Thankful

 

The first thing I see every morning is this tree. I look out the window upon an oak that was large before I was born. The oak stood tall before my house was built. Estimated to be at least 150 years old, our oak towers over all the trees on the street. I am thankful for a stunning view.

The oak is home to countless critters including the murder of crows at the top in this picture. Last year the crows gathered on the first night of Hanukkah, causing Lil to name the event 'Cronukkah'. Alex and I chuckle when we talk about Cronukkah because the phrase sounds a little like a holiday Snoop Dog might celebrate. I am thankful for a loving, laughing family.

My daybreak reverie with the this tree reminds me that our family is but a tiny thread of the web of life. Yet our thread is significant. We must use our energy to enjoy and protect treasures like this tree. I am thankful for all the wondrous and mysterious ways of Mother Nature.

What are you thankful for this year? 

Notes & VOTE

Day four of NaBloPoMo and I'm already succumbing to a list post? I have a host of random things I want to share:

• Order your turkeys - Local grocers are taking pre-orders for turkeys. I like Bowman and Landes for an affordable turkey that still supports a local farm. If you have the ability to indulge, go for a Bourbon Red through Hills Market - we had one last year and all guests agreed it was the very best turkey they'd ever tasted!
• Check out the Situating Food forum on planning new urban food systems at OSU this Friday and Saturday.There's no cost; pre-registration is required.
• I just heard about the Save Seeds Now symposium happening in Oxford Ohio next month. Registration is free but limited to the first 75 participants.
• Jan Brett, one of our favorite children's book authors, will be at the Ohio National Poultry show this Saturday, November 9, at 10 am. She's promoting her new book Cinders, a Chicken Cinderella. Read our recap of Ohio National Poultry 2012.
• Tomorrow is election day. Please do your research, take your children, and vote. Today, I shared why I'm voting no on issues 50 & 51 (Columbus school levy) on the It's Ok To Vote No website.

Picking Apples From A Tall Tree & Cider Pressing Announcement

We're in the midst of bedding down the garden for winter. Stakes are laying all over the place and Lil has comandeered these 8 foot bamboo poles for playing pole vault, riding them like a witch's broomstick, and fighting imaginary monsters. It's a cheap toy, yet another version of the 'box and a stick', always favorite playthings.

On Sunday, Alex and I were surveying the yard and noticed that some apples on our mature, very tall apple tree were ripe. The ones that fell to the ground on their own were getting eaten by deer or dogs or raccoons, all of whom are less worthy of organic apples than us. We were pondering whether to rent or buy a pole-mounted apple picker when Lil ran towards the garage. She returned with a bamboo pole and started whacking at the apples. The ripe ones fell to the ground where we could pick them up.

Brilliant, my new eight-year-old!

Alex grabbed a pole too and I found a Trug. Twenty minutes of fun hitting and collecting later and we had a bushel of apples. Obviously many bruised when they hit the ground but for making cider, that doesn't matter.

We would love to let you hit an apple with a bamboo pole and see cider pressing in action. We're holding a Cider Pressing Open House at 1224 E Cooke Rd Columbus OH 43224 on Saturday October 26 from 2-5 pm. See you there!

International Homesteading Education Month

Mother Earth News and GRIT may have invented International Homesteading Education Month a few years ago but we'll celebrate it anyways. We love all kinds of holidays, even created ones, so we are all in for a month of learning and sharing. Each member of our family adopted a learning goal for this month. Mine is to understand how to make cold-process soap. I'll attend a class at City Folk's and hopefully make my first successful batch by October 1. Alex wants to up his archery skills. He plans to build a backyard target and practice with the bow more often. Lil wants to practice sewing by making a quilt.

Beyond our own goals, we want to share what we already know. Our calendar is filled with educational events that we're hosting/co-promoting. Take a look at the schedule below - we would love to learn with you!

Managing Your Online Presence - Tuesday September 10 from 1 - 2 pm. -  This webinar is designed to help farmers and producers increase their brand awareness to gain additional business. Register for free online.

Bread Basics - Tuesday September 17 from 6:30 - 8:30 pm at The Seasoned Farmhouse SOLD OUT

Mark Shepherd talk - Wednesday September 18 from 7 - 9 pm at Unity Church - Be inspired by a permaculture farmer during this talk featuring Mark's recent experience applying his Restoration Agriculture concepts to communities in Africa. $10 suggested donation.

