Need to make room

The house is a mess. My freezers are overflowing. There's too much food in my fridge. Mostly very positive problems, I think. In most times, at least. But Christmas is coming! Where would I stick my ham? Casseroles? Sweet bakes?

Can't use veranda as cooler, because it's still full of MIL's stuff. New kitchen is full of building materials, dining table is under... plumbing equipment? Video projector? We haven't been able to eat at the table for a long time, probably since summer.

So, from now on, I will not buy food...

Or maybe I will. I usually do.

Last time I went really shopping was Monday last week. I was leaving the next day, so I needed to make sure there was things os can eat (as he still has some issues with food). And then I got "free" food in the same evening (like 10 containers of vanilla soy yoghurt, half a litre each). I really didn't have much time to process all I got, so I just stuck them to the freezers where ever I found an empty nook... Boys did a fine job on emptying the fridge during the week. I was back home by 1am Friday.

Friday dinner was insired by pasta carbonara; I had spaghetti, bacon, and some basic cheeses (eggs and garlic at least are in the original receipe) Nevertheless, it was delicious.

Then by Saturday morning I was feeling feverish, so all things I planned on doing were left undone. I didn't eat much on Saturday, family had rice and chicken (from freezer) in cream sauce. Yesterday I decided we need to have a proper dinner, so I rummaged the big chest freezer and found minced meat (it's 50/50 pork and beef). Fried that with taco seasoning, cut some chines cabbage in to thin strips, heated a carton of baked beans, grated some odd ends of cheese and ta-da! burritos!

Today I'm feeling slightly better, but not much. I knew I had some marinated chicken in the freezer, and we have WAY too much hamburger buns in there, too. I fries the chicken, sliced it. Chicken burgers!

I'm not planning on going to grocery stores this week until Friday. If I'm feeling ok. I might need some cheese, if I'd like to make pizza (but I do have some real mozzarella in the freezer). Maybe I'll make a quiche to use up some veggies?

Veranda and dining table will have to wait.

No beige food 😆

I just read from somewhere, that beige food is not good for you. Ok.

Meatballs in tomato sauce. I used some of the cooked spaghetti squash in meatballs, and tomato sauce has grated carrot, swede and beet. And tomatoes. Very nice with spaghetti. And defintely not beige!

Let's try this now

 I've got some serious problems signing in my blog. Funny thing is, that in some blogs I can comment as myself?

Some tweaks later I managed yesterday get bolgpst through, so I hope I can do this. Annoying thing, this technology.

But it's October. It means days have less than 12 hours daylight - sunrise is at 8:20 and sunset is at 17:53, lenght of the day is less than 10 hours and twilight is less than an hour in the morning and in the evening (in theory, in the morning it was ok'ish around 7 o'clock, but in the evening it was completely dark around seven o'clock). In the summer we can work in the garden late, like ten pm or later. Active part of the day is much much longer. Now I've noticed I find myself sitting in front ot telly or with my laptop right after I've made/eaten dinner, around half past six!

I've tried to include more potatoes to our diet. With young adults it is easy to give up and make pasta and rice day after day. Because that's easy, that's what they like. But potatoes are ... better. I like potaoes.

And they are either free (from my sister's root cellar) or very cheap (from the store; 5kg bag of all purpose potatoes - yes, they are called that, there's several varieties of them - is 2,79€. That's 0,56€/kg. Potatoes we grow are also all purpose potatoes. They are not same varieties that in the UK, because of the long days in the summer. UK potatoes do not grow here.

Ok, but potatoes: in the last seven days I've made potato wedges in the oven, scalloped garlic potatoes, mashed potatoes, and cabbage stew/soup with a lot of potatoes. So every other day potatoes, every other day something else.

If this works, I'll try to write more often. This is early mornings (like eight o'clock) now:

Time is on the run and I can't catch it

This summer is about to end soon and I just can't get everything done. At least I have been able to forage mushrooms. 'shrooms are what os eats. I had a target to get 20 bags of mushrooms to freezer, and I think I have done it already. 20 bags means mushrooms once every other week, more bags means I can feed him once a week with mushrooms. They are healthy (they have some fibre), nutricious (vitamins, mineral, protein)  and delicious.

During mushroom season I usually keep long nails. I cut stems of mushrooms with my nails, if I have lost/misplaced/forgot to take with me my foraging knife (happens every day at some point).This of course discolours my nails yellow/orange, so if I have to go to meet people, I have to use nail polish. Oh the vanity!

Mushroom season = magnificient nails.

I've cut about a dozen masks, but not been able to sew them yet. It takes about 15 min to sew one mask. I have all materials here. I tried to fill up my stash with more elastic, but in the fabric/cratf store I realized I have more elastics in my storage than that biggest craft chain has! I don't know if I'm ashamed or delighted.

I let kids choose their own fabrics (100% cottons) and made two masks each. Sys tried his on and told me he's not going to use any masks until it is compulsory - he looks like a communist. Ooookei, I didn't see that coming. But yes, we do have a long and winded conversations about world economics, democratic situations of different countries/continents, and factors that makes this country safe and some other countries less safe - why it is much safer to be a teenager or OAP in here than .. In Mexico, or Burkina Faso or Indonesia or North Korea. And what happens in US if dt gets re-elected or not.

