Barefoot in the Rain

New blog

2011-03-30T07:07:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! I decided to update my blog and have a new address. I won't be posting to this one anymore but would love for you to visit me at my new address.

2011 Homeschool Schedule

2011-01-02T20:19:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the New Year! There is alot of activity going on in our house, things are buzzing for the new year in many areas and one of those is our school schedule. We are going to be finishing school up by the end of March to get ready for baby's arrival. My plan is to take off school for the rest of spring and summer and start back up in either August or September of this year. I've been doing reading, writing, arithmetic (the three "Rs") and some other studies (poems, Bible stories, etc.). We are now adding studies of the 50 states. I'm also changing up our school schedule so instead of doing Monday, Wednesday and Friday we'll be doing school Monday through Thursday with Friday off for field trips and activities. Here's what our days are going to look like. I'm fairly flexible even within this schedule but this is the basic routine we'll follow each day.

Prayer
Bible story
Memory verse
Poem
Pledge
Reading - Continue Little House on the Prairie Series
Writing - finish up the alphabet in January and change to additional handwriting after that
Arithmetic - math manipulatives, colors, telling time, money, measurements
Social Studies/Geography - 50 states - we'll be learning a state every day of the week we do school to hopefully make it through all 50 by the time we're finished end of March
Science - random experiments and outdoor nature study

I'm really very excited about the additions to our schedule and looking forward to having a fun (albeit busy) three months for the start of our year. Off we go!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-23T19:02:00.005-05:00

It's been a frenzy of activity for the last few days. I've been working on wrapping gifts, cleaning the house, working on finances and changes for our household for the new year and making my to do lists as I approach this next season of change in life. In all that frenzy and hurrying I've also been spending some time reflecting on the reason we celebrate Christmas in our house. One of my favorite things about the holidays is spending time with family. While this is one of the main focuses of our seasonal celebrations, we celebrate Christmas in our house to remember the birth of Jesus.

So many years ago He was brought into this world. Some people say he was just a prophet or a teacher. To me, He is the meaning for so many things. He is the example I follow in living, in loving other people and in finding my place in this world.

I've been especially reflecting on what Mary, the mother of Jesus, might have felt. While I still have a few months to go in this pregnancy, our little baby is moving and very active. I wonder what Mary felt when she sat thinking about bringing her baby into the world...the baby that God said would be the Savior of the world? What a heavy weight to carry. In her humble state she accepted the task.

On this Christmas morning as I feel this little tiny baby kicking under my belly button and watch my childrens' eyes glisten as they celebrate the birth of Jesus by opening presents, eating birthday cake and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, I am reminded again to pause, reflect and change. Jesus offered us grace, one of the things that is so very difficult to grasp but that is so needed not only for ourselves in our personal paths and walks of life but also as we learn to extend it to others.

May this Christmas season find you reflecting on the birth of the one pure example of grace and may you find yourself refocusing, recharging, and rejuvenating through the remainder of these winter days. God bless each of you!

Before Baby To Do List

2010-12-14T14:13:00.002-05:00

It's about that time...we're working our way toward the end of pregnancy and only have a few months left. Before I know it we'll be in single digit weeks. I started my to do list of things to get/do/buy before this baby makes his or her appearance.

buy crib from Ikea, set up in our room
buy changing pad
buy changing pad cover x 1
buy remainder of cloth dipes (3 dozen preemie prefolds, 1 dozen infant prefolds, 2 GN BG flips, BG Flip inserts – newborn and one size, 6 preemie covers, diaper salve)
buy postpartum pads x 9
buy birth supplies
buy nursing pads
buy Lansinoh
make rice bags for labor
order Christmas and family vacation scrapbook albums and assemble
buy new carseat cover for Britax
buy Radian
buy nursing bras x 2
newborn long sleeve onesies x 5
newborn short sleeve onesies x 10
DONE - newborn/preemie cotton footed sleepers – x 1
newborn cotton gowns x 6
newborn/preemie knit pants and top sets - x 6-12
newborn socks x 12
sleep sacks/Miracle blankets/swaddle blankets
buy 1-2 glass bottles
make or buy flannel receiving blankets
DONE - buy chrome shelf for basement and finish organizing the storage unit
stock up on food for the pantry, snacks, easy to make meals (freezer)
buy bubby's spring clothes
buy sissy's spring clothes

Do you see what I see?

2010-12-13T20:53:00.003-05:00

Slightly foggy but check out the little guy to the left of the fireplace...know what that is? Happily fermenting sourdough starter. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T20:33:00.001-05:00

Today I'm thankful for so many things but mostly...God's provision in our lives, my wonderful husband, my two beautiful children and a healthy growing baby!

Cooking Flickr

2010-11-09T20:08:00.001-05:00

I'm in the process of uploading and saving some of the favorite recipes I've made over the last year to my Flickr account. I'm hoping to be more diligent in taking pictures and posting recipes to this batch. You can click on the pictures to the left of the blog or follow this link.

Cooking

Menu Plan redo

2010-11-07T14:28:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I posted a layout of a menu plan I was trying. Well, it flunked the test. I get bored with following a menu plan plan that's too planned, haha. I like variety in our menu plans but also like to experiment. Since I'm a traditional foods cook, I also have to incorporate soaking times and other prep work into my menu plan. This week I'm trying something new. Here's the basic layout but leaves alot of room for interpretation and variation.

Monday
Breakfast - oats
Dinner - chicken

Tuesday
Breakfast - eggs
Dinner - beef

Wednesday
Breakfast - Bread (muffins, biscuits, toast)
Dinner - vegetarian

Thursday
Breakfast - oats
Dinner - chicken

Friday
Breakfast - eggs
Dinner - beef

Saturday
Breakfast - Waffles
Dinner - pasta

Sunday
Breakfast - Bread (muffins, biscuits or toast)
Lunch - crock pot meal of some sort
Dinner - big breakfast

I think this will fit our lives and my love for variety in cooking better.

Preserving comes to an end

2010-11-05T15:21:00.004-04:00

It's been a good year of preserving and I'm so excited to share my progress. I did all of this on my own with the help of my handy Ball Blue Book. Here's what I have:

12 pints of applesauce
12 jelly jars of blueberry preserves
12 pints of blackberry preserves
12 pints of green tomato relish
12 pints of creamed corn
6 pints of chicken stock
6 quarts of chicken stock
12 quarts of tomato sauce (plain, unseasoned)
12 quarts of applesauce
6 quarts of sliced pears
24 quarts green beans
8 quarts dill pickles
24 pints sliced apples
36 4-oz jars of green tomato relish

I also did some freezing and have about 8 quarts of soaked and cooked beans and will have about 4-8 quarts of rice once I'm finished with my batch today.

Fermentation Friday: Gluten free sourdough starter

2010-10-29T11:58:00.003-04:00

I've officially made the transition to a gluten free diet. I was having some symptoms that I was wondering about and come to find out they were due to gluten. So I (very begrudgingly) have made the switch. It's been a really hard change for me. I miss bread (though have found a GF bread recipe). I miss my toast, being able to sit down and have a quick bowl of cereal and being able to eat anything I want. I am adjusting though and slowly figuring out what to eat.

With the change, I decided it was time to change my sourdough starter over as well. My other one had been going for about 9-10 months and I couldn't find a taker so sadly it ended up in the compost pile...at least it will be used by smaller life forms, haha. I started my gluten free sourdough starter about two weeks ago and it's going strong. It "grows" more slowly than the previous one that had gluten but it's still usable for most things. I haven't tried it with bread yet. I did try it with gingerbread and it turned out fine. I want to also try it with crackers (hopefully next week). Here's what I did to start it.

Sourdough Starter: Gluten Free Edition
1 cup oat flour - freshly ground here at home from whole oat groats, gluten free
1 cup brown rice flour - freshly ground here at home
2 cups filtered water

Mix ingredients in a glass jar or bowl and sit at room temperature. The next day, stir to combine. On day 3, add in another cup of flour (gluten free) and another cup of water, stirring to combine. Stir on day 4. On day 5 add another cup of flour and 1/2 cup water and stir to combine. Continue this process until your starter is bubbly and active. Mine was ready by day 8 and the consistency I want by day 9.

Notes: Gluten free sourdough starter doesn't seem to grow as quickly as gluten containing sourdough starter. It also accumulates more fluid on top. Most of the time I dumped this off because I like a thicker sourdough starter. I'm excited to try some new recipes with it and also experiment with other flours. In this mix I've used oat flour (freshly ground), rice flour, millet flour and quinoa flour - all freshly ground - and so far it seems to be pretty happy. Toward the end I was adding half the water amount to thicken it up a bit.

The first of the month

2010-10-01T20:28:00.002-04:00

It's October 1st, the beginning of a new month. I've been trying to grab the reins on some of our craziness lately with our schedule and such and felt the need to streamline a few things in my life. One of those things is our menu plan. I feel like sometimes it takes me hours to get our menu plan together, to make my list and grocery shop. I decided to go with themes for each day and see how it looks at the end of the month. You can follow this link to my Google spreadsheet layout of what I'm anticipating doing. Under each day's heading of breakfast/lunch/dinner/prep, I'll fill in those sections based on the cookbook of my choice that week and what I intend on making. I'm going to see how this works out for the month of October and if it works then I'll stick with it. Feel free to use the spreadsheet if you'd like to.

I also decided last month to post what I was reading. I had on my list last month, Honey for a Woman's Heart and The Amish Cook. The Amish Cook was really good and found it's way back to the library. Honey for a Woman's Heart didn't catch my attention and I just couldn't get into it so after three weeks of trying, finally took it back to the library. On my reading list for October is The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. So far I'm really liking it!

Putting the garden to sleep

2010-09-29T14:41:00.004-04:00

Today is absolutely gorgeous. Our weather is getting cooler as we near the end of September but today is almost like a summer day...almost. It's sunny and warm and there's a slight breeze blowing. It's cool in the shade, hot enough in the sun to make you sweat. But there's one thing about today that's not summer. Today instead of planting, we harvested and we pulled plants out of the ground - we as in the kiddos and I. They had a blast playing in the mud and picking out the green tomatoes. I'm slowly putting the garden to sleep for the year. It was an interesting year for gardening. The only thing that really produced alot were my tomatoes and I had a fair amount of those. I have about 50 pounds in the freezer waiting to be made into something yummy. Today I also harvested the second crop of carrots. These are carrots that popped up after the first round had been picked from the plot. I had some pretty good sized carrots in there. I think I'm going to clean, chop and freeze the carrots for soup this fall and winter. The tomatoes are mostly green and are currently having a sun bath. I'm going to either make green tomato salsa or try to figure something else out that would be equally delicious with green tomatoes.

Today as I was digging around I was trying to plot out next year's garden. Here's the layout from this year. Plot #1 will be taken over by strawberries and hopefully the squirrels will save some for us (or I'll find a better way to deter them). Plot #2 was a huge fail for the zucchini. I think they actually got too much water here. I think I may do herbs in this section, maybe oregano, parsley and basil but not totally sure at this point. Plot #3 which is the L-shaped section will be something like this - corner will be lavendar; front section where the peas and cabbage grew will be tomatoes; against the deck where the raspberries are will be beans (and peas if I can get the raspberries transplanted in time to plant peas); lavendar is on the end of the bean/pea row; zucchini will go at the very top of the L shape where the other set of peas grew; and along the side I have no clue. The tomatoes did awesome here this year so I'm not sure what to plant next year. I really want to try to keep the garden low key and my plan so far has been berries, zucchini, tomatoes and beans. If I plant something there I want it to be low maintenance. Maybe I'll plant some zucchini down the side and spread them out a bit. Plot #4 will be where the raspberries are transplanted. I've been wanting to move them to a space that would be their own so they can grow to their little heart's content and this seems to be a perfect place to keep them well maintained and for them to have enough space to grow. If I can get them trellised right I think I can keep the squirrels off the berries, at least the top berries. I thought about birds but I figure I'll just use bird netting or make my own with a lightweight sheet or something. I'll have to read up on that.

I think with those moves we'll have a pretty successful garden next year. It's been hard for me to figure out the soil because we have a slight hill where the garden is currently located so certain places get more moisture than others and the water seems to pool in certain places.

In preparation for next year's growth, I'm going to be putting pine needles on the strawberry bed and if we have enough, on the raspberry bed. I'll need to figure out if I need to do any soil amendments or work where the other things are going. I may just do a layer of leaves and let them rot over the winter again. That seemed to work well in some areas so I may go that route since it's free and completely natural.

In other news, I have two more rounds of canning to do. I found local beans to can and finished up 12 more quarts. I'm hoping to go up to the apple orchard next week and get a bushel or two of apples to do some more applesauce and possibly some stewed apples or something similar. Then probably closer to end of October I'll do something with the tomatoes. I want to get the apples out of the way before apple season ends. I may also do something with pumpkins but it really depends on time. Our October schedule has turned into a complete nightmare of busyness so we'll see how it works out. I'm anticipating a very busy October but hopefully that means we can settle into November for the colder weather and the fireplace!

In any event, we're making progress on some projects around here and slowly putting the outdoors to sleep for the fall and winter. I'm looking forward to a time of cold, a time of rest and renewal in the ground and a time of the same within my soul.

How to clabber milk

2010-09-20T15:29:00.003-04:00

A few months ago I had some milk (raw) that had been in my fridge for about three weeks. It still tasted okay but I wanted to figure out what to do with it to make room for my next three gallons that were coming. I decided to clabber it. It's very easy to do.

You take your milk, put it at room temperature for about three to four days (depending on how hot it is in your house) and it turns into something like this:

From my first batch and from this batch I freeze the whey (the clear part on the bottom) in ice cube trays and then break it out and put it in a Ziploc and store in the freezer. This way I always have whey on hand for fermentation. It's easy to grab one or two cubes, place them in a jar and let them melt at room temp. Then you can use the top for cheese if you want or if it's not to your liking, feel free to throw it back in the compost and let the critters have at it. Either way it doesn't go to waste.

September harvest

2010-09-20T15:27:00.002-04:00

I've been letting my tomatoes ripen for about two or three weeks so I could pick a big batch all at once. I picked Saturday and this was our bounty. They are all currently in the freezer awaiting their destiny in some type of dish or salad or canned good. I'm hoping for one more harvest at least this big.

Preservation in progress, gardening, and the future

2010-09-18T12:30:00.004-04:00

I've been trying to preserve as much as I can. My morning sickness and early pregnancy sleepiness put a dent in my anticipated schedule but I'm still pushing through to see what I can get done now that I'm feeling better. Here's my preservation count so far:

12 jelly jars of blueberry preserves
12 pints blackberry preserves
12 pints creamed corn
12 quarts green beans
8 quarts dill pickles

I have applesauce in progress right now and hope over the next few weeks to get 24-36 pints of that done. I also hope to get at least 12 quarts of chicken stock/broth canned and possibly 12 quarts of mixed beans that I could easily throw into chili or soups this winter. I have three very small amounts of dried/dehydrated zucchini and beans that will also be used for soups.

In my freezer I have 9 quarts of tomato sauce, 4 quarts of mixed beans and loads of frozen whole tomatoes waiting to be made into something...I'm thinking diced tomatoes or spaghetti sauce or something similar. I have 4 quarts of chicken stock, 4 pints of chicken stock, plus about 8 cups worth of chicken stock that I froze in ice cube trays.

I also have my meats worked out and will be picking up our next chicken/turkey order in November to get us through the winter. We're still good on beef. I have some cheese frozen. I also have a bag of locally grown asparagus and two huge bags of local blackberries and one huge bag of local blueberries in the freezer.

After I get my applesauce canned tonight I'm hoping to work on chicken stock this week.

Working on learning preserving methods this year has given me a vision for next year. I've been debating on joining our CSA next year but I'm leaning toward not joining and just visiting more farmer's markets instead. I also want to go blueberry picking at least once or twice next year as well as blackberry picking, maybe strawberry picking, but some of that will depend on life with a newborn. I figure I could just strap the baby to my back and head out but we'll see how life is at that point.

My garden plans for next year include strawberries (hopefully the squirrels will leave them alone), transfer raspberries to another plot and trellis them (hopefully squirrels will leave those alone too), tomatoes - probably Riesentraube, Amish paste and Roma, zucchini, and green beans. I think I'm going to put the green beans where the raspberries are this year so they can grow all over the place and have good supports. My supports this year weren't strong enough for the production. This plan will allow me to plant a little later since I'll have a little person attached to me. My berries won't take much work as they'll just blossom and grow and the rest won't have to be planted until June.

Of course, any of that could change with life but I'm hopeful to have a productive and simple year next year.

My latest discovery

2010-09-14T20:07:00.004-04:00

I like to keep cinnamon and sugar in a container to shake onto toast and/or cinnamon rolls or anything else we make that contains those two ingredients. Last year I bought the Pampered Chef shaker things. The only problem is the screens on them are too small for sucanat or pure cane sugar to fit through so the only thing you get is cinnamon. Cinnamon toast just doesn't taste the same without some kind of sweetener mixed in with the cinnamon. It's very dry without it. Today I had a brain wave and decided to try my sprout screen with a canning jar. It works perfectly! The screening is a tad bit bigger than the screening on the Pampered Chef items so the pure cane sugar fits right through. Here it is all ready to go!

Oh my word!

2010-09-06T20:49:00.003-04:00

I finally mastered sourdough English muffins. EEEEEE. And I'm really excited can you tell? I tried these before and they were just blah to me. I don't know if it's what I put in them, the ingredients I used or what. I think I used dairy kefir before and I guess it just didn't taste great to me. Today I used raw milk, doubled the honey amount in her recipe and used freshly ground hard red wheat berries. Yum! Toasted and loaded up with farm fresh butter...SO good!

Erin's recipe is posted here.

2010-2011 Homeschool Schedule

2010-09-05T18:36:00.004-04:00

The school room is finally put together (after painting and adding furniture and trying to figure out where to put everything). I have a corkboard to buy and hang, two maps on the way (one U.S. and one world), and a kid-friendly calendar to hang. After those things are in the room, it will officially be complete.

I finally sat down last night to write out our schedule. Last week was really disorganized and basically I grabbed whatever I could find since the room was still in shambles. I learned from last week what I need to do for each child so it was a good week to do a trial run. This week I'm more prepared and ready to hit the ground running tomorrow. I've decided that we'll be doing school Monday/Wednesday/Friday. This works well for our schedule as I have something weekly on Tuesday mornings and Thursday mornings. I'm trying to decide if I want to rearrange those days and do school Monday through Thursday but for now M/W/F works best for us so we'll go with that. Here's what our basic schedule looks like. Each week I'll write out specifics, plan it all out and lay it all out the night before and then be ready the following morning. Here's what our layout for the year looks like:

7:30-8:30
Wake up, eat breakfast, clean up kitchen, get dressed, brush teeth, clean rooms/make bed (everyone)

8:30-9:00
Prayer, devotions, say the pledge, memory verse, poem (everyone)

9:00-9:15
Letter of the week (everyone)

9:15-9:30
Bub - Math
Sis - file folder games on counting/number matching, math manipulatives

9:30-9:45
Bub - phonics/spelling/handwriting
Sis - file folder games on shapes/colors/sorting; alphabet puzzles

9:45-10:00
Human body, emotions, five senses (everyone)

10:00-10:15
Break/snack

10:15-10:30
Social studies - 50 states, map of 50 states, American holidays, occupations, world map (everyone)

10:30-10:45
Bub - Math
Sis - file folder games on counting/number matching, math manipulatives

10:45-11:00
Bub - phonics/spelling/handwriting
Sis - file folder games on shapes/colors/sorting; alphabet puzzles

11:00-11:30
Book series (everyone)

11:30-12:00
Nature study, nature walks, science experiments

12:00
DONE FOR THE DAY

I've also chosen to include some individual time for each of the kids. For sissy, she and I will be cooking every day or week and for bub he and I will be reading for a half hour to an hour each night after sis has gone to bed.

I'm really excited to get going tomorrow. The kids will be in bed soon and I'll be able to get it all laid out and my thoughts gathered.

Seasons of change

2010-09-05T15:10:00.004-04:00

The last few days have been colder here and there are glimpses of fall all around us - pine cones on the trees, pokeberries popping out everywhere, blowing leaves. Bubba often comments on the leaves that are blowing around "mommy, it's fall, the leaves fell down!" I wonder if he senses my anticipation for the season change? I've often talked with them about how much I enjoy fall. I love the cold mornings, warm days, and cool evenings. I like watching my kiddos run around in long pants and long Ts and barefeet (cold enough to need longer clothes but warm enough to keep their shoes off).

Yesterday I spent some time in the garden, an activity I've missed in this season of morning sickness and tiredness. I spent some time pulling weeds, trimming the raspberry canes, un-hammering rusty nails, taking up wood to move to different places next year and pulling out dead or slowly growing plants. Yesterday I found myself circling the garden, hoping for what might be next spring. I've told myself that I really need to commit to a smaller garden plan and actually stick to it next year. I have a feeling I'm not really going to have much choice since this little baby will be born sometime around the beginning of gardening season. I've decided to move my raspberries completely so they now look like a bunch of sticks. The tomatoes are on their last leg and the fireman will probably help me rip them out this week. Yesterday he was on my case about bending over and pulling weeds because I kept grunting as I stood up. My abdominal muscles definitely need more rest than they did at the beginning of the summer and stooping and bending don't do much to help that.

I'm starting to realize that there are seasons of change coming my way, literally with the outdoor season and also with our family. Through the summer I took some time to reevaluate where my time was spent and who it was spent with. I've felt a very strong pull to spend time with both sets of grandparents (my childrens' great grandparents).

I've been spending alot of time watching my children as they learn, play and grow. I cherish all of these sweet moments with them. It is so precious to watch them everyday, to hear what they're learning, to listen to their thoughts. I wouldn't trade these moments for anything. I wouldn't trade them for an income or a job, more experience in schooling, or time to myself.

I often wonder when thinking about these two little ones what this next baby will add to our lives. Will this baby be a boy or girl? What will his or her personality be? Will he or she be like one of my other children? I wonder which traits of the fireman or myself this little one will have.

