From Scratch {life on the homestead} - August/September 2013

From scratch{life on the homestead} August/September 2013

The Magazine for the Modern Homesteader

Homeschooling

Dr. Pol:

The Issue

America’s FavoriteVet

Power Couple PermacultureFall Weather Crops

of

2 • from scratch magazine

Contents

page 6

page 68

page 50

page 14

The Farmsteadthis old truck

Contents

page 74

page 22

Dr. Pol: America’s Favorite Vet

the power couple of permaculture

pecking order

What is so great about Goat milk anyway?

the joy of homeschooling

how to make pickles

page92

Photo by: Erika Tracy

from scratch magazine • 3

Letter From The Editor

As summer winds down it is a great time to take stock of lessons learned this growing season.

There were a lot of challenges - We waged a war with the bugs and en-dured a month of rain. Celebrate the victories - we installed 20 new raised beds, enjoyed a huge crop of tomatoes (before the bugs got them) and with the fall season quickly approaching our days are filled with school, football and fall planting.

Our cool weather garden includes lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, and cabbage. Fall planting is a garden-ers dream. You get all of the ben-efits of playing in the soil without all the pests and hot weather. Chris McLaughlin has great tips in this is-sue on how to get the most out of your cool weather crops.

After visiting Professor Will Hook-er and Jeana Myers’ beautiful ex-

ample of permaculture in action we acquired lots of inspiration and knowledge. Learn about all of the exciting things they are doing on almost 1/3 of an acre in the middle of downtown Raleigh, NC when you read Permaculture Power Couple.

School is almost back in session (we have already started back) and we included a special homeschool-ing section with lots of tips and re-sources for you to use this school year.

It is that time of year. Time for the final push to prepare for the long winter ahead, where you will get to enjoy some food you canned yourself, some winter greens and a chance to kick back and watch the Incredible Dr. Pol with someone you love.

Enjoy!

Melissa Jones

Who let the bugs out?”

“The Farmstead


Contributors

Steven JoneSFrom Scratch

Executive Editor

MeliSSa JoneSFrom Scratch

Publisher/ Editor

ChriS MClaughlinGardening Editor

leSa Wilke

raChel MaxWell Jennifer burCke

Carol alexanderliSa SteeleChicken Columnist

Thank You

Better Hens And GardensFresh-Eggs-Daily

This Original Organic Life

1840 Farm

Lessons from the Homestead

A Suburban FarmerHomeschool Columnist

Chicken Columnist

Farm Food Columnist

taMarah roCkWoodtamarahdotorg.wordpress.com

gretChen CeraniCThis little life photography

http://asuburbanfarmer.com/

http://www.fresh-eggs-daily.com/

http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/

http://lessonsfromthehomestead.com/

http://www.thislittlelifephotography.com/

http://www.thisoriginalorganiclife.com/

http://1840farm.com/

http://tamarahdotorg.wordpress.com/


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i

What is So Great About Goat Milk Anyway?

cAbout seventy percent of the

milk consumed by humans is supplied

by goats


i

Goat milk is preferred over cow milk in much of the world, and approximately 70% of the milk consumed by humans worldwide is supplied by goats. In the United States, the cow is still king, but

goats are the fastest growing livestock animal and goat milk consumption is rising rapidly. Why is goat milk so popular worldwide and why is its popular-ity rising in the US? Well, compared to cows and cow milk, goats are easier to keep; and goat milk is great tasting, produced more naturally, more nutri-tious, available raw, easier to digest, acceptable to many with lactose intolerance, and it triggers fewer milk allergies. Goats don’t need as much space as cows, are easier to handle, thrive on marginal pastures, and are perfectly happy eating things that we consider nuisances like poison ivy and brambles. Goats are suitable for hilly, rocky, and wooded areas where cows could not be kept, and actually prefer wooded browse to pasture (they prefer to reach up to eat rather than down like cattle). Goats convert their food into milk much more efficiently than cows, and many people find it easier to deal with the smaller quantities of milk (see Table 1) they produce. Much of the upsurge in goat popularity has been with those interested in increasing their self-sufficiency, and most find it much easier to keep a few goats. The dwarf dairy goat breeds are even being allowed in some urban areas because they need so little

What is So Great About Goat Milk Anyway?

By: Lesa Wilke


room, are easy to care for, and provide so many benefits. Fresh goat milk tastes creamy, sweet, and mild – virtually indis-tinguishable from whole cow milk. But, goat milk must be properly handled (processed in sanitary conditions and cooled immediate-ly) to insure that its sweet taste is preserved. Taste also differs from goat breed to breed; with those breeds producing the highest but-terfat content (Nigerian Dwarves and Nubians) typically produc-ing the sweetest, mildest tast-ing milk (see Table 1). In some areas of Europe, stronger tasting milk is preferred, so breeds origi-

nating there (like Oberhasli and Toggenburg) do tend to produce milk with a stronger taste. Dairy goat herds in the US are typically small, and the goats are allowed to free range rather than being maintained on feed lots as most cow dairy herds are today. Goat dairies also tend to keep antibiotic use to a minimum and rarely use hormones, whereas most dairy cows are pumped full of antibiot-ics and bovine growth hormone (as well as bovine somatotropin — a hormone used specifically for increasing milk production). Also, goat milk does not contain agglu-tinin, the substance that makes

i

A goat is milked at Bramblestone Farm in Northeast Ohio.


cow milk separate, so goat milk does not need to be artificially homog-enized like cow milk. The vitamins and minerals in goat milk can play an important role in helping us meet our daily nutri-tional requirements. On the vitamin front, goat milk supplies up to 47% more vitamin A, 350% more niacin (B3), 25% more B6, is lower in folic acid (B9) and B12, and is comparable to cow milk for the other vitamins. On the mineral front, goat milk is 13% higher in calcium, higher in phos-phorous, has 134% more potassium, has more iron, contains four times the copper, has more mag-nesium, has substantially more manganese, has more selenium, and has comparable levels of zinc and sodium when com-pared to cow milk. Goat milk simply supplies more vitamins and minerals than cow milk. Unpasteurized goat milk is increasingly available from small farms (laws regard-ing sales of raw milk vary from state to state), and many believe raw milk is much healthier for humans because pasteuri-zation destroys the nutri-tion and beneficial bac-

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teria in raw milk. Pasteurization also makes it more difficult for humans to absorb calcium and it breaks down the lactase in milk (the enzyme that helps digest lac-tose), making milk more difficult to digest. Although the US government strongly discourages the consump-tion of raw milk (and probably rightly so for the mass-produced milk from antibiotic and hormone fed cows living on feed lots), raw milk has been consumed by humans for hundreds of years, and if properly processed, poses little health risk. Goat milk is naturally homog-enized, with smaller fat particles evenly distributed throughout the milk, and is much closer to human milk in makeup than cow milk. The vitamins, minerals, trace ele-ments, electrolytes, enzymes, and proteins in goat milk are therefore

easier for humans to assimilate than similar content in cow milk. For these reasons, goat milk is typically digested in as little as 20 minutes; whereas it can take 24 hours for humans to digest cow milk. As much as 75% of the adult pop-ulation suffers from lactose intol-erance, or the inability to digest lactose. This is caused by the by the lack (or an insufficient amount) of the enzyme called lactase. Goat milk contains about 10% less lactose than cow milk and since it pass-es through the human digestive tract so rapidly, many with lactose intolerance have no difficulty with goat milk. Also, because raw goat milk still contains the enzyme lactase, switching to unpasteurized goat milk can be helpful to those with lactose intolerance.

breed yearly milk

produc-tion (lbs.)

butter-Fat (%)

protein (%)

typical milk com-

mentsAlpine 2396 3.3 2.8 Milk Taste

can vary

La Mancha 2246 3.9 3.1

nubian 1835 4.6 3.7 Sweet tasting milk

Oberhasli 2256 3.5 2.9 Stronger tasting milk

Saanen 2545 3.2 2.8

Toggenburg 2047 3.0 2.7 Stronger tasting milk

nigerian dwarf

729 6.1 4.4 Richest tasting milk

ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association) Breed Averages (2010)

milk production by breed


ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association) Breed Averages (2010)

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Milk is a good source of protein (see Table 1), but the complex proteins in milk are what cause some to be allergic to it, and the alpha-s1-casein protein in cow milk is the primary one respon-sible for milk allergies in humans. Goat milk contains much lower

levels (89% less) of this particu-lar protein, and some goats pro-duce milk with no alpha-s1-casein. Studies of infants have shown that approximately 90% of those aller-gic to cow milk are able to drink goat milk without suffering any allergic reaction.

iNigerian dwarf goats, like this one at Bramblestone Farm in Ohio, are great milk producers. Bramblestone sells this type of goat every spring.


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Increasingly, goat milk is simply viewed as a healthier alternative to cow milk, and as inter-est in healthy foods and sustainable living grows, more are choos-ing it instead. Dairy goats are becoming popular additions to the small farm or home-stead, goat milk is now regularly available in grocery stores, and with homestead goat ownership rising, it can also often be found at local farms or home-steads. It’s time to give goat milk a try!

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For many families, home-schooling provides amazing opportunities to reflect on, reconsider, and restructure daily

routines and rhythms around what matters the most. They find them-selves opting out of the rush ‘n go in favor of a slower-paced, more balanced, fully flavored sched-ule. Having more TIME is just one by-product: Time to slow down and do things your own way with intention and purpose, time to establish routines that will nour-ish you and your family, restore balance, provide flexibility, time to explore your creativity and fol-low your passions, get involved in community projects, try some-thing new, time to catch your

breath and truly relish your time with your children.

Homeschooling can be a power-ful antidote to the unsustainable way so many of us live our lives, and to the thoughtless, reckless consumerism at its core. After all, the rush ‘n go is expensive, stressful, taxing. We run out of time, cut corners, take the easy way out. However good our inten-tions may be, we often don’t have the time to follow through on them. Or if we do manage to keep up a breakneck pace, it’s at the expense of our health and wellbe-ing.

