Category: Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine

Our Life in Maine, My Craft Projects, Quilting, Recipes, Book and Media Reviews

Turkey Tracks: Pulling the Garlic

Turkey Tracks:  August 15, 2011

Pulling the Garlic

Garlic gets planted in the fall.  It’s a miracle to me that over the winter and the summer, one tiny clove grows into a whole bulb AND gives us a garlic scape just when the stored garlic is running out or has molded sometime in June.

I pulled our garlic Saturday.  It was a beautiful, sunshiny day, and I sat on the grass to trim off the bulbs and put the into a box.  They’re now in a single layer in three boxes in the garage attic, curing.  Soon the garage will smell like garlic.

Garlic is always listed as an immune system booster, so we eat LOTS of garlic.  It’s no accident that it can ward off a vampire since it is so powerful a protector of human health.

Here’s what a year’s supply of garlic for two people who have lots of guests looks like:

Here’s a close-up.  You can see that the stalks are quite spent now.  And you can see the flush of red under the coating of mud on the Russian Red bulbs.

Here’s a box full of fall and winter riches!

Garlic is super easy to grow and doesn’t take much space.  I amend my garden soil with chicken bedding, my kitchen compost, and worm castings in the fall.  In the spring I add whatever kitchen compost I’ve accumulated over the winter.  I cover my garden beds with straw, which breaks down over the winter, which adds more compost.  And, I add ground seaweed meal and azomite.  Garlic really likes azomite, and I do think it helps the garlic not to mold as winter stretches into early spring.

Here’s a picture of the size of the garlic bed this year.  It’s not large, as you can see.  It’s just that bare rectangle bounded by the kale and rock at the top, the La Ratte potatoes on the left, and the celery and lettuce below.

And, here’s a picture of the black, rich soil the worms make for us.  This batch is two years worth since we somehow didn’t empty the bin last fall.  I recover a batch of the worms to start again; the rest stay in the soil.  Or, go into the chickens, who have been working the garden since I turned them loose the other day.  The egg shells will get crushed up, and they add calcium back into the soil.

Speaking of La Ratte fingerling potatoes, I grabbled some for Saturday night dinner.  “Grabbled” is just a fancy word for digging some new potatoes before the green tops start showing yellow and falling over.  Here’s what they look like:

The one vine had about a dozen potatoes under it.  I boiled them in salted water, and they were heavenly:  nutty, buttery, and altogether wonderful.   We had them with grilled New  York strip steaks, Haricot Verte green beans from the garden, and a big, fresh salad with our lettuce, our green onions, and the first of the cukes and tomatoes we’re now getting–thanks to our CSA, Hope’s Edge.

Turkey Tracks: Ten Year Journals

Turkey Tracks:  August 15, 2011

Ten-Year  Journals

I’m on my second 10-year journal.

The first was a marvelous gift from my Falls Church, VA, neighbor Yoshi Hazen.

You’d be amazed at how useful these journals are for tracking down information you don’t want to forget.

And, for seeing what the weather was like in past years; or who visited when; or when it’s someone’s birthday (I put those on top of the page and highlight them with a marker); or when a repairman came last; or when someone married, had a baby, or…whatever.   You get the picture.

The first year we had chickens, I kept track of the number of eggs we got.  There were well over 900, and that’s with no laying in the short days/long nights part of the year.

It’s fun to see things like, yes, I guess the garlic is ready to be pulled since I pulled it on this day a year ago…

I keep it open on my desk and just jot down the key events first thing in the morning usually.  Or, sometime during the day.  Anyone could help keep it–like a child who is learning to write well, etc.  It could be a very fun family project.

I just ordered mine online and had no trouble finding a reasonably priced one.

Turkey Tracks: Garden Bounty

Turkey Tracks:  July 31, 2011

Garden Bounty

Mike, Tami, and the kiddos left Thursday morning for the two-day drive home to Charleston.  We miss them already.

 Miss Reynolds Georgia is so thrown off that she has pooped in the house for three days running.  Here’s the kind of attention she misses from all four children:

Here’s a picture I particularly loved–taken at the Camden Amphitheater during a music concert.  Wilhelmina’s hand is missing.  The children were new to making clover chains and insisted I make crowns, necklaces, and ankle/wrist bracelets:

Garden Bounty pours forth.  Here’s a picture of fresh-picked raspberries.  The bushes are thriving on the chicken-coop bedding dressings in spring and fall.

