Our Harvest was abundant this year.

We collected fresh pears, apples, raspberries and grapes from our garden.   Grape juice, wine, pumpkin puree, pickles and salsa in abundance.  50 meat chickens processed, 4 pigs still growing and meat lambs growing and getting ready.  It has been such a busy year this year.  My daughter has been busy in 4-H developing her animal training skills and sewing skills.  The summer was busy working the farm, harvesting, doing 4 H, karate camp, running track, homeschooling,  and being pregnant has not allowed me to devote any time to the blog.  I have a ton of great foods to share, DYI projects to share and some great homeschooling tidbits to write about as well.  But for now this is the new past a recap of the busy summer.  :P    We attended several festivals with the kids, taking them to different cultural experiences, Scottish fest, Indian Days, we went to a wolf preserve and my daughter was able to sit with a wolf pack and interact with them.  Camping, horse back riding.  What a great and busy summer.   Ready to slow down a bit and prepare the home to welcome our new baby.   More to come on that later!  Enjoy the pictures.

horseback riding and camping were on the to do list 

kids enjoying Scottish fest.  It's a Scottish thing. 

we finally caught the predator who killed over 50% of our chickens.  

B.  did such a great job this year running his first race. 

cross country races this summer, it was a family deal

Zabee's first cross country race.  Older sister running with him encouraging him to finish

Here are just a few pictures of some of the great times from our summer harvest and summer fun.

summer karate camp.  My kids are moving up in the art of TKD. and the younger ones are yearning to join the ranks. 

Nectar of the gods so they say.  Golden sweet honey goodness.  First harvest yielded about 7 pounds. 

making pumpkin puree.  Pumpkin shakes and pumpkin soup are among the favorites.  I will be posting how to make soon. 

Devine goodness.  Nothing like freshly grown watermelon right from the garden 

Our first honey harvest with my dad, the bee keeper.  This was his 22nd year. 

our 1st Organic grape harvest.  10 gallons of wine and several qt. of juice

4 H dog obedience.  What a great learning opportunity for DD.

DD. 1st sewing project.  She went to state fair.

our grapes turned out, but we had to fight rot due to the wet spring. More on that and how to do that organically later. 

our very first harvest. spinach. onion. strawberries

this was a homeschool lesson, identifying edible pl

Lemon

How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways!

1)  Just smells great
2) Anti-fungel
3) Add to vinegar and water for a better smelling all natural cleaner.
4) Up-lifting, invigorating, refreshing
5) Lemons = Vitamin C.  A great way to get antioxidents
6) Makes any water taste so much better
7) Love in my dishwasher, makes the dishwasher smell better AND removes the ugly hard water spots!

My families lemonade.  No this certainly wouldn't constitute as paleo, BUT, from time to time, if we are going to have a juice, I would most certainly rather make it from the juice of real fruit, then from a powdered concoction brew of artificial colors and flavors! :)  YUM!  I promise that under the paleo section, I will provide all kinds of great, tantalizing, mouthwatering, beggin' for more paleo munchies!  Since I am new to blogging, it will take me some time to fill this blog with the delectable dishes that our family is enjoying each and every day!

1 Cup organic raw sugar  (you can use other sweeteners, honey, maple syrup etc if you like)
1 Cup water
6-12 lemons  6 if big and 12 if small.

Method:  Make simple syrup by boiling sugar and water
Meanwhile, juice your lemons.  Add lemon juice to pitcher with ice and 5-10 drops of lemon essential oil.  Once the simple sugar is complete, pour into pitcher.  Add water until you get the taste that you want, weaker, stronger, it's up to you!
Variations:  Put frozen fruit (strawberries) halved into lemonade
                   Grade ginger and stir small amount into lemonade for a refreshing, detoxing concoction that is also good for your health!

Paschal Candle

Family Paschal Candle.

                                                                 Happy Easter!!!

Here is our Easter Craft.  Every year, at the start of Easter we begin with a new paschal candle.  Here is a quick run down of the candle.

The paschal candle has been a long standing tradition, believed to begin at the very start of Christianity steaming from the Jewish tradition, when the Jewish people would light a lamp to signify the end of the Sabbath.     The word Pasach is Hebrew for passover.  Passover is the Jewish celebration when God passed over the homes of the Jews as he slew the first born Egyptians.  

The Candle has the greek alphabet signs the "Alpha" meaning beginning and Omega meaning "end" as God is the beginning and the end.   The current year is also inscribed on the four sides of the cross representing Christ is with us now among the people gathered around the candle.  

I wanted to create a family paschal candle this year, but the kits were too expensive, so I decided to come up with my own and here it is!                                

