The Urban Homesteader

Cold in the Backyard

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:13:00 +0000

I wish "Babs", the knitting hen in Chicken Run lived here. I'm sure the ladies would love their own cardigans about now. I know they're fine, but every time I see their bare feet, I shiver.
We're somehow out of eggs. It's so strange to go nine, ten months of the year with having 4-5- dozen eggs in the fridge at any given time and then one day in December realize there's only two lone eggs sitting on the shelf. Our hens have slowed down due to the shorter days, and the hens at our little chicken cooperative are molting. It feels so strange, and so pricey to have to buy eggs!

The last of the broccoli that I've been meaning to harvest for oh, a month now. It's still okay, despite the snow. I think I've subconsciously been avoiding harvesting the last of it in order to prolong something edible and green in the cold. Maybe I'll make a small broccoli slaw salad to accompany Christmas dinner. I've been tearing off the broccoli leaves and feeding them to the chickens for the last couple months. Broccoli is high in calcium, you know. Helps make for stronger shells. :)

Seed Catalogs and Babies

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I miss blogging. The days have been flying by. Life is very, very full but also very fulfilling.
I'm happy the kids are on break now. It's nice to have them home during the day and to not have that school world of commitments for a couple weeks.

I just recently received my Fedco Seeds catalog! This makes me a very happy lady. I'm trying to hold off looking at it until after Christmas. Don't ask me why, I just feel I can savor it more after the flurry of holiday activity. There is something so peaceful and calming about plopping my butt on the couch with a cup of Earl Grey, a legal pad, a sharp pencil and highlighter, and my seed catalogs. It's such a fitting activity at the beginning of the year: planning the growth of our family's food. The best kind of resolution to make, in my opinion. :)

Fedco has a very cool seed fund-raiser for schools and non-profits. I've passed the idea to our school PTSO. They're interested, so we'll see if anything happens with it this year. There are three different fund-raising options, the easiest being a seed sale that works like Girl Scout cookie sales. I'm not on the PTSO, but I'd definitely help with a seed sale. It would totally fit in with the school's healthy eats strategies and organic gardening/sustainability ethos.

Aside from seed catalogs rolling in, my only other plans for the next two weeks it to chill out as much as possible. The work load has lightened a bit. All the December mamas have had their babies now, and an early January baby arrived too. So there's a little sit back and relax time as far as being on-call goes. We still have normal prenatals and a couple postpartum visits left for the recent ladies, but with the kids out of school and no babies due until mid-late January, I feel like this is a real Christmas vacation!

Magdalena has been to five births in 6 weeks. I can't believe it! I feel so very blessed to have such a sweet baby and such lovely births. It's been interesting to see Magda's reaction when a woman is in labor. When someone is moaning or even making loud noises with the effort of pushing, Magda becomes real still and listens so intently. When a baby is born, she quiets again and listens to the meow of the newborn's cry. Her reaction makes me wonder if there's memory there. Does she remember me moaning and growling during her labor? Does she remember that smell of amniotic fluid and blood? Does she remember the chill of air on new skin and the warmth of being clasped to my chest with salty tears falling on her head?
I'll never know what's going on behind those huge brown eyes of hers, but it's amazing to watch her still herself and listen during those pivotal moments, as if remembering another time and place.

Growing=amazing.

Bad, bad blogger!

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:23:00 +0000

Yes, I've been a bad, bad blogger lately and this is why I can not maintain any readers. But you know, it is December. There's not a whole lot growing in our fair city these days. Well, apart from a ginormous and super cute baby girl. Miss M is now 2 months old and weighs 14 pounds 6 ounces! She's also grown 3 inches since birth. All on high-octane Mama Milk. I've been really busy lately with work and kids and trying to wrap my head around the holidays. Miss M has attended three births with me now and many, many prenatal and post partum visits. She's an awesome baby and very sweet. Counting my blessings every day for this family of mine!

And this picture? Well, it's not a very good one but it is a shot of farm animals in the city. On Sunday we attended the Cobblestone Farm Christmas shindig in Ann Arbor (very nice, btw). Aside from having a lovely old museum/farm house, they also have 4 small goats, many ducks, chickens and geese, a couple of ponies and two huge hogs (in the back pen there). How I would love my back yard to be full of these animals! Oldest daughter S (who is prone to drama and pouting now and then) harrumphed: "I wish our house was old and cool like this! I wish we could have all these animals!"
Mercy. Seriously, this girl mooooooaaaanns if I ask her to help clean the chicken coop or to let the girls out in the morning. And when I reminded her that our house was built in 1860 and is definitely cool, she just rolled her eyes.

But back to our urban homestead...
Goals for this winter:

demystify bee keeping and figure out if I can bring on the honey in the new year
possibly add another raised bed or two in the front yard next spring
look at the last two years of hardcore food growing efforts and make a list of what worked, what didn't and re-think space issues
do the same with canning lists
take stock of saved seed; organize and try really hard to remember not to order more when those seed catalogs start rolling in
try to be a better blogger!

Last Warm Days

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:27:00 +0000

Enjoying the 65* day!

Local Walking Trails and Wetlands

I don't have anything to post regarding gardening or growing my own food. The only thing being produced on this city lot these days are a few daily chickens eggs- and I certainly can't take credit for that.

The maple trees have finally dropped most of their leaves (allowing tons of sunlight to flood the house- I forgot what a perk this is!). Now is the time to rake all the leaves onto the gardens like a big fluffy comforter. Time to sleep, my beloved dirt. See you in the spring.

Life has been keeping me super busy these days and that's all right. I've come to realize though that we really need to start some serious menu planning (as much as I love last-minute pizzas from Whole Foods!). It feels like I either put a lot of energy into our meals or none at all. Depends on the day, I suppose. I've had some days lately where I drop kids at school, come back to pick up the baby (who stays home with my mom while I cart big kids) and then go to work. By the time I finish up and get kids from school, it's 4pm and there's nothing ready to eat at home. And because I'm breastfeeding, I'm ravenously hungry oh, every 45 minutes or so. This leads us to occasional pizza nights. Again, not opposed, but I can't live on pizza. ;)

I have made some nice things lately though. Tonight we had awesome French onion soup with mushrooms. Had delicious pulled pork and homemade coleslaw the other night. Made an interesting red lentil/chickpea/saffronny stew. Also a nice cassoulet another night. And of course, when all else fails and we need something quick, we scramble up a ton of eggs, make a bunch of toast and roast some of our beloved fingerlings and have breakfast for dinner.
One of the things on our family agenda tomorrow is to make some serious meal planning lists. There's 4 eaters/1 nurser in this family who fly in all different directions and meet back again for dinner. We need to make breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner a bit more cohesive and easier to deal with.

