Dreams, Moments, Travels
The closest thing to my cheek is my beard, after that the closest thing is my wife’s cheek, the beard is there for her comfort as she finds it absolutely cozy. Next up is my pillow, this is my pillow where my cheek and headrests – I find it absolutely snuggly. It was made for me by my wife, next to it is a matching pillowcase on her pillow. Caroline and I still find delight in so many little things that make our lives simply wonderful.
Told you that I was at the farm, well it was from that farm that tonight’s dinner came from – most of it anyway. The previous weekend we bought a bunch of kaleidoscope carrots, beets, potatoes, mazuna, onions, spinach, broccoli, and turnips. We still had some of those leftovers this weekend and so into the pot they went. Dinner was steamed carrots, steamed broccoli greens, steamed beets, and southern style collard greens over brown rice and barley. This was our first time ever eating broccoli greens; I never even knew they existed. You will probably never find them in your grocery store, and for good reason, their smell is not a nice one. But once cooked, wow, they are terrific. As for the collard greens, they went into the crockpot with garlic, chipotle, plenty of onion, and some stock – yummers.
These tomato plants are growing in a hoop house waiting for the frost danger to pass so Tonopah Rob can get them in the ground and start growing us some tomatoes. I visited the farm early this morning to pick up some collards and broccoli greens. While on the farm, I meandered about looking for photo opportunities. That moment was best had in Rob’s greenhouse, in this case, a hoop house. It was nearly raining from the humidity but was nice and warm compared to the frigid air just the other side of the plastic covering. You can get an idea of what time I was out on the farm by looking at how low the sun was in the morning sky seen through the plastic sheeting.
Caroline’s second attempt at dyeing was with pre-reduced indigo. This is an easier process of preparing indigo instead of the traditional cumbersome method. While she’s learning this stuff at home, another workshop in Harveyville, Kansas is coming up this spring. Nikol Lohr organizes and hosts the event, this year being held in both spring and fall. Plane tickets and a deposit have been taken care of. While in Kansas, I’ll be scoping farm properties. Eastern Kansas is hilly with lots of trees and just beautiful. This will be a busy crafts year for the wife, in March she and her mom will be attending a weekly Navajo Weaving class, then in April, the two will venture south to Tucson for a three-and-a-half-day workshop to learn all about felting. In late April is the aforementioned Yarn School in Kansas, August is the Fabulous Fiber Fest in Santa Monica, California, and in October we are off to Taos, New Mexico for the Wool Festival. If you are interested in the Spring Yarn School visit Nikol’s website at www.harveyvilleproject.com.
The other day I posted a photo of some fiber Caroline was dying, it was her first experiment dyeing with Kool-Aid. Here are the dried results. The next step will be to start spinning these fibers for the process of making yarn. If you would like to read more about Caroline’s perspective on things, check out her blog over at www.caracolina.com.
I like to cook. Caroline though is a vegetarian. So the question arises from time to time: what do you eat, or more precisely, what do you cook? The answer is tons of stuff, from Indian to Thai, Chinese to Korean, various fusions, and some standard fare. In today’s photo of the day, I’m showing you some of the bulk items we use, such as; hull-less barley, barley cereal, whole wheat pasta, thick-cut oats, blue corn posole, oat groats, raw almonds, poha (a flattened rice product from India), Kala chana (garbanzos with black skin), homemade sprouted and dehydrated granola, brown chipotles, buckwheat, toor dal, chana dal, quinoa, peanuts, couscous, chia seeds, veggie chicken stock, pumpkin seeds, moong dal, chipotle Morita, red walnuts, and sunflower seeds. Not shown but in our pantry are the following; brown rice, wild rice, pinto beans, adzuki beans, garbanzo beans, millet, orzo, moong bean, kidney bean, red wheat, red corn posole, dried fruits including coconut, strawberries, raspberries, apricots, pears, dates, peaches, and apples, dried chiles including red, pasillo, guajillo, cascabel, and ancho. Add to that the 72 spices and herbs, 11 types of pepper, and 4 salts and you have the beginnings of a very diverse range of ingredients to start cooking with.