Solstice Musings

I love winter solstice.  Some people might feel depressed or down in the middle of winter but solstice to me is about hope.  I feel energized and powerful on the shortest day of the year.  Why?  Because we have made it to the depths of winter and are about to emerge.  We are marching toward spring and rebirth.  We are strong and resourceful.  We have survived the worst of it and are now moving into the light and the warmth. I love the feeling of rebirth.  The slumbering earth is stirring - just a bit.

So on this solstice - think about your plans for the future.  Feel the energy of the earth as it begins to stir and breathe deep.  Feel the power that lives inside each of us.  Embrace the turn of the seasons and the milestones we meet along the way as we circle the sun one more time.

Blessed be.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup - with a kick

Tonight was one of those 'clean out the fridge' kind of dinners.  Sometimes they turn out awesome, sometimes not so much.  I think this one wasn't too bad.

I was home sick all day, it was cold and snowy pretty much all day long.  Soup was sounding really good but I didn't want to have to go to the grocery store.  I knew I had a head of cauliflower and a chicken breast that both needed to be cooked before they went bad.  And so a soup was born.  I think it tastes great - let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower

1 chicken breast

1 tablespoon chipotle

4 cups of chicken stock (or a carton of low sodium chicken broth)

1 onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

a dab of Mongolian fire oil *if you are heat sensitive you can leave this out*

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

pinch cayenne pepper

salt and fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon of corn starch for thickening

sour cream for garnish

Start by rubbing the chipotle all over the chicken breast and letting it marinate for a few hours.

When you are ready to make soup - preheat oven to 450.

Cut cauliflower into florets, place in large mixing bowl with a little bit of olive oil and some ground garlic (to taste).  Mix well so cauliflower is covered well.  Place into a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.  You will need to stir every 10 minutes or so to keep from burning the bottom of the florets.

Meanwhile, cut up the chicken into 1" cubes.  Chop the onion.  Cook the chicken and the onion in olive oil until onion is tender.

While chicken is cooking, mix chicken stock and spices in a large pot and begin heating.  Place the cooked chicken and onion into the stock.

When the cauliflower has roasted and cooled, grind up about 2/3 of the florets in a food processor or blender.  Cut up remaining florets into bite sized pieces.  Place all the cauliflower into the broth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I used a lot of black pepper.

Heat until broth is hot.  Mix the corn starch in enough warm water to make a thin paste.  Add to the soup and allow it to thicken.

Serve with a dab of sour cream to make it good and creamy.  You can also add homemade croutons on top.

ENJOY!

Fall is in the air!

It's definitely feeling like fall here on the Palouse.  And that has me thinking about two things - fall crops and winter sowing.

When you live in a temperate climate as I do - you really have to make the most of the growing season.  To do that you can employ several different season extending methods.  Probably the easiest one is winter sowing.  Winter sowing is a technique that allows you to have sprouting seeds when the first spring warmth comes around.  One definite advantage of winter sowing is that seedlings produced this way tend to be hardier and more able to withstand transplanting into the garden than those that are germinated inside the house under lights.

It's a very easy process - this is a great link that outlines step by step how to winter sow plants for early germination. 

 http://www.bachmans.com/files/GardenGuide/WinterSowingGuide.pdf

The other thing I think about during this time of year - is fall crops.  With a simple cold frame, it is easy to have fresh greens for several months into the winter.  Garlic is another crop that needs to be planted in fall for bigger, healthier bulbs.  This year we are trying something a little bit new. 

We scored some big tractor tires from a local farmer and we are going to use those for our garlic and fall crops.  We just cut the tops out of the tires, filled them halfway with compost, finished filling with a good garden topsoil, and planted.  For the garlic tire, we will just leave it uncovered over the winter.  The fall crop tire will have a cold frame installed to help keep our lettuce, spinach, and kale happy at least for the next month or so.  

Ok Peeps! It's recipe FRIDAY!

This one is one of my favorites - easy peasy and oh so good!

