Habits and Rhythm to our Days

    I am going to start off by confessing I am by no means perfect nor have I "arrived". But I can tell you that I have grown and learned a lot on this journey of motherhood. Also MY way may not be your way but I hope to inspire you to always move forward from where you are in life. I have been homeschooling for almost 16 years. We have only lived in 2 homes in that time but they are very different in layout and function. Over the years I have learned how to best manage my time and my resources to make for easier days. We do not have a set schedule but we do have a calendar so we can record appointments, field trips, and seasonal things we need to accomplish. Most days we have a list to accomplish... some days it is simply the farm chores and other days it is tasks to work towards finishing a bigger project. Every time I struggled with an area as a mom I made a point to either embrace that season of life(if it couldn't be changed) or to find a better way to make things flow. Almost always did it start with ME learning a new habit that I then would teach to my children.
    I don't know about you but when I became a mom I quickly realized I better come up with a sane solution to "stuff" or I would quickly drown in it in a few years. So I first started down the "organize everything into bins" phase and "pass it on to other mommies" phase. After many years I realized that there is a better way... enter the journey into minimalism. By first glance I do not look like I manage a minimalist home but if you peel back the layers you will start to see... or not see certain items. I first make sure many things don't even enter my home and then I make sure that if it does enter it has a purpose or we find it worthy of taking up space. Watch Story of Stuff with your family and decide for yourself if this is a journey for your family. I can tell you that the less stuff you have the less stuff you have to maintain, clean, and find homes for. Keeping toys to a minimum also helps children complete their tasks of cleaning up and taking care of their belongings.
    Chores are a wonderful way to introduce your children to a solid work ethic. I never want my kids to just sit on the couch and depend on everyone else to DO for them when they can do for themselves. So even when they are little we teach them how to put toys back in baskets, how to make a bed, take care of personal hygiene, and care for a pet. As they grow their tasks grow as well. This is so very important for many reasons. They learn to take care of themselves and take responsibility for the material items they own. They also can be helpful to someone who is elderly, a neighbor, or someone in need including yourself when you get sick. My own children have learned how to cook, clean, organize, and manage their days. We also keep things kid safe with homemade cleaning supplies and Norwex clothes which just use water to clean.
    Meal planning has become very important to smooth days. I try to keep it very simple by keeping our meals simple and making many recipes twice. We shop every two weeks and often repeat a meal a second time the following week. Ours meals are mostly Paleo recipes using whole foods. Our grocery list is half vegetables, a few fruits, pasture raised meats, good fats, and some nuts. I meal prep on a Sunday afternoon which is essential for me to use up my groceries in a timely manner. I chop vegetables, marinate meats, mix up meatloaf or breakfast patties. Twice a year I mix up some "box" mixes for my teens or for when we have guests over. These DIY mixes in mason jars are for desserts, quick breads, muffins, or breakfast items for special occasions made with mostly organic ingredients. Recipes can be found for these and many other DIY recipes(cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc) in the book and site called Little House Living.  As children grow and learn safety they can help you in the kitchen. You can have a special day for making bread, mixing up baked oatmeal, trail mix for snacks, or dip for fruits and veggies. A few favorite sites for quick meals the Stone Soup and Paleo Hacks.
    We also keep our homeschooling minimalist so we can fill our day with practical learning. We find curriculum or ways to learn a subject that is simple and straight forward. We mostly follow a Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling. One of my favorite sites that talks more about keeping a simple homeschool is Salty Tribe. Our days flow naturally with appreciation of scripture, nature, music, art, and good literature. It fills our cup up.
    Lastly some tips on "mother culture". Mother culture is cultivating YOUR soul so you can tend to those of your children. Don't loose yourself when you become a mom. They will find you more interesting if you have passions and good habits of your own. Embrace you, your talents, your heritage, and your passions. These things will feed your soul. Sometimes we do go through seasons that make certain things hard; like exercise, morning devotions, or hobbies that may be dangerous to little ones. But never loose it, always return to it or learn ways to cultivate with little ones in your presence. Over the years I have gone on scrapbook/creative weekends with friends, I learned to knit and crochet, took a quilting class and set time aside to sew at home. I block out a few hours a month for a meeting or coffee with a friend. I also make sure I get enough sleep, use an app to track my water intake, and exercise a few times a week. My husband and I plan a date night once a month. The last one we stayed home and he made dinner. Other times we have gone for a hike, stargazed, or worked side by side on the farm. This year we will use some of that time to can vegetables and work on our new bedroom/sanctuary.
    Next post I will give you some practically tips on the day to day for us; but for now....
    What does your family do to make the rhythm of the day or season flow? How do you cultivate new healthy habits? If you have questions please comment!

Stocking a Living Pantry

    Definition of a living pantry- a pantry of items you stock that you normally use throughout the year to make meals, cleaning products, medicinals and toiletries. NOT items that you never eat but store for the sole purpose of emergency situations. 

