Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 41: October 15, 2022

Continuity from one garden season to the next depends on saving seeds. I think of our garden as a modern day Victory Garden. We grow not only food, but seeds. Have you ever thought about this?

Walk with us this week as we, mostly me but Sam is always willing to join in, gather many kinds of seeds: veggies, flowers, and herbs. Add in couple of planting tasks, but not garlic yet as weather is in the upper 80’s.

Seeds drying and awaiting packaging on the antique hutch-turned-seed-saving-station.

1. I love marigolds! I am always looking for a paler white marigold. This year’s candidate was Kilimanjaro.
2. It’s not looking like my Schwarzenbeeren will have a chance to ripen fully on the plants, so I gathered fallen berries and hope they will ripen indoors so that I can extract seeds.
3. Mexican sour gherkins, popularly called cucamelons. I gather the fallen fruit and allow them to age before extracting seeds.
4. In the craziness of the last 2 weeks I neglected to bag the Chocolate Cherry Sunflower heads; the birds left me with few seeds.

A strawberry moment with my sweetheart hand threshing fennel seeds with our backs against an oak tree. Our original start with fennel came from a lone volunteer by the side door at Oregon State University Extension campus. I planted the few seeds I gathered once and they came back year after year, blessing us with an abundance of wonderful anise-flavored seeds for flavoring Italian dishes, breakfast sausage patties, soups, and more.

Separating actual seeds from chaff requires creativity. Since I work with small batches of seeds, as with this harvest of chive blossoms, I am always trying different techniques.

Another small harvest of Zloty Lan chamomile flowers to dry for tea.

A wonderful gift from a garden friend: 15 plump, fresh pawpaw seeds! Pawpaw seeds planted in large “nursery pots” will grow and later be divided into individual pots.

View of our vintage A-frame greenhouse through the back side of the garden teepee and the echinacea bed.

Despite its name, Jyunpaju Okinawan Pure White bitter melon is almost sweet and so delicious! A new vegetable variety for us at Chocolate Box Cottage, and a keeper.

The sum of the 2022 grape harvest. The birds left us not a single grape.

Indoor garden

These Pesto Party basil cuttings developed good roots and are ready to pot up for the kitchen window garden. We will be able to harvest fresh basil leaves in small amounts all winter.

New video

How to Use a Steam Juicer – Make Your Own Elderberry Juice Are you wondering if you really need a steam juicer?

The answer may surprise you!

Not just for kitchen maximalists, the large preserving tool known as a steam juicer may earn its place in your preserving kitchen even though it is a one-job tool. Because it does its one job so well.

Turn a large bounty of fresh fruit into delicious juice with a steam juicer! I show you how, using elderberries as an example, but you can juice many other fruits. Watch the video to learn how!

Samuel’s projects

Sam continued cutting brush in an ongoing effort to evict the bears that were camping in our henyard. It spoils the view, but the bears have got to go.

The brush pile grows – and so do the ducklings! Mama Sadie, a silver muscovy hen, hatched two babies and they are darling golden balls of fluff.

Sam dares the  bears to figure out this “new” latch on the henhouse door.

Every weekend morning, my husband brings me a perfect cup of tea. I am blessed to be married to this man.

In the kitchen

Homemade pizza margherita on whole wheat crust with regional smoked mozzarella, garden tomatoes, kalamata olives, and and fresh basil.

Home-canned Mexican-style crushed tomatoes join soaked and cooked pinto beans and ground beef for taco salad. Yes they’re yellow! Dad’s Sunset Tomato is a great yellow fruited tomato.

Stirrum, a simple German-from-Russia supper dish, is good any time of day. It is basically a pancake batter that is stirred while cooking. Tasty topped with your favorite jam or Homemade Maple Vanilla Syrup.

Aztec Quinoa Salad is a dish that is cheerfully delicious and filled with color and flavor.

Everybody has their favorite recipe for Chocolate Chips Cookies. This is ours: over-sized, but not too much, soft, and studded with chocolate chunks.

Sam’s truck has been parked at a local mechanic shop for 2 weeks, awaiting a specific repair that he is not equipped to perform. This means we are down to one vehicle and I have missed seeing my Mom the last two weeks.

Painted Desert Sheep

The mechanic’s estimate is high; we are selling our small flock of Painted Desert sheep to help pay the bill. I am reminded how wonderful it is that Sam is able to fix almost anything and of all the money he has saved us over the years repairing appliances, fences, the greenhouse, water systems, and the kids’ cars as well as our own. Factor in all of the things he has built; everything from a woodshed to animal cages to a recipe box for me, and well, he’s priceless.

UPDATE: sheep have been sold.

So in spite of the losses we experienced this week, we both know without a doubt how fortunate and blessed we are.

Bookshelf

For the beginning seed saver: Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth.

For the nostalgic home cook: The Pioneer Lady’s Country Kitchen by Jane Watson Hopping.

Blessings and hugs to you, friend.

Michele and Sam

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 37: September 17, 2022

They are four to six weeks behind, but we finally have tomatoes for canning. We have watched and waited, praying that we would have a harvest to preserve. It is small, but we are thankful. There are more yet to ripen, if the weather cooperates.

