Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

I took the afternoon to make my first batch of Strawberry Rhubarb jam. I had picked up a bunch of rhubarb at the farmer's market on Saturday and after making a delicious Strawberry rhubarb crumble found here for Mother's Day I had just enough left for the jam. Grabbed a quart of berries this morning and got started. This was also my fist canning of the season...I'm very excited for more to come.

Spring Beginnings

This is the start of a new project. I am going to attempt to spend the next year or so making things for myself and family instead of buying them . This applies to food, clothing, gifts. Basically anything that I could actually make. I sort of already do this. I knit and am learning to sew...although the clothing will be a new experience. I don't really buy much processed food, but I'm really going to make an effort to stop buying it all together. If I need a cake...I will make it from scratch, if I need a new skirt...I will buy the fabric and sew it. We will be starting a vegetable garden here very soon and I am excited.
You may have noticed that I changed the name of the blog to PoeMade. I think its clever...it sounds a bit like the word "homemade" and sums up what I'm trying to do.

Today's project was painting the new greenhouse/shed and planter box. I picked up some green paint from home depot called Asparagus, a good name for a garden paint color. I had already painted the sides of the shed white, this was going to be the trim color. The greenhouse will soon be home to some seedlings once it warms up a bit.

The planter box is for spinach. We are planning to build another for lettuce.
Thanks for reading and joining me again as I attempt this whole blog thing for the 4th time I think....but who's counting? I am looking forward to the new things I'll be trying and documenting here this year. Here we go!

Sprouts

It has been awhile since I posted. I guess quite a lot has been going on. We found a house that we might like to buy and put and offer on it. It will be a great house to share with Ian and Jamie and it has great garden potential, a blank slate really. We are waiting to hear if the offer is accepted so...we'll see. This week we also celebrated the arrival of Ester Kirk with a baby shower. Chris and Natasha fixed an Ethiopian meal for everyone which was really good. They are going to be traveling to Ethiopia in about 2 weeks and then Ester will be home! You can see some pictures of the shower here.
Garden Update:
Last week I planted some spinach and lettuce seeds. Today they have sprouted! Its so exciting to see it actually work. Yes I know its very early on but its the beginnings of food! I can't wait. Yesterday I planted some heads of green tower lettuce. My hope is that we will be able to eat all these green veggies before we move. I think its doable!

and so it begins...

Its warm outside and I'm tired of buying my vegetables at the grocery store. This can only mean one thing: we must garden. Today I got the soil ready for planting. Since our lease is up at the end of June I'm only going to plant spinach and lettuce here. I turned the soil and added compost to half the garden, I guess I'll just leave the other half as it is. It was much easier getting the garden ready this year as compared to last. The soil was still somewhat soft and diggable. I picked up some seeds at Roxbury this afternoon and am planning to plant them in the next day or so. I did not plant any spinach last year which is crazy because I love spinach so much. I'm looking forward to it. Also last year I planted Romaine from starter plants but I'm going to try it from seed and I may get some little plants when the farmer's market opens up. I'm pretty bummed about moving in the middle of the growing season. Especially because the trees that shaded the garden last summer have been cut out, the garden gets amble sun all day now...I could have had the best tomatoes on the block. I'm hoping we can get into a place mid to late May and then possibly I can get something started. This blog may become more about gardening during these warm months. I don't seem to get as much knitting done when its so nice outside.

GREEN

Last nights dinner was green. All green. It was very good. Danica made a spinach pesto tortellini and caramel pie with green whipped cream. Jamie made broccoli, green rice crispy treats and guacamole. Natasha made spinach pizza and lime jello. Ryan and I made chicken skewers with zucchini and green peppers and I made a salad with green veggies and apples. All the green things were very tasty!
Join us next Sunday for dinner...it won't be green but it should be just as good!

rainy+muffins

Its a very rainy Friday here and Ryan and I are both home. This morning I decided to make some muffins. When we were in Auckland last spring we ate breakfast at this coffee shop by our hotel almost every morning. They had the best banana chocolate chip muffins, and we had a few to make sure that they were in fact the best. I tried to make them once before when we got home from the trip, to recreate the experience, but they weren't quite the same.
This morning I thought I would try again. I had three bananas to use up and enough chocolate chips to give it a go. They turned out great. I followed the banana nut muffin recipe in Joy of Cooking. Omitting the walnuts for the chocolate. Maybe its because its been almost a year since we had the New Zealand ones and I've forgotten the caliber I was aiming for or these were just good. The recipe said they are best served warm but I disagree. I am eating one cold right now and I think I like it better than this mornings.
I also have some granola in the oven right now. As some of you know I am on a quest for homemade granola that clusters...so I'm following the same recipe I made before just I'm baking it like its a bar (not stirring it at all and keeping it covered so it doesn't burn) and then I will crumble it when it cools. I hope this works.

Travels

This weekend (Monday and Tuesday for me) I took a little tour of VA. Monday morning I set off for Lexington to visit my brother, Matthew. He works at a Young Life camp there. I had never been to Lexington before so I was excited to see the town. We had lunch at the Blue Sky Bakery. Now, since I work at a bakery/cafe I'm somewhat of a sandwich snob. I really only like Eileen's sandwiches..however we had a great lunch there. We both had the special called "Cool Hand Cuke" it had turkey, cucumbers, lettuce, tomato and onion with a creamy dill spread on fresh baked Focaccia Bread. It was quite tasty! Then Matthew showed me around town. We walked through the campuses of Washington and Lee University and VMI. I forgot to take my camera along...I would have liked some pictures. Then we went over to Buena Vista, or B.V. as Matt kept calling it, to see some cousins (Nancy, Robby, Melissa and her friend Wes). Nancy showed us around the house and shared her favorite pastime with us (looking at family pictures) then Melissa and Wes took us up to see their cabin, which (since I didn't take a picture) is exactly how you would imagine a cabin in the mountains to be. It was so peaceful and rustic! Hopefully Ryan and I can go down and spend the night sometime. Then we went back to town for dinner. We ate at an Italian place and there was a small Bluegrass concert going on. I know you're thinking that Italian and Bluegrass don't really go together but in Southwestern VA they do!
I stayed that night at Matt's friend Kari's house. It is out in almost the middle of nowhere, quietly nestled in the hills. The next morning I made my way to Harrisonburg. When I got there I had a nice cup of coffee with mom, visited with all of my Grandparents, stopped by to see Dad at work and then had lunch with an old friend! It was a JAM-packed morning.
It was nice to be able to drive just a short way and see my family! I look forward to doing it again soon. When I got home I realized I had a lot more in the back of the car than I did when I left. So since I did not take any pictures while away, I thought I would give you one of all the things I brought home.
From Left:

• Tea and Chocolates(in front) from Mom and Dad for Ryan's birthday.
• Treats for Brinks from Matthew purchased at Three Dog Bakery in Asheville, NC
• Fair Trade Organic Ethiopian Coffee (best coffee ever) from Ten Thousand Villages in Harrisonburg, VA.
  
• Yarn from Nancy and family purchased at the Maple Festival that weekend.
• Fabric from Gran. 1 wool vest, 1 wool skirt and 1 corduroy dress to use for sewing projects that I have yet to dream up.