    Stocking a living pantry these days might not sound as important as 100 years ago but I am finding that the quality of our food is making it very important to us to do so. In my great grandparents day there was no need for organics or reading labels... researching a company to find out the purity of a product because we can't trust the forces in charge to protect us wasn't needed then. Really? Sadly yes, the laws allow way too much. After reading some of the laws um I think I will make my food supply a priority! I know it sounds like a lot of work but is't food one of the most important health giving or taking away parts of your whole life? When you read that 80% of olive oil here in US is adulterated with rancid vegetable oil and honey is adulterated with corn syrup.... so much for switching to healthy alternatives and paying more to boot. So for us it is a big part of this abundant life we are trying to live.
    You may ask how to switch to better products and get the real deal? Your best bet is to go local and go small. The smaller local companies have better control of how and what goes into their products. I love supporting my local farms. So we buy or barter for local maple syrup, honey, produce and meats we don't grow ourselves. We grow some of our own herbs, some vegetables, chickens, eggs, some fruit and some nuts. Over many years we switched to mostly homemade items like granola, dairy products, condiments, sauces, canned fruits, pantry mixes, pickles, ferments, and herb mixes. If you think you can't do this where you live I encourage you to read the book "The Urban Farmer Handbook" for inspiration. These things are learned over time not overnight, switch slowly. When we can't get local we try to buy from small companies in bulk from the source. Like olive oil in a gallon tin from Greece or California. Tip-they will print harvest date on can and not just an expiration date 
    So lets get down to business with this pantry stocking. First write down about 30 of the most common meals you make throughout the year. If they are from mostly processed foods then look into how to change the recipes to a homemade version to cut down on chemical preservatives and increase the quality of the meal. Tip- to make things more convenient many meals can be prepped ahead, frozen to be used on busy days or to be thrown in a crock pot. I have just made 25 meals in 5 hours this weekend that I threw in the freezer. For inspiration, recipes and grocery lists check here. As a family we will make up 6 jars each of convenient mixes like seasonings, pancake mix, cookies, cake, soup mix or trail mix. These are treats but it makes it simple to use one as a gift or have the teens make a dessert when company comes over. So after we have our meals written down we look at the list of ingredients needed. Write this up on a grocery list so you can see how much is needed of each item... like 10 onions, 5 lbs carrots, 10 lbs chicken, etc. Now you can easily see how much food your family eats in a year by multiplying this by 12! You may vary your meals with the seasons but I found that families gravitate towards similar base ingredients throughout the year. Example- our family uses jasmine rice, wild rice, rolled oats, buckwheat groats, navy beans, honey, maple syrup, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, sea salt, herbs, spices, apple cider vinegar and certain oils throughout the year. After I wrote this out for breakfast and lunches too I could start to see how many pounds of rice, oats, nuts, etc. I would use as the months rolled by. That made it easy to justify buying certain items that keep in bulk. After a year I could be pretty certain that I would use a 25 lb bag of rice and 50 lbs of oats(getting them cheaper by the pound).
    Here are the categories you may use to write up a master list for your family- whole grains(rice, oats, quinoa, groats, etc.), beans/legumes(lentils, beans or peas), nuts/seeds/dried fruits, fats/oils(coconut, palm, olive oil, avocado,etc), vinegars, sweeteners(honey, maple syrup raw sugar), condiments/canned goods(mustard, relish, hot sauce, tomato products, canned fish, pickles, jam, nut butters, etc.), dried goods(baking ingredients, seasonings, cacao powder, teas, coffee, diy mixes), dairy/dairy alternative products, cold storage vegetables if you have the room or conditions(potatoes, apples, carrots, onions, garlic, winter squashes, sweet potatoes, etc.), freezer items(fruits picked in season, vegetables, meats, prepared meals, etc.), natural medicinal and cleaning product supplies(herbs, homeopathics, essential oils, butters, clays, beeswax, soaps, etc.) I make a master list that I can check or write prices on as I stock up. I shop every two weeks and try to buy one bulk items to replenish my stock. It varies as the seasons change. I buy maple syrup, olive oil and honey after it has been harvested that year.
    Now for storing all those items! I have a small kitchen that I stock two cabinets with bulk items in glass jars to use on a weekly basis. The jars range from gallon, half gallon and quarts depending on how often I use that item. Seasoning are in pint jars in a drawer. Other bulk items are kept in our basement in six 5 gallon buckets with Gamma lids. If I buy a 25 or 50 pound bag items I will often break that down to 5 or 10 pound increments in mylar bags that I seal with a iron. They get stacked in the 5 gallon bucket for storage. Most bulk items get used or rotated through in a year. Some items are kept longer if it is suitable to do so. Canned items are kept on a shelving unit in basement and next to that is two upright freezers stocked with meats and prepared meals. Once or twice a year I make up cleaning products and toiletries. Medicinal items are made in the season prior to the season they are needed in so they are fresh but ready to go. Example-elderberry syrup, vapor rub and cold kicker are made in September, sunscreen, deodorant and bug spray are made in May. 
    KEEP IT SIMPLE! Say your family doesn't often get sick then it may be silly for you to make 10 different items for cold season. Think about YOUR situation and what would be worth your time and money to invest in.
   Some of our favorite mixes-
Ranch dressing mix
Copy Cat Rice-a-Roni made with gluten free pasta
vegan meals in jars
jambalaya mix(except we add the broth later instead of using bouillon)
vanilla extract
LOADS of diy mixes
gluten free baking mix

Canning through the seasons

   

    Canning season is slowly... slowly coming to an end. This year has been a crazy canning year from June till now. When a "blessing becomes a weight" should be the title of this years canning season.... yes I will feel differently this winter when I am enjoying it all. It is hard to say no to free food but it is hard to deal with when it all needs to be eaten or preserved in a short amount of time. Um, especially with a toddler helping! Freezing wasn't an option this year as our freezers are full of the extra chicken we raised. So now on the other side of the canning season I can look back to evaluate how things went and give you my tips and recipes.
    Anytime you are spending time preserving the harvest or preparing larger quantities of food it is best to make a plan. I write a list of supplies, make sure I have a meal in the crock pot and make sure my area/tools are all clean. It is also good to evaluate whether you have enough supplies like jars, lids or freezer bags/containers before you start. Once everything is ready we start the process of turning abundant produce into lovely little treats/meals to enjoy over the winter or to give as gifts.
    As a family that is trying to lessen our dependency on certain items like sugar and thickeners I tend to choose the simplest recipes. Sometimes though we will pick a tried and true recipe that contains a lot of sugar with the knowledge that we will only be eating small amounts of it. It is a balancing act. Example- we make homemade yogurt with no sweetener but then when we eat it we add a little of our fruit preserves to the top for flavor and sweetness. It is also good on unsweetened oatmeal. Trying to be completely sugar free is hard when you preserve items through canning. I found some things like tomato sauce and apple sauce do not need sugar so I never add it. I just make sure I have a mix of different kinds to get a balance of flavor. No matter what; I control what goes into all the things I make homemade so I also control the quality of the ingredients.

