Coming Home to Eden

Piotr Socha

Posted on May 11, 2022May 12, 2022 by ginamcmanig

I would like to highlight this wonderful author and illustrator today. We just LOVE his books. I wish he had a book on everything. I first found his book Bees: A Honeyed History. I ordered it from the library and loved it so much that I had to have a copy for our home library. I am very picky about books. These books are beautifully illustrated, the content is excellent, and intriguing as well. Piotr Socha is so very thorough in each of the books I will be sharing here. These are both large books measure about 10.5”x 14.5”. I often prefer small books which we can cuddle in and read but, this large size is like having entered the world in which he writes about. The illustrations take you deeply into the content.

This book covers the topic of bees very thoroughly. Everything you could think of about bees is here. This book has 71 pages packed full of great information. It was released in 2017.

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As you can see all of the text (mostly) is at the bottom of the page. I really liked the format of this book. I thought is was very well designed, clean and beautiful. We read this book at story time, reading two sections a night until finished. Since I have about a million books I want to read to my children and not enough time in a day to read them all, this worked well for us.

After reading Piotr Socha’s first book I immediately looked for more. I bought it directly rather than previewing it as I was so impressed with his work. The title is Trees: A Rooted History. This book was released in 2019.

This book was beautifully designed just as his Bee book. It has 71 fact filled pages. This time the text is mostly along the sides of the book. We loved exploring the gorgeous illustrations just as much as reading the text. I am very excited to report that Piotr is releasing a new book THIS summer that is available for preorder now! It is titled: The Book of Dirt: A smelly history of dirt, disease, and human hygiene. I can’t wait to read it with my children! I hope he keeps creating more books to share with the world. I have actually reached out to him to request so after reading the first two books. These make such a lovely addition to homeschooling curriculum or just as a story. Regardless, I highly recommend these books and hope you enjoy them! Happy reading!

Pizzelles

Posted on April 23, 2022April 23, 2022 by ginamcmanig

Okay folks…going to get a little naughty here. I have had a little trouble with sugar over the years. It is my addiction. Some folks drink and do drugs…I like me some sugar. Pizzelles are one of my weak spots. I love them. There will be many other posts on healthy life choices I promise. In this post, I will honor my paternal grandmother Rose. I debated on sharing this recipe because I am Italian and we are kind of funny about those things. I wanted it to be special for my girls. However, here I am sharing it with the world. I thought my family would really like this one. I have altered the recipe anyway.

This is my grandma Rose with her two oldest children. The year was…a long time ago. I am unsure on that one.

My grandma Rose lived in the house I grew up in, in Syracuse, NY. She moved south to Florida and my parents took over the house at some point. I didn’t see her often but she used to send us the most delicious grapefruits which she grew in her back yard. I didn’t care for the oranges. Sorry grandma, they were too sweet for my taste. Those grapefruits however were amazing. Growing up in NYS you don’t get to sample many varieties of grapefruits. You get white and pink from the grocery store. The white ones were bitter. Grandmas were so different. They were thin skinned, tart and delicious. They were not bitter at all. Oh how I wish I knew what variety they were. If you know me, you know I am an investigator type. I even looked up the house grandma lived in (she has passed several years ago) to see if I could contact the new owners to get some seeds or a cutting. To my utter dismay someone cut down the trees and put in a pool.

When I was a kid, I remember visiting grandma in Florida. She would make me lots and lots of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice…as much as I would like. She also made me pizzelles. By chance you do not know what pizzelles are, they are a bland, crisp Italian cookie made with a press or pizzelle iron. They are delicious to me and my family.

Grandma Rose was a spunky little petite lady full of life. She was always working on something. I remember her as an older lady sitting outside our second story windows to clean them. She wasn’t afraid to tell you her opinion either. While I didn’t get her petite size…okay, I got the petite height…just not the width, lol…I have plenty of her spice. I also continue on her tradition of making pizzelles for my family.

