DIY Herb-Drying Rack
/
For $19.95, you can order an herb-drying rack from Amazon.
:
Or, you can cut up some old tomato-cage wire, grab some twine, and make your own in about five minutes.
You'll need clippers, a pair of scissors, strong twine (hemp works great!), and a hook, nail, or staple in the ceiling to hang the drying rack from.
Cut the wire into a length that will give you the perfect circle size for your needs when you bend it. Then make small knots with the twine around the circumference of the circle to hang your fresh herbs from. Finally, take a few pieces of twine to connect the wire circle to your ceiling hook.
To harvest your herbs, cut healthy branches from your herb plants. Be sure to remove any dry or diseased leaves, and shake the branches gently to remove any insects. If you have to rinse the herbs off, be sure to pat them dry with towels (wet herbs will mold!). Cut off the lower leaves along the bottom inch of each branch, then bundle four to six branches together and tie them together as a bunch. Hang these bundles upside-down from your drying rack.
Leave your herbs hanging in a dry, warm, airy location until they are crumbly to the touch (depending on your climate, this could take up to two weeks). When they're dry, your herbs are ready to store.
Sweet Liberty Cakes
/
School is out, summer has begun, happy 4th of July! To get away and do something different this year, my friend and I are volunteering at Better Farm in Redwood, NY. They're part of WWoof USA (World Wide opportunities on organic farms) and we're staying for two weeks! I'll be posting more about Better Farm soon.
We spent Saturday night at a local friend's camp for a one-man fire works show worthy of some sort of medal. Today we're skipping the local town fireworks in Alexandria Bay, having a bonfire and eating these delicious cakes.
You may notice the ingredients are in larger quantities. You could easily halve this recipe to make 12
muffins.
Sweet Liberty Cakes
makes 24
5 C blanched almond flour
6 eggs
1/2 C (one stick) butter melted
1 C honey
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 C blueberries
1 C strawberries diced
Preheat the oven to 350
Line two baking dishes with 12 red, white and blue muffin liners (this allows for the square shape, you could use a normal muffin pan and reduce the cook to 20-25 min)
In a large bowl whisk the eggs, honey and cooled, melted butter
In a separate bowl mix the blanched almond flour, salt and baking soda
Blend the dry into the wet and mix thoroughly
Mix in the berries
Using a less than full 1/4 C measuring cup and a spoon, spoon the batter into the 24 cups
We spent Saturday night at a local friend's camp for a one-man fire works show worthy of some sort of medal. Today we're skipping the local town fireworks in Alexandria Bay, having a bonfire and eating these delicious cakes.
You may notice the ingredients are in larger quantities. You could easily halve this recipe to make 12
muffins.
Sweet Liberty Cakes
makes 24
5 C blanched almond flour
6 eggs
1/2 C (one stick) butter melted
1 C honey
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 C blueberries
1 C strawberries diced
Preheat the oven to 350
Line two baking dishes with 12 red, white and blue muffin liners (this allows for the square shape, you could use a normal muffin pan and reduce the cook to 20-25 min)
In a large bowl whisk the eggs, honey and cooled, melted butter
In a separate bowl mix the blanched almond flour, salt and baking soda
Blend the dry into the wet and mix thoroughly
Mix in the berries
Using a less than full 1/4 C measuring cup and a spoon, spoon the batter into the 24 cups
Bake 35-40 minutes until the tops of the cakes are a light golden brown
Brecht for Plants
/
By Meredith Kooi
I’ve been reading sections from Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Novel to some plants in the greenhouse and garden here at Better Farm. 
Greenhouse breath, the rhythm of the reader. Some words to the plants from a page in the glass box. She wasn’t sure if they understood. Better to read to them than talk to them. The pages of Brecht did the talking, replacing words she couldn’t say.
Aloud she spoke to the garden plants. Their stomata-ears exchanged her exhalation for noise. Noise for sound. Sound for words. Words formed sentences that fluttered through their chlorophyll relaying back oxygen to feed continuous exhalations, more words for the plant. An onion trampled by the garden’s other inhabitants, three chickens, unaccustomed to propriety.
Meredith Kooi is a visual artist, writer, and photographer. Learn more about here here. To learn more about Better Farm's betterArts residency program, click here.
I’ve been reading sections from Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Novel to some plants in the greenhouse and garden here at Better Farm.
