Self-Reliant Yuppies is Moving!

After much thought and consideration, I've decided to combine my blogs and everything will now be found at www.NoOrdinaryHomestead.com. There you can keep up with all our garden & home renovation projects, self-sufficiency things, our travels, Ayla, what's happening with the new baby and anything else that comes into our heads.

Hope you enjoy the new site and thanks for all your support! Please remember to update your bookmarks and links...as well as your reader software!

We've got worms!

No, no problems or complaints in this post. We're not upset that we have worms but rather pleased instead. We recently started our very own worm farm after finding ourselves plagued with an endless supply of fruit flies in our kitchen who just loved munching down on whatever was waiting to go to our compost bin or recycling container. Naturally, this was something we wanted to eradicate as quickly as possible, and since we'd been researching about worm farms and vermicomposting already, we figured now was a great time to dive right in.

This is our current setup. We ordered about 400 worms online and they arrived about 36 hours later. Thankfully we'd already started building up our worm bin so they could move right in, once we'd filled the bin with damp newspaper shreds.


The bottom of the blue tub has a bunch of small holes in it, through which excess water can drain as well as worm tee, which is extremely high in nutrients and a wonderful natural fertilizer for your plants. We put some on our tomato plants and they seem to have really done well afterwards. We have no comparison plant but they are nearly as tall as the neighbor's tomato plants now, which are about a month ahead of ours. That must mean something, right?

We've had the worms set up for about 10 days now and have no complaints so far. Well, they could eat faster but each little worm can only handle so much food at a time. The fruit fly problem has been greatly reduced, especially now with our makeshift cover over the box. And it's pretty amazing to be able to walk back there, lift the papers to put some additional compost material, and come out with your hands still smelling clean.

There's quite a few castings in there now and Stefan thinks they have been reproducing also. I'm still a fledgling with these things and am pretty scared of killing them all; but they seem very hardy and happy so far. And with them just a few steps away in the mudroom, it's completely convenient to feed and check on them regularly. Now we just have to determine the best method for cleaning and sorting things out so we can harvest the castings to be used for fertilizer and give the worms a comfy new home.

Our first attempt at homemade ginger ale

Since we had a bit of ginger root laying around and a few plastic soda bottles, we decided to try out making soda for the first time. It's a very simple process, some more simple than others, and to our slight surprise, it actually worked!

I don't know what the exact recipe we used was but it wasn't all that great so we'll have to do some tweaking and seeking for new ginger ale recipes. But after bottling, we waited 48 long hours, refrigerated the bottles to stop the fermentation process and waited until it was cool enough to drink. There was no doubt about it that we had carbonation. When we added ice to the glass, it also fizzed up again just like a real soda. It unfortunately just needed some different combination of ingredients because we just didn't like the final taste.

One of the cool things about making your own soda is that if you don't finish the bottle, you can leave it out, let the fermentation process start again and have a fizzy soda again in 24-48 hours. Pretty smooth in my opinion. Would be great if regular products did that! ;-)

I can't wait to try making our own cream soda, which should be no trouble at all. And we're looking forward to finding a few more recipes too play around with. There's no telling what crazy avenues our soda making escapades may take...and with any luck, we can use some fresh ingredients from our own garden too!

An update on what's growing

On Saturday morning, I passed by the thyme plant growing in my herb container garden and saw this!

ICK!!!! I don't know where they came from or how they got to be over an inch so quickly but these little suckers were munching down on my thyme plant. I quickly picked them off and disposed of them and thankfully have not found any more...but why we have so many caterpillars around this year eating all our plants, I just don't understand.

Speaking of which, the evil little caterpillars that were eating my jostaberry bushes have nearly been eradicated. I check the plants about once a day to see if I find any new bugs and still find a handful at times, but it's nothing like it was the first day when the poor plants were just overrun with them. And I'm extremely happy to report that they are beginning to put on some new leaves which I hope to keep out of the mouths of those caterpillars...as well as big green grasshoppers like the one I found hiding in the middle of a leaf earlier today!

This weekend I planted one of the ginger roots that has been growing in the window. I still need to do the other one, but need to go dig a pot out of the cellar first. If I wasn't afraid of losing the thing in weeds, I would just pop it in the garden...but I think I'll just try them in containers for now and then transplant roots later after I've seen how they will do and know just where I want them since I've heard they can grow quite aggressively. The shoot on this one is continuing to grow so it would seem our planting strategy is doing ok so far.



