Progress.

Its a deliberate choice we make to do things...the "hard" way.  Is the hard way better? 

There must be something better about it, because we keep doing it that way, in the face of an easier path.  We've reasoned that in some cases its better for us.  Eating whole foods that are more laborious to prepare rather than processed foods with their strange ingredient lists and excessive packaging.  In many cases it saves us dollars.  Processing firewood to heat our home and hot water rather than picking up the phone for an oil delivery.  And in some cases, it meets those criteria and...it just feels right.  Making our own cheese, or growing our own vegetables and meat.  All of these things seem pretty accessible and frankly, aren't that difficult.  Despite the extra effort that is involved, we continue to feel compelled.  We find enough value and satisfaction in it that we want to go out there and do it...and we're not alone.

You feel compelled to do it even when it is 95 degrees out, or the mosquitos have started a blood bank, or its sleeting and 20 degrees and the animals need water.  And those are the days that try your choice.  When half of the bucket spills down the back of your boot as you negotiate an icy patch.  When you're drenched in sweat and you still have hundreds of feet of picking left or when you get home from a long day at work and you realize that you didn't meal plan well and any well made dinner is at least an hour or more away and you decide to feed your family eggs with cheese and cut up carrots--again.  Is it still better?  Usually my answer is yes.  But I'm no homestead hero.  I fantasize about heated water buckets and, on a stagnant summer day, I love to sit in front of a big fan.

I know for sure that my husband's farmer-grandparents thought ding dongs and spaghettios were two of life's great inventions.  After baking and cooking your whole life over a wood cookstove, all 4 seasons, for your family and a farm crew, a can of "lunch" on an electric stove and a pre-made cake looked pretty darn good.  Interesting, isn't it.  People that wouldn't consider putting pasturized milk past their lips, mowing down a ho-ho with their raw moo juice.  Ah, progress!

Somehow it seems, all of us that do this, this homesteading stuff, we all draw our own lines.  We're, for the most part, doing it by choice.  The ho-ho's and boyardee are all there for us to take advantage of.  But we find value and satisfaction in another turn.  Despite its challenges, we ultimately decide that the more difficult road gets us to a destination that we consider better, or at least, one that we prefer.  And in each little effort to make one or another part of our lives a little more simple, more basic, we notice that we truly appreciate and are grateful for the access to modern conveniences that we have.  And we use them, mindful of their usefulness.  We love chainsaws and toilet paper.  Stuff like that. 

Which brings me to the greatest recent homestead FREE acquistion that had us hopping with excitement.  With much of our small wheat crop still in shocks in the barn, we were tediously and slowly processing little bits indoors in the evening.  It was beyond ridiculous considering the amount remaining to be done.  ENTER our new-to-us thresher.  
We had seen this nifty little chipper-turned-thresher on the interwebs but never figured that we would acutally find one---and certainly not for a reasonable price, like free. 
The great news is that without any modifications, it works pretty good!  We are still in the initial stagesbut....having done this job "the hard way" , we are definitely appreciating a little help from mother necessity.  And so, feeling a little like my husband's grandparents, we indulge, and plug in the mechanical thresher.  Now let me say that threshing and winnowing wheat at dusk in 20 degree weather while kneeling on frozen ground is a far cry, with regard to ease, from grabbing a bag of flour from the shelf at the store (and I might have mentioned that once or twice as I lost all feeling in my fingers)...but the wheels of "progress" were a-churning.  Ah, progress!

Wheat Berries!!!(and a little chaff)

http://sustainableseedsystems.wsu.edu/nicheMarket/smallScaleThreshing.html

What's for Breakfast?: Kids Choice

Sunday morning regularly comes with a joy-filled request from the girls..."waffle morning!" 

And we agree.  I make the batter and coffee and he heads to the cast iron collection...the his-made rack on the wall that holds all the heavy stuff.  The pans that have stories to tell.  Decades of breakfasts and the repeated grip of many strong hands carrying meals from stove to table. 

I am gifted with in-laws who can never drive past an antique store or flea market or yard sale without hitting the brakes.  And they love excuses to stop.  A mission.  And so regularly we give them one.  It may take months--but they rarely fail.  Persistence and retirement.

And so we came to own an amazing piece of cast iron genius.  The Griswold American No. 8 Waffle Iron!  Next to my No. 8 skillet it is probably my favorite. 

So I make the batter and he, having mastered the art of cast iron wafflery, "mans" the iron.  He is a lover of the perfect mechanics, the smooth twist of the ball joint and the coiled cool handle.  And also of the knowing that our waffle mornings are seamlessly woven to waffle mornings of other generations.  An engineer and a nostalgic...and a waffle magician to his girls.

Country Sister's Griswold Waffles

(slight mod. on Better Homes and Gardens Classic)

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 fresh ground whole wheat flour

2 T honey

1 T baking powder

2 eggs

1 3/4 c. milk

1/2  c. butter melted (way better than oil)

1 t. vanilla

shake of cinnamon and nutmeg and salt

Mix all ingredients well. 

Grease waffle iron with lard (or whatever you have that is high heat tolerant).

Pour 1c. onto preheated iron.

If using cast, use less batter.  Flip 4X.  Check carefully for doneness.  When done waffle will peel away from top iron.

If using electric...wait for the light.

We usually serve with yogurt, maple syrup, wild Maine Blueberries.  Coming into apple season now so chopped apples and sunflower seeds are on deck!  Serve with your local fresh fruit!

Little Red Hen: Part 1

It is that time of year. Time to pull down a couple big harvests here on the homestead. Saturday we began the long process of hand threshing our Wheat crop. We were thankfully hosting my brother and sister in law. No one gets to sit idle while "vacationing" on the farm. And really, no one wants to. Aren't we lucky!

We grew a small crop this year, about 40' x 100' area of Barrie Organic Winter Wheat. The Wheat was planted last year in October. It grew just a few inches tall before being stunted by the hard frost here in November. The goal is to get it to a 4 leaf stage called vernalization before it sleeps for the winter under a heavy blanket of snow. In the Spring, at first melting, it takes off growing again. Hopefully charging ahead of the weeds and choking them out. We had good luck this year. We harvested with a borrowed sickle bar mower which was pretty slick. We are too small for a combine for sure but a machete was slow work. Thank you modern machinery! And thank you Eliot!

We then let the wheat sheaves dry in the barn for a couple weeks. That brought us to this weekend.

Hand threshing and winnowing involves this:

a sheave of wheat

and this:

nice brother-in-law using ergo-corrrect threshing technique

and this:

winnowing with nice fan from the dump...love the dump

and finally you get....

Voila! Wheat berries.

To be continued...