Greenhouse breath, the rhythm of the reader. Some words to the plants from a page in the glass box. She wasn’t sure if they understood. Better to read to them than talk to them. The pages of Brecht did the talking, replacing words she couldn’t say.
Aloud she spoke to the garden plants. Their stomata-ears exchanged her exhalation for noise. Noise for sound. Sound for words. Words formed sentences that fluttered through their chlorophyll relaying back oxygen to feed continuous exhalations, more words for the plant. An onion trampled by the garden’s other inhabitants, three chickens, unaccustomed to propriety.
Meredith Kooi is a visual artist, writer, and photographer. Learn more about here here. To learn more about Better Farm's betterArts residency program, click here.
A Novice's Guide to Gardening
/
- Never trust a weed-wacker. It will always let you down. Just as soon as you start to get comfortable with it, to trust it and to rely on it, it will disappoint, fall apart, or simply stop working. This leads me to the next point...
- Scythes are fantastic. Using one gives you a great arm workout (although if you are hopelessly right-handed like me you’ll end up with a super buff right arm and a lame left arm). They are also great for releasing any pent-up aggression. Just be careful not to chop your legs off in the process.
- An overactive imagination is a blessing and a curse in the garden. It allows you to get lost in the work, leads to creative solutions, but also leads to unreasonable fears of what is hidden behind tall weeds.
- Weeding, by the way, is exhausting and boring. It never ends. There is no light at the end of the tunnel with weeding and leaves me feeling like Sisyphus. Mulch gardening, however, has proven to be a good method for preventing excessive weed forests. We’ve jokingly talked about covering the entire garden in cardboard to keep all the weeds down and more seriously about using a natural herbicide that combines vinegar, dishwashing liquid, and oil. Oh and don’t worry, we’ll be sure to keep you all posted about the herbicide.
- The garden is no place for squeamishness. If you are terrified of bugs, snakes, and Jumanji-esque plants, then reconsider a career in gardening. Although, to be fair, I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the aforementioned upon arriving here and now have learned to tolerate them all. Additionally, there is no room for fussiness in the garden. You will get sweaty, dirty, smell like manure, look like a scarecrow, and ruin your nails. As long as you can laugh at yourself you’ll have a great time. Besides, we have a claw-footed tub here that is perfect for long, relaxing, cleansing soaks.
- Wear tons of sunscreen and bugspray (the real, heavy-duty industrial kind, the mosquitos seem to get a high off the natural kind), and drink lots of water. Gardening is serious work and I’ve developed some funny tan lines and bug bites that I won’t be able to get rid of easily.
- Gardening is all about trial and error. It is not for the persnickety—it requires great flexibility (physical and emotional). We have had to re-plant, dig-up, shift, re-think, re-research a lot. For example, Liz and I are staple gun experts now after a day spent trying to figure out how to take the staple gun apart. One could say we wasted a lot of time but we prefer to call it a learning experience (in humility and staples).
- Always carry a camera. Seriously. We have seen some pretty crazy things out in the garden and a camera helps convince people that we’re not crazy... most of the time.
- This is perhaps the most important: there is never enough soil, compost, or manure. We go through mountains of all three and yet there is never enough. Although, on the plus side, this does allow us to visit dairy farms...
Why Residency?
/
Me in the studio at Better Farm.
By Joetta Maue
As those of you that read my blog know I recently returned from a 2 week artist residency up in the NY North Country at a sweet little place called Better Farm. And as I was preparing to leave a few artist friends started to ask me about residencies and what they are and why I do them. So today’s topic is Why Residency?
artists at Vermont Studio School.
Actually the answers are endless. I myself only recently came to doing residencies while I have friends that have done a ton of them and their are a few folks that are essentially residency “hoppers” having no permanent residence and just go from place to place. A few of my friends started to do residencies right out of graduate school as they provide studio space, time, and community. For a number of my friends, both visual artists and writers, the community that they have found has been invaluable. For those of you that do not live in urban areas like NYC it is a wonderful way to start to meet artists and build community with artists that are in those areas- and who knows where that may lead. A number of artists I know met plenty of New Yorkers so that when they themselves moved here they already has a network of people to support them. To me this is the number one reason for folks who do not live in urban art hubs to attend residencies- build community and have discourse. Vermont Studio School which is a large scale and very well established artist community is infamous for this.