I thought I might not get beans at all, they were so slow to grow. Luckily I have 1kg already in freezer and another 750grams needs to be frozen (I've blanched them already). And - most exciting thing ever - I HAVE PICKLING CUCUMBERS! I've got around ten in fridge waiting to be processed, I think I'd like to have mildly hot relish done. And of course dill pickles, if I get more cucumbers. Well, dill pickles they are not, we don't like dill, but something pickled, anyway.

Have you ever counted how much vegetables (incl. fruits and berries) you need to have in order to feed your family five a day portions? That's 500grams per person per day. Seven days a week. So it's 3,5kg per person per week. Doesn't sound bad, does it?

Thats 21 kilos per week for the whole family!

21 kilos, every week. 52 weeks per annum, that's about a ton of veggies. So if I want to feed my family the recommended amount of veggies, I'd seriously need a bigger freezer space...

If I give everyone 150g carrots every day (which is most likely, because they like carrots and we have them year round), thats over 6 kilos per week, and over 300 kilos or carrots every year!

50g cucumber - 100kg cucumbers.

100g tomatoes - 200kg tomatoes.

100g apples - 200kg apples

100g banana - 200kg bananas

 

My head hurts.

On more lighter news we are waiting for covid19 test results for ys and d. D got sick on friday a week ago. Ys got sick on monday a week ago, and they had tests on thu and fri. They both have been at home. No-one else is sick, they don't have fever (not at all), just mild throat ache and clogged nose.

They will be back to schools once they get their results. There's no Covid in our area, they are not really sick and there's bunch of beginning-of-the-school-flu cases at schools. But they have already lost more than a week of school.

Once they get their results, I'm off to Ikea. Ys's room is nearly done, I got floor done during the weekend. he needs a desk, a chair, few bookcases and a wardrobe. Unfortunately some of the furniture I'd like to get are not sold in net store, so I have to go there myself. I've tried to look around but haven't found anything that fits his room (there are some difficult corners) like those will.

Also d needs a wardrobe. Her room is a mess (teenager - do I need to say more?).

I don't think Ikea has any small bottles left. Pity, 'cos I like them, they're perfect size for Christmas hamper gift liquers.

It's getting better

There is so many good news in my life.

Old man's surgery in June was a success. Tumor was completely removed (no growth ouside pancreas), and among all lymph nodes there were only few with suspicioius cells, and they were nearest to pancreas, further away nodes were all clean.

So, now he "just" have to adjust being diabetic (type 1)... Of course there's follow ups regularily, after all we are talking about cancer, not infected toe nail. But now we can breathe.

He needs to learn to eat again, it's been difficult (he had a weight loss surgery as well, because part of his stomac was removed - he was lightly underweight in the beginning, and now he is "moderately underweight"  he needs to gain at least 10 kg to be on healthy range.

Ys's room is progressed. I got all walls finished and we had electrician today working for four hours (he did more than just ys's electrics), now hb needs to build the ceiling so rest of electric sockets and light fittings can be installed. I'll put the floor down after that and then off to Ikea!

My last vacation week, back to work on Monday. Well, back.. to log in on my laptop. We'll be back on office next week - and only if someone wants to go to the office, we can work from home until November.

My veggie patch has started producing. I've been digging potatoes, first I had to dig six plants to get pot full of potatoes for my family (six people eat quite a lot of spuds at dinner), now it's down to two plants. My early potatoes are Colomba, they are a bit too creamy to my liking, but kids love them. And they are even sized and they have grown very well.

We've been eating lettuce from garden only for weeks. Haven't bought any. My strawberries have been really nice suprice this year, today I picked a little shy of 2l, because yesterday it rained all day and I didn't go to veggie patch at all. But I have been able to give kids handfull of berries each day (a handfull for each child!)

My beets (golden beets and striped ones) are growing strongly, but my Cylindras didn't even germinate, and those few that did haven't been growing. Maybe seeds were too old?

And carrots! yes, I have carrots, I've made carrot top pesto again (because I feed children carrots daily, I've had a few carrot tops, too) and now I'm drying some to get green powder to sprinkle into foods in winter... (my kids hate me)

Harvesting dinner

For a very long time this has been a good year to my roses, I have a soft spot fot these pink ones (don't ask me names or types, they all were growing here when we bought this place over 25 years ago, I was young and not interested in gardening).

They have a lovely strong (byt not overwhelming) smell, and it's been expecially nice this summer, because this is first summer for a very long time I have been abe to smell them! We keep joking that I have corona because I got my sense of smell back...

My mother had these by our front door when I was a child. Those bushes are gone, but my aunt took some of them to her house, which is now our home.

Otherwise i've sent my time in forest. Twice a day I take 'Suma for a walk, and finally I remember to take plastic bag and a knife with me...

These lovelies

And these little buttons

And those tiny pearls

Yes, foraging season is here!

Usually I pick only mushrooms, and get my berries from hb's father or my aunt or someone (like my co-workers in-laws), but because this covid-19 and my in-laws being way over 90 years I quess it's my turn to get my fingers blue.

Local blueberries are tiny, they are different from those garden varieties (which are originally from North America), it takes a long time to pick enough berries for a pie... But I even got kids to pick few berries, we have thermacell to keep mosquitos away.

I usually fry all mushrooms, that's how os likes them. First I boil excess moisture off, like this:

Some porchinos and chanterelles

Chanterelles

Many people think that frying mushrooms means that first you melt butter on frying pand and then toss mushrooms in there. It might work out ok that way, but these mushrooms we have here like to be first boiled in their own juices and then fried with butter and salt.