As I think about and reflect on the changing seasons in my life, I'm continually grateful for provision in so many areas, for family and friends, for contentment, and for peace.

Fermentation Friday: LF Honey Dill Mustard

2010-09-03T19:56:00.003-04:00

I've been wanting to play around with condiments some more so I decided to try this out this week. I found the recipe

1/2 cup mustard powder
3 tablespoons whey (OR whey from coconut milk kefir OR 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar*)
2 tablespoons water (if using acv, use 3 tablespoons water)
3 tablespoons dried dill –OR– 5 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
3 to 5 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon sea salt

Add ingredients to a bowl. Stir well. Pour mustard into a jar. Cover tightly and leave on the counter for three days before moving it to the refrigerator. Enjoy!

*If using apple cider vinegar, this will not be lacto-fermented. Leave it out at room temperature for a few hours or a day, then move it to the refrigerator.

VERDICT: This had an interesting flavor to it. It was sort of sweet, sort of sour, sort of dill-y. I added it to my homemade ranch and ended up using about 4 tablespoons and I still couldn't taste it over the mayonnaise (store bought) that I used. I'm going to re-try LF mayo again to see if I can find a recipe that I like and also to see if I can get a truly homemade, LF ranch dressing recipe. :)

September Reading List

2010-08-30T20:09:00.004-04:00

I was reading another blog that I like to follow and she has links to the books she's reading. I thought that was a great idea so I'm going to try to keep up with it. Here's what's in store for September:

Honey for a Woman's Heart by Gladys Hunt

The Amish Cook by Elizabeth Coblentz and Kevin Williams

Home life and homeschool

2010-08-30T19:43:00.002-04:00

We started school today, albeit slow and very laid back. Our office/school room is still somewhat in pieces/shambles from us moving it upstairs. I spent most of last week painting in between napping. The kids were at my parents' house so I didn't have them to take care of but was trying to be careful to watch and listen to my body's needs. The fireman has been extra overprotective this time around, I think because of the added responsibility of taking care of two little ones during this pregnancy...and probably the fact that I tend to get myself into way too many projects and tire myself out. It's really sweet that he reminds me so often because sometimes I need a gentle reminder to go lay down or stop what I'm doing. I'm learning to listen to him as well as my body and most days I really need that nap.

Today we worked on the kids' All About Me books. It took us about an hour to do these with some of the cutting and pasting. Sissy did mostly coloring while bubby and I worked on some of his letters and numbers. They most liked having their hands painted and doing their handprints. I took pictures of each of them so on their picture page they drew a picture of themselves and we'll put their real picture next to it. Then we started our first chapter of the Little House series in Little House in the Big Woods. Bubby really enjoyed the first chapter, sissy not so much but I'm hoping she'll get more interested the more we read. I did realize today that I needed to have more activities on hand for her as she seemed to be bored and wanted to get into other things (sewing items) that she wasn't supposed to be playing in. I'll have to brainstorm over the next day or two. I've decided we'll do math/language arts/science/social studies on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then we'll do nature study, human body/emotions, and fire safety on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday and Thursday will be our laid back days. The kids are already asking what we're doing tomorrow for school and have been telling everyone they meet that we started school at home today so I'm guessing that means they're pretty excited. I'm excited too and hopefully the fireman can help me finish putting the other desk together and anchoring the bookshelf to the wall tomorrow so I can finish organizing some things and get the school room put together.

In other news, I've been feeling lately that I need to make our home more homey and more comforting/comfortable. I've been at a loss for a few years of what to do with certain rooms to make them feel more family oriented, more homey and more warm. I've just left them as is while I try to figure out what to do with them. Now that I have the office and school room to an almost functional and re-done look, something that I'm really enjoying, I'm inspired to work on other rooms. We moved our bedroom upstairs and the colors in that room really work well with the wood on our bed and I really love how comforting it is. I want to get something to put on the dresser for a decoration, maybe one of those water fountain thingies but other than that I'm pretty happy with how that room looks. One of the rooms I need to redo is our living room. It's just so blah to me...very boring without much color. The bookshelf in there will be moved (actually I'm donating the bookshelf as the books will be on the large bookshelf in the office and school room). That will be out of there and I want to do something with the picture frames on the wall to get more family pictures up. I'm working on getting updated pictures of everyone so that I can get those hung. I was reading on The Nesting Place blog about having a central/focal point in the room. I think I know where I want that to be in the living room and I think I have an idea of the piece of furniture I want but have to start looking. I want something kind of old that has alot of character. I'm not sure if I'll paint it or stain it or what I'll do but I think I'm going to look for some type of armoire that can hold blankets (for sitting by the fire) and pillows (for sitting by the fire) and also some books. Since we have black leather couches in there I'm not sure what color to go with so I'll have to think on that. I currently have light green valances and probably need to keep valances instead of curtains as the one window is close to where we insert the wood of the fireplace. I would love to paint the living room (for some reason being pregnant brings out the "let's re-paint the entire house" in me). I don't know what color I want in there though. The way our living room is laid out also makes it difficult for me to figure out the most welcoming set up for the furniture. We have two walls that the couch can go on, one of those being the wall I want as my focal point. That leaves the other smaller wall for the loveseat which means the recliner will go in the corner by the focal point piece and then we'll have the funky wall empty with nothing on it. I'll have to brainstorm and figure this out. I'd love to move the furniture that's in there downstairs and get two loveseats and a chair for that room as I think it would be easier to work with. However, that's not in the finances now or for a very long time (unless the fireman picks up some serious overtime).

Once that room is finished I'd like to focus on our new bedroom. The fireman is getting ready to frame in the room probably next week and I'm excited to figure out how to make it a cozy little setting for us. It's not going to be very big, probably just slightly bigger than the one we were in before. However, we can choose smaller furniture pieces to go in there as we'll be buying new pieces. I'm not sure if I want wood colored or white or black or what I want. I know I want the color in there to be really soothing so maybe a nice earthy green color? I tend to stick to greens and blues and browns so I may as well stay in that color family huh? After that I'll probably move onto the kids' rooms because by then I think we'll know what this baby is..as in he or she will be born by that time.

I'm really really excited to make our home more homey and welcoming to those that come here. I want everyone to feel welcome and feel like they want to stay and chat and have a cup of tea. I know I have some work to do and lots of decisions to make but thank goodness I don't have to do it all now. We intend on being in this house for awhile so I have time to figure all this out.

On that note, the laundry and kitchen are calling me so I better get going..

I'm glad we're homeschooling

2010-08-25T22:07:00.005-04:00

Last week I watched the neighbor kids hop in their van with their mama and head off to school for their first day. That night I was laying in bed with the fireman and told him "today was the first day of school for our district and boy am I glad we didn't send our kids off because I would have spent the day crying." I think I cried on the first day of school through junior high, maybe even high school. I would get that giant lump in my throat and knot in my stomach and haul off to the bus stop to catch the big yellow cheese machine with all the other kids. I remember cold mornings where we could see our breath and me thinking that I wish instead of standing there in the dark that I was home in my snuggly house. I remember the nervous knots in my stomach the first few weeks of school when I would walk into the bustling halls of hundreds of students all buzzing around like a busy hive. I didn't care for school. I had plenty of friends and was involved in activities and had my share of fun but in all honesty I didn't like going to school.

Every year around August/September I get that similar knot in my stomach thinking of all the kids that are heading off to school buildings somewhere and wishing they were at home in their snuggly and safe environment; wishing they were holed up on the couch reading a good book instead of shuffling off to the school bus to a school full of peers the same age.

This year brought some of those feelings as I talked with a good friend about her children going off to school. I learned that she feels the same way, she still gets knots in her stomach but they're for her kids as she sends them off. She still feels slightly sad to see them go back to school. Then I felt something different. Relief that my children would be home with me in our snuggly home, not having to walk up to the bus stop and get on that big yellow thing with all the other kids and go to school and sit in a classroom with 20 other peers their age. They'll be here, close to my arms so that I can hug them throughout the day, watch them learn, be an active participant in their school journey and get to teach them things that they wouldn't learn in school. Maybe it was relief that I didn't have to re-live those feelings, or maybe it was gratitude for the gift and blessing of being able to educate my children at home. I don't know what it was but I sure am glad we're homeschooling. Our official school year starts Monday, August 30 and I excited to get going and to watch my children learn and thrive right here in the safety and peaceful environment of our home.

Monday planning

2010-08-23T15:13:00.003-04:00

I've decided instead of doing a menu plan for this week I'll share with you mine and hubby's plans for the week. While I'm only a few weeks pregnant, I'm furiously starting my list of things to do so that I'm not working on them all winter and into the "I'm as big as a barn" months of pregnancy. Here's our list of things to accomplish this week while the little ones are spending the week with grandma and grandpa.

- put bed together, move dresser upstairs to its new location, move glider rocker upstairs to our current room (we moved our bed and all our hang up clothes last week, just need to finish this project up)
- paint both closets in the room the kiddos are sharing, hang up new closet racks and rearrange/organize their clothes
- paint the school/office room
- buy furniture - desks, bookshelves - for the school/office room and hang wall shelves
- organize the school supplies, get books on the shelves
- fireman to do some minor remodeling in the basement, turning one section into a room
- buy three shelves for the storage unit in the basement and clean that out and get it organized
- clean out the garage and ready it for vehicles parking in there in a few weeks

And that's it so far. I'm sure more will be added.

Cat's out

2010-08-22T17:54:00.003-04:00

The cat is officially out of the bag. If you're wondering where I've been, it's mostly been on the couch, in the bed or sleeping off my morning sickness. Baby #3 will be making his or her appearance in the spring. I've been trying to lay low and rest up and hope to be back to blogging here in a few weeks when I'm feeling better.

Fermentation Friday: Beet Kvass

2010-08-06T19:31:00.004-04:00

This has become one of my favorite ferments because it's so easy to make and so good for you!

Beet Kvass - Nourishing Traditions pg. 610
3 medium or 2 large organic beets, peeled and chopped up coarsely
1/4 cup whey
1 tablespoon sea salt
filtered water

This drink is valuable for its medicinal qualities and as a digestive aid. Beets are just loaded with nutrients. One 4 ounce glass, morning and night, is an excellent blood tonic, promotes regularity, aids digestion, alkalizes the blood, cleanses the liver and is a good treatment for kidney stones and other ailments. Beet kvass may also be used in place of vinegar in salad dressings and as an addition to soups.

Place beets, whey and salt in a 2 quart glass container. Add filtered water to fill the container. Stir well and cover securely. Keep at room temperature for 2 days before transferring to the refrigerator.

When most of the liquid has been drunk, you may fill up the container with water and keep at room temperature another 2 days. The resulting brew will be slightly less strong than the first. After the second brew, discard the beets and start again. You may, however, reserve some of the liquid and use this as your inoculant instead of the whey.

Note: Do not use grated beets in the preparation of beet tonic. When grated, beets exude too much juice resulting in a too rapid fermentation that favors the production of alcohol rather than lactic acid.

Note: For a darker brew, add a little extra whey.

I haven't forgotten you

2010-08-05T10:15:00.004-04:00

I've just been trying to work on many projects. I've been in a menu plan slump so haven't posted a menu for two weeks. I'm finally feeling motivated again and ready to jump back in for next week. I've also been trying to keep up with the garden which is failing terribly this year. The weather has not been conducive to good crops, even the farm where we pick up our CSA has said the same thing. There's been very little rain and very hot weather. I've been trying to water and keep everything going but there have been some deaths in the garden. The green beans in the bed had to be ripped out because the Japanese beetles just destroyed them. I dug up the first batch of carrots and beets and the second batch, probably smaller ones being choked out by the bigger guys are pushing up and showing some life. I'm really excited about that! The tomatoes are not fairing well at all. The fireman and I may try to get out there today and rip a few of the plants out that aren't doing well. The zucchini bit the dust, rotted from the roots up. The squirrels demolished the very small raspberry crop we had. The cantaloupe seem to be trying and their vines are about 1.5 feet long each with blossoms but I'm not sure we're going to get any fruits...it will depend on how long it stays hot. If it's this hot through September I think we may possibly get a few. The cabbage are doing okay in spite of the bug that's munching on their leaves. I think they'll survive long enough to offer us some cabbage for the fall. I have green beans in pots that I'm praying will survive long enough to offer me a few more loads of canning beans. I'm praying my amish paste tomatoes survive as well so I can get some tomato paste made for the winter.

The good thing is that I have a sort of plan in mind for next year. The garden plot will be moved in 2012. Next year will be spent working the soil in that area to get it healthy and ready for planting. My garden plan for next year consists of tomatoes, green beans, peas, and possibly cantaloupe and/or pumpkins. I've decided I'm going to rip out and donate some of my raspberry plants because I'm going to try to transplant them next spring and move them elsewhere in the yard. I'm not sure where but will figure that out over the winter. I need to get all but the one that I'm keeping ripped up soon because I want to overwinter peas in the ground to try out that method of pea planting. Those will go where the raspberry plants are now so they can grow up the side of the deck. Then green beans will go in their place in the spring once the peas are finished. The fireman's gram says that some of the best peas are those planted in November and allowed to overwinter in the frozen ground. I haven't decided whether I'm going to join the CSA again next year or just stick to going to farmer's markets. That's a decision I need to make over the next three months or so. I also need to spend some time plotting out where my plants will go so that they aren't in the same place as this year.

In addition to that, I finally have our school stuff planned out, submitted my exemption form to the school district, and now just need to get my pile of papers laminated and the remainder of my supply list purchased. I think I'll be going next week to purchase the remainder of those items at the school supply store. I'm hoping to get the office/school room at least painted and partially put together before we start August 30. I have the plan all laid out, now I just need to budget it in to see where the money will come from.

In other news, we're getting ready to move our bedroom in order to move the office in order to do some dry-walling and other work in the basement. It's going to be a process because we have to move each area to get the other one done. The office stuff is currently in the basement but needs to be moved out before dry-walling starts and we get going with all of that stuff. Our hope in the spring is to put a bathroom downstairs, redo the laundry area and move that downstairs and finish the back room in the basement so it looks a little bit nicer. Right now it's just gross. That will also function as our mudroom which will work out well with the laundry down there. I hope to have a clothesline up sometime in the future...I've been asking for years and it keeps getting pushed off. Eventually we'll turn the current laundry closet (that's in the kitchen) into a fridge/freezer area. I hope to get something similar to this when finances allow - side by side freezer-less refrigerator and fridge-less freezer. I dream of this setup often.

In other news, my canning and preserving is going well, slower than I had anticipated but right now I'm just waiting for things to ripen and/or grow (namely tomatoes if any survive). I've dehydrated some, canned some and today will be making spaghetti/zucchini sauce and freezing it. I'm really excited to have some homegrown things preserved...really excited! I have our meat orders in for the fall and have started making stocks for the winter for soup making. I have quite the stash of berries in the deep freeze but would like to get more...I need to get on the ball with the blackberries! I'd love to can and/or freeze some peaches as well but I'm having a hard time finding organic, locally grown peaches. Apples will come in the fall and I hope to do applesauce, stewed apples and other things. That will depend on finding a local resource, preferably organic or low spray. In order to get all my preserved items nicely arranged in the storage area downstairs, I need to get a few more shelves. I'm hoping to do that this month as well.

It's been a productive few weeks since I've been gone and I am so excited to look forward to some of these other changes.

Fermentation Friday: Pickled Cucumbers and Zucchini

2010-07-23T11:36:00.004-04:00

Pickled Cucumbers - Nourishing Traditions pg. 97
4-5 pickling cucumbers or 15-30 gherkins or 2 large zucchini
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 tablespoons fresh dill, snipped
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey (if you don't have this on hand use another tablespoon of salt)
1 cup filtered water (or enough to fill jar)
Freshly cut strawberry or grape leaves (this helps to preserve crispness)

**As a side note, I did each of these in half gallon jars as opposed to quart Mason jars because I don't have any quart Mason jars available right now.**

Place grape or strawberry leaves in bottom of jar. Wash cucumbers (zucchini) well and place in a quart sized, wide mouth Mason jar. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over cucumbers (zucchini), adding more water if necessary to cover cucumbers. The top of the liquid should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage.

I'm looking forward to trying these out in a few days.

Verdict: Yuck! These were so mushy that they went to the compost right away. I'll attempt again with grape leaves but if that fails as well then no more pickle lacto-fermentation for me.

Let the preserving begin!

2010-07-19T20:45:00.004-04:00

I decided to take the plunge into canning today. I got out my Ball canning book, my canning supplies and off I went. It turned out to be a pretty productive day - 12 quarts of green beans, 12 pints of blackberry preserves, and 6 jelly jars of blueberry preserves. I plan on doing more green beans, some pickled things (cucumbers, zucchini), corn and who knows what else. I've also been dehydrating things so that I have them to add to soups. Once there's a bigger corn crop around here I'll start freezing corn as well. This is really fun!

Just look

2010-07-16T22:57:00.003-04:00

I've been trying to make our nature walks more intentional and making sure we get a few in each week. The other day all four of us went out into the woods to walk after dinner. It was hot and steamy and heavy on the mosquitos but the kids seemed to enjoy it. There was alot to see in such a short walk. Just sharing some glimpses of our world.

Fermentation Friday: Pickled Garlic

2010-07-16T17:49:00.004-04:00

This is one of my favorite prepared "condiments." I use that in quotes because it's not technically a condiment but I store it with my condiments because it's used in just about everything around here. This is so easy to do and so handy!

Pickled Garlic - Nourishing Traditions page 96
about 12 heads of garlic
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons whey

Remove outer skin and set garlic heads in a 300 degree oven and bake until heads open and cloves can be easily removed. Place cloves in a quart sized, wide mouth Mason jar. Mix oregano, salt and whey with 1/2 cup water. Pour over garlic, adding more water if necessary to cover the garlic. The top of the liquid should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about three days before transferring to cold storage.

Thinking school

2010-07-10T11:09:00.007-04:00

I'm so excited to be diving full force into homeschool planning for this upcoming year. This year is mostly going to be focused on lots of reading, some math and alot of fun. I'm hopeful that I have a chance to get our school room set up before we start. I have big plans for that but we'll see what happens financially and see how much time I have to work on that.

I've decided that our official start date will be August 30. I was going to wait until Labor Day but since studying Labor Day is a part of our plans this year I thought it would be good to start before that.

Here's a basic outline of what I'm thinking. This will most likely change some but here are the basics.

*Devotional time, thoughts for the day, time for prayer and reflection

*Music time of some sort, possibly music with instruments and/or motions

*Social Studies
American Holidays
September - Labor Day
October - Columbus Day and Halloween
November - Thanksgiving
December - Christmas
January - Martin Luther King's birthday
February - Valentine's Day and President's Day
March - St. Patrick's Day
April - Easter
May - Memorial Day
June - haven't decided yet
July - Independence Day
August - haven't decided yet

Occupations
Policeman
Fireman
Postal Worker
Garbage Man
Librarian
Service Worker (community cleanup type work)
Farmer
Banker
Nurse
Doctor
Pizza-place
Teacher
More to come??

*Reading and Language Arts - Book series, family reading time
Favorite Poems Old and New - memorization and poetry
Little House on the Prairie with cookbook and companion
File folder games (sight words, alphabet matching)
**I haven't decided what else will be here as it may take us the entire school year to read through the Little House series.

*Science
Nature walks, nature notebooks and hands on experiments
Big Book of Science Activities

*Geography
Study of the 50 states of the United States, their names and capitals and location on the map.

*Math
Confessions of a Homeschooler's printables with manipulatives
File folder games
Leap Frog Math Adventure to the Moon

*Letter of the Week
Confessions of a Homeschooler's LOTW curriculum
Phonics activity book

*Handwriting
Handwriting Without Tears

Goodness, written out that seems like alot but I think it's going to be a good amount to keep my little ones busy and interested. I'm really excited to finish getting our supplies and get myself organized so we're ready to go. I'm also going to be doing some reading throughout this school year in regards to classical education and Charlotte Mason education to see if that's a possibility for the following school year.

Fermentation Friday: Kombucha

2010-07-09T12:12:00.002-04:00

It's that time again...time for a new fermentation experiment. I'm working on my second batch of kombucha right now, the first one finished up about two weeks ago. This was a successful fermentation project because it's super easy AND my kiddos will drink it. Wahoo! This is a much healthier alternative to pop, soda or colas.

To read about the health benefits of kombucha, follow these links:

Food Renegade

Kombucha.org

Kombucha Recipe - Nourishing Traditions pg. 596
Makes 2 quarts

3 quarts filtered water
1 cup sugar (I use sucanat)
4 tea bags organic black tea (I've also heard of it done with green)
1/2 cup kombucha from a previous culture
2 kombucha mushrooms or 1 mushroom cut in half

2 half gallon Mason jars, cloth pieces to cover mouths of jars and rubber bands

Bring 3 quarts of water to boil and add sugar and simmer until dissolved. Remove from heat, add the tea bags and allow the tea to seep until water has completely cooled. Remove tea bags (and compost them). Pour cooled liquid into each jar, dividing evenly. Place kombucha mushrooms on top of liquid, cover jars with cloth and wrap rubber bands to cover. Ferment for 7-10 days. Mixture should be fizzy and sour with no taste of tea remaining. Screw lids on Mason jars and store in fridge. Make sure not to put kombucha jars in the dishwasher. Store kombucha mushrooms in separate jars from finished kombucha with a little bit of the kombucha to keep them moist. Store preferably in glass or stainless steel. If mushroom begins to turn black, throw it out (in the compost).

Note: White sugar, rather than honey or rapadura (sucanat) and black tea rather than flavored teas give the highest amounts of glucuronic acid. Non organic tea is high in fluoride so always use organic tea.

Warning: Some individuals may have an allergic reaction to kombucha. If you have allergies, start with a small taste to observe any adverse effects. If you react badly, use beet kvass (coming soon!) several weeks to detoxify and then try again.

Blueberry picking!

