Spring Spring Spring!

Hello! We are slowly coming out of our winter cocoon and have just begun to garden again. Lettuce, dark greens, and a few other things over-wintered and are really delicious. We also planted radishes and onions over the last few weeks. Today we had our first big salads for lunch from the garden!

Fricky has been needing some extra attention with her kitten counterpart being so cute and fun all of the time. She keeps wanting to get up on shoulders, and counters... places where Tokie can't jump yet. 

wild onions and garlic in our yard can be seen in a few different ways: annoying weeds, wild edibles, or in today's case, part of breakfast!

Jeremy scattered these turnip green seeds in the left side of the garden as cover crop. It got cold so fast this fall they never really got too big. These last few warm days they have exploded! I am going to make a curry dish with some today and then once they bolt we will turn them under!

Jeremy also raked up the stalks from the soybean plants. We will either chop them up and incorporate them into the compost or plant directly into them... we are planning a big cover crop for the left side and more sunflowers... not so much work this year. Last summer was so hot and we did too much. Plus millet grass is a beautiful bright neon green! 

Here it is as of now! We got the paths established, as many weeds removed as possible, radishes and onions planted, and greens uncovered! Time to watch stuff grow and eat!

Salad & stir fry ingredients batch one! The top part of the bowl has the heads of lacinato kale that was bolting (we picked them off in the hopes of tricking the plants into thinking they are not bolting just because its 80 degrees on March 18th in Virginia!), they tasted like little sweet broccoli/kale hybrids (super delicious) We also had austrian pea shoots and the first of the spinach... and of course the lettuce!

More updates soon, this is going to be a busy and intense month!

Further Adventures In Gluten Free & Dairy Free Baking...

Our friend Albie inspired this one... It was a definite treat and pretty fun to make.

                                                    Here they are without the filling & glaze!

Here is the vegan chocolate buttercream filling for the inside!

This is what happens if you open the oven door to peek! Don't do it!

Yummm!

Valentines Day Dotties

Hello there strangers! Sorry we have been distant from the blog recently. Allyson is busy getting ready for her show the Lotus Eaters at Gallerie LJ in Paris and Pictoplasma in Berlin coming up in April. By the way did I mention Allyson is a warrior...FYI.  I have been laying low and making new work and spending sometime healing.  Allyson and I recently finished a handful of Dotties, Papercuts, and Brooches just in time for Valentines Day!  These are all up on the Etsy shop ready for the swiping.  We have both have also decided to take the plunge and make a website.  allysonandjeremy.org. It is in its early stages and needs some fine tuning so bear with us. The website also includes our tumblrs of new work we are doing and what is inspiring us in the studio. We will still be using this blog to update people on what we are doing and continue to post about the garden,  our crazy projects and journeys.  The garden currently is in a dormant state. Although we still have many alive plants under our cold frames and garden cloth. Including: Lacinato Kale, Siberian Kale, Chard, Spinach, Cilantro, Leeks, Weld, Woad. We also have some areas of cover crop including some Turnip Greens and Austrian Winter Peas.  We are hoping for an early spring as we are ready to let these dormant dudes bloom.  It was 68 today so we opened the cold frames to give the plant some sun and air and fertilized these suckers so that they will take off in a month! We are also working on the book...and once Allyson's shows are mailed off we are devoting our time to finish this sucker. Matokie our new kitten is slowly becoming a sweet cat and we LOVE him so much! Do not worry everyone Fricky is not taking the back seat but she has some healthy competition! Much Love -Jeremy
allysonandjeremy.org
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allysonmellberg.etsy.com

Hey There Strangers!

Hi everybody! It has been a while since we posted... Life has been a little crazy! We have some garden pictures to share and a few other things. Its already really cold here! (okay so maybe its only 36 but after a summer of 100+ weather all of the time we are not adjusting well!) (My inner Wisconsin-ite is currently making fun of me and calling me a wimp!) Despite the cold our garden is still doing pretty well. We have Jeremy's beautiful cold frames to thank for that! Right now we have chard, two kinds of kale, turnip greens, cabbages, rosemary, winter peas, spinach, and cauliflower growing. We just harvested the last of our radishes, lettuces, dill, fennel, mint, lemon-balm, and onions. We are trying to eat as much of our own food as possible. I made a really good pea-shoot salad the other day and we have been enjoying lots of greens. Food has been a hot topic at our house recently... Our household is now gluten & dairy free in light of Jeremy's recent Celiac disease diagnosis. Its been a rough few months of J being really sick so feel free to send him a message with some good vibes in it. He is a fucking trooper to say the least. 

