!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Granny Gravel Bitch and Her Allerton Abbey Adventures...WOFATI WOMAAANN (BEL)

BEL #1

First thing folks ought to know about me is I LOVE PIE.

My new buddies/pals/fellow Boots are now WELL AWARE of this fact and our Beloved Paul Wheaton has shown great patience, restraint, and support as he's had to weather the onslaught of delicious sights and smells emanating forth from Fisher Price House kitchen while abstaining from it temporarily. You're an example for us ALL, Paul.

The kitchen at Base Camp aka Fisher Price House quickly became my Dream Kitchen as, on Day 3 of my month long SEPP stay at The Love Shack, a blizzard descended on our gorgeous Montana valley and  Stephen offered to help me get set up in the Bunkhouse at Base Camp until conditions improved a bit.

I decided I could try a new cookie recipe, what with the lads out in the snow working, so I got started and I've barely stopped.

It's very satisfying to be able to cook and bake for folks who'll scarf it down with a smile. Plus the kindness and support the boots offered on those first wintry days in March were all the motivation I needed so once the pies began to appear, all bets were off.

To briefly share that the woman who was FINALLY able to get Granny Gravel Bitch to bake a palatable pie is the illustrious Erin Jeanne McDowell. Her YouTube vids and cookbooks are stellar...I am proudly endeavoring to join her Sturdy Pie Gang.

With the bounty from last year's harvest, there have been apple pies and now, finally, the rhubarb pies have made their appearance the last week or so. Holy fuck, lads & lasses, never have I had rhubarb like this...I'm still mentally and emotionally processing the shock from the quality of flavor...

Pictured here is a simple cherry galette that I made one day, in a rush to use up one last lingering disc of pie dough as well as the rest of a bag of frozen sour cherries our Dearest Samantha had pointed out to me one afternoon. I keep forgetting to nab photos of those other Darlings but I'll get better at that.

Esteban, Stephen, and Seth have been exquisitely patient with me as I move from my one month SEPPing and forge ahead in Bootcamp, alongside them, and get situated at Allerton Abbey in anticipation of conducting the Annual Thermal Inertia test to begin in June. The ebb and flow of pies and cookies has been greatly affected but Granny Gravel Bitch is hitting her rhythm at the Abbey and is gradually finding more time and energy to invest in her culinary creations.

I ought to also address my preferred nickname as I proudly earned it one afternoon while working on a stair project at The Beacon Food Forest in Seattle. (Glenn Herlihy or Jacqueline Cramer, if you're reading this, shoutout to ye both and thank you for your service to the beautiful community of Beacon Hill) Myself and 3 other men had gathered to get a short stairway constructed connecting two of the terraces.  Two of them had some physical conditions that were holding them back that day and the other was needed to help engineer the construction, so it was Gravel Bitch on deck. I happily loaded gravel from the truck to the wheelbarrow and popped down and back with the loads.

I was a feisty 6 foot tall bass-playing redhead back then (2014) and now those auburn locks are silver and gray so adding the Granny to it seems apropos. I have an allergy to ageist bullshit so I sometimes prefer it if folks think I'm waaaay older than I am. Unfortunately, all the weight I gained the last year while learning pie baking is withering away while I Boot full-time...sigh...a gal CAN'T have it all, I guess. Ha!

Much more to come, STAY TUNED as I report back with news items that have absolutely nothing to do with freakin' pie...

Hi GGB!
You go girl! I've been following the guys and they sound like a great group to work with.
Lol, I commiserate as I, too,  packed on the pounds when learning to bake breads.
Looking forward to hearing more about your adventures!

Welcome! That pie looks yummy and I can't wei8ght to hear more about your adventures at the Lab ...

My first experience with our good friend, Stinging Nettle, came about when I spent 5 years ambling around the Emerald Isle as a WWOOFer in 2008. I'd landed on a small cattle farm on the Atlantic Coast near the Cliffs of Moher and the 700 year old Farmhouse there also worked as a Bed & Breakfast from Spring through early Fall.

The two widows who owned and ran the farm and B&B had won awards in France for their cooking back in the heyday of the business, in the 70's and 80's, so I was really in for a TREAT.

They'd often dispatch me to run down to the small apple orchard near the henhouse to gather a few apples for apple tart and as I went out the back door of the kitchen and down the field, I'd inevitably brush past the nettle and get stung.
I finally asked about the plant and wondered if they needed me to trim it back or remove it because it was so problematic? The unearthly roar that resounded across the hill we lived on has stayed with me all these years. What an education I got!

They confessed to not cooking with it as much as they once used to but told me about it's benefits as a green and what a wonderful nourishing food it was.