Many families have made home-schooling central to their mission

TheJOYofhomeschooling

By:Liz Gardner

aSpecial Homeschooling

Section


WE BELIEVE all children deserve an education that nurtures confidence, curiosity, and a love of learning. Our carefully crafted homeschooling

curriculum is infused with imagination and heart. Use it independently or through our fully accredited distance learning school that offers

expert teacher support and official school records.

High school students will find opportunities for dual enrollment advanced study life experience credit travel and summer programs

Visit Oak Meadow’s website or call to speak with an Educational Counselor to learn more about how students in grades K-12 can

explore their interests, develop their talents, and discover their own inspired path to learning.

oakmeadow.com 802-251-7250

DISCOVER Your Own Inspired Path to Learning

to simplify and live as sustainably as possible. This lifestyle can bring about a healthier balance and bet-ter prepare children to be resilient problem-solvers, compassionate community organizers and self-sufficient, responsible global citi-zens.

These very ideals can inform the curriculum as well. Want to grow and raise more of your own food? Lessons in permaculture and agriculture, dendrology and botany can be framed in a hands-on, real-world context. Build a chicken coop, set up a rain barrel, design and plant a garden. Learn how to preserve your own food, prune your fruit trees, take care of farm animals, tap your trees and boil your own sap. Hook into

the rhythms of the natural world, observe the seasons and celebrate the subtle shifts each day brings.

The great outdoors offers amaz-ing learning opportunities — and most are free. The more time you and your kids can spend in nature, the happier and healthier you’ll all be — and with important benefits, as well, for our planet. More time in nature, more unstructured free play and more laughter is good for the brain, body and spirit. And children who spend more time outside — exploring, learning, appreciating, noticing, discovering — become stewards of the land We need as many as we can get.

Homeschooling families often spend time rediscovering some

homeschoolingBy:Liz Gardner

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of the more practical lost arts: Things that have been gobbled up by the rush ‘n go culture and fallen out of favor in some schools and families, but still hold a firm place in the heart of our collec-tive consciousness. These lost arts are incorporated into daily lessons and explorations, includ-ing writing letters and thank you notes by hand; practicing the art of cursive and calligraphy; making gifts and cards; knitting, sewing, and crocheting; upcycling proj-ects that honor and close a more sustainable loop; building projects that involve imagining, design-ing, problem-solving, taking things apart, rebuilding, working together — skills that will be essential for our children to have as they begin

to face the challenges of this rap-idly changing world.

Allowing your schedule to fol-low a more natural rhythm when homeschooling can enhance the overall experience as well; being flexible can help minimize stress, prevent illness and open up your world to new possibilities. Schedules can be rearranged to accommodate the need for more sleep, especially during times of illness or those changing circadian rhythms of adolescence. Daily walks, yoga sessions or bike rides can be incorporated into the day, along with all sorts of spontane-ous, active fun. Homeschooling provides more time for exercise and outdoor play, resetting one’s


i‘Lost arts are incorporated into daily lessons’

compass and improving focus and concentration. Taking advan-tage of opportunities as they arise enables families to work with and not against the natural flow of learning and can lead to unex-pected discoveries and joys. This is typically when the good stuff happens!

Spending more time with family — particularly family elders — and incorporating intergenerational trips, family history and communi-ty service projects into the home-schooling year can be an amazing way to enrich the learning expe-rience. It allows us to honor the rituals and traditions that make us who we are. Whether shar-ing family stories or helping build

a Habitat for Humanity home together, family projects create a closeness that deepens our chil-dren’s sense of surety and sense of place in the world, and their understanding that we are all in this together.

This is an education fueled by curiosity and imagination, guided by the individual student’s learn-ing style, interests and passions, and shaped by the natural, organ-ic flow of learning.

At the center of the homeschool-ing experience is the curriculum, which can be brought to life, stretched and expanded, enriched and infused with real-world, proj-ect-based, community learning


opportunities; outside resources and programs; and spontaneous, serendipitous adventure.

When my two sons and I were homeschooling, we organized town-wide Earth Day clean-ups every spring, which invited resi-dents to come together to clean up the roadways, learn more about recycling, build community and enjoy some locally-produced ice cream. When we were study-ing native history and local his-tory, we were able to work with townspeople and tribal elders to explore and preserve a sacred burial site in town that was being

considered for development. We attended committee meetings, researched local history, and vol-unteered to help with the geo-thermal survey that was done on the property, learning more about archaeology and the science of ground penetrating radar in the process.

When we were learning US and world history within the context of family history, we spent hours on end happily researching, inter-viewing family members, reading old letters and journals, visiting ancestral haunts with grandpar-ents and unearthing some amaz-


i

‘Take advantage of your local libraries, farms and gardens’

ing stories, which we brought to life on our family history blog. When my sons helped out at my weekly two-hour Story Adventures and Summer Reading & Arts pro-grams at the library, they assisted in planning, preparing and leading the programs, helping me brain-storm ideas, choose books, songs, hands-on projects and read stories to the younger children.

Every fall, we spent long hours immersed in gearing up for the local Kids’ Craft Fair, carefully choosing and working on craft and food projects, figuring out pric-ing, signage and display; prac-

ticing making change and put-ting together artist cards and packaging. At the fair itself, the boys enjoyed connecting with other homeschooling families and learned marketing, economics and people-skills. These self-designed projects offered invaluable les-sons in the importance of building strong families and communities, in service and volunteerism, in entrepreneurship and in the won-derful fusion of curriculum — and community — based learning.

Take advantage of your local libraries, farms and gardens, his-toric houses and museums and



Section


i‘This type of learning experience offers deep, meaningful connections to community, family and self, enabling a more authentic engagement’

other community gathering spots for accessing books, workshops and other first-hand, how-to opportunities. Explore the World Wide Web for an amazing breadth of ideas and tutorials.

Being able to take advantage of existing opportunities and to create new ones is one of the great benefits to homeschooling. This type of learning experience offers deep, meaningful connec-tions to community, family and self, enabling a more authentic engagement that has a positive impact on the entire community.

Sustaining such a dynamic, wide-ranging home learning experience over a long period of time is pos-sible simply because engaging

educational adventures provide sustenance.

They fill our hearts and souls as well as our heads. When this hap-pens, homeschooling blossoms from basic academics into a whole lifestyle of family and community learning that seeds a lifetime of civic engagement and responsibil-ity, stewardship and love of learn-ing.

Liz Gardner is a former home-schooling mom, a blogger, a health advocate and Oak Meadow’s Director of Community Development and Social Media. Her four-year homeschooling jour-ney with her two sons was lively, lovely and tons of fun.


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I officially became the weird chicken lady two years ago when I purchased my first five fluffy chicks. I got them all at the same time when

they were all about the same age. Life was good with my newly expanded family. And even though they were each a different breed, they all got along like sisters. Well, better than sis-ters really. They slept snuggled together on their roost, ate from the same feeder giving one another plenty of room, and as they got older shared the same nesting box. Even though

it only fit one hen comfortably, I’d often see three girls crammed into the nesting box somehow laying eggs. When I think of giving labor I cannot imagine being surrounded by two other laboring mothers, but they seemed to enjoy one another’s company inside that tiny box, probably sharing breathing techniques and gossiping about the other girls.Several months after we were nice and attached to our little girls, we tragically lost one. The one my daughter had picked out to be hers, and had affectionately named Henrietta. After our mourning peri-


Pecking Order

Story and Photos By: Gretchen Ceranic

od, and after hearing how unfair it was that she no longer had her own chicken, we decided to get a replacement Henrietta. I did do some research on bringing a chick-en into an established flock and found a local breeder for our desired breed. She was about the same age as the hens I had so I thought they’d get along great. Once she was quarantined for a while, I did as the breeder said, “Just take the new hen into the coop at night and set her next to the others on the roost. The next morning the original hens will wake up and not even realize someone has moved in.” Ok, I should have known bet-ter. This is not how it went down. After the covert night op, the next day I went out to check on things. Just like entering 7th grade in the middle of the school year when I

was a kid, it was not pretty. The older hens were ticked that this cute, new girl had moved in and they banded together to make sure she knew her place. Suddenly I had a flashback of being left out and picked on for being the new girl and I was furious at how I thought my “nice girls” were behaving. They chased the new hen around anytime she came near them. If she tried to get some food one of them would run up and squawk at her or peck her, causing her to be extremely frightened and skittish. When they free ranged things were much better. She’d go off by herself somewhere and breathe a sigh of relief. Kinda like when I’d go to the library dur-ing lunch period. After a week or so, things settled down and


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much to my surprise this second Henrietta is now the dominant hen in the group. I’ve always loved a good underdog story. So, a few weeks ago when I purchased two new baby Buff Orpington’s I was afraid that they’d suffer the same kind of social bul-lying. But this time, I did things a little differently and noticed a much smoother transition. I kept the two buffs in a pen near the mature hen’s pen. I would let them free range alone after the older girls had had their turn. Then they were about 14 weeks old, I began to let them free range

together. The little girls stuck together, away from the group and the older girls totally ignored them. Yep, had another flash back of mid-dle school cliques, but was relieved that they weren’t being aggressive. It’s far better to be ignored than to be attacked, in my humble opinion. After a week or so of this, I gave the new girls a pep talk and did the covert night operation again. As I walked back into the house I whispered a little prayer that these two would be accepted for who they were and all they had to offer the group (even though they’re blonds) and thanked that sweet girl that finally asked me to sit with

iThese ‘mean girls’ aren’t always the most accepting of new hens into the flock.

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her at lunch (we’re still friends to this day). The next day things were a lot better than the first go round. There was a little peck-ing here and there, especially around the food, but overall they seemed much more willing to accept the new girls. There is definitely a pecking order with my little flock, but I’m happy to report that now when I introduce new chickens, I’ll no longer need therapy.


inew chicks to the flock explore their run.

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Homeschooling has been on the rise for more than a decade, with the num-bers of parents opting to do so nearly doubling

since 2000.

The number of children home-schooled are expected to continue to grow. With the rise of the infor-mation age, parents find more and more reasons to homeschool their children, as the cost of text books increase and the resources for homeschooling online continue

to outpace traditional educational materials.

