Children’s Book Collaboration

A good friend and i have started to collaborate on some kids stories, writing & illustrating

I am starting with Tom’s story next is Mo’s….
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This is Tom.

This is Tomʼs camp.

This is Tomʼs mom setting up the water pump .

This is Tomʼs dad, chopping wood for the campfire.

This is Tomʼs friend, Koda

There is a lot of work to do to set up camp in the spring. Sometimes, the neighbours come by to help, Hello, Greg! How is Pat doing?

Little mice made a nest in the sheets. Bye bye little mice! You belong outside.

Uh oh! trouble with the water pump! Tomʼs mom and dad know just what to do.

Tom is a good helper, he puts the pegs in the dining tent.

Once the water is set up and the cobwebs swept away from the outhouse, and the food is put away and the beds are made, it is time to have a campfire.

Tom roasts some marshmallows and his mom and dad have a beer.

Then he goes to bed under the mosquito net, listening to the crackle of the fire outside. Lying there, he hears his mom and dad sitting on the porch, laughing and whispering. Tom feels happy.

Tomorrow he will go and play with his friends at the beach He will go fishing on the lake He will go for a walk with Koda and see the horses and the turkeys that live up the lane.

Tom closes his eyes. He hears some crickets and an owl. He hears the wind in the trees and the water from the lake lapping up against the old dock. He hears a screen door close and the night noises of his parents getting ready for bed.

The moon rises over the lake and a little light shines through the curtain onto his face. His mom peeks in. “Heʼs asleep,” she whispers.

The floorboards creak as she tiptoes back to her room and then everything is quiet

Good night crickets good night owl good night Koda

good night fire good night canoe and good night fish

Good night little mice good night stars and good night wish

Good night camp.
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words: Fiona Jager pictures: Jessica Shepherd

I was initially apprehensive; children’s illustration is not how i  would describe any of the  art i have done over the years…my stuff tends to be more abstract or from life–illustrative not so much.  after a bit of blank canvas anxiety this is what I came up with–still working it all out–more to follow…

learning to knit

after years of sort-of knowing how to knit i decided to take the plunge — someone, my grandmother i think, taught me twenty years ago, and i found it to be a totally frustrating experience.  Turns out I was being taught how to knit left-handed continental style.  In the years since have tried to take it up again but  teaching myself was difficult and confusing and its hard to find left-handed knitters.   i gave up on the continental style, and attempted to re-learn right-handed but it was no use…thankfully there is YouTube.

I joined a knitting club, watched some YouTube and in the past month have managed to start and finish a few projects.
I found some bulky yarn, and decided to try my hand at making a ‘cowel’ of sorts. I have been finding my scarf a bit cumbersome with the kids, having it unravel at inopportune moments, drag in the mud  and really all i wanted was something to stop the draft from getting  in around my neck. I couldnt find a pattern for waht i was looking for, and truth be told reading knitting patterns is not a skill i have as yet aquired–so instead i just tried to imagine how a knit dickie might be made. who knew as a n adult i would attempt too make myself my most hated piece of winter apparel–a faux turtle neck (the only thing i hated more as a kid was turtlenecks) after spending a few days on my own i managed to get to a  knitting circle meeting and realized what i was doing was not knitting. once i figured out how to make a classic knit and pearl stitch left handed it was easy.

some circular needles and a bit of guidance on the likely number of stitches i would need, i came up with this:

next i wanted to learn how make ‘ribbing’ & use more then one yarn, i went for the easiest option 2 yarns in alternating stripes. The stripes are not particularly visible but that was kind of the idea–it hides the mistakes.
  
Tom asked for one in his size too, but “with a pompom please”…

I seem to be slowly improving, maybe by next winter i will be ready to make a sweater–for now i’ll stick to hats & scarves.

mid winter project

i found a jelly roll of batik fabrics and it seemed the perfect means to counteract the dreary  january weather.