We also planted one of the tomato shoots which sprouted really well in water. We'll see if the little tomatoes on it start growing again. The second smaller shoot needs to be planted as well, I'm just trying to figure out the best place for it so it won't be trampled by the dog.

Speaking of the dog, we had a mishap with one of the herb containers last week and she managed to empty the whole thing out in the courtyard. But somehow, I must have gotten the seeds back towards the top of the pot because it's starting to sprout. Either that or there are weeds starting in the pot which I also possible. I'm not certain whether it's basil or dill but I guess we'll know soon enough.

It's mystery partner is also starting to sprout so we'll see what happens. These were extremely old seeds which we found in the barn when we bought the house. I'm rather surprised they are doing anything since the rosemary and parsley seeds are not. But I haven't given up on them yet either.

When I did all the other herbs I also started a fresh pot of catnip, with two kinds of seeds for our kitties. They go crazy for the stuff and eat everything in sight so I'm giving them a bit of time to grow before I let the cats loose on it.


I also started lemongrass again, not only for us but also for the dog. It's supposed to be the dog equivilant of catnip so we'll see if Ayla likes it. I can only hope that she doesn't go all crazy after eating it like our cats usually do with catnip. She's nutty enough as it is, and when a 100 lb Newf goes crazy, you definitely notice!


And just because I haven't posted much about them, our Fordhook zucchini plants from Burpee are doing very well. We ate two of them already and they were really nice and tender. This one is just about ready to come off and we have a bunch of little ones starting; I just hope I get a male blossom ready at the same time as all the female flowers so I can pollinate them. For whatever reason, our zucchini plants don't do a good job of this themselves...but with a bit of help, we've gotten some nice results!




This thing is a mystery plant. When we came back from our vacation in Florida, this was one of the plants that was still alive. It was labeled as a Brandywine tomato but it hasn't looked anything like a tomato until just recently. I thought for a while it might even be some sort of pepper or chili plant but I just don't know. It has a few blooms on it now so I guess we will see if it does anything at all. But at the very least, it definitely doesn't seem to be a weed anymore.


As you can see, our tomato plants are also doing pretty well still but we have a ways to go before we can harvest anything. Three of them are Long Keepers and one is a Big Rainbow from Burpee seeds. We tried to grow Big Rainbow tomatoes from a seedling last year but never got too many tomatoes from it. Not sure if they're just not suitable to this climate or what. It's definitely one of the slowest to produce but if the fruits taste good, I guess it really doesn't matter. There should be plenty of others.

Don't you need to build a chicken tractor?

Now this is a cool concept! We would love to have chickens at some point, mostly for egg production but perhaps we might one day get tough enough to butcher the birds ourselves. But when you have your birds totally free range, there's the issue of finding the eggs, catching the birds and predators having their way with your flock. But an idea that came up on a homesteading forum I subscribe to suggested building a "chicken tractor" which I think is brilliant.


I've borrowed this photo from the following website which goes into further into the process of building a tractor for your own birds although you will be hard pressed to find any actual plans online. I'm pretty sure most could just find a chicken coop to build and then mount the wheels and some handles on it so it can be moved.

Why move it? So that the chickens have fresh grass and bugs to peck at after they have decimated the patch of ground the tractor stands over each day. And of course, if you keep the birds confined in a space like this you don't have to worry about them flying into a neighbor's yard or eating things that they aren't supposed to, like your garden!

Although we don't have space for chickens right now, at some stage we hope to find a piece of land close to us where we can have birds, maybe a goat or sheep, fruit trees and even a little farming land for wheat, sugar beets and more. But until then, I'll just have to live vicariously through others who build these great little contraptions!

Want to cut your family's spending habits??

I just finished reading America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money by Steve & Annette Economides. For some this book may be incredibly eye opening, and I did find their budgeting style quite interesting, as well as the concept of meal planning. But many of the other tips in the book are things that I did for years.

