Even The Bees

I have been somewhat absent this week, but along with work, busy school and sports schedules, and hosting a birthday party, we have family in town visiting.  It  has been a week of very cool temperatures and almost constant overcast skies with drizzle.  Though it was not the best for outdoor activities we have managed to escape, stay busy and enjoy one another.

Today for the first time all week we have real sunshine.  Perfect for soccer if not for the 22 mph sustained winds, making for a blustery hour.  Despite the wind we are basking in the sunny 62 degrees, soaking up as much Vitamin D as possible.  Even the bees who have been cooped up all week and are not fond of gusty wind are out and about coming home with legs caked full of pollen.  Aaahchooo Ah Spring!

Unintended Perfection

For the last several years I have drooled over my blogging friends' posts of wild violet jelly.  These beautiful little flowers come and go quickly in early spring and I tend to be so busy gazing upon them and taking pictures that they are past their peak when I think about harvesting them.  This year I remembered to go out just in time. I sat in the middle of our large patch of these native beauties, and took pictures while I picked.

We have made jams and jellies for years and it is always a great experiment.  It seems that every time I use a recipe calling for pectin, no matter what the volume, the jellies never set up. Upon the suggestion of a friend last year I purchased River Cottage's Preserves Handbook.  I cannot recommend a better book for the home preserver.  The suggestion for pectin rich fruits to compliment the fruits, flowers, or herbs that are bring preserved is brilliant.  Every jam or jelly that I have done with these recipes have set up beautifully, with no added pectin.

Our wild violet adventure has been much the same.  I found from multiple sources the same basic recipe for violet jelly.  They all called for making a violet tea of sorts, then adding sugar, lemon juice and pectin and boiling for 10 minutes.  Alas, it was tasty, but a little too tart for our taste and it only partially set up.  Since I remembered to harvest flowers early enough this year, we were able to do a round two, and I went back to my tried and true River Cottage book. I much prefer the methods in this book and the flavor is absolutely beautiful, though for this medium it turned out as a lovely rich syrup, a perfect cordial, not jelly.  

Though I went in with the intent for jelly, I will stick to berries for that.  Our state flower seems destined to be the flavoring for homemade sodas, with or without a splash of vodka, and I am perfectly OK with unintended perfection.

Wild Violet Cordial

3.2 lbs apples, rough cut

6 C violets, rinsed & packed cups

Sugar (by volume, see below)

7 Tbsp. Apple cider vinegar

Place apples and violets in a sauce pan and just cover with water.  Bring to boil and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally.  Place mixture in straining bag and separate liquid (this takes 2-3 hours, we hang the straining bag over a bowl and for this volume re purpose our honey strainer, our jelly bags were too small).  Measure out your liquid and add it back to the saucepan with equal amounts of sugar.  For me this was 9 1/2 Cups.  Add the vinegar and boil until it reaches 220 F.  Skim any scum (the violets had virtually none), bottle & enjoy!

Five Years

It is hard to believe that five years ago on a very early spring day spent planning the garden, I jotted down a few notes about balance and set up a little space called Tilting at Windmills.  The time has flown and what began as a log of our garden turned into a space to record our journey into the simpler things.  Thank you to all who have taken and interest in and shared this space with me, I have met some wonderful people, many of whom I call friends. If you are new here, welcome!  I thought that there was no better time than an anniversary to link some favorite posts; the cribs notes version of this journey so far.  Happy Easter Weekend!

Our Story
The Tastebuds Do The Seven Deadly Sins
Don't Eat Yellow Snow 
The Bierock Bee
Industrialization vs. Extinction
Hello Mother
It's Whats For Dinner
The Bones That Hold Us Together
October Brings
If I Were..
Fall Wedding With A Tiny Footprint
Paradoxes and Dilemas
Chili, Pie, Tradition, Oh My!
Physiology of Taste and Tastebuds
Harvesting Honey (Part 1)
Mother Rooster
Evolution of the Gourd Lantern
#reverb10~ Moment

Thirteen

It is hard to believe that she is thirteen years old.  In the last year especially we have caught glimpses of the young adult that she is growing up, far too quickly, to be.  She is confident, active, witty, smart, sarcastic, thoughtful and caring to name a few.  We are oh so proud.  Our wish for her is that as she grows and changes, she continues to be true to herself.   She should place trust in her good sense and solid instincts to guide her while knowing that her forever sounding boards are just a room, text or phone call away and always ready to help. She will forever be our 'squid', and never too old to snuggle.

Curds and Whey

A few months ago we began to get milk delivered at home.  I found a good company that gets us whole milk from local dairies that is very minimally pasteurized, so as close to raw as we can easily get.  Many weeks we go through quite a bit and since I never seem to remember to log into their system and change my delivery, every few weeks we have a surplus. 

What do you do with this kind of surplus?  We began to experiment in cheese making.  I had heard that mozzarella is very easy and so we started with that and it is wonderful.  Last weekend we found ourselves with a milk abundance, and decided to make lasagna.  Always looking to try new things, I looked into different recipes for ricotta.  As it turned out it is even easier than the mozzarella and it is so amazingly good, that I have vowed never ever to get store bought again!

We have our Tastebuds dinner club on Saturday, then an egg hunt and light luncheon on Sunday and for both occasions we are looking at recipes that include ricotta.  I guess that I will have to remember to log in this week, I will need to order extra milk!!

Easy Amazing Ricotta

1/2 Gallon whole milk

2 C. heavy cream

1 tsp. coarse salt (I used Kosher)

6 Tbsp. lemon juice

Combine milk, cream, and salt in a saucepan and cook until it reaches 190 degrees.  Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and gently stir until well combined.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Strain through cheesecloth lined strainer over a bowl and let sit straining fro 1 hour, this separates the curds and whey.  Transfer to a container and refrigerate or use immediately.