Southern Fried Cabbage.....

Ingredients
1 head cabbage shredded
1 package Tennessee Pride HOT sausage
1 can Rotel tomatoes

YEP that is IT.

How do you assemble this fabulous dish?  Easy.

Cook the sausage.  Add the Rotel and the shredded cabbage.  If you like it HOT (and we do!) add cayenne and black pepper.  Cook over medium heat until cabbage is tender and ENJOY.

Have a great Friday!

The Incredible World of Cover Cropping

So - we are taking a sustainable farming class offered by our local agricultural extension office and a cool not-for-profit group called Rural Roots (www.ruralroots.org).  Anyone local to the Moscow area should check them out.  They offer and support a variety of farming classes and seminars.  This happens to be a six class series on starting a sustainable farm in Idaho.  It's pretty cool because it is simultaneously being offered at a bunch of locations across Idaho - so it is a mix of webinar and classroom modules.  And it does of course have homework.  

Anyhoo.....our second session was yesterday.  It was about cultivating crops.  I have to say - I learned SO MUCH about farming I can't hardly believe that I was so uninformed.  DH and I have spent the last few years in feverish pursuit of weed-free bare soil everywhere except where our food plants were.  In the process, we were KILLING our soil.  That's right folks, we are murderers.  As a by-product of our dead soil, we had increasingly smaller yields from our garden.  We kept blaming the weeds but really - it was us.  We did it.

I am a little disappointed in myself for not seeing this.  I am, after all, a trained biologist.  But I never really took the time to learn about growing vegetables naturally - because I thought I already knew how.  Boy was I wrong!  I mean, I knew that healthy soil was necessary for plant growth, but I really had no idea what 'healthy soil' actually was.

Probably the most important lesson I took away from our session yesterday is that sometimes you have to grow 'weeds' to improve your soil.  I know, right?!!  Terms like green manure, live composting, and cover crops - if I had heard them before, I certainly didn't understand them and how they can help me grow better, healthier, more productive plants.  I want to share this shiny  new, amazing, incredible, and mind blowing information with YOU.  But remember, I am a neophyte.  So this is just the introduction to these topics.  I am going to learn as much as I can in the months remaining before garden season - then I will try things and share with you my book learnin' and my hands on experiences.   I'm so excited!

Here is the 10 second sound byte:  cover crops are things that you plant for the main purpose of killing them.  Yep - that is right.  Their purpose in your garden is to die.  But before they do - they do all kinds of other great things.  They shade out weeds, keep the soil from eroding or blowing away in the wind, hold moisture, add nutrients to the soil, and.....they can even help decompact hard soil types.  Amazing right?  There are lots of complexities to the use of cover crops - what to plant, when to plant, how to kill, till in or leave on top........but because of that - the potential is unlimited for incorporating them into your garden.

Some of the common suspects for use as cover crops include cereals, ryegrass, sudan grass, hairy vetch, and winter peas.  There are many more.   They can be planted in summer after early crops are harvested or they can be planted in fall to over winter.  It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish with cover cropping.  You can even incorporate cover crops into your garden while it is growing - between rows and even between plants to help deter weed growth.  I can't wait to try this!

No more neat rows of plants with bare dirt in between - no sir!  Our garden is going to look more like this......messy is GOOD.  More later....

Ok folks - so I am thinking that maybe this is the best thing I have ever eaten....if you like Indian food, holy cow!  Let it simmer all afternoon for tender tasty chicken with a lovely sauce.  Enjoy!

New Delhi Stewed Chicken

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup (1 medium) yellow onion - chopped

4 cloves garlic – minced (or pressed)

1 tbsp fresh grated ginger root

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

4 cups chicken broth

1 small can tomato paste

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 tbsp garam masala

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cayenne

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Fresh cilantro, for garnish

Instructions

Boil the chicken breasts until they are cooked through.  Set aside the broth for later.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and brown on each side for 4-5 minutes. Set aside until cool.

