Pruning the Grapes

Pruning the blueberries was so satisfying, I went out late yesterday, and pruned grapes for a while before I went to pick up Adorable Hubby at the Park and Ride, and take him over to pick up the small blue car, which got shiny new brakes and a shiny new part for the clutch so that it can start and stop on demand, rather than randomly or not at all.
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Ah, the grapes. So I whacked at the grapes, which I started to prune up last year. I read some different advice on-line about pruning grapes, so I cut them back severely again. I plan on removing more leaves after they start to make fruit. The vines make fruit, but then get various diseases of the fruit, and we have yet to eat a grape. But, one of the extensions sites I read said to take away leaves that cover the fruit to ensure good air flow, and that will cut down on some of the fungal diseases! Since my vines get extremely leafy, I will try that.
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Also, checked the garlic I planted in the garden last fall. I planted 24 cloves, and it looks like about 8 of them have come up so far. I put a lot of mulch down, so I disturbed the mulch a little, to give them more of a head start.
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Speaking of garlic, I read some Greek recipes the other day that also involved grape leaves, so I want to find out how to process the grape leaves so that we can eat them! So many projects, so little time.

Pruning the Blueberries

This weekend I pruned my poor neglected blueberries. Above are a couple of unpruned bushes - they crank out the berries like heroes, but I haven't pruned them in years, so they need a little grooming. This weekend, while adorable hubby worked on the fences to keep Cesar, Prince of Ponies, where we want him to be - for instance: not in the blueberries - I gave the blueberry bushes a little manicure and haircut.

The Ohio extension site has nice suggested before and after pictures, which look a lot like my before and after bushes, but I can't get them loaded up here.

The photos make the after bushes look more thin and scraggley, instead of tidy.  I followed their simple directions. It's hard cutting away anything growing, but I hope to have many more blueberries from my sturdy healthy bushes this year.

Tsunami Art

Here is just one of a striking series of images made in response to the tsunami. A variety of media and styles. Well worth going to the PAGE HERE and looking at the rest of them.

Sundial Birdbath with Dragonflies

So, here is a fun thing! Seems like I have had a hard time getting to my own work in the ceramics studio this semester, but finally, here is a completed piece to show. This is a birdbath with a decorative sundial to put in the garden - not sure it

will really work to tell the time, but I thought the little birdies might like to perch on it.

This birdbath about 13 inches in diameter. I drew the dragonflies in brown engobe, and it is glazed with celadon and tenmoku glazes. It was a drape project demonstration for my beginning ceramics class at the community college, but it turned out so nicely, I think I'll make some more.

This one will just have to sit on a table of some sort.I think I'll put some reinforced holes in the rim of the next one I make, so that it can be hung from a tree limb.

Homemade Vanilla Extract - a True DIY Luxury!

Here's my recipe for homemade vanilla extract. They charge an astounding amount for the nice organic stuff at Whole Foods, or the People's Coop, or anywhere, when you can easily make some that is so much yummier! It's a little bit of an initial investment, but once you have the ingredients, it is very easy to do. In the long run you will be saving money, and this is so much better than anything you can buy.

Here's what you need to make your own vanilla extract:

2 empty 12 oz. Jones Soda bottles, rinsed out with very hot water. (These are just what I had that had caps that make a good seal. Any well washed small bottle with a really tight sealing screw cap will work - the point is to have a good seal, and still be able to open it up regularly.)

4 whole vanilla beans - if you have a choice, pick the ones that smell the best to you. (But, I got mine at the grocery store and they are fine.)

1 bottle cream sherry - the least expensive one that tastes good to you. I have a $5.00 bottle I got at the grocery store, and it is intriguing in the cherry sauce that goes with a nicely roasted duck -another recipe for another time- and improved by close contact with the vanilla beans. (Other people use vodka, bourbon, etc. If sherry doesn't rock your tastebuds, you can use something else. I spent time around Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, which is the heart of the sherry making world, and became fond of cream sherry's sophisticated sweet smoothness.)

Here's what you do:

1. Make sure your bottles hold a good seal, and are very clean and totally dry.

2. Put two vanilla beans into each bottle. You can slice them to let the seeds out if you like, which many recipes suggest, but I just put mine in the bottle whole and the final product is very satisfactory.

3. Fill the bottles up with your cream sherry, or other liquor of choice.

4. Label and date the bottles, and put them in a dark kitchen cabinet. Every day for a week, shake the bottles. If one the bottle caps has a tiny little leak, you will start to notice that it is getting sticky, and you can replace the cap. After a week, you can put your bottles of "vanilla extract to be" in the back of the cabinet, and make a note to shake it once a week. If you forget to shake, no problem, it will still taste just fine after a while.

5. You can smell and taste the vanilla after about two months, and start using one bottle! When you have used up the first bottle, you can fill it back up with more sherry (the vanilla beans will flavor 5 or 6 batches before it starts to fade) and start in on the second bottle, which will be even better since it will have sat with the beans longer than the first bottle.

6. This is great in coffee - 1 tsp. per cup for flavor, not an alcohol buzz! This is also the "secret ingredient" that makes my chocolate chip cookies taste better than anyone else's...and blueberry buckle, and pound cake. And, if you add a little to the egg mix that you dip bread in when making French toast - sooooo good! And of course, you can go get some little 2 or 3 oz. pretty bottles and make nice labels and give this stuff as Christmas gifts to everyone on your list who cooks, or drinks coffee....

Boiling the Sap

This weekend we cooked a lot of maple sap - close to 100 gallons of sap, which will be turned into about two gallons of syrup after I get done processing it. This is a picture of the stove Adorable Hubby welded together, after we both got really tired of working over an open fire. After the syrup season is done, I'll move the little hoop house we have covering the stove over to the south side of the house, and use it to start my garden! But, I can't let myself get distracted by all those lovely seed catalogs - today day I am going to can some syrup! And write lessons for the on-line Art History classes I am teaching. And feed the ponies hay, and the little birdies millet and sunflower seeds, and the bees some strong sugar water. It's good to have lots to do - I would hate to be bored and lazy...

New focus this spring

The last post was a month ago, wherein I mentioned not loving the sinus infection? Well, I didn't love it, but I harbored it for many many days! Ugh. Now, I am finally feeling better, and so I have the impulse to improved my life. Eating better, fixing and finishing projects, doing the most important thing - this is my focus over then next little while.