May 29, 2012

radical homemakers UNITE!!!

Here are some really good books!

First I'm gonna rant about "Radical Homemakers" by Shannon Hayes.

It was just what I needed to read.  Talks about how empowering it can be to turn your home from a place of consumption to a place of production.  Living happily on one income ,
rather than both parents working, kids in daycare and lots of nice things...
Making and growing a lot of your own things and changing views on what you REALLY need in this world (can you drive a 93 VW golf and a bike happily? or Do you need the 2012 edition?).
It is so important to have someone (if not everyone!) at home, making/growing food, sewing clothes, fermenting cabbage, putting up food for winter, fixing things...

In the feudal days, you were powerful middle class if you owned your home and made all you needed because you didn't have to answer to any lords, 
or give them all the grain you grew for a roof over your head.  
This is when the word Husband was made, it comes from  "house bound" Which was a good thing!!

Shannon Hayes does a kind of study, where she interviews around 30 families who live this way.  So there are lots of stories to read and inspiration to gain!

I feel like this is the direction we are headed, if not already mostly there.  
So it was just really nice to read a book about it - to feel glad and empowered. 
Reassured on why we live this way!  Reminded why we don't need all that STUFF.
And Proud that we make a lot of things in this home!

That's where the other books come in!
"Simple Sewing for Baby" by Lotta Jansdotter  is one of the many great sewing instruction books, complete with a pattern pocket at the back.  She's got some cute ideas, including lots of toys!

and then "Earthly Bodies and Heavenly Hair" by Dina Falconi is full of great recipes for skin and hair products.  Nothing too hard, its all quite simple!  
Shampoo, lotions, deodorants, nice things! 
and all good for your skin and well being. 
Rather than toxic, like everything you find in the pharmasave...

I've been ordering books from the library that I work at!




Here's Attie and Molly having a tea party.





My Grandparents!  Living the Radical homemaking dream without knowing another option.
This is the foundation of their barn.



Here's my dad and a friend getting some wood!


Clothes on the line, and a good wagon.


Gramma Dorothy and her two girls. 


I think a lot of the women of yesterday, especially being pregnant.
Gardening, baking bread, making everything your family wore, tools...
Lots of them were possibly a bit enslaved to their homes and constant pregnancies against their will.
Today we have the choice. 

Its hard work AND can be very satisfying, if we think of it that way!

Its the most important job out there.


May 23, 2012

first spinach salad of the year!!

yes!  I brought it in,
 washed it and
ATE IT!!!

It tasted like the good freshest,  localest,  sun filled, dirt infused food that I have missed all year!
thank the good godess of greenery!


 its on...

This is whats up around here!



The reason the patch is so big already is because it was fall planted. 
I just shook the dried up seedy pods all over the place! 
How well it worked 
:0)


A lettuce mix in this container...
maybe it will be ready for the first harvest in a week or so!



Amish Snap peas!   They are supposed to get really large but still crunchy and tastey.




Our new strawberry patch!
wahooo. we're gonna need some netting to ward off all the birds who ate my strawb's last year.





Of these guys, we were lucky. 
We've been eating fresh tomatoes for a couple months now!
I grew them in the greenhouse that I work at.




That is where i have been the last couple months!




Sorry for being a terrible blogger!
I am gonna have more time soon.
and a lot to write about!


WELCOME growing season!





What's Up around your garden or farm???


feel free to leave a link to your post or just a comment!!



May 3, 2012

healthy flour options + recipes

As you know,White flour is no good.


Excerpt from the Global Healing Center
"It [white flour] is made by stripping wheat of everything useful, adding synthetic B vitamins, and bleaching it to remove the milled yellow color and increase the amount of gluten the flour can produce."

Basically, it is void of nutrition, added with preservatives and things our bodies can't understand.

I have been slowly weaning our house hold off of it for quite a while.
The problem being that so many recipes just don't turn out the way they would with white.

However, that doesn't  mean they taste bad...
for instance, breads/loaves made with other flours are much denser than with white.
I think its just a matter of getting used to it.
and finding flours that you like.

There are a whole lot of options out there!
Buckwheat, spelt, quinoa, rice, hemp, amaranth, barley, oat, millet, ....

and then I do usually blend it with little organic white.





we get most of our flour from the health food store,
 which gets it locally from the Daybreak Mill 
just outside of Estevan, SK.  

Their grains are all 100% organically grown without any additives! 
they also sell whole grains, flaked grains, cereals...


Breakfast Cereals:
They also have a great selection of wonderful breakfast cereals.  We buy a huge bag of oats and make our own blends with flax, spelt flakes, chia seed, sunflower seed, and so on.  Throw in chopped dates, other dried fruit or raisins and a bit of almond milk and honey.

 Attie loves oatmeal breakfast! I am so glad of this.



I am fond of their:
- Ezekial flour blend: Contains 100% whole wheat, rye, barley, millet, lentils and beans.
- 7 grain mix:  Contains wheat, barley, rye, durum, oats, flax, buckwheat.


Attie had a LOT of fun playing with flour while I was baking and refilling!

blowing on the flour!

elastics and flour.



Grains are a main part of our diet, and so I like to make them full of fiber and goodness!

Pancakes are another common quick breakfast meal here.   
I make a big canister batch of pancake mix for easy prep in the morning:  Buckwheat Pancakes

and here's my sunflower millet Bread making tutorial!







  I encourage you to find a local organic mill and take a visit!







Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...