Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Snow

It snowed last night.  
 But it won't stay on the ground long.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

This Weekend...

...is a fabulous art fair  in Bloomington, Indiana.  I hope you can come!

Unitarian Church Art Fair and Bazaar
Friday, Dec 2,  10 am - 7 pm
Saturday, Dec 3,   9 pm - 5 pm
Corner of Fee Lane and the Bypass

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Robin's Caffeine Free Chai

I  love chai.   I once had a huge cup of really good chai from a Starbucks at a rest stop somewhere in Pennsylvania on the way back from Philly to Indiana.   It was delicious.   It also had so much caffeine that I could have run beside the car all the way across Ohio.  

Oh. My.   I had the shakes for days. 

I generally don't need artificial stimulants to keep me going.  Ever.   I tend to be a bit like the energizer bunny by nature.   Also, I'm hyper-thyroid.    Caffeine is something I avoid. 

Unfortunately, real chai is made with black tea.   Black tea is full of caffeine.  

A dilemma!  I love chai.  I hate caffeine.   So I made it my mission to brew a terrific chai without the tea.

And I did.  It's fabulous.  If I do say so myself. 

Here's the recipe.   You make it as mild or strong as you like and as sweet [or not] as you like.   I designed it so you can keep it for a while and make it a mug full at a time as you need to.  Brew some for yourself and sit back for the rest of the weekend and soak up some calm to get you through the next few weeks. 

This will make two quarts of chai.  
Robin's Caffeine Free Chai
  • 1 star anise
  • 20-24 whole cloves
  • 12-14 whole alspice
  • 2 heaping teaspoons of broken cinnamon bark [or thereabouts]
  • 12-14 whole white peppercorns
  • 6 green cardamom pods, opened so the seeds can come out
  • 2 inches ginger root, sliced
  • 1 quart of water
  • 1/4 cup sugar [or more to taste]
Put all the spices in a pot with the water and simmer for 20 minutes or so.  

If you like it mild, then strain the spices out.   Add the sugar and add enough water to make a full quart.  To serve, add equal parts chai and milk to a mug. If you're not using it all right away, then keep the extras in the fridge in a jar.

If you like it stronger, then leave the spices in the brew.   Pour it into a jar and add the sugar.   Add enough water to fill up the quart.  Keep the jar in the fridge.  It'll get stronger as it sits.   When it's good and strong, I put 1/4 cup of the brew in a mug, add a 1/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk, then nuke it all until it's good and hot. 

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Easy Herbs for Pork

Here is another meat rub that we love, love, love.

It's my very favorite way to fix pork shoulder chops or even a larger pork roast.

As I did with the Chicken Rub recipe, I've given you a single use version and a bulk version.

Enjoy!

P.S.  Don't freak out about the mustard thing.   It won't taste like you poured French's yellow all over it.  Trust me!    It's not really spicy at all.    Try it once before you pass judgement.

Pork Rub - single use
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 Tablespoon  mustard powder
  • 2 teaspoons rosemary powder


Pork Rub - bulk
  • 1 1/2 cups salt
  • 2 cups mustard powder
  • 1 1/2 cups rosemary powder

Stir it up well and rub it on the meat.    Don't worry too much about the proportions.   It'll taste great!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Easy Herbs for Chicken

I love this herb mix.    Whenever we bake a chicken, we cover it in this stuff.   We also put a couple of spoons full into our chicken stock.   Yum!

It's quick.   It's easy.  It doesn't call for exotic ingredients.

Whew.  I'm so glad.   I can't deal with exotic right now.

I've given you two recipes - one for a single use on chicken or in soup and one that's a bulk recipe.   

Chicken Rub - Single Chicken
  • 1 Tablespoon dried crushed rosemary
  • 1 Tablespoon dried thyme leaves
  • 1/2 Tablespoon [1 1/2 tsp] salt

Chicken Rub - Bulk recipe
  • 4 oz dried thyme leaves
  • 4 oz dried crushed rosemary
  • 1 cup salt
Stir it all up and use it on chicken [or turkey!] or in soup.  You can make these without the salt.    Don't worry if the proportions aren't exactly right.   Everything will still taste good.  

