A Little Bit of Thyme

Thyme is a "woody" perennial herb coming in hundreds of shapes, colors, and sizes.  It grows flat and fuzzy to full and lush; it spreads, creeps and blooms with beautiful dainty pink flowers the bees love.  I've grown about a dozen varieties over the years with the creeping thymes such as wooly thyme, elfin thyme, and caraway thyme taking top honors in my garden as the most visual (at one point in time, I grew herbs strictly for aesthetics in the garden and seldom used them in cooking).  Today, I have one faithful variety I use for drying and cooking, "french thyme" (Thymus Vulgaris). I previously wrote about drying thyme at this link.   

After about three years, thyme plants grow leggy and "woody" at the base.  You get long stems with a cluster of leaves at the end.  This is the signal for you to work your magic and create new plants.   It's very simple and there are two methods.  Often times, the end of the branch will start to attach itself at a new location and roots will form.  If you see visible roots, you can snip the stem off at the base and plant that new plant elsewhere keeping it moist until it roots and starts growing.  If the long stems have not yet grown roots, you can simply bend the stem into the ground next to the plant, cover it with dirt, and new roots will grow starting a new plant.  this is a method called layering and is described more fully in the below link.  That new plant can be transplanted in a few weeks/months.  Mother Earth News did a wonderful article several years back about Thyme.  You can read it here.     I still enjoy running my fingers through the many scents of thyme at a nursery.  It's astounding how caraway thyme really smells like caraway seed, or lemon thyme is so lemony.  Enjoy your thyme!

Being Neighborly

Part of my quest for organic, clean and frugal living is staying local as much as possible. It makes sense to support local merchants and drive little.  After all, that's how it all began 70-80 years ago - on the farm and countryside.  I'm working towards getting more back to the farm lifestyle of years ago - not much different than how the Amish live today.  Luckily, visiting my parents is only a short, 5-minute walk through the horsefield which keeps it truly close-to-home.  With them both aging a bit (mother is 74, father is 81), I'm thrilled to lend a hand as much as I can.  Mom, a Type 1 diabetic (only 5% of all diabetics have Type 1 which is when your body isn't able to produce insulin), has had numerous health issues - especially the past year -- which leaves her limited in her abilities. Yesterday was a beautifully breezy day for hanging out the wash and that's what mother had on the agenda for me along with washing a couple windows I felt could use a shining.  She had me rearrange a couple things on the high shelves in her corner cabinet and in the process gave me a beautiful old dish she said she didn't ever use and didn't want it anymore.  I cook for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner each year for my family and the dish will come in handy for serving vegetables. I joked with mother I don't have to serve the mashed potates in a mixing bowl anymore.   Low and behold, I come to find out the dish actually has some history to it and the markings on the underside of the dish are a registry code.  Patented on April 4, 1867, it's called white ironstone and the company that made it is Elsmore & Forster and the china type is Tunstall.  The design on the bowl is post-civil war and many felt the idea for the design was conceived with the end of the war in mind showing a lone star at the top of the wreath in the design.  Mom loved the story to the dish and had no idea of the history.  I'm thrilled to have a new serving bowl, and a good neighbor!  

Another Use of Butternut Squash - The Seeds

We love butternut squash and have been growing it for years.  You'll see my many posts and pictures from years past if you search for butternut squash (here's a sample).  This year, now having the time to do more in the kitchen (thanks retirement!), I finally experimented with saving the squash seeds.  Thanks to Mother Earth News (instructions and recipes in the link), the first roasting occurred and it was a huge success.   The process was quite simple:

• Scoop seeds out of squash into a colander (the norm when roasting squash)
• Rinse the seeds removing all pulp
• Spread on a paper-towel on a plate in a single layer to allow to dry for 2-3 days in warm place
• Roast!
• Note:  no need to hull the squash seeds.  Some folks find pumpkin seed hulls tough and inedible.  The squash seeds are lighter and edible.

I roasted mine in a fry pan following the Mother Earth News Spicy recipe.  I warmed the olive oil, spread the seeds in a single layer, then sprinkled with cayenne pepper, paprika, salt and pepper.  The results didn't last very long as hubby and I gobbled them down quickly.  Well, to be honest, mostly I did the gobbling.   Another batch is being fried up today.   The part I like most is the nutrition in squash seeds:

1 cup seeds:  285 calories, 12grams of protein, 12% of your RDA of iron, 34g Carbs, 12g Fat, 4% of your calcium.   Of course, add about 120 calories for the oil they are roasted in.  This is still tremendously good nutrition. 

