Sheetar.com

Tour de Fleece 2013

(The photo that was here was lost to a flickr deletion – I thought I had backed up everything, but this file was missed)

Tour de Fleece is over for another year.  What is Tour de Fleece?  Well, it’s held during the Tour de France, that big bicycling race, except replace bikes with spinning wheels and fiber, and you have a nerdy, wool filled 21 days (plus two days rest) of spinning your feet off.  I posted my progress shots on Instagram, but I figured I’d post the final shot of my finished work here.  My final tally is 3081 yards of finished yarn, but times three for the three plies, and I have 9,243 yards spun in total.  Not too shabby!  I could’ve probably spun more, but I was pretty busy and seemed to have stressed the heck out of my hands like I never have before.  My favorite is the Chasing Rainbows top mostly for the way it spun so easily and evenly.  REALLY love the colors on the Taylored Fibers yarn.  So, now that I have all this handspun, I need to actually start using it for projects!

All have been chain plied, links to go my Ravelry stash page.

Top row, L to R:
1. Chasing Rainbows Merino/Bombyx top – 332 yards, 2 oz
2. Taylored Fibers 80/20 Merino/Silk – 542 yards, 4 oz
3. Dunn Spunn Alpaca/Wool/Bamboo – 628 yards, 9.3 oz

Bottom row, L to R:
1. Twisted Fiber Art Cloudy 60/40 Merino/Bamboo – 547 yards, 4 oz
2. Mountain Colors 100% Targhee – 506 yards, 4 oz
3. Wild Hare Fiber Studio Superwash Wool – 526 yards, 4oz

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 8

DSC_4428
I finally had a chance to incorporate pasta this week!  I had some peaches and golden beets from Saturday’s farmers market trip, so I incorporated those into the pasta and sauce, using a puree of the beets and peaches to be my liquid in the pasta dough (1/4 cup liquid to 1 cup flour).  What’s great about making your own pasta is that you can substitute any liquid or puree and make some really neat pasta.  The color doesn’t show up in this one, but the flavor did – the peaches added an interesting sweetness.  The sauce was made from a whole bunch of leftover vegetables in the fridge.  I had some tomatoes on hand, threw in onions, garlic scapes, and the leftover puree from the pasta.  It made the sauce a more orangey color, but was still delicious.  The chicken sausage was leftover in the freezer from the prior chicken vendor at the market who moved to Florida over the winter.  I miss her, but I did stock up well before she left!

Peachy Pasta with Potatoes and Chicken Sausage:
Chicken Florentine Sausage – Mountain View Organics
Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm
Clipper Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Tomatoes – Jack’s Farm
Golden Beets – Charlestown Farm
Onion – Jack’s Farm
Non local – Olive oil, salt, pepper

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 7

DSC_4420

A sort of impromptu dinner with a friend made this week’s meal.  I happened to not have made my meal for the week when she arrived for a visit over the long holiday weekend, but I happened to have lettuce and a bunch of vegetables in the fridge, so we put together our own BIG salads.  The dressing was dill, goat’s millk yogurt, roasted garlic, and onions all blended together – it came out a little thin, but it tasted great.  The vegetables are more snap peas, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers and a ton of lettuce.  Not bad for a last minute meal, and not a single non-local ingredient was used!  The dressing container, in case you’re wondering, is a mason jar with a ReCap lid on top – they’re a fantastic invention, built from a Kickstarter project that I helped fund.  They’re now selling the caps here!

Summer Salad:
Tomatoes – Jack’s Farm
Cucumber – Jack’s Farm
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Lettuce – Jack’s Farm
Garlic – North Star Orchards
Onions – Jack’s Farm
Dill – Jack’s Farm
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 6

DSC_4419

The bad blogger has gotten behind again.  Never fear, meals were cooked and consumed, I’m just behind on posting.  Thanks so much, Central Air Conditioning, for breaking on July 3rd at 5pm.  No, I’m not bitter. AHEM.  That out of the way, here’s week six.  There’s a magic overlap when dill and cucumbers are both in season at the market and I end up making some variation of this meal every year.  Chicken with a local version of tzatziki and TONS OF VEGETABLES.  Those snap peas made another appearance (because I really can’t get enough of them), along with some squash and scallions.  It’s a pretty easy meal to make, and I just love tzatziki.

