Life in Image

A true skinned knee!
Shredded Cabbage, getting ready for...
Me to ferment it!
The summer freckles.
Outside my latte window, pre-6am.

Chicken Tacos.

Last night we had a really fantastic meal. Homemade tortillas, raw milk cheese, shredded juicy chicken, a fresh salsa, a bit of yogurt and some arugula to top it. SO simple, and SO satisfying. The coolest part for me? Every single ingredient, but one was Maine made; so who was the culprit deemed so necessary we could not go without him? Limes of course! That needed lime juice flavor, I should try apple cider vinegar just once to see if it could work, but that's not today's story! The plan came into inception when I realized we had not eaten ANY cilantro this season, I was alarmed, horrified and looked to rectify the situation and was pleased to see the The Crown of Maine Cooperative had Cilantro available, so I ordered 5 bunches logically to compensate.

So what did I do with the cilantro? I added it to a hen. And what hen did I use? The hen that I used was one of our own from back in March, it's been sitting in the freezer for a long time now, waiting to be turned into a chicken pot pie; of course it was not a pie, but instead a delicious taco instead! The moment the cilantro came in on the COMOC van I got my crockpot out and I got my chicken out and the onions were already on the counter so I did not have to move them at all. I pieced that chicken, the piecing of an almost 2 year old hen is much stiffer than piecing a young broiler chicken, but I made do remembering that all the chicken would be shredded so it did not matter quite as much how elegantly I pieced our old layer. I put all of her pieces into the crockpot and mixed them up with 2 bunches of cilantro rough chopped as well as 2-3 onions rough chopped. I then put the crockpot on high and left it alone until the morning! That's right, I did NOTHING! Well actually I did fret a bit about there being enough liquid, but after a few hours all my worries were dispelled as the liquid was rapidly rising up the sides of the cooker. Around noon the next day I took all the meat off the bones of that old girl, sort of shredding it as I went, I also removed everything but the liquid from the cooker. I then put the meat back into the beautiful liquid, added half of one finely minced red onion and half a bunch of cilantro minced fine, put the cooker on high and left it until dinner time. Actually I stirred it a few times. THIS MEAT WAS DELICIOUS.

And the tortillas! I used Maine Grown Org. Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, salt and water to mix up a dough, rolled it into 8 even sized balls and then rolled them each out as thinly as I could between 2 pieces of wax paper. Before serving dinner I pan fried each tortilla and added grated Raw Milk Colby Cheese a big scoop of shredded chicken, some fresh salsa (tomatoes, red onion, hot pepper, cilantro, lime juice and salt), a schmear of Tide Mill Creamery Yogurt and some torn arugula from our garden. FEASTTTTTT-a-ROO!!!

The List Game.

I was considering the things I actually do in a day, and the lists I make for myself every morning. I was wondering how come the following things never make it on my to-do list as they are the things that fill my day...

-Talk on phone
-Clean up after baby
-Want a nap, but be unable to take one
-Go outside and look at chickens
-Feel lethargic
-Check email 26 times
-Restart computer 3 times
-Cook Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & 4 snacks
-etc etc etc

The Wife Of A Magician!

My husband is really talented. I mean he's incredible! He can BUILD things! And not just websites, but FRONT PORCHES! and CHICKEN COOPS! and WATER TURBINES! and BABIES! wait a second... back to our improving home!

This man has single-handedly (with a few pointers/helping hands from friends and family) temporarily supported our porch roof, removed the complete under-structure of it's dilapidated porch and "supports", dug and baled out 5 giant holes (several times due to rain), poured cement footers, poured sonatube footers atop that, JACKED UP THE ROOF OF THE PORCH BY HIMSELF, and put in strong, beautiful brand new 6x6 posts. All this while working full time and being a great father and doing the laundry and feeding all the animals and playing guitar; we do miss him on the weekends though....

Such is life in October when you're a young family with an old home that "you're breathing new life into". The projects sometimes feel endless this time of year, inhale, finish porch roof, install front steps, build back porch railing, build bulkhead, put clapboards on north side of house,, and shingles on east side of house, exhale, and somewhere in there figure out how to finance buying a new family car (we're looking at the Honda Fit, anyone have any feedback?). The nice/frustrating thing about working on a home in New England is there is such a definitive end-date, because while it's Indian Summer now, the cold winter air will slide in shortly and the snow will start falling and you can't really argue with ice and snow, unless you're inside a greenhouse, and then you can laugh at it whole-heartedly while you snack on spinach, but that's a dream for another year and for this year we have enough on our plate.

The Girl, Age Now.