Here’s a picture of what we picked yesterday evening–except for a large bowl of raspberries that went home with Barb Melchiskey.  We got two kinds of onions–spring and bulb; the first zuke; beans–HARICOT VERTES we can’t wait to eat and Dragon’s Tongue (Heritage seed); and what is probably the last of the sweet peas you can eat right off the vine or blanche quickly–we love them on salads:

Turkey Tracks: Blueberry Buckle

Turkey Tracks:  July 24, 2011

Blueberry Buckle

We’re still making desserts this summer from recipes in RUSTIC FRUIT DESSERTS, Julie Richardson and Cory Schreiber:  http://www.amazon.com/Rustic-Fruit-Desserts-Crumbles-Pandowdies/dp/1580089763.   (A book suggested by Tara Derr.)  We freeze about 20 pounds of ORGANIC wild Maine blueberries every August, which our wonderful CSA, Hope’s Edge, makes available to us.  I don’t know if you’ve ever had wild Maine blueberries.  They are much smaller than the big round ones most people can get in supermarkets.  And, they’re chock full of flavor.  Once you’ve had these little guys, the big blueberries seem utterly tasteless.  So, be warned!

Now, the “wild” Maine blueberries are anything but wild.  Yes, there are some wild blueberries at the edges of our woods.  But, commercial wild blueberries are a wild myth!  They’re heavily cultivated, actually.  And in the harvest year, which is every other year, the commercial (as in NOT organic) are heavily sprayed with all sorts of heinous and poisonous pesticides and herbicides that get into the watershed (atrazine compounds)–in Maine we have a LOT of watershed–just take a look at a map of  Maine–and that stay in the ground for up to 175 days, like the organophosphates often used as pesticides.  Organophosphates attack an insect’s nervous system.  And it remains a mystery to me why people think a compound that attacks nervous systems is NOT going to affect THEIR nervous systems–especially when it hangs around for 175 days on the ground, gets tracked into homes on shoes and clothes, and when it, often, gets INTO the plants and berries themselves and CANNOT be washed out.

Many of these chemicals kill bees and any other insect that gets in the spray, which, in turn, affects the bird population.  But, since commercial bees (poor things) are trucked in from across the country to pollinate the crop BEFORE it is sprayed, it’s our LOCAL bees and hives that are at risk.  (How dumb is that?)    And, many of these chemicals affect a human’s endocrine system (read reproductive ability), cause birth defects, cancer, and so on.  (How doubly dumb is that?)  The EPA is going to render a new verdict on atrazine in the near future, and it’s already been banned in Europe.

So, if you want to try a “wild” Maine blueberry–for heaven’s sake–buy organic ones.  Or come up here and pick some yourself!

Anyway, since I usually make blueberry cobblers, making a blueberry buckle was an experiment.  So, far, it’s been voted the favorite dessert and has been repeated once more.  (It’s GREAT for breakfast too.)  It’s a rich cake, studded with blueberries and lemon, topped with a crunchy crumb topping, and drizzled with an intense lemon glaze when it’s still warm.  Here’s a picture:

Here’s a better one!

Turkey Tracks: “Corinne’s Beach Braid,” A Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  July 24, 2011

“Corinne’s Beach Braid,” A Quilt

Last February during my annual trip to Williamsburg, VA, to quilt with my Virginia quilt friends and to attend the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show, I started a special quilt for my daughter-in-law–and new mother–Corinne–whose birthday is the day after mine.  Pisces!  ( And yes, we both love water.)

I used a French Braid pattern from FRENCH BRAID QUILTS, by Jane Hardy Miller and Arlene Netten, which I have long admired.

http://www.amazon.com/French-Braid-Quilts-Dramatic-Results/dp/1571203265/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311529589&sr=1-1.

Since Corinne lives on Isle of Palms, SC, 2 blocks from the beach, I wanted to use blues, greens, and sandy colors, from light to dark–with a contrasting inner diamond of red/orange–all batiks.

To execute the pattern I picked from the book, one was supposed to pick about 10 fabrics for a run, with 2 for starting and ending triangles.  (These quilts can be directional, with a run of fabrics that moves from light to dark, or vice versa.)  I came home with more like 14 in total.  So, the two runs together, made for a LONG narrow quilt, which I realized when I saw the first few runs actually completed.  I knew I had to add two more runs at a minimum and that I would be bumping up against my long-arm machine width limit of about 83 inches.

