• About
  • Contact
  • Inspiration
  • Writing

Kate Spring

~ growing a deep-rooted life

Kate Spring

Tag Archives: food

Where I’ve Been

11 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by Kate Spring in Farming, Seasons

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

family, farm, food, gardening, home, life, nature, photography, place, seeds, spring, Vermont

pepper seedlingsEvery year the transition to the farming season slows down my blogging.  Outside, the earth is trying to thaw even as snow sloshes down every few days.  Each time I walk to the greenhouse I hear water running in streams beneath the snow, and I linger to hear the flow gurgling under my feet, promising thaw despite the low-pressure cold fronts that persist.

Sun is coming our way, though, and inside the greenhouse we are seeding, watering, up-potting.  Waylon has his own spot in the greenhouse, cuddled with the dogs on the camping pad that Edge has been sleeping on these past few weeks so he can stoke the wood stove fire through the night.  Of course, Waylon toddles all around the gravel floor, making games of putting rocks into yogurt cups and pouring water from one bucket to another as we seed.

The greenhouse is a place of growth for all of us, seeds, toddler, mama and papa: family.

P1050380
P1050454
P1050536
P1050416
P1050547
P1050532
P1050571
P1050585
P1050600
P1050577

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

What’s to come

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by Kate Spring in Farming, Local Food, Seasons

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

food, gardening, local food, photography, small farm, spring, summer, Vermont

cilantro seedlings

share basket

IMG_3184
P1030899

I shouldn’t do this, but after reading John’s post, I couldn’t help myself–I had to take out the spring and summer photos and remember the heat and taste of what feels to still be a distant season.

We made it through last night’s cold, and the car engine managed to turn over this morning, despite it being -23.  If I sit close to the wood stove and stare into the photos enough, I can almost imagine that we’re tumbling amid all that food right now.  Soon.  Soon.

For now, I’m thankful for the heat of the stove, for bacon from our friends at Humble Rain Farm, and for the photos that remind me of what’s to come.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Alaska Bread

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Kate Spring in Alaska, Cooking & Baking

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alaska, food, homemade bread, photography, wood-fired bread

We made bread every Friday, each person or family proofing their own dough the night or morning before the bake; one person on oven duty stoking the fire all day; and then we’d come together in the late afternoon, and the soft, wet dough used to make snakes would be rolled out long and thin and go into the oven first, taking the hottest and fastest bake of all the breads.

We’d tear the snakes into pieces, dip them in balsamic vinegar and garlic olive oil, or spread herbed butter on the light crumb and devour the warm bread as the next batches went into the oven.  Mostly it was sourdough, with many variations: added honey, cornmeal, oatmeal, seeded crusts.  Then there were the cinnamon rolls, all puffed up and golden in their tray.  And after the baking, perhaps a chicken would roast in the heat that was left, or beans, or a moose stew would slow-cook overnight.  One bake would feed the whole farm bread for a week, sometimes more.

We took turns pulling loaves out of the oven, and as the snakes disappeared a mandolin and guitar might come out, the pedals of a spinning wheel would pat up and down to the beat, and the kids’ fingers would wind and tangle in cat’s cradle; some nights homemade ice cream balanced the heat of the fire; on the edges of the season, we’d eat inside where a wood stove warmed the house.

RWS_7345 RWS_7393 RWS_7400 RWS_7392 RWS_8358 RWS_7708 RWS_7677 RWS_9639We don’t have a wood-fired bread oven here on our farm in Vermont, yet.  It’s on the long list of building projects and won’t be built until next summer (I hope it gets built next summer!).  But I do have some whole wheat flour from a farm in Berlin, just a few miles on the other side of Montpelier, and I have this day to myself and a wood stove to crank up, and a bag of yeast in the freezer.

It’s been a long time since I made bread of my own; when Edge reluctantly admitted he had to go gluten-free for health reasons, the smell of fresh baked bread made me feel a little guilty.  He assures me now I should start again, the smell won’t hurt him, as enticing as it is.

And so here I go, warming the yurt, dusting the kneading board, baking bread.

 

{All this bread baking happened at Calypso Farm and Ecology Center, the farm where Edge and I met.}

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Gluten-free Apple Carrot Muffins

25 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by Kate Spring in Cooking & Baking

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

food, gluten-free baking, muffin recipe

gluten-free apple-carrot muffinsYou know how much I love butter. Here’s a muffin recipe that uses ample butter and eggs. Coconut flour can absorb a lot of liquid, so a little goes a long way. Don’t get scared off by the gluten-free in the recipe title. These muffins are fluffy, and, especially when you add grated apple, perfectly moist. If you don’t announce it, I bet no one would guess they’re gluten-free. The base recipe is below, but there are endless possibilities. Last week our friend Karen made a batch of blueberry-ginger, and this morning she brought some apple-beet-ginger muffins over for breakfast, the perfect warm treat for a fall morning.

