Lazy Girl's Guide to Apple Cider Vinegar

I don't know about you but in our family when we use a lot of something the first thing I think is, "I wonder if I can make this cheaper?" For a while I noticed that we were steadily using more and more raw apple cider vinegar and it is pretty expensive compared to a bottle of regular. We use it to make dressings and sauces, tinctures and home remedies, we use it for a conditioning rinse and sometimes just drink it straight for an energy boost! In fact it is kind of like in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding with the uncle who uses Windex for everything.

Feeling sick? You just take some vinegar. Dish need something? Add some vinegar. Ran out of your favorite beauty product? Use some vinegar! It is one of those household staples for us and I finally can say that I made some of my very own.

The funny thing is I thought it would be a lot harder than it was. The worst part is having patience and waiting :)  I also helps to have an awesome friend who gives you some homemade apple cider so you can experiment, thanks Hannah!

Really simple process here: you get some homemade or unpasteurized apple cider.

Put the cider in glass gallon jars and place a coffee filter or cheese cloth over the top and secure with a rubber band. To let the gasses out and keep the bugs from getting in.

Now find somewhere to sit your cider vinegar for 6-12 months. It is best to have it somewhere where little fingers don't poke holes in the coffee filer just to see what is in there. I know from experience.

You also want to make sure that it is also in a warm place to keep the process moving along however, the one time because I put it out of the house when we had visitors it froze, it didn't seem to affect the final product, so if you accidentally freeze it that is okay too. Pretty hardy stuff.

It will make a bunch of these mother cultures, kind of like kombucha if you are familiar with that process. I found out something interesting while having giant jars of vinegar on display in my house. My husband's grandma Pearl, who we named my oldest child after, used to have a vinegar barrel with a tap on the bottom that she would add cider to and tap out the finished product from the bottom. That probably had a very large mother culture! It is also neat to think that we are doing some of the things our family members have done in generations past.

When it is finished, after about 6-12 months, you just strain out the vinegar with cheese cloth into glass jars and use as you would any other raw cider vinegar! I like the fact that you basically ignore this stuff and it becomes vinegar. Very easy for a lazy, pregnant mommy to handle!

What do you use you use raw vinegar for? I love to hear about new ideas for one of my favorite panty items.
                                                               The Farmer in the Dell

Prepping my Birth Bag!

Okay so I know that I am 9-10 weeks from my due date but I have this itch to start slowly getting things ready for when the new little one comes! Being prepared and ready helps me to relax as the day comes closer. Right now I really can't prepare for anything quick with my two little bears under foot and extremely busy farming husband needing a hand. So slow and steady wins the race right? Well that is what I keep telling myself anyway :)

My last two birth experiences were so different it makes me want to be ready for what this one is going to throw at me.

Phoebe was like the by-the-book birth experience. Everything happened just like we read about. I woke my husband up at 1:30 in the morning with the excitement that I was having regular contractions, he went to sleep for another hour just to make sure it was for real :) Then we had breakfast and thew the bag and car seat in the truck and headed to the midwife! I labored for around 12 hours, and had back labor for about a third of it. Over all, very easy non-complicated birth. I actually remember thinking about 3 hours after she was born, "Wow I could have another baby!" Crazy, I know. I went home the same day and slept in my own bed, I was so happy to be home with my family! I bounced back within 3 days and was feeling great. 

Boaz he was quite different, if I could use 3 words to describe his birth it would be fast and furious! This time when I woke my husband up at 2 in the morning to let him know I was having contractions he decided he would do the same as last time and go back to bed for a while, I mean he was thinking he had 12 hours to do this so why rush? Well we will just say we skipped breakfast and basically as soon as someone could get to our home to watch little phoebe I was halfway down the walkway to the truck praying, "Oh help me Jesus!" Literally 25 min after getting to the midwife I had my son in my arms and I had the shakes for hours! My body was in shock and so was I, 3 1/2 hour birth was not as nice as it sounded. It took a little over 2 weeks for me to get back to normal, and the after pains were almost as bad as having the baby went on for what felt like forever! No one warned me it was like having the baby over the course of two weeks.

