Day 18 Update... Addressing Concerns...

As you may already know, I've had to tweak my diet a little bit for lack of abundance this year.  But I saw a few of my readers yesterday and I wanted to clear up some concerns they were telling me about.  

The first thing I want to talk about is getting enough fats in our diet.  Fats are very important.  Fats help our bodies metabolize and absorb the vitamins that we are getting from food.  In fact, eating a little fat at the same time as taking vitamins, if taking them, can increase our bodies usage of the vitamins more than if we don't eat any fat.

  Fat also helps our brains function.  Lack of fats can make people have brain fuzz.  Our brain is made of cholesterol and fat.  There are studies showing that a diet low in "good" fats can cause depression because of the lack of cholesterol.  I really think this is why I felt depressed on my first days into this journey.  My brain wasn't getting what it needed.  The day I added eggs to my diet, I immediately felt better.  

My intention this year was to have more seeds to eat, which contain fatty acids.  I also normally have eggs from my chickens, but they are still too young to lay eggs. So, I have been buying them from a local farmer.  It's all in my planning, or lack of planning, and I will get into more about fats in another post.

The other thing that was mentioned yesterday was carbs.  The nice woman I talked to was telling me about a friend she had who was trying to lose weight and cut out carbs from her diet, was fasting or something, had lost a whole bunch of weight and then was in the emergency room because her heart was going haywire.  I can't remember the story word for word, but I just wanted to make this clear just in case people are thinking I'm doing this to lose weight.  I have lost a little weight, but it is not my intention to use this as a "diet".   Not only can losing weight really fast be bad for your health, but people who lose weight really fast never keep the weight off.  If I lose weight, I want it to be very slowly.  Carbs are great for energy and I am eating lots of carbs.  But not overly processed carbs.  I'm eating potatoes, beans, greens, squash.  All real, unprocessed whole food.

Anyone just starting to follow this blog, or anyone following, but missed it, can go back and read my first post about eating what I grow from back in June.  I give all my reasons for doing this.  Weight loss was only an afterthought.

These last 18 days, I have been on an educational journey.  I'm learning more about myself, and about what I need to do in the future to be more food secure.  That's what this is about for me.  Things have evolved over the last 18 days, but I am still focused on eating real, live, clean, local food, and the good that will do to me, others, and the earth.

Sunflower seeds have lots of good fats in them.  It's a superfood.

Amaranth seeds.  Good fats.

Carbs.  Unprocessed.

Sunflowers in the garden

Note:  I'm adding a note to this post because there are a few things I have wrong in the above blog.   I chose not to delete all the misinformation completely because I want to show that we can all get the wrong info now and again, and it's okay..  I was wrong about the fats and cholesterol.  Like many of you, I have tried many different "diets" that have all failed.  Keto being one of them.  Although we need fats in our diet, I was very wrong about the amount that is adequate and that fats from plants like nuts and seeds are just as viable, without the negative impact that raising animals for meat has on the environment.

Bag Balm

Now that the air is frigid and we have to heat the house to keep warm, the air gets dryer and dryer.  And so does my skin.  I find that the coconut oil I use for moisturizer in the summer does nothing for me in these cold months.  I switch to thicker stuff with cocoa butter or vitamin E in it, and that does the trick for my everyday skin.  But sometimes I need something else for wind burned, chapped skin.  So I break out the bag balm.

I realize most people know about this great stuff already, but as I was fishing my green tin full of relief out of the back of the cupboard in the bathroom, I decided it needed a little attention in this here blog.

I always remember the distinctive green metal tin sitting on the shelf at home.  The first time I ever used it was maybe around high school for burns or something.  My sister and I were always inventing beauty products from things around the house.  That was also around the time we started making our own sugar scrubs for our hands and feet.  I didn't think about bag balm again until I lived on my own and saw it somewhere and bought some.  The tin that I have now is only the second one I've owned in my lifetime.

One of the reasons bag balm doesn't go bad, or rancid is because it contains lanolin.  Lanolin is a byproduct that comes from washing wool.  It is produced by sheep to protect their skin and then is transferred onto the wool.  When the wool is carefully washed after sheering, the lanolin that is washed off can then be used in products to protect our skin.

Bag balm also contains petroleum oil, and 8-Hydroxyquinoline Sulfate, which is an antibacterial and protective property, and another reason it keeps from spoiling.

I think if something has been used consistently since 1899, we should not ignore it.  If you read the container that bag balm comes in, it will say all sorts of things about cows and their udders.  Bag balm is used on dairy cows to keep their parts from being chapped and to help heal abrasions.  I use it for the same reason, but I don't have to stand out in a cold barn waiting to be milked.

Every time I have chapped lips, I put bag balm on them right before bed.  When I wake up, the chapped lips are pretty much gone.  Really sore, dry hands or feet?  I apply bag balm to them and put socks on over the whole mess and go to bed.  By morning I have a baby's butt on my feet.  Lol.

I have used bag balm on my chickens to keep their combs from getting frost bite.  I've used it on the cats and dogs for minor abrasions and rashes.  Blisters, burns, scrapes, and bites, bag balm goes on and a band-aid goes on over that.

There aren't many places you can buy bag balm.  Some drug stores have it.  Most pet supply places have it, especially if they cater to livestock animals.  It's a little more expensive online.  A 10 ounce tin is about $6 or $7 in the stores, I think, but it'll last you 10 years.  Well worth the investment.

Frozen Gazpacho Success!

