Self-sufficient syrup

I am a bit of an autodidact. I think if I was not one, I probably would not be living the lifestyle that I live. I have taught myself to use my treadle sewing machine, knit, preserve food, garden, make sourdough, make yogurt. Each year I learn something new.

Not always intentionally.

There was the year when the lamb came head first when it should have come out hooves first. Mark's hand would not fit to pull it out. My hands would fit. So it was up to me. In matters of birth and death on a farm this was a big lesson. We have not tried for farm babies since. But we do hope to join a friend when their sheep lamb this year and learn a bit more about this.

More often or not the lessons come out of necessity or a sense that with a little problem solving I can find a better solution. I learned this lesson recently when I wanted to make something that needed mayonaise. But we didn't have any. More often than not I ask myself what did folks do before there were grocery stores? I was able to find a recipe in a couple of my cookbooks. Egg, vinegar, oil and a little mustard powder. The texture is not the same as store bought mayo but for what I needed that day it was just right.

Often the lessons end up saving me money in the long run. Organic store bought yogurt costs about 4.00 a quart. If I make the yogurt myself it costs about 1.75 a quart including cultures. And I can be assured that the milk is from a local farm.

The recent cold that has resided in our home presented a chance to learn something new. Last year we started using elderberry syrup. I was able to buy it through Associated Buyers last year. It was about 7.00 a bottle and a little more affordable than at the local healthfoods store. I was not able to take it because it had echinacea in it. MS does not react well to echinacea. I have a couple of elderberry plants but they are not mature enough to produce enough berries to do much with. Well, when we started getting sick I went to the healthfood store to find some syrup for my guys. They did not have any syrup but they did have lozenges. Pricey. 15.00. But they also had dehydrated elderberries for 3.43.

Why couldn't I make my own syrup? I found this recipe for elderberry syrup. So instead of 7.00 or 15.00 I spent 4.00 and the quantity was much greater than the amount of syrup that was in the purchased bottle. Also, because I can make it without echinacea, I can take it too. Hopefully I will have some elderberry from my plants this year. If I do then I will only have to buy the honey.

For me, this is what being self-sufficient means. I will never be able to provide everything for my family. But in large ways, like my garden, and small ways, like with mayonaise, I provide better quality than store bought. I am saving my family money. And I am learning something new.

Pretty cool.

Challenge updates. IDC, Real Food and One small Change

We have been enjoying a long stretch of sunny weather. Clothes are hung outside, sap is boiling down, and the snow is nearly off the garden. It seems early in the season to see the whole garden free of snow. The yard still has small patches of snow and if they clear by the end of the week we will get rakes out and start cleaning up from winter. Beet greens that are hidden under row cover and plastic will be revealed today and hopefully by the end of the week we will be able to have some fresh greens.

My one small change for the month has been mend clothes and darn socks. This past week, I gave an old skirt some new life. I had this denim skirt that I found at the Goodwill. I wore it last spring, but there was something about it that just wasn't working for me. I decided that it was just a little too long. So, I cut about 2 1/2 inches off it and added a little calico hem to it. This week I will mend those holey pants...I swear!

This week in Real Food challenge in my effort to get rid of the refined sugar, I made a carob fudge from Sally Fallon's, Nourishing Traditions. It was made with raw honey,butter and carob powder. A friend had given a large bag of carob powder last year and it was nice to find a use for this. The fudge was yummy and definitely a treat. I put a little stash in Mark's bag of food for the week and snuck some in the freezer to bring out later because we don't need to have all that sweet in our everyday.

It is nice to have the focus of the Independence Days Challenge again. Many of the things that are part of the challenge are things we are already doing, but thinking of the challenge spurs me to think and act to explore more deeply about what we are doing.

Plant: broccoli, lettuce, sunflowers, nasturtiums. Evan helped me to plant the seeds this past week. At three, he seems much more engaged in this activity and reminds me when the seeds need to be watered. He is excited to see the small sprouts that poke through the soil.