Children can learn all the basic skills of education online (reading, writing, math), while other services allow parents to teach comput-er programming, physics, college level writing courses and foreign languages. The bulk of these pro-grams are free.

Check out the top ten online resources for homeschoolers:

Top ten online resources for homeschoolers


Section


1Founded by Salman Kahn, an MIT and Harvard

graduate,Khan Academy sets the standard for online education. The site fea-tures thousands of lessons on subjects ranging from civics, history, math, sci-ence and economics. It also features invaluable tracking software, allowing home educators to follow the progress of all their students from educator accounts.

2w3schools is a site devoted to program-

ming for the web. Although the target of recent criti-cism, the site provides tutorials on a variety of programming languag-es for the web, including HTML5, Javascript and PHP. It also offers a certification process, the value of which can be debated. Even with the criticism, it is hard to find tutorials and informa-

Top ten online resources for homeschoolers

https://www.khanacademy.org/

https://www.khanacademy.org/

http://www.w3schools.com/

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tion about web programming as user friendly, making this a good starting point for young program-mers.

3Duolingo is an online foreign language tutorial favorably

compared to programs like Rosetta Stone with one major dif-ference: It is completely free. The project was started by Carnegie Mellon University Professor Luis von Ah and his graduate student Severin Hacker. The project was originally funded by Luis von Ahn's MacArthur fellowship and a National Science grant. It features a clean interface with a great tutorial pro-cess in which students earn points for completing lessons and prac-tice.

4Free Rice is a trivia game in which users answer ques-

tions about subjects ranging from vocabulary to art history. For every question a user gets right, 10 grains of rice are donated through

sponsor support to end world hun-ger. Mixing charity and learning provides unique opportunities for parents and students while allow-ing students to drill and practice skills they've learned in other les-sons.

5It should be taken as a challenge for a user to find a subject not

touched on by the now famousTED talks. At their website, users can browse the topics and hear lec-tures from top thinkers on neuro-biology, music theory, science and culture and anything else a user can think to learn about, including gardening. In 2012, about 1,300 TED Talks were posted online. Five to seven new lectures are posted online every week.

6Project Gutenberg, named after the first moveable type

printing press in the west, has the humble goal of putting all open source books online for free in a variety of formats. It allows users to download the books, including well known classics like Moby Dick and religious texts, like the King

http://www.duolingo.com/

http://www.ted.com/

http://freerice.com/

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James Bible. The books can then be read on your computer, printed out at home or read in one of the many ebook formats available. The site is completely free and is financed from user donations. All the books are in the public domain, which means you will not violate copyright laws while learning.

7PBS, the well-known public tele-vision network has a great web-

site and provides much of its broad-cast content online. In addition, it has resources for parents and teachers to help them get the most out of the television channel, includ-ing connections to local content and local scheduling. The site also pro-vides content for download, so you can take lessons with you whenever the family makes a trip.

8Fitocracy: This site allows users to get physically fit by earning

virtual points for real life activity. Users can use the points to level up their profile and earn badges while competing with other users in their group online. Quests provide users

with goals, which help with motiva-tion and provide fun quest badges upon completion.

9Youtube: If you want to learn how to do something, there is an

instructional video on Youtube. Be it rewiring your house or building rock-ets, there will always be someone who shows you how to do it, records the process and posts it on Youtube. The ubiquitous video site is a great way to learn all sorts of activities and to supplement your homeschooling.

0If you do not know it, Google it. There is not another site in existence which illustrates

the learning resources online like Google. The search engine allows users to find information and learn-ing materials, answers questions and even provides a calculator. Not to mention the full suite of cloud-based software that challenges any-thing by Microsoft or any other soft-ware manufacturer, with programs for processing and even a presenta-tion program.

10

http://www.pbs.org/

http://www.youtube.com/education?gl=US

https://www.google.com/

https://www.fitocracy.com/


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Lufkin Wood Folding Red End Ruler 72 Inches, Etsy - jalopee

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Old school pencil sharpener, Etsy - wretchedshekels $22

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barnyard art

Three Amigos, Etsy - artprintsbycheri, $95

Yorkshire pig , Etsy - artprintsbycheri $150

Dreamer, Etsy - MarinaPetroFineArt $195

Chicken Oil Painting, Etsy - cmqstudio, $50

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Trespassers will be - Garden Sign, $10

Lashes Bunny, Etsy - artprintsbycheri, $15

Lamb on Blue, Etsy - DottieDracos $12

Oil painting- eggs, SayHeyCrystal $24.92

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AcornsAplenty

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1. Acorn Fountain | From Scratch Finds $162 2. Cement Acorns | Etsy - unpotpourri, $38 3. Felted acorns, set of 6, natural white | Etsy - HouseOfMoss $9

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SquirrelingAround

3. 4.

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1. Squirrelly Love cross-stitch kit | Etsy - ChezSucreChez $14 2. Mini Glass Acorn Necklace | Etsy - bullseyebeads, $26 3. Metal Squirrel Feeder | From Scratch Finds, $39.95

4. Squirrelly Ukulele | Etsy - celentanowoodworks $350

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photos from

our readers

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1. Riley feeding the new baby cria on the Henry family’s Alpaca Farm 2. Chicken BFF’s from Laurie Weiss and her husband who live on a homestead in Coatesville, PA 3. Rooster from

Laurie Weiss and her husband who live on a homestead in Coatesvills, PA 4. Second story chicken coop from Terri 5. Beverly Whipple sent in this photo of Hansel — a

French Angora Rabbit.

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6. The first crop of cherry tomatoes from Jane Mruck. 7. Sunflowers from Laurie Weiss 8. Laurie Weiss’ chicken coop 9. Submitted by Michmech, this sunflower was beautiful for

months and then it was turned into a special treat for the chickens.


homestead essentials

Hen Supplement Kit, Scratch and Peck,

$15.99

5L Fermenting Kit, RawRutes, $130

Herb Farmer’s Fruit Tea, Possum Creek

Herb Farm,$6

1 Gallon Stainless Steel Bucket with Lid, Homesteader Supply,

$43.80

1 Gallon Extra Virgin Organic Coconut Oil, Nature’s Approved,

$39

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Wild Blueberry Jam, Red Lake Nation Foods,

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required reading

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Randall Burkey Company - Everything you need for

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Brewing beer is a staple of civilization, and it has been done by farmers for thousands of years. Many

archaeologists claim that brewing alcohol was one of the contributing factors of beginning agriculture, giving nascent farming communi-ties a reason to come together in the first place.“Home brewing is part of our his-tory and heritage,” Marcus Bezuhly, of Homebrewstuff.com, said. “In fact cultivation of beer ingredients were one of the first priorities of early settlers (in America). George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were both prolific home brewers.Bezuhly has been home brewing for more than 16 years. As a regis-tered beer judge, he knows a thing

or two about home brewing.Brewing – either beer, cider, wine or mead – is a great way to “put up” some of the calories produced on your homestead, as fermenta-tion serves as a preservative pro-cess.“I personally find a romance to making something at home that most people take for granted by going to the store and buying off of the shelf,” Bezuhly said. “At the very least it makes you appreciate the time and effort that goes into making products from scratch.”

SustainabilityHome brewing can also be a big part of your sustainability plan.According to Bezuhly, it is a big

Homebrew on the homesteadby steven jones

DIY

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force in the craft beer trend.“Spent grain from a mash (the grain component in a batch of beer) is commonly given to hog or dairy farmers as feed. Breweries like Sierra Nevada and Rouge own estate farms and produce large portions of their own ingredients. Colorado’s New Belgium Brewery utilize solar and wind power, as well as power generated from combus-tion of waste materials from the brewery,” Bezuhly said.It is possible – with perhaps the exception of brewers yeast – to produce all the ingredients needed to practice home brewing on your homestead.Apples from a small orchard can be used for cider, any number of

grains can be used to make beer and any sugar producing fruit can be used for wine.“There is a huge range of ferment-ed beverages that can be made from home,” Bezuhly said. “Beer is made from (malted grain, hops, and water and yeast), and of course wine is made from grapes, but there are also hybrids of the two. Mead is made from honey, Braggot from honey and malt, Sake is made from rice ... Perry from pears.”Brewing beer is probably the most common form of home brewing. The lessons learned from brewing beer can be applied to all the other products a homesteader might wish to make.

i

blossoms of hops.


Getting startedStart up costs vary for home brew-ing. Bezuhly said a beginning home brewer can get started for about $150, while a dedicated maker might spend up to $500 “depend-ing on how you intend on brewing and how you intend on packaging your beer.”Brewing from malt extract – a syrup made from malted barley that has been “mashed” to extract sugars – is simpler and cheaper, Bezuhly said.More experienced brewers may opt for an “All Grain” brewing, which is more expensive and and a big-ger investment. Bezuhly said this method is a closer approximation

of the way commercial brewers make beer.Using an extract recipe means a brewer will need a stove, boil ket-tle, fermenting bucket and a few other accessories.A boil kettle is the pot in which the wort is brewed. Wort is the non-al-cholic first state of a brewed prod-uct. It is usually made, in the case of beer, with hops, grain (mostly barley) and malt (the sugar com-ponent from roasted grains).The fermenting bucket is the con-tainer the wort in which the wort will ferment. Just about any clean container will do, but it must be airtight. Oxygen kills yeast, result-ing in a lower alcohol content and

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sometimes a bad product.Using the “All Grain” method means brewers will mash malted grains in a mash tun. While the extract method, Bezuhly said, is generally cheaper, the ingredients for the All Grain method are generally less expensive.

