Gypsy Forest

round these parts

 

 

   

Goodness the last few days flew by.

We're getting back into our regular rhythm after the holidays. The big boy went back to Hogwarts after a month long break. Theater, music & writing practices have resumed for the others and each day is buzzing along. Joe is learning the banjo and brewing up a storm. He just finished up a delicious vanilla porter and bottled two batches of red wine. I love the uneven recycled bottles all lined up on our table.

He & Sophia recently built & painted a ukulele which turned out really, really adorable. I love that the two of them collaborated on this project.

 

 

 

 

 

The garden is humming along and providing us with salads, greens and herbs. I've been cutting back the cilantro as fast as it grows and tossing it {and parsley} into everything I cook. Oh sweet little winter garden, how I do love thee.

I'm looking forward to starting this next week and have been drooling over the classes available here. {especially the fall & sea sessions} I won't be headed there this year, but I do have a wishful list of online classes. You can check out the bios on the SAW teachers to find some really amazing online courses.

So I guess that's a little bit of what's going on round these parts.

How about yours?

 

seeing green

water, water, weed, water.....

 

 banana pepper

    

It's been the morning routine. Little blossoms have shown their faces and now we're starting to be extra nerdy around these parts..... by we I mean mostly me. This garden has become a near obsession. Every little bit of it gets checked over daily by many sets of eyes. Checking for bugs and anything else less that might damage our green little lovelies. Seriously, it is an obsession. I can tell you how many leaves are on each of the eggplants I nourished back to health. The approximate amount of days it takes for a flower on my roma tomato to show fruit. I have been watching ladybugs grow from larvae to pupa to adult. 

I'm loving it.

 

 roma tomatoes

    

lemons

      

I have checked out nearly every book on gardening from my library. {And can I just say that I adore my library? It may not have the selection I was spoiled with in Duluth, but I can search for and request books online and have a pile of books waiting for me. I love it. And the ladies that work there are ever so sweet.} I just picked up a 1970's gardening book titled Grow It, and though I've just read the first few pages, I am definitely digging it. First of all, it's from the 70's..... which makes it awesome..... secondly the first few words both resonated with me and had me laughing out loud....

"Perhaps not since the fall of Babylon have so many city dwellers wanted to "return" to the country without ever having been there in the first place. For the first time, the new generation reverses youth's traditional flow toward the city in search of opportunity. A cry of "back to the soil, back to real life" leads the exodus."  ~Richard W. Langer, Grow It 1972

Does that sound a bit familiar to anyone else? I figure either I missed my era, which is likely, or there is possibly, hopefully, a resurgence of these people?? These back-to-the-land-ers. People happy to trade a Starbuck's latte for squishing aphids.  People wanting to clean a chicken coop. Or at least grow a ton of food in their own back yard. 

I mean, you are out there right? 'Cause darn it I'm going to need to find myself some good neighbors in a few short years! 

eggplant blossom

      

I love the science involved in mixing up dirt, foliar feeding, pinching off suckers, fertilizing...... good bugs.... bad bugs.... all of that. Watching that first eggplant blossom bloom and being awed at it's beautiful purple color..... I hadn't ever seen an eggplant in the garden! I love watching my wild three year old gently search for tomatoes among the leaves..... and then get his foliar spray bottle and shoot the plants. My girls are growing herbs to attract fairies and making up recipes for teas to try. The eldest plucking weeds and checking for bugs and reminding the mama to water. It's been such a great hobby for our family to take up. 

more little figs are growing

      

So if it's just planting season now where you are, and you're sitting on the fence about giving it a try. Just do it. Buy some tomatoes & herbs. Some sort of fruit tree if you have room. Farmer's Markets often have organic seedlings to sell this time of year! Start small or jump in. But do it. You'll thank me later :) 

    

One Small Change - April

Wow. How did it get to be April so soon??

And nearly midway through too??

Our hanging the laundry out change from last month has gone really well. We reduced our utility bill too! And speaking of utilities.... even though it's been a balmy 78 degrees indoors the bast few days were avoiding turing the AC on as long as we can. The fans are on and the windows are open to keep everything cool for now. 

April's One Small Change is a two part one. First, we're going to grow as much food as we can in our own back yard. Second we are going to visit the Farmer's Market every other week (it's 45 minutes away) to get as much local produce as we can. (prior months changes : January, February & March)

We've got quite the selection of food going on around here.... by far the most we've ever grown. We haven't had much of a garden since we lived in Cape Cod years ago.... a few tomatoes and peas here and there..... but nothing like we've been trying to get started here. Other then tomatoes and peas, I have no idea what I'm doing in the garden! I love it, but am clueless. So along with two friends and Miss 11, we took two classes offered by an organic farm about an hour and a half from our town. It was totally worth the drive and I learned so much. I am hoping to share some little bits and pieces of what works as the garden grows.

