It's what I've been preparing for all winter and spring...

Pickling!

So it's summer and the cukes are going mad.  Slicers, picklers and lemons abound in our garden.  What to do?  What to do?  Well the slicers are good in the beet salads I've been making, the lemons are wonderful plain and theres' only one thing to do with the picklers.  Pickle them!  I've been reading up on pickling all winter in preparation for when this time would arrive, and yet I'm still quite overwhelmed.  There are just soooo many ways to pickle a pickle.  So I'm gonna try as many as I can.  Here are the first 3 attempts.

Experiment #1
Fermented dill pickles using whey, salt, dill, and mustard seeds.  These sit in jar at room temperature for 3 days.  They've just completed their first 24 hours.  I get the whey from the homemade yogurt that I make every couple of weeks.  The trick is making sure the cukes stay below the liquid.

Experiment #2
Bread & Butter Pickles using the ice method with sweet onion, vinegar, sugar turmeric, coriander and celery seed.  Slice the cukes and onion and mix with salt.  Then let sit in a bowl covered with ice for a few hours.  Next, bring the vinegar, sugar and spices to a boil and add the slices.  Now let cool and refrigerate.  Should be ready for eatin' the next day or once cooled.   

Experiment #3
The old fashion method of dill pickles with lots of garlic in my handy dandy crock.  I had so many pickle cukes that I didn't know what to do, so I did the easiest thing possible and threw them in a crock full of water, vinegar, salt, a whole lot of garlic and ample dill.  Weight it all down and these should be ready in a few days but supposedly even tastier in 3-4 weeks. 


I've been reading a book from 1965 that is full of information about the history of pickles and all sorts of weird pickle knowledge, lore and poetry.  The following recipe caught me a bit off guard.

RECIPE TO PRESERVE A HUSBAND (from The Complete Book of Pickles - Leonard Louis Levinson)
In choosing a husband, women should first be careful of their selection.  Do not choose too young or too green and take only such as have been raised in a good, moral atmosphere.  When you have decided on selection, turn your thoughts to domestic use.  Some wives insist on keeping husbands in a pickle, while others are consistently getting them in hot water.  This only makes them sour, hard and sometimes bitter.  Even the poorest varieties can be made sweet, tender and good by garnishing them with patience, spicing them with smiles and flavoring them with kisses.  For a finished product, husbands should be wrapped in a mantle of kindness, kept warm with the fire of devotion and served with peaches and cream.  Husbands prepared this way will keep for years.

Proud parents...

of about 3,000 honey bees and a queen.

Trevor and I have been taking a bee keeping class for a little over a month now.  After some preparation, including purchasing equipment and assembling that equipment, we were ready for the arrival of the buzzing critters.

A nice 59 degrees out on Sunday with only a soft breeze was the perfect welcoming weather.  First things first, Trevor removed the queen from the box and placed her in the hive.  Now, the really fun part.  I got to shake the bees out of their shipping box into the hive.  Check out the video!  We may or may not get honey this year, but unless something goes really wrong, we could get around 3-5 gallons of honey next year.

Best part of bee keeping so far?  The cool outfits!  Our instructor actually doesn't wear any protection.  Trevor and I have both handled the bees without gloves but do prefer to wear our head nets.

The girls...

are not too smart> hanging out near the chopping block and all.  But then again, they are our egg laying hens, not meat chickens.

Let me introduce you to Whitey, Blacky, and Browny.  Can you guess who is who?  Blacky has been in the family for two years, while Whitey and Browny are just turning one.  Blacky is an Australorp and lays BIG brown eggs, while the other two are Americanas and lay delicate green eggs- about one egg each a day.

We consider the girls part of the family.  We give them food, shelter, water, LOVE, and they give us eggs.  I've been part of this chicken family for about 9 months now and love it.  Collecting eggs never gets old.  Each time I go into the coop it's exciting to see how many precious eggs I'll find.

In addition to eggs I also get the pleasure of watching the girls wander around the yard, pecking and scratching for food.  Right now we're preparing to expand our egg laying family.  6 more egg laying chicks (3 different breeds) have been ordered to arrive in a couple of weeks.  Thinking we might get a little more creative with names this go around; time will tell. 

My crazy friend Alysia (crazy cool that is)...

is leaving to serve in the Peace Corps in Malawi.

I became friends with Alysia when we lived together in a rental just outside of Arcata.  But lets back up for a moment. Before I had ever met or even spoken with Alysia I got the inside tip that she owned Travel Scrabble.  So basically, I knew she was going to be awesome from the get go!  While roommates we cooked together, watched movies together and went on great hikes together.  We lived together for less than a year before we both moved on to different living situations but our friendship only grew stronger.  We still cooked, went on hikes and even went on some fun adventures to the Strawberry Music Festival and the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival.