To put it on a chicken, pour the herb mix in your hand and rub it all over the chicken.   You can try to sprinkle it, but it doesn't stick all that well unless you get up close and personal.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

May you have a few moments today to notice and appreciate something beautiful.  
Frost, melting on milkweed seeds

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Sapsucker tree




This is our apple tree.   It feeds a lot of woodpeckers. [And sapsuckers! Thanks to Teresa in the comments for identifying thi pecking pattern.]


There are several different types of woodpeckers that live around us.  

Down the way is a patch of woods full of breeding pairs of red headed woodpeckers.   I love them. 



In the deepest parts of our woods we sometimes see the very large pileated woodpeckers and we can hear them on old hollow trees for miles.  

Closer to home, we get red bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers.    They make a science out of mining our old apple tree for food. 




You can see the holes in nice neat rows going around the tree.  The rows are a few inches apart and go all the way down the tree.   If you look closely, you can see which are new holes, surrounded by orange bark, and which are old holes, with raised scar tissue around each hole. 

We will keep this tree - even though it bears inferior apples and is prone to other problems.    It shades our back patio and the birds love it.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Wood

It makes me really happy to see a neat stack of wood ready for the winter.    By February, it will have dried enough to make great fuel for our maple syrup fires.

Monday, November 21, 2011

November Violets

Every November we have a few violets that do a second showing for us.   They are hardy and I appreciate their last 'Hurrah!'
 

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Full Jelly Cupboard

This is my jelly cupboard.  It's a hand me down, so it came pre-distressed.  The outside is painted a soft sage green.  

I alphabetized it all - from left to right on the 2nd shelf and then from right to left on the bottom shelf. 

Kinda Monk, I know.   But now I can find what I'm looking for.  
  • Blackberry Jelly
  • Blackberry Syrup
  • Blackberry Barbeque Sauce
  • Blueberry Lime Jam
  • Cantaloupe Lime Mint Jam
  • Cantaloupe Orange Pineapple Jam
  • Cranberry Jam
  • Elaeagnus Orange Jam
  • Peach Chutney
  • Peach Jam
  • Peach Maple Jam
  • Peach Vanilla Jam
  • Pear Ginger Jam
  • Pear Maple Jam
  • Pear-Plum Vanilla Jam
  • Pepper Ginger Jelly
  • Plum Preserves with Star Anise
  • Plum Sauce
  • Raspberry Jam
  • Rhubarb Marmalade
  • Rhubarb Ginger Marmalade
  • Rose Jelly
  • Strawberry Rhubarb
  • Violet Jelly
The little jars on the top shelf are for gifts.   Every time I make a batch of something, I put some in a few of those cute little 4 oz jars to give as gifts.  I try to put both traditional and unusual types of jam in a gift bag.   Since the jars are little, if the recipient doesn't like it, they don't have to worry about wasting a lot of it.   Plus, if I put a few different kinds of jam in a gift, I'm likely to give them at least one kind that they really like. 


Friday, November 18, 2011

Cedar - Apple Rust

Our cedars get weird parasites.    Once in a while we get bagworms.     This year I noticed some weird galls.

They look like brains.

I looked them up and the news is not good.

They are the cedar-apple rust.    They start in cedars, and then in the warm spring rain, they sprout orange jelly-like 'hairs' out of each dimple.   The rust sends out spores looking for apple trees, which we have.   This might explain why we've never had good luck with apples.    Ever. 

Check out this site for some other good pics of this fungus.   

Now I'm going to have to decide whether or not to cut down those cedars or to cut down the apples [two of which aren't bearing anyway].     Feel free to weigh in.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Juniperus virginiana

Cedar trees.

Red cedar trees.

They pop up in uncultivated fields and along our roadsides.

