GNOWFGLINS E-Courses Are Pure Joy!

I am excited to introduce to you today something that has truly blessed my life this past year.  If you haven’t yet heard of gnowfglins.com or had the privilege of learning from Wardeh and the other sweet people who teach at GNOWFGLINS, let me encourage you wholeheartedly to go there now and sign up for the free webinar coming up in January, 2012 titled “Easy Steps To Real Food In 2012” and you will be so glad you did!

GNOWFGLINS (stands for Enjoying “God’s Natural Organic Whole Foods Grown Locally in Season”) offers e-courses at great prices teaching everything the basics of traditional cooking to amazing sourdough treats and lacto-fermented honey!  You get access to all classes no matter what membership you sign up for.  And even if you don’t want to sign up or can’t afford it right now, GNOWFGLINS offers free webinars, tons of free recipes, a great blog, and friendship with others who also value taking care of these bodies God so beautifully created for us to dwell in for a time.

I have been blessed beyond words by Wardeh and the others at GNOWFGLINS and hope you will at least take a look and see what God might have for you and your family there.

Merry Christmas!

Blessings,

Carrie

My Favorite Way To Make Water Kefir Soda (“Raspberry Soda”)

Water kefir soda has become a favorite drink in our home, but it took a while to learn how to make it how we all like it.  I almost gave up on it for a time until I discovered that water kefir could be used to boost sourdough starters.  My first wild sourdough starter took almost a month before it was active enough to use, so I was thrilled to see how quickly water kefir boosted sourdough starters became active (2-3 days!).  I love working with sourdough and am so excited to be able to make this healthy, probiotic rich, fruity, fizzy drink out of my new sourdough booster.  So, here is how I now satisfiy my cravings for fruity carbonation:

“Raspberry Soda“:

Ingredients: (for making 1/2 gallon)

- about 2 T. water kefir grains (hydrated, not dry)

- 1/2 gallon room temperature water (filtered if needed to get rid of chlorine, etc.)

- 1/2 cup organic sugar*

- 1 slice fresh organic lemon or 1 t. organic lemon juice (optional)

- about 1/4 cup organic raisins (optional, but very helpful)

- about 2 dozen fresh or frozen raspberries

- some form of mineral supplement (ie. an egg shell, mineral drops, or molasses)

* You can also use rapadura or sucanat, which adds more minerals to the water, but our family didn’t care for the taste when I used sucanat.  Note that you can decrease the mineral drop amount to 1/16 t. or 6 drops if using a mineral rich sweetener.

Simple Process:

First Fermentation

- Fill a half gallon jar about two inches full with hot water and add sugar.  Swirl or stir to disolve sugar.

- Add enough cold water to take water level to about 2 inches from the top of the jar.

- Add water kefir grains, lemon slice (or juice), raisins, and mineral supplement choice. I’ve never tried using molasses, so I’m not sure how much to use. If using an egg shell, make sure to rinse it well first.  If using mineral drops, which I definately recommend, use about 1/8 t. or 12 drops.  My grains are actually growing like they are supposed to since I started using the mineral drops.  Water kefir grains love minerals!

- Cover jar with a cloth or napkin and a rubberband and let sit on counter for 24-48 hours, until the raisins all rise to the top (this is the first fermentation).  The raisins are a huge help to me, because I always seem to forget how long my jar has been sitting.  I love having the visual to tell me when it’s time to move on to the second fermentation and our boys love to see the raisins floating around in the jar.

Second Fermentation

- When raisins have risen to the top of the jar, carefully scoop the lemon slice and raisins out with a slotted spoon.  I put them in a bowl and then dump them into our compost bin.  If some of the raisins dart to the bottom of the jar when you go to scoop them out, be sure to taste the water kefir to make sure it has at least a hint of carbonation at this point.  If it is still quite sweet without any carbonation, I would leave it to sit a few hours more.

- Once you have a little fizz going on and you have removed the lemon slice and raisins, carefully pour the water kefir into a clean half gallon jar or two quart jars (or whatever other jar combination you have) without letting any grains out of first fermentation jar.  I like to pour it through a fine tea filter to catch any “sludge” that likes to float around with water kefir and to make sure no grains get into the new jar(s).  I also like to leave about an inch of water kefir with the grains so that I can easily store them in the fridge until I’m ready to start a new batch (they store this way for about a week). 

