Gaia Luna Video Tour: January Thaw

Gem the cat and I would like you to join us on our first ever video tour of Gaia Luna Garden.

We've chosen a pleasant day during our January thaw to make for easy walking.  You'll see where we're starting the year. And in future videos you'll be able to watch how it grows.

Even in this cold time of long darknesses, we know we've turned the corner of the seasons, and we're heading back toward Spring!

(c)2013 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing

ECO ACTION: Sprouts

When I saw this morning that Colin Beavan had mentioned sprouting on his No Impact Man blog as an easy way to start growing your own food, I just had to join the fun.

This quart jar of sprouts was started last Wednesday with 1 Tbs each organic radish, red clover, and alfalfa seeds, rinsed and drained twice a day morning and evening each day since.

In this picture are the sprouts remaining, and continuing to grow, after I've already enjoyed several servings atop salads and on sandwiches.

Growing my own sprouts is a two-fold environmental act.

First, I'm avoiding the environmental costs associated with grocery store packaging, storage and transportation.

At the same time, I'm returning the means of production to the hands of the people (well, this one person) while becoming more engaged with and aware of where my food comes from--actual living, growing things. This, for me, has value for both body and spirit.

If I were to buy sprouts at the grocery store they would be packaged in a one-time-use plastic carton which required energy to make and would require additional energy to recycle. My glass jar may have been more energy intensive to produce, but it is essentially infinitely reusable. Grocery store sprouts are started off site, transported to the store, refrigerated and misted until purchase, transported home, then must be refrigerated until they're used up. Because they're sold at peak growth, they have a shorter useful life for the consumer. When I've bought grocery store sprouts I rarely use them up before they start to get slimy.

Today, this tiny forest in a jar is sitting on an old wooden trunk by a south-facing window in our kitchen, while heavy snow falls outside.

It is a reminder that spring is just around the corner, a reminder of the force to grow contained within all living things, including myself.

(c)2010 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing

BREAD: Project Sourdough~Basic Recipe

Some people have plants in their offices. In my studio, today, I have a living ball of sourdough on a slow rise to keep me company.

BASIC SOURDOUGH BREAD

INGREDIENTS:

2 c active sourdough starter* (wild yeasts, all purpose flour, water)

1 Tbs olive oil

1 tsp salt

2 c bread flour.

That's it! Following usual bread making methods: stir, knead, rise, punch down, rest, form, rise, bake, EAT.

This little ball-o-dough will be 6-8 oval sourdough sandwich rolls before the day is done.

No matter how much I have to do during the day, the slow rising of dough is a calming ostinato played in mellow tones on a double bass. The smell of the yeast and flour says "home" and "sustenance" to my soul. The whole process is a sort of working meditation.

The picture above was not staged, except to pull back the damp towel from the top of the bowl. This is what the work surface just inside my studio door often looks like. That is, when it's not covered with piles of papers.

CHALLENGE: In the picture, see if you can find [clockwise from L]: a computer speaker, a Kleenex box (my students don't use handkerchiefs like I do), a paintbrush, a pottery bowl, a sumi-e board, a box of 96 crayons, a pink pearl eraser, an unfolded paper clip, a few remaining Hard Rock Cafe promo stickers, a 4x normal size larynx model, hand sanitizer, a pile of 3x5 cards, a 3-hole punch, a file cabinet, 3 packets of tiny star & smilie stickers, a zip-lock bag full of misc stuff & pile of papers to be sorted.

In the hour since I took the picture, the dough has nearly risen to the top of the bowl. Soon, I'll form the rolls and leave them to rise while I lessons. Baked in time for dinner.

*My sourdough starter has been in our family for 60-70 years, when it was passed along to my father's brother by an very old man, one of the original homesteaders in Idaho. Follow the link to directions for making your own.

