Thinking Back on 2012

   Well, it has been way too long since I posted and I have no excuse except "life happens".... The year 2012 was a year of transition for my family, Heart's Ease Cottage, and me personally. I struggled with changes and chaffed at some of the new realities, I began eating a vegan /raw diet, lost 32 lbs., (only 15 of which I intended to lose...), and I have worked at becoming physically fit. I am learning to let go, I have searched for purpose, and reflected on my beliefs. I am exhausted... but by the end of the year I am able to say that I have survived this stage of the process and can honestly admit that 2012 was a good year. Just not one I want to repeat any time soon!
   One really good thing that happened in 2012 was I took my health back. I have struggled with Fibromyalgia for many years and it almost got the best of me this past Spring. In April I decided to change to a vegan diet, with the focus on consuming as much nutrient rich food as possible. My husband and I have juiced 20 lbs. of carrots and 10 pounds of leafy greens and other veggies every week since mid April. We are taking barley green and eating only fruit until lunch. The rest of the day we eat small meals of fruits and veggies, smoothies and vegetable juice. As the weather has gotten cooler, I have added some cooked food in the evening, to keep the inner fires burning. To this we have added more walking and hiking, on the average between 15-20 miles a week. We have spent a lot of time together, walking the various green ways as well as trails in state and national parks around North Carolina. I think the time together has helped about as much as the diet changes and exercise!  In the end our efforts have rendered good results. My pain is greatly reduced, I have lost weight, have lots of energy and overall I feel great. The hardest things to overcome were the fatigue and depression. The fatigue diminished early on, but the depression lingered and I struggled with it to the point of despair, but I think I am finally making some headway with that as well, (dealing with depression naturally is a slow process, but if given time is very effective). All in all I am happy with the results and plan to continue in 2013 with the vegan diet and spend lots of time outside with my husband working in the gardens, walking and hiking.

   Life around Heart's Ease Cottage has seen many changes as well. Our homestead has been in the process of changing to suit our present needs. Being empty nester's with less mouths to feed and a  vegan diet, our food storage needs have shifted. There is a much greater demand for fresh food from the garden and no need for livestock for meat and milk, or for chickens for poultry and eggs. So the barns are being converted for other functions, and we are increasing our garden square footage. My husband has spent the year dressing up and refining our present garden space and we have successfully kept the garden producing through 4 seasons. All around the homestead 2012 was spent cleaning, clearing, organizing, re-purposing, renovating and updating. Some improvements we planned for our house in 1989,  that were way laid by Hurricane Hugo, are now almost 24 years later, coming to pass. My dear husband worked tirelessly this past year to earn the funds for a bathroom remodel and to make our defunct coal burning fireplace into a functional location for a 1890's wood burning stove. Both projects should be done early this year. I will make a separate blog entry for each of those projects in coming days.
   One of my hopes for this year is to make blogging a priority. I have been photographing many homesteading projects as they were in process; with the intention of writing tutorials, so I have a lot of blog posts in the que to share with you in the near future.
      As a final note, I will be posting photos of each season over the next few blog entries as a photo retrospective of what has been going on in 2012 at Heart's Ease Cottage. For today here is Spring 2012!

                         Our Azaleas gave us quite a show this year!

         We planted these azaleas as 1 gallon pots 20 years ago...

Our little cottage and our 1957 camper are in the background.

One of my favorite Spring ground covers also has medicinal uses, Vinca Minor, commonly known as Periwinkle, enhances memory when the plant matter is infused as a tea. It also helps with diabetes, is used in cough medicine and when applied to a cut will stop bleeding. In future posts I will be talking about the medicinal properties of common plants and yard weeds.

Fava Beans and Jersey Wakefield cabbages grow together in a spring garden bed. Fava beans are winter hardy and fix nitrogen on their root so we use their mature beans to make tasty Egyptian falafel and the plants as a green manure and winter ground cover.

Here is a close up of the maturing Fava beans. When the pods are ready the beans are 6-8 inches long and thicker around than your thumb. The bean seeds are larger than a Lima bean and can be used fresh or allowed to dry in the pod for storage.

