Unstuffed: Independence Days Week #18

Monday, August 31, 2009

Independence Days Week #18

Harvest something:
- 9oz of chard
- 13oz pole beans
- 1lb cukes
- 7.5lbs tomatoes
- purslane, dandelion, horseradish leaves, grape leaves, mint, nettle, goldenrod flowers, mallow flowers, chamomile, oregano, thyme, basil

Preserve something:
- made and froze tomato sauce
- drying herbs
- infusing mallow flowers into honey
- tincturing American ginseng (My favourite seed suppliers also cultivate their own American ginseng. Happy day!)
- infusing goldenrod, some into oil, some into rubbing alcohol- For External Use Only! (My first liniment! I just really like the word liniment. Liniment. Say it with me now: liniment. Mmmmm...)
- started second step of basilcello
- started another batch of sauerkraut (Hopefully with cooler temperatures and the right amount of salt, I won't lose this batch.)
- crab apple and plum jam (Yep, I finally did it. I got the water bath canner out and put up some food. Phew. More on this later...)

Waste not:
- made Everything But the Kitchen Sink soup with all the veggie bits that needed to be used up
- made rice in the sun oven
- returned paper egg cartons to my local egg guy
- bused, walked and biked to run all my errands this weekend, and oh boy were there ever a lot of errands!
- attempting to make apple cider vinegar from canning leftovers with the help of Chile and Kate

Want not:
- salvaged very sturdy bucket and garden tools from the curb
- thrifted stainless steel travel mug (to replace the one I left in my dad's car while I was visiting on holidays), measuring spoons, baster, canning jars

Preparation and Storage:
- purchased canning lids, pickling salt, sugar, beeswax (to make salve from my infused oils), thermometer, timer
- cleaned out ancient condiments from fridge, composted contents, washed all the jars for reuse (Wow, did it ever feel good to get that job checked off my 'to do' list!)

Build community food systems:
- local food from farmer's markets
- gave away tomatoes from garden to neighbours
- received jar of crab apple preserves

Eat the food:
- enjoyed soup for a few meals
- stir fried chard, purslane and dandelion
- tomato, basil and bocconcini salad
- cucumber salad
- green beans with rice
- jam on toast

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Please feel free to make more Everything But the Kitchen Sink soup.

It was satisfying in ways almost indescribable.; September 1, 2009 at 6:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Hi Amber,
I noticed in an earlier post (can't find it again) that you tinctured Nettle seeds. I'm a big nettle leaf fan, but have never heard of using the seeds before. I found some info on the net. Sounds interesting. This is the only site I follow regularly, so it feels more like asking a real person :)
Have you used the seeds before? What are they like for you? Have you used them for long periods of time? Very Curious.

Thanks! Love your blog!; September 2, 2009 at 9:32 AM
Anonymous said...: One more thing,
I reference your blog a bit. Any chance you could add a 'search this blog' gadget? Would be very helpful!

Thanks again!; September 2, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Amber said...: Hi! Thanks for the comment and great questions.

I only just learned about nettle seeds this year after reading what has now become one of my fav herbal blogs.

Here is a recent post the blog author put up not too long ago, all about nettle seeds.

There is also a great discussion of nettle seeds here.

I have been harvesting the seeds for some time now and using them in their dried form and taking about half a teaspoon a day, when I remember.

I also tinctured some for a friend, which should be about ready now.

The seeds are not unpleasant to eat and I tested the tincture the other day and it has quite an earthy taste underneath the alcohol.

I find my energy levels are consistently good when I take the seed and even if I've had too little sleep the day before I can make it through the day very alert and on the ball.

I've only been using them for about two months, so it's kinda hard to say exactly how they might be effecting me or not, but I certainly don't feel any negative side effects and I suspect I am deriving some benefit from using them.

I love nettle in general, eating it, drinking the tea, using it for a hair rinse... I'm happy to have found a use for the seeds as well. Most people cringe when they come across nettle growing. It makes me happy!

If you give the seeds a try, I'd be interested to know what you think of them.

As for a search function, because I use blogger, there should be a 'search blog' spot at the top of the page, on the blogger tool bar.

Let me know if you don't have that option and I'll see what I can do.

Take care,
Amber; September 2, 2009 at 2:27 PM

Raison d'etre

In 2008 I didn't buy anything new for the whole year. Food and basic toiletries (but not toilet paper) were the obvious exceptions (twice I broke my own rule). Used items were allowed, but I tried really hard to reduce consumption as much as possible.

I finished my year successfully, and along the way learned a lot about how much the world consumes, the waste we produce, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, the water crisis, the food crisis, voting with your dollar, voting with your fork....

Now, I've transformed into a slightly nutty, very passionate, gardening, preserving, DIYing, simple living, nature loving, weed eating, backyard medicine making, urban homesteader, and I still don't use toilet paper!

With the help of the Awesomedudeguy (ADG), I'm continuing my exploration of living lightly and frugally, while increasing my self-sufficiency and resiliency, staying debt free, and preparing for a climate changed, resource depleted world, in uncertain economic times.

My nothing new restriction is lifted, but I continue to be a gentle, local consumer as much as possible.

My hope is that some of the information and resources I post about here will be helpful to others. Thanks so much for stopping by !

Yours in unstuffing,
Amber

"Forgive me if I never visit. I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with dandelion, make a sorry figure for the drawing room" ~Emily Dickinson

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

"The laws of nature are under no obligation to cater to our culture’s emotionally charged fantasies of perpetual progress and limitless growth." ~John Michael Greer

"Sometimes we think we are too small to make a difference in this big world. Our actions seem insignificant in comparison to global issues such as climate change and population growth. However, the reality is that action on an individual level is exactly how big changes are made. Without individual and family sustainability, there’s no community sustainability. And without community sustainability, there’s no global sustainability. In fact, earth-wide change is absolutely impossible without individual change.
It really does come down to you and me."
~From Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice

"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop." ~Mark Twain

"It is not enough simply to abstain from theft...We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers. It is our duty, therefore, to borrow no more from the world than we absolutely need, and to make full and proper use of it. Taking more than we need, and wasting it, is a form of stealing from the rest of humankind."
~Commentary on Sutra 30 The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali