The Corntraders Talk to Kimmi

How long have you been crocheting? Since I was 10 years old, (makes that uh, 36 years)

Who taught you? My grandma who is now deceased! She taught me three stitches only.

Why do it? It keeps my hands busy, and I love the way I can take a skein of yarn and make something out of the it. I mean, it's just a string...and eventually, it's really something useful! I also love to make things for people. I want them to wear something and feel like my arms around them in some way! I want them to know that they are special to me.

What does it mean to you? First and foremost, I feel close to grandma who died almost 6 yrs. ago. Also, because she only taught me 3 stitches, my options were very limited on what I could make. So with you as my inspiration (I'm not kidding!), I have taught myself to read crochet patterns. What a sense of accomplishment! What a lift to my self-confidence! I love to learn!

Which supplies do you like most? Needle sizes, types of yarn, colors, ect.... I really enjoy working with cotton yarns the most. However, cotton can become quite heavy when working on large projects. Aside from that, there is the whole laundering issue with cotton. It shrinks if you dry it. If you hang dry it, it can stretch out. I suspect this is why women use acrylic yarns the most. Caron makes an incredibly soft acrylic yarn, and I don't mind that if I have to use an acrylic. A brand new yarn came out a couple of months ago that I've fallen completely in love with. Made by lion brand, it's called cotton ease. It's 50% cotton, and 50% acrylic. I made myself a shirt, and it is doing nicely so far. It feels like cotton, but I'm not getting the stretching, etc. The downside - uses oil products to produce the acrylic, the cost of a skein is high, and the colors are limited because it's new. A little side point here, the cotton yarns, or the bamboo yarns are extremely expensive. I wonder why this is since oil is out of sight at this time. It seems that the reverse should be true! Now, if we were able to grow hemp in this country, it would make a fine yarn along with sooooo many other things! Hemp has an outrageous amount of uses! I have to change the subject now, because I get so angry about the governmental regulations, that specifically increase our dependence on oil! Colors of yarns....I think I like the earthy tones the best, but it seems that I trade around on colors. I can't really say that I have a favorite. Needles...I totally prefer the aluminum needles and size 'h' is my favorite size of stitch for now.

What do you like making the most? Wow! Tough question. Do I really have to pick one thing? Honestly, I enjoy making things for others. It is thrilling to make it, send it & wait to hear if anyone is excited. Right now, I'm teaching myself to make different types of shirts. I have enough scarves and hats, and so does everyone that I know (lol)!

Are there any ideals you aspire to in your crafting?This might be hard not to offend anyone, so ladies, you'll have to edit! Kari, you know me, so I'm hoping you'll get what I'm saying. Here goes:First, tell me why we export our work to 3rd world countries, and have 5 year olds making clothes that are easy on our wallets?? Why don't we learn to make our own clothes again? We can get the material production back into the hands of our country, and go from there! Why do people want to buy something off of the rack at Walmart that hundreds of other people are wearing too? Why is it so difficult to by an individual and express ourselves as who we are? We need to use the things that this wonderful earth gives us, and take pride in what we make for ourselves. To take a piece of yarn, and slowly develop it into something to wear, use, or cover up with is amazing! To take grandma's old curtains and make new ones from them is just heartwarming! To take old sheets that others have discarded and make baby blankets or even skirts like Kari does is something that more people should do! We are a wasteful people, and we have to stop!

Any ideas for the future? I'd really to make a skirt and a poncho. I want a vintage 70's poncho like the one my mother made for herself back then! I've also made a few rugs and I'd like to make more!

Any other projects you'd like to be involved with? I love projects! I'd love to be involved with the corn trade. One day, I'd like to find the courage to sell some of my work on etsy.com. I want to grow my own vegetables, learn to can and freeze the fruits of my labors. I also want to try natural dyes. The idea came to me when I was juicing and the strawberry juice stained by countertop! Then, low and behold, Kari & Katie start talking about dandelion dye!! I'd also like to get into antiques, and learn to restore the things that others have discarded. My mom was awesome at that! The list could go on and on, but you get the picture, I'm kind of all over the place, and not focusing on any one idea...so it's overwhelming!!And can I plug your e-mail in case anyone likes your stuff and wants to contact you? Absolutely! mjmnklm@bellsouth.net

Thank you Kimmi for your Q & A, and of course for the adorable trims :) We'll be looking forward to more projects together... and to seeing pics of your solo projects!

