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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23243273008774424912014-11-24T10:00:00.040-06:00The Thrifty HomesteaderWant to be more self-reliant, grow your own food, make things from scratch, and live a cheaper, greener, happier, healthier life? Well, sit back and start reading! You've reached the online home of Deborah Niemann, author of Homegrown & Handmade, Ecothrifty, and Raising Goats Naturally.Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-85860764570842509232014-11-24T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-24T10:00:00.048-06:00Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

Just a few weeks ago we looked out our windows and saw the first leaf falling to the ground. Now it's already time for Thanksgiving! We will be raking the leaves, inviting the family over, setting the table, and – of course – preparing the turkey.

But why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving? What is its significance in the holiday? Besides making a delicious part of the feast, there are a few theories on why we break the wishbone on Thanksgiving. The most widely accepted theory is that turkey sits on our Thanksgiving table because it was served at the first Thanksgiving. This feast was a meal shared by the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims. According to About Food, the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow food and hunt because they were unable to sustain themselves and many were starving. One of the main staples in the Native American's diet was the wild turkey, so the Pilgrims served it at the first Thanksgiving that took place in 1621.

More evidence to support this theory comes from Wonderopolis.org. Historians have a letter written by a pilgrim that tells of a turkey hunting trip before the first Thanksgiving meal. Other records from early American settlers have confirmed that food such as beef and fowl were served at their meal. Since we know this much, it makes sense that Americans have adopted the tradition of dining on turkey on the last Thursday of November.

Other sources place into question whether turkey was actually served at the meal between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims. According to Mental Floss, the first Thanksgiving in 1621 was said to have "wild fowl" on the menu, but turkey itself was not specifically mentioned. Therefore, other fowl such as ducks and geese could just as likely have been eaten. Whether or not turkey was a part of the first Thanksgiving meal, it has become a tradition in American history. As quoted on Mental Floss, Alexander Hamilton said it best: "No citizen of the U.S. shall refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving day."

In addition to the historical meaning behind eating turkey, there are practical reasons that we feast on fowl at Thanksgiving. Slate.com refers to the big birds as "ideal for a fall feast." Since turkeys are born in spring and reach a decent size by November, Thanksgiving is a perfect time to serve them as the main dish. The cost effectiveness of turkey is important as well. In the past, people had to consider ways to make their family's meals last through the winter season. Turkeys were cheaper per pound than geese and chicken, so it was practical to buy a turkey to use as the main staple of the holiday season.

Whatever the reason may be for eating turkey for our main Thanksgiving dish, it is an important tradition in American history shared across the country by families and friends giving thanks for their blessings.

Enjoy your turkey this Thanksgiving and remember that there is history behind the main dish. We hope you have a wonderful day of eating and giving thanks for all that you have. Brooke Polinghttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-85166421764208697182014-11-21T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-21T10:00:10.359-06:00Why home-canned food is safer than store-bought

A great way to preserve the harvest from your garden or your local farmers' market is by canning food. Dismissed as old-fashioned not more than a couple decades past, today it is enjoying resurgence as consumers want more control of their food. BPA is found in hard plastic containers and the lining of cans used for commercially canned foods. Increasingly there are more plastic containers that claim to be free of BPA, but the metal can manufacturers continue to coat the inside of most cans with the substance.

A study published in 2011 that measured the amount of BPA in participants' urine after they ate canned soup for five days found the level increased more than a thousand percent. The amount of soup they ate each day was only a single serving as defined on the can, and most participants complained that they were still hungry after eating it. Although the amount of BPA was back to pre-experiment levels five days after participants stopped eating the canned soup, what does this mean for people who eat canned foods daily? There is no definitive answer to this question, but if you don't eat commercially canned food, you don't have to worry about it. Keep in mind, however, that many restaurants use canned foods.

Cans are lined with BPA to resist corrosion, and even home canning has the potential to expose you to BPA because one-time-use canning lids are lined with BPA. The risk of contaminating food with BPA is not as great as with food in metal cans, however, because home-canned food rarely comes in contact with the lid. If you are concerned, though, reusable BPA-free canning lids are available. I began using them about a year ago, and they work quite well, although the canning process is different from one-time-use lids. Be sure to read the instructions on the box before using them.

This is an excerpt from Ecothrifty: Cheaper, Greener Choices for a Happier, Healthier Life by Deborah NiemannBrooke Polinghttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-77372995415812652732014-11-17T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-17T10:00:01.222-06:006 reasons to add American Guinea Hogs to your homestead

If you've decided to add pigs to your homestead, the next question is, "which breed?" I am partial to the heritage breeds because they do well on pasture. Initially we raised Tamworths, which we purchased from a breeder in the spring. We'd raise them through the summer and butcher them in the fall. For a variety of reasons, I decided I wanted to start breeding my own pigs, although I was very intimidated by the size of full-grown Tamworths and other breeds of pigs that I'd met.

Introducing ... the American Guinea Hog! Its history is as mysterious as they come, but one thing is clear -- it was the homestead hog of choice in the southeast U.S. during the 1800s. Less than a decade ago, it was almost completely extinct with less than 150 breeding animals known to exist! Today it is enjoying renewed popularity, and its numbers have been rapidly growing over the past few years. Why?

It's less than half the size of most hogs! While many breeds of hogs can get up to 800 or even more than 1,000 pounds, the AGH adult weight is usually in the 250 to 300 pound range. This small size was one of the reasons it almost became extinct. It definitely did not fit into the factory farm environment. However, that small size is exactly what makes it attractive to homesteaders and small farmers.

Chickens with our AGH boar

It has a sweet personality! Pigs have a reputation for being vicious omnivores, killing and eating chickens that are unlucky enough to wander into the pig pen, and some have even been known to kill people. Guinea Hogs, however, have a very calm, docile nature. While this may not be important to huge confinement farmers, it is very important for small farmers who will be working closely with their pigs and who have other animals and don't want to worry about the pigs killing them. Of course, there have been a few Guinea Hogs that were not so docile, but most breeders are quick to send them to meat locker and not use them for breeding stock, ensuring that the breed as a whole continues to have a great personality.

It grazes! While some heritage breeds of pigs will eat grass when on pasture, the AGH love grass and gobble it up as voraciously as if it were eating chocolate truffles.

It has lots of lard! Although the average American consumer began to reject lard after the invention of Crisco, many people are beginning to realize that they were duped by marketing and that lard can play a role in a healthy diet. If you are interested in self-sufficiency, having pigs is the easiest way to produce your own cooking fat. Although you could grow sunflowers, corn, or soybeans, extracting the fat is a big project. Rendering lard can be done in a slow cooker or in your oven without purchasing any fancy equipment.

It has outstanding flavor! Chefs have begun to sing the praises of the Guinea Hog from South Carolina to Chicago. One chef called it the Kobe beef of pork. It is especially popular with chefs who want to use the whole pig from snout to tail, and it makes excellent charcuterie.

Confused piglets trying to nurse from our boar while he's napping!

Because of all the unique strengths and benefits of the American Guinea Hog, they are easier to sell than other breeds of hogs, which is a sixth benefit for those of us who can't eat all of the pork that our pigs produce. Their small size makes them more attractive for urban dwellers to purchase as a whole hog, which is the easiest way for a homesteader to sell a pig. You simply have to find one customer who purchases the pig from you, and then you take it to the processor as a courtesy to the buyer. You get paid for the pig, and the buyer tells the processor how they want the pig cut up and processed and pay them directly. Because you are not selling meat -- you sold a live animal -- you don't have to deal with getting a license to sell meat, nor do you have to have an expensive freezer for storing meat, waiting for individual customers to come buy it, one pound of bacon and one ham at a time.

When we raised Tamworths, a lot of people would only want half a hog because they couldn't wrap their brain around the idea of having 175 or 200 pounds of pork! With the AGH dressing out at half that amount, the number of customers is greater.

Of course, the four reasons I gave for having pigs on the homestead a couple of weeks ago is also true for the AGH. That means there is a total of ten reasons to have American Guinea Hogs on your homestead!