In the same pan, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and add the onion, garlic, and ginger. Sauté for 6-8 minutes until soft. Add a tablespoon of the tomato paste and the dry spices. Stir to mix well and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Shred the chicken into large chunks and add it, the chicken broth, and the remaining tomato paste. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Add the sweet potatoes. 

Simmer for another 35-45 minutes, until the sauce is thick and the potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. During the last five minutes, stir in the cooked garbanzo beans, and the peas. Season with salt and pepper to taste (I don’t usually put any salt in it).  Garnish with fresh cilantro.  Serve warm over cauliflower rice or basmati rice.

SIMPLIFY TIP:

Chicken and garbanzos can be cooked ahead and frozen.

Cook a large quantity of chicken and shred ahead of time.  Place 3-4 cups into large Ziploc freezer bags and freeze.  Also freeze the broth in 2 cup quantities in freezer containers.

Cook garbanzos and freeze in 1-2 cup quantities.

New Year - New Opportunities

As I say goodbye to 2015 and move into 2016, my heart is filled with hope.  The past year has been extremely difficult - health problems, living 400 miles from the DH and the critters for an entire year, moving a farm 400 miles with winter threatening, squeezing the contents of a 2600 square foot house (and four large dogs) into a 1700 square foot house built in 1905.  But now 2016 presents a world of opportunities for us and I can't wait to get started. Change is powerful.  It is uncomfortable and often frightening, but it is also transforming.  I am excited to see where it takes us!

In December 2014, we made the difficult decision to move.  We knew it was likely to be a losing proposition from a real estate perspective, but we knew business opportunities would always be limited where we were.  I was tired of the long cold winters and the short summers.  I didn't want to live 3 hours from the closest amenities or equine veterinary care anymore.  Although where we lived was strikingly beautiful with unlimited outdoor recreation opportunities, the stress of my job and trying to eek out a living there made life extremely difficult.  We needed a change and when the opportunity presented itself, we really had to take it.

The move took a total of 9 months.  As the house lingered on the market with no offers - even after two price reductions, I began to lose hope that we would ever escape.  I had to move for work so DH was stuck taking care of the farm, trying to keep the failing house in 'showing shape' and still find time to work.  I moved into a 400 square foot isolated cabin with just the basic amenities and a lot of arachnid roommates.  On a positive note, I had lots of time and motivation to train for my first sprint triathalon which I completed (in 2 hours!) in July.  This was a major accomplishment for me as I was diagnosed in October 2014 with exercise induced asthma and an over-reactive respiratory system - basically I suck at breathing and any kind of irritant (smoke, dust, etc) or exertion causes a reaction.

We finally accepted a very low offer on our home and were so fortunate to find 44 acres of heaven to purchase.  It was late September - we had no money or time to build a house - so we bought a little house in town to hunker down in for the winter.  The chickens live in the backyard, the dogs are crowded and not big fans of all the 'town noise', most of our things are in storage - but we are all in one place.  Winter was coming so hay had to be bought and secured, a well had to be dug, fence installed, water lines buried and stock tanks installed.  Thankfully, fall lingered on enabling us to construct all the critical infrastructure.  It's a little inconvenient to drive 30 miles roundtrip to feed horses twice a day but we are managing.

And now - the wheel of the Earth is turning, bringing us into a new year and new opportunities.  I am bursting with excitement over the many ideas and choices for our blank canvas of land.  Which brings me to the point of all of this!  With all the cool things we plan to accomplish in the upcoming years to turn our bare ground into a self-sustaining farm - I thought - heck!  I should start an online blog to share our experiences good and bad.  Our new website is under construction - the blog will be located at www.ourprairiefarm.com.  We will have stories of our adventures, gardening tips, recipes, pitfalls we encounter, solar energy, sustainability - who knows what will end up there.  I really hope you will join us on our journey!  I think it will be fun and there will be interesting tidbits of information that you may find useful.  Let's GO!