Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 42: October 22, 2022

The weather caught up with the calendar, bringing good conditions for deer hunting at last. The ducklings are growing into gangly juveniles, and pears are ripe and ready to preserve.

Sam watches the weather forecast with intensity and rain means the deer are moving around, improving our chances of bagging one for the freezer.

The views were spectacular and the air was damp and delicious.

While plodding along behind Samuel, I had a thought. The finest carpets in the finest hotels can’t compare to walking on moss.

Fall webworm-infested manzanita bush. Wild turkey surprised me by posing for a portrait!

We tramped through miles of forest over moss, twigs, and leaves silenced by rain, got our pant legs soaked, and picnicked on hot soup. We even ran into snow flurries. In the end, we saw a lot of does, but just had a glimpse of a spike.

We ran into snow at 4,500 feet (1,372 meters) elevation.

Hot, homemade Chicken Noodle Soup on a cold day felt luxurious and we enjoyed it with a spectacular view.

Back home, Sam made me a perfect Enchanted Forest Chai using my homemade mix and I paged through a favorite cookbook to unwind and warm up.

The ducklings are doing fine. Each day they grow a little bigger and braver – within sight of their parents.

Preserving and cooking

Italian oregano and strawberry mint hang in bunches from the kitchen beams to dry. Strawberry mint really does smell and taste like fresh strawberries and makes lovely tea. I like to use my Chantal stainless steel tea kettle for tea.

Meanwhile, I was fortunate as a Master Food Preserver (MFP) to be able to purchase pears for preserving from Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (SOREC).

Most of our fruit trees did not produce this year which highlights our gratitude at having pears. The Rogue Valley is pear country, or used to be before wine grapes, hemp, and cannabis became hot commodities, so I have many delicious pear recipes and I’m using them all!

From left to right: Michele, Carole Evans, Vickie Belknap, Margaret Crow, Jeanne Prince.

Left to right: Vanilla-Laced Pear Jam, Pear Cider and Paragon Pear Vinegar.

On another hunting day we enjoyed Beef Stew with Vegetables cooked right on top of the wood stove. Cooking on a modern wood stove took some practice and experimenting to master, but once you figure out your stove it’s easy. Learn more by reading my 10 Tips to Cooking on a Modern Wood Stove.

Is there anything better and more comforting than Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup? Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup with Homemade Knoephla, fluffy German egg noodles.

Tea at Mom’s

Tea at Mom’s this week included a lovely lunch made by Mom’s best friend, Joy: buffalo sloppy joes on homade buns and Italian Almond Cookies.

Earlier in the week Sam completed the sale of the sheep. Our original dream was to raise Painted Desert sheep for a few reasons: to keep the pasture mowed, sell enough to pay the annual property tax bill, earn a modest income in our future retirement years, and harvest a few extra males for meat.

We never were able to rebuild the bloodline after the losses to the mountain lion in 2020, unfortunately, so when Sam’s truck required expensive repairs he wasn’t equipped to do, we knew we would have to sell the sheep.

I have to be honest, it was disappointing to see that dream die. We invested so much time, effort, care, and money to get started with the sheep and now have nothing show for it. Life goes on…

God has new dreams for us and for you.

Bookshelf

A new book at my side: Wildcrafted Vinegars by Pascal Bauder. I have only skimmed it thus far, but can already tell it is a good one! Having played with making vinegars from scratch with a variety of fruits, berries, herbs, flowers, peels, cores, and pomace, this is an exciting addition to my bookshelf.

Blessings,
Michele and Samuel

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2

Week 31: August 6, 2022

Hollyhocks are surely among the most charming symbols of country life. In former days these blooming spires adorned many an outhouse. When we moved to Chocolate Box Cottage we knew we wanted a row of them in front of our porch. We tried to grow hollyhocks for four years, planting the brown disk-shaped seeds saved from the double apricot hollyhocks my Dad grew by the front door of my parents’ house with zero success. Not a single seed germinated.

