Plant A Rainbow

The time for gardening in our little neck of the woods is finally here! As we prepare our space for planting, we are also dreaming up the colors and faces of the flowers we hope to see sprout from the soil.

Not long ago my friend sent me over the etsy link for these rainbow seed bombs. I fell in love. I decided I needed to figure out how to make them! 

Aren't they lovely?! Here is the etsy link for those of you who would rather buy them all ready to go. I think they would make a great gift for a green thumb loved one.

If you want to give them a go, we did some playing around with recipes online and found a system that worked.

Here's how we made them.

To make you will need:

colored construction paper 

seeds (we used a wildflower pack so we could plant all the colors of the rainbow!)

food processor

cheese cloth

elastics

cups & bowls

To begin: 

Tear up your paper. One color in each bowl.

Therapeutic process I tell you. Something about the feeling of ripping up paper. A little addictive :)

Pour water over your paper bits until the paper is covered.

Let your paper soak for 15 to 20 minutes.

Taking one color at a time... add the bowl of water and the paper to a food processor and blend.

Cut out a square of cheese cloth, lay it over a cup and secure it with an elastic.

Pour half of your paper/water pulp into the cheese cloth to begin draining.

Sprinkle a small amount of seeds onto the pulp and then pour on the rest of your paper mixture on top.

Undo the elastic and give the cheesecloth a squeeze to drain out more of the moisture.

Roll them in your hands until they are nice and round.

Let your seed bombs dry.

There you go! 

Sink your beautiful little bombs in some soil... water them well... then wait as they eventually explode {in slow motion} and burst into a bright rainbow of fresh flowers!

You could also "bomb" areas in need of some beautifying. Throw them around and spread the rainbow love. 

Perhaps it's time for a rainbow revolution!

May your day be bursting bright with color and beauty.

Wooden Spoon Garden Stakes

With the fabulous season of gardening upon us we decided to create some sweet garden stakes!

This is a very quick, inexpensive way to mark the tender beauties growing for you.

To create you will need 

Wooden spoons

Pencil

Watercolor pencil crayons

A wood burner

Outdoor modpodge or a sealant of any kind

Begin by drawing your plant pictures and words on your spoons.

Next, take your wood burning tool and trace over your picture and words. 

(With close supervision it seems to be easy and safe for little people (sevenish and up)

Color them in with your watercolors... 

Put a sealant over your spoons

and there you go!

Unique garden stakes that will always remind you of your kiddies.

Thinking these would make a great gift for grandparents!

After admiring their colorful handiwork we decided to give them a home.

First up was planting our sweet peas...

 giving them a good drink...

and marking our new babies!

Now they smile up at us, reminding us of the beautiful bounty soon to fill our table and bellies.

Celebrating the goodness of gardens

~ Shanti ~

PS.  Don't forget to enter our giveaway...it's running all week long...the prize is a beautiful hand felted Toadstool purse.  Enter HERE and leave us a comment with a way of contacting you in case you're the winner! 

The end of the season...

Matilda is enjoying some time with "Blackie" one of our 2 lambs...

The farming year is coming to an end here at the Toadstool.  This past week I've been reflecting on my experience as a small scale farmer.  We live on 1/2 an acre out here...it's really not alot by country standards, but I'm proud of what we get out of it year after year.  We have 15 laying hens year round, who live in an old shed on our property, (they keep us in eggs year round...and also a few of our friends and neighbours).  We also have meat birds in the summer, lambs, 2 large vegetable gardens, a raspberry patch, and an aspiring apple orchard, (which we just planted last year). 

Yesterday truly marked the end of the season for us...it was the day that we killed our lambs.
We only have 2 lambs at a time, as the pasture we have is about 1/4 acre, and it's shared with the laying hens.  It's quite a spectacle to see the hens and lambs together.  This year we shared one of the lambs with some friends who live up the road...and we decided to slaughter them together.    With the help of a kind neighbour who has done this before, both our lambs were killed humanely in the field where they lived.  While there is always a sort of sadness when it comes to killing animals for meat, it was wonderful to look up the hill and see the men at work doing this job, this is a task that has been done for thousands of years.  My heart felt full by the sense of community...here we were, helping each other with our most basic need...the need for nourishment.  It was wonderful at the end of the day to have our own homegrown lamb that will feed us through the winter.  Our neighbour who came to help took away all the lamb blood to make blood sausage...the other parts that we won't eat will go to feed our friends dogs, (she has a team of sled dogs).  The skins will be made into rugs for the dog sled in the winter...nothing went to waste.

