Product Spotlight: Sterling Silver Spoon Rings

Now that we are firmly past the hustle and bustle of the holidays and I am mostly settled into my new blogging routine, I wanted to get back to doing product features for the items in my shop.  Writing this one brings me a lot of joy, because I get to talk about my sister Katelyn Lane, and show off her beautiful work.  Her jewelry is made of silver from reclaimed vintage or antique flatware, and just look at how beautiful it is.  

The pieces she creates fit so perfectly with what I am trying to do with my shop.  Currently we have five of her rings listed here and plans to add more.  I have seen quite a few people making "spoon jewelry" over the past few years, but I have actually never seen any that compares to hers.  A big part of the difference is that she hand selects 100% sterling silver flatware, rather than silver plate so that when she hand buffs each with her industrial machine they keep their beautiful silver shine without risk of wearing away a silver coating.  

All of her rings, bracelets, and pendants strive to keep the essence of what they originally were.  Whenever possible she keeps the entire spoon, or fork intact so you can still see some of its original purpose in the design.  The rings we have currently in the shop are made of tiny demitasse spoons.  I can't say I've seen anyone recently who keeps these ready for use in their silverware drawer, so rather than having them gather dust somewhere I love that their beauty can be on display as jewelry.

Head on over to the shop now and see the designs we currently have in stock.

Meals from the Pantry: Pumpkin Apple Blender Muffins

Last year in my garden I had quite a few winter squash volunteer from my compost.  I also bought several at the farmers' market, and there are still a few hanging around on my counter.  Since I don't want it to keep looking like I'm decorating for halloween, I wanted to think up some recipes to use them up.  Maybe you're like me and you still have pumpkins hanging around, or maybe you have a leftover can of pumpkin puree in the cupboard.  If not, don't worry since this will work with whatever fruit you have that needs using up.  I think it would be awesome with bananas and that is actually what I am going to try next since I am one of those people who have a shelf full in the freezer.

I also had some vanilla flavoured kefir that needed to be used up, so I used that, but milk or even yogurt would work just as well.

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Pumpkin Apple Blender Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup roasted pumpkin
• 1 apple
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup vanilla kefir (can sub yogurt, milk, or sour cream)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (increase to 1/2 cup if using unsweetened dairy)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger (fresh or ground)
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 cups flour

Takes 35 min, yields 1 dozen muffins.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Starting with the liquid ingredients, put all the ingredients except the flour in the blender and blend on high until everything is one cohesive liquid.
3. Pour the blended mixture in a bowl, and gently mix the flour in until just incorporated.
4. Fill muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

How to Plan a Garden

This post might be more accurately titled "How to Plan a Garden if you are Me and You Have Cabin Fever and You Are Dreaming of Spring and Can't Wait to Get Planting So You Do Whatever You Can To Feel Like You Are Doing Some Gardening", but the title I used is catchier, so I went with that instead.  You might remember that one of my garden goals for this year was to plan more, and if my followthrough for this goal is any indicator for the rest of them, I think this is going to be a very good year!

There are so many different ways to plan a garden, and if what I have done doesn't get you excited for the spring season, then don't worry about copying my method!  I think that making a plan in general is important, but what is most helpful to each of you is going to be different, and each season might be different as well.  I'd love to see what you come up with - let me know in the comments or link to any blog posts you might have done on the topic.  I'm always looking for new ideas to try. 

This type of garden plan (above) is what I have been doing the past few years.  It's not an exact version of my garden layout because I wanted it all to fit on one page, and my space is rather long and narrow, so I shortened some of the walkways and in-between spaces to make it fit.  The gardening areas are somewhat to scale, though.  I find this type of plan overall most helpful since it gives you a birds eye view of your space and hopefully will clue you in to any problems.  For example, I am probably going to have some issues with the amount of tomatoes I want to start vs. the amount of space I have to put them.  We have some plans this year to add a few more raised beds to hopefully alleviate that issue.  Last year they were too cramped and didn't produce well.

Keep in mind the areas of your garden that get the most light, and where any hot spots are.  My first year in this space I planted my broccoli in completely the wrong spot, and it got totally baked.  I figured any spot would be ok for them to go since in my north facing garden there is only the bare minimum of what would be considered "full sun", but I didn't realize how intense the heat and light were concentrated in some specific areas.  Now I put peppers and other heat loving things in those spots.  Also be aware of the shade areas you have, and think of creative ways to use them.  I have mostly "part shade" and even some "full shade" spots, so I have planted a lot of herbs, and plan to add some other understory plants.  The area you see above that is all herbs is actually covered by a deck above, but it still works for things like mint, chives, and parsley.  I've been thinking of adding some fiddlehead producing ferns there this year, and I have wondered if Oregon grape might work there too since I usually see it in the forest as an understory type plant.  It's native to the area as well, so I have a feeling it might do well there.  

As part of my planning this year, I was inspired by Lavender and Leeks to draw out what my garden will look like visually.  This isn't quite as practical as doing the birds eye view layout, but I really enjoyed the process, and it helped me think about what the space would look like aesthetically.  I also realized that in my drawing I forgot a few things that I planned to do like tuck in nasturtiums between all the brassicas.  These are also not to scale, and in some cases I shortened the space between the raised beds so things would fit on one page together.  I also realized I draw almost all my vines the same as each other, and that some of these plants are really hard to draw from memory.  I thought I knew what they all looked like (and for sure I can recognize most garden plants from sight), but there is something different about knowing them when you have to try and draw them.  I want to try that a bit more this year and really get to know the plants I am growing.  Mr. Forager had an amazing idea that I should make garden colouring pages for Little Forager, and I think I will!  I also think I might offer them as some sort of printable here on the blog!  

