Snow Day January 2013

It's been a low key week.  Maybe the cold has had an affect on me, but it seems that I've been spinning my wheels all week.  Today we woke up to several inches of beautiful snow.  Beautiful in the eyes of a seven year old.  So even though we homeschool we decided to take a snow day. She is outside and will only come in for hotchocolate. The good man of the house had already taken the day off so that he could go and get a load of wood.  His plans meant nothing to mother nature, so he is home today too.  He watered the chickens this morning for me, (nice man) so I've been taking it easy and am putting some words down in cyberspace.

I did do something different this week.  I have never made sauerkraut and picked this week to try it.  It is in the crock, in the kitchen, pretty much in the middle of the room.  Chloe has had a lot of fun with it, helping with each step.  I was surprised that I had any cabbage in it since she was eating cabbage almost as fast as I could shred it.  It has carrots in it and garlic.  I also put some onion in and celery seed.  The recipe seemed easy enough.  I couldn't get the cabbage to release enough juice so I added a few cups of salted water to it just to make sure. 

You can find the recipe at:

http://wildfermentation.com/making-sauerkraut-2/

I'm super excited to see what happens with it.

I also started another batch of sprouts.  I didn't sprout anything for several weeks now.  I know I always feel better when I get plenty of sprouts in the winter.  We do not buy lettuce or any salad things in the winter but wait until spring to grow our own.  My reasons are numerous.  One is the expense of such luxury.  Another is the continuous flow of recalls from dangerous bacteria that should never ever be associated with salads.  Another reason is the miles it takes to bring that stuff from where it is grown all the way to our grocery store, completely unneccessary and indulgent.  I do want to build a greenhouse so that I can grow salad greens earlier in the spring and later into the fall.  These are among the reasons I have for not buying salad greens in the winter.

Today I will put away all the clean clothes I piled up on the spare bed. 

Finish deleting the clutter on the dining room table.

Take care of everyone here and make a hot comforting soup with biscuits for dinner.

Maybe I'll find some time to sew.

I love snow days.

Broth - A Little Piece of Heaven

Oh, the comforting and calming smells of chicken broth simmering on the stove.  Chloe will be drinking cupfuls before I can finish straining and freezing it.  Supper will be broth with noodles and frozen veggies from last summers garden and bits of chicken rescued from the carcass.   It becomes the strength and marrow of our limbs and nourishes our skin and cartiledge.  I can feel the healthiness simmering on my stove, the chickens we cared for giving and giving again.  Above the heat of the iron and the humming of my sewing machine I hear the happy tunes coming from my youngest as she works out her sums at the dining room table.  She is especially happy today since she declares the house smells like heaven.  This is why I do this.  Me, the Real Food hippie type homemaking everything person.  There is history in every bite.  I cherish the memory of the broth simmering day every time I use a tub of broth in my cooking.  I know the ingredients.  Onions, carrots, celery, peppercorns, bay leaves, all organic, chicken backs, necks and feet from the backyard, water, apple cider vinegar.  Try to find a box of that at your local grocery.  That's why I do it.  This is one of the most important foods our bodies need.  When I watch Chloe drinking her broth I feel extremely thankful and satisfied that she gets to have that and that I get to give it to her.