Computer Problems

Hi!
  I have been very busy composing new blog entries and a few tutorials, but recently that all came to a halt when my computer died. Unfortunately, my oven stove also died, (a very expensive replacement...), and I have switched to my Coleman camping stove for stove top cooking and my toaster oven/cast iron dutch oven for baking. This is likely to go on for some time since I have not found a stove I like or can afford at the moment. But I must prioritize and put the funds towards a stove replacement first...
  I have been very excited about all the things I am preparing to post here and I will continue to compose my posts and tutorials on paper, waiting for the opportunity to get back on the internet. I make periodic forays into Charlotte and can possibly post from the library while there. I will at least post updates to keep you informed about life at Heart's Ease Cottage. I will be missing you and hope to be back posting from home very soon! Until next time, Shalom! Elle

Resting

  Saturday morning is the best morning of my week. Our Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday, so Saturday morning is the one morning of the week when there is nothing on my "to do" list. I can lay in bed until noon if I like, but I seldom do since I don't want to miss a minute of this wonderful day!
  I actually plan for and work towards the Sabbath all week. There are things that I do Sunday through Friday that help me to have life ready for a down day. I have found that by accomplishing something every day towards Sabbath, I am  not only cutting down on the amount that must be done on Friday, but I am preparing my heart  as I work in anticipation of the day.
  Friday is Preparation Day, the day that allows my Sabbath to be peaceful and restful. I have planned, worked and shopped all week so that on Friday I can focus on baking, cooking and put the finishing touches on the house. At sundown Friday, all is ready for my day of rest.
  So here it is... Saturday morning. All the cares of life were checked at the door at sundown last night, they will be there to be dealt with at sundown on Saturday, but for a blissful 24 hours, we will have rest from the cares of this world. The world will of course, go on with it's hustle and bustle, "go here, get this done, take someone there..." , but here in my home we are insulated from the world, set apart. There is music playing on Pandora, I have written letters, played cards with my husband and  watched the birds at the feeder. I have food at the ready so whenever anyone one is hungry they can help themselves. We won't leave the house unless it is for a walk later in the day, so there will be no stress from swimming through traffic, or dealing with rude drivers. We won't be buying anything or conducting business. If the phone rings it will be screened. We will have time to think about pleasant things, time to rest and regenerate. We have an opportunity to meet with our Creator on the day that He established  from the very beginning for our own good ...the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath....
  To me, the Sabbath is the key to a simple life. In it I have time to see my life from a safe distance. I can decide what is important, I can let go of things that take my peace or stress me out. It is a time for getting out of the forest so you can see the trees. So whether or not you believe in keeping it for "religious" reasons, the principles of the Sabbath can work to your good and towards a simpler life. Why not try a day out of time? Work for six days and take the seventh off. Let your body and your mind have a day of rest and receive the benefits. Let me know how it goes!

Lots of Changes Going on at Hearts Ease Cottage

  Hi all! I am in the process of reworking this blog. I am still debating whether or not to keep it on Blogspot...  I have a large quantity of material to be posted that I have been working on for some time, but have hesitated to post it since I didn't know what I wanted to do about location... for now I am reworking this blog, keeping this blogspot address and creating a "mirror" blog on Wordpress.
  My objective for the blog remains the same. I want to talk about living a "simple" life, growing food, raising animals, baking, cooking, homeschooling, putting food by, pantry keeping and much, much more.We have spent more than 20 years homesteading on a very small piece of property. We have used edible landscaping and intensive garden techniques to help us find room for 10 kinds of fruit, medicinal and culinary herbs and to squeeze in 10 3' x 20' french intensive raised beds, we have two goat barns, a chicken house, and workshop, as well as flower gardens and outdoor "rooms" for enjoying the gardens, birds and butterflies, all on a one acre piece of property.
 It is my belief that even the smallest piece of land can be encouraged to grow delicious fruits and vegetables, to provide goodness for the table and health to the body from fresh air, sunshine and hard work.. It is possible, even in the smallest apartment in the city, to have a flourishing "kitchen" garden, with no dirt and very little sunshine required to grow food just bursting with nutrition. I want to share what we have learned over the last 20 years and illustrate that no matter where you live, you can add fresh home grown food to your diet and live a simple life based on hearth and home.
  Our personal lives have had lots of changes over the last few years. Our needs have changed as well. We are in a new stage of life. Both of our boys are grown and have moved to their own places We had very bad news about my husbands health, which caused us to make a big decision and move to Costa Rica for a time to fulfill part of a "bucket list". Our year living in Costa Rica was wonderful, rejuvenating and memorable, but it exacted a heavy price on our beloved homestead. We lost two lovely mature standard plums to a freak accident while we were gone and most of the beds and the herb gardens were overtaken with couching grass. We have spent the last year and a half reclaiming the gardens and reworking the homestead to meet our new needs. As of this moment, the vegetable gardens are in prime condition for planting. We are establishing a new garden for permanent beds of asparagus, artichokes, Goji, strawberries, and other perennial edibles.  We are laying new pathways, establishing a koi pond, and have planted 100 azalea bushes to add beauty to our place and to attract birds to nestle in their branches.
  Our present life circumstances may have changed some, but our dedication to a simple life and to creating a lovely bubble of sanity in this crazy world remain the same. I am in the process of developing curriculum for  classes, writing tutorials and possibly an e-book or two, to share with you this year. I am excited about the way things are taking shape both on the ground and in this blog. I hope that you will stop by and see what we're up to. And as always, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave a comment and tell us what you are doing to make yours a simple life.

