Looking out our back window at our property that is blanketed in snow makes it a little hard to believe that this is the time when garden planning and prepping begins. Though it is. Our seeds were ordered at the beginning of January and have since arrived. I have sorted through the previous years seeds and our new additions. A plan has been loosely set.

I spent this weekend listing out every variety of vegetable, herb, and medicinal flower I hope to grow this year. I made a tentative schedule, carefully noting when we will need to start them, and which will get sown directly when the time comes. I probably stressed my husband out just a little bit as I declared all the spaces we need to till and add beds to accommodate my plans. This year will surely be our largest garden. By far. Very, very far.

We had a decent haul last year. A deep freeze packed full of beans, peas, berries, fruit, and a canning room that wasn’t too lackluster either. We are still eating our end of summer winter squash harvest, and will be for awhile. For so many reasons, this years garden will grow substantially. Just like many others, this past year really inspired me to keep moving towards creating a space that allowed for us to be as self sufficient as possible. One day, we’ll turn this place into a little homestead, but the first step is increasing our bounty by way of a bigger garden.

Sure, we grew potatoes last year, but just a few plants to last us a couple of months. Carrots and beets we grew, but only for immediate enjoyment. As for onions? Mid summer, we shoved a few sets into an empty space in one of our raised beds. Not surprisingly, they didn’t do a whole lot. How different this year will be. I mean, hopefully, assuming all is kind to me.

I decided this year we would grow our onions from seed. That means getting them started this past weekend, though had we been prepared we could have started them even earlier. After watching a Charles Dowding video on youtube, I felt confident that it was possible to plant onions in a way that resulted in a higher yield and less effort. When starting, he suggests planting 6 seeds per cell. When it comes time to transplant, there’s no separating. Simply just transplant the entire cell, then after a while thin back a few which can be used as green onions. The remaining few will develop into your regular, large sized onions, in a fraction of the space. That seems a whole lot less daunting to me than planting each set individually for a years worth of onions.

Well, to no one’s surprise, I got carried away. We had seeds for Stuttgarter, Zoey, Cabernet, and Walla Walla onions. My initial plan was to fill a 72 cell tray, however I ended up filling two. One full tray was dedicated to Stuttgarter’s, which I hope will be our primary storage onion. In the second tray, I did 30 cells of Zoey, 32 cells of Cabernet, and 10 of Walla Walla. The last was not planned, as Walla Walla’s are best as overwintering onions, so my plan was only to start those in June, then transplant in August after harvesting our first bounty. That would provide us with an onion harvest in June of next year. There was space in the tray, so I threw a few in. I am hopeful this will be successful, and we will have our onions for the year. If they all do, we will have more than we need, but hey, I’d rather be overzealous and have some to share.

Our greenhouse is not currently in working order, though we hope it is this summer. Having two cats that like to get into everything, and ate my pepper and tomato starts last year right before I transplanted them, we knew we were going to need a better set up. While I was garden planning, dreaming, and getting our onions going, Talin handled getting a grow light shelving system set up.

Because we plan on rebuilding our green house this year, we wanted to keep this setup as inexpensive as possible. For early starts when its still cool out, we likely will continue to use this system in the coming years, but this will give us an idea of what does and doesn’t work best before we spend a ton of money on it. We bought four inexpensive LED grow lights that are two feet wide, just the size of a 72 cell tray. Each one is attached to the top of a wire shelving unit, directly above its tray. We would have preferred to have had 3 foot wide grow lights, but the price we found on those was about four times what we paid. This will work just fine for now. We have this shelving system set up in our basement shop and the grow lights set on a timer. I am slightly worried about how cool it can get down there, but we have a space heater set up near by if we need to utilize it.

Now we have a bit of a break before we get more starts going, and we can begin plan out all the space we need to make beyond our usual garden plot. Right now I am just excited for what’s to come, but I have no doubt that in the height of summer I’ll be swaying between gratitude and overwhelm, as it goes.

There’s nothing quite like randomly throwing together a recipe and having it turn out perfectly on the first go! These 1 Bowl Einkorn Ginger Cookies were the result of that. They turned out so well that we ended up making two batches in two days.. that should tell you all you need to know. When I make Christmas cookies I am always looking to incorporate healthier alternatives, but I never want that to sacrifice on the experience either. Stevia sweetened, fat free cookies are just not going to hit the same. The changes I am willing to make look more like high quality ingredients and mineral rich coconut sugar.

I was looking to make these cookies egg and dairy free, and I also wanted to create a ginger cookie recipe made with einkorn flour. Sometimes when I go the dairy free route it feels like something is missing, but these are just as good with coconut oil as they are with the real deal butter.

