Sky After the Storm

Sky clearing to the west....

...and a rainbow in the east.

Linked to SkyWatch Friday.

Giant Spangled Fritillary

I've only seen a few of these butterflies on our property so far. Again, please correct me if my identification is not correct. Giant Spangled Fritillary caterpillars hatch in the fall, overwinter on violet leaves, then in the Spring,  feed on the violets leaves. The adults feed on the nectar of thistles, butterfly weed, Gloriosa daisy, and verbena.

Jewel Frog

"Frogs have it easy, they get to eat what bugs them." --author unknown

Linking to Macro Monday.

From the Garden this Week...

The garden is winding down for the year.

I picked the last of the large tomatoes and canned six more quarts today for a grand total total of 20 quarts. There are several plants of Italian Plum that are still ripening. Today I dehydrated a a few pounds of these in the oven. (I have an oven with a dehydrate setting.) I think that is what I will do with the rest of them as they ripen.

(Plum tomatoes dehydrating in the oven on parchment paper.)





Last Thursday I picked the four largest Kaitlin cabbages and processed them into sauerkraut. I haven't made sauerkraut for years, but it is a pretty simple process. The basic process can be summed up in one sentence: Slice, salt, and pack cabbage into jars then let it sit for week to lacto-ferment into sauerkraut. I did this many times when living on the homestead. There is always the chance a couple of jars will spoil. My four large cabbages made about 5 quarts. I'm a little nervous that I will end up with spoiled cabbage, but hopefully I'm worrying for nothing. I peeked into the jars today and the cabbage was bubbling away and smelled good, so it looks like the kraut is off to a good start.

One of the things I am loving from my garden right now is raspberries. An older friend from church gave me several starts from her raspberry patch that was planted by her mother in law more than 60 years ago. I have no idea what kind of raspberries they are, but they are the biggest fall raspberries I have ever seen. Very sweet, too, and more purple than red.

The tomatoes may not have done well this year, but the peppers and eggplants did. Today I froze 7 quarts of peppers. That should keep us supplied for chili, sloppy joe, and stews all winter long.

I'm completely sold on Fairy Tale eggplants. The compact plants produce dozens of small, sweet, tender fruits. They are so good you can eat them raw right off the plant. This is the first time I've had success with growing eggplants. I've been preserving the extra in olive oil with a bit of basil and garlic as they mature.

I still have some green beans to pick, lots of fall greens that I will be eating through November, carrots still in the ground, and several root crops to harvest. The pumpkins continue to look good and I am just waiting for the vines to die back before I pick them.

How is your garden doing? Are you still harvesting or are you done for the season?

Linked to Homestead Barn Hop.

Eastern Comma Butterfly

Another butterfly to add to the list of butterflies I know by name! This is a comma butterfly.  I've been trying for weeks to get a photo of one so I could identify it. Finally yesterday, one sat still long enough on the side of the house for me to take several photos.

The comma butterfly has a little white comma on the underside of its wings. I'm going with Eastern comma due to the little hooks that this one has on each side of of the comma. If someone knows differently, please let me know.

Comma butterflies overwinter, and because of this are one of the first butterflies to appear in the spring. They like to drink sap oozing from wounded trees. I will admit I haven't noticed these the past two Springs we have been here, but, I wasn't looking for them either. Now that I have a name to put with their faces (er, wings?) I will have to look for them next spring.

The caterpillars feed on the leaves of nettles, hops, hazels, and elms. Adults especially like nectar from dandelions and thistles. (The only plant we don't have on that list is elm trees. We love dandelions, don't mow the thistles, and have a woods full of stinging nettles and hazels. The former owners also planted a couple of hop plants.)

On Freedom

Sometimes I just stop and marvel at the freedom I have.

 I'm talking about the little, seeming insignificant daily  freedoms that most people take for granted.  Things like being able to pull my hair back into a pony tail if I want too. Wearing a shirt that I like. Wearing jeans. Going someplace outside of the house without having to ask permission. Being in control of what I cook and eat. Being able to go places--even places as simple as church or to the store--alone. Deciding what I am going to do for the day. Sleeping all day on the couch if I want to.

Some of the things I marvel at are bigger, but still freedoms that I think most people take for granted. Driving a car, for an example. Going to school. Working at job and earning money. Getting to decide what happens to that money. Marrying someone that I wanted to marry without having to get any one's approval.

