The Magic Window

May 9, 2013May 9, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

Sophie is a dog that is wound a little tight. She’s very nervous and barks at every little noise she hears. She feels as though she needs to be in the middle of everything but can be so noisy that she often is left behind when those little trips happen. I just don’t want to listen to her barking.

One of the things that sends her into a crazed state is what we refer to as the “magic window”. Cait believes that is what all dogs think of drive up windows at fast food places. They know that you drive up and a person hands you food, usually french fries which is a special weakness for all dogs and children. Sophie starts barking as soon as we approach the magic window and it escalates when she sees the person behind the glass. It doesn’t matter that there’s food. At least that is what I thought until today.

Once a week I go to the drive up window at my bank. It’s a very small bank in what seems like the middle of nowhere. Every time we go the teller gives me cookies for the dogs. We just started going to this bank about a month ago and it is on the way to Rowe so Sophie is always sitting in the front seat next to me. The first time we stopped she lost her mind when the teller appeared in the window. She opened the drawer and there were two milkbones in it. I gave one to Sophie and one to Chester. The teller gave me two more with the receipts. Sophie stopped barking.

Since that time Sophie has not barked once when we’ve gone to that drive through. This seems to be somewhat of a miracle to me. Maybe it’s not just the cookies, maybe it’s the teller. All I know is this is the only window I’ve found that is truly magic.

Earth Day Coming Up

April 18, 2013April 18, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

Earth Day has evolved for me over the years. I used to spend my time cleaning out my flower beds. I’ve planted trees, shrubs, and flowers on this day. This year I seem to be on a mission to augment as much of my food supply as I can with things that I’ve grown. This Earth Day week will be spent in prep for the vegetable and fruit growing season. Seeds will be started and although it seems late to some I can’t plant ANYTHING until Memorial Day in Rowe. There is still snow on the ground and the entire back forty was completely frosted this morning.

I want everyone to know the feeling you have when you eat or serve a meal with food that you have grown. You know everything about this food. You may have nurtured it from seeds or have seen it eating grass on a sunny hill. You have watered and fed and cooed over these plants and animals. You have planned and brought these home grown ingredients together into something that is fabulously delicious in its own time.

Years ago (really not that many) people ate what was in season. You didn’t eat tomatoes in January unless they were the “hot house” variety that completely lacked in both taste and nutrition. Vegetables were not flown in from Argentina or California during the winter. The cycle of meals had everything to do with what was ripe at the time or food that you had put up and was in your cellar or freezer. Growing up I remember my aunt and cousins staying with us when the garden was really beginning to produce. For lunch each day there would be sandwiches made with the freshest of tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. A platter just laid out with the bounty of summer, a taste that can not be replicated in any way other than to pick the produce, slice it up and eat it within minutes. I understand what it’s like to share the food that I have grown with the people I love. Hard work goes into it but it’s worth it when you see the look on someones face that is eating a particular plant for the first time or an old familiar one that tastes completely different because it is so fresh.

This year I think everyone should at least put a tomato plant in a pot of soil on their patio or steps or yard. Throw in a few basil seeds for good measure. This is sooo inexpensive to do and you will be paid back ten fold in something that you can not buy, the true taste of summer.

Food Rant Friday

April 12, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

Farmhouse Cheddar and Apple Pie

There are few things that fire me up more than food. I mean fake food versus real food. I follow a blog called Auburn Meadow Farm. This week her blog brought me to this informative pdf called Food Stamps, Follow the Money by Michele Simon. Take some time to read it. Or you could be like me and be soo angry after the first page that you have to put it down for a little while and come back to it. Do come back to it though because in the interest of being informed on so many levels it is an excellent read.

I’m dating myself here but when I grew up we still had home economics required in high school, cooking and sewing. I also belonged to a number of 4-H clubs including cooking, sewing, knitting, etc. Over the years all of these opportunities for education have gone away. I think some of it has to do with the women’s movement, some has to do with budget cuts in schools and some with the perception that this sort of thing is just old fashioned – why knit yourself a sweater when you can go to a store and buy it right now at half the cost. Home Arts has gone out of style.

