This Year's Resolution - Be Kind To Myself

This picture has nothing to do with
today's blog, it just makes me happy.

    The last few years I decided to not make a New Year's Resolution.  It seems a little silly when you make the same resolution every single year "This year I resolve to get more organized".  In theory the resolution is a great tool to self improvement.  To make a good resolution you need to be in tune with who you are.  It means that you are really looking at yourself examining the dark, and hopefully looking at what you do that's great.  I think that its something that we all should really do.  Have you ever met someone who's self image is so out of whack with reality?  I know of so many people who would tell you that they need to think about themselves more, but in reality they are some of the most selfish people that I know.  Some people's self image is more along the lines of their wish list, instead of reality.  The person who they would like to be, is who they say they are (delusional, but I suppose on the right track if only they would take the right steps to make it reality).

   This year I am not going to make a resolution, but a pact with myself.  Sometimes the universe whispers in your ear when you are ready to listen.  I have shared this before, but I am a bit of a martyr.  I am a mother and I take that calling very seriously.  I feel that it is a sacred calling for me.  I know that sounds very over dramatic, but it's true.  Somehow in this sacred calling I have confused being a good mother with being a Nun (except for the sex thing, I think with 5 kids, we know that though).  Somehow I have confused being a good mother and wife with giving everything away and leaving nothing for myself.  On the odd occasion that I do take something for myself I feel guilty and like a bad person, oh I know it's messed up.  I suppose I learned by example.  My mother never really took for herself, maybe I figured that's what it means to be a mother.  It is so bad that for my birthday when Christopher's Mom sends me money for my birthday she usually writes a big note in the card that says "DO NOT SPEND THIS ON THE KIDS!   THIS IS TO BUY YOU SOMETHING!"

   I have often heard it said that you need to put into play the rules of the airplane.  On a plane, flight attendants remind parents that if the plane cabin loses pressure, you should apply your oxygen mask first, and then your child's.  If you pass out before you get your child's mask is on, you're both in trouble.  It's also kind of the rules of life.  I have shared with you before that I am by nature a martyr.  I give and give thinking it almost Godly, but then I resent it when I have nothing!  I resent that no one is appreciative that I have given everything, and kept nothing, and yet why should they?  If that is all the kids have ever known and all my husband has ever known of me, why would they notice?  If I give everything I have, then what do I have left to give?  If I feel worthless, then what message am I giving my children? I am teaching my girls that is how a good woman is, and I am teaching my son that is how to treat a woman.  I have slowly begun to make small changes to rectify this, but change is difficult.  It is not easy to change deeply rooted behaviors.

    I realized recently when we all had the stomach flu that changes needed to put into place, I think that is what really hammered home my resolution / pact.  We all had the flu at one time, but my husband lay in our bed, while I walked around holding a bucket to throw up in while I cleaned the kids up, and got them all drinks, and medicine.  I did loads of sheets and towels in the washing machine, all while holding that bucket, all the while my husband was able to get well.  By the next day everyone was feeling a lot better,  and was able to be up and about.  Christopher thought it odd that I still felt awful.  I explained to him that while everyone else had the flu and was able to sleep and be taken care of, I had been on my feet.  It was that little ding that went off.  I will grant you that this is an extreme case, but I should not have to come last.

    There are days that at dinner time I am starving, and it is only then that I realize that I have forgotten to eat that day.  I get so busy looking after everyone else, that I forget to look after myself.  Christopher has been known to shout to me as he's leaving "Remember to eat today!"  Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?  I am an overweight person, anyone that heard him say that would think that he was either a crazy man or chubby chaser.  If I looked after my children the way that I look after myself, Children's Aid would have taken them a long time ago.  If I would NEVER treat my children (or anyone else for that matter) the way that I treat myself, then why would I treat myself like that?  

    This year I vow to be kinder to myself.  I need to treat myself the way that I treat my children, with love.  It is not going to be easy to break old habits, but I think I may be worth the effort.  I'm not saying that I should put myself above anyone else, but perhaps I should sometimes not be at the very, very bottom.  This year I am going to be good to myself, and if I am good to myself, then I will have more to give (at least that's my theory).