My cousin has been redecorating her apartment so i thought it was a bout time i made her her long-overdue house warming present–intended for when she first moved in, better late then never, two throw pillows….

christmas baskets

In the weeks before christmas i made dozens of cookies–some for our friends at the drop in centre, but mostly as a part of a christmas basket my sister and I put together for our extended family.
maple & gingerbread cookies (with fresh & candied ginger)
sugar cookie swirls
chewy chocolate & walnut bars (blondies)
brownsugar button cookies
nanny’s shortbread
caramel corn
and a homemade paper ornament

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This year is to be a low-key, low stress, christmas lite, with as little consumerism as possible. We flew out at 6am christmas morning, so Santa needed to visit christmas eve with as little hoopla as possible

Christmas feast: chinese take-out for a family of 12, worked brilliantly! I will never cook a turkey for christmas again!

Camping Delicious

Our first and final camping trip of the year…

we had been trying to go camping all summer and never quite got organized until this past weekend. We drove through snow only 2 hours north of the city and launched our canoes in sunny but brisk 5 degrees after a short portage. a quick paddle across a lake and we were at our site.

One we had camp set up we headed out on a paddle around the lake. the wind was a bit stronger then ideal but the scenery was lovely and the smell of the fresh air invigorating.

We returned to the site by mid afternoon, but with only a couple of hours of light left, we went straight to the forest to forage for fire wood and get dinner started.

With the fire burning and our root vegetables prepped we waited for enough coals for to cook over. We kept a good fire going to one side and raked coals across the pit to create a bed to rest the dutch oven on. after not to long the Beef shanks were tossed in the pot to sear. Once well browned we got saltpork cooking and then the onions and garlic and then  in went the carrots and turnip. We added a bunch of red wine, some sage, rosemary, and thyme.  Sweet and russet potatoes were oiled and wrapped up in tinfoil and put on the fire separately. Our vegetarian  companion, had brought along an already cleaned out pumpkin. While we seared our meat she sautéed  her share of the carrots, turnip and onions and then stuffed it into pumpkin with some quinoa. the pumpkin was tossed in the fire on the coals next to our dutch oven. Oiled and wrapped in a few layers of foil the pumpkin cooked along side the stew…
We kept the fire going and the coals refreshed by which time the sun had set and it was barely 5 pm. by 6 we were in pitch black and the stew was at a good simmer. By 7 we were ready to eat, and the meal was glorious!
Between the continuous fire,  the leftover wine, irish whiskey, and several layers of clothing we kept warm and the trip completely reignited my interest in camping.

jerky

Bulgogi flavour jerky for our camping trip, mmm….

 

sliced thin, marinated.
slow dried in the oven on low heat.

Autumn has arrived

Autumn has arrived and with the cold weather i have started thinking about making another quilt–something for myself this time and after discovering this great vintage sheet

i think i have the inspiration i need to begin
For the quilt top id like to use a selection of fabric that has the same colours and use the sheet either as the backing, or more likely as part of the “made bed” in combination with some other sheets and pillow cases.  Though i like the yellow/orange–i think it might be a bit…well too yellow for longevity.
so the plan is to incorperate another colour, maybe navy or eggplant–right now im really feeling the  fabrics from the joel dewberry “heritage citrine” and kaffe fassett collective “sunshine” collections.


I have already worked out the quilt pattern and it looks like i will need about 20 fat quarters. It will be like a sort of charm quilt–lots of little squares (about 6″) with a double border, a wide border(5″)  solid  for mattress overhang and a smaller outer border(2.5″) made up of a print, or more likely smaller patchwork. I may also use the disappearing nine patch to create the blocks…i’ll have to wait and see until i have the fabrics in hand…

Feathers, Scales, & Fur?

We had beautiful weather up north and best of all i managed to cath both birds and fish!
I have had plenty of success in neighbouring lakes but never have i managed to pull a trout out of our lake. every trip i take a turn or two trolling, and like a good fisherwoman, diligently cast off the dock a while–rarely is there evidence of hungry fish.

But this trip 3 casts (and a borrowed lure) and i had a nice strike. Too small to make a good meal, so the little fish was unhooked and released–but I’ll take the win.

