New Year's Resolutions

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, since I normally don't keep them. But this year I do want to make two resolutions: 1. To be more creative. I love art--drawing, painting, photography--but I find I just don't take the time to actually sit down and do it. I need to be more disciplined about doing something. Just take the time out of my schedule and do it. 2. To be more certain. I often second-guess myself and feel guilty when I shouldn't. I need to pay more attention to the things I do, so when someone asks me if I am sure about something, then I can be sure of it. Other things in general I want to accomplish this year is to keep up with this blog. I also keep a journal of occurrences with the farm, but I want this to be a new venue where (hopefully) like-minded people can come together. I also want to work more with the farm (of course) and get more out of it. I do get more out of it each year, and I am looking forward to what is to come. Happy 2010!

My Favorite Things from the garden

We got a large freezer this summer and were busy stocking it with good things to eat during the winter. If you're like me you miss fresh food during the winter but hate to go back to the packaged stuff. So I tried out some new things and here are my favorite things from the garden to eat this winter. 1. Frozen pesto--AWESOME! Freezes perfectly, just as good as fresh. With a glut of basil in July this is a perfect way to preserve it. 2. Eggplant parmesan--not quite as good as the fresh version, but not bad and very easy. I fried them, then flash-froze the fried slices individually. Then packaged the frozen slices in a food-saver vacuum-sealed bag. The slices came apart neatly and reheated well. The consistency was a little on the mushy side, less crispy-crunchy. And additional cooking time is needed to heat back up from frozen, but overall very good. 3. Frozen stuffed peppers--again, not as good as the original, but a good second. They take quite a bit longer to cook since they are so dense. 4. Green beans--I have found that there is a trick to this. The beans retain their flavor better when they are frozen whole, not cut. They taste more fresh when let them thaw first, then sautee them quickly in some garlic and oil with a little bit of herbs thrown in. Better than boiling.

This is my first post...I am not exactly sure how to begin. If I were to begin at the beginning it would be a very long post indeed. Basically, I want to record my husband Pat's and my actions, struggles, ideas, trials, errors and victories regarding our attempt at a modern version of homesteading. No, we don't live out on the prairie, or have 100's of acres, or have head of cattle we have to drive to market, and no, we haven't quit our jobs. We live in a little town in Pennsylvania. In a townhouse. We should have been born in the 18- or 1900's when we could have done real homesteading...but here we are in 2010 almost. We have a garden out back of the townhouse where I grow herbs and greens and Pat grows tomatoes. Luckily my folks live an hour and a half away in MD and have allowed us some space for a real garden. There we have an almost half-acre garden and fruit trees which we lovingly refer to as "The Farm." My dad grew up there and used to call it "Turtle Hill" since there were so many box turtles roaming around. So we call it either Turtle Hill Farm or HoBo Farm, spliced from my maiden and married names since it is a joint venture. We believe in the idea of being self-sufficient and sustainable. We grow a lot of our own food, make our own bread and beer and are starting on honey. We believe in knowing how to do something yourself. Most of all, I believe in food! I love food--good, fresh, natural, unadulterated food! I am a vegetarian and it I think that has forced me to learn to look at veggies more creatively, so hopefully I can help others do the same. We'll see how this blog goes, but I hope that it will get some discussion going from like-minded individuals.