For the Love of Carrots!

Organic Heirloom Carrots

To me, the most soulful, life affirming gardens are those that have a sense of poetry about them. The brilliant red-orange Chantenay Royal, the deep orange Bambino, the bright red Nantes Scarlet, the purple Cosmic  - all poetic names of various heirloom carrots. But the Autumn King, is King of Fall and Winter! An imperator with long, bright roots, a broad shoulder and a crisp, light flavor. 

The Autumn King is what I’ll be harvesting in just a few short weeks just in time to make soups to store and enjoy over those cold winter months. Of course we’ll enjoy many of these fresh picked carrots in their raw form before preserving soups and storing many in a box covered in dirt in our dark, cold basement.

Until then, I will be planting carrot seed in pots to grow over the winter months to harvest by mid Spring. Hoping I can keep them thriving all winter, can’t wait to find out!

Happy Healthy harvesting from my family to yours,

Sherri.

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Sherri’s Eye-mazing Cold Weather Soup

(Eye-mazing because it’s packed with vitamin A which is great for vision)

INGREDIENTS

1 large onion, sliced

4 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 ½ lbs carrots peeled and sliced into coins

½ head cauliflower (or throw in the whole head if you so desire) 

2 large potatoes peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces

½ cup celery sliced

16 oz vegetable stock- homemade or low sodium variety

salt and pepper to taste

Garnish 

1/4 cup basil leaves, loosely packed

¼ cup grapeseed or olive oil

sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS 

Cook onions and grapeseed oil over medium low heat until well-caramelized and a dark golden brown, stirring infrequently (about 25-30 minutes)

Add carrots, potato, cauliflower and celery and cook for another 10 minutes, tossing well to coat with grapeseed oil and onions.

Add vegetable stock, turn heat to medium high, and bring to a rapid boil. Cook until vegetables are very tender almost falling apart- about 20 minutes.

Blend with a blender until completely smooth.

Season with salt and pepper and serve with basil oil (recipe follows).

BASIL OIL INSTRUCTIONS

(Prepare while the soup is cooking so it has time to steep)

Finely chop parsley in food processor until it is very tiny.

Add grapeseed or olive oil and give it a little whirl

When ready to serve, add one teaspoon (or less or more, whichever suits your fancy) of the oil to the prepared soup in bowls and enjoy!

Sherri.

Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain. 

Doug Coupland 

Windy, Cloudy Weather Today

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

~John Ruskin

One Summer's Day

A picture story...

The End.

The Moon Tonight....Again.

August, 2010 - Photography

To be intact, as nature intended, is best.

END the abuse to children's genitals known as 'circumcision'.

Millions of years of evolution have fashioned the human body into a model of refinement, elegance, and efficiency, with every part having a function and purpose. Evolution has determined that mammals' genitals should be sheathed in a protective, responsive, multipurpose foreskin. Every normal human being is born with a foreskin. In females, it protects the glans of the clitoris; in males, it protects the glans of the penis. Thus, the foreskin is an essential part of human sexual anatomy.

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Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

for they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you,

for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let our bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

for even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet, 1923

Creatures - Big and Small

A few creatures we have had the honor of meeting during our travels throughout the month of May. More to come!

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.

~Frank Lloyd Wright, quoted, 14 August 1966

How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

~Emily Dickinson, letter to Mrs. J.S. Cooper, 1880

And what's a buterfly? At best,

He's but a ceterpillar, drest.

~John Grey

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.

~Paul McCartney

Belfountain in Black and White

In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

A wee child toddling in a wonder world.... I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers.

Cole's 11th Birthday Treasure Hunt

We celebrated Cole's 11th Birthday outside this year on November 22nd. We lucked out with such fantastic weather, some of the kids wore only t-shirts!

After a weeks worth of preparing the treasure hunt, it took only about 15 minutes for the 2 teams to find the hidden pirate treasure. It all started with an old pirate map and the first of 11 clues...

....and X marked the spot! YaY for the treasure!

~Yesterday brought the beginning, tomorrow brings the end, and somewhere in the middle we became the best of friends.~

To my little man: The universe gave a gift to the world when you were born—

a person who loves, who cares,

who sees a person’s need and fills it,

who encourages and lifts people up,

who spends energy on others

rather than himself,

someone who touches each life he enters,

and makes a difference in the world,

because ripples of kindness flow outward

as each person you have touched, touches others.

Your birthday deserves to be a national holiday,

because you are a special treasure

for all that you’ve done.

May the love you have shown to others

return to you, multiplied.

I wish you the happiest of birthdays,

and many, many more,

so that others have time to appreciate you

as much as I do.

Love forever and always, Mom ♥