A look back in time.

This is from March 9 2012

12 years have passed. 

What have you done?

update.

Just an update… 

So I have been eating complete junk this past week, but luckily I have been working outside ALL day so I haven’t really “gained” weight back. But I am staying in one spot. And that is annoying. I have set a monthly goal each month. So I have two weeks to lose ten pounds. I know I can do it. My only problem is I need money for real food. 

I have been planting in the garden and I love it. I read an article on how gardening can become like therapy. That makes so much sense. I mean you get the Vitamin D from the sun, fresh air, and you are working for healthy food. 

Someday soon I will have pictures of the garden, just let me get it planted first. 🙂 

5 Foods a Traditional Kitchen Should NOT be Without

While trying to get back in the swing of things after my “episode” (read about it HERE and HERE) I decided to do a few simple, yet totally worth it blog posts on things you should really consider having in your traditional kitchen. 

• Grass Fed Raw Dairy– When dairy products are pasteurized and homogenized you loose many of the nutrients and most if not all the good bacteria that is present and needed for good gut health. If you cannot find raw dairy in your state due to laws, consider pasteurized but NOT homogenized cream line milk most health food stores carry this. 

• Fats– Raw Butter, Lard (not the stuff from the grocery store, that is just hydrogenated oils), Olive Oil, and my favorite coconut oil. All these things are very good for you. In-fact Weston A Price insists that a diet high in animal fats is essential to good health. 

• Sprouted Flours– (Read my post on why we need to sprout or soak our grain HERE) I find that sprouting my grains and then dehydrating and grinding into flour to be much more realistic than soaking flour for my family. When you soak a flour you need an acidic medium to break down the phytic acid, and frankly we don’t like the flavor or the result of the bread. 

• Animal Stocks– There are so many nutrients available to us through animal stocks or broth may be a word that is more recognized. It is such a simple way of getting what your body needs. Stay tuned for a post on how to make a great broth, with recipes on how to use this essential food in your kitchen.

• Fresh Fruits & Vegetables– As always Organic is best, but if you cannot buy Organic all the time looks for fruits and vegetables with thicker skins they absorb less chemicals, and don’t use the skins in your food preparations. Here is a list of fruits and vegetables that are low in chemical pesticide residues.   

1.  Avocados
2. Corn (However, corn that is not organic IS GMO, and we want to avoid GMOs at all costs)
3. Onions
4. Sweet Potatoes
5. Cauliflower
6. Brussel Sprouts
7. Grapes
8. Bananas
9. Plums
10. Green Onions
11. Watermelon
12. Broccoli                                              

   

You must buy these organic!! 

They contain high amounts of pesticide residues. 

1. Strawberries
2. Bell Peppers (red and green)
3. Spinach
4. Cherries (US)
5. Peaches
6. Cantaloupe (Mexico)
7. Celery
8. Apples
9. Apricots
10. Green Beans
11. Grapes (Chile)
12. Cucumbers
13. Pears
14. Winter Squash (US)
15. Potatoes (US)

I hope this helps keep a pantry supplied with healthy traditional foods. I will even have to look back to remember.  

 (resource:  http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/pesticide-residues.cfm)

Second Run… uh-oh

Well, as you know last Wednesday I was feeling pretty good in the morning. That changed very quickly. I got home from the doctor, my head was pounding really bad, and I ended up in the ER at about 8 o’clock pm. This time I was given 4 bags of blood! I stayed the night in the hospital and during that time I lost 3 pounds. I am guessing I will gain the weight that I lost back just because I wasn’t feeling the best on Wednesday. 

I am still nervous, I have to make a lot of blood back and keep it. I don’t want to loose it again. I don’t know if anyone has ever had an experience where you are loosing a lot of blood and can’t stop it but I don’t recommend it. It is REALLY scary! 

I think that is one of my biggest fears right now. I am afraid I am not going to be here to see my little boy grow up. I have already missed so much of his life by me being stupid and wanting a career, thinking that if i don’t have a career and get my name out there I will be a failure. When in reality, I am failing at being a mother and a wife. That is my calling not any of these other things. I am hoping once I am feeling better I will be able to fully focus on my son and my husband. They are my priority. I am still going to illustrate, just not full time, I don’t even know if I will even be able to call it part time. 

