Nutcracker, Anyone?
Posted: January 31, 2012 Filed under: Art & Healing, Child Centered Activities 4 CommentsIt’s been 3 months since David took our daughter to the Nutcracker performance in town. We are still listening to the music, dancing in dress-up clothes, singing the melodies and now making art together.
Working in her Nutcracker coloring book from Gramma Jane. Beautifully detailed depiction of all the characters. The music is playing in the background. 
Stone Turtle
Posted: January 28, 2012 Filed under: In the Kitchen 4 CommentsWent to a bread baking class today at the Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking School. Michael and Sandy Jubinsky are two people who love what they do. For 30+ years Michael was the spokesperson for King Arthur Flour and in 2011, he was voted one of the ten best bread bakers in America. He knows his stuff. www.stoneturtlebaking.com
Michael is retired, and in a typical fashion up here, going stronger than ever. He and Sandy built a home, a classroom/bake shop and an awesome wood-fired Le Panyol Stone Oven from France. Stoking the fire with kiln-dried oak (4% moisture) and maple hewn from his property, the oven burns up to 1079 degrees at the dome, 982 degrees on the floor and and produces bread with crust and crumb to die for.
Today’s class was Italian-Style Hearth Breads: a biga pre-ferment, equal parts durum wheat and all-purpose flour (11.7% protein – less gluten than bread flour), some olive oil and slow-to-ferment gift you a tight textured, golden-hued piece de resistance. Perfect for toast! Great with a glass of wine!
There were ten students in the class. We each made two loaves, 700 grams each with approx. 64% hydration (ratio of water to flour), proofed, stretched and folded three times, then ultimately shaped into a boule and placed upon a bread peel. The oven had cooled to just below 600 degrees, and the bread baked for 16 minutes.
We each had a special marking pattern. My two loaves are in the photo to the right, below.
The 64% hydration is somewhat “moderate”; Stephen Lanzalotta, a local baker, makes breads upwards of 85% + hydration – rather like pancake batter – that he kneads by hand, slowly forming the gluten strands that bind and form a superb crumb; his bread lines stretch out the door, buyers waiting up to an hour to purchase his breads.
Of late, wood-fired ovens are the vogue, but they have been around since at least 300 BC when the Greeks enclosed fire within a flame-resistant mortar shell. But history here is moot; what matters today is crust and crumb:
Blue Oysters
Posted: January 25, 2012 Filed under: Farming off the Farm, In the Kitchen 5 CommentsI went to a mushroom cultivation class today at the Urban Farm Fermentory and came home with a “log” of straw inoculated with spores of a Blue Oyster Mushroom.
It is all new to me…but E loves to eat mushrooms, (and truffles someday, I’ll bet!) so I thought, why not try growing our own?
At the class we learned about sterilizing winter rye berries in a pressure cooker, then, inside an air-sealed glove box, using a syringe to inoculate the berries with spores. Within a few days the spores will develop, and within a few weeks you have a jar full of mycelium – the vegetative part of a fungus – using the berries as a host. After the mycelium develops, the berries are packed, along with pasteurized straw, into a plastic bag poked with a series of small holes to allow the fruit – the Blue Oyster Mushrooms in our case – to emerge.
So home I arrived with the straw filled bag, which I am storing in the basement – a dark warm, preferably humid place. In a few weeks I expect (hope, may be more like it) the bag will become engorged with tiny white strands of mycelium. At that point I will bring it out into the light, and keep it plenty moist, and it should form a fruiting body: the edible mushrooms.
Fungi are a separate kingdom, distinct from both plants and animals, with an estimated more than 5 million species. With over 32,000 sexes of spores (don’t ask) only need two to combine to grow into a mycelium mat. Paul Stamets, in “Mycelium Running” describes a “2,400-acre site in eastern Oregon had a contiguous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut through it. Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth of ever-larger stands of trees. Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions.”
Seems like science fiction to me, but it’s just another part of the wild world of nature. Incredible. And edible. For the most part.
Buttons & Beads
Posted: January 22, 2012 Filed under: Art & Healing, Child Centered Activities 4 CommentsHere’s some more fun with Sculpey Clay and a great project for helping your little one with fine motor development. I made some beads ahead of time. There are a million ways you can make beads and I used a very simple method. Knead the clay with your fingers until it warms up. Roll small amounts into ball shapes between your hands. One way to add color without blending is to roll out a small snake shape, then attach it to the ball and roll between hands until it’s incorporated – but not blended. Pierce with pin or other fine tool for hole and place them on smooth cooking pan. Be careful NOT to let pieces touch each other while cooking. Cook according to thickness in a preheated oven at 275 degrees. Sculpey packaging suggests 15 minutes for every 1/4″ thickness. You must be careful not to over-bake.
