Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Colourful Wraps, Brownies and Straw Bales


Well kids, it has been awhile since I lasted blogged. Nothing splendiferous has been happening, just generally a bit busier and being lazy too! However there is always lots to think and talk about in my little corner of the world!




I started knitting this shawl/wrap back in the summer and I did finish it this past fall. I LOVE it!!!





It is Ojo de Dios, such a beautiful design and an interesting pattern to knit. I knit it with Noro Silk Garden-rainbow- #87. It is so nice to wear and it is so bright and colourful, my kind of project!! I could wear it as I cavort amongst my straw bales! It is seriously a lovely project to knit and not to difficult. It's a great wrap and lovely to wear.



It starts with one mitered triangle you knit on your dps. Then the rest of the triangles are picked up on successive triangle edges. The body of the shawl is picked along the triangle border edge and its just good old garter stitch and some short row shaping and you are done! I love how the garter stitch really highlights all the beautiful colours in the yarn. I do love Noro!!! It is the greatest, most prettiest yarn. Looking at my pictures I am thinking I ought to knit another one, maybe in some blues and greens...hmmmm.




Here are some pictures of my friend Stacie wearing her Ojo de Dios shawl. It is so beautiful! She did an extra row of mitered triangles. The colours in her yarn are stunning. They look quite South Western.





I recently found a new absolutely delicious healthy brownie recipe! It is soo good!! Amazingly enough, they do not contain squash. They are made with black beans, applesauce, dates, eggs, cocoa and chocolate chips.Goodness me, these brownies are fantastic, they taste so good and they are not too sweet at all. They are high fibre, quite low in fat and gluten free. They are quick to make but you do need a food processor to mash everything up. The recipe can be found at
 http://ifoodreal.com/black-bean-recipe/. Sooo good!!



Recently my friend Heather invited me to a meeting of a great gardening group she belongs to. Twist my rubber arm and off we went. The guest speaker, Lesley, spoke of her veggie growing with Straw Bale Gardening. We were both immediately hooked!! It is quite a popular and hugely successful gardening technique used  by our great American neighbours. It is now spreading in popularity in Canada . Basically your composting straw bale becomes a growing medium for your plants. At the end of the season, you will have great vegetables and some lovely compost. I could go into a much more detailed explanation (which I did before Blogger crashed...grrr) but there is tons of info online and many books written about the subject. It is a great for gardeners who have poor or little soil, small spaces, rooftop gardens.. etc. It is also being used a lot in community gardens.

 Our backyard is on a southern facing sandy slope and we have crummy soil. We live in a semi arid desert zone. We have literally hauled tonnes of soil, manure and compost up that hill over the decades but the soil still seems to get quite depleted very quickly. This seemed like a great method of growing our veggies with the additional benefit of producing compost on site.What also really sold me with this technique is there is very little weeding and it is very easy on your back.


Brent caught my enthusiasm and the next day we got a load of straw bales. being a city girl I didn't know the difference between straw and hay-I do now!

this guy was a great sport!



Ta dah!!!!

a certifiable silly person





So my plan is to do regular updates on this new exciting gardening adventure. Hopefully all will go according to plan. It sure has the neighbours talking, they figured we were getting goats or ponies! I could do alpacas though. For some reason I am pretty darned excited about it.



good help is truly hard to find!


The bales are in position now. Next step is the fertilizer/watering regimen.Should be interesting?!?


Keep smiling friends!

Chris



22 comments:

  1. Ah man!!! Where do I start!!! First off that shawl is stunning in all of its vibrant colors! Love every inch of that piece Chris! And thank you thank you for sharing that brownie recipe...you are going to think I'm nuts but I have seriously been looking for it since I had a brownie at a vegan shop made from beans like you mentioned! I can't wait to make a batch!!! And YAY on this new adventure! I have heard amazing things about this form of gardening!!! Some folks say they have never gotten better veggies in their whole lives!! Your yard is the perfect set up and I can't wait to see more!! Love that shot of your daughter by the way! Keep us posted and so happy to see you hear again! Nicole xoxo

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  2. I spelled hear wrong! Ha! So glad to see you HERE again!!! Happy night!!! Missed ya!

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    1. Super super nice to hear from you Nicole! You are going to Love love love those brownies they are incredibly tasty but not too sweet. I sure wish you were closer and we could have such a great chat about my straw bales! It is so interesting. When I read Tammys post on systemic neonicS I thought I need to change a lot of stuff up. Thanks for the compliments on my shawl too! I laugh at my daughter, that's as close as she will ever get to gardening! Hav a super week kiddo! Chris

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  3. I love your shawl! I am excited to hear more about your straw bale gardening!! I hope that it goes well and that you enjoy it. xx

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    1. Good to hear from you Amy! Thanks so much for your kind words. Yes I hope this straw bale garden works well, but you never know till you try something! It's good to shake things up occasionally. We all get so excited about gardens in the Soring, don't we?!?!