As I age in this land of consumerism I fear for my children – all of them – sons, daughters, nieces, nephews. They have grown up in a society that values nothing but money and instant gratification. Instead of going to a market to buy the ingredients for a meal they buy fast food. It has little nutritional value, contains GMO’s, huge amounts of sodium, and a whole lot of things I can’t even pronounce. My daughters do go “shopping” in Rowe from time to time and raid the canned goods shelves. I take satisfaction in knowing when they take that jar of spaghetti sauce off of the shelf it contains grass fed beef and vegatables that I have grown. I am blessed to have that ability and am willing to teach anyone how to do anything from gardening to canning to handwork. They just have to want to learn it.

Culinary Experiment Revisited

March 18, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

St. Patty’s day is a memory and so is my corned beef and cabbage. I finished corning that 6 pound brisket of Heath beef last Wednesday and wrapped it to wait until Sunday afternoon. I’d heard that a home made corned beef tastes so much better than something you buy already processed but honestly I wasn’t prepared for how truly wonderful this was. Maybe it was the beef we have been eating, you know grass and sunshine kind of beef. Maybe it was that very slight hint of cinnamon that came through from the brine. The texture was perfect, the taste divine. Makes you think about eating a nice corned beef more than once a year.

Now there is that problem with only having 2 briskets per side of beef. Hmmmm, I may have to trade some steaks with Russell for another brisket. It was that good – ribeyes for brisket, yes.

I highly recommend anyone trying this. It probably could be categorized as slow food. You have to plan at least a week ahead but it is incredibly easy to do, in fact I will never buy a corned beef again. I posted the recipe I used previously and will freely admit that instead of making my own concoction of pickling spice I used the jar I had in the cupboard I normally use for bread and butter pickles. I can’t imagine that creating my own spice concoction would have made a huge difference but you never know. Next time I will try that.

Now onto pastrami!

Thinking Local

January 29, 2013January 29, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

A couple of days ago I received an order for yarn from Green Mountain Spinnery. Until I read the tag I had no idea that they were in Putney, VT which is about 45 miles from Rowe. They are a co-op and spin the majority of their yarn from New England fleeces. This is for a project I will be doing in a knit-along with Ruth Fischer-Ticknor. You can read about it on her Counting Sheep blog. It is a beautiful yarn.

As I was winding the skeins into balls I started thinking about having a garment made from wool that was processed so close to home. I’ve gradually become more of a locavore in the past few years and have begun to see that mindset seep into everything I do. I grow and preserve a lot of food from my garden every year. I get all of my dairy from Smyth’s Trinity Farm in Enfield, CT where I can talk cheese making with someone who works with dairy on a larger scale. We buy a side of beef from Russell in Heath once a year – grass, sunshine, fresh water, nothing else goes into these cows. We also make our own maple syrup with him. My eggs come from my sister next door where I’ve watched those hens from hatchlings. Our sausages, bacon and other assorted smoked meats come from Pekarski’s in South Deerfield. Mike Pekarski is a very generous man and rightfully proud of his smokehouse – he will tell or show me how things are made, right there, with the help of his family. In the summer there are a few farms that I frequent for pick your own produce that augments what I am putting up at the time. Although the farmers there don’t know me by name they instantly recognize me when I arrive. I thought, until I started writing this, that it was more important to know how far my food had travelled but I now realize that I have friendships that have been built over time with all of the people who are raising much of my food.

Preparing and eating food that you trust gives you a peace of mind that is difficult to really describe. There is nothing that makes me feel better than to prepare a meal where I know where everything came from, I’ve visited its source, I know who’s hands have been on it. I know that if I didn’t grow it myself I have contributed to the livelihood of people that have become my friends or have been for a long time. By doing that I am contributing to my local economy. So I try to get what I need within the 100 mile radius that is often talked about. Purchasing fiber that I needed for a project from less than 100 miles away made me feel that there are so many other ways I can think about being local. I personally know at least 3 people that are raising fiber animals. Although I didn’t buy their fiber I know that I am still contributing to their type of local economy as well. Yes, things cost a little more but doesn’t it feel better when you know that the money you are spending is going directly into the pockets of people you know rather than some huge corporation with the farmer essentially getting paid just enough to keep going? It’s worth thinking about.

This is my 100th post! Thank you so much to all who read, follow and comment on it.

