I was a very good girl this year, Santa brought me The Backyard Homestead,
Great Yarns for the Close-Knit Family, and Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life. I closed my eyes and pointed at random to which one I would read first, which happened to be Made From Scratch. I’m a fee chapters in and already loving this book. Woginrich is a hilarious writer, and open about her failures as much as her triumphs. Something that I’m thrilled to read after reading too many books by perfect people.

I’s good for my ego to know that someone else manages to mess up often enough.

Yesterday evening we gave the bread recipe she shared a try. After my many bread disasters I was less than hopeful. But I was willing to try. After all, I had a packet of yeast left over and time to kill while my dinner cooked. How could I not give it a try? Especially when I had a cute little helper.

The bread didn’t turn out the prettiest, but it tasted like heaven. It was warm and soft, not at all hard like my previous loaves had been. Maybe it was just luck, but I finally got a loaf of bread right. And just in time for the holidays too.

Next up, I’m giving a shot at making butter. I never even considered it before. In my head were visions of long hours spent at a churn. Apparently I can make it in a few hours with a mason jar.

At my local library I found a copy of The Urban Homestead and have most of the weekend reading it. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I have to give it back next week. There may be a few tears in my eyes.

Though winter is almost here I’m getting my gardening plans ready, and my gardening areas. I want to try a few ideas from the book, like raised beds. Especially since we are renting and I don’t know if my landlady would be pleased with big areas of the yard dug up. The former flower bed (picture above) in front has bee dug up, covered with newspaper, and mulched with leaves. I’m going to try to keep it mulched down and hopefully kill any remaining flower seeds. There were also some decorative bushes planted in there with roots too deep and long to dig out. Hopefully by spring they’ll be dead, or at leask weak enough I can get them out.

Next I’m putting a few raised bed boxes in my backyard. My first one I’m using some old wood I found in the garage gathering dust. The Urban Homestead says not to use treated wood, which I’m pretty sure these are. But the reuser in me just can’t stand the idea of letting these perfectly good pieces got to waste.

Besides, swinging a big hammer is a great way to get out some frustration.

I’m also making plans for my garage. There is a huge south facing window in there just begging for hanging plants. Right now I’m thinking strawberries would be great, but tomatoes would also be a good choice. The built in shelves in the corner are the perfect place for some herbs in little pots. I was planning on a window box, but all of my windows have heavy screens on them. I’d rather not try to take them off and risk hurting something on the house.

Next on my list, vermiculture. I’ve got a big plastic storage tub that I’m not using right now, and there is a great set of instructions for using a plastic tub in The Urban Homestead. As soon as I find a warm place for them…

photo credit: VirtualErn

A few years ago there was an episode of Wife Swap that involved a family who ate raw meat. Yes, all of their meat was eaten raw. Uncooked. Straight from the animal.

Go ahead and cringe at that thought for a moment.

Last week I joined in a conversation on Twitter about real food, and in the talks managed to have won a copy of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, a cookbook that I’m really enjoying. Until I got to the chapter on eating raw meat. Apparently it’s not a totally outlandish food fad.

OK, so maybe eating raw meat isn’t really that bizarre. Plenty of people around the world enjoy Steak Tartare and Sushi, both of which involve raw meat. So maybe it’s just my suburban North American worldview that burgers should be grilled and fish should be baked that’s preventing me from what could be an enjoyable meal.

According to the book:

Pyridoxide or B6 deficiencies are widespread in America, partly because our traditional source of this heat-sensitive vitamin – raw milk – is no longer sold commercially. It requires some courage to consume the best source of B6 – raw liver. This leaves raw cheese, meat and fish as the only sure sources of B6 available to most Americans. When B6 is lacking, the pathways for use of vitamins B1 and B2 may be less effective, leading to widespread symptoms of B vitamin deficiencies. Deficiencies of B6 have been linked with diabetes, heart disease, nervous disorders, carpel tunnel syndrome, PMS, morning sickness, toxemia of pregnancy, kidney failure, alcoholism, asthma, sickle cell anemia, and cancer. B6 supplements have been shown to be highly effective in preventing blindness in diabetics. Americans would be wise to include raw meat or fish on a frequent basis to avoid these debilitating conditions.

When I read a huge laundry list of “symptoms” that include almost everything that everyone has suffered or known someone who has I get skeptical. Especially when a couple of those things include alcoholism and sickle cell anemia.

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited, lifelong disease. People who have the disease are born with it. They inherit two copies of the sickle cell gene—one from each parent.

There are quite a few recipes in the raw meat chapter of Nourishing Traditions that don’t sound half bad, except for the whole raw meat part. The book claims that you only need to freeze the meat for 14 days to kill any potential parasites. Then your raw meat experience is ready to begin. If you can get past the mental block of eating raw meat. Something that I simply can’t. Despite the health claims, I actually feel a little nauseous thinking about it.

Of course, I’m not ruling out the entire book. There are plenty of other recipes that involve actually cooking your food first. The day I received it we tried the Stir-Fry Chicken Stew and it was delicious. And involved actually cooking the chicken first.Yay fire!

photo credit: Tyler Love

I’ve got a pretty small collection of books on sustainability and sustainable living. The fact that my collection is so small is actually an oddity considering I’ve got more books than I have clothes. I may have more books that all the clothes I’ve worn in my life.

