February 4th is national homemade soup day. There are many soups I love– they are great fun because they bring flavors together and meld them together into something warm and comforting.

Beer and cheese soup is an excellent and fun soup to make because there is so much room for experimentation. You can use different types of beers combined with different cheeses  (I love nearly all permutations of beer and cheese soup). However, there are two thing I cannot stand when it comes to beer and cheese soup:  1) when it is too thick and goopy, and 2) when you cannot tell that there is beer in the soup.

Beer is a fantastic ingredient because it is complex and bright, and adds notes that cannot be achieved by the use of any sort of stock. It can be subtle, but also bringing a refreshing depth to soups and stews. Part of the problem of using beer as an ingredient is that there are so many to choose from, and often recipes just call for “beer”. No recipe worth its weight would call for “wine” without at least specifying red or white (and most good recipes will  suggest a Merlot over a Madeira if it has good reason).

For this reason I have decided to do a little taste test and come up with a good suggestion for a beer (type) to use in beer cheese soup. After looking countless recipes that suggested “beer” I decided I would attempt to choose from four different varieties that would make the most sense in such a soup: lager, pale ale, india pale ale, and amber ale. I am sure there are other varieties that would go well with beer cheese soup but I pick these four based on being lighter in flavor and leaning toward hoppiness instead of deep maltiness (like stouts and porters).

First step was to choose my beer. I sliced off some sharp cheddar cheese and grab some saltine crackers and started to work. Beer tasting would be fantastic activity to do with friends and is much cheaper than tasting four nice wines

From left to right: lager, pale ale, india pale ale, amber ale. I quickly decided on the amber ale. I was looking for a deep rich flavor with a hint of sweetness to pair with the hoppiness.

Now that the hard part was over I started to make the base for my soup. Sweat the onion, carrot, and celery with the butter then add the garlic after onions become translucent.

Add the flour once the garlic has started to soften. The flour is added to help thicken the soup. The flour must be cooked to remove the flour taste, and will also help to add depth of flavor.

Once you have cooked the flour is time to make it start looking like a soup. First added the chicken stock followed  by the beer. If the beer went in first if it was still carbonated it could foam up and create quite a mess.

Once the soup begins to thicken add in the sour cream. I add the sour cream to add a bit of creaminess and smoothness. Most beer cheese soup recipes call for a lot of milk or cream. I have found that milk and cream cover up the flavor of both the beer and cheddar while making the soup far too rich.

Final step is to add the cheese. I used a extra sharp cheddar but if you wanted to make the soup less rich a mild or medium cheddar would do well too.

I finished the soup up with a green onion and black pepper bread. Nothing goes well with soup like some crusty bread. Then right before serving I stirred in about a tablespoon of IPA into the soup. IPAs have a fantastic aromatic flavor, and the hoppy top notes  really accent the rich soup. Caroline and I ate our soup on the back porch in this oddly warm weather, hoping that such a nicely cold weather meal would bring some weather to match.

Recipe:

Beer and Cheese Soup

Ingredients

1 medium onion

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

6 cloves garlic

5 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

4 cups chicken stock

4 cups amber ale

1/2 cup sour cream

3 cups sharp cheddar cheese

Start by finely chopping the onion, carrot, and celery. Then in a large pot sweat the onion, carrot, and celery along with the butter until the vegetables are soft and translucent. Add 6 cloves of finely chopped garlic, stir. After the garlic begins to soften add 3 tablespoons of flour. Stir over medium heat for 5 minutes to incorporate the flour and cook out the flour flavor. Add the chicken stock followed by the amber ale (make certain to do the chicken stock first to prevent bubbling over). Stir until the soup beings to thicken. Add the sour cream and continue to stir still fully incorporated.  At this point use an immersion blend (or remove from heat and blend in batches) to  break down the vegetable bits and make smooth. Finally add the cheese in small handfuls stirring in between.