A seasonal calendar would be helpful.

Some recipes to inspire you:
Forsythia Dandelion Jelly!
Pickled asparagus
Honey sweetened strawberry limeade
Blueberry Maple Pecan Conserve... our favorite!
Pickled garlic scapes(tops of garlic plants)
Pickled green beans
Candied jalapenos aka cowboy candy
Easy grape juice canning
Banana Foster butter is to die for over yogurt or ice cream
Foraged Autumn Olive made into jam
A healthier apple pie filling
Applesauce blends with other fruits!
Using up those green tomatoes
We canned a lot more then this like tomato sauce, pepper relish, fruits, apple butter, salsas and more. We learned how to pressure can to add carrots, green beans, broths, dried beans and ready made meals.

Best canning shelf I have seen
One of the best canning dvds I have watched with both pressure canning and water bath canning

Next posts I will share stocking the pantry with jar mixes for easier home cooking and ferments through the seasons!

What's in your garden?

 

 I know I haven't posted in a month but I was very busy planting! I think growing things should be on everyones list to do. Why you ask? Because groceries aren't getting any cheaper, food is getting scarier(do you know what is in your food?) and it is a miracle every time something grows. I like food security so I do what I can here on my little farm.
    Some folks ask how do you decide what to plant?
Well I first look at what my family eats and uses medicianlly. I made a list of all the foods and herbs I can grow here in my climate without a fancy greenhouse. If you don't use herbs yet but would like to try to grow them and learn to use them... here is my list of where I think most families should start.

Family friendly herbs: (Remember to make sure you read the latin names and make sure none of these herbs are hybrids and are being cultivated for just their flowers or size but are the herbs you want to use in your home. To educate yourself about herbs, their uses, recipes and how to grow them try learningherbs.com)
Astragalus
Basil

Calendula
Chamomile
Chives
Cilantro
Dill
Echinacea
Garlic
Hyssop
Lavender
Lovage
Lemon Balm
Marjoram
Oregano
Peppermint
White Sage
Spearmint
Stevia
Thyme
Yarrow
Also learn to correctly identify chickweed, plantain, and nettle on your property or at a park. They are great herbs to learn how to use in your home.
    After herbs I make a list of vegetables and fruit we eat. Then decide what I can grow in my area. I also look to see if any of these plants come in a perennial version so I don't have to plant it every year. Some vegetables like spinach, celery, onions, and a few others have a perennial version. When this list is made I then start to find sources for all these goodies(We use Fedco, High Mowing Seeds and Seed Savers for most of our plants and seeds).
   We built raised beds for tender annuals so we won't need a rototiller and they won't get compacted from walking on them. In these boxes we plant peas, onions, carrots, lettuce, radish, beets, bush beans, tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, parsnips, and turnips. Annual herbs like cilantro, basil, calendula, nasturtiums and dill get planted with the vegetables we use them with in recipes. Calendula and nasturtiums benefits all plants so they get put everywhere there is open space. We eat the petals and flowers in salads. Square foot gardening is a great way to get the most out of this type of space.
    We do have a perennial bed that we grow rhubarb, horseradish, garlic, walking onions, Good King Henry, sorrel, lovage, parsley, and asparagus in. Next to that we have raspberries in red and black. There is also an area my husband wants to try his hand at the Three Sisters this year. This is an area that he will till and plant with corn, beans and squash interplanted.
   As we cut down old trees and bushes that are starting to die we replant with edible or medicinal trees. We like willow, apple, peach, nectarine, prune plum, pear, apricot, crab apple, elderberry, nanking cherry, hazel nuts, paw paw, witch hazel, blueberry, honeyberry, currants, gooseberry, korean pine, white pine, chestnut, rugosa rose, Slippery Elm, sugar maple, and grapes. Now you may not have room to grow all that but you can pick a few that your family might use.
    One last advice... if you remember me mentioning permaculture in my last post... this is how I fit some of these items together. It is called a guild of plants that are beneficial to each other. Say you have a small crab apple you can tuck in your backyard. Under that tree you could plant chives, a comfrey plant, alpine strawberries and maybe a couple currant bushes all within the drip line of that tree. It uses your space wisely, helps the tree gain nutrients deeper in the ground, helps fight off certain disease of that tree, provides insectary for beneficial bugs and gives a little shade to the other plants. Oh and it looks pretty! Put a little garden bench near there and you are ready to enjoy the beauty.. oh that is a relaxing benefit to you!
    If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me. I love giving advice in this area and helping others get started with a small or larger garden. I don't pretend to know it all about gardening or permaculture.... just enough to make me dangerous or inspiring depending on how you look at it.

Spring in our permaculture garden

My husband taking a break after building 10 garden boxes. 

Horseradish peaking out

Rhubarb peaking out

     Gardening can be made much easier by first studying your growing area. Now I consider myself more of a accidental gardener or maybe a more intuitive gardener if you will. I am not found of measuring soil moisture, nutrient content or ph level. I just don't think God meant for it to be that difficult to grow food.  I do however look at the area and become aware of what likes to grow in the soil naturally because this can tell you the same things all those tests can tell you without having to decipher the numbers. So how does this all apply to the kind of garden we are putting in.... a food forest hybrid garden? Well as I talked to the lady at our local ag center she was surprised by what we were doing. She asked why we wanted to do a permaculture garden, saying "that is unique." I explained that it just seemed natural to set-up a system of growing that the perennials, fruit bushes and fruit trees help each other to gain the nutrients they need and help to make them better able to fight off disease and insects. She had her doubts that I can produce enough food to do a small CSA.... so I take that as a challenge not just to prove her wrong and grow lots of food but also to educate others on the benefits all around to a food forest garden. More bees, butterflies, birds, no chemicals, flowers, less weeding, etc. 