For freezer I boil mushrooms in their own moisture until it's almos all gone, cool them and bag them. That way they keep for a very long time (over a year). If fat (oil or butter) is added, they keep only few months.

My aim is to have at least 20 bags of mushrooms in freezer, so os can get fried mushrooms once every fortnight during winter. 15 to go...

And those blueberries...

Pie!

This is our go-to berry pie. Pie crust needs something to be perfect, but this is good. I don't blind bake the bottom, and white stuff is yoghurt, one egg and some sugar and vanilla sugar.

Just add heat

Crust looks darker than it was (this was eaten before it was even cooled down. Filling firms up when it gets cool.

Os ate half of the first pie I made, so I quess even with not so perfect crust it was delicious...

My children don't get to eat out often, not once a month, maybe three times a year. Now that d goes out with her friends, she's been eating out more, but of course it all came to halt due to covid-19.

Younger boys like sushi, and it's expensive to take them to eat sushi to a sushi restaurant. So we've mahde sushi ourselves:

Only authentic things were sushi vinegar and seaweed. Rice was pudding rice (rinsed before boiling), sesame seeds were found in the bottom of my pantry cuboard and a bit over toasted in frying pan, surimi sticks (fake crab stics) and shrimps, and cucumber sticks and cooked carrot sticks. Maybe not authentic but quite nice with soy sauce (in Ikea egg cup) and fake wasabi. I don't know how to use chopsticks but kids do.

I wanted to try to make tortillas, they were suprinsingly easy. But I don't think they worth the effort, because only half of kids will eat tortillas in any form or shape. But if I can't go to shops I know I'm able to make them. Another skill acquired.

An di finally after three years have a working remote for my car. Now I'm able to sell it - but also now I want to keep it 😁

I guess I overdid even myself

I promised kids we'll be having pizza. Ok, I knew I had one frozen grandiosa pepperoni pizza in freezer, so I thought I feed that to yongest ones and make another pizza from ready pizzabottoms ( from the freezer) to os. I was having a spinach feta bake I made a day before. It wasn't until I popped the pepperoni pizza in to the oven, when I took note of the date. Whoops! 2015😳

Ok, I can't  feed that to my children! So I took few more pizza bottoms from the freezer and filled them as they wanted ( the don't like grandiosa much anyway so they were happy they got another pizzas) . But then I had that suspicious thing in my oven... I overbaked it and after  a quick taste I decided it was edible    but not very appetizing. You know how fat behaves in freezer...

I took all 7 pepperoni slices off, added more cheese and baked it again. And ate it. I' still alive  .

I'll promise I'll never do that again!

Storm is a brewing...

Or not. According to weather forecasts we might get some rain, but storms will pass by us through east. Everything needs water right now, so I'm on second day on the row waiting. Yesterday we didn't even have clouds, today it looks more promising, at least whole sky is now yellowish grey.

These hot days (officially +31C, unofficially from +32C to +34C have been really tiring. Old man was in dire need of hydration, but because he has had a weight loss surgery as a bonus, he can consume about 1dl of liquids/15min. So it's been really hard, and they don't have ac at home. And he's having handfull of pills three times a day, it's difficult for him to eat anything after popping those pills... In two weeks he should be off several of those pills, so it should get easier. And being a stubborn old man, he didn't take his painkillers (I don't eat those, I'll make it without) he was sick and tired. Now he takes painkillers nicely, thank you. (His older sister had cancer operation four years ago, and is no shy of giving orders to her little brother, thankfully).

Everything has been busy.

I think someone thinks too much of himself (herself, aren't all working ants female?)

It's been too hot to go for 'Suma walks in to the village, so we have been walking in the woods, no matter how many mosquitoes and other blood sucking critters.

Early in the evening last monday (about 10pm). We don't have darkness at all now. ('Suma is in the picture somewhere)

Ceps are coming along, Not yet edible (or it is, for maggots)

Number One had his 3rd birthday last weeks (oh how the time flies) and he wanted to have a ghost.

I couldn't find any ghost at the supermarket I do most of my shopping (or mega market, what ever) and didn't have time to online shopping. But did have time to sew.

I think this is all right, even thoug it looks like a barbapapa to me. Sorry about childhood traumas, Number One.

Because having a vacation means I have had more time. I've cooked even more, and managed to empty not one but both two laundry baskets!

We had an explosion in the kitchen. I was boiling eggs (like I do once a week for hb's lunches to take with him to work) and heard a loud bang. Because nothing had felled to the floor, I checked eggs. Yep! That's and inch wide hole in that egg! never had that happen before, I mean of course one or three eggs crack and leak almos every time, but this was a new one. Never a dull day in my life.

Week 7, Prawn casserole

Week 7 went by as fast as the wind that was blowing whole week. I have no idea how this is possible; days had just as many hours as ever.

We managed to put planks on the wall of ys's room. I also treated plastered walls with dust binding substance. There's 2 drywall walls, and ys wants them to be metallic. Fiiiiine.

Thin lines are strings we put to line up screws

Wood (spruce) was treated first with strong tea, and then with iron soaked vinegar (I put rebar bars into vinegar and let them soak for few days - the longer they stay, the darker the shade). If wood has tannin itself (like oak), tea treatment is not needed.

 Many people has been telling how they have been eating rhubarb for weeks now.

