Stacking Firewood

This is our first year heating our home with wood, and I've got to tell you, it's quite the adventure. Before this year, I'd always romanticized the idea of heating a home with only wood.  The thought of cutting our own wood and providing our own heat seemed very idyllic and homestead-y, which is sort of my goal in life.

To be fair, I do love snuggling up by the fire and reading a good book, or cuddling with Cody and the dogs. It is romantic and ideal in many ways.  It is also a huge amount of work though.  Aside from cutting the wood, which we did only a minimal amount of this year because of how late we moved in, there are many other chores. We clean the inside of the stove each morning before starting a new fire and this requires venturing out into the brisk morning air to dump the ashes into our designated ash bucket, which never sounds fun at 5 o'clock in the morning. 

The biggest chore that we are focusing on now is stacking the wood.  It took us quite some time to stack all of the wood that we had acquired for the winter.  Many, many hours of serious manual labor were put into this endeavor.  We have stacked about seven face chords of wood total (I think).  We don't fully know how much wood we will need for the winter, but we are crossing our fingers that we don't need to find more mid-winter.

Half of our wood went into our hut, which is an insulated building that sits next to our house. It actually has electricity and heat, so it has been used as a "tiny" house before, but we needed a designated wood shed. It's the perfect place to keep the wood dry.

The other half of the wood is stacked on top of pallets on the opposite side of our house.  The stacks that are outside are covered with tarps to help keep the rain and snow off of the logs.  We plan to gradually move more logs into the hut as winter progresses.  We may start moving them sooner though.  Wet wood is a big worry.

We also keep about 40 logs in the house at one time. These logs sit in a small wood closet next to our front door. Typically, we have been hauling these in on Sunday, but I assume this will get more frequent now that the temperatures are dropping drastically. I anticipate that we will have to fill it 2-3 times per week, but at this point it is all guesswork for us.  Lots of guesswork is going into keeping the house heated right now.  I've heard from others who heat exclusively with wood that it takes a while to figure out what is right for your house.  Here's to hoping that we figure it out soon! 

Your turn...Have you ever heated your home with wood?
Currently listening to...American Heartache - The Wood Brothers

How To: Freeze Wild Alaskan Blueberries

Our freezer is becoming more and more stuffed with delicious berries.  While we are eating some of them fresh, others are bound for canning and the freezer.  Even in a city like Juneau there is a serious lack of fresh (and decent) produce throughout the year.  What better way to combat this than freezing our own fresh fruit?! So, here is how we did it…

Picking blueberries at the ski area. 

1.) Soak blueberries in water for 10-15 minutes. This will soak out any worms while bringing leaves and other debris to the surface. 

2.) Place berries in a strainer for another 10-15 minutes to allow them to dry/remove excess water. 

3.) Place the berries on a non-stick pan.  Make sure that they are not piled on top of one another.

4.) Place pan and berries in the freezer (quick-freeze area) until they are completely frozen.  

5.) Remove berries from the pan and place in either vacuum-sealable bags or ziploc freezer bags. If using ziploc bags: use a straw to suck remaining air out of the bag to lessen the chances of freezer burn.  

6.) Store in the freezer.

7.) Un-freeze and add to delicious pancakes on a rainy day :)

Questions:

What is your favorite type of berry?

Not a berry-lover? What is your favorite fruit?

Hunting for Berries

This weekend Cody and I set aside some time to wander up into the mountains in search of wild blueberries.  We are lucky enough to have a tasty blueberry bush growing next to our front door.  But, the summer is getting late and the birds have made a feast out of it.  In order to have enough berries to use in canning we had to do some wandering.  The wandering was worth every moment.

We drove our car up into the mountains (as far as the road allowed) and set off on foot.  There were bushes everywhere.  We could have started picking berries within about 500ft of our car but we were in need of a little weekend adventure So, we traveled up into the hills and settled on a spot in a high valley between two higher peaks.  This ended up being the perfect spot. The berries were huge and incredibly sweet.  We snacked the whole time we picked :)

                  

The weather only added to our incredible day.  Fall is my favorite time of the year.  Everything about this season makes me happy.  Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin beer, fall colors, chilly weather, big sweaters, the list goes on and on.  On this particular day we were graced with some serious Fall weather.  It was in the 50's and quite breezy in the mountains.  The threat of rain loomed near for the duration of the expedition but we were lucky enough to stay dry.  The colors up this high were incredible as well.  Everything was turning brilliant shades of red, brown, and orange!

