Day 19 thru to 29!! What the??!!

O.K so who is to blame for the poor writing on the Blog??? Yah your right it IS me, BUT I can honestly say i would LIKE to blame my cousin Sonia and our friends the Peakers fo coming and visiting and distracting me with fun outings and many, many good times. That and impending lack of sleep is causing me to slip into an inability to process enough thought to put on the screen. I can tell you that on Thurs Aug 19 we got hit very hard with hail...much to my dismay. The up side was hearing lots and lots of new swear words outta my mom's mouth! Never knew she had it in her! All the greenary got pretty holely, but we are able to salvage a bunch! My goal this week is to pick what i can and process. There are a few beans, some more broccoli, mabey some peas?? Would really like to try and dry our herbs and mom brought more peaches and apples from the market. Going to make apple pie filling and canned peaches. Would love to figure out a way to make hashbrowns and freeze them...not sure! We have been eating peaches like mad...Sonia probably consumed enough to make her pee peach juice, oh yuck really? Lark, that's dad's humour sorry...It was wonderful having her here, our children adore every inch of her and we all wish she would leave that horrible place that is Vancouver...kept trying to pawn cowboys off on her..haha! We were able to teach her the ways of the kitchen to though. we made bread, cinnamon buns(i know but they are SOOO good, peach cobbler and many other recipes...My friend Ale who was also here is my co pilot in the kitchen. She has taught me so much about food, gardening, cooking and baking. Why the jerks moved back to SASK is beyond me?? So it was great! We got to do lots of things with the kids that we wanted to do, Calaway Park, the Zoo, Drumheller...Oh man, the girls went wild for the dinosaurs...Molly insists that she was "nervous" of them but she liked them. Berlin with her wierd appreciation for scary things just laughed her evil mad scientist laugh whenever it got dark in there. And Riel smiled his toothy smile, just waiting for his night time payback!

Day 18

There is a hazy smoke that has been lingering throughout the day today from the fires in British Columbia. It leaves you feeling sticky and smelling like you have been at the campfire a little past bedtime. Everyone seems lethargic. We rode the horses and they didn't want to move so quickly today and the girls little legs just did not have it in them to kick hard enough to spring Hopper into action. We laid pretty low today, catching up on a few things around the house and doing puzzles and reading books, a sure sign that winter is just around the corner. I forget so fast how the pace changes in the summer. Much less inside craft planning and entertaining the kids with my silly shake your booty song...much more outside random activities, riding, gardening etc...I have to say the weather makes you either a very busy, rushed person or a very cozy, laid back person. I love the summer it just really seems to have the "hurry up and have fun" attitude. But winter...winter allows for breathing. It is so rewarding to bundle everyone up and go for a walk and then come inside for homemade cocoa and cookies. Ahhh but i am sure i will be complaining about the blowing winds and dropping temperature before the snow flies. In our nature as Canadians right? So this morning we made crepes and then for lunch i rolled up some fresh cut ham in the leftovers. The girls loved them and called them "piggies in a blanket" We had a side of leftover soup, to which the girls replied, "AGAIN" and I realized that i'd better make a new soup soon! Dinner was sausages with a medley of steamed veggies and bread with butter. Not much as we blasted to Olds to buy Molly her new bike (very exciting you know, it would be nice if she rode it though!!) Tried to go for a swim but the hot tub and water slide were not working so we bribed the children with an ice cream to do it another day..it worked.

Day 17

I got my butt whooped today by two ol' hippie's in the garden today...my mother and a dear friend came and showed me a thing or two about harvesting and processing. They were thinning carrots, picking and shucking more peas, weeding and pulling broccoli and cauliflower. I cannot for the life of me think of a better feeling thatn gardening beside a pro like Meryl Wood. She has been in my life for as long as i can remember. I used to run naked in her garden with her children. She is a true horsewoman, one who taught me a thing or two in that department as well. She is more of a familty member than anything and it was so great have her here showing me what i can do with the overwhelming production that is the garden. Mom cooked lunch, broccoli and cauliflower soup and biscuits to die for! which was greeted by Berlin with "but MOM, that soup gives me a HEART ATTACK!!" (like she even realizes what that is...) We bagged and froze a lot of veggies, the kids rode horses. They are almost slightly obsessed lately. Meryl brought her grandkids over who are also our close friends. The foour girls played until they were red in the face!! Good times! I just pan fried pork on fresh salad with sour cream and dill dressing, sided with green beans out of our garden for dinner. They are late but we think we will still get more...Perhaps we might sit in front of a movie tonight???