So what is in the garden and what will go in the garden as the season progresses? 

    We put in 10 raised beds for annuals that don't need permanent planting, can be rotated through the years, need some trellising, and can be successionally planted. I didn't make them deeper because the soil underneath is really good. Using raised beds for annuals keeps the ground looser because your not walking in the bed and you don't need to buy a tiller. I also don't like using heavy equipment when I can use a hand tool or an animal to do the work for me. 

    The fencing is almost done. That is to keep my dogs and the large population of deer out of the main garden. There will be more trees and bushes outside the fence but they will be more deer and dog resistant. Some will be to give the wildlife something to share as well. Some plant/trees for outside the garden are elder berry, paw paw trees, redbud trees, wet area wildflowers for near our creek, nanking cherries, lavender bed, a perennial flower bed, hazelnut bushes(closer to the house), jerusalem artichokes, ground nuts, and in front of the house a small culinary herb garden. 

    Our soil is rich from being in the flood plane of the Schuylkill river. That sounds great but it makes for some challenges with plants that prefer poorer dryer soil like lavender and some Mediterranean herbs. We will be planting the lavender bed on a hill with good drainage, sand added and marble chips to help reflect the suns warm rays. We also picked 2 kinds that do well in our northern climate; Hidcote and Grosso. I will be using them for making herbal salves, lavender water, sachets, and bundles to sell. We won't be growing enough at this time to consider making our own essential oil.

    The plants and trees that were in the garden area have been pruned. The perennial bed that grows asparagus, horseradish, garlic and rhubarb has been cleaned up for spring. To that we will add Good King Henry a perennial spinach, Lovage(celery like), and more walking onions. In between the rows I will plant parsley to help with the health of all the plants. We may need to add more asparagus to the bed too. I will add purple asparagus to the empty spots. Around the perimeter we have 2 nectarines, 2 pears, a willow tree, and 2 hollies. We will add 4 apples trees, 2 crab apple trees, 2 peach, 1 apricot, 1 plum, clove currants, gooseberry, honey berries, raspberries and in one corner a three sister area(corn, squash and dry pole beans). Under fruit trees and berry bushes we will plant perennial herbs and plants. We ordered 75 alpine strawberries, assorted herbs like thyme, chives, borage, lemon balm, meadow mint, and comfrey. 

    There is some shade in the garden which I am hoping will provide us with some gourmet mushrooms too. Only time will tell what we will continue to grow. Also as the fruit trees grow and give more shade we will have to add a different set of plants to the mix. 

    Eventually in the actual forest we will plant ramps, goldenseal, wintergreen, ferns and some hardwood trees. They may not all take but we are going to try. 

So this may seem overwhelming to some but I challenge you to try a few edible perennials around your home. Maybe even a fruit tree and some berry bushes. It is fun to experiment and see what grows. 

Happy spring everyone! 

The Whole Foods Way

(time sensitive sale today and tomorrow- there is a wonderful whole foods living ebooks on sale with some great extras to get you started... I purchased it and am very happy with the goodies(salt and sour starter) and the books)

FYI- there are many links in this post so please hover over with your mouse to be able to see the highlighted items that you can click on for links.
    So as we wait for the calendar to clear a little to have a fall/winter potluck I will share some info here.  So my tips for making some great cold weather foods and remedies.
    First lets look at what is in season because when you are eating for nutrition with whole foods you want to be eating what is the best in season.
 Right now that is:
broccoli
brussels sprouts
cabbage
celery
cauliflower
winter greens-kale, collards, mizuna, arugula, lettuces, swiss chard, mache

Rutabaga, carrots, celeriac root(my new favorite veg) and red onion

cranberries
grapes
apples
pears
persimmons
pumpkin and winter squashes
beets
carrots
radish
parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas
citrus
sweet potatoes and potatoes
dried beans

Notice everything on the list except citrus can be grown here in our northeast climate. So if we look at this list and we are already whole foods eaters we can see what recipes would work for those ingredients. Also a note on nutrition- these are the foods we should be eating in this season that give us the nutrition we need for this time of year. I don't buy fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, or strawberries in winter. I do have some frozen/canned tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers(pickles) and strawberries(for smoothies) though, that were made when they were in season.

Some of my favorite recipes are:
Roasted vegetables( I have cut up carrots, beets, parsnips, cauliflower, broccoli, squash like Delicata, potatoes, sweet potatoes, baby turnips and brussels sprouts or any combination of the above, then mixed with a splash of walnut oil and some rosemary or parsley, roasted on stoneware or cookie sheet with an edge at 400 degrees for almost an hour, check after 45 minutes. You are looking for browned edges but not burnt)
Winter Squash or Pumpkin bisque- Roast squash and/or pumpkin in oven till tender and blend in a pot with immersion blender or in regular blender. Combine 2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth with pumpkin. Saute 1 chopped onion and 1/2c. celery in some butter till it is just starting to brown and add to broth mix. Add some chopped potatoes, sea salt, pepper, 1/2 t. thyme, and 1/2 t rosemary. Heat on medium till potatoes are done. Add 1 cup cream if you want a creamy traditional bisque. I have also served this with a dollop of sour cream sprinkled with pumpkin seeds. I have served this with a side salad and fresh bread with butter.
Apple-Walnut Salad with vinaigrette-here
Meat Pies like Shepherd's Pie(made with lamb), Cottage Pie(made with beef), Steak and Guinness Pie, Chicken Pie(I mix leftover roasted veggies with leftover meat and this homemade cream soup and top with my favorite pie crust), etc.