As for now, we're finishing up the stages of seedlings and planting. Each Gypsy kid helped to build their own raised garden bed and plant it. They each got a 2x3 box and picked herbs and veggies to plant in it. We've replanted our 5x5 family garden in the backyard. We've planted 3 trees, 10 berry bushes and a strawberry patch. A fig, satsuma, lemon tree, blackberry & raspberry bushes. We've got several pots full off veggies too. And we're trying to grow a sunflower house too!

And then around the yard in the garden there is a lot going on ........

scarlet runner beans, cucumbers, squash, melon, peas, gourds, kale, radish, beets, lettuce, carrots, rosemary, mint, grapes, sage, parsley, basil, dill, calendula, lavender, dragon beans, rhubarb, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, poppies, lemon balm, cabbage, lovage and probably some other things that I can't remember right now. Phew! 

We decided to use our yard as gardening space the next 2 summers and then we'll put flowers in the seasonal beds before we sell the house. Just some annuals in case the next person wants to garden too!

My biggest hope out of all of this is planting a seed of sustainability in the hearts of my children. I want them to have that connection to their food. The desire to take care of a garden or at least a few plants that will feed them. Seeing my little ones chanting "grow seeds, grow" to their gardens after the seeds were planted, and then celebrating when they sprouted was beautiful!

And now I'll stop talking (typing) and show you some pictures of the Gypsy homestead beginnings....

  

herbs from last summer coming back and looking lush....

  

new sage 

  

grapes that need some twine in their life.....

    

kid's garden beds

  

 
strawberry patch and 3 dahlias

  

old sliding glass doors make a great greenhouse!

  

fig

  

satsuma blossom - they smell heavenly!!!

  

our three fruit trees

  

radish

  

mama's garden

  

   Here's to growing your own folks!

      

One Small Change - March

Our composting month started out a bit rough...... we just didn't like the idea of building our own. We know we're only going to be here for 3 more years. I'm not counting down, I swear :) So the removal of the compost when we put the house on the market seemed dreadful. Plus, between the Louisiana bugs and shall we say moisture problem (aka sponge for a yard) we didn't like the idea of leaving the pile on the ground next to our house or in plain sight in the itsy bitsy backyard..... so we totally splurged and bought an awesome sun-mar composter from Gaiam. I KNOW it was super expensive.... but we've had tons of friends with sun-mar products and they last forever, we can take it with us when we move, it is so easy to rotate the compost and it's continual! Which means as it composts it goes into an internal drum and you can remove it and add it to the garden. I did have a 20% off coupon too! Truly this was our our first idea for One Small Change, but it took us two months to save up for it. Yes I realize I am totally attempting to justify our purchase..... but see how pretty she looks next to the homemade rain barrel system?? And don't you think she needs a name? Ask your kids and leave us a suggestion! Silly yes, I know, but fun none the less :)

  

 

  

 
  

I can't wait to share a picture of the first bucket of good stuff from her! You know I read somewhere you could sprinkle it around your plants during the growing season to feed them?? 

 

So onto our One Small Change for March........ hangin' out the wash. My husband installed a retractable line for us to use. If there is a chance of rain we can even hang it under the carport..... this really does save electricity. Even if it doesn't quite get dry, I can toss it in the dryer for 15 minutes and it's good to go. Also, it helps me stay on top of the wash. I can really only dry one load at a time.... so if I do one load a day.... I don't get behind on laundry..... an added bonus in a house of 6!! Another helpful thing is this rule we follow with our clothes..... undies, socks and shirts that directly touch our skin are a one day use.... but the pants and over-shirts/sweaters must be looked at and hung up for a second or sometimes third day of wear if not soiled. I mean really, if the kids have an inside day, do you need to wash those jeans? Yes, that skives some folks out a bit..... but with a big family that saves us a load of wash every day! Think of the water & electricity used to wash that unnecessary load.. times 7 days a week..... times 52 weeks a year! You get the picture.

       

 

  

I do love that crisp fresh feel of wash hung on the line..........

Happy little changes in March :)

   

 

One Small Change - February

Since we're working on reducing our waste for One Small Change, composting was just the next step. And so, the composting begins.... or more accurately resumes....

