Author: Sarah

Summer Corn Salad
Recipes

Summer Corn Salad

Sarah

It’s harvest time for many of us, and this recipe is a great way to showcase your produce.

A light and crunchy salad that is great on its own or paired with grilling.

Summer Corn Salad

Ingredients:

  • 3 ears of fresh corn, shucked
  • 1 shallot, peeled and sliced (about ¼ cup)
  • 5 basil leaves, chopped
  • ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • ¼ tsp fine sea salt
  • Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Directions:

Slice the corn kernels off the cobs into a mixing bowl.

Add the shallot, basil, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and salt, and toss to combine.

Let chill covered. Serve with tomatoes on top to taste.

Serves 2-4, depending on appetite.

High Protein Egg Bites
Recipes

High Protein Egg Bites

Sarah

Two to four of these bites will fuel you up in the morning and provide you with enough protein to function in the early hours.

High-Protein Egg Bites

Ingredients:

  • 8 large eggs
  • 1 cup full-fat cottage cheese
  • ¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°. Line a 12-count muffin tin with parchment paper liners.

Add the ingredients to a blender and process until smooth.

Divide between the tins.

Bake for 30 minutes, then let cool on a rack. Store tightly sealed in the refrigerator.

To reheat, microwave for about 1 minute.

Makes 12, serving size of 2-4 muffins per person.

~Sarah

The Start Of The New Garden
Gardening

The Start Of The New Garden

Sarah

At the end of April, I had posted about my planning for the new garden bed. Then it got hot. And I had so much else to do after our move.

However, with less than a month left before school starts again and a week with lower humidity/temperatures (mid-80s), I decided we needed to get moving on it. So that by early fall, I could work on this on my own terms.

First, I marked out the perimeter of the new garden. It will become bigger, but I wanted to see what 40 by 4o feet looked like. I took it almost to the edge, where the lawn drops off (down below is the septic drainfield).There is also a tree that needs to be cut and taken to the ground.

To start, I had Kirk mow this side of the house. He cuts to about 5″ in height. Then I went in and mowed it with Ol’ Crappy to about 2″ or less. I went as low as that heap could do it. It finally had a break in the rain this week, but the lawn was still soaked. Last week, we experienced multiple days of heavy rain. And while it might be warm, it can take forever to dry out.

I will keep using this mower till it finally dies. It is being held together with duct tape.

Working with heavy-duty farm fabric. The first roll was 5 feet 5″ wide. We cut it into 40 foot long sections.

First strip down. You want to be sure to peg down the edges well.

Three rows down. We overlapped by about 4 to 5″ on each section, so grass cannot easily push up between it.

Four rows in we ran out of the first roll of fabric, 160 feet used.

I had to wait for the new roll of fabric to ship overnight, so I had them bring out the two raised beds Alistaire had built for me. The raised beds are 8 feet long by 4 feet wide. I plan to give them three feet from the fence, so I can walk around and work.

At least get an idea of what we are doing—four more sections to lay down.

The new fabric showed up, a 500-foot roll.

Now onto finishing the ends.

So much more to do – but it is happening finally.

When we moved, I left behind a couple of essential items in the greenhouse at the old place. A bonus for the new owners, I suppose. One was a roll of farm fabric (one got packed. The other didn’t). I also left behind a nearly full box of fabric pins. So I had to buy a new box, but what I got was better in some ways. The FEED brand comes with plastic disks that you insert the galvanized landscape fabric pin/staple into, and then use a plastic or rubber mallet to drive into the ground. This helps prevent the staples from bending and getting bent as you pound in. It also helps with the fabric not tearing around the staple. A win for me.

Part 3 is already happening, and I will write more later.

~Sarah

Blueberry Muffins
Recipes

Blueberry Muffins

Sarah

I saw this recipe in an email from a Mennonite nursery/farm in Maryland, located across the river from us.

I didn’t do the final step, which was to dip the warm muffins in butter. I am not working that hard on a farm for that luxury. They are not overly sweet, but still quite a treat. Fresh summer blueberries shine in this recipe.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

  • 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 2½ tsp baking powder
  • ¾ tsp fine sea salt
  • 1 large egg
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil, such as avocado
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries, dry
  • 1-2 Tbsp granulated sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Line a 12-count muffin tin with parchment liners.

In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk egg, milk, and oil.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just combined.

Gently stir in the blueberries.

Divide equally between the tin.

Sprinkle a bit of the remaining sugar on top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, ours took 21 minutes.’Let cool on a rack.

Store cooled muffins in a sealed container.

Makes 12 muffins.

~Sarah

Reviewing A Handheld Sewing Machine
Homesteading · Reviews · Sewing

Reviewing A Handheld Sewing Machine

Sarah

In our last two homes, I never had a dedicated sewing area. Three houses back, I was sewing for a living, so I had the downstairs second living room as both an office and a sewing room for my business. When the boys were young, and we were about to move to our next home, I had given my sewing business away to another hiker, and I was burned out on sewing. So it hadn’t been as important to me as it should have been. Growing food became my light in those years.

When I did need to sew, I’d pull out my machine and try to do it on our dining room table. It was not a good choice, as it was simply awkward (we have a bar-height table). So I found I didn’t want to haul everything downstairs and set it up. All my sewing gear was boxed into two bins and shut away in a closet in Kirk’s office.

When we moved, I had a room that was entirely mine – I suppose it would have been the “formal sitting room” back in the day. In a more modern house, it would be an open-plan home, but this house has separate rooms.

Kirk had upgraded his desk, so he gave me his old one. It is a standing desk, which oddly is great for crafting and sewing. I much prefer to stand, though it goes up and down, should I want to sit. It’s a long desk that I can also use to cut fabric on. I now have a sewing area, but it took me a couple of months to get it all together.

Meanwhile, Kirk had seen a handheld sewing machine and picked it up. If you have ever had a quick repair job to do, but, like me, had all your sewing gear packed away? This could be a handy answer to that. Sometimes, all you need to do is repair a hem.

Package, to show size.

What came in the box.

The machine comes pre-threaded.

The accessory kit.

There are pros and cons to this machine:

Pros:

Ease of use is big. It comes fully charged and has a digital display to let you know the battery life. It is easy to charge, with an included USB cord. Due to not needing heavy batteries, it is far easier to hold.

The machine sews in one direction, and it is a simple stitch, so you must knot it at the end, otherwise it will pull out.

There is a tension control.

The needle is replaceable using a screwdriver.

Ample accessory kit.

Cons:

The directions are not well done.

Threading it isn’t easy. You need good vision and patience.

Understanding how the threading works isn’t going to be easy for someone new to sewing.

It uses bobbins to hold the thread for sewing, but doesn’t have a bobbin under the needle. This is where the threading can be difficult. You have to envision it while you do the threading. I would suggest taking a picture of how it came from the factory, so you have a reference.

The on/off button automatically starts the machine. There are three settings, but you must go through all three to turn the machine off. This can be very frustrating.

The takeaway:

I like the sewing machine, it’s functional and well-priced.

However, it is a huge learning curve. It is not for someone just starting with sewing. A regular, but smaller-sized machine, would be a far better choice for a sewing newbie.

When you are done sewing a line, gently pull the fabric away, and then cut the thread. Unlike in a standard machine, you can’t just break it off. It will start to unravel the thread if you do that.

It’s a mixed bag in the end, on if I would recommend it to anyone. But it got me feeling more inspired to get back into sewing, and got me to make my sewing area a reality here. So I take that as a huge pro.

~Sarah