Community Supported Agriculture - CSA Box Week 1

To keep is in yummy fruits and veggies this summer, I'm doing a CSA workshare weekly. In exchange for manning their Friday evening pickup, I get a full CSA share full of beautiful organic yumminess. This CSA in particular is awesome because they have a "Market Style" option which means I can pick and choose what I want to go into my box. If I'm gone for a week or don't need as much that week I won't lose my food. It also goes until December! So exciting. The farm is located in a national park and is a nonprofit and operated by awesome people that I'm happy to spend time with. They offer internships to educate new farmers and an market and farm tours on Saturdays. It's a great place that I'm happy to be affiliated with. An added bonus for me (as a SAHM) is this is 4 hours a week where I don't have a baby attached to me - although I miss my girls like crazy and can't wait to get home!

What is a CSA? Community Supported Agriculture means that you are buying into the farm. You pay a set amount for the season or year to help the farm with their costs and in exchange you get a box of their bounty every week. Depending on the season, weather and conditions you may get more or less. You may get a whole lot of one thing and not a lot of something else. What you definitely get is the feeling of giving back to your community and supporting small farms. 

So what did I get my first week??

 

Zucchini, squash (crookneck and pattypan) turnips, kale, rainbow chard, beets, eggplant, heirloom tomatoes.

Not pictured are the little grape tomatoes that I ate before I even left the farm. They were SO good. Sweet and still warm from the field.  

What did I do with my bounty? The squash and zucchini were eaten with garlic scapes, shrimp and a butter sauce in orzo pasta. Amazing and possibly my new favorite dish.

Beets and Turnips were roasted and eaten as a side dish. My first time eating them and were so good. I will definitely make again!

Rainbow chard will be added to a chickpea stew this evening and will also be tossed in some scrambled eggs in a few minutes.

Kale was made into chips. Unfortunately I still haven't quite gotten that down yet :(

Eggplant was coated and fried and eaten as an improvised eggplant parmesean. I didn't have any parm so Big and I had eggplant mozzarella. It was delicious.

The bigger zucchini and crookneck squash are going to be shredded and made into pancakes that are going to be eaten with some shredded chicken on Saturday.

Next pickup is tonight, I'm so excited to see what we get!

Do you have a CSA? Any good ideas for recipes? I'm new to having this much yummy veggies to use in a week!

For more information, check out The Ecosystem Farm.

Peanutty Chicken

This isn't anything authentic. It's not Thai Chicken, it's not African Peanut Stew, it's somewhere in between and full of delicious. This is how I cook. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, look up a bunch of recipes online and figure it out based on what tastes good to us. This peanut chicken is a great example of that. Chicken is shredded into a spicy peanut and allspice sauce and served over rice. It is SO good.

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs
1 good size yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic
1/4 peanut butter
3T soy sauce or tamari (gmo free!)
chicken stock or bone broth (I really don't know how much. Enough to thin out the sauce enough to your liking and taste)
2T all spice powder, divided
2 t. red pepper flakes
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. flour
salt and pepper
butter, coconut oil or some other fat to cook it in
2 cups cooked rice.

1. Dredge the chicken thighs in flour, 1T of allspice, salt and pepper. Brown in fat (don't cook through). Set aside.
2. Add more fat as necessary, add onion, cook until beginning to brown.
Meanwhile, combine peanut butter, soy sauce, 1T allspice, red pepper flakes, cinnamon. If it seems too think, add bone broth until it's thin enough for you, tasting as you go. If you're using conventional chicken stock it may get a little salty.
As onions begin to brown, add garlic, stirring until you can smell it (don't let the garlic burn!), then add sauce.
3. Add chicken back in and put the top on. Let simmer until chicken is cooked through. Check in the sauce periodically. Depending on the size of your thighs you may need more sauce. Sometimes I have to double the recipe, sometimes it's enough. It really depends on the size of your thighs. Did your chicken have a donkey or was she more svelte?
4. Once thighs are done, remove and shred. Add back into sauce.

Serve over rice, with something green on the side. We had it with some broccoli tossed in butter and salt with naan on the side. It was delish!
Hope you like it!