Caroline and I both love all forms of cured, smoked, pickled, or any way preserved fish. Caroline’s favorite might be gravlax (it might be her Swedish  ancestry). The problem is is hard to find good gravlax out here in the county. Also gravlax tend to be very expensive (usually about $20.00/lb). This is what inspired me to finally try to make them at home. After some research I realized it was super simple and could be done in just a few days.

I started with about a pound of sockeye salmon. I also decided to use both fennel tops and dill. I love the sweet flavor of fennel tops and thought it would go well the dill.  Combine all of the dry ingredients so that they rub evenly into the salmon

Rub the salmon down with the salt, pepper, and sugar mixture.

Wrap the salmon up in all of the dill and fennel. I bruised the fennel and dill first to make sure that the flavor gets into the salmon.

I took all the extra salt, sugar, and pepper and covered the salmon.

Then using parchment paper I wrap up the whole thing nice and tightly. I put it in a dish and then put that dish in the refrigerator for 3 days and forgot about the whole things.

The results were more than I could have hoped for. The flesh was firm and a lovely dark pink color. I brushed the excess curing agents off and began to decide how I was going to eat such a lovely treat.

I decided I would first eat it in a very raw state to taste all of the flavors. I served thicker than normal slices with a sour cream and a small salad of pickled fennel. It was fantastic. It still tasted like fish but you really tasted the rich fattiness of the salmon.

Glamor shot!

This was one of the most satisfy things that I have cooked (cured?) in a long time. The result tastes better than what you can get in stores and cost way less. The possibilities are endless and you can do just about anything with the result. Caroline and I both ate the whole pound in one day and then started making more that evening.

Recipe:

Gravlax

1 lb salmon

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons ground black pepper

5 sprigs dill

5 sprigs fennel tops

Dry off salmon. Remember to use the freshest salmon (sushi grade). The salmon will be cured but it is best for food safety reasons to use high quality fish. Mix sugar, salt, and black pepper. On a large piece of parchment paper place the dried salmon skins side down in the center of the parchment paper. Pour the sugar, salt, pepper mix over the top of the salmon and rub into the flesh. Bruise the dill and fennel then place on top of the salmon. Take the excess salt, sugar, and pepper on top of the dill and fennel. Wrap the salmon in the parchment tightly and then place in large pan and put into the refrigerator for at least three days. After the fish is cured remove form the parchment paper and brush off the extra curing spices. Slice and serve however desired.

As promised, today I am revealing the first of our Spring/Summer 2012 yarns and patterns.

The first yarn I want to share with you is Yearling. Yearling is a 60/40 blend of Merino wool and cotton in a chunky weight. It’s great for quick knitting project and it feels wonderful to knit with.

I was lucky enough to commission Pam Wynne to design this collection and she was an absolute joy to work with. I love every pattern in the collection and I think you will too. Here’s what you’ll find in the Yearling pattern book, coming to a local yarn store near you very soon.

Marcie- knit by Beatrix Haggard, modeled by Neve

Cabled Caplet- knit by Elizabeth Hutchinson, modeled by the designer

Sleepyhead- knit by Sarah McCusker, modeled by Genevieve

Charlie Pullover- knit by Kim Reid, modeled by Oona

Lamb Shoes- knitters Margaux Hufnagel and Anna Pohl, models Anna Howell and Charlotte Fryar

Downey, the soft lamb toy- knitter Deb Palmer

Model Oona

Yearling cardigan- knitter Jane Hurst, model  Anna Howell

Origami blanket- knitter Caroline Fryar, models Neve, Sierra and Oona

Lucy Tunis- knitter Laurie Barham, model Amy

Robin Cardigan, Puff Hat and Chunky Booties- knitter Mary Johnstone, model Genevieve

This project was the work of so many people and all of them deserve recognition for their efforts. We could not have done this without our amazing knitters, listed above with the garment they made. They absolutely came through for us!

I also want to thank all our models, who are getting kind of used to being bossed around and wearing clothes that are completely inappropriate for the season. Neve didn’t even complain when we sprayed her with a water hose!

The gorgeous photography is the work of Joel Eagle, the most patient man I’ve ever met.