Backyard Season Extension - Saturday September 22 from 2:30 - 4 pm at Swainway Urban Farm - Keep your plants productive through early winter with small-scale season extension techniques! In this workshop, we'll discuss row cover materials and install a low tunnel over a raised bed. We'll share DIY ideas and best practices for reusing materials year after year. You will also learn potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. Cost: $20 or two people may register together for $35 Register at City Folk’s Farm Shop, by calling 946-5553, or by emailing shawn@cityfolksfarmshop.com.

Dehydrating Basics - Tuesday September 24 from 6:30 - 8 pm at City Folk's Farm Shop - Dried fruits and vegetables retain many of their nutrients, take up very little space, and keep indefinitely. If you enjoy cooking with a vegetable or fruit dried, this is the simplest way of food preservation. We'll compare DIY and manufactured dehydrators, sample dried goods, and share tips for using dehydrated foods. Cost: $20. Register at City Folk’s Farm Shop, by calling 946-5553, or by emailing shawn@cityfolksfarmshop.com.

Salads and Dressings - Sunday September 29 from 3:30 - 5:30 pm at Franklin Park Conservatory - Unleash the power of a beautiful salad and you’ll discover new delicious ways to serve nutritious vegetables at every meal. We’ll go old-school by making Caesar Salad with croutons and dressing from scratch, mix up a modern beet, goat cheese, and greens with mustard citrus vinaigrette, and taste an overnight-marinated kale dish. Every participant will make a dressing to take home. $30 members; $35 non-members. Registration details on the Franklin Park website.

Home Ec Columbus - Monday September 30 from 8-10 pm at City Folk's Farm Shop - Bring a dish to share (or not) and join our casual group of food lovin' folks. Free

Sharing this with you now since Seasoned Farmhouse classes tend to sell out quickly! Puttin' Up Apples - October 23 6:30 - 8:30 pm at The Seasoned Farmhouse - From Granny Smith to Gold Rush, Paula Red to Pink Lady, Ohio apples are some of the best in the world. You can put up these nutritious fall fruits to enjoy year-round with just a few simple techniques. Learn the secrets to keeping apples fresh for up to nine months, how to dry apple chips, and make a jar of applesauce in class to take home. Rachel will also share her great grandmother's time-tested recipe for apple butter. $65.

What are your educational goals for September?

Sharing Our Space

Harmonious Homestead was settled by generations of creatures and people before us. If we steward it well, our land will provide for many future families. Put in a historical perspective, "our" land only belongs to us for a moment and is acted upon by many other creatures while we're here.

And that's why we share it with sustainably-minded folks who want to help this space reach its potential.

Eve, whom Rachel met through a parenting group years ago, located a top-bar hive of bees here in the spring. The are thriving, visibly pollinating the vegetable plants and ground-covering clover. If she visits when we're here, she answers our questions about beekeeping and shares in our wonder about all the aspects of the life of bees we can't know.

Joseph and Jen, the growers of Swainway Urban Farm, had a few excess seedlings needing a place to put down roots in June. We offered up our front yard which Joseph tilled and planted in six sixty-foot rows, seen below just after planting. The 'Swainway Annex', as we're calling it, is growing food where there once was grass. We intended to experiment with dry farming two rows of tomatoes but the weather (a rather fickle homesteading partner) had other ideas and the rows are flooded at the moment. Hopefully the sun will dry up the water and ripen the fruit soon.

Our families contribute moral support, creative and hard-working ethics, and occasional planting and harvesting help. Shawn and Gerry at City Folk's Farm Shop provide materials, hoop house help, and a venue for classes. Friends bring good cheer when they cavort in the natural playground and admire the chickens. Neighbors support us with inspiration, watchfulness and gifts of their excess.

We always envisioned a communal homestead. When we work together like Eve's bees, we learn, find joy, and reap rewards that would not be possible if we toiled alone.

We want to share our space with you too. Please come see the goings-on at 1224 E Cooke Rd Columbus Ohio 43224 this Saturday, July 13, from 3-5 pm.

Are You Ohio State Fair Award Winning?

A few decades ago, I entered a fair baking contest. I was eleven or twelve, the contest was baked goods, and my entry was a blueberry peach pie with lattice crust. My first place pie won the right to be auctioned off at the Franklin County Fair. Then-Sherrif Jim Kearnes bought my pie for somewhere around $75, the most money I had ever earned. The cash is long spent and ribbon lost, but I remain smitten by the idea of fair cooking contests.

