Clary Sage, Oatmeal and Honey Soap

Mostly cleared out the stash for Christmas presents, so I made up a batch with Olive, Coconut, palm and castor oils. At trace I poured one layer and then added the honey and oatmeal as a gentle exfoliant to the last half and poured on top, thinking that in the final bar you would have a choice between normal or textured. Unfortunately, I can´t seem to get the pretty peaks and valleys other people do at the top of the bar, and it remains to be seen if the layers are really as distinct as I would like. Clary sage is an interesting scent - it has a ¨tea¨ quality to it to my nose.


Used a milk brik again - I don´t think they have the right dimensions, I´ll have to keep looking. It sort of half-gelled at the ends, so I´ll have to do some reading about to gel or not to gel completely.



Next I´m going to try a lard/coffee kitchen bar. They say coffee grounds are not only a gentle scrub but deoderizing as well!

Rustic Loaf

Also does double duty as a doorstop. It was heavy. Pretty good texture though - and it tasted OK.

I used this recipe. It´s one of those fiddley knead/rise multiple time breads. It requires 3 rises, and I don´t think I´ve ever in my life gotten anything to rise 3 times. (That sounds dirty even to me.)

In my surfing, I did run across this blog, which looks promising.

I think I´m going to try pizza dough. And I got a bag of corn flour, so I´m going to give homemade tortillas a go this weekend.

Next up - more soap!

Happy Belated Martin Luther King Day

Monday was MLK day in the US. Makes current political leaders look kind of pathetic doesn´t it?

The Victorian Farm and The Edwardian Farm

Terrific series. I confess I liked the Victorian series better, but it was the first and it´s difficult to reproduce the delight with the initial discovery.

Three professionals (2 archeologists and a historian) live and work on period farms while limited to the technology available at the time. So much more interesting than throwing together a group of know-nothings and waiting for fireworks to start.

The Victorian Farm

The Edwardian Farm



Of course you can also buy both series on Amazon.

Oh, and I think Shire horses are just about the most beautiful things ever, closely followed by Dartmoor ponies.

Better learning curve

A good weekend to all!

Learning Curve

Strike One



The tomato is for scale.

Strike Two



Both actually tasted OK. There were 2 of the first batch, one went for stuffing.

Seeds

After a couple of weeks of car trouble and post holiday malaise, blog posts about seed catalogues are popping up all over, so I guess I´ll join in. Even though my opportunities for gardening are somewhat limited at the present.



Last year I bought several packs of seed from Leroy Merlin (a large DIY chain) and Lidl (a discount supermarket chain), so I´ll blame any lack of germination on the quality of the seed rather than my own ineptitude.

I have:

Amaranth (future chicken feed?)
January King Cabbage
Golden Bantam Corn Sweet
Iroquois Melon
Turga Parsnip
Anaheim Pepper
Ancho, Poblano Pepper
Jalapeño, Early
Rouge Vif D´Etampes Pumpkin
Spaghetti Squash
Amish Paste Tomato
Brandywine Tomato
Mortgage Lifter Tomato
Pineapple Tomato
Principe Borghese Tomato
Breadseed Poppy
Black Cohosh
Dill
Epazote
Horehound
Lavender
Marshmallow
Meadowsweet
Sage

I focused on Mexican peppers, tomatoes, corn, and pumpkins/squash thinking they might not be so easy to find over here, (I mean, surely you can get French beans on this side of the pond, right?)and then I got distracted by other cool stuff like herbs. For further description of these you might look at Territorial Seed.



Since we probably won´t get much in the ground until next year, and pots on the terrace are limited, I am not buying lettuce or spinach seeds because I understand they don´t store for long periods. Dry, cool and dark are the conditions for seed saving, so I´m thinking about trying to get a pack of that silica drying stuff and putting them directly into the freezer for the interim. Either that, or a plastic air-tight container at the back of an interior closet.

I also figure that potatoes, garlic and onions can be got in Galicia. I´ve run across an article in the Faro de Vigo about a seed exchange organized last October for Galician organic farmers. They´ve set up a:

Rede Galega de Sementes con la que se pretende facilitar y promover el uso, producción, mantenimiento y conservación de las semillas de variedades locales y recuperar la biodiversidad agrícola, ambas fundamentales en los sistemas agroecológicos de producción.

Galician Seed Network which is intended to facilitate and promote the use, production, maintenance and conservation of seeds from local varieties and recover agricultural biodiversity, both fundemental to organic agricultural systems.

I´ll have to keep an eye out to see if they have another gathering.

Helpfully,The Cottage Smallholder has listed quite detailed seed orders in the past. I´m assuming a general, but not exact correlation between veggies that do well in an English climate with Galicia - obviously specific microclimates will differ with elevation, proximity to the coast, etc. She seems to highly recommend Real Seed, but I understand that Chase Organics is excellent as well. And in my googling, I ran across Adopt a Veg, which seems like it could be a worthy endeavor for those interested in heritage vareties and preserving biodiversity.



Some of the things I found interesting in Smallholder´s list from last year:

Verde Pueblo tomatillo
Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean
Seven Hills Brussels Sprout
Ottobrino Romanesco Cauliflower
Rouge Tete Noir Cabbage
Asturian Tree Cabbage – Spanish heirloom variety – grows like kale, harvested like kale, tastes like cabbage (This is so interesting - Grelos? CH)
Summer Crookneck squash
Tamra Cucumber
Parisian Pickling or Salad Cucumber
Leaf Selection Coriander/cilantro
Long Lisse de Meaux Carrot

From Lunar Organics. These are all biodynamic seeds

Butternut squash Waltham – a friend grew this on canes this year with spectacular results
Peas Hurst Green Shaft – an early pea that can be dried or frozen
Leeks Winter Husky – thrive in Winter
Parsnip White Gem – again thinking of next winter
Swiss Chard Five Colours – attractive and tasty

She´s had a lot of success with Biodynamics in the last season. I confess I have my doubts, but I suppose planting by moon phase can´t hurt anything.

And I haven´t even begun with the flowers. . .

What are you thinking of planting? Have you grown any on either list? Other sources in the EU?

On Recent Events in Arizona

You false patriots who bring assault rifles to political rallies, you hack politicians and media personalities who lied through your stinking teeth about "death panels" and "Obama is coming for your guns" and "He isn't a citizen" and "He's a secret Muslim" and "Sharia Law is coming to America," you who spread this bastard gospel and you who swallowed it whole, I am talking to you, because this was your doing just as surely as it was the doing of the deranged damned soul who pulled the trigger. The poison you injected into our culture is deeply culpable for this carnage.

I can´t do better than William Rivers Pitt. Read the whole thing.