We had a lovely compost pile back in Wisconsin.... our chickens regularly ate from it like it was a buffet. But here in suburbia I'm thinking the neighbors are not going to appreciate a "food dump" attracting bugs and critters in the neighboring yard..... though once I left our compost heap for about 3 weeks and came back to the most delicious buttercup squash growing out of it.... Plus, our yard is really small too. So we've got to either build one or buy one. Until we make that decision, the compost will be kept in an old garbage can that came with the house. 

We're doing some research and thinking of this endeavor as a forever project. Which is why we are considering a contained barrel type composter. Something we know we can take with us in 3 years when we move. Of course a composter made of garbage cans can just as easily be taken along, but the ease of those composters that can be used continually, no need to let them sit & start a new one, really have me dreaming. Some plans to build your own in the backyard and an article on kids & composting were both pretty inspiring. I  had been thinking of this project as purely environmental, but as Waldorf inspired homeschoolers I realized this is a perfect natural hands on experience for our family. I was reminded of this experience approach to science last night while listening to this. (Waldorf is still new to me, so I have loved listening to these series!)

Has anyone started their own compost? We'd love to hear what's worked for you!

     

One Small Change - Recycling

So how did it go? This Recycling business??

We did not find any place to recycle glass in southern Louisiana. Big bummer, but I'm not ready to jump on the plastic bandwagon either, so I'm sticking with the less packaging is better rule of thumb. Keeping plastic to a bare minimum is very important to us. 

So what do we buy in glass?

wine

beer

oil

jam

salsa

peanut butter

condiments

   

We DID reduce our garbage by nearly half. (yeah!)

This was only partially due to recycling. After seeing the hassle recycling would be for us....

1. The local bin gets filled with garbage, so we have to drive 45 minutes to really recycle.

2. Glass recycling was not an option.

I remembered a song sung by Jack Johnson my kids sing. Reduce Reuse Recycle. Ahhhh, yes..... the recycling comes last. First Reduce. Then Reuse. Then recycle. Don't even get me going on the possibility of where those recycled items really might end up. It makes me cringe to think they just get dumped, but since that is a huge possibility, it makes those first two "R's" all the more important. Remembering those R's in that order, made our garbage can fill up half as often. Of course this creates one smelly little problem. Kitchen scraps. A problem which will only get worse in the upcoming warm months when the house is a balmy 75-80 degrees. So that leads us to our next One Small Change...... COMPOSTING. More on that tomorrow........

Back to the glass, a lot of those jars are being reused for storage. We are consciously purchasing jar shapes that can be easily reused. Some are being saved for gift giving next year.... the peanut butter jars in particular are perfect for gifting edible treats to friends. Be it chai tea, peppermint bark or soup mixes. Our olive oil is now being purchased in a huge metal jug that can be recycled. I plan to start buying frozen berries (when we can't pick our own) to make our jam with and mixing up our own ketchup & salad dressings to reduce the glass waste as much as possible. A mindful work in progress.

What about the wine and beer? Well, back in November we started saving the glass bottles and we've decided that we're only drinking our own. Joe's got a chardonnay and syrah in the processs right now, and also a delicious hoppy pale ale of some sort. Not being able to recycle glass was just the kick my dear man needed to get back in to his favorite hobby. Rumor has it there's even an amber in the works for an upcoming wedding. I think Joe's moonshine hobby is going to start taking over every closet in the house before we know it! But those of you who wander this way to visit will be sipping homemade sangria in the sun with oranges and lemons fresh from the backyard. 

Simple living really is better.

   

Food

This little beauty made it into our house from our humble little backyard garden.

The sweet potatoes were small.

The green beans few..... and quickly nibbled up crunchy and raw.

But all were delicious!

We also finally found a bulk bag of organic wheat berries to start grinding our own flour again. Joe found a lot of help in the youngest two who could not remember doing this fun thing in the past.... kids are so all about the process and making flour is no exception. They took the task rather seriously and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. I think they even had some sort of celebratory dance at the end of it.........

   

   

  

    

  

And just like everything else..... it really does taste better when you do it yourself! Now, just to figure out how to store a 50 pound bag of wheat berries. Any suggestions? Especially a repurposed idea? I am wandering off into the world of nothing new..... like this...... inspired while wandering through Nicola's blog ........ I had only wanted to make the toffee...... more on these thoughts tomorrow.

PS - Our grain Mill can be found HERE.

