Our Happy Acres

A Little Bit of Soap

Mar 5th, 2010 by Villager

Today was an exciting day here at Happy Acres. We got to try out our first batch of soap! It had cured for 4 weeks, and was a basic, unscented soap recipe. We both tried it out in the shower and were very pleased with the way it cleaned and sudsed up.

our first soap

This recipe formed the base of our next experiments in soapmaking. For our second batch two weeks ago we added a few more ingredients, like shea butter, oatmeal and peppermint essential oil. It should be cured in another two weeks. Of course we are anxious to try it too.

But we’re not done experimenting yet – not by a long shot! Today we made our third batch of soap. This one will be strictly a hand soap. We’re calling it Happy Acres Citrus Coffee Hand Soap. We added some of our own recycled coffee grounds for scrubbing, some lanolin for an emollient, brewed coffee for color, and citrus essential oils for scent. I’m sure Lynda will be blogging about it over on Bloom, Bake & Create soon. She’s done an amazing job of researching for all things soap-related here.

getting ready to make soap

It takes a little over two hours from start to finish for one batch of soap, including prep time and cleanup. And we have found it to be a fun thing to do – so much fun in fact, we are already planning for our fourth batch of soap. I am thinking it will involve lavender, but I don’t know for sure.

So stay tuned for more adventures in soap-making!

Tags: Crafts, homemade, soap, sustainable

Posted in Crafts | 5 Comments »

Greenhouse Project (Part 2 of 2)

Mar 3rd, 2010 by Villager

A few days after I finished assembly of the greenhouse, we got our first snow of the year. I had gotten it done just in time!

January 2008 - snowy beginning

Inside the house, about half the floor space is occupied by benches, and the other half is planting beds. I attached metal shelves below the roof to hold flats of plants. I can squeeze in about 30 flats of plants on the shelves and benches.

Outside the greenhouse, I made raised beds along one side and the back. Measuring 4 feet wide by 28 feet long, they add 112 feet of growing space to the area. The other side of the greenhouse has 2 large trash containers that are filled with potting mixes, plus some plant stands. The photo below also shows the two large roof vents that open automatically when the greenhouse gets warm.

raised bed construction

A year after installation, the redwood is aging nicely, and the greenhouse is lively and full of plants in spring.

Spring 2009 - front view of greenhouse, with beds at left

Inside the greenhouse, one 3×5 ft bed and another 3×7 ft bed provide 36 square feet of intensely planted, year-round growing space. In cooler weather they’re home to a variety of greens, and in summer I plant part of the space in trellised cucumbers.

beds inside the greenhouse

I sent the following photo to my former IT teammates who are still working at the salt mine, so to speak. I told them this is how I had always imagined retirement – drinking my morning coffee and reading the paper in a nice warm greenhouse!

Ahh, I love retirement!

Tags: greenhouse, retirement

Posted in Gardening | 6 Comments »

Greenhouse Project (Part 1 of 2)

Mar 2nd, 2010 by Villager

I always dreamed of having a greenhouse when I retired. With blessings from my wife, that dream came true when I bought myself an 8×12 ft Sunshine Gardenhouse greenhouse as a retirement present. After doing a lot of research, and seeing some in person, I settled on this make and model. It has a redwood frame, and the panels are twinwall polycarbonate. Once I got it installed and started using it, I now wonder why I waited so long!

This is a do-it-yourself kit that I put together in about a week, with a little help from my wife. I liked the fact that this kit did not require a permanent foundation. The greenhouse sits on a base made from recycled plastic, which is then anchored to the ground.

assembling the end walls

The worst part for me was getting on the ladder to get the roof trusses installed, an event my wife couldn’t wait to capture for the ages.

attaching roof trusses

Once they were all attached, it was time to start attaching the side panels.

attaching the side panels

The last step was to attach the roof panels, which meant another harrowing session on the step ladder! Did I mention I don’t like ladders?

up on the roof

The finished greenhouse was well worth the effort. I was impressed with the construction and design of this product, and the instructions (including a video) were clear and easy to understand.

finished greenhouse

Thanks to my wife for photographing the construction effort, and letting me use the photos here. Part two will go into some of the finishing touches I gave it to customize it to our needs.

Tags: greenhouse, retirement

Posted in Gardening | 6 Comments »

Harvest Monday, March 1, 2010

Mar 1st, 2010 by Villager

After reading about other gardeners and their Harvest Mondays for a while now, I have decided to join in with my own harvests. Every Monday over at Daphne’s Dandelions folks link to posts about their weekly harvests. Thanks to Daphne for hosting this fun event. It’s great to see how others are doing!

Our harvest this week was small but tasty. I had some lovely Golden Yellow pak choi and some dark green Tatsoi I picked. They went into a stir fry, along with a few mushrooms from the frig that needed to be used up.

pak choi and tatsoi

I also harvested some Simpson Elite and Multy lettuces from the greenhouse and cold frame. They will go into salads later this week. A bit of red lettuce would certainly have made for a more photogenic bowl of salad greens, but the reds all need a bit more time to size up. I’ll give them a few more days.

