Our garden

I took a bunch of pictures of our backyard container garden. It's pretty amazing how many plants we have growing outside at the moment, especially since our yard was really gross last summer. We've had to devise ways to keep the plants away from the dogs, who have chewed on some of them. Hence the horizontal ladder for the tomatoes made out of 2x4s. I counted 16 tomato plants a few days ago. We also have 7 brussell sprouts, green beans and peas, a whole bed of lettuce and kale in the bathtub, a bunch of pepper plants and cilantro and basil and other herbs and some flowers for color. The garden is mostly the work of me and my roommate Joey. Lance planted a tree that he bought online and some Morning Glories but Joey and I have done everything else. I go out every morning with coffee to check on everybody and to water. I think the peas have been the most fun to watch grow because they look so unlike all the other plants as they sprout. I think they're kinda cute and very stubborn - they don't want to wrap themselves around the bamboo supports I gave them but instead keep winding around each other.


















This is what one of our neighbors has done with his backyard. There 8 apartments on our backyard, 4 on the ground floor and 4 on the second floor.

Mozzarella!

And I succeeded at making mozzarella today! I used the raw milk that was delivered last night and I used a version of the recipe that has you reheat the curd in the hot whey, instead of microwaving it like I did last time. Unfortunately I was too busy following the directions closely (I must have reread them about 6 times) that I didn't take any pictures. I'm going to make home made dough in my bread maker before I go to therapy tonight and then make pizza when I get home.

Milk & Honey

Finally had my raw milk and raw honey delivered last night, after 8 days and about 10 phone calls with the dairy. They do not have the best delivery service, but hey, they raise and milk cows all day. I guess I can't be too picky.

The honey is really good, very sweet. Did a taste test between the raw honey and a bottle we had in the cupboard, bought at the grocery store. The grocery store version tasted blande and kinda boring compared to the raw honey. And the milk tasted just like regular milk, but it was much thicker and creamier. Half way between whole milk and half & half.


Lance enjoyed both honey and the milk, at the same time (there's honey in the spoon).

More attempts at making things...

Today I attempted to make mozzarella, yogurt cheese, and whole wheat bread. The mozzarella did not work out, I think because I was using the wrong kind of milk. I'm going to try and buy raw milk from a farm upstate, they'll deliver it to my door apparently.

Next I attempted to make yogurt cheese. The jury is still out on that one since it has to sit in the fridge for 24 hours. It should be pretty hard to get wrong though: all you do is strain plain yogurt through a cheese cloth lined colander. The whey drains out and you're left with thick yogurt, similar to cream cheese. I'm going to add fresh dill and spread it on a bagel.

Lastly, I made whole wheat bread. This was pretty fool proof because I now have a hand-me-down bread maker. You pour all the ingredients in and push a button. It kneads it, lets it rest, kneads it some more, more resting, more kneading, then rising, then baking. It take 3 1/2 hours. The bread was delicious - I used a honey whole wheat recipe, so it turned out just sweet enough.


I was on the right track. I followed every step correctly...


but my curds should have ended up more elastic than this. It shouldn't have looked so much like ricotta. Oh well, I'll try again once I get my hands on raw milk.


But at least my first loaf of bread turned out!


Lance approves. And he's putting my homemade butter on it!

I made butter

I've been reading a lot lately about making homemade cheese. I'm going to start out with Mozzarella because it's relatively easy. It doesn't need to age and can be made with normal household equipment. The only things I needed that I didn't have was rennet and citric acid, both of which I found on a cheese making website. But this also lead me to a website about making homemade butter. Turns out it as easy as pouring heavy cream into a glass jar and shaking it for about 20 minutes. I had no idea. So I tried it today and it worked perfectly.


Posing for Lance


Shaking (20 minutes was a lot longer than I realized)


We have butter!




Strained it through cheese cloth to get all of the milk out


This was the milk that separated from the butter, otherwise known as "buttermilk." But it tastes nothing like the buttermilk in the store. It's light and a tad sweet.


This was all it took

At long last, photos of the quilt

At long last, I finally finished the quilt. And I finally took photos of it so you can see it. I picked a floral pink flannel for the backing and it's very soft, I think I will use flannel for the backs of all the quilts I make.

My newest piece of art

I've always loved my friend Julie's art. I had asked her about buying a piece in the past but it never came of anything, until she recently had an open studio night. I knew I wanted something of her's, and I knew it had to be this one when I saw it. It reminds me of the first work of hers I ever saw, a painting of a little boy dressed as a clown that was hanging in her old apartment. Last weekend Lance I went to Utrecht in the city to try to find a ready-made frame for it, and I think we found a pretty great one. Only $ 16.50. So much cheaper than if I tried to have it custom-framed. It's hanging in Lance's room, what is soon to become our room, and is the first thing I've really moved in down there.