This year we gave up and bought fresh seeds. Hollyhocks are biennial plants that bloom the second year; we did not expect any flowers this year. So why is there a stately hollyhock blooming where we did not plant it? We are regarding it as a gift.

Sam and I both have an appreciation for butterflies. This is the first year we have not seen a single Monarch butterfly! I planted a patch of native narrow leaf milkweed collected locally to remedy the shortage – hopefully next year.

What we do have are gorgeous yellow and black striped Swallowtail butterflies and clouds of cabbage whites, a mundane name for pretty little white butterflies. I am so happy to see them, I don’t even mind much sacrificing the fennel, parsley, and kale crops to the hungry caterpillars.

Swallowtail caterpillars eat fennel and parsley, while cabbage whites lay teeny tiny eggs in the undersides of the kale leaves. When the caterpillars hatch they chomp their way through the kale, leaving leaves so holey they resemble lace, but that is okay. There are plenty of other things to eat in the garden just now.

In the garden

We are not spending as much time in the hammock as we would like. It hangs there tempting us, but it has been too hot to enjoy it. Instead we sometimes get up too early and go outside to look at the sky. How amazing are the heavens! How lovely to see stars, not smoke!

Hammock days will come and we will enjoy them when they do. For now, I am grateful for sunshine, and when I go to the garden to harvest a zucchini or a generous handful of basil I remind myself to be present, breathe in the scent of greenery and heady aroma of basil. It is good.

If it weren’t for the leaves, you probably would not believe these ruffled pink flowers are California poppies: Watermelon Heaven California Poppies!

Persian basil, a new favorite with purple and green mottled leaves grows like a weed among the artichokes in the herb garden. We are adding it to grilled meat and vegetables, including yellow crookneck squash, often.

Have you ever watched an artichoke bloom?

A bed of culinary herbs is showing a good crop of sage, Bergaarten and tricolor, soon to be harvested, plus rosemary in the background.

Up and coming laying hens are eating voraciously. The cage Sam built them is moved to fresh greenery every few days.

Gathering daily bunny rations: clover, plantain, self-heal, dandelion, pigweed, curly dock, and chickweed.

Field horsetail, Equisetum arvense, is an interesting plant that grows in moist soil along ponds and ditches in our area.

A volunteer mullein, Verbascum thapsus, that I couldn’t bear to pull. Such a valuable medicinal plant and it’s been great fun to watch it grow by the kitchen door.

It was time to refill the onion powder spice jar. Herbs that we don’t grow ourselves are purchased from bulk bins at Food 4 Less. I bring my old Smucker’s jam jars given to me by my mom to the store. The jars are weighed one time and a sticker noting the weight is placed on the lid so we aren’t paying for the weight of the jar.

My back stock of purchased spices is stored in a plastic shoebox. You may want to stock up now on spices for winter baking.

New video

Last week I shared my method of freezer prepping bread dough using the Ankarsrum Assistent mixer and there were requests for the same recipe made by hand, so here it is. Mix up a big batch of bread dough and freeze it in loaf portions. Over the course of four weeks, thaw, shape, and bake one loaf at a time to keep your family in bread for a month.

Zucchini

You were expecting zucchini to appear somewhere, weren’t you? Here it is. Grated and going into the mixer bowl for a truly divine dessert: Chai-Spiced Zucchini Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting.

More zucchini, nicely grilled by my wonderful grill-master husband, Samuel. Marinated briefly in fresh lemon juice and olive oil, with a shower of freshly chopped Persian basil, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash are delicious on their own or drizzled in Caesar dressing and served with grilled chicken apple sausages.

Fur baby

Our sweet Squirrel.  (Yes, her name is Squirrel – Sam’s idea and she lives up to it.)

Bookshelf

An oldie but goodie, Stocking Up by Carol Hupping was considered the Bible of more nutritious forms of food preservation that use less sugar.