It may be silly to get excited about gazpacho, but I just can't help myself.  6 or 7 weeks ago, as I was still getting ready harvesting and preserving all the stuff from the garden, I racked my brain to come up with easy things to preserve.  If I hadn't been so strict with my preservation, I probably would have had more food stored, but I was trying to stick to the rules I gave myself: only things from the garden using only salt.

One of the things I was able to scrape together from my really poor harvest was gazpacho.  Of course, I only used my old vegetarian cookbook recipe as I guideline and I made up my own, using only what I had growing in the back yard.  

One of my many problems this year that I tried hard to solve was how to preserve cucumbers, because I had tons of them.  I made jars and jars of wild fermented pickles, but after awhile they turned into inedible mush that the chickens wouldn't even eat.  I baked cucumber slices and made "chips" out of them, but it took forever to bake out enough water out, to be able to store them.  What was left was really thin, tasteless snacks that probably contained none of the nutrition of the original cucumber.  You'll find no good recipes that you can freeze or can.  Except gazpacho...

My old vegetarian cookbook that I've had for a hundred years calls for a bunch of pureed tomatoes, with assorted peppers, a bunch of different herbs, onions, vegetable broth and a single cucumber.  That wasn't going to help me with my population of cucumbers and not very many tomatoes.  So I made up my own recipe, using the vegetables that I had, in the proportions that used as many cucumbers as I thought I could get away with.  

I really didn't follow the recipe as far as the pureed tomatoes either.  I only had cherry tomatoes.  My larger ones got blight and were unusable.  So I chopped them coarsely.  I did the whole thing the same way I make my salsa.  A bunch of stuff chopped up, with some salt.

As I made this pretty large batch, I just kept adding and tasting as I went.  I mixed up the flavors until I thought it was finished.  Onion, some garlic leaves, parsley, oregano & basil, tomatoes, celery & cucumbers.  I just left it as is, with some salt and hoped that the existing vegetables would make enough juice for it to be soup-like.

I was actually really happy with it, but there was one problem.  I wasn't sure what would happen after it was frozen.  Some uncooked or non-blanched vegetables get yucky and mushy when frozen and thawed.  I know peppers and basil can be frozen raw, but all the other stuff was recommended to be cooked before freezing.

So, when I left one in the fridge to thaw a few days ago, I wasn't expecting much.  I figured it would be another experiment on this journey that just ends up in the chicken coop.  Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised.  All the different ingredients thawed quite well, and not mushy.  And there was a nice amount of moisture, so I stirred it up really well to give it a salsa-like consistency.  I was also surprised how fresh it tasted.  With gazpacho, I think the colder, the better.

I think that even if I wasn't trying to eat only what I grow, I would make this again.  I love that I don't need a recipe, I can just wing it, and come up with something really good.  I can't guarantee that everyone would like it.  You have to already like cold soup, but if you do, this comes pretty darn close.

I didn't have pictures of my gazpacho, but this is something else I made...

It's the little things...

I think it is so true that when something is rare, or rarely happens, it is more cherished and sought after.  That is exactly how I feel about this whole food thing I'm going through.  If I get nothing else out of this journey, at least I know that I made a small difference in the way I feel about the things that come so easily to me.  It's about the small things.  

Only weeks ago, when I ate anything and everything I wanted, it was just that, eating.  Now that I have been away from that state for two weeks, I feel like I appreciate the things I have had so much more.  Now the simple thought of coffee in the morning has so much more joy in it.  I have allowed myself coffee the last couple of days because I feel like I've learned from this. And I've earned it.  But it isn't the same cup of coffee I had before.  It's much more.  

Not that I didn't appreciate things before.  I did.  I didn't come from a family with money and I certainly don't have money now.  It was never a priority for me.  I have more than I could ever want, but I appreciate what I have and that makes all the difference.  So to be able to coerce myself to eat twigs and bland berries for a few weeks, eventually a year, I have an ever greater appreciation for the things I have in great abundance around me.

When I drink coffee now, I need less because I am so much more satisfied with it.  I find that I don't just drink it down as a way of staying awake or waking up, I'm actually enjoying it much more.  Instead of saying, "Jeez, I need coffee", I'm saying, "yay, I get to have coffee!" 

 It's only temporary though, to have a little coffee.  Just as a reward.  I think the thought that I can cheat once in awhile really helps me to keep going.  Dealing with the psychological let-down that I can never have certain things for a year is quite depressing. 

I think if we could do that with more things in our lives, be more satisfied with the little things, we would be much happier people.  Instead of having to have the kitchen gutted and redone every 5 years to make our fickle selves happy, wouldn't it be great if a pretty utensil holder would make us just as happy.  50% of the stuff in landfills in the United States is building materials.

It's the little things.

Oh, and guess what...  I'm down a jean size!  

Frugal Hoarding 101

In my post yesterday I talked a little bit about feeling like I lived through the depression.  Wanting to be prepared, scrimping, being frugal.  One of the things I do as a result of that feeling is that I like to have things around in case I need them.  While that may sound completely mad to some of you, I will clarify what I mean.  I am not a hoarder by any means.  I do not keep mounds of kleenex boxes or bags of garbage.   Not anymore.  Just kidding.  But.  I do have the things I need when I need them.  

Take canning jars for instance.  When I need to can some grape juice in the fall, the jars are in the cellar.  I don't need to go to the store at all.  I have collected them for years, a box at a time, so that I would have them when I need them.  I have seen canning jars sell for between $8 and $12 for a dozen at the stores.  I get them for $2 or $3 a dozen at garage sales.  I have gotten some for free.  Glass canning jars themselves can be used over and over forever. 