I’ve got a few dozen books in my wish list, all of them I want now. But I was somehow able to cut it down to the top 5 books I really want now. In no specific order these are the ones on the top of my to-buy list.

• Country Wisdom & Know-How from the editors of Storey Books
  

  Reminiscent in both spirit and design of the beloved Whole Earth Catalog, Country Wisdom & Know-How is an unprecedented collection of information on nearly 200 individual topics of country and self-sustained living. Compiled from the information in Storey Publishing’s landmark series of “Country Wisdom Bulletins,” this book is the most thorough and reliable volume of its kind. Organized by general topic including animals, cooking, crafts, gardening, health and well-being, and home, it is further broken down to cover dozens of specifics from “Building Chicken Coops” to “Making Cheese, Butter, and Yogurt” to “Improving Your Soil” to “Restoring Hardwood Floors.” Nearly 1,000 black-and-white illustrations and photographs run throughout and fascinating projects and trusted advice crowd every page.

• The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour
  

  The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more. Our 2009 edition includes 150 new full-color illustrations and a special section in which John Seymour, the father of the back to basics movement, explains the philosophy of self-sufficiency and its power to transform lives and create communities. More relevant than ever in our high-tech world, The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the ultimate practical guide for realists and dreamers alike.

• Living on An Acre: A Practical Guide to the Self-Reliant Life edited by Christine Woodside
  

  Who hasn’t daydreamed at one time or another about selling produce at a farmer’s market, keeping chickens, or planting an orchard of fruit trees? Inside every do-it-yourselfer is a longing for a more independent lifestyle and the satisfaction that can come from getting your hands dirty while turning some earth.
  Whether you’re thinking about a second home in the country, starting a part-time farm, or going back to the land, Living on an Acre is the classic USDA handbook, offering a comprehensive and fully updated approach to:.
  · considering the benefits of rural versus urban life
  · what to think about when remodeling an older house
  · how to build a barn
  · growing for self-sufficiency versus growing for profit
  · beekeeping
  · raising livestock
  · land conservation
  · and much more!

• The Big Book of Self-Reliant Living edited and compiled by Walter Szykitka
  

  Rural homesteaders and urban apartment dwellers alike will find a mother lode of practical information packed into this completely revised and updated edition of the ultimate how-to handbook for all generations. The Big Book of Self-Reliant Living brings together in one single volume a wealth of knowledge and useful instruction on just about every imaginable aspect of self-sufficiency – from building a dwelling to getting more milage out of a car.

• How to Live on Almost Nothing and Have Plenty by Janet Chadwick
  

  This book combines the humorous as well as the practical side of homesteading. Janet Chadwick tells about the aspects of what it took for her and her family to be self sufficient in their daily lives. She covers the small homestead garden, raising of animals and even throws in some crafts and wine recipes. This book will tell the necessary equipment needed as well as what to raise and grow for a family who wishes to embark on the adventure of living off their homesteads instead of depending on the convenience of modern society.

What books would you recommend? Which ones are on the top of your reading list?

photo credit: timbr00

I’ve started reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and if I didn’t already want to cut my meat intake down to zero I certainly would now. Pollan follows the commercially grown corn so common today, from it’s farm beginning to the dinner table. One stop along the way is being dumped by the barrel into the factory farms.

It’s a bit disturbing to read. I’ll admit, I was fooled by all the “corn-fed beef” signs and labels, thinking that meant it was better beef. Turns out “cord fed” actually means sicker cows, sicker people, and better bugs. Bugs that can kill us quicker than before. All because of corn being the staple of their diet.

Here’s how it works. Corn is cheap, so it’s pushed at the preferred feed for cattle. And because it’s cheap to buy, more cows can be raised. So instead of 50 cows stuffed into tiny pens, you can afford to shove in 100. Imagine eating a burger from an animal that only recently was standing knee deep in it’s own crap. There’s all kinds of bacteria floating around in there, and like crowded cities of years ago disease spreads quick and easy.

And then there’s the fact that cows are not designed to eat corn, it’s not what their bodies were made to eat. It would be like suddenly switching your diet to 100% Fruit Loops. Sure it’s edible, but how healthy are you really going to be? The corn also changes the ph in a cow’s stomach, which allows newer strains of E. coli to grow there. Strains that can kill us.

So to combat all of that, factory farmers have to pump the cattle full of antibiotics, antibiotics that gets passed on to us in the meat. What happens when you flood an area with antibiotics? It kills 99% of the bacteria, leaving the top 1% to flourish.

If the bacteria doesn’t kill us, the meat itself will. Slowly, but surely. Corn-fed beef is higher in the unhealthy fats, the kind that leads to heart disease among other things.

I would love to cut out the meat entirely from our diet, but I know I’d have a revolt on my hands if I did. I’m going to go slow, try to cut our meat down to only once a week. I want to make our diet more vegetarian, whole foods meals. Maybe even try a raw dish now and then. It may require dragging the other half kicking and screaming, but I’m going to move us into a healthier world of eating.