All Things Supercinski

In some ways, I think I prefer a fall garden over the spring and summer one–less heat, I like the things grown in fall a little more, and did I mention the heat factor?

Currently, we have a mess of sweet potatoes and their vines growing in the garden. I had no idea they would take up so much space and I have had to cut them back to keep them from choking out any more of our tomato plants. They are spilling out into the yard and would probably be clear across the garden if we let them.

We also have some tomatoes, which are looking nice and big thanks to all this rain, swiss chard still hanging on from the spring and summer, and green beans, broccoli, beets, and sugar snap peas. I hope to plant lettuce, spinach and carrots today or tomorrow and remove the remainder of our pepper plants that are still in the ground.

How is your fall garden coming? What did you plant?

We enjoyed our first homegrown meal this evening. I made a swiss chard frittata, well, it was supposed to be a frittata but it got stuck in the pan, so it was more like scrambled eggs with swiss chard, basil, onion, and tomatoes. Everything came from the garden–the onions, swiss chard and basil. The eggs were from our chickens, but the tomato came from Gigi. We also had roasted rosemary potatoes, all from the garden except for the olive oil and salt.

Speaking of potatoes, we pulled out all of our plants two weeks ago after realizing they had early blight. We planted 10 pounds of red potatoes in two varieties and harvested 30 pounds. Not bad for our first year growing potatoes. We put sweet potato slips in last weekend.

Can you spot the boy in the garden? Everything is growing so quickly. I planted some things a little too close together, which will make harvesting interesting, but I know a little boy who would love to climb under plants to gather produce.

I am sad that our lettuce is finally turning bitter. I have enjoyed having fresh salads and not buying lettuce at the grocery store in ages. Several weeks ago, I got a free bag of Caesar salad with my HEB meal deal, so I accepted it. I could not get over how old and nasty that lettuce was in comparison to picking your own.

Anyone want to come eat some potatoes?

We keep a few chickens at some of our friends’ house, who are blessed with a huge coop on their land. We help with feed and maintenance and get some eggs in exchange. Since these friends acquired a rooster, we now have “fertile” eggs. Some of their friends have been incubating some of the eggs for a homeschool project, and now we have eight chicks in our garage.

They are much more fun now that Josiah is older and Annalise seems to be our fearless, animal-loving, child.

I dug around the first two plants in one of our rows and pulled the biggest ones I could see. Not bad… hopefully they taste good, too.

I mentioned that we changed our garden this year, and so far, it is going well. Most everything is growing well, but many of our seeds have been taking a long time to sprout. After discussing this with Pa, we decided it is a soil temperature issue. Nights have been really cool and it is taking longer for our warm weather seeds to sprout. We still have a lot to do, but we currently have potatoes, green beans, lettuce, spinach, sugar snap peas, kale, onions, a few tomatoes (that I’m not sure will make it), carrots, red and green bell peppers, and some cucumber sprouts in the ground.

Working in the garden with little helpers can be a challenge, but I am learning to love it. I let Josiah get involved. He has gotten good at helping plant seeds, especially larger ones. I gave him his own little spot of a flower bed near our herbs and he gets to decide what to plant there. He gets to do the watering (or remind me to water there when I am watering everything else). He has a huge sense of ownership, and it keeps him occupied while I am working in the other garden. I love watching him show visitors his garden with his carrot growing (only one survived). After we have planted something new, he prays that God would make it grow big so we could eat it.

This was his first harvest from his little garden. His one carrot seemed huge and ready to pick, judging by the top of the carrot after I dug around the dirt. Josiah was very excited about picking it.

And very disappointed in the result.

He still ate most of it and enjoyed it. I think next year, he will get a larger bed with better soil, poor guy.

After reading that title, some of you may be ready to send me off to the crazy house, while others of you will be happy that your search for effective deodorant has ended. I’ll let you in on a little secret–Thomas and I haven’t used antiperspirants for over a year and half. We stopped in our quest to use cleaner household cleaners and personal care products. After reading the label on our antiperspirants, and considering how it seeks to stop a natural process (sweating), we stopped using it.

We have tried crystal deodorants, ultra-perfumey deodorants, homemade body splash + a dab of baking soda and cornstarch, but all left us either stinky or chaffing. About a month ago, I discovered this recipe and we have not gone back.