Another neighbour, (country neighbour 10 min away), gave us apples.  In exchange for these I made his family an assortment of the preserves that I made with the apples.  Some applesauce, apple butter, chutney and fruit ketchup. 

Enjoying a meal together post lamb killing.

There is real kinship when we help each other produce food.   I think as gardeners, and "farmers" we can get so caught up in our own little bubbles, but truly when we reach out and help our neighbours and friends be a part of the process...well that's real community.   I'm hopeful that next year will bring about a bee exchange of sorts with some other friends, (we have to work out the details), and I'd love to find someone to share the garden with...I'm certainly no where near maximum garden potential!  I need look no further than my pantry and freezer to see the success of this past year.   Food is something I feel passionate about...I love being a part of the process of growing food, and love it even more when the greater community is involved in some way.  I know not everyone is able to do this...but, it's like the books say...I think even growing something simple...herbs or tomatoes.  There is something about growing food that just makes your heart swell with pride.  I wondered about posting my farm experience on this, (our sort of craft blog), but then I think, farming really is the ultimate creative project. 

So...here's to the end of a great season!

xo maureen

* Ode To Calendula *

"The Earth Laughs In Flowers" 

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Calendula flowers are easy to grow, versatile to use and a gorgeous ray of sunshine in the garden!

With Autumn beginning to emerge upon us *feelin' that nip in the air* I was motivated to collect and store these summer filled flowers to enjoy throughout the winter.

Off to the garden we went!  The girls enjoyed filling their baskets with the beautiful flower heads...

 I wanted to make simple cream from what I had on hand and not a lot of fuss.

Here is what I came up with (with some advice)

1 cup calendula petals

1 cup organic cold pressed coconut oil

Simmer them together on VERY low heat (1 or 2 on the stove) for a couple of hours.

Strain through a cheese cloth and pour into a glass cream jar.

You can then tie up your cheese cloth (with petals still inside) and use it for a luxurious bath.

These two ingredients make quite the dynamic duo ~  calendula brightens the skin (and man do we need that in winter!) and also carries powerful healing, anti aging gifts for the skin!

Coconut oil works as a wonderful, antioxidant-filled moisturizer. I once asked a woman I know (who began St.Francis Herb Farm)  what her secret was ~ her skin was incredible ~ she told me it was coconut oil!

I look forward to treating my face with this sunshine infused cream all throughout those dry, cold months!

***

I also wanted to make a calendula infused oil ~  a healing balm for chapped skin, wounds, burns,  cracked nipples, bruises, insect stings,  diaper rash, and eczema!

Again my goal was to keep it simple and simple this was.

Luna filled up a jar with our calendula flower heads and poured grape seed oil in until it reached the top.

Then we left it on a windowsill that is graced by sunlight and now will let that sunshine work it's magic!

In a month or so we will bottle this oil to be used it as the need arises ~ perhaps a gift for a new mama...

So many ways to enjoy calendula ~ fresh petals sprinkled on salads and sweets or dried and placed in a shaker for year round, in food for a saffron inspired flare, added to bath salts, blended with cornstarch for a silky baby powder, drying and stringing whole for decoration (apparently they hold their color and shape!) or to just plain admiring their beauty!

These plants love to be planted ~ they are prolific in the garden, re-seeding themselves and offering their lavish sunset blooms from spring to late fall.

What are some of your favorite ways to use flowers from your garden?

with love

~Shanti ~

Celebrating the Gardens Bounty Week! Feeling Mighty Peachy!

It's peach season here in Ontario.  The peaches are bountiful, juicy and abundant in our local grocery store.

While I don't grow my own peaches, I do try to support and buy any and all Ontario grown produce, and preserve and eat it in season!  Here's a fantastic way to preserve the freshness of these wonderful fruits...

Spicy Spreadable Peaches

5 cups pitted, peeled diced peaches

4 tart apples, think granny smith

1 can undiluted, frozen apple juice concentrate (thawed)

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp grated lemon peel

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

5 250ml mason jars or 10 125ml sized mason jars.

I LOVE seeing the colours and fruit sitting altogether at the beginning of the process!