Soon after, I'd gone out and purchased a new cookbook by a renowned Irish chef (Richard Corrigan The Clatter of Forks & Spoons) who'd fashioned the book as part memoir and part instructional cookery and I was "off to the races," as they say.

The picture he painted of his childhood in Ireland growing up on a farm, much like that which I was living on, was magical. His recipe for brown soda bread became a favorite and even my Irish friends would request loaves from my kitchen (the ultimate compliment) but his recipe for a stinging nettle soup was just as sublime to me.

When Stephen mentioned that the small patch of stinging nettle was starting to come in at the Abbey, I was super stoked. A gardener and teacher of medicinals I follow on social media (EagleSong Evans) had begun to post a recipe a day utilizing our magical plant friend and I was eager to experiment.

There was a tonic I was keen to try as well as utilize the nettle in a favorite dish I'd been playing around with the last few years. I managed to get the tonic prepared, steeped, and bottled and use it in my favorite dinner recipe with all it's vinegary goodness a few days later.

For me, it was extra momentous as it was the first meal I prepared on the stove at Allerton. I like to cook up sushi rice with toasted sesame oil and then simply add rice vinegar, Sambal Olek, and lotsa cucumbers for a Spring/Summer feast but I thought that adding the nettle instead would give me an opportunity to fully experience the leaf as well as utilize the vinegar tonic as an extra boost to the dish!

It couldn't have tasted better as I tucked in to such an unctuous and fine repast, marveling at the texture and flavor of the nettle stems and leaves gently cooked in the final few minutes with the rice. Very meaty and tender with soft chewy rice and a spicy vinegary punch.

That first meal as the sun was setting and the kittens mewing outside on the front porch was fucking DELIGHTFUL.

Tina Wolf wrote:Hi GGB!
You go girl! I've been following the guys and they sound like a great group to work with.
Lol, I commiserate as I, too,  packed on the pounds when learning to bake breads.
Looking forward to hearing more about your adventures!

Thank you, Tina! I'm having a blast. Yes, indeed, the experimentation phase of Melissa's pie-baking was fun AND fattening.

Anne Miller wrote:Welcome! That pie looks yummy and I can't wei8ght to hear more about your adventures at the Lab ...

Thank you for the warm welcome, Anne. I'm having the time of my life...XO!

paul wheaton wrote:

MAMMA MIA!!! I'm in...ALL in!

Hey Granny Gravel and Stinging Nettle Bitch! Following your fellow Boots through Permies I read about you, and saw you in the photos/videos. Now finally I can follow your own writings too!
Where I live (in the Eastern part of the Netherlands) there are plenty of Stinging Nettles too. I use them in many different ways. Great plants!

This thread is so much fun! Keep 'em coming...

Jim

E-Bike Excitement (BEL Post #3)

The E-Bikes provided at Wheaton Lab are absolute BEASTS and wouldn't they have to be? Powering us up and down the mountain as they do.

I was somewhat daunted initially as the power surge from the accelerator was a surprise but my daily commute, now that Spring has sprung, has adventures of another flavor entirely.

I've been trying to time my descent from the Abbey with the rising sun and then the trip back up the mountain as the sun is setting. The Valley fucking GLOWS in such different and magical ways at these times of day. It often reminds me of mystical 'aul Eire'.

Seth has been our resident expert on the E-Bikes and helped me get set up with the cart the other day. I've been gearing up to actually test it out but keep putting it off.

Really grateful for the autonomy the E-Bikes offer us here to roam about the mountain as we need.

Jim Garlits wrote:This thread is so much fun! Keep 'em coming...

Jim

Ha! Thanks for your response, Jim! I was taking my time to begin my BEL posts as, prior to landing here in early March, I'd gone almost completely offline for a year and a half in an effort to handle some lingering health issues so I really wanted to find my rhythm with the work and lifestyle here before going all the way back online.

I'm really enjoying documenting these wee snapshots of my days here. I've also really been enjoying Esteban's BEL posts too!

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Hey Granny Gravel and Stinging Nettle Bitch! Following your fellow Boots through Permies I read about you, and saw you in the photos/videos. Now finally I can follow your own writings too!
Where I live (in the Eastern part of the Netherlands) there are plenty of Stinging Nettles too. I use them in many different ways. Great plants!

Ohhhh, beautiful! I'm so glad you commented as I wonder often about the Netherlands. I intended to visit your country with my Father when I was still WWOOFing in the EU but he decided not to make that trip so I stayed on in Ireland. I learned more about my Dutch culture, while living in Ireland, than I ever did from my immediate or extended family in Southern California so it's a pleasure to engage with you here and connect over our love for the mighty stinging nettle!