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  4. First you wow us with those amazing shawls (I love myself some Noro) and then you wow us again with a new to me gardening technique. I am so excited about this and can't wait for your updates.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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    1. Well this should be interesting! I'm still pretty excited about it all but time will tell! From what I have read it's pretty easy and works like a charm. I love Noro yarn, it's just so pretty and knits up in the most interesting ways. There are so many interesting colour combos. Maybe I should knit another one, you've got me thinking!!!

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  5. I've heard about straw bale gardening, but have never tried it so your experiment will be interesting to follow. I love the shawl you made! Such pretty colors! You always come up with the most unusual brownie recipes. Though the ingredient list is unusual, I bet they are delicious.

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    1. hey Jennifer! The more I read about this straw bale gardening I'm finding out so much and it isn't totally obscure. People sure swear by it. Our challenge will be keeping the bails from drying out when the heat ramps up here. I have a feeling we are in for a very hot and dry summer. Our snowpacks are really signicantly down this year as we had such a wimpy winter- I know that's just not what anyone in Eastern Canada wants to hear! The brownies are different but they are so good, not very sweet but quite delicious. I realize The colours I like in my wool are my favourite flower colours too. Funny how that works!!!

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  6. Sooooo impressive ... everything !! Your shawl is so so so beautiful !! I love it !!!!!!! your gardening technique is surprising but exciting because new .. I undertand and I cant' wait to say the next steps. Have a lovely weekend my friend !

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    1. Well it is going to be a very interesting time in the garden this year! Now I am talking about it so much , the pressure is on! You would really enjoy knitting that shawl GĂ©raldine. It's quite interesting but not too hard. It's the yarn colours that keep my interest going! Have a super Sunday!

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  7. Wonderful shawl! I love the colours! I'll have to give your black bean brownie recipe a try. I made a different one last month and they tasted like sawdust. I first heard about the straw bale gardening last year and am intrigued. I'm looking forward to reading your updates!

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    1. You HAVE to make these, everyone really loves them ! They are so moist and fudgy, yum!! Yes those bales! We have started the next step of watering and fertilizing to get that composting going.the shawl is a fun and interesting shawl to knit. That Noro yarn is something else!! Have a good weekend!

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  8. What a brilliant way to garden, and I reckon the brownies will be a brilliant way to top up energy levels while gardening!

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    1. You are right on the money, Annie! We need lots of healthy food like chocolate to keep us going!!

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  9. Ooohh!! That shawl is super fabulous! LOVE IT! I'm curious to see how well the straw bales work for you. I've heard really good things about this technique. So glad you didn't buy hay!! Then you would need a herd of goats to eat it all! Beans in yer brownies? Hmmm.... I'm getting ready to make a lavender lemon pound cake. So yum!

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    1. I wonder who would ever think of putting black beans in brownies, but it works! I was thinking next time I might put in some hot chili spices, I had a tea with chocolate and hot peppers , it was fantastic!! Lemon lavender pound cake sounds delish , yah this is a big crazy experiment but lots of people swear by it. Well if things don't go to plan, we will have lots of straw compost and we will be laughing about it forever. Maybe I should have kept it myself until it was successful, nah that's no fun! I did go and buy more yarn for another shawl. I am weak!

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  10. It was lovely to see a new post from you. Your new shawl is gorgeous, the brownies look yummy and the straw bale garden sounds very interesting. The new gardening adventure sounds like it might just be the way for you to go. I look forward to seeing more about your garden in future. Have a wonderful Easter.

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    1. Thank you Penny! We are in the prepatory stage of the bales, lots of water and fertilizer. We need some warmer days here, it's cooler than a few weeks ago. I need to start planning on what to plant. Have a Happy Easter!

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  11. I'll be really interested to see how the straw bale veggie growing goes. The healthy brownies sound excellent, I'm making a note of the recipe. CJ xx

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    1. Hey Claire! Give the brownies a try, don't tell anyone what's in them. They will love them! We need our weTher to warm up a bit so we can start planting.

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  12. I am seriously tempted by your shawl. The colours you have chosen are just stunning. Have a few projects I must complete first but think I may look into this shawl. Will follow with interest the gardening. Am very intrigued

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