Town House Homestead Tuesday

My first thoughts today are for the victims and families suffering in "our country" from the results of natural disasters and to the "human beings" who have lost their lives because of it. I can not alone send everything they need and I can not seem to rally many to even think of helping. My heart aches for the families that suffered fatalities in Las Vegas. My heart aches over the number of our citizens who are suffering from hunger and homelessness. This is America. This is a disgrace. We are brothers and sisters in this world. "All one." Do what you can even if it's on a small local level. Enough said.

I am learning to save seeds. I started this past year with some vegetables, but this week I saved some zinnia seeds. 

I also treated myself to other flower seeds. A percentage of the sales go to fund hurricane victims. I am cleaning my hanging baskets and planning a little more beautification of Ms. Beldon next spring. 

I was gifted a bag of "end of season" peppers yesterday and I know I can make some meals from them. This morning I harvested two more of my own peppers and a meals worth of green beans. 

I harvested almost all of my basil. I got four cups from my five plants and made three and a half more cups of walnut pesto. I gave one cup away to a co-worker of my daughter, that sent me some of his home grown garlic. I made a pesto and tomato pizza for us and froze the rest.

I had a large zucchini given to me and it yielded six cups of grated goodness. I made a zucchini quiche and zucchini ricotta muffins. So savory, and tasted incredible with our home made soup. 

Over night lows went down into the thirties so I brought my herbs inside. I am making homes for them so I have fresh herbs to cook with all winter.

My parsley found a home on my early Christmas gift. It's a vintage pole, plant hanger. My daughter gave it to me. She's taught herself to make macrame hangers, and has made me two now to hang my over abundance of plants. Below the parsley is a vintage planter with fresh oregano growing. 

We had a good rain storm one day last week. When the sun came out we saw this beautiful rainbow that left a wonderful feeling in our hearts. We can see the grass disappearing to grow gardens in the future, but in the time we've been here, our little patch of earth has done a lot developing. 

Today is national black dog day. Who knew? I'll close today with a picture of our little black dog who was neutered and micro chipped last week. He was so sick and we felt so bad. He lived nine days in his cone and hated every minute of it, but he hung in there. He has recovered well. This is not a cone of shame as many people called it, but a cone of responsibility. As pet owners we must be responsible even if it hurts us as much as it hurts them. We promised day after day that he'd get his revenge on that cone, and it took him three days to destroy it, and he had fun doing it. That's what's been happening at the Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by, and if my comments make you upset, and you think that I don't see all sides to problems, than feel free not to read, but please be loving to all.

Town House Homestead Tuesday

Oh boy has it been a twister ride for the last five weeks. More and harder work than we expected and nothing happening fast. Still waiting for things like electrical and the final move which will be June 4th. We are ready to be done. We continue to discover new things with the house, like finding missing window screens, holes the wood chucks dug and a rose bush buried under a few years of leaves. We have windows painted open and windows painted closed. Wouldn't be so bad, but they are painted closed/open on the inside and outside. Really? Any way my favorite discovery was a good patch of chives growing in the tall grass that next year will be my garden. I continue to clear the wood pile, a bag full at a time, so that the garden area will be clear to start preparing. 

This morning I harvested more Lilacs. They are starting to die off, but I am going to keep trying new things for as long as they last. The bushes are huge and have been very generous. Last week I told you about the oil, extract, and sugar. The sugar turned out well. It has a slight floral flavor and we are discovering that Lilacs have a strong aroma, but a mellow taste. The oil will take a bit longer and the extract seems to be working. We used a morter and pestal to crush some of the blossoms and added more of this to the oil and extract. They are continuing their task in a cool dark pantry. 

This is a quart jar on the left filled with two packed cups of Lilac blossoms. On the right the same blossoms are seeping in boiled water so that tomorrow I can attempt some Lilac jelly. I have decided to try things at least once so I know what will work and what won't, and see what we like and what we don't. I'll update you later on the results.

Last week I tried a Lilac muffin recipe that flopped, but was edible any way. This morning I tried again using a basic muffin recipe you can find anywhere. I used the blossoms that were sifted out of the Lilac sugar and another 2/3 cup of fresh blossoms and 1/3 cup crushed blossoms. (crushed in the morter and pestal) Above they are ready to put in the oven.