As we harvest tomatoes, I evaluate both plants and fruit for seedsaving. We grow mostly open pollinated heirloom vegetables instead of hybrids, which makes it possible to save our own seeds for replanting next year. Or imperative, if viewed through the lens of genetic posterity; some of the veggies, fruit, flowers, and herbs we grow and eat are no longer commerciallly available as seeds.

The Japanese Plum tomatoes featured here are becoming quite rare and have disappeared from seed catalogs. I would be saddened to see this sweet, meaty canning tomato disappear!

Evaluating Japanese Plum tomatoes for seed saving. The colander holds the true-to-type fruit with characteristics I am selecting for: size, shape, color, no green shoulders or cracking.

Note: From time to time I recommend products and business that I use and/or patronize. Some are affiliate links, some are not. All are ones that I use and have confidence in. Qualifying purchases may earn me a small commission at no cost to you, so thank you for using my links!

Seeds to be fermented, washed, air-dried, and saved for replanting.

Washed, peeled, blanched, and cubed tomatoes simmer briefly before being packed in jars with lemon juice, salt, and one of 3 herb seasoning blends. Juices from the pot are added to bring the contents up to proper headspace measurement, rims are cleaned, and lids applied – with bands fingertip tight. At last, the jars are placed in the steam canner.

Click the highlighted link to learn which tomato varieties are best for canning, plus tips for canning what you’ve got, even regular salad and beefsteak tomatoes.

Small apple harvest

We also had a small apple harvest this week. Beautiful, crisp, delicious, unsprayed apples. Unusual hard late freezes killed fruit production on most of our dozen or more apple trees and all of our plums, peaches, apricots, pears, and cherries. Only the very late flowering trees escaped the frost. Two more apple trees will supplement the buckets pictured, hopefully providing enough for us and some to trade with a friend.

Note the damage to the trunk of the apple tree. This apple tree is a fighter. At some point it suffered an insect infestation that was taken care of by woodpeckers and it survived.

Homemade botanical vinegars

After 4 weeks of fermenting and daily stirring, vinegars are strained through a cloth-lined colander into a clean bowl.

This jar will be aged until it reaches a pH of 2.5-3 and the flavor matures. (Though I will likely utilize this one as an ingredient in my homemade cleaning products, such as All Purpose Cleaning Spray or as an all natural fabric softener.)

Update on Lavender

About 4 weeks into convalescence, Lavender is able to put a little weight on the broken leg, briefly. She enjoys her private quarters with her own dish of food and water and no competition. And on hot days a chunk of watermelon!

Soup season begins

Knoephla, German egg dumpling noodles, dried and frozen last autumn during an egg glut, were made into the first pot of soup of the season.

Sam required biscuits, so I baked salted herb scones. He did not object. I used my regular Cream Biscuits / Cream Scones recipe, adding a generous 1/4 cup freshly chopped herbs and salted the tops before they went in the oven!

The elegant, textural beauty of Queen Anne’s lace umbels, dried.

Samuel’s projects

The winter’s wood is in and woodshed is full. The final bit came from the three beetle killed pines in our pasture and Sam worked on cutting and moving the wood as time allowed. It is done and we are relieved and thankful.

Though the weather is still pleasant, autumn is making herself known with shortening days and a few drifting leaves. There is a tang in the air which speaks of change. Truthfully, I live for summer. I am not a big fan of autumn, and have to work hard to accept it. I’m working on it.

New video

Pizza Night | Homemade Pizza with Frozen Bread Dough

You will be surprised how easy it is to make a large, delicious, homemade pizza with dough you have prepared ahead and frozen! You will have your pizza in and out of the oven and on the table quickly – and everyone is going to love you for it!

Miriam and I took a spontaneous walk to nearby waterfalls in the company of this little canine angel, Charla.

Basil cuttings rooting in water to provide fresh basil leaves for winter meals.

Soapmaking, here I come!

Thanks for visiting Chocolate Box Cottage!

See you next week,
Michele and Samuel

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 33: August 20, 2022

The huckleberries are ripe and berry-stained fingers tell the story of a good day’s picking. Western huckleberries are one of the jewels of our part of southern Oregon, along with Lost Creek Lake, numerous waterfalls, mountains robed in pine and fir, and winter snow.

I packed a simple picnic of cold chicken, homemade bread, and cheese, and we treated ourselves to nature’s dessert. You simply cannot improve on fresh-picked berries!

Huckleberry bushes grow 18-36 inches (45-90 cm), which means a lot of bending over. The berries are half the size of blueberries, or less, and painstaking to pick without squishing!

The thought of sourdough huckleberry pancakes, muffins with pebbly streusel tops, cobblers mixed with blackberries, and winter oatmeal makes the effort worthwhile.

Sam and I have a friendly competition when it comes to picking berries. I nearly always win, and he eats most of the berries, so maybe he wins after all.