Alysia graduated from HSU in the Spring of 2010 but has been preparing to enter the Peace Corps since October of 2009.  She leaves Humboldt County this week to begin her journey towards Africa, but before she left I got to spend one more great afternoon with her and decided to conduct a little pre Peace Corps interview.

What are you most excited to see in Malawi?
Soooo many things...  I'm excited to see the culture there... the music and dancing.  Lake Malawi, which holds 80% of fresh water aquarium fish species.

Are you worried about not having private space?
Yes and No.  I'm used to living with roommates now and feel that has helped me prepare.

What food will you miss the most while there?
Sushi!  and raw fish and raw veggies.  (I was informed that she had recently gone out for sushi three times within a 24 hour period recently.  She's getting her fill while she can).

What do you think will take the most to get use to?
The etiquette... learning what is appropriate and my role as a female.

What food do you think you'll like the most once you get there?
The corn porridge... I love porridge!

Do you think you will miss your car?
No!

What comfort item are you taking with you?    My yoga mat. 

What will be the biggest challenge of living in Malawi?
I definitely think the poverty and mortality is going to be difficult.  I have been told that I will get to know people there that will die while I'm there.  HIV/AIDS is a big problem there.

What is the biggest sacrifice you are making to go?
Leaving Pippi. (her dog)

What is the best advice that you have been given?
To put a supply of new underwear in a Ziploc bag and save it for my 2nd year of service.

Do you plan to record an album upon your return after practicing your guitar for 2 years?  No way.  That's a big FAT no!  :)

Will your hair be long or short when you return?   Long.

Will you be an even bigger hippie than you are now when you return?
For Sure!

It is easy to say that Alysia has been the best of friends.  She is fun, has a contagious laugh, always has a comforting shoulder to cry on when needed, she is the best storyteller I know, she is inspirational in that she is always striving to learn and improve herself, and speaks with words of wisdom.  I have no doubt that her Peace Corps experience will be one of great adventure that will return her as an even better storyteller and a stronger human/hippie Goddess.  Alysia, you leaving for two years is leaving an empty space in my life but I promise to fill that space with my own adventures and education so that I will have something to share with you as well upon your return.  I will think of you often and am so thankful for the time that we have already spent together in this lifetime.

Pounding kraut...

is a bit of a workout.  Last summer I purchased a 5L fermentation crock.  When I got it out of its packaging I felt overwhelmed > it's big!  For xmas I asked Santa for a pounder with which to help the process of making sauerkraut, and many other fermented foods easier.  The last present left for me under the xmas tree was big and long.  I had no idea what it could be.  Again... I was very overwhelmed by the size of the pounder.  My dad teased that I should leave it by my bed in place of a baseball bat (not that I have a baseball bat). 

Over the last month, from both research and talking with others who have made kraut, I built up enough courage to try it myself.  I sliced up about 4lbs of red and green cabbage, added some sea salt, a little whey, a couple of spices and started pounding.  "Pound! Pound! Pound! Pound!" Could be heard both inside and outside of the house.  Soon the juices from the cabbage began extracting.  I placed some weights atop the cabbage, the lid atop the crock and left it to ferment.

Here is the crazy part.  I have NEVER liked sauerkraut.  In general, I don't really like anything pickled.  But over the last few years I've been working really hard to learn to like these things and have hope that if freshly made by me I will enjoy them.  Keeping my fingers and tastebuds crossed.

I acquired most of my information about making sauerkraut from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook and from the Wild Fermentation website.

fake plastic fish...

was the name of a great blog that I've been following lately.  It is now called My Plastic Free Life.  I don't have to look back too far, only about 10 years, to the time when friends and family thought I was a bit odd for bringing reusable bags to the grocery store.  Now it is highly encouraged and socially accepted.  Well, reusable bags isn't where I stopped being a bit odd, or as I like to believe, a little bit ahead of the game.

There are many things I do in my everyday life that are not great for my health or the sustainability of the planet.  I drive a car after all.  But I do step by step try to live in ways that have smaller impacts.  It's been about 5 years now since I decided to give up coffee cups to go.  This means that if I do not have my own reusable coffee cup I simply go without coffee.  This works pretty well over all.  There have been times, especially when traveling, that this rule has been broken, but overall I stick to it.

Last year I decided to give up one use drink bottles of all kinds (not counting beer bottles).  This meant no bottled water or grabbing a juice to go with a last minute lunch.  Again, the hardest time to follow this rule is while traveling, but over all I've only broken this rule a handful of times.