With the number of registered AGH in the US now well over a thousand it is much easier than it was a few years ago to find breeding stock, although if you are just planning to raise them for meat, you don't have to buy registered pigs. And if there are not any in your area, piglets can be shipped by air just like dogs and cats, so you can find a breeder in another state and have the pigs shipped to you. Since you are charged by weight or kennel size (depending upon airline), it's a good idea to buy pigs that have just been weaned, so you can save on shipping costs.Deborah Niemannhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-46595915798245303052014-11-14T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-14T10:00:04.377-06:00The London Dispatches: Apple Day at Borough Market I've profiled Borough Market before, but my visit on this occasion had a strict purpose: a harvest festival!

Well, more specifically, an apple festival with some traditional harvest festivities mixed in. There is an Apple Day there every year, but since it is celebrating 1000 years this year, Borough Market is rather pulling out the stops for all of its festivities. This year's event featured a number of traditional British elements that were wonderful to explore, and cleverly combined agriculture and tradition with our modern world.

Tasting stations were available at the market entrance so that visitors could sample slices from dozens of apple varieties. There was an "orchard" area set up with pillows and blankets for children to participate in events and storytelling, while demonstration and learning kitchens (market regulars) put on exhibitions ranging from peeling apples to preparing the fanciest of puff pastries with them.

The tasting stations.

Varieties of apples grown in London over the years.

 In the middle of the market was a theatre production featuring traditional British and English human and animal characters from folklore, as well as more storytelling (a British pastime) and games. One of the players handed out conkers, horse chestnut seeds strung onto strings, and everybody from children to Morris Dancer groups took part in playing the traditional game of trying to knock your opponent's off its string by whacking it with your own as hard as possible.

Putting on the most British of plays, the "Tales of Robin Hood."

One of the players hands out conkers.

Playing conkers.

 The most traditional elements of all were the "Corn Queen," an effigy made up of fruits and vegetables to signify bounty, and the "Berry Man," a figure of British folklore that probably dates back to pagan times. He is arrayed in the fruits, flowers, and vines of the season and is thought to symbolize rebirth and fertility (evergreen leaves are often associated with him to imply that even though fall has arrived and the grimness of winter is around the corner, Spring and planting season follow). Long after Christianity arrived in Britain, this natural and agricultural character could be found in texts, religious carvings, and local festivals like the one Borough was recreating. Clearly, tradition is here to stay!

 The more modern part of the market display featured a very clever installation that the designers called "The Real Apple Store," to mimic and tease the tech company. But you won't find iPads here! Though laid out to look like an Apple or Mac store, this display featured 1000 different species of apples (one for every year of the market's existence), with several varieties highlighted and their history explained. Apparently, the first apple to be recorded as brought to the UK was the variety known as Court Pendu Plat—and it is delicious!

The apple appears in almost every culture in the Old World, and rapidly colonized the New once the Columbian Exchange kicked off in the 16th century. It is riddled with symbolic meaning, litters our idioms ("An apple a day…" or "As American as apple pie…"), and is one of the most widely cultivated fruits today. In other words, it's well worth celebrating.

Harvest and fall festivals aren't just to be found in Britain. Are there any local events or festivals in your area that you use to celebrate the season? What personal traditions signify fall to you? And what food item are you harvesting now in your gardens or orchards? Let us know in the comments!

Cadence Woodland is a freelance writer, editorial assistant, and marketing coordinator. Her journalism has contributed to the New York Times, the National Wildlife Federation, and other venues, but she can be found most often at her blog where she writes about her adventures across the Pond in London. Cadencehttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-39242385953179496502014-11-12T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-12T10:00:09.493-06:00Review: The American Way of EatingAlthough I am not usually a fan of books in which the author decides to live a different life for a year, I was intrigued by The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table because I really wanted to know what happens in large commercial farm fields in California, which supplies most of the country's fruit and vegetables. Based on what I've read in the past, it didn't sound good.

The book chronicles the experience of author Tracie McMillan, who spends a year in various jobs in the food industry. She starts in three different jobs in farm fields, first picking grapes, then peaches, and finally "cutting garlic," which means harvesting it and cutting off the roots and stems. The whole experience was sad to hear, but it confirmed what I'd heard from Illinois fruit producers who have a very hard time finding people to work for them. Because McMillan is white, people usually did not even believe her when she first showed up and said she wanted a job. She had to concoct a story of being down on her luck and wanting a job where she didn't have to deal with customers or think. Even then, people were always suspicious of her. When she left one job, she told some of the people her true identity, and they said they knew that she had been lying about her background, but they had been thinking (perhaps hoping) that she was a spy from the government investigating working conditions.

Because McMillan "has papers," meaning she is a legal citizen, other workers kept telling her that she would get minimum wage, but she was normally paid about $2 per hour, which was the same or less than the illegal immigrants with whom she worked side by side. Laborers are generally paid by the piece, so more experienced, stronger, and faster workers get paid more. However, as McMillan quickly discovers, no one could work fast enough to earn the equivalent of the minimum hourly wage. When she goes to work for one company that has already paid big fines for labor issues, she sees that her paycheck misrepresents the number of hours she worked. The company paid her based upon how much she picked, but they divided the total they owed her by the number of hours it would have taken to earn it at minimum wage. So, on her paycheck it said she was working about two hours per day, when in reality, she was working eight or ten hours per day.

McMillan chose to work at Wal-Mart because it's the largest grocery store chain in the country, and she chose Applebee's because it's the largest casual restaurant chain in the U.S., which means they sell food to a huge percentage of Americans. Her experiences at those places were not nearly as interesting to me, although other readers might think differently. I was saddened to hear that she never received proper food handling training at Applebee's but was coached by other workers to claim that she had, when questioned by the corporate person who came in to evaluate the restaurant. The few training meetings she attended, she didn't get paid for, even though she was told she would be paid. Although she did receive great video training on food safety when working in produce at Wal-Mart, the store where she worked did not always follow company policy. For example, when a bird got into the store, managers refused to call a professional to catch the bird because it would cost $10,000, which they said corporate wouldn't like.

I wish that more people knew where their food came from. When people like Michael Pollan say that you vote with your fork three times a day, they aren't kidding. As long as people want cheap food and keep buying food based upon price, the food industry will continue trying to deliver the cheapest food possible, which means they'll continue to employ illegal aliens and neglect to do anything that will increase expenses, such as provide paid training for employees or get birds out of stores.

If you eat, you should read this book (or listen to it). As I so often do, I purchased this book on audio so that I could listen to it on my iPhone while milking goats or driving my car.Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-73910690196659348462014-11-10T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-10T10:00:11.147-06:007+ healthier, ecothrifty sandwich ideas

Luncheon meat was one of the first things I cut out of my diet when I started to learn about nutrition. Cured meats contain sodium nitrates and nitrites, which have been associated with stomach cancer. They also tend to be high in fat and salt and low in protein and nutrition. And when you do the math, processed meat is expensive per pound, especially when you realize how little nutrition it contains.

American cheese is not cheese, and it is not as nutritious as real cheese, such as cheddar or gouda. It contains a lot of ingredients, including emulsifiers and preservatives, that you don't find in real cheese. The label usually says it is a processed "cheese food" or a processed "cheese product." You may even see some labeled as Swiss or mozzarella, along with the word "processed," which means it is not a true cheese. Processed cheese tends to be softer than real cheese, and it is often sold in a can, a plastic container, or individually sliced and wrapped. Like most processed foods, it is cheap but not especially nutritious.

Natural peanut butter, which is high in protein and inexpensive, can be part of an ecothrifty sandwich, but read the label to make sure the peanut butter does not contain partially hydrogenated oils. When made from real peanuts, the oil will separate as the peanut butter sits on the shelf, which is why many companies remove the natural peanut oil and mix partially hydrogenated oil back into the spread. Partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fat, which leads to circulatory problems and heart disease.

The least expensive and most nutritious sandwiches are those that simply contain real food, such as sliced meat (turkey, chicken, beef, pork), real cheese, natural peanut butter, vegetables, and beans. Choice of bread is also important. I usually prefer sandwiches on a roll made from my French bread recipe, but for a change, I enjoy sandwiches on flat bread, wrapped up in a tortilla, or stuffed in a pita. Homemade bread baked in a traditional loaf pan is especially good for sandwiches when it is a day old. When making sandwiches to take to work or school, be mindful of the fact that you won't be eating it for a few hours and don't include ingredients that will turn the bread soggy, such as tomato slices.

