‘Farm & Garden’ Category

Chicken Shopping

Posted on January 5th, 2012 by Tonia 6 Comments

Hey Beth, guess what we did tonight?

We ordered chickens from a catalog!! After a failed attempt to hatch our own, we decided what the heck, let’s just adopt.

Our friends Jen and Trevor are getting in on the action, because the minimum order from Murray McMurray is 25 birds. It was actually their brilliant idea to share an order.

Speckled Sussex, Black Australorps, Buff Orpingtons….there are so many choices, it’s so hard to pick! It’s going to be a happy day this spring when those boxes show up on our porch.

P.S. How hilarious/cute/endearing are the guys- snuggled up together on the couch, eating snacks and picking out their chickens??

Heating with Wood

Posted on October 31st, 2011 by Tonia No Comments

We heat our house with wood, so this time of year we spend hours outside splitting and stacking. Our woodshed holds about two months worth of split logs, so we fill it up to the brim and then split more and re-stock it as needed throughout the winter.

The great thing about heating with wood is that it heats you twice- when you’re chopping it and when you’re burning it. It’s not quite cold enough yet to start heating the whole house, but when we wake up in the morning the house feels cold and it’s a little tough to get out of bed. After a few hours of splitting wood, we’re so hot and sweaty that we don’t need the house to be very warm. It feels good to get the blood moving on these damp, chill days.

Back in Duluth, we had a cute little woodstove in our living room and we did a tutorial on chimney cleaning. Check it out if you need to get your stove clean and ready for the winter!

Cider Again

Posted on October 27th, 2011 by Tonia 4 Comments


We couldn’t help ourselves…we made cider again. The tree in our yard with beautiful yellow translucent apples finally reached prime ripeness, and obviously we needed to taste what kind of cider they made.

My family came to join in the fun.

This batch will probably end up as hard cider, fermenting in our basement this winter. So it wasn’t completely off-base for me to choose the Punch Brothers’ song “Rye Whiskey” as the tune for this little video:

Sneak Leek Attack

Posted on October 21st, 2011 by Tonia 1 Comment

The leeks in our garden are ready for harvest, and what better timing? Late October, dark and cold. Superstition hanging in the air like a frozen breath. Things that wouldn’t normally bother us, everyday things like the damp stairway down to the basement, suddenly send shivers up the spine. And perfectly, little more than a week before the capstone of this eerie season, the monster-ly leeks with their rockstar hair reach maturity.

Obviously the only way to harvest such a veggie is to sneak-attack them at night. They never saw us coming.

Maybe I will be a leek for Halloween. I think that costume would go over much better in our little farmy town than my “Lindsey Lohan Goes to Jail” costume last year {turns out, no one knows who Lindsey Lohan is around here.}

Isn’t it funny how the spookiest veggie makes the most comforting supper? We enjoyed several hot bowls of Potato Leek Soup this evening next to the cozy wood-stove, and we think you should too:

Rustic Potato Leek Soup
From “The Best Recipe Soups and Stews” by Cooks Illustrated.

4 pounds leeks {rinsed and and chopped into 1 inch pieces. Use only white and 3 inches of light green portion}
4 tb. butter, unsalted
1 tb. flour
5 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
2 lbs. potatoes chopped

Heat the butter in a large stockpot until melted and foaming. Stir in leeks, increase heat and cover for 15-20 minutes, but do not brown the leeks.

Sprinkle flour over the leeks and coat evenly until it dissolves.

Pour in the stock, whisking continually. Add the bay leaf and potatoes and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes. Discard bay leaf and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot with crusty bread. Yummmmm!

Variations:

1. Add cooked kielbasa or white beans just before serving.

2. Let the soup cool and then blend it in batches in a high-powered blender until completely smooth. Return it to the pot to warm it back up before serving. While blending, add a couple slices of a seedy, grainy bread {the gluten in the bread makes the soup extra smooth and creamy, and the seeds/grains [especially ones like flax and fennel] stay intact for a nice texture and add flavor.