milk to the yogurt I'm using as a culture. It works. Yum!

Rain! It's about time.

2012-01-26T13:03:00.000-08:00

We've just weathered the FIRST storm of the season and it's January 26th. Our area got up to 4 inches of rain in just a few days. Luckily, our rainwater catchment tanks were down to 700 gallons. That amount came from the only other bit of rain we've had this Winter which was months ago. We let the first day if this storm's rain rinse off the roof then turned the valve and sent all that glorious water to our tanks.

We've got two 1350 gallon water tanks and a 150 gallon stock tank (duck pond). The first night of the storm brought us the remaining 2000 gallons we needed and the rest came out of the overflow pipe to flush the duck pond. It rained for two or three more days and we now have a VERY clean pond! The fish are happy, the ducks are happy, we're happy. You get the picture.

We need more tanks!

Our tanks come from Tank Depot. We order online and have them delivered to our driveway. They are lightweight and if you have the clearance you can just roll them into place. We have them on base rock platforms framed with rot-resistant wood.

The duck pond stock tank was purchased on Craigslist. It's the Rubbermaid brand. Whenever possible we buy things used but you can find these tanks at any good feed store.

Remember- The problem is the solution. We used to have big issues with water around our house foundation. Now, we don't and we also save money on water for our livestock and gardens.

Rainwater is precious. It does not belong in a storm drain. Catch it, slow it, sink it.

From Chaos to Cuteness

2011-12-23T11:28:00.001-08:00

Last year some time I posted a need for fabric and sewing notions on our neighborhood yahoo group. I asked for anything folks might have left over from other projects. Some things were dropped off on our porch and I was happy. A few weeks later a neighbor contacted me to ask if a retiring teacher friend of hers could drop off a "few" items. I said, "Sure!". The teacher's husband arrived with a truck and proceeded to unpack box after box! It was great. I sorted out what we could use in our camps and donated the rest.

Well, this week we finally dove into the boxes of felt and had some fun. It was our annual 'Gift-making Camp' and the kids were ready to get to work. While trying to come up with some good ideas I stumbled upon whimsyloft.com and found the "Sock Owl" tutorial. I just showed the kids the picture of the owl and set out the materials and they ran with it!

Two owls and a cat later...

They were quite pleased with their work.

Thank you Whimsy Loft for a fun idea and thank you anonymous retired teacher for the great materials!

Tis' the Season for Persimmons

2011-12-17T19:34:00.000-08:00

Persimmons in the Winter here are like Zucchini in the Summer here. They are everywhere and no one knows what to do with all of them. You might come home to find a bag of them mysteriously deposited on your front porch (we do!). One neighbor simply sets up a flood light aimed up at the tree from the ground just to show the beauty of the bare tree full of bright orange fruit. It is a glorious sight indeed.

I've always let them get soft and then scoop out the pulp for use in puddings, breads and pies. I pre-measure 1-2 cups and freeze it in labeled zip-loc bags for future use. It's funny, I never think to use it until the Fall or Winter. Maybe it's the warm color of it when I'm feeling cold.

Our favorite Persimmon Pudding recipe is from Bradley Ogden's Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner- Savory American Fare for Contemporary Cooks. I also simply substitute persimmon pulp for pumpkin in pie and bread recipes. I'm about to try the "Chocolate Persimmon Muffins" in my new favorite cookbook Good to the Grain- Baking with Whole-Grain Flours.

Yesterday, with a kitchen full of bowls overflowing with Fuyu Persimmons I dried my first batch in the dehydrator. I have to confess here that I am not a fan of the fruit uncooked. It's just too sweet for me. I know LOTS of folks who love to eat Fuyu's like apples and others who love to scoop out the pulp of a very ripe Hachiya. Well, I'm now a fan of the dried fruit. To me it tastes like dried Mango. Yum!

Honey Harvest 2011

2011-10-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

We got to show the kids how we harvest honey and steward the backyard hive. We found LOTS of honey which was exciting but we did not find lots of brood (egg cells and developing bees). Each time we pulled out frames full of honey the kids would clap with excitement. More importantly, each time we did find brood cells they would cheer, "Go queen! Go queen! (clap clap) Go queen! Go queen! (clap, clap)". They get it. No brood=no future bees.

We took ten honey-filled frames from the hive and left the bees that same amount to feed them through the Winter. We plan to help them with food as well.

Uncapping the comb to prepare it for the spinner. Kids can't keep their fingers out of the cappings!

Frames in the spinner. All set to spin!

Out comes the honey. This year's harvest was 25 pounds of honey which came to 2.5 gallons! Go bees!

While we cleaned up outside the boys ran inside and grabbed some packing paper they had been playing with. They both made their own beekeeper suits!

Cross your fingers for the our bees. We'll pamper them over the Winter and report back to you in the Spring.

Seed Saving- Sunflowers

2011-10-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

When the sunflower seeds are fully formed harvest the whole flower head. You can knock off a few flowerettes to check if it's ready for harvest.

Our resident Scrub Jay got a head start on this one! Watch the birds. They'll tell you if the seeds are ready!

Knock off all of the old flowerettes covering the mature seeds.

Then, start picking out those seeds. They are so tasty when they are fresh!

A Mammoth Sunflower gets saved for next year.

Seed Saving- Amaranth

2011-10-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

It's seed saving time around the ol' homestead. The kids dove right into the process. Amaranth seeds were the favorite. It's easy to gather, sift and winnow. Once its cleaned the seeds are silky smooth to the touch.

GATHERING-

SIFTING-

WINNOWING_

SAVING-

They also collected Queen Anne's Lace, Scabiosa, Nigella, assorted Sunflowers, Calendula, Lambsquarters, and Iceland Poppies.

Community Cider Pressing and Old-Time Music Jam

2011-08-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

Ahhh! The might Gravenstein apple! It's that time of year in Sonoma County. The Gravensteins are rolling down the streets of our neighborhood and we just couldn't see them go to waste. So, we dusted off the family apple press and put out the word for folks to bring their apples over. Some people wanted apple juice and some people were pressing specifically to make their own hard cider. Either way it was a fun event.

We hosed off the press, put it away and moved to the front porch for an Old-Time music jam with friends from the East Bay, San Francisco and Santa Cruz.

Followed by a potluck supper (always an amazing array of fabulous fresh and local food) including Belma's perfect chile rellenos, our homemade hard cider and a local turkey served with plum chutney. Then, out back to continue playing music with the ducks and chickens.

Jude and Eric walked downtown to pick up some ice cream and we broke again for dessert! Apple pie and apple cobbler, chocolate zucchini cake and plum ginger sorbet. Then, off to the living room to continue playing and singing into the evening. Thanks to Steve for bringing his amazing song book!

Susun Weed's article on Lambsquarters

2011-07-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of our Magenta Lambsquarters.

I started to write an entry about this amazing plant and then found that Susan Weed had previously written one. I am a big fan of her books and her work in general.

Here is her article reposted here from Wisdom Magazine's Web Edition (http://www.wisdom-magazine.com/Article.aspx/2198/)

Susan Weed wrote-

I told the new apprentice we were having lamb's quarters for dinner.
"I won't have any. I'm a vegetarian," she replied.
With a smile, I corrected myself. "Some people call it fat hen."
"I don't eat chicken either," she responded with a frown.
"It's also called goosefoot," I countered, suppressing a grin.
"Not goose, not even the feet, do I eat," she said with force.
And I agreed, "Pigweed is a more common name for it."
"No matter what kind of animal it is, I am NOT going to eat it," she stated firmly, her eyes shining with fervor and unshed tears.
I confessed, now openly laughing. "It's a weed. A plant. A cooked green!"

Whatever you call it, Chenopodium album and its edible sisters - there are dozens of useful species - is a versatile weed that offers incredible amounts of nourishment to those who harvest it instead of cursing it. It is one of the most widely distributed plants in the world, tolerant of poor soils, high altitudes, and minimal rainfall. Global warming is just fine with lamb's quarters. In higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, it grows almost double in size. And that's good news for those who are in the know about its benefits.

The young, tender leaves of lamb's quarter are tasty in salads. The older leaves, stripped from their stalks and cooked in a small amount of water for thirty minutes or more, are a rich and tasty bone-building green. Left to mature, lamb's quarter plants produce copious amount of protein-rich seeds which are easy to harvest and use. The roots are used as medicine.

The goosefoot family (cheno is goose, pod is foot) includes lamb's quarters, quinoa, spinach, red beets, sugar beets, and Swiss chard (silver beet). Indigenous peoples all over the world have made use of wild goosefoots and cultivated them, too. Chenopodium seed stores have been found in many European Neolithic ruins. They were in the ritual meal fed to the Tollund Man 2000 years ago in Denmark.

In North America, Blackfoot Indians used the seeds as early as 1500CE, while both lamb's quarter greens and the seeds are firmly embedded in the cultures and meals of the Navajo, the Pueblo, all the tribes of Arizona, the Diggers of California, and the Iroquois. In South America several tamed wild goosefoots have been created: Chenopodium quinoa and canahua for their nutritious seeds; huauzoutte for its delicious greens.

I am especially fond of lamb's quarter greens cooked. A half-cup serving (110 grams) contains over 300 mg of calcium (Swiss chard has 88g, spinach 93g) and 11,600 IU of vitamin A activity. (Swiss chard has 6500, spinach 8100.) Lamb's quarter greens are also an excellent source of B vitamins, especially riboflavin and folic acid. And they are more than four percent protein.

Lamb's quarter leaves enrich plants as well as people. Bio-dynamic farmers dry them and combine with equal parts dried dandelion, nettle, purslane, sage, and chamomile to make a special plant food for the autumn garden.

Depending on where you live, it may be too late to enjoy lamb's quarters greens right now. Lamb's quarters is an annual, so it doesn't last long once it has put out its tiny green flowers. But you can probably still harvest lamb's quarter seeds. I harvest protein- and mineral-rich lamb's quarter for seed in September and early October here in the Catskills. I cut the plants low to the ground and immediately put them heads down - in paper bags.

When I have harvested all I want, I lay fresh paper or an old sheet on the floor, take the plants out of the paper bags, and hang them - still heads down - above. The seeds that fall out as the plants dry are easy to collect. I use my hands to release the seeds that don't fall out. I dehydrate the seeds in a very slow oven (110F), let them cool completely, then store them, chaff and all, in a tightly sealed glass jar.

