THE GRAVITY OF GRAVITY.
I was thinking about the watermelon I'd just eaten, and about picking up the cutting board. I wasn't thinking about the three and a half feet between me and the ground. Any other time I would have had no reason to, but suddenly and violently, gravity gave me reason.It's an unreal force, gravity. It's a wonder our ancestors ever decided standing on two legs was a good idea. I felt as if I had been grabbed by an invisible, angry wrestler and body slammed. Fast. At a speed of thirty-two feet per second per second, to be exact. I had stepped over the cutting board, put all my weight on the side of the porch, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground, convinced I'd just ended my career as a biped. As a farmer.But I lucked out: some minor scrapes, some whiplash, a bruised arm, and a sore back. No broken bones. Not bad. I lived, thankfully, to tell the tale and to remind everyone to appreciate balance—gravity will punish you for excess.- Jesse.
Our remedies for an almost-broken bone - comfrey and arnica!
(UN)FOLLOWING THE RECIPE.
Let us discuss the website Pinterest....I know I am slow to the game here, but it is the best thing. And also maybe the worst. Somehow, it manages to be an amazing source of inspiration, while simultaneously being an amazing source of complete time-wasting. Still, I often find great DIY ideas, organizing tips, or recipes - like this one. For whatever reason, pumpkin cookies sounded really delicious and necessary to me at the exact moment I came across this pin, so I baked them. Well, sort of.Often when I come across a recipe I want to try, I change it. Not because I know better (trust me, I don't) but because I don't want to use corn starch, or corn syrup, or sugar, or canned pumpkin, or some other ick ingredient. And most of the time, it truly doesn't matter! As long as I follow the basic measurements, even if my end product is slightly different in texture or appearance, it always tastes great! In the case of this pumpkin cookie recipe, I didn't want to use canned pumpkin and I didn't have the real thing, so I substituted butternut squash. Butternut squash is actually wonderful to bake with. It has a spicy sort of flavor and is similar to pumpkin. It even makes a great pie! I also cut the recipe in half, used honey instead of sugar (although I did add a little bit of brown sugar), and substituted real butter for Crisco. As for the icing, I didn't have cream cheese around, but my days baking for Whole Foods taught me nothing if not how to make a fantastic chocolate frosting. And sense I cut out a lot of sugar in the cookies, I splurged a bit with the icing! In the end, it all comes down to making a recipe work for you. If you are trying to eat healthier or give up a certain food, you don't necessarily have to sacrifice that recipe you love. It certainly worked out for me this time!So, here is the recipe for...
Hannah's Not-Pumpkin Cookies with Not-Cream Cheese Icing:
COOKIE INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup honey
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup cooked butternut squash
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ginger
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
The first part of this recipe is the one that takes the most time: baking the squash. It is, however, incredibly simple. You put the squash, AS IS, in the oven and bake at 350 until you can easily poke a fork in it (45 minutes to an hour). I put mine in a little bread pan, just in case there was any leakage. After it cools, you can remove the skin and scoop out the seeds and guts. What is left should give you about a cup of mushy, orange squash.Then, you mix all your ingredients! Cream the butter and honey/sugar together first, next adding the egg, and continuing to add the ingredients as they appear on the list. The mixture is not incredibly thick, so use a spoon to place golf ball-sized clumps onto a cookie sheet. Cook for about ten minutes at 350. This recipe makes (even after cutting it in half) A LOT - about 2 1/2 dozen HUGE, really light and fluffy cookies. I removed the cookies as soon as I saw the edges becoming even slightly brown, but I like really chewy cookies.
FROSTING INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 3 tbsp cocoa
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Whip the ingredients together for several minutes. If you're fancy, you could actually use a mixer, but hand-whipping works just as well! Stick the frosting in the fridge for a while as the cookies cool, and it will be a perfect spreadable texture when you are ready to ice!
MAKING SOAP (SORT OF).