2010-07-03T11:06:00.003-04:00

We went blueberry picking today at one of the local farms. We were planning on going Wednesday but the farm was closed to allow the blueberries to ripen. The fireman and the kids and I went up to the farm today to pick along with many other people. The kids ate their weight in blueberries (probably literally). I chose the farm we went to so that the kids could eat while they "picked" and not have to worry about pesticides or other yucky things on the berries. It was nice to get out and expose them to picking as they've never been. The weather was beautiful and just right for picking, not too hot, actually fairly cool in the shade, and no humidity. We came home with 10 pounds of blueberries that are drying right now and waiting to be made into blueberry syrup or frozen for use later on.

While picking I was listening to the chatter of people around me and was thankful for the opportunity to see the gift in others buying and supporting the local farmers. Even if no one else there felt it, I felt the sense of community and connection as we made small talk with others around us, as they chuckled at the kids' talking about eating blueberries instead of picking them, and as we watched people gather their goods and head home. People were sharing recipes and what to do with blueberries, some history about their lives and all kinds of interesting topics of conversation. It makes me appreciate the bigger picture of supporting the little guy and the local farmer. It brings such joy to my heart to see the priority people place over the experience rather than just the food for fuel.

Fermentation Friday

2010-07-02T09:25:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the title of my new blog series. Over the last few months I've been experimenting with fermenting different things and want to share the joy and excitement. I really enjoy the process of fermentation because it involves such intricate little organisms that work together to create something really healthy and nourishing for our bodies. Each Friday I hope to do a different fermentation experiment with pictures and explanations. Many of them will come from Nourishing Traditions as that's one of my favorite kitchen resources but I also hope to reference Wild Fermentation and possibly some other sources.

My first fermentation is going to be a recipe from Nourishing Traditions. This fermentation involves a few steps because you need to do some pre-fermentation cooking. I'll include all steps and recipes involved with this.

Basic Beans - Nourishing Traditions pg. 496 - this part of the process usually takes about two days to complete

Makes 8-10 cups cooked beans
2 cups black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas or white beans
2 tablespoons whey or lemon juice (for black beans only)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
sea salt and pepper

Cover beans with warm water. (For black beans, stir in whey or lemon juice.) Leave in a warm place for 12-24 hours depending on the size of the bean. Drain, rinse, place in a large pot and add water to cover beans. Bring to a boil and skim off foam. Reduce heat and add optional garlic. Simmer, covered, for 4-8 hours. Check occasionally and add more water as necessary. Season to taste. **You can also use your crockpot to cook these. I started mine on high and cooked for four hours and then reduced the heat to low and cooked another 8 hours so they were nice and soft.

Fermented Bean Paste - Nourishing Traditions pg 103 - this part of the process usually takes three days to complete

Makes 1 quart
3 cups basic beans, cooked and drained
1 onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey

Place onion and garlic in food processor and process until well chopped. (Or use a hand chopper like the Pampered Chef Food Chopper) Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. (You can also use a stick blender here if wanted.) Place in a quart sized, wide mouth Mason jar, leaving 1 inch of space between the top of the beans and the top of the jar. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature for about three days before transferring to the refrigerator. Serve as a dip with pita chips or baked or fried tortillas.

REVIEW: This is very good! I really liked this as a dip with pita chips and tortillas chips. I added a mashed avocado to it and it was even better. The kids really liked this as well!

Healing Begins

2010-06-28T14:55:00.002-04:00

This summer has given me some time to think about some things. Basically this sums it up.

Healing Begins by Tenth Avenue North

So you thought you had to keep this up
All the work that you do
So we think that you're good
And you can't believe it's not enough
All the walls you built up
Are just glass on the outside

So let 'em fall down
There's freedom waiting in the sound
When you let your walls fall to the ground
We're here now

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you're broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark

Afraid to let your secrets out
Everything that you hide
Can come crashing through the door now
But too scared to face all your fear
So you hide but you find
That the shame won't disappear

So let it fall down
There's freedom waiting in the sound
When you let your walls fall to the ground
We're here now
We're here now, oh

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you're broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark

Sparks will fly as grace collides
With the dark inside of us
So please don't fight
This coming light
Let this blood come cover us
His blood can cover us

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you're broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark

The Story of Stuff

2010-06-13T13:48:00.005-04:00

You've heard of it right? The little video/mini movie that's out there on the web about stuff? If you haven't, go watch it and come back to this post. If you keep up with me you know what my feelings are on the subject of stuff, things, material possessions, consumerism. They basically all fall under the same category for me.

The fireman and I don't usually talk about this subject because we just don't...usually find other things to talk about. The other day, however, we talked extensively about this subject and I wanted to share our conversation. The subject started when we were talking with someone about financial issues (not ours, theirs) and the various things that could happen in the future, the could bes, maybes and what-ifs. This person was rather upset about those could bes, maybes and what-ifs. While trying to be supportive, we also tried to be a sounding board and bounce things back to this person. We've acknowledged the difficulty in learning from our mistakes. We made some financial mistakes when we were first married and thankfully we're recovering from them and almost have that debt paid off. The loan was used for some things that we did need and other things that we didn't need so much but more wanted. The other thing has come in handy and we've been able to use it to help and minister to people multiple times.

After discussing this subject with this person, the fireman and I left and spent some time talking about it, just the two of us. He said "the problem is, people are too afraid to downsize, they're too afraid to get rid of things, they're too afraid to not have money to go out and buy whatever they want." I'll admit that sometimes I feel that way (about not having the money to go out and buy things when we need them) but for the most part I don't worry too much about money. The conversation went from talking about this to talking about stuff in general. I mentioned to him that that's the very reason I've been downsizing our lives, getting rid of things and working toward a different perspective on life. I don't want our children growing up finding their significance in things - one of the areas of discussion that we talked about for some time and the fact that so many people find their meaning in life and their significance in their existence in this life in their stuff, their things, their material possessions. What would happen if we started investing the time that we spend drooling over our things or things we want, finding new ways to store our things, accumulating more things, and keeping up with the Joneses or whoever you're trying to keep up with, and put that time toward relationships, building stronger families and friendships and really looking into ways to improve our living environments and the community around us as well as the community at large - the entire world. We can have an impact, even if small, on the consumer choices we make.

While on vacation, I spent some time watching the kids play in our condo. It was smaller than our house and they didn't have as much space to run around. They had very few toys there, mostly just crayons and coloring materials and then some small souvenirs we bought for them. It really spoke to me about how content they were with very little to play with. I actually felt really motivated to come home and get rid of some of our toys. After talking the other day, I think we'll sit down and see if there are toys that we can pass on that the kids don't play with or that are accumulating. I haven't found a way yet to decrease the toy load on holidays and birthdays. We've asked family to not get them any toys but it's fallen on deaf ears for the most part so I need to work on formulating some type of plan for that. Along with that I think I may see if the fireman wants to come up with a family mission statement or something that defines the direction our family wants to take as a family unit but also as a ministry to other people.

You know the saying "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also?" What if our treasure wasn't in our things, all the toys, all the stuff, all the junk that we've accumulated in our lives? What if our treasure was in relationship with God, with family, with people? How much of a difference could we make in our worlds if that was our desire, our motivation and influence in how we live instead of stuff? I think we could change the world!

Morning harvest

2010-06-11T10:05:00.001-04:00

Swiss chard, garden peas, beet greens and lavendar.

Vegetable Moving Day

2010-06-07T19:34:00.004-04:00

Left to right - rainbow chard, bush beans, leeks.

About a week before vacation I started moving my vegetable pots off the deck. The fireman has said that he wants to waterproof the deck this summer and I was trying to think of way to get around it. Alas, I decided to go ahead and move them. Boy those gray totes were bears. I'm actually glad I moved them though. They fit nicely in the corner of our patio section and the water doesn't keep the wood wet since they're now sitting on black top. They fit nicely into the little corner where the hose is so it's easy to get them watered quickly.

Along with those moves, I planted a few new things since I last posted pictures. My poor sugar peas were being destroyed by something so I potted them all in hopes of having more success. I have them in two different pots so hopefully if one doesn't survive the other will. The bed that they were in is currently uninhabited and I'm still trying to figure out what I want. I thought about more zucchini, or maybe pumpkins but I really want cabbage because I want to make my own sauerkraut and I could use some onions or potatoes. I *think*, actually I'm pretty sure I could fit onions in under the side edge of the raspberries. I'm pretty sure they would fit in nicely as they would grow down and not interfere with the berries' sunshine. I tucked some leeks into the middle of my beans because I didn't want that space to be wasted and also tucked some rainbow chard in with the lavendar in the corner because I didn't want that space to be wasted. I'm pretty sure I could tuck onions in under the raspberries. I'm trying to utilize every spare piece of land possible this year as last year I had alot of wasted space - hey, I was an inexperienced, new gardener...I should cut myself some slack. So I think my vote is cabbage in the mystery/empty bed and onions under the raspberries. I think I'll have all my space used up and will have a very productive garden.

On a sad note, I tried to move my blueberries into the ground and they were none too happy. One is almost dead and the other is starting to look that way. I'm hoping to fill in that bed and really work it so the acid level is in line with what blueberries like so that maybe I could try to plant more and they would survive. I read that blueberries are extremely temperamental so you have to really baby them.

My cilantro and dill are proving to be a pain in my booty again this year so I may just throw in the towel with them. Sigh. Boo on them.

All in all it's turning out to be a fairly good year. Now if I could just keep those dern squirrels out of the strawberries it would be even better! Without further pause, here are some pictures. You can view the before and now in my Flickr album if you are feeling like venturing in.

Plot #1.

Plot #2.

Plot #3

Plot #3.

P.S. See the cute little rock path through the garden? I dug those rocks out of the woods behind our house and made that. I love how it turned out!

Summer Reading List #1

2010-06-07T19:18:00.005-04:00

We joined the summer reading program at the library and we're off and running. I'm trying to research book series that bubba and I can read. He's in a phase right now where he's not quite advanced enough to read by himself but I want him to do some reading. He still likes books with pictures but can do some chapter books. After thinking about various books I've decided I really like some of the classics. He seems to like some of the older books on CD that we've borrowed so today I decided to check out the original Beatrix Potter series. I have a few that I'm waiting on so I'm planning on getting started with this series next Monday as I should have them all by then. I have a feeling we're going to make it through them in about two days. I told him that we would get a few series of books that he and I can read, just the two of us, for our own special quiet cuddle/reading time. He seemed to like that idea. Here's what's on our list for next week:

The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
The Tailor of Gloucester
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
The Tale of Two Bad Mice
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
The Tale of Tom Kitten
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse
The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes
The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse
The Tale of Mr. Tod
The Tale of Pigling Bland
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
The Tale of the Pie and the Patty Pan
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit
The Story of Miss Moppet
Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes
Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes

I'm hoping to find some more series that I can check out that will interest him. I think after we read through this series I'm going to get the books on CD and our library also has a few of them in DVD format (I think?). I have to check that out to make sure but I think I saw some while I was flipping through the internet today to reserve the ones I don't have.

I'm looking forward to a summer of reading and learning!

Just weeds

2010-06-03T21:18:00.003-04:00

I've been dutifully pulling weeds out of our garden the last few days, getting things back in order from us being gone on vacation. Come to find out I've been pulling out a delicious "weed" that's also really healthy for you. They're popping up everywhere in the garden and I thought they were just pesky weeds but alas, they're edible and really good for you! Lambs Quarter are high in plant calcium, a source easily absorbed by our bodies. Imagine that! We received some in our first CSA pickup this week and boy am I glad we did. This is exactly why I joined the CSA this year - to eat foods we haven't tried, to learn how to cook them, and also to learn more about local goodies that I'm not aware of. This very thing, this little plant that I've been considering a weed amongst the peas, carrots, beets and berries, actually turns out to be really healthy and a great substitute for spinach or other lettuces. Sweet! I'm really excited about letting some grow along with my other plants.

Score!

2010-06-02T13:59:00.001-04:00

We're working on cleaning out the fireman's grandma's landscaping, garage, cleaning off the deck and getting things back in order. It's been unkempt for a few years now and it's very overgrown. Today we worked on the garage and cleaned out alot of old junk (really that's what it was). Thankfully I was helping to clean out because I scored something really cool. Take a look!

Now I have a sprout bag and a cool sprouting system. Yay! Isn't that so much fun!

My growing book list

2010-06-02T08:56:00.004-04:00

My book list is growing and I'd like to get some of these on my "already read" list this summer.

Reading for June:
Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes
The Farmer and the Grill by Shannon Hayes
Beef: The Untold Story of How Milk, Meat and Muscle Shaped the World by Andrew Rimas

The rest of the list:
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations by Stephanie Cave
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia by R. Paul St. Amand
Gaia's Kitchen: Vegetarian Recipes for Family and Community by Julia Ponsonby
At Home in Nature by Rebecca Kneale Gould
So Long Insecurity: You've Been a Bad Friend to Us by Beth Moore
Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow
The Whole Soy Story by Kaayla T. Daniel
The Mission of Motherood by Sally Clarkson
The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson
Educating the Wholehearted Child by Sally Clarkson
Rosemary Gladster's Family Herbal by Rosemary Gladster
Growing 101 Herbs That Heal by Tammi Hartung
Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell
Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson
A Life That Says Welcome by Karen Ehman
Intimate Issues by Linda Dillow and Loraine Pintus
Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman
Introverts in the Church by Adam S. McHugh
Dancing With My Father by Sally Clarkson
Read For the Heart by Sally Clarkson
Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel

...to name a few.

Vacation is fun

2010-05-29T09:43:00.002-04:00

...but there's no place like home! We arrived back in town last night after a little over a week of being on vacation. We had such a blast, the place we stayed was perfect for the kids, the weather was warm, sunny and we all have nice little tans...but it's SO good to be home. I'm ready to jump back into life, into a routine, into our normal pace instead of the fast paced running around we were doing this past week.

I have alot on my to do list this week, lots of things to catch up on, places to go, errands to run, laundry to do. My garden is popping and has really taken off. It's amazing what one week can do to the growing garden. Today I'm going to spend tending it, weeding it and getting it back up to speed as it's looking a little overgrown. The kids and I picked peas (which they promptly ate for breakfast) but I need to do some more pea picking and trimming.

I am so glad to be home and be settling back into life.

Local eating melancholy

2010-05-14T10:49:00.002-04:00

I've been working my way through a really good book. It took me some time to really get into it because I usually have about 10 books going at the same time. I made it my goal to finish this one before vacation though. I want to be able to return it to the library without fines on it. I keep thinking every time I renew it that someone will have a hold on it and I won't be able to finish it. I have one chapter left.

The book is called Coming Home to Eat by Gary Nabhan. I found the title through another local book I had read as well as a list of book suggestions that Amazon gives me when I add something to my wish list of things to read. I also recently finished the book Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon.

Both of these books speak volumes to me about local eating. They define and summarize why I'm so passionate about it. I've been making it a personal goal of mine to find foods locally for all of our needs (minus cocoa that is). Part of that started because I wanted to know my farmer and producer. The other part of that started because I started to realize the environmental impact of multinational/cross continental food sources. I didn't realize the expense, the workload, and the amount of waste involved in massive global food production until I started digging in and reading more about it. Since I've read many books and articles and other resources, I'm shocked and appalled at the state of our food chain and our food production. It's really sickening but also very enlightening. The last few weeks I've been in a sort of melancholy cloud with regard to the subject of eating locally. I've been feeling inspired that I've found many sources for my family for local eating. However, I've also been feeling a great deal of sadness for our country and our world and the amount of burden the process of food production is putting on our world.

I've read in various places that many people are looking for the bottom line, the cheapest price in food. They're looking for how much bang they can get for their buck. They're looking to find how much STUFF they can accumulate in their lives in regard to food and things. People no longer view food as a gift, as a way for their bodies to be healthy. They view it as fuel, something that makes them go, something that fills their stomachs until the next round of food is dumped in there. People don't view their food as something to be passionate about. They don't view it as an important basis for all functions in their bodies and lives. We've developed a twisted view of the very food [as medicine] that God has given us. I often wonder what would happen if people started viewing food as something other than just a lump of junk to put into our tummies so they no longer growl? What would happen if we started viewing food as a healing source for the many ailments that people face today? What would happen if instead of going to the doctor to get another bottle of pills we re-adjusted our food choices to allow our bodies to work more effectively to heal itself?

In reading Coming Home to Eat, it's opened my eyes to alot of things. I've found myself very solemn and sad in certain points in the book. Cooking, food sharing and growing/harvesting food used to be a source of joy, community and excitement for so many cultures. Thankfully today it's still a source of those things in many cultures. However, America has missed the boat...or failed to get aboard when they fell off years ago. If we don't change the way we view food in America, if we don't change the way we consume it, produce it, harvest it, we are going to be in alot of hurt. Actually we already are. The land and soil that feeds so many people is devoid of nutrients and minerals, the very things that our bodies need to build and maintain a healthy immune system and a healthy level of functioning.

The global food market is hurting as well. There are countries that have banned American grown varieties of certain foods because of the questionable genetic modification of these foods. What is wrong with America? We need to wake up people! We can't expect to have healthy bodies if we aren't willing to have healthy land, healthy soil and healthy foods to put in our bodies.

I'm deeply burdened and sorrowful today as I sit here and reflect on where we've been and where we are in the American and global food economy and market. That is why my passion to teach my children where their food comes from, to allow them to watch it grow, to actually eat living food that has been pulled right off of the plant or vine and to be able to eat it seconds after being harvested, is so very important to me.

Culturing Supplies

2010-05-11T19:29:00.003-04:00

I've been waiting to order some supplies for some of my culturing adventures. Since I want to get started as soon as we return from vacation, I went ahead and ordered a few things. Here's what I bought from Cultures for Health:

Vegetable Rennet
Mesophilic Starter Culture (reusable)
Mesophilic Starter Culture (5-pack)
Water Kefir Grains

I'm hoping to also get a kombucha mushroom/mother from a local source so that I can start making my own of that as well. On my list of cheeses to try are:

Feta
Chevre-type cheese made from raw cow's milk
Kefir cheese

After I accomplish those three maybe I'll venture into cheddar and other hard cheeses. I'd also like to make my own Parmesan and Romano but we'll see how the basics go first. We'll see.

I'm going to have a countertop/shelf full of bubbling things and I'm SO excited about it!

Dear Mrs. S.

2010-05-08T14:38:00.003-04:00

I know I've written you before about many things. Perhaps I should make this an annual letter writing event. We are back to visit some of the same subjects that were written in the last letter to you. I can no longer be patient or hide my frustration with you. I just cannot. It's been almost a year since I wrote last and yes, all the trees still stand in our backyard. Guess what? The fireman's buddy hasn't made his way over here because he's been busy. And guess what? We actually told him two weeks ago that he should take his merry time getting over here and figure out a day that works with HIS schedule since he's doing this for us as a favor and not charging us. You know, after you set a good day for him to come over based on what you thought would work with everyones' schedules and then happily told me that you let him know that he could come cut down our trees on May 1, I let the fireman know to please PLEASE call him and tell him that he is by no means obligated to show up that day, especially if it doesn't work with his schedule...to which the fireman obliged. K.M. has not been able to find time in his schedule yet to come cut down our trees. He was supposed to come last week and rescheduled to this week, possibly coming tomorrow, Sunday, to cut down two of our many trees. This will take some time as he's dropping them and the fireman is cutting them up and splitting them two at a time. It will most likely take ALL summer *gasp*. I know you're getting impatient waiting for them to come down, what with their scraggly branches, their uneven leaf growth, and their fairly dead appearance. I too would like them to come down..so that the fireman can start getting them split up and dried for our winter wood for next year. Please don't feel obligated (though I know you'll do it anyway) to clean up any loose debris from the trees...that is if K.M. is available to come do them tomorrow. I know we're heading out on vacation here soon and you're going to be beyond tempted to mow our grass, pick up our sticks, and generally putter around our yard while we're gone. Please refrain from doing so. I saw you point and mention to your husband when you saw me pull into our drive today...you know when you were standing quite a bit of a ways into OUR yard and digging around back there. I suppose you were peering into our (very cool) dead stump that the kids like poking things into. Yep, you sure can see about a foot down into the ground and I hope and plan to use it as a science experiment and nature learning...that is unless you ruin it before I get around to it. I saw you act like you weren't doing anything and try to meander back into your yard. I sure did...you can't hide it. I spy you digging around in our yard frequently when you think I'm elsewhere (not sure where you think I am when my car is home...I can see your entire yard so I know if you're in mine versus yours).

I'm getting really tired of seeing you walking around in our yard, cleaning out our woods, and picking up things that you don't feel belong there. You know, like how you cleaned up bubba's sweetly built fort of sticks, wood and leaves the week prior. He had built that with a friend and was having a grand time playing and imagining...and then the following day you cleaned up the entire "mess" without even so much as asking if maybe there was a reason it was there.

I know it drives you nuts that all these things are growing in my flower bed...you know vegetables and fruit. I know it's not nicely manicured and I know it's a little grubby looking around the border, but it works and my plants are happy and soon my children will be very happy foraging in the garden for foods.

We've decided not to move the shed after all. I know I had shared that with you but alas, we've decided it's just too much of a beast to move. Yes, we're already stacking wood in there so no we don't intend on moving it...ever...unless it's to be taken down. No, I will not be moving my garden back by the shed next year as I had hoped. I'm going to spend the next two years working on the soil to improve it so that my plants are happy, healthy and our food is full of life. I know it drives you nuts seeing our garden up close and personal but it's going to stay like that until I'm ready to move it so please, just get over it.

Yes, we finally removed the gutter from the garage and threw it out and don't intend to replace it anytime soon. I appreciate the weed growth between the shed and the garage as it's keeping it nice and green in there. Yes, we do intend on clearing that out but like most things, it requires time and we have yet to find some extra as we've been working on other projects.

I know my daisies are a little sad looking but I just transplanted them and no I do not intend on putting fertilizer on them. They'll spring back to life here shortly so please just let them be.

