mamaroots

strewberries

our day at the pick n pick farm this week was very "fruitfull" haha- we came home with almost 10 lbs of strawberries.  We ate quite a few- including in the field, performed marshmallow experiments, and then daddy has been hard at work processing the rest of the berries for us to enjoy past the season. 

  

 

One of the great things about kids is the questions they ask that allow you to learn also.  "why do they call them strawberries" - hum I don't really know- our guesses that day had something to do with the straw that they are grown in, but I did some more research and they have quite the fun history.  Did you know they use to be called "strewberries"- now we know! 

One of the things that we also noticed was the these berries were not the huge pristine berries in the supermarkets, but small sweet and seedy.  We also noticed as we moved through the fields that we could detect differences in flavors as we encountered different varieties- my kind of experiments!

Later that night we did our second marshmallow experiment of the summer:

1 1/2 inch marshmallows,  farm fresh berries 1/2- 3/4 inch,  chocolate rocks from Texas (courtesy of my parents last trip)

dusk with a temperature of approximately 70 degrees- wood base for the chiminea birch kindling, scrap poplar wood from toymaking, and one log of unidentified wood from the woods.

After several attempts this experiment scored higher from the adults and lower from the children.  We determined this to be from the techinical aspect of getting the berry to stay on the stick with the marshmallow- but if you could it was blissfull!

If you are loving strawberries like us right now, here are a couple fun books to read:

The First Strawberries by Joseph Bruchac

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear (great use of narration!) by Don and Audrey Wood

And just a few of the great toys out there from Etsy land!

Felt Strawberry and Pancake Set!

Wonderful Needle Felt Mouse and Strawberry Set from Chimera

My own story set for the Audrey Wood Book

Wonderful Stamp Set from Corrabelle

Hope you get to sink your teeth in a red ripe strawberry, we can't wait for July when we get to go back for the blackberries! 

Pondering the bench

It was a rainy afternoon yesterday- the perfect weather for some inside activites.  Starting in June we are shifting from dandelions and snakes to P . . . for

pure

plantain

ponds

plenty

The letter P has found us!  We are learning all about plantain from our Herbal Roots Lesson- a great heabal friend to know about medicinally, not to mention a good TP substitute in the woods!  I also decided to integrate the learning with exploring more about the Pond Ecosystem and of course that means frogs and toads!  We found our plantain harvest for the plantain oil, colored, experimented with tasting plantain and then finished the night with reading a wonderful new book called Pond Circle- fresh off the presses and just gorgeous!  I feel a story set coming!

We found that we had a plentiful supply of plantain in our backyard by the compost pile.  Jasper enjoyed the bruising of the leaves for the oil!  I shared a story of plantain with Kristine from Herbal Roots, but probably my best experience with plantain was when Silas was just a couple weeks old he had this inflammed red swollen large welts all over his back and the back of his thighs.  With the instinctual help of some wise women we made some herbal sitz baths for him and then gently rubbed oil on his back and placed bruised plantain leaves all over him.  I think my family thought we were a bit nuts but you know what- it worked!  In just a couple days they were gone!

 

So on the bench this week is our P work- plantain, the boys little wood toad, and some great books.  I am going to try and stich together a little pond bag so we can head off and do some sketching and exploring of some ponds- hmmm maybe even a little fishing!

These are some of the books we are enjoying:

The Pond Circle by Franco- love love love it!  It is a look at the circle of life through a night at a pond set to the tone of Jack's House if you know that story.  Not too mention their is a gorgeous willow tree at the end- they have my number!

I really like the Golden Guides- we just got the Pond Life guide- excellent!

Last is the Frogs and Tadpoles book- great little eye catching guide for more life cycle work!

One more story- when I was little my best pond memories was of my older sis and I sneaking away into the field behind our farmhouse in our summer dresses, climbing the pear tree for a juicy pear to eat right next to the pond that we would wade into and squish our toes in the mud.  Those dresses rapidly became our pond play dresses!  Remember how you would sink up to your ankels in the mud!  Those were the days!

Skin and Bones

Yesterday we had the pleasure of going down to what is referred to as The Holy Land- a place where I go to retreat and do my soul work.  It is the home of an amazing woman named MorningStar that I have had the pleasure of growing with.  She has helped me in many ways, helped me growing in the wise woman knowledge.  The first tipi we raised about 4 years ago came down due to some weather so a new wood platform was built and the canvas and the poles referred to as the skin and bones was raised.

We loaded up a cooler and the boys and headed down for soul filling day of work and community.  My favorite part was helping to prepare some of the the bones.  It was wood working of a whole different sort for me.  It was so amazing to slowing work the bark off the poles and then the smell of the cedar rising up as you worked!  We all had such a fun day and we had to reluctantly say goodbye till we come back. 

I will be headed back down to The Holy Land for the annual Womyn's Retreat this summer in just a couple weeks, and then we decided to do our family retreat this summer also.  There is nothing like sleeping in the tipi!

