The pest made pesto

 

My current food obsession: Pesto

Eating it on…potatoes, tortillas, eggs, salads & pizza

I threw together a batch a couple of weeks back and yesterday Flower Girl did the same. Both times it came out fab! No measuring just a handful of ingredients in the food processor.

A few bunches of fresh basil, a handful of walnuts, parmesan cheese (not the grated stuff), 3-4 cloves of fresh garlic, a dash of salt, and several glugs of extra virgin olive oil.

My girl also learned to make butter today. Even though I must admit she made it out of desperation. Who can eat a slice of homemade grilled toast without that? Mother was lacking on groceries but had some cream she had frozen & thawed in anticipation of the shortage. FG also made no-bake peanut-butter cookies. Atta Girl….hoping she’ll take over some of the kitchen duties this summer

The baddest blogger of them all…..+ fiddleheads

 

Just because I haven’t been blogging much doesn’t mean I’m not taking pictures.  I have good excuses: kids birthdays, homeschooling, attempting to maintain 2 homes, a good trilogy that has me sucked in.  LOL!  Any how… about a month a go I took the kids and their cousins on our yearly fiddle-heading expedition.

In previous years we have gathered as many fiddleheads as we could in effort to stock up.   This year we went out just to get enough greens for a couple of meals.  I think foraging is an important skill for the kids to learn and participate in.  In addition,  the experience of going out every year makes for a good time and memories they will cherish later in life.  If you have any interest in looking back here is the post I did in2010 and 2011 on fiddleheading.

The greenhouse has been plentiful providing us with many salad greens, radish, swiss chard, bok choy (Maine Man’s favorite), spinach, and most recently broccoli.

On a final note I want to take a moment and THANK all of the people who take the time and leave me a quick comment on blogspot or over at Bangor Daily News, the people I run into in my community that make it a point say something nice about my blog.  Kinda funny… even MM has been recognized at work as “the guy on Achorn Farm”.  Also to my 350 followers here on blog spot and the 200-300 hits per day over here and over at BDN.  This THANK YOU is long over due!  Thanks for sticking with me and my absences.  If it wasn’t for you I would have retired as a blogger in this busy point in our life.

Love & Peace to you all!

Greenhouse duty

 

I’m very pleased with how involved the kids are getting with the farm.  CB helped his Dad plant much of the greenhouse.  I couldn’t help but smile last night as I overheard a conversation between FG & CB.  They talk lots about the farm and animals.  Last night their chat just happened to be about going out back picking raspberries when they are ripe and eating them every day for breakfast.  Proud to say we are raising a couple foodies who are passionate about agriculture!

7 week old chickens

Dooms day for the broilers….  Flower Girl is the bird catcher, Country Boy does the kill, and Maine Man plucks and cleans the birds.  I make myself busy doing much neglected chores .  Who ever thought this would be how we’d be spending our Friday nights

Strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups

 

I came across the how-to on Pinterest.  I’m not sure about you, but I love that site!  One word to describe how that site makes me feel…..INSPIRED!

K, here goes…takes just a few minutes to mix it up.

Cut up 2 cups of strawberries & add 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.  I used my immersion blender to puree the mixture but a food processor would work.

Have I told you lately my immersion blender is one of my favorite kitchen tools?  That is besides my kitchen aid mixer & my waffle maker.

I have mixed up this creation not once, but twice.  Second time around I put it in a canning jar for Maine Man and the kids to cook up the following day.

I spread it out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and baked it @ 170 degrees for approximately 3-4 hours.  You can use a dehydrator but I’m in need of a new one so I cooked it the stove instead.

Viola!

Healthy, tasty, snack.  I figured I’d share before Maine strawberries are in blossom!

ENJOY!

Spring Babies

Country Boy has been hatching out chicks & these Khaki Campbell ducklings in his incubator.  He is interested in hatching quail eggs, guineas, or some other fowl if anyone local has anything available.  His sister is now in competition with him as she just received an incubator as an early  birthday gift. We have some Rhode Island Red chicks if your interested in bartering!

It’s a miracle!

It’s hard to believe but my bees survived their first winter here!  A few weeks back I made “bee candy” to hold them over until there is a plentiful supply of pollen & nectar.  I’m guessing their food stores are running low even though I did not take any honey from them last year.  The bee candy I made up consisted of a cooked mixture of corn syrup, sugar, water, and vanilla.  Apparently it was so tasty Flower Girl was seen sneaking off with chunks of it.  I have found the longer I have the bees the more stupid brave I get around them.  Like messing with the hive without my gear on and without my smoker.  I got away with it a couple times but this last time I went out to feed them let’s just say I ran faster then I had in quite some time.  I also utilized the outhouse as a hideout.  Lesson learned!  Next visit with my bees I will be appropriately protected.  More pictures to come!