So Much for "Re-Surfacing"

It's been over 4 months since my last post! Sorry.
Sometimes different things in life gain and wane in their priority.

One thing I would like to share is about personal health.
At the one year (on April 30) anniversary of my brain surgery, I'm taking my internal health into my own hands.

After much research on the subject, I'm going to attempt what's known as a Master Cleanse.
It's a liquid diet for 10 days (plus 3 days prep on the front end and 3 days easing out on the back end) designed to clean out the entire system.

I'll try very hard to make it through the whole thing--but commit at least to listen to my body and take it day-by-day. I expect some hunger, some "sick" symptoms, a little irritability followed by excess energy, clarity and an overall better habit of food choices. Oh and a nice by-product is weight loss. We'll see what really happens ;)

I'll attempt to make a note or two in the comment section as to the progress...sans the gory details, of course.
Stay tuned...

Sarah

Re-surfacing

Greetings!

I've come up for air. The holiday rush is dying down and I can once again resume blog-ness. It was a very busy season at AV Framing--thank heavens! I hope the same for all the other independent frame shops and local businesses.

As a self-proclaimed "Jeffersonian", I believe each individual should, at some point in their lives, own and operate their own business. Trading your dollars locally, keeps the revenue in your own community. It literally multiplies the value of the money. For instance, when you go to Starbucks for your coffee, that $5 goes off to God-knows-where. But when you spend your $5 at B-Java here in Indianapolis, BJ will deposit that, combine it with others and reinvest it in her own business...or pay herself and her employees, perhaps purchasing your goods too. In turns, several of us small business owners might touch that $5 as it passes through our accounts.

Indianapolis is doing alright these days--not great. Due to an influx of Super Bowl 2012 money and the general poor health of its residents, there are lots of building cranes around town...mostly for hospitals. But a quick drive through the city center reveals when this was a boom-town. In the first couple decades of the last century, Indianapolis was wealthy--very wealthy. There was local industry, sure. But what Brian and I contend is that there was also a small local business on every corner. Those shopkeepers turned those $5 into beautiful homes and neighborhoods. They built the city, in essence. We live in one of those homes still.

So I was emboldened by locally-spending clients this year and I shall move that money around to other local businesses like:
Pogues Run Grocer (Indianapolis' only food co-op)
B-Java Coffee and Tea
Indy Winter Farm Market
La Parada
Sunset Acres Farm
...and many more

There's my economic re-surfacing advice. Stay away from Walmart and Starbucks and Target and the giant bank-du-jour. They will take your money out of your community and save it all for themselves. Therefore, it doesn't really pay you to save a couple bucks at a big box store. It actually costs the community you live in.

Thus concludes the soapbox speech.
Thank you (bows)

Sarah

Cookin' Day! Custard Pie

So Brian didn't stop at biscuits and soup--oh no!
He went completely insane and made pie crust (since we had a flour-covered counter)!






Then he whipped up a positively perfect custard with our raw milk, raw cream, homemade butter and little golden eggies from our girls--mmmm.

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Few foods can make me cry, but this did it! I thought of my grandmother and her custard pie and got misty. It was scrumptious!

Cookin' Day! In the pots

While those buttermilk biscuits were working, we started the usual chicken/veggie soup for his folks' Tuesday din-din. This is the yummy stock after the chicken (leg quarters, in this case) boiled for a few hours with celery, onion and seasonings.


Meanwhile, I had a craving for red beans and rice. So I soaked a pound of beans overnight and started them on the stove in the am with a beautiful ham hock, onion, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, crushed fennel/caraway/cinnamon...and cooked for hours. Over basmati, it was a DREAM!


And the dehydrator was running with some older winesaps and organic cranberries. When fruit gets old--dry it out! Or you can give it to the chickens--who go NUTS!

Cookin' Day! Buttermilk Biscuits

We tend to do all sorts of chores on Sundays. If you've read some of this blog before, you know that we lead an odd lifestyle--a little more old-timey than most folks these days. So our cooking is generally from scratch.

Really scratch...like making our own butter. That's another post.


Yesterday, Brian awoke with a mission from the baking gods! He started the day by making buttermilk biscuits. While he mixed the dough, I buttered and floured a juice glass for cutting.

Here's the final results--delish with my homemade apple butter. How Hoosier!

Washington Post Weighs in on "Good Food"

Interesting article about keeping "good food" accessible and affordable. Steps to take to accomplish what many want!

What are YOUR thoughts? Elitist or Practical?

Sarah

Can't Eat Helathy for Cheap, eh?

I beg to differ!

I'm starting a series on how to eat healthy and local for cheap. Heres the criteria:

* must be more than 70% locally-grown/produced ingredients
* either seasonal or preserved from fresh in season
* reasonable portion sizes -- not like your local restaurant "trough-size" portions
* recipes are generally for two as that's our household, so multiply to feed more, but serving cost is same.
* I'll include where I sourced the ingredients, so you can find them too!


