Project Garden: Fundraising

This year's Garden Goals were to build raised beds!

One large one in Mariah's yard since she gets full sun!

And one smaller one in my backyard since I get partial sun.

However, this year my dad and step mom are going in on the gardens too so that we can all share the produce! A couple other ladies from church are hoping to reap the benefits of the harvest as well. 

We looked at our calendars and laid out a plan for the month of May. 

Covered in prayer, we dedicated one weekend to a yard sale, one weekend to purchasing and planning the materials for the beds, and one weekend to building and planting.

We purged our homes (which I LOVE doing!!) and had a huge yard sale!

My oldest children and I spent time preparing lunches and dinners to last over the course of the yard sale. Everything was packed up and ready to grab and go.

In the morning we headed over to Mariah's house and we would either all have a worship time together, or we'd just pray and dedicate the day to the Lord.

Our prayer was to make $300-$500 AND be able to preach the gospel to those coming through the sale.

We made $350!

AND We got to share the gospel to a number of customers as well as lay hands on one in prayer and give her a Bible! The work the Lord did was amazing!

My other sister and her family came in town and we all (including my two little brothers and parents) got to just fellowship at my sister's house after we all tore down the garage sale things. 

Our husbands are all so graciously doing what they can to help as well. My brother-in-law is doing some side jobs for extra cash, my husband is giving plasma for extra cash, and my dad is selling some things online for some extra cash. 

Our next step is to purchase materials and build the beds (this is the guys job)!

We also need to pray over and purchase what plants or seeds we are to grow this season.

Lord willing, we will produce and afford enough to provide for our needs and the needs of others!

Here's me, my two sisters and two brothers :)

Fermentools Review!!

Fermenting food has been around for a LONG TIME!

Before refrigerators were around, fermenting food was one of the ways that food was preserved.

We now know the health benefits that come along with fermenting food.

I'm not going to explain all those benefits (you can read about them online), but I am going to talk about how and why we ferment as a family as well as some pretty cool simple equipment from Fermentools that has become a regular part of our lives!!

We ferment foods primarily because it's a cheap way to get probiotics into our diet. I cannot afford to put all my 6 children on probiotics so fermenting foods right on our counter top is the next best solution. All it takes is salt and water!

We also ferment food because I garden and don't want all the food I get to go to waste. When I have a large harvest of bell peppers, carrots, hot peppers, cucumbers ect, fermenting these fresh vegetables adds an extra kick to them that simply canning or freezing doesn't do. It captures the freshness and adds to the health value. 

We ferment foods because it adds depth and flavor to basic meals. Fermented habanero sauce, fermented tomato salsas, fermented raw milk sour cream, fermented spicy sauerkraut and so many more all add something different when placed on the dish at hand. 

We ferment foods because it's an incredible learning/home-educating experience. My kids get to see the changes food goes through when the natural bacteria in the environment start to break down the sugars and starches in our food. They get to physically see a loaf of sourdough bread rise, a glass of milk cultivate into kefir, and cucumbers turn into probiotic rich pickles!

We ferment foods because it brings culture to my children. Something American's have lost tremendously is our culture and roots when it comes to so many things including our knowledge and appreciation of real, living food. All our food is so processed and tastes so different then it used to. We aren't concerned with preserving foods and think it's just too much work to take that extra step to freshness and health. I really want my children to appreciate working the ground, growing the food, preserving the food and creating some amazing dishes to share with friends and family. 

Fermentools is a resource that got our family excited about fermenting about a year ago. We were gifted their 6-pack kit as well as a couple packs of the Himalayan Powder Salt. We've been experimenting and using these resources over the last six months and I must say, these tools (as far as our experience goes) guarantees a perfect ferment every single time!

A simple starter kit from Fermentools includes the following elements:

(1) Stainless Steel Lid: this lid fits all wide mouth mason jars perfectly.

(2) Glass Fermenting weight: This is by FAR my favorite part of this kit! It weighs whatever you're fermenting down perfectly keeping your produce well below the brine and ensuring you don't have any mold growth on the top of your ferment!

