Fostering a Love of Food

I think I've written about Food as Fuel here before. The concept that the quality of your fuel can help maintain the life of your machine, in this case the machine is your body. If not, I know I've had long conversations with some of you on the subject. Doing a basic Google search these days, you'll find multiple sources saying eating well is not only good for you, but it can help fight off cancer, maintain hormone levels, ensure longevity, and any other sort of positive attribute you can think of. In my opinion, all this awesome preventive medicine ingested by eating well starts with a healthy love of food. (I define food as "minimally processed edible matter that comes from plants and animals.") As a parent I strive to instill a love for healthy food in my kids.

 I recently read French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon (available here). I finished the book feeling reinforced in the methods and attitudes already in place regarding mealtime in our house. We eat 4 times a day, within a half hour start-time window depending on if we are/can wait for Pete to join us for dinner. Everyone has to take a bite of new foods, everyone has jobs to help prep and clean up, we eat at the table whenever possible, etc. This mindset had gotten slightly offtrack when we lost complete control of our schedules by adding preschool (and a new baby) to the mix. After reestablishing this mindset, we have decided to experiment with new foods. I checked out a couple children's books from our library

 

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

 

I Can Eat a Rainbow by Annabel Karmel

Which included several items we couldn't pronounce, had never seen at the grocery or had not presented to Emagene that she could remember.

Naturally, we made a list of these items and stuck it on the fridge. 

We hope to try all of these at least once when they come in season at our local farmers market. 

We also have this look and find farmers market book that helps us remember which items to lookout for according to season. I bought it through a booksale on scholastic.com but now I can't find the link to it anywhere. Its called: At the Farmers Market and doesn't list an author. The illustrator is Staffane McClary.

We started our food journey at the beginning of summer by purchasing some rhubarb and a kohlrabi. We smelled some endive and held a few chocolate peppers (not on the list, and were sadly done for the season). Taking a lesson from Karen's book, I had Emagene help me prep the new veggies. We each held, smelled, and tasted them raw and cooked. We looked for how they changed when heated. And everyone tried a bite! We sliced the kohlrabi, tossed it with oil and salt and then baked it it like potato chips (preferred over raw). We only got through half our cabbage cousin that night and made plans to cook up a batch of roasted roots before the weather turned into full-blown Texas summer sauna. Apparently the kohlrabi goes great with potatoes and beets. Good thing, because there were beets!

The rhubarb was baked in a strawberry rhubarb crumble that everyone (even Pete) ate seconds of. Sometimes I wonder if its harder to get him to try new foods or Emagene. They both put up a meager fight with wrinkled noses as they toy with the first bite on their forks. They eventually eat it. I on the other hand take a lot of deep breathes to avoid snapping at them to "just eat your food!"

I had a bit of rhubarb left over so I tried this rhubarb syrup recipe I found linked at SouleMama.com. The soda was excellent. I must try the gin version soon!

Next we reintroduced the girls to artichokes. Just plain, steamed artichokes, dipped in butter and scrapped across the teeth.

Followed by homemade lemonade.

Anyway, that is what we are doing over here. At this point we have tried purple cauliflower, grapefruit (the Texas pink was a huge hit!), guava (fresh and raw, no thanks - but seeded and blended in a smoothie, yes please!), figs (all we had were dried and they were not hit) and jicama.  I think endive and pomegranates are next. I'll keep you posted. We are having the hardest time finding starfruit out here. I used to eat it all the time in Oregon, and Emagene is really intrigued by a star-shaped food!

What new foods have you tried? 

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Most of my recipes come from iPhone Google searches. When I find one I like, I email myself the link from my phone. If you ever want to know which ones I prefer, shoot me a note in the comments and I'll drop you the link.

This blog was drafted in June of 2014. Sadly, I became a bit behind in my editing when Aoife started walking. Now she is trying to run. *sigh* I may be able to knock out one decent post a week again soon. Here's to hoping!

Thanks for sticking around during my drier writing spells. I appreciate it.

.dreaming.

As I sit in the morning sun, eating my granola and homemade yogurt, sipping jasmine tea and giggling at the way the cat and dog always find the warmest place to wait for the late morning start that has become normal around here. Somehow I trained my girl that morning is after 9 and she should sleep until then no matter when we went to bed. Not sure I how I got so lucky! Especially when us grown-ups have to get up and tend to the animals and prepare for jobs just before dawn, which is about 6:45 these days.

