bee creative

making things, growing things

Salve making:

Olive oil (about 1 cup) that  calendula petals have been steeping in + beeswax (about 1 tablespoon).

I usually dry any plant matter before adding to the olive oil.  This keeps it from molding.

I have a dedicated jar that I use for melting the beeswax in and use a frying pan as a double boiler to heat the oil and the wax.  Once the wax is melted, it is poured into the heated oil and stirred (I usually use a wood skewer).  If you try this, be careful with this step and don't walk away. 

The salve will solidify as it cools. 

The proportion of wax to oil will impact how hard the salve is.  My proportion makes a fairly soft salve that can almost become a liquid on a really hot day. 

Sewing:  This was dress length.  I never really wore it much and it's been sitting in a "re-do" pile.  Today I cut it to just above knee length and am now hemming it.  I will probably make a bag with the fabric I cut off.

Growing: 

The ginger has sprouted! I will put it in a planter and give it a good dose of fish fertilizer (recommended by a local farmer who grew it to sell at the farmer's market for many years).

The cherry, plums, pears and one of the apple trees are blooming.  This cherry has never set fruit.  It's supposed to be self-pollinating but I don't think it is!

Eating:

Pasta + homemade ricotta + sorrel (garden) + oregano (garden) + asparagus (garden) + hazelnuts and hazelnut oil (local, farmer's market) + parmigiano reggiano (from far away Italy because I am not perfect and I love it so).

Listening to:  Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman.  Interesting, sometimes funny, political, and seriously concerned about the state of our world. He sometimes seems to go off on a tangent, which might drive some crazy, and he has what I would call a "potty mouth."

I am not quite done yet, but am pretty sure one of my favorite things he discusses is about how disconnected we become from our  environment and what it means to be a community, when we are only consumers... 

#88 back to basics (but maybe a fancier version)

It's amazing what a difference a little extra time to make dinner makes.

Mac and cheese (I love orecchiette shaped pasta the very best.)

and kale rabe.

The rabe was blanched in the pasta cooking water and then added to onions that I had cooked in olive oil.  I also used some of the pasta water to soak some dried peppers and added that to the mix too. 

Yum.

One of my experiments today.

Then it became this.

And then this.

Listening to Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America.  Thinking about specialization and the effect it has had our society. 

#86 fool

Fooling around...another way of saying play.

 

First harvest...even thought it's so cold that snow is still in the forecast.

Rhubarb Fool...

#75 in the garden again

A hummingbird kept me company. 

There were also three bald eagles circling overhead for a bit.

The sun came out and there were lovely surprises.  A favorite spring flower, Hepatica, also known as liverwort.  It blooms with my pulmonaria, also known as lungwort.

Before coming inside, I sat on the front steps and made some cordage with iris leaves.

Lunch break:  grilled cheese and pickled carrots.  I cooked the carrots until they were just tender and then added them to the pickle brine I had saved in the fridge. Definitely doing this again.  I was inspired by a meal I had this weekend that had pickled carrots as a side dish.

And today's marks, probably inspired by spring fever.

I've discovered that more bronze and feathering on the edges happens if I start with a drop of water on the paper and then add the ink (the oak gall/iron) to the water. 

Rose hip ink for the fringe.

And an indigo/oak gall & iron moon.

 

#59 just like that

It felt much more spring like today.

Almost 50 F degrees! I spent several hours in the garden doing some tidying. And dreamed of digging and planting.  We are still having lows around 32 though so I held off. 

I didn't get to making ink, but I did get started dehydrating the stone fruit gum I made during the pigment class.  It will last better this way. 

For today's mark making I flipped yesterday's 90 degrees and added some more details.

Today's lunch was yesterday's leftover dinner:  roasted potatoes, carrots and onions pan fried and topped with cheddar cheese and mole sauce.

It's time to start using up the potatoes and onions.

#31 sunny yellow on a gray day

This morning I spent a couple hours playing...

There were some incidents with the turmeric ink...but in the end I came up with something I liked.

This is a combination of 5 different layers with an assortment of adjustments. The silver gray background is acrylic paint, the rest the inks I've made.

Turmeric also made it into lunch.

Spinach + onions + potatoes + buttermilk + turmeric + cumin + pumpkin seeds + paprika + ground pepper.

No turmeric in this... a version of tiramisu. 