In other news, I've not succumbed to my personal guilt of not canning a crap load of applesauce, apple butter and dried apple rings this year. Despite being the owner of small children, my kids just don't dig applesauce. Nor does my husband. I'm the only one who eats it. And I certainly do not need to consume 24 quart jars of applesauce over the winter months. In fact, I just finished off the last jar from last year's batch. Apples are lovely. We'll just have to enjoy them as they are, when they're in season.

What's for Dinner? One of my faves...

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:37:00 +0000

Ahhh, settling into a routine of sorts. It feels good to have my body a bit more back to normal and not so sore. There's some lingering pubis pain, but it's sooo much better. I can't run yet, but then again, I really have no desire to run. ;)

Lovely fall weather. It got very cold last week-- into the 30s with cold wind to boot. Currently it's 55* and feels downright balmy. I've been craving rice dishes lately. Good, stick-to-your-ribs type food. This could be because this lovely and large new daughter of mine loves to nurse. I forgot how ravenously hungry breastfeeding a newborn leaves me. It's crazy and wonderful.

Sunday I had two frozen chicken breasts- not really enough to feed 4 hungry people. So I combined the chicken breast (chopped into many small bits), brown rice, onion, broccoli straight from the garden, and carrots from the garden into a yummy one-pot meal. Add a heap of roasted fingerling potatoes (also from the backyard) and we had an amazing meal. (I realize it's a culinary faux pas to serve rice and potatoes in the same meal. Two starches, etc. But it was delicious.) The carrots were amazing. They tasted so... carroty. And orange. Can you taste colors? I swear we all could. I will be planting more of Fedco Seed's Danvers carrots next year.

Today I cut up butternut squash from the garden and made one of my favorite dishes: curried pumpkin soup. I threw in some red lentils for a bit of protein too. The house smells awesome like Indian take-away. Will be served with brown rice. I was going to make some sort of savory quick bread to go with it, but I hear little Miss M beginning to stir, readying herself to suck down another bazillion calories from her mama.

We'll see if I get time before the onslaught of the later afternoon hits. I've got to pick up boy wonder and his friend from school. Big sister has Girl Scouts, about 20 minutes at home before she's off to theater practice. I also need to go to the bank and I wouldn't mind hitting the farmer's market if there's time. Maybe I'll just buy a nice loaf of bread from the co-op bakery stall at the market. Yes, there ya go.
Cutting corners, delicious corners.

Later that day on October 1st...

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Best fall harvest ever.

Tired, ecstatic mama minutes after birth (with big sister's hand meeting baby for the first time!).

So our baby arrived. Hours after I last posted on this blog.
That Thursday was the first day I had been outside since I had fallen off the treadmill at the gym and rendered myself unable to walk for a few days. I was going stir crazy and it was a lovely day. I asked my mom to come with me to the library just so I could get out of the house. I brought my borrowed cane and painfully hobbled out of the house.
At the library I picked up some new books for myself and some music. I wanted to create a play-list for when I was in labor.

We stopped on the way home and splurged on milkshakes and french fries. I felt defiant and grumpy. Screw healthy eats. I just wanted some sugar, grease, and salt. Lovely stuff that lightened my mood a bit. It was also wonderful to be out in the sunshine and wind. It had only been 4 days since I had hurt myself, but I was fairly depressed. While I was happy that I hadn't gone into labor with this major pubis ligament injury, I was also scared that if I did, I wouldn't be able to handle labor while not being very mobile-- yet I was also ready by Thursday to have my baby on the outside. It felt like in order to continue healing, I'd have to get this baby OUT of the bowl that is my pelvis.
At home, I compiled a lovely labor play-list of Django Reinhardt and Ibrahim Ferrer.

At any rate, with my mood a bit lifted, I ventured out again that day. I wanted another taste of the outdoors and relative freedom from my bed. I dropped my daughter off at theater practice and even went to the grocery store for a few items. I felt like I had two heads as I hobbled huge and imminent with a cane around the grocery store. Folks stared and promptly looked away when I looked back.

When I came home, I found our neighbors (and past home birth clients) talking to my husband in our kitchen. They so sweetly brought us curried squash soup and a swiss chard torte. (Healthy food to make up for my sugar, salt, grease lunch.) I was so touched at their kindness.
All week, family and friends came out of the woodwork with food, driving our kids to school and back, chiropractic care at home, etc. My husband was amazing and attentive and sweet. I literally hung off him with most of my weight as I gasped with pain while I tried to walk to the bathroom. My dad brought us take-out 3 days in a row. My mom made great pots of soup. My sister hung out with me and helped me in and out of the shower and to get dressed! I felt like I was getting my postpartum help before the baby. Would you call that pre-partum?

That evening after putting the kids to bed, I climbed into bed with my book. ( Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, by Julia Strachey. It's a little novella that was originally published in 1932 by The Hogarth Press- Virginia Woolf's small publishing company. It was one of those books that I picked up solely for the title and the fact that it wasn't current.) I was nearly done with the book. I had my little reading light on (which makes my husband crazy- but I have to read before sleep comes!) I had two mild crampy sensations sweep across my lower abdomen. Nothing new though. I had been feeling this nightly for 3+ weeks, more so since I had injured myself. I sighed heavily at the end of one of those little cramps. My husband mistook this for my "off to sleep" sigh and said, "Honey, turn off your light."
I thought he was complaining about the light. I had 5 pages left of the book, so I got out of bed and left the room to finish it. I decided first to take a shower, to see if I could relax and see if more contractions would come. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Grrr.

I went to the living room and sat on an exercise ball. I finished up those last 5 pages, put the book down on the coffee table, glad that I had finished it before bed and then had two of the biggest, craziest, back-to-back contractions out of nowhere. I sat on the ball and breathed through them. When the second one subsided, I felt my water break. Hmmm.
I hobbled to the bathroom to check things out. I noted the time on the kitchen clock: 10:20pm. The fluid was lightly yellow- evidence of old meconium (possibly passed when I fell?). It was well-dissolved and I wasn't much worried. I said a little prayer asking for no more mec, to keep the baby protected, then went into my bedroom to put on some fresh underwear. But first, another strong contraction.