Reklaw Farms - Community Supported Agriculture

This is taken from reklawfarmcsa.blogspot.com

    As promised, here is more information about the Walker's farm (remember yesterday's "Hunt's / Walker's Corn".)  As anyone who is a regular reader of mine, you know how I feel about whole foods. If we could afford to do so, I would only feed my family organic whole foods, that we had purchased locally.  I think that it is really important to know where your food comes from.  There is also something to to be said for eating what your local farmer feeds to his/ her children.  It just stands to reason that he / she is only going to feed his / her family the very best, therefore feeding your family the very best!

    Yesterday I was discussing my addiction to corn.  I also shared that in speaking to Verna Walker, I discovered that her family was transitioning to Hunt's corn.  She had mentioned their "Community Supported Agriculture".  I was intrigued.  The way this system works is that you essentially buy a share in the farmer's stock.  You gamble what they gamble, but without the back breaking work.  You purchase a share, and in return, at harvest time, your share is returned in produce.  I LOVE this concept.  

    I am by nature a super lazy person.  I love the "idea" of my own vegetable garden.  I have in years past planted said garden.  In the late spring I am super excited about all of the amazing vegetables I will produce.  I was super excited to see the little seedlings struggling through the earth.  I would water them religiously, until that is I became bored with it, which was within the first month.  I am lazy!

I really love the idea of feeding my family fresh, from the earth produce, I just don't care for all of the work required in doing so.

    You may be asking yourself, why would I buy a share in a farm, when I can just as easily go to my grocery store and buy my produce for the same price?  Good question.  How do you think that produce got to the grocery store?  How many trucks did those carrots ride in before arriving at your home?  When were those carrots picked?  For that matter, where were they grown?  Not all countries use such strict pesticide policies as ours.  When we were in Florida and picked oranges, this question about what I was feeding my family became more pronounced.  On our family trip to Florida, we stopped to pick Oranges at an Organic Citrus Grove.  The oranges we picked were not orange, but mottled with orange and browns and greens.  They were the most delicious, most juiciest oranges I had ever in my life tasted.  The oranges that we purchase in the stores have essentially been painted orange to make them more attractive.  Who knew that?  Apples are coated in red tinted wax to help them to look more attractive, and to give them a longer life.  Do you see my point?  These fruits are still really good for you, I'm not saying that they are not.  I am saying why would you want these unnecessary extras in your food?

     The other important reason to purchase directly from your local farmer, is really a very simple reason... taste.  Fresh tastes so much better.  A potato that has just been dug that day, or better yet within the hour of eating it, tastes night and day different from that same potato two days later.  The tastes are more pronounced.  The other part of that is the fresher the produce is, the better that it is for you.  If you think about vegetables as living things, which they are, then as soon as you pick them they are beginning to die.  Every minute off the vine / plant  they loose their nutrients. We eat vegetables for their taste, and their nutrients... so fresh is best!

    I realize that I am sounding a little preachy, o.k. a lot preachy.  I just really feel strongly that we need to support our local farmers.  Without farmers we don't have food!  So many farmers are no longer able to just farm.  They have to farm, and have a second job to support their families.  It seems criminal that these hard working people should have do this.

    My family plans to purchase a share in Reklaw Farms this winter.  Last year the cost of a share was $500.00.  The $500.00 entitles you to 16 weeks of produce.  That is only $31.25 a week!  Shares must be purchased by April.  That is perfect, because it is in line with our income tax rebate.  Come the summer it will feel like we are receiving free baskets of produce every week ( feel like free because it will have been ages ago that we purchased our share).  The Walkers do not use chemicals or pesticides on their garden.  Instead they plant heirloom, hardy plants that have stood the test of time.  For a mere $31.25 I will be feeding my family good whole foods, that contain no pesticides of chemicals.  The bonus is that it will feel like Christmas every week for 13 weeks!