Remembrance Memory Wire is great fun to use as it holds it’s shape. Using some wire cutters and needle nose pliers I cut off a section and curled the end to keep beads from falling off. 
Once finished stringing the beads, I trimmed the excess wire with my cutters leaving about 1/2″ to curl with the needle nose pliers.
Et Voila
Below are some Sculpey buttons which became eyes for a sock puppet. I expect you could use them on clothing but you’d want to coat them with a waterproof varnish to protect them during laundering.
The Five Sisters and Two Brothers?
Posted: January 20, 2012 Filed under: Gallery - Visual 2 CommentsOK, so now we think there are 2 males and 5 females. The two are slightly bigger (top left two), not necessarily more ornate, but have bit more red on their heads. Also, they’ve been strutting their puffed-out selves to the girls. I’m hoping we see some babies! Their tails are spread out here as they keep balance walking over the snow. What a show!
Homemade Granola Bars
Posted: January 18, 2012 Filed under: Child Centered Activities, In the Kitchen 4 CommentsI found this recipe in a local newspaper and tweaked it a bit based on items we had on hand:
2 C rolled oats
3/4 C brown sugar (I used 1/2 C)
1/3 C ground flax seed
1 tsp cinnamon
1 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C raisins (I used 1 C assortment of dried apricots, cranberries and raisins)
1/2 C honey
1 beaten egg
1/2 C Canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350, line a 9″ x 13″ pan w/foil and grease. Add oats, sugar, flax, cinnamon, flour and dried fruits together in bowl.
Next add egg, oil, vanilla and honey and mix with hands.
Press mixture into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool and cut into bars. Delicious! Use any crumbly pieces in cereal with milk or as dessert on top of ice cream.
Community Garden
Posted: January 16, 2012 Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Farming off the Farm, Little Green Thumbs 5 CommentsOur family has one of 35 plots at the new community garden site in town. This summer we helped build the beds for the 10′ x 10′ plots. In addition there will be 2 handicap beds, a children’s garden and 3 sites for composting.
We expect to plant carrots, tomatoes, kale, spinach, arugula, eggplant, snap peas, cucumber, and patty pan squash. I took E to visit the site as it’s important for her to see it during the different seasons and phases.
The Wounded Child
Posted: January 14, 2012 Filed under: Art & Healing, Gallery - Quotes 3 Commentsfrom Thich Nhat Hanh’s Your True Home
“When we speak of listening with compassion, we usually think of listening to someone else. But we must also listen to the wounded child inside of us. Sometimes the wounded child in us needs all of our attention. That little child might emerge from the depths of your consciousness and ask for your attention. If you are mindful, you will hear his or her voice calling for help. At that moment, instead of paying attention to whatever is in front of you, go back and tenderly embrace the wounded child.”
We all need to be acknowledged and heard. It is a basic need. Most people were not heard as children by the important guardians/caregivers/role models in their lives. To a child, not being heard translates to not being important, not being worthy of love and not being good. When the child grows up he or she feels inadequate and searches for either proof that he or she is worthy, or reinforcement that he or she is not. We all have wounds and it’s important to acknowledge them and to listen.
Dough Letters and Sculptures
Posted: January 12, 2012 Filed under: Child Centered Activities, In the Kitchen 5 CommentsI used to refer to this activity as pretzel letters, but it’s really bread dough, and we seldom end up with anything that resembles letters – but we DO have a WHOLE lot of fun!
You can either make or purchase bread dough ahead of time.
Preheat oven to 400. Throw out bit of flour on work surface to minimize sticking. Break off golf-ball size pieces of dough and roll, smoosh, twist, work into letters, whatever works!
Place on baking sheet and brush on coat of beaten egg. Top with cinnamon, parmesan cheese or sea salt. Bake for about 20-30 minutes depending on thickness of dough pieces.
The Seven Sisters
Posted: January 10, 2012 Filed under: Art & Healing 5 CommentsI’m convinced that the appearance of the “seven sisters” (a group of seven, wild, female turkeys) during my recent recovery from surgery, was a sign. There they were upon our porch, pecking at fallen bird seed, cocking their heads and looking in the window. 
Over two months later, they are still passing through our yard, sometimes staying for a visit (the extra cracked corn and birdseed hasn’t hurt).
While I’ve been musing on the meaning of these visits, I can’t help get stuck on the timing. During my recovery I had great desire to make artful objects which were then shared here on anartfarm (feel free to peruse the Art & Healing and Child Centered Activities categories). To me, there seems to be some connection between the energy I felt during the healing process, and through which I worked with my hands, and the arrival of these wild females. Perhaps it’s reinforcement for anartfarm as place for all things/energies wild and creative.
an Art Farm 