Sandwich Suggestions:

Avocado slices, alfalfa sprouts, crushed garlic, sliced cheddar

Grilled button mushrooms, sweet bell peppers of various colors, caramelized onions and goat cheese or brie

Grilled Portobello mushrooms and goat cheese

Mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, and pesto or fresh basil

Red bean spread with shredded cheddar cheese (Ecothrifty, page 88)

Sliced meat, lettuce, and tomato with garlic mayonnaise

White bean spread with alfalfa sprouts (Ecothrifty, page 88)

Savings: A sandwich at a national chain restaurant in my area costs $5-$7, compared with a homemade sandwich, which costs less than $1 per person.

This is an excerpt from Ecothrifty: Cheaper, Greener Choices for a Happier, Healthier Life by Deborah NiemannBrooke Polinghttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-52399020536600059992014-11-07T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-07T10:00:14.820-06:00Antiquity Oaks hashbrown casserole

This casserole is great for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner, and unlike so many recipes out there, this ecothrifty recipe is made without canned soup!

2 pounds of frozen hash browns or shredded potatoes
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup whole milk (goat or cow)
8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Keep in mind that frozen hash browns have actually been pre-cooked, so this will cook much faster with them than with the fresh shredded potatoes. However, if you can't find hash browns without unpronounceable ingredients in your store, it's better to shred your own fresh potatoes!

Mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish that has been liberally buttered to avoid sticking. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes or until bubbling and browned. If you use freshly shredded potatoes, it takes a lot longer to cook, so use 350 degrees F for an hour, and keep the casserole covered for the first 40 minutes. Sprinkle with bacon bits (or veggie bacon bits) before serving, if desired.

Based on a total of six servings.

Brooke Polinghttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-5149349997581511932014-11-05T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-05T10:00:08.621-06:00Do goats need grain during pregnancy?

Every winter, when most dairy goats are pregnant, someone will post a link to this study in an online group and ask if they should be feeding their does grain during pregnancy. After all, they don't want a bunch of dead kids in the spring, which is what this studies says will happen if you don't feed your does grain during the middle of their pregnancy.

Although this is a legitimate study, it is not a good study. First of all, 15 is a VERY small number of goats. I have more goats give birth here on my farm in a single year than the number of goats in the study. The ultimate conclusion of a study like that would be to say that more studies need to be done to validate the results in other environments. After all, this was in Africa, where conditions are very different than North America. One should not take the results of that study and change your feeding program.

Second, there was something seriously wrong with the whole picture because their feeding plan does NOT explain why kids were dying. I don't feed my does grain when they're pregnant, and I don't have 45% of my kids dying or being born at 2.3 pounds. I completely disagree with the conclusions drawn by the author of this study. My conclusion would be that the feed contained supplemental minerals that were necessary for fetal development, and by not giving the goats that feed, they were mineral deficient. If you've read my story of copper deficiency problems (here or in my book), you know that we used to have all sorts of problems with goats not getting pregnant, aborting, miscarrying, and giving birth to kids far too early for them to survive. I'm not saying that the goats in this study were necessarily copper deficient, but they were deficient in something that was vital for not only growth but vigor -- possibly selenium?

We've had close to 500 kids here now, and I have seen zero correlation with kids dying when they're smaller at birth unless they weigh less than 1.5 pounds. This study is saying that 2.3 pounds is "underweight," which I disagree with. I did learn this past winter that kids that size can't maintain their body temperature at below zero temperatures, but other than that they're as healthy as the 3-pound kids. (And I'm sure they were not dealing with sub-zero temperatures in the African study.)

The fact that they had goats requiring c-sections with kids under 4 pounds also makes me wonder about the overall health of the does. Keep in mind that the study was done in Nigeria, where many environmental factors are also quite different than in this country -- and it was done in 1992 when no one knew anything about goat's nutritional needs. Back then, everyone still thought that goats were just like sheep and they should have NO copper in their diet.

Another problem with the overall health picture of the does is that African goats in the U.S. tend to have multiples, so if these goats were well nourished they should have had more than two kids per doe average. Each group had 9 kids born, which is less than 2 kids average per doe. The fact that each group had the same number of kids tells me that there was something equally missing from all of their diets. When we corrected our copper deficiency problem here on our farm, our average number of does per kid went from less than 2 to more than 2.5 every year and more than 3 some years! We have almost no singles any longer and lots of triplets. We have quite a few quadruplets and have even had three sets of quintuplets -- and only one of those 15 kids died.

As I say in my book, you can feed grain to goats until they are overweight, but it will not necessarily correct a nutritional deficiency. It is not simply a matter of calories. Nutrition is what's important. When we had a copper deficiency problem, our goats did not look underfed. More grain would have simply made them fat.

So, do my goats need grain during pregnancy?

It depends. (Yes, that's usually my answer to everything.) Assuming that you have a good quality, high protein hay available, and your goats don't look underweight, then they probably don't need grain until the very end of pregnancy. Keep in mind that you really should not breed a doe that is underweight, in the first place.

The following protocol is what I follow, based upon my twelve years of experience with these goats on this farm. It may or may not work for others, depending upon their goats' genetics and the hay or pasture available for them. It is merely meant to be an example ...

As long as a doe is being milked, she gets grain on the milk stand, so she will probably be getting grain until she dries up during the second or third month of her pregnancy. Once she is no longer milking, she doesn't get grain until a week or so before her due date. Then I start her on a very small amount -- like 1/2 cup -- so as not to upset her rumen. And in most cases, I am only starting to give her grain to get her rumen adjusted to having it again, so that when she freshens and starts producing milk, her body won't get thrown out of whack by increasing the amount of grain too quickly.

I have found there are some good reasons to avoid giving it to some does. Feeding too much grain at the end of pregnancy can cause kids to grow too large. When a doe doesn't need the extra calories, they go straight to the growing babies. If a goat has a history of giving birth to large kids, I don't give her grain at the end of pregnancy. If I have a first freshener who is not looking very wide, I usually worry that she has a single kid, which tends to grow much larger than multiples, so I don't give her grain. Yes, some does are great at hiding kids, but the worst thing that has ever happened is that a doe gave birth to a set of twins that were 2 pounds each. They were on the small side but super healthy, and they grew up big and strong. I'd rather have that than a yearling trying to give birth to a 4-pound single kid, which has happened and is not fun.

So, what's a new goatherd supposed to do?

My number one rule of raising goats is to always listen to the goats. Are they well-muscled and healthy? Do they have a coat that gets fluffy in winter and shiny and slick in summer? Has their coat started to fade? Do they get pregnant easily? Do they stay pregnant for the full term? Do they give birth without assistance to healthy kids? And look at what you're feeding them. Is their hay green? Do you have a legume hay, such as alfalfa or peanut available for the last month or two of pregnancy when their calcium needs are increasing?

It sure would be easy if we could just give everyone the same "perfect" feeding plan, but that doesn't work because everyone has different pasture available, and they are dealing with different genetics. Some goats are simply easier to keep than others. But if you know what your goats need, and you know the symptoms of deficiencies, you can figure out what works best for your goats on your homestead.Deborah Niemannhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-74440722210425881822014-11-03T10:00:00.000-06:002014-11-03T10:00:18.745-06:00Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin Pudding

We are entering that time of year when all common sense towards food starts to go out the window. But, you can have treats that don't send you into a sugar high, and this pudding is one of them. It has half as much sugar as most homemade puddings and much less than store-bought. Plus, you can pronounce all of the ingredients in this one!

3 cups milk
1 cup cooked pumpkin puree
 (or canned pumpkin)
4 eggs
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place all of the ingredients into a blender jar, except for the vanilla. Blend until it looks like everything is mixed up. Pour it into a 2 quart sauce pan and stir with a whisk until it boils. This will take about 10 minutes. (Your arms needed a little exercise, right?)

When the pudding starts to feel thick, stop stirring for a few seconds to see if bubbles start to rise up in the pudding. If so, add the teaspoon of vanilla and whisk in.

Now it's ready to be poured into individual dessert dishes or a large bowl.

Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving. However, it is perfectly acceptable to scrape the sauce pan clean and eat the pudding warm!

Nutrition Facts assume six servings.