I'll never compost another squash seed again. 

Babysitting Amish Baby "Michael"

It was only for five minutes, but I was thrilled to have the opportunity to watch Michael while Marianne ran to the chicken coup to pick eggs on Friday.  It gave me a moment to reflect on Amish lifestyle and maybe apply some of their ways in my life.   Baby Michael was lying on the floor under the swing, just as happy as could be.  I talked and smiled at him and he smiled right back -- what a happy kid, I thought.  The living room was set up for practicality.  The couch, love seat, and chairs were all pushed flat against the outside walls with the window light shining in over the backs of the seats/chairs.  There was a bookcase with several children's books.  On the other side of the kitchen was the sewing nook with supplies and fabric.  In the middle of the house was the wood stove that likely kept the entire house warm.  The house was functional with a purpose. The kitchen/great room/sewing nook had linoleum on the floor and the living room had a hardwood floor with an area rug in the center.  Nothing fancy.  A plaque with the Lord's prayer was on the wall, but that was about it in terms of decoration.  No pictures, no family photos, no wreaths or dried/silk arrangements.  I liked it!  I thought how easy it would be to clean.  I imagined not worrying about how something looks: Do these curtains match?  Does the rug match close enough to the couch?  What sense does it make to waste time and money on making something match or stylish.  It doesn't.  My blue-plaid 80's couch and love seat are going to be around for many, many more years and I don't care much what people think of it -- it's saving me about $1,000.  At one point I wanted a new couch pretty bad because of the dated, 80's country look of it, but my mind has now changed and its a perfect couch -- you can sit on it and their ain't no torn or worn corners anywhere.  What else do you need?  Why spend money to keep up with what's in style this season.  In my mind (now), its clearly a waste of money,and spending five minutes with Michael solidified those thoughts.  I'm very grateful to have many classic, hand-me-down pieces of furniture that will never go out of style.  I guess I always had a little practicality in me after all. 

Winterizing Your Carrots and Beets

Here in Central Pennsylvania (technically Zone 5 where I'm at), the temps can dip as low as single digits in the coldest winter months but surprisingly, beets, carrots, and other root crops will survive and you can harvest them all winter with just a little protection.  If you expect to harvest your crops before the ground freezes, all they need is a little straw mulch at ground level to protect the tops of the roots sticking out.  If you want to harvest all winter, all you really need to do is cover with a foot-thick layer of straw keeping the greens exposed so they can keep growing.  When there's snow all around and you move the mulch, you'll be delighted to pull out a fresh carrot in the dead of winter.    Here's a good link from Organic Gardening that may be helpful.  Enjoy!

Going Without, Cutting Back, and Changing MY Attitude for "Stuff"

My mother loves Vanity Fair Outlets in Reading, Pennsylvania.  They are 100-year old clothing factory buildings that once employed hundreds of Americans.  Jobs now long-gone to overseas production of goods, the big old buildings now house the same brands once made there, but at a huge discount.   The name brand mother goes for is Lee and Wrangler jeans.  She was thrilled with her bargains: i.e., $8.97 for blue jeans plus a 10% discount for senior citizens on Tuesday.  Hubby even took a couple pair at that price for new jeans.  Me?  Read on.

Now retired and having a much better understanding of money, frugal living, and the world around us, my attitude has changed dramatically about shopping.  There was a day I wouldn't think twice about dropping $100 on a leather purse or boots.  Yesterday, I looked at a $29.99 wallet and felt bad for the animal that died for it.  I saw racks and racks of "useless items made by foreigners for dumb Americans to buy" as a book I once read put it.   There were stores full of plastic toys, wrapping paper and ribbon, perfume, fancy shoes, boots, purses,  blue jeans, underwear, luggage, socks, and kids clothing.  And the prices were very, very affordable.  A sign of the times, I'm sure.

My thoughts go to the Amish when shopping these days.  They are the masters of practical, useful products. Their thoughts are repair, reuse, or recycle.  They shop second-hand stores for used items and discount stores for low-prices.  They will fix, mend, or repair something until it absolutely cannot be used anymore.   In my head, I put an Amish person in the aisles of Vanity Fair and  I couldn't imagine them buying one item of anything at the Vanity Fair Outlets -- not one single item.  So neither did I.  I came home with money in my pockets and empty bags.  It was a good day -- for all of us!