I digress.

With the dog on the sofa in the sun, and the cat on the bed snuggling with munchkin, I have so many thoughts and dreams running circles through my head. I find myself returning to the same dream at the brink of every new season: Returning to Portland. Perhaps this Spring will be our last in the Midwest. Perhaps this summer I can spend hours on the river bank with my sisters and dear friends who I haven't seen in nearly 2 years (wow!). Or perhaps, I'll plant the infamous Texas Summer garden for canning in late October. Which brings me back to now: planning for the garden!

I have been enjoying Sharon Lovejoy's Roots Shoots Buckets and Boots. Themed gardening with kids. Easily grown edible flowers and vegetables with ideas for things to watch for as you walk daily with children in the garden and unique ways to eat the harvest . I think we've decided on the Sipping and Snacking Garden, if I can find Alpine Strawberry and Lemon Cucumber seedlings here in Texas. If not, I do believe we will be modifying the design to fit what we have. It will be fun to teach Emagene which flowers are edible, sprinkling them on salads and freezing them in ice cubes for decorating tea!

I'm excited to get at it! The list is already forming: I need to replenish my kelp and fish emulsion, purchase B12 for transplanting and get that compost really worked into the garden. We spread a bunch of homemade compost just after New Year and have been letting the chickens pick the mealworms out of the garden plots. It may be time to start working the soil and mixing it all together, keeping in mind it is only barely February and we are due for at least one more round of hard freezing. But it is never to early to acquire seeds, order seedlings (from where? must find a local nursery!) and make the endless To Do lists that litter my counter and are promptly forgotten when the old Fisher Price Sherwood Forest playset (dubbed the Treehouse around here) starts calling for the dollhouse family to come play, which or course takes at least two humans since there are six dolls and a puppy to manipulate.

Well, that's how I spend most of my days. (Enter Fresh Prince of Bel Air reference here.) What's going on in your world?

The challenge has started!

As I mentioned. I'm taking part in a read-a-thon sponsored by the Domestic Pagan. This is a week long intensive to see who can read the most pagan themed material. I'm going to keep a reading log on this post, either by updating the post or adding a comment when I start/finish a book.
Here's to reading!

(here's the link to this specific challenge)

Sept 9, 10am-ish ~ Today I'm starting with Steve Zeitlin's The Four Corners of the Sky; creation stories and cosmologies from around the works.

Sept 10 ~ finished! Very awesome beginners (as in middle school) guide to comparative religions. In my pre-schooling mind I'm writing this down as a "textbook" for future use.
Next up ~ the triumph of the moon: a history of modern pagan witchcraft, by Ronald Hutton. But its on the hold shelf at the library. So until i get there tomorrow, I'm gonna read The Book of Guinevere. Does that count toward the read-a-thon?

Sept 11~ the history will not be happening at this point because it is a history book and a bit dry. Instead, Tarot Unveiled; the method to its magic by Laura a clarion.
While waiting for the mister to finish work I stumbled upon Witches 101 on my iBook (all my real books were at home). I wasn't able to put it down! I now must read Witches of East End by Melissa de las Cruz. How did I miss this one?!?! Back to the Tarot book...

*UPDATE*
the challenge has ended. I did not read much that was not aimed for small children :) The Tarot book was set aside to read Babar, and Mr. Peabody's Apples, and a number of Berenstein Bear classics. We also started swim lessons, transplanted our starts for the fall garden and attended a blues festival. I am in no way disappointed in the amount of reading I got done for me. Today's outcast skies will lend themselves wonderfully to an afternoon under a blanket on the sofa with a book.

a reading challenge

I was doing a google search for ideas to celebrate the Blue Moon and stumbled across a the Domestic Pagan's blog.She had great ideas for the moon observation and a  Pagan Reading Challenge.

I have been searching for a book list and a challenge to keep me motivated on reading more than Clifford the Big Red Dog (like this one). This challenge seems wonderful, even though I am starting about 9 months late. Oh well, It'll keep me focused until the end of the year.

Visit the link above and join up. She links to a couple other blogs with their own reading challenges and booklists. I'm excited to get started!

what are you reading these days?