I am saving time, gas, and money.  I don't need to go out and buy the things I need every time I have a project.

Another thing I like to have around is vintage plates and shallow bowls.  I pick them up whenever I see a couple that are pretty and I store them or display them until I need one.  If you have ever known anyone who worked at a thrift store, they will tell you that the majority of the glass and china that gets donated is thrown in a dumpster because no one wants it and they don't have the room to display it all.  I would love to see them throw it far out in the lakes so it will become sea glass, but it just all goes in the land fill.  So here are a couple of ways to keep them out of those land fills.


 I have been using some vintage white soup bowls to grow my oat and wheat grass in the kitchen.  You just need a little layer of dirt and a heavy layer of seeds.  It takes 3 to 5 days for them to sprout.  It's pretty and I use the tops in green drinks and smoothies.  You can juice the tops too.  My cats like to chew on them.

Another thing I use old plates for is to catch water under my plants inside or outside.  Especially if the rim around the plate is really pretty.  There are all sizes and shapes of pots and plates so it's easy to find matching ones.  I saved my begonias that were growing outside in my straw bale gardens before the frost got to them, and brought them in the house.  The composting straw that they are growing in is all the soil they need in their pots.  And it was super easy to pot them up because the soil is really loose.  I just kind of scooped them up and stuck them into clay pots.  I don't know how long they will keep flowering through the winter but it is a nice thing to see in the windows on a dreary day.

Lastly, if you have a few plates that are pretty enough to give as gifts, you can give cookies or treats away on them.  The plate is an extra gift.  If you have ever given a plate of cookies to someone on a paper plate and tried to keep the cling wrap from coming off, you know where I'm coming from.  I have given cookies on real plates before and people are always a little tickled that I went the extra mile to have a real plate they can keep.  Plus, if you add this to your Christmas list when shopping antique places and thrift shops, it's kind of an adventure to find cute plates that you know will make someone happy as a gift.  I have found them priced anywhere from 25 cents to $2 a plate, which is a totally reasonable amount of money to spend on a teacher or a neighbors gift.  Green glass plates are always fun at Christmas.  Come to think of it, I have some mugs at the shop with gingerbread men on them.  They can be filled with candy for gifts.

I'm always shocked by the things that people throw away.  Even some the clothing that gets donated to thrift stores goes to other countries because we have so much and they appreciate the used clothing.   Or it gets chopped up for rags.  There just simply aren't enough people buying used things to keep up with our waste.  It's funny, we ship merchandise over seas from China or wherever so we can have cheap clothing so that we can ship it back to another country after we're tired of it.

With the Christmas season coming, maybe we can change the way we spend.  Local, family owned places are always struggling, so why not spend our money there?  We are always so sorry when these small stores go out of business, but we are the ones who don't shop there.  Amazon and big corporate companies already have all the money.

Okay, I went off on a rant.  But you get the idea.  Maybe this year, our Christmas season can be different.  Buy gifts that mean something.  Buy from people who make things.  Buy on Etsy or at a craft fair.  I know Amazon is cheaper, but when you buy from Amazon, your money goes to make some CEO in an office richer.  I know there are things that we can't help but buy on Amazon, I do it myself.  But gifts are special.  If they aren't special, then why are we giving them?  Obligation?  That is absurd, you should give because you want to give.

Okay, done ranting.  I do feel better now.  Thanks for listening.

Let's keep pretty old things out of the land fills, shall we?  And buy from people, not corporations!

The victory garden...

Yesterday was a good cheat day.  Actually I had a couple of them.  I was helping out at Filomena's with the open house and I was overwhelmed with holiday spirit and ate some of the baked goods everyone had made.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I didn't really even feel much guilt either.  It's the holidays.  I'm not a pioneer or a survivalist or a prepper.  The goals I have of being food secure, I have set for myself.  I can brake my own rules.  

I admit I sometimes am living in the past.  I live in this old house with all this old stuff with these old souls.  I feel like I have to preserve these things to not let history disappear.  I drive by old houses and they've been stripped of their history with their vinyl siding and plastic windows and drywall.  It hurts my heart to think of the families that lived in those old houses and how hard they worked to make that house as pretty as it once was.  The details.  

Things seem to come so easily to people now.  Everything people buy now is thrown away when it bores them.  Then they go buy more.  That's why they love those dollar stores, I think.  

Part of this food preparedness thing I've been trying to accomplish stems from the feeling I have that I lived through the depression.  Of course I was born in 1974 and wasn't even close to living in that time period, but somehow, I have a connection to it.  It could be the stories I've heard, the times we're living in now, or my old soul, but I feel driven to having that feeling of being prepared for things to come.  To be able to survive through it.

Even though this year may not be so successful, I feel like I'm on the right track.  Next year will be another summer and I can plant more.  I am going to focus on perennial plants that will just keep on producing for the rest of my life.  This fall I planted some new trees.  Another apple tree, a pear and a peach tree.  I'll plant more in the spring.  A lot of fruit trees do better if there are several of the same species for pollination.  This is an investment in the future though because it could take 3 to 5 years for me to see any fruit.  But fruit is kind of expensive.  And it's better if you grow your own.  It's worth the wait.

Blueberries are a shrub.  Anyone can grow blueberries in a small yard.  Just rip out those high maintenance shrubs that you get nothing from, and plant some food.  They flower in the spring.  Then you get berries.  