Day 16

Homemade tortillas? They were very difficult to knead...maybe you need oil, perhaps the substitute of butter does not work??? Tasted great though, a little thick as we were madly trying to roll them out and cook them before the kids heads started turning! I filled them with sliced pork chops, onions, garlic, mushrooms, green peppers and chopped jalapenos from the garden. Sour cream at the end made it creamy and so yummy! Kinda a mix of stroganoff and fajitas. My critics loved them!! We went to the Butcher Shoppe in Airdrie and decided i LOVE that place, so many beautiful meats and cheeses made in house and always local!! The garden is producing too fast for me, i might be drowning in peas soon. The girls and I are out there everyday picking berries and veggies. The other day i was hollered at by the girls to "COME QUICK!!" I run out in my pj's and muck boots only to find a dead gopher amongst the corn. A sulking cat was brooding i the background...no doubt disturbed in the middle of his meal. I acted accordingly and....screamed like a girl!! I thought that damn cat was useless? Know i guess I am forced to keep him around. The girls, of course were intrigued by the whole ordeal. The questions really began to pour in...then we had to have a burial, then we had to talk about whether great grandpa was buried and why? Then we had to discuss the options of cremation as both girls were disgusted by the thought of being in the ground with the bugs and worms...long conversation, let me tell you! Always an adventure with the Hamilton's!!!

Day 13, 14, and 15 (shush i'm a tired lady!!)

Sleep, oh blessed sleep, where are thee...have you left me forever? My son is NOT sleeping, therefore I am not sleeping. Which, in turn makes for a confused, delusional, downright silly mama! This 100 mile diet is teaching me patience...ALL I WANT IS COFFEE and SUGAR DAMMIT!! wow, sorry, not sure where THAT came from! Oh yeah i remember now, from not having COFFEE AND SUGAR!!! So confession time again... I had an ice cream on the weekend (not local) Man was it good...SO gooooood! I was totally out of it with Riel not sleeping and trying to get everything done. Mom saved my butt and cooked alot! I made our bread and that was about it...mom stuffed our Hudderite bird and it was yummy, her stuffing is to die for!!! She made a fresh salsa out of the garden, made a HUGE coleslaw (double YUM), chicken soup with homemade noodles and steaks with mushrooms and green peppers fried in the pan. I have realized that my mom is like the Einstein of cooking, she once made a CAKE on an electric frying pan...what???/ So anyhoo, today i got back into it all and slacked off with good ole' grilled cheese for lunch, and pancakes and bacon for dinner. Let's ease into things right? On a side note, i took a load to the dump today and realized we really have cut down on our kitchen garbage scene...very cool. Also realized that it is NOT cool trying to wrestle hundreds of feet of smooth wire fencing into the back of a half ton truck by yourself. Your children learn some interesting new words and enjoy laying on the horn at the MOST inconvenient times...really? Other note, cheap greenhouse from Home Depot $100.00, trying to get it apart and into a full truck, priceless...night nights.

Day 12

All i can say about today is...GET ME OUT OF THE KITCHEN! It really felt crazy today with the cooking. We made buns, lasagna noodles (whole wheat homemade), and carrot soup...ugh, i was excited in the morning and dead tried tonight! Homemade lasagna was a huge hit though and we even had guests over for it. The rain makes the day go slower though, in a way i like it. I feel like time is passing too quickly. Our children are changing so fast, everyday they surprise me with something new they have learned...their little bodies are stretching up like the sunflowers in the garden! Fall for us means many things; good solid horseback riding with no bugs and less heat, birthdays for our "fall baked" children (Oct, Nov, and Dec) and garden harvesting and processing. It is my favorite season by far. The leaves changing colors, cozy nights, and slowing paces...o.k, o.k getting a smidge ahead of myself i know. Must enjoy the moment right? So I am grateful for my amazing parents who help us endlessly. They are coming up this weekend to break their backs for the hundredth time on our little 5 acre money/time pit! Mom has offered to stop and get some local grub at the market and we will roll our sleeves up and make food for the family together. I love cooking with my mom in the kitchen. She has done all of this in the past...everything from making her own EVERYTHING...to living in a school bus with no running water, IN THE WINTER! She is such a woman, i look up to her in every possible way. Dad and Jonathan have a realtionship built on slave labour and endless advice. The two of them have accomplished so much together in the past 4 years. I feel blessed that my husband can call my father his close bud! They will be working on the fencing this weekend, they had just finished my dream arena last week, again feeling very spoiled. With Love Tonight, Goodnight.

