Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 51: December 24, 2022

What with the Christmas baking, chimney cleaning, and restarting the indoor salad garden we are as busy as Santa’s elves! What a busy and blessed week at Chocolate Box Cottage!

Indoor Salad Gardening

Let’s start with salad gardening. Growing salad shoots in cereal bowls keeps us in salad greens all winter, right up until the outdoor garden is producing.

Traditional “sprout” seeds like broccoli and peas join microgreen seeds, buckwheat and tendril peas. In about a week, they are ready to harvest with scissors.

By planting a batch of bowls every few days, the indoor salad garden keeps producing. Enjoy beautiful gourmet salads with just a little work.

Christmas baking

Looking for an easy, festive drop cookie?

Mix up a batch of Confetti Cookies; they’re simple, colorful, and fun! A delicious vanilla cookie batter is shaped in balls, rolled in sprinkles, pressed with a glass, and baked. The satisfying cake-like flavor of these cookies will grab you!

Granola is always a welcome gift. This batch of Pecan Promise Granola will be divided: 1 tray gifted and 1 tray kept.

There’s nothing quite like homemade pies for Christmas and it’s (almost) as easy to make two as one. One for Christmas Eve and another for breakfast on Christmas morning with coffee, tea, and cottage bacon (ham). See my recipe for Butter Pie Crust.

Miriam and I enjoyed an old-fashioned Christmas baking day which included these delicious apple pies and a batch of Confetti Cookies.

And since I was not planning to bake bread, I decided to use up the accumulated starter in my jars by making a batch of German Bread-Spice Crackers this week. What is bread spice? A mix of spices used in German breads; brotgewürz in German. It varies, but mine includes caraway, anise seeds, fennel seeds, celery seeds, and coriander seeds, ground to a powder.

I added most of the sourdough from the jars to the Ankarsrum mixer bowl, leaving enough behind to feed and maintain my starter. Whole grains were milled into flour in my KoMo grain mill, including whole wheat, spelt, rye, einkorn, and millet.

Cracker dough was rolled very thin – the thinner the better – then cut in squares with a fluted pastry wheel or crinkle cutter. Docking the crackers with a fork releases air bubbles. And don’t forget to sprinkle with salt! I don’t have an exact recipe for these, I go by feel.

Sam’s projects

Samuel has been mysteriously busy in the barn. I’m not sure what he’s up to, but I am sure it will be good. We agreed to give each other practical gifts this year, and I asked for a pantry makeover, while Sam hinted at a backpack leaf blower. The “economy” leaf blower he has been using for years is giving out – it’s requires tinkering each time he wants to use it.

We both could use new wheelbarrows. A stout metal one for Sam, capable of hauling firewood, hot coals, rocks, dirt, and manure; a plastic one for me, to tote compost, potted plants, and garden harvests to the kitchen for preserving.

Samuel climbs the ladder to the roof for several tasks: blowing leaves off, cleaning out gutters, and cleaning the chimney.

In addition to cleaning the chimney, Samuel disassembled the stove pipe, carried it outside and cleaned it out; vacuumed out the elbow in the brick chimney; emptied the wood stove of ashes; cleaned the glass window.

Christmas Tea

Weekly tea at Mom’s took on a Christmasy theme this week. Granddaughters Miriam and Savannah + Emberly joined us for non-alcoholic Holiday Wassail, homemade clam chowder, fruit salad, carrot sticks, and Confetti Cookies. So thankful to have Mom and Rolly to celebrate with.

Gift baskets

I whipped up a triple batch of Maple Vanilla Syrup and added jars to a couple of Christmas gift baskets. This basket for my son Clayton includes Hot Cocoa Mix + a bottle of mint extract, dried Paragon pear slices, Pecan Promise Granola, gourmet coffee, Vanilla Lace Pear Jam, Vanilla Maple Syrup, Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde, and a half gallon jar of Goldenkraut (not pictured).

