There’s a review coming on our new friend, the Mantis tiller but I know everyone really wants to see this. For my neighbours who thought weed whacking while pregnant was worth gawking at, here’s what pregnant tilling with a gas powered Mantis tiller looks like.

Ta da! New beds in the old cow pastures for tomatoes!

Getting to know the farm is really wonderful.  Each time we go, we experience the seasons in a new way.  While dandelions are generally considered delightful in my family, the farm in full fledged May dandelion glory is really something else.

Rebecca started picking them as soon as she was out of the car and I started thinking about what we could make with such an abundant supply of foraged food.

A quick internet search lead me to dandelion wine and off we went.  We had an easy project that would fulfil my foraging and homebrewing-while-pregnant urges for the season. I think we’ll save Sarah’s dandelion jelly for next year.

We picked a gazillion dandelion heads right before leaving and  then we took them back to the city to complete the job.  While Becca was at nursery school the next morning, I quickly separated the petals from the bitter green bits with the kitchen scissors.  It took about an hour and stained my fingers.  Next I poured boiling water over them in the crock and then covered it up and walked away for 3 days.

After adding lemons, oranges and honey to the mix, a steady 30 minute boil finished it off. A quick strain in to the carboy, some yeast, and an airlock and that’s it.  For real measurements and quantities see the MotherEarthNews Article, I just followed their instructions since their cider information was so helpful. Unfortunately we got carried away and forgot to take a specific gravity reading so we may very well be making some sort of mead-like moonshine. We’ll let you know this winter.

Lunch is actually my favourite meal, salads, soups, baked beans and especially a good sandwich.  We often just serve sandwiches when we have guests, offering up a spread of cheeses, heirloom tomatoes, pesto and what ever else is in season and it’s always a hit.  Summertime lunch can often extend well into dinner.

Lately I’ve been serving what what we refer to as a stacked grilled cheese.  Great bread, perfect ingredients, stuffed into a cast iron grilled cheese. They’re so good, I think this one has to be a contender for Canada’s Best Sandwich.

Using a loaf of Ace Bakery’s Rosemary Focaccia as the base, I stack

Sun Dried Tomatoes in Oil (cut with a pair of scissors)

Roasted Red Peppers (in strips)

Extra Old Cheddar (the sharper, the better)

Fresh Basil Leaves (washed and ripped)

Fiddleheads (steamed)

Butter the outside of your assembled sandwich

Grill in an evenly heated cast iron pan.  After you’ve flipped your grilled cheese, use a second cast iron pan to flatten your sandwich while the second side is cooking.  Like a cast iron panini press.

This Italian tasting sandwich can be made with all local and seasonal ingredients here in Ontario and goes well with a fresh salad or simple a side serving of more fiddleheads.  You have to enjoy them while they last.

This is my first time using our new cutting boards from Timber Green Woods. They are simply gorgeous, pieced together with different sustainable woods and I’ve been enjoying them so much it’s hard to remember to take their picture.

I couldn’t help it, the new baby needed a few things from fellow Canadian Etsy sellers Rebecca and Lisa of the Organic Quilt Company.

A cheerful little package arrived today.  It contained a sweet sheep bib (baby’s quilt will have this fabric in it too) and tiny organic hat for the first few days.

{ update }

more good mail today.  I think I’m done now. A little robin shirt and thefabric for the baby’s quilt!

Way back in January,  I was inspired to clean up my pantry.  Friends at Well Preserved and Folks Gotta Eat were writing these great posts about overhauling their pantries and finding 10 bags of quinoa, 4 bags of icing sugar and secret stashes of pudding mix.  Well I dove right in, found my share of ridiculous things, like instant chocolate mousse from our trip to Italy 4 years ago and four types of dried basil, and then promptly felt very very pregnant and couldn’t even open the pantry let alone edit and post photos of it.

The great thing that came out of this project is we finally finished organizing the spices and they still look great.

This is such an easy peasy project you can finish in one afternoon. You’ll need a can of chalkboard spray paint and a white pencil crayon (I like the Staedtler Omnichrome ones) and a new box of lids.

2 coats of spray paint and you’re good to go!

The pencil crayon lasts longer than chalk and isn’t messy.  It wipes off if you want it to with a damp cloth.

Ahhh, and doesn’t the calendula look nice?  I think I’ll go brew a pot to celebrate getting this post out of my drafts folder.