Chicken with Tzatziki and Vegetables:
Chicken – Deep Roots Valley Farm
Squash – Charlestown Farm
Snap Peas – Jack’s Farm
Scallions – Jack’s Farm
Dill – Jack’s Farm
Cucumber – North Star Orchard
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Non Local – Olive Oil, salt, pepper

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 5

DSC_4416

Another week down.  This week’s inspiration came from a few different sources.  I want to say it was on Google+ that I heard someone talking about putting chicken in the crock pot and then shredding it like pulled pork.  Brilliant!  I found cabbage at the farmer’s market and decided to combine the two to make cabbage wraps.  Pitas or other types of wraps won’t be local so this is my substitute for wraps.  Works WAY better than lettuce since lettuce can be a little fragile, but the cabbage held up really well.  Sugar snap peas are a big favorite around here and we tend to just eat them raw (and they disappear quickly that way).  The chicken was stuffed in the crock pot with some homebrew beer and spicy peanut satay-like sauce for a few hours, until it shredded apart easily.  The drink in the back (frozen fruit smoothie) is not local, but it was a part of dinner, so I let it hang out in the photo anyway.  We had a lovely bit of weather this week, so dinner was outside on the patio.

Cabbage Wraps:
Cabbage – Charlestown Farm
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm
Fat Cat Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Chicken – Deep Roots Valley Farm
Non Local – Sauce, beer

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 4

DSC_4392

And here we have week four – a Bison stir fry.  The farmer’s market had their first zucchini of the year and I was SO excited to see all the new vegetables at the market, so I grabbed a bunch of different ones, added some bison and sauce and VOILA!  The sauce was definitely not local, but necessary.  The bison vendor advised that the chuck steak would work best and to marinate it overnight in the sauce to make it nice and tender -worked like a charm.  I still have some leftovers from this meal, since it made such a huge pot, but they’re going fast.

Bison Stir Fry:
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Charlestown Farm
Bison – Backyard Bison
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm
Broccoli – Charlestown Farm
Shiitake Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Onions – North Star Orchards
Non Local – General Tso sauce, soy sauce

 

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 3

DSC_4391_color

Pardon the blurry photo, but I was so hungry and managed to rush the photo in order to devour the meal.  Week three, and we’ve hit strawberry season!  I went out and picked 12 pounds of berries at a local farm – Walnut Springs Farm – the majority of which went into the freezer for a batch of jam later, and possibly for a batch of mead at a later time.  The meal is a salad, but with lots of fun toppings.  On top of the lettuce and pea shoots are strawberries, goat cheese, smoked chorizo, garlic scapes, spring onions, and the homemade dressing which also included strawberries.  It was REALLY filling, and a perfect late lunch.  I have just enough leftovers for another!

Spring Salad with Chorizo and Goat Cheese:
Lettuce – Jack’s Farm
Pea Shoots – Charlestown Farm
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Strawberries – Walnut Springs Farm
Chorizo – Countrytime Farm
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm
Spring Onions – Jack’s Farm
Non Local – Balsamic vinegar, olive oil

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 2

DSC_4388

Week two!  We’re slowly seeing more vegetables show up at the market, and since the husband is away, I jumped at the chance to use mushrooms.  He’s not a fan of mushrooms, so when he’s away, I get to have my fill of them.  You might not be able to see it in the photo, but that’s a BIG portabella mushroom topped with ground pork, kale, spring onions, and chevre.  Pretty easy to make – browned the ground pork in a pot with the onions, mushroom stems, and then added the kale just until it was wilted.  Put a heaping scoop of that on top of the mushroom that had been marinating in olive oil and vinegar, topped it off with some crumbly goat cheese, and popped the whole thing into the oven until the mushroom was tender.  On the other side of the plate is a pile of kale chips.  I’ve heard people talk about how good they are, so I thought I’d give it a try.  They’re good, but they’re time consuming and really fragile – kind of like eating one thin layer of phyllo dough.  They were fun to try, and the entire batch of chips disappeared quickly, but I don’t think I’d make them again.  Overall, the meal was great, and the leftovers are already gone too!

Stuffed Portabella and Kale Chips:
Kale – Charlestown Farm
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Ground Pork – Countrytime Farm
Spring Onions – Jack’s Farm
Portabella Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Non Local – salt, olive oil, vinegar