Wonderful Handmade Trims

After almost as much fuss and worry as I care to put into one piece, the "Super-Amazing German Black Forest Quilt" as it has been dubbed, is complete. Although quite striking for many reasons (to toot my own horn :) The most exciting component to this blanket has to be the hand-made red crochet trim ala Kimmi. Through the miracle of barter, I came across a couple lengths of this, and it was definitely the touch that my project needed.

Here are a few examples of work by The Pink Plaid Sheep utilizing some of Kimmi's handmade trims as well:

Soon, a question and answer with Kimmi will be posted, and you can gain a little insight into the woman responsible for dressing up and trimming out some of our favorite projects. If you crochet, try this! And thank you to Kimmi for your insights, ideas, and inspiration :)

FatPatch

Apple Pickin' Good Times

What with the rampant agriculture in this area of the world, it only made sense that there should be some place to harvest a slice of this bounty and take it for ourselves. I was not one of those who went a-lookin', but thanks to the hard work and dedication of Mrs Megan and every-one's favorite, Kari B, we found plenty of feral apples to gather for applesauce, and for the yummy canned and preserved Cinnamon apple goodness shown below.

Look anywhere you can think for a fruit tree that is no longer maintained, or one in someones yard that you can help maintain for a payment in fruit. Megan was lucky enough to hiking on a hillside overlooking... oh, one of these little German towns, and stumble across just that: a tree or two outside the fence, unkempt, unmaintained as their brethren, and left to drop apples to the ground.

Well, we can't have that now can we?

It took 2 trips and several buckets to gather enough apples, and then about 6 solid hours of peeling and cutting to end up with enough apple meat for two recipes. If nothing else, you can figure that too much is way better than not enough... and you'd be surprised at how much the little buggers shrink in the cooker.

The first thing we made was Cinnamon Apples, or canned apple pie filling, though I'm not sure we have any immediate plans to make a pie. I'm thinking this could be marketed as a revolutionary topping for everything.

We found a simple recipe on allrecipes.com, and modified it as follows:

4 1/2 cups white sugar* (We used 3 cups white sugar, 1.5 cups light brown sugar)
1 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon* (Okay, we might have doubled or tripled that... we like spice!)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons salt
10 cups water
3 tablespoons lemon juice* (Omitted)
2 drops yellow food coloring * (Omitted)
6 pounds apples

We doubled the quantities and used 12 lbs of apples for a total yield of 12 quarts of apples in cinnamon sauce. The sauce is prepared by combining all ingredients except the apples, and cooking over a constant heat until thick and bubbly. I learned the hard way that it is best to dissolve the cornstarch in a liquid before combining with the mix, just like making gravy. Yes, that is "cooking common sense" (come to find out), but I have never denied my lack of stealth before the stove.

At the same time the sauce is bubbling, your jars should be getting sterilized in boiling water and filled to the top with apple chunks. It is important to fill the jars while they are still hot, and this really takes a couple of people, so I'm sure even my fumbling hands were appreciated by Megan and Kari. Once the sauce and jars were ready, each was filled with hot bubbly sauce and capped.

I cannot go into preserving detail, as I was not present for this step, but the general process can easily be found online or in your kitchen cookbook.

And that is that. I am looking forward to winter and the un-capping of our little jars of delight. I might have to crack one to sample before then :) Maybe I will make a pie!

Go make a pie!

Burda Style Dress Contest!

Today marks the ending of the Burda Style Sewalong Mini-Challenge, featuring the Anda pattern. Kari and I worked together on our entry, which can be seen by going to http://www.burdastyle.com/ and clicking on "vote now" on the mini-challenge banner. There you can scroll down to the "official Corn Trade entry" (har!) under the title "Anda Remake" by SquareKari. All of the submissions stem from a single pattern that was modified by each entrant.

