A Year Of Eating Locally-Meal Plan + Food Costs: Week of July 15, 2018

If you’re just tuning in, this is our 1 year challenge in which I share our weekly meal plan as we try to eat primarily locally grown food.  You will see that I often I make 2 different meals because I am primarily plant-based and my husband is not.  Most of what we eat is made from scratch and any boxed, canned and/or frozen products follow the Real Food guidelines.  Meal planning is my way of controlling the grocery budget (read as a LOT of dollars saved), ensuring there is no food waste for the week, as well as saving time.  You can read more about meal planning here.

This Month On The Farm: June 2018 - Wildlife, Blueberries, Chickens & More!

If you’re just tuning in, this is a brand new ongoing series in which I document each month of our lives in our transition to a simple, homemade life on a modern homestead. We ditched town and moved to the country in 2008 and we blog about both our successful and not-so-successful ventures in homesteading, switching to natural products, and embracing a whole foods lifestyle.  Check out the entire series here.

The garden is going well!  Oh how I wait (and wait and wait....) for those beautiful green tomatoes to show their first blush of red.  How I long to pick them fresh off of the vine.  Fingers crossed this will happen soon.  Our veggies are a tad bit behind because I started them about 4 weeks late.  The good news is we are at farmers markets every week so we still get to enjoy the veggies as they come into season.   Then, once ours are producing, we can switch to eating right from the garden.  I did downsize my garden this year but I think I will go back to a large garden next year.  It's just so satisfying!

Change Your Life In 2018 - July Challenge: Your Thoughts Are Your Reality

I
f you’re just joining in, the “Change Your Life In 2018” series is my quest to make some small changes this year.  Rather than setting easily forgotten resolutions I wanted to focus on 12 changes that would help me learn and grow as a person.  I’ve chosen to focus on one change per month so that it could not only become a more manageable goal, but I have a better chance at making these new habits as well.  I hope you’ll join me in the challenge!

We spend little time thinking about, well, what we think about.  After all, there are too many other things to reflect upon.  This means we run on auto pilot, which is all fine and dandy until our thoughts begin to guide us in the wrong direction.  The reason being, the way in which we think about ourselves and our life turns into our belief which then becomes our reality.

Flaky & Delicious Sweet Cream Biscuits For Strawberries or Other Fruit

The first (and only) time my husband went strawberry picking with me he was not a happy camper.  It was too hot.  He had to bend over for too long.  It took waaaaayyyyy too much time to fill up the bucket I brought.  Yada yada yada.

When we got home I made him these sweet biscuits.  Kind of a reward of sorts.  He was thrilled!  (he said he still wasn't happy about the berry picking though....)

A Year Of Eating Locally Challenge-Meal Plan + Food Costs: Week of July 1, 2018

If you’re just tuning in, this is our 1 year challenge in which I share our weekly meal plan as we try to eat primarily locally grown food.  You will see that I often I make 2 different meals because I am primarily plant-based and my husband is not.  Most of what we eat is made from scratch and any boxed, canned and/or frozen products follow the Real Food guidelines.  Meal planning is my way of controlling the grocery budget (read as a LOT of dollars saved), ensuring there is no food waste for the week, as well as saving time.  You can read more about meal planning here.

June's Jam Session + Strawberry Honey Jam Recipe

It's strawberry season which means sticky red delicious jam will be stirred until perfection is achieved and then carefully poured into jars, waiting their grand finale - a few minutes in the water bath pool.  And then we wait to hear the "pop", "pop-pop-pop" as the lids seal on the now cooling jars.

There's just something so comforting about the process.

One of the most important traditions in the jam making process is the official licking of the spoon and sharing of the foam which is skimmed off of the top before spooning into jars.  J and I delight in getting our first taste of the newest batch.

A Year of Eating Locally Challenge-Meal Plan + Food Costs: June 17, 2018

If you’re just tuning in, this is our 1 year challenge in which I share our weekly meal plan as we try to eat primarily locally grown food.  You will see that I often I make 2 different meals because I am primarily plant-based and my husband is not.  Most of what we eat is made from scratch and any boxed, canned and/or frozen products follow the Real Food guidelines.  Meal planning is my way of controlling the grocery budget (read as a LOT of dollars saved), ensuring there is no food waste for the week, as well as saving time.  You can read more about meal planning here.

Read the entire series here.

Change Your Life In 2018 - June Challenge: Simplify Your Life, or, Finding Your Why

If you’re just joining in, the “Change Your Life In 2018” series is my quest to make some small changes this year.  Rather than setting easily forgotten resolutions I wanted to focus on 12 changes that would help me learn and grow as a person.  I’ve chosen to focus on one change per month so that it could not only become a more manageable goal, but I have a better chance at making these new habits as well.  I hope you’ll join me in the challenge!

Reading the words "simplify your life" can immediately result in shivers for fear of the task of decluttering as you envision your home stripped down to absolute minimalism.  Let me assure you, that's not what we're focusing on for this month's challenge. 

Instead, our focus is on the "why".

The Most Delicious Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

I love strawberries.  I always have.  I could eat them 3 for each meal for weeks on end.  J likes strawberries, but he likes baked goods made with strawberries even better.  I make this pie every single year at the onset of strawberry season and once or twice in the winter with frozen strawberries and rhubarb (if you're using frozen, don't unthaw the fruit and increase the flour to 1/2 cup).

This pie is absolutely delicious.  It's sweet, a touch of sour from the rhubarb, warm from the spices, and oh so juicy.  (if your family are not fans of allspice or cloves, certainly omit.  but keep the cinnamon if you can) It is the PERFECT spring dessert.

A Year Of Eating Locally Challenge-Meal Plan + Food Costs: Week of June 10, 2018

If you’re just tuning in, this is our 1 year challenge in which I share our weekly meal plan as we try to eat primarily locally grown food.  You will see that I often I make 2 different meals because I am primarily plant-based and my husband is not.  Most of what we eat is made from scratch and any boxed, canned and/or frozen products follow the Real Food guidelines.  Meal planning is my way of controlling the grocery budget (read as a LOT of dollars saved), ensuring there is no food waste for the week, as well as saving time.  You can read more about meal planning here.

Read the entire series here.