I cook lamb's quarter seeds in with any grain that I make, such as brown rice, kasha, even quinoa. I stir lamb's quarter seeds (and nettle seeds and plantain seeds) into my morning oatmeal when I put it up to boil. I sprinkle lamb's quarter seeds in pancakes and muffins and cornbread. I add lamb's quarter seeds to soups, sautéing them with the onion at the beginning of the soup making. I throw lamb's quarter seeds into my tomato sauce, where they add so much flavor and protein that some people swear I've used meat in my sauce.

Lamb's quarter seeds are totally safe to eat, but there are two cautions to keep in mind when eating lamb's quarter leaves. All edible plants in this family - including spinach and chard - concentrate oxalic acid in the leaves. And oxalic acid can interfere with calcium utilization unless eaten with a good source of calcium, such as cheese or yogurt, at the same meal. The roots of lamb's quarter search out and concentrate nitrogen (protein). Plants growing in fields that have been heavily fertilized (with chemical fertilizers) can contain large amount of nitrites and nitrates. Fertilized plants have harmed livestock and, theoretically, could harm us.

Green blessings are all around you. And a gardener's best revenge is to eat the weeds, especially lamb's quarter.

Recipes

Herb Salt-

Lamb's quarter leaves are so mineral-rich that they can be used alone as a salt substitute. But adding aromatic herbs enlivens the taste. Adding seaweed not only makes this herb salt salty, it increases the nutritive benefits.

1 part dried lamb's quarter leaves
1 part dried thyme or rosemary
1 part dried dill or celery leaves
1 part dried marjoram or oregano
2 parts dried seaweed (Nereocystis kelp is the best)

Gently toast seaweed in a cast iron skillet until very crisp. Grind each herb in a coffee mill while seaweed cools. Then grind seaweed and combine with ground herbs. Store in a shaker.

Zuni Steamed Dumplings

From Carolyn Niethammer's American Indian Food and Lore (c. 1974). An easy and delicious wild food addition to any casserole, stew or soup.

Combine 1/2 cup cold water and 1/2 cup cornmeal with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add slowly to 1 1/2 cups boiling water. Cover and thicken over low heat. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup ground lamb's quarter seeds. Form into small balls. Place on a rack over boiling water and steam for 15-20 minutes, or until done. Add to a casserole, stew, or soup and cook gently for another half hour before serving.

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com

Lambsquarters Pasta with Pesto!

2011-07-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

In Cooking From the Garden Camp making our own pasta is always one of the highlights. This year we have an abundance of a highly nutritious "weed" called Lambsquarters. I have let it go to seed in the garden to the point that it is just about everywhere. That's fine with us since it is excellent fodder for the chickens, ducks and rabbit. Better yet, it's highly nutritious food for us!

We intentionally got our first plant as a weed in a seedling from the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (www.oaec.org). They grow the variety called Magenta Lambsquarters (Chenopodium Giganteum). In our garden these plants grow as tall as 6 feet. They are super high in Vitamin C and A and are loaded with minerals too. Around here we call Lambsquarters a "superfood". They are so nutritious that friends have been making green smoothies with them. The kids love the magenta variety because they contain a pink powdery substance at the growth center of each leaf. This powder comes off with their fingers and they like to paint their faces with it. They love being able to paint their faces and then pop the leaf in their mouth and eat it. Even the seeds can be eaten as a source of protein and minerals. One half cup of seed contains 19.6 grams of protein, 1036 milligrams of Calcium, 1687 milligrams of Potassium and 27.1 grams of fiber. They can be ground and used as a hot cereal or added to bread. One plant produces seeds like you wouldn't believe and brings Bushtits and Chickadees to the garden in droves. Just yesterday the kids were happy to find the more common variety (Chenopodium album) growing in our favorite forage field.

So... back to the pasta! We harvested our Lambsquarters and steamed it up to use instead of spinach for making green pasta. While we were in the garden we also harvested Italian Parsley, Cilantro, and Chickweed with which to make pesto.

Into the pasta dough went our pureed Lambsquarters and homegrown duck eggs. The kids love making anything they can get their hands gooey in!

A little muscle went into kneading the dough.

Then, even more muscle went into cranking out the pasta.

First, they made sheets of pasta then they ran it through the linguine cutter and hung it up to dry a bit.

Counting the noodles was a fun task. They counted 109!

I refrigerated the pasta in an air-tight container overnight. For lunch the next day we boiled it up, topped it with our pesto and a little grated Pecorino-Romano. They devoured it all! It was hit!

Herbs for Kids Camp

2011-06-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

We harvested garlic and Stinging Nettles and both are now are hanging up to dry. We made mint sun tea and juiced lemons. The next day we combined both and made our first lemon-mint sorbet. We processed dried Lemon Balm for tea. Lucy happily filled a big jar to take home.

On our field trip to Salmon Creek School we spent lots of time in the garden. Everyone picked there own herbs for tea and we all tried different combinations. We had Spearmint and Peppermint leaves, Chamomile flowers, and Raspberry leaves. In the past we've used Calendula flowers, Lavender flowers and Sage too. The kids were so happy with their teas that many of them made a second cup.

They also discovered the Jerusalem Sage flowers and happily sucked the nectar out of every last one! Next to the beautiful cob greenhouse was a large Bronze Fennel. Calvin was particularly fond of munching on the leaves and with his teeth in their current state I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Every day of camp we played the WILDCRAFT! board game, read stories from Leslie Tierra's A Kid's Herb Book, and tried herbal recipes from the great zine series Herbal Roots. If someone got a splinter or mosquito bite we made an herbal remedy for it. These kids are so open and curious. They really want to learn and they know so much already. They never cease to amaze me!

Natural Dyes and Paints Camp!

2011-06-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

We started off by heading over to one of the kid's houses to harvest walnut leaves. We pruned a sidewalk purple leafed plum tree on the way home. Then, we headed to the park to collect oak galls. I pre-mordanted all of the shirts and socks in an alum solution simmered for 30 minutes and then left in overnight. We experimented with a pair of shorts pre-mordanted in oak galls since they are so high in tannin. I've even seen fibers dyed in straight oak gall dye before. But, this time we were using it as a homemade mordant.

These two goof balls (also known as Ian and Kisho) did matching shiboried shirts in the walnut leaf dye.

We boiled up a purple cabbage, added some left over "paint' we had made from blueberries, blackberries and raspberries (juice really). Marta did a design with rubber bands around marbles in a circle. We ended up calling it the "magic shirt" because it liked to change color. Some of the rubber bands she used had been used in a turmeric dye before and created a sunburst around the marbles. When she wore it and filled some water balloons at the park it turned blue where it got wet. Later, we picked 135 oranges from a neighborhood tree. When we juiced them some of the juice got on the shirt and turned it orange. She was quite pleased with herself!

Lucy decided to dye an entire outfit in different dyes. So, we have a shirt dyed in purple plum leaves in a rusty bucket. She wrapped rubber bands around marbles in a circle around her crow. We have shorts mordanted in oak galls and then dyed in the walnut leaves. They came out a beautiful golden color.

One of her socks was dyed in walnut leaves. The other was dyed in a yellow onion skin dye bath we had already used to dye our fancy eggs in the day before. She shiboried her socks using popsicle sticks and rubber bands.

Last but certainly not least we have Charlie in his amazing yellow onion skin dyed shirt. Talk about a happy guy. He wore it to camp for two days straight!

More fun to come. This week is HERBS FOR KIDS CAMP and we've been busy!

Hot and Steamy.... Compost

2011-06-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

So, I head down to Bovine Bakery a couple of times a week for a little treat or a loaf of organic bread. I pick up two or three five-gallon buckets of kitchen waste each time. The buckets contains fruit and veggie scrapes, egg shells and lots of coffee grounds. I layer the contents of the buckets with used straw and shavings and grass and weeds from the chicken and duck coops as well as the contents of our pet rabbit's litter box.

First kitchen scraps, then weeds/grass/straw/shavings/bunny box. Each layer gets watered in with duck pond water to get that "wrung out sponge" moisture level all those composting books talk about. Within 24 hours it heats up. The goal is to keep it hot for as long a possible. That kills any seeds or pathogens that may be lurking. Doug Gosling at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center sets a goal of 140-160 degrees for their giant compost piles. I'm lucky to to get my compost that hot. Usually it's between 120 and 130 degrees.

I've got two separate composters and as each one fills I empty the older one into some open bottomed packing crates until I need the finished compost for the garden. Since it's cooled off by then the worms automatically move in. I never imported any they just showed up to work. They finish off the composting process, contribute worm castings to the finished product and provide a great source of protein for the ducks! Win, win, win....

7-spotted and Asian Multicolored Ladybugs

2011-05-19T20:54:00.001-07:00

While transferring ladybug larvae to our fruit trees this morning I noticed something. There were two distinctly different kinds of larvae! Well, upon further investigation I found that we have (at least) two different kinds of ladybugs in the 'nursery'. One is the 7-spotted from western Europe and the other is called the Multicolored Asian Ladybug. Just yesterday one of the kids was looking at the 'nursery' plant and said, "Wow! That ladybug has a lot of spots!". Well, she was right.

So, the larvae I showed in the previous post belongs to the Multi-colored Asian Ladybug (Harmonia axyridis). The larvae I found today belongs to the 7-spotted ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata). These are not as spiky. They look more like little gray alligators with orange spots.

Here is the adult 7-spotted Ladybug.

The fruit trees are now full of ladybug adults, eggs, larvae and pupae. It's an amazing site to behold!

Here are some ladybug eggs on the underside of a cherry tree leaf.

Here is the in between stage from larvae to adult.

Watch out aphids! These kids are voracious!

Aphid Infestation or Ladybug Nursery?

2011-05-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

There is a Fava Bean plant in our sidewalk bed that is covered with aphids. It looks awful! There are LOTS of other Fava Bean plants in the front yard without aphids. One plant has them. Why not pull it out? Well, there is good reason....

On closer look one will find an entire ecosystem in action. All of it existing on one plant. First to show up were the aphids. They started sucking the juices out of the plant and excreting a syrupy substance on the leaves. Then, lots of different aphid-eating insects appeared and went to work gobbling them up. At one point little yellow eggs appeared on the undersides of some leaves. I had seen adult ladybugs among the other hungry insects so I waited to see if the eggs belonged to them. Ladybug larvae eat aphids in large quantities so that plant would be a perfect spot to lay your eggs if you were a ladybug!