This adventure left me longing for Fall to be in full-swing.  I am sure in a couple of months I will be missing the sun and warmth but the weather this weekend made me so nostalgic for my favorite season.   We were lucky to collect multiple bags of berries and we hope to make another trip up later this week.  I am sure we will be busy making blueberry concoctions (both to eat and store) over the next week.  Just another reason why I love my favorite season :)

Questions:
What is your favorite season? Why?
Do you ever go berry picking? 
What should I make with my abundance of tasty berries? 

Fireweed Jelly Recipe

Fireweed Jelly Recipe
8cups of packed petals (no leaves!)
 5cups sugar
2packets OR 7tbs of Pectin
1/4cup lemon juice
4 1/2cups water

Directions: Place petals, lemon juice, and water in a large pan.  Bring water to a boil.  Once boiling, set the timer for 10minutes, stir frequently to avoid burning petals.  Petals will begin to loose their color and the water will turn a deep purple.  Remove from heat and strain out petals.  MAKE SURE TO SAVE THE JUICE.  I strained my juice into a large glass bowl.  Then, return juice to the original pan and heat on medium.  Add all of the pectin at once and stir.  Bring back to a boil and add sugar.  Make sure to return the mixture to a boil for about 5minutes after adding sugar.  Remove from heat and distribute into hot mason jars.  Begin the processing (aka boiling the jars to make sure they seal).

There you have it folks! I am an official Alaskan…kind of, ha ha.   I collect my own berries, make my own jams, catch my own fish…seriously?! The jelly turned out amazing.  I couldn't have asked for a more successful first attempt at jelly making.  Sadly, a few of my jars didn't seal so I will be re-processing a few of them.  However, for a first attempt I am pretty impressed with myself.  I actually did a happy dance around the kitchen (much to Cody's amusement).  I can't take total credit for the recipe though.  I snagged it from this blog, which was recommended to me by a friend who frequently makes her own jelly. Woo-hoo for awesome jelly!

Questions:
Have you ever done any canning? Made your own jelly?
If you have your own jelly recipe, share it!

Fireweed Jelly: The Intro

It's that time of the year! Time to start collecting berries, plants, and other goodies so that we can store some food for the winter.  Now, this is my first year doing any storing/canning/harvesting myself.  I've always been interested in gardening and the homesteading lifestyle, but I haven't ever done anything about it.  So, the move to Alaska seemed like the perfect time to start.  I grew a garden (a pathetic one as it was still snowing in May), collected berries, and began making as much of my own stuff (shampoo, detergent, etc) that I could.  Now, I hope to do a longer post about this lifestyle in the future but today's is going to focus on making... Fireweed Jelly!

Fireweed is a purple, flowering plant that grows in Alaska and many other places in the United States.  It is an incredibly durable plant and typically will be the first plant to return to an area after a forest fire (namesake).  If you are more interested in learning about the plant itself, you can check out this link.

 I haven't made my own batch of jelly yet, but I am hoping to this weekend.  However, I have been doing plenty of fireweed picking and snacking on the jelly that I have been gifted (my neighbors are the best).  The awesome-ness of the batch that the neighbors gave me has inspired me to make TONS.  We will never buy store-bought jelly again! (Well, maybe once in awhile :))

My students helped collect the plants for me too! They heard I was making jelly and decided to pick me a few giant bags to contribute to the collection. Their only condition was that I give their families each a jar.  Obviously, I've taught them well :)

When I do finally make my own jelly I plan to use a combination of this recipe and this recipe. For my vegan friends, I am trying to find a good substitute for pectin, any suggestions? It seems impossible to find a fireweed jelly recipe without it, but here's to hoping!

Questions:
Do you grow/harvest/can any of your own food?
What beauty or food products do you make yourself?