Complicated Oatmeal (It Sounds Like A Name For A Band!)

I make my kids a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast every once in awhile (especially since my friend, Rosie, taught me how delicious it is made with milk - don't ever make it with water!).

Here's how I cook it:  mix together oats and milk, maybe throw in some cinnamon and a dollop of real maple syrup; cook, stirring, on medium heat until it gets to the proper consistency.  Drop a bit of brown sugar on top, serve.


Ingredients:  oats, milk, cinnamon, real maple syrup, brown sugar (molasses, white sugar)

Now, here is the ingredient list for the "healthy" Breakfast Oatmeal from one of those fast food places (you know which one):

Oatmeal Whole grain rolled oats, brown sugar, food starch-modified, salt, natural flavor (plant source), barley malt extract, caramel color.

Diced Apples Apples, calcium ascorbate (a blend of calcium and vitamin C to maintain freshness and color).

Cranberry Raisin Blend Dried sweetened cranberries (sugar, cranberries), California raisins, golden raisins, sunflower oil, sulfur dioxide (preservative).

Light Cream Milk, cream, sodium phosphate, datem, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium citrate, carrageenan. CONTAINS: MILK.

Final Analysis:   ~It takes about five minutes to make your own oatmeal at home (using quick-cooking oatmeal) and two minutes to wash out the pot. ~It probably takes the same amount of time to go through the drive thru.                                          ---------------- ~You can sit at a table at home to eat - or you can eat in your car or at your desk and take the chance of glopping oatmeal on your clothes or workplace.                                          ----------------- ~You're eating five ingredients when you make it at home (counting brown sugar as one ingredient).                                      ~You're eating a whopping 21 ingredients if you eat it from that fast food place.                                  --------------------- ~The fast food Breakfast Oatmeal contains fruit. ~At home, you can easily throw some some raisins and dried sweetened cranberries into your cooking oatmeal (I will attest that this is awesome! Oh, and this raises your ingredient count to seven).  Diced apple takes a bit more work but is not impossible.  You can add extra raisins and dried sweetened cranberries to get your daily serving of fruit.   How did something so simple become so complicated?

Winter Gifts: Eggs and Carrots

Last winter, I tried layering carrots with sand between them in a big plastic container and put the container in my basement.  I kept wondering how I still had a few fruit flies in the late fall?  Then, long before the spring came around, I poured a nasty smelling carrot/sand mush into my compost bin.  It did not work.  

Last fall I read an article in Mother Earth News about a mini homemade root cellar made out of a 5- gallon bucket.  Here's the link to the article:  Mini Root Cellar.  It looked feasible.  

I didn't have a spare 5-gallon bucket floating around so I found a deep, plastic, Rubbermaid-style, container.  I drilled holes in the bottom and prepared to bury it out in my garden.  Fitz pointed out that it would stink to have to dig snow to pull out my carrots, so I decided to bury it at one end of the high tunnel.  I didn't have a spare straw bale lying around either, but I had plenty of leaves, so, after filling the container with unwashed carrots from my garden, I piled a mountain of leaves on top of it.

This is what I brought up from the garden and chicken coop the other day - in mid-February!

Aren't they gorgeous?  They smell wonderful!  I don't think I've ever noticed in all the years I've been buying them from the store, that carrots have a wonderful "carroty" scent.  I've rinsed these off and they're still a bit dirty.  I found that the leaves that I had piled on top of the bin are a bit of a pain to pull off and then they fall down into the plastic container so you end up with leaf bits all over the carrots.  Next year I will definitely put a straw bale over them.   

If you are growing carrots (and I imagine this would work well with other root vegetables).  Follow the link above and give this a try.  I think you'll be pleased with the results.  

Love and Maple Syrup

                                                                                              

Love and maple syrup shine like

Embers warm, like thoughts divine

They tell us it is spring

Love and maple syrup stir

The thoughts of people into words

Of songs that they can sing

Excerpt from, "Love and Maple Syrup," by Gordon Lightfoot

Sap!

THE SAP IS RUNNING!

After I got off work yesterday, I thought I would take a ride and look at my sap lines.  What a pleasant surprise!

In the top photo you can clearly see the sap running out of the lines.  Those icicles hanging off the tank are all maple sap.

  The bottom photo shows an area we tap that is very shady.  A lot of junk gets built up in the lines and all that green gunk you see has washed out.  That's why we run the lines a bit before we stick them into the tanks.  If you look at the bottom photo near the top center you can see the stream of maple sap.  