It is fun and humbling to see the other beautiful dresses listed aside our own. Thank you to Burda Style for staging the game, and to everyone who looked at and appreciated the contest entries. And of course thanks to Kari, who makes me feel like a mad scientist... in a good way.

Still Standing

However feeble, I offer an excuse for our prolonged absence: Summertime. Although making / finding / re-using stuff is my primary means of existence, there isn’t always time to sit and write about it. In fact, I believe the inability to sit and plug-in means that I am finally living up to some sort of higher expectation. And I find that very ironic. The only type of internet institution I am capable of maintaining is one that I feel good about myself for ignoring.

And to the loyal fans (hi Grandma!), fear not. There are quite a few things I have been itching to share, so hold on for an inundation of information and inspiration… and alliteration. But not really, that will probably be the only time I do that. And although, as always, these projects have been completed using the minds and hands of many people, I will be the one describing the majority of our exploits for a time. Our Lucky Lady, Miss Kari B, has left us to embark on a multi-country post-card collecting tour. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it one of these days.

So, here I am not actually telling about the beautiful cinnamon apples we canned, or the blanket created using gorgeous vintage fabrics, and trim handmade by friend-of-the-Corn-Trade, Kimmie! I am also not mentioning the HUGE tomato plants in the Corn Trade community garden, or the dress contest we entered on Burdastyle.com! (Nope, I’m even going to mention it.)

I will however, start filling you on these things one at a time, as we should have been doing all along. Until then (it will be soon…promise :) …

k

Community Garden Part I

One of the things we have in common in these parts is the lack of enthusiasm for the veggie selection on base, and the sheer cost of them off base is murder on our wallets. We do travel to the local farmers' markets -which can mean an hour and a half drive- for the freshest, healthiest selection of fruits and veggies, but the the desire for something a little easier and fresher brought us to the conclusion that a large community garden is a great idea.
So after many weeks of research on timing, location and which plants would do best around here we finally broke ground.


This our front yard, we picked a spot that's got plenty of sunlight, almost completely from sunup to sundown, and has fairly good drainage. The landlord had a little input on the location so the drainage is not what I had hoped, but we've planned around it by putting the zucchini and cucumber mounds in the wettest area where the drainage is not such an issue with the plants growing on little hills.

If you want a garden, now is not a good time to start planning it. This sort of thing should be thought of mid-January, when you can take the time to figure out which plants need to be planted first and it gives you time to get your soil started in the right direction. I do encourage you to grow potted tomatoes and fresh herbs anytime though, they will make a great addition to your mealtimes.
A compost heap is a great investment of time and energy for the added nutrients it will allow your growing veggies. We used a large Rubbermaid container and drilled holes in the bottom, then buried it in the ground for warmth and just plain ease of location. You can add any kind of vegetation to your compost, and coffee grounds, tea bags and eggshells are really good as well. Just dump your extras in there with a small amount of dirt, leaves and grass clippings, add a few grubs and earthworms and you're good to go. Turn it at least once a week and once everything is broken down into a crumbly mess you can start adding it to your soil.


The patch we started with was completely grown over with grass so we spent a couple of weekends breaking it up and turning the soil, picking out the large clumps and the abnormally huge grubs. The benefit of a community garden is the involvement of several people, so thankfully even though this is my (and Brenda's) yard, we were not the only ones breaking ground! It was a laborious process, and one the locals were not happy about us doing on Sundays, but it was eventually ready to start prepping for planting.


Because the ground had not been planted in many years it had to be turned with a looser, more nutrient rich soil. It was a bit clay-like and would not have been ideal for drainage. The idea was to hit up some local farmers for manure to turn into the dirt, but we resorted to buying 3 large (150 L) bags of compost dirt and spread it on top of the areas intended for planting. We turned the soil once again and then made rows for seeds. At this point we had planned out where we were planting what and made little paths to keep the baby plants safe from wandering feet.