As it gets colder and I sit in front of the woodstove more, I get antsy to start looking at seed catalogs for next season.  This is my favorite winter pastime.  Of course, I always get over zealous and buy way too many seeds than I'll ever plant, it's still really fun.  Planning my "victory garden".

Until tomorrow then.  Go find yourself an adventure.

Day 10... Kiki Bear

I made it to day ten.  I am really thankful that it hasn't been as difficult as the first 5 days.  It is a bit boring though.  No frills.  I eat about the same thing almost everyday.  Even though I've added eggs to my daily intake, and I really like eggs,  there are only so many ways you can eat them.  So I add things like turnip greens or dandelion greens to them and it makes it a little more interesting.

I haven't had much ambition to write for a few days because we lost Cali two days ago, our little old Calico kitty.  We inherited her from Jack, our neighbor across the street who died suddenly a few years ago.  Of course Mike and I handled the re-homing (is that a word?) of all his animals.  He had about 30 baby chickens in the dining room, two tropical birds and two cats.  He was a lot like us. Kept to himself, and loved farming.  When he died he was in the process of getting his land certified organic. When we first moved into our house he had peacocks out back.  I love peacocks and I still have some of their feathers that Jack gave me.  I have to keep them away from the cats though because cats LOVE peacock feathers.

So Cali is with Jack now.  She was the tiniest kitty.  She was an "under the covers with the electric blanket on high" kind of kitty.  Most cats like heat, but Cali liked a nice smoldering inferno to sleep in.  As she got older, in the last few weeks we set her up with a heating pad to snuggle in.  

As with all the fur babies, I had several names for Cali.  Jack named her Cali, but I called her Kiki, Kiki Dee, Baby Kiki, Kiki Bean, Kiki Bear, Turtle, and The Turtle Monster.  There may have been more, on the spot names, but I just can't think of them.  Some cats inspire more names than others.  

Every animal is special to me.  There's always a hole left in my heart.  But I can be thankful that almost all of them live really, really long lives with me.  Milo lived the longest at 21 years.  I got him when I was 20 and he died when I was 41.  That was half my life at the time.  

To share your life with an animal is almost all reward.  There isn't anything else on earth you can say that about.

I'm going to go eat something very bland and boring now.  I hope you all enjoy your day.  Until tomorrow...

Cali footies.  This was the only grey she had on her.  Just one ankle.

Bumps in the road

Why sugar coat it?  Honestly, I overestimated how ready I was for my 365 days of eating only what I grow.  But, as with anything in life, I learn from it and try to do better with the next thing.  I had a few things set me back.  I should have started planning this during the winter instead of mid summer after my gardens had already been planted. I had kind of a crazy summer too.  I lost the whole month of July while I closed my store.  I had crop failure on too many things.  Tomatoes were the most important.  Probably potatoes too, but I did get a few.  I planted some things too late.  Cabbages are a main thing for me because I can eat saurkraut 7 days a week.  Diversity is important, but I'm not going to waste my time on things I don't like.  Like sweet corn.  I'm just not crazy about sweet corn.  I do like corn bread and popcorn, so I'll grow some heirloom dent corn and popcorn.  You can still find some seeds that are non gmo.

So, I'm still glad I started this because I am off sugar, off caffeine, still no meat in 7 days, and I feel like I am all cleaned out, but I still have tons of work to do.  My future postings will still be related to eating what I grow, and I'll still be eating this way.  I'm feeling really great.  I think if I just keep posting lists of what I eat that day, it will get really boring to read.  (By the way, I put cooked butternut squash in a smoothie this morning and it was pretty awesome.)  So, it's still a journey.  The ultimate goal is still attainable.  And I get healthier and more prepared every day that I do this.

After all, it's not about having and keeping what we want, it's about the journey.

To be enchanted is a virtue.  Until tomorrow, everyone.  Thank you again for following.

Day 5... Growing.

Day 5 is here.  I didn't write a post yesterday because I was off on an adventure in the countryside doing a show.  When I drive the roads to Caledonia, it takes almost 2 hours and I have lots of time to think and let my brain have it's way.  I have decided to make a few changes.  

Since I started this journey I have had some ups and downs.  First there was the caffeine withdrawal headaches.  On day 3 I finally had no more headaches but I was weak, achy and miserable.  Not a good combination when I have to have energy to load stuff into the van for a show.  I wasn't eating enough of what I needed and the vegetables that I had to sustain me were turning my stomach.  I literally couldn't even stand the smell of them.  The stuff I normally have such a love for was making me hate them.  

By the fourth day, when I got up at 5 am to leave for the show by 6, I was a complete and total winy little baby.  Piss and moan.  I was miserable and didn't think I would make it through the day, unloading the van, hauling heavy boxes and shutters and ladders into Jones Hall for my display pieces.  It took a lot of determination not to call and cancel and forfeit my show fee and disappoint everyone, including myself.  

So....   I cheated.  I ate eggs.  From the store.  Technically, my hens will be laying soon, so it wasn't that big of a cheat, but I broke my own rule.  But when you feel absolutely horrible and the thing that will make you feel better is so simple and available, the choice is easy to make.  I felt better in about 15 minutes.  I couldn't afford to blow this show off because that is my income.  You have to do what you have to do.  This all sounds like excuses to me,  even in my own head, but I have had a lot of time to think about it.  

