Sweet Harvest Homestead

For improved health and vitality, add fermented foods to your diet! Fermentation is one of man’s oldest attempts at food preservation and preparation.  Fermented foods are consumed in every country throughout the world and have played an important role in our diet for centuries.   When food is fermented, it means that it’s left to sit and steep until the sugars and carbs become bacteria-boosting agents. When you make your own fermented foods, you get the added benefit of microflora that you can’t get in store bought varieties  Most people think of dairy products when they think of fermented foods.  Our family regularly enjoys drinking goat milk Kefir;  (think thin, drinkable yogurt) and the health benefits that consuming it brings.  There are many other fermented foods that are just as delicious and easy to make, and when consumed often, make you feel and look so healthy! Kombucha is a delicious fermented tea that can be purchased at the grocery store, but it is expensive,  You can make it yourself if you can procure a Scoby (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast). Fermented Vegetables are a favorite of ours;  Carrots, beets, onions and parsnips take on an effervescent flavor when fermented for a week in a warm, dark area. The queen of fermented vegetables is Sauerkraut, also known as the Physician of the Poor.  This delicious treat is packed with probiotics and nutrients and nourish your gut health.   Regularly consuming probiotic rich, fermented foods has been shown to help slow or reverse some diseases, improve bowel health, aid digestion, and improve immunity! If you are interested in learning how to make fermented foods, I am teaching a class on Saturday, May 6th.  I made a video last week in which I show how you can make Sauerkraut, easily at home.  You can view it along with the fermented foods class information at my website www.sweetharvesthomestead.com   That’s the news from the homestead, see you next week!  

 Last week I visited my friend Julie; several years ago she and her family decided to move out of the city and bought some acreage in the country to raise their family. It's so fun to see children flourish out in a rural setting like theirs.  They have goats, chickens, quail and a falcon.  They've also put up an owl box and fashioned a game camera near it so that they can watch the mother owl take care of her young. It's not for everyone, but I think it’s a fantastic way to raise children. Their oldest daughter is an enterprising young lady and is already making plans to make and sell goods from their mini farm at the farmers market. Early spring is asparagus season, and we have been eating plenty of it here at Sweet Harvest Homestead. Our favorite way to enjoy this spring delicacy is to lightly sauté the asparagus spears and serve it with a homemade hollandaise sauce.  This is the recipe we use and I believe it came from Julia Child. 3 egg yolks 1/2 lemon, juiced 1 teaspoon cold water 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground black pepper In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, cold water, salt and pepper. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Gradually whisk yolk mixture into butter. Continue whisking over low heat for 8 minutes, or until sauce is thickened. Serve immediately. That's the news from the homestead see you next week!

Podcast # 50 Flower Farming

Podcast # 49 Mystery of the Old Car

The Burgess Flower Book for Children

Good morning and welcome to the sweet harvest homestead podcast. Old fashioned homemaking for the modern woman. This episode is brought to you by the naked pig in downtown Oakboro North Carolina.  You can purchase some of the finest grass fed beef and pasture raised pork around from their store in Oakboro or online at the naked pig.com If you go by, tell em Lindy Sent ya! And by Bohemian Belle and Baby-Handmade aprons and baby quilts.  Free spirited, beautiful, functional and fun.  That’s bohemian belle.  You can find more information at sweetharvesthomestead.com   My 13-year-old daughter and I have been busy the past three weeks, sewing aprons and making baby quilts for our shop. We have been using two different machines;  one is 1957, Singer Slant- O -Matic that belonged to my great-grandmother, and the other is a Brother machine that I bought the year my daughter was born.  It has been a great time to bond with her and to teach her a valuable skill that unfortunately isn’t taught much anymore. I read about a 65-year-old sewing room in Virginia that is closing their doors.  Not because of lack of business, (they have more than they could handle) but because they can’t find anyone with the skills necessary to help with the workload. Mike Rowe of Mike Rowe Works and Dirty Jobs fame has a  foundation that gives scholarships to young people to attend trade schools.  Not everyone is bent for college, and some people just naturally do better at hands on work like sewing, welding, carpentry, plumbing and electrical.  I like the way he thinks. With the ability to purchase inexpensive items (made in China) many people look at sewing as a dinosaur, an unnecessary relic of the past.  I beg to differ.  You can still earn a living from sewing and tailoring for people.  We need to get back to basics in many aspects of our lives. Will my daughter go on to use her sewing skills to earn a living?  I don’t know.  But I do know that if she needs curtains for her new home, she will know how to make them, and clothing patterns at the fabric store won’t intimidate her because she knows her way around a sewing machine and is comfortable with a pattern.  Someday, when my children are grown, I hope to teach sewing classes at my home so that we can fill that skill gap.   That will be a few more years, but stay tuned.   That’s the news from the homestead, see you next week!

