Bells of the North Homestead

The past couple of weeks have been interesting to say the least.  Our temperatures here in Interior Alaska have gone from positive temperatures in the teens to lows of -40.  While the house is hanging in there, of course, no surprise there. This place was built to last, we have lost a couple of animals and now as of today, the 5th of January, we are housing three chickens in our garage.  Unfortunately two of these girls had the bad luck to start molting late Autumn.  Little Ms. Toriel started molting first in late November.  Chloe came right behind her in mid December.  By the morning of Christmas Eve it became apparent, we had to house poor little Toriel in the garage as first and foremost she had very little feathers on her poor body.  She's also lower in the pecking order which means others are picking on her and she is not allowed to share their heat.  As my husband brought her in to show me it was apparent, she was on deaths doorstep. Her eye...

I've been a gardener since in my early twenties.  Yes, I was a novice but we have to start somewhere right? I started by killing mint and basil.  I did try to grow them, but they constantly died. A couple of years later, I figured out what I was doing wrong, what the heck was the small spidery pest that was attacking (and killing) my bonsai, why was my mint taking over the yard, what were the green small bugs eating my cilantro, and WHY was my cilantro always developing seeds so fast?   I got a bit better at planting herbs in the tiny spaces I had in all the houses we occupied, and upgraded to vegetables and even cherry trees (that the moose thoroughly enjoyed even though I did not). When we moved to Maryland all that experience was kicked into high gear as my family got hit by many unfortunate personal economic events. When you only suddenly have money for your house, your car, the repairs for the car and some of your bills and desperation hits in, well then you'll d...

Life in Alaska moves infinitely slower than it does where we came from on the East coast but our gardening season is much much faster.  So much so that it stunned me how quickly it ended.  By the middle of September we were getting close to the type of temperatures that would kill the cold loving brassicas so we knew, the time has come to harvest what was left. Gardening here is so much more different than it was in Maryland.  I knew what it was like to grow tomatoes here, I knew that aphids here are tough little monsters when compared to their Maryland cousins, I knew some of the troubles with growing cucumbers and herbs and yet, I learned it again through this year. Tomatoes: This summer was a super wet and cool one which frustrated many of the gardeners and farmers I spoke with.  Locally grown tomatoes were scarcer than hen's teeth and what were found locally grown were ridiculously expensive.  Our plants (9 of them) provided beautiful foliage, they gr...

I write this now, coming from about 4 months, give or take, experience now at reducing our electricity bill each month. Energy here in Fairbanks, Alaska is expensive.  In fact per the US Energy Information Administration only a few other states are higher.  In case you're curious, Hawaii is the most expensive with New York and Connecticut following.  We're number four on this list.  Unfortunately for us here in the Golden Heart City though, we have a nasty little surcharge added onto our bill due to a legal issue that our Electricity company had some time ago, so it pushes that cost per kWh up around an extra .9 cents.  That doesn't seem like a lot but when you multiply that times 400, 500 or 800 kWh. It adds up. The most important thing one has to keep in mind when trying to lower an electric bill is, while keeping an eye on your cost per month, you really want to look at your total kWh usage per month. If you do this you will be able to dissect the applian...

Since the last time I have written on our electricity bill and our efforts in reducing it we’ve had a few developments.  Now keep in mind with all of this.  We do not have some of the typical high energy items that many have.  We have no water heater that draws energy nor do we have electric heat.  We do have, however, an ancient waterbed.  Thankfully that will be replaced very soon.  Another item to keep in mind is this is Fairbanks, Alaska so we have to plug in our vehicles if they are parked outdoors when the temperatures go below -20.  That happens quite frequently here in the winter months so to combat that problem I have purchased an outdoor timer that will only turn on power to the vehicle plugged in for two hours prior to our possible departure time. Also, originally as I began writing this, my husband had been at home each month, anxiously searching for a job.  That means that we have had one adult around the house for almost 24 hou...

Four years ago we moved from Fairbanks Alaska to Aberdeen Maryland. I was interested in gardening; loved growing (and sometimes killing) herbs, a potted tomato but no where near what we do now. I played around a tiny bit with aquaponics but I was like any other American who relies solely on the grocery store for my food. When we moved into this house we were confronted with a soggy, muddy and mossy mess. Soil that consisted of a heavy clay mixture and was ridiculously difficult to work.  For the first year each time we tilled up our soil it would smell like a septic tank had dumped its contents into our yard. Stinky muddy mess. We didn't know what we needed to grow anything there, we just knew that if we were to make it for the next year or two we better try growing our own fruits and veggies because financially we were strapped.  The first year, we believed that you either A. Put seeds in ground, seed sprouts and grows. Sprinkle liberally with Sevin dust and Mi...

The end of the okra that is. We have been deciding what to do with our okra plants that, this year, didn't really produce much.  This is mostly our fault for two different reasons. We planted them too late. We planted them too few. Number 1 was a new lesson.  We didn't have this issue last year as we didn't plant garlic two years ago. This year the garlic did not come out of the beds until late June to early July and we didn't start our okra plants in pots ahead of time, we direct sowed them, so they had a late start. Lesson learned.  Three months is not enough time to get the okra up and producing fully. Next.  Number 2.  THIS one we knew about and we made the mistake of doing it, yet again. This is one of those moments when I smack myself in the forehead and exclaim "DUHH!" Next year, we will be planting one heck of a lot more of the okra so we can have it fresh, rather than dehydrated or frozen.  So, now here is the issue.  Our garli...

I feel like it's been forever since I've written and yet it was only earlier last week that I wrote!  So much has happened since the last time I wrote so, this is one of those moments when I take a huge sigh and try to figure out where to begin. In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland the King said to the White Rabbit "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop". Good Advice. So first, our garden has stepped up production as of lately and we're eating from it non stop.  My parents recently visited and we made eggplant parmesan from eggplants out back which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.  We're easily getting medium to large sized bowlfuls of tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants and squash every week now.  Coupled with the amount we get from our weekly CSA share at Brad's Produce , and well, it's a lot of food. The tomatoes have been turned into sauces, diced tomatoes, salsas, dried tomatoes, and fireballs....

This weekend we have a lot that will be going on in our kitchen! Now, I have to say, while I thoroughly enjoy shows like Masterchef, I am no where near as talented as the home chefs on that show.  I do best following a recipe, tweeking it a bit, maybe adding a flavor or two and staying with that.  I know what flavors go well together and I know what flavors don't. Ask me on any given day what ingredients are used in, oh I don't know, a flan, and I'll remark that I love flan but wait, let me look up the ingredient list and directions first. With that all said, I'm going to post the following recipes and provide the links so that I may give full credit to the cook who created the recipe. This way I can kill the proverbial two birds with one stone.  You can see what I'm doing with natures bounty and I can go back two to three years from now and figure out which recipes I really loved and which ones not so much.  Savory Tomato Basil Jam Makes 4 half-pint...