My most recent batch of apple-carrot muffins included one small carrot, one apple, and around 1 ½ tsp of freshly grated ginger.

Have fun! The possibilities are endless!

Ingredients:
½ C coconut flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ C sweetener (sugar, honey, or maple syrup)
½ C butter, softened
3 eggs
optional: 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Possible embellishments: carrots, apples, beets, zucchini, blueberry, strawberry, banana, ginger, nuts

Preheat oven to 350

Butter or oil a muffin tin and set aside. Mix coconut flour and baking soda together in a small bowl. Beat the butter and sweetener until creamy. Stir in vanilla. Beat eggs in one at a time. With the mixer on, slowly add coconut flour until it is fully incorporated, creating a soft dough. Stir in any embellishments, and fill muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until tops are golden. Makes 4-6 muffins.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Peaches in the Summertime

14 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by Kate Spring in Seasons

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

food, life, peaches, preservation, summer

“Training is everything.  The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.”  ~Mark Twain

Fresh PA Peaches

 

For the winter For the winter "grilled" peach and ice creamPennsylvania peaches are here–the one summer fruit we buy in crate loads that wasn’t grown in Vermont.  Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, plums, pears: between farms, family homes and friends’ homesteads, these are all within picking reach.  But that bitter almond turned delectable juicy sweetness that is the peach, for that we get excited to hear that refrigerated trucks are driving north.

I canned them for the first time this year–in the past we’ve always gone the route of freezing, but this year our freezers are packed with chickens and lamb at the moment.  For that reason, and for the memory of a gift of canned peaches last winter (how wonderfully accessible–no thawing required!  and the slices resembled their fresh counterparts much more closely than our frozen bags did)–I set to work peeling, coring, and slicing each peach, heating them in white grape juice, packing them into jars, and canning them in a boiling-water bath for 25 minutes.

That’s what I did with the first crate, at least.

The second crate has been purely for fresh eating.  It’s not hard to go through a crate of peaches.  The perfect snack on a summer day, their juice runs down the corners of our mouths and onto our shirts, and we readily slurp them up.  Beyond the yogurt and peach breakfast and the sliced peach snack, we’ve been devouring peach salsa (chopped peaches, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro and salt), marinating fish in peaches and ginger, and slicing the fruit in half to heat in the broiler and top with ice cream. 

There are perhaps 10 peaches left, which means I’ll need to pick up another crate soon, this time to make and can peach puree for the winter.  Funny how all this bounty makes me think of winter, but I assure you I am utterly present in each bite of peach.  It’s only after I’m done eating that I envision a cold winter evening, a wood fire warming the yurt, and the joy of pulling out a sunny jar of peaches for dessert.  I assure you, I’ll be wrapped up in the moment then, too.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Blueberry Season

02 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by Kate Spring in Local Food, Seasons

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baking, blueberries, food, local food, summer

Fresh Blueberries
Pancakes in the pan
Blueberry pancakes
Waylon approves

It’s blueberry season, and yesterday I took Waylon to our favorite pick-your-own farm in Craftsbury, VT.  I got a bucket for each of us, and Waylon crawled and walked (with help) between the bushes as I picked the berries out of his reach.  It went like this: one berry for Waylon, one for mama, and a few for the bucket.  We managed to pick 7 pounds before nap time set in, and with tired eyes Waylon held onto his bucket as I carried him back to the car.

So this morning: blueberry pancakes!  It was Waylon’s first taste of pancakes–gluten free so papa could eat them, too–topped with butter and the last dribble of maple syrup (time to buy some more).  He smiled and pointed at the plate, and from his blueberry-stained mouth it’s safe to say he liked them.

Seven pounds won’t last long around here, so we put them in the fridge for fresh eating.  This afternoon will surely call for a smoothie, and tonight’s dessert menu is a blueberry crumble.  We haven’t yet mastered the gluten-free pie crust, but it’s a necessary baking adventure that we’ll soon begin.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Until then, happy Saturday!

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Take These Eggs

25 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by Kate Spring in Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

change, food, growth, life, poetry

eggs

 

 

 

Kindling sets flames to lick
the firebox
a cast iron skillet
takes the heat,
holds it in its open face,
and I crack the egg.
 
Just yesterday I threw compost
out to the chickens,
and the matted roots
of harvested pea shoots,
green stems sticking up
like stubble.
 
Somehow the earth
is thawing—melting
snow sets rivers running
through the field
and the chickens peck
emerging worms in the barnyard.
 
