The days doings here in my little corner

A spring lunch with sisters and nephews. Yesterday Rebecca invited me and hannah over for a visit. It was very enjoyable.

Me and three of my siblings and my nephews went to a garage sale. I got these two shirts. They are so pretty!

Making Chevre' The first goat cheese I made this year. The vest thing that I am wearing in the pic is another thing that I got from the sale.

carding wool

Leeks that I picked out in the woods this morning

Pickled Leeks

There was a very nice classical guitar at the garage sale for $150. We went to the sale on tuesday and bought stuff. Yesterday evening I decided that I would go the next day and look at the guitar some more and play it. I went this evening and the guitar was sold. The people said that the lady who has the ducks and goats just before the big hill bought the guitar. I am glad she was able to get it. She likes to sing and play so it will be a nice thing for her to have.

A thing to remember: "When you see something at a sale get it right away if you really want it".

Here is the recipe for the pickled leeks/ramps

20 small wild leeks/ ramps* (10 oz.)

trimmed to one inch of greens and cleaned well,

1 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup of Honey

1/4 cup of sugar

1 scant teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon whole black pepper

1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds

1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds

1 bay leaf

1. Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat, add the ramps, and boil for 2 minutes. Drain immediately and plunge the ramps into the ice water to stop cooking.

2. In the same medium pot (emptied of water), bring the cider vinegar, honey, sugar,red pepper, peppercorns, fennel, coriander, and bay leaf to a simmer, and then remove the pot from the heat.

3. Put the drained ramps into a clean pint jar. Pour the hot pickling liquid into the jar. When the mixture is cool, cover it tightly and refrigerate for at least 12 hours before eating. The pickles can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month.

*If you do not have wild leeks you can substitute 10 medium shallots, peeled, with root end trimmed but left intact

Today's doings/pics

It was so sunshiny all around! We are tapping! David is working for the neighbor taping their trees and boiling down their sap this year as well as our own. We will boil our sap in their evaporator. That is going to be very nice. My older sister and her boys came so Buddy can learn about taping the maple trees. It was so much fun to watch him put the spiles in after his Uncle David drilled the hole. And then Buddy would "pown-pownd" the spile. Izzy who was watching wanted to do it so buddy gave him a turn. I would have posted some pictures of them doing it but my older sister took the pictures with her camera. After that Mama, Hannah, my older sister and her boys all went out to town. My sister only has five seats in her car so me and hannah had to choose which one of us was going to go with mama and our sister. I went the last time so hannah went this time. R said that that was fair because then they could find birthday gifts for me! My birthday is on the twelfth. So that worked out well. Me and my two younger brothers cleaned the house. It is allways nice to clean when every one is away! David went down to the neighbor's to help them put their taps in. And Daddy had to go to one of the nearby towns. So me and my brothers had the whole house to ourselves. We were scrambling around and getting every thing in it's place. Our House gets really cluttered in the winter. Does yours? Now it looks like a white tornado went though and picked everything up and put it far away. I hope everything never comes back!

After all our work was done. We made some maple candy.Like the little House in the big woods kind. Where you heat it up to the right temp and put it on snow and then eat it. Enoch wanted to make it in celebration of the sap running. I hung some laundry up. David came home. R, mama,Hannah and the little boys came back from town. R. (my older sister) gave me a early birthday gift. A dark brown spring shawl, a comb and hair lotion, She knows what I like! Oh and some 5 gum.

I am sure that hannah got a gift. She said "Grace don't look in my shelf upstairs!" I have a really hard time waiting for my birthday to come! On my twelfth birthday I knew all my gifts. It is fun to keep it a secret when I know what I am getting! Me, Hannah, Enoch and Nathanael went skiing this evening. We went to this hill that is steep and icy. First Enoch went down, then Nathanael,then I went and crashed in the middle. While there, Hannah came down after me, She was coming so fast that I could not move. We collided. And the resulting injuries are my ski pole is broken and Hannah's thumb is sprained. I am going to fix my pole will duct-tape. Do you thing Hannah could fix hers with duct-tape? We came home after skiing and daddy was home. David was making potato fries for dinner. We had them with home made asian pork and duck sausage, poached eggs, and bread.

While dinner was being made I finnish a skien of yarn that I started yesterday evening, I am thinking of making a pair of mittens for my friend.

Pictures from yesterday and today

Today I made a cheese mat for the cheese I made yesterday

I made it out of broom corn stalks(left over in the garden) and grain sack string.

This is the first time I have ever made one. I have always wanted to,

but now that I needed one, here I have made one!. It is so neat that when I woke up this morning I did not even have a cheese mat. Right when I needed one I did not even call to order one or go to town to buy it. That is amazing to me! This is what is going to have start happening when every thing falls apart in this nation, people are going to have to start using their minds how people used to. When they want something they will have to make it even if they don't know how. Our hands have been given to us with a purpose in mind from the one who created us. Let us not keep this purpose buried but let it grow and flourish and spread, whether in the small things or big things. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.Eccleiastes 9:10

Here is some very delicious soup that me and my sister made yesterday

Making ravioli for the soup, this was the first time I ever made ravioli

Can you see the ricotta? It's on a plate in the back ground. I made it from the whey after cheese making. I am using it here as the filling for the ravioli.

I made two kinds of cheese Bel Paese^ this is an Italian cheese whose name means "beautiful country" it is soft, fast-ripening, sweet and mild. This is first the time I have made this cheese.

Graviera^ This cheese is also a first for me. It is a larger cows milk cheese originating in Greece. This recipe is similar to Swiss Gruyere. The addition of some goat's milk gives this cheese a spicy flavor. It is in a salt brine right now.

Fire Roasted Hot Salsa!

To every thing there is a season....

It was a very windy rainy day. I picked alot of tomatoes and made them into ketchup

my younger brothers helped. Tomorrow we are going to make roasted salsa and regular HOT salsa. I am going to make jam out of the yellow "garden peach"tomatoes. I made some last year from little sweet orange tomatoes and it turn out real well.

picking peppers

washing tomatoes

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...

Ecclesiastes 3:1