ProductionAt its most basic form, brewing beer means making a wort with boiled grains and sugars – or the appropriate extracts – ferment-ing the wort by adding yeast and then filtering and bottling the fin-ished product. Fermentation usu-ally takes up to three weeks and involves keeping the fermenting wort free from oxygen, light and

extreme temperatures.A lot of home brewers ferment their wort in closets and garages, using vapor locks to keep oxygen from entering while allowing waste carbon dioxide to leave the fer-menting bucket. Vapor locks are attachments to fermenting buck-ets. They are made of glass or plastic and hold a small amount of water. As carbon dioxide escapes the fermenting bucket, the water in the lock will bubble, letting home brewers know the fermentation process is working.If CO2 cannot escape, brewers run the risk of explosions from the buildup of gases.During all stages of the process, proper sanitation cannot be over

THE BLONDErecipe for beer

i

wort boils in preparation to make beer


INGREDIENTS

5lb Light Liquid Malt Extract•1 lbs American Two Row•.5 lb Caramel 15°L•.5 lb Wheat Malt•

•1 oz Mt Hood Hops - Boil for 60 min (of 60 min total boil)•.5 oz Tettnanger Pellet hops - Boil for 30 min (of 60 min •total boil).5 oz Tettnanger Pellet hops - Boil for 20 min (of 60 min •total boil).5 oz Tettnanger Pellet hops - Boil for 10 min (of 60 min •total boil)1 tb Whirlfloc Tablet - Boil for 10 min (of 60 min total boil)•

***If you have a coil immersion chiller, add 10min before boil is complete***

YEAST (Liquid) Wyeast 1056 American Ale -OR- (Dry) Safale-05 - Pitch into fermenter of cooled wort. Ferment at 65°F for 7 days. Rack to Secondary for an additional 7-14 days.

PROCEDUREHeat 2.5 to 6.5 gallons (depending on the size of your kettle) of water to 155°. Steep specialty grains in muslin bag for 30 minutes. Rinse grain with hot water and remove from kettle. Add liquid malt extract and bring kettle to boil. Once a good boil is going, add the first hops and start a timer. Maintain a boil and add hops according to the schedule above. ***If you have a coil immersion chiller, add 10min before boil is complete***

When boil is complete, transfer wort to sanitized fermenter, then add water to make a total volume of about 5.25 gallons. Pitch yeast into cooled wort (<75°F). Ferment according to Schedule above

Original gravity 1.051Final gravity 1.013Alcohol (by volume) 5.0%Bitterness (IBU) 31Color (SRM) 7.3°L

THE BLONDErecipe for beer

Blonde Recipe from www.homebrewstuff.com


i

hops stored in mason jars.


emphasized.“Clean everything, then sanitize it. When you are done, clean it again,” Bezuhly said.Once the process is complete, filter the sediments out of the beer and bottle it.Bottling your beer can be done in a couple of ways.“The least expensive method is to recycle used beer bottles, clean, sanitize, refill and cap them. The alternative is to use kegs and bot-tled CO2 to store and carbonate your beer,” Bezuhly said.You can also purchase flip-top bot-tles with attached stoppers.

StepsThe first step is to clean all your 1. equipment, the spoons, the boil-ers, anything that will come in contact with your wort.Then, mix your wort according 2. to the instructions of your recipe (see the Blond Recipe from EDGE Brewing Co. in this magazine).Boil your ingredients according 3. to your recipe and then chill the wort in ice water and then trans-fer it to a fermenter. Many reci-pes recommend you strain the hops from the wort at this time.“Pitch” or add the yeast. Some 4. yeasts require “blooming,” where the yeast is added to warm water before adding it to the wort, similar to how yeast is proofed while making bread.Cap off your fermenting bucket, 5. being sure to place the vapor lock in place. In about 24 hours, you should see bubbles com-ing out of the air lock. If you

do not see any activity in about 48 hours, then you have prob-lems and need to start over. If this happens, consider getting new yeast, as dead yeast is one of the most common problems brewers face.Allow the wort to ferment for 6. at least a week, depending on the recipe. Once this happens, siphon the wort from your fer-menting bucket into another – clean – container, leaving as much of the sediment in the fer-menting bucket as possible.Bottle your beer from the new 7. container. Some home brewers have been known to filter the beer at this point using filter papers, but it depends on the recipe. At this point, a little sugar or dried malt extract is added to increase carbonation.Cap off the bottles and allow it 8. to age for about a week before refrigerating. As the beer refrig-erates, more sediments may set-tle. Do not drink this material, as it is generally composed of dead yeast.While you may be tempted to 9. use bread yeast instead of bak-ing yeast, it is not recommend-ed. While the product will be alcoholic, it probably will not taste very well.

Outside of having a good recipe, that’s about it.With a little effort and some invest-ment, you will have your very own beer. With a little practice, you can produce a product enjoyable for you and your friends.

Chicken Columnist


Do chickens see in color?

Chickens do see in color and in fact can differentiate between more colors and shades than hu-mans can. They not only have red, blue and green receptors like we do, they also have violet and ul-traviolet cones. It is believed this ultra-sensitivity to colors helps them find colorful fruits and ber-ries to eat. However, while chick-ens’ daytime eyesight is far supe-

rior to human’s, they have very poor night vision, which is part of the reason why they naturally mi-grate back to their coop and a safe roosting place as darkness falls. They feel extremely vulnerable in the dark without being able to see potential threats and predators. Chickens do have superior ‘mo-tion sensors’ in their eyes, which helps them spot predators during the day from afar, but can’t actu-ally ‘recognize’ a flock mate un-

Lisa SteeleFresh Eggs Daily

Talking chicken Scratch With Lisa

Q.

A.

Chicken Columnist


Q.

Lisa Steele from Fresh Eggs Daily The resident From Scratch Chicken Expert.

til they come within 2 feet due to their nearsightedness.

Why is it that the eggs from my chickens contain stringy white membrane on the end of the yolks? Some have a lot, some have not so much, but its like a soft lump. What is it and is it OK to eat?

It is perfectly safe to eat. Its the chalazae, strands of protein that hold the egg yolk in place in the middle of the white. Chalazae start off as a thin strand but become

thicker and twisted as the egg ages. You will normally only see this in very fresh eggs. Like the occasional blood spots you might see, it’s perfectly edible, but you can remove the strands and lumps carefully with the tines of a fork, if you wish, for aesthetic or textural purposes before cooking the egg since the chalazae doesn’t gener-ally break down with cooking.

Q.

A.


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i610 Kirby Street, the home of Will Hooker and Jeana Myers, serves as a homestead and classroom.


Power Coupleof permaculture

Professor Will Hooker, at first glance, comes across as a hippy. A good old-fashioned, bearded, long-haired, sandal-wearing hippy.

But if you look carefully, you might notice a near military bearing in the way he carries himself, a sense of self-discipline which belies the stereotypes of the culture he appears to belong.

When he speaks, Hooker chooses his words carefully, making sure a listener understands what he is saying and working hard to be clear.

By: Steven Jones


i

Jeana Myers and Will Hooker


Then you meet his wife, Jeana Myers. She’s also deliberate in her speech. Her move-ments are confident

and assertive. Her posture is impeccable. The woman is fresh-faced and — if you catch her at the right time — her muddy shoes let you know she is not afraid to do work when necessary.Myers might be driving a pickup truck when you first meet her, albeit one painted in psychedelic colors in a style reminiscent of African tribal designs.Then you might be one of the hundreds of people who have toured their home in Raleigh, North Carolina.You’ll see clean lines in the lay-out of the property, with spirals apparent in the way the garden is planted. The property — just less than a third of an acre — is home to chickens and bees. They grow a dizzying array of plants, most edible, including paw-paws, grapevines, elderberries, pecans, plums, apples, peaches, assorted herbs, shiitake mushrooms, per-simmons, figs, apples, mulberries,

cedar, onions, pumpkins, ten dif-ferent kinds of lettuce, and … you get the idea. Without the obvious sense of discipline applied to the property, there would not be room for half of the food Hooker and Myers grows.

Meet the power couple of Permaculture.

Hooker is a Landscape Architecture Professor at North Carolina State University. In 1994 he became a Certified Permaculture Designer/Instructor, teaching one of the few classes in Permaculture in the country. Myers is the Horticulture Extension Agent for the Wake County, North Carolina, extension office. She did her PhD work in soil science.In the 90’s while taking a bike trip across the United States, Hooker discovered permaculture, envi-ronmental design focusing on the development of sustainable archi-tecture and self-maintaining agri-cultural systems, using nature as a model.With roots stretching back to the beginning of the 20th century, the

Permaculture is an agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems.


idea did not really take off until the 1970’s, when Bill Mollison and David Holmgren started thinking about how to deal with industrial damage done to the topsoil in the Australian state of Tasmania. In 1978, Mollison and Holmgren pub-lished Permaculture One. Hooker provides an example of creating a “closed system” on his property in Raleigh. On their property, they have chickens, which eat kitchen scraps, weeds and insect pests. The chicken run is covered in straw for the chickens comfort and they eat the seeds out of the straw. They also provide a “nitro-

gen deposit” (colloquially: poop). The straw is gathered, used in compost, which is used to grow vegetables, scraps of which are used again to feed the chickens. On his website, Hooker says, “This is a closed system.”But this is now. Nearly 20 years ago, Hooker was on a bike ride and thinking about the earth.While biking, he had an epiphany.“Who the hell is paying attention to what we’re doing to the earth?” he asked himself at the time.He was looking for something rev-olutionary, something to shake up current thinking.

ia wood-fired stove, which doubles as a sculpture, stands guard outside of 610 Kirby Street


He examined permaculture, but felt it was lacking.“It didn’t seem to answer the questions,” he said. “It wasn’t strong enough at the time.”But then he re-examined the idea.He convinced his Academic Dean at the University to use college funds for a permaculture design course.Hooker says the dean was “kind of living vicariously,” describing him as a straight-laced, “dress for suc-cess guy.”In 1997, Hooker began teaching a permaculture design course at the University himself.By then, he had been working on

his home, described as a “Urban Permaculture Model” on his web-site, for three years.The home functions as a home, a homestead and a teaching tool for Hooker.While the property is gorgeous, and Hooker admits he wants a piece of property that is pleasing to work on, the property is not landscaped in the “normal” way residential properties are land-scaped. There are a couple of patches of lawn, for his children and grandchildren to play on, but the rest of the property is covered in edible plants, beneficial shrubs and fruit trees.