I had used all of the orange-ish batik fabric I was using for the inner diamonds, and I was lucky enough to find it THE LAST DAY of the big quilt show in Williamsburg.

Finally, I discovered Anne Bright pantographs for the quilting and found two that had beach motifs–I ordered the one with sea horses, stars, big conch shells, and so forth for the body of the quilt, and the one with flip-flops and shells for the border–which would mean I would have to repin the quilt sides after quilting the top and bottom borders and the body of the quilt to get at the side borders.   You can see Anne Bright’s web site at http://www.annebright.com/shop/category/store/paper-pantographs/.

So, here’s the finished quilt across the end of the bed:

And, here it is from out upper front porch–in bright sun which has distorted the colors.  John and valient Talula (tiny hands on the left) are holding it.  You can just about make out the flip-flop pattern on the bottom border.

Several long-arm quilters strongly suggested that I use a poly thread–So Fine–for the bobbin thread.  As it is fine, a bobbin goes a long way.  And, So Fine seems to make the top,  cotton thread stand up.  But, the downside, I discovered, is that the elaborate patterns I used on the body of the quilt and on the borders and the stitch-in-the-ditch I did so well do not show on the back of the quilt at all.  See:

Here are some close-ups of some of the braids:

I really love this quilt, and I’d love to make more with the French Braid pattern.  It’s a fun pattern to do and would lend itself to all kinds of interesting color schemes and fabrics.  From now on though, I’m remaining an all-cotton girl!

Turkey Tracks: Maine Summer Pictures July 2011

Turkey Tracks:  July 13, 2011

Maine Summer Pictures July 2011

Time is flying by so fast.  We have hit our summer groove.  Up early.  Breakfast.  Chores (pick the garden, pick the strawberries and raspberries, water plants, change sheets, organize food, wash clothes, etc.).  Fun activity (swimming most days now, hiking, a trip to somewhere fun).  Lunch.  Quiet time.  More play.  Dinner.  More play.  Bedtime rituals (baths, stories).  Sleep.

Here are some pictures I’ve been too busy to post:

On July 4th weekend, we all went to a charming outdoor bell concert, courtesy of the St. Luke Concert Handbell Choir, from Gales Ferry, CT.  The choir was made up of high school students.  They let our kiddos try out a small hand-chime each.

Here are Kelly and Wilhelmina listening to one of the choir’s selections:

Here is a picture of one side of our amazingly beautiful Camden Library amphitheater where moss and wild strawberries grow in the cracks of the steps:

Here are two girly indians and two girly dogs hard at play:

Pop and “the crew” took apart the garden bench and repainted all the metal:

Tami took this picture of “the hikers,” most with a walking stick from the woods:

We got rhubarb in our CSA the first week, so I saved it for when the kiddos came.  We made a rhubarb cake that was delicious from a recipe in RUSTIC FRUIT DESSERTS, Julie Richardson and Cory Schreiber:  http://www.amazon.com/Rustic-Fruit-Desserts-Crumbles-Pandowdies/dp/1580089763.   (A book suggested by Tara Derr.)  I don’t mind making a cake like this one upon occasion when I’m using fruit, real butter, really good eggs, and a limited amount of sugar and white flour.

Finally, here’s a picture of our sugar snap peas putting out the goods.  Often, the children eat them raw as fast as I can pick them.

Interesting Information: Vanilla Ice Cream

Interesting Information:  July 9, 2011

Vanilla Ice Cream

COOKS ILLUSTRATED, May/June 2010, investigated vanilla ice cream.  Nationwide, there are nearly 40 brands of vanilla ice cream.  CI chose the eight top-selling brands and taste-tested those.  The winner was Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla.  Next came Haagen-Dazs, Wells blue Bunny, Breyers, Friendly’s, Blue Bell, and Turkey Hill.  Edy’s Grand Vanilla was not recommended.

The criteria included what kind of vanilla was used (natural or synthetic); the tricky business of using stabilizers like carob gum, guar gum, tara gum, and carrageenan (the winner uses two); how much air is pumped into the ice cream to expand volume; and what kind of sweetener is used.

Edy’s, for instance, is a big package with lots of air, while Ben & Jerry’s is a small package with lots of ice cream.  Between the two, Ben & Jerry’s is a POUND heavier than Edy’s, even in the smaller package.