After I took these photos I stuck the lines into the tanks - we're collecting!  Now we just have to cross our fingers and hope Mother Nature does her part!

The worst that can happen (I can't believe I'm saying this) is that it gets too warm too fast.  We want below freezing nights and above freezing days.  

Maple Sap Weather for Wednesday -  6:30 a.m. temperature:  -3 degrees

4 p.m. temperature: 33-degrees.

Got Sap?

Living In A Winter Wonderland

I looked out the window from John's bedroom this morning and thought the world looked like a winter picture postcard.

I couldn't believe the amount of snow that slid off the high tunnels - look at it piled up along the sides.  

You can see my trail to the chicken coop.  Fitz saved me yesterday when he hauled 150 pounds of chicken feed down on a sled and left a nice wide trail of nicely packed snow!

Maple Sap Weather for Tuesday -  6:30 a.m. temperature:  0-degrees

2 p.m. temperature: 22-degrees.

(I don't think we'll see any sap flowing.) 

The Sweetest Drip: The Making of Maple Syrup

I told you about a song called, "Tap Tap Thunk" in my last post.  I would love to play it for you because it's so darn cute, but it's part of a movie that my neighbor, Bryan Ianson, who lives about a mile down the road... the one who got us into the maple syrup business... made, and I don't want to take away from this great film he put together.  Here's the teaser for "The Sweetest Drip:  The Making of Maple Syrup:

This movie is not only informative, but it's darn entertaining too!  If you are interested in tapping maple trees - with bucket, bags, or tubing, you'll find out how to do it from this video.

The DVD contains chapters on: Tree Identification, Surveying the Woods, Tapping Trees, Collecting Your Sap, Boiling, Grading, Filtering, and Bottling,  The added Bonus Features teach you to make Maple Candy, Maple Lollipops, Maple Sugar, Maple Cream, and Maple Nuts.

It's 1 hr. 35 min. long in DVD format.

If you're interested in buying it, there is a "The Sweetest Drip" website.  Click here:   The Sweetest Drip

Or, I'll be happy to talk to my neighbor!

Maple Season Begins!

Yesterday we spent the whole day tapping maple trees.  The weather cooperated and we enjoyed lovely weather (for February)!

In the morning we worked in an area about 1/2 mile from our home that we've christened "The South Seven."  I tried to chronicle our morning in pictures.  Later in the day we moved to an area nearer to our home.

The tools:  We use a battery operated drill with a 5/16"-drill bit.  If you look closely you'll see some duct tape wrapped around the bit.  This acts as a guide to let us know how deep to drill into the tree.   The other tool we use is a rubber mallet to pound in the spiles.  

Our tubing lines run through the forest.  We've spent the past few years getting quite a spider web of these set up.  The sap from all the trees we tap runs down through these to a large tank at the bottom of the forest. 

Spiles hanging down waiting to be tapped into the trees. 

The very important workers:  (Heather and Petey opted to stay home and do dishes while we tapped this part of our lines).  They joined us later in the day.

The worker's helpers: Daisy and Candy Cane.  Petey can't come to this part of the forest because he tends to get bored and wander off - and there's a road with fast moving cars nearby. 

And the drilling begins.  Each hole must be drilled at a slightly downward angle so that gravity feeds the sap into the lines.   

John pounds in the spiles.  This is a delicate process!  There is a distinct sound the hammer makes as it hits the spile perfectly into place.  If you hit it again you'll split the tree and the sap will leak out around the tap rather than into the tap.  In later posts I hope to introduce you to the "Tap, Tap, Thunk" song.  

  

The spiles pounded into place.  We now wait for below freezing nights and above freezing days for the sap to "run".  In the bottom picture you'll find a perfect four year rotation of spile holes.  You don't want to girdle the tree by going in a line around it, so each year you follow a cross pattern.  This is our fourth year on this tree.  

Sometimes, as you drill the hole, the sap begins to run out of the tree.  You can just see a drop of sap dripping out of this tree.  

Whew!  The day warmed up and we started to shed layers!

We look for damage while we work.  In the top picture you can see a stick has fallen over a line.  The bottom picture shows squirrel damage.  They like to chew on the tubing - maybe they're bored, maybe they're tasting the sweet drops of sap left in the lines - nobody knows, but it's a pain in the neck to replace these sections!

I paint a maple tapping scene on old-fashioned maple buckets and I'll often use greens, grays, and other colors in my trees.  The palette found in nature is amazing!