"Babe, wake up. My water just broke. There's a bit of old mec, but I think it's fine. I'm gonna get my prenatal bag from the car so we can listen to the baby."
"You okay? You want me to get your bag?"
"Naw, I can do it."
So I went outside to my car. I had another strong contraction at the gate. I saw a man walking down the street. He was only a silhouette, but I saw him pause as he watched me grab the gate and audibly breathe through a contraction. I giggled to myself, imagining how I must look to this stranger, then walked to the car. I put the key in the lock and had another huge contraction. The man was still stopped at the end of my driveway. I let the contraction finish, then waved him on with a smile, meaning to say, "I'm okay, really."
I grabbed my prenatal bag and remembered that I didn't have my doppler. The apprentice was carrying it. So fetoscope it was. Even though only 10 minutes had passed since my water broke, I was very definitely having strong contractions every two minutes. I couldn't believe it. I explained to my husband how to use the fetoscope as quickly as I could between contractions.

"Put these in your ears. The baby's back is over here. Listen low. It's gonna be fast. Now take my watch and count the beats for 15 seconds- you're gonna multiply that by four. Put the post against your head and take your hand away once it's against my belly. Wait, not yet. Shit, here's another contraction."

He positioned the fetoscope against my belly and said he didn't hear anything. Go lower! I instructed. He moved down a bit, smiled, and said, "Wow. That's so cool. It's so fast!"
Knowing another contraction was coming very soon, I barked, "Just COUNT!"
The heart tones were fine, in the 130s.

Next, I grabbed my phone and called my midwife partner. I tried to give her as much info as is humanly possible in a 120 second period. Another contraction came on and I threw down my phone to deal with it. I felt the baby push lower and lower every time. In my head, I was flabbergasted- This is coming too fast. This can't be. I want to push. It was about 10 minutes before 11pm. I tried to ignore my panicky feeling of knowing my partner lives 35 minutes or so from me. I really wanted her here for the birth.

I had all the gear needed for a water birth. My husband asked me if I wanted him to blow up the pool and grab the hose from downstairs. I nodded yes but then said, "Wait!" Another contraction. I needed to hang on him. It ended and I said he could go now. But no- "Wait!" again. Another strong contraction. He wisely said, "Honey, we don't have time to get the pool ready."

More contractions. I was getting really vocal now. With every one I had to resist the urge to push. It was completely overwhelming and scary. It was 10:56pm and I called my friend and former apprentice, A. Even though she stopped apprenticing a couple months ago, she had attended a lot of my prenatals and this was kind of her last on-call birth. I wanted her here and was glad this was happening at night when she was home from work. I asked if she could come over and help. Again, another phone call I couldn't finish for throwing my phone down and growling/grunting/blowing through another contraction.

I stood by my bed with my husband at my side. I was so confused. I was trying to figure out where I wanted to be, what I could do to make this more bearable, less intense. Damn, I needed to PUSH! During contractions I'd alternate groaning, praying, and swearing like a sailor. Something like this: "Oh gawd, another one already! Please God, protect this baby. Slow this down, God. I can't cope with this. I need more time....uuuuggggghhhh! Fuck, shit....damn it!"
A. and my husband were giggling at me. I didn't mind, I knew how silly it sounded. But it felt really reassuring to pray and I couldn't help but to swear.

Next, J. our friend and apprentice came in with the doppler. I wanted her to listen. She did first thing. Baby was great, heart tones 140. Oh, I wanted to push. I had tried to lay on the bed for one contraction thinking lessening the effect of gravity might help but it was awful. So I continued standing at the side of my bed, squeezing my buns so tightly together (my butt cheeks were really the sorest part of my body the next day!) and blowing, grunting, praying, swearing.

A. and J. were a flurry of activity setting up birth supplies. I was partially still in my midwife brain, trying to utter direction between my litany of verbal coping. "You guys, my birth bag is in the trunk of my car. It's unlocked if you need anything. I brought my instruments in, they're sterile. I.....shit, shit, shit!!! Please God, give me the strength and the calm to deal with this. It's tooooooo faaaaast! Uuuuuuuuggggghhh."

Minutes later, my midwife pal and partner arrives. Thank God! I felt better for her being there. I immediately told her I needed to push, but that I was scared. This was so fast. This couldn't be, right?
She calmed me and said it was fine to push.
"I have to poop," I said. She gave me that Look. The Look that all midwives give because having to the urge to poop means there's a baby really there, not poop. All that pressure and what-not.

So I said, "No, I really do have to poop. I can tell it's there." And I could feel it. I was too afraid to sit on the toilet before she got there!

"You're on blue pads. Just poop here. It's fine."

Damn cultural programming. I could not bring myself to poop on the floor, blue pads or no blue pads, standing upright in front of my husband and three close friends. No way. I needed to sit on a toilet, preferably alone.
So I was escorted to the toilet and sat down. Ugh! The pressure! I waited so that I wasn't contracting when I sat. I quickly pushed and felt this egg-size bit of poop come out, and the next thing was the baby slamming down as a contraction began. Later I laughed at how I knew that poop needed to come out, and how it seemed to work as a baby-blocking speed bump as I waited for my midwife friend to arrive! Next, I shot up standing, not able to bear the sensation of sitting on the toilet. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by everyone in the smallest room of my house (because most home born babies end up being born in the absolute smallest room of the house!).

"Have you checked yourself?" My midwife pal wanted to know.
I shook my head no and then tried to feel for cervix or baby. All I could feel was wrinkly baby scalp (coming down quickly!) and hair?! My babies are born cue-ball bald! I couldn't say what I felt except to utter something, "Baby.....coming."

And so I pushed, standing over the toilet. My left hand on the window sill, my right on my husband's shoulder. Midwife on her knees in front of me, apprentice hands scurrying in and out of the frame, handing over blankets, blue pads, etc. I kept my eyes closed for most of it. I pushed as our baby's head came down, and crowned. The worst part, so intense. Then that contraction ended and I was told, "Good job, the top of your baby's head is out."

"The top?! Just the top? Damn!"
"Reach down and feel."
"NO!" And more pushing.
This time though, lots of verbal guidance. "Slow, slow. Don't push. Just do little grunts. That's it, slowly. Good job..."

