Shopping Local For the Holidays

Home Grown and Home Made for the Holiday Season

With the increasing growth in local Farmer's markets it is becoming easier to purchase just about everything that you need for your Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinners. Sault Ste Marie's farmers market has an abundant supply of products that are guaranteed to be fresh and grown within 50 miles. The outdoor market will still be going for a few more weeks and that is where you can pick up the best free range turkey you could ever have from the Dutcher's, or a ham from Love's meats. Not into ham and turkey ? There is really awesome whitefish caught locally in  Lake Superior by the  Parish family.

If you prefer to have someone else cook your whitefish for you then Willabee's in Brimley is the place to go,

Parish's whitefish is served here ,owned by a local family promoting local foods.

Maurit's potatoes, Nancy's garlic, Bargy's fruit , Hinton's vegies and Flatt's greenhouse with their tomatoes should be able to provide ingredients for the side dishes. Beaver Meadow Creek Farms has a variety of produce and maybe you could even purchase a C.S.A , that would make a really great Christmas gift this holiday season, the gift that keeps on giving ! Don't forget that squash .. tastes good and good for you , maybe change up your pumpkin pie and use a Lakota squash instead ? And don't forget the bread, you can get that too ! Fresh and home made.

                                                            Josh's Home made breads

                                                                Sue's Bread Creations
Robin's eggs, Timmer's maple syrup, Bliss Hill Farm with their homemade jams and Blooming Acres jams ,all quality foods to start your day with.

                                                              Desert ? No Problem !

Local hand made items can also be found at the farmers market for your Holiday gift giving.  Bliss Hill makes  beautiful rag rugs, J&S crafts has knitted items , a grandmother & grandaughter team have crocheted dish cloths and scrubbies, scarves and crocheted beaded bracelets, Teri and Phil have hand crafted notebooks and dried herbs, Anny Hubbard has paintings and jewelry. Bonnie at Wind Dance Farms does the most amazing felted farm animals, birds, flowers and has wool rovings too, all from her sheep, Bloomin' Acres makes wreaths, Loyd 's woodworks provides hand made bird houses, bat houses and cabinets. Soap gift sets and Horse shoe decorations are also here.

      

These are just a few items that can be found at our farmer's market. Each counties market is unique in it's own way of providing local goods to it's community, what local treasures does your market have ?

Buying local helps to cut down on fossil fuels because the products that you buy do not have to be trucked in from hundreds of miles away, keeps small family farms from becoming extinct, the dollars stay in the community, and most important of all,  fresh harvests will have more nutritional quality because they have not spent weeks in storage before they reach your families table.

ALSO ! The only place to shop where everything is AMERICAN MADE !!!

To find a farmer's market in your area visit http://www.localharvest.com/

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
                                                                  

Seed saving with Lakota squash

The fall harvest time is here and with that alot of seed cleaning. The Lakota squash has been being harvested for awhile now. It seems like only a few weeks ago we thought this time would never come soon enough to be able to use these wonderful treasures to make our favorite soup again. No matter how much we put away for winter we always end up running out by March or April.

                                The Lakota was voted "Best tasting" squash in the U.P. !

The Lakota will store well through the winter if it is kept in a cool dry location. We like to bring one out to bake with dinner, then use the left over squash for squash soup or muffins.

Lakota  Cucurbita maxima
This is a hubbard type squash that grows to about 7-8 lbs. and will normally have 3-5 squash per plant. It does very well in Northern climates where many other squash have a hard time reaching maturity.

When saving seeds it is important that the squash plants have been isolated from other types of squash to prevent cross-pollination with an isolation distance of at least 1/2 mile ,this is the only way to insure that the seeds that are saved will be true to this variety of squash and not create a hybrid. It is also important to save seeds from the squash of at least 24 plants.

First cut your squash from the vine leaving about 3-4 inches of the vine attached. Let it set for about three weeks. A light frost is benneficial but not a hard freeze that would damage the squash and create a way for mold to set in. I usually will harvest the squash as it is ready and lay them out on skids so that they are not laying on the damp ground, if it looks as though it will freeze at night then it's easy to just cover them up with a tarp or blanket, then take it back off during the day.

    

Because of it's hard shell and size sometimes this squash is not so easy to cut open. A safer way to break open this squash would be to wrap it in a clean sheet and then just drop a large brick on it, or maybe a sledge hammer ?

                                                                   
                                              Thank you to my boys for their help with this !

After you get it open just scoop out all of the seeds.

                                                 Place them in a strainer and rinse, rubbing the seeds
                                         around the bowl as the water runs over them will help to
                                         remove the pulp.

                                                                 

 

                                           Lay the seeds out on a tray covered with wax paper
                                          to dry in a well ventilated area. Be sure that the seeds have
                                          space between them. Check them every few days to be
                                          sure they are drying , I usually turn them over a few times
                                          during the drying process. This usually takes a few weeks,
                                          depending on the humidity in the air. To check to see if the
                                          seeds are ready to be stored, bend a seed in half, if it snaps
                                          then it can be stored, if the seed bends then it needs to dry
                                          a while longer. Storing seeds in paper envelopes placed in
                                          glass jars is the best way to store your seeds. No Plastic !

 Well I hope his helps you to start saving your own seeds. Why bother you ask ? Seed saving helps to provide our own self-sufficiency and ensures that we will have a means of providing quality food for our families and community. By saving seeds from heirloom crops you are helping to preserve old heirlooms that are endangered of becoming extinct... and extinction is forever.
                                    Nutritional Quality~Crop Diversity~Food Security
                                         
                                               
                                                                         
                                                      


                                               

They said I need to blog

O.k. , this is my first official blog. My family and friends all keep telling me that I need to start blogging. I'm trying to figure out where I would actually find the time, and writers block plagues me as soon as I hit the keyboards. When I'm out in the field working, planting , weeding, or braiding the horses tails,  making soap, painting horse shoes or beading, I can write it all out so easily. Then when I get to the computer I find that it all had been left out side, virtually not physically of course. My mom has a very good remedy to that situation,(she always does), bring a note pad to write everything down then blog it out later, great idea but it is not unusual for me to be out working in any weather, rain or snow. If I only had my own little secretary to write things down as I babbled along , but then they more than likely would just be asked to help pull weeds, or something.
Well today has turned out to be pretty miserable out there , sleet and very high winds so here I am attempting to make a go of this.  I will do my best and who knows ?!
Anyway, most of what I'll rattle on about will be about seed saving, gardening , better quality food choices and body care products. Local foods and of course the big G.M.O. issue.
Oh Oh there she goes on the G.M.O's, now I'm thinking that maybe there is not enough room on this page =). Will be back soon.    Yellowhorsewoman

p.s. thank you to my family cammopants for being such an inspiration, check out her blog "a journey to a thousand tomarrows" she's awesome !