This Christmas gift basket for my sister’s family includes a full dehydrator batch (9 trays) of blackberry applesauce fruit leather along with a variety of pear preserves: dried, jam, and butter + Crock Pot Apple Butter + Maple Vanilla Syrup nestled in paper shreds in a thrift shop picnic basket.

Fermentation

I finally got around to straining my made-from-scratch Persian basil vinegar. It tastes and smells delightful and the color is captivating! After straining the herbs out, the resulting young vinegar was transferred to a boiled jar with a lid to complete fermentation.

In about a month to 6 weeks it will be ready. I can already envision Persian basil vinegar used in salad dressings and marinades for meats and vegetables.

Christmas Eve dinner included Old World Roast Beef and Vegetables, like my Grandma used to make. The roast is first soaked in clabber or cultured buttermilk for 1-3 days, then drained and baked with root vegetables.

I love this spattered yellow and white enamel roaster! I use it for roasting meat and veggies and for baking bread.

Family pictures

Bookshelf

In honor of Christmas, I encourage you, dear reader, to read the story of Jesus’ birth in the Bible. You’ll find it in Luke chapter 2. Like many families, we cherish the tradition of reading this story every Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas, dear reader! I wish and pray for God’s best for you this Christmas and in the coming year.

Blessings,
Michele and Samuel

Note: This post contains links to products and vendors I use and appreciate for their quality and usefulness. Some are affiliate, some are not. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases when you use the links I provide; this does not change your price.

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 39: October 1, 2022

Sadie was delighted to hatch 2 ducklings at last! They peep adorably, reminding us of squeaky toys or tiny yellow dumplings.

By the second day, mother Sadie had introduced her ducklings to the wide outdoors.

They are so incredibly soft and fun to hold! The parents, Sadie and Sylvester, were a gift from a dear friend, Sarah Fullerton. I love her (and them) so much!

The calendar page has flipped to October and the antique hutch serves as a seed saving station.

Seed saving and preserving continue in earnest and so does the sunny weather, which means more of the same ahead this week, even though pumpkin spice and sweater weather messaging are strong!

New video

Soft Scrub Cleanser “Goop” + Scouring Powder | 2 Homemade Cleaning Products

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to keep a clean house! You can make your own cleaning products from grocery store ingredients. They are simple to make – and they are effective. Let’s start building your DIY cleaning tote today. Follow along and make 2 products in about 5 minutes that will save you time and money, not to mention all the extra packaging that won’t be going in the trash.

Do the next thing

It was a week of connecting with reality. We are still adjusting to the loss of little Charla (our sweet little dog loved and shared by Miriam and me.) Trips to the garden without Charla at my heels feel strange and…solemn. But to the garden I must go, there is still (thankfully) much food to be harvested.

And so I harvest more seeds, cut up precious windfall apples for apple butter, watch roots form on my kitchen window basil cuttings, and continue my herbal medicine making. Doing the next thing is good medicine.

It’s a beautiful thing to turn imperfect fruit into something perfect, like apple butter. When the wooden spoon stands up in the crock, it’s done.

I wash dishes, clean messes, and mop floors. Keeping a Crock Pot or a broth pot going is a comfort.

I gather greens for the bunnies, chase ducklings, let the chickens out in the mornings and close them up at night, even as I stumble over large, irrefutable evidence of a bear in our yard.

We first grew Musquee de Provence pumpkins in 2005 and were immediately smitten. The voluptuous fruit, weighing 10 – 25 pounds (4.5 – 11 kg) are born generously on rambling vines with lush heart-shaped leaves. They start out deep forest green and ripen after curing to a gorgeous bronzy chestnut color. Cut pumpkins exude a sweet melon aroma!

Boiling water in the bottom chamber of the steam juicer causes the berries to release their juices. Elderberry juice, fresh from the spigot, quart after quart.

Half a gallon of raw a2/a2 milk becomes clabber for baking and sour cream, with fresh milk for drinking and cream for my morning cup of tea. A loaf of bread thaws in preparation for apple butter.

Garden teepee

Join me for tea? Would you guess the tea service is mix-and-match from the thrift shop?

