Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2

Week 16: April 23, 2022

We are fortunate to live on the sunny side of the mountain, so the snow has vanished from our yard, and we had a week of rain.

Everything is green and growing. The lilacs and tulips are finally deciding to bloom, which mean (I hope!) spring is here to stay, after 2 false starts.

Follow along with us this sweet sixteenth week of April as we celebrate Easter, get firewood the old fashioned way, and come across interesting finds in the forest.

We celebrated Easter at a brand new church in our little town, Refuge Church. Our pastor Dennis Mortimore decided the best way to welcome the new church was to join forces and celebrate together, which made the day extra joy-filled. We love our church family and are looking forward to our two community churches being twin beacons of hope based on the work of Jesus!

Apricot Cream Sponge Cake for Easter, made with duck eggs and home-canned local apricots.

Miriam invited a friend for lunch, but somehow I didn’t get a picture of anything but dessert, which was Apricot Cream Sponge Cake. We “desserted” well this week, photographic evidence attests.

Dessert again? Not the same day, I promise! Whole Wheat crepes stuffed with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

Salmon Chowder made with leftover Easter salmon. Chowder is a grand sleight of hand that turns bits of leftovers into a fresh new meal fit for a king.

I had the pleasure of a brief visit with my nephew, Garrison Hill, who does complex film animation work.

And it being spring, means Sam is thinking of next winter, so off to the woods we went on Saturday for firewood. Load #2 is split and heaped outside the woodshed, waiting for spare moments to stack.

Sam falls a dead, standing Douglas fir tree within the USFS prescribed distance from the road. Once limbs have been removed with a chainsaw, Sam cuts the fir log in rounds that are a good length to fit in our wood stove. He does all of this by eye, having been taught by his stepdad, Jay, who is a retired timber faller.

While Sam cuts the log into rounds, I forage for usnea, pale green lichens that grow like spiderwebs on tree branches, and cling to tree trunks.

Usnea is slow-growing and precious, though abundant here in the Northwestern US. Instead of pulling it from trees, I look for fallen usnea on the snow; it is nice and clean that way.

I will tincture some for its antibiotic properties and since it is plentiful enough, I mulch outdoor potted plants with it as well.

Time to start rolling log rounds. See my gloved hand there on a log round? Michele rolls the cut rounds down the snowbank to the road for Sam to split at the back of the truck. They are heavy, easily 200 pounds.

Sam splits fir rounds the old fashioned way, with a splitting maul and wedge. He visually evaluates each round to locate its weak point, where it will split with the fewest strikes, and places a solid stainless steel wedge there. A few, or sometimes only one, swings, and the round gives way with a popping sound like a ripe watermelon when it cracks open.

Then, depending on size, the resulting halves are further split into stove wood, pieces that will fit in the wood stove. Splitting wood efficiently is definitely an art, and one the Sam is skilled in.

Once split, we throw the pieces up in the truck bed – not too hard. The bed is protected by a liner, thankfully.

Michele stacks the wood tightly, also an art. It must be stacked in such a way that the pieces of wood lock each other in, so the load does not shift when we drive home. No longer a wood stacking rookie, Sam says I have progressed to journeyman wood stacker. In fact, Sam says I can pack more wood in the truck than he does, which I take as a high compliment!

Hmmm….

More meandering bear tracks in the snow.

Elk scat! We are in large animal country; bears, elk, deer, mountain lions live here.

Back home with a full load of wood, we deal with a few sheep who seem to have figured out how to let themselves into the yard for superior snacking.

So glad you could join us this sweet sixteenth week of April!

Blessings,

  Michele

PS. Want to read about another, very different week at Chocolate Box Cottage? Take a peek here.

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary Vol. 2
Week 2: January 16, 2022

Week 2 of January 2022 was surprisingly sunny and warm. So much is happening in the garden already. Sam and I have been feeling under the weather and it’s good to feel the sun on our skin.

The lush, heavy snow of Christmas and New Year’s is a memory; a few shady places still harbor shrinking “snowbergs.”

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves as Sam and I are both feeling under the weather this week.

This painting from Austria caught my eye. Somehow the artist conveyed both the coolness and coziness of snow in this piece – lovely!

Four overwintered cabbages, as beautiful and colorful as roses with a shimmering blush of violet on lacy “petals.” They definitely qualify as gifts from the winter garden.

I can hardly bear the thought of cutting them – but I will. Overwintered greens such as cabbages, kale, Brussels sprouts, and chard are usually more tender and sweet than their summer-grown counterparts. A real treat in the kitchen and on the dinner plate.

Just across the garden fence, Painted Desert sheep graze. The weight of the snow caused a section of the garden fence to collapse. Sam quickly shored it up with metal t-posts to prevent the sheep from grazing the garden. Real repairs will take place soon.

Hyacinths are just peeping above the soil in a metal planter that looks just like a basket. They were an impulse purchase from a big box store last winter and bloomed beautifully in a cheap pot. When they were finished blooming, I allowed the leaves to die down naturally and left the pot in the garden for several months. I recently translated the lot to this prettier receptacle and moved them to the greenhouse to “force.” Forcing means I am encouraging them to bloom sooner than they would naturally. The greenhouse will give them a head start and I will be enjoying another round of cheery, sweetly -scented flowers soon!

The carrots are destined for stew. In Oregon we can overwinter carrots right in the ground – no need to dig and store – as long as they’re well-mulched. The colder temps of winter impart wonderful sweetness to carrots, they will be as sweet as candy.

Sam: Toby looks zen.

Me: Of course. He has destroyed everyone else’s zen and is content.

This after the second slipper was launched to break up a scuffle.

Super cute bamboo spoons with Chocolate Box Cottage on their brightly painted handles. Thanks for my friend Lifan for custom-crafting them for me!

Four pounds of unsalted butter was clarified to make ghee. Our store of healthy winter fat has been replenished.

What we know and drink as tea is made from fermented leaves from tea camellias, Camellia sinensis. I carefully saved seeds from my tea camellia last fall and planted them in half gallon pots with good quality potting soil and bunny berries. I hope to multiply my tea plants in order to produce enough for a few pots of tea. Doesn’t home-grown and home-processed tea sound utterly enchanting? It does to me!

You can order tea camellias for your garden here: Camellia sinensis.

Gifts from the Wild Winter Garden

Here in southern Oregon, it’s easy to find unsea – just look up. It hangs in spiderweb-like drifts from a variety of trees and is knocked loose by wind, rain, and snow. I gathered a generous amount that fell after our Christmas snow storm to share with friends. Usnea is commonly prepared as an alcohol-based tincture for a number of herbal purposes, which I encourage you to research. It also makes an attractive mulch for potted plants and hanging baskets.

If you’ve suffered a loss of smell and taste after a bout with the “spicy flu” there is help. A technique known as olfactory retraining (or olfactory training, depending on the source) can help you restore this important sense.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit! If you have a few minutes of leisure, take a peek at some lovely pictures of our New Year’s snow and icicles.