bee creative

Dark Days Challenge: eating from local food sources

This year I've decided to participate in the Dark Days of winter eat local Challenge . The goal is to eat a meal once a week sourced only from sustainable, organic, local, ethical sources and to blog at least once a week about our efforts.

For the past three years or so I've made sure that most of my food is either local or purchased bulk all year long,  so I know I can do a couple meals each week.    We have some great resources in this area and I've figured out pretty well how much I need to preserve to get me through the winter. 

The big challenge for me is to make sure I don't cut back on the amount of fruits and vegetable I should eat, just to maintain eating locally.  To balance eating a healthy diet with being local, even through the hardest month, March.... 

Also, in addition to at least the one sustainable, organic, local, ethical meal per week, I want to work on is replacing some of the foods that I buy bulk with local options.  Hazelnut butter rather than peanut butter.  Honey rather than sugar (which I've been changing over to for several months now).  That kind of thing.

I can be a little more creative with the food choices I think. 

 

 

mostly knitting

For the last couple days most of my "making" has centered around knitting the sweater.  Two more inches on the yoke and I'm done other than finishing up the underarm seams.  It will be finished by the end of next weekend.  The big mystery at the moment is, will it fit?  I wanted this sweater to be a little less loose than the blue one, but I may have overestimated.  Ah well! 

I've also started to stitch on a little project.  This is fabric I dyed with goldenrod.  I laid the flowers across the fabric and wrapped it around a copper pipe.  The tree pattern was pretty obvious to me when I unwrapped the fabric.   A little bit of drawing confirmed that it was the right direction. 

a little science

Lots of playing today, no shopping. 

Here's one of my latest dye experiments ( from a container  of leaf dye. )   For this one I made a ball out of dry fabric and placed it in the dye bath.  This is the outside edge.  I love the effect created as fluid wicks up through the fabric.  

After washing and drying this piece, the colors are subtle and hard to capture on the camera, but it does have some fun patterns. 

The more I looked at the fabric, the more intrigued I was by the creases. 

I wondered what if I played a bit with the image in Photoshop...

Sure glad I decided to find out.   The only thing I did here is add a layer called "fresco."  The patterns were created by the wrinkles and the color. 

No Photoshop involved in this one:

This is what happens when a book is put in a sun room that contains slugs (I didn't do it!).  Luckily this was the only damage to the book, on the inside cover.   I suppose slugs could be considered lace makers...

three months of knitting the sky scarf

This is the sky scarf at almost three months.  It doesn't include yesterday or today's gray rows.

It is large enough now that it folds upon itself as I knit. 

Practice is certainly making me more consistent.

And strangely enough consistency seems to come when I stop paying attention. 

Which leads me to believe that if I want an irregular texture I will need to be attentive and deliberate.

practice makes pie

 

And other things.

I am often asked on the bus if it is hard to learn to knit.  I have to answer that I honestly don't know.  I learned to knit while I was a child.  And to crochet and to make pie. 

(This pie was made with half oat flour and half wheat.  It turned out very well.)

Thinking a lot today about when and how we learn skills. 

Spinning is a new skill for me (about one year).  Spent an hour or so practicing plying this morning.  Oh what fun!

Practice, practice is an important part of it all. 

That, and a willingness to play. 

That's what I was doing with the geranium leaves when I realized they made a rather nice flower. 

P.S.  The photo of Briar and I is ten years old now.  It was taken right after her first bath. 

P.P.S  I think the secret to good pie crust is to use just enough water to hold the crust together, that the water should be cold (and the butter if that is what you are using for a fat), and to not overwork the dough.  I specialize in rustic looking pies rather than re-roll. 

 

a full heart

Yesterday there was a bit of slush on the deck, but no real snow here.  Sunny today, but cold enough that the frost never melted in some places.     Cold enough for the wool coat.

I've had this coat for over twenty years.  For much of that time it's been my primary winter coat.  I have started wearing raincoats more often (better for riding the bus and walking when it rains of course), but this is still my favorite for a cold day.  It is showing it's age a bit and needs some mending.

This morning's project: 

I can see covering the whole backside of the collar with stitching.  I don't think I'd ever have thought about mending this way without Jude. Thank you...

I also spent some time at a demonstration/sale put on by the local weaving guild today.  A very generous group of people.  I watched spinners, weavers, a carding demonstration and had some wonderful conversations.  And then came home to try plying yarn.   Crocheted up a little sample too.   It's going to take some practice, but it's a good next step.

This handful of roving did not come from the sale, but rather from the farmer's market.  It was a gift from one of the vendors.  I had stopped to watch her spin and to look at her yarn and we started talking.  She thought I might need a bit of orange for my sky scarf one day...

Today is one of those days when the heart feels full. 

 

quince + a few memories

Recently I checked out The River Cottage Preserves Handbook by Pam Corbin from the library.  I need to find a copy for my collection.  Certainly I want it so I can try several of the recipes... but this passage was what really made me smile:

You don't need to turn the clock back far, just a couple generations to the 1950's when to own a home refrigerator or a freezer was considered opulent, and of course fresh foods didn't arrive each day of the week, each week of the year, by air and sea from all corners of the globe..." 

That little bit reminded me of a story my parents tell of when we lived in a small village in South Eastern Alaska.  At that time mail came in once every two weeks, by float plane, weather permitting.   My grandparents, being aware of the lack of fresh food we were eating, decided to mail some fresh green beans from the garden to us.  Unfortunately weather did not permit and the green beans did not arrive fresh.  As the story goes, the pilot of the plane was not happy. 

This shipment was much more successful.  The quince my grandmother mailed me, plus a bit from my own shrub, made the most beautiful quince paste/cheese (a preserve that is like fruit butter but cooked longer).  I used the recipe from the cookbook mentioned above.  It is the first time quince has turned pink for me when I cooked it.  I'm not sure if it was the directions to cook the quince peel, seeds and all or if it was the cook until mushy and then let sit for several hours that did the trick, but either way I'll be following this recipe again. 

Next recipe to try:  Honeyed hazels.  Or maybe Spiced Pickled Pears...

next direction for Following Sea

This morning I looked up from the computer

and found the next direction for Following Sea.

Little fishies.

Remembering: 

Sometime in my childhood I used to sit on the boat and sing to the fish.  I was inviting them to come be caught...

 

 

sailing by moonlight

equals

I decided I needed to learn how to do something new this week.

So I taught myself how to fold a paper boat.

And I set it to sail on a piece of cloth that was a gift.  One that I had left folded in the sun this summer and then dyed in indigo.

And then I played a bit more.

A good thing to do under the full moon.

one little thought