I got this new cookbook about 4 years ago with plastic slide in sheets to protect the recipes. I really like it. I hope it keeps the recipes I use safe for my girls and maybe their children one day.

Excuse my spelling errors and pen over pencil 😉

My variation: I use whole ground organic unbleached spelt flour. I get that locally through Regional Access. The Grindstone Farm picks up there. I use avocado oil in place of the butter from Aldi and add in 2 Tablespoons of nutritional yeast and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. This combination gives a nice buttery flavor without the dairy. I prefer 2 teaspoons of almond extract instead of the anise & vanilla. I get my extracts from my local co-op most of the time. Sometimes I toss in some flax meal too. My batter is dark because I use unbleached ingredients. Some notes: Do not use extra virgin olive oil…it does not taste good in this recipe. The flavor is too strong. Regular olive oil is fine. Coconut oil isn’t my favorite in this recipe. They tend to brown too fast. DO NOT WALK AWAY while using the iron. They cook very quickly. I overcook a few just about every time because I try to multitask. Don’t do the dishes 😉 Wait.

I have the Chef’s Choice Pizzelle Pro maker. I make these for the kids birthdays, road trips, etc. Or just because… but I am trying not to do that these days!

This dough was made with sifted spelt flour. You can see there is a big difference in color.

You can use a stand mixer if you want but I generally use a batter bowl and a whisk. They whip up fine that way. I do love to use cooling racks. I use these things for everything. You will see them in many posts from basic food uses to holding sterilized canning jars to curing soap, lol. I prefer the stackable. I like Pampered Chef the best as they have a smaller grate pattern so you don’t tend to loose as much food but the first ones I linked work well for most things.

Pizzelles cool and harden quickly. You can shape them if you work fast…and don’t mind burning your hands! You can use them as an easy canolli shell (I use a fat stubby piece of dowel) or make cones out of them.

These dress up a table nicely in a long skinny basket. I hope I have inspired you to make pizzelles for your family! Enjoy! Once in a while that is…and maybe think of my grandma and smile.

B is for Butterfly

Posted on April 23, 2022April 23, 2022 by ginamcmanig

This chalkboard drawing was from years ago when we started homeschooling. As weather warms and I begin planting, I am reminded of butterflies. We happened to find caterpillars in our garden on our carrot greens this year in Autumn which sparked this experience.

We rigged up a house for the caterpillars with some tulle and embroidery hoops and a bowl. We added some sticks and some carrot tops which they were found on for food. It was fun and exciting to check on them daily.

We of course made a study out of the experience. It did not take long for the caterpillars to form their chrysalises. It was really fun to watch first hand.

Soon the transformation was complete and we found these beautiful Black Swallowtail butterflies where the chrysalises had been.

The butterflies were slow moving at first. I can imagine they must be exhausted after such a transformation!

As they emerged, we gently let them crawl onto our hands to release them. They were not very interested in flying away. I imagine they were tired and taking in their new shape as well as their new surroundings. This allowed us to fully engage in the beauty of the process.

This gentle creature allowed us the honor of observing this beautiful experience.

Such a beautiful creature I can share my garden with <3

Some of the materials from our home library that add to this educational observation:

Mary Azarian is one of my favorite children’s book illustrators. I especially love A Farmer’s Alphabet.

Another of our favorite illustrators is Gyo Fujikawa. A to Z Picture Book is lovely.

We love all the books Dianna Hutts Aston & Sylvia Long have in this series for young children. A Butterfly is Patient is a great book for this topic.

For older children Maryjo Koch has some awesome books. Dragonfly Beetle Butterfly Bee is a great book.

Here is a nice matching game we use. I did add the names of the butterflies on the cards as the game uses males and females to match which was too hard for a young child in my opinion. Butterfly Wings: A Matching Game.

Nature Anatomy is a nice resource.

I like these old Simon & Schuster books: Children’s Guide to Insects and Spiders. I like the illustrations.