They're evergreen and I love that.    We're surrounded by hardwood forests and they change a lot through the year.   The cedars give us some continuity.

They don't drop their leaves, they just get bigger.


One of the big questions we had was whether we have the eastern red cedar, or the southern red cedar.

Ours are upright and columnar. 

Except when they've been hacked by the county bush hog, which chops off everything at just above fence height.   Those cedars start to sprawl - but if left alone, they would have been upright and columnar.

Upright and columnar indicates that we have the eastern variety - Juniperus virginiana.

The southern variety is sprawling and irregular.   There is some debate whether it is another species entirely or a subspecies of Juniperus virginiana  [sp. silicicola].



Our cedars have beautiful blue berries.   The birds eat them and spread the seeds around. 

Sound familiar?   That's how we got so many elaeagnus trees, too.

The county bush hog just mangled some and we found the cuttings on the road.   I'm thinking they'll make pretty wreathes.  

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Faces in Trees

Tree spirits are called 'dryads'.    Specifically, they're supposed to live in oak trees.  They're usually very shy, except around the goddess Artemis, the goddess of hunters and femininity.      

Once in a while, they show their faces.   They're easier to see in the fall and winter.   We've been collecting pics. 

We're also hoping to get a pic of Artemis.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Black Butterflies

Our black caterpillars turned into black butterflies.

Black swallowtails can overwinter and we weren't sure if we'd need to do that or not.    Turns out these guys were impatient and last week, on the last few very warm days we had, they emerged.   One a day, for three days.    It was magic.

The whole process probably took an hour.   After that, they were ready to fly.

Empty chrysalis.   It splits at the top. 








Monday, November 14, 2011

Updated!: Sweet Creamy Pumpkin Soup

UPDATE:   Pioneer Woman  had a version of sweet creamy pumpkin soup that was even better!    I revised hers a bit and love, love, love the result!   For breakfast!    I like it better because the maple doesn't make this taste like pumpkin pie as much as the other recipe does.   I wish I'd thought of it myself.

Here's the new version:

Sweet Creamy Pumpkin Soup
  • 4 cups pumpkin or squash puree
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • dash nutmeg 
  • dash cinnamon [OPTIONAL]
Put all ingredients in saucepan.  Heat through.


Original post:
After I finished cooking up the big pumpkin the other day, I had loads of puree to play with.   I've been busy playing with pumpkin soup recipes.

My husband and I  love pumpkin and squash soups.  The kids....not so much, so I make small batches.   Last week I made two versions of pumpkin soup,  I made a spicy Indian verison and I made a sweet version with cream.   Delish!

K1 likes the spicy version and K2 likes this one [without the candied ginger garnish].   Eric and I like them both.

Enjoy!

Sweet Creamy Pumpkin Soup
  • 4 cup pumpkin or squash puree
  • 1/2 milk or cream
  • 1-2 Tablespoons sugar
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
Put all ingredients in saucepan.  Heat through.   Garnish with candied ginger and cream.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Pear Maple Jam

Here's a quick and easy jam recipe for a holiday brunch.   There is just enough maple to enhance the pear, but not overpower it.  

Pear Maple Jam 
  • 6 cups cooked pears  [6 fresh pears]
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 3 Tablespoons Ball Low Sugar Pectin
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup real maple syrup

Cook the pears, if you haven't already.   Yes, you need to peel and core them.  

Add the lemon juice and pectin to the cooked pears, stirring constantly if the pears are still hot.   You don't want pectin clumps! 

Heat to a hard boil.    A really, really hard boil.   It matters.   It should be a raging boil even when you're stirring energetically.  

Keep it at a hard boil for 1 minute.

Add sugar and maple syrup.    Return to a really, really hard boil.   Boil hard for 1 minute.  

That's it!  Ladle into jars and process for canning.

Troubleshooting:
If you can't get fresh pears, use canned ones.  [I'd use 3 small cans or 2 larger ones.  Don't worry about being exact.  It'll be close enough.  Really.]  Try to find some without sugar.