Story Written on a Linen Dinner Napkin

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays, however you celebrate them! Today I'm ironing a half-dozen linen dinner napkins in preparation for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. I found them for just a few dollars at a tag sale this past summer. Belonged to the mother of a local artist who never used them. And they have a fancy letter "P" embroidered on them. A serendipitous find! We've been using them for all our special occasions since. No disposables. I don't mind ironing these. Have been doing a lot more things by hand this past year in order to reduce my environmental impact: hand washing dishes, hanging laundry up to dry, and continuing to cook more and more from scratch. These activities provide valuable time for reflection. They slow the fast spinning wheel of life. And I love second hand things. They come with stories. These napkins were likely a wedding present given with love by a caring relative, used at many festive family gatherings. These are the happy stories I imagine, and hope will join others we write for ourselves in the coming years. May all your stories be happy ones in 2010 and beyond! Peace! Kay Pere (c)2009 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing

INTENTION: Mid-Winter Stirrings

The snow is falling outside today.

Inside I've taking steps to plant the things I'd like to see begin to grow this Spring.  Nothing particularly exciting, really.  Like the first unseen stirrings of seeds and sap beneath the frozen earth, the actions I've taken are mundane though crucial to what I hope will follow.

Yesterday, I installed Adobe Photoshop 7.0 on my iMac--my primary computer now--and began doing graphics work there instead of on my old Mac laptop.  

The addition of a title image (header) at the top of this blog is one result.  The other is a similar new header on my Sound Krayons Music blog.  

[In the past, I've only had an early version of Photoshop installed on my old Mac laptop.  It was cumbersome to edit images there then move them over to the new Mac for use on the web and in documents.  This upgrade opens up new creative and business possibilities, things I've been hoping to do for a long time.  The old Mac is too old to connect easily with the internet.]

Then today, I successfully transferred a song file for the first time from MOTU Performer on my old Mac to Digital Performer (DP) on my iMac.

[Again, I'd done all my MIDI work in the past on the old Mac without the benefit of digital audio available in DP.  After some trial and error, I was able to move the files from the old Mac by doing a "Save As" MIDI to a flash drive first, then opening in DP on the iMac and doing a "Save As" a DP file to the desktop did the trick.]

Blah, blah, blah technical stuff...

Like the big bale of seed starting mix I bought yesterday and hauled from the car to barn this morning, now I'll need to move all my old graphics and Performer files from one computer to another before I can use them in this new environment.

This sort of thing--to my mind--is the dry, lifeless part of the creative process.

I get discouraged because this part of the process seems to come so slowly.  I thought to myself, yesterday, as I scooped buckets of compressed potting soil from the bale and dumped them into an empty trash can: 

Are this year's flower and vegetable seeds planted and growing yet?  No.  

Are the recycled pots from last year cleaned and ready to set in the sunny spot?  No.  

Do I have everything I need to get things going?  No.

But today I have made one very small dent in a very long process.

One small bucketful at a time.  Peat moss fibers flying in the air landing on my skin, smelling fresh earth for the first time since last fall.  These are the tangible promises of things to come.

No guarantee that weather or pests or health will cooperate in the months ahead, but on this one day for this short time I've done my part.

Similarly, there is no guarantee that I'll reach my distant creative goals, but on this one day for this short time I've done my part.

With these small, unglamorous efforts--work on my computers solving one small problem at a time, repetitive work to prepare for planting--the things I visualize creating and sharing will have some chance to flourish.

One small bucketful at a time.

(c)2009 Kay Pere ~ Effusive Muse Publishing

Groundhog Day (aka St. Bridget's Day or Imbolc)

In honor of Groundhog Day--the day midway between the first day of Winter and the first day of Spring--I visited the garden center and purchased a bale of seed starting mix (special potting soil) along with a bunch of peat pots.  

Then I went out to the barn, brought in all the plastic pots and aluminum trays I'd saved from past years, and took them down to the basement until they can be washed and sanitized for reuse.

I've already moved furniture to clear a sunny spot indoors for starting the seasons first seeds.

Winter cannot last forever.

Can spring be far behind?

There's snow on the ground and temperatures rarely rise above freezing, but yesterday I saw a lone robin rooting around in a barren flower bed and a newly hung sign in town announcing little league sign-ups.

2009 Intentions

Things that are calling to me for 2009, in no particular order:

• learn to bake bagels
• record the next CD
• finish the garden fence and arbor
• plant lots of flowers and veggies, and enjoy them
• get a first draft of the writing project done
• be healthy
• bake lots of bread and desserts (not mutually exclusive with the previous item)
• have adventures
• sit and do nothing more
• sing and play
• make stuff
• read
• listen
• digest
• live in gratitude
• love and do good where I can
• love and let go where I can't
• breath

More:

• continue to reduce my ecological footprint through ECO ACTIONS

Little New Year's Things 2009

Happy New Year to all!