While perusing a lovely blog that I am slightly obsessed with, I came upon quite a clever idea. It turns out that the only real difference between a bar of soap and a bottle of liquid hand soap is water. So...since it definitely gets expensive buying hand soap over and over again, even if you buy the refills - why not buy a bar of the same soap you love, add water, and make your own! This recipe makes a gallon of liquid soap for the price of the bar. This was a pretty simple and fun project, and now Jesse and I have the equivalent of nearly $80 worth of liquid soap, all for about $9! Here is the how-to:
WHAT YOU'LL NEED: One 8 oz bar of your favorite soap, 2 tbsp of liquid glycerin, a cheese grater, and 1 gallon of water. That's all! Be mindful that the typical bar of soap is more like 4 oz, so you might need to buy two. Jesse and I love Dr. Bronner's soap. It is an amazing company and a great product. Bonus: since the soap is "All-in-One," we can use the soap we made for washing hands, dishes, whatever!
I found the glycerin at our co-op, but it is apparently easy to find in most places with a pharmacy, in the band-aid section. Even though it sounds scary, a 100% vegetable glycerin is completely natural and safe.
STEP 1: Grate the bar(s) of soap into a large pot. This is as simple as it sounds, but be warned....it does take some time! This recipe I was following calls for a cheese grater...but I eventually got lazy and started using a potato peeler. And then I became extra lazy and started just chopping up the soap with a knife. I would encourage you to be patient and not follow my example, but my soap turned out just fine. So basically...cut your soap into small pieces in whatever way best suits you!
STEP TWO: Add the water and glycerin to the soap.
STEP THREE: Place the pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the soap is completely dissolved in the water.
STEP FOUR: Remove from heat. It should essentially look like a big pot of soapy water.
STEP FIVE: Leave it alone and let it cool for 10-12 hours. It should start to "cloud up" after about 3-4 hours. Mine looked a bit insane, sort of like a white, solid mass was forming in the center. I stirred it (also not advised by the original recipe) and continued to stir it every few hours to keep it from solidifying too much. Letting it solidify is pretty fun though, as you can sort of rest your hand on it like jello! Each time I stirred it, however, it returned to a more normal consistency.
STEP SIX: Done! If it looks something like this...
....the soap is good to go. You can easily beat in some more water if it is too thick. I bought a reusable soap dispenser and decorated it (but you could also simply use an old one) and filled it up! The rest of the soap went into empty milk jugs and tupperware.
Hooray! So easy, and SUCH a huge money saver! If you find yourself hesitant about spending too much for an organical or wonderful or for-whatever-reason soap that you love, this is a great way to stretch your dollar without sacrificing the quality of ingredients. My next ambition is to actually make my own BAR of soap...I will let you know how that one goes!
- Hannah.
VEGGIE LESSONS.
In the first post of this blog, Jesse and I mentioned that part of the reason we were starting the farm (and ultimately the blog) was to engage our community in as many ways as possible. Last night we got an opportunity to do precisely that. Kelly, a good friend of mine, called me on Sunday night. She was at the grocery store and wanted me to tell her exactly what she should buy. A few weeks ago, she had mentioned that she would be interested in joining our CSA eventually - but was afraid of having an abundance of "raw" vegetables sitting around, not knowing what in the world to do with them. This is not an uncommon fear. Many people want to cook, want to use fresh vegetables, want to buy from a farmers market or CSA - but they just don't know how. I could have included myself in this category a few years ago. Kelly asked if we would be willing to come over and cook with her, to give her some tips and show her how to REALISTICALLY prepare quick, simple meals that were healthy and kid-friendly. We were happy to do just that! Together, we cooked a simple meal of kale, squash, red peppers, onions and garlic, with some sweet potatoes. Super easy, super good. And for dessert, baked apples!- Hannah.
Jesse and I know that Kelly's apprehension about joining a CSA is typical. When we do start growing our own vegetables and open the farm up to shareholders, we want to be aware of this mindset. Recipes, cooking classes, information about specific vegetables, and a real relationship with our members is what we hope will solve this. We want everyone, ourselves included, to be constantly learning and growing together, figuring out how to fit agriculture into non-agrarian lifestyles. It is about simply living life to its healthiest and most abundant potential, and nothing demonstrates this better than family gathered in the kitchen, chopping vegetables and enjoying a meal together.