Soups/stews- White Chicken Chili, regular Chili, Beef Stew, Lamb Stew, Lentil Soup, Turkey Wild Rice(non-dairy), Italian Vegetable Soup, Chicken Noodle, Clam Chowder and Garden Chowder. 
    For soups and meat pies you NEED a good homemade broth. My favorite chicken one is here and beef one here. I make these up ahead of time. Each recipe I make about 4 quarts and freeze them in wide mouth mason jars... leave head room. Then I thaw in fridge over night or on counter in the morning. NEVER put in hot water because it may break the glass.

Chicken broth

Lentil Stew

    Some recipes I want to try-
Raw Carrot Beet Salad-here
Cheesy Stuffed Pumpkin-here

    Soups or meat pies served with a winter salad that contains pears or apples with a nut or seed make for a yummy lunch or dinner. The soups are warm and filling and the salads give us that crunch we miss of summer but with winter fruits. So my challenge to you is look at what is in season only and add that to your soups, stew and salads. It is cheaper in season and loaded with more nutrition. When you can find it local it hasn't traveled as far and it is usually picked ripe making it better for you and tastes better.
    So how do I get my kids to eat all this.... get them involved in the kitchen, have them taste individual ingredients, don't give them bad choices and find great recipes. I don't buy a lot of processed foods so there is no choice in our house. Yes, this did take a while to transition but we learned real quick what simple things to have on hand. We keep a stock of carrots to munch, popcorn, homemade trail mix or Lara bars(homemade), raw cheese, Real sour dough bread(with homemade jam, fresh ground peanut butter, almond butter or butter), naturally brined olives, apple sauce, fruit, nuts and dried fruit.
    We typically eat one or two heavy meat meals like a roast or roast chicken in a week. Then the small amount I have left over(key is YOU fill their plates and put the rest away) gets put into soup or meat pie. The roasted meat tastes wonderful in these other meals. A tip-you can give soups and stews added flavor by sauteing onions, garlic, and celery in some butter till slightly browned before adding them. If we ate more like peasants with meat being a flavoring we would be healthier for it.
    Now I know this gets a bit more challenging if you have very active kids, really picky eaters or are in the transition stages(remember processed foods makes us more hungry because we are not getting the nutrition we need.) As a christian I tell my kids that we are eating to LIVE not living to EAT and this in the temple so lets take care of it. That doesn't mean we don't make healthy treats like the Best Brownies ever or a homemade fruit pie with some local ice cream but these are once a week not everyday.

    Some sites that you might find fun and inspiring:
The Stone Soup- love the simple easy recipes with a short ingredient list
Honest Fare- again simple recipes with seasonal ingredients... so yummy
Smitten Kitchen- again real ingredients with yummy food
Nourishing Days- real food and gluten free
Gnowfglins- lots of info

I hope this helps you and your family on this whole foods way of eating. One step at a time and a focus of better nutrition is all you need. God bless.

Herbal Remedies

    One of my previous posts was a list of things to do for fall/winter. On that list I had that we would make our families remedies; so here are somethings we have done so far. In the background you can see Herbal Vaccine and Children's Composition cooling. In the front I have started gathering my ingredients for the Cold Kicker AKA Fire Water(no actual water in it). Just an FYI about the Cold Kicker.... make sure you use gloves! We also started some tinctures for Blackberry Leaf, Hawthorne Berry, Yellow Dock, Milk Thistle and this weekend some Black Walnut Hull. I should have started all of these in August but time just got away from me. We choose these remedies because they seem to cover many areas that we deal with over the year. You may have other issues you deal with in your family so you may be drawn to totally different remedies. Some good sources for education are Learning Herbs, More than Alive(has a wonderful free ebook), Mountain Rose Herbs blog and for a more in depth study you could sign-up for the Family Herbalist course through Vintage Remedies(where I am currently a student.) For supplies if you don't grow or forage them for yourself, go to Mountain Rose Herbs, Bulk Herb Store or More than Alive. These are the suppliers I trust for quality and price.
    As we settle in to this new home and land we will forage for more food and medicine. I will share as we learn what plants we are finding and how we are using them. We live in a valley in PA so it may be different from where you are but maybe you can gleam some info from it. We know we already have lots of stinging nettle, jewel weed and burdock. In the past they planted comfrey, grapes, horseradish, some nut trees, and raspberries. It has been fun finding out what we have here and dreaming about what we will plant. I love perennials so I plan on putting in lots of perennial plants, vegetables and fruit.

Make sure to label anything you create with the herb, alcohol or glycerine and the date you did it. 

The Cold Kicker brewing on my counter.