Zac kept us fed and held reflectors whenever we asked without complaining. Suzy flew in from Oklahoma to help with styling and child-wrangeling (and to make us Kip’s Tacos one night!). And Lauria- dear Lord what would we have done without Lauria? The woman is a wonder.

If your local yarn store isn’t currently carrying the JMF lines and you’d like to knit these patterns, ask them to bring it in. We’re currently in more than 100 stores and the list is growing like crazy.

Tomorrow I will be introducing you to a yarn named after one of the JMF farm dogs.

As the holidays begin to wind down I find that I am burnt out on super sweet cookies, cakes, and what ever else the family has so graciously left behind. This is also the time that I want to curl up and read all my new books while sipping on a hot cup of coffee. I have found recently that the perfect companion to books and coffee (or tea if you like) is a recipe I stumbled into when I had a day old bottle of hard apple cider.  Not being one to waste, I was looking for a good way to use the hard cider, and decided to incorporate it into my ginger cake recipe. What resulted might be the perfect companion to these cold quiet days.

Now, I say ginger cake because the result is light and airy, not dense like a classic ginger bread (we are also not talking about the stuff you make ginger bread houses out of).

For cakes I like to weigh out the flour. The ratio between liquids and dry ingredients in a cake is what determines if you are going to get a dry, crumbly cake or a smooth, moist cake. So, by weighing, you are assuring that you know exactly how much flour is going into the cake.

For the dry ingredients I whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. The goal here is to incorporate the spices, distribute the baking powder, and break up any clumps of flour. Now you can set aside the dry ingredients and begin to work on the wet ingredients.

Here is where the hard cider comes in. Instead of using water or milk I decided to use hard cider. I love the crisp tart flavor of hard cider compared to apple juice and think that it really stands out in the final product. To add more ginger and spice flavor you steep thinly sliced fresh ginger and the zest of an orange. I like to keep the orange zest in relatively large pieces because they will need to be fished out later. You can also easily peel ginger by running the backside (the dull side) over the ginger and the skin will come right off.  Combine the orange zest, ginger, and hard cider in a small pot and place it on the stove over low heat.

While the ginger and orange zest are steeping in the hard cider you can g ahead and cream the butter and sugar together.

Once the butter and sugar have become light and fluffy add the egg and then beat until it is consistent and smooth.

Once the orange zest and ginger have imparted their flavors to the apple cider it is time to add molasses and sorghum to the hot hard cider. Now I love using sorghum when recipes call for molasses. Sorghum has the same deep rich flavors of molasses but tastes less muddled and finishes much cleaner. In this recipe I am using both but I really recommend trying to use sorghum in recipes that call for molasses. (If you can not find sorghum for this recipes you can replace it with more molasses or 50/50 molasses and honey.)

Add both the sorghum and molasses to the hot hard cider and stir till they both dissolve. Now let this cool before adding it to the creamed butter, sugar, and eggs or you will risk cooking that egg before it gets into the oven.

Once the molasses, sorghum, and hard cider has cooled, alternately add the dry and liquid ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar, mixing to combine in between. First with the dry ingredients.

And then the wet.

Repeat this until in small batches (3 to 4 times) until you have a rich even caramel colored batter.

Transfer the batter over to a buttered bundt pan (the one below was my fantastic Christmas gift from Amy). I like using a bundt pan because it cooks the cake evenly and results a moister cake but you can also use a 9 inch square pan as well. Be sure to even out the batter so that the cake comes out evenly.

Then put into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly.

Once the cake has cool flip it out onto a cute cake stand (Susan’s Christmas present from Caroline and I) and allow it to cool even further before icing.

For icing, I wanted to make something super simple that complements the cake. I thought I could reuse that orange I zested earlier and make a simple glaze. Take the powdered sugar and whisk in the orange juice drop by drop just until the icing become liquid and can be drizzled on top of  the cake.

There we have it! Finished with some crystallized ginger cut into small pieces and you have the perfect dessert (or breakfast or midnight snack) for these cool days. The resulting cake is just so light and refreshing that it will be easy to justify a second slice.  I am currently watching Caroline devour the cake while knitting and knocking back a considerable amount of tea.