If you have canned pears in syrup [even light syrup], then DON'T add the pectin to the pears. 

In a small saucepan, dissolve the pectin in 1 1/2 cups of water.   Boil it hard for 1 minute!  [It won't take long.]

Put the pears and syrup in a large pot and mash them some. Then add the pectin goo to the pears.

Add the sugar MINUS 1/2 cup or so [minus 1 cup if they were in heavy syrup] - there's already some sugar in the canned pear syrup, so you don't need to add as much now.

Boil it all hard for 1 minute.    Ladle into jars and process for canning.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Pear-Plum Vanilla Jam

This is heaven in a bottle.  

Seriously. 

So, I'll cut right to the chase.  I can tell you don't want me to prologue this with a funny story or witty repartee.   Ahem.

Pear-Plum Vanilla Jam

  • 3 cups cooked pears [3-4 fresh pears]
  • 2 cups cooked plums [2-3 large plums or 3-4 small plums]
  • 2 1/2 Tablespoons Ball Low-Sugar Pectin powder
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 2+ Tablespoons blackberry syrup [or other berry juice/syrup to make it a pretty color]

If you have fresh pears and plums,  peel, de-seed and chop them up.   Put them in a big pot with just enough water that they won't burn if you don't stir them every second.   Cook them until soft.

Once the fruit is cooked,  sprinkle in the pectin.   Pectin will clump when it hits hot liquid, so if you've just cooked the fruit and it's hot, then stir constantly as you put in the pectin.    Trust me.

Boil the fruit and pectin.

While you're waiting for that stuff to boil,  slice your vanilla bean in half longways.   With a spoon, open up one end of one of the halves and scrape the seeds down the pod and out into the fruit and pectin.   Do that with the other half, too, while you're at it. 

Let the fruit and vanilla come to a hard boil.   A really hard boil.   Hard boil for 1 minute.

Add the sugar and berry syrup and return it to a hard boil.  Be patient.   Meditate while you wait.  Ponder the splatters on the wall behind your stove where you can't reach them.   Practice letting go of the OCD that has just seized you.   Really.   This jam will taste just fine even if that wall has spatters on it.

Hard boil that jam for 1 minute.    Ladle into jars and process for canning.  

Then find a step stool that'll let you reach those splatters behind the stove.   

Friday, November 11, 2011

Fiber Art Show and Sale

It's time for the 2011 Bloomington Spinners and Weavers Guild Fiber Arts Show and Sale. 

Bloomington, Indiana,  1st United Church
corner of 3rd St. and Woodscrest - behind Promptcare and IU Credit Union

Friday, Nov 11:  5 pm - 9 pm
Saturday, Nov 12:  10 am - 5 pm

Hope to see you there!

Oaks


We have a lot of oak trees.
All kinds of oak trees.   Red, white, pinoak, swamp, etc.   

They like it here and I am happy to have them here.
They're the last of the trees to turn colors in the fall and they display the widest variation in color.
They're big and solid and patient and productive.

I love them.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Plum Sauce

We eat a lot of plum sauce, or any variation thereof, whenever we make eggrolls.

But it gets expensive to buy those cute little bottles - even if the bottles are really cute and I can use them again for other stuff. 

So I decided to make my own.  [My own plum sauce.  Not my own bottles.]  It's easier than I thought to make it myself.

Really.

First I bought some plums at Sam's and then they got lost in the fridge.

I hate that.

When I found them, some of them had soft spots.   The kind of soft spots that aren't really fun to eat fresh, but that are just perfect in jam and plum sauce.

I peeled and chopped and cooked up the plums and made Pear-Plum Vanilla Jam with half of them and used the rest for plum sauce.   [More on that Pear-Plum Vanilla Jam later...]

I had about 3 cups of cooked plums left over for the plum sauce. 

Here's how it went...