Here are a few ways I've marked the ringing out of the old year, ringing in of the new:

• In anticipation of Spring, the first seed catalogs began to arrive on Tuesday.  I've started marking things I'd like to grow this year.
• A blanket of snow wrapped up the end of 2008, falling all day.  We worked together to keep the woodstove going.
• Baked apple brownies and oatmeal raisin cookies while the snow fell
• Continued with the studio reorganization
• Took time to reflection together about the best parts of 2008 and things to look forward to in 2009
• Celebrated with a toast of locally grown sparkling cider and a SciFi movie night at home

Time Between Years

Each year for the past several I've taken the week between Christmas and New Years to dive into the process of cleaning and reorganizing my studio, and other parts of the house, with an eye toward what I envision accomplishing in the coming year.

It's always a time of reflection, a shifting of energy from past ways of being and doing toward ways that are a better fit for where the new year finds me and where I hope it will take me.

This is one of the few times of year when I don't have music students coming and going on a daily basis, or weekly rehearsals in our home with the 20 or more kids in our ensemble.  I'm able to shift my focus from helping others define and achieve their goals toward looking at and working toward my own, without distractions.

It's always a relaxed, playful and intense time.

Here are some of the results from previous years:

Little New Year's Things - JAN 2006

Time Between Years - DEC 2006

Don't know what I did between Christmas and New Years last year at this time (12/07-1/08). Maybe I'll dig back and see if I can figure that out.

This past year has been a bit of a bumpy ride, with the bumpy bits that I hope will not repeat in the year ahead, or any other for that matter.  4 months of less than optimal health, plus another encounter with the darker side of the human condition, are things to be left in the past, if at all possible.

We don't always get to choose what happens to us, but we can choose to continue making plans and working to make them real.  I'm actively choosing to move forward into the coming year, making my plans based on the likely assumption that these difficult things won't repeat in 2009.

And even if they do, or some other challenges come along, well ... here I am anyway.  And here are the ones I love and the life we have together.

Here's to making life simpler.  

Here's to enjoying what is.

Started last night disassembling all the recording and audio equipment in my studio, to be simplified and rearranged.

I've removed the things I no longer use (maybe never used) and the things that have worn out or broken from frequent use (an old amplifier, a CD changer/player and a cassette tape deck), and have  begun to arrange the few things needed for my new set up in a way that will make for easier work flow.  And maybe some actual recordings.

Between each thing that gets moved or removed there's pausing, looking, thinking, wiping up dust and grime, imagining whether this is the best way.  

It's hard work to rearrange.

I'm trying to keep in mind that "good enough" and done is far better than the perpetual struggle for an ideal "best" that's forever incomplete.  (Same goes for the editing/re-editing of this blog post.)

Now, back to it.  

Powering down.  Disconnecting.

Reconnecting in a new way.  Powering back up again.

RECIPE: Boston Baked Beans-LESS SODIUM

This is a new original recipe from Kay's Kreative Kitchen.*  (Also made the pottery bowl and the bread in the photo by hand, but not today.)

I cooked this for lunch today, putting the pot of beans in the oven (Step #4 below) first thing this morning (Steps #1-3 prepared last night).  

The house smelled wonderful while I boxed up belated Christmas presents to send to family living on the other side of the US.  I removed the cover from the pot in the oven (Step #5) before heading out to the post office.  The baked beans were ready to eat when I got back.

Served along with some homemade sourdough bread, baked yesterday, this made a hardy lunch.  Comfort food for a gray winter day.

INGREDIENTS
1-2 lb Small Red Beans, Dry (or Navy Beans)
1/2 lb Low Sodium Bacon (1/4 inch dice with kitchen shears)
1/2 cup Dark Molasses
1/2 cup Maple Syrup
1 cup Hot Water
1 Tbs Cider Vinegar
1/8 cup Dried Chopped Onion
1 tsp Dry Mustard
1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/8 tsp Ground Cloves

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Quick soak beans. (Cover with water equal to 3 times volume of beans. Boil 3 minutes, remove from heat and allow to soak 1 hour.) Drain and rinse. (Quick soaking, draining and rinsing reduces the amount of indigestible starch in the beans, thereby reducing those well known after effects that give beans such a bad reputation.) Replace water and cook until tender, 1-1 ½ hrs. Can be done a day ahead.