Of course I was able to justify it all by the time I got to the show to set up.  The other vendors, customers and friends at the show that have been following this laughed about it with me.  Mitchelle and Gary, Elizabeth, Rita, Kitty, Caroline, Frank and Burl, ( hey you guys!  shout out!) made me think of things differently.  Elizabeth (hey girl!), who has been a good friend to me, a good shoulder and a good sounding board, was the reason I named this post "Growing".  As in growing, myself.  My talk with her made me realize, that in 5 short days, I have learned so much about myself that I never would have known, otherwise.  My disappointment in not being superwoman always makes me learn about myself and I grow as a result.  Isn't that one of the reasons life is good?   Shedding the old you to have rebirth and make yourself better.  Stronger.  Healthier.

Ruby and Pickles, licking their butts at the same time.  Priceless.

So, as I am still on this journey, eating what I grow, eating as healthy as possible, eating clean, being a responsible steward to the earth, and living as close to nature as I can, I am going to take my boundaries away and not be so extreme.  I know that the extreme situation I have made for myself is what has gotten a lot of you to follow this blog, but in the big picture, what really matters?

I gave this a lot of thought.  What really matters?  Why did I start this thing in the first place?  I think the thing that is most important in all of this is that I wanted me, and others to think about the food we eat.  To question the food industry.  To picture ourselves in complete harmony with the way nature intended us to live.  Making myself miserable and blogging about it isn't really what I intended this blog to be about.  

So I will continue to grow.  Make life simpler.  Make myself and people that I love happy.  

I will keep you posted.  Live your enchanted life today, and enjoy every minute.

Day 3

Well.   Day two is now over.  Besides the headache that never goes away, I'm doing just fine.  I have the same amount of energy and everything.  My brain feels a little fuzzy but that could be the headache.  

I kind of just foraged all day long yesterday, starting with some blackberries pureed with oat grass that I grew on my counter and some lentil sprouts.  It didn't taste very good but I just chugged it.  My blackberries were sort of sour this year because of too much rain in the spring.  The rest of the day I just ate whenever and whatever.  Some parsley leaves, beet and dandelion leaves.  Some wild stuff: lambs quarters and malva.  A few tomatoes.  My dinner was a potato.  It's shocking how little food I can get away with when it is really fresh.

My constant is the herbal tea.  I drink that almost all day.  Plus one 18 ounce glass of water in the morning and one after dinner.  

Oh, and I had an apple.  I only had a few apples on my tree this year because most of them fell off the tree early in the spring.  This apple was perfectly ripe.  It was the highlight of my day.  It takes so little to make me happy.  

I think it's a little easier on me psychologically if I don't leave my house.  There is just too much out there to be tempted by.  I am selling this Saturday at Peddler's Market in Caledonia.  I have to leave the house at 6 in the morning, so we'll see what I come up with for the day.  I'll just have to plan ahead because I won't be home to forage until 7pm or so.  Long day.  Maybe I'll see some of you out there!

Let's see how the day goes.  An enchanted one, to everybody.

Day Two of Eating What I Grow. Caffeine Withdrawal.

I made it to day two.  I can't believe it.  Yesterday was hard.  But not in the ways I thought it would be.  I thought I'd have sugar cravings, or carb cravings.  Something.  No, I was too busy with my caffeine withdrawal headache to think about anything else.  

I really could only imagine what it was going to be like.  I didn't realize how much my life revolved around food.  Not just food.  Food from stores, restaurants, gas stations.  I had about a million choices yesterday just leaving my house and going to Medina to take down fall stuff at Filomena's.  I drove by my favorite Amish store on the way there.  All food.  I had to put gas in the van.  The gas station is full of food.  And coffee.  I went to Filomena's.  Danette had food out for all the vendors working on their space.  Plus, she always has cookies and coffee for the customers.  I had to get cat food at Tractor Supply.  Food all over the check out.  Then I had to go by every fast food and food place on earth on my way home.  I'm going to buy myself some of those blinders the Amish put on horses so cars don't freak them out and I'm going to wear them myself.  

I never thought of myself being a food dependent.  I mean in the way that I reward myself with food.  Don't want to get out of bed?  Well, coffee is waiting.  Had a rough day?  Well, maybe I'll just eat cheese cake for dinner.  I know I was doing that with wine.  Especially with the stress from when I had the store.  I quit drinking 2 months ago, and it was the best thing, because I was definitely rewarding myself with wine on my bad days.  And I had a lot of stressful days.

So, I got through my first day and I'm about an hour into the second.  Yesterday was not what I expected.  I woke up tired, and then I drank no coffee so I was really sleepy all day.  But the time I got to Filomena's in the afternoon, I had a headache.  By the time I got home, my brain exploded.  I couldn't function.  I knew it would go away eventually.  I just had to wait it out.  So I slept most of the night.

My breakfast was completely fresh stuff out of the garden.  Broccoli, mustard greens, zucchini, and a few cherry tomatoes.  I cooked it slightly with a little salt.  Surprisingly, I wasn't starving all day or anything.  When I got home, I thought carbs might help my headache so I ate a baked potato with salt.  It was really good.  I drank some of my grape juice I made and that sort of lifted my spirits because I was actually feeling a little sadness.  Weird.  Another thing that was weird is that I wasn't really hungry during the day.  Actually the thought of eating made me a little nauseous, but I ate what I could and made sure I drank lots and lots of herbal tea to get my vitamins.

