Morel Season is in Full Swing in the Blue Ridge!

 Seems that Easter weekend was a BIG weekend for morel hunting in Floyd County and i wasn't at home to hunt. 😭  We went away for the weekend, and when i checked into facebook my feed was FULL of morel pictures.
We got home  Sunday night and had just enough daylight left to check my spot.

Only found one lonely little mushroom. Went back out to look for them a few more times this week, but didn't find any. i was starting to feel a little discouraged, worried that my spot has dried up and we've never found them anywhere else on the property.  We had another good rain during the week, so i went back out hunting yesterday.

i was thrilled to find a couple more. Still not the big morel flush i've been hoping for, but it's something. i'm going to keep checking my spots and keep looking for spots. i KNOW they have to be out there.

We've had two different 'honey holes' on our property, the first we stumbled upon the first year we moved here. It produced well for almost 10 years and then stopped. The second spot i found after the first one dried up, and it's been producing ever since although the yield has definitely been going down each year.  i'll be back out hunting them again today, hoping i stumble upon a new 'honey hole'.

Springtime Baking

So all winter i've been on a pretty big baking kick.  i've really enjoyed the process of making (and eating) homemade bread.  When it was cold outside it was nice working in a warm kitchen with the oven. Now that the temperatures are getting warmer during the days i haven't been baking near as much.   The house just gets too warm, and i want to be outside, not sitting around waiting for my bread to rise.  So i still haven't gotten around to attempting sour dough.

On cooler, rainy days i've still been playing around with a few recipes. Tried something a little different and made a honey wheat seeded loaf. It's half wheat/half white flour with hemp, flax and chia seeds. It was pretty good, but a little too dense and heavy for my liking.

i recently learned to 'rest' the dough when braiding. Usually when i braid the dough pulls back making it difficult to get a long braid. This time i let it rest (maybe a little too much) and ended up with a braid that was longer than my pan so i spiraled it around.  i really love braiding bread.

This was my attempt at some decorative braiding on top of a loaf.  It was actually a bit of a failure since the heating element in my oven went out in the middle of the bake! i had to finish it off with the broiler. The bread was pretty flat, but actually still tasted really good and had a nice texture.

So now that garden season is in full swing. i've been looking into getting a bread machine. i really don't know too much about them,  but like the idea of baking bread all summer without heating up the house.  Also most bread machines have a timer function which you can set to bake bread at a certain time. So i can prepare the ingredients in the morning and let the machine do its work while i'm working on something else and not have to worry about over proofing. 

This was my last baking attempt before Easter. i wanted to try and make a pretty Italian Easter Bread.  i think i may have over proofed it, it doubled insize once in the oven and tried to push all the eggs out.  i'm been wanting to try making it again, but it's just been too warn to turn the oven on.

Since i was thinking about bread machines to cut down the heat in the kitchen, i checked out some Bread Machine reviews at The Village Bakery  They list the top 20 bread machines and include advantages and disadvantages of each one.  They also have the links to each machine so after reading their review you can check it out on amazon to see the price and what others think of the product.  It makes shopping for a bread machine (when you really don't know what you are looking for) very easy! 

 While at The Village Bakery, be sure and check out their 20 best whole wheat recipes!  i have several recipes bookmarked that i'm eager to try.  You can find other tips and resources for all your cooking needs! 

disclaimer. This is a sponsored post. It contains affiliate links and i do receive a small compensation for posting.

Drama in the hive- Our first swarm!

Kenan had checked the bees yesterday and noticed some swarm cells in a couple of the nucs. They had just been split a couple weeks ago, but their population was exploding and they were crowded.

He had just gone up there to split the nucs again when he noticed the bees in one of the nuc boxes was beginning to swarm.  

 There was a HUGE cloud of bees in the air in front of the hive and the buzzing sound was deafening.  Thankfully they didn't go far, they landed on the fence post a few feet away.

This cluster of bees is protecting their queen who is somewhere in the middle of all this. i didn't get a lot of pictures because Kenan was yelling at me to help. lol. i used a bee brush to brush them into an empty nuc box while Kenan held it under them. 

We brushed in as many bees as we could. Once i spotted the queen inside the box we put the lid on it.  The other bees will follow the scent of the queen and make their way into the nuc box which is now there new home until we can move them into a larger hive. Exciting stuff!

The bees are actually quite docile when they are in a swarm state. We could literally use our hands and scoop them into the box. 

We had just gotten the first swarm caught and in a new nuc box, so i came back to the house and took off my bee gear.  Kenan went back up to split the other nuc that needed splitting.

He immediately came running back to the house and said 'you're not going to believe this, but i think the other nuc is swarming!' So i got my bee gear back on and headed back outside. The second swarm made it into a tree on the edge of the goat field. We had to bend the branch down and cut it, and then shake/brush all the bees into the new nuc box.

 i held the branch while kenan cut it about 99% of the way through and then we switched places so he could support the branch while i finished the cut.