My rhubarb is finally growing

 At least I got something from my veggie patch (actually from one of the cold frames):
 

These are the very last parsnips!

 Because we can't (or want not) go to fast food places, I'm trying to get fun food for kids. Last week I made home made hamburgers (I found few bags of hamburger buns from freezer) and kids thought they were great, not like McDonalds but good.

I also made doughnuts (os can't eat store bought because they have cardamon)

I'm still trying to make meals from pantry and freezer. I found handful or frozen prawns and after toying with several ideas I settled on prawn casserole - kids don't like it but I do. I didn't have any tinned tomatoes (turns out i do have, but couldn't find at that moment), but had passata. I had some aubergine left, and instead of garlic I used garlic scapes from freezer. Last bag of spinach from the freezer was aslo used - and I have to say concotion was delicious!  A mighty great achievement considering I had no idea what to make when I took the bag of prawns from freezer.

Nature is aiming towards summer no matter what. We don't have here bluebells or wild garlic, instead we have all kind of poisonous plants:

Mezereon

False morel (Gyromitra esculenta)

Liverwort (anemone hepatica) trying to be a wood anemone.

 Of course there's other signs of warmer season. Somehow we still have a pair of swans, they usually leave after two weeks, now they have been here for five-six weeks? I don't think they are building a nest, maybe next year?
And then we have a pack of leverets of european hare. We have both mountain hares and european ones here, but I think mountain hare leverets stay more in the woods, and those european hare leverets stay on fields. I think mountain heres are pretty, european hares are a bit... I don't know, bony? This monday I counted 8 leverets in one group! They are not fully grown yet, maybe they find big numbers more safe? Because..
We have a fox visiting our yard - not very nice because our three cats. But hopefully it has enough food without trying to hunt out pets.  She will no doubt eat some of the leverets.

In two weeks kids will be back at school (or two youngest will be), but my orders to work from home might continue all throught the summer.

Today I might try to feed kids carrot and parsnip soup with toast. We shall see.

Moose soup

Nothing more warming in this endless November than soup. And on a lazy Saturday I can spend my time cooking, it's a process, not a task.

It all started with those sad and miserable carrots I found (I got them from my co-worker in October I think). The very last of that free stuff, may I say - I've been using those carrots diligently. Also was found last swede from that free bag I got before Christmas. Nice start. Some potatoes (from Old Man, so free, too). A forgotten mostly empty bag of peas from freezer? A beet getting soft. Both not free but about 10cents at most. Cabbage, first "cheap" cabbage for this winter, 0,89/kg, so far it's been 1,39/kg. Maybe a fifth of that cabbage head? Lets say 50cents.
If I would have been the only one to eat, this would have been enough. Some seasoning, herbs, and thats it. But others want something more.

So, I have freezer full to the brim and bank balance not so great after long Christmas and all birthdays we have around it. And to be honest I'm fed up with pork - no wonder after two hams...? We have been fortunate to get a lot of moose meat (mostly minced) this year. Over 2kg we recevied as a compensation of using our forest for the hunt, and then we got some from hb's co-worker as a thanks, and then  as a gift from our electricians (hb's nephew) new girlfriend.

Minced moose meat is really fat-free, at least this batch that we have, is. Therefore I dug freezer to get a packet of diced bacon I bought some time ago 50cents/pack. Stock cube, salt, pepper. From the fridge I took two totally empty ketchup bottles and rinsed them with a little bit of water - there's always something left on empty ketchup bottles! So two bottles to recycling and some seasoning to my soup.

I tried to make a small batch, because d was away to watch hockey game with her friends, and os and sys don't eat soup unless it's split pea soup. For os and sys I cooked some pasta and fried moose mince, and carrot sticks (those carrots I bought this week because those remaining free carrots were limp and suspicious looking, so I didn't want them to eat them raw).
Small batck ended up to be 10 portions, so I put few portions into containers to freeze, I'll eat them as my lunch at work.

All and all, soup was about max 2€, so 20c/portion. Maybe this makes up that fact I have to eat out twice this week because I have to travel to head office on two days.

Breakfast smoothie for kids

Oven a year my children have been drinkin smoothie as breakfast. Occasionally they want cereals, or toast, or even (oat)porridge, but eventually they end up wanting smoothie.

Buying smoothie is something I just can't do. I made a wild guess one portion smoothie is about 1,5€, and that's mostly fruits (I checked this from local price comparing site which has also ingredients listed). So 3x1,5€ every day is a bit too pricey for me, and kids would have needed something else to keep their hunger at bay (they eat breakfast about 6.30am and have school lunch at 11am or at noon - that's more than five hours between meals).

I've made this same smoothie with small variations over 200 times now!

Breakfast smoothie (2 portions á 3dl) in Ulv's Lair:

1 rather big banana
handful of frozen strawberries
1dl of frozen lingonberries
1dl of frozen currants (kids prefer black currants, but white and red will do, haven't got any green but I guess they'll do, too, because they taste a lot like black currants)
two small handfuls of oats (instant oats are fine, as well as rolled flakes of other grains like rye, barley, wheat - not cereals but ones ment for porridge)
vanilla yoghurt (or plain yoghurt and some vanilla)

I thaw frozen berries in microwave oven for about a minute, then toss everything into bender. Never used frozen bananas and never ever have I added ice to this smoothie!
Banana brings sweetness which children like (excluding os who is allergic to bananas). I ran out or lingonberries last spring, and kids weren't happy. I almost went to Ikea to find lingonberries! My colleague brought me some in autunm so now I have their dose of tartness again.

