Health

Self-Sufficiency: Not Just For Tree-Hugging Hippies Anymore!

Posted on February 6, 2009 by Debora

When my marriage ended, my Immediate Goals suddenly became very basic and specific. I didn’t want my children to be homeless. I didn’t want the three of us to be hungry. I didn’t want us to freeze to death when winter came. And if at all possible I didn’t want Luke and Elizabeth to suffer the emotional devastation that I went through as a child when my own parents divorced.

The homeless issue settled itself: Steve’s parents welcomed him back into their home with open arms, he was happy to move back in with them, and they all wanted Luke and Elizabeth to remain close by. So the kids and I have stayed here in the only home they remember, and for the most part that’s worked out fine for everyone.

I spent last summer and fall collecting firewood the way a squirrel hoards nuts, and barring any unexpected natural disasters it looks like I can safely check “Do Not Freeze To Death” off of this year’s list of goals.

Emotionally, the kids have actually thrived far better under the new arrangement than they did during the marriage. Luke is practically a new person, open and confident and affectionate and so much happier than the wary, slightly neurotic child he was only a year ago. Elizabeth…well…honestly, who knows WHAT goes on in Elizabeth’s head? But she seems to be comfortable with the new status quo. And she has requested that I not remarry, because things are so nice just the way they are. Yeah, I’ll, um, take that under advisement.

That just left the food issue. And it was kind of a global issue at the time of our separation, with worldwide food shortages and scarcity riots hitting the news and some grocery stores beginning to ration rice, and food prices in general soaring to new heights. What I really wanted was to reduce or eliminate my dependence on others for our daily meals, as much as possible.

I already had a great garden, but when Steve lived here most of our food came from the store. After he left I began to experiment with different kinds of meals, things I could prepare from whatever was growing on hand, and our grocery bills dropped dramatically. Last summer we ate like kings just on produce from the garden and orchard and the homegrown beef in the freezer, and nobody missed the old menu.

But I still felt dependent — on the seed companies. What if some year I couldn’t buy seeds for whatever reason? Or what if something happened and I wasn’t able to do the big spring planting job? What would we eat then? I started looking into edible perennials: plants that, once established, will live for years or decades and produce bigger crops every year. And I discovered that there are TONS of perennial options that I never even knew existed! Seriously, I could almost do away with the annual crops completely, if I weren’t so fond of tomatoes and bell peppers and those troublesome watermelons.

The subject of food gardening seems even more relevant now, with the economy tanking the way it is. A lot of folks are talking about putting in victory gardens, even if they’ve never grown anything before.

So I’m going to start a new series here about perennial food plants and edible landscaping. Not everyone has the space to set aside a big garden plot, but almost anyone can incorporate edibles into their yard in creative and attractive ways, and reap the benefits in health, food quality and financial savings.

Stay tuned!

Categories: Family, frugality, Gardening, Health, kids, Life, Self-Sufficiency | 7 Comments

Still Wordless: Which Way To the County Fair?

Posted on November 26, 2008 by Debora

Categories: Family, Friends, frugality, Gardening, Health, kids, Life, NaBloPoMo, Nutrition, Self-Sufficiency, Wordless Wednesday | 2 Comments

Home-Milled Flour

Posted on June 14, 2008 by Debora

During the first month or two after Steve and I separated, I spent most of my evenings catching up on reading a big stack of Organic Gardening back-issues that people had given me over the the years. They date all the way back to 1978, and they were exactly what I was in the mood for at that point. Tons of great advice on how to enjoy a simpler, healthier, more self-sufficient lifestyle without all the expensive modern clutter. I was hugely inspired by stories of folks living on properties the size of mine — or smaller — and producing all or most of their own food at home. I started making a list of new fruit trees, berries and other perennial food plants that I want to add to my little homestead.

Then there was an article about how quickly the nutritional value of grains deteriorate after they are milled into flour. Apparently the oils start to go rancid very soon, and within a couple of days the flour is practically worthless for food value. The original grains, in contrast, remain fresh and viable (as in, you can plant them and they will grow) for years and years if properly stored. Up to twenty years by some estimates!

Considering how fast the cost of food is rising, the idea that I could buy a whole lot of wheat berries and dry corn, mill them into flour and meal myself as needed, and enjoy better flavor and nutrition for just a little extra work was very appealing to me.