First, find an empty deodorant/antiperspirant stick, or buy a cheap one (solid, unscented) at the store. Twist all the existing stuff out into the trash and wash the container thoroughly, reassemble and dry. Wear gloves. This stuff makes your hands nasty. I bought four travel-sized containers to give as gifts.

Assemble your ingredients:
1 large or a few travel-sized solid stick holders
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch
~3 tablespoons coconut oil
optional: essential oils for fragrance

Mix baking soda and cornstarch in bowl. In separate microwave safe bowl, microwave your coconut oil. Pour a little coconut oil at a time into your baking soda mix and stir until the mixture is no longer crumbly, adding more coconut oil as needed. Add essential oils and stir well. Mine looks like this when it is done:

Fill your containers up and let it sit to harden. You can put it in the fridge for a bit and it will harden more rapidly. Now you are ready to go!

Keep in mind that although baking soda has wonderful deodorizing properties, it is also abrasive, making it an excellent household cleaner, but chaffing for the skin. You don’t need to slather this stuff on like your old stick antiperspirant. Don’t press it hard into your freshly shaven pits, but apply lightly. If you experience raw skin or chaffing, give it a break for awhile and try to use a little less next time.

If this is your first time to go antiperspirant free, you may notice that you sweat buckets and buckets for a while. Don’t worry, that doesn’t last forever. In my experience, it took a few weeks for my sweat glands to regulate. I still sweat, but not inordinate amounts like I did those first weeks.

A few weeks ago, we got the quarter of a grass-fed cow we ordered and had processed. Our freezer is overflowing with ground beef, steaks, roasts and cuts of beef I’ve never prepared before.

So far, it is delicious. You can read more about some reasons why we chose grass-fed beef here. We were pleased with the service and price we got from this local farm, so I’m happy to recommend them.

We managed to make it to the Farmer’s Market last week, and Josiah loved every second of it. I let him pay the farmer and carry home our finds. Here he is showing off the longest green bean I had ever seen.

These were delicious green beans, though amazingly long. I also stocked up on the best honey ever from a local beekeeper who sells unprocessed honey while sporting a cool beekeeping hat.

Increasingly, I find my views aligning with so-called agrarians, who are predominately agrarians with (and predominately) because of their Christian faith.

I hope you will take the time to read these items and be challenged to rethink the modern mindset we all so easily and comfortably fit into.

Here are a few items and essays I’ve found recently. The most eloquent is Wendell Berry, a prominent writer, poet, and agrarian.

Farming and the Global Economy

Choice quotes:

The people who benefit from this state of affairs have been at pains to convince us that the agricultural practices and policies that have almost annihilated the farming population have greatly benefited the population of food consumers. But more and more consumers are now becoming aware that our supposed abundance of cheap and healthful food is to a considerable extent illusory. They are beginning to see that the social, ecological, and even the economic costs of such “cheap food” are, in fact, great. They are beginning to see that a system of food production that is dependent on massive applications of drugs and chemicals cannot, by definition, produce “pure food.” And they are beginning to see that a kind of agriculture that involves unprecedented erosion and depletion of soil, unprecedented waste of water, and unprecedented destruction of the farm population cannot by any accommodation of sense or fantasy be called “sustainable.”

If a safe, sustainable local food economy appeals to some of us as a goal that we would like to work for, then we must be careful to recognize not only the great power of the interests arrayed against us but also our own weakness. The hope for such a food economy as we desire is represented by no political party and is spoken for by no national public officials of any consequence. Our national political leaders do not know what we are talking about, and they are without the local affections and allegiances that would permit them to learn what we are talking about.

Marching Away From Babylon

This is at least four months of compostable kitchen scraps that I’d been saving in our deep freezer for when Thomas was ready to work the compost this spring. That’s a lot of trash that will be converted into treasure for our garden. (And a much less smelly kitchen trash can!)

Did you know that my husband is not only a computer genius (in my book), but also a certified Master Composter? I’m so proud. Are you interested in learning more about how you can turn your kitchen scraps into valuable soil amendments? We wrote the article below for a small, online magazine (which has since ceased publication), and you might find the information helpful. Read more »