                       

Here is what you need to make your family paschal candle.  

* One 8 inch glass pillar candle.  (I found mine at the Dollar Store)           

* Template  (you can make your own, but if you want, or try this link to access template http://www.sendspace.com/file/5jmvpp).  

*  Glue. You want both glue stick and hot glue gun.

* one to two packages of jewels (I also purchased these at the Dollar Store)

Total cost to make your candle around $3.00

1) Cut out template and color the cross as desired. 

2) Glue template onto candle with glue stick.
3) Take glue gun and glue stones on as desired.  

4)  Make sure you write the current year as displayed above.

That is it!  Very simple, fun and easy craft to do.  Please note, if the link to the download for the template does not work, please feel free to email me through the blog and I can scan the template and send it directly to your email.  

Maple Syrup Day!

Love, maple syrup season!  It is the precursor to spring.  It tells me that winter is slowly coming to an end and spring is awakening, brining us new promises.   We have anywhere from 10-20 trees that we tap and have processed about 100 gallons of sap this year.  Making maple syrup is easy, although it is time consuming.  During this process, we made a science lesson and completed a lap book that involved learning about trees, leaves, units of measure, poetry, vocabulary words, accompanied with the real experience of tapping, gathering and processing the sap into syrup.  If you are interested you can find the lap book here:  http://www.homeschoolshare.com/maple_syrup.php

You know the season is right for tapping when the weather is at or below freezing at night and above freezing during the day.  That change in temperature begins the process of sap flowing up and down the trees.  We use a small drill and drill a small hole in the tree to place the spout.


First, it is all about finding the right kind of tree to tap.  Of course we want maples but there are different varieties of maples that give different water to sugar content.  The ones we tap are Sugar, Red and Silver Maple trees.

Ya Ya and B are watching dad intently tapping our first tree of the season

There are different tapping systems, we use the spigot with blue food safe plastic bags.

NOW WE WAIT AND WAIT FOR THE SAP TO DRIP INTO THE BAGS.

YaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaHooooooooooooooooooooooo

Time to collect and burn.  Did you know that it takes at least a minimum of 40 -44 gallons of sap to make at least 1 gallon of maple syrup.  There is a very high water to sugar content..The day of boiling the sap has arrived.  My most awesome husband builds a small brick oven that we boil on outside.  We use long pans to boil the sap as the greater the surface area the faster the burn, ( we learned that the hard way the first time we did this).  We chop up old fire wood and fork lift pallets for fire and cover the fire.   This helps to keep out the debris.  

Of course we have tastes along the way!

Finally, all day has passed and we take the final product into the house to finish off.  This is where it gets tricky.  At all times you MUST watch the sap when finishing.  It will go from sap to boiling over onto the stove and turning into burnt sugar in a matter of a second.  Ask me how I know this!  I have made a few mistakes along the way and have ruined a batch of syrup after boiling all day.  My most darling husband was not in the least bit happy with me to say the least.  But with homesteading, you live and learn!  And this was a true marriage, character building moment.  

finishing off our final batch. 

The finished product.  Started at 9 a.m. finished at 2 a.m. the next morning.
Guess what we had for breakfast?  PANCAKES AND MAPLE SYRUP.

We know that the maple syrup season is coming at an end.  How do we know this?  When the maple trees begin to bud, we pull the taps.  The chemistry make up in the tree changes when the leaves begin to bud, thus producing a bitter sap and a bitter syrup.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

"La Feile Naom Padraig!"  

Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's day is a day that goes back to a young man named Succat, who was born in Britain near the Irish Sea around 400 A.D.  This young boy later became known as Patrick.  When he was around 13-16 years of age, he was captured by Irish pirates and made a slave in Ireland, where he worked as a shepherd tending sheep.  He spent many days alone in prayer in fasting.  Patrick later escaped and traveled 200 miles and escaped by boat.  He returned back to his home and reunited with his family.  One night, Patrick had a dream that he was called to go back to Ireland as a missionary.  Patrick departed his home, left his family and went to Gaul, which we now call France, where he studied to become a priest and was later ordained a bishop.  Patrick went back to Ireland (a pagan country) and converted many to Christianity.  He used the Shamrock (three leaf clover) to explain to the people of Ireland the concept of the Trinity.  Patrick died March 17th, and people began wearing a shamrock as a lapel on their clothing to remember Patrick and then later started to wear green as well.   Here is your moment in history.