So, that was my first day.  The headache seems to be pretty much gone, but I can almost feel it coming back.  I'm drinking some dandelion & calendula tea for breakfast and I am going to go on with my day.  I got through my first day.  I'm feeling a little proud of myself, but I know there is more challenges to come.

Until tomorrow then.  Have an enchanted day and thanks for reading!  Now go eat some vegetables!

Day One of Eating Only What I Grow

Well, my last night of eating whatever I want is over.  Seems fitting that it was my favorite holiday, Halloween!  But I didn't really go crazy with food or anything.  I ate some candy of course.  It was Halloween, after all. And I drank a small can of Pepsi.  I don't drink soda very often, but it was my last night.  I had to try being bad.  I was carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds so I ate lots of those.  I didn't really even eat dinner.  I guess I was just excited for this adventure to start.

Mike is in the kitchen cooking something that I can't eat right now.  Oh, I think he's making tuna or something.  He must be finished though because Little (the cat) is watching me type.  

My morning so far has been uneventful.  I am drinking blackberry leaf and plantain tea instead of coffee.   No sugar.  No milk.  I really like it.  Blackberry leaf is most similar in flavor to black tea.  These are some of the leaves I dried during the summer.

I'm going to eat fresh stuff from the garden today.  I don't want to break in to my stored food until I have no other alternatives.  I have celery, parsley, turnip and beet greens, broccoli, onions and garlic in the garden still.  I also have oat, lentil and sunflower sprouts.  My breakfast this morning will be some of those things.  And what ever wild food is out there still.  

So here I go.  I'll update you tomorrow.  Have an enchanted day everyone!

My Halloween Ghost Story

I don't usually have any stories to tell.  I kind of have little snippets of my life in these posts, but this actually happened to me this summer, so I will share it with you.

In July of this year my boyfriend Mike had a bout with kidney stones.  It was bad enough that he had to have surgery to remove or blast them or whatever they do.  So, I was picking him up from the hospital and had lots of time to kill because the surgery had taken longer than expected.

Right down the road from the hospital in Lockport is one of my favorite old cemeteries.  The Cold Springs Cemetery.  I have walked through this cemetery many times just because I love the way they took the time to make things so beautiful back before it was all function and boring.  There are always hills and stone walls and beautiful trees in old cemeteries.  Not to mention interesting headstones and mausoleums.  

So I was killing time, so to speak, and walking through the oldest section at Cold Springs.   I wasn't really there but a few minutes when the wind started to blow and the sky was already dark that day.  The trees above me, which have got to be 100 year old trees were shaking and blowing from side to side.  I remember thinking it was kind of cool because I love weather and storms.  

I took a few pictures of the headstones and the trees.  And I wandered.  About a minute later, the wind picked up, it almost howled and big drops of rain started to fall.  I got a little scared because of the massive trees swaying above me and I ran to my van, phone in hand.

As soon as I started to open my door, my phone went haywire and was taking pictures over and over and over.  I set the phone down in the console of the van and it was still taking pictures.  My hands were not touching it at all.

I thought nothing of this because it happened so fast and I was thinking a rain drop must have fallen into the phone somehow and made it crazy.  It continued to rain and I just drove out of there.

I went about the day and didn't think of it again until Mike was home and I was getting things out of the van.  My phone was still in the console and I grabbed it and thought I'd check out the pictures the phone took randomly.  I did this mindlessly, like doing dishes or something.  I looked at the pictures.  A couple of the ground, delete, delete.  One of my hand or something, delete.  Another one of the inside of the door, delete.  This one of half my head and trees above me, and I remember thinking, "oooh that one is creepy", delete.  And then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I was in the cemetery during a storm and my phone took creepy pictures BY ITSELF!  My heart was pounding a little.

Before I ran in to tell Mike I deleted the rest of the pictures.  I felt like I was compelled to delete them.  I usually leave pictures in my phone until it's full.  I never delete my pictures!  And you know I would have analyzed every single frame if they still existed.  I even googled how to get the pictures back after deleting them.  Too difficult.

So of course later I did an internet search to see if Cold Springs is haunted.  Of course it is!  And there are several websites claiming so.  There is a recurring story of a hitchhiker girl in the 70's or 80's (?) that was murdered or disappeared and people reported seeing her ghost in the road by Cold Springs.  Some one said they actually picked up a girl hitchhiker and turned to ask her a question and she wasn't there anymore.  There is also a few stories about people's electronic devices acting strange.  Hmmm...  Below are the only pictures I had left from that day.  They are all pictures from BEFORE the camera went batty.

Well, that's my ghost story for you on this beautiful Halloween morning.  Have an enchanted day everyone!

 

Picking Rosehips and What To Do With Them Once You Get Them!

When I first started doing floral arrangements for little country shops, I learned that some of the best flowers were the free ones.  Especially when I was first starting out and didn't have a big garden to grow them.  Rosehips are the queen of the country shop for florals.  You will always find them this time of year in some form.  You'll see them in bunches from a few vendors who are adventurous enough to pick them.  There are also dried rosehips in all sorts of country potpourris and simmering concoctions.  They are the perfect colors for the holidays, ranging from bright orange to red and to dark burgundy as they dry.

Rosehips are actually the seed pods from wild roses.  The roses get pollinated by bugs and bees in the summer and the petals fall off and start to make seeds.  I have so many memories of picking these shiny bright red treasures.  The rambling, almost vining stems the hips grow on are very very thorny, and they are usually not ready to pick until after a frost or when it gets cold.  I used to drag my poor mother out with me on days similar to this one, cold and rainy.  She lives in the southern tier and there are tons of nice quiet roads to pick from.  One of us would always get stuck in a rosehip bush and you'd either have to rip your skin and some of your hair out to get out, or you can cut your way out, leaving the thorns hanging off your clothes.  This is only for the die hard picker!  

