Whiteley Creek Homestead

LIFE AT THE END OF A DIRT ROAD IN CENTRAL MINNESOTA

organically grown triticale in our field
canoeing in our wetlands
raspberries growing wild on our property
our back porch fieldstone fireplace

about

  • Mpls Farmers Market and Childrens Museum

    Mpls farmers mkt pumpkins 

    Over the weekend, Dick and I shopped the Minneapolis Farmers Market on Lyndale Avenue along with two of my daughters who were visiting… Lisa, with her husband and two kids from New Jersey, and Jessica from Florida. Jess and I broke away from the pack for a while to sit and listen to a jazz musician while we ate from a box of raspberries and shared an oatmeal flax muffin… both purchased from the market.  Besides in-season freshly-harvested veggies, vendors were selling homemade cleaning products, flowers (I bought a huge orange-red colored potted mum.), cheese (I chose two bags of yummy slightly salty cheese curds.), as well as a variety of clothing and food. It would be fun to live closer to be able to shop the market every weekend but, even though our Brainerd Farmers market is much smaller, I find the variety and quality to be very good and I am grateful for the growers in our area.

    Childrens science museum town    

    We were in Minneapolis to attend the wedding of my sister Rita's daughter. We had some time to spare so we took our grandkids to the Childrens Science Museum. My favorite part was an entire town set up for the kids to interact with.

  • autumnal equinox

    Crocheted dishcloth 

    This morning, upon checking out, a guest gave me this gift of a dishcloth she made for me. On this first day of autumn, I am struggling with letting go of summer, so I am happily washing my dishes with this dishcloth bursting with summer colors.

    Paper plate 

    Tucked away in the corner of a kitchen cupboard under boxes of brightly colored drinking straws and napkins sporting roosters and blooming geraniums, I chose some pink and lime green yard sale paper plates for Dick and I to eat our lunch on today… one final summer celebration. 

    Autumn candle 

    O.K., I'm now ready to greet all of the Indian Summer Days that this season has to offer. To welcome the first day of autumn, I placed this candle in the middle of my kitchen table. The bird proudly perched atop the candle's lid reminds me that this new season, like summer, is awash with color… just different hues. 

  • woodland inhabitants

    Woodland inhabitants  

    If you haven't yet shopped Etsy, you are missing out on a huge artsy world "out there". It is a marketplace for creative people to sell their handmade products. I purchased these two woodland inhabitants from Vermont Fairies. Their hair is absolutely perfect… a little windblown from their woodland adventures. Enlarge the photo and notice the skirt fashioned after a leaf's shape and, if you look closely, you will see a a rick rack pattern embedded into the bodice that looks like a necklace hanging down in a gentle swoop. They are the creation of a sweet talented entrepreneurial teenager who is increasing her college savings. Her fairies are "made using wool felt that she makes herself from her family's sheep then embellishes them with angora, llama, mohair, silk, and sparkles". I immediately fell in love with their style of dress and hairstyles because it reminds me of Franco Zeffirelli's movie adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet starring Olivia Hussey that I saw as a kid in 1968. You can imagine the impact the story's plot had on a fifteen year-old but, in addition, the huge screen with its vibrant colors was especially impressive since I grew up with a black and white television and it was only the second movie I had ever viewed at a theater. The first theater movie I saw was a year earlier titled "The Gnome Mobile", a 1967 Disney movie starring Walter Brennan about "an eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren embroiled in the plights of some forest gnomes who are searching for the rest of their tribe. While helping them, the millionaire is suspected of being crazy because he's seeing gnomes. He's committed, and the niece and nephew and the gnomes have to find him and free him." This childhood movie explains my woodland fascination. 

    After purchasing my felted wool duo, the next step was a woodland home for them. I showed Dick an idea and we went on a scavenger hunt to gather twigs, bark, pinecones, and moss. When Emily, the Vermont Fairy Etsy Shop owner, learned that I was planning to build a home for her creations, she sent me a precious little bag of acorns, a seed pod, feathers, and a tiny felted wool butterfly along with a handmade linoleum block print card with a sweet note inside. This is an example of the small hometown feel that you get from interacting with Etsy shop owners… yes, even though it's out in cyberspace. Look at the photo and you will see the feather "smoke" gently rising from the pinecone chimney and the green butterfly fluttering overhead. 

  • vintage pyrex bowls

    For a few years, I have been on a hunt for a set of vintage pyrex mixing bowls in graduated sizes sporting colors of yellow, red, green, and blue. They aren't extremely rare, but the price tag isn't cheap. When Dick and I camped at Itasca State Park after Labor Day Weekend, we drove into Bemidji one day and stopped at antique stores along the way. At one shop, where items were semi-haphazardly displayed… my favorite… love the hunt, I spied a set at a very reasonable price. It was missing the red bowl but still a good buy. Since I was purchasing other items, in addition to the bowls, the shopkeeper offered me an additional discount on my purchases. Now the hunt continues for a red bowl to complete the set. It nests between the yellow and green bowls. (The little square bowl that holds chocolate chips and chopped pecans is another pyrex dish that I bought at the same antique store. It has the cutest line-drawn blue rooster on the side.)  

    Pyrex mixing bowls    

    Today my bowls hold ingredients ready to be mixed together for Triple Chocolate Cookies.

  • new “retro” bicycles

      New bikes

    Dick and I purchased new 3-speed automatic shift Raleigh bicycles today from Cycle Path and Paddle in Crosby, Minnesota. I love their retro look and wide comfy seats. It's difficult to see in the photo, but the color of Dick's bike is a dark green. All I need now is a basket to attach to my front handlebars to carry a little picnic lunch. We didn't want any higher than 3-speed because it means having to pedal harder to get through the gears. We also like that we don't need to manually shift into different gears. We can just enjoy the scenery. 

    Cuyuna Bike Trail 

    … and what scenery we did enjoy. To test ride the bikes, we first rented them and rode for 11 miles on the Cuyuna Bike Trail in Crosby.

    Cuyuna Mine Pit Lake 

    The paved trail winds by beautiful lakes created when deep pits resulted from mining iron ore years ago. Mature trees surround the lakes with not a house in sight, since the land is owned by the DNR. We spent the most wonderful early autumn afternoon.

  • quinoa bean burgers

    I picked some herbs today from my garden… basil, spearmint, and flat-leaf parsley…  that made such a pretty bouquet in an old gravy serving dish. 

    Herb bouquet   

    I used some of the fresh basil leaves to make some basil mayo to top some quinoa bean burgers I made for lunch today.  To complete the meal, I served a little glass custard cup of spinach thyme soup topped with alfalfa sprouts and a salad made with pink lady apples, strawberries, red grapes, green muscat grapes, a pluot (plum/apricot combo), blueberries, sugar snap peas, a yellow pear tomato, a red grape tomato, a variety of nuts and seeds, raisins, and boiled egg slices. Drizzle the fruit and veggies with "Annie's" Papaya Poppyseed Dressing. Yum!

    Quinoa bean burgers   

  • nature does not hurry

    Over Labor Day Weekend, when Dick and I attended a Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag, I shopped in a general store that is part of the event's 18oos town's main street. I chose two hand-crocheted dishcloths made with autumn yarn colors and two jars of homemade jelly… one is made from corncobs and the other one from chokecherries. I was drawn to their colors that glisten in the sunlight. I have made chokecherry jelly from berries picked in my yard, but I was curious about how corn cob jelly is made, so I went online to learn. The food coloring and excessive amount of sugar would deter me from making it, but now I know the process. I am impressed with the use of a plant's part that is normally tossed aside.

    Corn Cob Jelly

    12 sweetcorn cobs
    4 c. sugar
    4 c. water

    Bring corn cobs and water to boil for 10 minutes. Strain through cloth or sieve. Measure 3 cups liquid. Put in pan. Add 1 box fruit pectin. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer 3 minutes. Then skim. Add 2 drops yellow food coloring. Pour into clean, sterilized glasses and seal.