Accidental Canner

Vegetables from the fridge that needed to be dealt with

our new "older" chickens

Our first unbroken eggs

"Souper Mix" with beets

Becoming sauce

    So I find sometimes I feel like the accidental canner. Friends will say how do you have time to can and sometimes I really don't but when you need to prepare for winter and have all this extra produce taking up spacing and starting to go bad because we can't use it fast enough then it is time to can whether I have time or not. Canning is a commitment and sometimes you don't always feel like doing it. It is one of the most satisfying tasks I do though. Seeing all those jars lined up makes me very happy. As we perfect our recipes over the years we know they are yummy and worth waiting till winter to enjoy them. I find when I am in this situation that unloading the fridge, lining up the baskets, and spreading it all out before me is the best way to see what and how much I am dealing with. A few things we always like to can like tomato sauce and pickles get done when we have a huge amount of produce. We do have one crock pot full of sauce cooking as I write this and I may have enough to do two more pots worth. I will get maybe 9-10 quarts of sauce from that. We will do apple sauce and pie filling that way as well. At the moment there is no exhaust in my kitchen which makes canning on humid or hot days not very nice. So until we either put in an exhaust fan or make an outdoor processing kitchen(this is the way we will go in the future so we can process meat as well.)
    So this year so far we have canned 6 jars pesto, 5 jars "Souper Mix"(with beets and red peppers), 3 quarts beef stock, 6 quarts beans, and 6 quarts chopped tomatoes. Nothing to brag about but not bad for getting settled into our old farmhouse. At the moment I am waiting for the basement cement to finish curing so we can set-up our shelves for canned items and winter produce. Today we will can Onion and Maple Conserve and tomorrow Pecan Apple Conserve. These are small batch items that need only a few minutes to process.
    We are also enjoying the beautiful chickens friends have given to us this past week. They are older girls but a few are still laying. I like that they eat my kitchen scraps and produce manure for my garden.... something it is going to need a lot of next year.
    Lastly if you find yourself with way to many zucchini or summer squash this year you can puree it to use in meat loaf, zucchini bread or chocolate cup cakes. We also found this recipe is a new favorite.

Zucchini Parmesan Bake

2 lbs. ground meat (we use lamb or beef)

2 T. butter and 2T. olive oil

1 cup sliced onions

3 garlic cloves crushed

italian seasoning

1 zucchini, 1 summer squash and 2-3 potatoes all sliced about 1/4 inch thick

1 c. parmesan cheese

In a skillet sauté butter, olive oil, onions and garlic till just starting to brown. Spread those out in bottom of pan. Brown ground meat in pan without cleaning it out. Then add to onion/garlic mix in baking dish, sprinkle generously with italian seasoning and mix together. Layer the sliced zucchini, potato and squash on top of meat mixture. Sprinkle top with more italian seasoning and parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered. 

Our pantry

Spice drawer

Our pantry at the moment till we move and canning season kicks into high gear... we will need to get a few more shelves for canned items.

I have been working on our family pantry for years trying to get it to the quantity and quality for our families eating habits. It is no secret that I do not like to go to the grocery store so buying in bulk reduces the trips. It is something you have to work your way up to because I don't know to many people who can go buy all the jars and items to fill them all at once. I started with the bagged items from our local bulk store. As we changed our eating habits to a more traditional diet I started to see seasonal eating habits that helped me to figure out quantities of bulk dry items such as rice, beans, lentils and oats. I knew if the recipes changed slightly over the years I would still want to get a certain amount of healthy ingredients into my family of four. Over the years we added pastured meat, raw dairy products, more herbs, more home canned items, etc. Goal for this year is to replace all store bought condiments with homemade ones, start sour dough and more canning of seasonal foods. Also want to add a clipboard with food inventory sheets to the side of the shelves/freezer, make a snack basket with homemade items like bars, fruit leathers, crispy nuts, granola, popcorn, jerky and sesame sticks so we have take along snacks handy for walks/hikes. I also want to laminate my formula cooking recipe cards(I will share in another post in April) and put them on rings so they are easy to find. Don't get me wrong I love my cookbooks but sometimes you need a formula so you can add what you have on hand to make a meal instead of trying to find exact ingredients.

So what exactly is in my pantry...

Grains/Beans
rice(Jasmine, Basmati, wild, etc.)
rolled oats
quinoa(red and regular)
high quality pasta
spelt/rye
dried corn
lentils(different kinds)
beans(cannellini, kidney, black and fava)
slit peas

Nuts/Seeds/Fruit
nuts(walnuts, pecans, hazel, almonds)
seeds(sesame, flax, hemp, sunflower, pumpkin)
dried fruits(cranberries, blueberries, apricots, raisins, apples, coconut flakes and lots of dates)

Oils/Vinegar/Condiments/Sweeteners
Oils(extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, walnut oil and lard)
vinegars(apple cider, balsamic, and rice)
Condiments(ketchup, BBQ sauce, chili paste, tamari, mustard, relish, sauerkraut, mayo, worcestershire sauce, pickles, diced chilies, and artichoke hearts)
sweeteners(honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, raw sugar, stevia and Rapadura)

Other dried and canned items
tomato paste and tomato sauce
broths
canned fish
cocoa powder
jams and nut butters
gelatin
baking soda and powder
dried vegetable mix
tapioca
sprouted flour and gluten free mix

Spices/Seasonings
garlic powder, parsley, sea salt, pepper, cinnamon(powder and sticks), nutmeg, cloves, paprika, celery flakes/seeds, ginger powder, cilantro, cumin, chives, caraway, sage, thyme, oregano, basil, mustard, bay, rosemary, lavender, coriander
Mixes I make up- italian, mexican, chili powder, Herbs de Provence, pickling spice and few others from MaryJane's Farm book Outpost
extracts- vanilla, peppermint and almond

I also keep white vinegar for making homemade cleaning supplies(I will share in another post), some paper towels, toilet paper, batteries, etc.

Freezer
assorted cuts from a 1/4 steer, whole lamb, chickens, venison, 1/2 pig, freezer jam, cream, assorted vegetables and fruit

I keep jars above my sink on a shelf of most frequently used items.

I also keep a supply of medicinal herbs that I use most often in my kitchen. 

Do you have any pantry tips, items you would add or storage ideas? Please share.

