October, 2014 | KW Homestead

Month: October 2014 (page 2 of 3)

Kuska Wiñasun Homestead is on Facebook! (Finally)

October 17, 2014 / jason / Comments Off

Well, the loyal readers and followers of our ochre way have asked us many times to get on facebook and we finally listened. That’s right, we are on facebook! This is one of the many upcoming changes that we will be implementing in the next few months, so friend us at https://www.facebook.com/ourochreway to stay on top of everything and not miss a thing.

Also, we’d like to thank everyone who has read our blog, left a comment, shared a post, or linked to us or one of our youtube videos. It means the world to us, and we hope to bring you more homestead adventures, thoughts and recipes in the future. A special thank you goes out to all those who have supported Kuska Wiñasun Homestead and shopped on amazon after clicking through our affiliate link.

Thank you all so much! Stay tuned for more exciting developments, and be sure to follow us on facebook!

the complete history of our ochre way!

October 15, 2014 / Emma / 2 Comments

this is a recording/podcast that i recorded in march of this year! it details the history of our ochre way, kuska wiñasun homestead, and the jason and emma partnership that just became a legal one!

click on the link below to hear the details!

A History of Our Ochre Way

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dr. seuss flowers: cosmos flowers are saving the bees!

October 14, 2014 / Emma / 1 Comment

this spring we placed a few old tires at the end of our beds to help block the hose from dragging over our crops while we walk around watering.

we filled these tires with dirt and in two of them, we planted a “save the bees” flower mix, planting sweet potato slips in the other 2 tires. during mid and late summer these “save the bees” flowers really took off, particularly the cosmos flowers, which grew to be over 6 feet tall! most of the flowers are pink, and they were in full bloom right around the time of the wedding, which was nice. they are on their way out now, and i’ve been picking some periodically to enjoy them in a vase inside the house. i think they are fun, funky, and very dr. seuss-like! they don’t really have a smell and their stems are a little curvy and crooked at the top, but the bees sure love them. an added bonus: they have light green, hairy/fuzzy stems that make them look even more fantastical!

don’t they look like they are straight out of the lorax?

I recommend growing cosmos flowers to anyone who enjoys a fun, funky, colorful, bee-filled garden or yard!

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processing and freezing jalapeño, aji, and cayenne peppers

October 13, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

our peppers are still coming in strong and we just picked a lot of them to prepare for our first frost which usually comes in around this time. although our weather has been warmer than the norm for this time, we could have our first frost anytime in the next few weeks. last year our first frost was mid-october, so we’re getting ready for it!

many of our peppers were ready to be picked: red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, aji peppers, and cayenne peppers. the spicy peppers have certainly done better than our sweet bell peppers this year, which is fine with us. although we love eating sweet bell peppers in stir fries or in roasted dishes, our spicy peppers are easy to preserve and they are wonderful when added into soups in sauces throughout the winter. we still have a few “cubes” of jalapeño puree in the freezer, and it’s always nice to see that you have a surplus, even if it is just a surplus of 5 spicy ice cubes!

after we picked this batch of peppers, we rinsed them, and decided to process and preserve them separately. we have an awesome little food processor that fits about a cup of ingredients at a time, and it is great for processing little batches without much cleanup.

i began with the least spicy of peppers, realizing that if i began with the cayennes , all of my other batches would be equally spicy! so, jalapeños went in first, being chopped into quarters and tossed into the processor with some olive oil. once all of these peppers were pureed, i packed them into ice cube trays and stuck them in the freezer.

red and green jalapenos

after the jalapeños came the aji peppers, which are a little spicier and interestingly “empty” inside. let me explain… where green and red jalapeños are both very firm and meaty, aji peppers feel very flimsy and when cut open have such an open chamber inside that they resemble a smaller, wrinkly sweet bell peppers. after the aji peppers were processed, they were also added to the ice cube trays (taking up considerably less space than the jalapeños).

delicious aji peppers… introduced to us in peru!

after the aji peppers came the cayennes, and although i did my best, my fingers did start to burn after scooping out these pureed peppers and packing them into the trays. nothing like cayenne pepper juice to make your hands hot!

spicy cayennes

we filled up a little less than 2 ice cube trays, and oh, what a sight! the lovely green jalapeños (with some red flakes from the fully ripened red jalapeños), the carrot-orange aji peppers, and the bright red cayenne peppers make for lovely, colorful ice cubes. for now, if you include the other spicy peppers we’ve preserved so far, we’ve got a healthy store of spice for soups and sauce this winter!

jalapenos and aji peppers about to be turned into spicy ice cubes!

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cleaning a lion’s mane mushroom

October 10, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

and yet another post about the amazing lion’s mane mushroom!

check out this video to learn more about how to prepare your mushroom for dinner!

enjoy!
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Turtle in the Woods!

October 9, 2014 / jason / Comments Off

Fall is a great time to walk in the woods. Emma and I have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather to explore our woods and watch the seasons change. The acorn crop this year is a big one, and we have already harvested some wild lion’s mane mushrooms.

But today, I stumbled across a turtle. A cool, little box turtle was hanging out under the shade of a great oak tree and hung out for a few minutes while I snapped his picture.

homestead wedding tips: how to make your own fun, funky, and cheap food and cocktails tables!

