Oh arugula! I love you so. Not only do I love you as part of something yummy, I also love the way your green shoots bring such hope when nothing else has started.
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Right now, it's still damp and cold, especially in the mornings. Right now it's just above freezing and foggy up high (my weather app tells me it's foggy in the Valley too). Though when you go outside, beneath the chill you can feel a bit of the warmth the Earth has soaked up. Spring really is here. So, the rule for the first person up is to relight the fire and start the tea. At this time of year, the house gets too hot even with the little fire going over night so we stuff the stove up but if it goes out, it goes out. Because I have a tea addiction, my firt priority is to get the kettle (the electric one) on so it's heating while I get the fire going. As soon as the fire is going, the second kettle goes on. It takes a while to heat up on the stove (from the stove being cold - it's not that slow when the stove is hot). And yes, we are very particular about the tea making here. The steps are as follows: 1) Pot is warmed - either on the stove or by boiling water (or preferably both because you do need to start with a warmed, rinsed pot). 2) Tea is measured out -the appropriate amount and type to the pot and time of day. For me, a breakfast tea and a lightly heaping Tablespoon do the trick. 3) Boiling water is poured over the tea into the warmed pot. 4) Steeps for about five minutes. 5) Poured into the cup (I'm trying to get out of the 'milk first' habit). 6) Milk added. 7) Savoured. Next on the list is tending to the counter dwellers. First, I rinse my pea sprouts. It's the first time I've ever made them and I'm assured they're delicious. They soaked for 12 hours before being drained and rinsed. Now they're in a jar (as you can see) where they're damp but not soaking. Over the next three or so days, I'm hoping to see some shoots show up. The other counter dweller is my sourdough starter. It's a super fancy combination of things: flour and water. Seriously. I've been reading all of these things about all of this fancy to-ing and fro-ing people are doing to get a starter. Take about a 1/2 cup of flour (I started with rye) and a 1/2 cup of water. Stir it up and leave it overnight. Each day add another 1/4 cup of flour and a 1/4 cup of water and stir it. You will have a great starter in no time. I'll do more of a post about sourdough in the near future. But now, I have stuff to get done. I'm pretty sure I won't be buying bags of tortillas anymore. You may have already known how easy these delicious little morsels are but I did not. Today though, I was buying my seasonal sack of white flour and I was going to buy tortillas when I realized I can get two bags of tortillas for the price of one 10kg bag of flour. Health stuff aside, that seemed like glaringly bad economics. But wait, I told myself, maybe they're hard to make. Fortunately, I knew I had an emergency package of tortillas in the freezer. If these ones bombed, I would grab those and carry on with supper plans. Well, supper was just ok but the tortillas rocked. I'll let you in on the secret. Let's start with the flour. Although I have a wonderful assortment of organic, local, whole grains, I opted for white flour. Why? Well, let's just say that the white flour pay off the brain gets makes a homemade experiment much more likely to be accepted. I use unbleached, no additive white flour - but it's not organic, I confess. So, I dumped flour into my food processor (about two cups), added some baking soda (maybe a teaspoon and a half), and a generous pinch of salt. You really need the baking soda or they won't puff up right. I zipped that up for a second and then dropped in some lard. I was thinking of adding something like a tablespoon but definitely added more than that, probably two tablespoons or more. And then I zipped that up. I basically figured if I made a pie crust but not flaky, I'd be close. So, I added cold water a little at a time while zipping until I got a pie crust kind of looking ball. When that happened, I turned it onto a floured board and kneaded for a few minutes to give it a bit of a bread-like quality. I rolled it into a log and broke it into a bunch of pieces (that I should have rolled into a ball but didn't) and rolled it out. I put them one at a time in a hot, dry pan and watched them puff up a bit (sorry, no pic). I gave them just about a minute and then flipped them. They were delicious. So delicious that this is all that's left: But, since it's Spring Break, I'm mostly home and we can make another batch tomorrow. Maybe one white, one half kamut, and one corn. Yum!
Here is the recipe written out halfway logically. In your food processor or a big bowl add 2 cup flour 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt Mix. 2 Tbsp shortening, butter, or oil (could be melted because you don't need a flaky quality like pie crust). Mix. Add enough water (might as well use warm) to make a stiff ball. Turn out on floured board. Knead for a couple of minutes until smooth and elastic. Roll into a log and break into equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball (I bet that would make them look better), turn out on a floured board and roll until uniform and thin. Place in a hot, dry pan and watch it bubble up. Flip it over when it's started to brown the underside (about a minute but could be more - depends on your heat). Cool and eat. I suspect you could stack them and they'd cool really soft but I didn't try that. You plant stuff, you grow stuff, you know that this is... Yep. Those are the first sprouts of the 2015 gardening year. They're a lettuce mix and I cannot wait to eat them. And if that wasn't enough... My mâche (aka corn salad) just began to sprout as well. It's hard not to get excited at this time of the year, even in Zone 4 when it's all overcast. And thank goodness for greenhouses!
So, there was a post before this one - and I don't mean a duck peeking in my window. Yes, that really happened. Anyway, I posted it and then... it was gone. My theory is that it was such a great post, such an award winning post that the interwebs couldn't handle it and, to protect itself, the interwebs hid it. So, here is my attempt to recapture perfection. It's a funny thing, this web page. You wouldn't know it but have been talking to all of you for years. I've wanted to do this and started a few times but it's never stuck. Why is that? Well, I've always been a big fan of go big or go home. It turns out that if you go too big, the project is too much and it just can't get off the ground. So, instead of starting with a huge webpage, full of completely developed resources, articles by guest authors, and all of that kind of stuff, I've decided to start in a smaller, though much more logical place; the beginning. That sentiment always puts this song in my head: And now it can be in your head too.
Kidding aside, there is something to be said for starting at the beginning. My hope is that I can share enough information to make that beginning a little less challenging, a little lighter and more fun, a little more hopeful. Here we'll share information on everything from gardening in the forest to living with goats and various philosophical matters. I'm looking forward to hanging out with you. |
AuthorI'm a 40-something writer and smallholder living in the wilds of BC with my family, our small herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats. Archives
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