2) In a bowl, stir together: molasses, maple syrup, water, vinegar, onion, mustard, brown sugar, salt and spices. Can refrigerate overnight to blend flavors and hydrate dried onions.

3) Layer beans and bacon in 4-quart or larger, oven safe cooking pot, in 3 layers ending with bacon on top. Pour liquid mixture over layers. Add enough hot water to just reach top of beans.

4) Cover and bake 4 hours in 300F oven, or 6-8 hours at 250F, until beans are tender. Add water as needed to keep moist. Stir only once or twice.

5) Uncover last 30 minutes of cooking to brown. If excess liquid remains, cook uncovered until boiled away.

*Though the primary ingredients and methods in this recipe were combined from several sources, my own original twists include: small red beans substituted for navy beans, low sodium bacon in place of salt pork, half the amount of salt called for in other recipes, dried onions instead of fresh chopped, replacing half the volume of molasses in other recipes with maple syrup, and a hint of ground cloves.

COST:  Less than $0.50 USD per serving.  Haven't figured it out exactly.

CREATIVE OATMEAL: other things to think about #2

[free or nearly-free happy things]

Perhaps not the most exciting subject, but a favorite breakfast for cold weather.  And it provides many options.

Here's my recipe.  It makes about 6 servings.  I eat one immediately and refrigerate the remainder to reheat on subsequent days.

Basic:

• 2 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (slow cooking)
• 4-5 cups Water
• 1/4 tsp Salt (adds approx. 100 mg sodium per serving)

Bring to a boil.  Cook about 5 minutes over medium heat or until thickened.  Stir occasionally.

Additions:

• Dried Fruit, chopped (If you want them plumped, add at the beginning of cooking with oats.)
• Frozen Fruit, thawed while cooking
• Nuts, chopped (If you want them crunchy, add at the end of cooking.)
• Flavorings:  cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, cloves ... use your imagination
• Sweeteners:  brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, molasses, jam, fruit juice

Once it's served up on a bowl, I also pour on a little soymilk to make complete proteins.  (legumes + whole grains)

Cost:

• 15 cup container uncooked Store Brand Rolled Oats = $1.75 US (on sale)
  
• 3 Servings per cup (with additions)
  
• $1.75 US for 45 servings per container
  
• $0.04 US per serving + cost of optional additions and soymilk!
  

Time:

• 10-15 minutes once a week to cook 6 days worth of servings.  
• 2 minutes once a week to packaging in a resealable container for the frig
• 2 minutes each day doing other things while the microwave reheats (stir in a little water to thin)
  
• 1 minute once a week to scrub out the pan (if I don't remember to let it soak it takes longer)
• less than 1 minute once a week to wash the resealable container

Favorite Creative Addition Combos:

• chopped dried apples, brown sugar or maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla, chopped walnuts
• chopped dates, chopped pecans, cinnamon, vanilla
• chopped dried apricots, honey, slivered almonds, almond extract (tiny amount)
• frozen blueberries, maple syrup
• frozen raspberries, honey
• strawberry jam, almonds
• blond raisins, pecans, cinnamon, vanilla, maple syrup

Yum!  Now you can tell someone they are as interesting as oatmeal and mean it as a compliment.

And Mom was right.  It does "stick to your ribs."

Root Cellaring - First Effort

This fall I began reading up on storing fruits and vegetables without refrigeration in a root cellar. Books from the library provided the information.

I had originally thought the basement stairs coming down from outside would be a good place to make a root cellar, but that turned out to be unworkable. As soon as outdoor temperatures dropped below freezing, so did the temps in the stairwell, making it unusable for fresh food storage without some major modifications.

The rest of our unheated basement turned out to be ideal. The old section, where the furnace is, stays about 45-55 F in the winter. The newer section is cooler; it never rises above the low 40s. I took temperature and humidity readings to verify all this. The books recommended slightly lower temperatures for some things, to prolong storage, but I've had no problems.