Sure enough, little prehistoric looking creatures appeared all prickly in orange and black dots. Those colors are these babies protection. Even though they look prickly they are actually quite soft-bodied. In nature the colors orange and black represent something that is inedible. The Monarch butterfly is the best example of this. They taste horrible to birds so many, many other butterflies use those same colors for protection even though they might be quite tasty.

So, if you see these little larvae do not be alarmed. Be happy! They are important helpers in your garden. Each day I transfer some to the fruit trees in the back garden to eat the aphids appearing on the new leaves. It's working!

It's Honeybee Time in the Neighborhood!

2011-05-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

Last week I posted our need for a swarm on our neighborhood Yahoo! list. I did the same last year and we got two hives from within a two block radius of our house. One was an extraction from our friend's front porch and another was a swarm in a neighbor's tree.

The swarm was easy to gather. I backed the truck up right under the tree with an empty hive box in it. We shook the branch and the bees just dropped into the box. We put the lid on it and sat back to watch. The remaining bees slowly flew into the hive box and that night I drove it home (a block away) and we set them up in the back yard.

Today, a neighbor had his backyard hive swarm into a tree in his yard. He called me up and I went right over. He had a cardboard box which he shook the bees into and added the last remaining ones left on the branch by cutting a piece off and putting in the box too. We were both suited up so he handed the box down the ladder to me and we walked the box of bees the one block back to the homestead. We were quite a sight in our big white suits and hoods walking down the street carrying a box of bees. I had a hive box ready in the garden and we dumped the bees right into it. Immediately, they began to work the flowers in the garden. It was amazing! The irises were loaded with bees and so were the blackberry blossoms and fava flowers. Tonight they are tucked into their new home. You can hear it humming when you put your ear to the hive box. I love that sound.

The front porch hive extraction was not quite so easy.... The bees were very tolerant of all the hammering and cutting it took to get to them. It was a strangely cold day and so they were moving slow. Lots of filled honeycomb was in that little front porch.

My husband Paul was able to fit the natural comb into hive box frames using rubber bands. Eventually the bees filled out these frames and chewed off the rubber bands.

We were able to fit them right into the hive box, load them into the truck and take them out to a friend's farm three miles away. They stayed out there for a few weeks and then we brought them home. Had we just brought them home a block away they would have all flown back to our friend's porch!

It will be warm again tomorrow. I better get another hive box ready!

So, I asked my neighbor for a pot...

2011-04-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

We have a neighborhood yahoo group that we use for everything from finding a lost cat to fighting the use of Round-up at our neighborhood park. Just this week I posted a request for honey bee swarms and a piano. I can't say enough great things about the group or this neighborhood!

So, a while back I posted my need for a large stock pot in which to brew natural dyes. I got a response from a neighbor I had never met but I had certainly noticed her house before. She often puts out a pair of scissors on a string in the middle of her blooming front yard Lavender enticing passersby to cut some some flowers for themselves. The kids and I had gathered lavender with those scissors in the past and always looked forward to the next year when we could harvest more amongst the buzzing honey bees.

She said she had an old canning pot she wasn't using anymore and that it might be just the thing for me. I walked down to her house to meet her and check out the pot. A couple of hours later I walked back home with my new pot in hand. She and I had gotten into a conversation about her travels around the world. She had recently returned from Uzbekistan where she had seen some beautiful work with natural dyes. She had purchased a few things that were just stunning. You can see the variation in color from one plant dye batch to the next. It was inspiring to say the least.

I had just pruned the Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) in the front yard and knew it was a dye plant (one of 25 here at the ol' homestead). I had some undyed wool yarn and a couple of thrift shop shirts I had bought to wear in the garden. One was striped with pink and purple and the other was white. After mordanting them with alum I put them in a bath of Toyon leaves and twigs. I was pleased with the results. The striped shirt caught the eye of a friend who now wears it. The peach shirt I wear in the garden and the yarn awaits a project.

A couple of days ago I had decided to write about this and needed to call that neighbor with the pot to ask if it was Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan she told me about. Then, she appeared at the door bearing a bucket of snails. How nice!

Easter Eggs with Plant Dyes

2011-04-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here is our latest round of Easter eggs dyed with plants. We made two dye baths of onion skins. One pot was with yellow onion skins and the other was with red onion skins. This time we used flowers AND leaves for our prints and were quite happy with this results! The flowers themselves gave off a color of their own.

One of the kids used the small white flower of his beloved Wild Onion (Allium triquetrum) which is white. The print it made was a gorgeous deep yellow. On the other side of his egg he used part of an Oxalis leaf to make a heart print. It also left some yellow color. Japanese Maple leaf leaves leave a color of their own as well as Wormwood (Artemesia absinthium).

For the actual process go to my April 2010 entry and you will find it there.

It's fun to unwrap the eggs to see what chemical reaction the plant has made with the dye bath. Some leaves give color like this Buckeye leaf print while others just leave a resist print.

Our favorite looks like a flower print in blue. The flower itself was white with a purple center. The leaf print is Wormwood.

Weeding Our Neighbor's Garden, Part 2 (Chickweed)

2011-04-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is delicious and plentiful in the backyards of our neighborhood. When we can't keep up with it we feed it to our chickens and ducks who love it. It comes up on its own in the garden beds and is easy to identify. The stem when gently broken and pulled apart has a little 'string' inside. When the plant blooms the flower looks like a little star. Hence the name Stellaria.

My favorite Spring tonic! Chickweed is highly nutritious and contains gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an essential fatty acid. I have made a salad of only chickweed and dressing much to my taste buds' delight. It tastes just like a spinach salad without the funny feel on your teeth. I have read about large quantities causing stomach upset but I've sure never experienced it. Lately I've been making pesto out of it. Because the flavor is so mild I add Cilantro to spice it up a bit. Just combine garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper with your herbs in a blender. That's it. I make big batches in wide mouth jars and then freeze it. We've been eating pesto all winter this way. We put it on everything! We put in on toast, sandwiches, tamales, pasta, rice dishes, meat loaf, anything that needs a little extra flavor.

I'm not the only one around here who's hooked on Chickweed pesto on toast topped with a backyard egg!

Weeding Our Neighbor's Garden, Part 1 (Calendula)

2011-04-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

Our friends who happen to live behind us (see very first blog entry) have a 'weed' problem in their vegetable garden. We need Calendula for our homemade salves, lotions and lip balms but have a hard time growing it. What does one thing have to do with the other? Everything. Each year as the rains fall in our gardens we all get edible, useful and medicinal plants without even trying.

For a hundred years or so our two houses have been here and our backyards have been joined. Over that span of time much of our topsoil has been washed by rain into our friend's backyard down slope . We are left with clay soil filled with river-rolled pebbles (and lots of broken glass). Many years of compost has now been added to our soil but it has a long way to go to match the silty soil next door. With the two different soil types we get different types of weeds.

I've planted Calendula officinalis (pot marigold) in our garden over the years and it grows but doesn't thrive. Next door, no one plants the smaller, wilder Calendula arvensis (field marigold) and it happily grows everywhere without effort.

Each year before they pull it out to give their veggies some room I go over with my basket and harvest. This year I had help. The kids happily dove into the process. At first there was talk of spiders and bees and ladybugs and then eventually silence. They were engrossed. "Snip, snip", "buzzzzzz.....".

As we were finishing up our friend came home with his little daughter. She saw us and quickly grabbed her big plastic 'trick or treat' jack o' lantern and began filling it with the small orange flowers. Her Dad pitched in saying, "You remember that oil you like? It comes from these flowers". Then, with baskets brimming with color we finished the harvest. "Look! The sun is in our baskets!" one of them said. Sure enough. They glowed like they were lit from within. Our hands sticky and smelling of warm Calendula we headed back to the house to prep the flowers for drying.

We then laid the flowers out on trays for drying in the greenhouse. We really just needed them wilted and not completely dried. Because we were putting them directly into olive oil and not storing them for use at a later time we just needed a lot of the moisture out to keep the oil from spoiling. The warmth of the greenhouse had them ready in no time.

We got out a big Mason jar and packed it with our flowers. Olive oil was poured over the flowers so that it covered about a half an inch above the flower level. We checked it later and the flowers had absorbed the oil so we had to top it off. I keep the jar in the side of our old oven where I store my cast iron pans. That way it gets warm from the pilot light in the other side and I can check it each day when I get out a pan. In June the kids and I will strain out the flowers and make our favorite Calendula Healing Salve. They put it on all of their bumps and scratches. One of the girls uses it for her eczema. I've given it to friends with babies and they swear it's the instant cure for diaper rash. I use it every night on my lips before bed. Its magic.

The Greenhouse Heads Toward Completion

2011-04-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

In search of a salvaged door for the new greenhouse we went back to Recycletown at the Sonoma County Dump in Petaluma. Nothing caught our eye in the door section so we headed over to the windows again. After measuring and brainstorming we found a skinny window that matched the ones we had already installed. My husband decided to make a door out of that window and voila! We had our greenhouse door. The window in the lower right corner of the picture above is the one we took home that day.

Framed with more Redwood water tank wood and fitted with a Victorian era knob and latch found in an old farm's garbage pit the door came out perfect!

Fitted with re-purposed plexiglass from our friend Sylvia's printmaking studio and stained glass left over from a prior project the greenhouse is getting closer to completion. Leaded glass windows left over from my parents' house remodel join the 'new' door. The only thing actually new about the greenhouse is the polycarbonate roofing, Univent, nails, screws and the roof cap.

One rainy and windy day last month I spent some time sowing seeds in the new greenhouse. It was warm and dry inside. The beautiful colors of the wood and glass brought 'a tear to me eye!'. I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be at that moment. That is one good feeling!

Those seeds have now been transplanted and the extras have been doled out to friends.

Some went to their new home across town in a bicycle basket and some were carried to neighbors on foot. The greenhouse is doing its job and doing it well!

A Reverence for Wood

2011-03-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

Many years ago my husband became enamored with the books of Eric Sloane. Over the years we searched the "used" section at our downtown bookstore COPPERFIELD'S and were able to pick up many different volumes of his work.

