Sprouting Hope - Forcing Spring

We are Hunkered Down, Washing hands and Sanitizing everything, watching news (or sometimes not), and hoping for Spring to come soon.  It's not!  We have at least 3 feet of snow still and it is getting into single digits at night still here in the Big Lake Burg which means we have to force spring a little by growing some sprouts!

We talked about our Salad Garden last week (read that here). Sprouts can add another level of flavor, texture and spice to your salad and they are simple to do!  Especially if your directions are to "Stay Home"!  

Start with a couple of wide mouth, glass jars and some sprouting seeds.  The above shown are Alfalfa, Mung Bean and Adzuki Beans.  These are a few of my favorites, but just about anything can be used as sprouting seeds - including radish!  I have also used my old seed as sprouts to "test" the seed stock - If I have a package of old seeds, Ill put a tablespoon in a jar and sprout it to see what kind of germination I might expect.  No germination means I don't bother to plant that seed.  I have not sprouted tomatoes this way - Im not sure I would like that flavor, but I have done broccoli, cauliflower, and even peppers this way, radish is spicy and delicious too.

Today we'll just work with the Alfalfa seeds to make things easy - and so my pictures can tell the story.

So take one of the jars, a ring and I am using a lightweight paper napkin as my breatheable cover.  They make kits you can get that are for sprouting and have rinse lids and such, but I am making do right now since I dont have my sprout lids (I used to have them and they are no where to be found).  Make sure the paper napkin fits loosely over the top of the jar but can still fit the ring on. 

Add about a tablespoon of seeds (give or take) to the bottom of the jar and add a couple of tablespoons of cold water to it.  You will also need a sieve of some type - something that you can rinse the seeds with  without them going down the drain.

Dump the seeds into your sieve and rinse under cold water for a few seconds.  The jug behind is one of my plant watering jugs that I refill as I'm rinsing so I'm not wasting water while rinsing seeds!

Dump the rinsed seeds back into the jar and add a couple tablespoons of cold water to the jar.  This is the soak.  You will only soak once on each batch of seed.

Should look about like this.  It doesn't look like much, but resist adding more seeds to the jar.  They make a big pile when they sprout and grow!

Put the napkin or sprout lid on the jar and loosely spin the ring on - like above.  You can use cheese cloth or other loose weave fabric for this as well.  It just has to breathe.  Set the jar in a cool place that is shaded - not in direct sunlight and leave for 8-12 (24 max) hours.

After the soak hours, rinse the seeds again in the cold water, dump back in the jar - you can see above how these have started puffing up a bit - ready to be delicious!

Repeat this rinse and drain process every day until you have a jar full of yummy sprouts! I often use about a quarter of them at a time and start my next jars of sprouts so I always have something.  Sprouting times differ depending on what seeds you are using - just like growing in the garden - radish and alfalfa are fast and the beans are slower.

You can see in the above picture that some of them are starting to sprout! This is day 3 of this batch. Keep rinsing, draining and checking them - should take about a week to get to edible salad sprouts (for alfalfa).

Couple of things to remember - if you forget for one day to rinse your sprouts - all good just continue as usual.  If you forget two days you might be ok - if the jar has a terrible smell though you have to start over!  If the water in the jar is milky looking, but doesn't smell  you are good to go - some of the seeds leach some starch into the water as they grow so it will turn the water milky.

There are also some great Youtube and instructional videos on this that you can look for and watch for more information.  SproutPeople has great information and products and there are also great kits you can order with seeds you might want to sprout also.  My seeds came from our local store All About Herbs and from Mountain Rose Herbs.  I think they both have the seed sprouting kits that you can get as well.

I hope that Spring is close for you, or that you can sprout some, and that you all are well and happy!

Blessed Be!

Virtual Community Phase I - making masks

I have a strong family community of quilters, moms, aunts, and cousins.  We make connections often for a variety of reasons, quilting, gardening, child raising, and crafting are among a few things we all have in common.

Corona Virus has tried to wipe out the community in our communities by making it so we cannot connect in person.  It has cancelled events, including our gun show and my Quilt retreat!  For more than 20 years we have had quilt retreat twice a year with my family.  We all get together and work on projects, and quilt and visit and have block drawings and challenges.  We hold each other up when we need it. We create with and for one another and for others who have a need.