    To find out information about Reklaw Farms go to their website and take a peek for yourself, 

or visit Verna's own blog.

reklawfarm.wix.com

reklawfarmcsa.blogspot.com

Hunt's / Walker's Corn

    In the cold of winter I dream of corn.  Corn is one of my addictions.  In the winter months when I can find corn I make do.  I add a table spoon of sugar, and a quarter of a cup of milk to the water I boil it in.  It improves the lackluster taste, but it does not recreate Hunt's corn in the summer.  There are many farmer's selling corn, and they are good enough, but they are no Hunts, oh no they are no Hunts.

    Come mid July, I begin to eagerly anticipate the arrival of that beautiful  bright yellow shed.  That shed signifies the beginning of corn season.  When I see that yellow shed I begin to get the sweats (like they describe junkies on TLC's Intervention).  My mouth begins to water ( I know I have problems.  I mean I don't drink, I don't smoke, I just Jones for Hunt's corn).  I begin my fantasies of corn bathed in butter, lightly dusted with salt and pepper... ohhhhhhhhhhhh.  

    We have been going to Hunt's corn for as long as I can remember (that's not necessarily a long time, I have really pathetic long term memory).  I have been fooled a few times, enough times that I have learned a valuable lesson.  Sometimes you will see corn for sale, fill a bag for $2.00.  Guess what, you get what you pay for!  Hunt's corn seems to be a special type of sweet corn, because no one else sells anything like it.  I remember a few years ago my mother-in-law came to stay with us for a few days.  She is former farm girl (when she was a girl her parent's farmed).  She loves corn on the cob! For years we have told her about Hunt's corn, and that it is the world's best.  She gave us that little "poor little idiots", smile.  You know that smile akin to "whatever you say sweet heart".  Upon finishing her tenth cob (o.k. I'm not certain it was really ten.  Ten sounds better for dramatic effect, it was probably really more like two), she declared "This is the best corn I have ever eaten!".  I then got that "I told you so" smile, akin to "IN YOUR FACE, IN YOUR FACE", and told her I was glad she had enjoyed it.

    The bright little yellow shed has been sitting at the side of the road, teasing me for a while.  Last week Christopher came home from work and told me that "Hunt's Corn is open!!!!!!!"  I then berated him and asked why he hadn't brought any home.  Every single day for the last week we have been eating fresh beautiful corn!  I am in heaven.  If heaven exists, I am pretty sure that there are mountains of sweet corn, and rivers of butter to dip it in.  I know... I have a problem.

I make several different butters for corn.
This one is fresh chives,  parsley and dill, mixed with salt and pepper.
 I also mix powdered barbecue rub into the butter.

    Today I went to buy the corn.  In the bright little shed was not a member of the Hunt family, but a very nice lady named Verna Walker.  Verna told me that they were transitioning ownership.  My first instinct was "but only the Hunt's know the secret magical seeds".  I then gave my head a shake when Verna told me that they had grown the corn on their own farm.  I remember that I had been eating the corn for a week now, and was still very much in love with it.  Denny Hunt had helped them pick out the corn, and recommended a number of things to help their corn business.  I then exhaled knowing I was in good hands.

    Verna, her husband Will, and their three kids run their family farm, Reklaw Farm.  I was telling her how much I enjoy fresh straight from the farm produce, but was too lazy to plant and maintain my own garden (too lazy is really being too kind to myself.  I would not last two minutes in the Amish community).  Verna was telling me about their community garden.  I was intrigued.  I could pay into their farm, and receive a "share" of the harvest, all while sitting on my lazy butt!  I LOVE THIS CONCEPT!  

  I went to the Hasting's Harvest website, and copied this information for you about Reklaw Farm.  It makes excellent sense.  I will find out some more information from Verna, and report back to you.  In the mean time, if you find yourself in the Tweed area, go and buy the world's greatest corn (they are right across from the Tim Horton's, you can't miss it)!  If you are not in our area, do yourself a favour and go seek out a local farmer for your needs.  For those of you who only buy from your grocery store produce isle, you are in for a really great treat.  Food tastes so much better when it is straight from the ground.  You know what they say "Farmer's Feed Cities", "If you ate today, thank a farmer".