I don't know who put this up in the middle of the woods, but this Old Man of the Forest (who, every year, makes me jump!) wishes us a happy tapping season. 

... and after yesterdays beautiful day, we woke up to this (there had been zero snow on the tables and deck):

Now, we watch the weather, the temperature, and the wind direction, and hope to find tanks brimming with maple sap!

2011 God's Country Market Farmers Meeting

There's nothing I enjoy more than a house full of people.  I love listening to and seeing all the kids running around screaming, playing, and having a good time.  I love good food, good drink and really good conversation.  If I use those elements to judge how well a night went, then last night's first get together of the God's Country Market Farmers (this is my impromptu name for the group) was a great success!

We threw around great ideas and received great advice.  I think one of the great pieces of advice given by Joe Bailey was that we must be aware that the the weekly Farmer's Market acts as a showcase for the participating farmer.  We won't necessarily make a lot of money there, but it acts as a stepping stone for other ventures - one example being the the weekly shares (CSAs).

Jim Reed talked about plans for a permanent farm stand in which all the farmers could participate and that would give the community a chance to buy fresh, naturally grown products - meats, vegetables, jellies, even growing supplies, and more - locally.  Even the big box stores like Walmart are waking up to the "buy local, buy natural" movement.  Now, I don't know what their version of "local" may be, but listen to their commercials - interesting....

One of the best part of the night was listening to people's plans for this growing year.  Most everyone has a certain plant that catches their interest.  Knowing where their concentration lies means I can grow less of that myself and focus on other things.  It eases the burden of having to grow everything.

I'm fired up now.  I can't wait to get going with this year's garden.  I have spring fever and know that this year I will have the perfect garden!  (ha ha)


P.S.  Please be sure to check out my updated blog list.  I've added three new sites who are local Potter County growers.

Whistling, Howling, Snowy Wind

What a wind storm last night!  The weather has been absolutely fantastic the past couple of days and the warm weather has melted off a good portion of the snow.  My slipping and sliding (and even falling down) trip to the chicken coop was made much easier.  But now the wind is blowing in more cold and snowy weather.

We plan to get going on our maple taps today, but first we'll have to attend to some home maintenance.  This morning, as we were sleeping, we suddenly woke up to a metallic banging above our heads.  I thought a shutter had blown loose, but when I stuck my head out the window into the frigid morning air I found that the metal trim over the fascia had blown loose.  So, home maintenance and then tapping trees.

Tonight, we are hosting a meeting of Market Farmers.  We hope to get with everyone and kind of "get on track" with what we all would like to do.  We want to plan out who will be growing what, and when and where we will be selling.  It's good to get together and discuss this - rather than "reinvent the wheel!"

I better get myself off into this blustery morning.  Good day all!

Getting Maple?

Winter is beginning it's end of season roller coaster temperatures.  Yesterday morning when we got up it was 40-degrees and today, at the same time, it's 10-degrees!

We're preparing for maple tapping season to begin this next weekend.  Fitz has hauled the tanks up out of the deep snow in the backyard and they're lining the driveway.  We'll be placing them at the bottom of our sap lines and one tank will go in the back of the truck.  There's still a lot of snow out there!  

I'll be posting some great pictures of us tapping trees and hopefully lots of sap running into our tanks!  We're supposed to have some almost 50-degree days this week, so I'm hoping the some of the snow in the forests will melt off.  Snow on top of sticks and forest clutter can be quite an ankle twister!

Here is a link to  the Buy Fresh Buy Local sign for the Northern Tier (that's us - our county is on the northern tier of Pennsylvania).  http://www.northerntierbfbl.com/  It's the only one you'll find with a maple bottle on it.  See the maple leaf bottle in the bottom right hand corner? 

Spring PlanNing

We are in the hardest part of winter, but already spring is beginning to make itself felt - in the planning stages.

The garden is being planned.  I must calculate seed starting times, planting times inside the high tunnels and outside, seeds ordered, garden layout, weed control, fertilization, and much more.

Maple season is almost upon us.  There are lines to be repaired, new lines to be run, taps to put in, holding tanks to be placed, and much more.

This year's pigs are ordered.  Get their feed, clean up their pen, make sure the fence is in working order.

Chicks must be ordered.  What breeds do I want?  When do I want to get them?  Will it be warm enough to put them in the shed with a light?

We are meeting with other farmer's to get a Farmer's Market plan.  Who is growing what?  Where will we sell?  And much, much more.

