Local is Natural

I made dinner tonight.  No big deal. It eventually occurred to me that I have absorbed the locavore aesthetic so completely that it's second nature.


Local Dinner

 .Well, there it is, unplanned and unadulterated.  Local chipped beef, foraged mushrooms, onions and brussel sprouts from the Amish markets, pasta from the same.  Butter too; the only thing that might possibly be "outworldly" is the salt.

It sits well on my gut.  Are we better acclimated to foods grown where we are grown?  Doesn't that make sense?  Hmmm?

Stuffed Cabbage...In My Upgraded Kitchen!

Let me just say this: I love to cook.  I thank my old friend Bonnie for my early adventures cooking, and my delight in exploration.  Mom wasn't a very happy cook.  She'll admit that herself.  But I was, and am, and I can only remember Bonnie as an early influence.  She served me cloud ear soup when I came home from the hospital with my baby daughter, back in 1978.  How cool is that?

We also filled her Chevy convertible to the top with apples in the fall of 1977, and canned and preserved them in a bazillion ways before my daughter was born in March; applesauce was one of her very first foods.  Chinatown (in Philadelphia) was a common shopping excursion. Good times.

Yesterday, I took a vacation from my many obligations, and cooked.  It felt great.  Savoy cabbage was my star; I made stuffed cabbage rolls, using local beef and home canned tomato sauce.  Yum.

That's local, humanely raised beef.  Happy cows.

 I used a pound of the beef, with a half of an onion, chopped, two ice-cubes of frozen garlic scapes (thawed), an egg, and 2 pieces of sourdough bread, crumbled into the mix.  I added a handful of Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.



Local, humanely raised Savoy cabbage...and my NEW TILE COUNTER.  Oh yes...you are mine.

  I blanched the outer leaves of the cabbage, and cut out the thick middle vein.  1/2 leaf was enough for a roll, as the leaves were BIG!  All I did was wrap a handful of the meat mix in the blanched leaf, secure it with a toothpick, and set it aside.  To bake them up, I opened a quart of homemade tomato sauce, and poured a bit into a baking pan, then laid the rolls on top.  I covered them with more sauce, and seasoned it with salt and pepper, then sprinkled them with more Parmesan.  I don't have a finished picture.  They were too good.  We ate them.

But this is where the magic happens.  Oh yes...this kitchen is mine.  Quaint, isn't it?  That metal cabinet under the sink is my nemesis.  But I'll get it right someday. I'm fauxing my faux techniques.  It's a nightmare.  But quirky.  I like quirky.

It's not big, but it's home! 

Peter finished the tile counter and the back splash for my birthday.  I think it looks sort of masculine.  I'm OK with that.  I like the pretty colors.

Bock Beer signs and Parisian clock...that's us!

 We're transitioning from a 1950's country motif to an "I don't know when but I like it" motif.  Better Homes and Gardens can kiss my...grits.

Pretty tiles

I love my new back splash.  Good bye, stained walls!  Hello, rainbow!  Welcome into my kitchen!

My life is so varied; always has been. Lately, I've been splitting my time between school (Kutztown University), work (where I teach), home, farm, and occasional short road trips.  I don't get many chances for those, unfortunately.

Kutztown provides lots of inspiration for teaching.  They have a student exhibit of recycled works on display right now...coincidentally, exactly when I'm teaching that unit in school.  I'm enjoying their over-the-top solutions:

Plastic Goblet Light Fixture

Old Sock Milk Jugs (polymerized)

Plastic Cutlery Pterodactyl

 Of course, nearly every day includes both teaching and the farm.  While I choose not to blog about my classroom because of professional considerations, the farm is fair game, and infinitely interesting.

We've been battling pinkeye this last week.  My poor little doe Faith went out to be bred, and may have carried it home with her.  While she's unaffected, 4 of our older does came down with the affliction, and had to be separated from the herd.  I've been giving injections, applying ointment, and hand milking those girls all week.  Poor things!  Our two senior citizens, Dolly and Jazzy have been hit the hardest. There is improvement, though.  And we've finished the course of antibiotics, so only time will tell.

These girls weren't affected. Neither were their appetites!

Suppertime!

 I take a walk in the woods on days that are challenging at work; I need these solitary times to decompress.  They feed my soul.  On one such occasion, I found this gooey, frostbitten mass that must have been some sort of mushroom.  The fallen tree had several of them; I'll research them and get back to you.  This has been my mycology moon.

An Interesting Fungus
*UPDATE: An Old "Orange Jelly"

 Turkey tails, the ubiquitous little fungi that devour our fallen wood, are everywhere.  Apparently, they're prized by certain cultures for their curative properties.  Who knew?  I'll be trying some turkey tail tea this winter.

Turkey Tails

 Piggy tails are a different story entirely.

It's Rough Being a Pig

 Last weekend, my friend El and I visited the farm together so she could see our newborn calf.  One of the volunteers had forgotten to shut the gate between the cow field and the pig run, and chaos ensued. I have never seen cows band together like a street gang and attack before; usually they just mill around, benignly grazing and mooing.  These cows were pissed!  They attacked those poor pigs enmasse.  You've never seen fat pink buttocks running away more frantically. I'm ashamed to say that I can't stop laughing about the visual memories it brings up: think "West Side Story" (the Jets and the Sharks). Those poor piggies! Thankfully, the vet and his assistant were on site, checking out the goats, and between the 4 of us, we were able to break up the rumble.  The piggies had to take a long nap that afternoon.