The kids and  I spent the day learning about the culture, and St. Patrick, listening to Irish music and doing crafts.  Below are some pictures of the things we did.

of course our day started out with green shamrock cakes

Gluten free pretzels with green melted choc. in the shape of shamrock..I realized it was upside down but oh well!  

the kids learned about the trinity with this cute craft 

Shamrock stamps using a green pepper and paint

                                                                       

                                                                     The naughty Leprechaun hid the pot of gold, and left them several  clues......did they find the hidden pot of gold??????

That Leprechaun had them all over the house and outside, but alas, they finally found their pot o' gold!

Of course we finished the night off with a Shamrock shake and 

a fizzy drink with colored ice cubes, made from pureed fruit!!

Happy Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras

People used to have celebrations for the coming of spring, in hopes of great bountiful crops.  Mardi Gras originated in France and was part of that spring festival.  Mardi Gras means "FAT TUESDAY", where they would parade a fat ox down the streets for people to see.  Customarily, Mardi Gras was celebrated on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of lent.  During lent, Christians would fast or abstain from animal products, like meat, cheese, eggs etx. as a form of sacrifice and penance.   Knowing this long period of fasting would begin, they would  a bit of a party the day before. 

 In England they call the day before lent....pancake Tuesday.  In Germany, the day was called Fastnacht meaning the "eve of fast".  The French and Spanish people called the days before lent "carnival."  This english word is derived from Latin Carne & Vale .  Carne meaning "meat"  and Vale meaning "goodbye of farewell".   Many people mistake Carnival for Mardi Gras, but actually Carnival begins the 12th day after Christmas when the wise man came to visit Jesus.   The 12th day after Christmas begins Carnival and they have parties each week until the season of festivities ends with Mardi Gras.   The french settlers landed in New Orleans and in 1718 they founded the town Nouvelle Orleans.  They continued their custom of Mardi Gras and till this day we still celebrate it.  Here is your moment in History.  Information take form book Mardi-Gras by: Dianne M. MacMillian

I love home schooling.  Today we did a huge lesson on Mardi-Gras.  In this lesson we captured the following:  Social Studies, history, music appreciation, by studying and listening to authentic Cajun music, learned about, cooked, and ate cajun food, learned a few new vocabulary words, as well as a Latin, French, and German words, we had crafts and made our own masks, we got books from the library and read books about mardi gras, we did a geography lesson, finding France, Spain, Germany, and of course Louisiana, New Orleans!  They had a great time and learned a lot. Below are few pictures of the festivities....ENJOY!

Making masks...they were made from their handprints. 

or me

Bet you can't guess who I am.

or me!

Kids enjoying Gumbo and sparkling apple cider along with a festive table and Cajun music!

 

Zabee won!!!  He was the winner of guess how many sticks are in the jar and his prize....CANDY! He was so sweet and shared his winnings with his siblings and in the end all were happy :)

You can use Vodka to make that?

Hey there!  Sometimes being gluten free, you can be bombarded with hidden gluten in items as innocent as ketchup, soy sauce, etc.  I am doing more research and hope to post soon the hidden sources of gluten for all my gluten free friends and my friends with celiac.  It has been shocking to say the least.  I love to bake and use vanilla extract.  I recently ran out of homemade vanilla extract, so I thought what the heck, I'll take pictures of the process and post it.  While this is not technically paleo and we do not do paleo 100% of our consumption, it is a fun and easy thing to make and I do use this a lot!

This is soooo easy to do and it will take you probably 5 minutes max to make.  Although here is where the delayed gratification comes in.  It takes about 8 weeks for the vanilla extract to be complete!


Here is what you need

1)  small 8-12 oz. glass bottle with lid, or a small food safe container.
2) 3-4 nice sized whole vanilla beans
3) pure vodka


Here is the process:   Get ready....open up the vanilla beans.  Place beans in glass jar.  Pour vodka in the glass jar to cover the beans.  Place lid on jar, shake and set aside.  The alcohol will pull the vanilla out of the bean and create a dark, rich smelling tasty vanilla extract, with no preservatives!  You will know the extract is ready when the liquid is dark brown and smells just like vanilla extract.

Whole vanilla beans purchased at Costco 

self explanatory! 

Thats all folks!

finished product before the 8 weeks. 

TO ACCESS ALL THE GLUTEN FREE PALEO DELIGHTS THAT ARE ADDED ON A REGULAR BASIS, JUST CLICK ON THE LABLE SECTIONED TITLED RECIPES GF AND PALEO STYLE AT THE BOTTON OF A POST AND YOU WILL HAVE ALL THE RECIPES THAT I HAVE POSTED TO DATE.  MORE AND MORE WILL BE ADDED AS TIME GOES ON!   THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!