Now I'm trying to find ways to cut out single use plastic of all kinds from my life.  The first step is simply paying attention.  I shop at the local Coop and yet still find it really hard to buy food that does not come in plastic.  The frozen food section is now off limits, minus the few items that come in bulk, due to the use of plastic in the packaging.  I can't buy sliced bread at the store but I can go to the local baker, get their bread sliced, and put into my own bag.  No more store bought yogurt... I've already started making my own.  I'm undecided so far on cheese.  All cheese that I've found so far comes in plastic and this one I might indulge on from time to time.  I get freshly made tortillas at the local Mexican restaurant put into a bag that I provide them.  I get ice cream packed in my own container at the local ice cream shop.

Will I eliminate all plastic from my life or my grocery list?  No, but I'll be using a whole lot less.  Will I miss some of the foods that I loved, like sprouted sesame bread and ok-mak crackers?  Maybe a little, but it feels better to be able to do without certain things.  We are spoiled when it comes to our food options and often have the mind frame that we deserve it all.  Deserve it at the expense of the health of our planet, and ultimately ourselves.  Living a life with less plastic limits my food options, but the options I do have (for the most part) are much healthier than those that come in plastic.

I'm a believer in every lit bit counts.  I don't have to be perfect but I should always strive for improvement.  I don't focus on guilt but rather focus on the empowerment that I feel when I know I make decisions and purchases based on the values I strive to incorporate into my life.

Clamming in Humboldt bay...

is everything I hoped it would be. 

Last year I attended the Humboldt Bay Symposium and saw a presentation on Humboldt bay clams that ignited an interest in me to go clamming.  Apparently not many people around Humboldt bay clam.  And in fact the number of clammers continue to decline every year.  For this reason, the bag limit of clams is 50 here, practically double the limit of any other county or state in the Pacific Northwest.

So for the last few months I've been amping up my enthusiasm to try this.  The biggest hurdle to going clamming here seemed to be the lack of information of where and how to.  I could find plenty of information about clamming in Oregon but nothing came up online for Humboldt.  I emailed around and eventually found a map from 1978 that showed Humboldt Bay and the different types of clams that could be found in certain areas.  I also talked to someone who had clammed around here and got some good tips.

The tides were right this weekend to get out on a low tide during daylight hours.  I purchased a fishing license grabbed my mud boots, shovel and a bucket and we were off.  I really wasn't sure what to expect.  I didn't want to get my hopes up, not knowing if I would find any clams or not.

But that worry was short-lived as Trevor pulled out a large gaper clam, arm covered in sandy mud, from the first hole that he dug.  Just a few minutes later I had one myself.  We dug and dug and dug for 2.5 hours as we honed our technique.  Towards the end we were both getting tired and our hands quite numb.  At one time I had both arms completely submerged in a large hole I had dug and it was collapsing on my arms.  I no longer had the strength to pull myself out and had to solicit Trevor's help to pull me out before I went in head first.

We ended up with 19 clams in the end.  Mostly gapers and Washingtons, and we were exhausted!  We both woke up sore the next morning but with smiles on our faces.  I was a little worried about cleaning the clams but it really wasn't that bad.  I gave thanks to the clams many, many times and did my best to get all their meat and not waste any.

We ended up making a yummy fresh Humboldt Clam Chowder for dinner with extra meat to spare for fritters.
We are looking forward to the next time we go out, having a little experience now, and would love to take anyone else interested in helping to dig some holes.

It's not 2010 anymore...

so will I or will I not continue this blog?  The year will tell.

Why did my blogging fall short last year?  I believe I know.  Heartbreak followed by working on my thesis, followed by falling in love, followed by being in love and finally defending and finishing my thesis.  Mainly it was thesis.  I spent way too many hours on my computer last year doing research and writing to want to spend more time blogging.

Once my thesis was submitted at the end of last year my brain began expanding in many directions.  For the first time in a long time I have time to research and learn about topics other than my thesis.  This has been exhilarating and overwhelming all at once.  My brain wants to catch up on all the many things that I haven't been able to give my attention to for the last 4-5 years, only those years are gone and I can only move forward.  I must have more patience with myself and stay focused on a few topics rather than being scattered over the many topics that I have an interest in.

I must take advantage the time that I have right now in my life to learn as much as possible in preparation for times when I may not have so much free time.  It's time to organize, learn, and establish healthy and environmentally conscious habits that will be useful in my life journey (more insight to what this means in upcoming blogs).

Oh, and I need to practice my guitar more, take another ceramics class, learn more about green building, learn about beekeeping, research my latest business idea, practice more yoga, learn to collect seaweeds, learn to make sprouted bread, sprout more often, design an expanded garden, create a better nighttime routine, meditate daily, be better at planning weekly meal plans, learn how to raise goats, make my own soap?, communicate with aliens > not... just checking to see if you're actually still reading this.  Oh yeah, patience!