I do not take any of these things for granted because for the first 26 years of my life, I did not have any of these freedoms. 

Christian Patriarchy takes freedom away from the its daughters. In every home this looks a bit different. In my case, while I had a fair amount of freedom on our homestead, I was not allowed to leave it without my father or a brother with me (except for a few times when I went to help other large like minded families for a few weeks.)  The one time I expressed an interest in learning something that did not relate to homesteading or eventually being a stay at home wife and mother, I got a two hour lecture on the roles of women. I quickly learned not to express anything of that nature again. Things like clothing and hair where tightly controlled. We were all expected to conform to a family schedule that revolved around work, meals, and prayer. Anything that I wanted to do outside of the family schedule I had to get specific permission for, and often that permission was denied. I never made a decision on my own until I made that decision to just leave.

 I wasn't literally walled in, but for the longest time, it never occurred to me that I could leave. This is hard to explain to someone who has not been raised in a restrictive belief system. I was an adult, legally my parents had no right to run my life and I was legally free to leave, but in my mind, I did not have that freedom.

The reasoning behind all this, in my family, at least, is that girls and young women needed to be protected. Both from themselves and from the evil world and all that is out there that might harm them and tempt them. After all the original sin entered the world when Adam let Eve go wandering off in the garden by herself---this enabled her to talk to a stranger who then talked her into eating the forbidden fruit. The real original sin wasn't Eve's sin of picking and eating the forbidden fruit, it was Adam's sin of not being responsible for and protecting his wife.

And then there are those scripture verses about wives obeying their husbands. In some patriarchal families this gets translated to mean that all women, married or not, needed to be under a man, normally a father or husband, but if you didn't have either of those, the nearest male relative would do. A woman could only be assured she is in God's will if she is obeying the man who has authority over her. Leaving that authority is a sure way of ending up outside of God's will and putting yourself at risk for eternal damnation.

Is it any wonder I felt like I was in prison? The walls weren't physical, but the they were as real as if they had been built of iron and stone.

Even after I left, it took me a while to embrace the freedom that God gives to all His children. Initially I felt a lot of guilt, shame, and fear. I slowly learned that God loves me as I am and for who he made me to be. His desire is that I become that person that he made me to be. I learned that it is okay for me to make my own decisions. I learned that the world is filled with so many good people and so much beauty and that it is not a place to fear.

I have a husband whose idea of protecting me is to make sure I have a cell phone, a credit card, and a can of pepper spray in my purse when I leave the house. And a Triple A card, just in case my Explorer breaks down. (And he checks the oil and airs my tires once a week.) He would never dream of limiting where I go or limiting the decisions I can make. In his care, I feel loved, not imprisoned. I feel like a human being, a beloved child of God, and a treasured wife. I am free, for better or worse, to stand before God and be the person he made me to be, without having to go through another person.

Hardly a day goes by that I don't pause for a moment say a grateful prayer for the freedom I have, both large and small, and both as a human being and as a child of God.

One of my many mystery roses...the sunlight on her petals, the many little outstretched buds, her uplifted petals...all make me think she knows what freedom is...

Linked to Imperfect Prose.

And the winner is...

....Heidi over at My Simple Country Living!

I will be sending her the garlic and the wild crafted grapevine basket.

Thank you to all who entered and a warm welcome to my new readers!

A Healing Herb: Comfrey

I grew up using herbs for just about everything when it came to sickness or to help maintain health. I'm slowly getting my herb garden established here on our new property. This spring a dear elderly lady from my church gave me some comfrey roots from her herb garden. This past weekend, I harvested my first crop of leaves and hung them up to dry for the winter.



Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) has small pink bell shaped flowers. They are loved by hummingbirds and bees.



Comfrey is one of the best herbs to use for healing wounds and broken bones. Both the leaves and the root contain a substance called allantoin, which increases cell proliferation. It can be taken internally as a tea to promote healing as well as used as a poultice or a wash to help heal sores, cuts, and minor burns.

Comfrey is very soothing to the skin and is often an ingredient in herbal salves and herbal skin care products.

A word of caution when taking comfrey internally. It also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can potentially contribute to liver cancer if taken in large amounts, for an extended length of time. My policy with comfrey is to only take it internally if there is a real reason to do so (I've use the tea on two different occasions for a few weeks at time after breaking a bone, as well as one time when I had a more serious burn.) I also gather the leaves for drying  in the fall instead of the spring or summer. Young spring leaves have 0.22%  pyrrolizidine alkaloids, while young fall leaves have only 0.05%.

