Author: the untamed alchemist

Heading Off Paper Wasp, Yellowjacket & Hornet Populations

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While we are absolutely nature lovers on the farm, we are NOT fond of wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets making nests in our immediate area. They are more than mere annoyances with painful stings–they represent a real threat when my mom, who is allergic to all three, comes to visit.

anatomy of a waspWhile you aren’t likely to be truly bugged by stinging insects until the pinnacle of summer, NOW is the time to get a head start on keeping their summer populations down. Why?

Late winter and early spring are when the queens emerge. 

Wasp, hornet, and yellowjacket queens all hibernate in winter. Paper wasp queens emerge first, in late winter; with the first warm days of spring, hornet and yellow jacket queens return. Catching the queens now means reducing the number of nests you’ll have to contend with later in the year.

Placing attractants and traps out now for these stinging insects might not yield a large volume of insects in the trap, but the ones you catch just might be the most meaningful to your peaceful patio time later on! 

Making Mormor’s Rød Grød med Fløde

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As we approach our one-year anniversary in our Idahome, we are beginning to see some of the perennials at Five Element Farm come back for the first time. Daffodils are already trumpeting the return of the sun, tulips and hyacinths are on their way…

fresh strawberryMy heart always delights in seeing nature come back to life, but the joy in seeing life rekindled, especially in kitchen perennials, is especially profound this year. At the point that some of the established fruits and greens were waving at me last year on the farm, I was buried in boxes, furniture, pictures, and STUFF to unpack, organize, and put in place. This year, the emerging flowers, fruits, greens, and bushes have my undivided attention. Inevitably, I am already plotting how to best use them in my now well-established kitchen/pantry–and looking for ways to honor and celebrate my roots in utilizing our farm’s bounty.

I am, as I often say, a Danish-American at heart. Over time, my Beloved has come to cherish many Danish traditions as much as I do–and he is keenly aware of my significant emotional connection to things that remind me of my Danish family in particular. Since my mormor (aka, my grandmother on my mom’s side) was a bit of a whiz in the garden and the kitchen, many of my favorite family traditions center around slow foods whose ingredients were sourced on the family farm. When I look for ways to leverage my gardens’ blessings, I often look to the recipes she taught me…

To wit, today’s recipe honors my mormor’s beautiful gardens and delicious kitchen with a simple Danish favorite: red fruit pudding with cream, also known as Rød Grød med Fløde. (Even though he can’t yet say “rød grød med fløde” with any semblance of confidence (and he sends me into fits of hysterical laughter when he tries), my Beloved enjoys rød grød no less than I do…)

While you can typically make rød grød with any “red” berries, today’s version relies solely on homegrown strawberries and rhubarb for flavor and tang.

Five Element Farm’s Rød Grød med Fløde

  • 4 cups fresh, organic strawberries–rinsed and capped
  • 1 cup organic rhubarb–leaves removed, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • whole, organic cream and sugar for serving
Place strawberries, rhubarb, water, and sugar in a small pot and stir just until blended.
Cover and simmer on low heat until the sugar has melted, the fruit is sufficiently softened, and the liquid begins to thicken slightly (resembling syrup).
Allow to cool completely. Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving. Sprinkle with sugar and serve with cream to taste.
Danish rød grød, which roughly translates as "red porridge"

Danish rød grød, which roughly translates as “red porridge”

Enjoy!

(Note: In the interest of full disclosure, the photos used here were taken when we last made rød grød with strawberries and rhubarb grown at our previous farm, just be farm, in New Mexico…)

For the Bees…

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Bees play favorites when it comes to colors–and they don’t see colors in the same way that we do. Bees recognize yellow as blue, but that’s a fine thing since blue is reputedly their favorite color!

bee in flightSo, if you want to attract more bees to your garden, plant an abundance of yellow- and blue-hued flowers. 

(Make sure to purchase and maintain flowers that aren’t exposed to pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids which are harmful to bee populations.)

Rise & Shine with our Organic Granola

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I’m a big granola lover, but I hate the funky ingredients included in many processed, pre-made granola blends–too many of them have artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, and other junk that I’m not interested in consuming. I basically avoided granola until a friend shared a homemade granola recipe that I immediately embraced–it’s simple, inexpensive, and crazy delicious. Over the years, the recipe has evolved to be a Five Element Farm staple and a favorite of visiting guests….

rise & shine granola

Five Element Farm’s Rise & Shine Granola

Ingredients

dry granola ingredientsDry Ingredients:

  • 6 cups organic rolled oats
  • 1 cup organic sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut–preferably organic
  • 1 1/2 cups organic whole almonds
  • 1 1/2 T cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup organic honey
  • 2/3 cup organic, unrefined coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup organic dark brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract

Add-Ins:

  • Dried fruit (such as apricots, dates, figs, cranberries, etc.) that has been been diced or finely chopped

HINT: I made enough granola that I eventually got sick of dicing all the sticky fruits into tiny, squishy pieces that just end up clumped together; I now buy a dried fruit mix designed for fruitcake from King Arthur Flour. Their mix has raisins, pineapple, currants, cranberries, and dates diced into itty-bitty little pieces that are dusted with confectioner’s sugar so they don’t stick together. I can’t recommend the mix highly enough if, like me, you’re easily annoyed when dicing sticky foods! One 20 oz. bag of the Fruitcake Fruit Blend is perfect for this recipe.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heat the coconut oil in a small saucepan or heatproof container until just melted; remove from heat.

