Now I’m a relatively smart girl, so I figure she speaks of the simple nature of our life. Many people dream of returning to our roots a bit. We picture this sweet life of gardening, farm animals, home baking, and lots of kids running around. I get the “wow, you are so motivated and inspiring” and the “how do it do it all?” and the “you just know how to do everything!” comments frequently. And to discourage anymore such statements, let me assure you I am not super woman and I can’t do it all and I definitely don’t know how to do everything. I do like creating things and I love to eat, so I tend to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. But to think I inspired someone to live a simpler life? Hmmm . . .

It’s funny, because I wouldn’t describe my life as simple. It’s downright challenging! Don’t take me wrong, I love my life. I love a good challenge, which is how I ended up in such a life. I just don’t want to fool people into thinking that my life is simple. It’s simple in the fact that if you don’t feed the chickens you don’t get eggs. It’s simple in the fact that if you don’t get out there and milk the goat you don’t have any milk. It’s simple in that there will be six hungry people around the table five times a day whether you feel like cooking or not. And simply put, there isn’t running to McDonalds in a pinch. I can’t even get a pizza delivered out here. It ain’t complicated in that sense.

But milking twice a day regardless of how I feel can be exhausting. Especially when I have a goat or two that has . . . well lets just say personality, and gives me my daily workout. Chasing bucks that get out of the pen to mingle with the girls during supper time has to be taken care of immediately. Discovering the donkey has wondered down the road requires my attention before he wanders too far regardless of what I’m doing at the time. When temps drop below freezing and 25 gallons of water has frozen solid, someone has to take a hammer and break it up so that the animals can drink. Cooking from scratch 3-5 times a day makes a big mess and I usually run the dishwasher twice a day. When I get a box of produce to can, it has to be canned quickly to produce the best product. These are long days on my feet in a hot kitchen. And among all of that I have to fit in the daily homeschooling, cleaning, and budgeting. If you could write my life out in if/then statements, it would be simple.

But from where I am standing, sometimes I dream about your simple life. Paying rent so that I am not responsible for all repairs. Having a small backyard in which to make beautiful and just enjoy. Being close to activities and shopping so that it doesn’t take all day to get my groceries bought and being able to take advantage of library programs and field trips. Having time to hang out with friends or a quick visit to the coffee shop. Actual time to sew and scrapbook because I’m not caring for animals. People would actually be able to swing by and visit.

This is one of those “the grass is always greener on the other side” scenarios. So I remind myself that the grass is great over here, it’s just different over there. And I remember that I chose this life and love this life. And if anyone wants to venture my way I would LOVE to share what I know and help and encourage. But please don’t come over here just because you think it’s a better, simpler life. Come over here because you want to find pleasure in working hard for your family and getting closer to this wonderful world God has given us to enjoy. Come over and learn a new way of life for the good of you and your family. This is a great life.

And if you want to just get your feet wet, you are welcome to set up a time to come out and check out what we “do” everyday. I love that I inspire someone, just want it to be for the right reasons.

I started with the basic, cook it and freeze it. I filled this huge pot up three times! I ended up with 6 small bags of frozen swiss chard. We don’t typically eat frozen spinach, but it works great for adding to dishes as I need them.

Next I moved on to a tried and true recipe: spinach balls. These were a big hit last year, so I made two batches of them this year.

Spinach Balls

2 cups chopped cooked spinach
3 cups bread crumbs (I make my own)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 t celery seed
6 eggs
3/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 t black pepper
2 drops Tabasco
1 t dried sage
1/4 t crushed rosemary
1/4 t nutmeg
2 t Braggs amino acids

In a large bowl mix together ingredients. Chill for one hour. Shape into 1″ balls. Freeze on a cookie sheet. When frozen place in freezer bags.
Bake in 350 oven for 25 minutes. (I’ve also put them in a crock pot on high for 2 hours.) They taste yummy with spaghetti sauce.

Although this made a lot of spinach balls, it only used up 4 cups of cooked spinach. So off to make a spinach loaf. I haven’t tried this one yet, but here is the recipe I used.

Spinach Loaf

1/2 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
2 cups chopped spinach
2 eggs
2 t lemon juice
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1 T grated Parmesan

In large skillet, saute the onions and garlic in oil. Add spinach. Cook about 8 minutes. Allow mixture to cool slightly and add eggs, lemon juice and nuts. Mix well and spread in loaf pan. Freeze.
When ready to bake, cover and bake 45 minutes at 350. Uncover and sprinkle with cheeses and bake 5-10 minutes.