In a year when the garden struggled due to weather, the teepee was a very pleasant surprise. It grew and it throve and it was a delight to watch.

Comfort food

And I make soup. Ahhh soup.

We finished the week with a pot of Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup made with garden veggies and herbs and home-canned tomatoes.

And through it all, Sam is wonderful. Sam goes to work, comes home, does chores. Daily offering to help and finding ways to do so. Life is good.

Thank you for reading! You are part of the goodness in my life.

Bookshelf

One last thing. I can’t leave you without sharing book recommendations with you! These two are excellent for seed savers.

Beginner book: Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. This is the book I started with and relied on for over 20 years.
Advanced book: The Seed Garden by Lee Alan Buttala and Shanyn Siegel.

Check my favorite online seller of used books using my sharebooklove link. Click the highlighted link in the previous sentence and then type the title of the book into the search bar when you get there. If they don’t have it in stock, create a wish list and add this book to it. Using my link earns us both points towards free books! Thank you for supporting my business, I appreciate it.

Blessings to you, friends.
Michele and Samuel

* This post contains links to products and vendors I use and appreciate for their quality and usefulness. Some are affiliate, some are not. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases when you use the links I provide; this does not change your price.

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary Vol. 1
Week 28: July 16, 2021

Happy third week of July! This week was characterized by blackberry pie, zucchini every day, and everlasting yeast. And ducks! Don’t forget the ducks.

After a fun and productive Project Week , Sam went back to work and I resumed the farm chores he had taken on while he was home.

Generally I get up in the morning and take care of the animals first thing, before my Bible reading and cup of tea. That includes feeding and letting the chickens out of the henhouse, saying good morning to the sheep and giving them a treat, checking on the rabbits, and watering the garden/pots/anything else that needs water. And don’t forget the cats and dogs.

The week began on Sunday with a potluck at church in honor of Joyce Dierking, a teacher and friend who returned from a 2-year service term in Papua New Guinea. I wanted to bake a pie, so I pulled a bag of last summer’s blackberries from the freezer.

I generally pick 8-12 gallons of blackberries in the summer to freeze. Sam helps on weekends when he can. Now that it is July, the remaining berries need to be used up.

Zucchini season has begun, and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

Every so often I walk the tomato beds and tuck any stray vines inside the wire cages. This supports good quality fruit. Tomatoes in that rest on the ground are normally nibbled by hoards of hungry, big-eared field mice that call Chocolate Box Cottage home.

Adding more 60 degree diamond star blocks to the quilt in progress!

On weekend evenings we either eat on the porch, if it’s cool enough, or at the tea table in the living room. It’s special enough to feel like a date. We love C.A.T. Salad with Coconut Battered Fish!

Every year I try to invent at least one more crave-worthy zucchini recipe. This one looks promising, so watch for a recipe soon!

Here you go! Recipe for Spiralized Zucchini Butter Spaghetti here.

I just washed the jar, and doesn’t it look presentable? Normally it would be coated with glops and globs. If you look closely you can see tiny bubbles in the everlasting yeast.

These waffles are made with sourdough, or to be more precise, Everlasting Yeast, a leavener common with German-from-Russia pioneers in the Dakotas. Make your own Crock Pot Apple Butter with windfall fruit, farmstead fruit, or store-bought fruit.

One brave duck peeks out the henhouse door after his or her first night in the coop. My friend Jenna gifted us 5 Indian Runner ducks. I gave her some zucchini and I think we were both happy.

Porcelain Princess pumpkin is a hybrid, so I won’t be saving seeds from it, but will enjoy the beautiful pink 7-10 lb (3.5 kg) pumpkins for desserts and decorations.

Bee yard bouquet: St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) and wild daisies. These aren’t weeds, the flowers provide food for nearby honeybee hives. I use St. John’s wort in skin-soothing salves and make an herbal glycerite to combat the winter blues.

I hope you enjoyed a cup of your favorite beverage along with our visit. See you next time!

Blessings,
Michele