Since October, here are a few of the fruits and veggies I've stored successfully without refrigeration.

In th new section of basement 40F storage:

- 20 lbs of winesap apples: wrapped individually in waxed paper to prevent moisture loss. I layered these in a ventilated box that had once been used to ship citrus fruit, a sheet of cardboard between each layer with space around the edges to allow air circulation inside the box. A pan of water was kept nearby to boost humidity. We picked the apples in early October from a pick-your-own orchard. After 5 months of fresh eating and cooking, 8 apples remain, all in very good shape.

- 40 lbs of grapefruit and 20 lbs of naval oranges, kept in the ventilated cardboard boxes they came in. These were from a school fundraiser. We picked up our fruit from the school at the beginning of December, and just finished the last grapefruit about 2 weeks ago. That's about 2 1/2 months of storage with none lost to spoilage or drying out. There are about 10 oranges remaining, all in good condition except one that had begun to shrivel. The citrus was stored on the same table as the apples.

When all the citrus fruit and apples have been eaten, the boxes will be saved for storing next year's winter fruits and veggies.

In the old section of basement 45-55F storage
(temps depend on distance from the furnace):

- 4 large butternut squash: One of the books I read suggested that the winter squash stored in the basement near the furnace lasted longer because of slightly warmer and dryer conditions. I bought these butternut squash from a farmer's field in early October at a good per pound price. We have eaten two so far, prepared in a variety of dishes: steamed, roasted, cooked with black beans and onion, and made into soup. The flavor seems to be sweetening with storage. The remaining two are just as sound as when they were brought home, 5 months ago. This coming summer I plan to grow my own winter squash, knowing that I can keep them and use them until the following spring.

- 10 lbs russet potatoes: purchased on sale from the grocery store in November. These have been stored near the furnace, on the inside basement stairs descending from the kitchen. They've held up reasonably well. Some are starting to grow shoots and roots and others are not as firm as they were 3 months ago, but they're still usable. I've only lost one due to spoilage with only a handful remaining. The warm dry conditions near the top of the inner stairs by the furnace are not ideal for potatoes. The books recommended similar storage conditions to apples, but said not to store them near each other because flavors may muddle. I've moved those remaining to the table in the other part of the basement, with the apple and orange boxes but not too close, to see if I can keep them all happy until they're used up.

- 5 lbs brown onions: purchased on sale from the grocery store in November. Again, kept on the inner basement stairs near where the potatoes were stored. About a third of the original number remain, all in good condition, though one or two have sent up tentative, pale green shoots. Keeping as well if not better than in the refrigerator.

- 6 bunches of garlic: same as onions. Doing fine.

I count this experiment as a success--storing our winter fruits and veggies without refrigeration and without spoilage.

I'm emboldened to grow more this summer and store more for next year.

Music for Cleaning the Studio

I've spent all day cleaning my studio.

Well, not actually cleaning. That would involve a broom and dustpan, a bucket of warm water and damp rag. Haven't quite gotten to that point yet.

Mostly I've just been putting music books and sheet music back where they go on shelves, making piles into files. At the same time, the copier has been working hard cranking out the "Daily Practice Record" sheets that go in my students binders. The printer has been cranking out another run of my color business cards. Needed to restock on both of these essential items.

In the background, I've been listening to a couple of favorite folk CDs:
Tim Harrison's "Wheatfield With Crows"
Full Frontal Folk's "Storming the Castle"

The Full Frontal Folk CD has a track, "Another Train", done with such beautiful 4-part harmony that I found myself hitting the repeat button on my CD player another 6-7 times, singing along at the top of my voice.

I did a search on the title and writer's name, and located the original "Another Train" by Peter Morton, complete with lyrics and MP3.

This is one of those majorly uplifting songs. Definitely going to go on my own song wishlist of songs I want to learn--words, chords, all of it.

Between picking up in the studio and listening to music, I've done some other web surfing.

In the most recent eNewsletter from some talented musical friends, Mad Agnes, Margo gave a link to the blog of a friend of hers, Lisa Nash, who's been traveling in India and reflecting on living a deeper, more spiritual and intentional life.