October 8, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

our wedding was last weekend (wow! we can’t believe it’s already over!), and so much of what we accomplished was due to our re-usage of many things that we already had at our home. we were determined to get through or wedding without spending too much, and i think we were successful!

we had 2 parts to our wedding: a pre-reception here at our house that led right into the ceremony and a true reception at a separate location about 20 minutes from our house. we served snacks and beverages at our house before the ceremony, and wanted to have cocktail tables set around the yard near the garden beds for people to put their drinks on. we also decided that we wanted to put pictures of jason and i as kids on each table to encourage folks to move around the garden and see the different crops and areas of the yard.

first of all, we needed a table to use for serving the snacks, but we did not want to buy another folding table and the three folding tables that my parents were letting us borrow were already to be for the reception food and dessert tables. i remembered that a door that we took down from our upstairs hallway was being stored, unused in the basement. 4 high bar stools later and that same table laid down flat on top of the stools, we had a table! a sturdy, free table! add some bolts of fabric borrowed from my mom, this pieced-together table looked very presentable and very “us.”

photo by Jenny Tenney Photography

here is the table… back in the basement and without its table cloth

the cocktail tables were also simple and fun to make. we chose our prettiest 2 plastic rain barrels, turned them upside down, and added an old sign and an old table top that we found in our woods as we were cleaning up for the wedding! more fabric from the same bolt on top, and a lovely wooden vase made by my father to keep the fabric from blowing off just in case of wind, and you’ve got a unique and free cocktail table perfect for a homestead wedding!

photo by Jenny Tenney Photography

another table that held the water cooler and cups was really more bolts of fabric on top of an old washing machine! you never would have guessed!

needless to say… it is definitely possible to create tables and seats (more on this later!) from materials you have around your homestead. and, if you are anything like us, you’ll love making creative, memorable, and cheap surfaces for your wedding guests to use as tables!

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Lobster of the Woods: Cooking Lion’s Mane Mushroom

October 7, 2014 / jason / 6 Comments

After researching our lion’s mane mushroom find, Emma and I felt safe enough to harvest the mushrooms and eat them. But what is the best way to cook and enjoy a lion’s mane? Well it seems that the internet agrees that frying them in butter until browned is the best way to experience their delicate texture, and lobster like flavor. Sounds good to us!

Lion’s Mane Mushrooms are both a delicacy and a medicinal powerhouse

After cutting the mushrooms off close to the bark of the standing dead tree, we trimmed off some of the dirtier pieces, and shook off any remaining debris. We then sliced the mushrooms and started heating up some butter on the stove.

Sliced Lion’s Mane, ready to be fried in butter and garlic

To the melted butter we added a few cloves of chopped garlic to infuse a little more flavor into the dish. Once the butter was nice and hot, in went the sliced mushrooms.

The hairs crisp up, while the mushroom absorbs the butter! Yum!

We gave them a good fry on each side, and because the mushrooms are so absorbent and soaked up so much of the butter, we needed to add more butter to the pan.

Nice and browned, these lion’s mane mushrooms have a delicate seafoody flavor and amazing texture.

After about 3-5 minutes, it was time for the first taste test! Delicious! The lobster/scallop flavor was not as intense as I expected, but rather a subtle and interesting note. We figured out that the mushrooms had absorbed a little too much butter, and so we pressed some out of them with paper towels. This made a big difference and allowed us to experience more of the unique texture of the lion’s mane. It’s hard to explain, but the contrasts between the hairs, and the almost rubbery texture of the inside makes for an amazing culinary experience.

This batch was a little over. The hairs were very crisp, but the delicate flavor was overwhelmed.

We fried the mushrooms in batches, and our last batch was a little over done. Lesson learned, don’t overcook these mushrooms. The flavors and textures are subtle and delicate. Nothing more is needed than a quick saute, and a pinch of salt. Well, maybe a glass of wine too.

discovering lion’s mane mushrooms in our woods: a video

October 6, 2014 / Emma / Comments Off

as jason mentioned in his post yesterday, we’ve discovered two lion’s mane mushrooms growing wild in our woods, on a dead oak tree, overlooking the large pond and the gully.

here is the video that we filmed shortly after discovering this amazing find!

can’t wait to eat them! yum!

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A Great Woodland Surprise! The Lion’s Mane Mushroom

October 5, 2014 / jason / 2 Comments

Today in the woods, while walking the dog, emma and I stumbled across something great. It was there, perched on the side of a dying tree in our woods, 2 lion’s mane mushrooms in all their glory. Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus), was one the mushrooms we considered when we began our mushroom growing operation. Although we ended up deciding on growing shitake mushrooms on logs, the legendary buttery textured and lobster flavored lion’s mane was one we dearly wanted to try.

Lion’s mane mushroom growing on a standing dead tree in the wild

So, you can imagine or delight when emma saw these two white orbs growing out of the side of a tree. Our shitake logs are not yet fruiting and we’ve been itching to eat some mushrooms. We recognized the mushrooms as lion’s mane, but when it comes to mushrooms, you can never be too careful. We headed back t the house, and after consulting both the internet and a mushroom field guide. We learned that lion’s mane mushroom have no look-a-likes, and we were able to confirm these wonderful delicacy as safe and edible. This is very important if you ever consider foraging for mushrooms, the need to be 100 % certain before eating any wild mushroom.

the lion’s mane mushroom is very distinctive and doesn’t have any look-a-likes

We will be headed back out tomorrow to harvest these mushrooms, and will most likely saute them in butter with garlic, the method that seems to bring out their rich flavor the best. Stay tuned for updates, and keep your eyes peeled when you are out and about for edible delicacies!

KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013