2013 Summer Bucket List

Big and I a thousand years ago

Summa Summa Summa tiiiiime.
Summer seems to simultaniously drag on and fly by, doesn't it?
Days seem hotter and slower and then you look up and it's October! I can't believe it's Independence Day already. This year, Big and I made a bucket list. A bunch of awesome fun stuff that we want to do as much as possible this summer, my first as a SAHM. She has some summer camps and fun trips planned but I also want free time to go where the day leads and find fun stuff for she and I to do together. She'll only have one summer as a ten year old and Little is still small enough that she can't get into TOO much trouble if we're out and about. So, without further ado, here is our bucket list.

~Cosca Park- A great large park and playground with shaded areas for picnicking, a big pond with paddle boats, a skate park and a nature center. We've already gone once.
~Great Waves - As it sounds, a water park. It's close and fairly reasonably priced.
~Cove Point -Another water park. Further away but cheaper.
~Library - Ideally we'd like to go once or twice a week. We recently went a little crazy in a used book store so haven't had a reason to!
~Colonial Farm - I've been meaning to check this place out for years, this summer it will get done! It's close, it's free and it's educational. Win Win Win
~Go to the Pool - What would summer vacation be like without frequent trips to the pool? This one apparently. It's been raining so much we haven't gone!
~Visit the monuments and museums - We live about 20 minutes from DC. We need to take advantage of it more!
~Visit Polyface Farm - If nothing else gets done, this will get done. Polyface is Joel Salatin's farm and it's about 2 hours from here. They have an open door policy - you can go down and look at everything, anytime.
~Visit friends - Luckily, we live in a neighborhood with lots of awesome kids for Big to play with.

That's our list. Big wrote it up on pretty paper and it's on the refrigerator for quick reference. What do you have planned for the summer? Have you made a bucket list?

5 things I've learned about chickens

My ladies have been home for a little over a month now and it has been fun! I've learned a lot from them- about chickens themselves and about MY chickens. I've never been much of a pet person. I mean, I have three cats that are my little furry babies but let's face it, cats aren't too needy and they're more roommates than pets. So here it is. My top 5 things I've learned as a new chicken mama.

1. Chickens are FUNNY! Seriously. I've heard people talk about "Chicken TV" and it's true. The way they interact with one another, the way they do their little T-Rex run over when they think you have treats, the way they fuss at you if you get too close...they're hilarious. Some days I want to sit out there and watch them all day. Other days, not so much. On that note...

2.Chickens are pretty independent. Yes, for most flocks, you need to feed and water them daily. My chickens have a pretty nice sized run with lots of yummy bugs and some greens growing. If I want to leave them alone in there I can and they'll be fine if I don't refill their food immediately or change their water every.single.day. I'd never let it go much further than that but they don't require too much babysitting. By the way they run over when I come near one might think differently but really, they're just nosy.

3. Chickens form attachments and relationships. Word has it that chickens are dumb. I've heard that (and said it) and I'm sure you have too. I'm finding the opposite is true. They know me and the kids. They know who brings treats. They know when I come down and they're free ranging in the back that it's time to mosey into the run. They make friends with one another too. I have two inseparable Buff Orpingtons and two inseparable Easter Eggers. They're besties. If one looks up and the other is too far, they'll yell, "Hey, wait up!" and T-Rex run over there. When I first got them, all four were noisy as hell. After talking to the woman I got them from I found that their rooster was too. They were calling for each other. They missed their man and were trying to tell him where they were! I felt so bad for them but they got over it. Now they're only loud when they want to be let out.

4. Chickens get up EARLY. Yeah, I know. "Up with the chickens". I didn't realize this meant 6 am, every morning. Sometimes 6:20 but always the number 6 first. They want OUT. I lock them in the coop at night to keep them safe but the moment they see the sun they want to get to hunting and pecking. Now that I'm missing a bedroom window this is especially difficult to ignore, so up I get to let them out and then immediately back to bed. Nothing worthwhile happens at 6am.

6. Chickens look like dinosaurs.  Maybe this is a me thing, but they look like dinosaurs. It simultaneously freaks me out and fascinates me. I could so imagine these things as ginormous flesh eating beasts, stomping across the wilderness and fighting and stuff. Especially when they are tearing up some poor defenseless (yummy) worm or fighting over a chunk of pancake. Chickens love pancakes. The way they run reminds me of a T-Rex chasing down a torch wielding Jeff Goldblum. What's up evolution??

