Homesteading

I live in town just north of Boston Massachusetts. It's not a rural community and it's not a city either. My goal this year is to learn about and start homesteading. I keep trying to figure out what direction to take this blog and my life. I initially started this blog after going to farmers markets almost 6 years ago. I had already been interested in natural health, so this blog was really just an extension of what I had already been interested in. I am looking to live a more handmade and natural life, but yet I don't want to beat myself up when I can't or when in the moment, I don't want to. My ultimate goal is to learn how to use my garden to my advantage and learn how to save, store, and can veggies from my garden, so that I can enjoy my efforts into the winter. It will take some time, but I will research and learn how best to use my garden after the summer has passed. I want to get a blueberry and a raspberry bush that can be grown in containers. My thought with this is, I don't have to find the right place to plant them and we can enjoy them all summer. When the cold weather comes, you are supposed to be able to move them to a sheltered place and they will last through the winter. My kids love berries and it would be awesome to have them just pick them off the bush when ever they wanted them. I also need to get a strawberry plant because we are a house that loves strawberries. Again, I want to make and can my own jellies and jams. I would love to get a chicken or two and have my own eggs. I think my husband thinks I'm a nut with wanting chickens, but how nice would it be to go to your back yard and get eggs when you need them? I think it would be awesome! I just don't feel like I know enough yet, but I want to learn! On to researching all sorts of things, canning, storing food, chickens, homesteading and many others! Amy

Going Green (Smoothie)

With my desire to start being healthy, I have started to look at the raw foods world, at least for the summer months.  One thing that I noticed is the whole green smoothie "revolution".  Ok, so maybe not a revolution, but it;s certainly a popular concept.  A few years ago, my husband and I started to make green smoothies.  We bought a book by Victoria Boutenko, who has been promoting green smoothies.  Basically, it is a much easier and tastier way to get in your fruits and veggies, almost like a V8 fruit drink but better and probably better for you since you make it yourself.  Green smoothies basically consist of fruit, a green leafy veggie, and maybe some water and protein powder if you wish ( we've used protein powder in the past but I have used it recently).  I like my greens, but there are only so many I can eat at a time.  I can drink these smoothies and feel like I am being healthy and getting in my fruits and veggies.  Most recently, I have been adding in my homemade kefir with some stevia to sweeten the kefir.  I had some last night for a snack and even when my husband wanted ice cream, I was a little more able to hold off and not be persuaded as easily as I usually am.  I am hoping that one positive impact for me will be relieving me from my cravings.  I don't see it or expect that it will happen overnight, but I am hoping that these small changes I am making will help me with my overall health and in time I'll be able to listen to my bosy and really trust what it is telling me.

Last night, as I was researching green smoothies, I went to a blog I have been following for some time now, www.choosingraw.  One of the things that I read, which totally resonated with me was making small changes.  For along time now, and with many things, I often feel like I have to be perfect right away or else it is a failed attempt.  I am slowly realizing, I can make small changes to my diet that over time will accumulate to large very positive changes.  I am also realizing that it really isn't an all or nothing idea.  I can have some meat even though I want mostly to be a vegan.  I can have dairy even though I don't want to have it every day.  The healthier I get, the more I can listen to my body and the more I can trust it to tell me what it needs..com

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that I have been making homemade kefir.  I am making both milk and water kefir and am loving both.  I love water kefir.  It is fermented water that has some small bubbles in it.  Often I will drink it in a champagne flute or a wine glass just for the fun of it.  I love drinking out of fancy glasses even if it is just water.  I haven't really experimented with flavors yet, but I plan to do that soon.  I haven't really been drinking the milk kefir, but I have been using it in mainly my pancake recipes and have made butter out of it also.  I have strained the kefir and made "kefir cheese" and then used the whey in my pancake batter.  I have started (just yesterday) to add kefir to my green smoothie.  I really enjoyed it though I did need to flavor it with stevia, since straight plain kefir, like plain yogurt, is a little too tart for my taste.  I'm loving my kefir grains!