(3) Air Lock System with Gasket and Rubber Stoppers: This allows gasses to escape your jar, but keeps everything else from entering your ferment.

(4) Hymalain Posder Salt: a specifically chosen salt for it's high mineral content. 

Here you can see all the products we received:

Fermentools also offers a blog that has lots of recipes, tips, and encouragement in your fermenting journey. 

Fermenting is truly an art as well as a science. The combinations and flavors are endless. There are so many more tastes, sauces, side dishes, beverages, and desserts that you have to discover!! 

So check out Fermentool and order your first kit of tools and get started!!

It's become a part of our daily lives. 

Large Family Living: You Spend HOW MUCH on Groceries??

The struggle over the years of trying to cut back our grocery expenses. 

We're down to about $100-$150 weekly for our family of 7.

That's $400-$600 a month! 

Yay! 

Here are some basic tips and tricks that I've learned:

(1) Ask for Wisdom
Every single shopping trip, the kids and I sit in the car and ask the Lord for wisdom on how to spend the money He's given wisely and for opportunities to share the gospel with people as we do it. 

(2) Costco. Period. Cheaper, larger, can't beat those prices. 

(3) Capsule Wordrobe Capsule Pantry: 

Rice ($8), Potatoes ($8), Pasta ($10), Tortillas ($6), Oatmeal ($6), Bread ($3).

Chicken Breast or Whole chickens ($23), Ground Beef ($17), Pork Roast ($14)

Flour ($4), Sugar ($4), Spices ($2-$5), Vinegar ($2-4), Chocolate Chips ($10), Raisins ($10), Coffee ($10)

Apples ($6), Oranges ($6), Bananas ($3), Watermelon ($4), Frozen Berries ($9)

Spinach ($5), Broccoli ($5), Frozen Vegetable Mix ($8), Carrots ($5), Onions ($5), Cucmbers ($4), Snap Peas ($5), Bell Peppers ($6), Celery ($4)

Milk ($2), Cheese ($6), Eggs ($5), Yogurt ($3), Butter ($8), Coconut Oil ($14)

*If you grow some of this, you don't need to purchase it!!!*

With this you become versatile by simply mixing up the combination of things you're eating. 

(A) Dinner: Chicken Stir Fry, Beef Stir Fry, Fried Rice, Jollof Rice, Chicken Tacos, Beef & Potato Tacos, Red Sauce Pasta, White Sauce Pasta (both with home made sauce), French Fries and Breaded Chicken Strips (home made), Meat loaf, Hamburgers, Cobb salad (home made dressing), Soups (with home made stock)... endless possibilities!

(B) Lunch: Egg wraps, veggie wraps, left over lunches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, veggies and hummus or home made ranch dressing, odds and ends platter with fruit, veggies, cheese, peanut butter ect.

(C) Breakfasts: Oatmeal, home made granola, fruit, yogurt, pancakes with fruit sauce (homemade with frozen berries), eggs, toast

You purchase these things on a rotation basis. Chicken one week, Beef the next week, pork the following. Repeat. Butter once a month, Coconut oil once a month, frozen items once a month, flour and sugar once a month ect.

(4) Grab What's Free!  Our church collects the donations from Panera Bread as well as a gas station every week so there are often bagels, bread, pastries and baked goods, eggs, chips and other goods up for grabs. I bring bags to church and bring what we need home!

If you need extra help you can hit up your local food shelf or try to find a Fair For All near you. 

(5) Get Creative with Snacks: Instead of buying granola bars, make a bunch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and freeze them or batches of home made granola that can be mixed with milk, yogurt, or ice-cream. Make Pancakes, Banana Bread, or Muffins so that you can grab a bag, thaw it and have snacks. 

Fruit is always a great grab-and-go option. Throw together your own trail mix with peanuts, chocolate chips, and raisins. 

When something goes on sale (like popcorn at Costco), sacrifice something that you'd normally get (like the usual container of yogurt, or second block of cheese) that week and stock up on the large bags of popcorn! 4 bags could last your family a month if you ate one per week. 