Anyway, before I get very emotional here I am going to go take a nap. I don’t want to bum anyone else out like I am right now. 

Hopefully some homesteading/real food/alternative lifestyle posts will be up once I start feeling better. 

Apparently I am like a wet seal… lovely.. :P

So I am not going to apologize for my lack of posts this past week or so. I have a good reason. So starting last Tuesday, I started losing blood. A lot of blood. So much that by Friday, I had lost half of the blood in my body, which resulted in me passing out in the shower. NOT COOL by the way! Luckily I called for my husband and he attempted to catch me so I didn’t hit my head. I say attempted because you try catching someone or something that weighs 100 pounds more than you that is slippery from the shower. Yeah it didn’t work so well. I do believe when I regained consciousness he said it was like trying to catch a wet seal. Thanks Honey… actually I find that statement pretty amusing. The way my mind works didn’t actually take offense to it, which is a good thing, instead, my mind tried to picture that image and this made me feel better.

So anywho, I got to the Emergency Room and they poked and prodded and wanted a urine sample, and all that jazz. They told me my hemoglobin was a seven. It is supposed to be FOURTEEN-ISH. AHH!!! So they put me on that Provera, which I didn’t want to be on in the first place, and also gave me some Iron supplements. I know, not totally traditional, but I almost died so I am just going to do as they tell me and if something happens again, it is on their heads.

But I am okay, the first few days were tough, every time I stand up my head would start pounding and I would hear a whooshing sound that I assume was my heart beat. I still kind of hear and feel that way but no where as bad as it was those first few days. Today is actually the first day I felt well enough to even type this. But see I have a doctor’s appointment today, and maybe I have a little more energy from the food my Honey has been making me. I felt like I was on a very Paleo/Primal diet, with emphasis of “you must eat more meat, meat good yum.” Now I am very grateful for his attempts of giving me lots of iron, but it wasn’t until last night that I actually got some vegetables in my system in a decent quantity. He made me pumpkin cookies, which were good but I think I accidentally told him 1/2 a tsp of clove instead of 1/4 tsp. They are very strong, and I don’t like them.

He has been the best little nurse anyone could ask for. I feel bad though, I feel like I am keeping him from doing the things that he loves to do. He enjoys taking care of me. I don’t know what I would do with out him. Orion stayed with Grandma for 3 days while all of this was happening, when he came home, wow, I got so worn out. Watching a child run around and play has never made me so tired or irritable before. I think it is because my body could not process it.  

I will be doing a guest post / giveaway on another blog for my Etsy shop, if anyone is interested. This is just a  heads up. I will post a link to the blog when it is up. 🙂

I am going to go rest now, before my appointment. I feel the sleep monger calling me.

How was your weekend?

bump… bump…hiccup…

You see that there picture up there ^^^ well I am kind of wishin’ that we had one of those. (A team of horses and a plow. Not the guy… He kind of creeps me out.) See our tractor is broken, it has been for about 2 years now, it has flat tires and it won’t start. It is an old tractor, 1947 I believe. With $500+ for tires, and both of them being flat. It doesn’t look like it is going to have new tires in a long time, especially since my Honey was told he would not be going back to work this Summer at the same place. Minus the fact that there will be no money coming in I actually love it. When ever he doesn’t work away from home we actually do homestead type things. I am looking forward to it. There just seems to be one problem, our rototiller is broken too. AGH!!! Last year we made 4 raised beds, well, I don’t want to do that again. Hopefully we can borrow a friends pull behind tiller. Our original 1/4 acre garden has not been used for 2 years. It has full out sod on it again!!! THE HORROR! So there are two bumps that we have faced since finding out there will be no steady income. 