We've ordered more bees.  What breeds do we want?  How will we handle the bees we have?  Where will we place them this year?

Maintenance and projects are being planned.  Paint the porch, paint the building, build and paint a pool deck, run power to the pool, shed, and high tunnels, run water.  And, oh, so much more!  

What have I forgotten?

Would anyone like a working farm "vacation" this year? 

Giveaway: Ramsign Classic Enamel Sign

When we lived in Europe, we would find that there were so many little things that would make the countryside particularly beautiful.  One touch we truly enjoyed was the enamel house signs.  They were big bold and clear and perfectly combine beauty and function.  Homestead Revival Blogspot is running a wonderful giveaway from Ramsign Classic Enamel Signs.  There are a number of choices and you'll have the opportunity to pick the color and style that best suits your home.  

For a chance to win go to http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2011/02/give-away-ramsign-classic-enamel-signs.html#comment-form and follow the directions to type in a comment at the bottom of the blog.  What a neat opportunity!

Araucanas

My araucana chickens (also know as the "Easter eggers) are getting pretty old and at the end of their laying lives.  But the other day they surprised me....

I had put fresh hay in the laying boxes and I guess in the process of getting the hay fluffed they way they wanted it they pushed an egg down to the bottom.

I was so excited to finally see a green-blue egg...

But then I turned it over and found it had been out too long in the well below freezing temperatures and it had frozen solid and the shell had split.  It went into the compost.

Happily, the next day they treated me to another!

We have been hit by the big storm that's rolling through the Northeast.  I spent the night listening to ice click against the windows.  Luckily, we've kept our power so far!  The ice is thick enough that the little dogs can walk right on top of it and it makes the best sled riding surface.  The kids are outside playing as I write.  This morning, as I tended to the chickens, the ice started to fall again and now we have more snow coming down.  

Winter Storm Warning

We are ready for the coming storm... as ready as we can be.  

I know it sounds crazy, but I hope for some wind so that the snow and ice are blown off the high tunnels.  We hate to get to much snow piled up on top of them for fear the plastic will tear.  

A few days ago, we were out bumping snow off the tops - exhausting work using a pool cleaning pole with a big towel duct taped around the end - because quite a bit had built up and I inadvertently poked a hole in the top.  We were able to patch it, but I have to wonder if bumping the snow off does more damage than letting the spread out weight of snow stay (as long as it doesn't get crazy deep!) 

Winter Storm Warning for Potter, PA

until 5 pm EST, Wed., Feb. 2, 2011

Radar Map

What's This?

Updated 1 Feb 2011 9:10 am Local Time

Enlarge Map | Weather in Motion®

Get WeatherReady

• Prepare for Winter Storms
• Tips for Snow & Ice Removal
• Driving in Snow & Ice
• Get Live Traffic Reports
• Wintry Precipitation Explained

Issued by The National Weather Service
State College, PA
3:47 am EST, Tue., Feb. 1, 2011

... WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 PM EST WEDNESDAY...

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 PM EST WEDNESDAY.

* LOCATION... NORTH CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA.

* PRECIPITATION TYPE... SNOW WILL TRANSITION TO A MIXTURE OF LIGHT SNOW AND SLEET THIS AFTERNOON. A SECOND AREA OF WINTRY PRECIPITATION WILL OVERSPREAD THE AREA TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. SNOW AND SLEET WILL REMAIN THE DOMINANT PRECIPITATION TYPES WITH PERIODS OF FREEZING RAIN LIKELY NEAR INTERSTATE 80.

* ACCUMULATIONS... 5 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOW. ICE ACCUMULATIONS BETWEEN ONE TENTH AND ONE QUARTER INCH.

* IMPACTS... SNOW AND ICE COVERED ROADS WILL CREATE HAZARDOUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS. POWER OUTAGES ARE ALSO POSSIBLE... ESPECIALLY CLOSER TO INTERSTATE 80 DUE TO THICK ACCRETIONS OF FREEZING RAIN.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW... SLEET... OR ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. THOSE WITH TRAVEL PLANS IN THE WARNED AREA ARE ADVISED TO TAKE AN ALTERNATIVE ROUTE... OR SHOULD USE EXTREME CAUTION IF TRAVEL IS UNAVOIDABLE. CARRY EXTRA SUPPLIES... INCLUDING BLANKETS... FOOD AND A CELLULAR PHONE IN CASE YOUR CAR BECOMES STRANDED.