Deborah Niemannhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-25331542849345630612014-10-31T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-31T10:00:04.041-05:004 reasons to add pigs to your homestead

When we moved to the country, we had been vegetarians for 13 years, and we remained vegetarian for another year, then we very gradually started eating a bit of our own chicken here and there, as well as one of our turkeys for Thanksgiving. Even after we started to eat chicken and turkey somewhat regularly, we had no plans to start eating other meat, and I even said on more than one occasion that we'd never have pigs on our farm because they are only raised for meat.

My mama always said "never say never" because it will come back to haunt you, but I really, truly thought that I would never want pigs. I also believed that their only purpose was to be turned into meat. Then one day I admitted to my husband, "I miss bacon." We decided to get a couple of weaned piglets to raise for meat and see how things went.

If we were going to raise pigs, though, it had to be a heritage breed, and I ultimately decided on Tamworths because they had a reputation for great meat, and there were quite a few breeders in Illinois. It took me awhile to find one, however, who raised pigs outside and didn't give them a long list of vaccinations and other drugs, but that's a post for another day. I did find a couple of piglets two hours away. I picked them up in my mini-van -- yes, inside my mini-van -- and drove them home. (I really do not recommend putting pigs inside your vehicle with you, even if they are in a dog crate. It will only take you a few minutes to realize why pigs should not be raised inside. Yeah, they don't smell so great when confined to a small space.)

Since we were making cheese regularly by then, we often had a gallon or two of whey we'd give to the pigs almost daily through the summer, as well as other left-overs that the family didn't want. Although it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to raise pigs, it went well enough that we did it again the next year ... and the next and the next. Why did pigs become a permanent fixture on our homestead?

They eat almost everything. They represent the best way to use up whey from cheesemaking, as well as excess milk from dairy animals. They also happily consume any extra eggs or cooked leftovers from the family. I always say that our pigs turn whey into bacon.

They will till up any area that you need tilled up. Most people view rooting as a bad habit that needs to be stopped, but that's only if you have them in a place where you don't want the soil disturbed. One year, we planted eggplants and squash in an area where pigs had lived the previous year, and it was the best eggplant and squash harvest we'd ever had! In addition to loosening up the soil, they also fertilized it for us.

They act as a dead-end host for parasites that plague goats, sheep, and cattle. Because pigs have different internal parasites than ruminants, they clean up the pasture when they follow other animals in a rotational grazing pattern. I often put pigs in a pasture when goats leave because when they consume the eggs and larvae of goat parasites, their body digests the parasites. Goat parasites can't survive inside of pigs, just as humans can't survive on another planet.

Bacon! Sausage! Ham! This one should be obvious, but I have to add it anyway. You will be able to produce your own delicious pork that you know was humanely raised and fed a natural diet.

Do you need to breed pigs?

Not necessarily. If you only want enough pork for your own family, you can buy two or three pigs at weaning from a breeder in the spring. Feed them through the summer and butcher them in the fall. A Tamworth weaned in the spring will have a hanging weight of 170 to 200 pounds by fall. If you don't think you'll eat that much pork in a year, you can sell one to a friend. Even if the pigs are only on your homestead for six months during the growing season, they will still provide all of the above benefits for you. And don't forget, you get bacon!
Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-25806660320164190112014-10-27T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-27T10:00:07.303-05:00Saving the family farmIf you want to be entertained while learning about modern agriculture, Gaining Ground: A Story Of Farmers' Markets, Local Food, And Saving The Family Farm by Forrest Pritchard is the book! In a laugh-out-loud funny story, we learn about the problems facing modern conventional farmers and farm owners who find themselves stuck in a system where they never make money.

Warned repeatedly by his father that there was no money in farming, Forrest went to college and got a degree in literature and geology, but towards the end of his college days, he began to feel a pull back to his family's farm. Around the same time, their farm manager decided to plant corn with promises of big profits. After the grain was harvested, however, the family received a check for a whopping $18! At that point, Forrest decides to take over and begins looking at all sorts of ways to make money.

The first thing he tries is selling firewood because after making $18 on their corn and soybean harvest, he needed to make money NOW, and it was already fall. Firewood seemed like a quick way to bring in some much needed cash quickly. Although it does make some money, Forrest discovers there is a lot to be learned about selling products to the public, as well as how far you can push your equipment. Ultimately Forrest crosses paths with Joel Salatin at a conference and decides to start a pastured livestock operation and sell meat at farmer's markets. His path to success is filled with snowy roads, steep staircases, and lots of colorful characters from Pedro the goat to Travis the farmhand.

One thing that I have often felt was missing from similar books was humor. Having lived through quite a steep learning curve ourselves on our own farm, and having lots of funny stories, I usually wonder where are the funny stories when I read farm memoirs. Well, Forrest delivers a bumper crop of laughs! I had purchased the audiobook version to listen to while milking goats, and sometimes I had to try to suppress my laughter because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to hear the narrator over my own guffaws! Not only is Forrest a successful farmer, he is also a gifted storyteller.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, either as entertainment or education, as it does an excellent job of both. In fact, I'm sure I will be listening to it again. Whether you are an aspiring farmer, a homesteader, or a consumer of food, you need to read this book.Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-76374418947695959592014-10-24T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-24T10:00:07.124-05:00Mistakes do not mean failure

Whether you are raising goats, knitting a scarf, or making a homemade pizza, you will find that you learn a lot more from your mistakes than from any book or article. True learning is in the doing. Unfortunately, fear of making mistakes holds back a lot of people from going after their dreams!

When we first moved out to the country in 2002, a lot of my friends asked if I'd grown up on a farm. When I said "no," they asked, "Well, how will you know what to do?" I told them I was reading books, and I was met with skepticism or silence. A few brave souls asked, "What if you make a mistake?" I have to admit that I really didn't think we would make many mistakes, and it never occurred to me that they could be tragic.

We had been on the farm for two years when one of our goats died. We were devastated. How could that happen? I'd taken it to a local vet a week earlier, and it actually died at the university vet clinic. They said it died from internal parasites, more commonly called "worms." A few months later, two more goats died. If you've read Homegrown and Handmade or Raising Goats Naturally, you know that those deaths were just the beginning of several years of fertility problems and untimely deaths. But I wasn't about to give up, and because of those challenges, I did lots of research and ultimately learned far more about goats than I would have if everything had gone smoothly.

When working with living creatures, we have to appreciate that every one of them is unique, so there will always be more to learn. But what about something like knitting or cooking? As I said earlier, true learning is in the doing. You can read about how to do something for years, but until you actually do it, you don't really know how to do it. And of course, nothing is perfect the first time you do it. My first scarf had lots of dropped stitches, and my first pizza had a soggy crust. I didn't particularly like either one, but I was determined to try again. With practice, I dropped fewer stitches when knitting. Through trial and error, I learned what temperature worked best in my oven and for how many minutes.

People tell me they're inspired by what my family has accomplished on our homestead, and although I'm happy to hear that people are inspired, I want everyone to appreciate the value of mistakes we've made along the way. Whether you are at the beginning of your journey towards greater self-reliance or you've been at it a few years, you'll make mistakes. So will we. Ultimately it is not mistakes that scare people. It's fear of failure.

When people used to ask me if we were afraid of making mistakes, what they really meant was, were we afraid of failing. What would we do if we completely and utterly failed? In spite of all the mistakes we have made, we have not failed. We're still here, still trying, and have actually succeeded in learning to do lots of things.

Always remember that you have not failed until you have given up. You have not failed simply because something didn't work. You have not failed until you've stopped learning and trying.Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-65583751771743965792014-10-22T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-22T10:00:00.544-05:00Ecothrifty creams and moisturizersCreating a product that works for you is really a matter of figuring out which oils and butters have the properties that suit your skin. Typically, people with drier skin prefer butters, and people with normal skin or combination skin prefer lighter oils, such as grape seed or sunflower oil. If you have oily skin, you may not need to put anything on it to keep it from drying out. Even dry skin may improve dramatically if you simply try a soap that is gentler. Because we've all been exposed to advertising that leads us to believe we have to use complicated products to stay beautiful, the idea that skin may need no additional moisturizer or only needs a single oil seems too simple.

I typically start with something that I already have on hand and go from there. If you have sunflower oil in your pantry, try that. You won't have to buy anything special if you like the result. For something that's more moisturizing, try jojoba or olive or grape seed oil or one of the butters, such as shea butter or avocado butter. Cocoa butter is rock solid at room temperature so if you want to use it in a cream, you have to melt it and mix it with a softer butter.