I have found that banana, strawberries, lingonberries and currants make the best mix. Usually I add some other fruits (apple, pineapple, pomegranade, plums etc) or berries, what I have in hand. Sometimes I add zucchini, or kale or spinach or chard. Or pinch of dried nettles. I have added ground crickets, too. Anything that blends well.
Oats are needed because they keep hunger away (as well as yoghurt).
Sometimes I add milk, or orange juice (or any other juice I happen to have), or if I don't have yoghurt, I use buttermilk.

It is easy to make this too thick, but it is easily solved by adding more fluid, like juice or milk.
This thickens in fridge, so in the evening spoon is maybe needed. My children drink this with stainless steel straws they got a year ago at christmas.

And last but important note: rinse bender right away or this will stick to it forever. Also rinse straws immediately after use. So much easier.

Preparing for colder months

Mid September. Somehow it feels like winter is going to be here right now, but in real life I know it'll take at least two months until we are really in to the winter.

I have a bunch of tasks to do before serious frosts and snow (and the darkness October and November brings).

Garden, veggie plot, geenhouse and polytunnel:

Things need to be done now (before we have first frosts at the end of this week):
- harvest everything that can be harvested (beets, chard, nz spinach, zucchinies, beans, corn, potatoes from bags)
- cover plants that need shelter (pumpkins, zucchinies, beans)
- get strawberry runners planted
- make sure greenhouse and polytunnel are kept ready for cold nights

Things need to be done ASAP:
- build a new additional cold frame for garlic
- build a new frame ready for next summer's cucumbers
- build a new additional frame for more strawberries
- empty compost bin to aforementioned frames
- harvest everything that will not be producing anymore from greenhouse and polytunnel (cucamelon, herbs, potatoes)
- mix old spoiled concrete mixes with sawdust and fill holes on the forest tractor tracks (so that tractor is no longer in danger to fall over or lose it's oil plug)
- forage more mushrooms (boletes are soon over)
- get chillies and peppers from polytunnel inside house (and buy a growing light for them)

Things need to be done before winter is here:
- harvest all pumpkins
- harvest all tomatoes
- harvest carrots and parsnips
- plant garlic to new frame
- empty all growing bags (excluding ones inside greenhouse) and pots into cold frames
- harvest everything else left in greenhouse and polytunnel
- empty greenhouse and polytunnel, rescue rosemary and ginger (they need growing light, too)
- harvest aronia berris from aunt's garden
- harvest rowan berries (from aunt's garden?)
- empty ash buckets to cold frames (this needs to be done several times to get all frames covered)
- take poly from polytunnel down and put it into greenhouse for winter
- try to figure out how to protect kale from hares during the winter....

And some additional stuff to be done:
- try to locate some free apples
- buy new winter shoes fro three kids
- check kids' winter coats if they neew new ones
- mix sawdust and (garden) peat for outhouse use
- get some heavy duty candles for outhouse
- grind ys's new room's outside wall ready for filler
- level out that wall with filler
- get one wall done with planks, treat planks before that
- fill, sand and fill again plaster walls to be painted
- figure out what colour ys wants for those plaster board walls (hopefully not wallpaper)
- make floor with vinyl planks
- move ys to that room!
- and then the toilet...

Long time no see

So it's past Mother's Day and I'm hardly advanced my veggie plot at all.
Well, I have done several things.


Nature has slowly crawled and boldly leaped towards summer. First there was yellow sea of coltsfoot, and then one of my favourites, liverworts:

Along our walks we saw some almost white ones, normal blue ones, pink ones and dark purple ones. These are very pale blue.

I found again some whole milk reduced, and made cottage cheese. Still some milk left, so I wanted to try making yoghurt. After some googling I made a batch in crock pot, I was very suprised I actually got edible product!

I used turkish yoghurt as starter, final yoghurt wasn't as thick as original, but edible. Maybe it tasted a bit boiled because I had trouble timing everything, but nevertheless I'll make some more when I find whole milk reduced again.

I found strawberry plants that were grown in a big plant nursery I visited earlier, and I know they are excellent quality. I bought 20 plants, 10 early variety and 10 late variety. They have been planted now, I built a new frame for them. I have now 29/30 strawberry plants, maybe we can eat some berries all summer?

Ys helped watering. I ran out of ground cover so I used newspapers.

I bought small plastic greenhouse for the polytunnel, there are my brassica seedlings, some spinach and beets.

Still like chaos, but it's working.

Radish and lettuce in polytunnel

Ugly as hell but working.

 My suprice garlic. After all this work I found yet another one sprouting in one of the cold frames, but I'll plant it in the middle of this monstrosity when I have extra 5 min. Cold frame on foreground has more garlic - they were all supposed to be there, but stuff happens. And that cold frame was frozen when I moved those ones that ended in that brick thing, so I really had no options.

Since last time I wrote post on the blog, my rhubarb and lovage have proven to be alive (as well as horse radish). These, however, are not from my plants, they are from our neighbours garden.

Short but tasty!

 I had two options, soup or pie.

Well, if you ask children, it's pie every time! Rhubarb pie and rhubarbless pie for os who doesn't eat cooked fruits. or maybe this is bake, but whatever, it was yummy!