Today's Local -- Pulled pork with Kale
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Ingredients:

* 1/2 container of pulled pork and separate bbq sauce (from IWFM, $10 full, $5 for 1/2)
* 1 onion, sliced (Cumberland Farm Market, $.30)
* 4 cloves of garlic, smashed (Cumberland FM, $.25)
* 1/2 bunch of fresh Kale (IWFM, $3, $1.50 for 1/2)
* EVOO for saute and spice (Trader Joe's, organic EVOO, and Sweet Curry from Penzy's)

Saute onions until translucent with the diced ribs of the kale--about 8 min.
Add garlic, and pulled pork, until onion is browned and pork is heated through--about 5 min.
Add kale leaves coarsely chopped until soft--about 5 min.
Season with some of the bbq sauce, salt/pepper/seasoning of your choice.
Enjoy!

This meal cost about $7.20, so $3.60 per serving. We were both hungry and finished full, but not loaded.

Sarah

Viewing Art on a Computer?

I just opened the very first VIRTUAL Fine Art Show on the website!
"Vibrant Views", recent paintings by Janet Skinner. Ms. Skinner has taken her view of the macro plant world and transformed it into saturated colors from her own perspective, rich with texture and life. I have been a fan of her work for some time now, and am delighted to present it in this format.

It's got me thinking about what it means to view art on a computer, particularly non-computer generated art. Is it an end unto itself? Is it more convenient? Is it flat? Is it exciting?

I don't know the answers to these questions. Can you help? We could start a discussion about this topic. Feel free to share your thoughts. I do not moderate comments...anything goes. But if it's rude, crude and socially unacceptable, I'll remove it ;)

Back in the spring, the Indianapolis Star (I would link to the article, but they purged the link) got interested in the closure of the physical gallery space in Fountain Square--where I had been showing art for 3 years. They were interested in the whole downsizing model of a business needing to close and looking for another option. In this case, when I was healthy enough to re-open, I knew it would look and feel very different. That's when the idea of a VIRTUAL art gallery and MOBILE frame shop was born.

There were several people interviewed and many supporters. In the article, the Dean of Herron School of Art and Design, however, said that art should not be viewed on a computer. That it should be felt and seen in person...lived with (I'm paraphrasing). I completely agree! The hope, of course, is that a viewer is moved by a piece and decides to purchase it and hang it in their home or office to enjoy everyday! So then, what of this interim VIRTUAL model? Where will it go--I don't know. But I'm enjoying the journey.

What are YOUR thoughts?

Sarah

New Chicken BLog

Found this super-fun blog while researching how to use kelp meal and alfalfa as feed supplements for the Girls.
Good stuff!

Sarah

Michael and Madeleine

If you are in Indianapolis today, you can hear Michael Pollan and Madeleine Albright. This is so great! What a wonderful city to live it!

However, they are speaking at the exact same time (noon) at different venues. Michael Pollan will be at the Scottish Rite Cathedral downtown for the Spirit and Place Festival, and Secretary Albright will appear at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in support of a new exhibit of her pins.

Had I not already purchased one ticket, I would have had a VERY difficult time deciding. On the one hand is a tremendously intelligent and influential woman--a role-model to me. On the other, the figurehead for my current passion--local, sustainable food for everyone. Which one of these?

I bought my (cheap $15 balcony) ticket for Michael Pollan before I knew about Ms. Albright. So that's done for me. But still...

If you are attending Mr. Pollan's discussion, please feel free to meet me at the shop (Senate and St. Clair--SE corner). There's plenty of free parking, or if you are on foot or biking it, I'm just a half block north of the Cultural Trail where it meets Senate! We can walk over together!

Sarah

Knitting again

I stumbled upon this wonderful blog by a woman trying her best to live sustainably. She wrote about "an obsession with kerchiefs", which I simply MUST try to use up some of the yummy-but-oh-so-tiny amounts of yarn in my bulging yarn box!

Here's my first pattern to try--looks quite simple!
Pictures, IF they turn out nicely.

Sarah

Puttin' Up the Harvest

I swore I would NOT go anywhere this weekend (broke that promise to myself by dashing into work to cut two emergency mats for an artist/client) so we could cross off all the things on the TO DO list!

Brian got an early start by renting the big tiller and chewing up the garden soil. Then he went and picked up another rik of wood--that's now the 9th, 3 more to go for winter.

The burn ban was lifted in our county after a nice, and well-deserved storm. So we burned what we had cut down in the middle of the garden. That will be tilled back in and then the whole garden gets a nice heavy blanket of chopped maple leaves for the winter. Although the chickens are sure to make a mess of all that ;)

Today, on the inside, I will be:
* cutting and freezing the last pepper harvest
* cutting and dehydrating the baby peppers
* cutting and dehydrating apples
* figuring out something to do with all those yummy beets
* juicing and freezing the last tomato harvest
* making butter
* re-arranging the freezer

Plus the usual Sunday chores of laundry, cleaning the hen house, composting, cooking for the week.
I'm getting OFF the computer and getting busy!