There are a few other things I've learned, like that having them eat out of your hand isn't the best idea (owch!) and that putting the compost in the run doesn't work the way you think it would (they throw it everywhere!) but those are my Top 5.
Do you keep chickens? Any advice for a novice such as myself? What has surprised you about your ladies?

Menu Plan Week of July 1

Summertime, and the livin is easy!

I love this time of year. Life is slower, days are longer, food is better.

There always seems to be something fun going on and it all seems to come together this week.

There is so much going on this week around Independence Day. It is possibly my second favorite holiday. 

Cookouts, BBQ, fireworks. What's not to love?

One of my favorite things to do is The Capitol Fourth dress rehearsal. As anyone that lives close to DC knows, you don't go downtown on the Fourth. It's crazy town. There's people everywhere, it's expensive, it's hot. You just don't want to be there. What you might not know is that they do a dress rehearsal the day before that's open to the public. The whole show. It's awesome. We've seen Stevie Wonder up close and personal, for free. Last year it was Earth, Wind and Fire and Josh Turner. This year it's Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond. Not exactly my cuppa but a good time none the less. We take a picnic dinner, sit on the mall and enjoy ourselves. 

Friday marks the first CSA Day. I am doing a workshare at a local CSA. I'll man their Friday pickup and in exchange I'll get a share! More on that later. 

Saturday we're hosting a Bring Your Own Chainsaw party to clean up the mess in the backyard. We're providing beer and pizza in exchange for cheap, friendly labor.

As always, this weeks plan is messed up. It got messed up before it was even posted! Today was supposed to be meatloaf but I had to take Mr. Brown to get some medical attention for some wicked poison ivy (he has a Popeye arm!) so it didn't get made. Now I have thawed hamburger and thawed chicken - which gets made??

Monday - Supposed to be Meatloaf, corn on the cob, buttered noodles

Tuesday - Peanut Chicken, broccoli, rice

Wednesday - Picnic Dinner - tuna salad, egg salad, sourdough bread, cucumber salad

Thursday - Fourth of July! We'll be cookout hopping all day, I shouldn't have to cook

Friday - Pinto Beans in the Crockpot

Saturday - BYOC

Sunday - Leftovers from Fri and Sat. 

So why? Why do I still menu plan when we have this much going on? Because we have this much going on! It helps a lot to know where we have to be when and how it affects what we're eating. The best part is, we usually have most of this stuff on hand. Which means that on crazy weeks like this one I can plan easy peasy menus from stuff on hand so I don't have to squeeze in a big shopping trip. 

What do you have planned for the Fourth? Have a great week!

Damage!

Remember how I said nature was attacking?

Shit just got real.

A storm blew through last night and took out our fence, a portion of our deck and came through the window where I was laying with Little. 

I probably don't need to say it but it was effing terrifying. 

We're in the process of figuring out our next step, unfortunately it's not pretty.

As you can see in the bottom picture, one particularly spiteful branch fell to the side and knocked out my beautiful plants. I think the cucumber plant is going to make it, I don't know about the others.

As the tree was on town property, we called them to let them know and see what they would do. Unfortunately, they came by unannounced and saw our illegal chickens.They didn't say anything so we're just waiting to see what happens.

I'm the type of person that finds humor and joy in everything. Otherwise, I'd rip my hair out and scream at people and my head would explode and that wouldn't be fun for anyone.
It's kind of hard to do right now.

Murray Must Die

I thought Murray and I could peacefully coexist.

Don't drive angry!

I was wrong.

Every last stinking bean plant has been decimated by that damn groundhog. 

Every. Single. One.

I also have squirrels that have worked their way into my screened in porch to go after the chicken feed. We reinforced the open areas of the screen and they found their way around it. 

Nature is attacking yall. 

This is some bull crap. 

To keep Murray out, I plan to run out this week and get some more chicken wire fencing to line the bottom of the fence where the little fart is sneaking in. Thus far he has only gone for my bean plants but I don't want him moving on to the next thing!

