The art of capture of spent grain. Am I a little late? Is it spent yet?
Not yet! I am going to add some, thanks to Midnight Sun Brewery, who actually helped me land a husband, I will be using their excess as a layer in the lasagne garden.
Growing food is always a challenge in Alaska where 3 inches of snow is predicted in lower elevations with 6 inches in upper MID MAY!
Spent 6 hours after a meaningless 2 meetings at work, planning/planting in the garden. These first days of growing season I am hit with a wide range of emotions. Mostly happy, but confused and feel as if I have undertaken some major ADD with a whopper of H on the side. What should I do first, I ask my other self, the thoughtful one, probably water and get the next proposed garden bed ready. Wait! Those seeds should really be put in the ground now. Nice neighbor said I could steal his leaves for my compost. That really should be watered so that it I don’t just have a pile of leaves sitting there doing nothing, right? “Mama, will you swing me? Mama! Mama, pleaaaaaaaase will you swing me!!!?!!!” Yes, I say, of course, this is most important. “Get me down!” Oy, all of that other stuff must wait. What was I doing again?
AWESOMENESS! Thank you so much!
Want to start your growing season early? Maybe extend in into the winter months? Then build a cold frame or sometimes called a mini greenhouse. A cold frame is 4 walls that secure heat and protect plants from the elements and a top that allows light through.
Step 1) Find a good location that gets lots of sunlight and faces south.
Step 2) Build the walls. I used straw bales. They’re great at holding in heat and no tools are needed.
Step 3) Use some old windows to put on top. I used some storm windows I found in the trash at a local church.
Step 4) Fill with plant trays full of seeds.
Step 5) Keep an eye on temperature, moisture and airflow. Open up the lid a few inches to circulate fresh air in.
Step 6) Acclimate your seedlings by taking the lid off when they get bigger.
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Created by my fantastic brother’s film production crew, Optic Nerve Productions, is the other side of wrap-around farming endeavors that make you want to turn the table and care for all aspects of food making, and growing,witnessing layers and layers of locally grown food movement involvement by forward-thinking genuine souls. Please watch by ordering it from optic nerve productions or http://www.ingredientsfilm.com.
Watch this film!
This film made by my brother, Brian Kimmel, is about the local food movement all over the world. It highlights farmers, chefs, families, authors, developers and more ,who are starting to challenge industrial farming methods.
Watching this film makes you hungry. Hungry to start your own garden, Hungry to buy from markets and hungry to eat locally grown food. Please share this information.
http://food52.com/recipes/17568_barbara_kafkas_simplest_roast_chicken
I am sorry, hens, but without sustenance we cannot go on writing on Green Momma Adventures. Here is a great recipe. Amazing. After one year of 3 women writing a blog, there has not been a food recipe up until now. Unbelievable.Ingredients Poster
I gotta tell ya, being in Anchorage during the coldest summer on record, still gives me the urge to plant beds and container gardens. These house flowers, and the thermometer gauge says 155 (in the compost). I just built the last bed of the season. I am still not sure whether to let it sit and wait for spring planting of veggies or to go with flowers and perennials. It is the biggest yet and I did it all by myself using up all of the compost piles (3) from early, mid and late this summer, it is all kinda stinky right now but the chix are loving the wonderful worms and bugs that thrive inside. The coolest temp in all the heaps was 90 degrees. I did the lasagne bedding method.
I am prepping for the glass beaded wall of heat using bottles
Put chicken wire up around strawberry plants if you don’t want the chickens to eat your new strawberries.
Okay. So I am way deep into things breaking down, must be the entropy lover in me. The heap has been stuck at 155 Degrees for days and I am totally in awe, I saw eggshells that were actually toasted after turning the pile. They were burned!
Chickens are doing great. We had to put one in Chicken Time Out overnight. I opened the coop and she had feathers dangling from her mouth. We named her Bully, and swiftly put her into solitary confinement. I think that you are supposed to do it for 2 days, I could only endure one and a half. Tree Top, Rainbow Dash, Red Riding Hood, Sadie and Lioness are all doing fabulously well. Tree Top is fine with being picked up and carried around by Tahlia, my 5 year old. She has a new chore, letting the chickens out in the morning….
This is the official start of ‘summer in Alaska.’ Today, you can be freely plant with no holds-barred, however, it still feels freezing out there, yet the urgency still exists for things to heat in a hurry.
I have been futzing around with my compost heaps, instead, intermittently throwing in a few plants here and there while I keep hoping for the earth to heat, and cold layers to dissipate. I was thrilled to buy a long stick thermometer for compost temp. gauging, that I think people use if they ever wanna roast an elephant in a pit. So over the last few days, the compost went up from 55 degrees F to 80. I yanked out the meter and turned the pile and sacrilegiously added more to it. I think Kaladi Brothers Coffee company is going to start wondering about my frequent fetches for their grounds. My car is starting to smell like stale brewed coffee grounds.
I always feel that push-pull when the kids are outside: should I push her on the swing, or can I get away with one more turn of the pitch fork, plant that last groundcover, empty out that seed packet, or should I keep pushing my gleeful child singing on the swings?
We put together the ‘water feature’ it is somewhat lacking as came as a moldy lily pad, and I am unimpressed. I may throw the whole thing in the water and see if it floats or sinks and leave it at that, I guess you are supposed to put it in a mesh box with rocks, but I am just not patient enough for that.
Green Momma Adventures 