Recipe

Cake:

2 1/2 cups flour (10.6 ounces)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup hard cider

Zest of 1 orange

1 cup sliced fresh ginger

1/2 molasses

1/2 cup sorghum

1/2 cup butter

1 larger egg

1/2 cup sugar

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/2 cup chopped candied ginger

Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients and whisk together in large bowl.  Peel and thinly slice fresh ginger to make one cup. Zest orange into large strips. Combine ginger and orange zest in small pot with hard cider over low heat and allow to steep for 20-30 minutes. Cream butter and sugar together and then add one large egg and beat until consistent. Once the orange zest and ginger have steeped remove them from the hard cider and add both the molasses and sorghum. Stir the hard cider, molasses, and sorghum until combined and allow to cool. Add dry and wet ingredients to creamed butter, alternating between them,  in 3-4 batches. Beat until batter is smooth and consistent and transfer to a well buttered bundt pan. Place bundt pan in oven for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan and allow to cool for another 10 minutes before icing.

Icing: Put powdered sugar into a medium sized bowl. Whisk sugar continuously while slowly adding orange juice. Add just enough orange juice for the sugar to become hydrated but still remain thick. Continue to whisk until the icing is even and no lumps remain. Drizzle the icing over the cool cake. Once the icing is on, quickly sprinkle the chopped crystallized ginger before the icing drys.

My friend Shirra is absolutely the most lovely person on the planet. She is the kind of person who would do anything for her friends, and I count myself incredibly lucky to fall into that category. She is kind, thoughtful, hilarious and she has a heart that is so big it barely fits inside her tiny body. A truer, bluer friend has never lived and I am so grateful to have her in my life.

***

Hi! I’m Shirra, and I’ve been friends with Susan since a time when the fiber farm was just a twinkle in Susan’s eye. We actually met on the Martha’s Vineyard Ferry and were fast friends, bonding over fiber and her flock.

When Susan asked me if I wanted to write a guest post about holidays and gifts, I jumped at the chance. Then the moment of panic, much similar to the moment of panic when I realize that the holidays are looming and gifts must be bought that, hopefully, will be loved. What if I can’t find anything? What if what I find is dopey? What if … what if I just start looking? I really like the idea of buying from local and independent businesses. Hand-made always tops the list. Quirky? Absolutely. I ended up finding way more than Susan asked for.

Who doesn’t know someone with an iPod or an iPhone? Most chargers are slick looking by design, but as much as we love our slick tech, we don’t all love that slick tech look. I love these book based ipod/iphone chargers.

For all the knitters who dream about having yarn covered everything, this may be of interest:

My family loves to repurpose things. My son, for example, wraps all of his presents in newspaper. I saw this envelope template and fell in love with it. Not only can just about any extra piece of paper become an envelope, it may just inspire more handwritten letters which are always fun to send and receive.

About 10 years ago, I learned how to play Mah Jongg. I’m really not that good, but I love to play partly because of how pretty the tiles are and how they feel. When I first saw jewelry made from Mah Jongg tiles at a craft fair I was giddy. Finding more after the craft fair proved frustratingly sporadic. But now we have Etsy!

For those lucky enough to have a magnetic front to their fridge:

And a lot more Mah Jongg stuff here.

There’s something about this rabbit. Every time I look at this picture, the rabbit seems to be thinking something else. The artist who makes these prints really just has a way with animals.

I have wanted to have a garden ever since forever. I love garden bling and this has to be some of my favorite bling partly because you don’t need a big garden to use it, it would be wonderful in a small herb garden outside, or even on a windowsill!

In the mad, crazy rush that is the holidays, this gift will be a lovely reminder to slow down and take some for a little peace and quiet.