If that doesn't work, well, anyone know any good groundhog recipes?

Something's Been Eating Me...

Or really, something's been eating my garden!

I've been blaming the chickens. I let them out of their run in the evenings to free range in the back yard and figured they saw something tasty in there and went for it. My romaine plant is but a stalk and my bean plants have been nibbled down to the stems. Luckily, those are the only two things that it's been going for. I was able to deduce through incredible detective work and sleuthery (you know, like being a sleuth) that is was NOT the chickens that was in my garden. 

There was a bag of sunflower seeds that I'd left out and when I came back something had torn it open - but the chickens hadn't been out! So I'm brainstorming ways to catch whatever it is, or shield my yummy stuff from him/her and mention this to Mr. Brown. He cuts me off, "There's a groundhog". 

He's seen this thing for months and never told me! He smokes and I do not so he spends a bit more time outside quietly than I do. When I'm outside there's usually a show tune or two along with a running dialogue between myself, Georgia, and the chickens.
It seems this fella was here last summer too but we had a dog then. The dog would run the groundhog off when he got too close. The dog then ate everything in my garden. Dog's gone now!

So now the question is - how do I keep this rascal from ruining my harvest??

Menu Plan - Week of June 17

Just when you think you know what you're doing, everything gets thrown off, right?

This weeks menu is totally different than what I've been doing.

 No big meat meal to last all week. No International Tuesday.

But we roll with the punches around here, right?

This weekend didn't go as planned - we wound up going to a cookout Saturday and ate lots of crabs (yum!) and went to another cookout today for Father's Day so neither of those meals were done, they'll be thrown in here this week.

Monday - Fish Sticks, French Fries, Slaw

Tuesday - Girl Scout Pool Party!

Wednesday - Falafel Salad

Thursday - Burgers, fries, beans

Friday - Pizza (any suggestions for toppings?)

Saturday - Orzo Pasta Salad with Shrimp, Spinach and Tomatoes

Sunday- Roast Chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits

I'm working on a document to keep on the refrigerator for Big to stop the inevitable

"I'm hungry and there isn't anything to eat!"

Quick stuff that she can make herself or are already made and waiting in the fridge. Any suggestions for a pretty open minded, constantly starving, active 10 year old?

Have a great week!

Potato and Chicken Frittata with Carmelized Onions.

Let me start this out by saying I am not The Pioneer Woman. I try to channel my girl, Ree, while I'm cooking but I can't take pictures like her. Her food looks amazing. My food looks amazing in real life but not so much in pictures. One day when I have lots of money I'll buy a fancy butt camera and take nice pictures but for now, well, just know it looks good in person.

So, now that that's out of the way, what do you do when your egg basket looks like this?

 

You make a delicious frittata for dinner!

It starts right here, with a beautiful, well seasoned cast iron pan. 

To this beautiful piece of culinary equipment we'll add 2-3 T of butter (NOT margarine, butter.)

Once the butter has melted, add one onion, chopped. You're going to cook the onion until it changes from the Before to the After pic. This should take about 10-15 minutes over medium heat.

Before

After

 

 

 

Meanwhile, peel and dice three potatoes. Three smallish potatoes are good. If you have larger ones, just one may be enough. These are the ones I used. 

They chopped up into this

 The onions should still be working at this point. 

Since those take a little bit, I like to get everything else ready. Once they're done the train gets moving and it's best if everything else is ready to go in the pan so you don't burn the garlic. Burnt garlic is gross.

Make sure whatever chicken you're using is shredded and ready for adding. I recommend about 2 cups.

Crack and beat your eggs. If you don't have a weirdo cheese hating husband put in 1 cup of mild cheddar.

Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic.

Figure out your spices.

I like some tarragon in it, along with salt, pepper and a little Old Bay.

Onions nice and caramelized? Add your garlic and your seasonings. 2 teaspoons Tarragon, generous salt, few cranks fresh pepper, 1 teaspoon Old Bay. Stir until you can start to smell the garlic. Then you're going to add your potatoes and chicken. Stir that around to combine. Make sure that everything is pretty evenly distributed. Imagine the horror of a chickenless bite!