MacDowell Colony
Those of us who DO live in urban places like NY, still benefit extensively from the community, but perhaps for us the biggest benefit is time and space AWAY from the urban busy lifestyle and to have the ability to focus on uninterrupted studio time. I know that for me- in the city I am busy with social engagements, teaching responsibilities, and trying to make it to all the incredible art events happening- so I treasure the time at artist residencies to be AWAY from all of that and just be with my work. I get to breathe a big sigh….
Another reason a number of my artist friends have attended residencies is to prepare for graduate school taking the time of the residency to build their portfolio for the arduous application process and to start getting into the critical discourse that surrounds the MFA. What I do know is that though the reasons might be varied but the benefit is guaranteed. I highly encourage it.
The Tin Shop Studio.
There are vast difference in residencies and therefore it is up to the artist to do their research- they vary from expensive but highly respected and established residencies, or prestigious but funded residencies such as the McDowell Colony to small scale one artist at a time emerging residencies such as the Tin Shop in Breckenridge, Co. It also depends on what you need as an artist- the larger scale residencies tend to have more structure and more community but are generally not open to family attending with you. While smaller scale ones seem to have a lot more flexibility.
Textile Arts Center Residency.
Another thing to note is do you have to pay? and what do you get? Is it a residency, such as the Textile Arts Center residency, where you are getting a studio only, or do they provide housing?
Roswell New Mexico Residency
There are also a few VERY rare but very special long term residencies which provide housing and a stipend so that you have no financial worries and can truly just focus on the development of your work. This include the very awesome and highly competitive Fine Arts Work Center in Cape Cod.
So that is my little tiny primer on residencies. For those of you that have done one please share in the comments so that readers can benefit from your expereicne too. Or if you know of a super good one let us know!
Hope you can get away soon:)
Until next time keep your needle threaded.
Joetta Maue is a full-time artist primarily using photography and fibers. Her most recent work is a series of embroideries and images exploring intimacy. Joetta exhibits her work throughout the United States and internationally, and authors the art and craft blog Little Yellowbird as well as regularly contributes to Mr. X Stitch. Joetta lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, son, 2 cats, and a goldfish.Ingredients for a Rainwater Catchment System
/By Elizabeth Musoke
So, we have been looking around for a simple rainwater catchment system that we think will be effective here at Better Farm. To me, simplicity is key in design. It's the little, almost unnoticeable details that make a design beautiful and come together. Two barrels just arrived and they are currently being cleaned out. We are also really close to getting the rest of the equipment.
The recipe:
Attach gutter and downspouts to the Bird House, prep the barrels, attach the barrels to the gutter system, add some highly motivated interns to the mix, stir and await the results.
More information on the rainwater catchment system to come!
Read more:
Ingredients for a Rainwater Catchment System, Part II
Agriculture is Somewhat of an Irony
/By Soon Kai Poh
In the garden we build trellises and tie strings loosely to the plants so they are able to grow taller and be supported as they do so. This in turn, leads to more opportunities for flowering and eventually pea production; which is what every pea farmer seeks.
In the garden we build trellises and tie strings loosely to the plants so they are able to grow taller and be supported as they do so. This in turn, leads to more opportunities for flowering and eventually pea production; which is what every pea farmer seeks.
Gently guiding the outstretched tendrils of the pea plants into various arrangements so they climb the trellises properly, I realised something: agriculture is Man's way of attempting to take hold and control the course of nature - either by actively transplanting, trimming, grafting, or simply guiding plants onto trellises. Yet at the same time, as farmers who live dependent on the forces of nature (changes in season, weather and temperature) for crop growth, we realise that we're ultimately not in control at all of anything that goes on in this cosy garden of ours. It is both humbling and awe-inspiring to take a step back and marvel at this carefully balanced relationship between Man and nature, which can be somewhat ironic at times; especially when we try so hard to bring things under our control through all manner of technology and agricultural experimentation.
And yes, that is what we do over here at Better Farm every day. Contemplate reality, muse about existence, and:
1. Go swimming in one of the nearby lakes, OR jump off a cliff into them
2. Enjoy the fullness of the Moon
3. Make your own weeding stool because, you know, weeding is better when you weed in comfort
4. Make some home-made bread
5. Enjoy the daily short 5-minute sunset glow
6. Attend a biker rally at Alexandria Bay
7. Mosey around the Art Barn with window scraps (or scrap windows)
8. Hang out on an island on a fine summer's evening - you know, the usual (Thanks David for hosting us!)
9. Set up, support, and of course attend Erica's gallery opening
That should make up for 2 and a half weeks of not blogging. Cheers!