As we're heading out on vacation, I would request that you please stay out of our yard, if that's possible for you. I know you like to pick around in things that aren't your business but I have purposes for certain things in the yard being in certain places and would appreciate you not touching them. Also, you've convinced me that we should go forward with a fence around our yard. Yes, the dog ran away and I don't need to contain her any longer (to which I'm sure you're rejoicing) but I would like some freedom for the kids and also freedom from you coming into our yard. I'm thinking about getting an estimate for the majority of our side yard and all of our backyard...because I'm tired of you picking around by our flowerbeds in the fall and mowing up all the leaves I've nicely placed to mulch and decompose. I may even put up a clothesline on the side of the house that faces you...I'm sure it'll spite you, but also because that's the best location in our yard. I'm half tempted to put in a fence and grow something like bamboo or sunflowers up the side for the dual purpose of you being unable to look into our yard. I may even just let the kids leave all their plastic toys out in the yard too...sometimes I do get tired of cleaning them up and the kids find them and play with them just as they left them.

So please, Mrs. S., could you, for one day, just mind your own business and leave our yard alone? I'm really tiring of you quickly, trying my hardest to be patient and see things from your point of view. After trying to empathize with your probable anxiety about the wildly look of our yard alot of the time (though it's not even close to that), I'm tiring of playing the empathy card, really I am. I have little patience today and my fuse is slowly burning down to the point that I might just have to let some things off my chest.

Sincerely,

Us

Pictures are worth how many words?

2010-05-03T20:36:00.001-04:00

Our very first strawberries...and I'm a happy gardener today. I got so excited I called the kids over and said "hurry, come see what I found!" They immediately wanted to pick them but I told them they have to be patient. I'm SO excited about these tiny little things and I'm anticipating I'll be just as excited about my raspberries once they start showing fruits!

In recent Locavore news

2010-05-02T20:50:00.003-04:00

I've found a farmer/supplier locally for wheat, barley, flax, buckwheat. And today I found a local supplier for...CHEESE! I'm so excited about this! Based off my breakdown list here, I still need to find a local farmer for organic pears, peaches, and apples. I found one for berries so I think I'll be set in the way of produce once I find the three mentioned fruits above. I'd like to find a local grower for nuts, grapes (for grapes and raisins), fish, beans (black and pinto specifically) and mushrooms. I'm not sure we have a local grower that grows rice around here but I'll look into it.

For my own record, I have the following covered:

- Produce
- Milk, butter, eggs, cheese, yogurt, meat
- Wheat, oats, barley, flax, buckwheat
- Honey, maple syrup

Things to look for locally produced/grown:

- Fish
- Grapes (raisins)
- Apples
- Peaches
- Pears
- Mushrooms
- Rice
- Beans

Things I can't find locally:

- Cocoa
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil
- Baking supplies (yeast, baking powder, baking soda, etc.)
- Sucanat/Rapadura

I could replace all Sucanat with honey or maple syrup so technically I could cut that out. As far as oils, I could technically get rid of both of those if I wanted to and just use butter. I've been doing that anyway to see how I handle the change to strictly butter. It's easy to get locally and easy to use and it doesn't change the flavor too much (actually I like how it tastes with butter)...so technically I could get rid of that too. The fireman doesn't like coconut oil so that would be a fairly easy thing to remove and replace with butter. Baking supplies I'm not sure about. I could do everything sourdough instead of adding yeast but there are some yeast things I really like so for now I'll stick with my baking supplies. I don't think there's anything locally produced that I could replace cocoa with. There isn't a sea close enough to get sea salt from. Other things I have a hard time letting go of are avocadoes and oranges. I don't think it stays hot enough here for me to grow either one so those will most likely stay in our diets.

All in all that's not bad. I think that qualifies as around 97% of our diet being within 250 miles, alot of it being within a closer mileage than that. Actually the majority of those things are within 100 miles of us...even better! How exciting!

Planning the rotation: beds, soil, planting and harvesting

2010-05-02T14:35:00.004-04:00

Last night I drew out our garden bed layout, a very general layout I might add. I just drew it on a small scale but I think I have an idea of what it's going to look like.

Total Plot: 18 feet wide X 40 feet long
Walkways: 7 total - 18 feet wide X 2 feet long
Beds: 8 total - 18 feet wide X 3 feet long X 12 inches deep

Bed Layout:

Bed 1 - Grass
Bed 2 - Potatoes
Bed 3 - Rest
Bed 4 - Legumes
Bed 5 - Rest
Bed 6 - Brassicas
Bed 7 - Vining Vegetables
Bed 8 - Root Vegetables

Year 1 Crop Schedule: Crop; Soil; Bed; Plant/Harvest

Rye; topsoil; bed 1; fall/dig in following February
Potatoes; acidic soil/potash; bed 2; February/harvest June; May/harvest October
Eggplant; manure/compost; bed 2; May/October
Chives; topsoil; bed 2;
Tomatoes; compost; bed 2; May/July through September
Sugar Peas; compost; bed 4; February/June, July, August, May/September, October
Garden Peas; compost; bed 4; November/March, February/June, July, August
Pole Beans (green); compost, humus; bed 4; May, June/July, August, September
Broccoli; lime; bed 6; April/October, November/February
Turnips; manure; bed 6; March, April, May/September, October
Cabbage - spring; nitrogen, lime; bed 6; July/April, May
Cabbage - summer; compost; bed 6; January, February, April/July through September
Cabbage - winter; compost; bed 6; April and May/December through February
Asparagus; potash, lime; bed 6; March/September through December
Zucchini; compost, manure; bed 7; April and May/July through September
Cucumbers; compost; bed 7; May and June/August through October
Carrots; potash, compost, leafmold; bed 8; March through May/September through December
Beets; humus; bed 8; April and May/September and October
Parsnips; manure, compost fall before; bed 8; February/October and November
Onions; peat, potash; bed 8; February/October and November
Leeks; manure, compost; bed 8; March/September through December
Garlic; manure, compost; bed 8; outdoor in May/July through September

This format is much easier to read in table format but since I can't figure out how to do a table in Blogger that's what you get. Hopefully the semi-colons are easy enough to read. This is all assuming I have enough space for this and, again, I won't know that until we get the plot cleared out and I see how much sun I'm working with.

Planning the rotation, the five year plan

2010-05-01T17:15:00.005-04:00

I've mentioned a few times that I have a five year plan and I want to explain what that means, you know in case you're wondering or anything. I think I've mentioned before my desire to grow most of our food items in the way of produce. This process started last year so I guess technically I'm on year two of the five year plan. My goal is to be able to work up to growing all of our produce items, to eventually have some type of root cellar setup so I can keep root vegetables and other things in there to get us through the winter, allowing us to eat what we grow through the year and also allowing us to save money at the store. There are a few things that I'll most likely continue to buy from local farmers but I want to get the staples of our diet into our yard...can't get much more local than that.

Now that I've gardened one year and have the second year in process I've learned what I really like to grow, what is okay to grow, and what I dislike growing.

The Like List Peas
Beans
Tomatoes
Zucchini
Yellow squash
Berries - I'm guessing this will be added to this list, though I don't have fruits yet, just plants
Basil
Oregano
Onions
Garlic

The Okay List Parsley
Beets
Carrots
Spinach
Eggplant

The Dislike List Cilantro
Dill
Broccoli

The only reason the dislike list is existent is because I really really want to learn to grow these things but I don't seem to have much success. The okay list are things that I like okay but they seem to take awhile and instant gratification is always fun in the gardening scheme. I really do love every stage of gardening, especially the sprouting and especially the harvesting. The things on the okay list usually take a long time to grow and I get bored waiting for something to eat, hahaha. I like to be able to pick and eat and then a few days later have more to pick and eat. I think too, with the root vegetables, because I can't see the progress that's taking place under the ground it's harder for me to get enthused about what's actually growing down there. I do get excited when I finally pull them out of the ground and they magically appear covered in soil. That's a fun event.

On the five year plan, it's my intention to try something new every year. This year it's beets, berries, chard, leeks, and some new herbs. I plan on adding in a few items each year to the trial and hopefully in the next three to four years I'll have a good idea of what I like to grow, how much my harvest is and the process of preservation, how it works for those particular produce items and the ease/difficulty as well as prep of these items.

Within that five year plan is crop rotation. As I'm growing I'll be rotating my crops for healthier soil and healthier crops. Then once I've figured out what my garden staples will be, I'll have a good idea on space, rotation and bed size.

It's a big plan but it's fun to think about!

Planning the rotation, the basics

2010-04-30T19:53:00.003-04:00

Oh boy...what am I getting myself into? This larger garden plot seems like it's going to be quite the undertaking. I finally decided to sit down with my favorite homesteading book and dig into the crop rotation scheduling, plant grouping and soil researching. I'm breaking this series up into a few posts because, well, it's going to require that.

Let's talk about the basic rotation schedule that I'm thinking about following. Because I'm still new to this gardening thing and because I haven't quite figured out how to work the soil, what plants like following the leads of others and what exactly I'm doing, I decided to cheat and just have John Seymour be my mentor. He seems to be pretty knowledgeable about these things. (As a side note, did you know they have classes that you can attend? It's my goal to sometime in this life attend one to glean all the knowledge I possibly can.)

Crop Rotation 101: Or which crops should lead and which ones should follow

Grass - rye, wheat, barley, buckwheat
Potatoes - Yukon Gold, red, russet, eggplants, tomatoes (I know those last two aren't potatoes but they like what potatoes like)
Potential resting bed here
Legumes - peas, beans, peanuts
Potential resting bed here if I want to have fall peas
Brassicas - broccoli, turnips, cabbage
Vining Vegetables - zucchini, cucumbers
Root Vegetables - carrots, beets, parsnips, onions, leeks, asparagus, garlic
Potential resting bed here

I just went out and measured how much space I would have behind the shed as it currently stands since it's staying. My garden plot is around 20 feet wide by around 30-40 feet long. I give that average because I need to watch the sun this summer once we cut down trees to see how much space I'm working with. I'm hopeful that it's more around the 40 feet mark. I'm thinking about doing raised beds again but not totally sure. If I do raised beds or marked beds (as in not the traditional row gardening) I would do them 18 feet X 4 feet X 1 foot (deep on this last measurement). I would put 2 foot rows between each bed. If I have nine beds total (as listed above) I would need 54 feet in length of the total garden (which would probably be doable though sun is going to be questionable at this length). I may have to cut those potential resting beds out but I really want to have a few resting beds so the soil can breathe in between plantings. I know it's not mandatory as the crop rotation will enable certain minerals to be restored to the soil and the soil ready for the next batch. We'll see I suppose. (And this is why I wish we could move the shed because there wouldn't be any question on the 54 feet of sun...I'm okay with it though.)

That brings me to my list of plant groups, again referencing my favorite homesteading book. These are grouped into plant groups that like similar things in their soil or are in similar growing stages, patterns, etc. etc. etc.

Plant Group List

Onions, leeks, asparagus
Peas, beans, peanuts
Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, rutabagas, turnips, sea kale, cress, radishes
Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants
Carrots, parsnips, celery, celeriac, fennel, Hamburg parsley
Beets, spinach, sea kale beet, swiss chard, spinach beet
Cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, melons
Lettuce, chicory, endive, salfisy, scorzonera, dandelions, artichokes
Corn, okra

The Five Year Plan of Vegetables Trials: or in other words, things I'd like to grow, enjoy growing or want to try to grow sometime in the next five years

Asparagus
Pole beans (green, purple)
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cucumbers
Leeks
Corn
Squash - yellow, zucchini, pumpkins, butternut
Onions
Parsnips
Peas
Potatoes - Yukon gold, red, russet
Spinach
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Blackberries
Grapes
Apples/peach/pear trees - hmm, yeah, working on this
Currants
Elderberries

I grouped those into the crop rotation schedule, giving each vegetable/fruit a number with the following system:

1) Potatoes group
2) Legumes
3) Brassicas
4) Root crops
5) Squash/corn/vining
6) Fruit

The list looks something like this:

Asparagus - not sure yet, maybe 4
Pole beans (green, purple)- 2
Beets - 4
Broccoli - 3
Cabbage- 3
Carrots - 4
Cucumbers - 5
Leeks - not sure yet, maybe 4
Corn - 5
Squash - yellow, zucchini, pumpkins, butternut- 5
Onions- not sure yet, maybe 4
Parsnips - 4
Peas - 2
Potatoes - Yukon gold, red, russet- 1
Spinach - not sure yet, maybe 3 or 4
Tomatoes - 1
Eggplant - 1
Strawberries - 6
Raspberries - 6
Blueberries - 6
Blackberries - 6
Grapes - 6
Apples/peaches/pear trees - 6
Currants - 6
Elderberries - 6

So you can see I have a good variety of variety (haha). There is alot of fruit listed but those will be staying where they are currently located for a few years. My raspberries will most likely stay put unless their soil needs help. My blueberries I'm still trying to figure out where I should transplant them and what plants I could have as their companions in their bed to help with their acid loving selves. My strawberries will stay put for a few years and then I'll most likely relocate so they can eat up some other soil. The rest of the fruits are still in question as far as where, when, and how (had to throw that in there because I'm trying to figure out just HOW to convince the man).

We can't forget the herbs you know. They play an important role in the garden and in our lives.

Potted Herbs

Lemongrass
Lemon bee balm
Mint
Sweet annie
Fenugreek
Parsley
Basil
Dill
Cilantro
Mullein

Ground/bed Herbs

Bay leaves
Echinacea
Calendula
Nasturtiums
Oregano
Rosemary
Lavendar
Sage

I know I have more herbs in the back of my mind somewhere...the ones that I see in recipes that I want to grow but that I forget to write down. I'm sure that list will grow as I find/make space and get more into herbaling.

So there you have it, yes lots but yes basics. Once we get the wood cleared out of the current plot and I get to amending and we get the rest of the trees taken down, then I can watch the sun, measure the plot and really do some garden drawing. I'm still unsure if I want to move it next year or the following year. I'm not sure if working on the soil for a year is going to be enough but we'll see. I'm hopeful and VERY excited. :)

Garden planning redo

2010-04-30T15:01:00.003-04:00

Well, after much discussion with the fireman and looking at the layout of our yard and how things currently stand, we've decided that we're pretty sure the shed won't be able to be moved unless it's taken apart. It's a rather large shed and he said that he thinks we'd have to get a backloader to move it....or all kinds of men to help, both of which would either be 1) expensive or 2) work intensive. Since we don't have much time to work with (due to trees coming down very soon), we've decided on leaving the shed where it is. We don't really want to pay someone with a backloader to move it and we don't really want to take it apart.

So....here are where the garden plans stand (in my mind anyway).

- There's a small space, about three feet wide between the back of the garage and where the shed currently stands (pictures forthcoming). This is overrun by weeds and random small trees and such. I've asked the fireman if he can pull those trees out and if we can get the area cleaned out and then we're going to sort of frame it in so that it has two low walls on either side of the space. This way I can compost here and use it for random scraps of yard materials, food stuffs, etc. That way I can feel like the space is being utilized but it also looks cosmetically pleasing (oh the neighbor will be so happy).

- The area that's behind the shed, where the garden was supposed to be moved, will be used for one or many things. My ideas so far are:

Planting squashes, pumpkins, melons, that type of thing back there where they can vine around to their heart's content. I may trellis some cucumbers up the wall of the shed since they like to vine too.
Espalier-ing a fruit tree on the side of the wall.
Planting some mini dwarf varieties of fruit trees (will need to get the fireman's approval for this since he's so adamantly against it). I have an idea of a small plot of mini dwarf fruit trees that I could frame in with some type of landscape blocks or wood or something to create a little fruit tree oasis. My friend Michele suggested putting a bird bath under there, maybe even a little bench to sit by and watch the buzzing and fluttering. I would guild underneath and probably plant some herbs that would mulch well and also some complementary plants (think permaculture with me). That way the fireman wouldn't have to mow in there or under the trees. It would be like my own little mini vineyard/orchard.
Plant corn and lots of it. I think the kids would like to have a mini cornfield to dig around in and play in, plus it would provide us with our very own corn supply from our backyard. (I'm not sure this would be amenable to the neighbors but it's worth a shot.)
Grapevines.
Move my berry plants and bushes back there and let that be my own little berry field.

- Behind the shed, on the side of the yard that is closest to the not-so-picky neighbor I'm planning on planting my sunflowers so they can grow up the back of the shed to their heart's content. I need to go figure out what I need to do to make the soil a little better, though what I've read so far seems to suggest that sunflowers should do fine is most soils. I probably need to get it tilled up so that I can get them in the ground and then get it mulched or something. Clearing out the space between the shed and garage needs to happen first though so my little seeds don't get trampled.

As you can see, I have many options. If I choose to do any of those I'll need to figure out food space in our current plot location. Originally the plan was to move the garden back by the shed because the fireman thought it would not only be more cosmetically pleasing to be back there but also because I would have more space. After watching the sun for the last few days, I'm not so sure I would have enough sun for my sun loving plants. Since I have a desire to grow a good variety of tomatoes, possibly peppers and some other sun loving plants, I need space that is going to give the maximum exposure to sun...and if there's a tiny bit of shade cover I'm not sure how that will work. We have to get these trees down first to see what we're working with and then maybe I'll reevaluate and still move it back there. I'm thinking, though, that maybe I'll keep the things that I can grow up (trellised or staked) up by the house and the things that need more space to meander back there. Once we get all the trees cleared out and the ginormous stump taken out that's rotting back there, I should have more ground space for meandering plants.

Of course, all of this is in the five year growing plan. It's not going to happen this year or next but I have to start planning this year because I need to get the area cleared and amend the soil before I can do anything as far as planting. In any event, this is so exciting!

For the love of jars

2010-04-30T10:27:00.004-04:00

I have an unusual love for glass jars. I just really appreciate the simplicity of them and how organized they make my life look. I also like that I can see what's inside, how much is in there and when it needs to be replaced. I wanted to share some of my kitchen pictures with the blogging world so you can drool over them too (hehe). Some of them are a little blurry but you get the picture. I can't seem to figure out my camera settings right now for some reason...hmmm.

My Pantry.

My herbs/oils/healing cabinet.

Closer pic of some of the herbs.

My spice cabinet.

My teas.

You can't tell me that's not beautiful.

There it is again

2010-04-28T15:07:00.004-04:00

House on the hill at the farm.

We went to the farm today..the one we frequent. In the spring/summer/fall we usually go once a week or once every other week. Days like today remind me why I love it there so very much. There was a pretty big school group there so it wasn't as quiet as it usually is (lots of child chatter). Usually it's the animals, the breeze and my little ones chattering away with the occasional farm hand walking by. Not today..but that's okay..we still enjoyed our time. We mozied around the farm for awhile. Today my favorite thing to watch - the lambs and the sheep. They were up close and personal today, in the barn that the mules and horse are usually in. They were standing at the fence chewing on weeds and meh-ing at us while we stood there and watched them. A few of them stuck their heads up high enough for me to reach over the fence to touch them. Looking into their eyes made me feel instant calm. There's just something soothing about these animals. Watching the babies follow their mamas around was so sweet. I couldn't get my little ones to pet them but they were pretty enthralled by their sounds and watching the babies scratch their heads on the side of the barn.

From there we headed over to the pigs and saw that they have two calves in the barn next to the pigs. The pigs are much bigger today than they were a few weeks ago (the last time we had a chance to go). The calves are three months and gangly looking but they have beautiful coloring already. We walked around, the kiddos jabbering about this and that. One of the farm hands let the pigs out of their pin in the bigger pin and we watched them dig around in the mud for awhile and run around "playing" soccer. I use that lightly as they weren't really interested...more interested in digging up weeds and getting their noses muddy. Bubba and sissy really enjoyed watching them. They kept laughing at how they ran and watching them snort in the mud. They left some prints in the mud so we talked about what it looked like, how many "toes" they had, etc. We talked about the chickens and some of the other animals as well. There are broiler chickens all over the farmyard right now. They're raising them to sell for meat and they're everywhere. There were some in with the sheep, some with the other chickens, some in with the ducks, some out in the pasture area...everywhere literally. At one point while watching the sheep one of the chickens was standing on the back of one of the mamas while she laid in the mud and watched the babies running around. It was so neat to see the co-existence of these animals...almost like they were completely aware of each other but completely okay with each other.

While we were walking around and I kept hearing shouts of the outside world (there's a highway not far from this farm), I kept being reminded of a time past. This farm was founded years ago and in the front entry of it they have old black and white pictures of what it used to look like. I dream of that time and wonder how they lived. I often have a deep desire to go into the house to see what it looks like inside...to see if there's any resemblance of times past or if it's been modernized like so much around us. Some of the barns still look dated, the house definitely looks dated from the outside. I would love to live there...the chicken house so close to the back door and the animals waking us up every morning.

Occasionally I get glimpses in my mind and longings in my heart for the country. Seems that lately they're coming more often than not. I go back and forth between wanting to stay in our home and wanting to move out to the country where it's quieter and life is simpler. I love our home, I really do. I love that we're the third generation in our home and I love so much about our home. I love that it's small but totally functional and that we're able to be hospitable to people in having them into our home. I love that we have land, enough to grow some of our food and enough for our children to explore. I love that we have woods behind our house so it seems fairly private but yet we're still in the middle of the action, making us close to most conveniences.

However, I don't like that we can hear the highway except on some occasional quiet weekend days. I don't like that I can hear neighbors from three streets over mowing, cutting down trees, and doing other outside work. I don't like that we only have so much land that we can cultivate into food and that the fireman doesn't want fruit trees on this "small" piece of land. He says that if we had a few acres I could have all the fruit trees I want...which makes me long for more acres...to have all the fruit trees I want.

I really am content at this point in my life. I'm very calm and relaxed where we are currently in our lives. I feel very at peace, very content inside my soul. I'm happy with how we're living, how we're raising our children and our home.

But sometimes that longing for the country creeps right back in and puts me into a sighing, melancholy mood. Today is one of those days that I'd love to be laying in a hammock out in the country under two giant trees while my little ones play somewhere within earshot of me. Since I can't have that country life right this moment, I'll just bask in the wonder and peace of the suburban farm we get to enjoy and thank God for the gentle reminders of His steady hand in creation.

