Can you spell HOT?!

Record breaking 101 degrees here in Western WA. Pfew!!! I thought I would get a quick pic of the kids in the pool. Josiah 14, Hope 6, Elianah 3 and Jaryn 14 mo.

Yesterday I spend a couple hours picking beans, snapping them and making dilly beans mmmm. It was VERY hot though but I accomplished about 10 jars of them so far. Today well... its just too hot to can anymore. Hopefully the beans I picked will live a little longer so as not to go to waste.
















There is an issue that is important to me that I would like to bring up. It has the potential to negatively impact small farms and local food sources.
It is a vital important issue if you want to keep food local and safe, especially for our children. I have a small hobby farm and it could effect that as well.
Please consider looking at this issue.
http://hartkeisonline.com/2009/07/29/if-you-care-about-local-food-call-congress-now/

Please consider taking the time to call your representatives and vote no for HR2749.

Stay cool!!!

Sorry about the pics. I can't figure out how to line them up properly. GERG!!! and Jaryn is demanding me to get of the computer. :O)

Weston A Price Foundation

Preserving the harvest! Lacto fermentation

Asian salad dressing, crispy soaked almonds, Kombucha tea, Kefir, Sauerkraut, gingered carrots, homemade Ketchup (lacto fermented), Whey, Homemade Mayo, homemade cream cheese, pickled lacto fermented beets and soaked crispy pepitas (pumpkin seeds).
Recipes from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Meals that Heal by Lenna Knowlton. www.ntmealsthatheal.com

As most of you know we are following the principles of www.westonaprice.org for nutrition. So with the abundance of veggies from my garden I have been making alot of lacto fermented foods. Above is what I did yesterday.
Lacto-fermentation happens when the starches and sugars in vegetables and fruit convert to lactic acid by a friendly lactic-acid producing bacteria.

Benefits of lacto fermented foods are as follows:

1. aids in digestion
2. Adds excellent probiotics and digestive enzymes to your gut health.
3. The vitamins are increased during fermenting, making them more available to the body to utilize.
4. keeps you regular :o)
5. It has antibiotic properties as well as anticarcinogenic

It has been said somewhere that 85% of our immunity is in the gut. So gut health is extremely important.

If you want to read more about traditional diets where people were robust and healthy with very little health problems and no tooth decay read here:

http://www.westonaprice.org/brochures/wapfbrochure.html#characteristics

Here's to good health!!!

Enjoying the Harvest during the financial crisis!

Veggies clockwise (beets, peas, romaine lettuce, broccoli, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, bib lettuce, carrots, purple cabbage, curly kale, red kale, garlic, green cabbage, lutiano kale, rainbow swiss chard, spinach)

WOOHOO organic veggies! Gotta love the pay off for all that weed pullin'. My back needs the extra magnesium for all the muscle spasms. :o)
It's hard to believe its end of July already. Where does the time go. The older I get the faster it goes.

This summer has been busy but mostly busy at home. We had a laundry list of things to accomplish this summer (put new windows in the house, make a compost bin, build the green house, finish the horse shelter, put bathroom flooring in, put the deck on the back of the house, fix the animal fencing, build a chicken tractor and the list goes on). This is all from materials we already have from freecycle and craigslist. thank the Lord. We did not have to buy a penny of it. :O)
However there is not enough man power to go around here to finish all that stuff.
But hey at least we got the veggie garden in and even had strawberries and cherries that we picked and made cobblers and yummy treats like that. And we are doing our compost bin today.

I have done alot of experimenting lately with cooking. Mostly with fermenting.
Lacto fermented ketchup, gingered carrots, sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir, yogurt, mayo and more. Making crispy nuts, crispy pumpkin seeds and breads.

I spend all my time dealing with food it seems. If I am not in the garden I am in the kitchen.
But I am so thankful to be able to use these skills I am learning for possibly the future with the way our economy is going who knows how much this might help to have our own milk, eggs, fruits and veggies.

Financially it is getting very scary for many. Pauls work has had MANY cutbacks that is effecting us financially (severely) I might add losing over $1000 a month, and we are at risk for him losing his job due to layoffs but we are hanging on to the promise that we will be cared for. God will never leave or forsake us.
Non the less it does help to know that we can provide some of our own food.
We have cut back as much as we can possibly cut back. No cable tv, no cell phones, no going out to eat, no nice cars (just thankful our car works), no new clothes or shoes etc etc but you know what?, with all that we are so content.
Still looking for ways to make extra money just to survive :o) (selling produce, milk and boarding horses) Any little bit helps.

God is teaching us through all this. To rely on him and to be so thankful for what we have. I feel SOOOOO blessed despite my circumstances. I mean to others we look extremely poor yet I feel so rich. Not financially but rich in so many other blessings!