WELCOME

          Let me introduce myself. My name is Laura. I grew up on what people nowadays would call a hobby farm. We had very large gardens mixed with fruit trees, vegetables and bushes. We also raised our own beef. My family had been homesteaded the area back in the 1890's.

          As us kids have grown up and moved away from the home place some have returned to growing our own food, but in much smaller area or in pots and raised beds. Of my  siblings I am the only one that has gone a bit further to do companion planting and getting into growing herbs for seasoning and medicinal purposes.

          I also do most of my cooking and baking from scratch. Yes, I do have to buy most of my ingredients from the grocery store. But that is changing with having a vegetable and fruit gardens. Along with preserving by either dehydrating, freezing, or water bath canning. When I am cooking on the stove top I use cast iron skillets and dutch ovens. I haven't gotten much cast iron for baking like pizza and loaf pans as an example.

          My family did a lot of freezing, water bath canning, and some fermenting of cabbage and cucumbers in the big 5 gallon ceramic pots.

          Some of the crafts I do are seasonal. With living in the Inland Northwest our winters can be very cold and snowy. So my crafting gets moved inside of the house. This means a lot of time to bake goods from breads to desserts and cookies, catch up on the bounty from the garden fruits and vegetables, crocheting, cross-stitching, reading, making plans for the next growing season, etc.

          In the other 3 seasons it is getting the raised garden beds ready for the growing season, trimming of bushes, planting of any new bushes, canes, flowers. Then we move into taking care of the lawn and garden and enjoying the sunshine.

          Follow along with me as I go through my adventures in various crafts in and out of the house.

 

Let's get started!