Hello and welcome to the sweet harvest homestead podcast; old fashioned homemaking for the modern woman This episode is brought to you by the Naked pig- suppliers of grass fed beef and pasture raised pork.  You can find more information at their website, the naked pig.com and by Bohemian Belle & Baby.  Handmade aprons and baby quilts.  Are you a bohemian Belle?  Find out this Saturday, March 4th. My father gave me a collection of old magazines dating back to the mid-1940’s.  I enjoy looking through them from time to time to see the fashions of the era and reading articles on anything from raising children to growing victory gardens.   Except for the mentions of war, you could be reading articles that are written today.  The subjects that we as humans care about are the same, no matter what century it is.  Clothing and furniture styles may change, but people are the same. In an attempt to save and stretch food rations during WWII, many of the Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal magazines gave recipes using gelatin - too many for my taste.   The recipes vary from Tomato aspic (a dish made with tomato soup and unflavored gelatin) to gelled tuna fish casserole.  I even found one for frankfurters and kraut, suspended in a gelatin mold.  I suppose the gelatin did stretch the food, but I think I would have been content- just to eat less. I did find a recipe that looked palatable, and I tried.  It was delicious, and I served it to my family for dessert last week.  It was for a Chocolate Gelatin Mousse; I’ll share the recipe below. 1 Packet Knox Gelatin ½ cup sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder Two egg yolks 1- 14 ounce can unsweet coconut milk ½ teaspoon almond extract ¾ cup heavy whipping cream Blend gelatin, sugar, salt and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan.  In a separate bowl, beat together egg yolks and coconut milk.  Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and stir in almond extract and cool.  Beat cream until it holds soft peaks.  Fold into chocolate mixture.  Pour into a 4 cup mold and set in the ice-box to set. Try it and let me know how it turns out! That’s the news from the homestead, see you next week!

Hello and welcome to the sweet harvest homestead podcast, old fashioned homemaking for the modern woman. This episode is brought to you byu, the naked pig in Oakboro north Carolina.  Supplier of pasture raised pork and grass fed beef.  For more information, visit their store in Oakboro or their website, the naked pig.com and by Bohemian Belle and Baby.  Handmade aprons and baby quilts the grand opening of their etsy store is in two weeks. My mother was naturally organized.  Despite working full-time and having a family, she kept a pristine home and served us a home cooked meal every night.  I inherited many of my mother’s qualities, but her knack for the organization wasn’t one of them. When a friend of mine moved into a new home four years ago, she got rid of almost everything from her old house and made a fresh, almost empty start into her new home.  I was intrigued and wanted to do the same for our place.  I’ve started and stopped many times but never accomplished that task. My goal this year was to once and for all, dig in and do the work that it takes to get that seemingly massive job done.   I made a room by room checklist and the first two weeks of January were designated the great Clutter Cleanout and Home Organization.  We worked our tails off, and several times, I caught my sentimental children rummaging through the giveaway boxes, seeking out old toys or trinkets, but we did it, and it felt great! Now, let me wrap this up to explain “why” this was a good thing.  A couple of weeks ago, my husband and boys flew to Texas to pick up a newly purchased car.  Unfortunately, the airport put my husband's luggage on a plane to Mexico instead of Texas.  His belongings, CPAP machine, and the title to the new car were all in that bag.  That luggage still hasn’t found its way back to the states.  Because we recently organized our home; the paperwork for various household items, including his CPAP, were all neatly filed away and easily accessible.  I was able to locate all of the information quickly, and the insurance sent a medical device company to his hotel (out of state)  and outfitted him with a loaner CPAP machine.  If I hadn’t organized the house and important papers, my husband would have gone without his breathing machine for an entire weekend.  That’s a scary thing for someone with severe sleep apnea.

