Monday, October 18, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Another Day at Sawmill
Jason spent the day sawing yesterday. Our pile of logs is dwindling fast and so is the number of pieces we have left to cut for the house. We're quickly approaching the 3/4 mark! Hopefully we will be there by the end of the week....
This is the largest log Jason has cut up yet. What will it be? A rafter? A post?
Check out the video of Jason milling.
Check out the video of Jason milling.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Garlic
This is the best time of year. What great fun it is to harvest a year's worth of a crop from the garden. 
All together I harvested 115 heads of garlic the other day. Yikes! Where to put it all? In the spare bedroom closets, of course! They're all hanging up to dry for now.
This is enough garlic to last us the year and for seed to plant in October.
All together I harvested 115 heads of garlic the other day. Yikes! Where to put it all? In the spare bedroom closets, of course! They're all hanging up to dry for now.
This is enough garlic to last us the year and for seed to plant in October.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
July
It's the middle of July. Finally the garden is in full bloom!
The boat work is done for now. Jason is back to working on the house full time. He's cut seven pieces this week! Now we're up to 114/180....
These are the latest pieces he's cut and the one he's working on laying out.
This is the "King Post" for our bedroom rafters. Pretty nice, huh? There will be two of these in our bedroom.The Fruits of Summer
It is pouring outside. I woke up this morning around 5am, thinking about my 6:30am running date, and I smiled when I heard the rain beating on the roof. Eliza and I have a deal that we don't run if it's raining. We've been running together Mondays-Fridays since April, and this is the first day that we've actually gotten to use our rain rule. I'm fully enjoying it!
Yesterday the fog was so think you could barely see the end of the dock, and the mosquitoes were buzzing around everywhere, looking for exposed flesh to bite. But Lil's currants and my raspberries needed picking, so I put on long pants and a sweatshirt to protect against those nasty little suckers and I headed down to Lil and Chuddy's to pick and pick and pick those juicy currants! I've never seen her red currants like this. They're dripping from the bushes. Big, fat, red berries dangling on skinny vines up and down the branches of each laden bush. I picked the vines off of the branches a few at a time and then swept my finger and thumb down the vine to remove the berries. They dropped into my two-quart bowl and before long the bowl was filled up. I poured the berries into a gallon-size bag. I worked methodically, cleaning one branch at a time, moving slowly around the bush until it was picked clean. Three hours and dozens of mosquito bites later, I went home with three gallons of red currants. And I only picked one bush. There are still two out there just as heavy with fruit.
The original plan was to make room for all those currants in the freezer. When I got home and looked into the freezer I realized that was impossible. It's completely full. Filled right up to the top with bread and meat and rhubarb and cider and all sorts of things that we need to begin to use up. So, what the heck to do with three gallons of currants?! I put them on the counter and went out to take care of the raspberries while I thought about just what to do. After about an hour, I had two quarts of red raspberries and the idea of raspberry-currant jam circulating throughout my head.
I came home and began to page through my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, but once again I was dismayed by how much sugar the jam and jelly recipes called for. One recipe for berry or currant jam called for five cups of fruit and seven (SEVEN) cups of sugar. That's one cup of sugar for every eight ounce jar of jam! Crazy. I searched for the book for an alternative with less sugar, but all of them called for at least one cup of sugar per jar of jam or more. Then I decided to look for a recipe on-line. I found the recipe I was looking for here: Strawberry-Currant Jam
This recipe calls for half of the sugar in other recipes, just about 1/2 cup per jar. The jam turned out perfect. The flavor is not too sweet, in fact a bit tart and powerfully berry-ish! It jelled beautifully without the use of any added pectin. Apparently currants have enough pectin in them naturally to jell without adding any more! The color is just beautiful--bright red and fresh.
The recipe is as follows:
Strawberry-Currant Jam
(Makes about seven 8-ounce jars)
1 quart (4 cups) red or white currants, or gooseberries (I used red currants, and I didn't boil them with water to make the juice/puree. I have a great foodmill that strains berries, tomatoes, etc. without cooking them first. It's called the "Roma Food Strainer Sauce Maker")
1/4 cup water
2 quarts strawberries (I used one quart of red currants and one quart of red raspberries)
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Put the jars into the canner, and cover them with water by at least an inch. Bring them to a boil, and boil them for 10 minutes.
Wash and drain the currants and put them with the water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and boil, stirring gently, until they are all popped, about 5 minutes. Press them through a sieve, and reserve the puree. Discard the skins, stems and seeds.