So it is that every year around this time, I browse and consider the Ohio State Fair culinary competitions. The fair offers awards (cash and ribbons) for winners in categories as diverse as jam and pickled beets, pumpkin breads and jerky. How cool would it be to list 'State Fair Award-Winning Jam Maker' on a resume?

Sponsored special competitions offer greater challenges and bigger prizes. This year, the granddaddy of Ohio State Fair contests is the Kenmore 100th Anniversary 'Greatest Generations of Grilling Cookoff', described on page 19 of the .pdf contest information packet. Entries are due June 20th. Celebrity Chef Bobby Dean will be judging for the top prize of a kitchen makeover and trip to New York City and available to meet guest goers on July 27. Mighty tempting!

With this summer being as busy as it is, I simply can't go after the blue ribbon this year. Perhaps you can? I'd love to see a Harmonious Homestead reader take first prize at the fair!

PS. A little internet sleuthing found that Kenmore is offering similiar prizes in an online contest. If you can't make the fair, maybe you want to enter online?

Where We Be

You don't need to be a careful observer to figure out that we aren't sitting around inside blogging these days. Photographs are few and far between these days, hence a gratuitous picture of chicks to illustrate this post. We're incredibly, happily busy in and out of the house.

Here's where we are:

In The Garden - As often as we can, we're outside playing on the natural playground, tending the hoop house, caring for chickens, and building and filling new garden beds. We come inside happily exhausted and start over the next day.

Working - Rachel is spending one afternoon a week at City Folk's Farm Shop. She loves talking to people about gardening and helping out friend Shawn and Gerry who own the store. Rachel is also putting in hours at the Ohio 4-H International office this summer while they are in between staff.

Despite the threat of furlough, Alex is leading up a new program with his job and working more than usual. The good news for our bank account is that he will only be furloughed up to eleven days now.

Bringing Food to the People - Rachel also sells mushrooms, microgreens, seedlings, and specialty vegetables for Swainway Urban Farm at Clintonville or Worthington markets on Saturday mornings. She'll help out for the Clintonville Wednesday evening market when that starts in early June too. And Alex is now serving on the Clintonville Farmers' Market board, so he spends time meeting, running errands, and completing projects.

Teaching - We have a full line-up of classes with City Folk's, Franklin Park Conservatory, Local Matters, and the newly-opened Seasoned Farmhouse. Come join one of our summer workshops!

Grow Your Own: Chickens 101 - 5/21 Seeds! Swap and Save - 6/2 Solve Gardening Problems Naturally —6/11 Pressure Canning—6/23 Pickles—6/25  Preserving Basics—7/11  Makin’ Bacon—7/14  Planning Your Fall Garden-8/1  Cooking with Herbs—8/18  BBQ Basics—8/25 

After August, our lives will return to a slower pace again. In the meantime, stop by a farmers' market or class to chat about what's up on the homestead!

Earth Day 2013 {Friday Five}

Hey, hey it's almost Earth Day!

Go green with one of these activities:

1) Stand Together with Earth Day Columbus by volunteering. With a hundred work sites across the city on Saturday and Sunday, there is something for everyone. Then celebrate on Saturday April 27 at Columbus Commons with bands, food trucks, and booths.

2) Learn about newly-formed Columbus Food Not Lawns, mosquito control options, and the new edible roof garden at The Crest, 2855 Indianola, on Sunday April 21 from 10 am - 1 pm. Pick up a packet of free garden seeds while you're there and be sure to put June 2 on your calendar for a seed swapping and saving event by Columbus Food Not Lawns.

3) Head over to the Edible Gardening Campus at Franklin Park Conservatory Monday for a free family Earth Day Celebration with demos, garden tours, and food trucks. The folks from Sprout it, an interesting new gardening app, will be there with giveaways too.

4) Participate in the Whetstone Rec Center educational garden. Volunteers are needed to install the garden at 10 am Tuesday April 23 with Growing Matters or register for one of two garden clubs who will maintain the garden.

5) Plant something, eat a locally-sourced meal, spend a day without fossil fuel transportation, or make an energy-saving home improvement. We strive to do these things every day but especially on Earth Day.