This little lady will give you a hug or a kiss when you ask for one (mostly). She will help you unload the dishwasher. She will bring everyone in the house their own shoes in a plea to go outside. She will pull herself up onto your chair as you type your daily blog post. She can even point at the television to indicate that she is in fact ready to watch Sesame Street. She can hug kiss and play with Ramona our cat without Ramona a) running away or b) clawing her. She brings you book after book and actually sits, listens and watches as you read them. She will eat lobster, fermented cabbage, a whole pear, a small bag of potato chips, a whole bowl of popcorn, 3 bowls of berries, pieces of cheese, broccoli, cups of milk, many cups of cider, green beans out of the garden and crumbs out of the couch (yuck!). She will point to her ear, mouth, nose, eye, toes, belly button and yoni. She will say the words eye, nose and yoni. Yoni is Sanskrit for vagina if you didn't know. How cool is that?!? She knows where the crayons are and how to draw with them. She knows what to do with a kazoo. She constantly wants to go outside. She's just the coolest kid around!

Life in Image

First Cidering of the season (in tanktops!)
Oh, Hey.
My Fermentation Masterpiece: Dill Pickles.
Our Team, hard at work.
The Family Popcorn Bowl.

Throwbacks.

My new haircut.

Driving to and fro Bangor and listening to the same playlist the whole time and picking up Allison.

Going to breakfast with friends and drinking coffee.

Being organized.

Wearing earrings.

Being totally emotional!

Cleaning Closets.

Words.

One of my favorite drawings of all time was made by Matthew Brennan. It is a simple soul of a person with an "x" over the heart and reads "Just A Few Words Can Make All The Difference." I remember being practically bowled over by the sentiment at age 22. It still resonates fully, especially with our 16 month old. And without furthur to do, a list of The Great Cecilia's words:

Mumma
Using Sign Language for "More"
Hi Kitty
Banana
Ball
No
Nose
Eye
Yeah!
Woah
Water
Fish
Yummy
Honey
Amy
Good

Isn't she amazing folks? Accolades all around!

That Warm-Up Cup

My new favorite feeling is coming to the kitchen, early in the morning and watching the sunrise by myself. I love the feeling of turning the lights on and then turning them back off again as the warmth of the sun hits the dining room table. Slippers and Sweaters to combat the chilly air. Murmurings from upstairs tell me my solitude will soon end. I flick the switch of the espresso machine and the two little lights come on, I run the water in the sink 'til it's hot and I fill my cup to pre-warm it for my special brew. Grind Grind Grind coffee and pack the beans into the machine. Flick! One of the lights go off and it's time to get this coffee started! As the espresso starts pouring it's dark delicious flavor I rush to the fridge to get the Jersey creamline milk and pour it into my stainless steel pitcher. As the creme comes down I turn the espresso machine to pause and allow it to heat up once again and take a quarter teaspoon of honey from the jar and place it into my espresso; it will dissolve away and take some bitterness with it. Flick! The light goes off again and it's time to steam the milk, I plunge the steam wand into the cold milk and let it sit on the bottom till I can feel heat through the pitcher, I then raise the wand to the very surface of the milk and the steam begins creating the most beautiful foam that rises up the sides of the pitcher. Steam Off! Machine Off! Tamp foamy milk on the counter to settle all the air bubbles and pour your beautiful milk into the dark coffee cup. Sit down at the table and enjoy, just as the color begins to fade from the sunrise, and the morning begins as your sleepy family makes it's way down the staircase.

Engaging My Upper Back.

In yoga on Friday I asked how to stretch my ribcage, the area around my mid-back pain. We started slow and ended slow on this project, centering and breathing and then doing some very gentle twisting side bends from a standing posture. Then we came to the floor did seated bend twists, forward and back; and that is when it happened. I learned how to use my upper back's strength to take the strain off my mid-back. I felt true peace and relaxation in posture and then the BEST part was in how releasing this tension and learning how to use my body differently allowed me to do an AMAZING bridge posture. It took so little thought and I was able to trust my body (and breath) to move the way it needed to and created strength and flexibility at one time!

This was one of those pivotal yoga classes which take you from one place in your practice, to a more intentional and advanced place. It was wisdom that my body was learning about contraction and flexibility. It was the knowledge of where a muscle group begins and ends. I had "heard" about how these muscles are all connected before, but to really feel it is a different thing all together. I felt enlightened.

Life in Image

These beautiful cucumbers are getting ready to be fermented into half sours.
A certain duo I know.
Everyone's getting into helping preserve the apple harvest!
GIRLFRIENDS UNITE!
Pre-Apple Butter Apples.

My Kim Chi Recipe!

Hello Friends! Last week I harvested our family's first batch of kimchi out of the 2-gallon crock that was stinking up our counter. I opened it up, scraped off a crazy exciting pink mold to discover the sweetest, tangiest most delicious of scarlet kimchis. Not only is this fermented wonder DELICIOUS, but it's also a beautiful natural digestive. The coolest thing about making fermented things is it's pretty simple, you just have keep things clean and not get scared of the natural molds that are made where the brine and air meet. Here's how to make it...