(6) Go to Potluck Events: We know that the Man Up Show is at Sojourner's Cafe Wednesday Nights, there's a church potluck Thursday nights, usually a gathering at someone's house Friday Nights and Sunday Nights. Tuesday nights used to be Women's Bible Study and I would get sent home with the left over food. This was the same case Monday nights when we have Bible Study at our house. We never show up empty-handed (even when finances are tight), and we NEVER leave with empty stomachs!

(7) Garden and Preserve Food: This has seriously saved my family so much money! Tomatoes for pasta and pizza sauce to diced tomatoes and salsa, collard greens for large batches of cooked collards to eat with rice, oregano and other herbs for virtually free seasonings year round, cucumbers for a crunchy pickled sandwich side, and enough green beans to make casseroles for the world AND their mothers! 

Once we started hard-core canning last year, my grocery bill went down to about $100 a week simply eating out of our pantry and freezer for a lot of our produce. We canned all the pasta sauce we needed for spaghetti, lasagna, pizza sauce and chilis. I canned lots of apple sauces, apple pie filling and apple butter to not need to purchase much for snacks, deserts or sandwiches. WE canned carrots, beets and green beans which meant I spent $0 on baby food during Aryeh's prime baby food eating months. 

(8) The more you give, the greater your food seems to stretch: God truly comes through on His promises when He says:

Proverbs 3:5-10

5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

9 Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

Even when we're VERY low on food, we're always quick to make a meal for someone or invite them over to eat. Never once have we been so completely out of food we cannot eat. God is SO FAITHFUL!

(9) Know what's important: 

We value healthy food. 

We would LOVE to have an all organic diet with raw milk and pasture-raised meat. We're working our way to that with hopefully purchasing a cow and some chickens in the future. 

BUT we value having a large number of children and being able to feed them little to no processed food MORE. So for us, a bag of chicken breast, even if not the healthiest meat in the world, is at least not processed, breaded and covered in poisonous oils and ingredients. A big box of oats, even though not organic, is better because we can make homemade granola and breakfast cereal with all natural ingredients rather then preservatives and unnecessary sugar ect. 

I hope this makes sense. 

(10) Avoid Eating Out: Here's How!
When I'm making certain meals I'll purpose to double what I already quadruple and freeze half of it. There are those times when you're out somewhere much longer then you anticipated and something that we can grab and eat. 

I made chicken fried rice the other day and had two frying pans on the stove. One was for dinner that night and the other went into an aluminum tray and into the freezer. When I make soup, I'll get two pots going and freeze one pot. When I make beans or taco meat, Ill make two frying pans full and freeze half. You get the idea.

This is also great if someone you know is having a hard time and needs a meal. 

We also can throw sandwiches together, grab a few cans of carrots from our basement, and some home made items to keep us full until we get back home. 

___________________________________

Anyways, there are some of the things I've learned over the years and am really excited to have finally gotten my grocery budget to where I want it while not compromising on what's important! Yay Jesus!!

Project Garden: Year Two (Part 2)

Utilizing my mostly shaded yard near the heart of the city of Saint Paul has been a challenge I am still facing head on three years after moving into our humble home. This year I have used the front garden and the side patches better then ever yet!

My front garden patch has flowers and cilantro. Most of these flowers are edible and can be used in tea and tinctures including geranium (bee balm) and yarrow!

On the side of my house I have a couple basil plants and another cilantro plant.

My raspberry bushes I planted a couple years ago have exploded this year! I am very excited to reap the fruit of my patience. I think we planted these little chutes 3 years ago now! Yay! Go, Berry Bushes, Go!

Here are some onions (yellow and purple) as well as echinacea flowers and a few other wild flowers - also great for teas and tinctures!

Lastly, I have my two elderberry bushes that I am praying for (hahaha). They also have been planted a few years ago, but my husband keeps thinking they are weeds and keeps chopping them down to nothing! This year I mulched them so that they are clearly identified as PLANTS!!! There are more wildflowers and echinacea flowers planted in that unmatched spot. 