Gallery Opening Celebrates the Work of betterArts Resident Erica Hauser
/ |
| Erica Hauser, left, and Jaci Collins. Photo/Mark Huyser |
Better Farm yesterday hosted a gallery opening to celebrate the work of Erica Hauser, a betterArts painter-in-residence who visited us all month. Erica works in a variety of mediums and subject matters, demonstrated in her eclectic collection on display last night. She will be missed! We'll let the images from her gallery show speak for themselves:
DIY Garden Gate
/ |
| Interns (from left) Natasha Pietila, Soon Kai Poh, Elizabeth Musoke, and Jaci Collins with their latest creation. |
The interns consulted with builder-in-residence Mark Huyser to come up with a simple, clean, and lightweight gate that would keep critters out and not put too much strain on the 4x4 garden posts holding the gate up. The crew utilized scrap batten boards and leftover chicken wire, along with some screws and staples. All that was left to do was build the thing. No problem:
 |
| Carpenter-in-residence Mark Huyser at far left. |
Awake
/
By Erica Hauser I've been subsisting on only 4 or 5 hours of sleep each night, but I still feel so good every day, clearheaded and full of energy and cheer. There's a few reasons for this, of course, the main one being that I get to fully inhabit the life that I want. Following my natural rhythms as I move through my day, clearing the space to create and be free, easy, myself. Or as close to it as I can get, with the mind that I have and all the stuff that's in it.
Yes, I am starting to feel a bit glum about the approaching end of these two months, endings are always hard for me. But that's why I need to do these things, to get used to the changes and to look forward to what's next, which hopefully, is to continue working, wherever I am.
Can't find the cable that connects my camera and computer, but I've finished two more small paintings that I am very happy with, and working on another large oil. I've spearheaded a few 'art parties' in the barn, urging the interns to come down and paint stuff in their free time, and it feels good to provide them the space- not that it's my barn or anything, but to welcome & encourage anybody who wants to be creative, and to be around to help with materials or whatever.
On Tuesday I'm going to hang the work and have an art show. I'll scrub the paint off my knees and we'll have a grand time. I won't miss the mosquitoes but I will sure miss walking into that barn with a cup of coffee and starting my day, painting or thinking or talking to people who make me feel like I AM getting closer to understanding what some of this is all about and figuring out how to make life work better for myself. It occurs to me that this may all be fuzzy because of those 4 hours of sleep 16 hours ago, so I'll retire and aim for clarity in the morning. Today I was thinking about the last essay in a book I just finished rereading, so maybe I'll begin with that thought tomorrow.. or maybe there'll be something else.
Art Show to Celebrate Work by betterArts Resident Erica Hauser
/
presents the artwork of Erica Hauser
in a gallery exhibit hosted by betterArts, Inc.
Free entry!
Wine and appetizers will be served
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
5-7:30 p.m.
Better Farm's Art Barn
31060 Cottage Hill Road, Redwood
Call 482-2536 or e-mail info@betterarts.org with questions!
For the Birds: Painter-in-residence leaves her mark on the birdhouse
/
Erica Hauser is in the last week of her betterArts residency at Better Farm. During her time here, in addition to creating many wonderful paintings, culinary delights, and forming close-knit relationships with the crew here, she's also been calling Better Farm's human-scale "Birdhouse" home. In the last week or so, she set about making that home a little cozier by painting the inside walls, then coming up with a sweet four-wall mural of—what else? Birds!
Feast your eyes:
Here's what she had to say about the process:
Big thanks to Erica for leaving us this extremely beautiful piece of art! We're excited to share it with all future visitors to Better Farm.
To learn more about Erica Hauser's work or to commission a piece, click here.
Feast your eyes:
I just painted the inside of the birdhouse. I was the first to perch here and feel honored to be able to leave my mark as a contribution to the Farm. Part of it is inspired by a bird mural I did last year, but it (and the other elements) felt right for the space, and I was able to use paint I found around. Today I'm finishing a small self-image in oil using a photo my friend took. Both aspects are outside my realm of comfort, which is why I need to do it even as it evokes some strange feelings. I used to say that the objects and places I paint express something about myself, too. There's still plenty of truth to this but it's starting to feel vaguely disingenuous, as if something inside is trying to emerge.
Big thanks to Erica for leaving us this extremely beautiful piece of art! We're excited to share it with all future visitors to Better Farm.
To learn more about Erica Hauser's work or to commission a piece, click here.
