Ultimate Upcycle - Outgrown the Bunk Beds!

Since we have moved into the house here at Wicked Raven Farm back in 2005, the youngest has had an "L" shaped bunk bed set with twin beds and built in dressers.  The bottom bunk had head and foot boards and the top bunk was held up by the dresser on one side and a desk on the other side.  It was a great system for boys who like to build forts, hideouts and have a "high up" Nerf shooting station to hide and wait for his victims!  This year though - he outgrew the bunk beds!  No matter how he tried to sleep on those twin beds he ended up with a leg cramp or a dead leg from having it through the end or off the side of the bed.   So we moved on up to a full sized bed for him.  It is perfect!

The problem though is that we are still using the dresser and the desk from the set, but we didn't have as much use for the headboard, foot board and the ladder that went with them - that is until I had to pick up another hat, tripped on another fishing pole and got tangled up in a compound bow while trying to get to a load of laundry!

 
 

So for the compound bow that belongs to the older child (20 so not really a child) and for his hats, I used the ladder from the bunks and added some small hat hooks and a set of center hooks to hold the bow.   The hat hooks will also hold bow accessories!  Then I used the 90 degree angle fasteners with two screw holes to fasten the ladder securely to the wall.  Looks great and works like a charm to keep those things off the floor and out from under my feet!  It could also be used for fishing poles, guns (using bigger hooks) or as a coat rack and its a real space saver as well!

 

For the youngest child (13) I used the head and foot boards from the bunk and the hooks pictured above to make racks for holding his hats, fishing poles and backpacks full of fishing gear as well!

I measured how far between the hooks needed to be so that the poles could hang with the reels on them and not get tangled up and then I divided the board evenly by that number and screwed the hooks on each side.

 Most of the work I did in the greenhouse as I chose this as one of my "rainy day" projects, and that is where I hide my tools so I can find them when I need them!

 

These pieces worked well since I was able to utilize the wasted space behind a bedroom door for fishing poles and gear.  The rack is the perfect thickness to fit behind the door and not get dinged up when it opens, and it doesn't knock the hats and fishing poles off either! 

 

Each rack can hold 5 fishing poles and any number of hats as well as fishing gear packs!

If we had used a wider stance hook we could also use these to hold guns for storage as well!

These can be moved easily, they are lightweight so they do minimal wall damage, and they could be painted to match any décor.  Take a new look at that bedframe you have stored in the garage and see if you can't upcycle it into a valuable piece of space saving utility furniture!  Have fun!

Vim and Vinegar - Round 2!

In an earlier blog I promised you another round of vinegar infusion and here it is!  Tarragon is one of the herbs that thrives on the farm (see above for "Whats thriving on the farm" tab).  It's not one that lends itself to being easy to cook with however as the flavor is very strong and it is easy to overwhelm your dish with this herb.  It was a recent basket ingredient on Chopped!  I like to use it as an infusion herb for this reason.

Tarragon grows easily here on the farm and seems not to mind wet, dry or poor soils.  It grows to about three feet tall here and when crushed with the hand you can smell it from a long way away for a long time.  I have also planted this around my apple and other fruit trees with great success - the moose tend to avoid those trees with the Tarragon planted around them.

Ginger Tarragon Vinegar infusion

for the size of bottle shown above

3 large sprigs of Tarragon

5 fresh ginger nodes (the little finger parts on the sides of the root)

Enough white vinegar to fill the bottle.

Mix all of the above in your bottle and store in a cool dark cupboard, shaking occasionally.  This product should be ready to use within 2 weeks.

It is a beautiful infusion and can be used in many sauces and marinades.

 

Bar B Q London Broil

For a 4 lb London Broil

 

2 C. Ketchup

1/2 C prepared mustard

3 cloves of smashed garlic (more if garlic makes you happy as it does us)

1/4 C light olive oil

1/2 C Ginger Tarragon Vinegar

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp onion powder

 

Mix all together and pour over the raw london broil (sometimes I use a Ziploc bag for this part).  Let marinade for at least two hours or overnight if possible.  Cook on medium grill heat for 15 minutes, turn, baste with sauce, cook 15 more minutes and repeat until to your desired doneness.  Enjoy!