What you can do with a little flour and fresh eggs

January 15, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

My sister has quite the flock of chickens that are just beginning to lay eggs (note the rooster in the back over seeing his girls). Last week she brought up some eggs and since then I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with the motherload of eggs like she will be seeing in the coming weeks. You see, she has 26 very healthy hens. That’s a lot of eggs. Once they are all laying it could be up to 2 dozen a DAY. Hmmmm, what to do with that wonderful fresh egg bounty?

Make omelets, quiche, pudding, angelfood cake? Fry them, scramble them, poach them – aahh, Eggs Benedict. Eat them at every meal, sell them, give them away. The list goes on but how about something a little different?

Saturday I decided to try something new. I’d been thinking about it for a long time. Pasta, specifically ravioli, I was determined to make my own. I scoured the internet and watched way too much Diners, Driveins and Dives in preparation for this new gastronomic adventure. I bought a pasta machine and ravioli mold (all very on sale) as well as a bag of Perfect Pasta Flour from King Arthur. Then she brought up those eggs and I was ready.

After all of that prep I ended up using the recipe on the bag of flour (how can you go wrong with a recipe from King Arthur Flour?). Three cups of flour, four large eggs, very little water. Sue’s eggs are small so I used 5 eggs. Put it all into the mixer with the dough hook and let it mix. Well, for a couple minutes anyway. The dough is so dense that it really requires hand kneading, so I divided it in half and did so. Let it rest for 30 minutes then shape into anything you want.

Now I have to tell you that this didn’t really look like it was going to make much pasta – I had 4 dozen meatballs just waiting to be turned into filling. Sister Sue wanted to be part of this adventure and entered the kitchen in time to help – good thing because this is a 2 man job (they don’t tell you that anywhere). I started rolling out the dough a little at a time and was AMAZED at how pliable a dough this is. Stretches like crazy, does not fall apart. After the first dozen raviolis were made we decided to cut the meatballs in half since the first batch looked more like Chinese dumplings instead of the intended Italian pasta. Perfection!

We made 3 dozen raviolis. I also have a pasta cutter attachment with the pasta machine so we made linguini and then spaghetti. I had no where to dry it so we made piles to freeze. We had a delicious meal with a homemade sauce and put everything else in the freezer. It takes only 4 minutes to cook fresh linguine, the ravioli took 5 minutes and was amazingly good.

The question remains, what are we going to do with all of those eggs because this is what we made with only 5!

Reflections on 2012

December 21, 2012December 21, 2012 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

With the last day of days upon us and the end of the calendar year here as well I thought I would make a list of things that were important to me this year. Then I thought I would post them with photos.

1. Daughter Caitlyn graduated from Springfield College with her Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.

2. Helped my father transition into assisted living.

3. Took over the care and feeding of Fort Pelham Farm.

4. Learned to hook rugs.

5. Learned to weave.

6. Gardened and canned in competition with sister Sue.

7. Loved my dogs.

8. Watched loons in a sunset on Lake Winnipesaukee.

9. Began blogging more about the past and present.

10. Got a little more serious about eating local food. If I didn’t grow it much of it came from local farms.

The year has been a stressful one but out of that stress good things have come. I have learned a lot of things this year.

I’ve made an effort to learn new crafts and along the way I have met some truly amazing people. Pottery was not mentioned in the list but I have to say that class taught me one thing I really needed to know. I am not a potter, I will never be a potter, move on. I spent great time with my sister this year including the aforementioned pottery class. I laughed a lot. I found out that there are a lot of crafts I know how to do but there are many things that I should stay away from. Textiles are good for me, so is woodworking (your very basic kind). Anything that you can measure and keep square works. Pottery is so . . . uncontrolled.

I have learned that life is too short to have the past get in the way of renewing old friendships. I have been reminded about this over and over and over again. What’s done is done, move on.

I’ve learned that digging in the dirt will clear your head faster than anything else I can think of, plus you end up with something good to eat.

Sometimes you just have to ignore all of the noise. Rowe is the best place in the world for that. No cell service. We do have wifi and currently tv but I think after the first of the year the tv will go. There are always the DVDs.

The next 11 days will be spent disconnected from work, internet, the outside world. What I’m really afraid of is not wanting to come back.

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