There are many more pictures here to enjoy!

sweetness

 

So I hope you will stay tuned to more of our experiments- I am gotting down those tasty suggestion you left to try!  Last night we realized we were out of marshmallows to try with the farm picked strawberries, so daddy whipped us up some strawberry shortcakes instead . . .mmmm but not to worry, we have enough strawberries left to do some experiments this weekend!

The first week in June is my 1 year Etsy anniversary!  Though I started mamaroots over 6 years ago now and have made toys from the start, I have only been at the Etsy community for a year.  It has really been fun and have made some wonderful friendships from there also!

 

I wanted to do one more giveaway this month in celebration and as a way of saying thanks to everyone for your friendship, your support, and such sweet words you leave me here on the blog.  So . . . I wanted to do a contest-  and the winner will get a custom Wild Tree Monster!  I thought he would be a great giveaway because he symbolizes alot for me- he is my oldest son's art work, the wild nature of both my sons, toys that I love to make, a way to celebrate the change of seasons, and the gifts that nature provides us! 

Here is the nitty gritty- the Wild Tree Monsters are themed after trees, so far Hickory, Blue Spruce, Yellow Poplar, and of course Willow (you know I am a little partial to him) have all been made.  I will make the winner of the contest their very own Wild Tree Monster based on your favorite tree. 

How do you win?  Between now and the end of June send me a picture of you and your favorite tree.  I will put your name in a hat and draw the name on July 1- this is actually my sneaky way of getting to see a picture of what you look like- I love putting faces with names!  You can send me a picture at my e-mail willow@mamaroots.com and I will put them in the favorite trees Flickr set.  You can see a couple pictures that Jasper took today.  If I draw your name I will make you your own special Wild Tree Monster based on your favorite tree!

I really look forward to hearing what your favorite tree is and seeing your pictures!  Thanks so much for reading and helping me celebrate!

Don't forget to hop on over to the Herbal Roots blog by Kristine and get entered for the toad giveaway!  Have a wonderful weekend, ours is full of a yard sale and Art in the Park!

Let the experiments begins

marshmallows-check, ruler-check,  crayons-check, chiminea fire-check,   skittles-check,  friends-check

Our first official marshmallow experiment of the summer was successful last night.  We created our log book, gathered our scientific tools to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze the results.

June 3 in the year of 2009-

Analysis of the 1/2 inch skittle into the 1 inch marshmallow toasted over a chiminea fire consisting of birch twig kindling and scrap poplar wood from crafting.

The air tempterature- 61 degrees.

Ranking system of a scale of 1-7 stars, 7 being the highest.

After a thorough analysis of toasted marshmallow inserted with skittles it was determined to be liked by the kids, the adult factor of myself and my friend Lisa ranked it on the lower scale.  The contrast of of crunchy, high sweetness of the skittle against the smooth liquid center of the marshmallow was not much to our liking.  We also discovered that the skittles did not melt inside the marshmallows.

Next on the list strawberries from the boys field trip with daddy to a local sustainable farm today to pick fresh berries-  I think I am going to like these better tonight!

 

 

  

Schools Out!

It is official- today is the last day of school for Jasper, and Silas’ last day was Friday.  Time for summer hang time with daddy! 

Today Jasper got to finish his last day with a salad feast from their Slow Food Garden spot that his school did in conjunction with the Katy Trail Slow Food folks.  It reminded me of this really neat program and bookcalled The Edible School Yard.  One of the many things of I love about our wee little school that Jasper goes to is the diversity of exposure from our downtown community.  Though not quite on the level of the Edible School Yard our friend Lori whose son goes to this same school did an amazing job with the Slow Food Gardens!

The Crafting for a Causesection of the shop has been so rewarding for me.   The Slow Food Snails have been fun to make- it was a very fun school year crafting some change.  Pinkie Rhubarb and Green Bean Lee chilling out in the shop just munching on some yummy food!  Be sure to watch the progress of our cause crafting.

Though I know that daddy has his plans for this boys with various swimming, biking, field trip extravaganza, I am also working on some more family projects for the summer.   Our list includes:

*outside science area including bugs, minerals, and experiments

*summer long marshmallow roasting experiments (Jasper’s request!)

*develop more of the boy’s art into more characters and their stories

*reading and exploring Ida this summer and doing more fossil work

*family tree work inspired by my favorite Graphic Novel in the world- The Arrival!

hopping a little late

a little late, but my computer did not want to cooperate tonight on a timely fashion!  First I wanted to thank everyone for your wonderful frog stories!  I really enjoyed reading them and seeing all the different ways this little critters have helped us created stories to share!

Jasper obliged me right before dinner and drew the name for the June Herbal Roots from Kristine at Luna Farms- congrats to RuningL8- hope you enjoy learning all about plantain!

Just in time for some frog fun, is my next Once Upon A Table story table project for everyone to do at home,- I could not resist doing a little something froggy for you!  Hope you enjoy this months- Frog on a Log- it is all about handmade pom poms!

 

Download Frog on Log

Hope you enjoy and be sure to watch for some other fun giveaways this week for my Etsy Anniversary-