Now is a good time to discuss an elephant in the room... well, actually its more of a fluffy kitten. Thats right, Fricktoria is no longer single, she has a little boyfriend. Total cougar! Matokie was rescued from the Norfolk SPCA and is a ragdoll mix. He is really cuddly and sweet most of the time. The other parts of the time he is running laps and getting schooled by Fricky. 

We are also in two pop-up shops in Virginia this year, the Bizarre Market in Richmond at Chop Suey and the Great Gifts shop at the Bridge in Charlottesville. I am going to post more when finals are done, but in the meantime... here are some pictures! Hope everyone is having a nice, stress-free holiday season. 

xoxo,

Allyson

  Sorry if stuff is a little out of order, I am still getting used to posting this many photos! The above image is from us printing and getting ready for the two pop-up shops! Jeremy's snowman cards are super awesome. Below: We made a new zine for Cinders' booth at the NY Bookfair called "Spirit Moves"

 Part of getting the garden ready for the cold season is making sure all pests are gone. These worms were hiding out together. They blend in so well. 

 I made some larger dotties for this years Bizarre Market. 

 Kitten!!!! This is Matokie. He is already much bigger than this! 

 Fennel from our garden!

 Jeremy's beautiful peace bird print for the markets!

 Our Woad came back! We have to harvest it asap so we can try for another batch...hopefully one where the blue doesn't run out in the waste-water!!!

 Our Egyptian walking onions walked themselves right out of the garden and onto the driveway... I may have helped them a little.

 Our Weld also made a comeback...

 The fall garden a few weeks ago!

 First GF Thanksgiving.... gluten free stuffing and chard from the garden!

 Leaves from our daily walking spot!

 Some of the last strawberries, at the end of November. They lasted forever.

 Happy Jack by Jeremy, Sad Jack by Allyson

 Moffles! aka Mochi waffles. Part of our gluten free expedition to foods unknown.

 I don't really need to say anything about this. Ridiculous.

 Everything changed after they slept together.

Hot Beans

Oh man it is still hot. Its nearly October and we have had a string of 95+ degree days. If you are in Alaska or somewhere cold I apologize for complaining, but seriously... enough already! The garden is a little confused... we have volunteer tomato & sunflower seedlings all over the place ready to go for a whole new season. We both keep wondering how long this weather will keep up... we could have sunflowers all over again! Anyhow, first batch of my favorite, Christmas Lima Beans courtesy of our sweet neighbors. I was SO excited. Ours are still on the vine and probably have another week or two before I can pick them. X-mas Limas are an old heirloom of giant lima bean. They are really delicious in soups and a real garden treat in the dead of winter. (not that we are actually having winter this year... :) ) I will post  the pics of ours when they are dry but in the meantime, check these pretties out:

Also, I have been meaning to write a little bit about my trip to NYC for my show, but haven't had much time. A lot has been going on here & getting caught up at school has been occupying a lot of my time! But soon! I will post more. Until then J & I were just interviewed by our friend STO of Cinders (www.cindersgallery.com) for the ReadyMade blog: 

http://www.readymade.com/blog/craft/2010/09/24/painting_naturally#comments

Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of fall. More soon!

rippers

What a bummer. We are sad to report that a company known for buying handmade from Etsy and reproducing cheap versions of the work without artist permission has struck our little Etsy store. Anybody know a good copyright lawyer in Virginia? If you see one of these little guys in Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, or World of Mirth, please let us know.

HOPI DYE & STITCHES

Well today was an eventful day at our house! Jeremy and I harvested some of our sunflowers (the ones that have dark, non-stripey seeds) for a beautiful dye that he made. The seed dye is a traditional Hopi Native American dye. It yields a beautiful purple that was used to dye baskets and fibers. We are not huge purple fans but this color is really pretty. And its really funny to watch someone boil an entire 

sunflower head... very dramatic!

 

Meanwhile, I sat on the back porch working on my wood sculptures for my upcoming show at Cinders. This summer I have been trying to teach myself how to carve wood, which has been really awesome, but I guess, statistically speaking, I was up for an injury! I pushed my knife gouge right through one of the little dude's noses and straight into my thumb. J took me to the emergency room and two stitches and a tetanus shot later I am ready to finish carving and fix that nose!