Place all ingredients in a large, stainless steel pot and bring to a boil.  Boil gently for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally or until spread reaches desired thickness.  Pour into your prepared, steralized mason jars within 1/4 inch of rim.  Wipe your rims clean and put on the lids.  Place in a water bath canner for 10 min.

Put on a counter and leave them alone for 24 hours before moving them!

Yum!!!  A couple hours of canning and now we have a pantry full of peaches!!!

*this recipe comes from the Bernardin Home Preserving book...it is well worth the $$ to buy this book for yourself...it is like my bible come harvest time!

You could also make these in the smaller mason jars...the 125 ml size.  I find that those size are perfect for putting into a Christmas basket.  I make several different jams and spreads in the 125ml size, and pair it with a loaf of fresh baked bread.  What a delightful gift to receive on a cold winters night!

And, just to make your spreadable peaches a little sweeter...here are some awesome free printable lables from  How About Orange that I recently came across.  I think they're awesome and would just make your preserves look even more amazing!

I'd love to know what you're putting away in other parts of the world!

xo maureen

It's Celebrating The Garden Week... Rockin' Recipes For Cucumbers, Kale and Carrots!

The Harvest Has Begun...

This year we acquired our seeds from Terra Edibles ~  a Canadian seed company that sells organic, heirloom seeds. We have been very amazed by the beautiful, vibrant food we have been able to grow and enjoy!

Our Red Russian Kale ~ love the velvety tender leaves!

Wow! Shanti, you can make a ton of kale chips with all that Red Russian Kale! Thank you, magical beings, for having me here again to share some Feel Good Guru recipes! I love playing with food, I love eating, and I love sharing my kitchen chemistry! Shanti asked me to post some recipes for Kale, cucumbers and carrots, so featuring those crunchy, cleansing beauties from the earth, a few of my absolute fave summer fixin's:

Kale gets a bum rap. It’s an under-appreciated cruciferous that needs our help to elevate its status to the clean green lean superfood that it is. I think the reason people don’t like kale is because they’re trying to eat the rough leaves right off the stalk, raw, and that can be a little, er, too healthy-tasting. But there are easy ways to prepare kale to make it delish.
Kale is one of those superfoods available year round, and one that should not be ignored by health-minded peeps. It’s incredibly versatile, extremely nutrient-rich and low in calories. Yes! Yes! Yes! Kale contains cancer-fighting phyto-nutrients, tons of vitamins A and C, calcium and iron, and compounds that actually signal our body to produce more detoxification enzymes. So why not use kale at every opportunity we can? Yes?

I try and get my kale on regularly, in soups, salads, on its own marinated in a little olive oil and apple cider vinegar, “hidden” in bean and rice dishes, or…as kale chips! Crunchy and full of flavor, kale chips can take the place of your packaged dead potato chips. It’s a superfood that’s super simple to prepare:

Kale Chips the Feel Good Guru way

1 large bunch of leafy red kale
drizzle olive oil
sprinkle sea salt
sprinkle Nanami Togarashi (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Wash and completely dry kale.

Pull the woody stems from the leaves and break up into bite-sized pieces into a bowl.

Drizzle with a little olive oil. (Just a drizzle! Maybe only a tablespoon.) Sprinkle with a little sprinkle of fine sea salt. Sprinkle with a dash of Nanami Togarashi - (this is my favorite "secret" ingredient - it's a delicious, exotic blend of chilis, orange peel, black sesame and seaweed, and can be found at Japanese markets.) Massage ingredients into the kale leaves with your hands.

Place just one layer on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes. Pay attention because it happens fast. You’ll hear it sizzling away in the oven. Take them out when they’re nice and crunchy and slide easily from the cookie sheet.

You can sprinkle on a little nutritional yeast or a pinch of garlic powder, or use your own favorite spice combo for a tasty, crunchy bowlful of superfood nutrition everyone will love!

Thanks Moi for that great recipe...I must share that my girls devour a tray of kale chips in the blink of an eye. They are a huge hit in our home!

Our Purple Dragon Carrots ~ the girls love eating these sweet, almost spicy veggies!