Sometimes I just can't contain my excitement when I find a perfect bush to pick from, loaded with perfect berries, all in the same place and low enough to the ground to reach.  I call this the "Motherload". 

One year my mom and I were picking along the road and somehow went backwards into the ditch in water and mud up to our knees.  We laugh about this still.  That same year we also found these other red berries that we couldn't identify but they were so beautiful, we picked bunches and bunches of them to take home.  (My mother always has pruners and buckets in the trunk of her car just in case there is something to pick or dig up on a country road.  See where I get it?)  Well, I still don't know what those red berries were, but they stunk up the car so bad we had to toss them before we got them home! 

Well, I still pick rosehips every year.  The last couple of years I have had more of a reason for picking them than ever before.  Not only do they look great in wreaths, but they are also edible and medicinal.  I am lucky enough to have them growing in the wild areas on my property and I don't have to go anywhere to get them.

There are lots and lots of varieties of roses and I think all of them make "hips".  Rugosa roses are often cultivated for the hips and are made into jams and wines and such things.  Tea roses and garden roses aren't good for using because people so often use pesticides on them.  Plus you just don't get that many roses on them.  Wild roses are prolific and there are many different ones.  Once in awhile I find wild ones that are about the size of a nickle.  Those are treasures.

Rosehips have about 20 times more vitamin C than oranges and there are many ways to utilize their properties.  Making rosehip tea is probably the most common. You can even buy rosehip tea at the grocery store.  After you make the tea, there are a few uses.  You can drink it, and use it as a compress for surface wounds and scars.  There are syrups you can make with rosehips.  You can even make wine with it.  You will see it quite often in vitamin C supplements, so you can also take it in dried form, crushed up. 

I will give you my favorite sore throat remedy.  Every time I feel a sore throat coming on, I take a teaspoon of this and my sore throat vanishes.  Like magic!

Here's what you need:
A pint canning jar.
A cover for the jar
Apple Cider Vinegar
Rosehips
A sunny window sill

Add your rosehips to your clean jar.  I add them whole, because crushing them sometimes lets little hairs out that are on the inside of the rosehip, which cause irritation.  Cover rosehips with apple cider vinegar.  Make sure there is enough for rosehips to float in vinegar.  If rosehips are exposed to too much surface, they can mold.

Cover your jar with a lid.  I use coffee filters with a rubber band around the lid.  That way it can breathe a little but fruit flies can't get in.  Set your jar in a window and stir or shake once or twice a week.  After about a week, it's ready to use, but I keep my rosehips in there for several months.  The longer you leave them to steep, the stronger your medicine is.  You can strain them out after awhile.  Store in a cupboard and it will keep for about a year.

I like this better than syrup because there is no sugar.  But for children, syrups are easier to give and you can boil down sugar, water and rosehips to make it.  Then bottle and refrigerate.  Should keep for 4 to 6 months that way.

There are many other benefits to drinking rosehip tea.  The vitamin C  in them helps to raise your bodies immune system to treat sickness and infection.  It also helps your body make collagen.  Collagen helps our bones and muscles regenerate and stay strong.  Rosehips help our bodies absorb iron, which is useful for our general well being.

Rosehips contain the antioxidants carotenoids, polyphenols, flavonoids, leucoanthocyanins, and catechins.  All these antioxidants help prevent cancer and heart disease, as well as keeping us from aging.  Especially when consuming other antioxidant foods frequently.  Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms are said to be relieved by adding rosehips to your diet also.

Lots of skincare products contain rosehips and rosehip oil.  It helps regenerate new skin cels.  Using it topically and internally has a double effect.

There are a few cautions when taking rosehips, however.  Rosehips ability to absorb iron can interfere with prescription medications.  It can also interfere with blood sugar control, so it is not safe for diabetics.  Always consult your doctor if you are on medications or have an illness before taking any herb.  Also the tiny little hairs inside rosehips can irritate sinus and lungs so do not inhale powdered rosehips.

Wow, this was a long post.  I hope everyone has an enchanted day.  Thanks for following!

These pictures are from a couple years ago when Mike and I were behind the house picking.  And the scratches on our arms and legs to prove it!

Mike, struggling with the wicked thorns!

"I'll get you, my pretties!"

Scratched up arms!  And my little Pearl is in the background!  I miss that doggy!

That's not rosehip juice!  That's Mike's blood!  Is there anything he won't go through for me?

3 days to go...

Well... 3 days to go now.  I drank no coffee yesterday and had a wicked headache all day.  I woke up again today with one and so I drank one cup of coffee and surprise!  Headache gone.  I'll just have to have a little less every day so I don't get that retched headache.  That is going to be the hard part of this whole thing.  I think once I'm into it, things should be easier.

So, I really thought I was being sort of bitchy on my last post.  I had no intention of sounding like I was standing on my high horse telling people what to do.  It was not my intention and I hope it didn't sound that way.  Sometimes I see things on the stupid news or on the tv and I get enraged.  I know you guys are all with me on this, or you would not be reading a blog like this in the first place.  So if you felt offended I am sorry.  I am definitely not the perfect environmentalist or any such thing. I am not perfect at all.  I am not sorry about the way I feel however.  I can't help it.

