Spring Chickens

It was such a lovely spring day that I could not help taking a few new pictures for the blog.

recent renovations

It's not a porch, it's a nursery for little plant babies.

Planting Potatoes

Highs in the 80's today, if I close my eyes I can almost believe I'm back in Florida.

Planting potatoes this week. As the UPS man pointed out, we are indeed running two weeks late using Good Friday as the standard planting date in Iowa. However, last year we did not plant until May 18th and we still had an outstanding potato crop.

(exhausted from stealing potatoes)

Finally Spring

The chickens are adorable. They now come when called and follow us around the farm all day.

sprouting

I love sprouting. I've up-graded from simple sprouting with mung beans and lentils to growing sunflower sprouts. They are a little more work but so worth the effort. Plus they are ridiculously overpriced at the store.

If you have never sprouted before here are the simple directions. Sprouts are great during the winter, they sprout in 3 to 7 days and add a touch of green to the house.

Want to start sprouting today?

Supplies:

-an old jar

-a rubber band and cheese cloth (or paper, old cloth, fancy sprouting screen)

-water

-brown lentils, french lentils mung beans, sunflower seeds

1. soak mung beans over night in warm water (they will vastly enlarge so use maybe an 1/8 cup)

2. place cheese cloth on jar and drain

3. place jar in a warm well lit area but not in direct sun light

4. rinse mung beans twice a day (I place mine by my coffee maker to remind myself to wash them)

5. After about three to four days when sprouts look almost full grown place them in direct sun light to green for a day.

6. rinse and place in refrigerator.

Sunflower seeds are a bit more complicated.

Follow steps 1-4 like regular sprouts. After rinsing the sprouts for two days transfer to tray with growing medium. I use a plastic take out container as my tray. I then cut holes in the bottom for drainage. I use an extra lid under the take out container to catch water.

Water the seeds then cover the tray with the lid and keep out of direct sun light for two days.

Then remove the lid and place tray in south window to green for two days. Be sure to keep the growing medium moist.

Trim with scissors then place your sprouts in a bag with a little water and refrigerate.

Bread Making with Papa Steve

We finally achieved a measure of success with our bread making. After producing five loafs of brick like whole wheat bread, we sought out Papa Steve's advice. He introduced us to the magic of Vital Wheat Gluten. (which I now refer to as the magic powder which must be added to everything just incase)

The results were two lovely loafs of honey roasted sunflower whole wheat bread.

all I could think about was my play-dough factory days

Bryan and I have wanted to make our own pasta since the beginning of our project. Bryan fondly remembers makings spaghetti with his grandmother as a child. Not to mention that we were excited to make a product that was entirely on project. The wheat was grown organically on my father's farm and he and I recently ground it into pasta flour. The eggs of course came from our chickens and we used our own frozen vegetables from the garden in the flavored pastas.

Grandfather Siebels was kind enough to gift us Grandmother's old pasta machine. We were tickled to find the original receipts attached to the bottom of the machine. Includling the amount she had paid in cash and with a check. The only directions however were in Italian, thankfully we found many helpful videos on the internet to guide our noodle making adventure.

We spent two days making pasta, the ravioli was served deep fat fried for a super bowl party at Papa Steve's house. The rest of the pasta was shaped into carrot and beet flavored fettucini. We soon ran out of drying locations and converted two curtain rods in to pasta dryers. We decided that pasta curtains were definitely a whimsical addition to the kitchen. I was sadden to have to remove them after the drying period.

We greatly enjoyed the pasta creation but we were happy to pack the pasta maker back into the original box. It will be a few months before we again play with our adult "play"dough factory.