Fermentation of our home produce, kitchen equipment & indigo dyeing

My husband and I were watching a YouTube video a few days ago, discussing the fermentation of garden produce.  Here's a link to the video. Fermentation for Dummies with Doug & Stacy

In this video, Stacy discussed the system she uses for preserving her home produce.  She mentioned a fermentation starter kit, which really interested me.  So, I got on Amazon & looked for it.  We received our started kit yesterday.  Here's the link for the started kit.  Masontop's complete mason jar fermention kit

The kits comes complete with:

Pipes, pebbles & pounder

Fermentation guide

I'll be reading the guide & posting my experiments here in this blog.

When we moved here, back in 2006, I invested in some "kitchen" equipment from Lehman's.  We got a Big Berkey water filtering system, Big-berkey-with-black-berkey-elements

a grain mill, Lehmans-own-hand-cranked-grain-mill

and a sauerkraut crock.  European-style-fermenting-crocks-3-gallon/fermenting-pickling

I haven't used the sauerkraut crock yet.  The water filter is in daily use.  The grain mill has been used, but not very often.

I've also invested in a butter churn this past Christmas, which I look forward to using.  (I need a new local source for raw milk). I bought one for my friend Gena Stout for her birthday, and one for myself.

Kilner-butter-churn

On Tuesday, April 25th,  Gena Stout & Karna McFadden came over for a dye day.  We had a great time.  I dyed handspun fingering weight Cheviot wool and some commercial DK weight wool I had used for knitting kilthose in the past.  I used the "turkey roaster" to hold the skeins.  I sprinkled the dye powder directly onto the skeins.  I used Turkey Red, Pansy & Sapphire from the Woolery. The Woolery.com

They have a great starter kit.  Country-classics-starter-kit.html

Here's how my skeins came out.

Gena & Karna focused on the indigo vat, with dyes we got from Dharma Trading Company.  They have been studying shibori, the Japanese art of dyeing.
Indigo-dye-kit.html

Shibori is a fascinating technique.  The "original" tie dye, in fact.  The fabric to be dyed is sewn, tied and/or folded to produce the finished design.  The more complicated designs take HOURS of preparation.  A great deal of information on this technique can be found on Pinterest. Or you can choose from a great number of books.  I was initially introduced to Shibori while I was stationed in Japan (1985 - 1988).  Here's some of Gena's experiments...

Seed planting

Saturday, April 7th was bright and sunny.  I decided to dedicate a few hours to the green house.

Last summer, John, Joshua & I took the little "farm truck" and went over to the rock ledge on Riverview Farms (the 782 acre hunt club that adjoins our property on 3 sides).  We collected limestone slabs to use in building a rock oven.  Well, the stones have been standing there in a pile ever since.  I decided to put what we had collected into use as the floor in the greenhouse. John said he didn't mind. We can always go collect more rock.

Our "farm truck", with right hand drive.

Our order had come in from Baker Creek Rare Seeds.  I'm always excited about planting!

This year's seed order.

The herbs will be staying in the greenhouse.  I want to get some herbs & small fruit trees going in the greenhouse.  I want an interesting, relaxing growing environment.  Some place to sit and listen to the birds & smell the dirt & plants.  An over sized terrarium.

My friend Karna hosted a tea party last week, and it was a beautiful day for it.  I went to my friend Beth's house so we could car pool.  Then we went to Karna's.  What a nice day.  The food was good, and so was the companionship!

The pergola put interest shadows on our faces.

I also spent time with the ladies, working on the Hardy Homesteaders raffle quilt.  It's almost finished.  We just need to finish the border.

We were quilting ( and eating cake).

The brush piles from this past winter are slowly disappearing.  I hate tripping over sticks!  My right leg doesn't lift very high, thanks to my Parkinson's (and some old damage after a riding accident).  So as I'm walking along those damn sticks trip me up!  I make piles & burn them when the weather cooperates.

Chris and Joshua have been working on the Hobbit House interior.  Josh & I got the exterior waterproofing finished.  Now it looks like an avocado. Once the interior cement is completed, the door and window can go in.  Then I can tile the floor & paint.  I hope to have everything ready when Tammy and Ariel get here in May.