So I did a bunch of research to find the best grain mill, and decided that the Country Living Grain Mill was what I was looking for. There was a three-week wait on it (apparently self-sufficiency is becoming a popular concept these days), but I added my name to the list and eventually it arrived.

When we tried to test it, we very quickly realized that it has to be bolted or clamped to a solid surface or it shimmies around too much. I wanted to set it up in a permanent spot, but I wasn’t quite ready to drill holes in any of my countertops, so after a bit of thought I decided it was time to pull out our old unused furnace and use that space for the mill.

Once the furnace was out, I cut through the inside wall to create access from the kitchen, cleaned up the space, put in an old cupboard from one of the sheds, and bolted the mill to that.

Today we gave it its first test drive! The kids wanted waffles, so I dumped a cup of wheat berries into the hopper and told the young-uns to start grinding. Luke was wildly enthusiastic about working the mill, but it turned out to be just a bit harder than he could really manage. Elizabeth took over the task, and we had our flour just a few minutes later.

One cup of wheat berries made about one-and-a-quarter cup of flour, which is exactly what my waffle recipe uses, but after I’d made the batter I realized that the recipe must be allowing for the settling that occurs in prepackaged flour. Freshly-milled, unsettled flour made a noticeably thinner batter. Next time I’ll use a bit more than the recipe calls for.

The flavor though — wonderful! You really can taste the difference. I will definitely be milling my own flour from now on. Now I just need to get some airtight storage tubs so I can start buying grains in bulk and stock up.

Next on my self-sufficiency shopping list: a a solar cooker!

Categories: Family, food, Health, kids, Life, Self-Sufficiency | 7 Comments

Musings On Health, Nutrition And Baking Powder

Posted on December 8, 2007 by Debora

Ten years ago I was the poster child for poor nutritional habits. I pretty much lived on pizza, donuts, rocky road ice cream and Dr. Pepper. I had no concept of what constituted a balanced diet.

Then I became pregnant with my first child. For the first time I began to wonder if I should maybe be taking a closer look at what was going into my body. After all, I wanted to give this new life inside me its best chance at a healthy, strong beginning.

So I started reading about whole foods and additives and the effects of processing, and pretty soon I’d decided to make some changes in my eating habits. And it didn’t take long for me to discover that the better I ate, the better I felt. One change led naturally to another, and within a few years I felt stronger, more energetic, and just plain healthier than I had since I was a kid. Whole grain breads and cereals, fresh raw produce, organic whenever possible, staying away from artificial flavors, colors and preservatives, no more soft drinks — these things dramatically changed the quality of my life. Not that I’d ever had any serious health problems before, but the new sense of vibrant health was incredible.

One of the smaller changes I made was to stop using regular commercial baking powder. I used to use Clabber Girl, which like most commercial baking powders contains aluminum sulphate as an acidifier. Consuming aluminum has been strongly linked to developing Alzheimer’s disease, and man, I just can’t see taking chances with that.

For a while I was making my own homemade baking powder with baking soda, arrowroot powder and cream of tartar. But the packages of arrowroot powder always passed their expiration dates before I’d used even half, and it seemed like a waste of money (and arrowroot, although to be honest I’m not really sure what that is). But then I found Rumford Baking Powder at my favorite health food store; it’s a “premium, aluminum free” baking powder that uses monocalcium phosphate as an acidifier. Monocalcium phosphate is generally recognized as safe, maybe even good for you depending on who you talk to, and Rumford Baking Powder isn’t that much more expensive than the regular kind, so I started using that instead of making my own.

So this morning I was making waffles for the kids, and I got to reading the fine print on the Rumford label, and discovered that it’s made by the Clabber Girl Corporation. I absorbed that info for a minute, and then wondered, “Why would a company acknowledge the strong connection between an ingredient and a disease, develop and offer a safer version of the product…and then keep on providing the original, probably dangerous version? I mean, why not just offer the safer product as a “new and improved” version of Clabber Girl Baking Powder? It works just as well in recipes. And not everyone shops in health food stores, or knows that consuming aluminum might seriously hink with the quality of their future life. Should there be some ethical responsibility taken here? Seriously, does it ALWAYS have to be about making a few extra bucks by using cheaper ingredients, even at the expense of your customers’ health?

Clearly I was never meant to be a mover and shaker in the world of big business, because these kinds of choices never make any sense to me.

Categories: Family, food, Health, Life, Nutrition | Tags: aluminum, baking | 6 Comments