Plum Sauce
  • 3 cups cooked plums [That's about 3 large plums or 4-5 small ones]
  • 1  1/2 Tablespoons Ball Low-Sugar Pectin powder
In saucepan, combine the plum goo and pectin and heat until it boils hard.   Be patient.  It's worth it.  Boil hard for 1 minute.  
  • 1/4 cup minced onion
  • 1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger or pickled ginger
  • 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
In another pot, combine the above ingredients and cook just until tender.   You're trying to mellow them, not caramelize them.

When the plums have boiled hard for a minute, put them in the large pot with the onions and stuff.  Return to boil.   Then add: 
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup blackberry syrup [or other red juice for color because my plums were beige]
  • 1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
Heat this until it boils hard.   Be patient.  Let it get good and hot all the way through.   Keep stirring and stirring and when it's boiling so hard that you can't stir it down and it's singing to you, then add:
  • 1/2 cup vinegar
Combine well.   Let it all get good and hot again.    Ladle into jars.   Process for canning.   Makes 5 cups of truly excellent plum sauce.


Troubleshooting:
Cooking the plums:   Peel and chop them up into chunks.   Don't stress out about the size of the chunks.   They fall apart when they cook.   Put them into a small saucepan and put about 1/2 cup of water in there.   You don't want too much water, but you don't want them to stick either and you won't have time to stir them constantly because now you're going to go mince the onion and garlic and stuff.   Add more water if you need to.   It'll be fine. 

Plums:  Let's say that you can't find any fresh plums worth eating at the store right now.   Don't worry.  You can use a large can of plums from the store.  Get one without sugar if possible.

Plums in syrup:  Let's say that you can't find a can of plums without sugar.   Don't worry.   This is what you do:
  • Instead of dissolving your pectin in with the plums, dissolve the pectin into 1 1/2 cups of plain old water.   Or plain new water.   Water.   Whatever. 
  • Boil the water and pectin hard.
  • When it has boiled hard for a minute, put the can of plums in there too and return it all to a boil.  Then put it in the bigger pan with the onions and stuff and boil it again.  [You don't have to boil it hard this time.]
  • Add the rest of the sugar MINUS a cup.   [You already have sugar in the can of plums, so you can cut some of the extra sugar we add to the sauce out.  Make sense?]  
  • Follow the rest of the recipe as it is above.    
Your sauce should be just fabulous.   Have an extra eggroll for me!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Pumpkin Soup - Sweet UPDATED

UPDATE:   Pioneer Woman  had a version of sweet creamy pumpkin soup that was even better!    I revised hers a bit and love, love, love the result!   For breakfast!    Here it is:

Sweet Creamy Pumpkin Soup
  • 4 cups pumpkin or squash puree
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • dash nutmeg
Put all ingredients in saucepan.  Heat through.


Original article:
After I finished cooking up the big pumpkin the other day, I had loads of puree to play with.   I've been busy playing with pumpkin soup recipes.

My husband and I  love pumpkin and squash soups.  The kids....not so much, so I make small batches.   Last week I made two versions of pumpkin soup,  I made a spicy Indian verison and I made a sweet version with cream.   Delish!

K1 likes the spicy version and K2 likes this one [without the candied ginger garnish].   Eric and I like them both.

Enjoy!

Sweet Creamy Pumpkin Soup
  • 4 cup pumpkin or squash puree
  • 1/2 milk or cream
  • 1-2 Tablespoons sugar
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
Put all ingredients in saucepan.  Heat through.   Garnish with candied ginger and cream.

Pignuts?

We have several types of hickories on our place.   The tree that bore these is right on the path and it's obviously a hickory when you look at the leaves, but a good friend who really knows hickories told us that these aren't the 'real' hickory nuts.   So I gathered some up and did some research. 

Hickory is a large family of nut bearing trees in the genus Carya.  'Carya' is from an Ancient Greek word meaning nut.  

The hickory nuts that you like to eat are Carya lacinosa or Carya ovata.  
Pecans [Carya illinoinensis] are a type of hickory.
Pignuts [Carya glabra] are  hickories.
Bitternuts [Carya cordiformis] are hickories.  