Story in Photos

I found this old post drafted and hidden amongst everything else. I think its a great segue into a Story In Photos of the latest 'chicken house upgrade.'

From early March 2012,

I recently attended an information class about keeping chickens in Tulsa city county. It was put together by the library and local chicken fanciers and egg farmers. I'm so glad I went! It was one of those moments where you heard an experienced, living human verbalised everything you've been reading for the last month and clarifying that you processed it all correctly. And throwing in a few shortcut tips in the process. Carissa, the woman speaking, keeps a small flock of 70 birds. She provided those in attendance with a long list of online and local resources for everything chicken. There was also a library-supplied reading list and book display available.


I grabbed and have started reading this book: Keeping Chickens with Ashley English. I'm so glad I trusted my gut and went with this one! She's witty, easy to read, organised like a magazine and has included plans and cut-lists for chicken housing! What more could you ask for? The book is 132 pages, full of pictures, charts, definitions, signs of disease breakdowns, and did I mention plans?? 

We're getting ready to move house, and my girls are getting ready to upgrade. I'm so excited to build the mobile chicken tracker she's got in here! It'll need a little modification since we have 4 birds instead of 3, but not that much! Did I mention I was excited? Cuz I am. Just a little ;)
 Two weeks ago, this happened:

After all that work and they still prefer this:

Gardening with a 2-year old

Waiting for seeds to germinate is difficult. Like watching her learn. No meddling, no 'helping', no shortcuts. Just watching and encouraging. But not too much encouraging, that can be counter productive with weak roots and lacking the ability to "weather the storm." Sometimes even "watching" can be distracting and counter productive, robbing growing/learning energy and transforming it into performance energy.

However, I have stumbled upon an amazing book designed to engage her in the garden! Check out Sharon Lovejoy's "Roots Shoots buckets and boots". (linked here) I am so excited to build an explorers kit and start encouraging Emagene to accompany me on my daily "discovery walks" in the garden.

On a slightly different note: remember my post about schooling? I think I've concluded that by stock piling the "right" tools and previewing books now, I may be able to sort out this education thing until we live in an area with a free school or a Montessori I love.

What tools do you find most helpful for young curious minds?

Most hesitation and fear comes from a lack of preparedness. Here goes getting prepared for learning!

(this has nothing to do with being prepared after the latest "zombie" attacks. *sigh*)

Gardening tips and a book review

I know it's been a while since my last real post. I've been weaning and therefore spending way less time nursing a sleeping child with nothing else to do.
That and Dan Brown novels have consumed my life!

I just read Digital Fortress for the first time. It took 3 days. Intense! I don't know why i waited so long to pick this one up! So I thought I'd try Lost Symbol, he's newest Langdon book. Meh. It was enjoyable but i thought it fit the Langdon-mold and so was predictable. But I do love the art history/religious scandal mixup, so I'll probably keep reading them, assuming he's gonna keep popping them out. How many more Freemason secrets is he allowed to give out??

Anyways- free book review over- gardening! Finally got all 3 beds in, seedlings purchased and planted, seeds are sprouting! Doing research on canning, pickling, companion planting, pest control, herbs and small coop designs. The ladies are quickly outgrowing their Giant Litter Box bed. Also, I want to plant herbs that I'll use, not just in homemade tomato sauce and to refill my tiny glass jars, but that balance out a yard. I recently read a few interesting facts

•ants keep the fleas under control. (I knew about the honeydew-aphid farms)
•spraying citronella oil (a few drops of lemon or orange essential oil and a cup of water in a spray bottle) around the compost heap will keep the ants from mounding near it and reduce chances of swarming on you
•artemisia keeps the mice away, and dried can be used as a candle wick
•bee balm attracts butterflies (our main pollinator down here)
•snakes tuck their heads under their bodies and squeeze tightly when being attacked by chickens, makes it difficult to be picked up
•Crickets eat pill bugs (so do frogs!)
•pill bugs: while good for aiding in decomposing, an over population will feed on young shoots. (Did you hear about my infestation? I moved 100s from under the container plants to the yard debris pile. There were too many for the one cricket I saw and my chickens can't keep up! Plus the ladies prefer the crickets when they're allowed to choose.)
• and leaving the sprinkler on overnight renders this hard, cracked, clay-ridden soil incredibly squishy. the plants LOVE it (but only once a week).