Simpson Elite and Multy lettuces

All total this week’s harvest weighed 1.4lbs, which is a small but nice bit of greenery to round out our meals. At this time of year every bit of fresh homegrown food is welcome, when we’ve been eating mostly veggies from the freezer and root cellar for about 5 months.

I am trying to clear out some space and make room for the seedlings I started in late January. They were started in a plug tray, and transplanted into cell paks about 3 weeks ago. They spent most of their time under fluorescent lights, and are now hardened off and ready for planting as soon as I have space for them.

lettuce seedlings ready to be planted

The weather is supposed to warm up a bit this week so I hope to be able to start planting these little babies in the cold frame bed as the ground thaws and stays thawed for a change. That will put me a few days ahead of last year’s planting. I’ve got so many seedlings ready that I may plant them more closely than normal and then harvest the thinnings as baby lettuce. I’ve already got spinach coming up in that bed, so we’re off to a good start on our March and April salads.

Be sure and stop by Daphne’s Dandelions and check out the other harvest reports there!

Tags: Asian greens, Gardening, greens, lettuce

Posted in Gardening | 8 Comments »

Homemade: Cherry Nut Granola

Feb 28th, 2010 by Villager

We started making our own granola last year, after having some for breakfast at a wonderful little restaurant we found in Nashville called Marche Artisan Foods. As is often the case, after buying some of their granola and analyzing it at home I said “I can make this!” So I set out to experiment and develop a recipe we liked.

The first one I came up with that I really liked was this Blueberry Walnut Granola. I have some most every morning, as topping on my usual breakfast of yogurt and fruit. But I didn’t quit there, and kept on experimenting.

My wife loves cherries in all forms, so I set out to come up with a granola that used dried cherries. This recipe is my wife’s current favorite of all my granola creations so far.

It features almonds, walnuts, dried cherries plus sunflower and pumpkin seeds. It also has unsweetened coconut flakes (or chips), which I find at a local health food store. It’s not at all hard to make, and only takes me about an hour from start to finish.

Cherry Nut Granola

The final result is a tasty and nutritious homemade granola – good by itself or as a topping for other things.

Cherry Nut Granola Print This Recipe
A Happy Acres Original

Other nuts or dried fruits can be substituted as desired.

1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup brown sugar firmly packed
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut chips or flakes
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup sunflower seeds, raw, unsalted
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, raw, unsalted
1 cup dried cherries

1. Preheat oven to 325° F. Coat two large baking pans or sheets with cooking spray.
2. Combine maple syrup, oil, brown sugar, water, vanilla extract and cinnamon in a saucepan. Bring to simmer, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
3. Mix oats, coconut, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in large mixing bowl. Pour juice mixture into bowl and stir until well mixed.
4. Spread granola evenly over two baking sheets. Bake for 40-45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until lightly browned.
5. Remove from the oven and place on cooling racks. Stir 1/2 cup cherries into granola on each sheet. Allow to cool completely. Store granola in an airtight container.

Servings: 18 (1/2 cup each)

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 326 calories, 114 calories from fat, 15g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 8mg sodium, 115.8mg potassium, 44.2g carbohydrates, 7.9g fiber, 12.4g sugar, 6.7g protein, 106.1mg calcium, 3.9g saturated fat.

Tags: food, fruit, homemade, local

Posted in Recipes | 1 Comment »

Is It Soap Yet?

Feb 26th, 2010 by Villager

We made our first batch of soap here 3 weeks ago, and now we are waiting for it to be ready. And waiting. And waiting…you get the picture. We are waiting for our cold process soap to cure, which takes about 4-6 weeks.

This first batch was a pretty basic recipe, using coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, lye water, and a little grapeseed oil for preservative. To me, the whole process is more like a chemistry experiment than it is cooking. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed it, since I always liked chemistry in school. Accurate measurements are essential, so we used a digital kitchen scale to read the weight of ingredients to the nearest gram.

After the soap was all mixed up we blended it with an old immersion blender until it reached “trace”, which is the point at which the mixture starts to thicken. At this point, the ingredients will not separate back into their original state (lye water and oils). Fortunately my wife served as Head Researcher on this project, something she worked on for months before we ever actually made our first batch. That made it easy for me!

As soon as the soap reached trace, we hurried to pour it in our soap mold. We bought this mold, which is sized to hold our small batch recipe that makes 10 bars of soap. We lined it with some waxed paper before pouring the soup, then covered with some plastic wrap.

soap in mold

We wrapped the mold in a towel to retain heat, and let it sit for 24 hours. While we waited. Then it was time to unmold it and cut it into bars.

unmolding our first batch of soap

cutting the soap into bars

After cutting the soap into bars, we put it on a paper sack and left it to cure. During the curing process the ph stabilizes, and some of the water evaporates, which makes for a harder, longer lasting soap. This is the hard part – the waiting!

soap bars ready for curing

They say patience is a virtue, but it’s never been one of my strong suits. Neither is restraint – so we decided to make our second batch last week, this time adding a few more ingredients (shea butter and oatmeal) plus some peppermint oil for scent. Yes, we made a second batch before we really know how the first batch did!

The anticipation is getting to me – I had to take a peek at how the first batch was doing.