I actually saw this book in a store on my town’s main street and I just had to put it on the list. Considering my kids’ obsession with the Zombie Apocolypse, and as an addition to Susan’s post on that particular topic, I had to include this modern take on a children’s classic:

About 6 years ago, as I rushed around Brooklyn, where we lived at that time, desperately trying to find 8 gifts for three kids for each of the nights of Chanukah, along with presents to put under the Christmas tree, having just tried to clean all the toys up that were scattered around my house, I realized that I had fallen into the modern American trap of “There has to be piles of gifts because it’s the holidays!” I turned my back on the shops, went home to turn some thought to this realization. I didn’t want to raise my kids to expect to get stuff just because it was “that time of year”. I had seen how overwhelmed they could become with the gifts from us, three sets of grandparents and doting aunts and uncles. It dawned on me that so much of the Christmas and Chanukah stories are based on the idea that people with nothing, through some miracle, get what they need, not a lot of stuff that would sit in a closet after it’s been used once or twice. I decided that Santa really only needed to bring a couple of presents to my kids on Christmas, and that we would exchange gifts on the first and last nights of Chanukah, but the middle six nights we would give to others who needed our help much more than we needed more possessions. The kids would each get to choose a charity to donate to, either individually or with their money pooled together to make one large donation. I am including links to a couple of the charities we have given to in the past.

Heifer International

Donors Choose

Doctors Without Borders

I also like to find local charities, in our case Family of New Paltz, where I can take my kids to drop off clothes and food so they can see first hand where their donations are going.

***

Susie here! Today’s giveaway is a twofer. We’re giving away your choice of prints in Corella Designs etsy shop AND making a $50 donation to your choice of Shirra’s favorite charities. Enter by leaving a comment on this post telling me which print you would chose if you are the winner. A winner will be chosen on Friday, December 23rd at Noon EST.

Good Luck, Y’all!

Remember way back on June 21st, the first day of Summer, when we started macerating our fruit for the world’s greatest fruit cake? Well it’s time to get that boozy fruit out of the cupboard and make a cake, y’all!

As I mention in my previous post, this recipe was brought to the world’s attention by food writer Laurie Colwin- who is a mortal lock for the Food Writers Hall of Fame, should such a thing ever come to be. The recipe that follows was published in the November 1988 issue of Gourmet Magazine. I’ve added a few of my own notes where I think they will be of assistance.

Laurie Colwin’s Black Cake

Macerating the Fruit

1 LB raisins, minced
1 LB pitted prunes, minced
1 LB dried currants, minced
1 LB glaceed cherries, minced (I have
substituted dried cherries with good result)
6 oz glaceed lemon peel, minced
6 oz glaceed orange peel, minced.
1 bottle dark rum
1 bottle (750 ml) Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine.

Combine the fruits, wine and rum in a large non-reactive container, cover tightly, and allow to soak for at least two weeks. [We already did this part, of course, because we are organized and magical.] [But not that magical. My fruit did not grow to fill the giant jar you see in the photo from the previous post: I moved it to a smaller jar to save pantry space a while back.]

Baking the Cake

4 1/4 cups cake flour
4 tsp. double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (the freshly grated is important)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 sticks (2 cups, one pound) unsalted butter, softened
1 pound brown sugar
10 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 Jar Burnt Sugar [alternatively, you can burn your own sugar by following the instructions here.]
1 1/2 cups almond paste

Into a bowl, sift together the flour, the baking powder, the nutmeg and the cinnamon. [Wanna here a secret? I never, ever sift. Like, ever. In culinary school, we learned that you can get the job done by whisking all your ingredients together well.]

In the large bowl of a mixer, cream the butter, and the remaining pound of brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. [You should always crack each egg into a small bowl and then add it to your batter. This prevents your wrecking the whole thing when you get one rotten egg.]

Beat in the vanilla, the flour mixture and the whole jar of burnt sugar.

In another large bowl (the largest you have, by now you will be dealing with serious volume) combine the flour mixture and the fruit mixture, and combine well.

[How large a bowl do you need? I've found one that can comfortably hold a seven-year-old is just about right.]

[Super Important Note: I DID NOT ADD all the liquid from my macerated fruit. It just seemed like way too much. Instead, I used a slotted spoon to scoop out all the fruit and then added half a cup of liquid at a time until the batter seemed to be the consistency of...well...cake batter. You can reserve the rest of the booze for next year's cake. Or drink it if you want but that's on you.]