It is an herb that I will always have in my medicine cabinet ready to use when it is truly needed.



The leaves are broad and fuzzy, and can make a dramatic statement in the herb garden.



Comfrey is very easy to grow. It is as simple as putting a root in the ground, making sure it has water, and watching it grow. In ideal conditions, it can get up to five feet tall and three feet wide. It does not spread on its own, but if the roots are disturbed (plowed or rototilled), every single piece of chopped up root will sprout into a new plant and you will be sorry you plowed it up. If you are planting comfrey in your herb garden, tuck it into a corner where it will not be disturbed. Ideally it likes rich soil and full sun, but as long as it has water and at least partial sun, it will do well just about anywhere.

This post is part of the barn hop over at Homestead Revival.

Flowers in the Setting Sun

My camera died last week, so my husband found me a new one--again, a little point and shoot. I went out to the garden and tried it out for the first time when I got home from work today.

Borage flowers

Marigold

One of my many mystery roses

Arugula

I would say the camera works just fine. :)

A Picture of Joy

They have been a couple since they were 14 and 16.

They got married at ages 18 and 20.

They have been married for 52 years.

In August he had a stroke. He was in the hospital for 10 days, then in a rehab facility for 20 days.

Listening to them tell the story of the last 30 days, it sounded like this was one of the most painful experiences of their lives. Not because the stroke left him permanently disabled. And not because of they where worried about hospital bills. They didn't seem worried about long term care either.

The reason it was a a painful experience is because, for the first time in their lives, they hadn't been able to be with each other all the time during the last 30 days.

Finally, today, he was home and they were together again. She tenderly held his disabled right hand in hers. A crooked smile lit up his face and her eyes sparkled. JOY. That was what was what was writen on both their faces. Joy, at simply being together again.

Linked to Five Minute Friday. This week's subject is Joy.

Silver Spotted Skipper

This is one of our more common butterflies. I've been trying all summer to get a photo, and finally a few days a managed to get photos of two different butterflies. We are pretty certain it is a is a silver spotted skipper. If anyone knows differently, please let me know. It has been quite exciting learning the names of our butterflies this summer. I still have more to learn, though.

The butterfly in the next two photos is the same kind, just older. The wings are getting tattered and the colors are starting to fade.

Apparently silver spotted skippers will only feed on pink, blue, purple, red, and sometimes white flowers. I do know they love our butterfly bush, and on a sunny day there are usually several on it at all times.

Stormy Night

I wander through the stormy night
as the wind tears at my dress
and the pouring rain runs through my hair
and mixes with hopeless tears

the blackness of the night matches
the darkness in my heart
I am a young woman --an adult
who's heart tells me one thing
and yet my father pulls out the bible
and tells me my heart is wrong

something simple, something good
wanting to be with a sister,
who wants me to be with her
yet this is wrong
 for my father tells me so
and the bible is there to prove it

you grow up being told
that family is the most important thing of all
everything we do is because family
is what really matters
then you grow up and find out
that family isn't so important after all

the only thing that is important
is what your father says and thinks
you struggle against the storm
in your heart because you feel
a combination of love and fear

I want to do what is right
but I feel so helpless
wandering alone in the stormy night
but it is only a reflection of
the silent storm raging in my heart

(if you haven't done so already, read this post to see the perspective this is coming from.)

This post is part of Imperfect Prose.

Silver and Emerald

We had a sudden downpour this evening, then the sun came back out as quickly as it had disappeared. With the sun came a million tiny lights shimmering in silver and emerald.

Linking to your joy, your abundance blog hop.

Harvest Moon

Tonight's full moon is the Harvest Moon.

The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox.  (The autumn equinox is September 23rd this year.) This year's Harvest Moon will be at its fullest at 4:27 am  on 9/12.  For more information on the Harvest Moon and what makes it unique, click here.

A Rose Blooming on 9/11

Remembering those who died and praying for those who survived.

Of Frogs, Pumpkins, and Butterflies

It has been a busy week at work (it always is after a long holiday weekend) and I haven't spent much time in the garden, other than to go out and pick a few tomatoes. This little guy lives in my tomato patch and I finally managed to get a photo of him today before he scurried away to hide.

