Priorities...

So, when I shared with my church family about my recent trip to Bolivia, I ended with a brief moment of "looking ahead". I shared prayer requests with them, and now I'm going to share them with you.

1) Find a faith community that challenges me to grow in my relationship with Christ.
2) Pursue my studies wholeheartedly- learning as much as I can about nutrition and immersing myself in the opportunities provided for me.
3) To live lightly upon the world, building upon the biblical ethic of stewardship. For me, this includes seeking to be sustainable in the way that I use my resources and gifts, and how I eat.

Tonight, I had a choice to make- ought I whip up some delicious tomato sauce from the meaty red orbs languishing in my garage and crank out some sweet applesauce from the bushel of green orbs that are chilling beside the tomatoes? Oh, how I longed to steam up the kitchen with a bit of cooking. But, I spent last night canning a batch of salsa and getting to know my roommates, so tonight I had to focus on my studies.

Which included walking down to Starbucks to take a set of online medical terminology quizzes. Anyone interested in prefixes, roots, and suffixes? Go to dmu.edu/medterms for a great online guide if you want to learn! So, I've spent the past 2 hours sitting at a computer taking these quizzes... I feel like canning would be a lot more productive!!! Oh well, a grad student I have chosen to be, so a grad student I will be.

An update on my "garden-less" state: my dearest parents came to visit on Monday and Tuesday, bringing my big furniture, as well as a portable garden of pots of herbs. Incredibly welcome gifts from my eldest sister-in-law (who also sent me a trash can full of tomatoes, and a 5 gallon bucket of compost)! So, now I have a mini garden on my bag porch. And my parents even prepped some tubs for a vermicomposting (composting with worms!) farm. I have to clear that with my roommates yet...


And the tomatoes and garlic chives:

The Art of Living Without a Garden

It's a lot harder than I ever expected. I have to actually pay for my vegetables. Now I'm on the other side of the farm stand, and it's kind of strange to be the one choosing what I want to purchase.

I've found 4 farm markets so far in Morgantown, and visited 2 of them in the first week, as well as joining a food coop for my bulk goods. I will probably order my meat through them as well.
Here's a picture of my market finds from Saturday:




And here's what the trunk of my car looked like after a trip to Goodwill, and the local hardware store. I'm going to try my hand at some container gardening on my porch- we'll see how the cost effectiveness of this attempt works out. I'm going to try to keep close tabs on it. (and yes, I hadn't taken enough cloth bags along, so I ended up with plastic bags...)



Here's a picture of my kitchen counter with the dozen sweet corn that I bought by the side of the road. The hardest part of living without a garden is not knowing what to do with compost!

And here's a picture with my favorite "corn chips"- slices of kernels fresh off the cob.

Hopefully there will soon be a picture of the vermiculture system that I'm going to try. Worm farming, here I come!

I'm making yogurt in a new place!

That's my newly crafted euphemism for "I moved". Yes, my home is no longer in Pennsylvania, but in Morgantown, WV.

I've been here for about 23 hours now. I was so excited to stop at the Welcome to WV sign- I picked up a stack of visitor's brochures. Although I'm a pretty permanent visitor, I want to learn everything I can about my new state.

I carried all my stuff up the stairs, blew up my air mattress, and started organizing.

This morning I made my first batch of yogurt here, and ran 2 canners full of pint jars of peaches. Now I'm downtown at the public library making use of the free internet. I've been biking, although I'm still learning the best routes to avoid some of the hills and traffic :)

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures- I forgot my camera at the house at and I don't have internet there.

Orientation for my Masters in Human Nutrition and Foods begins tomorrow.