And ice creams using corn syrup tasted “`unnaturally sweet,’ ”  no matter the sugar levels.

Testers discovered that “keeping it simple” produced the best vanilla ice cream:  cream, milk, sugar, eggs, real vanilla, and a minimum of emulsifiers made the best ice cream.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

You can keep it even simpler:  get a pint of some real/raw heavy cream, add 2 or 3 egg yolks (keep the whites for macaroons or meringues) , some real vanilla extract, a tablespoon of healthy arrowroot for creaminess, some maple syrup or honey for sweetness, put it into one of those quart ice cream makers you keep frozen in the freezer, and you have delicious and healthy ice cream in about 20 minutes!

You can also make food processor ice cream out of cream or yogurt and frozen fruit.  That recipe is on the blog in July 2010.

Turkey Tracks: Camden Inner Harbor, Summer

Turkey Tracks:  July 8, 2011

Camden Inner Harbor, Summer

Sometime last winter, I posted a picture of the Camden Inner Harbor with schooners all wrapped up for winter–taken from this same place.

Here is that same shot in the summer.

 I’m pretty sure the windjammer/schooner in the foreground is the Mary Day.   She would be provisioning to go out again for probably a week.  The equipment next to the water is getting a stage ready for our July 3rd (Sunday night) fireworks and music.  Sunday turned out to be overcast, so the splendid fireworks took place on Tuesday night.  I suspect the music went on as planned, though we wound up doing different things on Sunday.

It’s mid-afternoon, so many of the boats that “sleep” in our harbor are out for the day.  At night, the harbor is jam-packed with boats of all kinds.

The river comes into the harbor on the far right, and there is a lot of activity on that side of the harbor, which is out of this picture’s frame.

On this side, the harbor is surrounded by beautiful green lawns, with the library sitting above them.

Turkey Tracks: First Strawberries

Turkey Tracks:  Jully 1, 2011

First Strawberries

Our strawberries have been coming in for the past few days–big red and delicious.  John and I have stood in the garden eating the early arrivals, one by one.   Since we’ve had a late spring, the strawberries will go into full production just as Mike, Tami, and the four kiddos arrive–which will be in about an hour now.

Some of the berries pictured below came from our CSA, Hope’s Edge, this morning.  Some are ours.  All are gorgeous.  None taste like what you find in a supermarket which have been shipped in here from across the country.  Supermarket berries are big and red, but there the comparison ends.  They are pulpy sour things that are so acid they make your mouth pucker.   These berries are dead sweet and worth the wait each year!

Too, none of our berries have been sprayed with poisons.

Turkey Tracks/Books: My Current Read Pile

Turkey Tracks/Books:  June 26, 2011

My Current Read Pile

Here’s a picture of my current read pile:

I have, for what is, I’m sure, a brief moment, caught up with my magazines and journals.

Despite the title, John Grisham’s SKIPPING CHRISTMAS might not wind up advocating that stance at all.  So, I look forward to finding out what happens.  This book was a gift from a friend after I wrote a piece about my dislike of–and refusal to participate in–the commercial nature of Christmas.

The biography of Ayn Rand interests me because I’d like to see if she “walked her talk.”  Her economic and social theories have had a powerful impact in this country.  For instance, Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget was derived from Rand’s “objectivism” philosophy.  Her “super man” heroes come too uncomfortably close to the theories that guided Nazism maleness for me.  But, it will be good to refresh my knowledge of her theories.  I read her novels too many years ago–actually when I was in high school.

E. O. Wilson’s book on ants won the Pulitzer one year.  He’s an emeritus scientist at Harvard, and a naturalist to the core.  He’s also a southerner, and he captures a number of southern mindsets in the characters in this book.  The sections on ants are not just about ants; they’re about over population and an unimpeded use of available resources–to the point where nature can no longer support an out-of-synch ant population.  This section is a warning to humans, actually.  As a novel, the book doesn’t quite work–because it isn’t sure what it should be.  But as something else–the inner thoughts of a major scientist, it’s well worthwhile.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s BRIGHT-SIDED was recommended by a Camden friend who knows I think the unbridled optimism of Americans–especially with regard to medical problems like cancer–is a problem that helps us to ignore what we must do to begin to heal our environment, ourselves, our country, and our world.  As long as we can say “the problem is that you aren’t trying hard enough,” we cannot begin to understand what is actually wrong, how we’ve been poisoned, and so forth.