Once you're set and happy with your chicken and potato distribution, pour your beaten eggs over the top.

Let this set up for a minute. This isn't going to cook on the stove top but you want the bottom to set up a little before you put it into the oven. You can tell when it's ready to go in the oven by the little steamy geyser holes that start to appear on the surface.

Once the holes appear, pop it in the oven and let it bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until it doesn't jiggle when you move the handle. 

Then slice it up!

This is a hit with my usually picky husband and daughter too!

 I always top mine with shredded cheddar. If you don't have a weirdo cheese hating husband your cheese will be inside already where it belongs. 

Frittata is pretty forgiving. I had a delicious one at my Blessingway for Little that had summer squash, tomato and spinach in it. 

Have you had or made frittata before? What's your favorite combination?

Drunk Drip Waterer Upcycle

This is so easy.

Too easy to do a post about it but it has been such a life saver for the absentminded mini farmer.

Have you seen those nifty glass globes that you fill with water and they drip water/feed your plants? Of course you have. I started to buy a few, but then remembered that I'm cheap and crafty.

Have a few of these laying around your house?

We have LOTS! Never a shortage.

That's what it's a Drunk Dripper.

Just fill it up and dunk it over in your plant, near the roots. Feel free to add some Epsom Salts every so often to your tomato waterer. 

It'll last for a few days to a week or so, depending on the weather and your plant.

They're especially helpful for containers and raised beds which dry out faster. 

Now go get a six pack and make some Drunk Drippers!

Menu Plan 6/10-6/16

For information on how I menu plan, check out How I Menu Plan.

This is the last week of school! For now, I only plan for dinner, we'll see how that goes with summer upon us. Father's Day is Sunday so that's kind of up in the air. If we're home, we'll have what's planned. If not, it'll get bumped to next week.

Monday - Crockpot Beef BBQ Sandwiches, broccoli cakes, homemade french fries

Tuesday - Beef Enchiladas

Wednesday - Red Beans and Rice

Thursday- Chicken and Potato Frittata with Carmelized Onions

Friday - Chicken Pesto Pizza (this dough from Weed 'em and Reap is delish!)

Saturday - Homemade Fish Sticks, French Fries, Corn

Sunday - Burgers, Coleslaw, Baked Beans

I'll post some recipes soon! A few of these are my own, others need verification and tasting. I love tasting.

How I Menu Plan

A few months ago I started menu planning and it has made such a huge difference around here. I started when I was searching for something to make these people for dinner and pulled out a few heads of rotten broccoli and a bag of rotten green beans from the refrigerator. It was late, I had no idea what we were eating, and we were wasting food. That night, after we ate Top Ramen for dinner, I sat down and worked out the rest of the week and haven’t looked back since.

I know a lot of people plan breakfast, lunch and dinner. Around here, as it’s just Little and I during the day (and she’s still mostly on a liquid diet) I only plan dinner. As big is getting out of school next week that may change. I’ll update this if and when we do.

First thing I do is check the fridge. Did you know if you have stainless steel appliances you can write on them with dry erase markers? The front of the fridge is where I write our calendar. If there’s girl scouts, an activity at school, a night out or whatever, I need to plan around that. No big, labor intensive meals when we have to be somewhere at 6:30. After that, I open the door. Did something not get eaten from last week’s menu? Any produce hanging around that needs to be eaten? Plan your meals accordingly.

We have certain nights that we have certain things. I would die of taste bud boredom if we had, for example, spaghetti every Monday. What we do instead is a flexible day. Tuesday is something from another culture. Think Taco Tuesday, but with more options. Wednesday is beans. From Red Beans and Rice to Falafel. Friday is homemade pizza day (try this dough recipe, it’s perfect!) but that could be BBQ chicken pizza or Margherita pizza or Chicken Ceasar Salad pizza.

I try to do a big something on Sunday or Monday that we can use to make other meals. Extra points if it goes in the crock pot.

This is this week:

Monday – Crockpot chicken, asparagus, sweet potatoes

Tuesday – Taco Bowl

Wednesday - Egg Roll in a Bowl – Made from leftover chicken.