There are commercial creams and lotions, and some companies market moisturizers, which can be either. The main difference between a cream and a lotion is that a lotion has a larger amount of water, which makes it easier to spread across your skin. It appears white because the oil and water have been emulsified by the addition of an emulsifying agent to prevent separation. I don't make any lotions because once you add water, you introduce a medium for bacteria growth, which means you have to add a preservative. Many times alcohol is also added, which has a drying effect on the skin. When making your own, however, you can use only the purest ingredients and avoid the need for chemical preservatives.

RECIPE: Body Butter

2 ounces shea butter
1 ounce avocado butter
1 ounce apricot kernel oil
1 ounce sweet almond oil
a few drops essential oil (optional)

Weigh all the ingredients on a digital scale and then mix together using either a mixer or a fork. Add essential oils for fragrance or aromatherapy benefits, and mix well.

Savings: This body butter is similar to a high-end cream that boasts 25 percent shea butter and retails at $42 for seven ounces. This recipe, which has 40 percent shea butter, costs $1.65 to make five ounces, not including the essential oil.

This is an excerpt from Ecothrifty: Cheaper, Greener Choices for a Happier, Healthier Life by Deborah NiemannBrooke Polinghttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-92040303089013568272014-10-20T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-29T16:04:44.049-05:00Recipe: Peanut butter chocolate chip muffins!

Last week I reviewed the book, Cooking With Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife, N.D., and I promised to give you one of the recipes this week, so here it is! All of the muffin recipes in the book make six muffins, and because I have a 12-muffin pan, I doubled this. I also made a couple of adjustments. I used 3 duck eggs instead of 6 chicken eggs, and I used 1/4 cup maple syrup as my sweetener. (Remember I doubled it to make 12 muffins.)

3 eggs
1 tablespoon coconut oil or butter, melted
5 tablespoons sucanat or brown sugar
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sifted coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Blend together all of the wet ingredients then add the dry ones. The book suggests using a whisk, but I actually used a blender, and it worked great because then I could pour the batter into the greased muffin pan. What about the chocolate chips? After everything was blended up, I added 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and did a couple of short blender bursts to mix them in. Then pop into the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

You can eat them right out of the oven -- as long as the chocolate chips have cooled enough that you don't burn yourself. They are also great when a day old! I simply stored them in an airtight container on the kitchen counter.

Nutrition Facts based on doubled recipe.

Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-6467547984288282182014-10-17T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-17T10:00:01.989-05:00The London Dispatches: A Gentleman Gardener's ParadiseA couple of months ago I wrote about my visit to the Garden Museum and the phenomenon of British gentleman farmers and gardeners who transformed it from a utilitarian craft to an art form. Well it turns out that one of the best examples of this…was a Yank! I might be a city mouse but I headed to the country this month and got a chance to view one of the gardening gems of Britain: Hidcote Manor, near the Cotswolds.

The manor house itself.

One of the many entrances to the garden.

The brainchild of Major Lawrence Johnston, who moved to Britain in 1900 and worked on his garden for the next several decades, Hidcote is an absolute beauty. At one point, he had 12 gardeners working for him! His vision set a new standard for gardens in England and his style has been widely imitated ever since. The layout is based on a series of "rooms" or sections, each with different types and colors of plants represented.

Gardens serve as statement of their time and place as much as architecture. In the 17th century the passion was for severely symmetrical layouts with geometric designs—largely representative of man's dominance over nature. In the Enlightenment and into the Romantic periods, this severity was thrown out the window and replaced with the idea of a natural landscape. The irony here is that a tremendous amount of effort was often expended to make a garden or park look "natural." The grounds at nearby Blenheim Palace, for instance, were rearranged so intensively by the wonderfully named landscape designer Lancelot "Capability" Brown, that an artificial lake could be introduced. Hidcote is no different. To my untrained eye a number of the "rooms" looked like forest or messy mixes of foliage, but the number of gardeners and volunteers working to get the land ready for fall and winter clearly showed that even the wildest looking landscape was a carefully manicured illusion.

The thatched house in the back was actually one of the homes Lawrence provided for his many gardeners.

I found the formal gardens very beautiful, but what I really enjoyed was the Kitchen Garden. At one point in history all manor houses (indeed most houses in general) would have had an attached food producing garden that would have been worked and harvested throughout the year. At Hidcote I got to see how the beds were being seeded and harvested in strips according to the season so that it is kept in almost constant production. Even at the very tail end of summer, when I visited, fruit and vegetables were growing and being picked for sale and consumption. They might be less glamorous than the manicured lawns that Major Lawrence dedicated his life to, but it was great to see how they formed a vital aspect of the household. Beauty and function side by side.

Early fall in the kitchen garden.

Some beds are empty, others are full. The leeks to the left are just one row of increasingly large and thick ones. Further out of frame were older, more massive leeks ready to be harvested

It is apple season.

I have absolutely no issues with gardening for pleasure and tremendously enjoyed Lawrence's work, but I did find it interesting to see how much effort was expended on land that "produced" very little. While just behind the hedgerow a much smaller amount of land produced a great deal, and probably with less intensive labor. Modern yards and lawns are one parallel that came to mind, I know that in many areas a lot of work is put into them, but they can be a horrible drain on water resources and often come at a high environmental cost. And in the end, we get very little out of them. I had to wonder about the amount of work we put into aesthetics in our home and land spaces, and how much more we could be doing with them.

What do you think about modern aesthetic gardening? Do you think it serves a worthwhile purpose or has it replaced food and production gardening entirely? What would it take to bring the idea of an everyday "kitchen garden" back into wide use?

Cadence Woodland is a freelance writer, editorial assistant, and marketing consultant. Her journalism has contributed to the New York Times, the National Wildlife Federation, and other venues, but she can be found most often at her blog where she writes about her adventures across the Pond in London. Cadencehttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-22264748272465120972014-10-15T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-15T10:00:03.740-05:00Who needs vitamin D supplements?

Roughly ten years elapsed between the time that I learned about the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and when I learned that in spite of my knowledge, I was personally deficient in vitamin D. It seems that most people know nothing about vitamin D deficiency until they have been diagnosed with it. However, even those of us who do our homework on such things will likely think that it's not a problem for us because what is written usually does not stress how common the problem is, as well as the many different health problems that can be caused by it.

According to an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vitamin D deficiency is a pandemic. It further states:

The major cause of vitamin D deficiency is the lack of appreciation that sun exposure in moderation is the major source of vitamin D for most humans. Very few foods naturally contain vitamin D, and foods that are fortified with vitamin D are often inadequate to satisfy either a child's or an adult's vitamin D requirement. Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets in children and will precipitate and exacerbate osteopenia, osteoporosis, and fractures in adults. Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with increased risk of common cancers, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, and infectious diseases.
I first became aware of vitamin D deficiency when I was suffering from overall muscle soreness about ten years ago and an online friend suggested I might have fibromyalgia. When I started reading and researching, I learned that vitamin D deficiency caused the same symptom, and since my problem only occurred during the winter, I decided it would be a good idea to start taking a vitamin D supplement during the winter months. After all, I live in Illinois, and my skin gets zero sun exposure starting around this time of year and going into April. It seemed to help until the last couple of years, and I started to worry that something was seriously wrong with me, although my doctor and chiropractor couldn't find anything other than osteoarthritis.

According to the AJCN article cited above, many patients with vitamin D deficiency "may be misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia, dysthymia, degenerative joint disease, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other diseases." But I hadn't read that article yet and was just terribly frustrated that no one seemed to know why I was in so much pain all the time. Even though it wasn't winter, I thought that maybe I was deficient in vitamin D, so I started taking a 1000 IU supplement every day. After a few weeks, however, I didn't see any difference, so I quit taking it because I didn't think it was doing any good.

Then a year ago, my husband's employer had a health fair where employees and spouses could get an extensive list of blood work done for free. It seemed like a good idea, and I discovered that in spite of my wintertime supplementation and summertime sun exposure, I was quite deficient in vitamin D. My level was only 16 ng/ml. Anything less than 20 ng/ml is considered deficient, while anything below 30 is considered insufficient. And although conventional medicine in the U.S. says your level should be at least 30, many alternative practitioners say that 50 is better.