- Or, you can start a new batch right away, in which case I would carefully get as much water kefir out as possible, being careful not the let the grains fall out (they usually stay to the side of the jar in a group when pouring very slowly).  Then, I like to gently rinse them a couple of times with cold water while still in the jar, slowly pouring out the rinse water each time, being careful that no grains fall out.  Prepare a fresh jar of sugar water, lemon, raisins, and mineral supplement as before and simply dump the rinsed water kefir grains (with a little water to help push them out) into your fresh jar.

- Now for the fun part!  Add to your water kefir about 12 fresh or frozen raspberries per quart.  This doesn’t have to be exact, just try to get a good layer of raspberries on the top of the jar(s).  Seal the jars with airtight lids and leave to sit on the counter for up to 24 hours.

- After your water kefir has been infused with the raspberry juices, scoop the raspberries out with a slotted spoon, just as you did with the lemon and raisins.  You can now drink it right away or keep it sealed tight on the counter and drink it as you want it.  We prefer to drink it within a day or two because it is sweeter and has no alcohol taste.  If it sits out of cold storage for more than a couple of days it may get a hint of an alcohol taste, but I am very sensitive to that taste (quite dislike it), so many may not even notice it.  You can also store your raspberry soda in the fridge to make it last longer, but it will lose some of it’s carbonation.

If you make this fun drink we call raspberry soda, I hope you enjoy it as well as we do!

Some Of My Favorite Water Kefir Resources:

- This is a very helpful video: Sophisticated Peasant Video Tutorial

- Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS instructions: How to Make Water Kefir

- Kelly @ Kelly The Kitchen Cop: Is Kefir Soda An Alcoholic Berverage?

- Cultures For Health: This is where you can buy water kefir grains (you might also find these at Amazon) and watch many helpful videos about water kefir.

Fall Family Photos 2011

Caleb (our 8 year old) took this picture.

What a joy it has been to have a lingering

fall season this year without the heavy winds like last year

that blew all the leaves from the trees in one short storm.  The colors

are amazing, the air is cool and refreshing, the boys

are loving being outside, and I am

praising God!

Photo taken by our kind neighbor Shayla.

Praise God for this beautiful season!

Blessings from the

Smyth Family

Half Way To 1000, Our Growing Family: Summer 2011, and Returning To The Old Paths

This is a three in one post to make up for weeks of blog silence . . .

What a joy it has been to see, write, and blog about just a few of the gifts God has graciously

given over the past year . . . half way to 1000 and I’m realizing that time

 is slipping away and I so long to be about what He wants

every moment of the day . . . so this will be the

last blog listing His gifts,

though

the list will go on in my

heart, mind,  and on paper if He wills it.

Like sand through an hour glass, seasons of life slip away,

often just for a time until they come again . . . for now it is time for me to focus on

putting every resource, time being one of the most valuable, toward our dream of returning to the old paths.

So here are #’s 481-500 in my one thousand gifts list

along with photos of our growing family

and a glimpse at what returning

to the old paths

means:

- enjoying beauty someone planted years ago

- not taking beauty for granted

- tiny feet

- clean running water

- boys learning to play ball with daddy

- a husband’s strength

- from sitting, to crawling, to walking with a stool

- little girl dresses

- Grandma’s visit for two weeks

- helping hands

- touring a musk ox farm

- sunshine through the rain

- boys ice skating for the first time

- patient daddy

- little one enjoying the grass

- seeing God’s creation through the eyes of a child

- celebrating 6 years with our second

- picking high bush cranberries on a sunny afternoon

- Hatcher Pass blueberry picking

- being encouraged, challenged, and motivated

by Michael Bunker’s book,

Surviving Off Off-Grid

We serve Mighty God who alone is able to deliver us and

take all who are willing on the journey of a lifetime,

to return to the old paths . . .

“Thus says the Lord:

‘Stand in the ways and see,

And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,

And walk in it;

Then you will find rest for your souls’ -”

Jeremiah 6:16

Our Attempt At The GAPS Diet With Great Results!

Esther, our 7 month old, is on the "let's taste everything diet".

If you’ve never heard of the GAPS diet, you will want to know that it is a diet designed to heal the gut.  Why heal the gut?  It happens to be where fully half of our nerve cells are located and 60-80% of our lymphatic system (the body’s first defense against infection and desease) is in the small intestine.  More than 80% of anything harmful in our bloodstream is from our own digestive system.  It is an amazing system that God created and what we allow into it is incredibly important for the health and wellness of our bodies.