In this area planting starts a little later than what I'm used to. Being from Florida we are sure to get our veggies in the ground before it gets so hot and dry that they end up dying before producing much of a yield. Here were were surprised to learn that most everything, with the exception of potatoes and onions, can be planted between May and June and a second planting can be done in August. The ever-bearing variety of strawberries should be planted while it is still a little chill out, early ones should be planted as soon as the ground is ready to be worked (along with the onions and potatoes).

Once the rows were lined up, the path laid out and the fence up (to keep those pesky pets out) the seed and plant shopping began.



We have big plans to learn to can our food this autumn, so we picked things that we know we will use on an almost daily basis. Tomatoes were a big winner, as were bush beans. Cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers, lettuce, spinach and hot peppers were all something we agreed we would all eat and enjoy. Those particular plants may not be for canning so much but they won't go to waste. As for vine plants we picked cucumbers (the medium kind, for eating and pickling), watermelon, yellow squash and zucchini. To get a good yield but not an over abundance we decided on 2 plants each of the vine plants.

We didn't start any of the seeds indoors since it was a hectic spring, instead we just planted most of them right into the ground. The tomatoes and peppers we bought plants for and set them in the ground because we'd like to get them producing fruit as soon as possible. At first the outer leaves on the tomatoes looked as if they wanted to shrivel up and fall off, but the new growth in the center reassured me. I'm assuming this is natural for a plant raised in a greenhouse once it's been planted in the earth under a bright sun to have a bit of shock.




The seeds were planted in sets of 3 along the rows. Three each gives at least one the chance to sprout between the birds, squirrels and other natural disasters (like my dog Nova hitting a mound at a dead run). Once they are in a the ground a good watering right off the bat will give them a head start. We were having a very dry couple of weeks so I watered them at least every other evening until they began sprouting, now I'm just making sure that the ground doesn't dry out too much. It only took about a week and a half to start seeing sprouts shooting up from the dirt, and only a day or two more to see leaves emerging.




Marigolds will be planted randomly to aid in keeping insects and critters away. My grandma lives in a place where there are bears and deer right in her yard and none of them have ever messed with her garden, she always attributes it to the marigolds she plants around the perimeter. You can also set little half Dixie cups of beer into the ground to attract the grubs and cutworms that may take a liking to your plants.

It's exciting to see the little baby plants growing, knowing they will provide us with food and nutrients without the usual grocery costs or the use of harmful pesticides. There are so many ways to keep your vegetables long into the year as well, I'm looking forward to learning how to can, dry, preserve, etc... way more than the hours of weeding that will be done in the meantime!

*kari*

Dandelion Paper (and Hankie Finale)

Now that the dandelions are all but gone from the landscape, I have finally finished the dandelion paper project - which was basically processing their tiny floral corpses into beautiful usable art. It wasn't a hard project, just messy and a little time consuming, but it will be fun and easy to repeat in the future. The only ingredients and tools used are:

*Paper - I used shredder leavings with great results

*Dandelions - In the form of pulp, left over from the Dye project ( http://thecorntrade.blogspot.com/2008/04/dandelion-dyeing.html)

*Water

*Blender

*Screen - Stretched, as in a screen printing or window screen

*Rags

First the pulp was strained from the dye bath and the paper shreds were placed in fresh warm water to soften. The pulp was blended with enough water to form a smooth milk-shake like mixture, to which the softened paper was added. This is blended again and water added as needed, until the mixture is again smooth. The pulp to paper ratio is up to you, experiment with different textures as well by blending for longer or shorter periods of time. Also, the color of the paper will be determined by the pulp - the more pulp the stronger the color, and just as in the dye project, the shade is determined by the part of the flower used. In this project yellow and green paper were both produced, using the flowers only, and then the full flower heads respectively.

Once you have your mixture to the desired consistency, scoop it into your screen (over a sink or outdoors) and spread to cover the entire area as thinly and evenly as possible, then tamp with your fingers to get a good deal of the water out and to pack the fibers as tight as possible. it doesn't have to be perfect the first time, and is actually easier if you press the entire surface over and then again as many times as needed to flatten and drain. after the majority of the water is out you can lay the screen on a series of folded towels and tamp from the top with more rags to really squeeze out as much water as possible. After this, let the paper dry on the screen until it can easily be removed, then lay flat to dry completely. If you paper is wavy when dry (it will likely be), mist and press with a hot iron or between heavy books until flat. Trim edges and store flat, preferably under a book.

