gah! finals!

Today was the last day of the semester.  I have officially completed 35 units since beginning in January.  Tomorrow, I will laugh at my textbooks.  And then post a 'for sale' ad in hopes that someone will buy them.  


Hopefully we'll get around to decorating our "outback" Christmas tree by the weekend.  The wee one, who isn't really so 'wee' anymore, is really looking forward to it.  He's going to be in a Christmas play at one of the local churches this year and has enjoyed his weekly practice of singing.  It's the cutest thing. Darn.  It makes me want to freeze time.


Kindergarten is going really well for him, except for the 2 colds, 1 round of flu and 2 rounds of a stomach bug he's had thus far.  And his "year" of school is not even half-over.


The greenhouse is up, the pig had her piglets and winter is here on the farm.  More updates later.  I'm going to go read........a NOVEL! Or,...a NEWSPAPER!


Tomorrow:  beef stew with vegetables all brought to us by local or homegrown/home-preserved foods cooked right here on the wood-cook-stove.

Left Behind.

There is a responsibility we carry, as a species, to be conscious of the consequences of our choices.  While there are more than everyone's fair share of topics out there to be covered, I can pontificate on one close to my heart (and stomach).  Food.  Specifically, food that comes from a farm, and the farmers.There are small, medium, large and super-sized farms in our wide world, and from many of them come delicious nutritious food.  Some of them, not so much.

What  often isn't contemplated, is the farmer who got bigger and better and faster and more industrial in order to pay his mortgage and feed his family, who is proverbially and literally being left behind in this conundrum of politics vs. food vs. a higher consciousness of the people (which is a threat to the great food monopolies that be, and their astronomical yearly incomes!) (We won't mention ~ahem~ the political support they provide).

I'm guilty as charged.  I've often thought only of not feeding my family the anti-biotic laden, hormone-laced, arsenic fed and brutally handled animals that are now meats available in the local grocery stores.  I've not thought about the farmer who mortgaged his home, land and hence, his children's inheritance in order to build the housing for the aforementioned animals to be raised in.  I'm not thinking about the work he or she does daily in order to make the mortgage payment on that burden, so that we American's can eat large-breasted chickens.  

It became real to me when I heard a farmer say (after 10 + years of hard farming) that he still had over $90,000 to pay on his poultry houses and by that time, I figured in my head silently;  he'd probably have to spend $600,000 more to "upgrade" his houses, or be denied a contract.  


So, isn't it great that there is a food movement and a lot of us are cutting out High Fructose Corn Syrup and BHT and MSG and not using Baking Powder with Aluminum in it?  


What about the millions of people who are employed by the "monsters that be" and pay their bills from their week-to-week paycheck - do they have a voice?  Do they lead food-conscious lives?  Or are they left behind also, with their $56.88 balance showing on the ATM receipt, after a balance inquiry (which cost them $1.00, incidentally) to stand in the grocery store, choosing between a frozen pizza for $3.99 or a bag of apples for $4.29 knowing which is better, but what will fill the bellies of their children for now, until the next paycheck is cashed.  


It's a conundrum for sure, this 'movement', with a lot of variables and dynamics to be considered.


This is sometimes hard for me to process, and because of that, I revert back to a comforting saying, "If I don't help myself, I can't help others", and so it goes - with my sometimes overzealous and lofty goals of changing the world one bite at a time.  


In a sense, we've all been left behind some way, some how.  It makes a lot of sense to me that in our participation of this "food movement" that we consider the farmers of the "Factory Farms" and remember that they too have bills to pay, families to care for, and in a lot of ways, deserve as much respect as the organic, humane and certified farmer down the road.  

Turkey Tales

Once upon a time, there were three white production turkeys.  We found them via FreeCycle, an invaluable tool for frugal folk, picked them up and brought them home.

So cute and fluffy - or - as I like to say, "so ugly he's cute".  These are the turkeys raised akin to the Cornish Cross chickens, like the one I rescued. They have been bred to grow quickly and basically grow so large and awkward that they cannot reproduce on their own.

When we first brought them home they were about one year old.  They followed us around like dogs having been raised by a young girl for a 4-H project.  Her mom promised her that they would not slaughter any 4-H project and so this is why they were FreeCycled.  p.s. they eat a lot.  I mean, a LOT!