I spread the small bounty of berries out on 3 large cookies sheets to tray freeze, all the while remembering the spectacular sight of a goldenrod meadow ringed by pine trees.

Tray freezing is simple – spread berries out in a single layer on a rimmed cookie sheet and freeze, uncovered, until solid. Once frozen, transfer berries to labeled freezer bags or freezer containers and get them back into the freezer asap.

Psst! If you’d like to receive my scrumptious recipe for Crumb Cake Muffins, which are a perfect vehicle for berries, visit my home page. Scroll to the bottom and request the recipe by signing up for my newsletter. I’ll send you a worksheet to walk you through choosing a name for your home and give you the recipe as a gift.

New video

Are you suffering from zucchini overload? Whip up a big batch of Zucchini Velvet Soup! You can serve part of it for dinner tonight and freeze the rest for future meals. Zucchini Velvet Soup tastes fresh and buttery and comforting all at the same time – you’re going to love it! Even people who think they don’t like zucchini like this soup! It’s easy to make and freezes beautifully.

Printable recipe for Zucchini Velvet Soup.

Here are a few more zucchini recipes for you: Spiralized Zucchini Butter Spaghetti

Cooking from the garden

Pesto Party basil, a favorite that blooms very late. This means more leaves…more pesto. Adding basil generously to a Chicken Rag-out and just about everything else I cook!

Nasturtiums skirt the perimeter of the garden teepee. Their cheerful blooms arrest my gaze every time I visit the garden and both leaf and flowers are edible!

Small town festival

Great fun to be had at the annual Prospect Jamboree and Timber Carnival in August each year! The event begins with a pancake breakfast sponsored by the Lioness women’s group, proceeds with a parade, then a carnival at the park with a beer garden and timber carnival events all day.

Pearl bids you farewell. Thank you for visiting!

Blessings,
Michele

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary Volume 2

Week 23: June 11, 2022

With 4 false starts to spring, gardening has resembled a chancy game of roulette. It turns out the fourth time, not the third, was the charm this year. Never have I planted and replanted so many times. We are now over a month later than our usual main planting time and it appears the weather has settled down at last.

I am thankful that I know how to save my own seeds – because buying and rebuying seeds this year could have been expensive. (I do enjoy buying “new” heirloom varieties, anyway, for fun.)

Pantry Cost Comparison

Gardening, preserving, and cooking are real work whose value is difficult to tabulate.Have you ever wondered what the cash value of your pantry is?

One year – 2009 – I completed a comprehensive cost comparison of my pantry to retail prices. It was an educational exercise, to say the least.

The value of foods I preserved by canning, freezing, dehydrating, fermenting, and storing, + garden seeds I saved, added up to… $4,747.10. In 2009!

On the Homestead

If you expand the picture of the lavender flowers (known as dame’s rocket or gillyflower) you might just be able to see a Hummingbird hawk moth hovering mid-flight, just left of center. Hummingbird hawk moths very much resemble hummingbirds.

In the Garden

First Violetta artichoke of the season and a fresh crop of lemons ripening from green to yellow are welcome in the kitchen. Learn to grow lemon trees from seeds here.

Sam adds chicken manure to the garden, Michele prepares to plant a flat of Pesto Party basil. The garden is poised for growth.

The comfrey was frozen back to the ground, then cut back all the way. It sprang back more robust than ever!

Calendula in bloom. A mixture of types grows freely in the garden, coming back bigger and better year after year.

In the Kitchen

Looking back through the pictures on my phone reminds me that we were blessed to eat well.

Monday tea with Miriam. Wish Cameo was here. Happy birthday, Cameo! I love you!

I opened the last jar of pressure canned pork for carnitas. Need to can more, it is so nice to have easy meals in the pantry ready to heat and eat.

A light wheat sourdough batard, from starter to shaping, to baking, to sliced. I am enjoying the ease of baking in a lighter weight vessel, this speckled enamel roaster from Crow Canyon is so pretty!

Dehydrated tomatoes hold their flavor well; simmering them in a little water plumps them up for a taco salad with beef and pinto beans on a bed of sliced cabbage instead of tortilla chips.

Goldenkraut is our favorite version of sauerkraut – and we’re down to our last jar. Sourdough pikelets are a simple way to use extra sourdough starter. Topped with egg salad they make a delicious open-face sandwich!

Using up the last hunk of homemade feta cheese in Einkorn tabouli salad with store-bought veggies and lots of fresh herbs from the herb bed outside the kitchen window.

Own a Bosch Universal mixer? I shared our family’s favorite bread recipe this week on the Chocolate Box Cottage YouTube channel. Make a big batch of 5 loaves; eat one and freeze four.

Book Shelf

Fermentation book picks:

If you would like to support my business, please use my affiliate link. It gives me a chance to earn free books, without affecting your price.

Beginners ~ Real Food Fermentation by Alex Lewin

Intermediate ~ Fermented Vegetables by Kirsten and Christopher Shockey

Advanced ~ The Noma Guide to Fermentation

So tell me, how do you tabulate the value of your work in your kitchen? Have you ever done a cost comparison?

Blessings,

Michele