Thursday – ‘Brats and Sauerkraut (and broccoli)

Friday – Margherita Pizza

Saturday – Birthday Celebration!

Sunday – Sloppy lentils, broccoli cakes from leftover broccoli, homemade fries

I was too lazy forgot to go to the store so Monday and Tuesday got switched. No biggie. Be flexible. Life happens. Sometimes your crying baby lets you know that the grocery store is NOT happening that day. Sometimes your couch is super comfortable. Whatevs.

Do you menu plan? Any great recipes to share?

I Got the 'Bootch

Kombucha.

Do you brew?

I DO!

What is kombucha? Kombucha is a lactofermented beverage made from tea that is rich in probiotics and antioxidants and is known for curing everything from digestive problems to gray hair to cancer. Most people note just *feeling better* after drinking it. Kombucha is made by introducing a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) to sweetened, cooled tea and letting them hang out for 7-10 days. Brewing kombucha is honestly, ridiculously easy. The hardest part is obtaining a SCOBY. They can be purchased online, made from a bottle of commercial kombucha or given to you be another brewing buddy. I made mine from a bottle of GTs kombucha. Pour it into a bowl, put a towel over it, leave it alone for a week or so. Eventually a SCOBY will grow.

When you brew LOTS of kombucha for a LONG time you gets LOTS of SCOBYs. Everytime you brew you get another one. Eventually you wind up with a “SCOBY hotel” that you have no idea what to do with but have to feed sweet tea like it was another pet.


My SCOBY hotel. There’s no pool.

Most of the time when I brew kombucha It’s a two part process. While brewing the next batch, I’m also bottling the previous. Here are my two brewing vessels, a one gallon and a two gallon glass jug.


Kombucha ready for bottling.

I find it easiest to first brew so that the tea has some time to cool before the vessels are ready.

First, you have to make tea. I begin by boiling 2 gallons (give or take) of water.


water in a pot. bam.

Once the water is boiling, I add 8 tea bags and 2 cups of sugar. We want to make kinda strong, sweet tea. I use 4 bags of green and 4 bags of black tea. Feel free to experiment with different kinds of tea but don’t use anything that is herbal or that may contain essential oils. It could damage the SCOBY and the SCOBY is your friend. Love her and feed her and she’ll take care of you. Also, speaking of taking care of your SCOBY, stick to plain old sugar. You may substitute with other kinds of sugar (for example sucanat) but don’t use honey. Honey is antibacterial and it will kill your SCOBY.

So anyway, once the water is boiling, dump in 2 cups of sugar and 8 tea bags.



Stir it all together and let it steep and cool. I put the top on to keep germies out but that’s totally counter productive to getting it cool. Let it cool for a few hours. Normally I forget about it at this point until I come into the kitchen the next morning. It’s good and cool by then.

At this point, I turn my attention to bottling. So here we are with 2 finished big jugs of Kombucha.



You can see the SCOBY at the top of the smaller jug. We’re just going to decant this into many smaller jugs for the second fermentation.

These should be enough for 3 gallons of kombucha. First we have to take off the SCOBY. I then pour the kombucha into the jug shown at the top of this photo to pour into the bottles. If you flavor your kombucha, leave a little room at the top. I flavor mine mostly with frozen fruit. I also use dried elderberries for elderberry kombucha. That, along with pineapple, are my favorites!



Once you’ve added your fruit, cap it and leave it out for a second fermentation. The second ferment allows for flavoring and also allows carbonation to build up. The longer it sits out, the more carbonation. I leave mine out for 2 days. Be careful with fresh or frozen fruit, I wouldn’t leave it out longer than 3 days.


from l to r – elderberry, blueberry, raspberry, pineapple

I’m always amazed by the colors when I bottle kombucha. Above picture was after about 20 minutes. I don’t use a lot of fruit – a few chunks of frozen, organic fruit, and it gives these vivid, beautiful colors.

When decanting into bottles, make sure you leave a cup or so of brewed kombucha to feed the next batch. I usually leave a little more than that, depending on how many bottles I have clean.



Now that that’s done and your kombucha is cooled, we just add it to this, plop the SCOBY on top and let it hang out for a week or so. Make sure to cover it with something breathable – a few layers of paper towels or a clean, white towel. The shorter the ferment, the sweeter. The longer the ferment, the more purported health benefits.