We all have creation inside us
 
The chickens, they take worms and compost,
turn it into muscle and eggs.
Me, I take these deep golden
yolks, thick and smooth, into my mouth
I turn them into muscle and milk
to feed my babe
and he, too grows:
 
supple skin stretches
over elongating bones
teeth cut through gums
even his voice
rises and shifts—
an audible, intangible
creation.
 
He does not know yet
of spring
how thin blades of grass cut
through winter’s kill
how green spreads like a wave
from the valley up this hillside,
how the lone call of the raven
is replaced by chickadees, robins, hermit thrush, and
the reverberating howl of the snipe.
 
He knows of the barnyard,
of chickens and eggs,
of warm milk.
He knows of cool mornings,
hot stoves.
 
And what do I know of creation?
Only that I cannot explain it,
though morning sun streams
through the window,
though steam rises slowly from my tea
though even in stillness
everything moves, pushing us into
transformation

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Late Summer Harvest

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by Kate Spring in Local Food, Seasons, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

food, harvest, life, summer, thoughts, time

I’ve washed the salt out of my hair

and rubbed the soil back into my skin.

Late summer harvests fill my kitchen—

tomato sauce simmers on the stove,

carrots wait to be made into soup,

zucchinis pile up,

and melons balance on the table while

peppers, onions, eggplant, beets, basil, parsley and more all

teeter and spread over tables and floor.

The only thing lacking is time

or is it?

Time is relative, Einstein said.

He also said, “the only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen all at once.”

Late summer doesn’t listen to that logic.  The only option then is to stretch time out, blow it up like a balloon, and let it grow at the speed of the garden.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Sprouting Grass Moon

06 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by Kate Spring in Farming, Seasons

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

farming, food, full moon, local, spring, Vermont

The first full moon of spring shines tonight

April’s moon has many names:

Pink, Egg, Sprouting Grass, and Fish

Pink for wild phlox, one of the first spring flowers

Fish for the shad run, which Native Americans counted on after a long winter.

Nobee and I go out to look for pink, but all we find is green:

Sprouting Grass
Spring Grass
Nobee walking along pasture, Elmore Mtn. in the backround

 

Ours is the Sprouting Grass Moon, then,

And we welcome it fully.

May our pastures return healthy this year,

May this grass feed the animals, and in turn us,

For another green season.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Your Voice

06 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by Kate Spring in Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

change, food, life, politics, social change, United States, women, writing

Today I heard a news reporter say that the Democratic and Republican parties are fighting for the “crucial women’s vote.”  With so much happening politically with women’s health care and rights issues, we do indeed have a crucial role to play in the upcoming election.  The popular slogan “Your Vote is Your Voice” is true, but I believe your voice becomes even more powerful when spoken aloud and written down.  It is the job of politicians to listen to people, and though corporations may have more money, there is a tipping point when the number of people speaking up becomes more powerful than the number of dollars silently trading hands.

I invite you to speak, so your voice can be heard.

I urge you to write, so your words can be read.

There are many issues to be concerned with, and at times it can feel overwhelming, but identify what is most important to you, focus on that and be active.  For me, it is food.  I support many other causes with my signature on petitions and my vote on ballots, but I focus my political energy on food because everything comes back to it: we all need to eat, and how we eat directly affects the food industry, which affects the chemical industry, which affects the health care industry, all of which is linked to social justice issues and climate change.  You see, it is all connected, and we are all part of it.  To separate ourselves is to ignore the inextricable ties we have to all life, and though we face struggle, we also face beauty.  Let us work toward that beauty.  Let us listen to each other; let us speak and be heard.  I am here, and I am writing, and I want to read as well.  Share with me your voice, and I will share mine, for each connection made creates a stronger whole.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Welcome!

Kate Spring

Kate Spring

Welcome to The Good Heart Life: an organic gardening and lifestyle blog where we grow beauty, joy, and nourishment for the body, soul, and earth. I'm Kate Spring: organic farmer, mother, and chief inspiration officer at Good Heart Farmstead and The Good Heart Life. Grow along with us, and together we'll cultivate a more lively, joyful world one {organic} seed at a time.

View Full Profile →

Follow Kate Spring on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Instagram @goodheartfarmstead

There was an error retrieving images from Instagram. An attempt will be remade in a few minutes.

Archives

Read More On:

  • Family
  • Local Food
    • Cooking & Baking
  • Love
  • Morning Inspiration
  • Nature/Environment
    • Seasons
    • Wildness
  • Politics
  • Sustainable Agriculture
    • Farming
  • Travel
    • Alaska
    • New Zealand
  • Uncategorized
  • Writing

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: