ORChick's Not-a-Journal

[hqueen13]

Do you have a recipe for your soup base? Is that sort of like the condensed soup that you get in a can? I have been looking for an alternative to that for a while, and not found anything satisfactory. But being able to make something up and can it would be perfect!

 

[ORChick]

Do you have a recipe for your soup base? Is that sort of like the condensed soup that you get in a can? I have been looking for an alternative to that for a while, and not found anything satisfactory. But being able to make something up and can it would be perfect!

I got the idea from this thread - http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1790 - specifically post #12. I haven't done this before, but will tomorrow. Depending on how it turns out I will do some cream of broccoli and cream of celery as well. Cleaning the grow light corner of the garage took a little (maybe a lot :/) more time than planned, and we will be going to dinner at my brother's tonight, so the canning will have to wait.

 

[ORChick]

Cream of mushroom soup sounds perfecto. It is a bit overcast today and creamy hot soup would be wonderful. What kind of mushrooms do you use? "back home" we used to gather morels , boletus and what we called cauliflower and calf's brains mushrooms. The morels... Oh how I miss them. My mother would dredge them in flour and fry them up in butter. Incredible stuff!
So you knit huh? I like that. And spinning. Also on my wish list.
I had beans and brown rice for lunch, topped with fresh salsa. It was good. My tummy is full enough but my mind wants more food, something richer. Something like, oh say...cream of mushroom soup!

I love wild mushrooms, but don't have the knowledge to get my own. The forests of Oregon are overgrown with mushrooms (and even the woodpile on our property) but I just don't know enough. I'm not sure DH would be willing to try my own foraged even if I took lessons from an expert *sigh*. Anyway, I can get fresh chantarelles at the market here, in season. And dried porcini/boletus. For tomorrow's soup I'll be using champignons/button mushrooms, and maybe toss in some of the dried porcini or chantarelles.
I've been knitting for years, but have only started spinning this last year. I've only got one project finished that combined the two - a winter scarf for DH - all my own work, from picking out the bits of grass from the alpaca fiber to finished warm thing for around his neck

 

[rathbone]

I am an Oregonian. And I understand your trepidation with the mushrooms. I only feel secure in the mushrooms I was trained to spot. I learned from my grandfather and stepfather. If however you do find someone trustworthy to show younwhat you are looking for, it would be worth it. The taste is incomparable.
IF you have pictures, I would love to see your piez de resistance. I bet it is a beautiful scarf.

 

[hqueen13]

Awesome... now I have more reading to do!

Do you have alpacas???? I LOVE them. SOOO much. Can't wait to have them. My mom has a spinning wheel so I'll just send all the fiber to her to spin

 

[ORChick]

No, no alpacas (though I have been wondering about the possibilities of my long haired cat! ). About a year ago, through a mutual friend, I was given (given! ) the fiber from 4 alpacas - 3 year's worth! She keeps them as lawn art, but didn't know what to do with the fiber - but they still need to be shorn. So my friend mentioned that she had a friend (me) that was interested in such things, gave me a call, and some while later she arrived in my driveway with 28 trash bags full of fiber! So, obviously, I had to learn to spin Luckily, there is a lady here in town who knows about such things, and showed me the way, and let me use her equipment until I could get my own.

I'll see what I can do about pictures.

ETA: Rathbone, what part of Oregon, if I may ask? We are near Roseburg.

 

[Denim Deb]

Wish I would have someone give me something like that! I'd like to learn how to spin, as well as knit. I can crochet, but it's been awhile. And, I can't wear wool-I'm allergic to it! But, alpacas are hypoallergenic, so I should be able to wear something from them w/no problem.

 

[rathbone]

La Grande, the land of milk and honey as far as I am concerned. I have two brothers and my mother who still live there. I also have a sister in Eugene. I love the diverse cultures there.
Someone gifted you all that Fiber?! Ddddddang! I love it when such good things just fall into our laps.

 

[ORChick]

Not so familiar with the area around La Grande, but I am learning/have learned what you mean about Oregon. I'm a California Central Coast girl, born and bred, and still love it down there ... but we have been up here now for 10 years, and love it too. The hills and forests around this part remind DH of parts of Germany, and I keep getting flashbacks to the California that I knew as a child, 50 years ago. My friend (since we were ten) lives in Oregon now too, further south, and she agrees - OR is so very much like parts of CA used to be.

All that fiber was really quite a shock. My friend said that it was four animals worth of shearing, but then arrived with the back of her van filled with bags! I thought it was one year's worth, turned out to be two. And then, a couple of months later, the alpaca owner asked if we wanted to come watch the shearing for last year - very fun afternoon! - and gave that to me as well. There are 3 different qualities of fiber - really nice, pretty nice, and not at all so nice. I used the middle grade to practice with the spinning - it was great! There was so much of it that I could spin and spin, and it didn't matter how long it took for me to *get it*. Had I bought the fiber I would have been so parsimonious with it that I might never have truly learned. The scarf for hubby was from the best quality. And, I must admit, the 3rd quality (short, rough, full of grass, seeds, etc) went onto the veggie beds as mulch It is possible that I will get invited to the shearing again this year; I will need to think of something really nice as a gift for her. I should probably get busy spinning, and take her a large hank of yarn (she knits)

 

[hqueen13]

WOW, how amazing. What a gift!! It amazes me the number of people that do keep them as pets, and have no interest in the profits they can bring in. Pretty expensive pets! (But I guess having a horse I shouldn't talk... At least I get to ride!)

I can't wait to see pictures! They are just absolutely adorable, and if you handle them (which people that keep them as pets often do more of) they are actually really friendly little critters, and not at all shy like their reputation says.