The finished paper and Hankie projects are fabulous, and will debut this coming weekend, the 17th and 18th of May at the Spring Bazaar benefiting the school at NATO base Geilenkirchen, near Aachen, Germany. The following weekend they will be offered at the Craft Fair in the Community Center on the Ramstein American Flugplatz in Ramstein Germany. If there is anything left after that the internet public will have the opportunity to own one of our lovely and extremely limited dandelion creations.

I am looking forward to making paper in the future as a complement to many projects. It is an ideal way to recycle old junk-mail and use free elements to create something useful and snazzy looking. Hand-stamped business cards and hang tags, thank you notes and invitations are just a few of the things that we could be looking forward to here. Yeah, I'm excited too.

katie corn

Eat your dandelion out!

The dandelions in my yard have all but taken over, I've never seen such a thing! Thousands of them blooming every morning, and the fields around the area are even more covered, which makes me think, why don't we use such an abundant plant rather than trying everything in our power to kill it? Like my neighbor who was spraying weed killer this weekend! :(

Katie has done wonders to promote the utility of the wild flower, but I'm here on the food front-

Turns out the greens of a dandelion plant are one of the most nutritious things you can find growing anywhere. They are best eaten while young, before the flowers themselves bloom, because they get pretty bitter after that. You can pick them later and cook the bitterness out, but then you are also cooking out the nutrients. If you're going to eat them make sure you pick them from a clean out-of-the way patch of land, free of pesticides and animal waste- as in, don't pick them from the corner of my yard where my pups hang out, or my neighbor sprays! Get right down and find the newest, greenest sprouts (the crown) for a fresh salad- with a sweet vegetable like carrots- or saute them with onions and garlic for a nice plate of greens, which is what I did.

It's a little late to be eating the greens around here, but I gave it a shot and they were pretty good! They cooked down considerably though, so keep that in mind while picking.

You can boil them, steam them or fry them, it's up to you. Just remember that the longer they are cooked, the more nutrients they lose! If you want to eat fresh mature greens you can wait until after the first frost, it cuts the bitterness down.

The blossom of the dandelion is the prettiest part of course, if you can avoid the sneezing that sometimes go along with the seeded head! I've heard you can batter and fry them, steam them with other veggies or just eat them raw in a salad like the greens, but I think they are pretty bitter. I opted to make honey preserved dandelion blossoms to spread on a piece of homemade bread and enjoy with a nice hot cup of tea.

I started with some fresh blossoms and a pot of local honey.

Because they have such a large bloom, I removed the green part and only used the yellow petals.

I mixed one half cup of honey with one cup of blossoms in a jar of their own, then covered it and stirred it once more 24 hours later.

After three days it was ready to taste! You can keep it in the cabinet indefinitely, and eat it any time :) I'm not a big fan of honey, it's too sweet most of the time, but adding the blossoms cut the sweetness and gave it a really fresh flavor that I was pretty pleased with!

All in all, it turns out that we could survive with no food, so long as we had dandelions... And if Luckie pup didn't eat them all first!

<3>

Dandelion Dyeing

As horrendously long as this Winter has felt, it seems like a miracle to see the green leaves budding on the trees again, life returning to the world. The days are longer, and the farmers in their farm towns around us are using them to turn and till their plots for futures in corn or wheat or some peculiar crop that smells like spit. A new grassy fuzz covers all but the most recently tilled fields, and those pastures still waiting for maintenance have taken on a pretty bright-yellowness, an attitudinal lift cast by millions of dandelions. It is one of the first signs of Spring here in western Germany and welcomed every year, (by me at least, who knows how the farmers feel about it :) and this time around it happened that I had a plan for these cheery little fellows.