Houston High and the Great Potato Project Part II - The Great Harvest

If you havent read the first part of the Houston High School and the Great Potato Project - please see the post from August 7, 2013 so you can have all the details!

We planted 36 potatoes in 4 pallet bins, and nurtured them through some crazy events and weather!  We had two bins that we had to restart due to people filling them with rocks or putting their children in them seeming to use them as a "potatoe bin babysitter".  Last Monday the students and two of the teachers went out and harvested what was there - it was not nearly as much as we expected or desired, but we all learned a lot and the kids seemed to love the whole process and they learned a lot and had some super fresh produce to cook in the culinary arts class!

9:00 am and yes it is just getting light!  The kids are listening to a short lecture about potato care from Culinary arts instructor Mat Bredburg (you can see him at the very back of the group with the light green shirt on - the tallest one there).  They haven't turned over any bins yet.

Bin one has been turned over and the kids are getting some spuds out.  All total we only got about 10 pounds (we expected at least 30), but the kids were happy to get something and they had fun doing it.

Mr. Wagoner our Yearbook and Business instructor is leaving no spade unturned and will made sure every last spud is harvested!  Way to go Wags!

We will be setting aside the bins intact and using them next year.  We plan to ask for some help from the garden community locally and start a garden club of some type at the school as well as do some more soil supplementation, we are looking to increase our production for next year.

This is the second group of students to go out and harvest - we had two culinary arts classes and the yearbook class that went out during two different class times - so one class got to harvest in brighter daylight!

 

We arent sure why the production was so low.  A number of factors could be involved and I think the top three reasons are (1)  the soil that came out from under the football field that we started with was very compacted and probably didnt have any nutrients left, and when it got hit with water it would super-compact again, stunting our growth, (2) the weather went from blazing hot to very cool in a short space of time and (3) it is possible we had some seed that was not in the first 3 generations and therefore was weak seed.  Next year we plan to try to get some first gen seed and see if we dont have better success.

 

I have talked to numerous farmers throughout our Valley and many of them had the same problem with production that we did - we were not alone - not that it makes us feel any better - just doesnt make us feel worse!

 

The school has a number of staff and students on board with this project and we plan to plant as early as possible next year - hopefully during the school year so the students in the Culinary arts, biology, and ecology classes can participate in the planting process.  This year it snowed 6" the day before school got out so we didnt get to plant with the students there. 

 

There are a couple of other schools in Aalska that have these types of gardens including Huffman Elementary in Anchorage (they have a much larger garden than ours right now) whose students harvested 1500 pounds of potatoes to donate to the local food bank!  Way to go Huffman - Way to make a difference! View their project here:  http://www.adn.com/2013/09/27/3097974/huffman-potato-harvest-2013.html

 

Overall this project was a very simple way to teach kids and grownups how to grow and treat some of their own food and I hope everyone tries to do this in their community or at their school!  Have fun with it!

 

 

 

 

Winter Came Early - A Green Tomato Blog

It snowed here in our little burg today - that means that summer is over and winter has officially begun!  Since I was not able to upgrade the solar system to run the tiny fireplace in the greenhouse, that means that I have lots of green tomatoes that were not able to ripen before the snows and cold came.

So - what do you do with green tomatoes?  I know everyone has heard of fried green tomatoes and we probably all have a recipe for them, but what about the ones that arent that big, or dont lend themselvs to frying?  How about some green tomato relish?  I made it over the weekend and it is yummy!

Start with your green tomatoes (I used more than this but forgot to take a picture of the whole pile), do a fine dice on them until you have about 2 cups.  Place them in a stock pot and

dice finely 1/4 white onion and 1 medium red pepper (I used a small tabasco for some heat)

Add 1/2 C, Cider vinegar and 1/2 C. brown sugar, 1 Tbsp mustard seed, 1 Tbsp coarase salt ( I used a Spanish Sea Salt), and 1 tsp black pepper.

Cook over medium heat and simmer until almost all of the moisture is gone.   It may seem like it is gelling a little and that is ok.  You can certainly make more if you have enough tomatoes - doouble or triple the recipe works fine!

Place in small jars and water bath can for 10 minutes or if you will be using it immediately store in the fridge for up to two weeks.  Enjoy!