And my goodness, this was my absolute favorite part of my labor. In comparison, this was the most calm and controlled part. I could feel the baby's head slowly oozing out. Everything stretching to accommodate forehead, eyes, nose, lips, chin. Very intense, but equally amazing and ingrained in my cellular memory for life, no doubt.
Head was out. With the next contraction, I felt the twist and rotation of the baby's shoulders and the body came away from mine. In relief, I plopped onto the toilet and was handed this sweet, chunky baby girl with a mass of wet, dark hair. It was 11:34pm.
We've named her Magdalena, or Magda for short. She weighed 10# 7 oz; 22" long; 14 1/2" head. My biggest baby yet.
My quickest, and by far, most mentally overwhelming labor yet. And thanks to the skillful hands of my midwife and friend, there was nothing on me that required repair!
-And for what it's worth, I never had time to listen to my labor play-list!

The past week and a half has passed quickly, but well. Half of my brain is hazy and slow, fogged by the effects of prolactin release thanks to breastfeeding. The other half of my brain is forced to stay awake and on top of things: bills being paid, one kid to theater, gathering school permission slips, book orders...What's for dinner? Did you buy my costume yet? Do we have groceries? Did you throw in the laundry, Mom, where are my shoes?!...etc!
This is what comes with having older kids and a new baby. I must say though, both kids have been amazing, sweet, helpful little nurturers.
I am so thankful for our new healthy baby girl, for our sweet children, for my awesome husband and for all the family and friends who helped us through the past few weeks. Love to you all! You know who you are. (And if I have your dishes, I'll return them soon, I promise!)

Harvest Time Already

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:53:00 +0000

The Baby Ticker widget keeps ADDING days now that we're post due date!
What's up with that?!

Okay honies, the only thing I'm hoping to harvest, and/or CARE about harvesting is this sweet kicky child in my belly.

Baby, I want you in my arms!
Come on out. You've got loving parents, awesome siblings, chickens, and lots of squash on the counter!
-xoxo,
Your Loving Mama

Fall Harvest and a Cranky Mama

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:16:00 +0000

The weather around these parts has been making me cranky. I know I'm prone to exaggeration at cranky times, but I'd like to know when south-eastern Michigan transformed into Bangkok.
80-something degree days with 90% humidity is not okay at the end of September!

The gardens are a mess. I've been avoiding even going out back for the last few weeks because I cannot stand disorder and yet feel too overwhelmed to deal with it. The last couple of days I've been sleeping better (like nearly all night, not in an upright position! -Baby has moved much lower, making the carpal tunnel much better). So yesterday I found enough will power to at least go clean up the patch of garden in my neighbor's yard (the donated land!). I had various squashes, tomatoes and kale growing over there. Oh my, it was a mess. Armed with a basket, work gloves and a huge butcher knife, I pulled up all the squash vines and tomato plants but left the kale intact because it's fine and needs to be properly harvested. I sawed through the thick, incredibly spiky pumpkin vines and harvested 6 pie pumpkins (have a few more in our yard left growing). I got a good number of butternut squash and yellow crooknecks as well.
My mother came down and accused me of working too hard. I was literally soaked through with sweat. I crankily sneered, "What? Are you worried about me going into labor? Not gonna happen."
Sweet mother left my comment be and got the wheel barrow for me. We cleared all the squash vines and tomato plants and then picked up all the green and red fallen tomatoes that we could. The plot is for the most part, cleared. I just need to deal with the kale and then have G turn over the plot so it's dormant for the winter.

In our yard, ugh... so much to do. Really just need to clear the plots and get them ready for winter. The tomato plants are still producing a few red tomatoes, but I swear they don't taste as nice. Plus, I'm absolutely done with tomatoes this year. I keep picking and tossing them to the chickens, who love them.
There's a row of now-scrappy looking collards I need to pull out, and swiss chard that could be processed (I've been giving the chickens chard every day too-makes me feel like I'm using it despite really not dealing with it).
The pole beans are done in my opinion, and need to be pulled down. I've got 3 rows of Vermont Cranberry beans that need to be picked and plucked.
The broccoli plants, which have grown really huge this year without any sign of making actual broccoli heads, surprised me. One plant on the end gifted us with a really nice head that looked like it came from the store. I've only ever had measly little florets grow in the past (that's when a ground hog hasn't decimated the broccoli row). So yesterday despite the heat, I made creamy, cheesy broccoli soup. The kids loved it.

All this complaining and list making has inspired me to go out there and work. It's currently 66, very humid degrees outside. I know the mosquitoes will be thick and hungry for my blood, but I should just get out there before it gets too hot. This weekend promises to be a little cooler, thankfully. Here I go, we'll see if there's any pictures worth taking of whatever I can salvage out there!

Baby Garden Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:41:00 +0000

You'll have to click on the pictures to see the beautiful detail of this gorgeous and thoughtful quilt we received from my pal Amy. A month ago we had a small Blessingway for this baby. Amy brought her guitar and sang this great song that combined growing your own food with growing a baby. Everyone in the room was sobbing by the end! Two weeks ago, Amy brought by this quilt that she'd been working on. It has lovely swatches of different green and brown strips that look just like garden plots. Around the quilt are the embroidered lyrics to the song, and in one corner, a gorgeous, silky red rose. I love and appreciate all the work and love that went into this quilt. It's also a good reminder for me to remember that even though I put by a lot less food this year, I put a lot of energy into growing our baby. :) --Baby, I can't wait to meet you and to show you our gardens.

Lyrics:
pulling weeds and picking stones
we are made of dreams and bones
feel the need to grow my own
for the time is near at hand
grain by grain
sun and rain
find my way in natures chain
tune my body and my brain
to the music of the land

Big Days Going By...Thankfully, Less Veg

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:38:00 +0000

The last of the counter-top tomatoes! Soo excited about this! There are more in the garden, but they're not as plentiful. I've even been feeding tomatoes fresh off the vine to the chickens, just because I'm tired of tomato labor. I have many, many pounds of roasted tomato glut sauce in the freezer and many canned jars.

A handful of pole beans, a scrawny cucumber, and two gorgeous, huge red peppers.

Some more carrots, yellow squash, and sigh, more tomatoes.

Two kids on their first day of school today! S is starting 5th grade and Little E, kindergarten. Neither was sad to see me leave this rainy morning. Which is great, I'm glad they're so excited about school. Little E is my baby though (at least for a few more weeks). I kept asking him as he sat at his spiffy new desk with his name tag on, "Are you okay? Do you need to use the restroom? Here's your water bottle. Are you all right?" YES, MOM! I managed not to cry until I made it back to the car. Bittersweet, but exciting!

