spicy pickled beets and sexy carrots

Not for the weak of heart.
or, leave out the peppers.

makes two pints

2 lbs of beets and carrots
small bunch of green onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp. fresh ginger grated or sliced thinly
1 tsp. coriander seeds
2 fresh or dried chili peppers

1 cup apple-cider vinegar
1 cup water
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. curry powder

wash beets and carrots thoroughly. remove green tops (don't forget to eat your beet greens!).
chop beets and carrots into two-bite pieces.
wash green onions. cut them into bite sized pieces.
pack the pint jars with the beets, carrots and onions, leaving headspace.
peel the garlic and prepare the ginger.
put two whole garlic cloves, one tsp. of ginger, one chili pepper and half a tsp of coriander seeds in the top of the jar.

heat vinegar, water, salt and curry powder in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
remove from heat and pour the hot liquid into the pint jars, leaving 1/4 in of headspace.
screw on lids and process in a water bath for 30 minutes.

let em stew for 2 weeks before you crack em.

Videos on youtube? Awwww yeah, again and again

We've been movie making...

http://www.youtube.com/user/pennnymj

the sucker hole

There's a time in winter up here when the sun comes out, the rain stops and the rose bushes grow tiny buds and we've been told its called 'the sucker hole'. Its been going on for a couple weeks now and we've been enjoying the warm weather and sunshine. Dave is working again and I am working for Tera once more. We've got a new dog called Polly and are thinking about a goat.

Here's some pictures:

ziggy

me with cheech and chong

millie

daver

them bones

Until we meet again,

daver and penner

chickens!

so we now have chickens. a hen belonging to the people that dave works for hatched 10 chicks and since we were interested in raising some chickens, they gave us these chicks. with them came the mom, a black and white banti, who has been tirelessly taking care of these babies. they lived in our stove room, next to the wood stove for the first three weeks and are now residing in the greenhouse. i had some wonderful pictures of them as 3 day old chicks, but lost these =(

so here's two videos of our little chickies.








and, dani and i have started making underwear.


unfortunately, i lost a lot of really good pictures that i was planning on putting up here, but such is life.

until then, peace and wellness,

penny

October

As it always seems, its been a long time since we've updated our blog. Time goes by much more quickly than I do, so it seems. I'm on my lunch break at farmer's market at the Eugene City Library. Dave is at home with his new chain saw cutting up some of our firewood. I'm about halfway through my work day and cannot wait to get back to the farm. As cool as a city Eugene is, I miss being at the farm, in the woods, with dave.

Anyway, there's so much I could write all day about, but I don't know where to get started. I've heard it said that pictures speak louder than words, so here's at it.




Dave started a new job a month ago at a place in Lorane, OR called the Balance Restoration Nursery. They grow and collect native wet land plants for wetland restoration projects all over the pacific northwest. He's completely in love with the work he's doing and has gotten to do some pretty adventurous stuff like wade out into a lake wearing a wet suit and collecting water lily roots.

I spend 5 of my 7 seven days a week at the cabin, keeping up our home, getting ready for winter, visiting neighbors, feeding the pets. Since we moved in, we acquired two new kitties:

Skylar

and
Jasper

Both are wonderful cats and eat a lot.

We've been recording!!! Some people have gotten to hear a little of what we've been doing, but there's so much more on the way. We've recently been given some really interesting, inspiring music by friends out here (mum, canada boards, doc watson), and its been giving us some really great ideas.


So, hopefully more soon.

I love you,

penny

new pictures

so, new pictures on the web albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/pennymj

we've just spent the last couple days hanging out with chris and kate from back east and it was great. it was wonderful to have a nice, solid break from the work we've been doing, but we're back on it and i'm here at the library on my break from market.

check out the pictures and we'll have much more to come soon.

peace and love and joy,

penny and dave

welcome to the hilltop house

as hopefully a lot of you already know, dave and i will be changing our residence to the rainbow farm, which is right next door to the farm we've been living on. our friends, lexi and rob, have extended an invitation for us to caretake the cabin they are living in, as they are seldom there. we'll be living there fulltime, taking care of the cabin and land around it and they'll come to stay every now and then.

our cabin is called the hilltop house. its a magical place that is enchanted by the wood surrounding it. there's no electricity, but there's running water and we're working on hot water. the yard needs loads of work, but we're really excited to be doing it. we've already planted catnip in front of the porch and begun the peace garden:


this will be a perennial herb garden with sage, lavender, oregano, thyme, and lupine. we'll be adding a brick pathway in the shape of a peace sign!

here's our outhouse


it needs some fixing up, but you get the idea.

here's our washtub fuchsias



boyd


and an awesome cabbage



oddly enough, percy has already moved in. he followed us over there one day and came back to the yurt a couple times, but now takes up his permanent residence at the hilltop house. there's another cat that lives there and they seem to get along.

there's an apple tree laden with big fat granny smiths and two undetermined plum trees. berries are ripening all over the place! you can go anywhere on the farm and pick wild fresh dew berries, black cap raspberries, and thimble berries. the blackberries and huckleberries with be coming on soon!

go to our web albums http://picasaweb.google.com/pennymj for more pictures of the cabin, wildflowers, zucchinis and loads more cool stuff.

peace and love,

penny and dave