Spring took some serious setback for two weeks, we had snow and frost and freezing days. Now it
seems cold is finally gone and we can start eating from our garden/yard/field/forest...

First we had nettle pancakes, kids love them. Just ordinary pancake batter, some blanched nettles and stick blender. Can be eaten as savory dish (like ys with ketshup) or as sweet (like os with sugar or like sys with whipped cream).

But maybe even more important to me is fireweed, which I use as asparagus or as any other green veg.

This lot ended up lunch as omelette.

 And while I was cooking another lunch for me, it occured to me that I'm turning in to Ilona!
 

Stuff I found from fridge (leftover rice and corn, some old pepper, some ground elder, grated cheese and and an  egg. And spices.

 If I lived alone I might be able to live on food I forage and grow (well, I would need a root cellar and few freezers). Now it's time for first mushrooms!

Which are deadly poisonous, btw.  Gyromitra esculenta, sometimes known as false morel. Lethal if eaten without proper preparation. A bit like fugu. Nice if done the right way (boil 3x5min at time with plenty of water in place you have good ventilation, rinse between every boil). There might still be some poisonous gyromitrin left, so it is not recommended to eat several false morel meals in a row.

Gyromitra perlata, nor as poisnous as it's cousin, but I wouldn't eat it without the same preparation as false morels. Pictured this morning at 'Sumawalk. Worms are actually birch catkins.

But. Veggie plot is tilled last weekend, if it's dry enough this week I'll start planting and sowing soon. We have been sick, and I did a night sift last week - not my piece of cake and hb is doing them all the time (ok, I had to work first the normal day sift and then back at work at ten and then again working on the next day). Usually I'n doing night sifts at weekends so I have time to recover.
Cukcoos are back, so it really is nearly  summer. Even if it snows occasionally.

Bunspiration

Easter break - can't say days off, because I'm working here at home. All the normal spring stuff: firewood, veggie path, greenhouse, polytunnel.
I finally got all branches off the trunks and managed to burn them on bonfire, just on time. Now there is danger of bush fires and I'm not taking risks with that. Our field has still a lot of snow, but as soon as it melts, exposed ground and dead grass starts to dry and in few days it'll be crisp and ready to combust.

This is the beginning. Now they are all gone - most of snow also.

Nearby pond is still frozen, but I do hope it'll be free after this weekend.

 Snow is finally gone around the polytunnel frame, so I pulled up the poly-part of it, I managed to do it on my own, last spring I needed OS's help. Experience I'll say, now I know how to do it so it's relatively easy to pull up. I stacked mulch bags around tunnel's hem, last summer it was a good strategy and prevented wind blowing it away. I do need buy several bags of mulch for raised beds and also for the polytunnel and glass greenhouse.
There's some herbs alive, thyme, sage and perhaps tarragon. Also oregano and majoram, but I can't tell them apart (not even by taste). Parsley seems to be gone, and rosemary is bone dry. No hope there.

Sage is already producing usable leaves, I'm really happily suprised!

Rhubarb is also alive, I was a bit worried because I moved it last spring and summer was so hot and dry, I feared I might had not watered it enough it to survive. Lovage hasn't sprouted yet, but it lost snow only three days ago, so there's still hope. As well as horse radish (which is in same bed as lovage).
Cold frames are also free from snow. I have found some garlic sprouts, but I should take off the leaves I put over them to protect from frost. There was some kale left, but after few really really cold night they are gone (or somebody ate them).

My cousing had her second daughter few weeks ago, and invited us to name revelation party. I was a bit loss what to give as a gift (not required actually), but sister told me to sew a book. But I thought a book is so small gift, so I wanted to make something more. And finally I got bunspiration - because I wanted to make something for the little big sister (she's 2,5), too.

These bunnies are something I have made several over the years, all my kids have their own (they were a bit smaller, because I have become bolder during the years, I don't follow instructions so carefully anymore). I can't find the original pattern anymore, link is broken.

All washed and dried.

I didn't do a big shopping for the easter, I'm trying to get food eaten from freezer, and been quite successful so far. Tomorrow I'll smoke a ham I bought after christmas, it's been in the fridge for three days now. Our smoker is way too big to be practical, we usually eat only one salmon or one leg of lamb smoked, and inside smoker I can fit six big hams! It was there when we bought the place, and I can't see reason to tear it apart just because I think we could do with smaller one.

Trying to make paneer for the first time or how I always end up eating too much

One day there were whole shelf of full milk reduced (someone had miscalculated the sell of said milk and it was near best before date). I bought 2 l because I have long time wanted to make cheese at home. As I said, I have made egg cheese previously (about 20 years ago... where has all this time gone?), but wanted try the most simple cheese, cottage cheese or paneer.
Turns out, only difference in cottage cheese and paneer (paneer means cheese, so paneer cheese, I was told, is just saying cheese cheese) is salt, paneer does not have it.
So the simplest is paneer.

Heat up milk, stir in some lemon juice (ot vinegar will do, as well as citric acid or even natural yoghurt or buttermilk), wait for the whey separate from the curds, drain it in muslin lined sieve and there it is.

Well, it's never so simple, is it?

