Gearing up for the holidays

I have been so busy! We are gearing up for the holidays at the booth. People are already asking for holiday soap.

Not only is the booth busier, but a lot of what we are selling is stuff we make in the soap room here in Mishawaka. Bath Bombs are back. I haven't made them for a couple of years, but with Christina helping out in the soap room, I put them back on the schedule. We made three of the scents last week - Patchouli & Jasmine, Herbal Medley (clary sage & lemon eucalyptus), and Applejack & Orange Peel, my personal favorite. You can order bath bombs at my new web site. Not all sizes and shapes are available at all times, but we are happy to send you a list of what is in inventory. They are on my new web site. I have included a modest shipping cost in the price of all my items, so there are no surprises at checkout. The price you see is the price you will pay, delivery included. Here is my new web site address: ceresandco.com

I started making shampoo bars for a friend of mine who brought me a recipe and asked if I could do it. Yes, I could. Since I am used to making goat milk soap, there was a bit of a learning curve, but I think I've got it. The formula works in my 3-D molds, too. These aren't up on my site yet, but I'm working on it! Adding new items every day.

My new order of men's shaving brushes and brush stands went to the wrong address, not once but twice. Las Vegas warehouse to Walkerton, back to Las Vegas ware house, and BACK TO WALKERTON! I have purged that address from their system. They have sent me at least two orders to the correct address since I moved, but . . .  So I am down to one shaving brush and no stands. Sale of men's products has been pretty good since we moved things around on the booth. Christina came in to the market and we worked together to increase visibility of the skin care products. Sales have increased as a result. :)

Much as I love this time of year (I'm a fall and winter person), it gets a little hectic, so back to work.

3-D bars and shampoo bars

Last of the bath bombs waiting to be wrapped

The BIG BAR mold for shampoo bars - ready to go

Starting things - and finishing things

My counter top is full of projects. A week ago, I started a new batch of fermented mustard pickles. They can be jarred this Friday. Same day, I started a jar of sauerkraut. Forgot to put in juniper berries, but I will do that with my next batch. I'm eating my last quart from last year right now, so this is perfect timing, although sauerkraut just keeps tasting better with time. But even "new" kraut is better than the store bought stuff.

Fermenting kraut and mustard pickles

My two bowls of poolish are doing their thing - flour, water and a pinch of yeast. It will sit until this evening. I give it 12 hours, by which time I'll see lots of bubbles and it will smell divine! Then it will get mixed into my bread dough. The dough will do a slow rise in fridge until I take it out at 5:00 tomorrow morning to make 15 baguettes for Garden Patch Market.

By tonight, it will be spongy and full of bubbles.

I made buckwheat pancakes for breakfast this morning and realized the jar of homemade sprouted buckwheat flour is getting kind of low. So more buckwheat was soaked this morning, then will be rinsed and drained daily until I see plenty of sprouts. Then it goes into the dehydrator for a few hours and is ground into flour for my beloved buckwheat pancakes. I mix it half and half with my low carb baking mix. Sprouting the grain gets rid of a few carbs, so my diet can tolerate a plate of buckwheat pancakes once every week or two, especially after a really intense workout at the gym.

Buckwheat groats soaked and set to sprout

I make kefir for a couple of people and have a delivery tomorrow, so the milk is sitting on the counter, with kefir grains added. By tonight it should be just right. I'll bottle it and take with me to market tomorrow.

By tomorrow morning, it will be thick, creamy kefir made with A2 milk - high nutrients

One of my customers loves my sourdough rye bread (only leavening in the bread dough is yeast that I caught in my kitchen when I moved here three years ago), and the jar of sourdough came out of the fridge for a hefty feeding so that I will have enough to do a recipe for two loaves tomorrow and Friday. Yes, that's right - it takes at least two days to make my sourdough rye bread, but it's worth the wait. He will be at market Saturday to pick up his loaf, and there will be two half loaves for sale along side the French baguettes. Those two breads are at the opposite ends of the bread spectrum, let me tell you, but both mighty fine.

I can already see some bubbles forming!

Last but not least, I'm making Easy Slow Cooker Lemon Custard, a low carb recipe with liquid stevia, fresh lemon juice and rind, egg yolks and heavy cream. It is in my slow cooker in a water bath for three hours. First time I've made it. Hope it turns out well.

Organic lemons, organic egg yolks, heavy cream, a little stevia for sweetening. 

Once a month, my minister and I have dinner here together and talk over church business.  I'm president of the board this year, and we seem to accumulate a few knotty issues that need some extra attention each month. Tonight's the night. He will just have to put up with my low carb stuff - although he is bringing the appetizers, his choice. Menu: Rev. Chip's appetizers, sweet red peppers stuffed with cauli-rice smothered in meat and tomato sauce, sautéed beans with garlic and cherry tomato cream sauce, and the lemon custards for dessert.

Well, back to work. Christina will be here to work in the soap room in an hour, and I have to get the work schedule together, get labels printed, jars set out, etc. so that we make the best use of our time today. In three hours, we put out a LOT of product!

Cleaning up the gardens

I'm cleaning up the flower beds one last time for the season. Busy, but such soothing work. There is a lovely fall breeze. Even though Mabon, the fall equinox, hasn't yet arrived, there is definitely a change in the weather. Even the air smells different.

Front of house is done. I'm going to take a little rest, then head back to the rose garden. It will get its own blog entry, of course! LOL

Fall flowers in the front stoop planters

Zinnias, such a beautiful red! The mum to the right blooms rust brown. Getting so big! Time to divide.