First Fermentation:
Get a small-medium sized cabbage (say 4#ish, also I use red cabbage, but it doesn't matter) and grate/slice it. I like to run it through the grater blade of my food processor, it creates a really nice juice. I clean my crock really well and put a third of the grated cabbage in, and cover that with about a tablespoon of salt and mix all together, repeat this technique with the remaining cabbage. Pack this all down nice and tight in your crock taking care to remove cabbage from crock walls. Place a small plate atop your cabbage and place a clean half gallon jar filled up with water on top of the plate for a weight. Make sure to cover the whole operation with a clean dishtowel to allow air to pass through but not allow for contaminants to get in. Check your crock the following morning, if brine isn't over the top of the plate add some salted water to compensate for low brine levels. Allow this to ferment for 5-10 days. (You've just made sauerkraut!) Skim the mold off the top and take a taste of your delicious fermentation.

Second Fermentation:
Grate another cabbage! Slice some carrots up! Grate 4 apples! Mince an onion! Mince 1-2 heads of garlic! Grate a whole piece of ginger up! Mince 1-3 hot peppers! Mix this all together with your first fermentation of cabbage. Layer your mixture with salt and mix up as you repack your freshly cleaned crock. When you get to the top pack it down again and weight/cover/top off brine as previously described. Let it sit another 5-10 days and there you go! You can harvest this into jars and put it in the ridge to keep for as long as it will last!

ENJOY!!! This is SOOOO yummy, the Hopkins family is living on it!

I strongly recommend Sandor Katz's description of how to Ferment if you'd like more info.

In The Dark.

Are you aware of that feeling of being so comfortable in a house that navigating the dark for midnight pees is no problem? You know where the edges of the furniture are, you know how many steps are on each leg of the staircase. The sensation of carpet turning into tile. The feeling of the cold, cold air outside of the covers. The well known turns, bumps and juts in the hallways. The ability to get a cup of water from the kitchen in the middle of the night and not disturb the peace of sleep. That inherent wisdom of how your home fits together. I remember being a teenager in my father's old farmhouse and with 16 years behind me I could navigate front door to bedroom without turning a single light on. This felt like knowledge to me. I felt as though I had a secret key to our home, that comes only with age and experience. I remember feeling so powerful navigating the dark.

And here I am at 3 Brighton Avenue in Eastport, I've lived here a bit over 3 years, and I feel some of that experience creeping into the inherent knowledge that lives in my brain. I anticipate the turn at the end of the bed at night, where to step to avoid the furniture in the hallway, though the glow of the IGA still helps me find water at night. And I imagine my little girl getting older and being able to creep around in her pj's for midnight thirst and bathroom visits. That with the way the sun rises in the kitchen and sets in the living room keep me aware that I have found my home once again.

Contentment.

Lately I've been feeling a little discouraged about Eat Local Eastport Land. I started creating all these lofty ideas in my head of what it will be, what it could become, and I fear I got a little bit lost. I was feeling overwhelmed and under-compensated; wanting to makes leaps and bounds forward, but feeling frustrated at the same time. Somewhere in all of these fuddlings I found a place to take a breath, and gain some perspective. It was nice perspective, it was good perspective, it was tiny steps towards what you want and growing what you have. So I postered around town, I talked to friends who have been saying that they want to start ordering. I'm focusing on growing what I have, increasing sales, adding to my customer base. The more I sell out of my house, the better it is for my farmers/producers and the better compensated I am. Everyone wins. Mostly I've learned to be content with what I have, and that feels like the best lesson of all. I can still see and feel greater goals, but I'm moving this month towards those goals from where I am. I feel faith in my community that what I'm doing is necessary, and serving my town feels really good to me.

Say Goodbye To Sippy Cups, Say Goodbye To My Baby **

Well It's time, the little plastic, soft on the gums spoons are going to The New To You, as are all the sippy cups. The Big High Chair with removable tray? On it's way too. The bouncy seat is saying goodbye to us as well this morning. A bunch of 12 month clothing is leaving too. (I also get to send off some clothing that is too big for me!!)

This little girl is using a grown up spoon and fork with no problem. She is also using both hands to drink out of real glasses all on her own. All spills are primarily intentional. She sits at the table with us now, in a beautiful wooden chair that her Grampa Grant refinished for her. She's at the breakfast table and puts away 1 egg, hands together, signing more, holding the plate out to us. We cook another egg and after the gobble down there is a repeated gesture asking for more. The 3rd egg is scrambled and eaten and then we have a few slices of pear or peach to take care of the last rumblings in that belly of hers! She is a GROWING GIRL!