In other news, we picked up two new pullets last night from a lovely local woman with a lot of chickens. Our current birds are two Rhode Island Reds and two silver-laced Wyandottes. The reds are awesome layers. The Wyandottes, not so much. One the Wyandottes lays maybe 2 times a week if we're lucky. The other gal, not at all. She's huge and lovely, but completely daffy as chickens go- which isn't saying much. So sadly, she's stew pot bound. Having an ordinance on the number of chickens we can have makes keeping a non-layer sort of difficult. I really don't mind paying for her room and board, as it were, but I'd really like to have all our birds be layers. I just read about "lazy layers" in the recent issue of Backyard Poultry. Their physical characteristics totally match Spot's (our non-layer). Big bird without a comb on her head, hard abdomen, pubis that doesn't have a palpable separation... sort of interesting.

The two new birds are Black Australorps. If the garden weren't so wet, muddy and full of mosquitoes right now, I'd walk out and take a picture, but I can't muster myself to do so. They're beautiful shiny, sheeny, healthy teenage girls who are just starting to lay.
Spot the lazy layer will be processed soon. Dotty, the hit or miss layer might just be relocated to my friend's farm very soon. Hopefully she'll be goaded into action by being surrounded by so many happy, laying chickens, or at least like free-ranging with a couple handsome rooster around.

In the meantime, we've made it through birthday parties, a blessingway, back to school night, the first day of school without any births upsetting the schedule. 3 more women due ahead of me. I'm looking forward to finishing up the garden once and for all, to having a freer calendar, and to meeting this baby. I'm so ready for it!

Pick tomatoes, dig potatoes...

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:54:00 +0000

See the new empty space?! I'm so happy to see empty garden space! Not because I'm going to plant anything else in it this year, but because it means things are being harvested and soon we can rest! (I realize I'm a lot grumpier about gardening than I've ever been this year.)

Here's what we harvested from the empty space. Around 25 pounds of potatoes! 3 more rows to harvest. Most of them are the beautiful Rose Apple Finn fingerlings, though there's also some Norland Reds (the old root cellar sprouted ones we planted in the old compost pile) and some Russetts.

Venus of Millendorf fingerling. (I'm a midwife, I see goddesses everywhere. ;)

Aside from the ever-ripening tomatoes in the garden, this is all I have left in the house! Woo hoo!
I made it through that huge box on the floor (and admittedly, gave some of those away to visiting friends on Saturday).

Urban deck fishers. Sadly, the only thing to catch are more tomatoes.

Making a Dent

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:41:00 +0000

Thursday I was appointment free and the weather was just a little bit cooler than it has been. So I got to work on those tomatoes. I ended up with 7 quarts, 12 pints canned. While running tomato skins out to the compost, I spied about 30 new red tomatoes in the garden that still needed to be picked. Made me want to cry!

My favorite gardening mentor, El at Fast Grow the Weeds, sent me a link to her old post about making Tomato Glut Sauce. This was a nice way to use up a good number of tomatoes as well as various root vegetables and herbs from the garden. Toss with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and roast for 45 minutes at 400*.

"Process" lightly in the food processor at 3:30 in the morning when a client in labor calls (but who doesn't need you quite yet). I got 5 quart bags of this delicious smelling sauce. Ingredients ended up being: tomatoes, carrots, turnips, potatoes, onions, yellow squash, zucchini, basil, oregano, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. (Ha! I just noticed the little dish of cherry tomatoes in the background! They are everywhere!)

The tomatoes picked after canning/ glut sauce that day.

And still, more tomatoes...

Tomato Torment

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:14:00 +0000

Just the beginning of the counter-space invasion...this pic was taken a couple weeks ago. A few baby fingerlings, the start of red tomatoes, yellow squash, and pole beans. We're now up to our necks in tomatoes. Loads and loads of tomatoes, loads of yellow squash.

Some garlic laid to dry on the kayak in the warm garage.

I'm really trying to rouse myself into canning all these freakin' tomatoes. I'm just sooo tired and it's been sooo hot! Granted, today was a bit better as the humidity calmed down a bit, making life a little more bearable. My body and this baby have decided that I really only need 4 hours of sleep a night, which is kicking my butt.

I don't mind canning. In fact, I normally quite enjoy it. There's a great satisfaction that comes with all the kitchen prep time spent chopping, preparing, stuffing jars, and listening to music. However, I must admit tomatoes are the worst in my humble opinion. You have to scald them, them pop them into ice water in order to remove their skins (and you have to keep replacing the ice water as it gets warmer. We only have 4 ice cube trays, so we end up using every frozen thing we can to keep the water cold.). Core them, quarter them, and put them into jars. Thankfully, the pressure canner processes them in 25 minutes once you're up to pressure, as opposed to the 85 minutes it takes in a hot water bath. Talk about a hot kitchen!

I was going to can tomatoes this evening. I even made myself a real-deal caffeinated iced-coffee to wake up a bit. But after doing a couple loads of laundry, washing dishes, cooking and eating dinner, I just feel ready for bed. I've got at least another 3 hours before the kids will allow that to happen.

I seriously wondered today if there's any city ordinance against my erecting a "road side stand" on my residential street to sell my tomatoes and squash and green beans and eggs. Drive 20 miles south of here and there's all kind of end-of-the-driveway veggie stands. Why not here in college town? I could simultaneously make some cash while avoiding canning tomatoes...

Adult Summer Reading-What I've Read This Summer-Clearly Not a Food Post

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:04:00 +0000

Doghead, by Morten Ramsland is an excellent book. It's a hilarious and bittersweet first novel. The story follows this crazy Norwegian family over three generations, from WWII on. Made me wish it never ended. Excellent writing.

American Thighs is yet another gem from Jill Connor Browne, the Queen of The Sweet Potato Queens. Hailing from Mississippi, Jill Connor Browne writes with menopausal southern wit that had me laughing out loud on many, many pages. I'm waiting for someone at the library to return her book, How to Raise Children for Fun & Profit. Great take-your-mind-off-things sort of reading.

The Herring Seller's Apprentice, (link to someone else's proper book review!) by L.C. Tyler is a book I'd normally never pick up. It's a mystery, and I just don't read mysteries. However, I liked the cover and the title and sometimes you just get a feeling about these things, no? Proved to be another good summer reading pick. Very clever, very British.

