It's About Time!

My time tonight is short (I was ready for bed 2 hours ago!) so I am mostly posting in pictures. I intend to post on a regular basis by the end of the year as my youngest gets a bit older. I hope you enjoy, and maybe get inspired too!

Our first chicks hatched naturally. Three black and three brown.

My kind of fast food. 

You are looking a almost a month's worth of meals, most of which can go into the crock pot. Prep time was about one full morning plus a little extra here and there.

My freezer door is usually more filled with chicken broth, but this is it tonight. 

Applegate products are a treat we enjoy sometimes. Wild rice and garlic are leftovers from a meal this week. I made enough to serve again as sides with two different meals.

Fermented a batch of my favorite salsa for wild salmon- blueberry, pineapple and cilantro. So far two fish haters have eaten my salmon prepared this way and liked it.

My dancing, beautiful oldest is turning four in a few short days. Happy birthday sweetie!

We were happy with my recipe creation for braised short ribs. Recipe will follow!

She just started eating solids! My little baby is our earliest and most mature baby eater. She loves her cod liver oil, egg yolks and a little banana. And she cries if I don't feed her fast enough, just like I did. 

Our middle girl. This is what happened when mom and dad tried to have a ten minute conversation: 40 eggs got cracked. A huge bowl of eggs was the result with only three eggshells in it. Oh and about five eggs met the carpet. I am glad they are used to cracking eggs with me! Otherwise... it could have been full on disaster. I am now appreciating the old saying, "Don't keep all your eggs in one basket." Because, just maybe, your little darling will easily pull it out and go to work.

Once we got rid of some extra roosters our lovely hens started laying more eggs. Let there be peace in the hen house! My favorites are from copper marans who lay the darkest eggs. We had 12 hatched in an incubator and 10 were roosters. Go figure.

The fruit of a couple hours of labor: 1/2 gallon hot salsa, 1/2 gallon mild salsa, raw whey and cream cheese, blueberry pineapple salsa, sourdough starter, two jars of sour cream and one jar of mayonaise. This is all lacto-fermenting.

I have learned a lot about adoption through this momma. All the other hens laid their eggs and left but she stayed and kept them warm, made sure the humidity was right and turned them three times a day. And so they call her mama and they all love her and feel safe with her. A happy little family.  

I have started blending a yummy concoction that varies each day- a powerhouse of nutrition. Organic berries, bananas, organic chard, plain yogurt, raw honey, raw milk, acerola powder (natural vitamin c from cherries), butter oil, nutritional yeast and coconut oil. And whatever I feel like throwing in. Today I added apples and carrots. 

Fish is one of my favorite quick meals. A friend who owns some fishing boats in Canada gave us this salmon he caught- and even some white salmon too! This meal took 20 minutes tops.

With one little cluck from momma they knew what to do... search the ground for food.

Home made raw cream cheese.

Beautiful, I know... but these rooster feet make the best stock in the world. Thank you roosters for your gift of nutrition to our family! There are three birds in this huge stock pot.

Lemonade day. Our oldest made above minimum wage in one hour selling organic lavendar lemonade sweetened with white sugar and  organic lemonade sweetened with rapadura. Check out the piggy bank she used for her transactions! So cute. And she is really good at waving.

A little front yard color.

This was my first batch of ground organic corn meal. I love grinding my own flour! 

It's so easy with the right equipment.

Oh yes, children are a gift!

She makes me smile all the time. 

She was recently the birthday girl!

They love their glasses!

They've got some cutie girl style going on for their evening walk.

And this one couldn't last.

This is the first time our baby saw the snow, and the first time our second really got to play in it.

And so they had fun.

This is the renovated little home on a beautiful two acres we considered buying earlier this year.

This is the big home on a small lot that we almost bought last month. We backed out the day we were to sign our final papers and go about getting the key. We found some more issues and decided we were done. I am so happy we are still renting! And I have no desire to look again for some time, but I learned a lot in the whole process about buying a home for one, but also trusting God, recognizing the presence of peace and following God's voice one step at a time.

