Homestead Happenings #3: Plans & Yeast

This week was dominated by planning for the spring ahead. The groundhog may have seen a shadow, but sunny, longer days mean that garden work will come very soon. The weather was warm enough for me to spend a little time digging roots and washing seedling pots yesterday!

What's happened this week:

• We watched BBC's Great British Baking Show on WOSU. Airing Monday nights at 10, this is our new show not-to-be-missed. The hosts are very British - quirky, kind, and quick-witted, and the spirit is more of learning and comradeship than dramatic American food competition shows.
• Inspired by one challenge to bake a cake without chemical leavening, we've experimented with yeast-risen quick breads this week. Alex made yeast-risen biscuits twice (so good we're sharing the recipe soon) and he also did a batch of yeasted pancakes which tasted like a mesmerizing cross between a soft pretzel and a griddle cake.

• On Saturday night, I made a Savarin, a yeast-risen cake from the Great British Baking Show recipe. Not a big fan of cakes, I enjoyed the flavors of the Savarin. The yeast made the texture airy and lightly crumbed but as a whole, the Savarin is not as dense and rich as most modern cakes.
• I helped seed, harvest, deliver, and sell microgreens with Swainway Urban Farm as usual. We're at the Worthington Indoor Farmers' Market this time of year every Saturday morning.
• I considered the NPR story 'Are Farmers Market Sales Peaking?' with great interest. While I love working and shopping at the farmers' market, I know how valuable diversified sales routes become to small farms like Swainway. I don't think we're quite at peak in central Ohio, but smaller markets are declining and bigger markets are refining and improving.
• Based on the previous weeks' seed orders, I wrote out a generalized map of where I want to plant everything. Then I remembered that deer might ruin my sweet corn trials so I started moving things around. I tend to keep adjusting my map up to and even after planting time...
• My mother treated me to dinner at Angry Bear Kitchen and the show Anything Goes presented by Broadway Columbus. Both exceeded my expectations. I ate a creative and delicious carrot wellington at Angry Bear. Emma Stratton, the female lead of Anything Goes, was spectacular.
• I worked on my presentation for the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association annual conference this coming weekend. I'm discussing 'Building Self-Sufficiency Through Community' and will share a version of that presentation here for those who can't come to the conference.

• I just started salt-cured egg yolks for my next class at The Commissary. On February 18 I'll share how I put up excess eggs while we make egg noodles and other treats. Register online now to reserve your spot.
• I am planning class proposals for the spring. What would you like to learn?

How was your week?

Homestead Happenings #2: Late & Great

Who is surprised that in the second week of what was supposed to be a weekly list, I'm already a day late? Not I. Last week was full in so many ways. Here's what was going on in our world:

• Alex spent the week in Arizona and Mexico on business. It was a long trip that included a number of life birds for Alex, a visit by javelinas to the hotel parking lot, and a few great lunches of steak and leek tacos.
• Meanwhile at home it snowed, rained, iced, snowed, and rained some more.

• Lil and I trekked to Wayne county, Ohio to check out an Amish farming supply store. Spring is coming and our cell trays will be ready!
• I ordered sweet potato slips from Southern Exposure and New Sprout Farms.

• I collected and delivered a little more than two dozen fertilized eggs to 4th Street Farms. They're going to hatch them to add to their flock. I can't wait to see the chicks!
• I attended Michael Pollan's talk in New Albany, thanks to a generous friend who invited me to go with her. I might share my own food rules someday, but I generally like the cut of this man's jib. I agree with CMH Gourmand's review that the talk included "just enough facts with humor without being preachy, just pragmatic information that hopefully will make a difference."

• We hosted a Sunday snack fest, I mean Super Bowl party. We fried chicken wings and Blue Jacket Dairy cheese curds and served these alongside chips and dips. The kids were impressed with Lil's Minecraft-inspired fruit salad. I was impressed with this buffalo cauliflower recipe, a spicy and satisfying alternative to the meat.

Homestead Happenings #1: Seeds, Trees, & Braces

I advise homesteaders to keep a journal. It's a great practice because a record of daily homesteading activities is fun and useful to look back on. But I find myself not in the routine of writing daily now. "Do as I say, not as I do," I suppose.

I thought I'd try something different instead, for you and for me. I plan to share a weekly wrap-up of our major homesteading activities. Then I'll have something to refer to in the future and perhaps you'll be inspired to take on similiar chores, projects, and events.

I'm not going to share regular activities like cooking meals, taking care of animals, and general gardening. I want to list the big things - canning days, gardening projects, irregular chores, and links - with pictures taken this week. If I can keep this up, it should build a good library of resources for fellow homesteaders and an online journal for me.

Here's what I was up to this week:

• Placed seed order with Bountiful Gardens for culinary flowers and grains.
• Taught at The Seasoned Farmhouse and The Commissary. It's good to be back in the teaching game - I haven't led any major classes since before Thanksgiving.
• Ordered (more) fruit trees and sweet sap maples from St. Lawrence Nursery.
• Comforted Lil as she adjusts to her new palate expander and braces. She's not very excited about this but in a few months she'll finally be able to share a smile with two front teeth.
• Meanwhile, I rid the house of sticky sweets that aren't good for her diet or orthodontia. Real Mom Nutrition has a great post up about "fruit snacks" a.k.a. sticky sweets in disguise.
• Posted about our hair care routine.
• Shared my recipe for ginger miso salad dressing on the Swainway Urban Farm website.
• Oogled the newly-released Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District Fish & Tree Sale offerings.
• Met with Kate about her new farm Foraged & Sown and the little farms project. Yes! You can still order a bundle of highly productive perennial fruit & nut trees with us!
• Appreciated the wonder of being alive while sympathizing with friends and family affected by ill health and death this week. I am hopeful that the week ahead contains far less bad news.

How was your week? Do you think a weekly list of happenings on Harmonious Homestead is useful or over-sharing?