My Grandpa Ligtenberg was sponsored and came to California to learn dairy farming and my Father, as well as some of my uncles, also went into dairy farming as a result. For me, growing up in the 80's and seeing the transition from smaller farms into the horrors of factory farming left quite the impact. I feel my work in Permaculture might somehow make right the harm my people have done to this beautiful land. It's a foundational aspect of the fervor and persistance I've endeavored to hang onto since I first learned about Permaculture.

What a fantastic project Paul has here. Thank you, again, for commenting.

Melissa Ligtenberg wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Hey Granny Gravel and Stinging Nettle Bitch! Following your fellow Boots through Permies I read about you, and saw you in the photos/videos. Now finally I can follow your own writings too!
Where I live (in the Eastern part of the Netherlands) there are plenty of Stinging Nettles too. I use them in many different ways. Great plants!

Ohhhh, beautiful! I'm so glad you commented as I wonder often about the Netherlands. I intended to visit your country with my Father when I was still WWOOFing in the EU but he decided not to make that trip so I stayed on in Ireland. I learned more about my Dutch culture, while living in Ireland, than I ever did from my immediate or extended family in Southern California so it's a pleasure to engage with you here and connect over our love for the mighty stinging nettle!

My Grandpa Ligtenberg was sponsored and came to California to learn dairy farming and my Father, as well as some of my uncles, also went into dairy farming as a result. For me, growing up in the 80's and seeing the transition from smaller farms into the horrors of factory farming left quite the impact. I feel my work in Permaculture might somehow make right the harm my people have done to this beautiful land. It's a foundational aspect of the fervor and persistance I've endeavored to hang onto since I first learned about Permaculture.

What a fantastic project Paul has here. Thank you, again, for commenting.

So your Dutch ancestors came to the USA as dairy farmers, back in the days when the farms were small (and maybe more than only dairy? In the past there was often a combination with arable agriculture or fruit trees).  
If you want to see the Netherlands with farms like they were in the past ... maybe the region I live in is one of the best (the eastern part, close to the German border). But in general dairy farms here become more and more industrial (cows staying inside in large modern barns with milking robots, grass like green blankets mown with large machines ...).

BEL Post #4

Wooooo! What a week it's been here since I last posted. Granny Gravel Bitch has been reminded of her limitations, yet again, but is comforted greatly by a large sense of self-awareness at the very least.

So far, I've had a really enjoyable week with our new Boots and WWOOFers. I'm really grateful for our SEPPers who arrived this past weekend as well. Their respective experiences, knowledge, and enthusiasm has greatly buoyed my spirit in these few short days we've had together.

I wish I could write whole posts about each of them right now but I'm at the end of my day, winding down and preparing for my short trek back up to Allerton Abbey (while also being impatient for another rhubarb strawberry galette to cool).

Today was very satisfying what with new tasks completed in the kitchen with both food preservation and fermentation and then we got to fertilize the nearby hugels with some remnants from our pantry. It might not sound like much but I was glad to glean some more knowledge around such tasks and a lot more wherewithal for my future here.

A Rhubarb & Custard Kinda Weekend
BEL Post #5


I've been excited to begin the annual thermal inertia test in earnest and feel like the meagre amount of data I've gotten from my month at Allerton Abbey has given me the confidence to test things here and there.

Whether I run the rocket stovetop for longer periods of time to see how Allerton reacts or leave the windows open for hours and hours on hot afternoons, the way the Abbey responds is always of interest for me.

In anticipation of the coming frost last weekend, I decided to do some cooking and keep the stove running from early morning through early afternoon. Once I'd harvested the rhubarb I needed, got it washed and chopped, I realized that the interior temperature in the Abbey had almost reached 80°! The highest I'd gotten the Abbey, prior to last Saturday, was 70° and that was from a seven hour burn in much colder temperatures.

After I recovered from my shock at the high temperature, I popped the cover on the pot of rhubarb and took it off the stove to let it continue to gently cook in the simple syrup. One of the popular rhubarb desserts I learned in Ireland was a simple dish of custard with stewed rhubarb poured over it. I don't think I'd enjoyed Rhubarb & Custard since leaving there in 2013. It was worth the wait AND the 80° temperature in the Abbey.

I also consoled myself that with the coming frost, I might not have to worry about lighting the fire at all as the Abbey would probably hold steady. I did do a small bit of cooking Sunday afternoon but only used one medium bundle of wood and then let it burn out after approximately 90 minutes.

I think our overnight low temps reached 35°, over the course of two days, but the Abbey has held steady at 60° as of this Wednesday morning, without having burned at all since Sunday afternoon.