"I like when they dye their hair grey."

My new-found local bargain store is called Hoover's Discount Grocery on St. Johns Road, outside of Berrysburg, Pennsylvania.   They sell bulk quantities, expired or near-expired products, and seconds.  Yes, the prices are incredible on some of their products.  It's run by Amish and the majority of shoppers are Amish.  Today, it was pretty full of Amish shoppers.  Standing in the narrow aisle checking out the black beans with barely butt room between me and the elder Amish man pushing the cart that his wife was filling, I hear in a bold voice, "I like when they dye their hair grey."  I couldn't help my big grin when I turned to answer, "I like it too!"  And he says, "so does my wife."   It made my week, month, and year.  What a classic line!  I'll never forget the moment. (In case you don't know me, I'm very grey and never dyed my hair -- we joke I paid a lot of money to have my hair streaked grey!).

My Dad and His Childhood Chicken Story

Somewhere around 1940, a little boy in the small town of Gratz, Pennsylvania, was sent to the backyard by his mom to "go get a chicken for supper."  Everyone in Gratz had backyards full of vegetables, chickens, and a pig to eventually slaughter as a neighborhood project.  This is how folks lived and thrived in smalltown USA before industrial agriculture.  They grew and raised all their food.  If the bill at the grocery store was more than $10 a week, Dad wasn't happy.  That bill was for a family of 8.  So little boy Donnie went to the chicken pen to catch a chicken for dinner.  They all gathered around him as though it was time for their feeding.  You see, little Donnie cared for the birds and they grew fond of his handsful of feed everyday.  Little Donnie caught one of his flock, and with ax in hand and mom's orders in his head, he hesitated.  He listened to his chicken cackle, hung his head, and let her go.  He couldn't do it.  He went back to the house and his mom said, "where's the chicken?" And little Donnie said, "I couldn't catch one."  His mother mumbled some Pennsylvania dutch, calling him dumb.  I'm glad little Donnie was dumb and never killed a chicken.  And I'm more glad his 81 year old brain remembered the story and told me about it last night, on my birthday.  I loved it.  Of course he mumbled the exact same words in Pennsylvania dutch that his mom mumbled, but I'm sorry to say I never learned the language and couldn't repeat.  Thanks for the story dad!  

Gearing up for Full-time Food Production

In two weeks, my daily two-hour round trip commute to Harrisburg City in Pennsylvania, to my full-time job as a government manager, will come to an end.  I retire on October 28.   Years ago when I first started reading about going green, homesteading, living off the grid, and using less resources, I dreamt of the day I wouldn’t have to commute to work.   The day is here.   My daily commute will be by foot to the backyard to prep the gardens to grow our food.  This is the part of retirement that gets me the most excited.  I’m the type that likes many activities and I don’t always ‘stick” with one.  Being a triathlete is a good example.  From 2004 to 2008, I swam, biked, and ran my little heart out all the way to a world competition.   A bike accident put a quick halt to that short-term endeavor.  Through the years I’ve picked up and put down probably 15 or so hobbies and interests.  But through all of them, one thing stuck:  gardening of some sort.  For twenty-two years, I’ve tossed together horse manure, straw, kitchen scraps, and grass clippings to feed my food. As a kid I helped my mom harvest and preserve which instilled the canning notion in my brain.  I’m a farmer at heart.  It’s in my blood and I can’t put it aside like other hobbies.  To know I will now be able to garden every single day for the rest of my life is an awe-inspiring feeling.  To know not only can I grow it, but I’ll now have the time to preserve it  and eat it in the middle of the winter, is equally awesome.  I’m excited to grow, preserve and eat my own food on a full-time basis.  Warm up the stove... let's get cooking! 

More Posts Coming Soon

So sorry for the slacking in backyard posts. My mother fell down stairs in mid-August and fractured her pelvis; thus, I've been a tad busy since that time.  Retirement is scheduled for October 28 and I'm (very) hopeful to fire up this blog full-time immediately after that to keep my friends and family tuned in to what's happening in the backyard and around and about.  By the way, my mom is in my backyard - literally!  She's a stone's throw down over the hill in a beautiful old farmhouse, so spending time in the backyard is twofold.  I truly love having my parents so close as they age.  It's a blessing - truly.