How to Make an Ecological Kitchen

I just got back yesterday early AM from a trip to Bolivia. It was a great experience to return to the dear community of Rodeo where I had been last summer as well. Rather than writing a comprehensive review of the trip (which I may post at some point but likely will not, since I am giving an oral presentation at my home church tonight) I will just post random events from the week that I really enjoyed.
If you're wondering what an "ecological kitchen" is, this is a term that Food for the Hungry (FH) uses to refer to a very fuel efficient stove. In addition to saving fuel, this model also features a stove pipe that carries smoke out of the room. Smokey rooms can lead to lung disease, so this is a preventive measure for the health of the children. This stove was advertised to families in the community. Those who wanted it then paid a small amount of money (about $3 US) and helped with the construction of the stove. FH contracted two men to come and build these stoves, which reduce the need for firewood- a scarce commodity in the arid community located at about 12,000 ft above sea level.

The first step involves mixing up "barro"- a mixture of mud, clay, sand, and donkey excrement. I didn't really do much of this, I just helped to mix a wee bit, under the supervision of an expert!



Then, you must make molds for where the pots will be placed.


Next, place the barro around the molds.



Smooth it all down.



Add a chimney, and ta-da: you've got an ecological kitchen!

2 in a day?

So, maybe it's silly to post 2 blogs in one day, but I just wanted to let you know that my journey takes me away from the Joshua Farm for the next 2 weeks- I'm heading to Bolivia with Food for the Hungry! I'm super excited, and I hope to blog a time or two while I'm there. I'll be going back to the same community where I was last year, but I doubt that I'll get to help harvest potatoes again. Maybe there will be a new crop out in the field that I can help with.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support.

Salsas and Dips

Yesterday the Joshua Farm celebrated 5 years of sustainable agriculture and youth employment in Harrisburg. It was a busy day, but I missed most of the flurry out in the field because I was happily chopping and mixing in the kitchen. I started out with a laundry list of recipes and ingredients, and proceeded to fill a large rubbermaid tub with delicious veggies and herbs from the farm. We purchased a few things, such as parmesan cheese, plain yogurt, chickpeas, and mayo, but the majority of the dips came straight from our productive little plot.
Here's what I started with:



And here's a glimpse of the mess in the middle:


Sadly, I don't have any photos of the finished product because I barely had time to finish everything. 8:30-5 dancing around in the kitchen with a knife, with a brief break to have Cameron help me make lunch and to eat with the rest of the busy farm workers. That's my idea of a good day :)
For those who were interested in the recipes, I'm going to just list all of the ones from the "Simply in Season" cookbook- if you want them, buy the book!

• Herb Veggie Dip
• Pesto
• Fresh Summer Salsa
• Green Surprise Dip (I used Kale)

I also made Peach Salsa (at Kirsten's request and her verbal recipe):

• Equal parts chopped tomatoes and peaches
• A handful of minced red onion
• A dash of finely minced garlic
• Chopped cilantro to taste
• A pinch of salt
• Lime Juice

This was my first time to ever have peach salsa and it was delicious!

Other items included:

Blueberry Cornmeal Loaf Cake from the "Recipes from the Old Mill: Baking with Whole Grains" made with cornmeal from my daddy's field.

and last but not least:

Roasted Garlic Hummus from Annie's Eats
http://annies-eats.net/2010/04/21/roasted-garlic-hummus/
This was my first time to roast garlic and it was really fun. You should try it sometime!

Hot Pads = Wedding Presents

I've been pretty crafty recently, but I have not spent much time blogging about it.

I prefer to make things for friends when they get married, rather than just choosing something off of a registry. A classic gift is a pair of hot pads, sometimes paired with something else.



I love patchwork because is full of memories- I had dresses made out of the blue gingham and sunflower print, made aprons for church camp out of the light floral and green fabrics, a skirt out of the plaid (WHAT was I thinking as a 10 year old?!?!), and I think the little blue and red print was from old feed sack fabric.

To be honest, these hot pads are not my most recent ones- I made a stack of 6 for my mom for Christmas, and I wasn't photo documenting too much these past few weeks.
I just gave a pair to my friends who got married last weekend, I am almost finished with the pair that I'm making for my cousin who just got married a week ago (yes, I'm not always the most prompt at getting presents to people!) and I have another pair in the works for myself when I move.

Moving, crazy! One month from now, I will be in West Virginia! But between now and then, I will be in Bolivia for 2 weeks. This summer has flown by.