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Showing posts from September, 2017

Garden Reflections and Lessons Learned

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As our garden is nearing its end for the year, I am reflecting back on lessons learned over the past six years since I really started getting serious into growing our own food.   It really began many years earlier when I started growing tomatoes in the greenhouse for the sake of simply having my own for salsa and my Italian sauces.  At the time I knew nothing of starting my plants from seed, I simply went down to the nursery and picked up some tomato plants and transplanted them in the greenhouse and they always did quite well for me.  By 2012, a lot of changes occurred that had me thinking it was time to get serious and start learning how to grow more food of all kinds and to do so from seed.  Some of what led me to this was unexpected and difficult trials we had gone through, some of it was waking up to the realities of our food supply and seeing the direction things were going. This is when I began to expand outside the greenhouse by working up a small section between it a

How To Make a Fermentation Starter

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Ah fermenting! Many of us have been learning the importance of fermented foods for ultimate health especially in this day where most are suffering from various forms of digestive problems. Finding more ways to get these gut healing probiotics into our diet on a daily basis can sometimes be challenging.  For me, I love kimchi and use to make it weekly using the traditional brine method and a long ferment time in cold storage.  However, my husband does not like kimchi nor does he like yogurt, so finding new things to ferment and new ways to do it has really helped in being able to get more fermented foods into my his diet. A good number of years ago I got into making mead by using a ginger bug as the starter instead of store bought wine yeasts.  This was not only the healthier way to go but also the most economical. After doing this for a few years, it dawned on me that I could use this same starter to ferment just about anything and I went on to experiment with differen

How To Make Vitamin Gummies

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Making your own vitamin gummies is so easy and fun and likely to be enjoyed by the whole family. I make these on occasion for myself and just love them.  It is good way to add some healthy beef gelatin to my diet. Making the gummies without that vitamin powders can be considered a wonderful supplement as is, but for those who are needing a bit more vitamin C or even Calcium and Magnesium (it is important these two minerals be taken together), adding the powders will give your gummies an extra boost. The above photo shows the gummies I made using mango juice a few years ago and in the video at the bottom you can see the ones I made using my own grape juice made from my home grown grapes. Here is what you will need: * 1/2 cup Grass Fed Beef Gelatin * 1 pint organic concentrated, unsweetened fruit juice or even a fruit puree * 1/2 cup raw honey * Vitamin or Mineral powders such as Vitamin C,  Magnesium , and/or Calcium - up to a Tablespoon of each In a small

Elk Burgers, Homemade Buns, and Garden Goodies!

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We were blessed to be gifted with a good amount of elk burger from a friend we helped out recently.  Last night I made my first elk burgers with it and they were wonderful.  Served with homemade whole wheat (from home milled organic wheat berries) and multi seed buns, garden grown onions, tomatoes, and lettuce, and some organic cheese.  On the side was my potato salad made from our own potatoes, homemade mayo made with eggs from our own chickens, my homemade vinegar, and herbs from our garden. It is truly wonderful about being able to serve a meal that was not only made from scratch but made mostly from our own garden goodies, our own chicken eggs, and local caught meat. I also made meat balls with gravy last week using some of that elk burger and they were the best meatballs I have made yet.  Just wonderful! The gravy was made from goat milk we have been blessed to be gifted from yet another friend. My recipe for meatballs and hamburger patties is pretty much the same and th

Sewing on a Treadle Machine

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Anyone who knows me well knows how much I adore my Janome treadle machine . Since I purchased it over 5 years ago, I have made many things from clothes to curtains including numerous quilts, most of them heavy denim ones where I leave on pockets and other interesting pieces making for pretty thick layers of fabric to go through and have had no problems nor broken needles like I would get with my electric machines. About a year ago, I put out a a youtube video on How To Make a Frontier Skirt from a garage sale find sheet.  I had no idea that video was going to get me non stop orders for these skirts as well as aprons and much more.  I have had that thing going practically non stop until I finally hit the bottom of the order list just the other day. Here are a few of examples of the patchwork style skirts that are the most popular: My machine has held up beautifully through it all and I just recently published a How To video on using a treadle machine for those that a

About My Blog

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Dear friends, I apologize for failing to keep up on this blog.  After dabbling in writing for other places, I decided it was time to come back to my blogspot here and get it going again.  Though I will still share videos here from time to time, I have full intentions of getting into writing more DIY and other such articles related to being more frugal, healhty, and self sufficient. I am really looking forward to this and not only have several articles brewing, I have many already written that I can share here and will get on that very soon. I am looking forward to seeing this page get off the ground and that this may be a bit more user friendly to everyone.  Thank you for those whom have stuck with me despite my falling behind here and I hope you will help me to build my audience and make this a great place for learning and sharing! God bless you all!