First of all, I have fear of burning my milk when I'm heating it to boil. Some receipes say just heat the milk and take away from heat, some say keep boiling for 5mins or 10mins.
I took it away from the heat.
How much of lemon juice? Some say 1tbsp/500ml milk, some say 1 tbsp/1litre.
And then: keep stirring after you have added the acid - stir the acid in and leave it.
Wait until curd has separated, pour it to the muslin covered sieve (over a pot or something to collect the whey). Rinse it? Wait for an hour? Squeese curd with muslin and leave it to drain overnight? if you leave it for too long time, it'll turn hard?
I waited fot an hour and collected the curd - now cheese - patted it to nice flat shape and covered it with the muslin and put into fridge overnight.

On the next day I took it from the fridge to cut it, it was really soft. Oh well, you live and learn. I ended up making some kind of version of matar paneer.
I fried paneer (yes I know, some say never fry paneer) and I was suprised it actually hold some of it's shape when added to rest of my concotion.
But, it tasted fine, good actually. No, it was delicious even if it was more or less mushy. I ate first plate plain without any rice or naan or whatnot. Today I ate some of it with curried bulghur and lentils I found from freezer.

But I forgot to tell I made also some hummus (never done myself that either). It was really good, too. it was nice with carrot sticks, but we run out of carrots, so we had some tortilla crisps. And then I had a bun with hummus as breakfast.  And as a little evening snack.

My co-worker suggested I should cooc porridge with rye flour and water. No salt.

Black hole today was beautiful.

A bit of this and a bit of that

Hb's new shift schedule is making our lives if not miserable, at least complicated. He works long weeks (6days work and 1day off) or really confusing weeks (2nights and two evenings and then some). There is no rhythm, and being nearly 50 he really can't adapt well. He can't sleep when he should and then sleeps during his day/s off and can't keep doing anything really. So annoying. And of course we had to turn the clocks which caused havoc to my inner clock.

And of course we all should be keeping silent when he tries to sleep...

I have tried to keep 'Suma occupied in the mornings, so we have had some amazing morning walks. We saw more swans moving to north, one couple stayed in our village for a while. Our cranes are back, they are wonderful big animals with very loud voices.
And geese! Neverending stream of geese flying back and forth - I just don't get it why some of them fly to north and some to south - and then there are simultaneously flocks flying to east AND west in the sky. Very confusing to my tired brains.

Mornings sound very summery already with skylarks, blackbirds and lapwings and of course (wood)pigeons. But fear not, there's still almost 30cm snow in our field and lower yard. Herb bed is almost free of snow and ice - i did give it some help with tossing ashes over polytunnel beds. Polytunnel itself is still folded in my greenhouse, I can't put it over the frame until snow has gone around the frame. Aaaaand my sister just made a video call to show they have got 25cm of snow so far and more is coming. Can't wait to have it here. Not.

Hb managed to fell down some trees which were growing on the back end of the field (alders, willows, few aspens) (some=30ish). They grow there because we don't actually farm that field, only small part of it is used as my veg path and polytunnel. The whole field hasn't been plought and harrowed for a very long time. Old man did most of it few years ago, but couldn't get to very edges, and therefore trees. Hb felled them and I lopped them with billhook and dragged trunks into a pile. Or as many of the trunks I managed, some of them overpowered me even after cut them in two. So there's some half a dozen trunks left in the end of the field and a pile of trunks next to my veg path. Saturday was easy, snow was hard and it was easy to walk on, because I didn't sink. By Sunday snow had thawed a little, so it was heavier to walk on. Yesterday (I had a day off) snow was soft and sinking; I felt I was walking on a quick sand.

And now I'm hurting. my back is stiff and my hands are swollen (that's what you get if you're a delicate office worker and keep hitting branches with billhook all day). My legs are so tired I didn't even have restless legs at night!
Now if someone just cuts and splits those to make us some firewood...

But yesterday was a nice day off. I managed to deal all trunks I could (now we have a nice pile of branches to have a bonfire or maybe to chip some of them), made pizzas (I made the dough myself; it's suprisingly hard to knead the dough if your hands are boiled spaghetti), made paneer (next time I will make just "cottage cheese" by adding salt); it was the second time ever I have made any kind of cheese, first time I made egg cheese (basically cottage cheese but with added eggs and then it's baked in the oven), wrote minutes of the last two village comittee meetings (had to send them to old man to print because my printer doesn't work). and attended another meeting. Late in the evening I decided I had had enough and sat in front of telly and watched some mindless reality tv and knitted sock for a while.

Today I'll make something out of the paneer I made ( I don't have spinach so no saag/palak paneer). Kids have some leftover pizza so I can use as much ginger I want.

I finally made through ST Discovery first season (knitted rainbow socks for d, she is finally over that all-black teenage phase) and now I've catched up this new season. So I binge watched Night Flyer and once that was over I started on Firefly (I saw it in 2002/2003 but as with everything else in 2002 and 2003 I can't remember a single thing, even 2004 is a bit hazy). Soon that's done, Serenity (the film) is left and then I might have to return to Star Trek. Seen the original series, the animated series and Enterprise, and all the films. Now I "only" have Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager (which I have seen before)...

Coldest so far

Last night and this morning were coldest so far, our temp meter said -23C. But I know its much colder in open fields (we are in the middle of trees so this is much warmer place, as well as cooler place in summer heat). Yesterday morning when our meter said -21C, my aunt's meter said -27C. So, it might be, that this morning it was -30C.
No matter what, it was way too cold!
I'm happy to tell now it's much warmer (haha), temp meter said -12C.

