Chocolate Box Cottage Diary Vol. 2
Week 4: January 26, 2022

It’s been quiet at Chocolate Box Cottage. We have had a quiet week of recovery from a well-publicized virus, thankful that our illness was mild. Sam and I are both feeling better and appreciate your prayers and kind messages. I made up my muddled mind to appreciate the gift of quiet time.

Since I had little energy I enjoyed a lot of reading. I’m so thankful for books! Marie Kondo and I sharply disagree on how many books are permissible to keep in one’s home library. I will never be a minimalist.

Our garden is planned, seeds have been ordered and received, and I started a new Netflix series: Sweet Magnolias. Very cozy and Gilmore Girls-ish.

I kept meals very simple: a pot of soup and homemade bread served for several meals in a row. I lost my sense of smell and taste for a week, but thankfully they were restored through olfactory retraining.

Somehow this time ended up being sweet, in spite of illness…

Enjoying my books and a comfy spot to sit. Art credit: Alexandra Thompson

We opened the curtains wide and let the sun stream in.

I am thankful for my books during times of illness when I can’t get to the public library! For more book recommendations, visit the Chocolate Box Cottage Shopping Guide.

Books seen here: Milk Cow Kitchen by MaryJane Butters, Mastering Fermentation by Mary Karlin, Summer Kitchens by Olia Hercules, 101 Easy Homemade Products for Your Skin, Health, and Home by Jan Berry, Wildcrafted Fermentation by Pascal Bauder, The Mary Frances Cook Book by Jane Fryer, Permaculture for the Rest of Us by Jenni Blackmore, Song of Increase by Jacqueline Freeman, and Jane of Lantern Hill by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Garden planning with seeds, seed catalogs, garden journal, and my garden map at hand.

Christmas cactus in bloom and me with time on my hands to actually see it.

Scenes outdoors at Chocolate Box Cottage this week include our big, rascally tomcat Toby and new plant babies.

When my mind feels clear enough to study, I watch videos (and take copious notes!) inside the Homegrown Herbalist School of Botanical Medicine course that I am enrolled in and study soil science.

That sounds geeky, I know, but soil life is fascinating and it’s not as hard as you think – with good tools. If you garden and are interested in growing the most delicious and nutritious vegetables and fruits possible, I encourage you to pick up a copy of The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food by Steve Solomon from Thriftbooks, a reputable online used book merchant.

This homey (and hole-y) loaf of Apple Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread was made with my Dakota Pioneer Everlasting Yeast, an old-time North Dakota leavener that is a type of sourdough starter my grandmother used on the farm for all of her baking through the 1950’s. Diced apples were sautéed in a little butter and stirred into the dough along with raisins and plenty of cinnamon. It makes superlative toast, with or without tea!

Hen Party quilt has been sandwiched (the process of layering the quilt top with batting and backing) and basted (temporary stitches that hold the sandwich in place until the “real” quilting stitches are done.)

A special meal to celebrate feeling better: Oregon coast crabmeat, fresh pineapple, and raspberries. Pineapple scraps were added to a jar to make Pineapple Vinegar.

A gorgeous (if I do say so myself) 50/50 loaf of freshly ground rye and whole wheat, leavened once again with my Dakota Pioneer Everlasting Yeast.

This is sturdy, substantial bread that keeps well due to the nature of sourdough. Sliced thinly it is makes a hearty piece of toast to accompany an egg.

I use my Ankarsum Assistant mixer for bread, a capable and beautiful assistant in the kitchen. I’m in the process of creating a worksheet to use for sourdough bread with this special mixer.

Keeping up with work is easier when you work at home. With little energy, I paced myself for small tasks like cooking, dishes, and laundry, just the most basic things to keep the household running.

Lost your sense of smell/taste due to a certain virus? Olfactory retraining (or training) can help you restore this sense. Learn more here.

Thank you for visiting Chocolate Box Cottage! Charla in her pink knit cap and I would like to bid you farewell.

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary Vol. 2
Week 2: January 16, 2022

Week 2 of January 2022 was surprisingly sunny and warm. So much is happening in the garden already. Sam and I have been feeling under the weather and it’s good to feel the sun on our skin.

The lush, heavy snow of Christmas and New Year’s is a memory; a few shady places still harbor shrinking “snowbergs.”

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves as Sam and I are both feeling under the weather this week.

This painting from Austria caught my eye. Somehow the artist conveyed both the coolness and coziness of snow in this piece – lovely!

Four overwintered cabbages, as beautiful and colorful as roses with a shimmering blush of violet on lacy “petals.” They definitely qualify as gifts from the winter garden.

I can hardly bear the thought of cutting them – but I will. Overwintered greens such as cabbages, kale, Brussels sprouts, and chard are usually more tender and sweet than their summer-grown counterparts. A real treat in the kitchen and on the dinner plate.

Just across the garden fence, Painted Desert sheep graze. The weight of the snow caused a section of the garden fence to collapse. Sam quickly shored it up with metal t-posts to prevent the sheep from grazing the garden. Real repairs will take place soon.

Hyacinths are just peeping above the soil in a metal planter that looks just like a basket. They were an impulse purchase from a big box store last winter and bloomed beautifully in a cheap pot. When they were finished blooming, I allowed the leaves to die down naturally and left the pot in the garden for several months. I recently translated the lot to this prettier receptacle and moved them to the greenhouse to “force.” Forcing means I am encouraging them to bloom sooner than they would naturally. The greenhouse will give them a head start and I will be enjoying another round of cheery, sweetly -scented flowers soon!

The carrots are destined for stew. In Oregon we can overwinter carrots right in the ground – no need to dig and store – as long as they’re well-mulched. The colder temps of winter impart wonderful sweetness to carrots, they will be as sweet as candy.

Sam: Toby looks zen.

Me: Of course. He has destroyed everyone else’s zen and is content.

This after the second slipper was launched to break up a scuffle.

Super cute bamboo spoons with Chocolate Box Cottage on their brightly painted handles. Thanks for my friend Lifan for custom-crafting them for me!

Four pounds of unsalted butter was clarified to make ghee. Our store of healthy winter fat has been replenished.

What we know and drink as tea is made from fermented leaves from tea camellias, Camellia sinensis. I carefully saved seeds from my tea camellia last fall and planted them in half gallon pots with good quality potting soil and bunny berries. I hope to multiply my tea plants in order to produce enough for a few pots of tea. Doesn’t home-grown and home-processed tea sound utterly enchanting? It does to me!

You can order tea camellias for your garden here: Camellia sinensis.

Gifts from the Wild Winter Garden

Here in southern Oregon, it’s easy to find unsea – just look up. It hangs in spiderweb-like drifts from a variety of trees and is knocked loose by wind, rain, and snow. I gathered a generous amount that fell after our Christmas snow storm to share with friends. Usnea is commonly prepared as an alcohol-based tincture for a number of herbal purposes, which I encourage you to research. It also makes an attractive mulch for potted plants and hanging baskets.

If you’ve suffered a loss of smell and taste after a bout with the “spicy flu” there is help. A technique known as olfactory retraining (or olfactory training, depending on the source) can help you restore this important sense.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit! If you have a few minutes of leisure, take a peek at some lovely pictures of our New Year’s snow and icicles.