Why had I not noticed a difference when I started taking vitamin D more recently? Simply because at my level of deficiency, 1000 IU was not nearly enough to make a difference. A person who is not deficient would need that much to simply maintain their level. When I talked to my doctor about my test results, he said that he takes 3000 IU a day, even though he is not deficient, simply because he works indoors every day. Also, unlike vitamin B12, which I wrote about last week, vitamin D is fat soluble and it takes much longer to increase your levels. After seven months of taking 5000 IU, my level was up to 28 ng/ml, and now after a year, my level finally reached 36 ng/ml. Because I am still under 50 ng/ml and a long way from the upper limit of 100, I am going to continue supplementing at 5000 IU per day. If you are going to take more than 4000 IU per day, however, you should first have your blood level checked to make sure you need to be actively working to increase your level.

More recently, I've heard others talk about sublingual vitamin D and how it helped to increase levels on people who were having trouble correcting deficiency with pills. So, when I discovered Kind Organics vitamin D spray, I was pretty excited about giving it a try! So, here's the scoop ...

A single spray delivers 1000 IU of vitamin D3, which is the form that is best utilized by your body. If you need more, just spray more. I don't know why this surprised me, but the spray is an oil. If you think about it for a minute, that makes sense because vitamin D is fat soluble. It also contains some omega-3, omega-6, omega-7, and omega-9 fatty acids. The spray is vanilla flavored though, so it doesn't taste bad. It actually makes me think of vanilla pudding when I use it. Like other Kind products, it is organic and certified non-GMO. It is also vegan.

Want to know where to buy it? Check out their website and you'll find a "Where to Buy" search box at the top of the homepage.

Give-away!

In addition to sending me a bottle of the vitamin D spray to try for myself, the nice folks at Kind Organics are also happy to provide bottles of the supplement to three of my blog readers. As with the vitamin B12 give-away (which doesn't end until tomorrow, so click here to enter!) you must have a US street address where they can ship your vitamin D if you win. a Rafflecopter giveawayDeborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-44470799436870909642014-10-13T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-14T17:39:14.472-05:00Coconut flour is for everyone!

If you've never given a second thought to coconut flour, you're not alone. Most people have never cooked with it and never thought about cooking with it. If they've ever eaten it, it was probably something that was prepared by a friend who was gluten-intolerant. That's unfortunate because coconut flour is delicious and it's good for you!

A few months ago, a friend of mine shared some amazing banana muffins, and when I asked for the recipe, I saw that it used coconut flour. The recipe came from the book, Cooking With Coconut Flour: A Delicious Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat by Bruce Fife, N.D., which I decided to buy.

The book starts with a 40-page introduction to coconut flour, it's benefits, and how to cook with it. If coconut flour is new to you, you really should read the introduction. The first thing that I did was find the banana muffin recipe and make it! One of the interesting things about cooking with coconut flour is that you use very little of it compared to wheat flour or any other type of flour I've ever used. The reason? Coconut flour is higher in fiber than any other flour available. It's more than twice as high in fiber as pure wheat bran! But unlike wheat bran or oat bran, it doesn't taste like sawdust. The fact that it is high in fiber means that it absorbs a lot more liquid than other flours, so do not succumb to the temptation to add more flour, thinking that the recipes in this book are wrong.

Since most of us don't get enough fiber in our diet, cooking with coconut flour is a very easy way to increase your fiber consumption. Although I'm recommending this book for anyone who wants to eat a healthier diet, I'd classify it as "must have" for anyone who has celiac or can't tolerate gluten. Most processed foods labeled "gluten-free" are filled with unhealthy ingredients, such as rice starch, potato starch, corn starch, and flours that have zero fiber in them, as well as xanthan gum and other "stuff" that normal people do not have in their kitchens. Other than the coconut flour, all of the ingredients in this book can be found in most kitchens.

Next Monday, I'll share with you my experience of making the peanut butter chocolate chip muffins from the book, as well as the recipe.

In case you missed Friday's post about B12, check it out here and enter for the opportunity to be one of three people who will win a bottle of B12 supplements!Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-84709307475663511012014-10-10T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-10T10:00:00.508-05:00Think you don't need B12 supplements?

11+ reasons you could be wrong!

Since I started eating healthier a couple of decades ago, I didn't think that I needed supplements. I believed that vitamins were for those people who were not eating a healthy diet. However, I have discovered in the last couple of years that some people will need supplements, regardless of their diet. Today, I'm going to talk about vitamin B12, and next week, I'll be talking about vitamin D.

During our family's 14 years as vegetarians, I had repeatedly heard and read that vegans -- those who consume no animals products, not even milk or eggs -- will likely need to take a vitamin B12 supplement. However, because we were big fans of cheese and eggs, I always assumed that we would be fine. Since moving to the country in 2002 and starting to eat our own grassfed beef and lamb and pastured pork and chicken, I thought for sure that we would be in good shape with our vitamin B12 needs. So, when I had some routine blood work done last year, I was surprised to see that my B12 level was barely within the range considered normal by labs in this country. Although most US labs say that anything above 200 pg/ml is okay, Japan and some European countries believe that the results should be above 500 pg/ml.

That's when I learned that there are a variety of factors that can cause B12 deficiency in those who eat a healthy diet with plenty of B12. You could be B12 deficient if any of the following applies to you:

age -- if you are over 50, your gut may simply not be absorbing B12 like it used to

Crohn's disease

celiac

surgical removal of the small bowel

weight loss surgery that removed part of the stomach

bacterial overgrowth in the bowels

some diabetes medication

use of proton pump inhibitors or other acid-reducing medications

intestinal parasites

alcoholism

genetic predisposition

Wow! There are a lot of things that can interfere with B12 absorption! And B12 deficiency is nothing to play around with. It can cause anemia, gastrointestinal problems, and neurological problems, including dementia and depression.

So, what can you do? For years, people thought that if you weren't absorbing B12 through your gut, that you needed to have B12 injections, but we now know that you can correct deficiency by taking large doses of oral supplements. That's why most B12 supplements appear to have such crazy high levels. Because B12 is water soluble, your body easily excretes any excess through your urine. That's the good news.

The great news is that there are even better supplements available now! Because the digestive tract can hinder the absorption of B12 so much, it makes sense to just leave the gut out of the equation. How can you do that? By using something that gets absorbed through the mucus membranes of your mouth, such as sublingual drops or a spray.

When I first found out about my deficiency, I read a recommendation that said to use sublingual drops for a week, then once a week to maintain. Sounded kind of crazy to think that the deficiency could be corrected so fast, but I tried it and had my blood level rechecked after one week, and sure enough, I was above 500! I've been using it once a week since then, and after 9 months, my level is still above 500, so I'm happy! And now, for the really, really awesome news ...

Give-away!

When I went to BlogHer 2014 in San Jose three months ago, the nice people from Garden of Life who make Kind Organic vitamin supplements were there with free samples. The two vitamins that I have a known problem with are B12 and vitamin D. Even though they didn't have any at the conference, they agreed to send me some to try in exchange for an honest review ... and I honestly love both! But this post is about the B12, so here are the things I love about it:

It's a concentrated spray. It's easier to use than the drops because I had to tip my head back to put the drops under my tongue. You just spray the Kind Organics into your mouth, so it doesn't bother my neck.

The drops were not as concentrated, so the directions said you were supposed to hold them in your mouth for 30 seconds, which was awkward, especially if someone asked you a question! With Kind Organics, you just pump the spray bottle once, and you're done.

It can be stored at room temperature after opening. The drops had to be refrigerated.

It's organic and non-GMO verified!

It's vegan. Even though we eat our own meat, I don't buy products that contain commercially raised meat products.

Kind Organics uses "renewable energy, recycled packaging materials, vegetable inks, and forest friendly paper."

Want to know where to buy it? Check out their website where they have a "Where to Buy" search box.

Want to try it for free? Then enter my give-away below! The nice folks at Kind Organics will send three lucky winners a bottle of B12 to try for yourself! Unfortunately the give-away is only open to residents of the United States, and you need to be able to provide a street address for UPS shipping. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveawayDeborah Niemannhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-70847054922985047612014-10-08T09:38:00.001-05:002014-10-29T16:05:56.051-05:00The perfect recipe for fall: Caramel apple butter!Whether you have your own apple trees or enjoy visiting local orchards during the fall, this is a great way to preserve the harvest to enjoy year-round! Not only is caramel apple butter great on toast, but it is also delicious mixed into a bowl of hot oatmeal on a cold winter morning!