Here are a couple extras that we have just added to our library. We have not read these yet. These are from The Good & The Beautiful homeschool curriculum company. We use some of their curriculum.

I hope I have inspired you to learn more about butterflies with your loved ones! Happy Exploring!

Apple Preservation

Posted on April 22, 2022April 23, 2022 by ginamcmanig

Apples. What do we think of when we think of apples? I think of cool crisp Autumn days. Fireplaces ablaze to take the chill off. The smell of smoke in the air. And in our home, the sweet, heavenly scent of apples fragrant fruit wafts throughout the house as we preserve the bounty.

We make and can lots of sauce with the apples. We also make and can apple pie filling. We freeze apple crisp filling too. We make apple pie jam. With the sauce we often make apple leather. This allows us to enjoy those delicious apples year round in many ways!

I like to roast my apples for sauce. In my opinion, the flavor is much better than that of steaming them. The sugar concentrates and the sauce has a wonderful flavor. I do not add anything to my sauce. It is delicious as is. These beautiful red fleshed apples are Almatas.

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After roasting until soft as you see here, I run the apples through my **Kitchen Aid** mill. The mill makes light work of making sauce. All I do is wash and half or quarter the apples and roast them. The mill spits out the skins and seeds. This attachment is actually called a **Fruit & Vegetable Strainer**. I do use the **wide tray** too. I have used this set up for more than a decade.

From this point I either can my sauce in a **water bath canner** or make leather. We ALWAYS have some fresh off the mill. It always tastes SO good that way!

My kids love fruit leather. I always make apple leather during apple season. It is a great way to take applesauce on the road! I love my Excalibur dehydrator. I have used mine for so many things since 2014. For leather you will need sheets in your dehydrator.

I like to can sauce in quarts and pints for our family of four living at home. Apple pie filling in pints and jam in 8 ounce jars. I love the seeing my pantry fill with food for the year! Happy preserving!

Hatching Chicks

Posted on April 22, 2022April 23, 2022 by ginamcmanig

This year for the first time, we hatched our own baby chicks. We decided with the world the way it is, it would be a good investment to make in our own food security. I have never been interested in hatching eggs before. I am a big believer in nature. Every year our hens hatch out their own babies. THEY are much better chick mothers than any human I know…they are chickens! It is SO MUCH easier to let hens hatch out and rear their babies. It requires nothing from us humans other than to let them sit on a clutch of eggs. Let’s not forget about having a rooster. The eggs need to be fertilized eggs in order to produce a baby chick. After a momma hen sits of her clutch of fertilized eggs for 21 days, they will hatch. Momma usually sits for about two days once the hatching begins then abandons any remaining eggs in order to tend to the needs of her hatchlings. Watching a momma with her babies is beautiful…chickens, humans, any type! Momma hens protect their babies fiercely from other chickens. They teach them what to eat and drink and where to find it. They keep them warm and safe. They teach them how to be chickens!

So, this year with shipping issues, we decided it would be best to have our own incubator. We had lost 11 of our new hens to a predator. Instead of having to have more pullets shipped in the mail, we would hatch out our own. At least this way the birds would not have the stress of shipping. Everything would still need to be done to mimic having a mother hen, but that was okay with us in this situation. We already have everything for that.

Every time we have bought chickens for either meat or eggs, we have bought day old chicks which are hatched in a giant incubator and shipped in the mail to our home. Pretty horrible trip for the little things being tossed around for a couple days in the mail just after hatching. No mamma hen. Hatched, sexed, boxed, sent. So, not the best way, BUT necessary for us to start our own flock.

We have a child who is sensitive to corn and soy. She started reacting to eggs since this is what chickens are fed. Corn and soy, whether organic, free ranged, or not. All of them are fed corn and soy. I did a lot of research on this and we decided to raise our own without corn and soy. We were successful. My daughter was able to eat eggs without reacting.