Spring

Spring really brings out in me the need to reorganize and clean-out. So as I reorganize my pantry, freezer, fabric stash, herbs, etc.  Today though my encouragement is to get on over to The Stone Soup website and sign-up for a cooking class. I am taking the one on Master Meal Plan and it is the best and easiest meal plan ever. Also click around to see her recipes and try a new one this week. So far we are enjoying them. I love the 5 ingredients recipes too.
I am also enjoying the virtual cork boards if you will of pinterest.com. Being a visual person I need these ideas to keep me going. So please share in comments.... have you caught the spring clean-out bug yet? What areas are you working on organizing?

Back to Eden

Wow, I love how God changes your perspective in a short time and redirects your thoughts back to Him. No matter what I will never look at gardening the same way again after watching this video. I have either had or have helped in the garden since I was very small. My mother had a very large garden that we ate from and stored for winter months. Since accepting Christ as my saviour I have seen my faith interwoven in all that I do and not just another part of my life. Gardening is no exception. But until I watched this film did I not understand how much more my faith SHOULD be a part of everything I do. WOW. You can watch the 1 hour 43 minute movie online if you have a good connection or buy the DVD. I will be buying the DVD even though I already watched it... it needs to be shared with everyone but especially those who garden. If God chooses to bless us with more land in the near future where we can share on a larger scale this kind of gardening then dare I say we might have found how we can connect in ministry with others. That is not to say you can't use God's way of gardening anywhere you live and no matter how little you have. Watch the trailer (link below)and let me know what you think.
http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/about/trailer.html

Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Homemade fruit on the bottom yogurt can be made with a spoonful of jam, homemade or store bought yogurt stored in half pint mason jars in the fridge for a week. 

The food in our house changes with the seasons and just when I am looking forward to yummy foods of the next season someone announces to me that they don't like that... ugh. I love routines and traditional foods when they work for us but it makes it challenging when you know recipes by heart and they say they don't want to eat that any more. So this year after trying to please my families palate we are trying to keep it simple so the mommy doesn't go crazy. Simple salads, less ingredient meals, and untraditional breakfasts. My husband likes fruit on the bottom yogurt with granola so that is easy because I can make those ahead of time and put them in the fridge. For the kids the somewhat untraditional breakfasts they are eating are leftover rice turned into pudding, homemade quick breads(zucchini, pumpkin or banana) with butter or cream cheese or hard boiled eggs and toast. We also always have apples, pears, and right now oranges to snack on in the winter. During the week it is our own homemade cold breakfast and on the weekends we make a big egg/meat/potato breakfast with Dad. For lunches it is leftovers, soups, salads and/or raw vegetable plate. For dinners we have a different type of meal every night... one night is soup, a stew night, a rice with roasted veggies meal, a roast chicken with salad meal, a meat pie meal, and sometimes a pasta meal. We try to stick to the same types every week but only one time per type per week so we keep it varied.
So keep your recipes simple so you can enJOY your time nourishing your family. Here are some simple recipes we like:
Oat Soda Bread
Homemade Larabars(they can be made ahead to keep on hand for snacks)
My favorite place to go for SIMPLE recipes is Stone Soup(love her beans with ham hock and salads)
Also love Shannon's simple cookbooks on Nourishing Days(grain-free and nutrient dense)
A Keely family tradition is to take leftover bits of meat and veg and turn them into a meat pie....must be that irish heritage to try and use every last bit. I mix it all together with a homemade cream soup recipe(the recipe is halfway down the page on the link), put it in a baking dish and top it with a pie crust. It bakes at 350 for about 45 minutes. I even use up hearts, livers and other "not-so-kid-friendly" meats in the meat pie because they can't tell.
Do you have any simple nourishing meals your family enjoys in this season?

Winter CSA

Our biweekly Winter CSA

 So as I watch our little garden outback slowly go to sleep for the winter and I dream of spring planting we are eating from our winter CSA. Last year it was a lot less but this year we decided to give them one more try since I am not fond of the grocery store. We were pleasantly surprised with the abundance and variety. I even giggled a little when I saw the stalk of brussels. Our favorite way to enjoy most of these fall veggies besides raw is to roast them with a little walnut oil. Last night(would have had a photo but it disappeared to quickly) we had a piece of ham, roasted carrots and brussels. Simple but naturally sweet. The fun thing about this CSA compared to the summer one is they never tell you what anything is. It is a scavenger hunt through the seed catalogs to identify everything. I normally do ok with this till I got to the large roots in the back??? They are not turnips or beets but actually a very large chinese radish. So they are all for me since I am the only big fan in the family. Oh, I can sneak in a few slices on their salads but these are 2 huge roots that need to disappear in 2 weeks before I get more. So that pile on the table and the other squash, apples, potatoes, and onions I have stored are what we are eating for the next two weeks. With an organic CSA being about $23 a week(but we actually pay the whole thing at the beginning of the season) we try to eat only what they give us and what we have stored from the harvest. So every other week I wait to see what they give me and what meats my freezer holds before I plan what we will eat for the next 2 week. One of my favorite cookbooks to use with this way of planning is "Simply in Season" by  Cathleen Hockman-Wert and Mary Beth Lind. Our favorite from the cookbook is Maple Walnut Scones with maple cream added to the top when they are warm from the oven.