Meanwhile, back in the goat pen, our calf  Pumpkin is having an identity crisis.

Pumpkin, Behind the Goats

Hide and Seek

Am I a Goat? 

I'm so Confused!!!!!

 He does kick his heels up and rip around the corral.  The goats don't quite know what to make of him, but they treat him kindly. Baby Huey.

Then there's home.  When I'm not reading, grading, or writing, I still love my kitchen, especially now that Peter has finished the new counter and back splash.  I'm bringing in the last herbs.  Hobie helped with the peppermint.

Is that Cat Nip?

 Today will be spent at home, or taking a much needed walk in the park, depending on my mood and timing.  We all need a little unstructured time, and I'm so happy to have some today!  Photos to follow!

Almost Wordless...Thursday?

I can't wait to get into the new kitchen!  Well, the kitchen is old, but the counter and backsplash are new, compliments of Peter, who's been a busy bee. 

Pics in action to follow, maybe tomorrow! In the meantime, here are a few wild mushroom sautes!

Mushroom-palooza

The Fall Mushroom Season: Retrospective

Giant Puffball

Chicken of the Woods (too woody)

Giant Puffball and Other Puffballs

Chicken of the Woods, Young

Young Chicken of the Woods, Cleaned

Oyster Mushrooms

Puffballs

Skullcap Puffball

Most of these yummy specimens, once sauteed, found their way into my freezer for future bliss, though I can honestly say I've had my share of them this month.  All are delicious, natural, and free.  All of them are good beginner mushrooms, as they have no scary look-alikes. NEVER EAT A MUSHROOM YOU CAN'T IDENTIFY PROPERLY!  I cross reference my field guides with extensive web searches before I attempt a nibble, and don't try anything that could look anything like a poisonous or questionable mushroom.  I'll admit to a few discards this season; live and learn!

Listening

Saucon Valley Autumn

This has been a year of changes for me; for the last 10 years, I enjoyed a certain rhythm of activity and contemplation, business and quiet.  My school-year days were spent teaching, interacting, communicating; as a normally introspective person, that level of activity was stressful for me, and the quiet time I enjoyed with the goats after school was a welcome transition to a few hours of quiet time each night, before my husband returned from work.

Things have changed.  Peter's position with a local university was cut due to grant cut-backs, and he's much more present in my life.  I can't think of anyone I'd rather share my life with. However, I'm finding it difficult to adjust to the absolute lack of contemplative time...quiet time with no human distractions.  Even the farm is fraught with activity; people come and go, ask questions, want to learn.  Peter helps me milk now, and the delicate dance of woman and goats has become a tango, complete with dramatic shifts and turns. I still work every day, tutor twice a week, milk the goats, and attend a grad class on Wednesday nights.  My personal time is limited. I try to find time for the people I love.  I hope they'll understand.

Claire

It's a changing lifestyle for me, this new, uninterrupted pace of interaction.  My body is reacting to the change with little anxiety attacks, interrupted sleep, irritable bowel and fibromialgia flare-ups.  And therein lies the title of this blog: Listening.

It's season's end, here in frosty Pennsylvania.  The last garden vegetables have been brought in, and all that remains are the hearty cole-crops and the indigenous herbs.  The latter have been calling to me lately; the lemon balm and mint, the few remaining leaves of the transplanted passion-flower, and the rambunctious parsley.  This morning, anticipating a difficult day (our goats showed signs of pink-eye last night, and today will be spent treating them), I woke in a back-wrenching, twitchy sweat at 4 AM.  The usual remedies (a glass of milk, a chapter of a novel, relocation to the couch) did nothing.  But I kept thinking of those herbs.

Lemon Balm

Two days ago, during my morning prep period, I read a bit about "A Course on Miracles", and since then have tried the first two exercises which allow you to reframe your assumptions.  I don't know if I'll continue the course or not, but I do know that I was more aware of my inner thoughts this morning, as those plant images kept coming to me.  At a certain point, it occurred to me that those very plants had exactly what I needed; they were calming, strengthening, antibacterial.  The infusion I made from the lemon balm, mint and passion flower immediately untied the knot in my back; and the parsley I picked several days ago will be going to the goats this morning.  It's just what they need.

Parsley

So, in my transitioning rhythms, I'm learning something new: in those wee hours of the night, in those fleeting still moments, take the time to listen.  The answers are there.

Mint

Jersey Boy

First, I apologize for my HUGE lapse in blogging.  I wrote my first graduate paper.  I'm 53.  That was huge for me.  I'm loving the whole research process.  My world just got...BIGGER.
Here's what I've been up to in the meantime...our little Jersey boy was born two days ago, on my birthday.  Check out the state map on his forehead!  He's adorable.

Pumpkin, born on 11/02/2010



Pumpkin's momma, Daisy, is doing fine.  He was an easy delivery.  

More updates to follow ASAP!