I only made one of these because I haven’t tested it yet, so we’ll see what the family thinks when I pull it out of the freezer.

This years favorite spinach recipe goes to the Hot Pockets!

Spinach Hot Pockets

First make a batch of pizza dough or buy the refrigerator dough from the store.

Then mix together 2 cups cooked spinach, cream of mushroom soup, and 1 pound browned ground beef in a skillet.

Roll out pizza dough. I used a sandwich looking thing to make my pockets, but you can simply cut squares of dough, fill with one scoop of filling, and fold over. Wet the edges of the dough to help it stick together better.

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes until dough is golden brown. Then let cool, place in freezer bags, and freeze. These can simply be reheated in a microwave or toaster oven. My husband loves to take these to work with him.

And that was the end of the spinach (swiss chard).

I have quite an assortment ready for me to test in my kitchen, but I’m not sure where to start. Here is what I have to work with:

Beautiful, aren’t they??

So starting at the top, we have Acorn, Blue Banana, Butternut, Sweet Dumpling, Jack-be-Little, Rouge D’Etampes, and spaghetti squash. I also have some pie pumpkins and one mystery pumpkin-looking one. I can’t find a picture of something similar, so no clue. Plan on cooking it like a pumpkin.

I have a few ideas for the spaghetti squash, as we have done that one before, but the others are all new to me. Any fresh ideas? Any experience?

We also got some large beets last week, so I tried my hand at pickling them. I studied some recipes and then created my own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pickled Beets

Boils beets until tender. Then cool and remove ends and skins.
I then sliced them with a crinkle cutter so they would be pretty.

In a saucepan, boil:
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup white vinegar
3/4 t canning salt
1 cup apple juice

Slice some onions and throw those and the beets into saucepan with vinegar solution. Let cook for about 3 minutes.
Place beets in hot jars and pour brine over the beets. This was enough brine to do 3 pint jars.

Water bath for 30-45 minutes depending on your altitude. I did it for 45 because we are at 6000 feet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are getting cherries this week for pie making. Yum! I’m ready for another week of enjoying the harvest!

Since we are currently harvesting our cold weather crops, I had a lot of spinach to work with! The day I brought it home, while it was still crisp, I made a Spinach Strawberry Salad with it.

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Chop spinach leaves into bite-size pieces. Place in big bowl.
Slice Strawberries and place on greens.
Drain one can of mandarin oranges and place on greens.
Sprinkle with pecans.

Sprinkle salad with salt and pepper to taste.
Then pour a little olive oil and vinegar over the salad.
And eat up! It’s so simple, yet so yummy! You can even add some grilled chicken if you have some.

The rest of the spinach I cooked. I ended up with 10 cups cooked spinach! That’s a lot of spinach. So I made Spinach Balls and Spinach Lasagna. I froze the remainder in 2 cup portions.

Spinach Balls

In a large mixing bowl, mis together:
2 cups cooked spinach
3 cups bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
6 eggs
3/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1-2 cloves garlic
1/4 t black pepper
2 drops pepper sauce
1/4 t nutmeg
2 t soy sauce (I use Braggs Amino Acids)

Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Then shape into 1-inch balls. I chose to freeze my balls by placing them on cooking sheets not touching. Once frozen I placed them all into a zip-loc freezer bag. Or you can proceed to bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Spinach Lasagna

In bowl mix:
1 pound Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan
2 1/2 cups cooked spinach
3 eggs

Cook Lasagna noodles according to package.

Spread spaghetti sauce on bottom of casserole dish. Then layer noodles, spinach mixture, Mozzarella cheese, and sauce until all ingredients are gone. Be sure to cover the top of noodles with sauce.

I chose to freeze mine at this point, but you can follow thru and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

I also had some rhubarb to experiment with. I’ve never had rhubarb before, so this was fun.

First I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch and the kids LOVED it! It was yummy. But I do suggest eating it all up while its warm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix these ingredients together in a casserole dish:
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 pint sliced strawberries
1 T honey

In a bowl mix together:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 t cinnamon

Pour oat mixture over fruit. Bake for 40 minutes. Your whole house will smell like strawberries!