Check my favorite online seller of used books using my sharebooklove link. Click the highlighted link in the previous sentence and then type the title of the book into the search bar when you get there. If they don’t have it in stock, create a wish list and add this book to it. Using my link earns us both points towards free books! Thank you for supporting my business, I appreciate it.

* This post contains links to products and vendors I use and appreciate for their quality and usefulness. Some are affiliate, some are not. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases when you use the links I provide; this does not change your price.

Thank you kindly for visiting Chocolate Box Cottage. If you would care to share, I would love to hear what you are enjoyed about your week.

Blessings,

Michele

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2

Week 24: June 18, 2022

Half of me is grateful for ample rain, the other half is worrying summer will be too short to ripen heat-loving garden crops like tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, and melons. Silly, isn’t it? Because half grateful is really not.

The waterfall we drive over every week on our way to and from church reminded me that God is not stingy. It – the waterfall – does not work to be worthy of filling, it merely accepts the rain God sends.

Determined to see, really see, with fresh eyes I saw much to be grateful for.

Many of our fruit trees were burned by late frosts and will not bear fruit this year, but we have a freezer full of wild blackberries and huckleberries we did not plant or tend, which can be turned into homemade fruit leather, and an abundance of green herbs for food, tea, recipes, and remedies – free for the taking! (I just have to stay ahead of Sam and the weedeater.)

Want to learn to make really great fruit leather? See my method here: Best Fruit Leather Recipe with 20 Tips for Success.

Having problems making good fruit leather? See my guide here: Fruit Leather Troubleshooting Guide.

Gardening brings a good kind of tired. Here I am working hard to harvest herbs ahead of Sam.

I took a moment, actually several, to watch a snail. Have you noticed a snail is never in a hurry?

Heaping basket of plantain, raspberry leaf, mint, self heal, red cover, and wild chamomile proved tempting to the chickens. I think they viewed it as a buffet. I did manage to get the herbs arranged on dehydrator trays and set them to dry at 100 F ( 38 c) in my Excalibur dehydrator.

Last summer’s extreme heat (110-117F for what seemed like forever) hastened the death of half a dozen big pine trees on our property. The power company came this week and felled 3 that were completely dead and even as we mourned their loss we couldn’t help but be thankful for the warmth they will provide our home when fed to the wood stove.

One of my two favorite apple trees, a Gravenstein, plus a grouping of great mullein, Verbascum thapsus.

Wild irises and barbed wire separate our pasture from the neighbors’. Pretty little clover blossoms open fuchsia pink and fade to blush.

After seeing the price of eggs in the grocery store, we decided we needed a few more laying hens to offset what we lost to predators this winter.

This week’s video is especially for you if you own an Ankarsrum Assistent mixer and want to bake large batches of whole wheat bread. I walk you through my treasured family recipe that I have baked for over 20 years and show you all the “little” things that help you produce your best bread ever. Bread that is soft and fluffy and makes great toast and sandwiches. Bread your family will love!

Own a Bosch Universal or a KitchenAid? I made videos with printable recipes for you, too! Visit my channel by clicking the video above and locate your video.

Chicken Burrito Bowl, assembled recently during a freezer meal prep session and cooked in the Mealthy multipot. (Like an Instant Pot)

Blending a special tea for a special friend who is sick with an awful cold. I can’t express what a nice feeling it is to open my little apothecary and find all the ingredients are there waiting. I learned the skill of tea blending by taking an absolutely wonderful course!

Though Darkness Descend is the riveting true story of the Huguenots in France in the 1600’s by Janet Joanou Weiner. First book in a trilogy and I am eagerly awaiting the second! (Free on Kindle as of Sept 14, 2022)

Jasper leans on the windowsill, thinking deeply about life.

Each of us has experienced a staggering amount of change and loss in the past 2 years, much of it uninvited and unwelcome.

And yet if we push ourselves to look deeper we will certainly find that there has been good in the middle of it all.

Please tell me: what good have you found in the midst of the last 2 years’ change and loss? Let me know in the comments, I respond to every one.

Blessings,

Michele