And so, this is my life so far in 2012. I'm blessed.

Mommyhood and My Journey Into Nourishing Food: Part 1

My mind is thinking about God, babies, birth, fertility and food. Having just had a new baby 8 weeks ago, I guess that could be called normal. I pray and eat to grow babies and then I birth them. Then I get hungry when I breastfeed and I think about food- again. For some time I have wanted to share my journey into eating real food and becoming a mostly traditional eater. For me, it is all wrapped up in this thing called becoming a mom. It was my gateway to learning about how food affects our bodies and our babies. This journey has been a huge part in my answer to prayer for our family.

I will start by going backwards. In our first almost two years of marriage we had only one pregnancy, a year into it. Since then I have come to learn that it shouldn't have been that hard. A woman in optimum health should really have little trouble conceiving, unless of course there is some kind of physical issue or other medical reason. I have now read about tribes of people who knew that something was really wrong if a couple got married and didn't become pregnant in the first month or two. Well honestly, I probably don't know anyone who eats the way they did! And I also did not know that women could get pregnant that easily and quickly in an entire people group, although I had heard the term fertile Myrtle. Knowing people who were trying to get pregnant for lengthy periods, including years, was familiar to me. And I thought that Myrtle person was just a random, exceptionally fertile lady for no particular reason. At any rate, I have since learned to see things a little differently. At the time, however, I didn't see our first year as unusual. I had prayed intently for God to give us children since shortly after our wedding, as scripture tells us it is God who opens and closes the womb. In having children Christ is my constant. I always go to Him for them, because I trust He wants to show himself faithful. And so, about a year after our wedding, we had a positive test when we were out of town, in Redding, CA. Thus began a love that will never die in my heart.

Fast forward to a couple weeks later and I was in tears as my body was passing our sweet baby. We only had her (just felt she was a girl) about two months we were told. I was in denial until we were in the ER, because of heavy bleeding and cramping, and both an exterior ultrasound and a vaginal ultrasound found an empty uterus. Then I grieved because I knew it was final. I had to say goodbye. And so I did. I could have gotten mad at God but I consciously chose to worship Him for being faithful. I chose to trust that He doesn't steal from me. I chose to rejoice because it was the first time in my life I had the opportunity to offer God praise when it cost me everything. I had worshiped Christ in painful times before but nothing compared to the pain of saying an earthly goodbye to a child I will never hold in this realm. As I lay on that table in the ER, after getting mad at the doctor who said basically it was no big deal as I should be able to get pregnant again (as if I would ever have another opportunity to carry that one child!), I lifted my arms and sang to Jesus. I told Him how worthy He was. Peace like I can not explain wrapped His arms around me and put my heart into ecstasy over the love and tenderness I felt tangibly. Then we went home and cried... and peace remained though the healing process.

It has been years now and my heart is healed but sometimes I still cry. I am fine with that. I will always have a baby girl in heaven and I will always wish she was here with us, sitting next to our other daughters. We had named her as we said goodbye and I wonder what it would have been like to have her growing up next to the rest of us. I tell her that I love her from time to time, and ask Jesus to please tell her that I have not forgotten her for I never will. Yet in the midst of the grieving I really prayed all the more fervently for another child. A child that would be whole and full term, born lively and healthy. I believe it is God who gives every gift of a child, and I always run to Him for them. 

Almost a year later, we still had an empty womb. A dear friend coming to visit asked if she could share some things with us about nutrition and fertility as we had been discussing nutrition in a limited fashion over phone calls. Of course I said yes. I have a lot of respect for this friend and her advice I highly value. Her visit was incredibly enjoyable, but the nutrition conversation we had with her proved to be not only life-changing, but God's sweet answer to me in my regular prayer for children.