This week I’m gonna try Strawberry Rhubarb muffins. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

Turning unused items into something useful is fun and rewarding. We do this all the time, but never really considered it art. For example, my husband took unused wooden pallets and made beautiful barn doors for our barn. We take empty milk jugs and use them for water jugs. We use old clay pots for pencil holders. And I love cutting up old denim and using it for new creations such as gift bags, sand bags, and purses. But there is so much more you can do with old things. The old adage, “One’s junk is another’s treasure,” takes on a whole new meaning for me!

I picked up Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts ( Leisure Arts #4802) at the library today. What an inspirational book! So many fun ideas and most of them pretty simple. Altered Art for the first time is another book I have that is fascinating! This one requires a bit more effort, but for those of us that like a challenge and giving unique gifts, this one is for you!

But don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to a book. See what ideas you can come up with. I love to use books as my jumping board. It fills me with ideas and then I take what I have on hand and create my own art. My girls like to make homemade paper from construction paper scraps. And if you think about it, using leftovers creatively is recycled art too! I am anxious to hear your ideas too!

These two shots are two different barn doors my hubby has built. I just love them!

Another favorite part of spring is homeschool book shopping. As one school year ends and another begins, all the homeschoolers come out from their busy schedules and start the hunt for next years curriculum. I love this hunt! We hit used book sales, state book fairs, catalogs, teacher supply stores and online retailers. We spend time planning out next year and then try to fit all we want to do in our schedule and our budget. This is my favorite time of year!

And with warmer weather brings out the desire to clean up outside. So we have setup the BBQ pit and porch swing and take advantage of it whenever we can. I love picnic tables, potato salad, hamburgers, and watermelon. They all scream of summer!

Although I don’t get to garden this year, I am looking forward to all the farmer’s markets and fresh produce available! There is nothing better than a vine-ripened tomato. And farmer’s markets have more to offer than just produce. You can find fresh breads, fresh cut flowers, homemade items, jams and jellies, and so much more. I even found homemade tamales one time.

Summer also has to offer many fun events. There are summer reading programs, fairs and carnivals, summer camps, field trips, and family reunions. Take advantage of this wonderful time of year. I hope I have inspired you to get moving and enjoy the weather and the many opportunities around you!

I have learned that you can get some good deals on Amazon.com and most qualify for the free shipping! Check that out.

Here is an excellent article written by Marilyn Moll and a link to testimonials following:

I received the following letter of inquiry about baking and grain storage:

Dear Marilyn,

“Looking at the prices for the grains, I don’t think it would be cheaper to buy and grind your own flour, so I’m wondering what the benefit would be. How would you store that much grain without bugs or vermin or mold getting into it? It seems like a fabulous idea, but how do I do it?” Connie G.

Here is my response:

Dear Connie:

Thanks for writing and asking great questions! Let me answer your questions one by one.

First of all, I do believe that when you compare homemade whole grain bread to commercial equivalents you will not only have significant cost savings but you will have the satisfaction of filling your home with a fragrant aroma and beautiful, nutritious loaves of bread that can not be compared easily to commercial bread.

Whole grain bread offers significant nutritional benefits because it contains at least 26 naturally occurring vitamins and minerals along with good quality fiber and wheat germ oil missing from commercial breads. The grain refining process removes the bran, and the wheat germ oil and most of the nutritional value. White refined flour has four B-vitamins left in it which are not in the original proportions. That’s It!

Consuming white flour product is like being robbed. Your body needs nutrient dense foods and refined flour baked goods are devoid of health enhancing nutrition.

Your body needs nutrient dense foods for good health. The term “nutrient dense” refers to foods that naturally contain a high spectrum of vitamins, and minerals. Spending our family’s precious grocery dollars on items that are largely manufactured and processed from inferior ingredients is associated with a number of common degenerative diseases, such as hemorrhoids, constipation, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and allergies which are associated with low fiber diets along with the consumption of refined and processed foods.

Economics of Home baked bread

Recently, I calculated the cost of making Marilyn’s Famous Whole Wheat Bread. My cost came in at just over a dollar even at the higher cost of grain. There is probably less than 25 cents worth of grain in each commercial loaf of bread. Today, a 1 1/2 pound loaf of whole grain costs at least $4.00.

By using your own quality ingredients you will be able to make superior tasting bread for a lower cost because you will be eliminating the cost of the plastic disposable packaging, the bakery’s overhead for producing the bread, the transportation costs to ship the bread from the bakery to the store, the bakery manager’s salary, costs of undesirable ingredients and other costs of purchasing ready-made breads.