“Curb appeal doesn’t hold much value to me,” he said. “I design places to be lived in.”For Hooker, the design element is what he brings to the world of permaculture. Hooker has visited permaculture-based farms and homesteads all over the world. Very few, he said, could be con-sidered attractive.“The aesthetics of permaculture suck,” he said.As a result, Hooker’s design on his own property is functionally attractive. He makes use of all of the small space, hunting down shady spots for mushrooms, put-ting his compost bin in the chicken pen, growing vegetables in the next door lot, where a neighbor’s home used to be.

At the same time, he incorpo-rates clever, whimsical elements. He uses a counterweight system to close the garden gates and pens. Used wine bottles, filled with bright blue salt water, pull the gates closed when visitors walk through them. A wood-fired oven in the back yard is a piece of sculpture. The chicken coop is painted with pictures of chick-ens: All bright yellow feet and red combs.“I think permaculture has to be aesthetically pleasing in order to be attractive to a wide range of people,” Hooker said.Hooker said he designed the prop-erty to reflect an “experience of progression” as you move through the property. A trellis frames the

Bees beard on a hive in Raleigh, NC, at the home of will hooker and jeana myers.


‘I design places to be lived in.’ Will Hooker


“It was amazing, fresh food everyday”

- jeana Myers


entrance. Pathways move you through the property past gar-dens, beehives and through the gazebo, which supports vining fruits and vegetables.He said his wife is the master gardener in the family.Jeana Myers is devoted to per-maculture as well. And while she seems just as passionate about the lifestyle as Hooker, she also professes a more visceral reason for her devotion: Great food.“We’ve (the country) just totally gotten away from good food,” she said.Once she started eating fresh, locally grown food, she couldn’t stop.“It was eating amazing, fresh food everyday,” she said. “Something clicked. It was impossible to turn back.”She wants people to start growing their own food, even if it is just some herbs.“I always encourage people to grow a pot of herbs,” she said. “It really awakens your pro-cess of eating. Herbs in pots are a great place to start.”Since Myers and Hooker dis-covered permaculture, they have spent decades living more sustainably and educat-ing others on how to do it. Hooker has worked to teach students the benefits of the methodology while Myers helps keep their property a showroom for visitors.Hooker maintains a website to


educate people about permacul-ture. Since he began practicing permaculture, he’s seen interest in the movement grow.Now, after decades of working on their little homestead both Hooker and Myers work to promote per-maculture and sustainable living.With his retirement from the University looming, Hooker hopes to beginning designing permacul-ture landscapes for others and continue educating as many peo-ple he can about the design meth-ods.Myers will continue to work to encourage others to take up the practice of sustainable living.“I think people will have to want to do it,” she said.After seeing an idea they’ve been

working on for about 20 years become a part of a conversation -- sustainable living -- that it seems everyone is having, Hooker is pleased to have been part of it for all this time.He remembers an incident where he overheard a fellow educator talking about his permaculture program eight years ago.“‘What the hell is Hooker spending so much money on sustainability for?’” Hooker recalled. “What’s the option?” Hooker asked himself, “Unsustainability?”

Learn more about Will Hooker and Jeana Myers at their website, http://610kirby-permaculture.org/610kirby-permaculture.org/Welcome.html

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Meet Some Cool Charactersvegetablesfor fall and winter gardensby Chris Mclaughlin

j


When I first started growing cool-weather crops, I acciden-tally ended up experimenting with the crops to see which

“cool season” they preferred the most: spring or fall.

At that time I was living in the San Francisco Bay area and when I plant-ed my broccoli and cilantro plants in the spring, the quick temperature rise (as the season switched from spring to summer) caused them to bolt (flower and produce seed) quickly. Although fast transitions are typical for California, it was also frustrating until I remembered that I had another cool season to work with fall.After that, I planted my cool-weath-

er lovers in the fall and found that they produced a better harvest; for much longer.

I was amazed at the amount of produce I collected from a garden that was planted after what most people refer to as “the end of the gardening season.” Au contraire.

After asking around I found that many gardeners weren’t using these valuable months either and were typically “putting their gardens to bed” much after September.

Interestingly enough, I now find that fall gardening is one of my favorite gardens all year. There are less pests, less watering,

Leeks

Peas RadicchiosRadishes Rhubarb SpinachSwiss chardTurnipsLettuce

Parsnips

jCool s eason cropsAsparagusBeetsBroccoliBroccoli RaabBrussels sproutsCabbage CarrotsCauliflower

CilantroEndiveFava beansKaleKohlrabies


and fewer weeds. Hello...sign me up! So if you haven’t given fall and winter gardening a go, may I sug-gest you do so this year?

Many cool-season crops can go well beyond cool and into the freez-ing cold; and all the way through snowy winters.

Of course, then you’ll need a lit-tle help from lots of mulch, your handy-dandy hoop house, and/or a cold frame.

By the way, there are several “cross-over” cool-season vegetables (e.g. carrots, beets, Swiss chard, cab-bage, potatoes, and leafy greens) that can be harvested in the sum-

mer as long as they got a good start in the cool weather.

On the following cool-weather veg-etable list, you’ll typically find that it’s the leaves, stems, flower buds, and roots of these plants that we enjoy in the kitchen. The excep-tions being fava (broad) beans and peas.

I do realize that many of you live in much colder areas that me. However, year round gardening is possible almost anywhere, so if you need help with very low temps, check out Niki Jabbour’s book, The Year Round Vegetable Gardener (Storey, 2011) and you’ll quickly run out of excuses.


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Peas are the ladies of the spring and fall garden. Like every other vegetable I can think of, they’re just so much tastier

when they’re fresh from vine to plate. These legumes are easy to grow and are perfect for vertical gardening. Peas generally fall into one (or more) of three categories: • shelling peas — also called English or garden peas. • snap peas • snow or sugar peas

Shelling peas are usually prepared by removing the peas from inside their pods before they’re cooked. With snap peas, the pods are eaten whole and are sweet and tender, even when mature. Just like green beans, they also give a great snap when bent in half. Many great snap pea varieties will also make a won-derful shelling pea, as well.Snow or sugar peas are those small peas that are associated with Asian or Chinese dishes. Pods are har-vested young, and even if they’re

Pass the peaspleaseby Chris Mclaughlin

the ladies of the garden


left on the vine, they don’t split when they’re mature like shelling and snap peas do. Like beans, peas are a legume and they’re roots are nitrogen-fixing.If this is the first time peas will be grown in that bed, you may want to consider purchasing seed that’s been inoculated with Rhizobium bacteria. This helps the plants fix nitrogen in their roots.Pea vines are extremely light, and you can get away with the most basic structures as supports. Light-weight netting and twine work just fine for these climbers.

Perfect Planting Peas can be started indoors, but it’s always been simpler for me to plant them in their permanent place outdoors. I’ve always soaked pea and bean seeds in warm water overnight before planting the next day and it seems to me that they come up faster. Other gardeners have men-tioned the same. Just remember that it’s not a deal-breaker, as most gardeners don’t have any problem getting peas and beans to germi-nate.Plant the seeds 1” deep and 4” apart in organically rich soil. That may sound like they’re closely spaced, but they’ll tolerate it -- especially in loamy, prepared soil. Peas do like good air circulation, but positioning their bed in an open area makes up for any cozy spacing. Full sun is ideal, but they’ll tolerate light shade without a problem.

Tending Your Pea PlantsWater your peas regularly until the flowers show up; after flower-ing, peas require a bit more water. By “regularly” I don’t mean over-watering. Just keep them evenly moist because water-logging will slow plant growth, while drought will stress the plant and leave you with a low yield.As far as fertilizing goes, I don’t fertilize my peas much; just some compost and manure tea. I tend to aim for letting them do their thing. If you’d like to fertilize, they can use it most while they’re young plants, as it takes weeks for peas to begin producing their own nitrogen.

The Pea Harvest Harvest snow or sugar peas when they’re 2” to 3” long and before the pods swell. Snap peas should be harvested after their pods swell -- they’ll also snap like a green bean. Shelling peas (English or Garden peas) should be harvested when they’re bright green and have a cylinder shape.No matter which peas you’re grow-ing, pick all of the mature pods as soon as you see them (and they can be hard to spot) so that the plant continues to reproduce. Also, plan on eating them as soon as possible once they’ve been picked; their sugars will begin to be con-verted to starch as soon as they’re off the vine.


life on the homestead column


Every homestead should have an old pickup truck. Something that is painted at least six colors, with two of those colors being rust and primer. The color of the primer can vary, of course.At the Sunshine Sisters Farms, we have got a 1976 Ford F100.It is magnificent.The gas gauge is not entirely accurate, it is a three-speed (on the column, it loses points if it’s on the floor) and it sounds as if at least one spark plug is fouled out.Recently, the truck’s…idiosyncrasies led to a lovely adventure.Like many old trucks, the lovely beast performs several duties.One is hauling trash to the landfill. We recycle like hoarders, but still, every so often a load of trash that can’t be composted, re-purposed, reused, fed to an animal or recycled must be taken to the landfill. (Styrofoam’s the worst, amirite?)And of course, as it is an arduous chore under

Thisold truck

Steven Jones is the Executive Editor of From Scratch Magazine. He also works on the extended family homestead in North Carolina: Sunshine Sisters Farms. Contact him at: [email protected].