     

The Kid's Handmade & Thrifted

Did anyone find us here through the Kiwilog? I was pretty stoked to be featured over there on their parent blog round up with our One Small Change post from yesterday. Welcome to any new readers, I hope a few of you stick around :)

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Having 4 kids that swap gifts for the holidays, you would think they would get in to a making frenzy..... but the truth is..... they don't. Normally three kids will go in together to make or buy a gift for the fourth.... a total collaborative effort. Some are more crafty and others more thrifty and an occasional well thought out new item does appear.

Here is this year's line up......

The Eldest purchased a tea cup and saucer for each of his sisters from our local antique shop for a mere $5 each. (and a little help from the mama to pick out just the right ones) 

 

Miss Eleven went in on a book with her siblings for The Eldest. She bought a sweet little glass dog for her little sis from an antique shop we visited together. She also made lip balm and picked out some very thoughtful gifts for each of her friends in Minnesota at an Antique shop. An embroidered apron, a beautiful old tin and two tiny leather bound books.

Miss Seven sewed up a cute little i-pod holder for her big sis with minimal help from the mama. She was quite pleased to add a button from Great Grandma Pearl's button box.

 

All the big kids were in cahoots to make this project for Mr Three. A bean bag game. The girls & I embroidered some squares of felt. I sewed up a small muslin bag of beans for the inside and The Eldest sewed the bags together stuffing the mini bean bag in as he sewed. A little trim with some pinking shears and voila! A game for the little guy.......

 

 

I really love that my kids are embracing our tradition of making their own or buying thrifted items as gifts. Finding a thrifted gift is a treasure hunt for sure! But I can see them asking themselves "can I make this?" or "can I buy this used". It seems to come so very naturally for them and I truly hope this handmade thrifted appreciation of theirs will carry through to adulthood and inspire those around them.

     

One Small Change - January

I am really excited about the project that Suzy's family at Hip Mountain Mama has put together.

We really do strive to be earth friendly in our house, but I think there's always room for one small change. And when you think of how the creativity we bloggers all share with one another inspires our lives, just think what one small change could do for our earth. For me, it's certainly the kind of new year's resolution to keep!

So what's ours? 

Oh my, it's an embarrassing one. I say that because I was truly almost reluctant to share it with you all. I do have an excuse explanation.... so hear me out on this one.

Our one small change is to :: RECYCLE

~gasp~

I know, I know. Doesn't everyone recycle?? Well, no. All you people nodding your head in disbelief most likely do not live in southern Louisiana. Occasionally  there is a recycle bin at the grocery store that accepts plastic & aluminum (and maybe cardboard & paper?) No glass. No tin. No curbside pick up. So, while we were being very mindful of the containers we purchase, we were still tossing them into the garbage. Sure, a lot of those smaller glass jars have become the kids drinking cups, and pencil holders, and storage for dried foods in the pantry. But really, how much use, or cupboard space, does one have to store these things for their second life? And just how many olive oil bottles can you repurpose?? (*as a bit of a disclaimer, I want you to know we DID recycle the last two places we've lived, but this new place has presented us with quite a challenge*)

So, this weekend I headed to the garage to repurpose some empty plastic totes sitting out there. And we set them up to recycle what we can. Miss Seven made the lovely signs last night.

 

We'll recycle what we can locally, and once or twice a month we'll head out of town to recycle the rest. Our goal is to reduce our garbage by 50%. I found no tin or glass recycling programs within a 45 minute drive of my home. (ridiculous!) But we're still working on it. And if anyone that reads this knows something we don't, please help! If I can't make the glass recycling work, this puts me in a real pickle, because it would mean buying plastic bottles would be a better choice then glass. What do you think about that? And since I'm sharing some private Gypsy life I might as well let you know that over half of the non recyclable glass, and hardest to repurpose bottles, are those of beer and wine. ~ahem~ A six pack of microbrew and a bottle of wine per week adds up to over 350 bottles a year that we can't recycle. I'll let you know at the end of the month how this all goes. I have a feeling this one small change is going to change things quite a bit.

Here's to one small change! 

What will yours be?

     

SIGG Liners :: Update!!

Well, it took 4 weeks, but I am happy to say yesterday I got an email from SIGG with a gift certificate credit for the FULL amount of the bottles I sent in. So I can place an order and get them all replaced with the new bottles that have safe liners. SIGG offers free shipping on orders over $50. This means getting these bottles replaced cost me nothing!

I am really impressed at SIGG for making this easy and cost free for their customers. For those of you that sent your bottles in, please know SIGG is getting swamped with these requests and it will take several weeks to get your credit. 

Also, there's been some confusion, so just to clarify, I am in NO WAY affiliated with SIGG. I just wanted to share the easy way to get those bottles returned for all my lovely readers :)

Have a fabulous Day :)