Why Einkorn? We typically avoid wheat products, and if we are going to do wheat it is in the form of long fermented sourdough or organic einkorn. What is different about einkorn? First, it is not a gluten free grain, however many people that are sensitive to gluten do tolerate einkorn much better. This is for a variety of reasons, one being that it is a variety of wheat that has never been hybridized, and the second being that the gluten in einkorn is much different than modern wheat. With the gluten being different, that does also mean it can be a little more temperamental to work with as the gluten in einkorn isn’t quite as stretchy as that of modern wheat. Unlike modern wheat, the gluten in einkorn doesn’t develop with lots of kneading. The lower starch content of einkorn can result in a denser end product, so I do find einkorn recipes take a little more playing around with usually. Einkorn also takes a little longer than modern wheat to absorb liquids, so don’t be scared if your dough is a little sticky.

Without further ado, here are the magic cookies. I hope you give them a try.

1 Bowl Einkorn Ginger Cookies

December 23, 2020

Servings: 20 cookies

Difficulty: Easy

Print This

These einkorn flour ginger cookies have been a crowd favourite. Perfectly sweet and spicy, these cookies are egg free and have a dairy free option. Made with einkorn flour, a variety of wheat that has not been hybridized, for an easier to digest treat perfect for the holiday season.

By: abbeyverigin

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup coconut oil or grass fed butter, softened
• ¾ cup coconut sugar
• ¼ cup molasses
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tbsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• ½ tbsp ground ginger
• ½ tbsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp einkorn flour (whole grain or all purpose work)
• 1/3 cup organic cane sugar, for rolling

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Step 2 In a large bowl, cream together the coconut oil or grass fed butter and the coconut sugar.
• Step 3 Add in the molasses and vanilla extract, and beat again.
• Step 4 Add in the baking soda, sea salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg and beat well to combine.
• Step 5 Mix in the einkorn flour.
• Step 6 Portion the dough into 1.5” balls and roll in the cane sugar.
• Step 7 Place on the parchment lined baking sheet, leaving 2” between each portion.
• Step 8 Bake for 9-11 minutes until the tops have cracked.
• Step 9 They may seem slightly under baked, but they will continue cooking outside of the oven.
• Step 10 Remove baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan.

Something about roasting an entire chicken has always felt a little intimidating to me. In the past I have generally stuck to my plain, boring organic chicken breasts, however that really isn’t the most affordable way to purchase meat when choosing organic, free range, and local. I’ve recognized the opportunity to save money and get more for my dollar, while utilizing the entire bird by going with a whole chicken. With it being just my husband and I, we can get several meals from one bird, and then I save and freeze the bones to turn into broth. It’s efficient, and I feel good that no part is going to waste.

Often I’ll cook a whole chicken for dinner and serve it with fresh roasted veggies. We will have that as our protein, and then I’ll remove the meat from the bones and use it throughout the week in a variety of ways, such as sandwiches, soups, or salads, tacos, sourdough skillets, or sourdough chicken pot pie. The uses are of course endless, and our protein is covered for much of the week. I throw the leftover bones into a large container in the freezer which I will continuously add carrot, celery, and onion scraps to until I’ve got enough to make a batch of bone broth.

This process is beyond simple, yet something about serving a whole roasted chicken seems a little more impressive. I’m not sure exactly what it was that turned me off of it for so long, because it’s truly the furthest thing from complicated.

I simply coat the entire chicken in some high quality, high heat fat like coconut oil or grass fed butter, herbs, salt, pepper, and a generous squeeze of fresh lemon.

Go with whatever you’re feeling that day, you really can’t go wrong. Right now I’m utilizing all the fresh herbs I’ve got growing. Just promise me you’ll never skip out on the fat.. that’s what’s going to get you that beautiful crispy golden skin. Your chicken will be real sad without it.

Throw it in the oven and after only about an hour you’ll have a golden, crispy, perfectly roasted chicken ready to go.

Simple Lemon Rosemary Roasted Chicken

June 29, 2020

Difficulty: Easy

Print This

A simple recipe for crispy, tender whole roasted chicken. Perfect to cook at the beginning of the week and to use as leftovers throughout the week. Be sure to save the bones to make a batch of gut healthy bone broth.

By: abbeyverigin

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (organic, free range ideally)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil or grass fed butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• salt + pepper
• 1 lemon
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat oven to 425.
• Step 2 Place the chicken in a 9×13 baking dish.
• Step 3 Rub the chicken with melted grass fed butter or coconut oil.
• Step 4 Sprinkle chicken with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice of the entire lemon over the chicken. Arrange rosemary sprigs around the chicken.
• Step 5 Place chicken in the oven for between 1 hour and 1 hour 15 minutes. I suggest checking the chicken at the 1 hour mark to avoid it drying out, though I find it usually takes 1 hour 15 minutes for me, depending on the size of the bird. Use a meat thermometer to ensure the chicken is cooked to temperature.