 Shanti, you asked for a soup recipe here, but those Purple Dragons would make the most beautiful Raw Carrot~Walnut Pate! Here's how for a large batch that'll last a week in the fridge:

FGG's Raw Carrot~Walnut Pate

4 large garden carrots, grated (approx 4 cups, packed)
4 handfuls organic walnuts (approx 2 cups)
1 small red pepper, diced
2 Tbsp miso
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
fresh ground pepper to taste
2 sprigs fresh garden rosemary (or any other fresh-picked herbs)

Blend everything in a cuisinart until smooth. Form into a block on a plate and refrigerate for an hour before serving. You'll have extra, so just scoop into a bowl and reserve for another day. This goes great with endives as an elegant appetizer, makes a wonderful veggie dip, and spreads beautifully on crackers or bread.

Our Lemon Cucumbers ~  love their bright, crisp tenderness!

Mmm! Lemon cucumbers go so well in a tabouli! Here's my recipe for Lively Tabouli from Feel Good Fast:

Lively Tabouli
For 4:
2 bunches fresh organic parsley, chopped finely (about 2 cups chopped)
1 cup organic quinoa
1 cup cooked chickpeas (or 1 can, drained)
2 small cucumbers, diced
4 small organic tomatoes, diced
3 lemons, juiced
olive oil
sea salt to taste

Wash, rinse and soak chickpeas overnight (about half
a cup dried will yield one cup cooked). Cook chickpeas and set aside to cool.

Wash, rinse and cook quinoa. Set aside to cool.

Chop parsley and put it in a large mixing bowl.

Add diced cukes, diced tomato, chick peas, quinoa, lemon juice, a nice slather of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.

Taste and adjust to your liking. Serve with Raw Carrot~Walnut Pate and kale chips for a summer fresh, super-light, cleansing, feel good tastebud extravaganza!

***

 Bountiful Gratitude to the Fabulous Feel Good Guru! Thank you Moira  for joining us this week and offering your inspiration and gorgeous recipes.

How delicious the harvest is...
What are some of your favorite ways to enjoy the garden's bounty?

In gratitude
~ Shanti ~

It's Celebrating The Garden Week...Bodacius Beets, Beautiful Basil and Buddha Burgers!

Ah! Summer garden scrumptiousness! There is no better time of year to eat your veggies. Foods are at their peak nutrition the moment they pop out of the earth. You know it. You can taste the goodness dancing on your tongue. You can feel it singing through your bloodstream. Food is medicine, and summer veggies are beautifully healing. Much of the produce showing up right now at the farmers' markets and in our gardens can actually help lighten and brighten our energy by cleansing out the system, helping to get rid of toxins, and giving us a supercharged dose of immune-boosting phyto-nutrients. Eating with the seasons puts our bodies in sync with nature. Treat your beautiful belly to a bounty of healing veggies this season!

I'm Shanti's sister, Moira, and I'm honored to have been asked to share with you a few delicious summer recipes from my new e-book "Feel Good Fast ~ 21 Days the Feel Good Guru Way - your seasonal, plant-powered guide to a cleaner, greener, leaner lifestyle." I hope they inspire you to love yourself up with healing cuisine! From the heart~

 

Bodacious Beet Salad 

Just looking at a beet, we intuitively know it’s good for us, and because we eat with our eyes as much as our mouths, the glorious red beet is naturally attractive. In Chinese medicine, red is the colour associated with the heart. Beets are notoriously good for the blood ~ cleansing and nourishing. In Yogic tradition, red is the colour associated with the root chakra, where our deepest instincts of survival, grounding and stability are housed. Do your body a wonderful service and eat beets! This salad is simple and delicious. All you need in advance is some leftover millet on the stove (or brown rice, or quinoa, or bulgur).

2 large portions or 4 smaller:

2 small beets, grated

2 medium carrots, grated

one quarter English cucumber, diced

a small bundle of chives, finely chopped

a quarter red onion, finely diced

1 cup of cooked millet, brown rice, quinoa,

couscous or bulgur

small bunch of parsley, chopped

4 or 5 tablespoons of flax seed oil

juice of 1 lemon plus a teaspoon of grated

lemon rind

sea salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and top with toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds. Serve with garden greens.

It’s Pesto Season!

No - Oil Vegan Pesto

So many ways to make a pesto, so many ways to eat it! Traditionally you’d blend basil with olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese and toss it with pasta - easy-shmeasy.

This one’s a fresh green version with arugula and spinach, ripe avocado instead of olive oil and a generous blob of mild miso for a “cheesy” flavor. The avocado gives it a great creaminess that sticks to the noodles.