Sloane was considered an artist, philosopher, historian and environmentalist. He had a keen interest in New England folk culture, Colonial daily life, and Americana. He wrote and illustrated quite a number of books on tools, architecture, farming techniques, folklore, and rural wisdom. Every book included detailed illustrations and hand lettered titles. A few of our favorites are Our Vanishing Landscape (1955), A Museum of Early American Tools (1973) , A Reverence for Wood (1965) and An Age of Barns (1975).

In this age of reclaimed, recycled, and re-purposed materials Eric Sloane's work can be an inspiration. He saw the beauty and utility of what was being lost in the 50's, 60's and 70's. He tried to preserve it in his books. Now, from those books we can learn about the skills, tools, architecture, and wisdom of what has been lost.

Here are some images of our recycled Redwood front gates. Inspired by Eric Sloane and built by my husband a few years ago.

Materials used: 100 year-old Petaluma chicken barn wood for fence boards (these collapsed barns can be found all over the Petaluma countryside), old barn beams as posts, old barn beam cut-offs for the arbor, recycled deck wood for the gate framing.

Sources: Heritage Salvage, Sonoma Compost, and our own deck re-build. The rusty lag bolts came from the Petaluma Junk Company in the back of Masselli's.

Above, the gate when new. Below, as the gate looks today. The wooden spring on the gate latch was taken directly from Eric Sloane's books. It was made out of scavenged cherry wood and the latch itself is made of scavenged hardwood shelving pieces from a defunct wine cooling unit.

Hopefully, we can do our part to preserve and conserve those pieces of the past that still have utility and beauty. If not, we can learn the useful skills of the past and put them to good use in the future. No one's going to do it for us. We're going to have to do it ourselves!

The Problem is the Solution

2011-03-17T17:46:00.000-07:00

The Permaculture Principle "The Problem is the Solution" rings true.

Bill Mollison once said, "You don't have a snail problem. You have a duck deficiency". We'll we have certainly found that to be true around here. With our four backyard ducks our garden is completely snail-free. On our front porch can be found a bucket labeled, "SNAIL DEPOSITORY". Our neighbors bring their snails to us and our ducks can't get enough of them. The ducks turn all that good protein into big nutritious eggs year-round. And, our neighbors don't have to put out toxic pesticides to solve their snail problems.

I post our need for snails on our neighborhood Yahoo Group list and the snails just arrive. I do ask that they come from pesticide-free gardens. Snails are dropped off at all hours of the day and night. I check the bucket daily and the ducks know it by sight when it's heading their way. We just call, "duckies!" and all four girls come running up the pathway. It makes us laugh every time. Everybody's happy.

Another example of this principle comes from our much loved BOVINE BAKERY just downtown. Their tag line is "Bringing fresh, organic, handmade pastries and strong, organic coffee to Petaluma and Pt. Reyes Station". They have a abundance of kitchen scraps (fruits, vegetables, eggshells and coffee grounds) they don't want to put in the landfill. We use it to beef up the volume of our compost. Whew! It's working too. We have been making some beautiful, hot compost around here. Another win-win.

Music: Homegrown and Handmade

2011-02-19T15:53:00.000-08:00

In Jenna Woginrich's book MADE FROM SCRATCH: DISCOVERING THE PLEASURES OF A HANDMADE LIFE there is a chapter entitled "Homemade Mountain Music". It got me thinking about how music was such an important part of Helen and Scott Nearing's 'good life'.

The Nearings are considered the great-grandparents of the back to the land movement in this country. Helen was a trained violinist and she and Scott played music together to relax after a hard day's work. I'm sure with all of the visitors they had over their long years of homesteading in Vermont and Maine they had many a music jam!

If you have not read their 1954 book "LIVING THE GOOD LIFE" now is the time.

Helen and Scott were devoted to a lifestyle giving importance to work, on the one hand, and contemplation or play, on the other. Ideally, they aimed at a norm that divided most of a day's waking hours into three blocks of four hours: "bread labor" (work directed toward meeting requirements of food, shelter, clothing, needed tools, and such); civic work (doing something of value for their community); and professional pursuits or recreation (for Scott this was frequently economics research, for Helen it was often music - but they both liked to ski, also). -Wikipedia

Helen did love her classical music records. You can see her phonograph behind her.

We hosted our first-ever potluck and old-time music jam a couple of weeks ago. Everyone ate out on the front porch and then moved inside to play music. It was an unusually warm evening so the front door was open. In between songs we could hear applause from neighbors passing by.

Here's a picture-

Actually, we had fourteen people crammed into our front room. We had an upright bass, four guitars, four banjos, a mandolin, and four fiddles. It felt like this picture looks!

Even the cat joined in....

Actually, we don't have a cat!

The Greenhouse Comes to Life

2011-02-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

We love building with recycled, reclaimed and salvaged materials. The redwood for the greenhouse framing came from a disassembled water tank. The wood had been stored in a barn for 50 odd years awaiting reuse. Luckily, someone who knew its value was present when the water tank was taken down. It is beautiful wood.

At Sonoma Compost there are stacks and stacks of reclaimed redwood boards. People tear down Redwood decks and fences and take the wood to the dump. Luckily, they set it aside for reuse. We've found gorgeous water tank wood there, as well as beams from old barns. It's wonderful to see all that useful and beautiful wood being diverted from the wood chipper and eventually the compost heap. Thank you Sonoma Compost! Check them out at www.sonomacompost.com. They are located at the Sonoma County Landfill. 500 Meacham Road in Petaluma.

The greenhouse rafters are tank wood and the ridge beam is made from old siding off of our house. It was in the lumber pile and it fit the bill. Blessedly, it was unpainted redwood as well. In the background our backyard Redwood tree looks down on the new 6' X 9' greenhouse.

All of the windows for the greenhouse walls came from Recycletown (www.garbage.org) at the Sonoma County Landfill, Petaluma. We could not have found more perfect windows for our needs. Nine of them six-feet tall with bottom sliding windows and screens for ventilation. They made the project much easier to build because of their height and uniformity.

Now that we have our final dimensions we will look for a door and some front windows at Recycletown or Urban Ore (www.urbanhore.com). Right now, we're in the middle of a storm so construction has halted. We'll post any progress once we get back to work.

Birds Watching

2011-02-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

Ours is a permaculture garden. It is constantly evolving. As we observe more we learn more about what grows well in which parts of the garden. Who likes to grow with who and what kind of soil do they like best. We are still building our long-term goal of a permaculture food forest. It takes time to build and a willingness to adapt (just like the plants).

We have been starting seeds in cold frames for many years now. It works well but now we are ready for something more. So, our dream of a small backyard greenhouse is coming to life.

We are not the only ones adapting to our site. We are not the only ones who live here. We live with many birds both wild and domestic. Every one of them is watching everything we do in the garden.

Now, with a new structure being built it is just too fascinating to resist. A new foundation? Rocks! Ooh! Cutting wood! It's all too exciting!

Next up, the greenhouse comes to life!

Good Ol' Truck, Good Ol' Wheelbarrow

2011-02-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

Around here we love old things. I guess that's why we bought this old house. When we bought it the realtor considered it a 'tear down'. She thought someone would buy it just to build something new in it's place. We saw the heart and soul in it. It's great natural light, the wildness of the yard, the good neighbors.

When we dug into and got down to the bones of it we travelled from the 1970's back to 1907. That's a lot of layers and sadly a lot of trips to the dump. We needed a truck for dump runs and after buying the house there was no money left to purchase such a thing. Then, we remembered Big Blue sitting out in a field at my husband's old family place. The '69 Chevy hadn't run in many years but we knew it could. With some elbow grease and a trip to the junk yard for new wheels and tires Big Blue was on the road again. In no time we were on our first run to the dump with a truck load of green 70's carpeting, cheap wood paneling, and many layers of wallpaper and acoustic ceiling panels. We were feeling good and getting things done. Then the hood blew up and the engine overheated and we were stuck on the side of the road. We were out in the country so we knocked on the door of a nearby farmhouse and got some water for the radiator. Got some rope to tie the hood down and continued on our way.

When we got there we couldn't believe all of the trucks and trailers filled with usable things heading for the landfill. This was the last year our local dump just had you drive to the edge of a great precipice and dump everything over it. As we pulled up to our spot on the edge I saw a truck parking with a wheelbarrow in the back. As my husband parked I jumped out and ran like the bionic woman over to that doomed wheelbarrow. "Wait!" I yelled. "I'll take that!". Whew! Nick of time. I had it in my possession. We got it home, fobbed up a new axle for it and have been using it for 9 years now.

As I said, that was the last year our dump operated that way. Now, there is mandatory recycling and an amazing place called Recycletown where the still-usable items are sold for a nominal price.

I recently thought about all of this while using the wheelbarrow to haul base rock for the floor of our new greenhouse. We just started construction last week. It will be built with windows from Recycletown, redwood from an old water tank, salvaged leaded and stained glass windows and a salvaged door. Should be fun! I'll post our progress here.

Big Blue has since gone on to be a Father and Daughter restoration project in a nearby town.

Petaluma's Own.... Arann Harris and the Farm Band

2011-02-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

Fun with Found Objects

2011-01-28T10:29:00.000-08:00

This mattress spring was hauled into the yard for use as a trellis. It was far too appealing for another use. Add a piece of plywood and an impromptu square dance might ensue.

Petaluma Urban Homestead Olive Oil

2011-01-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

We had a bumper crop of Mission Olives this year. We inherited two very large trees when we bought this house. We have cured them in the past but in recent years they have had the olive fruit fly and were unusable. Not this year!

We are blessed to have two olive presses within a 20 mile radius of our little homestead. Both McEvoy in Petaluma and The Olive Press in Sonoma offer two different community pressing days a year. That's four chances to get olives pressed. Our olives were ready just in time for The Olive Press date in December. The olives cannot be picked more than 24 hours before pressing. Our trees needed pruning so we ended up stripping the pruned branches right into the bins the day of the pressing. We ended up with 65 pounds. There were plenty left on the tree but we ran out of time. Next time we'll invite friends to help harvest.

The Olive Press weighed our harvest and charged $0.65/pound. There were lots of other folks with olives waiting in line. The olives varied in size and variety but all were checked for quality. They combined all of the community olives and pressed them together. They could then determine the weight to volume ratio. A few weeks later we picked up a gorgeous GALLON of extra virgin olive oil! We won't be missing this opportunity again.