This episode is brought to you by, The Naked Pig and Bohemian Belle & Baby.   As we drove down Brief Road this evening, the fields of rye grass seemed almost neon green.   Tiny pink blooms dotted many of the branches of the trees along the road, and delicate, green leaves were lining the long, flowing branches of an ancient willow tree.   I feel lucky to live in a place where springtime starts to show her pretty face in February. The quilt that my daughter and I started last year is finally finished, and we sent it off to the long arm quilt man to sandwich together the top, middle and back of the quilt, and create a beautiful design with his quilting machine.  I hand quilted a quilt- once.  That was a laborious task that I would rather not repeat.  Besides, it’s not every day that you get your quilt, quilted by a man who looks like Paul Newman. Our quilt man, Bryan is a former NC state trooper.  After retiring from the NCDOT, he took up long arm quilting, and he is a master.   His machine is set up at the Quilt Patch in Stallings, and you can find him there most days working hard, barefoot, in a store full of women.   He has quilted three quilts for me so far and did a much better job that I can do.  We should get it back in a few weeks, and I will bind the edges before it is finally ready to sleep under.  We have some delicious new items in the Tiny Boutique- cardamom strawberry jam, muscadine jam and a fresh crop of handmade aprons.  Come on out and see us! That’s the news from the homestead, see you next week.  

This episode is brought to you by www.thenakedpig.com and by the Soap Making e course at Sweet Harvest Homestead. http://sweetharvesthomestead.typepad.com/sweet_harvest_homestead/soapmaking-e-book.html   Last year, I posted a picture on my blog of the Hydrangeas that I grew and asked if anyone knew how to preserve them. The suggestions ranged from keeping them in a hot trunk for a few days to using silica gel. I opted to use the silica gel because it was supposed to do the best job of preserving, but it was complicated and expensive and after thinking it through- way too long, the Hydrangeas were no longer pretty enough to preserve, so I gave up on that project. Fast forward to a few days ago, I was cleaning out my daughter’s bathroom cabinet and came across the prettiest, perfectly preserved hydrangea that I have ever seen! I remembered her picking a few of them last summer, saying that she was going to dry them, but with the business of life, I forgot that she was even doing it. You know what she did?  She stuck them in a vase of water, let the water dry out and then put the vase with the flower in a dark spot.  That’s it! We tend to overcomplicate things to the point that we don’t ever get around to doing them.    My sweet child simply went for it.  She didn’t over think the process, she just did it and now she has a beautiful, preserved flower to show for it.  That flower serves as a reminder of those warm, carefree, summer days.  More importantly, it reminds us that if you want something, and that something is good and pure, go for it. Even if it does not work out the way you wanted, at least you won’t have the regret of having never tried.  

This episode is brought to you in part by The Naked Pig.com and by my book From Farm to Market, Stories of Farmers & Artisans in the Carolina Piedmont

As a young girl, my great Aunt Rosemary was the one woman who I wanted to emulate the most.  She had a well-kept home, a huge garden, lots of land, honey bees, fruit trees, a pond stocked full of catfish, berry bushes, and was a great cook.  We loved the Sunday afternoons after church spent at Aunt Rosemary & Uncle Alton’s house, eating one of her delicious meals that came mostly from their land.  She was famous for her creamed corn and cole slaw.  A few years ago, she gave me a corn cutter and showed me how to make her recipe for creamed corn.  Try as I might, I can’t get mine to taste quite as good as hers.   There is something about eating in her kitchen and knowing it was made by the corn that grew in her garden, that made hers taste extra special. She canned most of the produce from they grew and froze the rest.  I learned how to can like her but never had a freezer until a few years ago.  I am so glad we bought it as it has come in handy more times than I can count.  Canning is hard, hot work;  throwing extra food into a couple of freezer bags and storing it in a freezer is not.  Maybe that’s why I love mine so much.  Less work. We ran out of our vanilla bean infused strawberry jam back in late November, and today while looking in the larder, my oldest son was disappointed to find that we had none for his bread.  It was then that I remembered I still had several bags of perfectly preserved strawberries put up in the freezer.  I spent the afternoon making up 22 half- pints of that tasty goodness.  When my daughter walked into the kitchen, she said it smelled like summertime! That’s why I love my old freezer in the basement; I can have freshly made strawberry jam, from local strawberries in January. That’s the news from the homestead, see you next week!