Makes 6 half-pints (jelly jars)

8 pounds apples
1 cup water
4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Wash the apples, then peel, core, and slice them. Put them into a large pot with the water and cook over low heat until the apples are soft. You can either leave them chunky or mash them with a potato masher, or for completely smooth apple butter, put them through a food mill.

Put two cups of sugar into a small saucepan and heat over a low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar starts to melt and turn brown. This might feel like it is taking forever, but the change happens very suddenly. Pour the caramel into the apple pulp and stir.

Add two cups of sugar and the cinnamon to the apple pulp. Continue to stir while heating. The apple butter is ready to be put into jars when you can scoop up a spoonful, and it doesn't dribble off the spoon. Add the lemon juice and stir.

Fill jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe the jar rims to remove any butter that may have dropped onto them. Place lids on the jars and gently tighten. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Nutrition Facts assume six servings per jar.

This is an excerpt from Homegrown and Homemade by Deborah Niemann, which also includes complete canning instructions for beginners.Brooke Polinghttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-49926087308886636322014-10-02T10:00:00.000-05:002014-10-02T10:00:00.899-05:00Final garden harvest?
Freezing vegetables

Freezing is probably the easiest way to preserve the harvest from your garden or the produce you pick up at the farmers' market when it is in season. Most fruits and vegetables freeze well. If properly stored in freezer bags or containers at or below 0°F, fruits and vegetables will last a year in the freezer. This means they need to be stored in a container without air. We resisted buying a vacuum sealer for longer than we should have. As a result, we had a lot of bags of green beans that wound up looking like blocks of green ice after only a few months. After we started using the vacuum sealer, however, green beans last for a year with no damage or decrease in quality. Don't worry about the cost of electricity when using a vacuum sealer. It uses about 100 watts total for the ten seconds or so that it takes to vacuum and seal both ends, so if you sealed five things per day, every day of the year, it would cost you 5 cents total for the year.

Most vegetables freeze well after blanching, which means being placed in boiling water for a minute or two, followed by being plunged into cold water to stop the cooking action. The amount of time required for blanching varies from one vegetable to another.

Vegetables that freeze well after blanching:
asparagus

broccoli
Brussels sprouts
cabbage
carrots
cauliflower
corn
greens
okra
parsnips
peas
potatoes (white)
tomatoes
turnips

Summer squash and green peppers turn to mush when thawed, so it's important to plan how you will use the thawed vegetable and prepare the frozen vegetable for that use. I shred zucchini for zucchini bread and freeze it in the correct quantity for the recipe, and I chop green pepper into strips and freeze them in small quantities to use in stir-fries and chili, although the crunchiness of a fresh pepper is definitely absent. When freezing tomatoes, I chop up a hot pepper and add it to a container of tomatoes that will be used for making chili.

This is an excerpt from Ecothrifty: Cheaper, Greener Choices for a Happier, Healthier Life by Deborah NiemannBrooke Polinghttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-8049446501200692032014-09-30T10:00:00.000-05:002014-09-30T10:00:03.349-05:00It's breeding season!

Do you know what season it is? Most people think of this as fall, but if you have sheep or goats, you also know it as breeding season! Sheep and goats are pregnant for five months, so fall is the ideal time to breed for spring kids and lambs.

Do I need to dry up my milk goat before breeding her?

No. The standard lactation for a dairy goat (or cow) is 10 months, which means they continue milking through most of their pregnancy and are dried off only two months before giving birth again. This is not even a question for those with sheep because they have much shorter lactations and have already dried up long before breeding season begins.

Do I need to "flush" my does or ewes before breeding?

Flushing is the practice of feeding highly nutritious feed prior to and during breeding season with the idea that it will improve fertility and pregnancy rates. The idea is not a bad one, but ideally, your animals are always fed a highly nutritious diet. If an animal is undernourished, it will have fertility problems. Some people believe that flushing will result in more multiple births, but overfeeding an animal won't trump its genetics, which is what ultimately dictates how many eggs are released.

Can I just let my buck or ram run with the females during this time of year?

It depends on whether you want a more precise due date. Goats and sheep tend to be quite prompt about giving birth around 147 day, plus or minus two or three, so if you know when they were bred, odds are much better that you will be able to be around when they give birth. Depending upon how much time you spend with your sheep or goats, it may be more or less challenging to know when the females are in heat and take them to the male to be bred at that time. Because milk goats are handled daily, it tends to be much easier to spot a doe in heat. Pen breeding is more common with shepherds than goatherds but is ultimately a matter of personal preference.

Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-82061900790470819692014-09-24T14:29:00.001-05:002014-09-24T14:29:12.835-05:00Reuse, repurpose, recycle ... Freecycle!One person's trash is another person's treasure. This is the basis of Freecycle, an online community where everything is free. As a member of an online group in your area, you can post items for giveaway that you no longer want, and alternatively you can acquire items that others have posted for giveaway. If you need something in particular, you don't have to wait until someone posts it. You can post a request for specific items. People on both sides of the transaction work to keep items from the landfill. There are almost five thousand groups with more than eight million members worldwide. Groups can be found at freecycle.org.

Yes, some people (like us) have given away an ugly 1950's-era dresser with broken handles, but there are creative people out there who love the idea of stripping and painting old furniture and putting on new handles to create a cool, "new" dresser. There are also plenty of things listed that can be used without refurbishing, such as two-thirds of a box of new shingles, which could be used to roof a child's playhouse or a potting shed. I have a friend who picked up a "new" area rug for her family room.

Freecycle can help you de-clutter your house. You may not have thought anyone would want your ugly (fill in the blank), but someone probably does. I was ecstatic when I saw someone giving away the twenty-volume, 1973 Better Homes and Gardens Encyclopedia of Cooking because I collect old cookbooks. If your stuff has outgrown your house and garage and you are one of the millions of people who rent storage space elsewhere, you definitely need to become acquainted with Freecycle. Have a yard sale first, if you feel you must get some money back from all of your clutter, but when the sale is over, start posting on Freecycle.

There are also listings for free items on Craigslist, and many people are now posting things they want to give away on their Facebook page. I have a friend who recently picked up a free hot tub that another friend posted on Facebook.

Even if something can be recycled in the traditional sense, it is often recycled into something of inferior quality, whereas you might be able to upcycle an item—create a new item that is superior to the original. I have seen a number of beautiful greenhouses online that were made from old windows, men's shirts that were made into pillows, a wine bottle turned into a tiki torch, and an old sweater that was turned into a pet bed. Of course, traditional recycling is better than sending things to a landfill, but repurposing an item is even better.

This is an excerpt from Ecothrifty: Cheaper, Greener Choices for a Happier, Healthier Life by Deborah Niemann.Brooke Polinghttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-52660137090954837302014-09-19T09:00:00.000-05:002014-09-19T10:55:11.624-05:00The London Dispatches: Beekeeping in the ParkMy family owns 40 acres of land in Virginia, which my father gets to develop as his own sustainable wilderness. Though not a homesteader, he does have dreams of an ecologically friendly house there one day. In the meantime, he gardens, has planted an orchard, dug a pond…and has started keeping bees! I've only visited my family a handful of times since they moved to Virginia and thus have only seen my dad in beekeeping action once or twice. When a notice about a beekeeping open day for BeeUrban came to my attention, I resolved to head to Kennington Park to see more.

Kennington Park is close by a small area known as Oval, notorious as a site of criminal execution—particularly of 18th century highwaymen. Today it abuts the Park which itself contains an odd mixture of old and new urban and social developments. Also in the 18th century, John Wesley, a founder of Methodism, preached here on social issues and reforms that concerned him and his followers. A house designed by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, for the 1851 Exhibition shows his plan for providing new and better housing options for working class Britons in the 19th century. In the 20th century it has often been a gathering place for civil protesters.

Prince Albert's idea of urban change.

BeeUrban's ditto.

BeeUrban, therefore, might be small but it's in the right place to encourage new ways of thinking about urban agriculture. Running a "Bee Barn," a timber building constructed near the park keeper's lodge, BeeUrban transformed an unused garden into a bee paradise and uses its facility to provide education and training to those wanting to learn more about beekeeping. School groups, sponsoring businesses, and community volunteers are all welcome. BeeUrban manages three apiaries, including the Kennington Park site, and participates in educational and outreach events across London. They provide classes on candle and paper making, cooking, hive construction, and more.