We are Back!

Hi! We are back from our trip to Costa Rica and I am crazy busy working in the gardens. I am prepping some posts so there will be new blog posts pretty soon. I hope that you are enjoying time outside and making the most out of the warm weather. See you soon!

A Trip to Costa Rica

Well, it looks like I am going to Costa Rica for a few weeks! My husband and I will be staying with friends. We will be staying in the area where we lived in 2009-2010. I am very much looking forward to seeing our friends and spending time on the mountain!  I will have little access to a computer so it will probably be the end of May before I post again. I hope that you each have a lovely month and that you are well and happy! See you later! Pura Vida!!



Much Adieu About Mangos

When we lived on the farm in the mountains of Costa Rica, one of the many kind of fruit that grew on the farm was mango. To be more specific there were Mangas and Mangos...The mango is the male tree, the manga is the female. The mango tree produces quantities of small greenish yellow fruits that turn yellow orange when ripe. The manga is a much larger fruit full bodied and heavy. It starts out deep green and takes on a red blush as it matures. When completely ripe, the manga is mostly orangish yellow with spots of green and a beautiful red blush on one end. The trees are less prolific than the mango, but the fruit makes up for it in looks and taste!

On the farm there was a long lane that went from the farm house to the mountain top where we had our cabina, gardens and livestock. The lane was lined on the left with a small grove of manga trees and then at the mid point there was a dark deeply shaded area where the mature mango trees stood and cast their shade for some distance. During mango season the large mango trees would be filled with parrots of all sizes. When they made their circuit through the farm, the nomadic Howler monkeys would join them in the trees to feast on the small mangoes high up in the trees. The lane was the only passageway from the cabina to the farmhouse unless you wanted to try wading through the rain forest, but it was a messy, noisy passage if you happened to need to go under the mango trees while the parrots were eating their dinner! Pieces of mango, pits and poop, would rain from the trees. The cacophony of squawking parrots and howling monkeys could be heard all over the farm. It was something to behold!

Fortunately for us there were plenty of mangoes to go around and for some reason, neither the parrots nor the monkeys bothered the mangas.
Recently, I went to the local Harris Teeter grocery store. It tends to be on the high end as far as prices go but has great sales. I shop there for the sales, so this past week I went in for the store flyer so that I could plan my weeks "sale" shopping list. I saw large crates of mangoes stacked close to the door with the prices posted at 49 cents each. Normally the best price on mangoes is about $1 each so to get them for half that was a real deal! So I bought 20 of them and went happily home to work them up.
Not all of the mangoes were ripe enough to eat so they were set out in a bowl to decorate my counter with their multicolored loveliness until they were ready. I selected the ripe ones and put half of them out for eating, the rest I cut up and froze for future use.

I have discovered that the best way for me to get the fruit out of the skin is to stand it on its end and make a long slice close to the seed. Then I put the slice in my hand, mango skin to my palm and score a checker pattern through the fruit, without cutting through the skin underneath. Then I push the slice inside out and scrape the scored mango off the skin into a bowl. I repeat with the other side of the mango. This leaves a seed with some pulp on it and a small ring of skin and flesh around the outside of the seed. I take the small ring of skin off, squeeze the pulp off the skin into a separate freezer container and then strip the remaining pulp off the seed into the container as well. I then put the freezer container in the refrigerator's freezer and use it to add to smoothies. Since I stripped all the pulp from the seed and the skin there is very little wasted fruit. The seed and skin go in the compost bucket and the yummy mango pieces are eaten in a variety of ways. The simplest way is straight out of the bowl, (spoon optional...), but there are many other delicious ways to enjoy them.