Ours are either pignuts or bitternuts - not very tasty, they say.   Only the squirrels like them. 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Pumpkin Soup - The Spicy Version


This is a recipe for a pumpkin soup blended with Indian spices that we really like.   Feel free to substitute any kind of yellow winter squash for the pumpkin.  
This recipe will make 4 small servings or 2 large ones.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 T butter, or bacon grease, or sausage drippings
  • 2 cups pumpkin or squash puree
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cumin
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • dash cayenne
  • salt to taste

In saucepan, caramelize the onion and garlic in the butter/grease/drippings.  Put in blender.  Add pumpkin, chicken stock and spices.   Blend until completely smooth.  Put back in pan and heat through. 

Enjoy!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Collapse Weave Experiments

I've been fascinated with collapse weave for a long time.   You weave it flat, then wash it and Shazam!  it's crinkly.

Crinkly is cool.

Crinkly did not come easy.



I tried all sorts of things and it all pretty much came out looking like this.

Not crinkly.

Sort of crinkly, but not really crinkly.   It was thinking about being crinkly, but not actually doing the crinkly thing. 

I got a great book on collapse weave and it helped me think about it quite a bit.  Check out Collapse Weave, by Anne Field. 

For me, though, 'thinking' wasn't nearly as a good a teacher as 'doing'.   I had to warp the loom and try some stuff out before I could figure out how the whole thing worked.   I had to make some mistakes. 

This is what I learned. 

1.  Use a fine warp.   I've been playing with lace weight alpaca and gotten some nice stuff.  I've also seen nice stuff worked up on tencel and silk warps [shoot for 20/2 or smaller].

2.  Use a wide sett.   I liked 15-18 epi.

3.  Differential setts didn't crinkle.   I tried  mixing a 24 epi with a 15 epi in the warp and it didn't do anything.

4.  Wooly nylon thread is not a good weft thread.  It doesn't collapse nearly enough.   Don't bother.

5.  Overtwisted wool crepe was the best weft I tried.    It comes in great colors from Habu and it's worth the money.   If you're local, then you'll be glad to know that Yarns Unlimited has both this yarn and the Collapse Weave book.

6.  I tried both 1/3 twill and 2/2 twill and discovered that it really doesn't make a difference.   I got good collapse with both.

7.  Don't pack the weft.   Keep it a balanced weave even though the weft is considerably smaller than the warp.    Sample until you get what you like.

In the end, I got what I was shooting for.  It collapsed a full 50%.    By changing wefts, I could get a fabric that collapsed in some places but not others. 

I need to play with this some more.    What would happen if I mixed collapse weave with shibori?   Hmm....

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Natural Dye - Indigo

We did our tenth natural dye sample set a couple of weeks ago.   This was the last dyestuff for our study group on natural dyes and we ended with a bang:   Indigo!

Ahhh, indigo.

The color of the sea and sky.   American fashion's great neutral. 

We had been reading for some time about different types of indigo vats and let me tell you, there's a lot of variation out there on how to do one.  

Indigo must be in an oxygen deficient dyebath if the color is to chemically adhere to the fiber.   This means that we had to dissolve the indigo into the water, then add a reduction agent to remove the oxygen.

For hundreds, if not thousands, of years, indigo vats were reduced with urine.   Apparently the urine of young boys and pregnant women is the preferred indigo vat urine.    Now you know. 

We decided to forgo the urine.   [Just thinking about it activates my gag reflex and everyone else's, too.  Ick.]

I had chunk indigo and another of us had instant indigo.   We decided to go with the instant indigo, but we had some RIT color remover on hand just in case we needed some reduction boost.

Instant indigo [available from many places] is made so that the indigo, which is already ground and easier to dissolve, is combined with a reduction agent.   All you have to do is put it in hot water and you're ready to go.    