A maturing Jersey Wakefield cabbage. Their conical heads resist splitting and weigh in at 5-6 pounds at maturity. We plant them in August for an October harvest and again in November for an early spring harvest. This cabbage is very cold tolerant, it may grow slower during the deepest cold, but will head up rapidly as  the weather warms up.

These are Detroit Red beets. We grow them year round for their tops and tubers. They tolerate heat without bolting and add lots of good nutrients to our veggie juice, in salads and of course, they make wonderful pickled beets when harvested about the size of a ping pong or golf ball and pickled with cider vinegar, cloves, bay leaf, mustard seed, and allspice.

We start our vegetables, herbs and flowers inside under lights. One 6 foot tall by 4 foot long shelving unit with two banks of florescent shop lights per shelf will hold 6-8 seed flats at a time. We set the shelves up in the early fall and it is in full production until we set out the eggplants, peppers and tomatoes in late April/early May.

Black Seeded Simpson and Lolla Rossa lettuces are good choices for an early spring cutting lettuce. We also grow a mixed variety of "cut and come again" lettuces and salad greens, Cos Romaine and Butter Crunch head lettuce, as well as Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach, and green bunching onions as early spring fare. Later, we will plant Oakleaf lettuce when the weather starts to warm up, since it is more heat tolerant than others.

I hope you are all enjoying the joys of a new year! See you soon!
                                            Elle

                                       

It Is Spring After All

Misty morning at a nearby pasture.

  I have many things that I want to write about, the last part of my pantry keeping post, tips on how to get the most out of your grocery money, but today I just want to talk about how beautiful it is outside. This morning it was frosty and cold,  a mist rose from the grass when the sun hit it and the birds sprang to song as the morning light hit the trees. As I stood outside with the dog, he sniffed at the air, seemingly as distracted by the the awakening world as I was. It was going to be a lovely day.

  Today is Wednesday, so I have the house to myself. My son is at work, and my husband works in the office on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Since I was on my own a took the opportunity to do some things I don't often get to when others are home. I worked on my blog, prepared letters for mailing, and walked around the yard with my camera to catch the garden in it's p.j.'s. The tender leafed veggies always look their crispy best before the sun is warm and strong, so I strolled out and caught the pale early morning sunlight as it streamed through the espaliered fruit trees and struck the tips of the Russian red mustard.

I then made my way around the garden taking pictures of the progress of the  veggies we planted in the fall. Normally, we plant in August/ September for a November/ December harvest and let some of the beds rest the last of the deep cold is gone, the remaining beds will be tucked in with hoop houses and planted with veggies that don't mind some cold. This year, winter arrived early and we never got a fall harvest. The temps. stayed cold enough that the vegetables all decided to hunker down for the winter and waited for the warmer weather of early Spring to arrive before putting on growth. Now we have cabbages heading up, red mustard furling their large deeply crinkled leaves, and fava beans putting on masses of purple and white blossoms. The garlic is looking good with thick sturdy stems and the red and green romaine is ready to go to the salad bowl.

Jersey Wakefield Cabbages begin to head up.

Fava bean flowers

  Once the sun was up and the chill burned out of the air, I stood barefoot at the potting table and planted seeds for some of our warm weather vegetables. The cat came to see what she could help with and had to be dismissed when she almost pushed a watering can full diluted fish emulsion off the deck rail. She went off in a huff to sulk under the rose arbor, her tail twitching to show her displeasure. Today I started yellow pear tomatoes, artichokes, spinach and bell peppers. I fed the flats of Neon and Bright Lights swiss chard, and Detroit Beets. They are ready to go in the ground when I get a few minutes to pop them in. The breeze is blowing and the air is just cool enough to be refreshing. It reminds me of mornings on our mountain in Costa Rica.
   Several projects will demand my attention tomorrow, but for today I am going to enjoy a day without rain and play outside. Tomorrow it is back to work, it is spring after all and there is much to be done!