I went online and asked around in some groups I was in to see what incubator others recommended. The Nurture Right 360 was recommended over and over so this is what we bought. I really liked that we could watch the whole process. It is very much automated for ease of use. It maintains temperature, humidity, and rotates the eggs. It has external water fill and you can simply unplug the turner at lockdown time. It made things very easy.

We bought shipped eggs to replace the birds we had lost. See the pictured eggs with marker on them. They were beautiful BUT I DO NOT recommend buying shipped eggs for hatching. It significantly reduces their viability. I learned that a little too late. For the price of hatching eggs and the poor hatch rate associated with shipped eggs, I would rather either find someone local or buy chicks online. It was not worth it for our purposes. That was our first experience with hatching. Our second experience was with our own barnyard mix. We hatched these for our neighbor. That went better. We used a dry hatch method the first two times.

This is an Olive Egger egg. So beautiful. Eggs are eggs, but I do so enjoy natures colors! In my vegetables, fruits, and eggs! Happy hatching!

Starting Seeds

Posted on March 31, 2022April 23, 2022 by ginamcmanig

Ah, new life. There is something so exciting about planting seeds and watching them come to life! Every year after the holidays I get excited to plan what I will grow. Each year we add something new to the mix. One of my favorite places to buy seeds is Baker Creek. I buy almost all our seeds from them. I love looking through their catalog. I also save some seeds to use for the following year. If you are a little on the ”wild” side and don’t mind leaving plants in the garden after the season is over, you can end up with lots of wild plant babies in your garden without the work of planting. I purposely leave some plants to go to seed such as lettuce and mustard greens. I might leave a few chives and garlic too. I find wild plants all around because I leave them to spread on their own. Bonus food.

Why start your own seedlings you ask? Great question! You can purchase seedlings. That is just fine. BUT, there are many benefits to starting your own seedlings. Variety is a big reason for me. I like to grow things I can’t find at stores and markets or that are expensive to buy. More diversity in your diet and oh how I love all the colorful food! That leads me to another great reason. Cost. Seeds are very inexpensive. You can reuse many of the supplies for years. Another reason is you know exactly what went into your plant if you grow your own. The soil, fertilizers, etc. You control how many plants you have. There are places out there that sell nice seedlings but I encourage you to give seed starting a try. At the very least, check out the amazing varieties!

When I first started I had it up high like this. It worked fine but since then, I have hung it closer to the plants. I wanted to give you another view of how it looks for set up.

I use 72 cell trays which can be found locally usually. I have been using the same ones since 2016. I prefer the type you fill with potting soil rather than the type that expand similar to the one below. Mine pictured are the Jiffy brand. I found them at my local Agway.

I usually use one of the two types of soil below for potting seeds. When I have something outside to pot, I use my compost. The potting mix can be found at Agway or Tractor Supply.

Pictured here are those tomato plants after growing a bit (bottom), peppers (top right), sweet potatoes (center top). I start sweet potatoes by slip. I will try to get another post out on starting slips.

This is what happens when you start too many seedlings. You have to put in an entirely new area. I did this at the beginning of covid. I thought others might need food. So, I grew a million tomato plants?! You know, because you can live off tomatoes…it’s the thought that counts right? The year after this, I turned this space into a new raspberry bed easily since I had killed off the grass with the thick black plastic. We moved it, transplanted raspberries and sheet mulched in between the rows. If you have time, laying thick black plastic is a fantastic way to kill off grass and such to start a new planting area. It does take time but is much less work than taking up sod or tilling. This is what we used. It can be reused as well.

Here are some bigger tomato babies that were planted in the garden with lettuce.

These are some of my favorite black cherry tomatoes. I grow them every year.

What happens when you plant seeds? You get food. Lots of food. I LOVE walking outside and harvesting fresh produce from my garden for meals and putting up. I will try to get another post up soon for what to do with all the food!