You might recognize some of these pictures from previous blogs, but since we didn't get to go this year - All I have!

Now we have Quarantine quilting communities online doing marvelous show and tell, nurses and responders getting the kudos they have so long deserved, Kitchen quarantine cooking classes online, and an additional plethora of free online classes you can take or participate in.

We are doing things "together - apart" like walking challenges to see who get the most steps in even though we are out of our usual element.  It's still a competition and it's still fun.  It works great as long as I remember to wear my fit bit!

For myself - it is almost business as usual.  I still go to work at the school for now - but there are no kids.  Just Administrative staff.  We are a fun group, but it is just not the same when we don't have kids there.  Then I come home - pretty much like usual - but now no one is freaked out when I don''t leave the house for 10 days except to work.  I have been a shelter in place girl for a long time!

And now we also have a call for the quilters, sewers, and makers to come together and make things other than quilts but for a much higher cause and purpose - masks!  We have been called to make fabric masks that can be used by anyone who needs them, any shape, style, color - it doesn't matter - they need masks.  Masks for Cancer patients and their families, and masks for Senior Centers and employees, as well as those who cannot stay home - those working with our homeless population among the extensive list who will be short of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  Our nurses and CNA's are calling for them so they can make their PPE last longer.  In this time of uncertainty, this we can do with certainty - we can sew and we can make and in doing so we can help!

My family quilting group has our own facebook page so we can try patterns, compare them and make the best ones.  We share ideas, what works and doesn't, and we share anyone who has expressed a need for the masks.  We share how many we have made and where they have gone or are going.

Prior to the shutdown quarantine here in Alaska one of the cousins (the one who set up the page) was also going around collecting masks from us to distribute where they needed to go.  We just got a new mandate so Im not sure how that will work now - I will be mailing some of mine and depending on how things go - delivering some of the other ones!  Hang them on the door if I have to!

What began long ago as a quilters community has now become a Community of Quilters helping the community that we live in.  Sewing as though lives depend on it - because they do! Doing what we can do, with what we have and what we love!  Together - apart.  Blessed be!

*** Here is a great YouTube video by my cousin Alicia McRoberts with a tutorial to make your own masks!

I also have a printable mask pattern posted on a secondary Wicked Raven post - check it out here:

Virtual Community II - Making the Masks

Quarantine gardening - aka preemptive gardening!

This Corona Virus has all of us on edge and working to see what we can do to help our communities and our neighbors.  There are worries about grocery stores running out of supplies and hoarders buying it all up and not sharing, and where the money will come from to buy anything when some of us aren't working during the quarantine.  There are some things that you can do to help yourself and maybe your neighbors too that are pretty quick and easy.  One of them is to grow a radish salad!  Radishes are a great "quick crop" as they germinate and come to size quite quickly!  Some radishes germinate in as little as 4 days, and you can have real radishes as soon as 15-20 days!

Here is my messy box of seeds, I try to do an inventory once a year and make sure I have "good" seed - nothing that is too old.  I let it get out of control this last couple of years though and I am regretting it now!

But I WAS able to find my radish and lettuce seed.  A couple of different flavors of both so I chose the ones that would grow best in a 3" deep flat.

So, I prepped my flat with soil that has finally thawed in the greenhouse enough to fill at least this flat (and maybe another one - you will need two eventually for this one).  Yes- the flat is sitting inside a plastic cake box top - it works great to keep the water in and also you can cover it with a little plastic wrap to aid in germination if you need to.

Here it is!  Ready for the seed!

These are "Helios" radish.  I chose these ones because I have more than one packet of them and they will grow great in a flat, they have great flavor and they are just slightly spicy, and nutty without being hot.

I mixed them with two kinds of lettuce.  When I'm planting them outside, I usually plant them with carrot seed, and Im doing it with the lettuce for the same reason, when the radishes are grown and you pull them it automatically thins the lettuce/carrots.  It works great!  Carrots won't grow well in a flat like this so lettuce it is  hence "radish salad".

Once the flat is prepped(make sure you moisten the soil) mix the seeds in the radish packet and pour half of them into your hand.  Save the rest for later.

Sprinkle the seed over the top of the flat and lightly sprinkle some dirt over them.  Put in a decently warm spot (not necessarily in the sun - just needs to be warm until the seeds come up).

