The Animals Blogs

From comfy cozy to the realities of life... I start a lot of plants indoors in the spring and, as we enter the month of May, they are ready to get their roots planted into the earth and flourish under the rays of the sun.  My seedlings’ home has bee

Mashkiki-wan is the Ojibwe word for medicinal plant.  “Ntam mashkiki: nbiish.  Eko-niizhing: mashkiki-wan. ” First medicine: water. Second: medicinal plants  This week, I harvested some comfrey plants, just as they were starting their spring growt

Yesterday, the temperature outside was a high of 6C and a low of 3c. That’s chilly. “Cold weather is a great time for researching!” Sourdough This winter, with my very cold kitchen and my new stoneground (and organic) flour, I have struggled to mak

I know that I’m in a Zone 5/6 area and my estimated last frost date is May 24 …. But .. “WHERE IS SPRING?” In recently years, spring has been showing up in late March, early April, and then we’ve just had some winter days tossed in for good measure.

GreenStalks: vertical gardening for ascetics,  and for best use of space .. and for movability. This past week, I set up my GreenStalks on the “deck” of my backyard cabin. [FF2A58E8-E306-4172-9B13-1A9572B640F3.jpeg] We have had beautiful weather

My Hoophouse stood strong through high winds, winter snowstorms and hot sunny days … But that one winter storm, that had the wettest and heaviest snow that I’ve ever seen, took its toll and collapsed the Hoophouse frame. The snow was so heavy that

Yes - you can make bread in just three hours. You can make bread that looks and tastes like sourdough But you can’t make SOURDOUGH bread in just 3 hours because … SOURDOUGH IS A PROCESS  Sourdough is a process of developing and feeding wild yea

This week, I ordered some stoneground, organic, LOCAL bread flour from 1847.ca and I am so excited! Excited … “but” … but there is a learning curve, which I wasn’t expecting.  This flour makes the smoothest, strongest (I think that’s the word) dou

I want to buy local I want to buy organic And I’d love to find a local mill that offered stone-ground, organic flour made from local grains. Enter: 1847.ca The 1847 mill is just an hour and a half away in Ferguson Ontario, definitely drivable for m

I forgot the salt ! If you have watched anyone talking about the need for salt in sourdough bread you will hear them say that bread without salt is just plain yucky to eat. First, let’s backtrack in my story.  Digestion I can eat my sourdough bre

Winter’s last kick at the can, one last heavy ice and snow storm, wreaked havoc on my Hoophouse … it had done so well up to this point. We had a lot of ice and snow and I forgot to go clear the roof of the Hoophouse … The frame is now bent and twi

Winter’s last kick at the can, one last heavy ice and snow storm, wreaked havoc on my Hoophouse … it had done so well. We had a lot of ice and snow and I forgot to go clear the roof it the Hoophouse … The frame is now bent and twisted from the wei