Depending on the size of your family and how many loaves of bread your family consumes each week, you can calculate the annual savings. For example, in my family, we consume four loaves of sandwich bread a week. Commercial equivalent bread costs $4.50 in my area. Compare $18.00 a week with $5.00 a week! If you make cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, homemade pancakes, waffles, biscuits etc., you can quickly add up the savings over commercial flour.

Health Benefits

Several years back, a customer told me that she quit baking her homemade bread for a while, and that is when her son had an appendicitis attack. She believes it was related to returning to a white bread diet. The emergency surgery and hospital bills were covered by insurance, but their portion of the bill would have more than paid for a brand new mill and mixer.

The point I’m making is that when we take responsibility for our family’s health, medical bills can diminish dramatically. Another customer contacted me recently and reported that making nutritional changes in her family’s diet during a one year time period had cut their medical expenses in half that year compared to the previous year. This resulted in savings of over $1,000 for her family in medical and pharmacy bills. Our family has not needed to see a doctor for other than emergencies (a broken arm, a bike accident) or sports and camp physicals for many years.

Satisfaction

A mother who is busy at home cooking and baking from scratch for her family will enjoy the fruit of her labors not only financially and nutritionally but also in terms of better health. Her children will arise and call her blessed. Her husband will also. She will enjoy the intrinsic rewards of knowing that she has been a wise steward of her family’s resources and provided well for her family (Prov. 31).

Grain Storage

Whole grain can be stored for hundreds of years as long as it is stored cool and dry. The bran, or outer coating of grain, protects the each grain from deterioration until the bran is broken and ground into flour. Once flour is made, every particle of the flour is exposed to oxidation and nutritional deterioration.

I have always stored grain in six gallon plastic food grade pails or buckets in the coolest part of my house and never had any troubles with pests or mold. A cool place and a dry place are key. Storing whole grains is not only economically wise in uncertain times but nutritionally superior.

I also believe it is biblical to store grain as you recall the story of Joseph who was lead through dreams to store seven years worth of grain for a famine that lay ahead. I’m not predicting a famine, but I do believe in uncertain times grain and food storage is our protection against economic hardships.

More . . .

Don’t feed the goat alfalfa while milking. ~ The alfalfa ended up in the milk, so it wasn’t a good combination.

Don’t touch an electric fence, even with gloves on. ~ It hurts!

Duck tape doesn’t stick in freezing temps.

People will actually buy roosters. ~ This was a fruitful discovery.

Make sure the trailer hitch is locked, or you will lose the trailer. ~ A mistake that I was thankfully able to handle.

When babies are sick, don’t plan on getting anything else accomplished. ~ But I did enjoy the cuddle time.

A mattress is so much more fun than any of the hundreds of toys.

Farm kids learn about the birds and the bees way earlier than I would have liked.

Mommy’s and son’s have strong bonds, even in the goat world.

Avoiding gluten is extremely difficult to do.

I love the flexibility of homeschooling and the learning opportunities it affords, for kids and adults alike.

And friends are a priceless gift from God!

Pineapple Sage is really a beautiful addition.

My parents owned and worked a nursery and landscaping business and we were always getting in new plants. And every year my mom would order Venus Fly Traps. What a wonderful discovery for a kid! Now you can get them at wal-mart. They can be a little tricky to keep alive so follow the directions carefully. And if trapping flies is in your agenda, check out the Dragon Arum. And you won’t want to keep this one in the house! My mom bought one, one time. They are very intriguing, but very stinky!

One year we were given a bunch of discarded tomato plants. About half of these plants were Mr. Stripey’s. At that point I had never heard of this variety, but planted them anyway. Oh what a surprise! They were interesting looking and very tasteful! The only trick was knowing when they were ripe. They are not a dark red tomato, so we let the first ones stay on the vine too long.

I’ve never grown any, but I have sure enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen with different varieties of potatoes. You can get fingerling potatoes, blue potatoes, and the all red potato. 4th of July here we come!

And one of my more memorable plantings was a moon flower. My mother mailed me seeds from her plant and for a year we enjoyed the beautiful white flower that you had to get up early to catch. Another one of my mom’s gifts was a potato vine. It’s heart-shaped leaves are unique and lovely.

What have you grown that was different?