Hello Melissa! I've heard (and now have read) about you and I look forward to meeting you in real life! I love how much data and curiosity you've collected about the Dragon in the Abby. I wonder if you've also gotten to know your pet dragon a little better since last week?

I can't not mention the kittens!! How cute!!! Have any of them gotten playful/familiar with you?

Best,
Alex

BEL POST #6

Well, well, well... Granny must have found favor with the Dark Goddesses as she got to have three nights in a ROW with thunder, Lightning, and rain on her face. The luck of the Irish is also still with her, apparently, as the rain only began in earnest upon arriving back at the Abbey on my e-bike evening commutes. It was the same way back in Ireland where the rain would either stop just as I was leaving home or start just as I returned.

The Abbey has had a marvelous tending-to the last two weeks by Wheaton Labs Beloved J.R. Paul kept telling us about "The Ringer" coming in to help us out and how "everyone loves J.R." and, holy mocha, he was right. Massive gratitude to him as the downhill door opens and closes with great ease now.

We've had some blistering hot days out here in Big Sky Country and the Abbey has been maintaining at a 62-70° 4-5 days in a row.

I've been trying to maintain and rebuild some trails around the Hugels as well as a  small path from the front door of the Abbey to the main path, trucking by, and it's been pretty hardcore. I brought the big tamper the first day but it wore me out fast.

The pick axe remains a steadfast friend in these endeavors and has allowed me to make quick work of some temporary steps and longer term trails around the Hugels and the Abbey lot in it's entirety.

This morning, after a blissfully cool and rainy weekend, the Abbey is maintaining at 60-62° what with two 1 hour burns on Saturday. So Granny is still spending her nights cozy under a mountain of blankets despite some of the high 80 and low 90 temps outside last week. Oooh La La!

BEL POST #7

Tales of The Morning

Allerton Abbey Fences and Gates has been showing up in my predictive texts for several weeks now and it's been highly amusing for me.

It's from weeks of taking notes at morning and afternoon Boot meetings, of course, and continues to be one of our highest priorities especially as the Hugels are growing as verdant as they are and the deer and elk's desire to feast there remains unabated.

Esteban, Jessee, and I hit the Abbey this morning for the A.M. Boot sesh and went pretty hard as we're close to getting to the fabrication of the front gate, which is exciting. There was one or two posts, 3-4 fence panels down from the main entrance that were leaning and rotted out so we took down one of the panels and emptied out the junk poles from one of the neighboring panels that had collapsed as well.

I enjoyed cutting back the Ninebark as we went along, especially with the ground still soft and wet from all the glorious rain we've been enjoying. I've mostly been using the telescoping loppers and Granny's trusty old pruning shears for this work and it's proving quite satisfying.

I batch-cooked some more green lentils with our EgyptianWalkingOnions and Lovage and, my oh my, that Lovage brought it's A-Game! I'm loving using Lovage as a celery replacement as it offers a much more nuanced flavor.

With the cooler days and nights, I've not been opening the windows to let in any Summer heat so the Abbey is still maintaining at 60-62 degrees. I've not burned a fire since Saturday afternoon either. It's been very pleasant in there

BEL POST #8

ALL That Glitters is Not Gold...if it's at Wheaton Labs, it's Probably Just Metal Shavings. SO METAL.

Spending time in the workshop sharpening chainsaws yesterday saw me finally reaching a place of familiarity and ease with the machine itself. I think I feel way more confident now with the removal of the main panel and bar as well as setting the chain back in properly.

I'm also grateful that the vise is set up as high as it is for my Large Marge frame. 'Tis with great ease I can sharpen 'em, lads! I'd say that confidence was what propelled me forward to tackle the two hatchets in the workshop that had been begging for a sharpening stone the last few weeks.

Off to YouTube University I went and watched a couple vids to make sure of my options for the various techniques. Again, that gorgeous vise granted me ease as I was practicing the motion with the sharpening stone. I tested them by splitting a few pieces of wood by the Rocket Mass Heater in the classroom with decent success.

This morning we were ALL back at Allerton and after doing a few more soil probes on the Hugels (still massive amounts of saturation courtesy of that glorious rain) I headed back to the main entrance. I went in hard again on the Ninebark and unearthed 4 different big-ass rootballs. I was going to stop after the 3rd one as Granny was getting tired of the stooping but then I stepped on yet another massive root and got pissed off so in I went. You'll delightedly note one pic of my huge boot marks on one of the areas I yanked a rootball...maybe we can make it a new ad for DocMartens with a Permie vibe?

Stephen was able to join us and he and Esteban went in on the auger and dug new post-holes. Pics below.