We added a tablespoon of instant indigo to about 3 gallons of hot water in a bit stainless steel dyepot. 

This instant indigo was older and had already been used a bit.    The reduction agent was too weak to fully reduce the vat so we added a teaspoon of the RIT color remover.    It worked beautifully!

You can tell if an indigo pot is reduced enough by looking at the color of the water.   If it's green, it's reduced.   If it's aqua or blue, there's way too much oxygen in the vat and you need to reduce it. 

Stir carefully, disturbing the surface of the water as little as possible.   Lift and dunk your fiber carefully and slowly.  Keep the temp at about 120 degrees.  

Put your fiber in and leave it for 5 or 10 minutes.   Lift it carefully out of the water and hang it up.  You'll see the color develop fairly quickly.   

If you want a darker color, it's best to do several dips, rather than one long one.   One long dip often results in 'crocking'.   Crocked dye is dark, but rubs off very easily.   It's messy and hard to rinse because it keeps bleeding.  Don't go there!  Do multiple dips instead.  

Troubleshooting:   We'd love to be able to say that we followed all the directions and things turned out perfectly, but that's never the way it happens.  

This instant indigo had clumped and we didn't realize it wasn't dissolving right until we'd added a couple more tablespoons of it to get a reasonable amount of color in the water.    Since we were trying not to stir to energetically, we didn't notice the rather copious quantity of sediment on the bottom until we put in a test sample.    It came up covered with indigo bits.  

We've done bits before.   Bits are a pain.   We prefer to strain the bits out of the dye bath.   So we did.  

We lined a colander with polyester quilt batting and poured the entire dye pot through that to strain the bits out.   Then we put the bits in a jar and added boiling water to try to dissolve more of it.   That worked reasonably well and we got quite a bit more color, which we poured into the dyebath, but we still had lots of bits.   We saved them to dry and use again later.  

When we got the right amount of color in the water, we reduced it again and put our bigger sample bundles in.    

Beautiful, glorious color!   

This was one of the most fun natural dye experiments that we've done. 

Friday, November 4, 2011

Pumpkin Harvest

It's time to bring the pumpkins in and process them for cooking.  Yay!    Pumpkin!

We managed to grow a few small ones this year that the squash bugs didn't get.    I got another, larger one from a market, too so I could play around with pumpkin/squash soup recipes and so we could put some up.

There are a couple of ways to process pumpkin for use in pies and soups.   You can bake it, or you can steam it.  I like to steam it because it's faster.  

First cut it in half.    This was an excellent, meaty pumpkin.  Not many seeds, but a lot of flesh.   Perfect for pies and soup.  

Scrape out the seeds.   Don't worry about getting all the stringy things out.  Just get the seeds out.



Cut the pumpkin into wedges or strips.  Then peel each strip with a vegetable peeler. 



Cut each peeled strip into chunks.   They can be big chunks, but not huge ones. 



Steam the chunks until they are soft.   You should be able to put a fork in them easily.   They might begin to fall apart - that's OK. 

I use a little steamer basket that opens up to fit across the entire bottom of this big pot.  Then I load the pot to the top with pumpkin chunks. They'll cook down a bit as they steam.

Turn the heat on high enough to get a hard boil.  Once it's boiling well, you can cover the pot and turn the heat down.    It only took me about 20 minutes to steam a big pot full.    [I had two pots worth of pumpkin chunks.]


Once the pumpkin is good and cooked, I put it in a bowl and mash it up a bit with a potato masher before it goes in the blender.   



My blender is happier that way.  


I filled it to the tippy top.   Then I turned on puree to get...





....this lovely pumpkin puree. 


Now it's ready to use in pie or soup or pumpkin butter or whatever else your heart desires.  

We used ours in soup and in pumpkin pancakes.   Yum.

Long term storage:   Pumpkin is dense and low acid.   If you want to bottle it up keep in your cupboard, then make sure you use your pressure canner.     If you don't want to mess with the pressure canner, then you can freeze the puree until you're ready to use it.  
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