There are PLENTY of urban olive trees that go unpicked every year. This is an incredibly underutilized local crop. We have olive presses available for community use and we are importing olive oil from all over the world. Another urban gleaning opportunity awaits.

Carob Nut Balls

2011-01-27T17:20:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays the kids made handcrafted gift baskets. We included Carob Nut Balls in wax paper bags tied with twine. Our homemade calendula soap, a plant-dyed dish towel, our homemade lotion and a decorated gourd were all combined in a paper grocery bag made into a gift basket. They were quite happy with their work!

Our recipe is based on the one I found at FRAN'S HOUSE OF AYURVEDA. Thank you Fran!

"3/4 cup almond butter
1/2 cup carob powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup raw honey, brown rice syrup or agave nectar (up to 1/2 cup if you like them sweeter)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup puffed cereal*
1/2 cup chopped nuts*

COATING OPTIONS
unsweetened coconut
carob ganache
cocoa or carob powder combined with a dash of cinnamon

Thoroughly combine the almond butter, carob powder, cinnamon, honey and vanilla. The dough will be quite stiff. Knead in the nuts and cereal. With wet hands, form into walnut-sized balls. Make sure the surface is glisteningly damp. Choose which coating you'd like to use and roll balls in either coconut, carob ganache, or cocoa/carob powder. Personally, I tried them all, just to see how pretty each variation can be. I found the coconut coating to be the nicest, and easy to coat by shaking the balls in a ziploc bag with the coconut.

Refrigerate until firm, or freeze in an air-tight container to store for a week or more.

*If you have the option, choose a tiny puffed grain like quinoa or millet. Otherwise, crisp rice will work great, or a flake cereal crushed into smaller bits. If using sweetened cereal, use smaller amount of honey.
*Use any seeds or chopped nuts you like, or according to your dosha. I used lightly toasted pecan pieces."

For those of you unsure about Carob here is some information that might be helpful:

-Carob has it's own natural sugars similar to what you find in honey and fruits.
-Unlike chocolate, you don't have to add a lot of sweetener to make it taste good.
-It's an alkaline food
-Contains 3 times as much calcium as chocolate.
-High in fiber and protein
-Full of antioxidants and polyphenols
-Low in fat (contains about 1% fat compared to 24% fat in cocoa)
-High in vitamins and minerals (contains iron, vitamin B, phosphorus, and magnesium)
-Hypoallergenic
-Doesn't contain any harmful stimulants such as caffeine, theobromine, or theophylline
-Not addictive
-Safe enough for dogs to eat unlike chocolate which can seriously injure or kill them

I remember living in San Diego and walking around my neighborhood picking up carob pods off the sidewalk. It was planted as a landscape tree. I'd break a pod open and want to eat it on the spot. They smelled delicious!

In her course at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center Michelle Vesser makes "Ojas Balls". "Ojas- the essence of the body, which literally means 'to invigorate'". The same basic recipe as above but she included powdered immunity-building herbs such as Ashwangandha, Codonopsis, Astragalus, and Siberian Ginseng. You can also add demulcent/moisturizing herbs such as Marshmallow Root, flax seeds and Licorice Root. Or, warming/activating herbs such as Cardamom and the Cinnamon already in the recipe. Yum!

Michelle teaches a two day course called REMEMBERING OUR WAY at OAEC. www.oaec.org Check it out.

Inspiration

2011-01-27T14:38:00.000-08:00

I have a friend who often asks me "What makes you lit?" Well, right now the answer is these three books. I cannot recommend them enough!

HOW SHALL I LIVE MY LIFE? On Liberating the Earth From Civilization by Derrick Jensen.

RADICAL HOMEMAKERS: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes.

LITTLE HEATHENS: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

Make Your Own Almond Milk

2011-01-18T21:23:00.000-08:00

By request here's my recipe:

I use 1 1/2 cups of organic 'raw' almonds. Put them in a four-cup glass measuring cup filled with filtered water. Then place them in the refrigerator overnight. I have left them in for up to three days and they are still fine. It's nice to have them well sprouted.

Pour the soaked almonds and water into the blender and hit 'liquefy'. I let them blend for about a minute.

Pour the milk and pulp into a straining cloth laid over a strainer set on top of the big measuring cup. You can use a flour sack towel or a nut milk bag. I use a non-absorbent honey-straining cloth. It's not shown in the picture but I use the strainer just in case almond pulp escapes the straining cloth somehow. I don't want to have to re-strain it. Bundle it all up in a sack and squeeze out the milk.

Pour it into a quart sized airtight container and top it off with water. Save the pulp to use in oatmeal, desserts, bread or (ever-popular with the kids) Carob Nut Balls. I'll post that recipe next.

The fresh almond milk keeps for a week or so. It's so naturally sweet it does not need to be sweetened. I am now addicted to Almond Milk Lattes. I can't even describe how good they are. I got the idea from the Cafe Gratitude cookbook called I AM GRATEFUL. In it they say, "Almonds are the only nuts that are known to alkalize the blood, while all others acidify blood. Almonds are also highest of all nuts in arginine, an amino acid that boosts the immune system and inhibits tumor growth". I thought, "If coffee is acidic why not use almond milk to counteract the acid?". It works for me!

The kids discovered the soaked almonds in the refrigerator and asked to try them. Needless to say I was unable to make almond milk with that batch since they ATE THEM ALL! They taste like young coconuts and are a great sweetish fresh snack. I didn't figure this out. They did. As I took the pictures for this post they all had a glass of fresh almond milk and then couldn't keep their hands out of the pulp when I was finished!

Royal Soil Wrapped in Foil

2010-12-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

This video just makes me smile!

Turkey Tails, Oyster Mushrooms, Bay Nuts and Acorns

2010-12-04T18:06:00.000-08:00

No, this isn't a Thanksgiving recipe even though it sounds like one! We recently took a wonderful class on "Wild Foods" at the California School of Herbal Studies. We love our wonderful teacher Autumn Summers! We've been foraging the edges of Petaluma to hunt for California Bay Laurel nuts and acorns. Both of which can be found in great abundance right in our neighborhood.

We always look far and wide for something only to find what we need right here under our noses. Our neighborhood park is called Oak Hill for a reason! The kids and I go acorn collecting and find many different varieties from which to choose. I've had them drying on a cookie sheet on top of the old stove for about a month. The griddle stays warm from the pilot light and it seems to work just fine. When we get to processing them I'll write about it here.

As part of that same class we learned about mushrooms and couldn't wait to get out in the woods! Our first find was some beautiful Turkey Tails (Trametes versicolor). An antiviral, immune enhancing, antitumor, anticancer medicine. And, as it grows on dead logs it is easy to find. This mushroom is powerful medicine and that's exactly how we will use it. It can be used as a tea, in soups for flavor or powdered and taken in capsules. We will be blending ours with other medicinal mushrooms in a tincture. When I get to tincturing I'll be sure to write about it here.

On a different outing we found some gorgeous Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus). Although this mushroom does have medicinal uses we dried some for future culinary use and sauteed some in the following morning's duck egg frittata. Delicious!

We are absolute beginners so we've only eaten the easy to identify mushrooms so far. We carry with us What the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms by David Aurora. When we get home we look through Medicinal Mushrooms: An Exploration of Tradition, Healing and Culture by Christopher Hobbs, L. Ac. We have now entered the amazing world of mushrooms!

Community Cider Pressing

2010-11-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back we hosted a community cider pressing with the family apple press.

The day before, the kids and I combed the neighborhood for unpicked apple trees. When we found a full tree we'd knock on the door of the house and ask the owner if we could pick. We'd fill our wagon, clean up after ourselves and call out "THANK YOU!" as we pulled away. It felt like we were thanking the tree as much as we were thanking the homeowner. Often in the middle of picking I'd find the kids all lined up on the sidewalk happily eating a fresh-picked apple. All smiles. Juice dripping down their chins.

My favorite quote from one of those forays is the guy who said, "Oh yeah, those apple aren't any good for eating. Take them all. I don't use them". The kids and I all agreed that those were definitely the BEST apples we had ever eaten. I still meet people who really feel that store bought anything is better than homegrown and homemade.

In our neighborhood alone we glean apples, persimmons, quince, oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, pears, loquats, blackberries, pomegranates, and walnuts. A vast majority of that food goes completely unpicked by the homeowners. Sometimes they seem relieved that we will "haul" it away. They see it as something they have to clean up instead of something wonderful to eat. Then, they drive to the store to buy produce from Mexico and Chile.

I have brought folks persimmon bread (with a recipe attached), apricot jam, quince jam, and freshly pressed apple juice. It helps when someone else sees the value in something we take for granted.

In the summer Petaluma does have a "Produce Swap". It's held down at the Fourth and Sea parking lot across from the Post Office. More and more folks are seeing the bounty of the urban food forest.

Fresh and in season. There is nothing like it!

It's Strawberry Guava Time!

2010-10-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

It's time at the ol' homestead to harvest Strawberry Guavas. Psidium cattleianum (or Cattley Guava). Our little tree (more like a bush) has been in for a few years. It was a gift from farmer friends in Fillmore, California. The plant seems quite happy here in Petaluma. We've got it planted against a south facing wall of the house with our citrus so it's protected from frost. It doesn't seem to mind our adobe soil and it gets blasted with sun in the summer. A permaculture plant for sure as it needs no attention once it's established and bears large quantities of fruit.

Here is a description from the Trade Winds Fruit website:

Dark red skinned guava, closely related to the common guava, with an excellent strawberry like flavor. Fruits are small, to 1.5" around, and the pulp is translucent and very juicy. In some varieties, the flesh can taste pleasantly spicy.

Description: Small bush or tree to 20-25ft, although often much smaller.

Hardiness: Strawberry guava's are hardy to 22F when full grown.

Growing Environment: The strawberry guava is very adaptable and can be grown outdoors throughout much of Florida and California. It will fruit in a container almost anywhere if protected from hard freezes. Trees grow well in full sun and with ample water, although short periods of drought will not harm the plant. Lots of water is needed during fruit development and for proper ripening to occur. The yellow strawberry guava (Psidium cattlenium var. lucidum) is said to be not quite as hardy as the standard red strawberry guava, but seems to survive temperatures to 25F.