By: Steven Jones

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the best of circumstances, the truck must be piled high with all that unusable trash before anyone thinks to haul it off.So, the Sunshine brothers get out there and being the conscientious citizens we are, strap it down with a tarp tied over the top to protect fellow motorists as we drive down the road.For some reason, whenever we haul the trash to the landfill the only tarp we can ever find is about 33 feet too long and possessed of several large tears. I have almost come to view this object with a cer-tain amount of affection.Now, finally after strapping the

load down, we set off on our glori-ous adventure. Being a 1976 Ford F100, it has an amazing suspen-sion. I assume that more than 40 years ago, when it came off the line, it was a firm, solid ride. Now, after years of faithful service to humanity, it creaks and groans and rides with the familiar discomfort of a granny’s lap.As such, any speeds over 50 mph make it feel as if the vehicle will fly apart in some sort of spectacular explosion. The cars on the highway on the way to the landfill express their respect and admiration of seeing such a museum piece still up and running by flying rapidly


past us and sounding off with a staccato of honking horns.We always wave and smile when-ever they do, pleased with bringing a little bit of technicolor to their humdrum and rushed gray lives.On the way, without fail, our tarp flares out behind us, 33 feet of tat-tered cape, no matter how much we tie it down (I think this is the truck’s way of trying to appear faster, but as we cannot impede other drivers, we always pull over to tie it back down) Usually, it only takes stopping twice on the way to the landfill to keep the tarp at a respectable 15 feet. We would not want the old girl to appear too

ostentatious.On the way to the landfill, I try to make up for the lack of a working radio by loudly and tunelessly sing-ing a song about Collard Greens that I am pretty sure my father made up when I was a child. I am not entirely sure, however, as I was 19-years-old before I realized he did not write “Ol’ Slewfoot.” It made me suspicious about the authorship of all those old songs about hunting dogs he bellowed for all the years of my youth.Now, because the truck’s 8-year-old battery has a bad cell, it will not hold a charge. This is the reason we always travel with a booster box to


jump the truck off whenever we turn the engine off. Since we want to get to the landfill before the end of the day, we do not turn the truck off whenever we stop to re-tie the tarp. So one of the younger Sunshine brothers slides over the tattered bench seat, dodging tools and jumper cables and a half-quart of oil that always seems to be in the cab to hold down the brake and clutch while I wrangle the dirty length of nylon cloth on the back.

We are always pleased with our ingenuity and teamwork in this regard. Again, occasionally other drivers express their respect of our abilities by honking whenever they go buy us as we are parked on the narrow shoulder of the two-lane state highway. It truly is an honor to be able to bring such joy to oth-ers.Finally, after about an hour of driv-ing (I am told by reputable sources that the landfill is only 20 minutes away, but as the Sunshine brother most often tasked with making the drive, and only in the old truck, I must take their word on the mat-

ter) we arrive at the landfill.The landfill helpfully provides dumpsters to unload our wares into, which are later hauled off to the landfill proper. The landfill…people, workers, administrators?… have built up a hill to drive to the top of so the dumpsters are at a lower level than the vehicle you have to unload.This is a big help in unloading, but does require some pre-planning when it comes to the old truck. As

one of the eldest Sunshine broth-ers, I believe it is my duty to help the younger generation learn the dignity of work and the joy of labor. So the younger Sunshine brothers who are honored with taking the trip with me get to help unload. I feel the job of unloading a haul of trash is particularly educational for the younger generation.There’s nothing like spending three hours on a Saturday in an unaircon-ditioned truck, listening to a large, crazy and bearded man sing really great songs about collard greens and then unloading a soggy load of trash to hammer home the lesson.

“There’s nothing like spending three hours on a Saturday in an unairconditioned truck, listening to a large, crazy and bearded man sing really great songs about collard greens”


As a result, the younger Sunshine brothers cannot slide over in the bench seat and hold down the clutch and brake to keep the truck run-ning. So the engine is disengaged. And since the emergency brake has not worked since Noriega was captured in Panama, the younger Sunshine brother takes the cinder block we keep in the passenger side floor for the purpose, hops out the truck and runs and puts it under the back tire.Again, we are mightily pleased to have worked out this solution. Homesteading really is all about teamwork.The trash is unloaded and we jump off the truck with the booster box to get it running again. The cinder block is removed where it does double duty as a weight to hold down the errant tarp in the bed of the truck.The trick of having a younger Sunshine brother hold down the clutch and brake is repeated at the booth where we pay the landfill fees.Then begins the trip back to the homestead. Sometimes we stop at a local gas station for soda pop and Little Debbie cakes, which is a very pleasing reward after such a big job.Then we rattle home, where we park the lovely old beast and wait for the next big trip.Since the last trip, we made the decision to purchase and install a battery for the truck. Which will make for a slightly easier trip, but I feel something may be lost in the

experience. Only time will tell. I am sure, however, the lovely beast has some ideas on how to continue to make the trip an adventure.

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America’s Favorite VeterinarianStory By: Melissa JonesPhotos By: Michael Stankevich

Dr. Pol

Dr. Jan Pol, of Nat Geo WILD’s The Incredible Dr. Pol, is rapidly becoming America’s favorite veterinarian.

Dr. Pol, originally from the Netherlands, spent his youth on the family dairy farm before becoming a vet specializing in large animals.

His more than 40 years of farm and animal experience means he has a lot of helpful information for new and experienced farmers, big and small.We recently had a chance to interview Dr. Pol and get some answers to some of the more common questions homesteaders might have.


America’s Favorite Veterinarian

Dr. Pol


What is the number one mistake you see new farmers make?

The number one mistake new Farmers make is that many times they over extend financially. They need to start small and then grow. What is the easiest way to ensure the health of your animals?

The easiest way to ensure the health of your animals is to keep a closed herd. Do not buy and sell animals frequently. If so - vaccinate with a good vaccine. What kind of animals do you have?

We have horses, dogs, cats, chick-ens, peacocks, ducks, chickens, and doves. How important is cleanliness on a farm?

Cleanliness on a farm is very important. When you sell a product, it is very important that it comes from a clean environment.

Is there a difference in the health of animals on larger farms and smaller homesteads?

I don’t see much difference in the health of animals between large or small farms. What are some health problems in livestock that homesteaders and farmers shouldn’t see a vet for?

The health problems in livestock that homesteaders and farmers shouldn’t see a vet for depends on the owner and how much he can diagnose and treat for himself. What do you think has contributed to your success as a vet?

I think that three things have contributed to my success as a vet: hard work, being available 24/7, and being honest.


Many of your family members are farmers. What made you decide to be a vet and not a full-time farmer? As the youngest of six children, there was not a chance that I could get on a farm in The Netherlands. Therefore, I decided to become a large animal veterinarian. In order to practice, it was easier to practice in another country.

Large animal vets are declining in numbers. Why do you think this is?

Many large farms have their own herdsman, so the work for the large animal vet is declining. Also the work is physically harder and the pay lower in most cases than small ani-mal work. What does your ideal retirement look like?

My ideal retirement would include lots of sun, sand, and sea in many different places.

Dr. Pol grimaces as he reaches his hand into the backside of a cow


Diane Pol getting ready to fly fish.

Charles leaps into the icy water dressed as ‘Super Charles’ at the Special Olympics Polar Plunge.

Charles petting an older horse.


Dr. Pol standing with a horse as it dozes off from a tranquilizer.


Dr. Pol’s veterinary practice began in 1981 out of their home. It has grown in the decades since, and now Dr. Pol employs ten people and has served more than 19,000 clients since opening.

Dr. Pol, a large animal vet in the field and a small animal vet in the office. He treats horses, pigs, cows, sheep, alpacas, goats, chickens and the occasional reindeer.

Dr. Pol prides himself on working with family farmers to ensure they remain in business. Known as something of a character among Central Michigan farmers, Dr. Pol works long hours traveling all over with his Dutch accent and signature mustache.

His son, Charles Pol began assisting his father at the age of five. Charles lives part time in Los Angeles, but joins his father to film episodes of the Nat Geo WILD show, The Incredible Dr. Pol. A graduate of the University of Miami, he divides his time between filming the show and working in the entertainment industry.

Watch the new season of The Incredible Dr. Pol on Nat Geo’s WILD (check your local listings) starting on August 16 at 9 p.m. ET


Our family lived in a major city until my oldest child was nine. We then moved to a rural area but rented

for the first four years. Although we couldn’t build the little farm that we dreamed of, I felt it important to prepare for when that dream became a reality—es-pecially for the children.

Lessons from the Homestead reader Wendy asked: We are a family of 8 but we live in down-town Richmond. We do have a yard, but it is not very big. Besides growing vegetables, and canning,

are there other home-steading “things” you can do living in the city? Richmond just passed laws stating we CAN own chickens in the city lim-its, but I would like to do more. Is that possible?

YES, Wendy, it is more than possible!The first place to start is with attitudes. Have you discussed with your kids about where your food comes from? I’m not talking about the garden out back; I’m talking about the farm. If you’re buying your groceries at WalMart, stop it. Support your local farm-ers by going to the farmers’ mar-

By: Carol J. Alexander

Homeschool Columnist

Lessonsfrom theHomestead


ket. Subscribe to a CSA. Buy your animal feed from the mom-and-pop feed store rather than Tractor Supply. Homesteaders sup-port their local community (even if it costs a few more pennies) because they understand the hard work involved in growing that per-fect tomato. Once the kids adopt this sense of commu-nity, teaching them the rest will be much easier.

As I talked about in the last issue, chickens are just one option for keeping animals in the city. You may also consider rab-bits or earthworms or whatever they will allow in your neighborhood. Learning to be responsible for lives besides their own, is important for kids—before getting to the farm.

If you need hous-ing for those crit-ters, don’t go down to the big box store

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and buy a pre-made coop or shed. Get a couple of books out of the library, look at plans, scrounge for scrap lumber and have the kids build their own. Homesteaders are do-it-yourselfers through and through. For some top-notch ideas on self-sustaining ideas for the homestead I recommend the new book Plowing with Pigs by Oscar H. Will, III and Karen K. Will. Don’t let the title fool you. It’s not a book about keeping pigs, it’s about using what you have on hand (even if it is pigs) to get the job done.

Also, have you considered invest-ing in a grain mill? Milling your

own wheat and baking your own bread is the first homesteading skill I tackled from my city home. And if you have six kids, you have plenty of helping hands. Before I could trust my oldest to measure all the ingredients correctly, I had him baking bread. I measured all the dry ingredients for a batch of bread into a plastic bag. I did this once a week—a batch per bag—and stored in the cupboard. Each morning he would dump one bag into the bread maker, add the water, and press the button.

We didn’t have a grain mill until the boys were much older—a hand-cranked Country Living Mill.