The cream was made with the last bit of pudding I made a few days ago folded into some whipped cream.  I soaked the ladyfingers a bit too long so it was a bit runny.  Still yummy and worth a repeat. 

#24 all in one day...

This morning I spent some time doing something a little different...

Carla Sonheim's class, 2023 Year of the Rabbit.

Yes it's supposed to be a rabbit, although not necessarily a realistic rabbit...thank goodness.

I think it looks like a hybrid terrier/rabbit cross of some sort. The pencil drawings are a "warm up."

And then there was this, which really does look like flowers to me:

And because it's Sunday...

Wheat berries + oranges + chicory + hazelnuts + olive oil.

And

Lentils +really runny homemade salsa + a little more water + corn + corn chips + caciotta cheese. 

Sure glad I have more salsa ingredients in the freezer. 

Note to self:  buy more poblanos next year.

It was perfect for tonight...Heading for a low of 26 F and a small chance of snow.

Hmm...maybe I made an abominable snow rabbit?

 

#17 a few more things

Out in the garden a 20+ year old whiskey barrel is supporting all kinds of growth.

For the next three months the local farmer's market is once a month.  I was surprised by a few things that were available...but a lot is grown in hoop houses now.  I bought radishes, beets, Swiss chard, spinach, chicory, a winter squash, yogurt, milk, cheese and bread. 

Tonight's dinner was a simple one:

-pear slices

-radishes, cut with a knife and a spiralizer for a bit of variety. A dressing of olive oil, vinegar and salt.

-bread with brie (not the cheese I bought yesterday), honey and a bit of thyme.

My stored potatoes are starting to sprout so I cooked up a big batch of mashed potatoes. Some to eat over the next few days and some to freeze.

This morning I made lines with ink for journal writing.  I thought about how we talk about reinventing things.  I am not sure about that, maybe it's more about moving forward. 

I drew a coffee cup and then painted it in with indigo ink.

Not the best place for ink that drifts, but it was fun to do and I learned something.

I wanted to look closer so I zoomed in and then took a screen shot.

Thinking about growth.

 

#10 in season, January

A little organizing, what I have to eat right now that is local:  onions, carrots, chicories, cabbage, sauerkraut, potatoes, winter squash, sweet potatoes, the last four fresh tomatillos (surprised they lasted this long!) and preserved things.

Some of this weekend's meals:

Sweet potatoes (yes I burned them a bit), panner (local), a mole sauce made with the tomatillos and some sour cream.

This recipe for mole is pretty close to what I do.  I roughly follow a recipe from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics cookbook which use pumpkin seeds, onion, cumin, whatever pepper I have handy that seems appropriate (recipe calls for guajilla), thyme, salt, sugar, olive oil, and water.

Cheese tortellini fried in olive oil with onions on a bed of chicory.

A muffin made with Red Kuri winter squash with some vache cheese on top.   There is one more Red Kuri squash in my stash.  I will probably steam it and then freeze it in appropriate portions for pumpkin bread or muffins. I am also going to get seed for this squash.

And then there is today's mark making...

The pink ink was made with onion skins. 

While compost is always an option, I love that pigments can be made with onion skins.  All parts useful. 

And how like foods, color can be seasonal.

#3 rethinking plus some other things

Originally I was thinking..."anything for ten minutes" but I have decided to narrow it down a bit.  Ten minutes of painting, doodling, collage or drawing; preferably with the inks or paints I've made.

I want to play.

 

Cooking:  I do still want to post about food every Sunday though... that's another goal.

I've been craving polenta.  I use my stockpot and a mixing bowl to make a double boiler which makes cooking easy. 

Then I fried it in olive oil until it was crisp and ate it with the last of the purple sprouting broccoli I had from the last farmer's market.  Plus onions, parmesan and a bit of tomato sauce.  So good!

Reading:  I've finished reading Ways of Being by James Bridle.  A couple of the chapters get a little technical, but overall it's full of interesting stories and thought provoking ideas. He covers a lot and I am still processing what I think about it all.

Next up on the reading/listening pile is Foxfire, Wolfskin and other tales of Shape Shifting Women by Sharon Blackie. She's a new to me author that I stumbled upon while listening podcasts. The podcast is here at Knitted Heart and her  web site is here.  There is a beautiful video on the home page that Marti found. Sharon Blackie has written a lot on mythology, in particular women in mythology. 

Learning: what I want to learn this year, basket making and paper making.

I am sure there will be other things too...