**sung to the tune of Billy Joel's song, "Say Goodbye to Hollywood"

Life in Image

Cecilia puts 2 and 2 together!
Canned whole tomatoes (and blueberry, peach jelly)
A Pear Galette.
The ham of the century.
The beginning of the elderberry harvest.

Good Girlfriends Are Great.

Yesterday the girl and I went out to breakfast. We had 2 of my girlfriends with us, we seemed to all be in a place of transition, them in a sadder world, me in a more celebratory one. It was so beautiful to sit in the back corner of the restaurant with wonderful women processing the cycles of our lives. Soul supporting, full, rich, heartfelt communication.

Then two of my very favorite girlfriends blew into town last night. And then it's Beautiful Day at The CCLC on Saturday. I'm feeling very blessed indeed.

The title of this post could also have been: Good Girlfriends Are Necessary.

Growing The Local Food Movement of Eastport, Maine

Eastport is a small city, it has a bustling downtown at times, there are people about town who care about each other, there is a strong community here. We know one person's gossip before they do. Everyone talks and everyone is involved with each others lives.

I feel like the local food system works so well in a community like this. Did you see the tomatoes? They're beautiful! I'll get some next week, I don't want to miss out. Where'd you get your chickens? My friend a few towns south had some extras so we took them. The family's is going to be cidering this weekend. Let's make it a party. Oh yes, let's! etc, etc little snippets of many conversations in a rural town.

The city in a rural landscape, perfect breeding ground for real food for real people. It's catching like wildfire, you could light the next match!

In Which I Discover Fall Is Coming...

It began when I felt the cool air in the afternoon instead of the evening. Compounded by many brown leaves on the driveway into Race Point. Turns out it's still dark at 5:30 in the morning, no to mention dark by 7:30pm. There were pumpkins and cider at Jim Kovaleski's Vegetable stand and the apples are getting red and falling off the trees. Fresh eating Veg is coming to a close. I have Kim Chi fermenting in a crock.

Pretty soon we'll be pulling potatoes out of the ground.

Music & Drawing.

This past weekend was Salmon Festival in Eastport, which it turns out is essentially a homegrown music festival. There's also Paint Eastport Day in which many artists in town draw and paint all day then bring the fruits of their efforts to the Arts Center for a big auction, seriously great fun! This is the second year I've participated, and I was trying to figure out how to ehar all the music during the chowder lunch and get my drawings done, I realized I'd love just sitting in the lunch and drawing, so that's what I did!

I picked a small round table in the back of the room, set up my supplies, used Raf's extra beer ticket for an Andrew's Brown Ale and set my supplies out on the table. I decided to do one drawing during each set of music... A Jazz Trio, The Schuth Brothers, High Tide, Doug Beaver, Rafi Hopkins and a subset of all the musicians. I was very pleased to be camped out drawing people and activity, using many colors in a musical environment. To be making artwork publicly which is normally such a private thing for me. And then to have it viewed by many people at the auction... 3 pieces sold! Hurrah!

All that AND a new, short haircut to boot!

Life in Image (belated)

New Brunswick Flag returning from our friend's bicycle tour.
Sunset on a mostly white house.
My "helper" in blanching broccoli.
Pear Hot Sauce on eggs and veggies.
The kitchen... note new clock!

Telling Time & Inspiration

The first thing that happened is we got a wall hanging clock for our kitchen. This has been a surprising improvement to my life. A simple glance from my station at the dining table, or from the phone, or while cooking breakfast/lunch/dinner and I can easily see what time it is, and I don't even have to subtract 10 minutes, or open my (old dysfunctional) computer to get an accurate reading. The coolest thing about this particular clock is that it has a timer built into it! Plus an old retro kind of feel! Plus it's red! No more timing blanched vegetables off of the clock on the portable phone! This plus my refurbished computer from a little operation called Rafi Hopkins Consulting (have you heard of this webmaster/networking-genius/computer-repairman-extrordinaire? he does fabulous work making you feel like a new person, coming into technological modern times!) and I am like a new homemaker! Sending emails at the speed of light and knowing what time it is!

The inspiration bit comes into play with the new timer, I have some canning, and some blanching/freezing to do. Hot Peppers to pickle, celery to blanch and freeze(for stocks), blueberry jam to make, pesto to make/freeze. And coming with buying club today is more blueberries for jam making, kale to blanch and green beans to blanch and freeze. Busy 24 hours! I think my favorite rose bush has hips ready to harvest as well, so that's worth a drive to the west side of the island. I'm hoping to make some rosehip jelly this year as well as freeze them for teas in the winter. Vitamin C infusion! So we'll see what I can get through today....