The turkeys seemed to like living here at Hope Farms.  They were all the rage with the neighbors.  Well, except for one neighbor who came visiting and got chased over the fence feathers flapping, feet a flying and needless to say, her feathers were a bit, er, ruffled.

Unfortunately, one of the turkeys attacked a dear friends daughter and scratched her back, so we had to give him away.  This was of course after we ate the first one for Thanksgiving.  It was the best turkey I've EVER tasted.  Thank You God for this food.  Thank you turkey for giving us food.  Amen.

And then, the last one attacked dear husband!  So we ate him for Christmas!  

things that seem wrong

salsa un-recipe

into the hot jars now

after the mixing and cooking

this is the first time I have canned salsa

it smells really good, too

So after canning for what felt like days on end last summer, during this winter, we realized that one of the things we often eat and didn't can was salsa!  With a good supply of tomatoes, I decided to make salsa.  I made a sort of "un-recipe" I call it, because I followed no particular recipe and can't remember what I did, exactly....  Then I further complicated the un-recipe by making another batch and not remember what I put into that!  (except more cilantro, less sugar and more crushed pepper)

But, here's how it all went down:

tomatoes

onions

garlic

roasted tomatillos

roasted bell peppers

roasted jalapeños

roasted garlic

cilantro

lime/lemon juice

salt

pepper

cumin

chili powder

crushed pepper

vinegar

sugar

And then it went down on a tortilla chip.  

  

things that seem wrong

especially in a small town

but hey, I like to say "you go with your bad self"

on growing stuff

It's not easy being green.  But it's more expensive to "buy green". Also, there's something refreshing and soulful about nurturing a plant, from seedling to full fledge blossoming and producing, fruits and vegetables springing forth, gaining size and color every day.  Eating the  gleaning is in and of itself an entirely separate fulfillment.

This is the cute part of gardening.  All of it tucked in neat little compartments, taking up little space and enjoying the warmth of the sun.  

Then, here we have the somewhat ugly task of mulching to control weeds, which isn't very pretty, but neither are the weeds.  I saw a quote once, and can't remember it verbatim, but it basically said that weeds are mother natures' flowers popping up where we don't want them.  Isn't that the truth?!

What we have here is the poor-man's version of raised-beds.  We composted manure, grass clippings, leaves, and added composted cotton-seed hulls and made our own unconventional "raised rows".  So far, they've worked great.  Ed mows between them with the push-mower and I hand weed the little rascals that show up in between and around the plants.  

I've culled the cabbage plants after harvest and am halfway done doing the same with the potatoes.  We have two rogue Corn plants each with one ear of corn on them.  We've been joking about who gets them since there are three of us.  It'll be like a fight between two one-armed men.  Not really, I just wanted to see if I could use that joke in some form of a sentence.  I'm sure Eddie will get both of them, he's the corn lover.  

Next year our 'beds' will be even more 'raised' - as we'll add more clippings, manure and other green and brown goodies.  Maybe in a few years they'll be waist-high and we won't have to bend over.  I'll keep you posted on that.

So when one garden's organically, one gets holy (holy? know how sometimes you type a word and it just doesn't look right?  this is one of those moments for me....)  hole-y produce.  I don't care. It's my way of sharing.

Speaking of gardening, I'd better get out there and tend to it.  

Happy Green Thumbing!

a bowl of strawberries

let's make like strawberries and jam, shall we?

it isn't cost effective, there is a ton of sugar in it, and having it in the house increases the consumption of said ingredient, but oh is it good.

strawberries, check. sugar, check. pectin, check. jars, lids, rings, check.

there isn't much to it. it's more difficult to keep it IN THE HOUSE than it is to make it.

between my husband and myself giving it away and eating it simultaneously, it won't last until January.

even our dear son, who does not usually like jelly with his pb&j really likes this strawberry jam.

i might have to hide a quart jar of it somewhere....now only if (in january) i can remember where i hid it.

I did it.

