Have you ever taken an unplanned vacation? Just dropped everything and took off? Me neither. That’s what it feels like having left this blog behind though. Maybe vacation is the wrong word for it. Life got a little crazy. Amazing how a new little one can cause a hiccup in how things operate, isn’t it? And while I usually mean baby chicks, cats, dogs or the like, this time I mean a little person.
So what’s going on? How are you? What have you been up to?
I’ve been contemplating or maybe finally starting to feel like I’m in a place where I can start writing again. At first I wasn’t sure what I would write about. It’s been a while, so I kind of forgot how to do this writing thing. But as all good things seem to come for me, it’s usually by getting a sign. In this case it was a meme on Facebook that basically said “write”. So I thought about it and realized that, yeah, maybe now is a good time to get back to writing.
For the past 16 months I’ve been a full-time Mom to my baby girl and son (after he gets home from school). For a few months each spring I’ve also been teaching “Learn to Grow a Straw Bale Garden” classes in the Twin Cities metro and out state area at night. I’m wrapping up the teaching season now and simultaneously getting my own straw bale garden rolling for my 4th season, which I am very excited about!
I love gardening and love growing food in straw bales even more. With very few exceptions there aren’t many things I haven’t tried growing in my straw bales and pretty much everything has been amazingly abundant!
Another thing that has been abundant this year is rhubarb! It would probably be an understatement to say that I am a little obsessed about making things with rhubarb right now. My wonderful Mother baked a rhubarb pie for Mother’s Day and since then I’ve made Rhubarb Compote, rhubarb vanilla bean simple syrup and am trying my hand at Rhubodka with a twist: I added the rhubarb vanilla bean simple syrup with the rhubarb still in it (not strained yet), additional fresh rhubarb, a piece of vanilla bean and added a few strawberries.
I haven’t played around with infusing alcohol before so I’m pretty excited about it! One thing I know about it already is that it’s really hard to just look at it, give it a little shake each day and not sample it. Today is day 2. I can’t imagine it’s going to get any easier as time goes by and I have to wait a month!
Over the past year or two I’ve had a lot of fun experimenting with preserving fruits and veggies. Freezing, canning, jams (tomato vanilla bean is to die for), sauces, simple syrups, you name it. I plan on playing with dehydrating this season too.
My hope for this blog going forward is to share as many of my gardening/urban farming and food preservation experiments with you as I can. I’m excited to start writing again and hope you enjoy the adventures with me!
See you in the garden… (or kitchen).
Kate
Walnuts n Pears 