Sarah

Don't Mess with the Hormones

Today, I forgot to take the afternoon hormone until 3:30pm.
Not good.
It didn't help that I had met a friend, artist Carmen Hurt, for lunch at the Mass Ave. Wine Shoppe...a wonderful establishment run by Jill Ditmire. So naturally, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to sit outside on a warm fall day with Carmen, a nice sandwich and a glass of Carmenere.

Combine the two--no hormone and a glass of vino with lunch and...

I had to leave early, before 5:00, and when I got home, had enough energy to put down the purse and laptop and collapse on the couch.
For an hour and a half :( Then made myself get up to lock up the chickens for the night and start a fire. But I didn't roast that thawed chicken as planned.

*sigh*

I've got to get this pill thing under control. I'm not used to taking them, nor am I happy about it. But the pituitary is toast.

Sarah
P.S. I'm sure tomorrow I'll write a positive post.

PPFA Indiana

We just finished our Fall Framing Fest 2010 this afternoon with a docent led tour at the IMA of the American and European Galleries--with an eye for picture frames. Our docent, Susie, was great! She had an armload of research with her and gave us some very interesting information.

Stuart Altschuler, owner of Prestige Framing Academy, flew in from the east coast to help us with our print competition (yippee, I won the Open Competition), share information from the PPFA national board and teach us all about enhancing our web presence! It was very informative--Stuart really knows his stuff!

We all got a chance to catch up over a yummy lunch sponsored by Larson-Juhl and Lifesaver. And afterward, last night a few of us enjoyed lively conversation and dinner at The Marker.

Now I come back down to earth to clean up chicken poo and finish the laundry--never a dull moment around here ;)

Sarah

One Less Hen :(

We lost one of our girls today. Still have no idea why. Just noticed this morning all is well and this afternoon she was sleeping in one of the nest boxes...floppy comb and listless.

I separated her form the others as chickens are notoriously mean to an ill mate, plus I didn't know if she was contagious. So she sat in a little cat crate while I did an exhaustive search on line about what might be wrong with her.

Brian got home and we stacked another rik of wood which takes about 45 minutes. When we finished she was already dead, stiff and cooling....poor little thing.

The others seem perfectly fine. But so did she yesterday!
I'm still trying to find out what happened. I'll post a comment when I have an answer from the Backyard Chicken Forum.

In the meantime, I'm digging an enormous hole in the compost area--off limits to the other chickens. Plus she'll have all winter to decompose before using any compost on the garden.

Sadly,
Sarah

Which Came First?

Chickens and Eggs:

If you are in Indianapolis and are interested, we have a couple of offerings.

1) We are selling our eggies (lovely little brown free-range, cage-free, organic yummies) for $1.50/half dozen or $3.00/dozen -- just to pay for organic chicken feed. Our girls are always hungry! They are still about a Grade A medium to large size. But they are getting bigger by the week!

2) Our Amish co-op is placing its quarterly fresh chicken order. You order whole or parts from me and I deliver it fresh same day it's processed. Processor is Miller. Good stuff, far less expensive than nasty grocery store chicken and it's CLEAN! Let me know this weekend.

Sarah

The stack

Encroachment of wood...that's what we have on the porch this time of year. We are in the thick of the wood stack.

We heat with wood (almost) exclusively, save a little in furnace in the basement, when the mercury dips to the single digits, to keep the wood floors a bit warmer. So we stack between 3 cords (stinks, not enough) to 4 cords (more work, and have wood for outdoor fires). This year it's one rik (3 riks = 1 cord) at a time in a giant bag. Think Polar Express ginormous Santa bag. Twelve riks. That's a lotsa stacking, but doing only a rik at a time, it's much easier on our aging backs.
We still stubbornly hang on to the summer porch though! Even as we only barely have room for a smaller table, two chairs and our loungers, we still insist on it! After all, it's 80-some degrees out today! Sarah

The Card

I used to violently rip up and destroy the mailings Brian got a decade or so ago. After all, I was in my mid-thirties. I didn't have a boyfriend deserving of an AARP mailing! He wasn't even 50 yet! SHEESH!

And last week, it happened.
I got the envelope--with MY name on it. I'm not 50 yet either. But this time I'm thinking...

...well, there is a 10% discount, right?

Sarah

Thanks Pop!

This is the Really Big Painting. Thanks for all your help stretching and framing, to my Pop, Roger Adams!

Sarah

Framing, Farming and Fate: That's a Really BIG Canvas!

http://avframinggallery.com/home.html