For those of you who do not know, since last July, our family has succeeded at avoiding 90% (+ or - ) of commercial meat, poultry, dairy and eggs. We avoid buying it. We avoid eating it prepared at restaurants, eateries, etc. There are times that we do eat it. By choice, but somewhat reluctantly. And, sometimes, there are those moments when we just go with some gusto for the beef enchiladas, chicken tacos and chile-con-carne at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Thanks to my Mom, who turned us onto a couple of DVD's containing the wisdom of Dr. Joel Fuhrman, thoughtful intellect of John Robbins, and referrals to books like this. Although the majority of these "nutritarians", "flexitarians", "vegetarians", and "vegan" persons choose to avoid animal products, we decided to eat our farm raised meat and eggs along with a plant-based diet instead of the commercially raised meat found in grocery stores today.

We have laying hens for eggs. We have pigs raised in a wooded lot for pork. Grass-fed (and finished) steers for beef. And just last week, we picked up our 55 day old chicks from the post office that had been delivered there from Reich Poultry in PA. The chicks, on this seventh day of their lives, are doing fantastic and so in about 10 to 14 weeks, the roosters will be freezer stock, whereas the hens will be layers, hopefully beginning to lay eggs around 19 weeks.

As much of an animal lover I am, I do enjoy a roast chicken, a steak, and a good pulled pork bbq sandwich once in a while. That said, I do justify (to myself - not anyone else) that our animals are raised humanely, happily, cared for in every way possible, and because not one minute of their lives are spent in fear for their lives, I believe they produce healthier meat (and eggs).

In the style of anonymous (as anonymous as this blogging thing gets...) honesty, there IS a part of me that cringes a little - ok, a whole lot - when I pontificate the reality that the living, breathing, thinking and feeling animal before me will be on my plate at some point in the future. If I had to kill what I ate, I would most definitely be a vegetarian; a Lacto-Ovo vegetarian - drinking the milk from our own cow and the eggs from our own chickens.

While I say this with a humble spirit and a loving heart, I must admit that I have become less and less tolerant of the idea that we, individually and societally, accept that the way our current food system works. Like a school of fish we just sorta swim along and when one or two fish move to the left, so do we. To the right? Yes ma'am, yes sir. Tortured chicken? Sure, why not.

Ever seen Food, Inc. ? How about The Future of Food ?

If it is in the grocery store it must be ok, right? If my mom feeds it to me, it must not be bad, right?

WRONG

Unfortunately, most of us (you, me, your mom and them) will not change our eating habits until something happens to our health. I urge you, and in doing so, renew my own passion for taking my own advice, to think about where your food comes from.

I came across a note I scribbled on a legal pad a while back while I was talking to my mom on the phone, it said:

" going organic - treading lightly. self-educating, stepping carefully amongst monopolies seeking to jump on and take control of the organic bandwagon.

why are people so defensive of their junk food and adamantly opposed to spending money on healthy, non-gmo, pesticide-free food - yet fork over hundreds of dollars a month for health coverage/costs to treat illness caused by poor diet."

Now that I've shared some of my ranting, let me say this - I am occasionally a hypocrite.

A while back, my preschooler had parent-teacher conference. Naturally, Ed and I attended said event. On this day, the school was serving lunch to the parents if they came to the conferences. We got our "ticket" and went to the cafeteria after finding out that our little boy is doing 'satisfactory' in school.

Guess what they were having for lunch?? Hot dogs. All the way. Chips. Soda. WHOOPEE! You can imagine my surprise. Now, this isn't an attack on the school. Or school lunches, but it IS indicative of our "quick and easy" nation, is it not? I mean, when people have cook-outs, or bbq's - they make (drum roll, please) HOT DOGS! (nevermind the bun/hot dog ratio issue )

So now you know why there are pictures of a plate lunch starring the humble hot dog, it's supporting friends potato chips and executive producer mountain-dew-wanna-be drink made by someone (sam walton & co. ) who shall remain unnamed (aka: wally world). And the underdog "chili"!

At this not-so-neatly-tied-up blog post end, I'll bid goodnight leaving you with this.

Bon Appetit! Or, not.

Be careful little mouth what you eat. And yes, I ate the hot dog, chips and soda. The last one I'll ever willingly or knowingly eat.