Winter Storm Warning
Mr Chiots and I love hearing those words on the weather channel. There’s nothing we love more than inches and inches of snow piling up outside (probably because we both work from home). It started snowing Thursday morning here in Ohio and it just stopped last night. We have about 9-10 inches of snow and a coating of ice on top of that.
It was kind of bittersweet to go out though, usually Lucy is out there with us running around. She absolutely loves playing in the snow! One of her favorite things is when you throw snowballs at her. She jumps up and catches them in her mouth. It’s hard to catch a photo of, she’s just so quick. This is the best we could do last year.
We went out sans chiots today, she’s confined to the office for at least the next 8 weeks for healing. Mr Chiots spent the better part of the morning shoveling the driveway, he always enjoys the workout.
I made sure all the bird feeders were full and then we came back in for a cup of tea.
Anyone else enjoying all this snow? I know Harley, Brooklyn’s puppy is really enjoying it!
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Mulching the Strawberry Patch
This spring we put in two 4×10 foot raised beds filled with 3 different kinds of strawberries. We planted early, mid, and late bearing plants, that way we have strawberries for a longer period of time. Since this was our first summer with plants, we didn’t get any strawberries. I faithfully picked off the blooms when I saw them, hoping for a great crop this year.
Strawberries like acidic soil, so when we built the raised beds we added extra peat moss to the soil mix. I tested the ph and it was perfect for strawberries. I’ve read several placed that strawberries should be mulched in the winter to protect the crowns (especially here in Ohio where we have fairly cold winters). I was planning on using straw, but then I decided the pine needles would work better.
They have less of a tendency to attract slugs and they are acidic so they will help maintain a proper ph in the strawberry bed. Since we don’t have any pine trees on our property, we loaded a few tubs into the car and headed down to the walking path in our neighborhood. It’s under canopy of huge white pine trees, so there were plenty of pine needles for us to rake up, and the best part is that they’re FREE!
We spent a 15 minutes raking up a few bins full of mulch and then headed home. We had to make 2 trips but we were able to get enough mulch for our 2 strawberry beds and our 6 blueberry bushes (which also like acidic soil).
The mulch not only helps protect the plants and improves the soil, but it makes the beds look much nicer as well. In the spring we’ll scrape off most of the mulch and it will go in the compost pile to finish decomposing.
Do any of you have any other great ideas for free mulch?
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Taking a Day Off
I’m taking the day off today. Too tired to write with all that’s been going on around here, see yesterday’s post for details.
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Poor Poor Lucy
Poor poor Lucy is out of commission for a while if the vet diagnosed her condition properly. It all started on Monday when we all went down to the family hunting cabin for a hike.
It was such a beautiful day, sunny and warm, we really enjoyed hiking through the woods. Lucy absolutely loves it there. It’s like heaven for a dog, tons of smells, rocks, leaves, acres and acres to explore.
Lucy was running across the field and suddenly yelped in pain and then started hopping along not using one of her back legs. We put her in the car and headed home, figuring she’d stepped on something or pulled a muscle. After giving her an aspirin and a vitamin C tablet that night we figured she’d be a little better in the morning. The following morning she was still limping around and not putting any weight on her back left leg. We figured something was wrong so we called and made an appointment with the vet for the following morning. Yesterday morning we were up bright and early to take Lucy to the vet. Lucy isn’t like most animals, she LOVES going to her vet, Stacy is one of her favorite people (the people at the vets are super fond of Lucy as well). Whenever I call they say, “Oh, you’re Lucy’s mom, we love Lucy.”
Lucy was diagnosed with a torn ACL, so I guess she’s not going pro. She’s on an anti-inflamatory and her mobility is restricted to see if she heals up. We’re trying a few homeopathic treatments: Tendon Rescue Gel, vitamin C & E and some Astragulus extract. Hopefully those work. She’s going to be on bed rest for a few weeks and then on restricted movement for a couple months. Poor poor Lucy can’t chase the UPS man. Hopefully she’s back up and running when spring comes, it’s her favorite time of year.
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Eating Seasonally = Winter Squash
When you’re trying to eat seasonally you start to wonder what you’re going to be eating for veggies in the winter. I do have mache and spinach still growing in the garden for greens, as well as canned green beans, beets, and zucchini pickles in the pantry. All of these are wonderful, but one of the best winter vegetables is butternut squash. They’re super easy to store, mine are just sitting on top of the side table in my dining room. They will last for up to 6 months if stored properly. Now that’s amazing, no canning, freezing or preparing, just pile in a corner and check them every week or so, could it get any easier than that?
There’s just something about roasted squash that is warm and cozy. They’re also super healthy. Butternut squash is an excellent source of magnesium, potassium, vitamins C and A, and a good source of calcium.
So how do you go about eating a butternut squash? They can be cooked in a variety of ways: baked, pureed (like mashed potatoes), in muffins, in pies, in ravioli or lasagna, and in soups. We prefer ours in soup or roasted, although butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter occasionally graces our winter table. You can also eat the seeds if you’d like. I sometimes roast them in the oven, but most of the time I save them and throw them out by the bird feeder for the birds.
Most of the butternut squashes that grew in my garden this summer were small ones, but I did have a volunteer that grow out of my compost pile that produced a 3 pound squash. I bought 6-7 at the farmer’s market along with a few pumpkins and other kinds of squash.
Here’s my favorite Butternut Squash recipe.
Butternut Squash and Chipotle Soup
from Fresh & Light (Williams-Sonoma)
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, 2.5 lbs
1 tablespoon of butter
2 slices of coarse country bread, each about 1/2 inch thick cut into 1/2 inch cubes (for croutons)
1 teaspoon of dried sage
1/2 yellow onion chopped
2 small chipotle peppers (I’d start with 1 without seeds and then taste) I use canned ones
3 1/2 cups of chicken broth
salt to taste
fresh sage leaves (optional)
Preheat oven to 350. Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Using spoon, scrape out the seeds and any fibers and discard. Place the squash halves, cut side down, on a baking sheet and bake until just tender, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh into a bowl.
In a large saucepan over medium high heat, warm the butter. Add the bread and dried sage and saute, stirring often, until the bread cubes are browned on all side, about 4 minutes. Using a spoon, transfer croutons to a plate and set aside. Add the onion to the pan and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the squash chiles, and broth. Simmer over medium heat and cook, uncovered, until the squash is very soft, about 30 minutes.
Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth (or with immersion blender), be very carefully blending hot soup as it has a tendency to explode the top off the blender. It’s best to start with bursts of power then to full blend. Its also wise to keep a kitchen towel draped over the blender. I have found an immersion blender to be indispensable since we make many pureed soups.
Return soup to the pan and reheat gently. If desired add some whole milk and butter. Taste and add salt and freshly ground pepper as needed. Ladle into warmed bowls. Divide the croutons among the servings and garnish with sage leaves. Serve hot.
What’s you’re favorite way to eat butternut squash?