This time I am preparing most of the mangoes for use as part of breakfast smoothies. I prepare them as I discussed previously only I place them on a freezer paper covered cookie sheet (glossy side up), with the juice and pulp I squeezed off the seed. Then I place the cookie sheet in the deep freeze for a couple of hours so that when I put them in the freezer bags they don't freeze into a solid mass that is difficult to work with at smoothie time. The individually frozen pieces can be taken out of the bag a handful at a time to be added to the blender with other frozen fruit. Add juice to make a frosty, thick, natural delight, that is great for breakfast starters or between meal snacks.

When the kids were small I used to take the same ingredients blend them up and pour the contents in the little popsicle forms, add a popsicle stick to each cup and freeze solid. With all fruit, no sugar, no artificial flavors or coloring, there was no reason the kids (and their friends...),couldn't help themselves to them whenever they wanted one, no permission needed.
For my birthday this past year my husband bought me an Excalibur dehydrator. I love it and use it all the time. Making fruit leathers is one of the really easy, tasty things that can be done with a dehydrator. So since the mangoes are plentiful right now I will be making some fruit leathers with mango. To make fruit leather you need a blender, a dehydrator and some silica sheets, (Excalibur sell a silica sheet that fits the trays in the dehydrator, other dehydrators have solid trays that serve the same purpose). Blend the fruit in the blender until smooth, then pour the blended fruit onto the sheet and spread out starting in the center and work to the edges. Try to distribute the mixture evenly so that the fruit leather dries uniformly. You can use a single fruit or a blend of different ones. Other things can be added, such as natural flavorings, spices, nuts or coconut. Just sprinkle on top of the fruit pulp after it is spread out on the sheet. Set the dehydrator on the temperature setting recommended by the dehydrator you are using and set the time for the minimum recommended. Keep a check on the progress as the leather starts to get tacky, so that you don't have crispy leathers. The finished product should be pliable but not sticky and should peel off the sheet in one piece. Be sure there are no wet places around the nuts or coconut if added. Once the correct consistency is achieved the fruit leather can be rolled into rolls lengthwise and then cut into desired lengths. I cut out pieces of plastic wax paper longer and wider than the fruit leather, lay the leather on the wax paper and then roll it up. Once in a roll I cut it to desired length and then wrap in plastic wrap. The wax paper keeps the fruit from sticking together and makes unrolling the leather to eat it easier, the plastic keeps it from drying out or sticking to other rolls. If you want to have rolls of fruit leather you can bite pieces off of, just skip the wax paper, roll the leather up in a tight roll and then wrap in plastic.

In Costa Rica, where they are as common as apples are in the USA, there are a great number of recipes for using mangoes in all stages of ripening. Green mangoes are used like apples to make pies, are seasoned with spices and cooked into chutneys, marinated in spices and vinegar to make pickles and more. Mango sorbet is also a healthful, delicious dessert, with no cooking and no sugar involved.
  Chose mangoes for fresh eating by gently squeezing them between your thumb and forefinger. If it feels hard to the touch, it is days away from ready. If there is a lot of give when you squeeze then it is probably past its prime but would be great for sorbet, mango bread, or smoothies. For eating as soon as you get it home from the store, the mango should give some when squeezed but not feel mushy, and have an overall orangey gold tone to the skin with a deeper red blush on one end. There will be a soft sweet mango aroma that is the final indication of a perfectly ripe mango. However you eat them, with a spoon in a bowl or peeled like a banana and eaten over the railing of the front porch, enjoy them and imagine the balmy breezes and pure rain that washes them as they are growing, maybe even add the sounds of parrots squawking and monkeys howling and you will have the worlds cheapest tropical vacation. Enjoy and don't forget the napkins!

Springtime at Heart's Ease Cottage

Springtime at Heart's Ease Cottage means thousands of azalea blooms, spring veggies in the garden, fruit blossoms, bluebirds, and the emergence of the bull frog from the front garden "frog pond". Here is a photographic Springtime stroll through the cottage gardens.

Violas and Lemon Thyme

Azaleas

Granny Smith Apple Blossoms



Espalier Apple Tree

Blueberry Blossoms

Russian Red Mustard

Garlic



This is our resident Bullfrog. He has lived in this little pond for many years.

I hope you enjoyed the walk and that you'll check back another day and see what we're up to! Until then, Shalom!