So that’s it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Do you enjoy kombucha? What are your favorite flavors?

Just Another Day in Paradise

We’re getting into a kind of routine around the Brown-stead. Get up with Little and wake up Big. Let the chickens out and do their chores with Big and with Little on my back. Send Big in to get ready for school while I weed the garden and stand around looking at things and breathing.

Like my boots?

During the day I play with Little, bother the chickens, clean, cook, all that fun stuff.

Take pictures of our shoes…you know, the normal.

We eat dinner, I get Little to bed, Mr. Farmer Brown and I go close up chicken shop and watch something stupid on TV.
Big plays outside with her friends.
It’s simple. It’s suburban. It’s mundane and boring.
It’s paradise.

There are eggs in paradise, right?

The Necessity of Anonymity

The Necessity of Anonymity

They’re running from me.

Our chickens are here! My ladies are lovely, although terrified of us. We have 4 laying hens that are about 1 year old. Two Buff Orpingtons and Two Easter Eggers. It’s funny that the two pairs seem to follow each other around.

Buff Orpington

Unfortunately, the town that I live in does not share my infatuation with small scale homesteading or, specifically, chickens. When I inquired as to why, I was told noise. BOOOOO stupid town that I live in. Unfortunately, the town is run by elderly busy bodies with very little imagination that are pretty set in their ways. It’s unlikely that by going to the town I would change their mind, instead it would put their beady little eyes on me and everything I want to do. So, instead of going before the town saying pretty pretty please, we decided to do what we wanted on the land that we own. (Insert further rant about “THE MAN” here)

Big feeds a chicken

All of this hopefully explains my “Farmer Brown” alias and why my beautiful girls are called Big and Little. I know some bloggers make up names but I find it confusing, especially as a new reader.  I understand that this by now way guarantees anonymity and that anyone who truly wanted to know who I was could easily find out. However, it makes me feel better. Seems foolish to do something not allowed and then go on the internet spelling it out, right?
So please, if you know me, please refrain from using my name on here or my girls’ names. Also, my picture was drawn by a good friend, Christine DeRosa who is ridiculously talented, right?
My ladies need names. Any suggestions? Whenever I think of them I hear Beastie Boys in my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf5uJYGoiU

Garden Walk Through the Eyes of a 10 Year Old.

Last week we went on a garden walk at the Museum Garden at the Accokeek Foundation. The Accokeek Foundation is 200 acres of park on the Potomac River that, “serves as an outdoor classroom for educational programs about land conservation, historic preservation, sustainable agriculture, and environmental stewardship.” It’s open dusk to dawn 365 days a year. They have a colonial farm, heritage livestock, an organic Ecosystem Farm, walking trails, cool activities – it’s a pretty interesting place.

We went for a Garden Walk of their Museum Garden which holds a variety of plants – native beds, a small permaculture bed, sundries, medicinal and culinary herbs etc. The idea is that each bed is supposed to convey an idea in gardening – an exhibit if you will. Farmer Dan led us around, explaining everything well with the help of Molly, The Community Outreach and Education Coordinator. Molly is amazing. I need her to come to my wild backyard and tell me what all the things growing back there are and how I can use them. I’m afraid to get rid of anything because I’m pretty sure everything is SOMETHING and I’d hate to find out too late I ripped out something incredibly useful!

So we’re walking, we’re learning. Ten minutes in I’m wishing I’d brought something to take notes on because there’s so much to learn. First off, I’m doing the three sisters thing all wrong. I planted everything at once. You’re supposed to plant the corn, then the squash, then the beans. Oh well, we’ll see how it goes. Also, comfrey. Need to grow the comfrey. It’s BEAUTIFUL!

Isn’t it pretty!

So anyway, we’re walking, we’re learning. We’re ooing and aahing and sniffing and tasting and asking. It’s awesome. But then Little decides she’s DONE. So, while trying (unsuccessfully) to calm her, I handed the camera to Big. She took some nice pictures. Enjoy and let me know if you spot anything familiar!

For more information about the Accokeek Foundation visit http://www.accokeekfoundation.org