Gently rinse the strawberries and drain them well. Mash them in a large canning kettle or pot; a potato masher does the trick nicely. Mix the currant puree, sugar and lemon juice into them.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Boil hard until the mixture reaches the gell stage, about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent it from scorching. Remove from the heat and skim off any stubborn foam. Fill the sterilized jars and seal with lids prepared according to the manufacturer's instructions; generally boiled for 5 minutes. Return the jars to the boiling water in the canner for 5 minutes.
Let cool, check that the jars have sealed, label, and keep in a cool, dark place until opened, when they go into the refrigerator.
I still have a gallon of whole currants that I managed to squeeze into the freezer. Additionally, I juiced 3 quarts for future jam. The rest I gave away. I'm planning on making another batch of the raspberry-currant jam and a batch or two of blackberry currant jam this fall when the blackberries are ripe. I'm so excited to have a reduced-sugar jam recipe and to know that currants eliminate the need for added pectin!
The other two bushes are still loaded. If they're not picked by Friday afternoon, I'm going in for more!
Yesterday the fog was so think you could barely see the end of the dock, and the mosquitoes were buzzing around everywhere, looking for exposed flesh to bite. But Lil's currants and my raspberries needed picking, so I put on long pants and a sweatshirt to protect against those nasty little suckers and I headed down to Lil and Chuddy's to pick and pick and pick those juicy currants! I've never seen her red currants like this. They're dripping from the bushes. Big, fat, red berries dangling on skinny vines up and down the branches of each laden bush. I picked the vines off of the branches a few at a time and then swept my finger and thumb down the vine to remove the berries. They dropped into my two-quart bowl and before long the bowl was filled up. I poured the berries into a gallon-size bag. I worked methodically, cleaning one branch at a time, moving slowly around the bush until it was picked clean. Three hours and dozens of mosquito bites later, I went home with three gallons of red currants. And I only picked one bush. There are still two out there just as heavy with fruit.
The original plan was to make room for all those currants in the freezer. When I got home and looked into the freezer I realized that was impossible. It's completely full. Filled right up to the top with bread and meat and rhubarb and cider and all sorts of things that we need to begin to use up. So, what the heck to do with three gallons of currants?! I put them on the counter and went out to take care of the raspberries while I thought about just what to do. After about an hour, I had two quarts of red raspberries and the idea of raspberry-currant jam circulating throughout my head.
I came home and began to page through my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, but once again I was dismayed by how much sugar the jam and jelly recipes called for. One recipe for berry or currant jam called for five cups of fruit and seven (SEVEN) cups of sugar. That's one cup of sugar for every eight ounce jar of jam! Crazy. I searched for the book for an alternative with less sugar, but all of them called for at least one cup of sugar per jar of jam or more. Then I decided to look for a recipe on-line. I found the recipe I was looking for here: Strawberry-Currant Jam
This recipe calls for half of the sugar in other recipes, just about 1/2 cup per jar. The jam turned out perfect. The flavor is not too sweet, in fact a bit tart and powerfully berry-ish! It jelled beautifully without the use of any added pectin. Apparently currants have enough pectin in them naturally to jell without adding any more! The color is just beautiful--bright red and fresh.
The recipe is as follows:
Strawberry-Currant Jam
(Makes about seven 8-ounce jars)
1 quart (4 cups) red or white currants, or gooseberries (I used red currants, and I didn't boil them with water to make the juice/puree. I have a great foodmill that strains berries, tomatoes, etc. without cooking them first. It's called the "Roma Food Strainer Sauce Maker")
1/4 cup water
2 quarts strawberries (I used one quart of red currants and one quart of red raspberries)
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Put the jars into the canner, and cover them with water by at least an inch. Bring them to a boil, and boil them for 10 minutes.
Wash and drain the currants and put them with the water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and boil, stirring gently, until they are all popped, about 5 minutes. Press them through a sieve, and reserve the puree. Discard the skins, stems and seeds.
Gently rinse the strawberries and drain them well. Mash them in a large canning kettle or pot; a potato masher does the trick nicely. Mix the currant puree, sugar and lemon juice into them.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Boil hard until the mixture reaches the gell stage, about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent it from scorching. Remove from the heat and skim off any stubborn foam. Fill the sterilized jars and seal with lids prepared according to the manufacturer's instructions; generally boiled for 5 minutes. Return the jars to the boiling water in the canner for 5 minutes.
