Blessed and Then Some

My incredible, supportive husband went above and beyond last week and purchased an Excalibur dehydrator for me!  I can't tell you how excited I am.  It arrived on Friday and within the first week I've dehydrated sage, oregano, bread for crumbs, orange peel, rhubarb, and yogurt is incubating in it as I type (watch for an upcoming post on yogurt!).  The possibilities are staggering! Food storage becomes much more reasonable.  The water is removed at low temperatures (below 118) to maintain the vitamins, minerals, and digestive enzymes.  It also shrinks the size significantly.  Four cups of thawed rhubarb from the freezer became 1/2 cup of dehydrated rhubarb.  The next time I harvest, I'll try dehydrating fresh rhubarb and see if I get the same results.  So the food is healthier and smaller than canned food! I'm also excited about the yogurt making possibilities.  I could make much larger batches in serving-size containers.  That would simplify my breakfast prep

Last Friday, my Mom sent us home with some new "pets." She had purchased a praying mantis cocoon at Watson's Greenhouse, and the previous weekend it had hatched with hundreds of little guys filling the plastic tub she had it in.  There were so many, that she decided to share and sent several (12-15) of the little guys home with us.  The theory behind the project is to have a natural form of pest control for the garden.  The praying mantids eat all the "bad bugs" like aphids and they are rather pleasant to have around.  They do not bite or sting and they offer endless opportunities for photography practice as they sit very still.  While they are in confinement in their containers, we have to bring in food and a little water for them, but once outside they should require no maintenance at all, except for being careful not to drop them into the compost pile when we do weeding and trimming. My youngest is fascinated.  He loves anything little, and bugs are a bi

My middle son decided, on his own, that he wanted to learn botany this year, and so I knew long before the spring that we would be more involved in the garden this year.  What I didn't know was how much that would play into the road God would have us on this spring.  I've never been more excited about the garden, or enjoyed working in it as much as I have this year!  Even the really hard, physical stuff - like building beds and moving dirt - left me with such a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.  But nothing compares to the joy and amazement at seeing new life.  We can plan, plant, and water, but then all that's left to us is to wait.  It is God that makes it all grow.  What a blessing to see this miracle time and time again already this spring.  Just when I'm sure I've blown it all and messed up my son's hard work, God steps in and makes it beautiful.  As I walked around watering, weeding, transplanting, and harvesting this morning (don't worry, I do

It has been so amazing learning about the food we eat and where it comes from.  I used to think it was so simple.  Beef and dairy products came from cows.  Fruits and vegetables came from farms.  Eggs and chicken came from, well, chickens.  How much more do you need to know?  God has had me on an interesting road lately.  It started with a blog post entitled " Traditional Womanly Arts for Austere Times " my mom sent me back in March.  I read it and thought, "I'd love to do all of that if only I had the time."  And then proceeded to put a hold on all the books listed in the post that they had at the library.  My Mom asked if there were any in particular I was interested in, and I mentioned the Better Basics for the Home , party because it was the only one they didn't have at the library.  Wouldn't you know, it showed up at my door a few days later :).  I dove into it and, while it was a little more on the "green" side than I tend to be, I was

I was so inspired by this post over a the Heavenly Homemaker's blog that, after I stopped rolling on the floor laughing, I ran out and bought a gallon of vodka!  Oh, and a bunch of vanilla beans.  I had never considered how the extracts we use every day were made, and I was amazed at how simple it was. After cleaning the gallon jar I just received in my Azure Standard drop this morning, I took the vanilla beans I purchase at Olive Nation and cut them down the middle almost to the end and tossed them in the jar.  When I was finished with the beans, I just filled the jar up to the top with vodka, and after taking a picture, tucked it into a dark corner of my pantry.  According to the Heavenly Homemaker, all I have to do from this point is shake it up every once in a while, and just before Christmas I'll have enough vanilla to share :).  If it comes out as well as I hope, I will wash the jar out and fill it back up!

Following up on my commitment at the end of the last post, I've been looking for a good way to "Baby Step" into a real foods habit.  I've been praying about it and trying to swallow my pride and listen to my husband when he tells me I'm moving too fast and taking on too much.  I get so excited about things and I want to try it all today!  The downside is that I can't keep it all up and before too long I've burnt out and dropped it all.  So what am I doing to keep myself from rushing in?  My current strategy is a combination of frank honesty here and signing up for an e-course membership at GNOWFGLINS .  I'm starting with their fundamentals e-course that walks you a step at a time into implementing real foods strategies into your lifestyle.  I'm pretty sure I won't be using all the things I learn (I'm still a little squeamish on lacto-fermenting) but I'm really intrigued by most of it and looking forward to new experiences.  They recom

I was awfully tempted not to write this post, but a recent bible study on humility along with the hope that my fumble could save someone else the trouble prompted me to plunge ahead.  So, remember the Mother's Day yogurt tasting party?  Well, don't tell anyone who ate it, but by the next day most of the yogurt was pretty nasty.  I went to reculture it with raw milk, and the smell 'bout knocked me over.  The best way to describe it was "very yeasty."  Yogurt has a rather distinctive odor, that I've come to enjoy over the years.  This was not it.  Walking the fine line between bravery and stupidity, I took a small taste of the viili, and it reminded me alot of Fun Dip.  This was not at all the smooth taste of the day before, what had gone wrong? The first misstep I took was veering off my normal path of researching something to death before embarking upon it.  I saw a post with some information about yogurt, jumped to the website it mentioned, and bought the

Never in my wildest dreams would I have pictured the way I got to spend this Mother’s Day! I woke to the kisses and good wishes of my family beckoning me to the table for a special breakfast prepared by my amazing husband who had not been in the country for even 24 hours.  They blessed me with gifts and then we got ready and headed out to church.  We visited my Mom’s church, Discovery , and had a great time worshipping and learning.  Then we were off to Chevy’s for a Fresh Mex dinner. My Mom and Brother came back to the house with us where Mom and I jumped right into trying something new, one of our favorite things to do.  First on the list was rendering lard.  Yep, you read that right!  I’ve been learning a lot lately about how lard, when taken from the leaf lard of pasture-raised pork, is a very healthy form of fat.  It’s highly recommended for pie crusts and frying chicken.  I had spent some time researching it on the internet, and I was anxious to try it out.  Earlier this week,

So in thinking about the best reason for blogging, I figured that it's a good outlet for the random, insane passions that overtake me from time to time.  People get awfully tired of listening to me, so here's one way they can listen only as much as they'd like :).  As many know, my latest interest is in "going natural".  I'm trying to bring our family back to using products and eating food that are as close as possible to the way God intended them to be.  We've switched to organic, whole foods; raw milk; natural cleaning products made at home to control ingredients; etc.  I'd like, in future notes, to include a little bit of in-depth info on each of these as the fancy takes me.