Follow LESSONS

FROM THE HOMESTEAD

Homeschooling for 18 years and homestead-ing for 12, Carol J. Al-exander looks for the lessons in every aspect of her family’s home-steading lifestyle. She is the author of a series of e-books entitled Lessons from the Homestead which help parents find those lessons as well.

For More Homeschooling

Information.

Lessons from the HomesteadDown-to-Earth Support for the Homesteading Homeschooler

E-Books • Blog • Newsletter

The boys were responsible each morning to grind the grain to make their bread. Great for a P.E. credit.

While we’re talking food, where does your milk come from? If you can get milk from a farm, do it. Then you can start mak-ing your own butter and cheeses and yogurt. You can also dry your herbs in the oven, grow sprouts, make kombucha and kefir or other fermented foods, grow mush-rooms in the basement, and make your own herbal medicines.

Sewing is another lost art that is now getting lumped into the homesteading camp. Not to men-tion all of the fiber arts like weav-ing, knitting, embroidery. If you don’t know how, find classes in your area and take them with your children.

Another possibility is lawn care. A homestead has a lot of outside maintenance chores. Are your kids taking care of your lawn, trees, and shrubs? If so, great. If not, get them started. Then once they have it down, hire them out to the neighbors. Encourage their entre-preneurial spirit and they will be more willing to do the hard labor that a homestead requires.

These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg, Wendy. Virtually anything you can think of that you do for yourselves, I would classify as a “homestead-y thing.” Just make

sure you involve the kids in all of your projects. That way, when you do get to move to the land, you will already have trained farm hands ready to get to work.

http://lessonsfromthehomestead.com/


C


CEasy PeelHARD-BOILED FRESH EGGS

By:Lesa Wilke

I love hard-boiled eggs (and egg salad and deviled eggs), but very fresh eggs are nearly impossible to peel after hard-boil-ing using the traditional water method. It has taken several years, and many

failed experiments – but I’ve finally found a way to make hard-boiled eggs that can be peeled easily and perfectly from fresh eggs!

Eggs from the grocery store are typically six weeks old before they reach us (so they’re easy to peel when boiled) whereas ours are very fresh (they never last more than a few days after the chickens lay them) so are very difficult to peel.


I tried every method I came across to produce perfect hard-boiled eggs from fresh eggs and, I’ve finally got the answer – steam them instead. It’s always seemed

ridiculous to me that we’ve got the healthiest, freshest eggs – but no way to enjoy them hard-boiled. Here’s the way, and it’s pretty much foolproof!

• Bring a small amount of water to a boil in the bottom of a steamer or pot that you can sit a steaming basket within (you want enough water so that it won’t completely boil away in 20 minutes). Place the eggs in the steaming basket, place the steaming basket in the pot, and cover the pot.

• Steam the eggs for 20 minutes and then put them into ice water until they’re cool enough to peel. Roll each egg on the counter to break up the shell and peel from the wide end of the egg. I’ve also found it helpful to sit the eggs in the steaming basket with the small end down, this causes the air pocket to center in the wide end of the egg and

tends to keep the yolk more centered in the egg.

And the result is perfectly peeled eggs - egg salad and deviled eggs are back on the menu!

rBest deviled

Eggs


Egg salad

Recipesr- 12 extra-large eggs- 1/3 cup good mayonnaise- 2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard- 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill- ½ teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste)- ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)- Steam and peel eggs per directions above. - Coarsely chop the eggs, and add the remaining ingredients. Combine lightly with a fork. Enjoy!

Best deviled Eggs

12 extra-large eggs½ cup mayonnaise2 tablespoons whole milk1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes½ teaspoon dried chives½ teaspoon ground mustard powder¼ teaspoon dried dill weed¼ teaspoon salt¼ teaspoon paprika 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper3 drops tabasco sauce Steam and peel eggs per directions above. Slice the eggs in half (lengthwise), put the yolks in a mixing bowl, and reserve the whites for filling. Mash the yolks well making sure to remove all lumps, and add the remaining ingredients. Mix well to combine. Taste the filling mixture, adjust seasonings if necessary, pipe the yolk mixture into the reserved white halves, and sprinkle with paprika for decoration. Makes 24 servings. *You can substitute fresh herbs for the dried if you have them on hand – simply use triple the amount of fresh herb for the dried. It’s a good idea to make the filling a day or several hours ahead to allow the flavors to blend.


During gardening season, we celebrate every piece of fresh fruit and vegeta-ble grown at 1840 Farm.

We eat as much as we can while it is at its fresh best. We also can, pickle, and freeze our garden har-vest so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor during the long, cold winter. It’s a constant race against time trying to make sure that not a single morsel goes to waste.During summers that include a bumper harvest of zucchini, I like to find ways to include it in savory and sweet dishes. Incorporating shredded zucchini into baked goods isn’t anything new. My mother made zucchini bread every sum-mer when I was a child. Making a zucchini cake with chocolate and

mocha flavor puts a new spin on an old favorite. Zucchini adds an unbelievable moist texture to baked goods without altering the flavor. It can be used as a substitute for oil in cakes and breads with excel-lent, delicious results. This cake is no exception. The flavor is rich, full of chocolate and espresso flavor. The texture is moist and evenly dense.Chocolate Mocha Zucchini Cake is delicious served warm with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. When fresh berries are available, I love to serve it topped with whipped cream and fresh berries straight from our garden. No mat-ter how you serve it, this cake is sure to be a hit with the chocolate lovers at your family table.

aChocolate & ZucchiniA Match Made in Heaven!By: Jennifer Burcke

makes 12 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 ounces (1/2 stick) butter, • melted2 ounces oil• 2 ounces plain yogurt• 1/2 cup (96 grams) gran-• ulated sugar1/2 cup (96 grams) brown sugar• 1 1/2 cups (120 grams) unsweet-• ened cocoa powder1 Tablespoon espresso powder• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract• 8 ounces shredded zucchini (see • note above)3 large eggs• 1 1/2 cups (180 grams) All-• purpose flour1 teaspoon baking soda• 1 teaspoon baking powder• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt• 7 1/2 ounces (1 cup minus 1 • Tablespoon) milk1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar•

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees 1. Fahrenheit and prepare a bundt pan by spraying lightly with pan spray or brushing with melted butter. Place the bundt pan on a baking sheet and set aside as you prepare the batter.In a large mixing bowl, combine 2. the melted butter, oil, yogurt, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix until

ChoColAte MoChA ZuCChini CAke

smooth before adding cocoa powder, vanilla, espresso pow-der, eggs, and zucchini. Stir until the zucchini and cocoa are fully incorporated and the bat-ter is smooth. Add the flour, baking soda, baking, powder, and sea salt and stir until just combined. Add the milk and vinegar and mix until the bat-ter is completely smooth.Transfer the batter to the pre-3. pared bundt pan. Place the cake in the middle of the oven and bake for 50 to 60 min-utes, adjusting baking time as needed. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean or with small crumbs attached.Allow the cake to cool at least 4. 10 minutes in the pan before inverting on a wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature.


a


I’ve never gone out of my way to eat pickles. I admit they make a nice addition to a sand-wich, which in my life

has really been the only set-ting where pickles and I have been acquainted.

But now, I have a garden ... six steps out my back door (there is a slight turn and a

hop over a fence involved, as well, but you get the pic-ture). And, well, anyone who has grown anything in the cucurbit family knows that if you don’t harvest often, you can wind up with a zuc-chini three times the size of your forearm, or a pickling cucumber that may as well be a prickly armrest (I don’t know what this means but it

How to Make PicklesStory and Photos By: Rachel Maxwell


sounds itchy). My husband and partner-in-homesteading, Jon, and I thought we’d only planted one pickling cucum-ber plant, and still after hav-ing composted the plant’s remains, the mystery of exactly how many plants we really had is still up in the air.

You know how all those squash wrap around each

other in one big squash slum-ber party.

Now, with all these baby cucumbers being born into our world everyday, it’s essential that I, as an urban homesteader, do something with them.

I cannot let them go home-less or unacknowledged.

How to Make PicklesStory and Photos By: Rachel Maxwell

DIY on the homestead


So, we’ve been pickling quite a bit, experimenting and play-ing it safe all at once.

Start with fresh cucumbers, within 24 hours of harvesting, or as soon as possible after purchasing. You need:

INGREDIENTS:

Canning jars (sanitized)• 5 1/2 pounds of pickling • cucumbers, rinsed and sliced in quarters5 1/3 cups of water•

Canning/pickling salt• 4 cups of vinegar• 1/6 cup of sugar• Mustard seed • Fresh dill•

DIREcTIoNS:

Fill quart-sized canning jars 1. (sanitize the jars in boil-ing water for 5 minutes) with the sliced cukes, being careful to keep things sani-tary by not handling them with grimy hands Fill up a few jars with the 2. lovely cukes


Add about 2 3. sprigs of fresh dill to each of the jarsAdd a little less 4. than 1 table-spoon of mus-tard seed to each jar as wellAfter adding the 5. dill and mustard seed to each jar, add the solution of 5 1/3 cups of water, 1/3 cup of salt, 4 cups of vinegar, and 1/6 cup of sugar we had boiled while we were doing the above steps. We filled each jar, leaving 1/2 inch from the top (called “head space” in the canning world).After screwing 6. the lids on tight, we were ready to process the soon-to-be pick-les by placing them in a boiling water bath (aka a pot filled with boiling water) for 15 minutes,


making sure the water went 1 inch over the tops of the jarsAfter the 15 7. minutes has passed, carefully remove your jars from the water. Allow to cool on a towel or other surface. Store in a cool, 8. dark place for 4-5 weeks. Then, feel free to enjoy these lovelies!

There are many other ways to make pickles, and this is just one of them that works for us. I invite you to explore the many other methods by doing some research on your own, or using resources like The Homesteading Handbook, which I find very helpful in my homesteading efforts. I hope you enjoy your deli-cious, repurposed cucumbers.