When I got home tonight I took a quick walk around the garden to see how much damage a week of neglect had done. Not much, for the weather has been very cool and has put a stop to rampant ripening. I will have to pick and freeze green beans this weekend and can some more tomatoes. If I get to it, there is some cabbage ready to be made into sauerkraut. But for the most part, things seem to have stalled a bit. The cool weather even caused the zucchini to slow production. 

What amazed me was the baby bear pumpkins. When I looked at them 4 or 5 days ago, they were all green, and I wondered if they would ripen before the vines died. Today I went out and counted 15 orange pumpkins. There may be more. My pumpkin patch is embarrassingly overgrown with fox tail grass.  Baby bear is a little pie pumpkin with semi hulless seeds. Maybe I will pick one this weekend and try it...

I finally saw what I think is my first Monarch this summer. I've been seeing butterflies that look similar, but learned recently that they are actually Viceroys. (Thanks to Anne at Gardening with Binoculars for identifying this viceroy).

The Monarch is hanging out on a fox tail grass head in my pumpkin patch. We do not mow the milkweed on our property in hopes of being a little oasis for the Monarch caterpillars in the sea of genetically modified soy and corn that surrounds us. (I do love living in farm country though, and would much rather see corn and soy fields, even if they are genetically modified, rather than subdivisions.)

This post is part of Garden Life over at No Ordinary Homestead.

If you haven't done so already, you can enter Dandelion Haven's first giveasy to win some organic garlic for planting or eating this fall and a wild crafted grapevine basket.

Wild Crafted Basket and Garlic Give Away!

Welcome to Dandelion Haven's first blog give away!

I'm giving away four bulbs each of three of the garlic varieties I grew this year. They are organically grown and you can either plant them in your garden this fall or enjoy them in cooking through the fall and winter. I planted my garlic this weekend, but it can be planted up until a few weeks before the ground freezes. Many people routinely plant their garlic in October. For complete garlic growing instructions, see my post, Almost Time to Plant Garlic.

Kettle River Giant is an artichoke soft neck that can grow quite large.  It is a long time heirloom garlic grown in the Pacific Northwest. It does well in cold winters. The wrappers are a beige-white with pink overtones. Being a soft neck, it stores well. It has a medium heat and a rich taste. Averages 12 cloves per bulb.



Kettle River Giant

Killarny Red is a rocambole type that is rare and difficult for gardeners to find. The cloves are exceptionally large, and the loose skins on Killarney Red makes it easy to peel. It has a wonderfully deep, full-bodied flavor. It is the garlic to grow for perfectly curled garlic scapes.

. 

Killarny Red

German Extra Hardy is a porcelain type garlic.  It has large bulbs with 4-5 large cloves in each bulb. The outside skin is very white and the skin covering the cloves is dark red. It is a very winter hardy, vigorous-growing garlic with long roots, which gives it the ability to winter over without heaving out  of the ground.

German Extra Hardy

I'm also giving away a basket I wove from wild grapevines growing on our property. This is a smaller version of the gathering basket I wove back in July. Because it is woven from wild vines it has many small imperfections due to the irregularities in the vines, but that is part of the charm of a wild crafted basket.

So here is how to enter the give away:

If you are one of my regular readers simply leave a comment.

If you are new here, please follow Dandelion Haven and leave me comment letting me know that you did. You have the three options that are in the upper right hand corner of the home page--follow with google friend connect, subscribe using your favorite reader, or follow by e-mail.

To be entered twice link this post on Facebook or on your own blog. Just let me know in a comment that you did.

If you are one of my lucky readers who already lives on a garlic farm (or otherwise already grow your own garlic) you can still enter to win just the basket. If you don't need the garlic, please let me know in your comment. If someone wins just the basket, I will draw a second name for the garlic.

And finally, for my faithful readers in Europe and other continents, you can enter to win the basket. (I don't want to have to jump through hoops to send live plant material overseas.) If one of my overseas readers wins the basket, I will draw a second name for for the garlic.

When you enter, please make sure there is a way I can contact you if you win!

This give away ends Monday, 9/19/11 at 11:59 pm, EDT. 

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good."

 - Alice May Brock

Linked to Farm Girl Friday.
Linked to Homestead Revival's Barn Hop.

This Giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Heidi for winning both the garlic and basket!

Pathway into Fall

 

September sunset

the air is cool and golden

and holds the promise

 of a rainbow of color

slowly turning

as we walk

 the pathway

 into fall

 

This post is linked with I Capture.