She said that nutrition was such a vast topic that she didn't know where to start, but that the Holy Spirit had lead her to talk to us mainly about fats and oils. And so began an initially overwhelming adventure of learning what I had never even heard before. My husband and I took notes, literally. It was so much to take in, and I think we only talked for about an hour! She recommended I read a book which I will recommend: Nina Planck's, Real Food: What To Eat and Why. It took me about a year to get around to reading it and it was an amazing, engaging and easy read. I think this book could have made learning about eating traditionally go a lot faster for me had I read it at first, as it is simple enough for anyone to get a grasp on food and what it does for us. But as it was, I learned slowly. 

My friend had given me a great starting point. I learned that our two years of regularly consuming soy products was not only harming my fertility and health but my husband's as well. We never bought tofu or soy milk again, though I do keep a traditionally fermented Soy Sauce on hand that I buy from Trader Joe's. I learned that good fats and oils, the real ones that people have been eating for thousands of years before all of these new weird ones were pushed into the food supply, actually aid fertility and help sustain a pregnancy once begun, in addition to providing much needed nutrients to the growing baby. And finding out that people's heads are supposed to be round? (In my mind's eye I am envisioning young models round faces drinking their Coca Colas when it was a new product...) Well, that was a new one on me... I thought it was just genetic. And this was before I knew the word epigenetics, but that is another topic. During this discussion I got up and trashed my huge jar of Crisco that I had always used for baking (should not be used for human consumption!), threw out my white rice, white sugar and white flour. In all these years I have only bought white sugar for making kombucha, and white flour for something I needed to make for others last year.

This is only part of my journey, but suffice it to say that after ridding my kitchen of those harmful "foods", I added into our diets the good fats and oils my friend said were great for us. I put tons of butter on my bread, freely ate cream with strawberries, etc., and began taking cod liver oil daily. Oh, and all that stuff I threw out? I simply purchased brown rice, whole wheat flour (now I grind my own) and rapadura, raw honey, stevia (husband hates that one!) or real maple syrup for sweeteners. Virgin, cold pressed coconut oil slowly joined our pantry as a regular staple. That damaging soy milk? It was in with the whole milk again, yum! And presently, since I am about real food, it has become raw whole milk for us. The result of our early changes? Within just one month we were pregnant! Thank you Jesus as He answered my prayers! Real food the way He made it was healing us. It was a missing link that has now helped to give us three beautiful girls.

There is so much more I could say as that doesn't scratch the surface of my journey. The biggest reason I want to share my journey is because I want to encourage other women who have had miscarriages, infertility, etc. that perhaps eating real food traditionally prepared may help. I am thinking particularly of Christian women, because usually we are already praying and that is the most important step. However, even in my prayers, God sent an answer in the form of my friend's wisdom. I have not stopped learning, reading, researching and reading other people's research. I recognized my friend's visit as God answering my cries to Him to be a mother with a child to hold and raise.

Before, when I was single, I had faith for people to conceive when I prayed for them. I love seeing God move and give people children! Oh, He is so good. Now, I feel like I am armed with the spiritual and the practical. There is so much I do not know, but one thing I know, is that I keep seeing people I know get pregnant with a few minor changes such as I made. And I keep reading the same type of testimonies from women all over the world who went back to the roots of eating and preparing food and found their way out of infertility, complications, etc. For those that choose to pick as time when they start trying to get pregnant, I think it can be good to spend some time building up their body with whole, traditional foods for a period of months before trying to conceive. However, for those like me who are always trying, I think it is just important to be very committed to a whole foods based, fat rich diet. Click here to see an excellent pregnancy diet that has worked for many people, even those with polysystic ovary syndrom , fertility issues, history of miscarriage, etc. It might not solve everything, but for many people, it has changed everything. God used it to change us from a couple into a family. My prayer is that someone reading this would start on a journey that gives them the children they desire. I went first to God and remained there, and eating this way, in the steps of so many for so many thousands of years, is where He lead me. And I am grateful!

I will post more later about this journey of mine into real food and kids in my arms... but for now, that's it. :)

Genetically Modified Foods: Are They Harmful?