Twenty two minutes later here you see them fresh from the oven. They have a light hint of Lilac, but I tried them warm so maybe as they cool off they will share some more flavor. Who knew you could do so much with Lilacs. I am keeping a record so that next year when they blossom I will be more ready for them, but I'm glad we took advantage of what's growing at the new Town House homestead. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

I've had a couple of days this past week that I was feeling a bit under the weather, literally. With the change to cooler temperatures we've had to turn on the heat, and the dust from the furnace has made my sinuses react. This along with the rain and damp that have made my body ache more than ever has been a challenge. 

Our dear friends Karen and Richard let me grow tomatoes and squash in their back yard. It's been a great learning experience and we know that we can do it and we know more about how to do it. 

These butternut squash are what I harvested last week that I grew in buckets from seeds that I had saved. They are small and have bumps and bruises, but the larger one will become a stuffed squash dinner for us and the others will become a serving of smashed squash, a loaf of butternut squash bread, or chips. I haven't decided yet and for now I'm still working on the vegetables I got at the farmer's market the weekend before last. I am also going to look into purchasing heirloom seeds for the future.

With the change in temperatures comes a change in menu. This is a large pot of cabbage soup. It was so good and most of all economical. I have been cooking the full pot because it freezes well and I can put it up to share.

Another large pot of stick to the ribs meals was this Pasta E Fagioli. This also freezes well and the only change I would make to this recipe would be to boil my carrots a bit first. The time the recipe said to cook them was not long enough and I thought they would cook more as the tomatoes did, but they still had crunch to them. There is plenty to share here too. These meals were all on my new menu plan and I am on week ten. The menu for week ten is blank and I am trying to constantly try new recipes and vegetables. In ten weeks we've had only two meals twice and that was baked chicken leg quarters and pork stir fry. Not bad when you think about how many meals we eat in ten weeks. Leftovers for lunches have helped saved the budget too. That's what I've been doing for the change of season. Thank you for stopping by for a visit and have a great week. If it's cold where you are I hope you are staying warm. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

January is over and WOW what a whirlwind of growth and busy. A few days into February and it we're still going. 

Early in the month I found two cloves of garlic that decided to start growing. I was surprised because this is from what I harvested in 2014. I took a minute and then quickly put them into pots to see where they would go. Well here's the progress. They are 13 inches tall today and still going. 

I continued to learn new bread recipes and doing more with the dough. We are eating less bread so I'm baking bread every two weeks and finding myself using the old bread for croutons and bread crumbs. I store them vacuum sealed in jars and haven't lost any yet. So far croutons have stayed fresh for a month and some are still going longer.

I found a Rival Crock-Pot at the thrift store for 50% off, final cost to us was $4.49. Brought it home, cleaned it up and made a batch of Buffalo pulled chicken. It works great and is smaller than the one I had and takes up less room on the counter.

This was an attempt at Buffalo pulled chicken Stromboli. It was good, but I wanted better. I used a pizza dough for it and I thought it was a bit to hard.

This is the second attempt and I was happier with this one. I used a french bread dough that I let rise for a bit and baked at a lower temperature for a few minutes longer than a loaf of bread. I was excited that this fed six people. 

The canning continues. I added quite a few pints of chicken broth. I have an amount of jars that I'd like to have on hand that I'm working on. I also added more beef broth and as the year progresses I hope to add more. The picture on the right is all chicken. My daughter purchased a ten pound bag of chicken leg quarters for the grand price of $6.90 last week. At $.69 a pound I had to make it work. I boiled  them and took the meat off the bone. Total nine cups of meat. I filled three pint jars of chicken and seven pints of chicken broth. I made three cups of Buffalo pulled chicken. From it I made the Stromboli and put up one pint. I think I got more than most people would get from chicken legs and I figured it out with the future soups and meals to be about $.29 a serving. This does not include any breads, pot pie crusts, noodles, rice or vegetables that would be added, but that would probably increase the price to about $.43 a serving. I am pleased.

Finally the sock. This is as far as I'm going with my practice sock. I'm pretty sure I know how to weave the toe. It's a misfit I know, but I needed to do it large enough to visually see how it worked and I used large size needles and didn't change them as the directions said and I'm sure I can try now with smaller needles. I got the two sets I needed in the smaller sizes on sale with a Christmas gift card this week and will be figuring out my gauge and starting with more scrap yarn until I get it to where I need it to be. One goal met for 2015.
Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. I'll see you all again soon.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Just a lot of little stuff going on here. LOL Did some cooking.

Donuts for Halloween. Eight people shared two and a half dozen donut holes and six donuts. They were good.

Made some Pita bread for cucumber sandwiches, white garlic pizza and chicken wings and it may look like a lot of wings but if these guys were two inches long we got lucky.