Propagation: Usually by seed, sometimes by cuttings.

Native Range: Native to coastal areas of Eastern Brazil.

Uses: Usually eaten fresh or used to flavor beverages, ice creams, and desserts.

Yum!

Chicken Soup (Part 2)

2010-10-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

O.k., so my husband thought the last entry was a bit of a rant. Well, it was....

Back to Carla Emery's indispensable ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COUNTRY LIVING. She had a picture of a wooden board with two nails partially nailed in and standing up about 2 inches. It created a sort of V shape. She had us stretch the chicken out on the board with its head between the two nails. I held the body down while my husband did one whack with the kitchen cleaver (the big Japanese kind was perfect). That was it. A friend had warned me that the nerves fire off for "much longer than you'd think" so I was prepared for that. It was true. I held down with one hand until it stopped. Surprisingly little blood.

I walked the chicken over to the pot of boiling water and dunked for 30 seconds. Then, sat down on a log and commenced to pluck. The feathers came out so easily! Almost immediately the chicken looked like one you'd buy in the store. Boom! I made the connection. I was sitting there plucking a chicken I had raised just as millions upon millions of women had done throughout history. It was so empowering! I envisioned a group of women sitting on that log with me all doing the same thing. Feeding ourselves and our families. Whew!

The gutting was my husband's job as he had cleaned turkeys in the past. I washed them down and packaged them up and let them sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Then, I put one in the freezer and one in the soup pot. These hens were a year old so I did not know how edible they would be. The breast meat was perfect but the rest was pretty tough. It was good for stock and the tougher meat went to the dog. I would not raise chickens for meat but I don't mind making use of the older layers.

My plan now is to change out the flock every two years as egg production declines. I'll have the next generation of layers just about ready to lay before I cull the older hens. Do I name them or not? Hmm... My friend Jane names them and puts their name on them in the freezer so she knows who she's eating.

I had kids over last week and told them that we'd butchered two of the hens. "Which ones?", "Why?" they asked. I told them that chickens don't lay eggs for more than a few years and that I couldn't just keep adding chickens to the backyard flock. They immediately understood and asked to look in the freezer. One of them said, "I just want to say a few words". When they looked in and saw what looked like a chicken from the store they understood even more. We closed the freezer and went to the feed store to buy more chicks. "Mary Ann, Fred, Irene, and Honeycomb". So, much for not naming them.

This time I did my research. I bought varieties bred for meat AND egg production. We got two Delawares and two Golden Sexlinks. They will be added to the two just-laying Aracauna and Americauna. Heaven help them from the older Americauna's wrath.

I'll cross my fingers when it's time to integrate them. Good ol' "Ari" still walks upon the earth. She's the one pictured peering out of the peephole in the last entry.

Chicken Soup (Part 1)

2010-10-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess we just got a little more serious about the whole 'homesteading' thing...

Our Speckled Sussex hens were not quite living up to our expectations as egg layers. They were an impulse purchase at the local hay and grain. I cannot be purchasing chicks on impulse. This is a 6,000 square foot urban lot with a 1200 square foot house on it. There is not a whole lot of room for livestock. Chickens live a long time and only lay eggs regularly for a few short years.

I was in the process of introducing two new young hens to the flock which was not going well. First of all, they were supposed to be an Americauna, a Wellsummer, and a Barnevelder. But, noooo..... We ended up with an Americauna (fine), an Aracauna, and another damn Speckled Sussex! To make things worse the Speckled Sussex turned out to be a rooster. Roosters are not allowed within city limits. What a mess. Another impulse purchase gone awry. The rooster went to live on a ranch outside of town.

So, I began to introduce the two young hens to the resident flock after carefully raising them in an separate enclosure within the main enclosure. Everybody was happy. Then, the second the smaller enclosure was removed all hell broke loose. The resident Americauna went for blood and the Sussex joined in. The terrified new hens decided to live in the tree above the coop and have nothing to do with the older hens since they want to KILL them.

All I wanted were some nice little hens to lay some nice big eggs on a regular basis for the kids to collect and for us to eat. But, no. It had to be blood and mayhem and chickens living in the trees!

So, that was it. I decided the Sussex had to go. I'm still attached to my first ever chicken (the older Americauna) so I gave her a break (for now). Luckily she went into a full molt and was too weak to continue to try to KILL the new hens.

I got out my copy of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COUNTRY LIVING, turned to the section on butchering chickens and made plans for the following morning. We happened to have an out of town guest staying with us who probably thought we had completely lost our minds. "Have you ever done this before?", he asked. "No", we both answered and carried on with our plan.

My husband got up the next morning and said, "O.k., I've got my killin' pants on!". He reached for the cleaver and headed out to the backyard. Our visiting friend and I followed. I got a big pot heating on the outdoor stove. I looked over toward the coop and saw my husband holding Hanna (one of the Speckled Sussex). He looked like he was just having a little talk with her. I asked, "Are you going to be able to do this?". He said, "Yep". We all headed over to where the cleaver was waiting.

More Fun with Plant Dyes

2010-07-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

We've been having more fun with plant dyes! All of the materials were pre-mordanted with Alum and Creme of Tartar so the color won't wash out. The most fun part of it all was seeing the different colors the same dye created on cotton and wool.

A neighbor lost her beloved Black Walnut tree to a demented arborist so we decided to put the leaves to work before they headed back into the earth. The results were beautiful!

On wool yarn tied with rubber bands:

On a cotton dish towel tied with marbles and rubber bands:

We walked over to another neighbors yard and volunteered to prune her purple-leafed plum tree. With those leaves in an old metal bucket heated on our rocket stove we got our biggest surprise. At first the dye was a gorgeous magenta and we thought we'd get a similar color.

Well, after simmering for a while we took a look at the dye bath to find it almost black. Cotton t-shirts became a lovely slate grey. Wool yarn we tied off with rubber bands to get a resist affect.

Here is the resulting color combination:

Tumeric (a little goes a long way), does a bang up job on everything. I did a dish towel wrapped with rubber bands and popsicle sticks (Shibori technique). Wow!

Here is a picture of the towel with some Calendula soap we made with color from the Tumeric dye too:

More to come. I'm teaching 5 weeks of classes for kids this Summer. NATURE CRAFTS, HERBS FOR KIDS, NATURAL DYES, COOKING FROM THE GARDEN, URBAN HOMESTEADING. I'll post the highlights as we go along.

Dyes from Plants In Our Own Backyard

2010-05-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

I've been obsessed with Ida Grae's old book NATURE'S COLORS- Dyes from Plants. Lily and I found 25 dye plants just in our yard!

Beets- magenta
Cotoneaster berries- Rose tan
Daisy (Gloriosa)- bright olive to dark green
Dock root- gold
Dock blossoms- rose beige to terra cotta
Elderberries- mauve to grey blue
Grape leaves- intense yellow
Grapes- greenish blue to dark blue
Mallow- medium blue
Mullien- bright yellow or chartreuse
Olive leaves- bright yellow to olive green
Olives- deep purple
Oxalis flowers- deep orange brown
Pine needles- olive green
Plantain- brown
Plum leaves (green)- yellow green
Plum leaves (Dark)- purples
Privet leaves- yellow or dark khaki green
Privet berries- grass green
Redwood bark- tan, brown, terra cotta
Rosemary- various yellow green
Rudbeckia- bright chartreuse to dark green
Scabiosa- bright green to dark blue
Toyon- burnt orange
Walnut leaves- almost black to many browns
Walnut husks and shells- almost black to many browns
Yarrow- yellow to maize or dark green

And for us urban homesteaders in old neighborhoods there's Iron buff (all of those rusty bits we keep digging up)- orange to rusty red.

The colors vary depending on the materials used, mordants used, and pots used in the process. I'll post our findings when we get to dyeing next month. In the meantime check out Rebecca Burgess' great FIBERSHED project. She has a fabulous website and is a great resource.

Swarm Season is Here!

2010-05-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

The air around the neighborhood is buzzing. We were able to set up two new hives in the past two weeks. One came from the front porch of Lily's house and the other was a swarm that landed in a tree down the street. We shook the swarm into an hive box and they went to work.

So, we're ready for Summer! Our neighbors really missed having our bees around after we lost our two hives over the Winter. They'll be happy to know we're back in business.

Here's a copy of a note left on our front door last Summer:

"Hi Neighbors,
I hear ducks quacking.
I get bees in my back yard.
I hear banjo music, which I love.
You guys are the best neighbors EVER!!"

Fun With Plant Dyes

2010-04-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

While sitting around the old homestead we decided to have some fun with plants. Easter had just passed and we got inspired to dye eggs. I took the kids out for a walk to gather ferns and other delicate leaves with which to make prints on the eggs. In three different pots we boiled yellow onion skins (reddish brown), beets (pink), and calendula flowers with powdered tumeric root (yellow). Lily added a dash of apple cider vinegar to each pot to help set the dye. We placed the leaf or leaves on our eggs and wrapped them tightly in gauze strips fastened with rubber bands. We hard boiled them in the dye for 10-15 minutes. It was fun to unwrap them and see what happened!

The onion skins were by far the most impressive with a gorgeous deep mottled reddish-brown. The calendula and tumeric gave a pale yellow. The beet dye reacted beautifully with the maple leaf but did not give much color to the egg.

The strips of gauze also got dyed so Lily helped the kids braid necklaces and bracelets out of them. The yellow was amazingly vibrant. The reddish-brown came out peach colored and the pink did not dye the fabric at all.

Then.... we HAD to make playdoh! Lily had the idea to use the beet water as the water in the playdoh recipe. So we did and WOW did it work! We made a second batch and I had the kids knead in tumeric for yellow after it was ready to work. Here is what one of them made.

Make your own Mozzarella

2010-03-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today was fun and it tasted good too!

We made our first batch of Mozzarella! First we had to heat the gallon of milk, the recipe had a strange process for heating the milk, we had to put it in a pot in a sink that was full of hot water, and stir it and watch the temp. until it hit 90 degrees. After that we added the vegetable rennet and let it sit. Then -- IT CURDED! : ) after that we strained it and heated it and put it into balls and refrigerated it. For lunch we had sprouted wheat bread toasted with, green garlic pesto, mozzarella, and sun dried tomatoes (made in a dehydrator). It was DELICIOUS!!!

