Peas

Today is deliciously rainy. But yesterday was perfectly sunny. And what better way to spend a sunny summery afternoon than shelling peas with two of my favorite people.



With a cup of Portland's Stumptown coffee in hand, and the table overflowing with a symphony of green peas, fava beans, and colorful bowls.



Grubby little hands, earned from playing in the garden, alternated between filling the bowls and filling their mouths.



It still amazes to remember that first little pea shoot that has sprung into a table full of sweet pods that, according to Aidan at least, taste like vanilla ice cream.

A Happy Egg

A friend asked me how our newly laid eggs tasted. (Both of the Buffs are duly cranking out eggs after starting to lay on the very same day) The eggs are still quite small. But with a recent diet of mangos, strawberries (they were on sale) and hand fed peas and greens from the garden; our eggs tasted: happy.

An Auspicious Event

Today was a momentous day. Early this morning, one of our bright and spoiled chickens headed into the nesting box and fluffed herself down. It was amazing that she was able to concentrate with Aidan and Chloe peeking in on her every few minutes. You would have thought their child was in labor with all of the handwringing and anxious pacing while they waited for her to get off the nest. I kept telling Aidan that it might be a false alarm as our chickens have appeared to be "practicing" for the last few days. But no sooner then I had gone inside when Aidan bursts in through the door yelling at the top of his lungs, "AN EGG...AN EGGGG!!"

Sure enough, Tikka, 20 weeks and one day, had produced the finest first egg ever.

Here she is, the queen of the day. Aidan caught 3 fat flies to reward her efforts. (Far be it from her to have to catch her own flies.)

A few Pics

Blogger is having issues downloading my pictures. I have been trying for a few days...grrr. But here are a few that managed to sneak through.
One of our very happy and spoiled chickens. The sassiest one who wants to eat food from your hand and plays a good imitation of Queen Latifah--Tikka.

Our peas have turned into an explosion of purple and white flowers. Chloe picked the first ripe one just yesterday.

My morning smoothies have been inhanced with freshly picked spinach. The other day my cupboards were bare so we made a pizza with homemade pesto from ingredients scavanged from our growing things...fresh spinach, basil, and oregano, sun dried tomatoes from a friend's garden and pecorino cheese (which came from the store). Yummy.

We have also added a peach tree, a grape vine, blueberry bush, and black raspberries.

Rushing

Sometimes the fastest way between two points is not a straight line. I was gone all day yesterday for a field trip to Estes Park with Aidan's class. This morning, I was handed an unexpected day off from obligations; nobody owns my time today but myself. I downed a smoothie while tackling the laundry pile, and the unmade beds. I rushed from one small task to another all the while adding to my mental list of things that need to be done. Everything I took care of only seemed to bring to attention something else that needed to be done. And as the list of "should do's" piled up, so did the urgency of my pace. Until I brushed my teeth, and noticed it was for the second time. Which made me stop and think. I'm going to stop for a moment, fix a cup of English Breakfast with milk, and sit for a moment. I'm going to enjoy the quiet of the house, the hum of the washing machine, the sound of the birds, and inhale the steam from my favorite tea. Sorry dust, you're going to have to wait. And then, when I'm ready, I'm going to get up and tackle my list; but this time, I'm going to do it from a quiet place. And instead of adding to the knot in my shoulders, I'm going to remember. I'll remember why I'm doing any of this. It's because I love my little freckled girl child and understand how she takes delight in deciding what to wear in the morning out of a closet full of clean, colorful, folded clothes. It's because of the look on my boy who is becoming a man's face when he gets home from school and sniffs the kitchen discovering the fresh homemade bread I have made for his snack. It's because my husband can go off to work and know the bills will be paid on time, checks will be be deposited, the leftover breakfast dishes will make their way back to the cabinet, and his dirty rumpled clothes will magically reappear in his closet. (Okay, that last one might be a bit of a stretch as the clothes are quite likely to take a detour to the end of the bed for some fresh air before finally making their way to the closet) And his wife will be waiting with dinner on the table and in a fresh dress and pearls. (Okay, I may have also made up the part about the dress and pearls)

Happy cleaning.

Homemade Lara bars

I didn't realize how much bread and wheat items I fed the family until I started trying to cut some of it out. I usually sent the kids to school with some sort of home made baked good or granola bars (they were organic but still packed full of lots of sugar). After school snacks were often something fresh out of the oven, (breads, muffins) or yogurt and homemade granola. Aidan doesn't really care for fruit or veggies (yep, I'm kicking myself for all those cookies and milkshakes I ate when I was pregnant, but it was the doctor's orders!). Hence the baked good were usually full of an assortment of fruits and veggies processed into the batter. I found a recipe on a blog that I check out sometimes (thenourishinggourmet.com). The kids and I tweaked it some until everybody loved it. I haven't used specific measurements since the first time and we add additional ingredients that we might have and think would be good but the base goes something like this:


18 pitted dates
squirt of lemon juice from a lemon
handful of almonds
handful of coconut
half a handful of sesame seeds
about 1/8 c coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
couple large spoonfuls of cocoa powder

Process everything in the food processor until it's all blended, (I always taste it a bit and adjust anything that's out of whack) then form into little balls. Chilling for a bit helps them to firm up and allow the flavors to meld.

Detoxing

Just for the record, I am not a fad dieter. But when I read an account by a guy in "Outside" magazine who had followed Dr Junger's program from his book "Clean", I started plotting. What struck me was that he was a reasonably healthy, exercising individual (I mean, he works for "Outside"!) who wasn't trying to lose weight but was trying it out for the sake of the article. And he raved about the results and the increase in energy and vitality he experienced. I had to try it. We are a pretty healthy family probably compared to most of the American population. We stay away from antibiotics and hormones in our food, shun high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. Cook with coconut oil and organic (mostly) ingredients. I make a lot of stuff from scratch and we generally avoid anything that comes out of plastic. We go to the chiropractor and exercise. But, I still get draggy sometimes in the afternoon. And we had enough of the symptoms listed to qualify for the need of a detox. I said "we" because giving up things are always more fun with company so I decided to drag my unsuspecting family along on this journey. (Although I am modifying the diet slightly for the small ones) Yesterday my lunch consisted of lightly sauteed (in sesame oil) carrots, broccoli, and baby bok choy (from a friend's garden) with garlic and lemon juice.

Today was similar only I added cashews, sunflower seeds and sprouts. We had our first liquid breakfast this morning. Chloe was a little appalled at the kale and pineapple smoothie, but Aidan chugged it down though, as a side note to his buckwheat pancakes. I was so hungry after 2 hours that I had to go make another smoothie. (blueberries, almond milk, almond butter, cocoa powder) It was scrumptious.