Roasted up some winter veggies to go with chicken for dinner. Here I have butternut squash, potatoes and beets with olive oil and rosemary.

Harvested another bowl of spearmint and yielded two cups of dried leaves for tea BEFORE the complex without notification came through and chemically treated the gardens and all of my plants are now contaminated. 

I bundled up in four layers this past Saturday to join my daughter at my grandson's football game. They lost, but played hard.

Did a bit more sewing for the store. I just love mug rugs.

And the freebies just keep on coming. This is the past weeks goodies.

Candy, gum, cat food, oatmeal facial mask, Halloween stencils, toothpaste, earplugs and some personal care items. There were others but I ate them. :)  So for not much going on there sure was and will be. We grow and learn every day and let go of what we can't change. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Autumn has officially arrived!
The days of soup with garlic bread and warm oatmeal apple crisp.

The days when trips to the farms brighten the days of we city dwellers who dream of the farm.

On a breathtaking day when you can pick your own raspberries and pumpkins and watch the silly goats walk the planks above the barn.

When you can see the most majestic blue sky behind a windmill, walk the corn maze, see the leaves turning and enjoy the bright colors of nature.

But best of all getting to try and purchase new kinds of apples (sweetangos) and produce which is the reason we visit the farms and support local farmers. 

I love the squash this time of year. I start thinking of all the things I can make. I purchased two butternut squash at the farm. It's still early here so I know there will be plenty more. From these two I got seven servings. As you can see I prepared some for oven baked squash fries and some for future cooking and baking. I see a squash pie coming.

Harvesting at the townhouse itself this week included the sweet potatoes. I was hoping for better, but I tried and there's the results. Once they've cured a while longer I'll peel them up and enjoy the fruit of my labor. There's a good amount for a side dish of mashed with the sage butter I froze earlier this season.

I was gifted a bag of green tomatoes this week. I am blessed  to have had two ripen to red, one going on the top of a white garlic pizza and the other still waiting for me. We enjoyed for the first time ever fried green tomatoes and I managed to put the remaining tomatoes up. I have four pints of garlic dill pickled green tomatoes, two pints of sliced tomatoes for future frying and three pints of pickled green tomatoes with jalapeno peppers and onions. Thank you Nannette for your gift.

To add to my freebies this week, although not as exciting as the tomatoes, I got a corn bread mix, Milano raspberry chocolate cookies, and coupons for free organic mac and cheese, yoplait yogurt with Hershey's toppings and from my super market a free can of tuna.

I have to admit that I don't have gardening fever any more. I have barnheart which is just the desire to have a barn. I would settle for a large garage that looks like a barn right now. This has been a wonderful learning and doing summer for this townhouse farm girl. I still have peppermint to harvest along with rosemary and sage so that I am sure that I have plenty for winter. From here on it will be what I can get from the farmers markets, but I have gained so much respect for where my food comes from. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week everyone. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Things move along quickly when you're having fun. Did I say that? I always feel busy, but some how it's not all fun. Plenty is though and I'm enjoying my labor.

This past week my daughter baked lemon lavender shortbread cookies. They were beyond awesome. We've harvested a new crop of lavender to dry and use and there's plenty more to come. 

Do you recognize it? The new to us green Cinderella Pyrex bowl found thrifting earlier. I put it to use making up my corn bread mix for the up coming chili season. It's all stored in Ball jars along with the extra corn meal. Some is in the pantry for instant use. 

Since the holiday was celebrated quietly and there was just two of us and we didn't need a lot, we only had one dessert of  red, white and blue cookies after the turkey burgers, corn on the cob and roasted rosemary potatoes. 

The container gardening is going well. I am getting a good harvest of herbs and the sweet potatoes are getting larger every day. 

The peppermint is getting ready for me to dry the leaves for my winter supply of tea. I have peppermint simple syrup blending for my ice tea. 

I always love the freebies and have decided to share them this week. I'm always trying to save on my groceries and use some coupons, but a few programs allow you to get cash back on items other than a lot of processed foods. This includes fruit and vegetables which you never see coupons for. This past week Savingstar.com had free Morton salt. All you do is request the item and when you purchase the item with any of your registered grocery or drugstore cards they credit your account with the full purchase price or the coupon offer price. To save more you can use regular manufacturers coupons at the store to purchase the item if one is available. It takes a few minutes, but it's worth it when that cash becomes available. I got one box of salt and the other was a surprise from a friend who likes my baking. It's already saved in the canning jars I found thrifting earlier and I recycled the salt container tops to put on my canning jars for future use. This idea I found on Pinterest.com.