I didn't really have time to use any of my natural birth aids last time with my son as everything was just to frenzied and stressful just getting to the midwife, who is about 50 min away from us. I am hoping this time that I can be ready for anything so I can just relax and focus on my new baby during the birth and I think that may* alleviate some of the shock and tension I experienced with Boaz.

So here is what I am packing this time in hopes I get the chance to use them!
 Essential Oils

•  Lavender~For relaxation and reducing stress by diffusing and massage during labor
• Clary Sage~Great for the uterus, helps with stalled labor if rubbed on pressure points/inner ankles.
• Black Pepper~Good for back labor; mix with carrier oil and rub into lower back.
• Helichrysum~A few drops on abdomen during birthing make for a healthier placenta delivery and post baby recovery. Also good for those who have tearing to rub on during labor.
• Frankincense~To put on baby's umbilical cord stump as it helps it heal better and faster, for rubbing on my skin to aid in healing. Some people find the scent to be empowering as well through a difficult labor. 
• Diffuser and Fractionated Coconut Oil~ To use with essential oils

Other Aids

• Arnica gel~This is really nice to have as it has a cooling/numbing sensation when applied to sore aching muscles.
• Mother Love Sitz Bath Spray~I cannot tell you how much I love this stuff, it really makes life after birth livable. 
• Mother Love Green Salve~A great alternative to Tucks
• Wish Garden After Ease Tincture~I am taking this right away, hoping this helps lessen the duration of the after pains this time.

Food

• Dates~ For energy and because well, I love them!
• Red Raspberry Tea~For after birth to help uterus go back to normal.
• Coconut water~For during birth to replace lost electrolytes/hydrate

Random Extras

• Head band
• Lip balm
• Comfy Pjs/clothes
• Boy and Girl baby clothes! I can't wait to find out this time!
• Blanket/swaddle cloth
• Lanolin
• Diapers
• Pads
• Face Wash
• Towels~ For in the car in case my water breaks on the way!

I am really getting excited to meet this little one, and of course find out if our house will be won by team pink or blue! Phoebe is really hoping it's a girl but she says a boy would be okay too :) We love 'em all!

                                                          The Farmer in the Dell

When Eating Liver Makes You Quiver...

I had been having ringing in my ears and moments of rapid heart beat even while sitting on the couch reading to my children. I figured that I would mention it to my midwife, along with the fact that I had been exhausted and supposedly the second trimester is the time when you are to have the most energy. Oh well I figured, this was the byproduct of being pregnant and having two little ones to take care of, it is probably just sleep deprivation.

Well it turns out that these were not normal pregnancy symptoms for a third time mom, I had really low Iron. This was not what I wanted to hear as I try and take lots of measures to boost my iron with food and food based supplements. I usually take black strap molasses at night and liquid chlorophyll during the day as well as eating as many greens as I can and taking a food based prenatal that has 100% of my Iron. Apparently this was not cutting it and I really hate taking Iron supplements as they have a habit of making me feel sick and nauseated. 

I was willing to give it a try though as my energy was just not enough to keep up with my two little kids and I really didn't like ringing in my ears or feeling like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. So we went with the liquid Iron because it is assimilated better by the body and has less of an effect with the nausea. It took about two weeks for me to notice a difference, but what I think helped it along was I made myself eat liver once a week.

I know liver, I am not a liver fan. I have been trying, I'll admit halfheartedly, to like organ meats but it was not really a priority so lets say it was put on the back burner for a while. Well now I have low Iron and a freezer full of liver so I womaned-up and tried liver again. This time I used the recipe from Nourishing Traditions and surprisingly, I found that I liked it. "I must be really low in iron to like liver!" I would joke with my farmer but what I think really made the difference was that it calls for cooking the soaked liver in clarified butter. I had never used clarified butter before but it gives that butter flavor to your food while holding up to high heat while cooking.

The only downside to this awesome find is that one container of grass fed clarified butter was like 3x the price of regular butter and we use homemade anyway. The recipe uses quite a bit of the butter too so I decided to find out how hard it is to make clarified butter. What I found out was that it is very simple! I am so excited now I can use it for more than my weekly liver dose! Slather it on Naan bread use it for sauces and fish it is awesome! Here is how I did it.