How to Cook a Tapir, by Joan Fry was a decent read. It's about an American woman whotakes a "working honeymoon" with her anthropologist husband to British Honduras (now Belize). The woman can't cook to save her life, but soon learns how to cook while living it in the rough in the jungle bush. Because this all takes place in 1962, you definitely get the feel of how her husband is an academia, patriarchal jerk...which made me want to scream, but it ends well. Interesting read.

The Birth House, by Ami McKay. (The cover above is actually from the Lithuanian printing.) Sigh. Loved it. Every birth worker I know has been urging me to read this book for the last year or so. I tore through it in just a couple of days. It's about a young woman being unofficially trained as a midwife during the early 19-teens in Nova Scotia. There's a beautiful setting mixed with WWI issues, early feminism and the attempt of the "good doctor" (or obstetrics in general) to undermine and demonize midwifery and normal birth. Great writing, fabulous book.

I'm not a huge graphic novel fan, but The Professor's Daughter , by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert was another book that I picked up solely for title and cover picture. The illustrations are gorgeous (simple but lovely watercolor) and the tale a sweet love story. I read it in the course of an afternoon and found it to be a great little get-away.

Ms. Nina Planck has been rockin' the world of all the foodies and localvores that I know. Real Food- What to Eat and Why is a great read. Super informative and helpful in knocking down food stereotypes that we've all been fed for decades in this country. If I had loads of cash, I'd buy a copy of this book for each of my family members who still eat margarine and empty, crappy "fat free" foods in an attempt to eat "healthy" and lose weight. Not only does Nina Planck rave about eating real, whole foods that have been deemed unhealthy and fattening (think real butter, meat, eggs, etc), but she defends it all with great, easy to understand research. Especially a lot of great info and breakdown of understanding cholesterol (both "good" and "bad"). I have yet to read her other highly popular book, Real Food for Mother and Baby. Have heard awesome things about it, just waiting for its return to the public library!

My husband is notorious for borrowing so many books from the library that he never gets time to read all of them. He often gets weird technical stuff or dry books on the economy or some weird selection, totally random, about two particular decades of Moroccan government 3 centuries ago. On one of our weekly library trips, he picked up Gimme Shelter, by Mary Elizabeth Williams. This lady is funny, cynical, and a decent writer. She talks about her 3 years of searching for housing in NYC. Being in the mid-west, the price of NYC housing shocked me. I mean, I knew it was outrageous, but still. I would've left the city, but she and her husband are determined to stay with their two young daughters and settle on a mortgage one way or another, even though they're not filthy rich, nor do they have even moderately well off parents to help them out. If you've ever bought a house with damn near no money (or are thinking about it), this book will gladly commiserate with you (even if the monetary figures are waaaay different). By the way, I read this book. My husband, did not.

Up the Rouge! by Joel Thurtell and Patricia Beck was another good read. Both author and photographer were Detroit Free Press staffies. They convinced the newspaper to let them paddle up the Rouge River for 5 days and do a photo essay of their trip. Not only did it run in a briefer version in the paper, they published an entire book about it. The Rouge River is a long river that starts at the mouth of the Detroit River and carries on through many suburbs of Detroit. Henry Ford did his share to dump and ruin this river years ago when he first started his factories. The pollution carries on til this day, from Ford to various other industries, and not excluding general run-off into the river, on account of being surrounded by miles and miles of concrete development. Despite the crazy pollution (abandoned boats, cars, log jams, kitchen appliances, um, bones...), Thurtell and Beck manage to entertain, educate and show you this famed "nasty" river's beauty.

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This entire post was supposed to go into my Adventures in Ypsiville blog, not here. That's what happens when I blog at 3am in a fit of insomnia.
At any rate...

Every summer I sign the kids up for the library's summer reading program. We keep track of minutes read, and at the end of the summer, they pick up their earned prizes (usually some free passes to local businesses and a free Scholastic book pick). This year, the librarian finally convinced me to sign up for the adult summer reading program. All one has to do is read 8 books (I kept track of 9), submit the titles and authors when complete and then pick up your prize. I earned a free travel mug! Woo hoo! Plus, my name will be entered into a drawing for a Border's gift card. Not bad. It was fun keeping track of the varied titles and genres. I was so pleased I kept picking "winners" all summer. Honestly, you don't always get such a streak of good reads. So I thought I'd share them with you folks.
I'm terrible at writing book reviews, so I'd say Google any one of those titles for much more articulate reviews. :)

Dilly Beans and How to Can Them

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:17:00 +0000

Check out Nourishing Days for a great blog and the weekly Food Roots links that happen every Thursday!

Because some folks asked about the recipe...

This recipe has been tweaked from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

6Tb pickling salt
6 C water
6 C white vinegar
5 pounds trimmed green beans (short enough that they fit into your jars- I used some quart jars, some pint jars)
~20 or so black peppercorns
~10 sprigs of fresh dill
~10 cloves garlic (one for each jar; more if you love garlic)

From the picture above, I used 7 pint jars and two quart jars. I often go off the beaten path when canning and use whatever I've brought up from the basement. :) Clean and leave your jars full of hot water while you prepare the recipe. Soak the lids on hot water. Fill your canning pot half full of water and set it on high heat (it takes forever to bring to boil, so I always get it going before preparing the recipe).

*The original recipe said to prepare only 6 pint jars and the liquid measurements were half of what I listed above. I ended up having to make more liquid to pack the jars for 5 pounds of beans.The ratios are the same, just doubled.

In a large stainless teel saucepan, combine salt, vinegar and water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve salt. Add beans and return to a boil. Remove from heat.

Place 3 peppercorns, one sprig of dill, and one garlic clove in each prepared jar. Pack beans into jars and ladle hot liquid into each jar to cover beans. Leave 1/2" head space at the top of each jar. Remove air bubbles (if any- by sliding butter knife along inside edges of the jar). Wipe rim of jar and put lid on. Screw down band until resistance is met, then increase to finger-tip tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. (You may have to add more hot water to cover. This is when I love my electric kettle.) Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. (Remember, you start the 10 minutes when the canner water is actually boiling, not before!) Aftr 10 minutes of processing, turn off heat and remove lid. Wait 5 minutes, then carefully remove the jars, allow them to cool. Check each lid to be sure they sealed before storing them away. If any of them haven't properly sealed, place in fridge and let sit a week or two to allow flavors to meld and then promptly eat!

Not as Productive as I Should Be...