Reklaw Farm Community Supported Agriculture

Know your farmer

 You have a dentist to care for you teeth and a family physician to care for your health. Do you have a farmer to provide local healthy produce  for you and your family? If you are concerned about what you are eating the first step is to, know your farmer.

Community Supported Agriculture is a community of individuals that pledge support to a local farmer. In return the farmer grows vegetables and or meat products to be distributed to its supporters. Many supporters of CSA are concerned with food safety. Shares are purchased at the beginning of the growing season. Clients receive a weekly basket of the freshest vegetables. The client and farmer share the rewards as well as the risks.  There are things out of the farmers control such as extreme weather and pest infestations. We will endeavor to grow a variety of vegetables from early June to early October. We will do as much as we can to ensure a bountiful harvest.

We would like to be your farmer.

Full shares will feed a family of four. Half shares will feed a couple or a single person that eats a lot of vegetables. Some vegetables our clients enjoyed last year are:  lettuce, spinach, kale,cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons,zucchini, squash, potatoes,broccoli,radishes, carrots, onions, parsnip,kohlrabi, leeks, celery, swiss chard, peas, beans.

Pick up at the farm will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the early evening. Local delivery will be available for $5.00 per week.

We do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers. We instead use crop rotation, row covers, and hand weeding.

We will also be offering pasture  raised chicken, pork and turkey  this year.

This summer will be very exciting for us for another reason. We are going to be growing sweet corn. Our sweet corn will be available at various corn huts in the area. We will also have wholesale sweet corn. So if you are thinking about having a corn roast this summer give us a call ahead of time for wholesale pricing.

Lastly we have a growing herd of Irish Dexter cattle.

Home Made Ice-Cream

I just noticed that Rowan is still wearing is PJ shirt, really nice.

    Yeah the nice weather is here!!!  That means one thing... homemade ice-cream!   As soon as it became short weather my kids began to bug me "When are you going to make ice-cream, when are you going to make ice-cream?"  Homemade ice-cream has become a summer tradition at our house.  I love homemade ice cream for a few different reasons.  The obvious reason is that it is delicious.  Here is the most important reason that I love homemade ice-cream.  I happened to have a carton of Nestle Parlour Chocolate & Banana.  No where on the package does it say "ice-cream".  I just looked at the ingredients... modified milk ingredients, sugar, milk ingredients, chocolate ripple (sugar, water, condensed skim milk, glucose, hydrogenated coconut and soybean oils, cocoa, salt carragenan, artificial flavour, potassium sorbate), glucose, coconut oil, cocoa, mono-and diglycerides, propylene glycol monostearate, cellulose gum, carob bean gum, carrageenan.  Artificial flavour, colour.  May contain peanuts and tree nuts.  Are you frightened?  I am.  Guess what's in my chocolate banana ice-cream?  Cream, whipping cream, sugar, bananas and cocoa powder, and vanilla.  I rest my case.

    It's really easy to make, although not cheap to make.  The most important ingredient to good homemade ice-cream is a good ice-cream maker.  I did not know this when I began ice-cream making.  My first ice-cream maker was a sunbeam.  It made good ice-cream, or so I thought.  It broke, and I purchased a Cuisinart brand ice-cream maker.  The Cuisinart cost me $40.00, worth every penny of it.  After reading the "Ben and Jerry Ice-Cream Book", I discovered the difference.  Better ice-cream has more air in it.  I don't know why that is, I just know that it is.  

    When I was a little girl my parents raised goats.  My Mom would go out and milk the goats, then strain the cream off of the top.  We also bought fresh milk from a local farmer ( a BIG no no today), and the cream would separate to the top, and could be easily skimmed off.  That cream went to making homemade butter, and homemade ice-cream (where ever could I have developed my need to make food  from scratch).  Back in the old days we had this big wooden ice-cream maker.  We put ice around the outsides, and then sprinkled it with rock salt.  I know that the middle canister had a motorized churn, I just don't remember what it looked like.  Thankfully my ice-cream maker is not like that at all.  I freeze my outer part in the freezer for 24 hours, and then we are good to go.