Walnut Zucchini Granola

These days when I go out to my garden I am faced with a problem I have never had before. I have too much zucchini! Due to squash vine borers, I usually am only able to harvest a handful of fruits before the plants whither up and die. The few squash I pick quickly get made into zucchini bread for my husband, then I spend the rest of the summer begging other gardeners for their over grown zucchini to shred and freeze for winter zucchini bread.

My efforts to combat the borers this summer has left me with a freezer full of shredded zucchini and plants that keep churning out more fruit each day. Suddenly I am tearing my hair out trying to figure out what to do with all of them!

Yesterday I came across a recipe for zucchini granola. That sounded like an interesting idea, and I tentatively made a batch.  I adapted the ingredients to use what I already had in my house, and added a lot more zucchini than the original recipe called for. (The original recipe used less than a cup of zucchini--I needed to use up more zucchini than that!)

My husband promptly ate about a third of the first batch when done, so I grated up a second zucchini and made another batch. The first batch I made with just raw brown sugar and it turned out quite crispy. My husband requested that I use honey in the second batch so that it would be a little more chewy. Either way, it is very good.

Walnut Zucchini Granola



3 1/2 cups quick oats
1 medium zucchini (about 2 cups when shredded and wrung dry.)
1/2 lb walnuts
1 cup raw brown sugar OR 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup raw brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Shred zucchini and wring out the excess moisture using either your hands or a kitchen towel.

Combine all ingredients and mix well. The mixture will be quite wet.

Spread the mixture out evenly on cookie sheets. (I used two.)

My oven has a dehydrate setting and I used that set at 250 F and baked the granola over a 4-5 hour period. Half way through, I took a spatula and broke up the granola into smaller pieces then stirred it occasionally during  the last few hours of baking.

When done, allow to cool and store in an airtight container.

The original recipe called for adding chocolate chips after the granola was done baking, but while still warm so that the chocolate would melt into luscious chunks of walnuts, chocolate, and oats. I don't have any chocolate chips in the house right now, but when I do get some, I'm going to make this again.


walnut zucchini granola

So this used up two of my 23 extra zucchini. Anyone have any other ideas for using up the the other 21? What are your favorite zucchini recipes?

This post is linked to Farmgirl  Friday.  (Please also check out my blog giveaway--it ends 9/19/11. You can win fresh garlic and a wild crafted basket!)

Broken Beauty

I watched her come

floating, dancing

through the treetops

and then she landed

lightly on a flower

and I saw

she was broken

in her beauty

she leapt gracefully

 into the air

in brokenness and beauty

and confidence

she soared

back into the sky.

This post is part of Imperfect Prose.

Mini Cabbages and a Pumpkin Update

`You know how after you harvest the first large broccoli head, smaller shoots will grow in its place? Summer cabbage does the same thing. These four little heads grew in the place of a caraflex cabbage head I harvested back in July. Each of the cabbage plants have 3-4 small heads in various stages of development and will keep me supplied with fresh, tender cabbages through September and October. The beefsteak tomato in the basket with the little cabbages is for size comparison.

Remember my post on oiling and foiling squash vine borers? Well, though my efforts didn't stave off the squash vine borers completely, they had enough of an effect that I am getting what looks to be a wonderful pumpkin and squash harvest. I will write more about my thoughts on this when I make the final harvest. In the meantime, I am so delighted to have pumpkins and squash ripening in my garden. I even have enough zucchini for the first time since I have been gardening in Michigan.

Today because I am craving something made of pumpkin, I picked one of the kakai pumpkins. They are striped green and orange when ripe and have hulless seeds.

I'll probably turn the flesh into pumpkin pudding, and the seeds are roasting in the oven as I write. I'm impressed by the seeds-- completely hulless as advertised, plump, and lots of them.

Stay tuned to Dandelion Haven-- in the next few days we will be having our first ever blog give away. It involves a hand woven, wild crafted basket and something you can plant in your garden this fall (or eat, whichever you choose to do!).

This post is part of Farm Girl Friday at Dandelion House and Garden Life at No Ordinary Homestead.

Cabbage Butterfly

A cabbage butterfly on a raspberry flower.

I'm looking forward to this weekend to catch up on canning and freezing vegetables and hopefully getting some more butterfly photos. Today I followed a dainty little chocolate colored butterfly around the garden for 10 minutes trying to get a photo, with no luck. I'm learning that butterfly photos tend to take a lot of patience and sometimes just pure luck.