Next, a major hiccup. April, our Jersey milk cow, had her calf about a week and a half ago. We are getting ready to use her milk this coming thursday. Well, one problem. SHE GOT MASTITIS!!!! **sigh** She seems to favor her right leg and stands all the time with her right leg forward. Meaning she is not giving the calf enough room to drink from the back right teat. So we worked with her for a few days. Honey went out every couple of hours and massaged her udder, rubbing in a homemade salve with cayenne pepper, coconut oil, and tea tree, oregano, and peppermint essential oils into the bag. (Warning: do not touch your eyes after handling the salve.) Anywho, she is almost cleared up of that. Which is good. there was hardly anything in the strip cup. We are hoping to build a stanchion soon. (At least I am). 

So our little bull calf Hercules aka “FreezerBurn” is a little Twerp. Do you want to know why? …. 

I’ll let you guess for a little bit here…

…

… 

He dove right through the flinging-flanging electric fence….. TWICE!!!!  

How am I supposed to keep him in when he dives through it like there isn’t even a tickle. Even April looked shocked the first time he did it. 

I think she also may have told him to do it. Her pasture is getting a little over grazed and we need to get a second pasture for her. Hopefully we can accomplish this before the end of the week. I hope. All we need for that to happen is money. And money is scarce here. 

>>insert prayer for that random 50 dollar bill to show up in the couch or blowing around our yard here<<

Honey picked up some GSE (grapefruit seed extract) from our food co-op, this is going to be an awesome teat dip. I am actually excited to try it. 🙂 

It have actually lightened up a little around April. About 2 days after the calf was born she pushed me and it scared the crap out of me. So I kept my distance for the past week. 😦 I actually milked two squirts the other day until she decided to walk away. (We really need a stanchion.) 

She really is a lovely cow. And I love her. I hope we can keep her healthy and loved. And as for that little twerp I hope we can fatten him as quickly as you can being they are grass-only so he can go in the freezer. … 

He’s just so stinkin’ cute!

So my goals for this week are:

• Clear April of all mastitis.
• Build stanchion
• clear land for second pasture
• build fence for second pasture
• plow, till, or scrape at ground with spoon until I have a garden plot. (j/k on the latter)
• plant cold hardy seeds like peas, carrots, brassicas, etc
• get file issues worked out for illustration job

What do you have planned for the week

Monday Weigh in …update…

So I have been busy. VERY VERY BUSY!

Highlights since I was last here.

• April had her baby!!! His name is Hercules, (Orion named him FreezerBurn). Man this kid is smart. 

• I worked some on illustrations. It took me over a week to get one spread finished!!!!! I don’t know if I will ever draw a grocery store scene again!!! AGHH~! 
• I gained weight and lost it plus one pound!! ( not exactly the best since I was hoping to lose more.) 

• I won 2nd place in Shoshanna Easling’s (of BulkHerbStore) March fitness challenge. I can’t wait for my prize to arrive. I get the entire Makin’ Babies Series for my efforts. EXCITING!!
• I became a Mommy of 2 for a few days. I may one for many days each week. 😀 I think I want to make a wrap. That will help lose weight I know it. 😀 

What is BHA/BHT & should I avoid it?

{Photo Credit}

Our family used to be big Johnsonville bratwurst eaters, until we looked at the ingredients. Along with other questionable ingredients BHA and BHT are on that list. So we started to avoid them. I went to a local farmer recently to purchase some Real Milk and among other dairy products they had pastured pork products in the freezer. So I quickly snatched up some ribs, bacon, pork-chops, and some lovely looking bratwurst. It wasn’t until I got home that I read the label figuring these are good farmers, who care about the things they produce I don’t have to worry. Boy, was I wrong! The only thing I needed to check the label on before buying was the bratwurst, everything else was literally one ingredient, Pork. The bratwurst was another story, it had a list of spices and right at the end in capital letters was BHA. I saw this and I was flat out mad, not necessarily at the farmers they may not have actually known that BHA was bad or that it was even in their bratwurst. From the looks of it they had their meat processed some place else. 

So what did I do. I threw it in the pan and served it for dinner. I mean come on, I spent good money and 6 hours of travel time just to get this milk and meat. I wasn’t going to waste it. But unfortunately I will not be going back for meat. Until our cow has her calf however I will get milk. Anyway, that is not what this post is about. 