Our family has been on a modified GAPS diet for almost three months now.  I say modified because we flew through the intro. part of the diet in less than a week and never gave up eating cultured dairy products.  We have also allowed small amounts of homemade sourdough baked goods and tiny bits of a few other little non-GAPS items (ie. baking soda, arrowroot powder, cocoa powder, and homemade whey).

A LITTLE HISTORY

To give you some history, our family has been on a journey of eating more and more healthy for over five years now.  By eating healthy, I mean consuming beyond organic (grass-fed/pastured), home processed, traditionally prepared foods and beverages as much as possible.  And yet, we have still struggled with lingering health problems, somewhat due to invironmental/situational issues, but also largely due to the poor diet of the years before the past five and the affects that had on ours and our children’s guts.  After doing a lot of research and being convinced that our guts needed healing, I prayerfully settled on the GAPS diet.

THE PLAN . . . CHANGED . . .

My original plan back in April of this year was to only do the GAPS diet for a month or two.  Having not read the book (I’m waiting for Gut and Physiology Syndrome to be completed), I just had all the great information I found on various blogs and websites to get me going.  I didn’t know that 6 months to 2 years would be more realistic for a good GAPS diet time frame.  I also didn’t know that my husband was going to be more determined than myself to stay on the GAPS diet for longer than planned.  So, with his encouragement and with the blessing of great results so far, we are sticking to it until at least the 6 month mark, possibly longer.

THE CHALLENGE

The challenge has been that you really have to prepare for being on the GAPS diet this long (or at all for that matter).  My pantry is fully stocked with buckets of GAPS diet ”illegal” foods (I do bulk buying every 6 months) and we were not prepared for the added expence of all the meat, eggs, and nuts needed for this diet.  So, we have had to modify things to fit our current situation, making the results slower and less dramatic, but amazing none the less.

THE RESULTS SO FAR . . .

The result of this diet that I am the most excited about is the healing my husband has experienced with his sinuses.  From the time he was a young teenager (over 20 years, not to make him sound old), he has suffered from chronic sinus infections.  More resently, he got to the point of having to do a nasal rince twice a day, homemade nasal spray multiple times a day, as well as take daily herbs and medicines to help decongest his sinuses . . . all just to keep the infection away.  By the end of the first week on the GAPS diet, he no longer needed to do the nasal rince.  By the end of the second week, he had stopped taking the herbs and decongestants.  Now, he just uses the nasal spray every once in a while.  He feels like his sinuses are 90% healed.

Other encouraging changes we’ve seen so far (besides all the not so fun “die-off” symptoms) are:

My husband:  lost over 15 pounds.

Caleb:  has a much better appetite (he is very skinny, so the more he eats the better).

Joshua: can focus on a task and complete it now.

Nathan:  his bald spots on his head have grown back and he is sleeping much better.

Esther:  her eczema has cleared up almost completely (though the baby probiotic may be the reason for this).

Myself:  more strength and energy, less fatique, and also lost 15 pounds, but this is normal for me after having a baby.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

There are two books that I highly recommend that helped our family in being ready for the GAPS diet before we ever knew what it was.  They are The Maker’s Diet, by Jordan S. Rubin and Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig.  Then of course, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, by Natasha Campbell McBride, would be the best resource.

Here are a list of blog posts and websites that have also been very helpful in preparing for and sticking with the GAPS diet:

Why You Might Consider The GAPS Diet 

How To Prepare For Going On The GAPS Diet

GAPS Intro: For Gut Healing And Sealing

Full GAPS Diet Food List

Many GAPS friendly recipes

Kid Friendly Recipes

Do you have any experience with the GAPS diet?  I would love to hear about your experience if you do or your thoughts on the idea if you don’t.

Our Growing Family: Spring 2011

There has been a whole lot of growing going on in our lives lately.

Praise God for the many ways He is stretching us and causing us to lean on Him.

There is no better place to be than fully dependent on Mighty God.

God is good, all the time!

Growing warmer outside . . . even warm enough for sprinklers!

Growing little girl who smiles all the time.

Growing in love for each other because of His love for us.

Growing sourdough starter . . . after a month of waiting, this was exciting to see! Grow wild yeast, grow!

Growing tomato plants from window sill to cold frame . . . looking forward to harvesting soon!

Growing blossoms on the crab apple tree.

Growing love for God as we take walks and explore His creation.