An awesome parmesan cheese replacement for plant-powered peeps is a blend of walnuts, nutritional yeast, and sea salt sprinkled over the whole thing.

Here’s how for 3 cups of pesto you can toss with penne noodles or any pasta, use as a delicious spread on toast, stir into rice for a creamy risotto or dollup into carved zucchini or cucumber rounds for an elegant raw h’ors d’oeuvre.

2 ripe avocados

1/2 pound of organic arugula

1/2 pound of organic spinach

1 small bunch of basil

1 small bunch of parsley

5 cloves of garlic

3 Tbsp mild white miso

1 cup of hemp seeds

Blend all ingredients except hemp seeds until creamy. Add hemp seeds and pulse. If you like it a little thinner, add a drop of water. For a little “zing” add a squeeze of lemon. For vegan “parmesan," pulse together about a cup of organic walnuts with half a cup of nutritional yeast and a tsp of Celtic sea salt. mmm

Garlic...

Is there a more perfect food on the planet? I don’t think so! Garlic could very well be the most super Superfood alive! It’s cleansing, detoxifying, and alkaline, can lower your blood pressure, can help stabilize your weight, can cut your risk of catching a cold or flu in half, and studies have shown that eating a clove a day could help prevent cancer.

I use garlic in literally every savory sauce,soup, dressing, stew, hot pot, pesto, or pie. I can’t remember the last time I had a flu...and there are no vampires lurking around my house;)

Buddha Burgers 

There’s nothing better on a warm summer evening than burgers on the barbie! Try making some with leftover beans and grains you have in the fridge or on your stove. Short grain brown rice makes a perfect base for burgers because it’s sticky, and beans, blended or mashed, make a great "glue." Any veggies you toss in are bonus nutrition, and a handful of nuts or seeds gives it all a fabulous crunch.

from scratch, makes a dozen:

Make a small pot of organic brown rice (maybe 2 cups or so) with extra water so the rice is sticky. (Usually it's 2 to 1, so go 2 and a half water to one portion rice.)

Cook a small pot of organic lentils (again, no more than 2 cups) in a separate pot, again, with more than enough water. You want them soft and wet.

In a cuisinart or blender, blend one block of medium-firm tofu.

In a large bowl, mix all the above ingredients.

Stir in a handful of organic rolled oats, a handful of sunflower seeds, a handful of sesame seeds.

Chop or grate one carrot, one celery stick, one onion into small dice. Toss them in and stir. By now, the texture should be dense and sticky enough to form into patties. If it's too runny, add more oats.

Now for the spice: you'll want some sea salt and pepper to taste, a little bit of dried sage (careful with this, it's a strong flavour), a sprinkle of thyme (again, a little goes a long way), a teaspoon or so of dried oregano and dried basil, and the secret ingredient - nutritional yeast. Add up to a cup of this. It's delicious, loaded with protein and vitamins, specifically B vitamins, and imparts a lovely cheesy flavour to the burgers.

Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Then form into patties and place on an oiled cookie tin. Bake at 300 for about 20 minutes, then flip them and bake 20 minutes longer. You can make these in advance, and keep them wrapped in twos in saran wrap in the fridge. Then they're ready to just quickly grill on the bbq, for that delicious smoky summer flavour. 

Serve with all the regular fixin's, and drizzle with my favorite tahini-garlic sauce. Yes! More garlic!

Tahini Garlic Sauce:

3 Tbsp tahini

2 large cloves garlic, chopped

3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp maple syrup or agave nectar

just enough water to create a creamy consistency

Blend all ingredients, adding water at the end to make a nice creamy consistency you can pour or drizzle. Taste and adjust flavours. I always like more garlic;) Keep in mind, though, it will get more garlicky in the fridge as it sits.

A BIG thank you to my very talented sister  Moira for sharing her delicious, fresh food creations. Moira is a fabulous, vegan chef and has been my inspiration in the kitchen many, many times over. I really enjoy the way her recipes are so perfectly balanced in flavor and always impress the taste buds. I have done one of her feel good fasts and she is bang on...I did feel good fast! I plan to dive into another of her  feel good fasts soon ~ one more way to take advantage of the garden's bounty while it is peaking out!

In the spirit of feeling good fast

~ Shanti ~