Showing posts with label fermenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fermenting. Show all posts

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Around here

It is HOT around here, so hot in fact that it is hard to do much of anything.
Even so, things are moving forward. Most of the main paths moving through the land are completed and the meandering feeling of these curved walkways, for there is intentionally no straight lines, gives the Land a much needed inviting feeling, and makes you want to go deeper.
I think we are very close to breaking ground on our house, next week if all goes well, 
and that is very exciting. 
(The crocodile has not been seen since last week, and we wonder if perhaps he found it too crowded and moved on, that would be nice indeed. We are starting to clean out the Cenote,
 so if he is around he will be found and moved)
Meanwhile this is how we have been passing the time....
The butterflies have now moved on, but the memories remain
We made it to the beach for a short while this week
I have been fermenting cabbage and such, with the help of Wild fermentation, a long time favorite around here, the sauerkraut was very successful and I am really enjoying the sour salty flavor of the kraut, I have not managed to convince anyone else in the house though:)
...on the other hand I have had many frustrating episodes with my sourdough starter, the one pictured below is now dead, but the one on my counter currently seems very promising, three is a charm right?
To the right was the beginning of a rye bread, which was going so well, and on the third day, the day of baking, it stopped bubbling, I baked it anyways, but ended up having to throw it out,  it simply would not bake through, so I am guessing that I had not added enough flour.
I have not given up and plan to bake some delicious sourdough bread this week.
I wonder if the heat has anything to do with all this, or if I am simply not feeding the dough enough, I did not have these problems with sourdough in North Carolina, as I remember anyways.
We, Kaleena and I, I have been working on multiplication, at first Kaleena was not at all excited about this, and did not understand the concept, but that same evening I found her outside working math problems with sticks and cherries, I love homeschooling....
Another beautiful gift at the end of the day...
We have been reading The Windboy, and are more than halfway through it, it is so very lovely, so well written and the story has the three of us captivated.
I have read other whimsical stories, such as The Seven Year Wonder book and the Book of Fairy Princes by Isabel Wyatt, but neither the children nor I could really get into them, sweet stories but the constant repetitions were too much for us. 
This book however is so thoughtful, magical and innocent. Beautiful!
I highly recommend it!
One of the mango seeds that we planted a few weeks ago sprouted about ten days ago and look at it, so healthy and growing so fast
and the avocado is just about to leaf out.
The avocado took somewhat longer, it was sitting halfway in water for a couple of months until it split open, then I planted it, and now it is slowly reaching for the sun.
These two trees will be planted right around our house in connection with our grey water outlets..
Ohh, and we have a new family member; meet Lily the cat.
She found us and adopted Kaleena straight away..
~Blessings~

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

These days

A few images of the past week...
The path through the cenote is progressing nicely, here is a before and after picture to show the difference
This picture shows well how much the path has been raised
At home we have been spending much time inside, attempting to stay cool in this intense heat, without an air conditioning that is.
Kaleena is doing work in her main lesson book
I have been making sauerkraut in the only two glass jars that I brought from the states. It is amazing to me that  I cannot find any glass jars here, and I LOVE my mason jars. I cannot even find tomato sauce in a glass jar, and get a jar that way. Everything here comes in plastic.
I am also attempting to get a sourdough starter going, hoping to somehow find a good wholesome flour source.
Most of our meals consists of different variations of tacos and dips.
The one below is a taco with rice and beans, chopped fresh arugula and parsley, tomato, avocado and fresh farmers cheese, and because we do not have a blender yet, we make spirulina dressings to go with them.
Very yummy!
This is one of different variations of dips.
Mango, tomato, onion, parsley, cilantro and salt. So lovely in this heat
One late afternoon coming back from getting groceries this is what I found on the front step.
They are local berries, cannot remember the name, that supposedly are great to make juice out of and that helps clean the liver at the same time. The flavor of them raw is much like a mealy apple and not my favorite. But I am making a trial wild mead (honey wine) to see how that might come out.

Here is Kaleena picking the berries

The evenings are a lovely time to step out for a walk, here are the boys in their 
Sunday best
~Blessings~