Well, I'm sitting in front of our first fire.  It is a cold and damp morning and it felt like a good morning for a fire.  So I had to clean off all the surfaces in the living room to make room for all the cats that are going to want to take naps in this room all day.  I have been pricing Christmas stuff to take to Filomena's in November and it was all over the place!  Zuzu is on my knees laying her head on the keyboard right now and Cali is right behind her.  So my lap is full.  Little is on the back of the couch behind me and Charlotte has planted herself on Ruby's blanket on the floor directly in front of the wood stove.  This is what I love about cold weather.

If anyone has any ideas for different edible uses for squash, I'd love to hear them.  Remember I can't use sugar of any kind or butter.  I have very limited ingredients but I have tons of winter squash.  I can eat it plain just fine.  I really enjoy the flavor but I have so much of it, it may be something I eat almost every day and it may get boring...  So, I would love to hear some of your ideas.  You can leave them in the comments on facebook for me if you think of anything.

Well, it has been sort of a couple of uneventful days because of the headaches.  I watched several horror movies because Halloween is coming.  When I say several, I mean like 10.  I even like the bad horror movies made in the 60's and 70's with the bad acting and the even worse music.  Very entertaining.

So I will leave you with this short post.  I've got some great ideas for posts and some other interactive things I'm thinking about so some of you can experiment with me on my journey.  More about that later.  Until tomorrow then.  Everyone have an enchanted day.

Isn't this a pretty picture.  This is my hops growing up the side of the workshop.  I love this.

I can't think of a good title for this post. Let's call it "I don't want to move to Mars so I'm giving up pie for a year". ( I got up really early this morning).

Good morning all of you.  I have been awake for awhile on this chilly morning because my brain won't stop.  I find that sometimes I need to write things down that bother me and keep me awake so I can let them go.  This is one of those times.

I have been an advocate for the environment and Mother Earth for as long as I remember.  I think just in the nature of being close to the earth with gardening, teaching myself to be an herbalist, and being an animal person, I may be a little more sensitive to issues regarding our natural world than the majority of the population.  I say the majority of the population because that is what I see in the mainstream.  The television people watch, what people spend their money on, what people vote for.  Sometimes I feel I'm off somewhere on a different planet.  

But I'm not.  You and the rest of the people are on the same earth where I stand.  

I have never understood how someone can go to a place like Letchworth State Park and see so much natural beauty, and then go home and spray chemicals on their lawns to make sure the dandelions don't take root.  

I don't want to get political in this blog.  It's all been light and fluffy and cute like a puppy, but I can't turn my brain off.  I also know that I'm preaching to the choir here.  Most of my readers are not the ears I need to reach with this particular post.  You are already on board with being healthier, eating local, making a difference.  But I can't help but wonder what else I can do.  

I can only control myself and take responsibility for what I do.

How can I stop being angry that climate change is being totally ignored by mainstream media?  I see loads and loads of coverage of extreme weather.  Horrible fires engulfing people's homes.  Hurricanes, drought, flooding.  Thousands of people evacuating Florida.  Yep, the media is all over it because it raises their ratings.  But, how often do you hear about climate change being the cause of the extremes?  I know, we have always had hurricanes, floods and fires, but the warming of the planet is making it worse and more extreme.  

I'm sorry if I have offended anyone or lost readers by voicing my opinion, but this is one of the  major reasons I am doing this blog in the first place.  The earth is the reason I'm giving up pie for a whole year!  I really love pie.

Here is the good news.  Everyone doesn't have to give up pie for a whole year and do what I'm doing.  We all have the same voice.   And not everyone has to write a blog about it.  We can vote with our money.  What you don't buy is just as important as what you do buy.  Every dollar you don't spend is a dollar the huge conglomerations don't have to spend on lobbyists and buying politicians who are ruining this country.  Start buying local food. If you don't know where to go to get local food, ask someone.  Ask a hippie. Shop only the outer perimeter of the grocery store.  (the inside isles are full of processed food)  Cut down on plastic and use reusable bags and containers.  Stop buying chemicals for your lawn and garden.  Grow some food.  Don't waste water.  Put on a sweater and turn down the heat.  Plan your errands so you're not running around wasting gas.  You get the picture.

And the best one yet!  Let's irritate some politicians!  (Thank you Samantha Bee)  I'm going to start writing actual letters to people.  I'm starting with the EPA.  As you may already know, the jerks are trying to repeal the Clean Power Plan, along with other plans that will loosen restrictions on pollution from power plants.  I have written a letter letting them know I don't approve.  I think I may write one of these letters on a regular basis.  

Who cares if our country prospers if we have to move to Mars because we can't breathe the air and drink the water here on earth?

I'm attaching the address of the EPA below in case you decide you'd like to write a nice letter and catch up with the EPA as well.  I got this idea from watching the recent episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.  She also has a letter that you can download and print to send to the EPA on her website.

Environmental Protection Agency

EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC)

Mail Code 28221T

Attention: Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20460

To me, having clean air, clean water and wild nature is much more important than corporations and politicians making more money.  Why do you think they've started thinking about putting people on Mars?  Because they are just going to throw away the earth and move on to the next planet they can ruin.  Imagine living with no trees, no squirrels, no beautiful lakes?  Earth is a beautiful place.  I want to stay here.  Let's take care of her.

Anybody like trees?

A visual journey... July through October

Here are a few photos from the journey from July through October.  Garden, food, dried flowers, Kitties, and Filomena's.