Vacation food planning

2010-04-26T15:04:00.002-04:00

Vacation is coming and we'll be gone quite awhile. I've decided that I don't want to eat out much while we're on vacation. Thankfully we have a condo with a fully equipped kitchen. We're going to go to the store once we get there to get some meals to make and probably breakfast items. However, we need some things for the drive and for snacks because we have a long drive...and I don't want to buy a bunch of snack foods once we're down there. Here's my working list so far of vacation food items that I'd like to make/take.

- hard boiled eggs - probably 2 dozen
- crispy cheese crackers
- whole wheat sesame crackers
- apples, oranges, maybe berries?
- carrot sticks, steamed broccoli, steamed green beans - all cut into bite size pieces
- muffins of some sort, maybe blueberry or chocolate chip
- sliced or cubed cheese
- pretzels, possibly homemade/soft pretzels but we'll see, not sure how well they would keep
- homemade pizza pockets - these are good cold or hot
- giant breakfast cookies
- nourishing protein bars
- soaked bread and also take along peanut butter and jelly
- sourdough pancakes

I think that's a good start. I'll be spending the three days before we leave in the kitchen but I think it'll be worth it to not have belly aches from all the other stuff we could potentially eat while away from home. I'm actually really excited about the list! I'll need to start prepping the weekend before so I can soak everything that needs to be soaked and/or dehydrate everything in time but it looks like a great list. More to come on this subject....

Garden beauty

2010-04-26T09:59:00.004-04:00

The other day I composted/mulched (it was a combination of the two) and planted some more things in preparation for the rains that came this past weekend. I'm hoping some of my seeds will hold out for the warmer weather that's coming. It's supposed to get down to the 30s this week at night but hopefully that won't reach freezing. Praying and hoping they'll stay warmly tucked in the soil until the warmth comes back later this week.

Because there are so many pictures, I decided to put them on Flickr. That way I can upload as many as I want and not have to wait for Blogger to do it.

2010 Garden

The food experiment

2010-04-25T16:00:00.003-04:00

Since I've been eating healthier and slowly increasing the amount of organic/humanely raised/pastured products that are in our diets, I've been observing my body to see if there's a difference in how I feel. I go through phases where we eat very very healthy and then go through phases where we eat crap..literally. This past week we celebrated bubba's birthday most of the week and had way too much junk in our week. There was way too much sugar, way too much junk and not enough fruits and vegetables. I tried to even it all out with drinking raw milk on a daily basis, taking my vitamins and trying to get in at least some fruits and vegetables. Boy do I feel like crud today.

I'm so ready to get back to the grind in eating healthier. It's interesting. I've noticed when I consume foods that are high in sugar, low in nutritional value, and aren't organic that I feel really sluggish. My face breaks out, I feel really tired and lethargic alot of the time, I'm extremely gassy, and I'm more irritable. It really amazes me that the human body can be so affected by slight changes in the food that is consumed.

I'm a firm believer in food as medicine and that our bodies need healthy, whole foods to function optimally. I'm a firm believer that our society is sick as a whole because of the lack of nutrients, vitamins and minerals in our food sources. It truly amazes me the difference in how I feel when I'm consuming fresh, whole foods, and when I'm consuming packaged/processed foods. It's such a marked difference...shocking really.

So this week we're back in the saddle and I've determined that for sissy-girl's birthday that everything will be homemade/organic and whole foods. I don't want to spend each birthday celebration recovering the next week because of the toxic and sugar load of the foods that are consumed. I've even found a recipe from a friend for homemade cake that I'll be using from now on. That will save us money and save us health.

For the love of...soil!

2010-04-21T14:41:00.003-04:00

I've been on a mission to educate myself about soil and gardening needs over the last year or so. I started my garden adventures last year and ever since then, I've been making it a goal of mine to learn more about permaculture, soil amending, and how to better raise my plants so that they're healthy and full of nutrients. I have no desire to use artificial or chemically altered fertilizers and treatments on my food. I want our garden to be a truly organic garden of Eden.

With that being said, I've started doing some reading on what I need to do to amend some of the soil this year. We have topsoil in our garden beds currently. I haven't tested it yet but aim to get a home garden test kit to test the soil.

Today I put down compost/manure mix on top of the topsoil in our garden beds and pots to get the soil started on it's way to better health. As the compost breaks down I'm hoping to be able to add the correct amendments for each plant, though by then it may be well into their growing stages so it may not be needed.

I'm working on formulating a plan for my garden bed transfer (hopefully next year but could be 2012) to the bigger plot in the back of the yard. First trees need to come down (dead, almost dead or in the way of direct sun). Those will be used for firewood. Second, I'm going to see if we can get the shed moved and if not that's okay but if so perfect! Third, move the wood that's currently there. Fourth, start amending, composting, manuring and digging up the soil so that it's nice and healthy when the time comes to transplant the garden bed. I'm working on a crop rotation layout (in my head) for when I transfer. I need to read up more on what can be planted after what and what can't go where something similar has gone. I have a pretty good idea but need to read more on what each plant likes to "eat" in their soil. I also need to measure out to see what amount of space I'm working with.

And I'm still working on the fireman for fruit trees. I'm hoping to break his resolve in the next year or two (though he's fairly strong in his resolve of NO FRUIT TREES).

The Herb Lady is in

2010-04-16T15:46:00.004-04:00

I'm so excited that my herbs are here. My friend and I placed a joint order with Mountain Rose Herbs for some different things. I've been wanting to make some preparations of things for awhile now and I'm excited to get going on these. Some of these have to be prepared over a few weeks because of infusing and soaking some of the items. I'm hoping to get started this weekend. Here's my list from Rosemary Gladster's Herbal Healing for Women and Rosemary Gladster's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health.

Formula for lung congestion, HRVH pg. 191
Bottom's Up Salve, HRVH pg. 195
Love My Breasts Massage Oil, HRVH pg. 209
Garlic Mullein Flower Oil, HRVH pg. 82
Women's Reproductive Tonic, HRVH pg. 221
Rose Water, HRVH pg. 123
Queen of Hungary's Water, HRVH pg. 130
Rosemary's Perfect Cream, HRVH pg. 132

I also have a few teas that I'm going to mix together but don't have a complete list of those yet. I'll post some pictures of my progress and concoctions and also of my growing herb cabinet (which I'm very excited about!).

Summer School

2010-04-16T14:51:00.002-04:00

I've started working on our homeschooling plans and think I pretty much have our summer plans down. I'm so excited about this! We're going to be going to a different local farm each week to meet the farmers/workers and at each place we'll be learning about a specific animal or item. Here's our rough list so far. Some of these might change depending on weather and crop but this is a good outline of what my intentions are so far.

Thursday, June 3 - GOATS - BDG
Friday, June 11 - STRAWBERRY PICKING -
Friday, June 18 - COWS - DJF
Friday, June 25 - PRODUCE/VEGETABLES - CMF
Friday, July 2 - BLUEBERRY PICKING - BHF
Friday, July 9 - CHICKENS - TGFF
Friday, July 16 - PIGS - GHF
Friday, July 23 - WHEAT/OATS - TSF
Friday, July 30 - BLACKBERRY/RASPBERRY PICKING - BHF
Thursday, August 5 - PRODUCE/VEGETABLES/FLOWERS - RCF
Friday, August 13 - HORSES - NHF
Thursday, August 19 - TURKEYS - ???
Thursday, August 26 - PRODUCE - GKF

My plan is to take the week before to study the item we'll be seeing at the farm, do some hands on things at the farm with learning and then have the kids ask the farmers any questions they have. I'm hoping that this helps their awareness of the available resources locally to use and also allows them to study animals and plants close up. I'm excited about this learning opportunity! I'll post pictures and subjects through our summer.

I ordered our math curriculum and once that arrives I'll look through it and see what, if anything, I want to do this summer. If it's going to end up being pretty detailed I'll probably save it for the fall and winter. Now I need to start planning out our stuff for the fall as it's going to be more involved than our summer. This is so exciting!

Cultured buttermilk

2010-04-11T13:50:00.003-04:00

Alright people...I finally found a recipe to use for this. I had it on my menu list last week but didn't get to it, mostly because I couldn't find a recipe that I could start from scratch with raw milk. I didn't want to buy a culture or buy "cultured buttermilk" from the store. I want to learn how to do it here, on my own, with what I have on hand. I finally (thank goodness) found some information on it here.

So here are the directions I'm following:

MAKING CULTURED BUTTERMILK FROM SCRATCH

Allow a cup of filtered fresh raw milk to sit covered at room temperature until it has clabbered (usually several days).
Place 1/4 cup of the clabbered milk in a pint mason jar, add a cup of fresh milk (does not have to be raw at this point), cover, shake to mix, allow to sit at room temperature until clabbered.
Repeat this transfer of sub-culturing several more times until the milk dependably clabbers in 24 hours. Taste a small amount to confirm that it is tart, thickened, and has no off flavors. It should taste tart not bitter, for instance.
To then make a quart of buttermilk with this culture, add 6 ounces of the buttermilk to a quart jar, fill with fresh milk, cover, shake to mix, allow to sit at room temperature until clabbered.
Refrigerate.

Seems like alot of work huh? It sounds like this process will probably take me around two weeks or so. When I've clabbered milk in the past it's usually taken anywhere from two to four days. Since it's warmer now, maybe it'll clabber faster and I can have a quart of fresh cultured buttermilk by next week to use in some recipes I'm wanting to try.

I have my jar ready to go. I'm also excited that I can use cultured buttermilk as a cheese starter and to make sour cream. I've been wanting to try these things and I'm so excited I'm finally getting around to doing them. Seems I've been distracted with too many other projects in my kitchen. Hopefully soon I'll know how to make all of our dairy things from scratch with raw milk. How exciting! All I need is to buy some rennet.

The turtle

2010-04-07T18:59:00.003-04:00

Do you ever feel like this little guy? He was in our yard today and the poor thing was so shy. I think the kids were a little loud around him. He finally came out after about 20 minutes of us staring at his shell.

I sometimes feel like this. I sometimes feel like buckling down and pulling into my shell and just being still and quiet. I've been restless in my soul over the last few weeks in a few areas and have been working through them. I've felt just like this turtle...needing time, space, rhythm, flow to my days. I feel like my days have been completely insane for various reasons and have been needing the rest and quiet of the nighttime. I say nighttime because in our house there isn't very much rest or quiet during the day. There are two (very precious) little people (and sometimes three or four if I have my niece or nephew here) that require constant watering, feeding, and nourishment to their souls. I love being here with them...I love my time with them...but sometimes mama needs some rest too. I've been welcoming the quiet of the time at night once they've gone to bed and have been giving myself some time for reading and reflection. I feel like I'm finally starting to come out of a little bit of the fog I've felt like I'm in and starting to see some renewal in these areas.

I'm thankful for the springtime and the sense of renewal, healing, and freshness that it brings to not only the natural world around me but also to my soul and heart. Thank you God for the constant reminders in each day that bring rest.

Garden progress

2010-04-05T20:34:00.002-04:00

Tiny little carrots.

One of the pea lineups.

Tiny little carrots growing in a tote.

The kids' sugar snap peas - one of two boxes.

I'm getting so antsy for these veggies to start popping out. We'll for sure have sugar snap peas first (which the kids are very excited about). I think our other peas will run a close second. Our beets and carrots are popping up everywhere and with the rain we're having I have a feeling in about a week they'll be showing some nice height. They're about 1-2 centimeters above the ground right now with tiny little leaves but they're growing so that's all that matters. I've transplanted some of our tomatoes into bigger pots inside because they weren't doing so well. I think I'm going to have to re-start a few of them because they bit the dust. Next year I'm not starting my tomatoes until the beginning of April so they don't have long until transfer. Someone who's been gardening for years and years told me to do them in March but eh...that didn't go so well.

April to do list

2010-04-03T20:11:00.005-04:00

My goals for this month...are extensive.

- Order math curriculum - DONE!
- Start lesson planning for the summer - science and math
- Order/buy remaining canning supplies needed for this summer/fall
- Start lesson planning for fall - handwriting and phonics
- Clean out the attic, put away outgrown clothes and sort clothes - DONE!
- Organize all recipes, gardening and local eating information into binders - DONE!
- Transplant tomatoes into bigger pots while waiting to be transplanted outside - DONE!
- Transplant a few herbs into outside pots and cover with cloches for colder nights and days - DONE!
- Buy more topsoil for remainder of garden bed - DONE!
- Buy more topsoil for front flowerbeds
- Plant flowers in front flowerbeds
- Mulch flowerbeds
- Put topsoil and mulch into remaining planters and plant flowers and herbs in each container - DONE!
- Help the fireman clean out the remainder of the shed and back of garage
- Plan some batch/freezer cooking for May
- Spring cleaning - clean the windows inside and out, wash/iron/rehang curtains, get blinds cleaned, clean base boards, clean outside of cabinets, deep clean kitchen floor - DONE!

And the list goes on. I can't think of everything I'm wanting to do but that gives you a glimpse into what I'm planning this month. :)

Detox/cleanse day 4

2010-04-01T19:39:00.002-04:00

Today I'm feeling better...my back is really sore but other than that I feel pretty good. I think my pain/headache went right down my spine and settled into my lower back. I had to reschedule my massage for Saturday so I'm going to have her work on that area when I go. Here's the schedule that I've followed today:

Brush skin, coconut oil
16 oz raw milk
27 oz water with ACV
27 oz water with 2000 mg Vitamin C
16 oz raw milk with 2 raw liver pills
Lunch: Raw cheese, hard boiled egg (free range, organic), orange
27 oz water
Raw granola bar
Multivitamin and 800 mcg folic acid
27 oz water
Dinner: Scrambled eggs with fresh salsa and raw cheese (this tasted really good!)
Beet kvass with Green Phytofoods and raw garlic
Hot shower, brush skin, lather with coconut oil
Raw honey 1 tablespoon before bed

I'm feeling really tired as we worked out in the yard today and I got some sun but I feel pretty good tonight. I can tell my body is feeling better as I add more things into my diet and it clears the junk out. My face looks really horrible right now. I don't know if it was my adjustment that did it or what but it's really broken out and my skin is really peeling for some reason. I did a moist miracle grains (Rosemary Gladster's recipe) scrub today and it felt really good and cleared some of the yucky peeling skin off. I'm hoping by tomorrow it'll start looking better! I guess there are still plenty of toxins that are coming to the surface that need to be flushed out. Goodness knows I'm drinking enough water for that!

Detox/cleanse day 3

2010-03-31T15:02:00.006-04:00

I woke up with an almost migraine this morning...I guess sleep last night didn't help this headache. I fell asleep around 9:30 last night, woke up to go to the bathroom once, and then slept until the little ones woke me up at 6:00. I was hoping to get to sleep in today but no such luck.

So far with this experiment I've learned some things about my body. I've learned that my body craves sugars especially in the afternoon when I'm feeling tired and sluggish. I've learned that my body has become dependent on sugars, natural and processed, to feel energetic and that without them it has a withdrawal effect like someone coming off of caffeine. I've learned that allowing my body to do what God intended it to do while providing it with proper nutrition, that it really does clean itself out. My face broke out on Monday and has slowly been clearing up. I think I have fewer pimples than I've had in a long time. I've realized that giving my body a break from digestion for a day or two actually takes away some of my gassiness and bloating. I've been feeling like I have a gas bubble stuck in my throat after a few meals here and there lately and not having this sensation has been awesome. I think it was a combination of sewage backup (literally) and my intestines just needing some rest. I made homemade chicken stock by soaking the bones and skin of an organically raised chicken and boiling them for more than 24 hours and I've realized just how good that tastes when I'm so hungry and how soothing it actually is to my intestinal tract. I've realized that there are certain things that my body needs but that just taste horrendous when I'm feeling starved. Rejuvelac is okay when I'm not feeling so hungry but when I'm hungry, I have to choke it down. I've learned that I really really dislike the taste of the Green Phytofoods I've been taking with in my beet kvass. I think after this bottle is finished I'll stick with whole foods instead of something like this...I just really don't care for this. I've learned that sitting in an Epsom salt bath that's really hot feels really good after putting my insides through a battle.

So for detox day 3 this is what my day looked like:

16 oz raw milk
27 oz water with raw apple cider vinegar
Raw granola bar (homemade - need to post the recipe because it turned out really good)
27 oz water with pinch of sea salt
1 Apple
Raw granola bar
16 oz raw milk
54 oz water with pinch of sea salt
Vegetarian taco salad - no dairy, no meat
16 oz water
2000 mg Vitamin C, 800 mcg folic acid, multivitamin

I forgot to do my Rejuvelac today as well as my beet kvass, raw liver and raw garlic. I'll just double up for day 4.

I had an adjustment today and boy did it feel good. He worked on my kidney and liver trigger points along my spine and did some deep tissue work as well. It felt so good. About an hour after my adjustment I had some really bad pains over my kidneys so I'm guessing it helped release some of what I was holding in there.

Gearing up for day 4 - deep tissue massage in the afternoon and hopefully my coffee enema.

Detox/cleanse day 2

2010-03-30T19:21:00.004-04:00

Today has been hard for me. I feel famished but I know it's just my body withdrawing from alot of the sugars that I'm used to putting into it. I woke up feeling like I had the flu...all my muscles were sore and it hurt to get out of bed. I got in the shower first thing so that I could wake my body up and get my muscles going. The headache started around 10:00ish this morning, earlier than yesterday, and is much more severe today. My muscle aches aren't quite as bad this evening but boy do I feel tired and drained. I've been so cold today that I can't get warm too. Sitting in the sun was heavenly!

As I've been listening to my body cues, I'm changing up my plan a bit here and there based on what I feel my body is telling me I need. Here's what I did today:

Hot shower
Brush skin, lather with coconut oil
27 oz water with lemon
27 oz of water with pinch of sea salt
8 oz Rejuvelac(this was horrible going down today, I felt very gaggy while drinking it)
Vitamin C 1000 mg
Lunch: Broccoli and tomato chopped up, melted coconut oil mixed with basil, oregano and salt topping the veggies, 1 organic apple
27 oz water with pinch of sea salt
8 oz beet kvass with Green Phytofoods (this was horrible going down today!)
18 oz water with pinch of sea salt
Handful of nuts - I had a larger portion of this than yesterday because I felt my body needed the extra fats and vitamins from it
Multivitamin and 800 mcg folic acid
Dinner: 1 cup bone broth, raw liver pill, raw garlic
Vitamin C 1000 mg
Epsom salt bath
Brush skin, lather with coconut oil
Raw honey, 1 tablespoon before bed

I took out my exercise for today because I had two additional kiddos (my niece and nephew who I watch for daycare) and I needed the energy to put into that. I was going to do an enema today but I'm not up to it tonight. I just don't have the energy. I have a feeling I'll be off to dreamland pretty quickly tonight. Last night I was asleep by around 10:05 (that's early for me) and tonight I'm anticipating that it will be even earlier because I'm whipped.

I've been doing alot of mental imagery of my body pulling toxins out of various areas when I feel low and like I need to dive into the chocolate Easter candy in our pantry (thank you Easter egg hunt this past weekend). I've been having to really convince myself that I can do this and I don't need the false sugars and that this will be worth it. The imagery has helped alot.

Today was supposed to be only raw veggies but I had to put that apple in there for a boost in my sugar level with all the activity in our house. Tomorrow was supposed to be addition of raw fruits but I think I'm going to be adding my raw fats (milk and egg) back in. I'm planning on doing additional fruits tomorrow and also doing a smoothie with milk and egg and other things in it. I'm anticipating that my body will be feeling better tomorrow once I start giving it more fats to work off of.

I'm glad I'm doing this...boy do I feel crummy but I suppose that's a good sign my body is cleaning itself out.

Detox/cleanse day 1

2010-03-29T19:44:00.004-04:00

For a long time now I've been wanting to do a detox program to clean out my body. Since my daughter finally stopped nursing a few months ago and I'm not currently pregnant or nursing and am in a good position with where things in life are, I decided to go ahead and shoot for this and get it over with.

I decided on a five day cleansing and detoxification course. I read a bunch of articles and some resources pointed me in the right directions and I came up with a program that I think my body will tolerate well in order to clean itself out. I'm almost finished with day 1...the only thing left to do is take my tablespoon of raw honey, brush my teeth and hit the sack. Here's what day 1 entailed:

Monday - Day 1 - Fasting

Brush skin, lather with coconut oil
27 oz water with lemon
27 oz water with pinch of sea salt
Aerobic exercise - 25 minutes
8 oz Rejuvelac (probiotics), raw garlic
Vitamin C 1000 mg
Lunch: Green smoothie - 1 cup water, 1/2 cup organic spinach, 1 organic apple, 1 tablespoon coconut oil
27 oz water with pinch of sea salt
8 oz beet kvass with Green Phytofoods mixed in
27 oz water with pinch of sea salt
8 oz water with Green Phytofoods mixed in
Vitamin C 2000 mg
Multivitamin and 800 mcg folic acid
Dinner: 1 cup bone broth, handful of nuts (selenium)
Saline cleansing enema
Epsom salt bath
Brush skin, lather with coconut oil
Raw honey before bed - 1 tablespoon

Here's the information about skin brushing.

I haven't been able to find an empty/reusable enema bag around here so I'm just using the pre-made ones from the store. I'm going to call a few places and see if there is anywhere I can find one as I'm thinking about doing a coffee enema a few of the days.

Here's the information on Epsom salt baths for detoxification.

For the report from today, I started with a low grade headache about noon and it grew as the day went on. I felt really sluggish this afternoon and sick to my stomach before dinner. I felt slightly better but not much after having my broth for dinner. After doing my enema and soaking in the bath, I'm feeling really crampy, very tired and sluggish and my tummy is really upset. Those are all good signs though! Those are signs that my body is pulling things out of my muscles, fats, and tissues that aren't supposed to be there.

I'm really excited to see how I feel at the end of this week! Each day will be a slight variation of the day before, slowly adding things back into my diet starting with raw veggies and working up to whole grains.