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:39:00 +0000

S & E trying to catch swimmy things at a local park. Not foraging. :)

Small batch of Dilly Beans. We looove Dilly Beans.

My favorite local farm stand is open for business and they're oh-so-affordable! A couple weekends ago the kids were with my MIL. G and I took the time to see the new Harry Potter movie, and the documentary Food, Inc (which was great, btw), and to buy two heaping bushels of green beans. We spent 3+ hours on the deck, kid-free and chatty as we snapped beans. How romantic! We ended up blanching and freezing most of them, and only doing a small batch of Dilly Beans. All in all, I estimated around 26 pounds of beans, once they were all processed.

Two thick batches of Yarrow bundled and ready to be hung to dry. Every year my sweet neighbor gives me what she cuts back. Dried Yarrow is amazing in a post partum herbal bath. Yarrow helps staunch bleeding and also helps to heal any tissue trauma or damage. It's hung up downstairs next to two fat bundles of Comfrey (which is also amazing on healing tissues).

This time last year I was the canning queen well into the season. This year, well...
there's a lot going on, mainly growing this baby and trying to take care of myself while working and being a mom and wife. It's been a stressful year financially. G works within the auto industry as I've said before. He had 5 straight weeks without work, which has rendered us without health insurance for 6 weeks. He started back on a 3 day work week last month, which will put us back with health insurance in a few days. He's always been the bread winner, with my income being necessary although supplemental. Ack. I hate being stressed about money. I can still count my blessings though as I know things could be far worse and we have a lot growing (and laying!) around us.
When I think about not preserving as much food as we have in the past, I try not to feel too bad about it. Normally we'd be strawberry picking, raspberry and blueberry picking, etc. I just couldn't make that a priority this year. Fruit seems so non-essential and dessert-like right now compared to food that plays a more major part in meals.
Ha! I must admit to buying two pounds of blueberries while the kids were away and eating all of them in less than 48 hours! Clearly worked out as a meal during that time... :)

Other Ways of Preserving...
In a fit of pregnancy nesting, I inventoried the kid's clothes to see the state of back-to-school possibilities and how many pairs of decent pants they each had. I was able to make a list of what they actually needed for the fall and winter and from there, landed at our local Once Upon a Child store. I love this store. Their by-line is something like, Clothing With Previous Experience. I like that. Everything is gently-used (or sometimes even new), good quality clothing at a decent price. I ended up buying E 2 pairs of pants, a new pair of cool European shoes, and a long-sleeved tee; S got 4 pairs of pants (two of them brand new), and 3 shirts...all for $44.
It feels good to not only save loads of money, but also to buy very decent used stuff and giving it all a longer life.
I'm not a Never-New saint though. We ended up at Target getting S a pair of much-wanted Chuck Taylors and getting Little E some new socks and underwear. This Mama also splurged and got herself a packet of lovely soft cotton underwear too. Nothing like the 3rd trimester to make you ditch your by-now dingy pre-pregnancy underpants in favor of something a little bigger and softer. Ahhh.

So there ya go. Not as many food updates as I'd like to give. My garden/food work list for the weekend goes as follows:
cilantro ice cubes
basil pesto
zucchini bread
shred and freeze extra zucchini
harvest and preserve turnips
freeze small tomatoes
make loaf of regular sandwich bread

We'll see what time, my kids, and pending babies have in store for me though.

What are your food rules?

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Check out this article from the New york Times back in March. Michael Pollan, author of, In Defense of Food, wants to know your personal food rules.
He points out the importance of how a culture views food and reacts to it.

Michael Pollan writes:

I’d like your help gathering some rules for eating well. My premise is that culture has a lot to teach us about how to choose, prepare and eat food, and that this wisdom is worth collecting and preserving before it disappears.

I love this. The comments section is amazing.

One of my favorites on there by a Mr. Daniel Freedman:

Food shouldn’t CONTAIN ingredients; food should BE ingredients.

I agree!

Here are some of the food rules we try to stick to and teach our children. Granted, we're not perfect, but here's some general issues of importance to our family:

Eat simply and know where your food came from (hopefully as close to home as possible).

Eat lots of whole grains and legumes.

Grow as much of your own food as possible, even if it's only a pot of herbs on the windowsill.

Stock up for the winter by preserving what you can during the abundant summer months. You can do this without having a garden! Buy in bulk from your local farmers and can or freeze or dehydrate!

Eat fermented foods.

Know where your meat/eggs/dairy comes from if you eat those things. Make sure those animals are treated well and eat the food they're SUPPOSED to eat. Cows should be grass-fed and allowed to pasture. Chickens should be able to walk and forage for grubby things. Pigs should be allowed to root and eat all the crazy things they love to eat! Etc! Avoid stockyard meat and factory farming.

Support local brewers if you drink beer and wine.

Many, many people go without food the world over. Be thankful for every morsel of food that goes into your mouth and teach your children to do the same.

Support fair trade.

Turnips Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:53:00 +0000

It's Food Roots Thursday! Go to nourishingdays.com to learn more!

Today, my daughter and I set out to pick the last of the peas. Most of them were well dried, but we did find a handful of plump green ones. We also realized the turnips had really plumped up in the last couple weeks, so we harvested those as well. There are still a lot more out there. S helped me out tons by watering the garden. As she did, she found two more cukes!

A family friend has been buying eggs from us. This week he bartered two big yellow squash and two cucumbers in exchange for a dozen eggs from the Ladies.

Here's little E who spends quite a bit of time each evening hanging out in the garden by himself. He likes to wait for the lightening bugs to come out, but his cranky mama can't stand the mosquitoes. E was the first to find this summer's first cucumbers a few nights ago. He was so excited. This is the time of year to get the kids outside to "hunt" for veggies as if they were Easter eggs!

So for dinner this evening, I will make a turnip, potato, garlic (from our garden) soup with rosemary chicken broth (from last fall's meat birds) soup with a salad made from cucumbers and matchstick turnips in a vinaigrette dressing. I'm trying to resist stealing any early harvest from the potato plants. They're doing well out there, but they're supposed to be for winter storage.

And that is where our food has come from today.

Illinois Prisoners Sick from Soy

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:36:00 +0000

Amazing... check out this post from Nourished Kitchen. It's an article detailing how the Illinois government has been feeding their prisoners up to 100 grams of soy daily because it's cheaper and stretches farther than real food. As a result of this insane amount of soy, the prisoners not surprisingly, became afflicted with a number of health issues.
Also not surprisingly, this came about largely due to politicians and money lining pockets. Check it out, it's a great post.