I didn't do my normal 'Sumawalk in the morning, no way. And 'Suma was allright with it, she happily got inside after we had escorted kids to taxi (with a little detour by the fields so if 'Suma had to go, she had the chance). 30mins outside and I was freezing.
I'm not build to live this cold.
So, I have been adding wood to fireplaces and drinking hot tea. My fingers are warm and only my ankles ache a little (sometimes if it's really really cold I have to take painkillers to ease the pain in my legs and joints).

I found few small boxes of raisins and almond flakes that had exceeded their use by date too much even to my liking (actually, almod is so fatty it becomes rancid at some point if not kept in freezer). Added them to bird food, jays really like raisins.
Kids are going to have semolina pudding after school, I had cabbage pasty as lunch. Haven't figured out what we will dinner be, but I think I'll get ideas when I take 'Suma to forest for her walk. Good time to think.

Weekend and stuff

It's finally weekend. Actually the week itself wasn't too bad, for working at home two days has benefits! But still, weekend is a weekend.

It's a pity I can't take photos in the dark. When light in our yard are lit, big spruces behind our house make this view look somehow like from Game of Thrones.

Ski tracks. One villager made them after Thursday's snowstorm (it was -20C yesterday while I took this picture). So much easier to walk along that ready made path, it's so wide I don't step on skitracks. Two empty areas ahead are because of the tornado, that used to be dense forest all the way!

Skitracks continue. -10C.

 

 

One of the Rocky Road batches I made during Christmas. It was delicious and it's been eaten a long ago.

Hb and ys set up a bird feeder just before Christmas (ys had made it in school), and it took almous four weeks for the birds to find it! But now they are enjoying their daily buffet of seeds and fat. Jays, all kind of tits and yellowhammers. i can see them from my place at dinner table where I use my laptop while I'm working. Sometimes it's good just to watch birds.

Right now I'm waiting to fire die out in my wood oven, I'll make a roasted boar with root veggies, it should be good. Also I made dough for buns, I used my dried white clovers grinded to flour and grated left over cheeses from fridge. Should be good, too.
I might make an another batch of Rocky Road, I have still lots of chocolates, marshmallows and apparently ready popped popcorn. That will be good!
I should also try to bake a batch of shortbread cookies with meadowsweet sugar, don't know how they will end up.

And now I'm starving!

Homemade lasagne

Instead of sunday roast I made lasagne (not that I usually make roast, it's too time consuming because even I like to have "a day off" sometimes).
Well, os doesn't eat lasagne, but it's his loss. He then eats something else (like pancakes, or Yorkshire puddings, or tinned tuna and cottage cheese).

I calculated the cost of making my lasagne: 7,76€. Sounds a bit expensive, but it comes down to 1,55€ per person. or 0,78€/portion - 5 people ate it yesterday, and I got three more portions to freezer for my lunches and two more portions to the fridge for hb's or children's lunches.

Euros:

edam			0,99
cream cheese			0,5535
mince			3,15
pasta sheets			0,725
full milk			0,763
flour			0,018
butter			0,49
tomato passata			0,63
salt			0,01
smoked paprika			0,01
pepper			0,01
nutmeg			0,01
garlic			0,1
herbs			0,1
leftover ketchup			0,2

Free: carrots and courgette (about 300g each)

I could have used less cheese, but I really do like cheesy lasagne. Mince was the cheapest without YS. I could have used regular milk (70cents) or used just water (or half water), but that's really all I could have done to make it cheaper.
Cheapest lasagne from shop is about 1€/portion, but because I can't eat it (onions) it's something we don't buy.

So once again it is not "homemade is cheaper" but "homemade is only option". I have never been able to eat lasagne at restaurant. Once I have eaten almost authentic Italian lasagne - almost authentic because there were no onions or garlic - it was specially made for me and my brother! And yes, when I make my lasagne, it is as good as that was.

But now I'm starving!

Last big expenditure this year?

I just called the vets and made an appointment for 'Suma. 700€.
That's the price I'm willing to pay for not to have puppies in this house - it would be much cheaper with male dog.
I might have had the procedure done cheaper some other place, but I trust this place. We have been using them since 90's when we had Ace, the first Giant Shnautzer. Then it was important that the vet wasn't afraid of him (one vet was so nervous around him he vaccinated me by accident!), we did visit several vets.

But this money has been reserved since January - when we got 'Suma. We knew this coming so no suprices.
The IPCC report on climate change has made me thinking about having pets. I might not be able to justify keeping big dogs just because I like big dogs. I should get smaller dog after 'Suma (well, she is smaller than Blackie was) but I don't actually like small dogs. First world problems at its worst...
Cats I can justify because they eat mice and voles, and in Pretty Boy's case he just decided to live here.
(nobody is questioning about my choices but me)

Need to change winter tyres soon, should be ok with ones we have already, no need to buy new. Or maybe two tyres to hb's car, because it's heavy and eats tyres more than I eat doghnuts.
Polytunnel is nearly empty, only herbs staying. need to take down the poly-part (covering) so last years disaster could be avoided. Need to build frame for garlics (have few days off next week). Need to empty compost bin. No need to buy anything fot the veg plot or polytunnel or greenhouse.

Found wintercoat, paid only 11€. It doesn't have a hood, so i have to knit one myself, if my old scarves won't do. Haven't found wellies yet. Bikers calfs don't fit narrow boots (I had this problem when I was a underweight kid, 10km a day minimum with old bike did it, never had weak legs).

No idea of dinner once again. SYS will bake buns today, a school task. Omelette?