I happened to show up on a particularly lucky day! The insects were merrily busy in the garden and plenty was happening within the barn itself. Barnaby Shaw, the head of BeeUrban, and another volunteer were harvesting honey and allowed me to view the process as they chatted to me about honey-based events in Britain and their production rate. A relatively mild winter last year meant that a higher proportion of bees survived the winter than the previous year and the hives they have on site have produced about 300 kilos he told me. This honey is sold from the Bee Barn, or from the Kenning Park Café, just a short walk away.

Trimming the caps off the individual comb cells.

Preparing to spin the frames to release the honey.

I was initially surprised that the tools of beekeeping seem so rudimentary, but I learned that it's hard to improve on the design of traditional tools. Simple hand tools to scrape hives, cut combs, and drain honey do not need to be complex to be effective. There is lively debate on which types of hives may be preferred, but a great deal of beekeeping seems to involve just allowing the bees to do what they have evolved to do and benefiting from their industry.

And the results are lovely!

Bee health is so important to sustainable agriculture and it's troubling to scientists and farmers alike that their populations are plummeting. Many groups are working to understand their rapid decline more fully, but it's safe to assume that human beings are involved in the loss in various ways. According to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, two species of British bees have gone extinct since the start of this century and two more are seriously threatened. The loss of bees could prove devastating to agriculture as neither nature nor human effort has ever produced a more wonderfully successful pollinator.

When human beings think of extinction, we normally think of large animals which are lost to us (such as Ice Age megafauna) or dangerously close to gone now (such as pandas and tigers). But the truth is that our choices about energy, food production, transportation, and lifestyle affect life forms straight down to bacteria. These changes can and do affect us in return, and we need to properly appreciate the symbiotic relationships we share with even tiny creatures like bees.

Members of BeeUrban's observational hive.

 Which is why groups like BeeUrban, who create and cultivate healthy bee populations and the green spaces they need to thrive, and foster understanding of these tiny but vital creatures, are important. Later in the day that I visited, a BBC program was planning on interviewing Shaw. I will definitely be tuning in to the show when it airs later in the month. BeeUrban is doing good work and deserves all the support it can get.

How have insect populations affected your area of the world? Have you experienced the changing numbers of bees personally or in a way that's affected your farm or garden? And do you have any stories about beekeeping to share? Let us know in the comments!

Cadence Woodland is a freelance writer, editorial assistant, and marketing consultant. Her journalism has contributed to the New York Times, the National Wildlife Federation, and other venues, but she can be found most often at her blog where she writes about her adventures across the Pond in London. Cadencehttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-72744592691447519322014-09-17T10:00:00.000-05:002014-09-17T10:00:00.693-05:00Infertility in bucks and doesAs we head into breeding season, some people wonder about the prevalence of infertility in goats ...

Luckily, infertility in bucks is rare. An inability to get does pregnant is usually related to nutritional deficiencies, which is why a good mineral is essential for bucks. As a buck gets older, his sperm count may go down, meaning he can service fewer does in a day, which is something to keep in mind if you have two does go into heat at the same time. Older bucks may also start to have problems with arthritis or other aches and pains that make it difficult for them to mount a doe.

If a young buck has been bred to multiple does and never settled any of them, a visit to a veterinarian is in order to make sure he is genetically a buck. An intersex goat may appear to be a buck on the outside, even though lacking all of the necessary anatomy. Based on emails I receive and posts on my online goat forum, it seems that a lot of people worry about the ability of their does to get pregnant. The reality, however, is that less than 1 percent of does have a genetic inability to get pregnant, so it isn't something that you are likely to experience unless you have a sizeable herd. Freemartins and hermaphrodites are very uncommon in goats, but a quick physical exam by your vet or anyone trained in artificial insemination will tell you if your doe is physically capable of getting pregnant.

The most common reason goats do not get pregnant is a mineral deficiency, and this is fairly common. Copper and selenium both play an important role in a goat's ability to come into heat, get pregnant, and stay pregnant for five months. If several goats in the herd are having fertility problems, you should look at your feeding and supplement program to ensure that it is providing adequate amounts of copper and selenium.

It is possible for does to have cysts on their ovaries, which could keep them from settling, but it is not common. A cystic doe may appear to come into heat every week or not at all. This can be tricky for an inexperienced goat keeper, who may not notice a doe coming into heat if it isn't one of the more vocal ones. A cystic doe can be treated with hormone injections available from your veterinarian.

In does that have freshened before, it is possible that a subclinical uterine infection from the previous delivery is keeping her from getting pregnant or staying pregnant. This is more likely to occur following an assisted delivery where the attendant had their hand inside the uterus. Some people will automatically administer antibiotics to a doe after an assisted delivery with the assumption that it will take care of the risk of infection. A low-grade infection, however, may not have any other outward symptoms, so you would have no idea whether the antibiotics had worked until you found yourself with a doe that wasn't getting pregnant.

This is an excerpt from Raising Goats Naturally: The Complete Guide to Milk, Meat, and More by Deborah Niemann.Cadencehttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2324327300877442491.post-21315830229922564642014-08-22T08:00:00.000-05:002014-08-22T08:00:03.402-05:00Want to visit here or there?

My fall schedule is filling up fast, which means that I'll get the opportunity to meet a lot of you not only in Illinois but also in California and Texas.

Starting this weekend, we're opening up our farm Antiquity Oaks to the public Saturday and Sunday as part of the Third Annual Livingston County Farm Crawl. It is totally free to stop in, check out the critters and chat with us. You can also buy our goat milk soap, a book, wool products, or some farm-fresh produce.

Next weekend, we are hosting the Third Annual Mid-America Homesteading Conference in Joliet, IL. In addition to me talking about goats and livestock guardians in two separate sessions, my husband Mike will be doing soapmaking and mozzarella making demonstrations, and we have a great line-up of other speakers, including author of Pure Poultry, Victoria Miller, who will talk about canning, living off-grid, and raising poultry. Click on the link for the schedule, list of speakers, and registration information.

In September, I'll be speaking at the National Heirloom Exposition, so I will finally get a chance to meet some of you who are California.

Throughout the fall, I'll be doing several classes in cheese making at community colleges in Normal and Oglesby, Illinois, as well as the National Goat Expo in Bloomington, Illinois.

I'll be heading to Austin, Texas in November to do a half-day workshop on creating value-added products with rare breeds of livestock at the national convention of the Livestock Conservancy (formerly the American Livestock Breed Conservancy).

If you are ever wondering what I'm up to, you can check out the Event page of this website for my speaking and teaching schedule.Deborah Niemannhttps://email@example.com


text:
Reports Of TV's Death Are Greatly Exaggerated.
All those people who say TV isn't what it used to be, are plain wrong. Cable and the delivery method might be at risk, but the box with the wires and the screen is doing just fine.
All those people who say TV isn't what it used to be, are plain wrong. Cable and the delivery method might be at risk, but the box with the wires and the screen is doing just fine.
Nina Dobrev just revealed a hidden talent: Beer pong champ!
TV Land has renewed the comedy "The Soul Man," starring Cedric the Entertainer, for a fourth season of 12 episodes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
You can't swing any NUMBER of dead cats around a TV these days without seeing a political ad.
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Vin Scully isn't ready to hang up his microphone yet.
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Batman vs. Superman! Wonder Woman! Mad Max! New "Game of Thrones" characters!
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The creator of the "The Walking Dead", Robert Kirkman, promised that season five of the AMC series would "hit the ground running".
It turns out he wasn't lying. Kirkman debuted the season five trailer at this weekend's ComiCon in San Diego, and it didn't disappoint.
Last year, my high school friend Jason Kakabaker and his cupcake store "The Cakeabakery" was featured on the Food Network show "Cupcake Wars" While he didn't win, he certainly brought Grand Rapids and West Michigan confectioners' much notoriety.
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The singer confirmed the news via Twitter, revealing that she will be a mentor for Pharrell Williams' team.
Very exciting news for the Michigan craft beer community: Dark Horse Brewing Co. from Marshall is getting a reality show!


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Halloween's certainly a balancing act for little June, who completes her transformation into the Brazilian entertainer with some fruity accessories.
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