    I mix in a mixing bowl, 2 cups of whipping cream, 1 cup of half and half (you can reverse these if you like), 3/4 of a cup of sugar, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.  I whisk them together and then pour them into the ice-cream maker.  It takes about 20 minutes to make the ice-cream.

    For this batch of ice-cream I made S'mores ice-cream.  I melted marshmallows in the microwave, then added it to the ice-cream about 15 minutes into the mixing.  I broke up squares of chocolate, and crumbled bits of graham crackers into it.  It was a hit!

    I love that my ice-cream creations are limited only to my imagination.  I love experimenting.  Some of our favourite ice-creams to date are maple walnut (I mixed in a can of sweetened condensed milk and real maple syrup, with walnuts), and apple pie (I cooked apples in the oven with cinnamon until they were soft.  I put them in the freezer to cool, then added them.  Chocolate orange ( I melted chocolate and added orange extract).  So far we have not had any duds.  It's lots of fun to experiment, and the kids love to watch me make it, and they like to sample my creations even more.

    So what are you waiting for, go out and get yourself an ice-cream maker and have some fun!

Vicki's Veggies

    We were heading home from our "Great Cheese Factory Tour" in Milford when we saw a sign for "Vicki's Veggies".  For those of you in the know (just ask my nephew Matthew) I LOVE asparagus.  I will drive for ages (just ask Matthew) to purchase farm side asparagus.  There was a little chalk board sign at the end of the road listing their veggies of the day, I needed no further nudging, we were on an adventure.  We did not have to travel down the road very far when we came upon the adorable white and green structure, with another cute little chalk board sign.

    The vegetables seemed to have been pre-washed and trimmed and packed into plastic bags in a cooler.  There was also a peg board full of dried herbs (which as you can see caught my Mom's attention).  There were so many different types.

    There was also a cooler filled with frozen soups.  What a great idea.  Prince Edward County is a huge tourist destination because of the Sand Banks Provincial Park, and also because there are a lot of cottages in the area.  How great would that be for a cottager to pick up a fresh soup for their holiday lunch, or really anyone for that matter.

    I was intrigued by this sign.  I wanted to find out more about it.  I found their website vickisveggies.com and investigated.  "Veggie- Bucks" allow the customer to become a share holder.  Vicki's Veggies is a community Shared Agriculture.  "The CSA model helps re-connect people with the land that sustains them and gives share holders the benefit of knowing how and where the food they eat was grown."-Vicki's Veggies.  In other words by purchasing "Veggie -Bucks" you provide fresh vegetables from the farm for your family (giving them added nutrition and no added chemicals), and you provide start up money for the farmer who is going to feed your family.  There is something to be said for farm fresh.  In the summer we try to eat food that has come from as close to our home as possible.  There is nothing quite so delicious as new potatoes that have been dug from the earth within hours of eating them.  There really is no difference.  Really that goes for all foods.   As soon as that vegetable / fruit comes off the plant they begin to loose their taste and nutrients.  We are extremely fortunate that we live in a small, agricultural area.  I can purchase my meat and vegetables and fruit from local people.   

    I really appreciated the trust system.  If anything it makes me more honest!

    One of the things that I noticed the most was the intoxicating fragrance that surrounded me.  It was heavenly.  I looked around, trying to decide where the smell was coming from, and what the smell was.  It was Lilly of The Valley, and it was growing thick across the road from us.  My Nana loved Lilly of the Valley.  When I smell it, I always think of her (I'm not sure why it took me so long to place that smell).  In a silly way it was like Nana was there with us.

    If you find yourself in Milford, then go to Vicki's Veggies.  If you're not then go to your local farmer's market and support your local farmer.  You know what they say, "Farmers Feed Cities".