2010-03-27T19:19:00.002-04:00

We've been buying farm fresh eggs for a few months now. I bought a dozen last week and had some surprises in them. We are used to getting green eggs but haven't been privileged yet to have blue ones in our dozen. Well last week was our first surprise. I opened it up and instantly bubba said "blue eggs mommy, blue eggs." I usually keep at least a dozen eggs hard boiled in the fridge because he likes them for snacks. He usually goes for the green ones and asks if there are any left when he doesn't see any in the door. He was ecstatic to see blue eggs in the last dozen was bought. We also had a mighty huge egg in there, one that I haven't cooked yet. I'm excited to see if it's twins or maybe triplets. I've had a few twin egg yolks before but never a triplet. This one is HUGE...almost as big as my palm. He was so thrilled to see it and kept commenting on how huge the egg was and wanting to crack it open to see what was inside. It hasn't hatched yet so ho

Can you believe how big that sucker is? Happy early Easter eggs..

Locavore working list

2010-03-25T07:06:00.003-04:00

I've mentioned a few times of my intentions to try to have all of our foods local, or at least most of them. I know there are a few things I won't be able to have that are local (salt, rice) but for the most part I think I can get everything locally made and produced.

I'm excited to say that I recently found local farmers/growers for the following:
- wheat berries
- oat groats
- cheeses - goat and milk

I'll be visiting the farms for the wheat and oats (both from the same farm) probably in June to check them out. I'm hoping that I can buy enough for a year's worth of cooking (wouldn't that be lovely?). I also will be visiting the farm that produces goat's milk that's made into cheese. The farm doesn't make the cheese but has a company that's not far from here make it into cheese for them. I *think* I've found two local farms that do cow's cheese but I need to ask some more questions to see what all is involved.

Next on my working list of Locavore foods is to find nuts (almonds, "peanuts" (since they aren't actually tree nuts) and possibly some others). I also need to find a bean provider/grower for the following - black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans. I've thought about growing beans but not sure how much space I'm going to have come next year.

In any event, I'm really excited that my hopes of local eating are coming true.

Reflections from the week

2010-03-20T11:32:00.004-04:00

Wake up sleeping raspberries!

This week my brain was going in a million different directions. I felt discombobulated all week but it was a good distraction, a good craziness.

I finished phase 1 of the garden. The only thing I need the fireman to do is cut off the ends of one of the pieces of wood I used to divide the garden up. The peas, carrots and beets are planted. The kids' sugar snap peas are about 4 inches tall and starting to branch out in various directions. I put those in pots on the deck and anchored the trellising to the deck rails. I hope it's enough to hold for some of the strong storms we usually get in the spring. I suppose we'll see. I may see if the fireman can anchor the trellising a little better. I filled some of my clay pots that will hold some herbs and such but those haven't been planted outside yet. The kids' cherry and orange cherry tomatoes have been transplanted into their pots and are being moved in and out of the house each day since it's still too cold at night for them. The seedlings aren't doing so well so I'm hoping the transfer to a larger pot will bring them back to life. Chantenay carrots have been planted in a large gray tote on the deck.

In garden plot 1 I have two types of beets, two types of carrots, lavendar in the corners and strawberries in the back. Garden plot 2 will hold zucchini which will wait until mid May to be planted. Garden plot 3 I got the trellising and stakes set up for the peas and planted four types of peas. The raspberries are also in garden plot 3 and are starting to wake up and show some green. Garden plot 4 has been tilled but nothing has been planted as it will hold squash and possibly green beans (still need to figure that out). There are pots strategically placed for mint re-planting (hopefully today) and lemon balm and also two on the front porch for impatiens.

The side yard flowerbed has the daisy assortment planted. I'm hoping it's completely full here in a few months. I just love the simplicity of daisies. I have another bag of wildflowers that I'm trying to figure out where to plant. They need full sun and our flowerbeds are mostly shade. Maybe those will have to go back by the woods or something. I also want to plant a rose bush...something for my heart to rejoice about.

As I walk around the yard, signs of spring are popping up here and there. The daylilies are starting to wake up and poking through about an inch out of the ground. Their little green sprouts remind me of the renewal, rebirth and new growth of spring and makes me reflect on the last few months of sleeping in my soul and the earth and gives me new hopes for changes this year.

I also started gathering curriculum for the fall and started working on the kids' workbox systems. I have plenty of resources at my fingertips...I'm just trying to get it all organized, sorted and figure out what I want to accomplish. I labeled and reorganized all the school supplies this week and it feels great to actually know what I have and where it is.

I need to order our math curriculum but I think that should do it for the fall. I'm so excited to start lesson planning. I've been playing around with different ideas and doing some research online. I'd like to do alot of the kids' learning together but I know that some things will be different. Bubba will need some more advanced skills as he's beyond some of sissy's level (which is understandable given their age difference). Now I just need to figure out what I can use with both of them and what I need to separate. Along with this, I've started planning our summer school activities. I'm hoping to do a field trip once a week and with that field trip study something related to where we go. I'd like to do things mostly outside, probably alot of farms, the zoo, the discovery garden, maybe some other nature center type things. I'd like to save the museum and indoor activities for fall/winter when it's colder outside. I need to get cracking on my list of farms to visit and get to researching on the library website for books to go with the subject material we'll be studying. I'm debating putting bubba into the farm summer classes. It's a little costly but I think he'd enjoy it.

Along with that, I've been experimenting in the kitchen with new things. I started my second batch of sourdough and so far it's looking great. I'm really excited to cook it on Tuesday to see how it turns out. I stumbled upon Passionate Homemaking's soaked whole wheat bread recipe and made that this week and really liked it! This week on the menu I'm planning on making my first sourdough pizza and very excited to see how the kids like it. I'm also playing around with some new, vegetarian ideas this week in our menu.

And because I don't have enough going on, I've been spring cleaning in the middle of all of this. I cleaned out my desk and filed everything away, started listing things for sale on Craigslist, started sorting through and putting away the kids' outgrown clothes, have rearranged a few things in my kitchen and so on. I have two more major areas I need to conquer - getting two more totes for the kids' outgrown clothes and putting them in those (the other two totes are full) and cleaning out the storage space. I already have a pile started in the storage space that goes to the thrift store...I just need to have the fireman give me the okay to toss a few things, list those things I want to sell on Craigslist, list anything I want to give away on Freecycle, and take the rest to the thrift store. I'm still debating what I'm going to do with shelving in there. Currently we have chrome shelves that are stand alone that I bought from Walmart. I'm thinking about having one of the fireman's buddies who does woodworking come over and give us a quote for building actual wood shelving in there, something a little more permanent and sturdy. Since it wil cost me close to $200 to buy the remainder of the chrome shelves I'd like in there, I figured it would be worth it to have him come over and give us an estimate on what he thinks it might cost. If wood is going to be cheaper and last longer I would rather do that. All that to say, I need to get it cleaned out first, then we need to work that into the budget.

So you can see I've been quite distracted lately...hence the absence from blogging. It's been a good distraction though. I'm really enjoying getting things done around here. The kids have been "helping" in the process as well and it's so great to spend that time with them. They were having a blast the other day while I was working on the garden stuff playing in the piles of dirt. Bubba played for about an hour straight in one section of the dirt just digging away. It's so wonderful to be outside and to have the kids close by. I love to listen to their laughter and their giggles as they enjoy the nature around them. It's such sweet music to my soul.

Waking up the garden

2010-03-16T19:38:00.003-04:00

Today we dug into the ground. We didn't plant anything yet but we started working the soil in anticipation for planting tomorrow. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 62 and sunny and I can't wait to get our little seeds going. The kids sugar snap peas are about 4 inches tall already so those should be producing something in the next few weeks hopefully. Today the fireman tilled the top layer of soil to mix in some of the leaves that we put on there last fall. I raked out some places that we're going to be planting in tomorrow in anticipation of marking off where the fireman needs to put the next layer of topsoil. With the rather thick layer of leaves we're raking off the top (for the most part, some of them mulched when he was tilling), they'll be moved to the front flowerbed that will be receiving it's second layer of topsoil this year but has quite a bit more to fill in than the garden beds. I haven't decided yet whether we'll plant in the front flowerbeds this year but I really want alot of color so I think I may try it and see how it goes. Last year we started working the soil out there so that we could have some really great flower production so we'll see how it goes this year.

Without further pause, here's my lengthy list of what we'll need to do tomorrow as well as my plant list and specifics. I've been working on this off and on for about a week and I think I have it down to what I want.

Garden Beds:
- Topsoil in specific sections of the garden beds
- The fireman to mark off two areas with lumber (need to go to the hardware store to get this) and also mark off smaller sections within one of those sections.
- Stake the pea plots and put trellising up.
- Garden bed #1 plants to be planted - muscade carrots, chioggia beets, atomic red carrots, bull's blood beets.
- Garden plot #2 plants to be planted - mammoth melting sugar peas, sugar ann snow peas, little marvel garden peas, tall telephone peas.

Pots/Containers on the deck:
- The fireman to drill holes in the bottoms of all pots/containers for good drainage.
- Fill with topsoil and any soil amendments - will probably mix in some composted leaves.

- Calendula - round green planter - started indoors to transplant end of April - full sun, light to sandy soil, moist, good drainage
- Chamomile - round green planter - started indoors to transplant end of April - full sun, moist soil
- Echinacea - round green planter - started indoors to transplant end of April - full sun, rich moist well drained soil
- Sweet Annie - large sized clay pot - start indoors tomorrow to transplant end of April - full sun, moist soil
Lemon Bee Balm - large sized clay pot - start indoors tomorrow to transplant end of April - full sun, moist soil
- Fenugreek - medium sized clay pot - start indoors tomorrow to transplant end of April - full sun, moist soil
- Greek Mullein - medium sized clay pot - start indoors tomorrow to transplant end of April
- Blueberries - medium sized clay pot x 2 - planted last year, check soil for any needed amendments
- Parsley - medium reddish plastic pot - start in pot end of April - prefers afternoon shade in summer, deep/rich/well worked soil, need adequate water throughout season
- Dill - medium green plastic pot - start in pot end of April - full sun, well drained poor soil for best flavor
- Cilantro - medium reddish plastic pot - plant in pot tomorrow - even moist soil
- Chives - long green rectangle planter - start indoors tomorrow to transplant end of April - do not allow soil to dry out
- Basil - long green rectangle planter - start indoors tomorrow to transplant end of April - rich well drained soil, full sun, abundant moisture
- Oregano - long green rectangle planter - start indoors tomorrow to transplant end of April
- Mint - galvanized tub - returning perennial
- Lemongrass - galvanized tub - well drained moist rich soil, keep moist, good potting mix, grow in indirect light until seedlings are large enough to handle
- Sungold Select II tomatoes - square green planter with small tomato cage - started indoors to be transplanted in planter mid May
- Isis Candy Cherry tomatoes - square green planter with small tomato cage - started indoors to be transplantd in planter mid May
- Bush green beans - square green planter - to start directly in pot mid May
- Leeks - large, deep grey tote - started indoors this week, to be transplanted end of April
- Chantenay Carrots - large, deep grey tote - started indoors this week, to be transplanted end of April
- Tom Thumb (bush) peas - short grey planter - to be started directly in pot tomorrow
- Sugar Snap Peas - 2 long grey planters - started indoors two weeks ago to be transplanted tomorrow into planters, need some type of trellising setup for these
- Impatiens - galvanized tubs on front porch

Things I need to buy:
- 2 - 2x12x12 pieces of lumber to section off garden
- 6-12 2x2x12 pieces of lumber for pea stakes
- 3 galvanized tubs
- Fine netting to cover strawberry patch
- Landscaping blocks (eventually) - these will probably be bought end of May

And that should do it. This is phase 1, phase 2 will come end of April when I'm transplanting alot of the plants, and phase 3 will come in mid May to end of May when I'm able to transplant my tomatoes and plant my zucchini/squash and green beans. I think it's going to be a great harvest this year and I'm thrilled to nurture my little seedlings into the ground and watch them grow.

On that note, I'm already looking at canning recipes too but that will be saved for another day. Happy gardening to anyone who's anticipating.

Tomato sprouts

2010-03-12T15:17:00.003-05:00

I'm thinking probably in a week, possibly two, I'll have lots of different tomato sprouts to show off. I have five different kinds planted as of now and may plant a few more.

Awaken

2010-03-09T21:13:00.002-05:00

from your slumber...spring is in the air!

First Sprouts

2010-03-08T14:13:00.003-05:00

...for the 2010 garden season and we are all so very excited...well minus probably the fireman because he doesn't really get into gardening. The kids were so excited to see some sprouts sticking out and I was ecstatic to see some of my sprouts popping up for some of my flowers.

Sugar Snap Peas

Chamomile and Calendula

Oh..the possibilities

2010-03-06T15:59:00.003-05:00

I got a food dehydrator for my birthday...and I'm already thinking of all the possibilities for this year's preserving season. It has four racks so I should be able to do a fair amount of things. I'm so very excited! Thanks to my mother in law for adding to my kitchen gadgets!

Whole Grains

2010-03-03T17:19:00.001-05:00

I was going to do a big post on whole grains, what they are, how you use them, etc. but Wardeh at GNOWFGLINS did a fantastic job doing just that. Here's her post about it. Check it out if you're wondering what and how to use whole grains.

Garden dreamin'

2010-02-28T18:27:00.005-05:00

Sigh...spring oh spring where are you spring? I keep reminding myself that this time of winter and cold and dreariness is good for many reasons. My friend Michele wrote a really great post about it here. Check it out if you get a chance. While I wait for weather to warm so I can get outside more with the kids (who are desperately needing nature right now), while I wait for the ground to thaw so that I can get my seeds nestled into the fertile earth, while I wait for my soul to wake back up after a dull and sometimes draining and sad winter, I am excited to plan and hope and dream of things to come. One of those things, my garden, is a favorite to dream about, plot out and re-plan (sometimes every day). I look forward to the next few weeks that I can spend busying myself in the preparation, the counting, the inventory, the planning, the plotting, and the excitement as I watch my tender little seedlings take root in an attempt to grow our food for the coming summer, fall and winter seasons.

Without further pause, here's a glimpse at my thoughts.

Garden plot #1 - 2009 - looked like this:

This year it will look like this:
- 3/4 full of strawberries
- the fireman will be inserting a board along the length of the bed (from side to side) to section off a place for me to plant beets, carrots, and possibly onions

Garden plot #2 - 2009 - looked like this:

This year it will look like this:
- 1-2 zucchini plants

Garden plot #3 - 2009 - looked like this:

This year it will look like this:
- along the left wall, raspberries climbing up the side of the deck
- on the short wall facing us in the picture, clematis will be climbing that wall with lavendar growing in front
- on the part closest to us (the front section), I'll have pea A-frames
- on the front right corner I hope to have a green bean teepee
- looking towards the back of the bed straight down the middle I hope to have two or three tomato plants
- along the right side I hope to have another set of pea A-frames

Garden plot #4 - 2009 - looked like this:

This year it will look like this:
- hopefully a rain barrel in the far right corner (which is right along the house)
- vining green beans up the fence and possibly a tomato plant or two

The rest of my plants will be in containers which will include all of my herbs, my blueberry plants, and some of my medicinal flowers, as well as the kids' gardens. For their gardens they'll each have bush green beans, sugar snap peas (with a small trellis in the center of the bucket so they can climb up), cherry tomatoes with a tomato cage placed in the bucket for support, and possibly some carrots. I hope to have four buckets for each of them to tend so eight buckets total for their garden. I'm also still debating sweet potatoes and regular potatoes (red or Yukon gold or russet). I need to decide on those but still have some time to think about it.

To direct sow in the ground, outside in March, as soon as topsoil is turned -
Chioggia Beets
Bull's Blood Beets
Atomic Red Carrot
Chatenary Carrot
Muscade Carrot
Little Marvel Garden Pea
Mammoth Melting Snow Sugar Pea
Sugar Ann Snow Peas
Tall Telephone Garden Peas
Sugar Snap Peas
Black Eyed Susans - planted in flowerbeds
Tiger's Eye Sunflower Mix - to be planted along garage

To start in peat pots, inside in March -
Sungold Select II Tomato - a few to be moved to buckets in late May, the rest into the garden
Emerald Evergreen Tomatoes - to be transplanted into the garden in May
Isis Candy Cherry Tomatoes - a few to be moved to buckets in late May, the rest into the garden
Riesentraube Tomatoes - to be transplanted into the garden in May
Pink Brandywine Tomatoes - to be transplanted into the garden in May

To start in containers, inside in late March, moved outside onto deck in late April/early May -
Basil, parsley, oregano - to share a container
Bee Balm Lemon - individual container, for the kids garden
Chives - individual container
Sweet Annie - individual container, for the kids garden
Cilantro - individual container
Fenugreek - individual container
Dill - individual container
Lemongrass - individual container
Echinacea - individual container for now, possibly to be transplanted into flowerbeds
Chamomile - individual container for now, possibly to be transplanted into flowerbeds
Greek Mullein - individual container
Calendula - individual container for now, possibly to be transplanted into flowerbeds

To direct sow, outside in late May -
Roma II Bush Beans - for the kids' gardens, planted in buckets
Purple Podded Pole Beans
Old Homestead Pole Beans
Black Beauty Zucchini Squash
Golden Zucchini Squash

I *think* that might do it for now. I need to go to Lowe's, Home Depot, or Ikea this week or next to see if I can pick out some planters/containers other than buckets for my herbs. I plan on having the kids paint their buckets but I'd like something a little nicer for mine. I'm thinking of getting a few of those hanging ones that could hang over our deck rails...but still have to price things out.

I'm SO excited to get started. I can almost feel the soil under my fingernails...

Snack attack

2010-02-28T13:43:00.004-05:00

As promised, I want to share our first grain mill recipe with you. I was going to make bread but then wanted to do something that the kids could be more involved in (rather than just watching me knead and eating the flour and dough while I was doing the work). I chose this recipe from Cooking and Baking with Fresh Ground Flour. This is my new favorite cookbook. It has a good variety of recipes for breads, muffins and pastry type things, snacks, main dishes, etc. I chose this cookbook to go with my grain mill because it was written specifically for the grain mill I bought. I've read through the entire book already (I have a favorite pastime of reading through cookbooks). I chose this one because it had simple ingredients and sounded easy enough.

Sesame Whole Wheat Wafers pg. 92
I doubled this recipe when I made it.
2 cups hard white wheat flour - finely ground
1/2 level teaspoon salt (preferably sea salt)
2 level teaspoons baking powder (preferably aluminum free)
1/4 cup sugar (preferably sucanat, rapadura or evaporated cane sugar)
1 cup light cream (I used heavy, raw cream and it worked just fine)
1/3 cup sesame seeds

1. Heat oven to 350F.
2. Mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder, add the sugar and mix to a stiff dough with the cream. **Note that when they say stiff they mean stiff so use a wooden spoon. I prefer these.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough very thin and cut out with a biscuit cutter (The kids and I used these cookie cutters and also a pizza cutter to quickly slice.) Place wafers on an ungreased cookie sheet (I used this) and sprinkle with sesame seeds. **I chose to mix my sesame seeds into the dough instead of sprinkling...because I know my kids would just pick them off if they were just sitting on top.
4. Bake 10 minutes or until firm. **I found that baking 12-13 actually worked better because it gave them more of a crisp.

Voila...these were definitely a winner and we'll be making these again, possibly even every week...

I own a grain mill!

2010-02-27T20:04:00.001-05:00

Woohoo! The fireman bought me a grain mill for my birthday. I've used it a few times and I'm just so excited to welcome this new gadget into my kitchen family. I decided on the Family Grain Mill because of the attachments that you can get with it. I bought the mill, motor base, hand crank base and flaker attachment. I plan to eventually get the meat grinder but that will probably be later this year or sometime next year. I've figured out how to grind to a fine grind but still need to work on the settings for cracking berries, corn, etc. I've started my menu for next week and it includes a few different breads. Last week the kids and I made whole grain crackers for a snack...which turned out really good. They really like to watch it grind and then like to run their fingers through the fresh ground flour. I am just SO excited to have this in my kitchen...after talking about it for so long, it's finally here! Woohoo! I'll be sharing recipes as I try them out.

The master dressings and sauces recipe post

2010-02-19T19:28:00.003-05:00

I've been collecting recipes for dressings and sauces (as in salad dressings) over the last few years. These are from various places and some have been tweaked to personal liking. I thought I'd share them with all of you!

Italian Seasoning - dry spices
1/4 cup dried basil
2 tablespoons dried sage
1/4 cup dried thyme
1/4 cup dried rosemary
1/4 cup dried oregano

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until powdery.

Mexican Seasoning - dry spices
**Similar to packets of taco seasoning you can buy in the store.
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/4 cup onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano

Put all ingredients in a blender and blender until powdery. One taco seasoning packet = 3 tablespoons of this seasoning.

Mrs. Dash Seasoning from here
1/2 cup crushed dried minced onion flakes
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons crushed dried vegetable flakes
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons dried orange peel
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon dried mustard
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried savory
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon unsweetened lemonade drink mix
1/4 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
1. Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender.
2. Store the spice blend in a covered container or a sealed shaker bottle.

Italian Dressing
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp Italian seasoning (recipe above)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon grated cheese

Mix all ingredients well, refrigerate after making, shake before each use.

Ranch Dressing
1 cup mayo (homemade or store bought)
1/2 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt; I like to use yogurt from raw milk)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dill weed
1/4 cup milk (raw or whole works best)
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon onion powder

Mix all ingredients well, refrigerate after making, shake before each use.

Thousand Island Dressing
1/2 cup mayo (homemade or store bought)
2 tablespoon chili sauce (homemade or store bought)
2 tablespoon chopped green pepper
1 chopped hard boiled egg
12 stuffed olives
1 small sweet pickle, chopped
2 small green onions, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Blend mayo with chili sauce. Add remaining ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Homemade Chili Sauce from here
1 peck tomatoes
9 green peppers
6 med. size onions
3 c. sugar
3/4 c. salt
1 doz. med. red peppers
1 qt. vinegar
3 tsp. cloves, ground
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. ginger

Chop all ingredients in pieces and mix well. Bring to a boil and continue to keep at a low boil for 3 to 4 hours until thickened and cooked thoroughly, can or freeze or can in jars like jelly.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
1/8 ounce basil, freshly minced
3/4 teaspoon garlic, freshly minced
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon sugar (sucanat or rapadura)
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard (store bought or homemade)
3/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup olive oil

In a blender thoroughly blend all ingredients except olive oil. Using a whisk, slowly whisk in the olive oil. Store in refrigerator, shake before each use.