Is there a link between food allergies and Genetically Modified Foods (GMO)? "Since the introduction of genetically engineered foods in the mid 1990s, there has been a 265 percent increase in the rates of hospitalizations due to food-related allergic reactions." Check out Jennifer Grayson's article in the HuffPost Green for more information. 

To learn about disastrous results on animals after eating GMO feed, reactions in humans and possible changes to your gut flora AND how to avoid eating GMO's, read this article by the Weston A. Price Foundation. "Memos made public from a lawsuit reveal that the consensus among FDA scientists in the early 1990s was that GMOs were inherently unsafe and could lead to toxins, allergens, new diseases and nutritional problems. They urged their superiors to require long-term safety studies before any GM foods were allowed on the market. But the political appointee in charge of FDA policy was the former attorney of the biotech giant Monsanto and later the company’s vice president. The scientists’ warnings were ignored and today the FDA does not require a single safety study on GM foods."

Click here to sign a petition asking the senate to require the labeling of Genetically Modified Foods.

Calling All Tofu Lovers!

You might want to read this super quick article to see how soy affects your ovulation, fertility and general health, and that of your babies and kids too.We ate this way for two years and it was one of the worst choices we ever made. In the midst of it we had only one pregnancy that ended in miscarriage, and we were trying to get pregnant.

Affordable Organic Food

For those of you on the West Coast who are looking for a good way to feed your family healthfully without spending an arm and a leg, you might want to look into www.azurestandard.com.

Back when I was single, working one or two jobs, sometimes in college and heavily committed at my local church, I purchased a Costco membership and began cooking in bulk whenever I could fit it in. On the days I wasn't running out the door to get my favorite bean rice and cheese burrito, I might have brought stuffed peppers or baked salmon into work for my lunch break. Can you say yum? I found that on a tight budget the only way I could afford to eat good, quality food was to purchase it in bulk and freeze my single size meal portions in the freezer. Since then I have learned a bit more about what is quality, I still shop at Costco and in this phase of life I have also entered into the wonderful world of Azure Standard. You might want to, too!

At Azure Standard you can purchase quality bulk or single item foods ranging from chicken scratch, fresh produce, seeds, baking goods like bulk organic wheat berries and canned items... etc. I think you get the picture. There are no membership fees and you do not have to order every month. However, when you do order, you must spend at least $50. How easy is that? To view their pricing you can request a catalog or create a free online account. You can even create a favorites list and check the items you want to order that month. That feature is a huge time saver. Unfortunately their system does not yet tell you when an item is out of stock, but that is coming. That is my only complaint, and not worth dwelling on when it will be resolved in due time.

Once your order is placed you simply drive to your local pick up location on the designated day and get your order. You can pay cash on delivery or credit card on the internet ahead of time. You can create a local drop point if there is not one in your area.

This company is based in Oregon and produces some of the food themselves, but most of it comes from other companies whose brand names you might recognize if you have already been steering away from conventional, processed foods with bizarre, foreign sounding ingredient lists. The bulk option makes your purchase  more affordable, but when you can not afford that, or do not need it, the choice to order a small size or single item comes in handily.

If you have been looking for an affordable way to feed your family more healthy foods, they have an amazing supply of organic items and other more natural products. It is definitely worth a shot!

Traditional Foods Lifestyle

FAVORITE BOOK

A super easy, fascinating book to read (not a diet book) is Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. I think it is about $15 or so new, can be found used (or at the library?). It covers all the basic food groups and is very common sense. Heavily referenced if you prefer to do your own research as well.