What is BHA/BHT anyway?

Butylated hydroxyanisol (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are two preservatives that are used to keep animal fats and shortenings from going rancid or oxidizing. Isn’t it funny that the chemical companies have to abbreviate it because they can’t even pronounce it or don’t have enough room on the food label for it. 

Is it safe?

I don’t care how safe the USDA or FDA says something is. That is just a given. But just to see what they do say I looked up the FDA’s listing on BHA and BHT. Here are some of the findings I had.

• Doses of 50 mg per kg or more when fed chronically to animals produced significant liver growth which is also accompanied by proliferation (or growth) of endosplasmic reticulm ( I had to look up what that was here is Laman’s terms – “The endoplasmic reticulum (ER), has two different sections. The Rough ER and the Smooth ER, both of which have different jobs. The Rough ER makes things for the cell to use, or to ship to other cells. The smooth ER takes bad things out of the body.”) 
• In man it takes about 10 days to eliminate BHA from the system. And with a Standard American Diet, the chronic tissue levels should be determined for man. 
• While no evidence in the available information on BHA/BHT demonstrates a hazard to the public when it used in levels that are now current (1978) and the manner now practiced, uncertaintied (what ever the heck that means) exist requiring that additional studies be conducted. 

Okay so it says on the FDA website, that this was from 1978 and it was assessed again in 2006. However, they still say the need more studies to be conducted. It seems to me as if we are unknowingly being used as guinea pigs.  The FDA is corrupted and sometimes they make the truth sound better than it really is. While reading the two listings directly from the FDA they state that BHA/BHT is not considered a carcinogen. 

• However, the United States Department of Health and Human Services find that it is indeed a carcinogen, and it causes hyperactivity in our children.
• BHA/BHT has been found to cause cancer in lab animals. What about us? the children’s cancer rate has increased an alarming 50%!!!
• If swallowed BHA is moderately toxic. (That’s great for it being  a FOOD PRESERVATIVE!!!)
• BHA/BHT is a suspected endocrine disrupter, meaning it messes with your hormones. In test tube studies BHA mimicked the hormonal actions of estrogen.

WHAT?! Why are there two separate findings. Shouldn’t all the findings be the same, or at least state that this other party found something different to what was originally found? 

What is BHA/BHT found in?

• Sausages 
• Meats
• Microwavable dinners
• Cereals
• Butter (yes the thing we love so much)
• Beer
• Chewing Gum
• Potato Chips
• Cookies
• Cakes
• Pet Food
• Cosmetics(Go HERE to see actual name brands that contain it. )

1. Lipsticks (in one study it showed a brand of lipstick to contain 10% BHA!!!)
2. Mascaras
3. Eyeshadows
4. Lip Glosses

• Shortening
• Lard
• Vegetable Oils
• Dry Beverage Mixes
• Margarine
• Ice Cream
• Cheese Spreads
• Medical Drugs
• lotions/creams
• Shampoo/Conditioners
• Livestock Feed

Workers who are in plants that produce these things are at a high risk of exposure, as well as fast food workers who are constantly around the oily, fried products. 

The list goes on. Just follow the golden rule. “Research what you are going to bring into your home, or your body.”

Resources: 

http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/a/bhabht.htm

http://nutrition.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=nutrition&cdn=health&tm=1649&f=10&su=p284.13.342.ip_p1026.33.342.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/fcn/fcnDetailNavigation.cfm%3Frpt%3DscogsListing%26id%3D40

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/In_a_cell_what_is_the_function_of_the_endoplasmic_reticulum (and yes.. I know everything from wiki is true… trust your gut)

http://www.naturalnews.com/034418_added_freshness_BHA_BHT.html

http://healthychild.org/issues/chemical-pop/butylated_hydroxyanisole/

Tropical Traditions Coconut oil review and giveaway!

I am so excited I found this product! When I started looking into whole traditional foods I had links and links of good healthy foods such as kefir grains, and coconut oil websites appearing before my eyes. 

This company ROCKS! And I am not afraid to say it! You have to watch this video on how their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is made. If you want traditional food here is one for you that is chocked full of good nutrition. 

