A little food-post

There are a few things we hoped to achieve by moving to the country-side. One of them was not having to live with a bunch of other people, flatsharing. Another was having the possibility of growing our own food. The garden we have now had some fruit trees in  it, and we have doubled the rhubarb-plants. Hopefully we can continue to alter the garden-space, adding more fruit trees and berry bushes.

This spring my dad and Daniel planted some potatoes in the hope that they would give a small harvest. We took them up last Saturday, and after a few days drying in the garage, they're now ready to be put into our pantry (and dinners).

Here are some pictures of them, and other foods we've been busy with lately.

We got a kenwood major for our wedding, and today I put it to good use, making blueberry muffins from berries we picked this summer. 

Looking good, huh? Daniel thinks the crumble on top does it. 

These are the potatoes. Some are rather small, and the rest (and most of them that is) are tiny. 

We used the nice and sunny afternoon to light up the grill and cook dinner outside.  Tomorrow fall begins. On the calendar anyways. 

Even desert was grilled. Nectarines in halves and roasted marshmellow on top. Sticky and really good stuff. 

Did I mention sticky? But with some foods, stickier is better. 

Yes canoeing.

After the last canoe-incident we found ourselves wanting two things. Firstly, a succesful canoetrip and secondly, an easier way to get the canoe to the water. This far we have been pushing it around on a little trolley, but especially uphill this gets less fun after a while. Therefore we came up with a suspiciously simple plan to pull the thing behind our father (in law`s) ATV. The whole contraption required the following materials: 1. A large plank. 2. Four holes. 3. 75 centimeters of strong rope. 

We had an appropriate plank lying around. Holes we made ourselves. Two close together on one end to thread rope through for the towhitch, and two spaced further apart so we could tie the plank to the trolley. And stupid as it may sound, it works!

Here is the whole contraption assembled.

The board is tied to the trolley with two loops that are tightened when the board is pulled forward.

A short testdrive revealed no problems. That is always a good sign.

 Having tried out the whole assembly, we loaded up some things in our canoe-trailer-wagon-thingy and headed for "Krokavatnet". This is a small lake a few kilometers down the road from us. According to local lore, and some vague memories of old (3 years back or so) there is trout to be caught there. Obviously, we`d like to catch some.

 With a rod and the bucket-of-the-optimist on board we set out and fished on several spots across the lake, taking turns in paddling and fishing. Unfortunately, the trout were nowhere to be found. Or not hungry. Or just too smart for us. Who can tell?

Maren fishing.

Maren paddling while I am busy not catching trout, accidentily throw stuff overboard, and snap the occasional picture.

 Having tried our luck, and having enjoyed an hour of the lovely evening out on the water we headed back. We complimented eachother on how well our simple canoe-transporting invention worked, and headed home.

 

Not canoeing.

It is much to Daniels excitement that we have gotten a canoe for our wedding. He wants to go out with the thing all the time, even though the weather does not seem optimal. Today, Maren thought it might be too windy. Daniel insisted it was not that bad. Therefore, we went for it. With the canoe on the trolley we walked down to the water, where the wind was blowing convincingly. "If we just paddle against the wind first, we`ll always come back. This`ll be fine", Daniel said. So we put the boat into the water, climbed in, and managed to paddle for about 50 meters out onto the fjord before the wind got a hold on the bow, turned us around, and began to blow us back. Still, Daniel figured if we managed to get the bow in the wind again, and stayed closer to land, we might manage. We did not manage. The only thing we managed was to get back to our entrypoint. This ended our 15-minute canoe-trip. We paddled hard and we paddled short, and it may have not been worth it. The thing Daniel liked best about the trip is that Maren did not once say: "I told you so.". 

Our only picture of this trip. Here in the shelter of the hill the sea looks innocent enough, but around the corner the wind was strong and the waves quite high.

 

Expanding the rhubarb-family.

Last midsummer night, Maren went to steal* some rhubarb from a neighbour. When she came home with her loot, she found out she had not just picked but actually uprooted a small plant. She did the sensible thing and put it in some soil. Today, we planted the adopted plant next to our own little rhubarb in the garden.

All the tools she needs!

Digging in rocky soil is not especially easy.

Rhubarbs new home.

Here Maren is reassuring our other rhubarb. We still love it, and life with a neighbour really won`t be so bad.

Here Daniel fills the hole with some compost to plant the rhubarb on top of.

The plant was fitted snugly in the hole with some of the soil we dug up.

We think it is happier here.

*Don`t worry, dear readers. She did have permission :-). (But it was midsummer and it was midnight, so we kind of had to use the word stealing, just for effect.)

A friday night with cabbage.

One of many great aspects of countryside living is that people grow their own food, and that people are generally nice. Which often results in neighbours sharing their crop. And so it happened that we got a head of cabbage in our hands. Now, we don't usually buy cabbage since they are too large for two people. Until this Friday we didn't know they could be frozen. But apparently they can if you just give them a short boil-up first. 

So Maren spent the Friday night making the kitchen smell pretty awfull. 

Cabbage, oh beautiful cabbage.

Cutting portions

Boiling it for a minute or so.

A quick rinse in cold water.

And portion packs in the freezer, ready for any stirfry or asian-style meal.

Cutting down the burglar-thief.

Until today it often happened that we felt spied upon in our own kitchen. Or that when we looked out of the window we felt for a moment that there was someone walking on the driveway. This was all caused by a small thuja-tree that Maren in the end started referring to as our Burglar-thief. Today, we had had enough. The burglar-thief had to go!

This is a mugshot of the culprit.

And how it loomed outside our window.

Victory is ours!