Name of business: Homesteader’s Supply

Your Name: Jerri Bedell

Website address: www.homesteadersupply.com

Business Purpose: Online retail sales of products geared towards folks looking to live a self-sustain-ing lifestyle. My home-grown busi-ness was created from the passion for homesteading, and the desire to live closely with the land, the animals, our friends, and to get back to the lost traditions of old. We provide quality products at

competitive prices with old-fash-ioned friendly customer service.

What is your favorite part of homesteading?

Knowing all the hard work was so well worth it; the pride for having created my own bounty. I remem-ber 30 years ago the feeling of success I had when taking a photo of my very first salad from the bounty of my very first garden.

How did homesteading inspire your business?

Homesteading saved our life! I worked as an staff RN at a

Homesteader’s Supply

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local VA part time (homestead-ing) was my downsizing oppor-tunity after 20 years in nurs-ing, teaching and management. Homesteading became a full-time adventure: Raising animals for meat, milk, and eggs; maintain-ing a large organic garden and learning how to prepare and pre-serve everything. I learned how to make cheese, how to milk the cow, butcher the animals, can the veggies, etc. In the process I tried to find the best equipment to manage these chores – equip-ment that would last. The best example was the milking pail. I searched long and hard for a bet-ter stainless steel pail, and found a manufacturer right here in the US. It was the type of pail that

would last you the rest of your life. Martha Stewart has featured us and our pail twice in her maga-zine. Several friends suggested that with my ability to find these great products, I should start a business selling these products to other homesteaders. That was the beginning of Homesteaders Supply!

What is the most practical piece of advice you would give someone just starting out?

Start small! You don’t have to it all at once. Nothing worse than putting in your first garden that is way too big. Better to put in a small garden and feel a sense of


success with your bounty which will empower you to do a little more next time.

The other piece of advice is to get with other like-minded folks and work together. A community can create more than individuals alone. Each can share in projects, or divide the projects and share the bounty.

What is your favorite animal to raise?

I loved all the animals – how the pigs loved to have their ears rubbed; the cows loving their chins to be scratched; the chick-ens being so industrious helping you clean their coop; how Olive the goat would go on walks with

the family and the dogs and the ducks sliding around on the ice topped pond in winter.

What has been your biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge with home-steading here in Arizona is the weather. Although we are in the mid-mountains of central Arizona and do enjoy four seasons, it is still very dry which makes it more difficult to grow veggies or grass you have to buy good hay, and pay a lot for electricity to pump the water you need for the ani-mals and the garden.

The biggest challenge for the busi-ness has been learning to deal with the competition. Today, you

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don’t make very much profit on products and there are always those businesses that will under-cut you. I have prided myself in building a company where we actually answer the phone or call back fairly quickly. We provide great customer service, and work out deals whenever we can. By selling quality products that last, I feel good that folks won’t have to come back and buy another one and they will be happy to come back and check out any of our other 1500 and more products we carry. We frequently help our cus-tomers with their product, from

making cheese to learning how to milk the cow. If we don’t know about a product, we get the infor-mation for our customers from our suppliers. I’ve created a real cus-tomer service oriented business. It’s really the right thing to do.

What has been the most helpful book you have read?

Chick Days. This book helped me understand raising chickens, and it’s the one book every time I’ve suggested it to a customer that wanted to raise chickens but was


scared to — this book helped them over-come all their obsta-cles and now love their poultry!

What has been the most helpful homesteading product?

The internet! Most folks starting out homesteading have never lived this type of lifestyle and will need help that is not always available locally.

It doesn’t matter what question or problem you have, it’s probably not new! The good news is that there are forums out there on the inter-net discussing all the issues that come up for homesteaders.

It’s the larger com-munity that is shar-ing what they have learned to help oth-ers. Today we don’t have to learn from our own mistakes, we can learn from others and be more success-ful at homesteading.

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Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwich

ingredients:2 pounds of chicken breast 1 medium onion chopped2 clove of garlic minced 1 tablespoon of brown sugar1 tablespoon of paprika 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar 1 cup of apple juice Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup of chicken stock 1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce Kaiser rolls Coleslaw

Directions:Place all of your ingredients in • your slow cooker EXCEPT the chicken stock and BBQ sauce.Cook on low for 6-8 hours. • When the chicken is done cook-• ing, add the chicken stock and BBQ sauce. Shred the chicken and mix the chicken with the sauce and BBQ sauce. Serve the pulled BBQ chicken on a • kaiser roll topped with coleslaw.

enjoy!

our little coop

by emily mcgrath

easy crockpot recipeperfect for fall

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Sometimes, it feels like going gluten free requires a nutri-tional certificate and a degree in biochemistry in order to

understand what, exactly, you are dealing with.

Trust me, it took me a while to not only get the hang of reading labels and understanding foods, but most-ly relearning how to eat...and get-ting out of denial (“but sandwich bread doesn’t count!” yes, it does. So does soy sauce, despite my pro-testations).

I’ve been gluten free for about 8 years officially, and probably a lot longer unofficially. Because once you reach the point where you actually have a name for all these weird symptoms, you’ll actually have already cut out foods that don’t react well with you. I cut out macaroni and cheese before I was 20, besides it being one of my favorite foods when I was in col-lege; I had to cut out bread sticks after I passed out after eating a couple while watching a movie with my husband; and the last bagel

going gluten freeBy: Tamarah Rockwood


It had left me in hives, so that’s gone. By the time I actually had the term “Celiac” to explain what was going on, I was already on the path of going gluten free. I just needed some additional knowledge to help me get there and start recover-ing. Unfortunately, this is when it started getting confusing. I wasn’t raised by nutritionists or chefs, so my ability to pick out food and cook it well was a huge challenge. Long story short, I was tired of “hidden” gluten labeled under dif-

ferent names, or not named at all, and just started cooking everything from scratch.

So this is where it got interesting.

But before we get there, let’s start at the beginning. The first thing a person needs to know when food shopping is that just about every-thing pre-made has wheat/gluten in it (this is a bit of a gross over-generalization, since not every-thing has gluten...but most do, and it’s much safer to say “everything” than “some things”). Be prepared

CeliaC diSeaSe is a condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food that are important for staying healthy.

The damage is due to a reaction to eating gluten, which is found in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats. -National library of Medicine


to become the crazy person read-ing labels on everything in the store, because that will become your life. You’ll start finding gluten in things that really shouldn’t have any wheat in it, and you’ll yell at boxes saying, “why are they put-ting wheat in rice/salad dressing/yogurt?!” Which is a good ques-tion, for the record.

The answer is because it is not only a filler and a thickener, but it adds some nutrients to foods that don’t have much nutritional value. It’s a big commercial thing, and it’s cheap. So start reading labels. Even a little bit of wheat/gluten will affect you. Like soy sauce: you are going to have to find a gluten free

soy sauce. Salad dressings: You are going to have to avoid caesar salads like it is death (seriously, my worst reaction was on a freaking caesar salad). So start checking everything, even if you think you’re sure. Chocolate, ice cream, cereal (even corn flakes), juice, yogurt, bread (obviously), noodles, rice — if it comes in a bag, a box or a bottle, you have to double check.

The second most important thing a person is going to be battling is their habits. People like to eat what is familiar to them, and when you have to change that drastically, it sucks (frankly). Food and eating is part of our lives and part of our cul-


ture, and having to relearn this is annoying on a day-to-day bit, but it also throws us off our personal heritage enough to bug us. You are going to both give up and re-learn eating, and for a while it’s a pain in the neck.

I’m used to it by now, but for the first few months you’re just con-stantly reminded of what is for-bidden, and that gets old fast. Nothing breaded, nothing fried, no doughnuts, no pizza, no regu-lar noodles, no normal hamburg-ers, no corndogs, no sandwiches. She can give GF bread a shot, and there are a few brands out there that make really good GF stuff; but she’s going to have to replace these substitutes for what she’s used to. That just takes patience,

and I have found it takes about 2 or 3 weeks to really get the hang of it, and a few months to own it.

Once you get to this point, you will find something that might be alarming ... and it isn’t: You will find yourself getting hungry more often, which isn’t a side effect of anything.

You are removing the foods that fill and expand, and hunger is going to be surprising. It is important to make sure you think of your meals as a balance of foods that nourish and foods that fill. So, rice and potatoes are very helpful in that area. Snacks are also very help-ful, and I usually recommend high protein snacks like nuts or apples to fill you up and give you some

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pep during the day. And, although you probably already know this, but filling a hungry stomach which is already being deprived of food that it is used to with sugar/junk is just going to make you feel worse. And cranky.

Avoid this, because it is just a slip-pery slope. Fresh food is the best option to good health.

I have been doing 100% gluten free for about 9 years now, and my methods are different than other people’s methods at this point. My road has been through the forests of gluten free bread, the plastic rice cracker aisle and staring long-ingly at pizzas, remembering the good old days.

By now, I make just about every-thing from scratch, because I got absolutely sick of surprises. Nothing ruins a night by laying in bed with shallow breathing, heart palpitations, muscle contractions, flushed cheeks and kicking your-self for not seeing the millionth ingredient on the label. However, when you are beginning this road, do not grab the bull by the horns and tackle it head on: Start slowly, or you’ll get frustrated.

So to start out Going Gluten Free: Begin by replacing your noodles with gluten free noodles (corn, qui-noa or rice noodles are the best), replace your bread with gluten free bread, replace your flour tortillas with corn tortillas, and replace

your breakfast cereal with some-thing gluten free (Chex is a safe bet, if you can’t find anything). Get a taco instead of a burrito; lettuce wrap your hamburger; find the frozen food section with gluten free pizzas and lasagnas. Start by maintaining your current menu and simply replace the gluten foods with some-thing else. This is actually harder than it sounds, but it is the first step to wrapping your head around this whole gluten thing.

Symptoms of CeliaC diSeaSe:

-abdominal pain, bloating, gas, or indigestion-Constipation-decreased appetite (may also be increased or unchanged)-diarrhea-lactose intolerance -Nausea and vomiting-Unexplained weight loss (although people can be over-weight or of normal weight) -National library of Medicine

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From Scratch {life on the homestead} - August/September 2013

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