February Linkage Love

11:32 AM in Aqua, february, linkage, love

Its that time again: time to pass some of our rabid electronic information consumption on to you (rabid referring to the consumption, not the information.) Hope its contagious!

Here are our especially favorite links from the month of February:

Growing Shiitakes
Making Sure Your Shiitake Spawn is Good
Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
Mini-Mushroom Logs
Broth Making
Good scything
Resolving what some see as cognitive dissonance in modern homesteading
Goat-sized butter churn

What were your favorites?

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Homestead Happiness February Week 3

8:50 AM in 3, Aqua, february, happiness, homestead, week

Were still fine-tuning some of the experimental details on our eggshell leavening, but it was otherwise a productive week around the homestead (thanks to some unseasonably warm weather!).  Heres what made us happy this week.

We got another batch of wine started, this one from frozen black raspberries.  They had been in the freezer since July of 2004!  They say a fine wine improves with age, guess well find out if that applies to aging before fermentation, too.  At least, the berries still tasted good!  Also, starting the wine meant Jake could clean up the mess that the berries made in the fridge while they were thawing.  That made Katie extra happy.

Outside, highs in the 50s and 60s (°F) made for happy playing in the dirt, including playing musical berries.  We transplanted dormant strawberries out to the garden where we can protect them with the motion detector sprinklers, and dormant raspberries to the place vacated by the strawberries since they werent thriving in their original location.  Also, Musical Berries is going to be the name of our new family band.

Also on the yard work list was chopping out the remaining stump from the tree of heaven, filling the hole with dirt, and planting another tree in its place.  Some of the old stump pieces had termites, which the chickens liked a lot.  In fact, they were willing to brave a battlefield of flying wood chips to get to them, and with 100% survival rate.  Weve got ninja chickens! (Never mind, were going to call our band Ninja Chickens.)

In the process of our eggshell leavening experiments, we also made a big pile of wood ashes, which well use in a future set of leavening experiments.  The connection between these two will become apparent in the near future.

The rhubarb is alive!

The chives are also alive!  Its always nice to know the plants are starting to think springly thoughts, too.  The weather, on the other hand, is very ambivalent--after highs in the 60s on Saturday, we got a nice blanket of snow last night!

The chickens are also revving up their egg production--four eggs in four of the last five days.  Keep up the good work, ladies!

What made your homestead happy this week?

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Artists of Artstreet to Showcase Works During February

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Images (left to right, top to bottom) Joe Goss, Tony & Julianna Pelletier, Sarah Sadler, R.L. Vallier, Brennan Diem

On Friday, February 5, the Harwood Art Center will open a gallery featuring works from the artists of ArtStreet through an exhibit entitled Recycled Heart. The annual showing brings the injustice of poverty and homelessness together while capturing the diverse, distinct, and highly individual response of the ArtStreet Artists to community chosen themes. The public is invited to the gallery opening, which will take place at 6:00-8:00 pm. 

The works will be on display on February 5-25 at the Harwood Center, 7th St. and Mountain Rd. NW (map), Monday-Thursday, 9:00 am- 5:00 pm, and 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Fridays.  

ArtStreet, celebrating its 20 years of service, is a project of Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless. The space gives artists – homeless and housed –– a common forum to share their experiences, coming together to make art and organize public exhibits like this. One component of the ArtStreet program is a community based open art studio.

"ArtStreet artists channel the potential within themselves and within discarded objects to create something new. They quickly learn to see media in a fresh way, enabling them to transform raw materials into works of art."   -from Recycled Heart post card

The exhibit is made possible in part with funding from the City of Albuquerque, City of Albuquerque Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, New Mexico Arts (a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Harwood Art Center of Escuela del Sol Montessori. 

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Homestead Happiness and Progress February Week 4

8:22 PM in 4, and, Aqua, february, happiness, homestead, progress, week

Winter returned with a vengeance this week, dumping two 8+" storms on us, and never really stopping in between.  Its sunny today, but were supposed to get another couple inches overnight and tomorrow.

As a result, the homestead looks like this, and most of our time was spent getting to and from work.  However...

On Friday, a large round of robins descended upon our boxelder tree, probably to discuss why they were in such a hurry to head north.  Theres at least two dozen of them there, and probably more hiding behind the snowy branches.

Look at em all in there!

It sure doesnt look like spring, but theyre here!  A tell-tale sign that the actual spring is not far behind, which is good enough for this week.