And BIRDS! our neighbours generously included me in their hunting group and off i went. Five shots, a nice walk through the woods, and a couple hours later i had birds in each hand.  We cleaned the birds roadside and the catch to that point was cooked in our smoker that afternoon. using the same technique as last year (see post wild edibles ii & iii) a salty spice rub over the flesh, coveredn in bacon and slow cooked.
BUT i keep re-reading the joy of cooking’s advice about small game birds and the perils of cooking them without drying them out. And as much as i love the smoky flavour – the cleaning technique and the necessary cooking we use at camp has been niggling at me.
And here is why–1/The  joy of cooking (and a few other old cookbooks) tell me that rather then gutting and removing the feathers skin and all immediately following the hunt, i ought to be hanging the birds whole, so that 3-5 days later i can pluck the feathers, which should preserve the skin-it remaining intact and thus open up a whole other avenue of cooking techniques because barding will no longer be necessary.
2/the birds feathers are rather pretty and i think next trip i will keep them rather then tossing them into the bush (after all feathers seem to be all the rage as fashion flare right now). i must be able to find some use for them.
3/i have ideas about taking myself on a solo hunting trip which involves doing all my hunting while walking through the woods (and maybe camping), rather then driving logging roads, only pulling over near promising stretches of bush.
I also have ideas about getting a rabbit, (which is allowed on the same hunting licence) and using the pelt after eating the fellow.

Any way our long weekend was super fun. the weather was amazing 24+ (much nicer then either our september or august trips)  we had lots of good food, great company, successful harvesting of our ‘local’ environment, and tom had a blast.

Pickles and Pâté

Its been a busy summer but I have been trying to keep up with making, using, recycling, saving, repurposing….

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I have been looking forward tothe spoils of fall hunting and harvesting as our tomato plants give their last and our cucumbers begin to shrivel on the vine…and in a few weeks we will go on the last of our our trips to camp for the year.

We came back from the August long weekend with blueberries  and pickerel. And I hope to come back from Thanksgiving having eaten some birds and other autumn edibles.  All the fungus growing around camp this trip, got me thinking once again, about harvesting wild mushrooms ( and that I need to find someone up there that knows whats i can pick and eat!)

This trip we saw the most enormous bear and a ton of partridge just sitting on the side of the road everywhere we went. And on one of daily walks to visit the horses and turkeys around the lake, T and I picked rose hips & blackberries–I think they would go well with smoked partridge, or wild rice. Anyway it got me thinking about all sorts of things i’d like to try. One is a version of an amazing slushie I drank while at a bath in Amman– I think it was called karkade- a hibiscus infusion, served cold and slushy while you get steamed in the baths.

Here rosehips have been  harvested and used in a similar tradition (even with the same sorts uses and pairings) as hibiscus tea/infusion for generations. Also, apparently the combination of rosehip & Hibiscus is quite lovely so i would like to try something using that…
With all this in mind i started flipping through cookbooks, and in my Charcuterie book and I came across a recipe I wanted to try.

Last week I set my hand to making the recipe–a traditional pâté–and one not made entirely of liver.  Bold seasoning &  pork shoulder butt join the mix  to create a more rustic then store-bought textured pâté–and for extra tastiness in went some duck confit that we made a few months back.
As well, last week the cucumbers were piling up around us and it seemed time for a pickle–and once your set up you might as well do a big batch, the cleanup is the same–so T and i set off to the market and picked up 10 lb of organic baby cukes, pickling dill, and garlic. We used grandma’s recipe and they turned out great!
We made a dozen jars baby “kosher” style pickles, 6 jars of our back yard cukes-sliced, and a couple jars of mixed spicy vegetable pickle.
T stuffed the jars and I filled and canned. lots of fun!

karkade
bring to a boil 1 c roselle petals & 1 gallon water
simmer 5 – 15 min
sweeten with 1/2 c sugar
serve warm, or place on shallow tray in freezer once cool to create a gratin/slushie. scrape the sides of the tray every 1/2 hr until desired frozen-ness is reached.

Baby Bird blanket