    A pink shade of jelly can be achieved by using "Ruby Queen" sweet red corn.

    Jellies, yarn, and dishcloths    

    Down the street, in another building, I stopped to watch an elderly woman dye wool yarn with natural materials. The yarn is first soaked in water and mineral powder such as chrome, copper, iron, or tin then it is rinsed and dried. Next the yarn is soaked in water that has been simmered with flowers such as dahlia, marigold, goldenrod, coreopsis, or hollyhock. Berries such as sumac and juniper work well also. Black walnut green hulls or leaves, as well as the leaves of poplar and sumac make good colors, too. I bought two pieces of her dyed yarn… one that she had first soaked in an aluminum powder then a combination of blueberries and acorns which turned into a tan color. The other piece of yarn she soaked in a tin powder then gladiola blooms. It turned out to be a yellow gold color. I'd like to try natural yarn-dyeing one day.

    Red pine stand 

    After spending three days at the Rollag Steam Threshers Event, we headed to Itasca State Park for two days. I stood there in amazement among the red pine stands. Their growth is slow and their lifespan long. One amazing tree in the park is over 300 years old! It is there that the solitude of the forest spoke to me…  "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."  I ran across the wise message in a magazine recently. Since I tore the page out, I can't give credit where it is due. The words, in script handwriting style, were scrawled across a chest of drawers. They were ordered custom from the online decal company wonderfulgraffiti.com.

  • Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion

    Over Labor Day Weekend, Dick and I went to Rollag, a little town near Fargo, where a Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion is held every year. We volunteered in the "Cooks Car" which, in days gone by, was moved from one farm to the next to prepare food to feed all the farmers that came together to help each other during harvest season. It is the box-shaped building in the bottom left-hand corner of the photo.

    Cooks car at Rollag cropped

    I learned how to make "egg coffee" on the cutest old stove in a corner of the cook's car. I have never cared for the taste of coffee but, if I was to acquire a taste for it, I think I would drink egg coffee because of its less bitter flavor.

    Enamel pot for egg coffee  

    I found this recipe on the Internet from “a former Minnesota kid who grew up surrounded by Lutheran women who cooked for showers, weddings, and funerals."

     

    Egg Coffee

    1 egg

    1 cup cold water, divided

    1 cup regular grind coffee

    6 cups boiling water

    Using an enamel coffee pot, heat 6 cups water to boiling. Wash 1 egg; break into a bowl, reserving shell, and beat slightly. Add ½ cup cold water, 1 cup coffee and the reserved egg shell, crushed. Mix thoroughly. Add the coffee/egg mixture directly to the boiling water. Boil 3 minutes. If not boiled, coffee is cloudy. If boiled too long, too much tannic acid is developed. Add remaining ½ cup cold water. (Cold water, which is heavier than hot, sinks to the bottom and carries the grounds with it.) You can also pour the coffee through a strainer to separate the grounds from the liquid.

     

  • heirloom sweet peppers

    My weekly, highly anticipated, excursion to the farmers market turns up different surprises each time I go. This morning I bought four heirloom sweet peppers because of their fun colors.

    Heirloom peppers

    I arranged them in an old wooden candle mold, then added a wood carved farmer that was a gift from my friend Deb, and a pot of herbs for an autumn centerpiece on my dining room table. Did I say that I am anxious for the fall season??!!!

    Heirloom pepper centerpiece

  • late summer bouquet

    I strolled through my gardens today to snip a bouquet of summer flowers before the autumn hues slowly… effortlessly… subtly transform our world into a different, but just as magnificent, landscape.

    Late summer bouquet

    Dick made the wire and button flowers for me fashioned after a vase I had seen when we were traveling in Pennsylvania several years ago. He first made the loops to simulate flower petals, next he threaded the wire through the holes of two buttons that I had selected from my vintage collection, then he wound the wire around the vase a few times, and finally formed a loop on the back side to be able to hang the vase from a nail instead of setting it on a table.

    Wire button flowers