In an enormous bowl, mix all dry ingredients together.

In a smaller bowl, combine all wet ingredients, including coconut oil, until well mixed.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the larger bowl and stir/mix well. (I actually coat my clean hands with cooking oil and mix/squish/blend everything together with my hands!)

granola ready for bakingSpread in a thin layer on multiple shallow baking sheets. (I use four cookie sheets to make this recipe with two in the oven at one time.)

Bake at 300º until lightly browned (approximately one hour), stirring every 20 minutes or so.

Return to large, clean bowl to cool completely.

Add chopped, dried fruit once cooled; stir to combine.

Store in a large, tightly sealed container. Will keep for several months, though ours never lasts that long…

rise and shine granolaEnjoy your Rise & Shine granola with yogurt or kefir, sliced fruit, and a drizzle of honey for breakfast, mix with carob, peanuts, and extra raisins as a trail mix blend, sprinkle as a crumble on top of fresh fruit salads or ice cream for dessert, or just enjoy with milk anytime…

Bless and blessed be!

A Visual Introduction to Five Element Farm

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We could not be more excited to officially be settled in to our new home at Five Element Farm. Every box is unpacked, every corner is organized, and all of our animals but Sera are at home on the property. We knew when we bought our new home that we’d be enjoying much more green and faaaaaar more water than we did in Santa Fe, but nothing prepared us for the delights that have continued to unfold as Spring and early Summer emerged in the Idaho Panhandle. For those of you not able to visit, here are a few of the joys of Five Element Farm.

When we first arrived, Spring was just beginning to cast her green cloak over our new landscape. The alders were just beginning to leaf out…

the alder stand

 

The entrance to our driveway quickly went from a brown tangle of dried grasses to a colorful display of shrubs and volunteers…

volunteers

The property is dotted with TONS of perennial flowers and beneficial herbs, many of which are volunteers, some of which others would consider weeds. We’re delighted to have all of them as many are beneficial to health and balance…

still more volunteer friendlies

In among the plantings the previous owners made, there are wildflowers galore like this dainty and richly colored wild iris.

wild iris

We have been enjoying a thick display of the taller, paler irises as well.

irises

While they weren’t intentionally planted, we delight in the little Shasta daisies that have popped up all over the property…

shasta daisies

Creeping thyme helps choke out weeds in the front garden and is an early-blooming treat for honeybees.

it's thyme

The landscape is favored with every color in the rainbow.

color everywhere

We’ve never seen such enormous columbines–we have four varieties gracing the garden…

columbine

Clematis emerged last week as big as my open hand…

clematis

These fluffy white blossoms are a delight outside our mudroom…

fluffy flower snowballs

The pond at the front entrance to the house makes for a peaceful and refreshing meditation space…

our meditation pond

Even though we’ve only been here for a few weeks, we’ve beaten the weeds back enough to get the garden started–carrots, beets, radishes, pole beans, butternut squash, cucumbers, acorn squash, snap peas, snow peas, herbs, and much more are already underway…

mary mary

We had our first radishes–spicy and juicy!–within weeks of our first planting…

garden abundance

Wee fish have already been added to the pond for still more color and life…

fishy fishies

Evergreens provide shade, nesting for birds, and rich contrast at the border of the yard and our pasture…

evergreens

We’ve had some volunteer fauna, too–here a tiny pond frog soaking up the sun…

the little guy

His MUCH larger buddy the bullfrog has also enjoyed the pond for sunning and swimming–this guy is as big as my two fists put together….

senor bullfrog

Now, those tall and meek alders are fully leafed out in grand display around the front entry…

the alder stand leafed out

The perennials that remain from the previous owners continue to dazzle us, like these azaleas…

bright azaleas

Things just get greener, thicker, and taller–it’s wonderful to behold…

the front yard

While we eventually hope to get a nuc for our own hive, we aren’t without abundant honeybees in our yard and gardens…

a wee bee

Speaking of nuts, this is a nuksuk, said to confuse polar bears into thinking a person is there–they are useful when one wants to confuse the bear into thinking one is not alone and therefore not easy prey. We have learned they also work on poodles: Muppet is veritably terrified of them…

a nuksuk

There will be much more to share soon as we get still more settled in–just wanted you all to get a small sense of our little Heaven on Earth.