This is truly amazing coconut oil. I made two batches of bread, one with an Organic supermarket “unrefined” coconut oil, and one made with Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil (GLVCO- Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil). The bread made with GLVCO has a much better flavor. GLVCO doesn’t leave an after flavor of coconut in your mouth. (some people like that, but I am not a big fan of coconut flavor to begin with.)

This is straight from the Tropical Traditions website:

“Laboratory tests show that this Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is a very high quality coconut oil, with very high antioxidant levels. A study done in Malaysia and published in the International Journal of Food Science Nutrition also reported that the wet-milling fermentation method produced the highest amounts of antioxidants, and another study completed in Sri Lanka in 2011 confirmed the result. This oil is not mass produced, but made by hand just as it has been done for hundreds of years. The coconuts are certified organic according to strict USDA standards. In addition, all of the coconuts are hand-picked within 24-48 hours of harvest. Only those nuts that produce the highest quality coconut oil are chosen, while the rest of the crop is sold to copra dealers. Because of the extremely selective procedure for choosing the coconuts, a higher price is paid to the farmer. Almost all other virgin coconut oils on the market are mass-produced and do not take this kind of attention to detail that begins with choosing the right nuts. Also, the coconuts used to make our Virgin Coconut Oil are grown in very rural areas, generally far away from metropolitan areas. Since coconut trees grow just about everywhere in the Philippines, most coconut oils on the market are harvested from trees in metropolitan areas, because there is less cost to transport them to the place of manufacture. Many of our producers are in areas so remote, that if they did not use their coconuts to produce Virgin Coconut oil for us, no one would buy their coconuts because it would cost too much to transport them to manufacturing plants. In these areas, the coconuts generally just fell to the ground unused until we started training people to make our Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil.

In spite of the success and growth worldwide of this unique product, we still produce our Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil by hand in small batches by family micro enterprises. Most of them have been producing Virgin Coconut oil for over 10 years now. They have learned what it takes to produce the highest quality oil, such as how to hand pick the best coconuts from each harvest. One of their discoveries occurred in 2007 when certain groups in rural areas had problems with water sources. Water is needed to make the coconut milk from which the oil is extracted. Using true Filipino ingenuity, they started collecting and using the pure nutritious coconut water from inside the organic coconuts instead. They noticed that the water separated from the oil much quicker, that less heat was needed at the end, and that less filtering was needed also. The end result was a higher quality and better tasting Virgin Coconut Oil. Independent laboratory analysis shows that this new method produces even higher levels of antioxidants than first tested in 2006 by Professor Dia! (See below.) So we now require all of our Virgin Coconut Oil producers to use the pure coconut water from their coconuts instead of boiled or purified tap water. This enhanced Virgin Coconut Oil with the highest levels of antioxidants is now our Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil.”

If you are not convinced that this is a great product why don’t you sign up for this giveaway for a chance to win one quart of GLVCO. That is a $40 value! And let me tell you this company has super great customer service. When I was informed I would be receiving a jar to review I got an email saying it had shipped the same day I was informed of this opportunity, AND it arrived the next day! That was amazing!

Related links: 

o How to Use Coconut Oil: There are hundreds of uses! http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/how-to-use-coconut-oil.htm


o Buy Coconut Oil: A guide to buying coconut oil online http://buycoconutoil.com/ 

o What is Virgin Coconut Oil? http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/what_is_virgin_coconut_oil.htm

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Disclaimer: I was provided with free product to review. If you order by clicking on any of my links and have never ordered from Tropical Traditions in the past, you will receive a free book on Virgin Coconut Oil, and I will receive a discount coupon for referring you.

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Wednesday Weigh-In

So since I am merging The Naked Feast with The Crunchy Farmgirl, here is one of the weekly things I am doing.

See here I am on a path to health and fertility. But in order for me to do that I need to loose weight. So here is my Wednesday Weigh In Chart.

I am actually really surprised. I haven’t done anything more than go out and work with April (our milk cow) for a while each day. I am going to hope for next week to see 282 or some where around there. 🙂

Happy Feasting!