Divide between two 10 inch springform pans [I used two 9 inch springforms because that's what I had] and bake in a preheated 350° oven for 1 hour and 50 minutes to 2 hours or until the cakes are set and a tester inserted into the center comes out with some crumbs adhering to it. (The centers of the cakes will be quite moist.)

Let the cakes cool in the pans on a rack, then remove the bottom and sides and wrap in foil or plastic wrap. Let stand for couple of days before icing. [Longer is better. I've waited up to a week before frosting in the past, but a couple of days is more than enough.]

Just out of the oven.

[My cake was still too warm to take out of the pan without risking breakage but I wanted to get this blog post up ASAP so y'all can start on your own. When you get to this point, your family will say things like, "looks like you burnt the cake" and "I think you did something wrong" and "I am NOT eating that!" Ignore them. Nobody had faith in the Wright Brothers either but I'm flying to New York on Monday all the same.]

Finishing the cake.

Black cake must be iced. Colwin used a fairly standard Imperial Frosting (confectioner’s sugar, egg whites, and lemon juice, beaten until thick). To finish the cake, roll enough almond paste out to make a circle as big as the cake and about 1/8-inch thick. Carefully fit the layer over the cake, and trim as necessary to fit.

Frost the cake with the icing, and decorate with silver dragees.

Today’s gift guide is curated by my friend Megan Reardon, a.k.a. Not Martha. I have to say that even though I consider Megan a friend, I am also a total fan girl. Reading Not Martha is like having a cool, amazingly talented friend who makes you believe you are cool and amazingly talented too!

Having Megan guest post for Juniper Moon is a great big gift for ME. Enjoy!

***

Hi there! I’m Megan and I have a site called Not Martha where I share tutorials for the stuff I’ve been making as well as links to all the great things I find on the web. My little family keeps Christmas pretty simple but we do have one tradition we’ve managed to keep up for a while, post holiday ham and cheese crepes.

This started in a year when our city, Seattle, got a significant amount of snow and we found ourselves mostly housebound. (As we are both original from a state that gets winter snow we didn’t panic, much.) Luckily we had plenty of leftover ham and a hunk ocheddar cheese as well as a crepe pan so we had crepe breakfasts until
the roads were clear. We perfected homemade crepes that year and ever since it’s been our post-Christmas leftovers meal of choice.

Crush On You body scrub from Product Body. I have tried a whole lot of
scrubs and this is my favorite by a wide margin. It beats all the ones
I’ve tried to DIY.

Christmas flavored chocolate bars from Theo Chocolate. We stock up
when their seasonal flavors come out, I get more excited about these
than the return of Girl Scout Cookies.

Colorful woven gift toppers from Mini-eco. These look easier than
creating a presentable bow, and they are friendly for shipping those
wrapped gifts!

USB Locket from Emily Rothschild. I carry a USB drive with me
everywhere I go anyhow, might as well make it something pretty enough
to display.

Extra KitchenAid mixer bowl. I bought the most basic mixer and found
myself with a handle-less bowl. I would kiss whomever would gift me
this upgrade.

Stump de Noel Bundt cake pan at Williams-Sonoma. It’s got a sense of
humor and it will keep you from having to attempt a rolled cake at the
same time.

***

Susie here! Today we are giving away a 10.5 ounce jar of Crush on You body scrub in the scent of your choice (I like Sexy Laundry Day!) Just leave a comment on this post telling me which scent you will choose if you win. Comments close at Noon on Friday and the winner will be posted right here.

Good luck, y’all!

Every year in Sweden, a committee builds a giant goat out of straw (called a Gavlebocken) before Christmas. By giant I mean GIANT. It weighs 3.6 tons.

Now you’re probably wondering why the Swedes build a monster goat and what the hell is has to do with Christmas. From the official website:

The strange history of the Gävle Goat began in 1966. A man named Stig Gavlén came up with the idea of making a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas goat of straw. The aim was to attract customers to the the shops and restaurants in the southern part of the town centre.