Please feel free to add in the comments local farmers that sell their vegetables

 at farmers markets or at their farms.

It just takes a minute to hit that pink button, and put me into the top 10!

My All Natural Cleaning Arsenal

   I grew up the daughter of a granola loving, health store regular, mother.  The other kids at school took Joe Louis to school for snacks, I took oatmeal cookies, and if we were really good girls, mom would put carob chips in them for a treat.  The other kids ate Kraft Peanut Butter, we had to skim the oil off of the top of the ground peanut peanut butter.  The other kids ate Flintstone vitamins, we ate ones the size of a pillow that mom got at the health food store.  I could not wait until I grew up and could eat junk food, like all of the other kids.
    When I had my own children my resentment for everything healthy began to melt away.  In many ways I have become my mother (minus that nifty bandana thing she wore on her head, and the bell bottom jeans).  I make most of my food from scratch, to save money and because I like to know what my children are eating.  I draw the line at carob chip cookies, but different strokes for different folks.  I am now really coming around to natural cleaners.  I think if they are toxic to germs then what are they to us?

    I have really been noticing on my beautiful new obsession, Pinterest that there are a lot of entries about "8 uses for vinegar".  I really am not a fan of the smell of vinegar, and so I tend to shy away, even if it is wonderful.  I instead reach of my fresh smelling, naturally bleaching, natural antiseptic lemon juice.  I am also a BIG fan of baking soda.  I keep my baking soda in a Tupperwear shaker, and another one in larger Tupperwear container to refill my shaker.
  Bathtub scrub -  In my upstairs bathroom I keep a large preserve jar full of a mixture of equal parts baking soda with coarse salt.  This makes the best bathtub cleaner.  For really bad soap scum (for when I have been lazy) I like to mix the baking soda / salt with lemon juice.  I make a paste of it, then scrub scrub scrub.  This works really great for cleaning the top of the stove also.  The salt is a great abrasive and like I said, the lemon juice is a natural bleaching agent.
  Microwave Cleaner -   To clean my microwave I put a cup of lemon juice and water in the microwave and zap it for 5 minutes.  Let it cool a bit, then wipe away.  It makes the microwave smell great and you don't need to wash the chemicals off, because there are none!
   Laundry freshener -   I recently purchased some Borax so that I could make "goop" with the kids.  I read on the box that it was a "natural freshener".  It just so happened that a certain little girl was on a real bedwetting streak, and I had some not so great smelling sheets that needed cleaning.  Normally I add a healthy dose of Lysol to pee sheets, but I thought I would put Borax to the test.  I have a new love!  Not only did the sheets not smell like urine, they smelled like I had just brought them in from the clothes line.  Not only that, they felt softer, not only that, they looked brighter.  So I have stumbled upon an ancient product that is naturally occurring that seems to be a miracle.  I just did a load of grimy socks.  I try not to bleach them too much because it breaks down the fibers, so my socks have a little bit of a grey ting to them.  I decided to do a little experiment.  I soaked the socks in the washing machine with a healthy dose of Borax for 15 minutes.  I added lemon juice to the rinse cycle.  I then rewashed them because my family has really sensitive skin.  The socks are now white.  I think I'm in love.
   Removes baked on food - Last night I discovered pure magic.  I had made sausages for dinner.  I baked them in my stone wear lasagna dish which I love.  It is however not that easy to clean baked on food off of it.  I tried another experiment last night.  I sprinkled baking soda really thick in the dish, then poured apple cider vinegar ( I know I'm a hypocrite, but the apple cider vinegar does not smell as bad as white vinegar).  I let it sit overnight.  This morning I did not expect anything.  I figured that I would have to scrub until my arm fell off to get the baked on food off.  So I emptied the dish into the sink, and the baked on food, all slid out.  I could not believe my eyes!  This is a WONDERFUL trick that I will use in the future.

   I am now going to do a lot more experimentation with natural cleaners.  So if you hear about a house explosion in Tweed, that would probably be me.