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Homestead Happiness and Progress for February Week 3

2:51 PM in 3, and, Aqua, february, for, happiness, homestead, progress, week

Twas an eventful time this week on the homestead, bolstered by some nice weather and a couple snowy days. Check out what happened this week at THL!

A seven-egg day!  That means all of our hens are definitely laying.  (We were pretty sure thats been the case since mid-January, but this was the first time we got a horizontal bingo on our egg-tracking chalkboard table.  Vertical bingo has been achieved by our Red Star and New Hampshire Red, who have laid eggs on 21 and 15 consecutive days, respectively (also 25 out of 26 days for Red Star and 23 out of 26 days for New Hampshire).

Monday was a snow day, which we used to make a picnic table.  Happy belated valentines day Katie!

But by Friday, things had thawed out enough that we could see the feral poppies pushing through the leaves with new growth.  Everything is now covered in snow again, but thats ok!  We know whats underneath.

First try at isolating potato starch.  It works!  It turned out ok, but we want to tweak a few things before we turn it into a full blog post.

A liver-and-onion strata (with kale)!  Delicious, packed full of vitamins, and appearing in our upcoming strata cookbook.

Seed catalogs!  Wherefore lyeth such a slippery slope of inspiration upon our kitchen table?

What fun stuff happened on your homestead this week?

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Fourth Annual New Mexico Food and Farms Day Scheduled for Wednesday February 3 in Santa Fe

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The New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council invites you to the Fourth Annual New Mexico Food and Farms Day at the State Capital.  The event is held in conjunction with  New Mexico School Nutrition Day, Cooking With Kids Day and the New Mexico Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Day at the Legislature.

"New Mexico has a vibrant food and farming culture that is significant to our rural economy and provides employment opportunities on farm; in direct, wholesale, and retail opportunities; in food processing, distribution, value-added businesses," said Pam Roy, coordinator of the NMFAC and Farm to Table.

"As a broad based group of partners and participants, were highlighting the Farm to School movement in New Mexico and the many schools that buy fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers, school food service who care about providing meals with New Mexico grown produce, and most important, students who learn to incorporate fresh produce in their diets and enjoy experiential learning through programs like Cooking with Kids, Kids Cook, school gardens and more," added Roy. "Our children have the opportunity to enjoy New Mexico grown fresh fruits and vegetables in school meals and snack programs."

The day will include:
8:00 - 9:00am
Education Through Advocacy, room 324 at the State Capital - Participants will get a brief overview of the New Mexico legislative process before launching into a morning of fast paced activities. By Invite Only

8:30 - 11:00am
In the East Wing of the Capital (next to the Rotunda), organizations and agencies will share information and educate the public about their programs and their relationship to each other and the goals and purpose of the Day and beyond.

9:00 - 9:45am
Celebrate the 1st Annual Farm to School Award Ceremony and Press Conference. At the Rotunda, this special awards ceremony will recognize key individuals and their organizations for their work in creating educational programs in schools for children to learn about the world of food and gardening; food service and food entrepreneurs who have, through innovation and policy, changed the rules to be able to partner with local farmers to buy the freshest local produce for school meals; and, farmers who have been on the front lines for change by building partnerships with schools to purchase locally grown produce and paving the path for others. This will be the first on many occasions to honor leaders, risk takers, innovators, and believers.

10:00 - 12 noon
The New Mexico Legislature will honor New Mexico Food ad Farms Day, New Mexico School Nutrition Day, and Cooking with Kids Day in both the House and Senate Chambers. Policymakers will highlight the importance of these events and most importantly will recognize individuals and organizations for their efforts in building an important aspect of food, farming, and health initiatives in New Mexico.

12:30 - 3:00pm
Round Table celebration, discussion, and next steps by all of the groups and individuals involved. We ask ourselves what we learned, how it builds relationships and coordination, and what we commit to doing moving forward. Our discussion includes providing lunch. Venue TBD (more information forthcoming)

The organizations joining in the celebration include: New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council, Farm to Table, New Mexico School Nutrition Association, Siete Del Norte, Cooking with Kids, Mid Rio Grande Council of Governments, New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service, New Mexico Dietetics Association, New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association, Santa Fe Food Policy Council, FoodCorps, Community Outreach Patient Empowerment (COPE - a Navajo Nation Coalition and youth group NCHO), Dine Food Sovereignty Alliance, and more.

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