On 2 December the 13-metre (42,6 feet) tall, 7-metre long, 3 tonne goat stood on the square. At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, the goat went up in smoke. The perpetrator was found and charged with vandalism. The Gävle Goat has been burned down 24 times since then.

Yes, you read that correctly. The Gavleboken has be BURNED TO THE GROUND 24 TIMES. In fact, on the goat’s Twitter profile it says, “I’m the biggest straw goat in the world, follow my struggle to survive arson attacks.” [You have to admire a straw goat that knows it's purpose in life.]

In order to prevent the burning of everybody’s favorite enormous straw ruminant, a 24-hour webcam was installed a few years back, which — BONUS– allows Gavleboken fans from all over the world to share in this (awfully strange) holiday tradition. There is even a special committee to protect the goat.

And yet, somehow, this year’s Gavleboken was BURNED TO THE GROUND less than 24 hours after the officially birthday ceremony. From the goat’s official blog:

The Gavle Goat was set on fire, a few hours ago. At 02.54 PM someone could not let him stay alive. He was happy to celibrate his birthday yesterday, but of course very sad that he did’nt survive Christmas this year. 

We will not replace him with a new goat, but wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Bye for now…

Way to go Special Protection Committee, right?!? How does some one burn down a 3.6 ton goat on a live webcam? It’s… bewildering.

As you can well imagine, we Gavlebocken-watchers were dispirited and disappointed by this recent turn of events. My Ravelry group goes Full Gavlebocken every December and this morning, we were depressed. Amber set off to make her own giant-only-less-so Gavlebocken, but she hasn’t returned since. [I'm a bit concerned that there is a woman in Central Pennsylvania laying under a 3 ton goat with crushed legs and no food, but it's a hard thing to explain to 911, so I'm hoping she'll pop back up online soon and put my mind at ease.]

In the meantime, we decided that this atrocity could not stand. We took matters into our own hands. I had purchased a small Gavleboken to adorn our Christmas mantle. It is now sitting on a handmade pedestal in front of the camera labeled Lambcam 3.

But if I catch any  Swedish arsonist sniffing around my barn, so help me GOD, there will be hell to pay!

There is so much going on around the farm right now that I’m a little at a loss as to what to write about today.

We are dyeing and shipping shares at a landmark pace, due to the fact that we have a photo shoot for our Spring/Summer 2012 pattern books coming up week after next, and we would like to get all the shares shipped before the photo shoot takes over the house and our lives.  If you haven’t chosen your color for custom dyeing yet, let us know ASAP so your yarn won’t have to wait in limbo until 12/19!

In preparation for the photo shoot, we have finished garments coming in daily from our team of top test knitters. It is so fun to see the packages arrive and finally get a glimpse of what so many of y’all have been working on. Of course, there are buttons to be sewn on and garments to block, so each package brings with it it’s own list of chores.

Whilst Zac dyes shareholder yarn and Caroline sews buttons, I’m in the midst of creating the color stories for our Fall/Winter 2012 Collection and interviewing potential designers. It’s such the most exciting part of the timeline for me, when absolutely anything is possible and the hardest part is choosing between five or six lovely yarns, each of which I would be proud to have the Juniper Moon Farm name on.

The only cloud on the horizon is that my auto-immune disease- which had been in remission for about 6 months- came back last week with a nasty vengeance! I have HLA-B27 associated Uveitus, a condition which causes my immune system to attack my eye. It’s incredibly painful and monumentally distracting. It tends to be triggered by stress, which is unfortunate, because times of stress are when I can least afford the time and energy that my condition draws away.

Last year I found the most amazing doctor and I’m not exaggerating when I say she changed my life. By using a completely different protocol than the one that I had been on for a year and a half (it wasn’t working), Dr. Sietzman got my disease into remission for six glorious and beautiful months. Then she moved to London. I saw another doctor at Dr. Seitzman’s clinic Wednesday, and though he couldn’t treat me, he found another specialist who could and managed to get me an appointment at Johns Hopkins next week.

