why do i waste so much food?

why do i waste so much food? 

i've often wondered this, 

but as i was cleaning out our fridge earlier this week, 

that question hit me in my stomach. 

above is a small sample of the many 

containers that i dragged out of the fridge, 

which had all kinds of food languishing in them. 

(salsa, artichoke hearts, jams, 

weird things that remained unidentifiable.)

my theology is fairly sin-free, 

but i do think that throwing out food is sinful, 

when there are so many people who are hungry.  

i'm making a new commitment to buy food items with care, 

not picking up things that look tasty on a whim, 

and planning meals so that we use what we have on hand, 

rather than go out to buy speciality items

that we may use only that one time. 

do any of you struggle with this? 

the thrill of baking from the garden

last fall i planted carrots - 

and to tell the truth, 

i pretty much forgot about them. 

until now and my big springtime plans

to clean up all the garden beds

and ready them for planting. 

so surprise, surprise - 

those carrots grew! 

i ended up with a bowlful and decided to make 

vegan carrot muffins, 

using the recipe from the fat free vegan blog. 

they are so good! 

the two guys in the house called the texture "spongy"

and by that they meant - not really heavy like

lots of muffins. 

i was especially proud of them because 

i used honey from our bees, 

and applesauce made from apples in our friend's garden. 

honey from our bees, we left plenty of honey for them.

it's funny how extra proud i was of the muffins, 

knowing that we had sourced some of the 

ingredients ourselves. 

now i'm watching the small blossoms on our 

boysenberry vines and wondering

what the summer berries may inspire. 

pink tulip love

i love pink tulips in the spring. 

they make me happy every time i look at the mantle. 

if i could i would douse the whole house

in pink tulip bouquets. 

but since that's not possible (hmm.. why not i am wondering?), 

i'll work on my plan for spring vegetable planting. 

the big garden clean-up continues! 

homegrown honey

close up shot of honeycomb, seen below

last year we started keeping bees

(or more accurately, my sweet man started keeping bees

and i cheered him on)

since we are vegans, we didn't think we'd ever use the honey. 

the bees can't exactly give their overt permission for us to take it. 

BUT - a funny set of circumstances led said sweet man

to bring in one of the frames, filled with a honeycomb. 

(read his story below)

the honeycomb is such a work of art

and evidence of the mystery and wonder of life. 

there was about a pint of honey in that one honeycomb. 

we've been reflecting on sweeteners, 

and how many of them come from far away. 

so many resources are used to transport sugar 

or agave or brown rice syrup 

from place of production to our home. 

sometimes forest land is cleared so 

sugar cane fields can be planted. 

we, especially me, need to cut down on use of sugar anyway, 

and we are considering relying more on the honey that is 

right in our own backyard. 

we haven't made a definite decision either way. 

we don't hurt our bees - and in the past year 

we've needed to add bee box real estate - 

we started with two boxes and now have four. 

they are thriving here. 

we think around 60,000. 

we love our bees! 

and here is my sweet man's story 

about how he came to bring 

the frame into the house in the first place. 

enjoy! 

This morning I went out to my beehive and there were a few dead bee larvas at the hive entrance and no bees around. Right away I feared colony collapse right here in my own backyard. So, standing there in my bathrobe and slippers I popped the top off the hive which immediately buzzed to life with thousands of happy healthy bees inside and quickly coming out. So I dropped my phone (I had it out to take pictures) and ran inside. The bees clustered around the outside of the hive and all over my phone (which fell right on top of the open hive).

Knowing I would need my phone soon I suited up with double gloves, my hard hat, my coveralls and my bee hood. I grabbed my smoker, filled it with dry leaves, and headed to the hive. I used a small pry bar to pull out one of the 36 hive frames and it was perfect! All honey and wax - no brood (babies) or eggs. Just pure honey. I replaced the frame with an empty wood frame got my phone, added the additional story on their house (I had one more bee box and this hive needs to more space in their house) and closed up the top. 

Fresh honey for these vegans! 

I'm guessing there was probably 20 or more times the amount of honey in the hive than I took. I'm really happy about how healthy the hive is. 

The beehive had three boxes. I added a fourth. Each box has 12 wooden frames like the one below that I took today. I replaced the frame I took with an empty wood frame (no honey or hive, just the wooden rectangle with a hole in the middle).

Needless to say, Tera is pleased.

shiny new countertop finish

the refinished countertops

last year we renovated our kitchen, 

and we used reclaimed bowling alley lanes as our countertop material. 

they looked beautiful, but we didn't use the right finish on them, 

and they quickly became worn and scruffy. 

here's a pic of the countertops at the beginning of our refinishing project, 

worn and with wood putty applied to fill in the cracks. 

a country farmhouse keeps a lovely blog, 

and they are also keen on using eco-friendly materials in their home.

when they renovated their kitchen, they installed maple butcher block counters, 

and they look fabulous. 

she told me they used AFM Safecoat as the sealer. 

it is water-based and non-toxic. 

after thoroughly sanding all the countertops, 

we applied 3 coats of AFM safecoat in gloss. 

it was easy to apply, clean up, and didn't smell up the kitchen. 

 i'm thrilled with the way they turned out! 

smooth to the touch, glossy, and they should be easy to keep clean. 

can't wait to move everything back into the kitchen and start cooking! 

beautiful look-see for the day

photo from jeffrey bale's blog

i love peeking in at jeffrey bale's world of gardens blog. 

today he features mosaic whimsy from Barcelona. 

photo from jeffrey bale's blog

this one reminds me of a gingerbread house. 

his blog fuels my fantasy of having 

lots of beautiful mosaics in the garden. 

lots of fun, check it out. 

beautiful menorahs

photo from nelles etsy shop

last night many friends gathered here 

for a winter holiday vegan potluck. yum! 

i love this season - celebrating life and light 

in the midst of the darkness and depth of winter. 

today design sponge lifts up

a whole feast for the eyes 

of beautiful, modern menorahs. 

hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.