Yes, I grow potatoes in my foundation plantings. It's my thing.

Culinary sage. This is a spectacular plant! Giving away the trimmings at market this week.

English ivy got another haircut today. If you don't mind the extra care, it is a great ground cover.

The yarrow. Looking sad after several harvests for the soap room this year. But it will be back!

Were there really that many weeds?

Sage bush trimmings - going to market. Stop by. It's free!

Cosmos were really looking sad. So they are on their way to the compost heap. Still useful in their own way.

New bread baking process this morning!

WOW!!

Well, I used my couche, bread flipper and burn prevention gloves for the first time this morning. Oh, WOW! I cannot believe how beautiful the bread is turning out.

I am a bit clumsy with flipping the loaves directly onto the baking stone, and I made the first five loaves a little too long. One of them has a bent tip where it was too long for the baking stone.

The texture is unbelievable! Take a look at these pics.

Loaves rising in the couche

Loaves baking directly on baking stone - no pans anymore!

First loaves out of the oven - 10 more to go

Look at the crumb, the texture - perfection! 

My gardens and my kitchen

The rose garden is all I hoped for. It's in need of a thorough weeding today, but that is pure pleasure. An hour spent, and it will be spotless again! I moved some ground cover from the foundation plantings in front of the house, will move some more down there today. It will make the job easier when there is not so much bare soil.

I bought lacewing eggs and ladybugs. The ladybugs didn't hang around long but I think they wiped out the aphids before they went. Roses are looking better. Haven't seen a lacewing yet.

Every few days I pick a bouquet of herbs, and hopefully there will be a new rose blooming. They look so beautiful on my counter, and I love having the fresh herbs at hand. I use them more when I don't have to stop and run outside with the scissors to cut them while I'm cooking.

The rose garden

They smell as good as they look.

Roses, herbs and mixed bouquet

Picked new herbs this morning

And speaking of cooking, my bread baking will be quite exciting this week. I finally, after years of using old beat up baguette pans, have purchased a couche, from France no less. So I will be forming my loaves using the couche, which is a heavy linen cloth. It is laid out, then bunched up every few inches to form troughs. The formed loaves are laid in the troughs to rise. I bought the flipping board too, so that I can flip the formed loaves onto the board and use it to take the loaves to the baking stone in my oven. They will be baked directly on the stone, and it should mean even better crusts. And while I was at it, I bought some really good oven gloves. Really tired of the burns on my hands and wrists!

The new equipment

So that's what has been happening in Susie's gardens and kitchen. Life is good.

Why I was late to the market AGAIN!

Jerry told me about these wonderful pickles his mother made called mustard pickles. They were made in a crock, fermented for ten days, and then could be kept in a cool dark place without refrigeration for up to a year. My kind of pickle!

My one and only invention is my Easy Peasy Fermenting Jar. I originally called it my Suze Goldberg Pickling Jar, since one of my nicknames is Suze, and I put it together from odds and ends in my kitchen. But given the history of Rube Goldberg inventions, it may have given the impression that it would be unnecessarily complex. My jar is simple and it works! So I renamed it to reflect how easy it makes what was kind of a messy job.

I had several crocks and used them to make my own pickles. But even with a weighted plate on the pickles, skimming of mold was required. It was messy. There was a fermenting jar for sale on the internet - $30 plus shipping and no mold to deal with. It had a unique jar that, if broken, cost $20 (and shipping) to replace. I could do better than that. I am a frugal person.

I rooted through my cupboards and found a half gallon wide mouth canning jar, big enough to hold large head of cabbage if fermenting sauerkraut. Two of them would hold a half peck of pickling cukes. Perfect!

The trick to stopping mold is to keep the oxygen out of the process. The on-line pickling jar had a looped straw in the lid to allow any gasses to escape, and the lid screwed on tight to keep out air. So how would I keep the air out of my jar? No matter how full I filled it with my salt water, there was sure to be a small amount of air trapped in the top when I screwed the lid on. And a tight lid plus a build up of gases could actually cause the jar to explode.

I did some more rooting and found the perfect insert - a very small soufflé cup that we had used in my restaurant. It fit firmly into the neck of the jar and had straight sides. I filled the jar with pickles, spices, oak leaves for tannin, and salt water, making sure that the insert fit completely into the neck. When I inserted it, with the jar in a shallow bowl, a little of the saltwater spilled out. This meant that there was no air in that jar! The insert was heavy enough to keep the pickles under the salt water, and light enough that if gases accumulated, it would allow them to escape. You can always add a bit more saltwater if there are too many burps, which could allow a little air into the jar.

Suze's Easy Peasy Fermenting Jar at work

In five days, you will have tremendous dill pickles. In a week, you will have mighty fine sauerkraut. In ten days you will have mustard pickles. However I can't attest to how good they will taste because the reason I was late today is because I was making my first ever batch of Mustard Pickles. We will see. (Update: August 11, 2017 - decanted the pickles. They are fantastic!)

Today's Mustard Pickles. Will be ready August 11, 2017.

The rose garden

I got a couple of buds from the plant that the company is replacing before it bites the dust. Appears to have been damaged in shipping. The stems were misshapen, and they were not suitable for a bud vase.

Tonight, I clipped my first rose for a bud vase. It is sitting beside me. Wonderful fragrance! The company tells me the buds will be bigger as the plant matures, but I am quite happy right now. The color is all I expected, and the scent -- oh, the scent!

Here is English Miss, the first proper rose from my new rose garden. I am very happy indeed!

July 13, 2017 - English Miss