FAVORITE WEBSITES

www.passionatehomemaking.com

www.westonaprice.org

MY BASICS

My basics are: I endeavor not to purchase groceries that have ingredients I can not pronounce. I don’t eat everything organic but just whole and fresh or fresh frozen is way better than processed. I almost never buy organic fruits and veggies that are on the cleanest dozen or is it ten? list. I did recently switch to organic potatoes when I found out they had the highest pesticide concentration of anything. I care more about having clean meats and dairy than I do organic produce. Oh, and we plant a garden usually. I almost always buy meat that does not have growth hormones and antibiotics. Occasionally grassfed beef, but that is not the norm, because of price in my area. I take cod liver oil and wild sockeye salmon oil, use whole wheat flour, raw honey, make chicken broth from whole chickens (super economical for a whole chicken!), soak my grains usually and slow cook beans and rice. I avoid soy. I don’t do lots of vitamins, even if it is organic. I run away from canola oil, corn syrup and don’t stock white flour, rice or sugar. No on refined stuff for me. And we use unrefined sea salt to our hearts content. Add to the above fruits and veggies and dairy of all sorts and whatever spices we want to cook with and those are the basics of how we eat.

WHY?

I eat the way I do because we like the foods and I have come to believe they are actually healthy, nourishing foods. I figure if God thought cow’s milk would kill us he would have taken the cream out but he didn’t. I also look at the plethora of research that supports the way we eat as healthy, and the fact that for thousands of years across many cultures people ate these foods and were healthy. I have come to believe that the diseases of civilization are diseases of industrialization and we have really messed things up in the last hundred or so years. Also I considered scripture, how God’s promised land was a land flowing with raw milk and raw honey. He didn’t send the Israelites there to die but to be blessed, and those foods were an example of abundance of nutrition and blessing. I remembered too that the fattiest part of the offering was first for the Lord. If it wasn’t the best part I don’t think he would have wanted it. Even native Americans could die of rabbit starvation if they only had lean meat in the winter and no fat. At any rate, I am not scared of any food if it is the way God made it (grassfed, pastured, not GMO, etc.) But there is so much out there to research. I often go to www.westonaprice.org whenever I want to learn about something.

COD LIVER OIL DOES WONDERS!!

The first, most basic changes I made (after two years of marriage with only one pregnancy which resulted in miscarriage) were: threw out my Crisco, quit eating soy products or soy milk, ate lots more butter and started taking cod liver oil- which isn’t bad with a little oj. Now I take even more for breastfeeding and I take so much I reverted to capsules because I just didn’t want to swallow that much oily liquid. The things cod liver oil does seem endless, but it is great for fertility, flu prevention, eyesight, on and on.

GRAINS

Eventually, I started to slow cook more food (like beans for a LONG time), soak my whole grain oatmeal, flour and also my rice or other grains (makes it more easily digested and reduces the phytic acid.) This could sound time consuming, but essentially it isn’t a whole lot more than putting my oatmeal in the pot the night before we want it for breakfast, rather than doing that step in the morning. Soaking has been a traditional way of preparing grains for thousands of years across different cultures. And there is research that shows why it is actually beneficial. Not eating properly prepared foods like these can shorten the health and strength of your digestive capabilities, which is why I have an early 30’s relative who was in the hospital for one week with diverticulitus.

Also, an extra trick is to use raw honey on oatmeal or toast as it starts pre-digesting the grains and making it even easier on your system.

FAST FOOD

Basically I have loved to cook for over ten years, but I intentionally went even further away from anything processed so I cook even more. I cook in batches usually so I cut my kitchen time in half, always putting a meal in the freezer. That has become my healthy fast food.

SHOPPING

I shop at Costco and Henry’s. I get all my cheese at Henry’s, and they also sometimes have raw cheese for a good price. Generally I stick with Tillamook, which does have some raw cheeses. They also have great prices on both Foster Farms whole chickens .99 cents or Organic chickens 1.99 per ound. My biggest dollar stretching way to go is to always buy the whole chicken now. I get several meals out of it, 10-12 quarts of chicken stock (which makes rice more digestible too) and the dog gets all the very soft bones. Foster Farms is labeled no extra growth hormones or antibiotics. Either one is healthier than standard chicken. In general I just try to stick with the best I can afford. I love getting the $5 bags of frozen veggies at Costco too. Often they have so many organic bags of frozen freshness. I don’t freak much over everything being organic but most of that I will get at Costco prices if I do.