Hopefully you found this inspiring, or at least interesting.  I really enjoyed the whole process, and it helped to work out some of my garden dreams on paper while I still can't get outside and make them happen in the dirt.

I'd love to see what you all come up with for your garden plans.  Make sure you let me know in the comments!  I'd love to hear your ideas and get some new ones to try as well!  

Friday Favourites

One Friday each month I will be posting links to things that I have found useful, helpful, beautiful, or interesting within the categories of this blog.  These posts may contain affiliate links for which I may be receiving financial compensation, but each of those is something I have used, loved, and 100% would recommend.

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Grow

• Sustainable Seed Starting: Using Coconut Coir Instead of Peat from My Minnesota Garden
• Decoding Your Garden Seed Catalogues from Garden Betty
• Free Printable Seed Starting Journal from Garden Therapy

Find

• Ethical Foraging 101: What You Need to Know from Learning Herbs
• Rules for Forging on Public Land in the Pacific Northwest (Compiled on the blog "Wild Harvests")
• Foraging for Oysters from Regather

Eat

• Forest Vinegar from How to Cook a Weed
• Sumac Creme Caramel from Hummingbird High
• Crisper-Clearing Recipes to Keep your Leftovers from Languishing from Food 52

Make

• How to Sew Your Own Leggings from A Beautiful Mess
• Tweed Cardi Crochet Pattern (Free) from Hooked on Homemade Happiness
• Coastal Rope Coasters from Picklee

Miscellaneous 

• Simplee Cloth Diapers by Nuggles (seriously easy zero-waste parenting solution) 

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Meals from the Pantry: Roasted Vegetable Soup

The recipe I am posting about today came about because I had quite a few odds and ends in my crisper drawer that needed to be used as soon as possible.  I love soup a lot, but I don't always have broth on hand.  I do often make my own, but there is often a gap between when I run out and when I remember to make some more.  For me this is a barrier, because I don't usually like buying stock from the store.  Since I know I can make a much better product, I don't usually buy it, but then I still don't end up making it right away either.  

Maybe this is only me, but sometimes I just want my soup now.  Like instant noodles now.  I am so very happy to say that thanks to Marisa over at Food in Jars, I have found a happy medium between homemade quality, and cup of noodles fast.  Her recipe is basically a salt preserved veggie paste that lives in your fridge and gives you soup whenever you want it.  It's one teaspoon per cup of boiling water, and there you go!  This is something I always have in my fridge now.  It's one of my favourite pantry staples, and something that gets even more interesting in flavour the older it gets.  Her recipe uses dried tomatoes, but what I had on hand was dried wild mushrooms "foraged" (read purchased) from a shopping trip to Costco, of all places, so I substituted them and it was a really delicious choice.  Find her recipe here if you would like to make some (I highly recommend it)!

Due to a lack of stock in the freezer, I turned to this soup concentrate paste to transform my wilting veggies into a beautiful, deeply flavoured soup!   Use anything you have around.  I had a bunch of root veggies, and some other things, but really the sky is the limit here.  Roasted tomato soup with this method would be amazing, or maybe you have some lettuce, or kale that you didn't quite make it through - throw that in there (although add it in right after the roasting step).  The only thing I would consider is making sure the final colour of your soup will be appetizing.  The sky is technically the limit, but you might want to think twice about using your kale and tomatoes - for example - together since red and green when combined make grey.  It will still be perfectly edible, and probably tasty, but it won't be winning any beauty pageants!  Chop everything up into large chunks, and roast in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for about an hour, or until it is all fork tender, and getting caramelized around the edges.  Your next step is to bend, add liquid, season it, and simmer the whole thing until you are happy with it!  Feel free to also use regular broth or stock in this recipe if that is what you have and it will taste just as delicious!

Your yield for this recipe will vary a lot, since it is just using up whatever you have around.  Don't worry about specific amounts.  What I used in the above photo (baking tray is the largest size, for reference) made enough soup for about 5 servings.

Roasted Vegetable Soup

Yield will vary

• Miscellaneous vegetables (I used parsnips, carrots, onion, garlic, leeks, celeriac, and sunchokes)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Juice from One Lemon
• 6 cups of water (or substitute stock/broth and omit the soup base)
• 6 teaspoons soup base

1. Chop vegetables into large pieces (peeling is not necessary, but if your veggies are a little bit past their prime it might be a good idea), and arrange in a single layer on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for about an hour.  Veggies should be fork tender, and lots of caramelization is a good thing (ie: they might look quite dark, or even a bit burnt around the edges, but that will add flavour).
2. Transfer vegetables and a cup or two of water into a blender or food processor, and purée until smooth.  (This is when you add your leafy greens if you are going to be using them).
3. Pour the whole mix into a pot on medium heat (or a slow cooker if you want to do it ahead of time) and add the rest of the water a cup at a time until you like the consistency.  Whisk in the soup base, taste, and season with additional salt and pepper as desired.  The soup base is very salty so definitely taste before adding any more salt.  
4. When you are happy with the consistency and overall flavour, stir in the lemon juice.  Soup is ready to eat as soon as it is warmed through.