Take your butter and heat it on med high on the top of the stove till it is melted and bubbling for a few min.

Use a spoon and skim off the butter solids (white stuff) on top.

Strain the remainder through a cheese cloth. You may need to do this a couple times till it comes out bright yellow not cloudy.

Pour into jar and refrigerate

That's all folks! It is so simple I don't know why I didn't try it before, liver changes a lot of things :)

                                                                The Farmer in the Dell

How Sweet it is to Have a Maple Tree!

So we tried a new adventure this week in the Dell; we went out and tapped our maple tree! Now for you experienced people out there, we know it was a bit late to start but, we were given a tap and thought we would give it a try and see what happens. The ideal time to start harvesting your sap is from mid February-mid March. You are looking for warm days (above 40 degrees) and freezing nights to make the sap flow.

I really didn't realize that you could make maple syrup from the sap of any maple tree, I always thought it was just sugar maples. They say the sweetness is best in a sugar and black maples and less sweet in the silver and red maples. I also didn't know how simple it was to cook it down, all we used was our electric roaster! Let me tell you though the syrup we made tastes just as good as the stuff you can buy and we harvested it right from our front yard and all it takes is a few easy steps.

Things you will need:

• An electric drill or hand drill
• A metal tap or hose barb and 3/8th non-toxic tubing
• Hammer or wrench
• 5 gal bucket with the lid
• 20 quart roaster

First you need to find a good large maple tree and drill a hole 3/8th inch for a metal tap and 1/2 inch for hose barb, 2 1/2 inches into the tree at a 45 degree angle.

Then insert your tap and gently hammer it in till secure or use wench to screw in the hose barb.

You can hang a bucket off the tap if you are using a metal one or twist tubing on the barb and direct into the hole in the top of the bucket. Use Duck Tape to close off the hole so rain and bugs do not get in your sap. 

Now you just let your sap collect. We were getting about 2 gallons a day so depending on what size tree or bucket you may need to check on your sap throughout the day. Your tree needs to be 12-20" for one tap, 21-27" for 2 taps and more than 27" for 3 taps.

I put my first 3 gallons of sap in the roaster and set it on 400 during the day with the lid off and 300 at night adding more sap as it came out of the tree.You do not want the sap to boil just steam and evaporate.

It took me 3 days to cook it down till it was brown and came off my stir spoon slowly like a syrup.
Then I strained it through cheese cloth and filled up my mason jars!

It takes 40 gal of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup so since we started late we only made a little less than one quart, but I am excited it worked and can't wait till next season to make some.
                                                                  The Farmer in the Dell

Time to Celebrate Passover

At our home we like to celebrate some Jewish holidays, as they often times were used to remind the people of Israel how great their God is. One of the main holidays we celebrate is the Passover Seder. The Bible talks about the very first passover that took place in Egypt when the people of Israel were preparing to leave a life of slavery and journey to the promised land. The meal eaten is very symbolic of what they endured while in slavery, shows the hope of the brighter future and points us to the final lamb, the Lamb of God, who redeems us by his blood! Here are the main foods eaten in a passover meal and what they are meant to symbolize. There are three that are required and then some that were added later.

Matzo{the unleavened bread} 
Exodus 23:14 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt.

The children of Israel had to leave in haste from Egypt so the bread did not have time to rise. The Matzo also traditionally has lines of prick marks to represent that our Lord was stripped and pierced for our sins.

1 Corinthians 5:7-8 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.  Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The celebration of passover Seder also means that no leavening(yeast, baking soda, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate ect.) or products containing them can be in the house, this is because it was symbolic of sin. When I still lived at home we would strategically use up anything we had with leavening weeks before passover so we didn't have to throw it away. We would save a few things to hunt for before the eve of passover, just to have fun with the little ones. Let me tell you, you have to get creative in what you pack for lunches, peanut butter and jelly matzo is way too messy! 

 
Roasted Lamb 
 Exodus 12:3,7-11 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household.“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.  And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.  In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

This is a very important piece of the passover, as the blood of the lamb was a sign to the Lord to "Passover" that home and not kill the first born child of that house hold. The Jews were spared this plague but it hit the Egyptians hard. It was the final plague on Egypt then Pharaoh let them go.  The neat part about this traditional food is that it all has to be eaten that evening, so if you like lamb this is great! 

