a little crafty nest

a little bread and butter

Is there anything more delicious than fresh homemade bread right out of the oven with a dollup of butter on it?

Once a week, mabybe twice, we make our own bread.  It is always an exciting day with many helping hands eager to help.  Before we went gluten-free in the fall, the process was longer and more detailed.  While I see the improvements in all our health going glute-free, I do sincerely miss kneading the dough.  I liked rolling up my sleeves and getting into a rhythm, watching the dough transform under my very own hands.

We are also fortunate enough to get milk fresh from the farm, twice a week.  My husband uses cow milk in his coffeee while the rest of us love goat milk.  The other day, we were reading a Snipp, Snapp, Snurr book about making butter, and I happened to look in our fridge and see the lovely fresh cow milk had already separated, ready for us to make our own butter.  I had never done this before, and I was delighted by how easy we were able to make our very own butter for some homemade bread.

I skimmed off the cream which didn't amount to much it seemed, though the butter will double this amount in the end.

After putting a lid on the mason jar, I slipped a yogurt-making sleeve over it so that all the rolling that was about to happen wouldn't crack the jar.  I also laid down our picnic blanket from the summer to soften the rolling on the floor.

Depending on the warmth of the room and the cream, the butter will develop from the cream anywhere from 15 to 50 minutes.  I highly recommend agitating it more than you think, as this gentle rolling here, while fun, was not enough.  Mama ended up taking over when the littles moved on after 25 minutes.

When we peeled off the sweater sleeve, we were happily surprised to see chunks of butter floating amongst a little cream.  We drained the liquid and scooped out the butter, adding just a smidgen of salt for flavour.  And that was it!

Of course, I also made a loaf of fresh bread, just for tasting the butter, of course.

Maybe many of you already make your own butter, but this was my first time and I'm eagerly awaiting more cow and goat milk!  Fresh, whipped, creamy butter is truly a treat!

Delicious!

pantry goodness

The seed orders have been placed and now we await the lovely little packages to arrive in the mail.  Oh, just the kind of excitement needed right about now!  The days are lengthening, but it really feels like we are in the thick of it, still.

I find at this time, just before placing my orders, I survey the freezers and the pantry shelves.  Doing a little mid-winter inventory on our harvest season last fall, and wondering what we need more of in this year's garden, and what we could let go of to make way for something else.  It's rather exciting for me ~ perhaps that is rather telling of just how quiet and simple our life really is.

Every month, I bring up a box full of pantry goodness from the cellar.  It might seem like a rather, ahem, *careful* way of putting food by, but it works rather well for us.  Last fall, I stored all the canned goods by the month, ensuring that even in May before the garden is producing anything other than greens, we still are eating lots of canned fruit and chutneys and jams and relishes.  I often do way more applesauce and there weren't even any canned pears this year...that will have to change!

And then there's the monthly large shopping bag full of fruit and veggies from the freezer...

This is our February stash and these two couldn't be more excited.  They have grand ideas for Valentine's cherry tarts and chili with corn  in it, and frozen peaches to munch on before bed.  It is like a little holiday on the first of the month when I bring up the harvest from the cellar.  It is also a huge affirmation of all the hard work that went into preparing this harvest.  Good thing every year this gets easier with more helping hands itching to work!

And at this time of year, I love any feeling of holiday at all!

white gold

We are so lucky to live where we do!  In addition to all the homegrown veggies and fruits, we supplement our diets with local chickens, beef (from across the road), eggs (from beside our place), honey, and even bacon if we are feeling like it.  Most of these places are within walking distance...like a .1 mile diet.  This summer I am crossing my everythings hoping my dear husband will finally build The Coop for some hens of our own.

We also get local dairy products from various friends.  (For some silly legal (?) reason, we are not supposed to buy unpasteurized milk, but I prefer the real thing to commercial milk that has been overheated, killing any beneficial enzymes and nutrients the milk has to offer.  Oh, and fresh sweet milk is absolutely delicious!)

 
My children and I drink litres of goat milk each week, while my husband cannot stand it!  He says it's goaty.  I think pasteurized goat milk is definately goaty, but the real deal is pure liquid goodness.  It helps that our friend's goat farm is immaculate and the goats are so well loved.  We know this to be true because we've been coming here for years.

 
 
 Josh prefers cow milk which we obtain irregularly from another friend's farm.  She calls us when she has a surplus and then we hit the cow milk jackpot and I make lots of yogurt and whey all at once.  I use the whey in lacto-fermenting other foods, like pickles and kraut.  Also, you can soak your oats and other grains overnight in whey to help in pre-digestion.  A great book on many more lacto-fermentation methods is Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions...a fascinating read, in my humble opinion.

 
 
Because I have cow dairy sensitivities, I started my children directly onto goat milk...these goat's milk, in fact!  (Incidentally, we have since learned that giving cow dairy to very young children has shown them  to be more predisposed to developing Type 1 Diabetes.)