I am so excited!

I like to grow plants that are useful to my family, not just look pretty (although that is a good bonus). 

Project Garden: Year Two! (Part 1)

A much more organized approach this year! Yay!!

My mom actually purchased a little tiller that could be plugged in via extension cord. We also made a "path" around our garden with leaves that my mom saved to cover her rose bushes over the winter. 

We also made our garden a bit smaller then last year. This will minimize the weed growth and "extra space". However, we increased the number of plants we bought this year so we were really tight on space. We'll see how well we can navigate the garden in a month or so from now. 

Mom chilled with the kids while we tilled, planted, and put up the fence around our garden on a BEAUTIFUL sunny Sunday afternoon. The next week would be followed by 7 days of rain! Perfect for new seedlings!!

We also planted many herbs this year mostly for our business. So you'll be happy to know that a lot of the herbs we use in our creams and tinctures will be organically grown right from our own garden!! Yay! They'll be more potent, fresh, and we know exactly how they were handled. 

We did less cucumbers and other crawling plants this year so we'll see how this little trellis holds up. We also DIDN'T put the trellis against out outside fencing since we had mutant cucumbers growing into our fencing last year.

The kids didn't get to help as much with the planting process this year since we were on a time crunch once we got to this point. But, they'll help more with the weeding later on. 

We had to tie our tomato plants to steaks to ensure they'll stand up with the heavy rains we knew we'd be receiving. 

Overall, our garden is about 100 sq feet (maybe bigger?), and will hopefully feed our families and meet the needs of others! Yay!

Oh! We planted FAR LESS COLLARDS then our 40 some plants last year! 

Haven enjoyed playing in mom's fairy garden :)

Excited to share the lessons we learn this year from gardening, harvesting, canning and preserving!

Canning: What NOT To Do

In having a VERY, VERY busy week, I realized AFTER, I should have read the directions...

It all started last Sunday..

 Our harvest was PLENTIFUL!

We pulled, plucked and snipped...

From a few jalepeno peppers....

To some ridiculously LARGE zucchini...

"what is that?!?"

"Uh... Mom?!?"

We had plenty of help...

And brought home our first batch of zucchini, pickles, and bell peppers!

The zucchini I blanched and froze on Monday...

Also on Monday I purchased about 200 canning jars for $40 (what a score right?!?)

Tuesday my baby sister came over to can!

The boys watched TV while the girls played upstairs...

I had trusted Mariah read through most of the process and we followed some random recipe online...

We chopped...

We sterilized...

However, I heard that little voice telling me NOT to use my UN-enameled cast iron pot to boil our vinegar solution in...

...My pan immediately rusted...

We proceeded to use the brine regardless.

We did NOT dry the rim of our jars before placing the lids on....

So... with boiling canning pots, we placed our jars in.

We covered the pots and waited 15 minutes (like the directions said) and we took them out.

We finally sat down after about 6 hours on our feet only to read through some articles about canning, including the canning section in this cookbook (which I HIGHLY recommend purchasing) we've been using for this whole process.

Good timing huh?

Apparently, you start timing the processing cans once the water has reached a VIGOROUS boil. 

Ours didn't boil at all after we put our cans in.

We RAN into the kitchen and started the fires back up. 

We placed our jars back into the canning pots and let them sit in there probably a good 20 minutes.

GREAT! We probably overcooked them now!

Needlesstosay, by God's grace, we didn't poison our pickles,

e.v.e.r.y. s.i.n.g.l.e. can sealed,

AND they actually turned out crisp and EXTREMELY delicious!

We sent a few jars to Fargo, ND with my sister to the guys who helped till our garden, as well as cracked open a jar for our monthly family dinner.

That was our first time really canning anything in a large quantity before. 

We're heading back to my mom's this week to harvest more cucumbers, zucchini and a whole batch of bright red Roma Tomatoes! 

I'll let you know how all that goes ;)

With this book in hand, and a plant in the other, we're s.l.o.w.l.y. becoming better at this.