French Dressing
1 cup ketchup (homemade or store bought)
1 cup sugar (sucanat or rapadura)
1 cup oil - peanut or olive
1 teaspoon mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon grated onion

Blend well and store in refrigerator. Shake before each use.

Poppy Seed Dressing
1/2 cup milk honey
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon fresh onion puree
1 cup vegetable oil, peanut oil or olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Blend honey, mustard, salt and vinegar. Make the onion puree by rubbing a sweet onion over a hand grater. Add to blended ingredients. Start the blender and gradually add oil in a slow stream. Process until blended. Sprinkle in poppy seeds and mix with a spoon.

Dijon Mustard from here
1 ½ cups dry mustard powder
½ cup water
1 tablespoon crushed mustard seeds
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup onion, minced
⅓ cup fresh grape juice or wine vinegar
1 ½ cups white wine
1 ½ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon allspice

Stir the water and powdered mustard together until the mustard is devoid of lumps. Put the mustard seeds, garlic and onion through a coffee grinder. Mix the vinegar, wine and all remaining ingredients together, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until reduced by half.

For a super-fine, pasty-smooth mustard, strain the end product. Pour the mustard into small sterilized jars, and store in the refrigerator for up to several months.

Honey Mustard
1 cup prepared mustard
1 cup raw honey
1/2 cup mayo (homemade or store bought) - optional

Mix ingredients until well incorporated. Store in refrigerator.

Ketchup from here
4 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 stick cinnamon
1/4 tsp celery seeds
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp whole allspice
2 pounds tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup white vinegar
5 tbsp brown sugar
1 onion, chopped
1 anaheim chile, chopped
1 clove garlic

Wrap cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon, celery seeds, red pepper flakes, and allspice in a layer of cheesecloth; tie into a bundle and put into a 4-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat along with tomatoes, salt, vinegar, sugar, onion, and chile; smash and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, until onions and chiles are very soft, 40 minutes. Remove spice bundle; puree sauce in a blender until smooth. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer into a 4 quart saucepan over medium heat. Cook stirring occasionally until thickened, about 30 minutes. Add more salt, sugar or vinegar if you like. Transfer ketchup to a glass jar. Set aside, let cool. Cover with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate for up to three weeks.

Basic Barbecue Sauce from here
1 cup molasses
1 cup prepared mustard
1 cup apple cider vinegar

Combine molasses and mustard, mix thoroughly. Mix in vinegar. Cover and refrigerate.

Mayonnaise
**This is thinner consistency like salad dressing.
1 egg plus 1 yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard or Dijon
1 cup olive, peanut or vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh it best)
Salt or paprika to taste (I prefer paprika)

Blend all ingredients in blender except for 1/2 cup of oil. Slowly add remaining oil with blender on low. Season to taste.

Lite Mayonnaise from here
**This mayo recipe is thicker, easier to spread on bread.
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup evaporated whole milk
1 teaspoon honey
1 large egg
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup virgin olive oil

This recipe isn’t hard but the first time you prepare it, it may seem tedious. After you’ve made it several times you’ll find that it goes together quite quickly and takes little effort on the part of the cook.

Start with a 2-quart saucepan. Choose one that doesn’t burn easily. Measure the cornstarch, salt, dry mustard and cayenne into the pot. Mix with a fork to blend. Stir in the evaporated milk, honey and egg. Cook and stir the mixture over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Stir frequently and keep an eye on it because it will boil before you expect. When the mixture boils whisk it briskly to cream out any lumps. The dressing will be very thick. Remove the pan from the heat.

Measure the lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil into the pot with the warm dressing. Using electric beaters, or a whisk and sturdy arm, beat the mixture smooth.

Pour the dressing into a pint-sized jar. Lay a small piece of plastic wrap directly atop of the mayonnaise. Make sure it touches the entire surface. Screw the lid lightly onto the jar and place it in the refrigerator. When the mixture has cooled sufficiently you may remove and discard the plastic wrap. Hot milk mixtures tend to form a skin on top as they cool. Covering the surface with plastic wrap prevents that skin from forming.

This mayonnaise will keep for at least 2 weeks in the refrigerator. It may be used anywhere you would normally use mayonnaise. Most store-bought versions of light-mayonnaise have questionable ingredients added to them for thickening and preservation. This version tastes much better than most brands of store-bought light mayonnaise. It is less expensive and makes use of healthy olive oil instead of low quality vegetable oils that have been extracted with solvents and other chemicals. It’s a wholesome alternative to manufactured light mayonnaise. This recipe and store-bought light mayonnaise are completely interchangeable.

Evaporated whole milk is used to prepare this mayonnaise because it gives the finished product the richness it needs to stand up to meat or pasta salads. It’s also the least likely to curdle when you add the vinegar and lemon juice which makes things easier on the cook.

Adventures in sprouting

2010-02-16T11:16:00.004-05:00

I received my alfalfa sprouts last week in our food co-op. I'm excited to start this adventure of sprouting, a.k.a. indoor winter gardening. I'm excited to have some "green" foods that I can "grow" during the winter. I've been trying to figure out how to have fresh vegetables during the winter months without a garden and without a supermarket as I'd eventually like to eat all local foods. Where we live the months of November through February are basically non-growing months unless you can rig up some cold frames (and even then not sure how the plants would do) or you have a greenhouse (again not sure how the plants would do). I had a lightbulb moment the other day when I realized that I could grow fresh vegetables in the winter...green foods that could even be considered superfoods...SPROUTS! How exciting.

So here's my first batch...a huge success. I had them in my granola yesterday as well as on top of our chicken lo-mein from dinner last night. I'm currently on the search for a bread that I can put them in and some other recipes to add them to.

Day 1.

Day 2 - tiny little tails.

Day 3 - seeing some growth.

Day 4 - a full jar!

Traditional foods values

2010-02-13T13:20:00.002-05:00

I'm still reading Full Moon Feast. It's taking me quite awhile because I've had alot in the last few weeks that's been filling my time. I'm on the "Snow Moon" chapter and she writes a quote from a writing of another person. This is what I value and this is exactly what I want to instill in my children and for them to learn about this process.

"I remember my mother uttering very moving, poetic chants as she milled grain, grinding for six hours to fill only a small bucket. The meal that came out of her work contained tremendous energy, the spiritual energy of poetry and music as well as the physical energy contained in the grain. All of her work was a work of art, done so genuinely, with total devotion, that it contributed to a profound sense of fullness in the family."

This is what I want from this journey I'm on...I want my children to know where their food comes from and appreciate the source and the quality but I also want them to know that community and the connection that's put into providing, serving, and cooking these foods to nourish their bodies and souls. This is the connection to traditional foods and organic eating that is my hope for our lives.

Spring cleaning on the brain - updated

2010-02-10T10:27:00.005-05:00

My brain is just a whirlwind of activity these days. I have SO much in my mind going on that I need to write it down so I don't drive myself crazy. I started some spring cleaning a few weeks ago and took some things to the thrift store. However, I've created a lot of work for myself (in my mind anyway).

Over the last few days I've decided to shave some things off this list and put a few things on the "next year" list.

Upstairs:
- switch fall/winter clothes for spring/summer and put away in the attic
- clean out attic, the fireman to finish putting insulation into walls before the heat of summer comes
- move both twin beds into bubba's room
- move our current queen sized bed, dresser and nightstand up to sissy girl's current room
- buy bedding for the queen size bed to match the room colors/decor - probably something neutral

Main Floor:
- paint our current room - need to figure out what colors/styles I want in there
- buy new mattress and frame (thinking king size)
- buy new dresser and nightstands - thinking the Hemnes sets from Ikea but not sure

Basement:
- buy 2-4 chrome shelves for the storage space
- organize canning supplies, take inventory
- move homeschool supplies into this space and get rid of current shelving unit to create more space in the study/crafting area
- decide whether we want to keep all the furniture that's currently down here or not and donate anything we don't want
- figure out some type of toy storage and whether to purge more toys
- decide whether to keep or sell the treadmill (yes I debate this every year but it just takes up SO much space)
- clean out the back room, sweep and mop it (if keeping treadmill, move into here?)

Yard/outside:
- gather buckets and containers for gardening and take inventory of gardening supplies (shovels, rakes, hoes, etc.)
- buy the next layer of topsoil for the garden beds and flower beds
- have the fireman build my compost piles towards the back of the woods
- order garden seeds - DONE!
- get seeds started indoors in March
- clean out the shed and back of garage and reorganize/switch items out - the wood pile will be in the shed this year so all of the items that are currently in the shed will be moved to the back garage; then we can start piling wood in there for next winter (BIG project!)
- have trees cut down so that we can start splitting and getting them dried for next year
- buy remainder of landscaping blocks to finish up the wall on the side flower bed
- lay out garden plans, buy trellising, frames for A-frame and teepee plantings, have the fireman start building those so I can transplant in April
- get flower beds ready and plant seeds into those for flowers
- mulch/compost layer under the trees on the side of the driveway - the soil here is really bad and I tried to mulch leaves from the fall but they've mostly blown away - want to work on this soil so I can plant flowers here eventually

Whew. I think that's all that's in my brain right now. See why I was driving myself crazy? Now....where to start on that list?

Cow Liver Pillules in pictures

2010-02-06T16:00:00.003-05:00

**Disclaimer: If you are vegan or vegetarian you may want to skip over this post. Also, if you are highly sensitive to gory/bloody pictures, this may not be the post for you to read.**

In my quest and search for better nutrition, I've been doing alot of reading...alot. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this article on cow liver pillules. There were some very interesting things in it. From the comments section:

Eating liver cooked will get you the protein, fat and Vitamins A and D but the B Vitamins will be destroyed by the heat. So too will the enzymes. I find that I need a much smaller portion of liver if it is raw for the same benefit. Enzyme activity is such an important aspect of digestion, I try to get as much enzyme rich food, either predigested (fermented) or raw (animal foods), as I can to save my body making enzymes.

B6 is also available in raw milk and raw/dried meat.

Also, this is another great article on cow liver pillules:

Liver is packed with cholesterol, fats, protein, iron and B vitamins, especially folic acid, B6 and B12, and is best eaten raw. Once it is cooked the essential B vitamins are destroyed

Then from here in regards to cow liver/liver:

Function: It nourishes blood, tones the liver, sharpens vision.
Cow liver contains choline, pantothenic acid, vitamins B and K. Cow liver is also rich in chromium.

So naturally I was curious..but still sort of grossed out. Organ meat doesn't sound very appetizing to me. In fact I'm a huge texture person and anything that's slightly slimy makes me gag. I can't eat Jell-O or tapioca that's been cooled (it has a slimy/rubbery texture) or anything else that's similar in texture. It just really grosses me out. I've been working my way up to the mind-over-matter of some of these nourishing foods that I've been reading about. The two things that I'm having to psyche myself up over are raw eggs in my smoothies and raw liver.

From one of the above mentioned articles, something in regards to raw eggs:

You can also eat the yolks raw in smoothies or just crack the egg into your hand, let the white run through your fingers and swallow the yolk down. The precious B Vitamins will stay intact this way.

Both my eggs and liver are from organic, free range sources. I have yet to be able to do raw eggs...I just can't work myself up to that texture yet. However, I'm excited to say that I've tried the cow liver pillules and I'm doing really well with them. This is day three of them and while I'm not sure I notice a significant difference in how I feel, I'm just glad I'm able to swallow them and keep them down. I'm drinking them with raw milk as suggested by the article above.

In my search for more information on this I couldn't find anywhere that gave me specifics. One of the articles above tells you how to do it but I wasn't sure exactly what to do. Since I learn better in pictures I thought I'd document my experiment for anyone who's interested. This liver was 1.5 pounds, from a cow.

- Take your liver and lay it out, in the package, and let sit at room temperature until soft enough to cut. For this size liver that took between 2-2.5 hours. You may want to put it on a plate or kitchen towel in case any of the juices leak out of the bag.
- Remove from the package and separate into smaller pieces with a knife. I found it easiest to cut pieces into about a 1 inch wide X 2-3 inch long section.

Cutting board massacre.

- Take each cut section, turn it on its side and cut in half.
- From this halved piece, cut into bite size pieces.
- Line a flat baking sheet with waxed paper and drop each bite sized piece onto the wax paper.
- Once the paper is full, put in the freezer and freeze until completely frozen.

The bigger pieces to the right will be used in recipes...I wanted to freeze them in smaller sections.

- Peel pieces off of wax paper, put into a jar and screw on lid. This allows easy access to take the jar out of the freezer, remove a piece and then put it back in the freezer.

And that's it. Simple as can be. The jar contents are probably enough for around 2 months if I take one each day. I have two bags of smaller liver pieces and then one big chunk left. I will probably use the smaller pieces in things like pate or spaghetti sauce and then the bigger chunk I'll use when I run out of the jar.

Gardening musings

2010-02-06T15:09:00.004-05:00

I've been dreaming about my garden for this year over the past few weeks. The closer we get to spring, the more I dream about it. I've decided this year to use my current, existing garden beds from last year as well as container gardening. I have high hopes of moving the garden in 2011 to a bigger space in the yard but this year we're going *sort of* small. Container gardening will work well because we have alot of deck space to utilize AND the kids can help. We have rabbit fencing up around the garden beds to try to keep some of the critters, big and small, out of the garden. The only easy way for the kids to get into the garden is the steps that go right into it. However, I have these steps blocked off most of the time so a crazy Labrador doesn't make her way into the garden and stomp on all my precious produce. I figure that giving the kids the chance to garden right on the deck will cure their curiosity and also give them something to do with their hands while I'm down in the garden beds doing my thing. I am really excited about this! I've been doing some thinking on various things I could use for containers. I need to find some things that are deeper so that I can put my carrots and beets and any other root vegetables that I want to grow in some containers. I think I've figured out I'm going to use totes but I'm still going to look around to see what my other options are. I also have a galvanized tub that we found in the shed when we cleaned it out that my good friend Michele suggested I use as a planter. I used it last year for mint and spikes and really liked the look so I may end up buying a few more or looking on Freecycle to see if anyone else has any that they don't want. Also, I've heard you can plant in 5 gallon plastic buckets. This might be good for the kids' tomato plant and maybe even some root vegetables. I can get these free from a local deli so I could just round up a dozen or so of those and it wouldn't cost me anything. I have so much to think about!

So with the subject of container gardening, I'm reading up on my options. I had borrowed Fresh Food From Small Spaces from the library a few months ago and passed on the title to my friend Michele. She mentioned recently that I need to check it out again to finish reading up on self watering containers. I had the fireman pick it up yesterday and spent some time browsing through it and getting some ideas. I've been playing around on Youtube trying to get some ideas going on making self watering containers. Turns out alot of them you can use things that you have lying around OR things you could easily find from someone close by or again, Freecycle. Here are some videos I've found:

- This one might work for some smaller plants for the kids.
- This one shows how to use a rubbermaid tote and recyclable items.
- This one shows how to use a 5 gallon bucket.
- This one is another 5 gallon bucket demonstration.
- This one isn't self watering but it does show a great idea for kid and container gardening.
- This one shows a really impressive bucket garden.
- This one shows how to make an upside down bucket garden.

This is going to be such a fun year of exploring and experimenting! I can't wait to get started...

The official 2010 garden list

2010-02-04T09:18:00.004-05:00

I've been waiting for my heirloom seed catalog to arrive and it finally came last week. I've been drooling and dreaming paging through it and I think I've narrowed down what I want for this year. My garden is going to be smaller than I'd like but still a fairly good size. I had planned on only doing a few crops and decided that I'll do a few varieties of each crop. Some of these are going to be in containers and some of them will specifically be for the kids to "maintain" for "their" garden. They chose cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas again for their project so they'll have a few containers for those. I'm also planning on putting some of my crops into containers on the deck so that I have more space to work with without having to extend the garden (as that's planned for next year).

I'll be ordering all seeds from www.rareseeds.com. So without further pause, here's my thinking:

Vegetables:
- Old Homestead green beans - planted using the teepee method or A-frame method - $2
- Purple Podded pole beans - planted using the teepee method or A-frame method - $2.75
- Roma II Bush Beans - planted in pot - (kids' choice) - $2
- Bull's Blood beets - planted in pots - $2.25
- Chioggia beets - planted in pots - $2.25
- Atomic red carrot - planted in pots or a smaller section of the garden bed - $3.00
- Chantenay red core carrot - planted in pots or a smaller section of the garden bed - $2.00
- Emerald Evergreen tomato - planted in garden bed - $2.50
- Sungold Select II orange cherry tomatoes - planted in pot - $2.00
- Brandywine tomato - planted in garden beds - $2.25
- Riesentraube cherry tomato - planted in garden bed - $2.50
- Isis candy cherry tomato - planted in pots (kids' choice) - $2.50
- Tall Telephone garden pea - planted in garden bed, teepee method - $2.25
- Blue Podded Garden Pea - planted in garden bed, teepee method - $
- Mammoth Melting Sugar - planted in garden bed, teepee method - $2.50
- Sugar Snap pea - planted in pots (kids' choice) - $
- Zucchini Black Beauty- garden bed - $2.00
- Zucchini Golden Squash - garden bed - $2.00
- Small heirloom package - variety of seeds - to be planted in various places - $55

Flowers/herbs:
- Basil - potted - $1.50
- Bee balm -potted - $1.50
- Chives - potted 0 $1.25
- Cilantro - potted - $1.50
- Echinacea - potted - $2.50
- Chamomile - potted or maybe interplanted with other flowers in flowers beds - $1.75
- Oregano - potted - $2.00
- Parsley - potted - $1.75
- Calendula - potted or maybe interplanted with other flowers in flowerbeds- $1.75
- Sweet Annie - potted (kids' choice) - $1.75
- Clematis - trellised on small border of deck railing
- Black Eyed Susans - flower bed - $1.50
- Tiger Eye Mix Sunflower - possibly planted along the garage - $2.50

Perennials returning this year:
Daisies
Mint
Hostas
Daylilies
Ornamental grass
Lavendar

That's it so far...may add more and then will total in a few days to see if I stuck to my budget. :)

Butter making!

2010-02-01T06:50:00.005-05:00

I made butter again yesterday but this time I was ready with the camera. I bought three containers of raw cream from the farm when I went to get our milk yesterday. I used two to do this batch so probably about 4 cups of cream which came out with about 2-3 cups of butter in the end and 1 cup of buttermilk. Here's how you do it:

Start with raw cream.

Dump and scrape all cream into blender.

Start her up - blended 1 minute.

Blended 3 minutes, starting to thicken.

Blended 5 minutes, butter starting to curdle.

Blended 10 minutes, butter and buttermilk separate.

Line a colander with cheesecloth and pour blender contents into colander, let sit for a few minutes to drain.

Squeeze out excess water.

Here's what you're left with.

Dump ball of butter into cold water and let float for a minute or two.

Put back into cheesecloth and drain some more, squeezing out as much liquid as possible.

Add ice to water and float again. The longer your let it sit in cold water, the firmer it gets and the easier to do the next step.

Squeeze excess liquid out, the more you squeeze out, the firmer the butter and the less chance of rancidity. I ended up splitting mine in half because it was such a big chunk, squeezing one chunk and then the other.

The butter mountain.

Buttermilk on the left, butter on the right.

If you want to add it you can add sea salt after your butter is squeezed but you don't have to. I added some to mine as I'll be using it for cooking. And that's it. Voila! Butter....

Substitution Saturday

2010-01-30T11:44:00.002-05:00

Need a substitute for something in your diet that's healthier or considered more of a whole food? Let's see if I can help and come up with alternatives for you (and for me and my household). I was recently flipping through a book by Marilu Henner to see what she has to say. From what I read I don't agree with about half the stuff she says in this book but there are a few areas that are good resources. The chapter on sugars was particularly of interest to me because I have a hard time figuring out how to substitute specific sugars for other sugars. I thought I'd share what she says in that chapter...if you want to read more I'd go out and get her book from the library before purchasing it. You may love it, you may hate it or you may be somewhere in between like me. These are all for sugar alternatives so when a recipe calls for "sugar" these can be used instead in place of 1 cup of white sugar.

Honey - substitute 2/3 to 3/4 cup - reduce liquid by 1/8 to 1/4 cup - add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of honey - reduce temperature by 25 degrees and adjust baking time

Maple sugar - substitute 1 cup - add 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of maple sugar

Maple syrup - substitute 3/4 to 1 cup - reduce liquid by 1/8 to 1/4 cup - add 1/4 teaspoon of bakinb soda per cup of maple syrup

Barley malt - substitute 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups - add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of barley malt - buy only 100% barley malt

Brown rice syrup - substitute 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups - reduce liquid by 1/4 cup per cup brown rice syrup - add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per cup brown rice syrup - tends to make baked goods hard and crisp, add with another sweetener such as maple for cakes

Fruit juice concentrate - 2/3 cup - reduce liquid 1/3 cup per cup of fruit sweetener - add 1/4 teaspoon or baking soda per cup fruit juice concentrate - reduce temperature by 25 degrees

Molasses - substitute 1/2 cup

Date sugar - substitute 1 cup - add hot water to dissolve date sugar before using, make sure to buy unsulphured, organically grown

Sucanat or Rapadura - substitute 1 cup

Stevia - substitute 1 teaspoon

The efficient household, part 1

2010-01-27T14:07:00.004-05:00

I've been thinking about our household routine. I'm in the process of changing up my routine for cleaning, cooking, etc. etc. etc. because of doing daycare for my niece and nephew. I was doing everything on Mondays but I think I'm going to switch it to Fridays. I wanted to share our routine with you in case you need some ideas and so I can make sure I'm remembering everything.