Listening to these tunes and reading these thoughtful words has brought a sense of sacredness and centered calm to a very ordinary day.

Just thought I'd share these here and maybe pass on a little of that peacefulness.

GAIA LUNA: Seed Saving

Last fall I saved seeds from my marigolds, cosmos, nasturtiums, string beans, and a couple of herb plants.

In the photo they are drying in the sunroom after being separated from the flowery parts. Not so difficult to do. Here are enough seeds to grow several gardens full of flowers, the equivalent of a whole rack of seed packets from the nursery from just a few plants.

These are old fashioned varieties that will stay true to type, meaning that plants grown from these seeds will be the same as the parent plants, at least in theory. I got two books on seed saving for Christmas that confirm this.

Right now, the seeds are stored in loosely covered glass canning jars on a the cool shelf of the attic, waiting.

Soon, soon ...

GAIA LUNA: Seeds

Been gone from the blog for about 3 month since my last post.

Just living and doing, and living and not doing.

I've rediscovered the joys of just sitting and thinking, or sitting and not thinking about anything in particular, staring at passing clouds and light on tree branches like I did when I was a kid. I highly recommend it. Thoughts wander in wonderful directions when allowed the space to do so.

Last night I ordered FREE 2008 seed catalogs from the following sources.

Johnny's Select Seeds
Seeds of Change
Kitchen Garden Seeds
White Flower Farm
Burpee
Park
Gurneys

I'd fallen off their mailing lists because it has been so long since I ordered anything. Had them sent to my PO box so they wouldn't get mixed in with all the other junk mail and accidentally sent to the recycling bin.

Some companies sell organic seeds, others do not.

In anycase, I'm beginning to feel anticipation, looking forward to March planting of early vegetables this year.

Creative intentions are being readied for planting, too.

As always at this stage, they are numerous and unsprouted, like seeds held in the hand before the soil has begun to warm. Those that eventually reach the stage where they can put on leaves and set fruit will be something I'm willing to write about. For now I keep them cradled within my cupped palm and curled fingers.

Time Between Years

With a house as cluttered as the inside of my head, I've had an incessant feeling that I'm spinning in circles, getting nowhere. Everything for my current projects has been sitting out, no place to put anything away, projects piled on projects, all vying for attention, so I spent the past 3 days of my holiday break cleaning out closets, reorganizing.

The box in the photo is full of craft supplies from old projects and whimsical things I bought to several years ago-- finger paints, feathers, colored modeling clay and sequined princess crowns-- all to infuse my artistic life, and life in general, with more playful creativity. I've come to the place where I'm ready to part with these, to pass them along to someone else. My art and music are happening freely. I'm happy with the directions things are taking. If the time comes again when I need to resupply, I'll have room to go out and buy new things chosen for the present.

I cleaned out the closet in my studio/office so I can have materials close at hand for sending out mailings. Also, cleared a big space in the bottom of the closet to store 2 small rolling file cabinets, one for my current songwriting files, the other for research/writing files for the growing book/workshop project. This will get them out of the middle of the living room and guestroom. I find that having projects in portable boxes or light-weight rolling file cabinets helps me to take things out when I'm working on them, and put them away when I'm not. That's the vision, the ideal.

Feels good to make my surrounding better reflect where my life is headed right now, to clear away the thick residue of years past. I'm hoping all this work will make my surroundings, and my insides, feel more serene and help me to reach my goals.

©2006 Kay Pere - Effusive Muse Publishing

Zen of Potato Soup

Yesterday, I made a big pot of potato soup. I do this with a spirit of mindfulness, present in the moment, enjoying the process. Potato soup is my comfort food of choice.

There's something good for the soul in the simplicity of cutting up onions, slicing celery, peeling and chopping potatoes, crumbling homegrown lovage and tarragon into the pot, adding a pinch of pepper from my palm, watching thick squares of butter melt across the surface, then swirling in clouds of milk. No need to measure ingredients, just like my grandmother and her Irish grandmother before her.

At our house, it's served up in blue and white enamelware soup bowls, bought at an old general store in Vermont many years back, toast with raspberry jam on the side.

Try some bread to go with your soup.

©2006 Kay Pere - Effusive Muse Publishing