I bought a house!

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Whew. After almost 4 years of searching and being indecisive I finally got off the pot and did it. I committed. I tied myself down. I moved all my stuff out of storage and into my very own home. The plan is to not move again until my kids are out of elementary school at least.
With a move there are always projects. The things you want to do to make better, make it livable or just make it yours. My project list is long at moment. Daunting even for a single mom to tackle on her own. Thankfully I do have friends and hopefully they will want to help. (more…)

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A Gift of Salmon

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I have had a truck for sale for the past few months. The truck doesn’t run and has been sitting since I moved here. It successfully got my horses here and hasn’t started since. Well for me anyway. Apparently it will start if you lay a screwdriver over the solonoid. What does salmon have to do with my truck you might ask? (more…)

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mmmm Cheese.

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I love cheese. There is nothing as good in the world as potatoes covered in parsley, butter and cheese. And as of last week I can make all of the above happen in the space of my backyard. Life does not get much better than that. Had I known how easy it was to make cream cheese from raw milk it is likely that I never would have bothered to do anything else with it so perhaps it is for the best that this discovery took until now to make. (more…)

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ReThink, ReAction

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I belong to a mailing list. Well several of them actually, don’t we all. And recently this email showed up in my inbox. I thought it was an excellent email, well formed (concise) and well put. I wanted to share it with you because it shows that some who are working for change truly do care about the bigger picture while others tend towards fanaticism and drama.

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Apricots and Raspberries

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We are still picking raspberries. My God. Still. I need a scale to weigh just how many kilos of raspberries we’ve picked. A bloody lot. Raspberries, berries in general do not travel well and by the time the bucket is full and the berries are rinsed they are pretty much mush. Which makes good fruit leather and that is what we have been making.
Note to self: Wax paper is not a good substitute for a fruit leather tray in the dehydrator.
Second note to self: purchase additional fruit leather trays.
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Summer Diets

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Our affiliations with food fascinate me. What we eat, when we eat, how we choose it, historically and on an individual basis are all things that I (pardon the pun) am hungry to learn.

I do not eat very much. It’s not a diet or weight thing, I certainly eat when I am hungry I just am so darn busy that I don’t have opportunity to eat a whole lot. Apparently this is a common theme among those who work with the land. This weekend I had the opportunity to chat with one of my favorite local farmers, at a music festival of all places, and apparently his primary diet in the summer is beer! Ha! (more…)

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Concerning Cows

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I now know why cattle farmers never seem to particularly ‘like’ cows. It always struck me as odd that you would be engaged with an animal every day and seem to have no attachment to it. But now I get it. I don’t like cows. They are dumb and difficult.

Recently up at our practice farm a bull was dropped off. The intention being that he would breed with our milking cow so that we get a calf and milk next year. This was the thought and intention. The bull however within 10 minutes of unloading him had taken out about 6 of our fences and didn’t show any signs of stopping. (more…)

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Thought for Food

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This is an excerpt from a very good book that anyone who cares about their food ought to give a read:

“Can you think of any sector of our culture that promotes its wares with a slogan like ‘we pile it high and sell it cheap’? Any other sector of our economy would commit suicide with such a slogan…except for food. Why is that? I submit that we as a culture completely disrespect the 3 trillion critter in our digestive tract that cry out for quality of life while we cram quantity of junk down their collective gullet.
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Whole Food Without the Kitchen

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We are on the go a lot and as a result I am tempted quite often to opt for food that is quick and easy and convenient.

The result is that we eat a lot of raw, whole food. Breakfast has been changed from granola to rolled oats soaked overnight. In the morning we add dried grapes (aka raisins) and cherries or perhaps some canned peaches or pears and top it off by stirring in a spoonful of honey. As it has warmed up and the green house food has arrived in the markets we’ve been adding a salad of cutup cucumbers and tomatoes to that breakfast.
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Real Milk + Fresh Eggs + Plenty of Parsley = :)

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Project Parsley.
Ha ha. Not really but I do love the stuff and employ nearly everyone I know to plant it in their yards so that I can eat it when I come over. I’m not even kidding.

I milk a cow for a friend when they go away so that we can have fresh, raw milk. I won’t drink anything else. Neither will my kids. Next project, make some cheese and butter with said milk.
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A Day at the Fair

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While it may seem slightly contradictory to pretty much everything I believe in and stand for my kids and I went to the fair when it was in town this weekend. Like all good adventures we didn’t plan on it it just sort of happened. We were looking for something to do on a Sunday after 4-H, our hike plans bailed and we were feeling kind of lazy one of the 4-Hers mentioned that she was going to the fair that afternoon and so….up the hill we went.
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