Lily Reid, * guest blogger* my personal blog about photography and crafts is lilyslivelihood.blogspot.com

The Case of the Sneaky Chicken

2010-03-11T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well... it has certainly been a while!

We've added a second 1350 gallon rainwater tank and a 150 gallon duck pond. The rainwater tanks and the pond are full and the rain is still coming down!

We collect our rainwater off of our asphalt shingle roof so we had some concerns about asphalt residue, fungicides, etc. ending up in the rainwater we collected. Brad Landcaster mentions in his rainwater harvesting book the idea that asphalt roofs might leach only when it's hot out and not when it's raining in the winter. We were still unsure. So, we filled the new duck pond and put a dozen goldfish in to see if they would live or die. Not a single fish died! The ducks love bathing and swimming in their new pond (really just a 150 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank). They poop while they frolic and the fish eat the poop. It's an idea we read about in Bill Mollison's big permaculture manual.

The pond does not have a pump or filter. The rainwater tanks gravity feed water to the pond through a hose. The pond has it's own hose out a spigot at the bottom which we use to water the garden (also gravity fed). The pond water contains nutrients from both the duck and the fish poop. Everyone and everything benefits. The rainwater tank overflow fills the swales in the garden and sinks the water on site for future use. As we drain the pond to the garden we refill it with the fresh rainwater. The system actually works. Amazing.

So, back to the case of the "sneaky chicken"....

The ducks got a new duck house to go with their pond and I guess the chickens got envious. One morning not long after the new duck house was set up I did my usual morning rounds. I opened the duck house door and the they all came piling out. A few seconds later out came a chicken! I could not figure out why one duck would not go in the night before. Well, there are four ducks and four nest boxes. I guess she had gone in there and found her nest box occupied and came back out refusing to share with the likes of a chicken. I kind of felt bad since I had physically picked her up and shoved her in there not knowing the whole story. So, out came the chicken who immediately ran over to the chicken coop and begged to be let back in. She has not flown the coop since.

Petaluma Urban Homestead Tour

2008-04-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

Spring sprung and we have been harvesting, prepping beds, sowing seeds, planting fruit trees, and planning for the glory of the Summer garden. So, that's where we've been if you were wondering. It's a busy time around here.

In March we had our first official tour of the ol' homestead. 50 local high school students came through the place on a field trip for their Ecological Economy class. Their day included tours of two urban homesteads and a trip to the Regenerative Design Institute in Bolinas where they toured Commonweal Garden. All three are permaculture sites on different scales.

The tour here started in the front driveway with the gates to the backyard open to accommodate everyone. The group had brought snails from the previous site for our ducks who upon discovering the gates open walked right out into the crowd and charmed everyone! There was a discussion of the medicinal plants that have replaced the lawn, the communal growing bed we share with our neighbors where there used to be a giant hedge dividing us, the rainwater catchment system that turned a problem into a solution, the cider press and cider making with locally gleaned apples, designing greywater systems, homescale livestock- chickens, ducks, worms, bees, rabbits, compost making, honey tasting, they also got to look at the permaculture design for this site and our neighbors behind us. Then, off they went to Bolinas! Did we even go on field trips in high school? Lucky dogs.

The Gift of Bees

2008-04-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

Many folks have been asking about our bees lately. We and many, many other beekeepers in Sonoma County and elsewhere sadly lost our bees this Winter. Their population dwindled by the time it was warm enough for them to forage again. They had plenty of food in the hive for the Winter but they still didn't make it. We will try again. We've ordered new bees from a local beekeeper and we're hoping for another swarm. We've put a swarm attracting pheromone in a nice, new, cozy hive box in the garden. So far, no takers. Our new bees arrive at the end of April. It was bittersweet to open up the hive last month. No bees. A gallon of honey. We filled many a jar with the gift the bees left behind.

With an uncapping knife we sliced open the top layer of each frame. It was very difficult to keep one's fingers out of the honey-soaked cappings! We put the frames in a centrifugal spinner and cranked away. The honey was then poured from the spinner into jars and then poured again through a sieve to filter out the bits of wax, propolis, and pollen. The result was golden glowing jars of homestead honey!

Rainwater

2008-02-06T19:28:00.000-08:00

It's been raining for days now. We've been working on ways to keep all of this precious water on site. As long as this house has been here (100 years now) the water has flowed off our roof and through the yard straight back to our neighbor's basement. When they recently dug out yards and yards of dirt to put in a foundation I teased them that it was "all our topsoil". Since we're growing food in the garden now we need to keep that topsoil and that water here. We can't afford to just let it run off to the city storm drain or our neighbor's basement.

In the garden we slow it and sink it using swales to direct the water flow. From the the roof we collect it for use in the garden during the growing season. Our 1350 gallon rainwater catchment tank has been overflowing all Winter. It has been full since the first storm of the season. We need another tank. More on our rainwater catchment system soon. I've got to get the 'engineer' to do that blog entry.

Enjoy the rain while it lasts. As you can see our ducks certainly do!

Winter Squash Wonderland

2007-12-30T14:04:00.000-08:00

Thanks to some wonderful starts from the the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center's plant sale we had an incredible bounty of big beautiful Winter squash. There were blue and green Hubbards, Red Kuri, a Big Max pumpkin growing out into the street, Butternuts under every squash leaf and hanging over the fence, and the spectacular Musque de Provence of which the largest weighed 65 pounds and had to have a party thrown in its honor.

As we watched the Musque de Provence growing all Summer we kept thinking "How are we going to store that thing once we cut into it?" When we finally harvested it the only option was to do as the French do at their farmer's markets and part it out. We invited all of our squash-loving friends over for dinner and didn't let them leave without a piece of the squash.

Musque de Provence Soiree

2007-12-30T11:39:00.000-08:00

Back to the Musque de Provence....

Borrowing a copy of PATRICIA WELLS AT HOME IN PROVENCE the inspired chef of the ol' homestead got cooking. On the menu for the evening was a Winter Pistou containing a few pounds of Hubbard Squash, garlic, onions, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes. parsley and thyme all grown here in the garden. It is a wonderful soup including white and red beans, leeks, parsnips and topped with grated Gruyere cheese. From the same cookbook he prepared a Turnip and Cumin Puree and a Celery Root Lasagna. Off the top of his head he came up with a quinoa dish with fresh rosemary, a kitchen-concocted Moroccan style herb blend and sausage made of duck, figs and brandy (found at the Marin Farmer's Market and made in Hayward, probably from Liberty Ducks of Petaluma). Whew!

When people arrived they were invited to sample family-made wines, homestead-made hard ciders and local cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery, Redwood Hill Farm and Creamery, Cypress Grove and Vella. Along with bread from Petaluma's own Della Fattoria Bakery.

For dessert we served Persimmon Pudding from locally gleaned persimmons and our own ducks' eggs, pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins for the kids and Sebastopol's own Taylormaid Coffee with cream from Petaluma's own Clover Dairy.

Everyone went home with a wedge of Musque de Provence which smelled like a Honeydew melon!

Duck Season! Chicken Season!

2007-12-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

We just found out why the salad bed looks like it has had ducks foraging in it. It's because ducks have been foraging in it! They found a way to squeeze through the remesh pea trellis and have their way with the chard and the lettuces. Everything else they leave alone- collards, romanesco, broccoli, kales, onions, mustards, tatsoi, arugula, mizuna, cilantro, cabbages, sugar snap peas.... What a quacking commenced when they realized they'd been found out! It clearly translated to "It wasn't me! I swear!". They were then put back to work on the outside of the drift fence surrounding the 'off limits' bed to gobble up sow bugs, earwigs, slugs and snails.

With the exception of this incursion we have throughly enjoyed this breed of backyard duck. Khaki Campbells seem to be a perfect size for the urban homestead. They are happy with a tub of fresh water to bathe in, a pan of chicken mash and scratch with crushed oyster shell to nibble on and free range of the entire backyard. They put themselves to bed at night in an old dog house outfitted with nest boxes and dry hay for bedding. We lock the dog house door each night for their safety. They are a whole lot less work than the chickens who have to be confined (bunch of teenagers that they are) because they'll trash the place otherwise.

I came out to the yard the other day to find the chickens had been let out. "Oh Great!" I thought, "What have they destroyed now?". I found that my neighbor had enlisted the chickens and the ducks to work the compost into the garden bed he had just amended for winter. The chickens were scratching and the ducks were dabbling. They were just doing what they do naturally.

Even though the days are getting shorter the ducks keep laying their eggs right on schedule. The chicken eggs are petering out slowly. The two Araucanas and the Barred Rock are taking turns slacking off. One day it will be two blue eggs (Araucana) and no brown (Barred Rock ). Then, the next day it will be one brown and no blues. With the abundance of wonderful 'weeds' now growing everywhere we've been able to provide the chickens with lots and lots of greens in addition to their grain and alfalfa hay. The color of their egg yolks has been spectacular lately. A boost in nutrition for all of us. Soon, the neighbors will start bringing snails over and we'll step it up another level. We have a neighborhood e-mail list on which I recently sent out a request for snails. Since we got the ducks we are virtually snail-free. Now, if we can teach them to eat voles and gophers....

Don't get me wrong we love the chickens and their eggs. We're just trying to simplify the system around here.

First Honey Harvest

2007-11-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

With the help of a friend we went into the hive today to check on its health and prep it for winter. I thought we better get this done while we still had a few warm days. We moved a honey frame down next to the brood and took out some of the outer frames to allow for better ventilation. I had ten frames in the boxes, but there are some who have only nine or eight to allow for more space between the frames and/or better ventilation. In our case I brought it down to eight frames with blocker boards (blank boards that fill the space of a frame) on the ends. This should improve ventilation - very important in the wet season. We also cleaned out all traces of the little start of a wax moth infestation I noticed recently. What this all really means is that some of those frames we took out had honey in them. Bless you bees for all your work pollinating our world and for your incredible gifts you give us with so little complaint. It was an electric urban homestead moment in the garden surrounded by ducks and plants and friends and wet earth taking a bite of sun-warmed honey-filled comb. As I write, warmed honey is pouring through a strainer into our first jar of homegrown honey-goodness.
-P

Tomatoes- frozen, dried and canned

2007-11-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

The tomato plants have finished producing since the weather has cooled. There are bags and bags of blanched, cored tomatoes in the freezer and jars of "sun-dried" (actually of oven-dried) tomatoes in olive oil in the refrigerator.