Harvest: Maple sap, ten gallons a day for a week.

Preserve: 1 gallon,1 quart and 2 pints maple syrup

Waste not: repurposed the skirt.

Want not: I baked bagels on Friday so that we could bring our lunch with us when we went to Portland. Saving us some money. Hubby and I are close to reaching our financial goal for moving out to Farmington. We will know by mid April if he will be rehired for next school year.

Local Foods: Not much this week. The car I use had some mechanical issues so I did not drive anywhere last week. We just managed with what we had on hand.

Eat the food: Carob fudge.

Challenge Updates. IDC, Real Food and One small Change

What a beautiful weekend we had! The weather was warm and sunny. The nights were cool and clear. The sap is really running. We collected 20 gallons this weekend and spent most of the weekend boiling it all down, alas we have no finish product yet. Mostly, because in the three years we've been sugaring we have never had this much sap at once to process..and it is still flowing...

So, I've been pondering what I could do in the Real Food Challenge that would move us closer to a real food diet. We eat a lot of local food, we cook from scratch, we put up a lot of food but one thing we could do is remove refined sugar from our diet. In my cupboard is a gallon of black strap molasses, 5# pounds of raw local honey, and soon, hopefully, at least 2 or 3 gallons of maple syrup and...5 pounds of white sugar and some store bought brown sugar. White sugar is mostly from genetically modified sugar beets. It is far from locally sourced ( well neither is the molasses but I need the extra iron it provides) and really it doesn't provide any extra dietary benefits as the other sweeteners do. Both Mark and I come from families with type 2 diabetes. Although we eat a good diet and exercise and do not have any weight issues, we could be kinder to our pancreases.

Two other things I would like to learn to do this month is lact0-fermentation. I am going to use this book. I also would like to make a sourdough starter. I have tried a couple times and the results have been sad.

As for good food, I made a yummy dinner last night. Onion tart with goat cheese. I used the recipe in this book that I received for Christmas. I also roasted some root veggies, sauteed some cabbage and apples with ginger and made homemade french bread. We had a glass of local wine with dinner. We shared the meal around an oil lamp. It is something Mark and I used to do when we first were coupled and fell out of the habit. But I just thought that we should take one meal a weekend and make special .

Okay, so my One Small Change for the month of March was mending. This was tackled on Saturday when I darned 3 pairs of socks while sitting outside. I feel sock rich now and Mark is now wearing the first pair of socks I made for him again.

Finally, the Independence Days Challenge got off to a great start this past week and I am really looking forward to this challenge this year.

Plant Something: I bought some growing medium for starting some seeds this week so the intention is there, the action shall follow...

Harvest Something: 30 gallons maple sap. The snow has melted off the parsnips and jerusalem artichokes but the ground is still frozen so soon we will have spring roots!

Preserve Something: We are boiling the sap down but we don't have syrup yet. 1 quart of vanilla extract started.

Waste not/Managed Reserves: Darned those socks! Started to muck out the sheep and put it in the compost bins. Tidied pantry. started 2 quarts of apple cider vinegar from some old apples.

Want not: We got our bulk food order this past week. So we have a full stock of staples now.

Build community food systems: Local eggs, local meat, local apples, local goat cheese, MOO milk!

Eat the food: I made American chop-suey from the meat, Frittata from the eggs and the goat cheese went on the onion tart.

Well, phew, it seems like a lot, but all the challenges work well together

Okay, Really..another Challenge?..Oh okay...

Just a quick posting here to share this challenge.

We don't eat processed foods but, given that our food stores are low, it would be easy to fall back into some bad habits. This seems like a great challenge for me because it takes much of what we are doing here and delves deeper. And given the food fatigue that settles in this time of year before the new greens are on our plate, parsnips are freed from their winter mulch and I am daydreaming of new peas while I play in the soil, this challenge can stir things up;)