 We held the branch over the box and gave it a good shake, then brushed the remaining bees into the new box.  i again, spotted the queen in the box, so we put the lid on and are hoping the remaining bees make it into the box with her.  Phheeewww! That was some serious excitement!  i've never seen anything quite like it, and to be in the middle of all those bees was a bit nerve racking. We were already planning to split the hives, so they just did the work for us. We are currently at 4 hives and 10 nucs. We've ordered more hive boxes and will get them prepped and ready.

The term “nuc” is short for nucleus colony. A nucleus colony is just a very small colony of bees. It's not intended for honey production like the full size hives, it's more for bee production in case your hive fails. It's good to keep a couple nucs around so that If one of your hives goes queenless, you have another queen ready to go. If you wait for your colony to re-queen itself, the population will drop such that you won’t get any surplus honey for that year. You can also use the bees in a nuc to boost populations of a weak hive. Which we may have to do with one of our hives that is having issues. We will eventually be moving some of these nucs into Hive boxes to try and establish a few more full size hives.

Rock Painting with Triton Paint Pens -The Kindness Project (sponsored)

My girl and i had some fun with paint pens yesterday.   We are painting rocks for the Kindness Project again this year. These #Triton paint pens are great for Rock Painting - Ceramic, Wood, Metal and Glass. They come in a set of 12 vibrant colors and are easy to use. They have a .7 mm fine tips for details and are fast drying. The super fine tip is good for dotwork. They are waterbased and non-toxic.

 They have a .7 mm fine tips for details and are fast drying. The super fine tip is good for dotwork. They are waterbased and non-toxic.  We decorated quite a few rocks, but my rocks are a bit rough and it was hard to make nice lines.

So i had the idea to try applying vinyl decals, and then using the paint pens to color them in. i pained a base coat over the rock first, but i'm not sure if that's necessary.  i cut out my vinyl decal using my Silhouette cameo 3 and weeded it so it was ready to transfer.

Then i used transfer tape to lift the decal off the carrier paper and transfer it to the rock.  It stuck really well.  i rubbed it good before removing the transfer tape. 

Once the design is transferred to the rock, you can begin painting it.  

The paint pens work great with the vinyl, and if you accidentally get a little paint on the vinyl it's easy to wipe off without effecting the design.  We really loved working with these paint pens, the fine tip is really good for writing and for the details. i just need to find some smoother rocks.  Once we have these finished we'll put a layer of  Mod Podge Outdoors over them to seal them. We are looking forward to hiding a few rocks around town this summer. 

You can find more info about the paint pens we used here https://amzn.to/2IGBLov .

disclaimer. i did not receive compensation for this post, however i did receive a free product to review in exchange for my opinion. My opinions are my own and are not influenced in any way. This post may contain affiliate links

Spring Harvest- Garden to Table Meals

Garden season is here!  Although it' still too early to plant much more than seeds, we are still starting to harvest fresh food.  Our hens have been laying well, so there is no shortage to fresh eggs.  My asparagus is starting to come up, and besides the asparagus is also full of chickweed.

Although chickeweed is considered a weed by many, it's a tasty edible that can be used in place of spinach both fresh or cooked.

Our shiitakes have been producing all winter, but are really popping now. i have about lbs in the fridge at all times and we've been cooking with them almost daily. They are a thick hearty mushroom and really make a fabulous meal.  We are also starting to get oyster mushrooms again, and morels should be popping soon. Our freezer is still stocked with chanterelles from last year's mushroom season.

New asparagus just coming up. Although i have an established asparagus bed, we put in about 50 new crowns last year.  So we are expecting a fabulous harvest this year.

My first Harvest meal, from garden to table was an amazing omelette stuffed with fresh picked mushrooms, asparagus and chickweed. Everything was homegrown except the cheese and seasoning. Everything was picked fresh / collected that day.

Then for dinner i made a creaky mushroom fettucine using shiitake, chanterelle (frozen from last year) and Oyster mushrooms, chickweed, garlic and asparagus.  The butter and cream came from our cow share. The only thing store bought was the pasta noodles, Parmesan cheese and seasonings.

Garden to Table Mushroom Fettucine.

1 lbs fettucine noodles

1 lbs fresh mushrooms sliced ( i used shiitake, oyster and  thawed Chanterelle)

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cup heavy cream 

1/4- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 

2 cloves garlic

1 bunch chickweed or spinach (washed and chopped)

1/2 lbs asparagus

salt and pepper

Cook pasta according to directions and set aside.

While Pasta cooks. Melt the butter in a deep sauté pan over medium heat. 

Add garlic and cook until fragrant about 2 minutes. 

Add the mushrooms and cook for 6 to 8 minutes until they have released their liquid and become tender. 

Add chickweed/spinach and Asparagus and saute a few more minutes until asparagusis tender crisp.

Add the cream and most of the parmesan cheese and cook until mixture thickens.  Add the cooked pasta to the skillet and toss well until pasta is well coated. transfer to your serving dish and top with addition Parmesan cheese.

Salt and pepper to taste.