As tomatoes ripened over the past few months I harvested them in big batches. I put them in boiling water for two minutes to blanch them, slipped the skins off and put them in zipper bags in the freezer. I poured off most of the juice so the bags have mainly tomato pulp in them. Warm tomato juice. Mmmm....

For the oven-drying I just halved the smaller tomatoes- Black Plum and Principe Borgese worked the best. I tried Yellow Pear, and other cherry tomatoes too. I put them on cookie sheets in the coolest oven I have (200 degrees). I turned the cookie sheets every hour so they dried (cooked really) evenly. The smaller the tomato the less time this takes. If the tomato was fat like a Romano I dried slices of it. The whole process takes three to four hours. On a cold day it's a nice way to keep the kitchen warm. Some tomatoes went in jars covered with olive oil and some in the freezer to see which stores better. It was difficult not to just stand over the warm dried tomatoes and eat them all right then and there. They are really tasty! I have a friend who does this same drying/cooking procedure and adds olive oil, garlic and herbs to the tomatoes before they go in the oven. Many great recipes and methods for this can be found on the Web. Next year, I hope to have a solar oven for this purpose. Real sun-dried tomatoes!

Now it's time to defrost all of the those frozen tomatoes and can them properly. What if the power goes out? There'd be a real mess.... Better to can them and put them on the shelf to enjoy throughout the coming year.

Summer's End/Be Careful What You Wish For!

2007-08-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well... there are bins of fruit piled everywhere- peaches, plums, pears, apples, grapes, and blackberries. The house smells sweet. It's difficult to keep up. We've been harvesting, canning, and juicing. We've been making pies, cobblers, sauces and cider with our cider press.

We are trying to keep up with the 15 different kinds of tomatoes we're growing. They go well with all of the pesto we've been making and freezing. It's been great putting all of that homegrown garlic to good use. We've been blanching the tomatoes in boiling water for two minutes, slipping their skins off and freezing them in nice manageable portions. The freezer is full of tomatoes for sauces and soups, grated zucchini for bread, sliced apples and peaches for pies. It's going to be a tasty winter!

We have a pumpkin the size of a Mack truck growing out into the street. We came home the other day to find a young man sitting in a beach chair next to it. He said when he saw the pumpkin "It just looked like a nice place to sit and hang out". That made us smile.

While we're on the subject of Mack trucks we are growing Hubbard and Musque de Provence squash for the first time. Let's just say it has inspired us to have people over for dinner (often). They are huge and delicious! We'll do a whole blog on squash next time. They've completely taken over the yard. The bees love the blossoms and ducks enjoy foraging for slugs and sow-bugs under them. I pruned off all of the leaves with mildew last week and to look out there now you'd never know.

The kids had fun harvesting carrots and potatoes. They've loved eating sweet corn right in the garden. They stand out there under the tall stalks munching on a cob and giggling. The giant sunflowers have charmed and amazed them. They have been sharing the seeds with the Scrub Jays who are busy planting next year's crop as we speak.

The chickens and ducks are laying eggs now and the kids have enjoyed gathering the eggs. Two blues (Aracauna), one brown (Barred Rock) and two white duck eggs a day. Ping is still working on her egg-laying technique. She's only laid soft-shelled eggs so far. We're giving all of the birds oyster shell to supplement their calcium intake. They also make good use of the lucerne (alfalfa) that we grow in small patches around the yard. The chickens get it in hay form and the ducks graze on the fresh plants. It is also a good source of calcium.

The honeybees are busy filling the hive boxes with honey for the coming winter. The Mullein has been blooming for them for a good six months and there are still sunflowers full of pollen. We watched them drinking out of the birdbath today. This summer has been tough on them. They have fought yellow-jackets, ants and now wax moth larva. We'll be opening the hive soon to assess the situation. Cross your fingers.

It's time to get out there and start planning the winter garden.

Harvesting the Winter Garden

2007-06-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while... It's a busy time in the garden. Lots of harvesting and filling those spots with Summer crops. The garlic was a huge success even the new bed that is mostly shaded in the Winter produced quite a bit. The onions are beautiful and so easy to grow! The kids love picking the carrots. They eat the fat and sweet orange part and feed the green tops to the rabbit. The Scrub Jay's nest in the apple tree is still quiet. We're expecting hatchlngs any day. The ducklings and chicken chicks are huge and gobbling up as many snails, slugs, earwigs and sow bugs as they can find.

We got bees! Our friend caught a swarm and brought it to us. They seem very happy in their new home. They are so docile. Anyone can pick blackberries right next to them. The Mullien is blooming in the yard and it's so fun to watch the bees gather its bright orange pollen. They love the Borage, Yarrow, Toyon, Citrus blossoms and Senicio too. The yard is buzzing! The hive already smells of honey.

Ping Pong and Pi

2007-05-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

All of the ducklings and chicken chicks are adjusting to their new life here. The resident Scrub Jays have decided to become part of the "flock" now that the chicks are too big to eat. They drink from the kiddy pool and eat the organic crumbles I put out for everyone. So, the backyard is full of birds. The Towhees have discovered the bird bath and try to use it whenever the Scrub Jays leave the yard to gather nest materials. It's busy back there!

In April our friends in Fillmore gave us a duckling. Someone in their family had gifted their grandkids with two ducklings for Easter and only one survived. We were planning to buy ducklings when we returned home so we took it as a sign that we should take "her". We did not know its gender or breed and so we were taking a chance. Well, "she" turned out to be another Pekin and here we are again. We are just hoping that "she" is a she. If not, "he" will be joining our other Pekins out on the pond. She's certainly acting like a "she". The new Khaki Campbells- Ping and Pong are convinced that Pi the Pekin is their mother. They sleep as close to her as possible and follow her everywhere. She loves the attention and seems to take the job quite seriously. When the chicken chicks went exploring in the berry patch today she ran out there and herded them back to the coop. A little later as I worked in the garden I heard lots of contented peeping coming from those same bushes so I guess they worked it out.

We hope to integrate the chicken chicks in with our single Rhode Island Red. While she was supposed to be weeding and eating snails today she flew over the four foot picket fence (no match for her) and went to meet the chicks. We have our fingers crossed that all will work out when it's time to put them together. They can't have the run of the yard like the ducks. Chickens are much, much harder on the garden. On a small lot such as this the chickens have to be penned and given specific places in the garden to work. We haven't built them a proper chicken tractor (a portable open-bottomed pen with a top) yet but we certainly intend to do so.

Permaculture Pet Extraordinaire

2007-05-04T20:43:00.000-07:00

In the latest issue of 'RIPPLES- a revolutionary journal of seasonal delight' published by Daily Acts (www.dailyacts.org) our backyard duck Dabbles is described as a "slug-eating Permaculture pet extraordinaire". Bill Mollison once said something like, "You don't have a snail problem. You have a dearth of ducks". Well, he's certainly correct. Our neighbors are now bringing us their snails and asking if they can borrow our ducks for a day. Even the kids at the local elementary school garden collect snails for us. It's a family event to come through our back gate and feed the ducks what they've gathered.

We''ve learned a bit since we invited Dabbles and his mate Dee Dee into our backyard. We had not done any research on which duck breeds are best suited to backyard life and more importantly who lays the most eggs. We are an urban homestead so we have to stack functions as much as possible. The ducks eat slugs and snails, fertilize the garden, entertain us, and lay eggs! What could be better?

It was all going great until Spring rolled around and our male Pekin (Dabbles) started feeling his oats. The ducks and the chicken were all peacefully coexisting until about March. Then, what we humans saw as charming- "Oh, look! He follows us around the yard!" turned into "Hey, stop chasing me around the yard!". And, "Oh look, he really likes the chicken." turned into "Get off the chicken and stop pulling out her feathers!". Lessons learned: Pekins are really big, bred for meat, just o.k. egg layers, and male ducks in general can really be a pain especially if you have other poultry around. If you don't care about eggs and you just want a pair of pet ducks Pekins are great. They are charming, beautiful and will eat all of the slugs and snails they can find. They look really good in the garden too. They just weren't the right choice for us. So, Dabbles and his mate Dee Dee now live on a farm near here with a two acre pond and lots of other duck friends. It was not an easy choice for us but we have to utilize every inch of this place so there was no room to house a renegade duck and his girlfriend. Dabbles really liked his purple turtle kiddy pool but I'm thinking he'll like the pond even better.

We've done our research and learned that Khaki Campbells and Indian Runners are the best egg layers and well suited to backyard life. Enter Ping and Pong our female Khaki Campbell ducklings. They arrived last week at the local feed store and have moved right into our hearts. We also added three chicken chicks to our flock. Two Americaunas and a Barred Rock. We had a close call with the resident Scrub Jays (who find chicks tasty) but everyone is doing fine.

Spring 2007 at PETALUMA URBAN HOMESTEAD

2007-03-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome!

Spring has arrived at the "homestead". The Sugar Snap Peas are plump and ready. Kids, ducks, the dog and the chicken were all hanging out together today while the laundry dried in the warm breeze above their heads . Dee Dee duck laid an egg in the middle of the yard (luckily it was gathered in time). "Chicken" laid her's like clockwork in her nest box. Her once-a-day constitution. It was quite a sight to see everyone, humans and animals alike, enjoying the beautiful day. We are truly blessed to have this little bit of paradise.

Our house was built in 1907 on a 6,000 square foot urban lot amongst other Victorians and Bungalows. It's just a short walk to our wonderful old downtown. Two years ago we got our friends to leave Oakland and buy the house behind us. Our backyards adjoin so we've joined forces in this urban homesteading project. We had looked for rural property together before coming here but the long drive to jobs and amenities seemed crazy with the coming end of oil. We wanted a small, tight community that could support itself in a crisis. We are working towards that end.

My neighbor friend and I took a Permaculture Design Course this past year and the re-design for our two adjoining urban lots is the result of that course. We plan a permaculture food forest. We aim for "An overabundance of abundance" as permaculture teacher Penny Livingston-Stark says. That's the plan. We'll post our progress here so you can learn with us as we make mistakes, jump for joy, and hopefully live more lightly on the planet.

- Suzanne