A recent project had led me to experimenting with natural dyes at home and I decided to collect and use the dandelions to transform some plain vintage hankies into little fancy ones. The first step was to harvest the heads from Kari's dog pasture. If you have no such pasture, then I don't think the city or the neighbors would mind you pulling the "weeds" from parks and around sidewalks. Freeway medians, I'd avoid. If you have no other source of dandelion, then find just one and dig up as much of the root as you can, then stick it in a pot in your window and grow your own. I'm not entirely sure how to grow anything, but these gotta be easy - they grow constantly even when you try extra hard to have them not. Our total yield - by 3 adults and a toddler - was about a plastic shopping bag-full, over an hour or so. And really it could have been done with about half that, but the work was easy and actually fun - especially for the babe, who had been cooped up in the car for hours.

After consulting a few random and generally unhelpful resources, the flower heads were stripped of their petals, which were then simmered in a few cups of boiling water. Meanwhile, the hankies simmered in a separate pot with water plus a cup of vinegar, all of this going on for an hour or so. In addition to smelling awesome, this is supposed to regulate the pH or something like that, and was recommended for pre-treating the material in lieu of using a mordant*. This process was very haphazard and basically made up by me, so although the dyebath came out strongly colored, the hankies did not. I mean, they're definitely not white, but not what I was hoping for either. Only slightly deterred, I set to work on a separate batch, this time boiling the entire flower head before straining the pulp and then re-boiling as before with some freshly pickled hankies. This second batch produced a better-lasting and darker colored dye, but as would be expected, these hankies came out a greenier yellow that what I wanted. Sunshine yellow, damnit.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordant

And of course the lighting in the kitchen is awful so they all look brown anyway....

Once I had the dyes finished I realized that I had to find a way to use the tons-o-pulp from the flowers once they are strained from the dyebath. Because I am me, and Kari is Kari (or also me), we got out the blender and began making paper. You will have to stay tuned for the conclusion to that one because, well, there was SO much pulp that I am still working on it! In the future I will make my dyes and paper pulp in one day, then take on each project separately.

Before I tangent off, I have a plan for natural dye reform: simplifying for every kitchen. This same scenario has played itself out in my kitchen before - in experiments with blueberry, strawberry, and artichoke dyes - and this is the last time I am settling for an off-extraordinary end product. I have decided that I will grow Coreopsis flowers this summer and use them for dye. In addition, I can collect wild Queen Anne's lace and acorns, and use the marigolds from the Community Garden (more about that later, too). All of these things use the mordant Alum, and I am researching exactly what that means, and what to do to have optimal dye results. So I'll fill you in as the dye venture progresses as well.

And More from the Corn Trade soon.

katie

Introducing Katie, FatPatch, and the Corn Trade

My name is Katie and I am a 26-year-old wife and mother. I am an American, though am fortunate enough to be living in the German countryside at the moment in conjunction with my husband’s employment. Through this unique opportunity the Corn Trade has grown over the past few years from an idea and a budding set of values to, well, all of this.

The primary purpose of the Corn Trade is to bring together people who are using or are interested in learning crafts of a traditional nature. Through this network a community is formed, with each crafter benefiting from the work of another and with works being produced that are diverse from the works of the individuals.

My Personal contribution to the Corn Trade is through FatPatch. Started in 2005, FatPatch is a clothing, accessories and home décor label dedicated to the re-use of materials garnered from the world around me. I use vintage, reclaimed, recycled, and repurposed fabrics and items to create new one-of-a-kind and limited-production pieces. Though my primary business with FatPatch is conducted face-to-face at local bazaars, there is also a modest Etsy shop at www.fatpatch.etsy.com and a MySpace page at www.myspace.com/fatpatch through which I can be reached for further information on all that.

Any items that are produced through a cooperative effort will be highlighted here in the Corn Trade Magazine with information on how the item was produced, who collaborated on it and where it can be purchased. Other than that, the primary function of this blog will be to show off some of the ideas and projects that we are working on here – our old-timey tendencies and strange behaviors. Things that we could use your input on – like thatched roofing and dye gardens and raising a sheep for its wool.