Sweet Harvest Homestead

It happens every year; usually right after Halloween.  The colder temperatures make me want to bundle up and eat something sugary and comforting.  Unfortunately, I don’t ever stop at just one treat.  I spend the next two months acting like a gluttonous heathen, enjoying all of the sweets and treats that the holiday season has to offer.  I won’t apologize for it, no sir.  After all, it wouldn’t be Christmas time without eating rum cake, buckeye candies, cookies and coconut pie.   I do love me some sweetnin. [sic] However come January 1st, I am ready to chuck it all out the door and do anything to make myself feel better.  Eating all of that sugar has adverse effects on your body, and  I didn’t truly realize that until last year. While working at the Farmers Market last summer, I overheard one of the farmers talk about something called the Whole 30.   She talked about it enough to other people that it intrigued me, and one day I asked her about it.   In a nutshell, for 30 days you only eat, vegetables, meats, fruits, and nuts and that’s about it.  No sugars (artificial or real), or any product whatsoever with added sugars like mayonnaise, dressings, etc.  No flour, no dairy or beans.  It is very strict, but it is only for 30 days.  You can do anything for 30 days, right?  The best part is, it is not a gimmick, and you don’t have to subscribe to a monthly club.  All of the information is free on the Whole 30 website or in their book.   I won’t lie.  It was a bit of a challenge at first, but after around day 17, something kicked in and my body responded very well to eating all of that good, clean food.  I honestly felt euphoric.  It was powerful, and I mean this with all my heart- it was life changing.  I realized that what I had been consuming all these years was poisoning my body. Now, I am a huge advocate of eating the Whole 30 way.    Not all of the time, but definitely right now as a detox from all of the candies and sugars from the holidays, and as just a way to feel great! I realize that this topic is a bit off my usual subjects, but I am writing this to help you realize that if you are feeling sluggish, tired, have headaches often and just don’t feel good.  Maybe a change in what you eat could be all that you need for a reset.  It worked wonderfully for me; I hope it will for you too! That’s the news from the homestead, see you next week!

A brand new calendar holds so much promise; In my hands, I hold a whole new year to plan, dream and set goals for.  It is such fun to think that in two more months the daffodils will be blooming.  In four months, I will plant the tiny seeds that will grow into vegetables to feed my family, and five months from now; I will once again smell the roses that bloom so lovely in my garden. When I was a teenager, I never liked the winter months.  To me, they signaled a let down after the highs of the holiday season.  Three months of dreary, cold and dark weather and a bit of melancholy was all the first of the new year meant to me.  Now, that I am wiser,  I relish this peaceful season of reflection and (some) rest.  The boisterous holidays and craft show that I take part in are over, and I have more time to sit and think.  Writing out goals for the new year is something I enjoy.  I suppose it is the same as making resolutions, except to me, resolutions seem negative. ( I’m not quite sure where that idea came from.)   If I make it a goal instead, it seems more obtainable.  Do you do that too?    I find that the physical act of writing out an idea or goal helps to cement it in my head, and I find that I can achieve it easier. Thank you for coming out to the Tiny Boutique, week after week and for faithfully reading my column.  Here’s wishing you the very best that 2017 has to offer.   That's the news from the homestead, see you next week!

Christmas time magic and the continuation of reading my book, From Farm to Market Brought to you by www.thenakedpig.com in Oakboro, NC.

Podcast #36 Sevier County Fires & Book Forward

  www.sweetharvesthomestead.com

Podcast #34 Thanksgiving/ Quilt/ Rum Cake

This podcast is brought to you by The Naked Pig in Oakboro, NC If you’ve followed my blog or read my column for any amount of time, you know the story of how we bought our little white farmhouse in Stanfield.  For those of you who don’t know the story, I’ll give you the short version.  It was 2006, and after looking for the perfect place for a year, we finally found 12 acres with a little white farmhouse.  The house was built in 1915, and the instant I saw it, I knew it was the one.   While my husband and realtor were indoors looking around, I stole quietly outside to check out the land and outbuildings.  The woods were full of persimmon and hickory trees, and there was even a lilac bush (something I’d always wanted).   I made my way to the unattached garage, and when I opened the door, I saw one of the most beautiful paintings in progress that I have ever seen!  There were numerous painted canvases in that small space and to me; they were all works of art.  My Granddaddy was an artist, and as a child, I thought someday, I would like to be an artist too.  Seeing all of that beauty coming from the hands of the owner cemented the deal for me.  That place was meant to be ours. To me, houses aren’t just brick and wood.  They have a soul and hang on to small amounts of the essence of their former occupants.  I couldn’t wait to own a home owned by an artist!  I hoped his talent would rub off on me.   Fast forward ten years. I decided it was time for me to pursue that dream of becoming an artist – or at least take some lessons.  Last week, I went to my first art class at Mint Hill Arts and, guess who the instructor was?  The gentleman from whom we bought the house!  Talk about coming full circle. If you get a chance, stop by Mint Hill Arts and see the fantastic work of Larry Ferguson.   Better yet, take one of his classes! I am excited about learning from him and about swapping stories of the old place that we both called home. That’s the news from the homestead, see you next week!