God has truly been blessing even through the challenges

of fixing up this house we’re living in for re-sale, daddy working two jobs,

and learning to live differently to prepare for our dream of living a sustainable,

 debt-free, agrarian way of life so that daddy can be free

 to be home and minister as the Lord leads.

Praise Him!

Homemade Playdough With Natural Colors

     Our boys love to play with playdough, but I think since we started making and coloring our own, they like to make it even more than they like to play with it.  It is so much fun to make colored playdough at home!

It all started a little over a year ago when I started adding a mix of powdered herbs to some of our smoothies and drinks.  Some of those powdered herbs are so brightly colored, especially the beet root powder!  Some of them also smell wonderful, like the orange peel powder.  So, we decided to try using some of those herbs to color our homemade playdough and were very excited by the results.

TO MAKE PLAYDOUGH

You need:

2 cups flour

2 cups water

1 cup salt

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

4 tsp. cream of tartar

Simple process:  Mix all ingredients in saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until ball forms (or until stiff enough to knead).  Knead until smooth.

TO COLOR PLAYDOUGH

Choose 4 or 5 powdered herbs that are bright in color.  You may want to have these ready before you make the dough as they seem to mix with the dough better when it’s still warm.  We used the following:

Beet Root Powder = fire brick

Bilberry Powder = purple

Burdock Root Powder = light brown

Spinach Powder = sea green

Orange Peel Powder = golden rod

            Scoop 1 to 2 Tbls. of each powder into separate cereal bowls and divide your dough between the bowls (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of dough per bowl).  You can vary the amounts of powder and playdough to make lighter or brighter colors.  Just have fun experimenting! 

We store our playdough in ziplock bags and it lasts about 4 – 6 months, depending on how and how much it gets played with.  Hope you have as much fun as we have coloring playdough someday.

Blessings,

Carrie

The Many Faces of Esther . . .

. . . at almost four months old already!  This post is for our faraway family . . . we miss you and hope you are all doing well. 

Thank you Sherry for the adorable outfit she has on in this next set . . . she kept wanting to eat the pretty dress.

She is growing so fast and is such a blessing!  Love to you all.

Blessings,

Carrie    ><>

Multitude Monday: Week 24

It has been so long since I have written and blogged about the gifts God has given . . . new baby, new home needing fixing up, serving as a help meet to my loving husband, homeschooling . . . all and more keeps the days fully blessed.  How I praise God for the amazing gift of simply being able to recognize the gifts He gives in my heart and mind even when I am unable to write them down.  Though the following are gifts 461-480 in the written list, the actual gifts total more than could be counted . . . all glory to God for them all:

boys joyful over icicles,

cute little boy built snowmen,

the beauty of winter freeze,

getting to live in Alaska,

3 year old trying to exercise with mommy and daddy,

getting to talk to another girl all day,

the indescribable peace of being His forever,

new books for cozy story times,

moose in our back yard that is fenced!,

bright sunny days,

seeing faraway family through Skype,

sun shining on peaceful sleeping baby girl,

boys curled up on morning sun spots on the floor,

waiting for seeds to sprout,

helpful oldest son,

boys excited to air up a tire with daddy,

Daddy home on days off,

dreaming about homestead life,

morning hair,

the endless joys of motherhood.

 

Glory to God!  Have a joyful week.

Blessings,

Carrie     ><>

My new Grain Maker

What a blessing my new Grain Maker hand-operated mill has been!  It was my birthday/Christmas present for last year (and maybe this year too) from my loving husband.  Our family has been learning so much over the past few years and slowly taking steps toward our dream of living on and ministering from a sustainable, self-sufficient (or rather God-sufficient) homestead . . . this mill is exactly what I had hoped it would be. For anyone who may be considering investing in a hand-operated mill, let me encourage you by sharing some of my favorite things about this mill:

     - It is so well built that I will never have to buy another mill.

     – It is very easy to take apart, put back together, and clean.

     – It can grind just about anything, even beans, nuts, and seeds.

     - It can grind as fine (and I mean FINE) or as course as you want.

     – It is a great way to get exercise (especially on the finest setting), but can be motorized.  There is even a kit available for powering it with a bicycle.

     – It promotes family unity as everyone (who is big enough) helps to grind.

    – The only energy it uses is your own “man” power, which just makes you stronger, not poorer. 

I have nothing bad to say about this American made, built to last, hand-operated mill.  I highly recommend it!