Cough Drops

Posted on March 30, 2022April 23, 2022 by ginamcmanig

My child was up most of the night with a bad cough. I threw everything I could think of at it. Many different homeopathic remedies. Cell salts, tinctures, teas. I looked for cough drops locally online and couldn’t find anything within a half an hour drive that didn’t have something she couldn’t have in it. I decided to make some. I didn’t have much honey left but my husband just picked up our years supply of maple syrup. I don’t like to use honey in cooked recipes anyway. Seems like a waste to kill good raw honey. I will share with you my experiment. I am not a doctor. I am merely sharing my experience.

I made an herbal tea. I added mullein, echinacea, chamomile, and ginger root to a tea infuser. You could just add it to a jar and strain it. Bring a cup of water to a boil, shut it off and pour over herb mixture. Let steep until cool.

Well steeping, prepare molds or surface for the cough drops by sprinkling some slippery elm powder. I used a tea strainer as a sifter. It worked great.

Add 1 cup of tea to a sauce pan with 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 a cup of maple syrup. mix well and put on medium heat. Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 300 degrees. You will need a candy thermometer. It takes a while to get to that point but all of the sudden it moves quickly so don’t walk away!

Once it reaches temperature, remove from heat and stir it until the bubbling calms down. Pour into prepare molds. I needed a third mold which was not prepared ahead. If using these molds, prepare 3 ahead. You have to move quickly because the mixture with harden.

I used a tablespoon to pour from the pan. It worked well.

I sifted more slippery elm powder over them. These hardened so quickly that I was able to take them out of the molds shortly after pouring. Do be careful, they will be hot!

They popped out beautifully from the **molds**. Way easier than chocolate.

I popped them out directly into this cute chunky jar. They fit perfectly.

My daughter said they were good. She only tasted the maple syrup. It smelled heavenly as it bubbled away on the stove top. The combination I smelled most was of chamomile and maple syrup. Enjoy!

Steam Juicing

Posted on March 29, 2022December 29, 2022 by ginamcmanig

The cool weather of fall brings the beautiful scent of ripe grapes. As a child, I remember going to the farmer’s market with my mother and getting the delicious seasonal treat of Concord grapes. I loved them. They were definitely a favorite of mine. When we had the opportunity to grow them, we planted 36 vines of which were mostly Concords and Niagaras. We also planted a handful of seedless varieties for dehydrating. In addition to fresh eating, I wanted enough juice for the year. At the time, we were purchasing grape juice for kefir soda regularly.

Grapes are a quick turn around plant to invest in. I say start with your fruit when you ”land” as it takes the most time to produce…but, not all fruit takes a long time. Grapes are pretty quick. And when you taste your first grapes…they will be well worth the investment!

We bought our plants from Double A Vineyards. Before the plants arrived we prepared. I designed the layout. We removed sod. We marked and dug holes. The holes were not sufficient for the massive roots on the plants we received. We had to dig the holes much deeper. I was very pleased with the plants.

This is my version of a modified Munson system which is much like a clothes line. Wires were put into the horizontal piece at the top. The grapes hang down from the top wires for easy harvesting.

Grapes can take a few years to produce which is a short wait when compared to fruit trees. Some vines can produce for well over a human beings lifetime. This makes planting grapes a very good investment. Planting them is simple. We did nothing to the soil. We dug holes and planted at the recommended spacing and provided them with something to climb on. We do not fertilize them nor do we use any sort of pesticide or herbicide on them. We prune them in early spring and sometimes a little in the summer if the vines get in the way of other plantings. Some of our vines are in a bed that has been sheet mulched. Some are not. We simply weed whack around those only for our ease of picking. Grapes are VERY hardy in general. We don’t water them with the exception of the year we planted them. Because the roots are so deep, once established, they do not need watering here in the north eastern United States. Depending on where you live, they may.