Leave them for a few days and watch for your radishes to come up!  

Once you have radishes, and when you pull them remember you can use the tops just like you would dandelion or spinach.  They are delightful!  Then you just have to wait for the lettuce to be ready!  

I use a second flat and when I pull the first set of radish, I plant the second flat so I will have fresh salad for months to come, even in the winter!  

Some of the other things you can do, and easily are to get a hanging basket of strawberries.  You can hang them just about anywhere or don't hang them even - they can set on a counter top in the sun - check with your local greenhouse to find one if you don't have one started. Cherry Tomato too! Kids love them as much as they do the radish flats!  It's also a good time and way to start teaching them how to grow their own food, where it comes from and how to take care of it.  Makes for great learning, great food, and good times!

Sanitizing everything!?

Ok - So the world has Corona Virus and has gone mad - at least the parts of it that I have laid eyes on.  Folks hoarding toilet paper, hand sanitizer and baby wipes, and stores limiting what can be purchased at one time or in a day (membership clubs).  Hubby's Gramma was in a store in the Lower 48 and she said there wasn't even a can of Lima beans on the shelves - even the "yukky beans" were gone she said!  Our Alaska stores haven't got that bad yet but it could happen depending on how long this goes on, and there is no toilet paper or cleaning supplies to be found anywhere apparently! The hubby has been really happy that I use the 5 gallon bucket system of food storage!  Read about that here - don't get caught without in the next crises! 

Here is part of my bucket system - along with a crock pot and a smallish bag of flour that needs to go in the flour bucket!

If you have been a regular reader you know that I work at a Junior Senior High school, and currently our school is closed to children and will be for at least a few weeks more.  We are working on solutions for distance learning with a large group of people, some of whom don't have internet even, as well as how to feed that group of kids who rely on the school meals to make it through a week on limited budgets!  We will have days where our social distancing will not be an option, and where we will have to have people in close proximity to us.  We are doing everything we can to minimize exposure and maximize customer service in our building, and in our businesses as well!

I always have wet ones, or wet wipes on hand as well as those little personal packs of tissues to hand out to whomever needs one (thanks Mom!).  I have not however, been a fan of hand sanitizer.  It has a funky commercial chemical smell that does not please my nose, makes me want to barf,  and makes me cringe to even see people use, especially kids with their sensitive little skins.  Enter Nana - my mom.  Making her own hand sanitizer and sharing the recipe with us - and anyone she knows.  SO I am passing along the good fortune and sharing it with you!

Home Made Hand Sanitizer

2/3 C alcohol - ever clear works if they are sold out of rubbing (no flavors)

1/3 C Aloe Gel - I only had the after sun kind which already has alcohol in it so my batch is very strong!  Use plain if you can - not the after sun.

5 drops of Tea Tree oil (Melaleuca)***

5 drops of lavender oil

*** I used the 4 thieves oil blend in mine and also a few drops of Purify blend instead of the Tea Tree.

Mix it up (I used the glass jar with plastic lid to mix and store) then put it in a spray bottle or a pump (empty lotion or pump soap bottle) and then use when you need it!

Here is one of the great things about this stuff - it is easier on your hands and skin, and you can use it to sanitize just about anything!  I use it on my counters at work with no problem and I have also used baby wipes and put this stuff in the wipe package to make sanitizing wipes!  You know, for when the hoarders got to the store before you could!  It works great!

In case you can't find wipes in your store either, you can make those too using paper towels, baby oil, baby soap and water.  Cut a roll of paper towels in half so the round stays intact. You can also use a stack of the fancy paper napkins if you can't get paper towels.   Mix up;

2 C warm water

2 Tbsp Baby wash

1 Tbsp Baby oil

Put one of the paper towel roll halves in an empty coffee tub (like a folgers plastic tub) or in a tupperware or Ziploc tub - you get the idea - and pour your solution over the top.  Put the lid on and let soak for an hour then turn upside down and let soak for an hour.  Take the cardboard roll out of the middle and pull your wipes out the middle of the roll.  Save the other half roll for another batch later! 

If you can't get paper towels - coffee filters will work as well!  Not quite as soft but still work great!

You're all set!

I hope that you all can stay well and happy and can connect with your family and your creativity during this crazy time in our world.  

May you be blessed with good friends, great communities, and sharing neighbors.

Slainte'