Another View

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:31:00 +0000

My sweet neighbor took this from her upstairs window. It's two of our 5 garden areas. We have a small bit on the other side of the garage, the small plot in the other neighbor's yard, and a small raised bed in the front. I like how it encompasses the hops, the coop, and the gardens. It's so cool to see your regular view from someone else's perspective.

The tomato plants are huge and jungle-like now. All the rain we've had made them pop up. They're loaded with tomatoes, but at this time, they're still all green.

Cucumber plants just starting to flower now that we've had more consistent hot weather. There are wee little cukes just beginning to grow.

I'm a bad, bad blogger these days. :) I'm a bit more tired and cranky these days by the time my time rolls around to be on the computer. Also busy with the pregnant ladies, and try to get into bed by 9pm in case I get called out at 2am. The garden is doing well all the same. I made my first batch of basil pesto tonight for freezing. Got two good-sized quart bags of the stuff. I adore basil. So nice to eat in the dead of winter, reminds me of fresh, summery herbs.

Finding a Use for Turnips and Radishes

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:11:00 +0000

Thanks to the good book, Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich, I found a kimchi type of fermenting for turnips.
It's Korean name is Sunmukimchi, or brined turnips. I added a few bigger radishes to make it a full pound as needed.

Peeled, sliced, and sitting in pickling salt for 3 hours.

Processed the turnip greens to use later.

Water, more salt, lots of garlic, a little sugar and hot pepper and a week of waiting for them to ferment. We'll see if any of us like them! They already smell lovely and vinegary after one day of sitting in the pantry. Will let you know the end results!

I've Been Awarded! Woo hoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:20:00 +0000

Mo, over at Green Desert awarded me this fine Honest Scrap Award. What a nice lady!
Apparently, I now need to divulge ten honest things about myself and then pass the award on to "a fellow blogger whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.”

I'm not very good at these things, but I will give it a whirl...

1. I have a really hard time warming up to a person who doesn't give any details about their life, how they're feeling, their opinions, etc. I try to be compassionate, but ultimately, end up not trusting them much. Honesty lends to much better communication.

2. I really, really love food. I love growing it, cooking it, preserving it, and eating it. I swear I feel endorphins flow as I eat something really wonderful. I also love going out to eat and honestly think that's my biggest vice aside from my love for Dansko shoes.

3. I love getting my hands dirty. I love planning and planting the garden, the canning, the food preparation, the harvests. Being in the air or on the water brings with it a high level of stress. The ground is a fine place to be. Working with the earth brings me a kind of peace I never knew existed.

4. I don't weigh myself when pregnant. Or much at all when not pregnant. Makes for a much better mind-set. Instead I try to eat well, not get sick, and exercise. I'm annoyed that scale numbers affect me so, but there you have it.

5. I have a really hard time falling asleep at night if I can't read for a bit first, even if I've not had sleep for 2 days. Reading takes me out of my head, away from my own worries before slipping off to sleep. Oh, and it must be fiction. No non-fiction before bed.

6. I love getting new cook books. I can read them like novels.

7. I feel incredibly blessed to be called to midwifery. I love my job; the women, the families, the new little babies. It is such an absolute honor to be able to attend births. I pray I will be able to do this work for a long, long time with an open mind and a humble heart.

8. My best and favorite "alone time" consists of driving alone in my car listening to my favorite podcasts without interruption.

9. It's very hard for me to sit through an entire movie, especially if I'm at home. There's always 20 different things I could be doing, and I usually stop the movie or leave the room so that I can do a few other things. Movie theaters would be much more appealing if I could bring a few loads of laundry to fold during the show.

10. I was a punk rock girl for years, and I love music. I miss that old feeling of going to shows and being filled with incredibly loud music in a sea of sweaty bodies. I miss dancing for hours to ska, oi, soul, and reggae. That era ended long ago, and I'm fine with it. I'm content to prepare dinner or clean the house or drive kids to school with all the same old songs quietly chiming away on my iPod in the background. Music calms me (but I've got to be in charge of the play list!).

All right, now I'm supposed to award 10 other bloggers whom I love and read regularly (and there will be some repeat awards b/c Mo and I read a lot of the same blogs!)...

1. Kate at Wading Thru My Head
2. Leaner at Three Snakes and a Rooster
3. Shannon at Nourishing Days
4. Connie at Eat Your Vegetables
5. Grace at Blue Cloud Cloth
6. The folks at Eight of an Acre Bounty
7. Michelle at Sugar Creek Stuff

okay, I have to stop here. My kids need breakfast.... congrats fellow bloggers! I'm so happy you are out there, sharing your life and your adventures!

So Much Spinach Cooks Down to Nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:39:00 +0000

This year I grew spinach in two long rows, maybe 28 feet long. Seeing as how we can't keep up with it by eating enough fresh salads, and it was beginning to get bolty, I decided to process it. I left a 4 four section of the row in place, so I could still eat a little of it fresh in the next week or so.
You can't tell by this picture, but there really was a lot of greens here.

Again, the picture does no justice, but this is a HUGE bowl. This is the same bowl my grandma and mom would use when canning or making huge batches of food for some wedding or shower.

Here's me in my not-so-fabulous maternity swimsuit blanching, chilling, bagging. G had said, "We've only got 3 freezer bags left. You want me to run to the store?" My answer, all of this spinach will only just fill two bags.

Chilling. And I was right, we only filled two bags. That's fine. I've got loads of chard and collards getting ready for the same.

I'm actually going to try some seed saving this year. I saved a load of coriander from last summer, and that's growing now. If I can stand it, I'll let more things go to seed. It's hard when you have such limited growing space. Instead of pulling out a plant to plant something else, you leave it be for weeks. That feels so wasteful! Now I have to decide what will replace the spinach space...

Garden Update

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:43:00 +0000

Lovely radishes. Not too hot, delicious on greens (of which there are oodles).

Dee Dee, Dexter, Dotty, and Spot enjoying their dappled sunlight, and various grubby things.

Turnips and collards growing well.

Swiss chard just beginning to fill out and grow taller. So pretty.

The hops beginning their travels across the twine to the big tree. They're already beginning to flower! I don't know if it's all the rain we're having or what. Seems they usually flower in late July or so.

New Doucmentary: Food, Inc

noreply@blogger.com (Mid-life Midwife, CPM) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Check out this trailer for Food, Inc. Looks like a good one, folks!