 
We get a lot of goat milk and when there is enough, we make our own yogurt.  I find that goat yogurt is a bit more finicky, and some batches can have a runnier consistency than others.  Perhaps it's due to the temperature of our cookstove where I place the jars, but I've also read that this is the nature of goat milk.  With granola or on pancakes, though, it doesn't bother us if it's not always creamy thick.  I've also heard that you can thicken goat yogurt with tapioca (a root starch derived from the cassave plant) or with xanthum gum (a natural sugar derived from corn). 

Last week, Rae showed us her clever uses for recycled sweater sleeves.  They are sort of like our milk warmers for incubating yogurt. 

 
After bringing the goat (or cow or sheep) milk to 82C (180F), I quickly remove it from the stove so it will cool down to 44C (110F) and mix in the starter (storebought or a little leftover yogurt).  Then I set the yogurt atop our woodstove, (or beneath, depending on the stove temperature), and let it go to work for about 6 to 8 hours.  Afterwards, I sometimes mix in a little honey or vanilla for flavouring Josh's cow yogurt...he likes it like that.

 
I remember reading that a person can absorb part of the character of the animal that is the food they eat.  This was referring to the type of dairy that one consumes...cow, sheep, or goat.  Perhaps that's why my boy is so full of frolicking good energy...have you ever seen little goat kids leap about after they get their milk?  Ahhhh, it is so adorable!

For our family, I look forward to our visits to the goat farm.  A chance to thank the kids and mamas for the precious milk that sustains my family. 

 
I love knowing where our food comes from, whether it be from a two legged or a four legged friend!

first morsels

My littlest babe is growing up.  He is eight months old already and creeping along the furniture on his strong, long legs.  I love his little shuffle shuffle two step...he is so proud of himself, smiling broadly as he searches for my delight in his accomplishments. 

And how Time has creeped up on me!  With three razor sharp little pearly whites, it is clear he is ready to begin eating solid food.  Each time this moment arrives with my little ones, I feel a little sadness mingled with the excitement of new experiences.  No longer is my little babe solely reliant on the milk I so abundantly provide for him.  Yes, that sounds rather selfish, doesn't it? 

Our approach to solid feeding is a little different than most people I know.  We always wait for those first teeth to appear as I understand this reflects an emerging coordination between his body and his soul.  Also, somewhere I learned that there is an enzyme that develops at the time that the milk teeth appear.  This enzyme signals that the body is ready to assimilate food. 

When Forrest was 9 months old, he had his first tooth and we tried him with pureed quinoa mixed with breast milk.  He promptly threw up and didn't touch solid food again until he was 15 months old!

Sunshine was close to 9 months old when her first tooth appeared and we started her on some home canned peaches.  She devoured them!  Then she promptly screamed for more.

We sat Huckley in the high chair with a little cup with a splash of water to get him used to a new way of experiencing sensations in his mouth.  It is so charming to watch a baby's first attempts at drinking!

 
Joan Salter's view of feeding a baby his first solids really resonated with me.  In her book, The Incarnating Child, she writes that the first food for a baby ought to be a fruit which hangs from a tree, as it is all the closer to Heaven. 

Fruit blossoms are fertilized by the bees, and this give the fruit itself a special quality.  For the life of the beehive is most wisely and harmoniously organized.  Steiner, in his lectures on bees, describes them as living "in an atmosphere completely pervaded by love."...It is this 'atmosphere of love' which the bee takes to the fruit blossoms (and other flowers), caressing, as it were, the blossom, bestowing on it a glimpse of the higher life of the soul.  For the bee, of course, has a sentient life.  It is a creature of soul.  It is interesting to note that the temperature in a beehive is exactly that of human blood...Furthermore, the stoned fruits and apples and pears, etc. seem hardly connected to the earth, so thin is the stalk which connects them to the branch.  To observe an apple hanging on the tree is to gain the impression of something whose nature is above the earthly."

Now I appreciate that this is a rather philosophical approach to feeding one's child, but it just makes such plain sense to me!  And why not?  For both Sunshine and Huckley, born two years apart in early July, I planned to begin feeding them in early spring and so I canned litres upon litres of peaches and pears.  I used a simple, light honey water syrup and when I puree the peaches or pears, I first rinse the fruit under water to try and get rid of most of the honey.  And tonight, we saw that Huckley enjoyed his peaches as much as his big sister did two years ago.

 
 
 
He likes to use his spoon himself!  There were a few body shivers as he experienced the texture of the pureed peaches, but for the most part, they were a success.  For anyone interested, I highly recommend Joan Salter's book, though she does suggest weaning one's baby much sooner than I would ever consider.  She discusses the appropriate foods to begin babies on given their dispositions and how grounded they are in their bodies.  I find this so fascinating!

 
And as for Huckley...well, he seems to enjoy his little morsels just fine, thank you!  But then again, at this time of year, those peaches are looking rather yummy to all of us.