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Springtime adventures...Milk , Potatoes and Baking

I can always tell when springtime is on its way... For me springtime is when I get all my crazy ideas Ideas, I might  add that usually take me the rest of the  year to finish.  This weekend was  no  different. Ken and I  brought home 30 pounds of  seed potatoes...Now anyone  who knows me, knows I LOVE LOVE LOVE to play in the  dirt...so much in fact that I  usually start  seedlings mere days after Christmas because I positively can't wait anymore.

So of  course  we had to plant the potatoes...right away. It was a lovely day in the sunshine,  cutting up potatoes and lovingly sticking them in the dirt.  it  took us about two hours to turn the  garden over, make the rows, and plant the potatoes. AND of course it was still a  bit chilly. SO when I got back into the  house I decided  to make hot chocolate. A seemingly PERFECT end to a relaxing day gardening and  baking...


BUT WAIT...

Ken and I  had decided to try and get our milk from a local farm... Just to see what, if  any benefits  might arise from doing so. I may continue  to do so SIMPLY for the entertainment factor! I  went to  go  fill my mug with milk ( because to me it isn't  hot chocolate otherwise!!) and went to pour it and  nothing came out!! Puzzled I turned the  jug  right side  up to see what had  happened and found out ( much to my amusement) that  all the  cream had risen to the  top and started to solidify ( it smelled  fine, btw). Now i am in my  Mid  thirties and up until now had NEVER seen  such a  thing! I knew it  could happen but I had always  bought my milk from the  grocery store. Pasteurized and  homogenized milk simply does NOT do this!! After I heated it  up I  noted that butter fat  had  risen to the  top and made a  neat swirled pattern. Lastly... you  could TASTE the difference...YUM. I think I'm in love...


Aside from entertaining children and  doing  homework all weekend I decided that I needed to bake... So far I'm up to a  loaf of  bread, a ham bake, and two batches of  granola bars...

I apologize for the lack of pics. I'll try to upload them tonight...

Midnight Planting Part 1

So the weekend of May 6th was the  open  fishing  weekend  here in  Ohio ( meaning  that  anyone  could  fish regardless of  whether they have a liscense or  not). So Ken's  parents  came  down to visit  us  and  the 6 of us went  fishing. A  great time was  had by all and by part  way through the  afternoon everyone was catching   fish! Since most of them  were  on the smaller  side Ken and I decided that we  could use the smaller  fish to  plant  our  corn  with... We had always  heard about using  fish to  give corn  and beans the   nutrients needed to  grow. So we fished and fished and  fished some more. After awhile  we headed home to  get  dinner and  settle in for the night.  At about 845 or so I was  sitting around browsing on my computer and Ken  comes in  and says "Honey, I need a hand" So I got  up and went to   go give him a hand. It  turns out that  fish won't keep  overnight. So while  others were  Ohhhing  and Ahhing  over the super moon Ken and I   were planting corn,beans  and  zucchini. Which  wouldn't have been so bad really  except... that it was  hard to see.  And  so before I knew it I had planted  an  ENTIRE package of  zucchini seeds. So we'll see what comes out... I may end up eating nothing but  zucchini for a while :)

Rain makes soup...

With the rainy  cold  weather outside I was  not so sure what I was  going to  do  today... so much of  my time  has been taken up lately with  gymnastics and  ballet coming to  a close, along with garden  stuff ramping  up and  work it seems like   it's  been hard to breathe at  times! But today is an icky cold day that has allowed me to  finish up some  notes  from a  few of the library books that I have sitting  around. It  has also been a day  that  has prompted  soup making in this  house. Soup making is  something that we all look forward to  as  none of Ken's soups  ever turn out the same way  twice.. and they are  almost always better reheated ;)
One of the  things that completely amazes me is  how many people think that making  soup is an art form... it can be but its  NOT  hard to do  at all... Ken took some of the leftover chicken that we  roasted the other night added some chopped up  veggies and  added some rice. After that he seasoned  to  taste ( for those of  you who know  Ken  you know how  complicated that can be) After  the two  of us having soup for  lunch we still have 3  quarts of  soup  left over for lunches this week...

A perfect marriage of frustration and productivity

So I was  getting the kids ready for bed last night and all of a sudden I had an uncontrollable  craving  for  fresh baked bread.  Now those of you  who know me  well know that I LOVE to bake and I made bread quite often as a teenager. I would be really frustrated over something  and take it out on bread dough. It  was a  perfect marriage of  frustration and  productivity...Beat the crap out of the rising dough and  get fresh baked bread when you are done.

However, when I decided last night that I wanted bread it was 930 at night...I didn't have the patience or the stamina to  stay up for  another 4  hours to make bread. So   what's a girl to do?

Easy.

I hauled out the bread machine... and  woke up to  fresh bread and  coffee this  morning. :)

Needless to  say the loaf is half  gone already....

Avocado Weirdness

You know  how  sometimes you decide that you want something just  because? Over the weekend it  hit me...I decided that I want an avocado tree. Ken already has a lemon tree ( that  we  got him a  couple of  years ago for his  birthday) I  have  recently decided that I like avocados. I decided to try them on a sandwich one day at Einstein Bros. and fell in love. Now I am just trying to figure out more varied ways to  eat them. So I  told Ken that I wanted an Avocado Tree and his knee  jerk reaction was " sure, bring home an avocado and  we'll try to grow one". So I brought one home... and  then proceeded to look  up instructions on  how to  grow an avocado tree. Apparently if  you start an avocado tree from scratch it take  anywhere from  7-15 years until you get your first  harvest...hmmm I think maybe I might  have to order a  full tree... or my  kids  might be done growing before the  tree is....

Mushrooms and Potatoes

So Friday was an interesting  day and one  where acquiring some of the pieces that Ken and I had been talking about. The day started when I  walked in the  door  at  work and  found  two of my  coworkers talking about me. Somehow or another they had gotten wind of the  fact that  I  was  looking  for shipping  pallets ( free wood for  garden  boxes-yay!) So I  wound up   with 6 pallets to  start and a source for more once  I  have figured out how to  break these down...
Not even an hour later a  different  coworker stop by to talk to me and  she and I started comparing notes about some of the new projects we are  doing ( she's been working  towards a  self sufficient lifestyle for a while now) and I told  her that  my  husband had been  interested in  learning how to grow mushroom  but that we had   been having a  difficult time finding a  kit for beginners. Lo and  behold one of  her friends  grows  mushrooms  and she  happened to know the name of a  local shop in Akron.

 To  top it all  off,  our  potatoes came from Burpee on  Friday  which means that Ken  spent a  good portion of the day on Friday getting the  garden ready  to  plant onions  and potatoes. If all works out we  should  get   about 3-400 pounds of potatoes to freeze and dry come October. Maybe my  kids  will start to understand how their ancestors survived on nothing  but  potatoes... The four of  us  got to  spend some time together Friday night planting garlic, onions and potatoes. I really hope all of this  work pays off as the  weather  has been  fairly loopy around here as of late. It was  nearly 80 degrees on  Friday and  tomorrow they are saying that some local areas  could  receive  up to  a foot of  snow!

Kinda makes me  glad that   Ken and I  didn't get overzealous in putting some of the seedlings out last month  when the  heat  wave  came  through Ohio...