I mustn’t whinge though. My disease is treatable, at least for now, and I am confident I’ll be back in remission soon enough. I just hate being slowed down by something that feels so little a part of me. My friend Jane said something so poignant the other day. She was talking about a friend of her’s that has cancer and she said, “We are not our bodies, that’s for sure!” I’m not sure that anyone who hasn’t been ill could understand that statement but it resonated deeply with me.

In terms of the holidays, I have done next to nothing to get ready for Hanukkah or Christmas. Actually, that’s not entirely true; most of my shopping is finished, but only because I bought small, handmade things through out the year whenever I saw something that was perfect. (I’ll be sharing a few of those with you next week.)

The neatest thing about the holidays this year is that I’m going home to Texas for the first time in ages and ages. I leave the 24th (the day after celebrating Hanukkah with Joel’s family) and don’t return until the 4th of January. I’ll be working during most of that time, but it will still be so nice to go home again.

Important Note: If you are participating in our Black Cake Bake-a-Long, I highly encourage you to order two bottles of Burnt Sugar from Kalustyan’s in NYC, or pick some up at your local West Indies grocery store. It isn’t all together necessary for you to buy burnt sugar- you can burn it yourself- but it’s way easier to order it and not have a house that smells like burnt sugar for the next two weeks. As soon as mine arrives on Wednesday, I’ll post the tutorial for the rest of the cake!

I’m not entirely sure why 2011 has become The Year of the Apocalypse for me. Maybe it’s the civil unrest that seems to be in the wind. Maybe it’s the fact that I read this godforsaken book, recommended by Amy’s daughter Emily. (And by “godforsaken” I mean “so good I stayed up all night to finish it but OH MY GOD SO FREAKIN’ SCARY.) Or this nightmarish book, recommended by my friend Muffin*. (And by “nightmarish” I mean that it gave me actual nightmares.)

But whatever the reason, it feels like there is some indefinable change in the air. People are nervous about the future and want to do something, anything, that will make themselves feel like they have some control.

I refer to this feeling as PREPARING FOR THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. PREPARING FOR THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE is a joke, mostly, and my shorthand way of referring to the weirdness that the world is currently going through. I don’t actually believe a Zombie Apocalypse is going to happen, but it’s an amusing distraction.

Except that Joel is not amused. He doesn’t think the Zombie Apocalypse is funny at all. And because I am a perverse creature, that just makes it all the funnier to me. (I know. It’s not nice. But it is funny. I can’t help it.)

Which is why I’ve put together a very special Probably Something You Would Like for today. Probably Something You Would Like– Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Edition!

Sorel’s Joan of Arctic boots are super-stylish and just the thing for outrunning  zombie hoards in a snowy forest.

Betcha didn’t know you can by freeze dried asparagus by the case. And not just asparagus! Zucchini, carrots, even tomato powder, whatever that is.  Not much of a cook? No worries!  You can get a 12 pound can of freeze dried Fettucini Alfredo with a shelf life of ten to fifteen years. All you need it is a small fire upon which to boil water and 5 to 7 minutes later, you’ll be pretending you’re at your neighborhood Italian restaurant, provided your neighborhood Italian joint serves fifteen-year-old, re-hydrated glop.

“Back to Basics will help you dye your own wool with plant pigments, graft trees, raise chickens, craft a hutch table with hand tools, and make treats such as blueberry peach jam and cheddar cheese. The truly ambitious will find instructions on how to build a log cabin or an adobe brick homestead.” I own this book and I really like it.

You’re going to need a lot of vintage plaid wool blankets. Actually, these are awesome even if the ZA doesn’t happen. On second thought, don’t buy these.  I need them all.

This seems like a good idea.

Tutorial: How to make amazing fire starters the Boy Scout way!

So I was searching for amusing items for this post on Amazon and just for fun, I put “Zombie Apocalypse” in the search bar and look what I found!  An actual handbook for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse!!!1! I’m ordering it, just as soon as I finish this letter to the authors, informing them that Joel is not amused.

*Also, who would suspect that you have to be suspicious of book recommendations from a friend named Muffin?!?