Bitter Herbs{Maror} 
 ...with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
The bitter herb that we use is Horse radish, to show the bitterness of slavery.  

 

Karpas{parsley}
The parsley, as part of the Ceder, we dip in salt water to symbolize the tears of the Jews in slavery.



Haroset 
This is one that was added later but it is one of my favorites! It is a mixture of ground up apples, walnuts, raisins, a little honey and some grape juice. It is made to symbolize the mortar the children of Israel used when making bricks for pharaoh. It also is there as a contrast to the bitter herbs to show the sweetness of a new life. 
 
Grape juice/ Wine
During the course of the meal there are four different glasses of grape juice that all are required to drink. 
1st Cup-Sanctification
It is to show how God set apart His people in Egypt. In the same way we are set apart when we accept Jesus as our savior.  
2nd Cup-Judgement
This cup was what Jesus prayed to be taken from Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is the punishment for all our sins. Jesus drank this the night of His death so we would not have to.
3rd Cup-Redemption

Jesus did not drink this cup on the night of his death, He couldn't because it represented redemption. He knew his blood was needed for remission of our sins.
4th Cup-Kingdom
This cup is usually poured but not drunk, this is because Jesus did not drink the wine offered him as He was on the cross. It is a reminder of what we will enjoy with Jesus when He comes back!
   
 The Passover is the oldest continually observed feast today, it has been going on for around 3,500 years! It is the last meal Jesus ate before he died and he desired to eat it with His disciples, it is a very special picture of what He did for us. It is such a joy that I can pass the story of the faithfulness and redemption of the Lord, and the promise that He is coming again for us to my children through this festival! This Friday at Sunset we begin this years Passover! 

Do You Make Bread When You Nap?

I am sure you have probably heard the passage about the Proverbs 31 woman. I have had some mixed feelings about this lady, sure she is inspirational; she sews, goes grocery shopping a long way away, makes meals for her family and servants while it is still night, she is an investor, gardener, physically fit, never goes to sleep early, she takes care of the poor, provides seasonal clothes for her family and servants and the extra clothes that she sews she sells, this lady never has a idle moment!

This is what the mother of a king was advising her son to look for in a wife. So obviously even a queen was expected to be industrious and intentional about how she used her time. I remember thinking that this list of things was impossible to do and then I realized she had servants! I don't have servants to help me with my work or do I? While I may not have people to help me with my work I do have something that the Proverbs 31 woman didn't and that is house hold appliances!

So There are some appliances that I especially love. My washer and dryer, blender, crock-pot, refrigerator, stove/oven and my dishwasher! They are like the modern servant/helper that make being a mother so much easier. One appliance I discovered that I really love recently is the bread machine. Before I was married I never used one. When I started to go shopping and looked at all of the ingredients in a loaf of store bought bread however I couldn't get myself to feed that to my husband every day.

The main problems I have with conventional breads are most of them contain high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified and or/pesticide sprayed wheat or grains, added gluten, preservatives/stabilizers and sometimes bleach. Not what I want to feed my family. Buying organic loaves is not really affordable for us so my best option is to make it myself. That takes time however and unfortunately, even then it may not turn out. You could end up with a lump of un-usable, shame that ruins your self esteem and haunts your dreams. I have had a bad go of bread, so much so that my husband gave up on me making a nice loaf. Then along comes the bread machine. I was magically able to make bread again! The problem was it was not consistent, sometimes it would be beautiful and other times...it was back to the lump of shame. After looking and trying a whole bunch of recipes I found one, that if I tweaked it a little, I consistently got that nice sandwich bread loaf that looks, smells and tastes wonderful! I make a loaf every week for Josh's lunches and he loves it! The only thing I have not been able to do with a bread machine is to soak the flour to neutralize the phytic acid. I am still working on that recipe but this is a good compromise and I still feel it is way better for our health than conventional breads.