I have generally always considered myself a bargain hunter but after we first moved to Germany, it was much harder. For starters, the concept of a sale was completely foreign here. There were many restrictions about when sales could be and how much discount could be given. There's no double or triple coupon days...there aren't even coupons for the most part! When people are getting rid of something, it is often because it's completely been used up. Garage sales don't exist although flea markets can be quite big...but we have yet to find any that weren't just local vendors peddling new items instead of boxes of junk from someone's attic. But we'll not be deterred. With a new baby on the way, we need tons of stuff. And I know there are tons of baby & kid flea markets during the year so we're just going to have to try some of them out and see how it goes.

And thankfully it is getting easier to find bargains. There are still many places that think taking a few cents off an item that costs a few bucks makes it a steal...I have to disagree. But shopping fliers warrant a glance through them for specials...and end of season clearance sales generally have very big discounts tied to them, if you can manage to find something you like.

But all this has very little to do with the book itself. Overall it was very easy to read and is broken down so that you can read what is relevant for you now, or go in order to see the full package. I think their meal planning concept is fantastic because it not only makes things easier when you start wondering what you should cook every day, but you also don't need to constantly run out to the store. Generally that causes a lot of additional costs to be added on to your monthly grocery bills because you pick something up spur of the moment, get it home and then realize you don't have anything to prepare with it. So, if you're us, it stays in the fridge for a week or so, starts looking really gross and gets tossed out. Not wise spending at all. Plus, because we're buying large quantities of meat at one time, we can buy a huge package of chicken breasts, for example, repack them for 2 portions, freeze and just need to thaw them out in the morning before cooking.

If you're considering doing some cost cutting, this book isn't something that will rock your world because many of the tips are things you might be doing already...but it will put them all neatly together so you can get an idea of where you can continue to save, what you're already saving on and where you need to get better focused. They also outline emergency funds for your home, family, car, etc which are absolutely essential for those unexpected things that come up. And they really manage to put things in perspective when you consider they feed a family of 8 on only $350 a month! They don't even have a garden so just think how much more they could be saving!!

So in keeping with the saver spirit, don't go buy the book but borrow it from your local library or a friend...or find yourself a used copy if you prefer to have your own! :)

Chicken Divan is DIVINE!!!

After the massive disappointment with our chicken curry recipe a few weeks ago, I was a bit concerned about trying another curry recipe, for fear that our curry isn't good although we just got it. But I picked out another recipe with less curry included in it and an altogether much more simple recipe in general. We ate it last night (flip-flopped our meal plan a bit this weekend) and it was SOOO good. Definitely another keeper from this meal plan! Stefan renamed it Chicken Divine because it was just that good :)

So far every recipe from the Southern Living cookbook has been excellent - not that I'm surprised because I grew up in a house where Southern Living was always subscribed to and I know how great the magazines are. In fact, I'm fairly certain that if we lived in the US, I would be getting it all the time now. But that's another story which ventures into my obsession with magazines, books and apparently all things printed in paper for the enrichment of my brain, body and soul :)

But back to the recipe. The only change I made from the original was to increase the amount of curry because there was only a hint of it in there...hence we added 3/4 teaspoon. But each curry is different so you can adjust to your own preference. Oh and I boiled boneless chicken breasts because I didn't have any with the bone in and just figured it was easier without the bones anyway. And we also omitted the paprika sprinkling at the end because we were so hungry when it came out of the oven that we forget to check if there were more steps in the recipe!

I kinda felt that the dish should be served with rice or pasta or something. It's not that it didn't taste good on its own and it certainly was filling, but chicken, broccoli and the curry sauce just seemed kinda strange. We ate a few crunchy breadsticks with it though and that was enough. It was really, really good in fact and I'm looking forward to the leftovers of this dish already!


Chicken Divan
Yield: 4 servings

4 bone-in chicken breast halves, skinned
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon curry powder
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen broccoli spears, thawed and drained
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Paprika


Place first 3 ingredients in a large saucepan; add water to cover. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until chicken is tender. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup broth. Let chicken cool slightly. Bone and chop chicken; set aside.

Metl butter in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat; add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute,. stirring constantly. Gradually add milk and reserved broth; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly.

Stir one-fourth of hot mixture into egg yolk; add to remaining hot mixture and cook 1 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and next 5 ingredients.

Layer half each of broccoli, chicken and sauce in greased 2-quart casserole. Repeat layers. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F (180 celcius) for 30 to 35 minutes. Sprinkle with paprika.


Source: Southern Living's 30 Years of Our Best Recipes