Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is Marlene Laverty!
Marlene Laverty (#7503) has received a certificate of achievement in Farm Kitchen for earning a Beginner Level Cheesemaking Merit Badge!
“I made yogurt using my goats’ whole milk. I had a choice between using a yogurt culture or plain store-bought yogurt. I have to start with a bacterial culture to get the process going. I made my yogurt with 1 cup organic store-bought yogurt as a starter. I made sure the store-bought yogurt had live culture in it. I heated up a quart of whole milk to 180ºF to sterilize it and placed the pot of milk in a sink halfway filled with cold water to cool it down to 80ºF. Using a whisk, I mixed the milk slowly into the cup of yogurt. I have a Euro Cuisine yogurt maker with jars. It’s really just a covered hot plate with jars, but it keeps the milk and starter at the correct temp to get the cultures moving and growing. I poured the mixture into the jars. Twelve hours later (the longer the time, the more sour) … yogurt!
It turned out a little thin. Nice and sour and just a bit sweet. Great for granola! I will drain some of my yogurt to make Greek-style yogurt. Using a fine mesh sieve and butter muslin, the yogurt can be drained of most of the liquid to make a much thicker yogurt. All in all, very happy with the result. It’s great with honey and peaches too!”
Sauté 1 diced onion, 1 diced bell pepper, and 1 clove minced garlic in 3 T olive oil. Add 1 bay leaf and 1/2 t ground fennel; cook for 5 minutes. Add 1 diced Yukon Gold potato, 2 T white wine, 1 T lemon juice, and 2 cups vegetable stock; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add 1 can (16-oz) undrained cannellini beans; heat for 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf; add salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4.
(n.) A detailed, prolonged, and imaginary world created by a child that includes humans, animals, or alien creatures. Can have a definite geography, language, and history.
pronunciation | \per-o-‘koz-m\
Illustration by Jessie Wilcox Smith via Wikimedia Commons.
Examples of paracosm:
Well, I could go and on, but what’s your favorite paracosm? And did you have your own that followed you into adulthood?
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is Teresa Roberson!
Teresa Roberson (carolinacateyes, #7386) has received a certificate of achievement in Cleaning Up for earning an Expert Level Recycling Merit Badge!
“My recycling system at home runs like a well-oiled machine! I have been successfully recycling at home for months now. In late July, I enlisted my granddaughter, age 12, to recycle. She has recently moved from the city back out to the country, where there is no garbage pickup, but a recycling/garbage convenience center is nearby. We set up four cardboard boxes on the back porch; one for newspapers, one for plastics, one for aluminum cans, and one for rinsed metal cans. Rachel also recycles plastic shopping bags to return to Walmart. No, I still can’t convince her to use fabric bags! I periodically visit and can’t help but see her progress; she tends to hyper-focus on things that interest her. She has even decorated a couple of her boxes! She also has recruited her aunt, maternal grandmother, and maternal great-grandmother to recycle as well. Occasionally, her dad will drop off a bag of glass items at my work location for me to recycle at my convenience center. I also collect the shredded paper and the cardboard boxes from work to recycle just down the street from my office.
As I travel from school kitchen to school kitchen in my county, I see so many items that could be recycled if anyone cared to listen and act responsible. When I retire next year, I think this will be my mission. My school district needs to set the example by recycling instead of collecting garbage for a landfill. At least Rachel is on the right track, and she has others doing the same. She talks about recycling with her friends and teachers at the middle school. Hopefully, the younger generation will get on board to save this planet one metal can, one plastic bottle, one plastic bag, one cardboard box at a time.”
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
