Just a few photos of Rebecca, Robin and Hazel enjoying the snow mostly for my mom who was horrified that I couldn’t convince Rebecca to go out in it yesterday.

Ryan has been working something like 100 hours a week so there have been some logistical issues with solo parenting.  Robin’s foot brace means that none of the 4 different snow outfits we have actually cover all of him; this one is open on the back.  I normally just wear him in a baby carrier and cover us both up in the ergo coat but I can’t really play in the snow like that. So the bouncy chair came outside.

I think I’ll put him on my back and take everyone for a walk this afternoon.

 So a good time was had by all and we were all back inside by 9 am. Now Rebecca says we need to make a cake.

It’s winter and so I want to go into hibernation mode just as the seed business starts to ramp up. So here’s the answer to that haunting question; What’s for dinner? It’s “I’ll just make that Jamie Oliver recipe, you know, the one with the chickpeas but with more onions and some carrots” soup. We’ve just shared this tonight with the Lovely Clara who came and helped fill an overwhelming amount of seed packs (check out clarabeelavery.com for some great illustrations and musings).

Pasta e Ceci from Jamie Oliver’s Italy but from memory since we make it all the time and with carrots for colour and more onions since its winter.

2 onions

2 carrots

a few sticks of celery

1 clove of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

rosemary

2 cans of chickpeas

2 ¼ cups of stock

2 cups ditalini pasta

sea salt and black pepper

a handful of chopped basil and spinach in each bowl

I like that this soup cooks really slow and gently. Life is really distracting and full of good things like a busy business, 3 year old shenanigans, and a bouncing baby boy. So I have a tendency to walk off in the middle of making dinner.

This soup cooks long and slow, filling the house with a great oniony soup smell and won’t burn if you have to go nurse the baby for an hour.

Over low heat in a nice thick bottomed pot combine a few glugs of olive oil with finely chopped onions, carrots and celery. Cook slow and gently with the lid on for at least 20 minutes until the onions are clear.

Add 2 cans of well-rinsed chickpeas, stir it all up, and cover with stock or water (according to your level of vegan/vegetarianism). Cook over low heat for another 30 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, remove about half the soup and whizz it up in a food processor, blender, or use an immersion blender. Once it’s properly whizzed, throw it back in the pot.

Add your little pasta, we like ditalini, the little “o”s. You throw it in dry, add some salt and pepper, maybe some dried basil from last summer, and keep simmering gently for another 15 minutes or so until the pasta’s cooked.

Serve it up with some torn or chopped up basil and spinach. So delicious and really just a bunch of chopping and slow easy cooking.

Baby Robin just wants everyone to know that we should be back to more regular blogging now that he is wearing his snazzy boots and bars and we no longer have to go to Sick Kids’s Hospital every week. In fact we don’t have to go back for 12 weeks! Phew.

This time of year is just so hectic.  I wish we could have a more relaxing holiday season but when you make your living on etsy it just isn’t possible.  This year we are attempting what I am calling “bare minimum christmas”.  A smaller tree, less presents, and no major craft projects besides making Robin a stocking.

That said it was impossible to resist the call of Well Preserved’s Pimp that Preserve. Rebecca and I quickly worked together to make some summer dresses for our dandelion wine.  Unfortunately babies don’t care if you want to sew so Robin quickly woke up and declared that nursing was way better than preserve pimping so two whole bottles are done.
That’s the thing about babies though, if you want to be happy you sort of have to roll with it.

So here is this year’s entry, dandelion wine made at the farm last spring. Check out last year’s Hard Cider and 2010′s christmas card bonaza.  There’s a few days left to get your own entry in, click here for the details.

There’s also just a few days left before we wrap up our crowdfunding project over on indiegogo.

Help us buy the farm and get seeds for your garden.

When I started Cubit’s 4 years ago, I couldn’t have possibly imagined how the business, and really our entire lives would change so much in so little time.

Starting out collecting seeds from our city garden, taking business classes while gigantically pregnant with Rebecca, writing a business plan with the satisfaction that only the recently fired can know, and sending out our first orders was especially sweet.

Thousands of orders later, we’re as ready as we’ll ever be to start the next chapter of Cubit’s. We have out grown the city gardens we’ve been growing in and have agreed to purchase 14 acres of Ontario farm land to grow our seed on. We just wrapped up our first growing season and are busy preparing for next year.

So today we’re launching our #farmraiser; That’s like a barn raising crossed with a farm buying fundraiser. Please join us over on the crowdfunding site indiegogo for all the details and to pitch in.  You can do a little holiday shopping or get started on your spring planning and help us all at the same time.

In addition to the #farmraiser, we’re having a contest. We need help spreading the word and are hoping you’ll help.  Let us know when you’ve shared the campaign on sites like faceboook by leaving the link here in the comments or by using the hashtag #farmraiser on twitter and pinterest. Every  share counts as an entry and the winner will receive a double seed of the month subscription along with one of my photo post cards and a coupon for 25% your spring order.

Contest closes December 31st, 2012. Open to Canada and the USA.