Spelt Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 Cup Warm Water
• 1 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
• 2 Tbs Organic Sunflower Oil or Melted Coconut Oil
• 3 Tbs Honey
• 2 Cups White Spelt Flour
• 1 1/2 Cups Whole Spelt Flour
• 1 3/4 tsp Yeast

1. Place the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed, making a well in the flour for the yeast. 
   
2.  Set the bread machine on basic loaf, med crust setting, for a 1 1/2 lbs loaf. 
   
3. Press start and take a nap with your kids. Oops the nap is really optional :) 
   

This is so simple and it turns out every time! I love waking up from nap time to the smell of fresh bread! Feels like I was working really hard the whole time while my (servant) bread machine labored over it.

Now I generally wait till it is cool to slice it up for sandwiches. I find freezing the sliced bread makes sure that it doesn't spoil or get stale because it doesn't have all those added preservatives and stabilizers to keep it soft and fluffy and mold free. So if you don't have a large family or just want to eat a whole loaf right now I would recommend slicing and freezing.

I love this spelt bread, I love how it enables me to multitask using all my time to the max and being a little more like that Proverbs 31 woman/super mom. I have come to the conclusion that this passage is an idea of how productive we could be as mothers and wives. So I have decided I will not waste my time in idleness, I will find ways to be a good steward of our finances, health, and time, and I will not neglect to use the help I have been given to accomplish the awesome responsibility of being that wife and mother the Lord called me to be.

I hope you enjoy this bread as much as we do!

                                                                      The Farmer in the Dell

Can I Meet my Children's Needs?

Do you ever feel so rushed and overwhelmed with daily work that you don't have time to really nurture your children? I know I do, they keep asking you to play with them, hold them or just listen to them, their little soul is just aching for your companionship, and the work needs to get finished. Then they start being destructive or naughty, not because they want to be, but more for the attention that they felt they couldn't get in a more constructive way.

I often feel guilty for not being able to spend more quality time with my children, I feel like they just get to come along for the ride with me and share in my work and life. It has been weighing on me pretty heavy as we are getting into the beginning of our busy season here at the farm so they see their Daddy less too. It makes for less help around the home for me(=a more stressed mommy) and less quality family time as well.

I was reminded while we were having our family devotions recently that even Mary, the woman chosen by God specifically to mother His Son, had days like this too. In Luke 2 Verse 41-52 we see that she and Joseph are in a very busy time in their lives too. They were returning home from Passover, which is a very big holiday in the Jewish culture, and they had traveled with a large group of family to celebrate in Jerusalem; in my experience holiday celebrations involving lots of people is never a stress free event. Then after a day into the journey home they realize he is not with the group. As a mom I know that I would be panic stricken at this point! They back track and look everywhere for him for 3 days! When they do find him he is in the temple listening and asking questions to the teachers. I really feel like Mary was still panicked and unloading her anxiety on her son when she said, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You." His reply is “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” Jesus needed to have quality time with His father. When our children are young, and don't have that personal relationship with the Lord, they feel a need to share be known with us parents instead of with their savoir.

It is such an honor that our children want to be with us and share everything because sometimes when we don't make time we miss the beautiful moments of their personal growth or spiritual connection. I know that I often have to slow down and take a break to just be "with" my children. Draw a picture, listen to a story, eat a pretend meal or just give a hug. The little things that take maybe 5 or so min throughout the day resonate deeply with children; and really, don't we like to have the ones we love share in the little things in our life too?

One of the last things in the story of Jesus being in the temple was that after all that went on it said that Mary treasured all these things in her heart. As we guide our children and share in their lives, those moments where we see their desire for the Lord, we should treasure in our hearts.  It is special, sacred even and as a mother I get the blessed opportunity to witness that with each of my children. I pray that one day, when I share my love for Jesus, their hearts will realize that what I will never be able to fill as a mother, they will always be able to have with Jesus the heavenly Father. The special oneness they crave.

Don't be discouraged on the busy days, instead be encouraged, knowing the only one that is perfect and can meet every need our child has is Jesus and we just have to point our children to Him.  He will satisfy our hearts and fill us up so we can pour out to others. Rest in Him, and share with your precious children in the little moments and big ones too.



                                                              The Farmer in the Dell