Let cool, check that the jars have sealed, label, and keep in a cool, dark place until opened, when they go into the refrigerator.
I still have a gallon of whole currants that I managed to squeeze into the freezer. Additionally, I juiced 3 quarts for future jam. The rest I gave away. I'm planning on making another batch of the raspberry-currant jam and a batch or two of blackberry currant jam this fall when the blackberries are ripe. I'm so excited to have a reduced-sugar jam recipe and to know that currants eliminate the need for added pectin!
The other two bushes are still loaded. If they're not picked by Friday afternoon, I'm going in for more!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Early Summer
A distant cousin is visiting from Denmark. What a joy it has been to share with him the beauty of the island and the surrounding areas. It's like seeing everything again for the first time. Yesterday we hiked to the top of St. Sauveur Mountain in Acadia National Park. It's an easy hike. It begins in the woods and it doesn't take long for the trees to begin to thin and to get the feeling that you're walking above their canopies. The summit itself is disappointing. It isn't wide open and rocky the way you would imagine a mountain top to be. Instead it's a rounded area surrounded by short trees and shrubs. But, you don't climb this small mountain for the joy of the summit: you climb it for the views just a few meters away. Stepping out from the trees and shrubs you find yourself above looking down upon Somes Sound and Southwest Harbor. Boats zigzag across the water below and in the distance you can see the Cranberry Isles, Isle Au Haut, Swan's Island, Frenchboro and the Duck Islands. Yesterday was a perfect day for this hike with the sun bright and shiny and the sky crystal blue.
This summer has been a dream. Last year at this time we were about two weeks into a six week run of fog and drizzle. This year it's completely opposite. Nearly every day we wake to clear blue skies, bright sunshine and soft warm breezes. On the days it's not sunny and warm, it rains just the right amount to water the gardens. I'm waiting for the moment when I wake up and find myself confronted with a real Maine island summer (read fog, lots of fog), but for now I'm enjoying every little bit of this fantasy summer!
With this delightful mix of sun, warmth and rain, the garden is growing and growing. With the exception of a major slug and snail infestation that I'm battling right now, the garden is in good shape.
The peas are up and growing. It took three plantings before they grew faster than the slugs could eat them, but now they'll make it. One lone survivor from the first planting is producing sweet, snappy peas right now. I'm enjoying them one by one. The flowers are just just beginning to bloom and just today I picked the garlic scapes from over 80 garlic plants. I made some of them into a spicey pesto for lunch and more are waiting to be cooked over the next week. My first crop of beets and scallions are growing beautifully, and the second crop of both are just poking their first leaves up today.
I'm going away for a course next week. I hope that the garden is still in decent shape when I get back! Keep your fingers crossed for just the right amount of rain and sun.
Just in case you're wondering, we're just finishing up the 105th piece of the frame. Jason is up to his elbows in boat work, but that should be slowing down just as I'm getting back from my course. Then we're cutting, cutting, cutting until we're ready to raise. The end is in sight!
This summer has been a dream. Last year at this time we were about two weeks into a six week run of fog and drizzle. This year it's completely opposite. Nearly every day we wake to clear blue skies, bright sunshine and soft warm breezes. On the days it's not sunny and warm, it rains just the right amount to water the gardens. I'm waiting for the moment when I wake up and find myself confronted with a real Maine island summer (read fog, lots of fog), but for now I'm enjoying every little bit of this fantasy summer!
With this delightful mix of sun, warmth and rain, the garden is growing and growing. With the exception of a major slug and snail infestation that I'm battling right now, the garden is in good shape.
The peas are up and growing. It took three plantings before they grew faster than the slugs could eat them, but now they'll make it. One lone survivor from the first planting is producing sweet, snappy peas right now. I'm enjoying them one by one. The flowers are just just beginning to bloom and just today I picked the garlic scapes from over 80 garlic plants. I made some of them into a spicey pesto for lunch and more are waiting to be cooked over the next week. My first crop of beets and scallions are growing beautifully, and the second crop of both are just poking their first leaves up today.
I'm going away for a course next week. I hope that the garden is still in decent shape when I get back! Keep your fingers crossed for just the right amount of rain and sun.
Just in case you're wondering, we're just finishing up the 105th piece of the frame. Jason is up to his elbows in boat work, but that should be slowing down just as I'm getting back from my course. Then we're cutting, cutting, cutting until we're ready to raise. The end is in sight!
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