Green Smoothie Recipe #2

1 apple
1/2 C frozen blueberries
1/2 C frozen berries
1C frozen mixed fruit
1/2 C sunflower seeds (magnesium)
1 head of green leaf lettuce (from my neighbor's CSA share)
water to blend to consistency of your liking
1/2 C kefir/yogurt (optional)
stevia to taste (optional)
 (for the first smoothie of the day, I added the kefir at the end and just stirred it in with about 7-8 drops of liquid stevia.  Later that night, I re-blended a glass of the smoothie with some kefir and stevia and I think blending it made it more amalgamated and I really enjoyed it much more)

I usually blend the fruit and water and then add the greens.  You really can use any leafy greens you want.  My husband is lacking in the magnesium arena so I added the sunflower seeds to help increase the magnesium for him.  Blend to your favorite consistency and enjoy.

I am looking forward to trying more combinations as well as using veggies from our garden.  I will post more recipes as I make them.  I am hoping that, in time, these green smoothies with help me get my health back and as I've said, I can start trusting my body!

Have you had green smoothies?  Do you have favorite recipe?

Amy

Gardening

I've been reading a couple of friends' blogs and they have really gotten me inspired to get off my butt and start doing the things that I want to be doing instead of putting it off and putting it off.  my last post was about exercise and eating right and this post is about getting my gardens ready.  Hopefully the weather this week will allow me to get out and start cleaning out my gardens.  The front gardens and the side garden really need to be raked out so that the new plants can really break through.  It's been good that we have held off because we did get an April fool's day storm and this way the plants were protected.

I know that the weather here in the northeast can be a little finicky and even though we have some nice warm days, that doesn't always mean that those days are here to stay.  I am looking forward to having the warm weather here to stay at least for a few months.  I know that I will probably be cursing the heat and I will need to remind myself of how much I hated the cold and how little we could do.  Being outside and working in my veggie and my flower gardens are activities that I am really looking forward to.  I love being outside, I love gardening, and I can't wait to, hopefully, get my kids involved too.  I can't wait to have fresh local foods too!

Amy

Gardening

My husband and I spent the weekend trying to get stuff done outside as well as attempting to enjoy the long weekend.  We spent a ton of time trying to get our veggie garden planted.  We then decided to take some time off and go to my sister in law's in Kennebunk Me and enjoy some time at the beach.  Unfortunately the weather was not as nice up there as it was down here, but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying their time at the beach.

Michael and Eva Rose taking a walk at the beach with their cousins

Thomas kissing Daddy at the beach!

Today, we spent time at Home Depot getting more plants (not like we really needed them), top soil for planting new grass, and 4 stones for the fire pit to go on.  We then went to Mahoney's in Winchester for some veggies that we thought we were going to do by seed, but realized that it was really too late to start from seed.  Again I got more flowers that I probably didn't need, but they definitely made the flower gardens look even better.  I noticed that a lot of my flowers are starting to get buds on them.  I can't wait til they bloom.  I love my butterfly garden and the gardens in front of the house are looking pretty good.  I'll be sure to post pictures sometime soon.

I still have a ton of herbs to plant.  I assumed that we were going to have enough room in the veggies garden, but wither we bought too many veggies, or I just didn't plan well.  I am kind of happy to pant the herbs some where else, thinking maybe planters?  I am loving gardening and loving watching the plants grow and bloom as the days go on!

I'm now off to make sure my oldest is asleep, then I plan to take a relaxing bath and go to bed myself!

Outdoor Projects

This year, my husband and I have started multiple outdoor projects!  Last year, we had a tree cut down, and this year we added a butterfly garden to where the tree was.  I posted pictures of it when I first planted and here it is now!

The butterfly garden still has to grow and it may not even be what I want it to be this year.  I may need to wait for next year for it to really grow and bloom like I want it to!

Last year, we also took out all the shrubs in the front of the house.  We were going to plant a bunch of bushes, but we decided to save some money this year and just pant some flowers.  It look ok, and you really can't tell what it looks like from the pictures, but it is nice not to have huge bushes blocking the front of the house.

My husband tilled an area in the backyard for our veggie garden.  I can't wait to plant veggies and for them to grow so that we can just go out  into the backyard and pick them instead of going to the store!  I think either this week or next week, we will start planting.

Finally, we bought a swingset for the kids.  We weren't going to, but decided that it was a good deal and bought it.  There are so many parts, but my husband is doing awesome getting it put together!

I can't wait for these projects to move ahead.  I am really liking the nice weather and can't wait for it to stay here.  I will put up with the heat, since I know that it will let me get out with the kids.  I think it will be lots of dun and hopefully we can get together with friends this summer!

Amy