Daily Routine:
- maintain a clean kitchen
- pick up toys at the end of the day
- make beds
- clean up bathroom after showers, etc.
- pick up clutter in rooms that have alot of traffic
- meal prep and clean up after each of those times during the day

Weekly Routine:
- menu plan - Thursday
- grocery shop - Friday or Saturday
- laundry, bathroom cleaning, sweeping (kitchen and carpets), dusting - Friday, finish anything that didn't get done Saturday
- menu prep - anything that has a few steps to do that I can make ahead from the menu - Saturday
- clean up basement - no particular day for this

Monthly Routine:
- deep clean any nooks and crannies
- wipe down cabinets
- clean out cabinets and pantry
- wipe down refrigerator
- mop kitchen floor - no I do not do this every week; we have a dog and four kids in and out of our house a few days a week and it's pointless to do it that often, hehehe
- sweep basement
- sort through and put away any clothes the kids have outgrown
- sprinkle baking soda on carpets and then sweep up to remove any smells (dogs and kids again)
- clean off refrigerator and any magnet/paper clutter that's accumulated
- clean out the "junk" basket on top of the fridge and put items away
- disinfect countertops, tables and any other hard surfaces that will tolerate vinegar
- disinfect trash can (because it stinks if I don't do this)
- clean stovetop and inside of oven

Bi-Yearly or Yearly Routine:
- clean windows inside and out
- clean mini blinds
- wash, dry, iron and re-hang curtains/valances
- clean out basement storage area
- clean out basement back room and re-organize
- move furniture around and sweep in/under all furniture
- take inventory of garden supplies for each time of year as well as canning/preserving supplies
- clean out deep freeze and freezer and use anything that needs to be used up
- disinfectant mattresses with vinegar and drag outside in hot sun to disinfect further
- disinfect pillows with vinegar and lay outside in hot sun to disinfect further

I'm sure I'm missing some things that I'll add as I think of them but that should do it for now.

Ahh sugar......ahh honey honey

2010-01-26T20:28:00.003-05:00

Mmm sugar...isn't it soothing? It tastes so good, it gives us a pick me up, it makes us feel euphoric...until we've had enough and then we crash and burn, feel sick to our stomachs and want to vomit up everything we've consumed. Ask me how I know:

Hi, my name is Emily and I'm a recovering sugar addict. I have, for a very long time, consumed any and all sugars that I want. It just tastes so good and it makes me feel good. You know how it is. You have a bad day and sugar just calls your name. You're feeling tired and man to have a Coke or a Snickers or a bag of Smarties...doesn't that send your senses a'crazy?

I'm here to tell you that breaking the habit is doable AND your body will thank you. Since I've been on this journey to eat better I've been cutting out sugar and mostly all processed foods. I can now officially say that my body is purged from my addiction to sugar. Now when I eat it I feel sick to my stomach and get a headache. I still eat "better" sugars in moderation but don't consume nearly as much as I used to. Thank you body for telling me what you can handle!

So I wanted to do a post about sugar alternatives, things that will mimic processed sugars but that are slightly better for you (or alot better for you); things that you can go to when you're feeling you need that rush or that high or that boost. Not in any particular order of healthiest for you or not but here we go...

- berries!
- carrots
- raw, local honey - if you're feeling the need for a punch of energy, take a tablespoon of this yummy stuff and it'll knock the edge off your sleepiness
- bananas
- cranberries
- pomegranate juice - freshly squeezed/juiced is best; it'll knock your sugar tooth right out
- apple with some peanut butter
- a bowl of homemade granola with yogurt or raw milk
- smoothie with freshly juiced fruit and veggie juices and honey
- homemade granola bars
- freshly baked whole grain bread with butter
- baked sweet potato fries with homemade honey mustard

And the list can go on. Those are just some ideas to get you started. Start trying to replace a refined sugar (candy bar, pop/soda, candy) with a wholesome sugary food. You just might be able to kick the habit.

Hummus - working on irresistible

2010-01-25T15:51:00.003-05:00

I've been making hummus for a few weeks now (or months?). I haven't found a recipe that's irresistible. The reason I'm looking for an irresistible recipe is because my kids would be more likely to eat it. They love the store bought hummus that we get and I haven't been able to imitate it. I've been tweaking and adding ingredients and finally had a break through last night. I think this one will stick for awhile. I wanted to share it...

1 cup dry chick peas (garbanzo beans)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4-6 cups filtered water

2 tablespoons sesame Tahini
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
20 cloves of pickled garlic (recipe from Nourishing Traditions cookbook)
1-2 tablespoons sea salt (very important!)
1-2 avocados - smashed or cut into small pieces
1-2 tablespoons oil (olive, sesame or peanut)

Pour chick peas into a glass bowl and fill bowl with water, stirring in lemon juice. Let sit overnight or 24 hours on counter. Drain beans and cook in crock pot on low for 8-12 hours. Drain. Combine cooked chick peas and remaining ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy with vegetables, chips or pretzel sticks...or homemade pitas!

This received rave reviews today. I made a 4 cup bowl of this and it's half way gone. My kids inhaled it. I think next week I'll try it with spinach in addition to everything else. If you don't care for garlic you can go lighter on the garlic. Mmm...

Traditional foods commitments

2010-01-24T15:31:00.010-05:00

Over the last few weeks I've been working on being more efficient in my cooking and preparing of foods. I will admit that there are some days I don't like to spend much time in the kitchen, not because I don't enjoy it, but because there are so many other things pulling at me that need to get done. To be more efficient I've been working on figuring out a schedule of sorts for shopping ideas. I currently do my grocery "shopping" at five different places, two farms, a fruit market, a food co-op and a big-name supermarket. I really would like to not have to go to the big name supermarket but so far there are things that I'm still using that I can't find at the other places. I think I'll be able to find most dry things that I use (wheat berries, beans, rice, cornmeal, etc.) through the food co-op but I need to sit down and search through their catalog again to figure out which ones I want. Some of the things I'd like to try first before buying in bulk. Other things I already have my list going of bulk items to purchase from there.

I'm hoping that sometime in the next few months I can get some sort of regular schedule worked out on when to go to each respective place instead of feeling like I'm running here, there and everywhere all the time to get everything we need. To become more efficient and to save time and money (gas money that is), I've started working on a kitchen staples list. This list is different than my staples previously as I've cut out most processed things (and hope to eventually cut out 98% of processed things). I think once we get our bulk chicken order in and our beef order in it will cut down on the hairy-carey feeling as well. I won't have to take into consideration what meat we need for the week. I currently go to RSF to get my meats and when I'm there stock up on eggs. I can get eggs from the local fruit market, farm fresh from local farms so even on the weeks I don't want to run out to RSF I can head up to the fruit market that's about five minutes from our house to still get good quality eggs. I do milk pickup every third week so I'm trying to figure the following into that rotation - butter, yogurt, and ground beef. Our fruit market has some organic fruits and veggies but not a wide selection so I get what I can there (when I'm there for eggs) and then get the rest at the big-name supermarket. The fruit market also has some dried items that the big-name supermarket doesn't have (organic dried coconut, raw seeds). During the spring/summer/fall it will be easier not to shop at said big-name supermarket because of our veggie CSA and a farm right down the street that has a vegetable stand during growing season.

Shopping schedule:
*DJF - milk pickup every third week - butter, yogurt, ground beef to last us three weeks until next pickup
*RSF - out of rotation for milk pickup week but on the off weeks from milk pickup - eggs, beef, chicken, sausage, bacon (or to figure out what I can buy in bulk to put in the freezer so I only have to go there once or twice a month)
*PFM - fruit market weekly for locally grown organic vegetables (small selection) and on milk pickup weeks for eggs, hummus and local salsa, select dry organic items (coconut, seeds, etc.)
*Big-name supermarket - weekly for organic vegetables and fruits and any items I can't find at PFM
*Food co-op - every third month order of bulk items including dried items to stock up on so that I don't have to get them at PFM

Sticking with traditional foods is a commitment in that it takes more time to not only create my menu plan and shop but also to figure out where and when I'll get each item. I keep telling myself "I'm committed, I'm committed" because sometimes it's frustrating feeling like I don't have everything I need at the time I need it.

Kitchen Staples - weekly or every other week
Eggs - 3-4 dozen a week
Milk - 2 gallons a week (our pickup turn every three weeks)
Yogurt - 1-2 quarts a week to be picked up on our milk turn
Butter - still trying to figure out how much we need per week
Hummus - trying to find a good recipe so I don't have to think about adding this to the grocery list
Peanut butter - freshly ground and/or organic
Organic produce - vegetables and fruits
Meats - chicken, ground beef, roasts, stew meat, bacon, sausage
Cheese - 1-2 pounds a week (yep we love cheese in our house)

Kitchen staples - monthly or every few months
Raw, local honey (a different farm than above)
Grain berries - wheat, rye, etc.
Flour/sugar (sucanat/rapadura)/brown sugar
Cooking items - cocoa, baking powder, baking soda
Dried beans
Rice
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Sesame seeds
Dried elderberries
Raisins
Coconut oil
Pretzels - still buy store bought
Cooking oils
Spices, extracts
Oats
Cheerios - still buy store bought
Blue corn tortilla chips - still buy store bought
Beets for beet kvass - make this every few weeks

I'll add more things as I think of them.

I often hear people comment about the money involved in switching over to more wholesome, traditional foods. If you do your menu plan and budget wisely it can be as cost effective as eating "cheaper" more processed foods. It's "cheaper" in the short term but in the long term, what are you doing to your health? What costs are you going to have to pay later on for not having a healthy body? What costs are you paying out to healthcare to provide you with medications to treat symptoms of diseases and conditions that some, possibly all, could be prevented by eating better foods?

If you're trying or hoping to change over to traditional foods you ARE going to have to make some commitments.
- A commitment to plan out your menus
- A commitment to plan out your grocery trips, where you'll shop, what you'll buy
- A commitment to stick to your plan when those convenience foods are calling your name in the store
- A commitment to being willing to shop alternative sources instead of supermarkets
- A commitment to being willing to spend more time prepping, making, and cleaning up
- A commitment to stocking up on better, healthier foods rather than convenience foods that are easy to grab

Yes, it seems like a bigger commitment NOW but your body will thank you LATER. Cheap food is easier NOW but what will your body do to you LATER?

Are you ready to commit to providing your body with healthier food sources so it can function at its optimal level? It takes time but I'm going to venture to guess your body will appreciate you for your commitment to treating it to wholesome foods!

Spring is in the air...

2010-01-20T22:00:00.006-05:00

...well at least in my kitchen. I've been really irritated lately with the lack of counter space and work space in my kitchen. With doing more raw foods, more traditional foods and less processed foods I'm doing more prep and spending more time in the kitchen. By making smoothies each day I use two appliances regularly - my juicer and blender. Each has a few parts that have to be taken apart and washed and then I lay them out to get a good drying before putting them back together. With those things, it takes up a good amount of my hardly existent counter space. This leaves me to resort to using the kitchen table and/or shuffling things around constantly. I've been trying to think of a way to better suit my kitchen needs. I've also been really annoyed with the refrigerator because it just felt crammed and full and like I couldn't find anything. I expressed my annoyance yesterday after spending a lengthy amount of time in the kitchen shuffling things here and there while I was trying to clean up. The fireman told me that it's not going to change anytime soon (financially we can't afford to either A) gut the entire kitchen to make more space or B) move to a new house with a bigger kitchen...which would be silly at this point anyway). I decided to make do with what I have. Now don't get me wrong, I'm extremely blessed to have food in my fridge and pantry and have a kitchen with utensils to work in...I'm not complaining about those blessings at all. I just feel like I would be more efficient in a better organized kitchen.

My kitchen is pretty organized but I just feel like it needs something to make it more efficient. I decided just to start cleaning and pulling things out of cabinets to see what I could move elsewhere or move around or to the basement. I moved three large appliances downstairs to the storage space - my bread machine, my stand mixer, and my 18 quart ginormous roaster). That created space in two of my storage cabinets in the kitchen. I moved my crockpots to the floor which were taking up space on shelving in the pantry and moved my stoneware to those shelves along with some glass baking dishes which were taking up space in another cabinet and another closet. I then cleaned out the cabinet where the baking dishes were so that I don't have to remove half of its contents anytime I need to get to something in the back. I have an entire empty shelf in the other closet waiting to have something put on it...but for now I'm enjoying the emptiness and brainstorming what to do with it. I also cleaned out my herb cabinet so that it's a little more organized and I know exactly what's in there. I cleaned out some cups and I'm going to get rid of some that aren't being used. I also cleaned out the drawers and took some things that I only use occasionally down to the basement.

I feel GREAT after getting all this done. I felt like spring was here and it was time for spring cleaning. I feel organized and like I had more space and that I could work more efficiently in the kitchen. It's amazing what a little cleaning and moving around can do. Wanna see before and after pics?

The fridge before the clean:

The fridge after the clean:

Pantry before the clean:
Pantry after the clean:

Herb cabinet before the clean:

Herb cabinet after the clean (hopefully soon will have more essential oils on the bottom row!):
Feels good doesn't it?

My Birthday Wish List

2010-01-20T14:12:00.004-05:00

My birthday is coming up here in a few weeks...and it's a big one. I thought about asking for nothing...then decided that I only have this birthday one time in my life so I may as well ask for a few things I want and a few things I need. Here's the list for your viewing pleasure:

- Brother label maker - yes I'm a dork that likes to label everything in my house; this would make my life easier so I don't have to print it out on computer paper and then use shipping tape to attach all my labels

- 4-5 pair of stretchy/fold over yoga pants similar to this but not necessarily this brand

- 4-5 active tanks similar to this

- Chi flat iron

- Family Grain mill - electric base, hand crank base, grain mill and flaker

That's all...I would be a happy girl if I got one of those even...

The next step - 100% Locavore

2010-01-17T21:09:00.004-05:00

Boy I'm chatty today...lots on my mind I guess. I blogged a little bit ago about what traditional foods are. In that blog post I mentioned that we have a ways to go in certain things in our diets and lifestyle. I'm reading a book titled Full Moon Feast. I can't remember exactly where I heard this title but I'm thinking it was referenced on a blog or in a book that I've read recently. I decided to get it from the library. When I first started reading it I was just "eh" about the first few pages. The more I get into it, though, the more I'm enjoying it. I really like the way she writes. She uses quotes from other authors and refers to Weston A. Price throughout the book. The book is basically about eating traditional foods and doing so based on the season. The book talks about how through doing this, community is built with working together and working with your environment and your local available foods. I really like how she writes...did I mention that already?

So the one thing that's standing out to me right now that I'd like to change is that I'd like to eat more local to the season. That will be hard as we don't have citrus plants here and in the winter really don't have much of anything in the way of vegetables. I want to learn how to do a root cellar so I can eventually save potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions, leeks, and things of that type. I'm planning on drying my herbs this year as they grow and are ready to be cut (and what I don't use for cooking). Also, since reading Wild Fermentation, I feel motivated to learn how to ferment more vegetables in order to store them through the winter months.

I'm hopeful that sometime in the next five years I'll be able to convert us over to eating all locally grown foods. I would really like to not have to go to the supermarket at all but need to learn how to better use the resources (read: farms) around here so that I can make that a reality. For my own sake, here's what I buy locally right now from farms:

DJF - milk, yogurt, butter, cow share
RSF - eggs, frozen beef, chicken, pork products (bacon, sausage, ham, lard)
GHF - veggies from their farm cart in the spring/summer/fall, apples?
GKF - vegetable CSA in the summer
my backyard - small vegetable garden this year but hopefully by 2013 I'll be growing all of our vegetables
SBNF - bulk grains, seeds, nuts, beans, cooking items like baking powder, cocoa powder, etc.

So what does that leave?

Fruits
I need to find a local, organically grown source for apples, peaches, cherries, blueberries (until mine fruit), strawberries (if mine don't produce enough), raspberries (if mine don't produce enough), and pears.

Cheese
I need to buy some cheese culturing items and try out some raw cheese. I buy it from the store right now. There's a place that's about 45 minutes from our house that makes their own cheese from grass fed cows using their raw milk. I need to try them out to see if it's good and if so maybe I'll just start ordering mass quantities of cheese from them...though I'd need to get a bigger fridge. I'm hoping to make my own and if that works I'll just increase our milk share to three shares and make our cheese.

So we have proteins/meats covered, grains/beans covered, fruits/veggies covered, dairy covered and miscellaneous cooking items. I don't think I'm missing anything else am I? So if I can find a local source for cheese (or make my own) and a local source for fruits and get on the ball with canning, freezing and fermenting, maybe I can even be completely local by the end of this year? That's so exciting! That's the next big step in my quest for a healthier, more simple lifestyle...

What are traditional foods?

2010-01-17T13:52:00.003-05:00

If you're following along you've noticed my transition in thinking and cooking and shopping over the last year. I've slowly been moving us toward a more natural, organic, wholesome diet which can also be defined as a traditional foods diet. I started this journey without knowing about Weston A. Price and Nourishing Traditions. I started stumbling upon resource after resource that mentioned these things. The more I read, the more books I find, the more I'm referred back to Weston A. Price. I would say that I'm an avid WAP follower. I believe strongly in certain things being in our diets for certain reasons. I've made quite a few changes but there are still quite a few things in our lives and diets that need to be converted over to traditional foods.

I've mentioned before how I'm noticing a difference in how I feel with the change in my diet. A few people have asked how I changed, what I changed and why I changed what we're eating. I'll start with why. The more I read and the more I see about the way the earth is treated by consumerism and mass industrialization of food, the more I feel the pull to get back to basics. I'm not sure where my motivation to do this came from but I feel strongly that I need to be a good steward of the earth God has placed me on and blessed me with. It's not about being a treehugger or being involved in the social movement of greenpeace, it's about being responsible personally for the things I use, how I use them and where I get them.

With the transition to being less materialistic in our thinking, the transition to be better stewards of the earth and the food we put into our body came along. The Bible talks about how our bodies are the temple of God...

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body,"

I believe that I should be treating my body like the temple of God. My efforts to change our food and diets over to a healthier way of eating go along with my convictions to treat my body as a temple.

So what did I change? My goal is pretty much...well...everything. I've changed our eggs over to free range, antibiotic and hormone free eggs, our milk over to grass fed/pastured, raw milk, our meat over to antibiotic free and hormone free, grass fed meats, our fruits and vegetables over to organic and the list goes on. My goal is to either buy or grow everything locally, meaning within 100 miles or closer to our home. I currently buy our dairy products from one farm and our meat products from another. I haven't found a good source for organic produce in the wintertime so I'm still using the regular grocery store or fruit market for that. During the summer months I'll be growing some and have also joined a CSA for a local farm. These changes are things that I feel are important to help our bodies function to the best of their abilities. With the right nutrition and healthier foods, our bodies will respond better to the foods we're eating, we'll feel better, and we'll be able to live a more full, healthier life.

So how did I change? It's been a process for sure but mostly just started taking things out of our diets and replacing them with healthier options. If you're looking for a good way to transition your life, here's a great list to follow. Because I love this list so much, I'm going to copy it here on my blog. I got this of the WAPF site.

Dietary Guidelines

Eat whole, natural foods.
Eat only foods that will spoil, but eat them before they do.
Eat naturally-raised meat including fish, seafood, poultry, beef, lamb, game, organ meats and eggs.
Eat whole, naturally-produced milk products from pasture-fed cows, preferably raw and/or fermented, such as whole yogurt, cultured butter, whole cheeses and fresh and sour cream.
Use only traditional fats and oils including butter and other animal fats, extra virgin olive oil, expeller expressed sesame and flax oil and the tropical oils—coconut and palm.
Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, in salads and soups, or lightly steamed.
Use whole grains and nuts that have been prepared by soaking, sprouting or sour leavening to neutralize phytic acid and other anti-nutrients.
Include enzyme-enhanced lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages and condiments in your diet on a regular basis.
Prepare homemade meat stocks from the bones of chicken, beef, lamb or fish and use liberally in soups and sauces.
Use herb teas and coffee substitutes in moderation.
Use filtered water for cooking and drinking.
Use unrefined Celtic seasalt and a variety of herbs and spices for food interest and appetite stimulation.
Make your own salad dressing using raw vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and expeller expressed flax oil.
Use natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw honey, maple syrup, dehydrated cane sugar juice and stevia powder.
Use only unpasteurized wine or beer in strict moderation with meals.
Cook only in stainless steel, cast iron, glass or good quality enamel.
Use only natural supplements.
Get plenty of sleep, exercise and natural light.
Think positive thoughts and minimize stress.
Practice forgiveness.

So is it doable for you? I don't know...I think it's a journey and a decision that only YOU can make. I will say that I feel much better in all aspects of my being so I would encourage you to at least try it out. I've really enjoyed cooking and eating traditional foods and feel so much better about feeding my family in this way than how we previously ate...and it really doesn't cost anything more...except for the time it takes me to sit down and make sure our menu is written out and our grocery list is written out so that I make wiser choices at the grocery instead of buying convenience items. It's a commitment but one that is going to change our lives and our health. I'm excited to continue on this journey!

Smoothie of the Day

2010-01-16T13:02:00.001-05:00

1 organic kale leaf
2 organic carrots, greens attached if you like
1 organic apple
1 cup organic cranberries
1 heaping tablespoon good quality Brewer's yeast
2 tablespoons raw honey
1-2 tablespoons organic coconut oil
1 cup ice

Juice fruits and veggies in juicer and pour juice into blender. Add remaining ingredients and blend until well incorporated (ha, there's that word again).

This was a good smoothie. I think the Brewer's yeast is too strong for my liking in taste. I'm going to see if I can add it to bread or cookies or something instead of my smoothies. I just don't care for the taste of it while I'm drinking.

Smoothie of the Day

2010-01-15T15:06:00.002-05:00

This one was a little too thick for me. Next time around I think I'll just do yogurt OR milk and then the juice.

1 organic apple
3 organic carrots, with greens attached if you like
1 cup raw milk
1/2 cup raw milk yogurt
1 cup organic blueberries - mine were frozen but you could use fresh
2 tablespoons raw honey
1 heaping tablespoon good quality Brewer's yeast
1 cup ice cubes

Juice apple and carrots. Add to blender with remaining ingredients and blend until well incorporated (I always think it's funny to hear recipes say this so here I am saying it). Very yummy but much too thick for my liking!