Once you have established grapes, you can eat them! And eat them….and eat them. You can also get yourself a steam juicer and make yourself some juice. Steam juicing is incredibly simple. We use a large harvest basket to gather the grapes. We fill it once, then pluck grapes. I do not like the taste of the juice as much when leaving the stems on. I have some nice stainless steel bowls with lids that I pluck the grapes into. That way I can pop them in the fridge if I don’t have enough for a juicer load. Once done with that basket load, I start juicing.

So, how does one steam juice you ask? My steam juicer has three chambers. One for water (bottom). One for collecting juice (middle). One for your fruit or vegetables (top). To start you put water in the bottom of your steam juicer. Put the juice capturing chamber above that. Pour plucked grapes into the top of your juicer. Cover with lid and turn on the burner. Before long, your home will smell amazing! The best part is this…the juice comes out piping hot. I prepare my jars as usual for canning. I run a small amount of juice through the tube, and dump it back in the top to sterilize the tube. After that, I fill my jars to about 1/4 inch from the top, wipe, place lid & screw top, put on cooling rack. Done. No water bath necessary. If you were canning something non acidic, other methods would be needed. I have been doing this for several years and have had no problems. I love the ease of it. I have a Cook N Home 11 quart steam juicer. Do be sure to check the water in the bottom chamber every now and then. If it runs out the juicer can get damaged and the taste of your juice can be affected.

I place a stool next to the cooktop and place a dark colored towel down to catch any drips of juice that go where I don’t want them to go. It happens and it stains particularly well with concords. I then get a prepared jar one at a time as I fill them. I prefer regular mouth quart size (32oz) canning jars for juice. The regular mouth is easier to pour than the wide mouth. I sometimes do a few half gallon jars for gatherings. I place them on a cooling rack upside down to drain after washing so no dust, etc gets inside. I prefer Ball canning jars. They are made in the USA.

Steam juicing is a simple way to put up juice to enjoy all year! I have also used my steam juicer for apples. Apples are nice to use because when you are done juicing, you can run the pulp through a mill and have sauce. Double duty. I hope you are inspired to juice some fruit! Enjoy!

Story Time

Posted on March 19, 2022April 23, 2022 by ginamcmanig

I just love books. I thank my father for my love of books. I remember going to this used book warehouse when I was a kid. There were SO MANY books! I also remember him taking me to the library. I was in awe of all the books. I have carried on the love of books with my children and will share some of those which we have added to our home library and what we think of them. What makes a good book could very much be up for debate but this will be based on my opinion of course.

I love story time. There is something so special about snuggling up with the kids and reading a story. THAT is the good stuff. Moments like those will stay with our children. Maybe not every detail of every story time but the love and the coziness…that feeling will be remembered. So light some candles and grab some of these books to enjoy with your family. We like doing this during the cold months.

We recently stumbled upon these sweet books from the Smithsonian Institution called Smithsonian’s Backyard. If you are looking for books for young ones to introduce animal studies, these are really nice. They tell about an animal in its habitat but with a story line in a simple way and have nice illustrations that appeal to children.

We often preview books before purchasing. Usually from the public library. If we really like it, we buy it.

Skunk at Hemlock Circle by Victoria Sherrow Illustrated by Allen Davis

Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane Victoria Sherrow Illustrated by Allen Davis

Flying Squirrel at Acorn Place by Barbara Gaines Winkelman Illustrated by Kristin Kest

Canada Goose at Cattail Lane by Janet Halfmann Illustrated by Daniel J. Stegos

Gray Squirrel at Pacific Avenue by Geri Harrington Illustrated by Michele Chopin Roosevelt

I hope I have inspired you to enjoy story time with your family! Enjoy!

Hello Folks!

Posted on February 4, 2022April 27, 2022 by ginamcmanig

Welcome to our blog! We are inviting you along on our journey of creating our Eden. Here we will be sharing all things homestead & natural living: orchard, garden, food prep, canning, dehydration, fermentation, sewing, knitting, crochet, weaving, and more. Please join us on this journey of creating our Eden.