Today being one of those "elfing" days... Cookies, sewing, and sending cards, oh my!
Actually my thoughts keep going to another countdown in my head.... the one where winter ticks away while you drool over seed catalogs... ok, I do. I LOVE fresh from the garden veg and fruit. I thought those catalogs weren't supposed to come until January in the midst of some winter blizzard. Well, anyway while I am contently warm in my little home waiting to see what God has next for us, I think about what I might plan for next year's garden.... or not plan. So as not to get frustrated over the not knowing if or what to plant in a garden I may or may not harvest... I can still learn more about the fruits and vegetables I would love to grow someday. So what I am starting next week when the gifts are all wrapped and we finish up our last week of school for 2011 is a index card file of all the plants I dream of growing someday. Some I have already grown and others I don't have room to grow here... like asparagus and horseradish. It is good to learn about the different kinds your family likes and when they get planted and harvested. Which ones are best for storing and which ones taste best. That will keep me busy all winter and make for a nice resource when I am done. Also we did sign-up for next years CSA so we always seem to have a nice abundance of wonderful vegetables and fruit from that. I even started seed saving the past 2 years of some of our favorite vegetables from the CSA and friend' gardens.
Our favorite seed catalogs:
Johnny's Seeds
Fedco
High Mowing Seeds
Baker Creek
The Cook's Garden
Renee's Garden

Being Prepared

Wow, what a weekend. The things you think about when you don't have electric or may not have electric. So we only flickered as the storm hit but other family members are still without power. Some family members thought they could use their gas oven but soon realized it had all electric readouts and ignition. Church was canceled because they did not have electric to run lights or the furnace. I quickly heated up some soup from my stock of quick and easy mixes in a jar I made up about a month ago for the winter and/or emergency. We enjoyed our soup as we listened to our large oak tree out front crack and loose some of it's larger limbs. We are stocked with candles, warm clothes and easy meals that can be made on our Coleman or Holland grill if need be. We don't have a heat source though and our freezer would thaw after a few days. I also had a problem after working in the crazy weather Saturday morning. I was soaked till I was done and had to put the clothes in the dryer because with all the moisture in our ground I can't dry clothes on a rack in my basement right now because they don't dry fast enough and smell mildewy. So this learning experience helps me to take note for our future home since we would like to be debt free and off-grid. That Vermont Bun Baker is at the top of my list for heating, cooking, baking, and heating water. I can also dry clothes inside if I had to. I will post later some other neat things I found to make life more comfortable without electric.
    I pray all of you are warm, well fed and safe.

My meals in a jar
I took regular recipes and made them so they have no MSG and no preservatives.
I also have next to them some organic broth and organic chicken in a can from Trader Joe's incase
I don't have time or the power to cook the meat. 

My spices and premixed seasonings that make a quick meal of oats, quinoa, rice or beans into a delight.
I got the recipes for the mixes from the book Outpost by MaryJane Butters and they are also in her book MaryJane's Ideabook/Cookbook/Lifebook.

A good Irish-american tradition

Is there anything you only cook once a year but it is so good you are not sure why you save it for a once a year feast??? That meal for us is corned beef and cabbage with a side of traditional soda bread. Celebrating St Patrick's Day is really an Irish-american thing. Next year I hope to cure my own beef using this site.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!(tomorrow)
1-4 pound or so corned beef, 5 carrots cut in rounds, 5 potatoes cut in chunks, 1 medium onion chopped, 1/2 cabbage chopped, salt/pepper, and some water to cover half way. Add meat to crock pot. Then add carrots, potatoes, onion, salt/pepper, and last top with cabbage. Cook on low most of the day. Traditional soda bread and/or brown bread can be found here.

Beautiful dirt

I think of connecting with God's creation as a spiritual experience. I get excited when spring comes and I can get in the garden to plant those first seeds. After what seems to be a long winter... and I love winter; you start to see the hope in the green shoots springing up from the ground. Beautiful colors are not too far behind. What is the best though is to see the earthworms a plenty in the vegetable garden.

This year we amended the soil with compost, peat moss, and vermiculite. Last year we had dumped the compost into the garden and it took almost a year to break down which affected the poor plants we tried to plant in it too soon. So today according to the farmer's almanac is the perfect day to plant some peas! So we are putting in peas, spring onions, and broccoli. We are in zone 6b.
Some helpful sites for planting your garden-
Growveg planner
Square foot gardening
Farmer's Almanac

Getting kids to eat healthy

One of the ways we get our kids to eat healthier is by joining the CSA(Community Supported Agriculture). You could also just go to the farmers market to buy what is in season and use the cookbook "Simply in Season" by Cathleen Hockman-Wert and Mary Beth Lind. I show them the variety and ask them what should we make with all this pretty food. Below is a picture of dinner tonight. I had more salad but ate it before I thought to take a photo.

Red Russian Kale with vinaigrette, steak with cremini mushrooms sautéed with onions,
and grilled fingerling sweet potatoes

 Ok, you may not think your kids would eat such a meal but they need to be trying new and healthy foods all the time so they can experience new tastes. I know my children get stuck on certain foods if we don't change with the seasons.  I didn't make my son eat mushrooms and onions but he ate the rest. Later he had an apple with crispy walnuts for a snack. For kids to be getting all their vitamins and minerals they should be eating many colors. Greens are essential for balancing out all the other foods that are more acidic in nature. We also try to eat all the different foods that are in our growing season because they are beneficial to our bodies in that season. So as a family decide to eat healthier, eat a rainbow of colors, cook together and try new recipes... It may just surprise you what your children will eat when they get involved.
If they still give you guff about eating greens try adding zucchini finely chopped to meatloaf, pasta sauce, and casseroles. Oh there are many wonderful ways to get those vegetables in our diet.
Need to learn more about nutrition yourself to nourish your family well, then checkout these links below.
Real Food Nutrition Book (great homeschool nutrition book)
Nourished Kitchen
GNOWFGLINS(Embracing "God's Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, In Season"

"Eating is an Agricultural Act" - Wendell Berry

Ok, maybe I am not normal... I don't know many woman who get so excited about getting the bill for the summer/fall CSA(Community Supported Agriculture). I love organic fresh local food! I am so craving fresh! I know what your thinking "just go to the grocery store you silly and pick-up some food". I am trying not to buy much at the store and live on mostly local grown in-season foods. A personal challenge of sorts. I noticed with this challenge I am so much more grateful for what God gives us in each season. The photo below was a week from last years CSA pick-up. Doesn't that look refreshing.