Savingstar had a free offer for a Hershey chocolate bar and it has been put aside for that dreaded, overwhelming desire for chocolate. Yes, I can resist until then.

It's been a busy week here at the townhouse. I've had sewing for income to keep me busy and cleaning, photographing and editing pictures of items to list on the store and the regular life that keeps us hopping. I was blessed last week with a day long visit with my grandsons and this week I will get to spend time with my granddaughter. They grow so fast and I cherish every minute with them. Thank you for stopping by and I wish everyone a wonderful week. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

I just came in from watering my (BIG!) garden. It's looking good and is growing so well. It's all herbs and sweet potatoes, but it's mine. This past week just flew by for me. Probably because I have too much to do and never enough time. We all know how that goes. I had some catching up to do also because my daughter and I took off for a four day weekend in Vermont over the holiday. The day after we got back my herbs went in and that was two weeks ago today. 

This is what went down this week.

This is a batch of Jalapeno pepper jelly. I have been buying it at quite a price and decided that I would make it this year. I've already given the grounds keeper a jar because he came and started helping me clean the front garden by cutting back a bush. Some time this summer I will be making roasted pineapple and habenero pepper jelly/relish. 

For those who know me I love my goodies. I will not deny that I have a sweet tooth, but I do realize that I don't need to eat it all at once. I baked carrot cake in jars to put on the shelf for those hot summer days when baking is not likely to happen. My recipe makes so much so I put up ten jars and still had a good size cake for the week. 

I harvested a good bunch of flat leaf parsley. It's on it's way to drying and over the weekend I found a new coffee grinder at a thrift store, that I now have to grind my herbs after they've dried. 

I am so happy with the success of my basil. I harvested a large bunch and it is also on it's way to drying. These are just a couple of the herbs I use in my soup mixes. My kitchen is smelling so wonderful this week.

Last but not least I started a pint of chive vinegar. I cut the flowers before I moved my chive plant from the front garden to the back garden. It was so large I divided it into three and if I like this chive vinegar I will hopefully have more flowers through the summer. If not I will have my chive butter for those baked potatoes through the winter. 

That's what went down this week at the Townhouse Homestead and I am having so much fun doing what I can in a small space. Anything can be done and I am so grateful to farmers for providing the fruits and vegetable I can't grow at this time. Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week everyone.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

For a few weeks now I have been trying to decide if I should start another blog to cover the different side of my life here at the townhouse. The major reason that I have decided not to is time. I'm very busy managing three on line stores and selling on different venues too, so after long discussions and deliberations I'm starting a new feature on "The Craft Zone" and calling it "Townhouse Homestead Tuesday". I think it's more than appropriate since the art of farming, raising animals, sewing and living a sustainable life, is in reality a craft. I have so many stories that I can post about under this title so here it goes. 

Yes it's a townhouse apartment. Not the best living situation for a want to be farm girl and not the best neighbors, but we are making it work. The rules are strict, but not for everyone as we have discovered. I'm going to do what I can and if they ask me to remove things, I will. I understand their rules and yes I've seen the critters that they say are no good, but they even spray to kill the bees. Living here is not forever. We live in the back section of the campus and enjoy a forever green wooded area. Actually it's a gorge and earthquake fault, but this is what I enjoyed with my coffee this morning. 

We have some very large raccoons who visit also, but there are wild turkeys and so many beautiful birds. This makes the day wonderful for me.

Last week there were so many sales on strawberries and I picked up two pounds to dehydrate. I am always looking for healthier snacks and these came out so good.

Eggs were $1 a dozen and I had been interested in making these peppered pickled eggs. I found the recipe here on pinterest. http://pharmacist.hubpages.com/hub/spicypickledeggs. I made them yesterday and harvested the seeds from the peppers I used. In two weeks I can taste them.

I was being a rebel when I started this sweet potato. We have such poor light in the townhouse that I never expected it to do anything. Well, to my surprise it did. I pinched the leaves off, and put them in water to root. They rooted so quickly that they had to go in a pot or I had to throw them away. One daughter bought me the planter and another gave me the bag of soil and I was on my way to growing sweet potatoes in a container.

I have strategically placed it on our small four foot square deck and stairs at the back door and put a solar light in it to make it look nice. They are growing well and are larger now. So far it's passing property inspections and I haven't been asked to remove it. There's more growing and more to be planted and more to write about, but for now I"ll leave it for the next post. It's not all thrifting, selling, sewing and fabric crafting here and "Townhouse Homestead Tuesday" is proof that there's plenty to enjoy in life for this townhouse farm girl.