Day 11

Today i am braving COSTCO for dog food and a few non food related items. I am sure it will be difficult to go through the isles and buy the usuals...What i am really finding is that we are not going threw NEARLY the waste and recycling that we were before. I have been thinking about my opinion on recycling in the last few years. I have always thought that it seems counter productive to utilize so much energy and use up so many resources on reuseing products. I think maybe the answer is to not BUY the products with so much packaging in the first place...don't have it, don't need to deal with the waste? The canned fruit and vegeables, popcans and such for recycling, they have been non existant. Our milk containers and SunRype Apple Juice are basically the only thing we are taking in these days.

Day 10-oooooh into double digits!!!

O.k Really feeling like we are getting into this thing. I have to say cooking has been...dare I say it??? FUN! Being able to make something out of things that we have to WORK to get is so intriguing. The kids and I have spent many fun hours baking, picking, experimenting with food and dishes. We now go to a store and begin conversation with people about food and where it has come from. Seems like everyone has something to give. The butcher at COOP in Airdrie did a search on Spolumbo's sausage for me and he also offered a movie I should watch, Food Inc. Must rent this as so many people have told me it is worth watching. Jonny was home for the morning so we got to eat breakfast together. We laugh at what is the chaos at our house first thing in the morning. Everybody NEEDS something, RIGHT NOW! Breakfast was sausage, crepes with a yummy raspberry syrup form Pearson's Farm out of Innisfail and fruit with...you got it whipping cream. My goodness if I thought i was going to lose a few pounds on this, i had another thing coming. Butter, cream and full fat dairy is going to drive me to the hospital with clogged arteries. No, we have lost a few pounds between us, regardless of the delicious milk products. It's just funny how you can easilly go through certain products. Eggs, milk, cream, butter, flour are in the house for no longer than a couple of days before restocking! The cost of local food should be interesting when I figure out our grocery bill for the month. It will definitely be higher as we have been trying so many new meats, cheeses and such! I made stuffed peppers for dinner with ground beef, Foothills Creamary "Quark" Cheese (it's a soft cheese, mix between cream cheese and ricotta) onions, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes and herbs. I sided it with Beet french fries baked i...no doubt, BUTTER! Threw some dill on them and they were really great!

Day 9

So we got back to reality today...we actually got back on Sunday night from the wedding. But because we had no milk, flour or butter, we extended our vacation from the diet another day...I have to say cheating felt HORRIBLE. I didn't like it one bit. The food was awsome at the wedding, but everywhere else was gross. We tried to stay away from fast food. But this was difficult in a small town like North Battleford, SK!!! Coop in Airdrie re stocked our house with the staples needed and today we got back to business! The kids did not want to partake in the broccoli/cauliflower soup i made for lunch...scallywags. They ate fresh bread with honey for snack along with peas and carrots out of the garden and cucumbers from local Shelly's Greenhouse! Our garden truly is incredible...everyday i can appreciate what it gives to our family. The potaoes, herbs, garden greens, the list goes on and on. I have to say preparing meals with such a bounty right outside my door really has not been so hard. We shucked peas yeasterday in the sun, ate raspberries and strawberries off the vine and picked flowers for our kitchen table. The kids and Bow really love playing in the corn and sunflowers...bow hides and the girls seek! Riel has also been getting his daily intake of mineral from the dirt he ingests! Gotta love it! We had delicious Spolumbo's suasage tonight out of Calgary, but Coop sells it. Yummy!

Days 6, 7 and 8

WEDDING- No 100 Mile Diet!

Day 5

Will we ever get sick of eggs on this thing? We are packing for North Battleford, SK today for a wedding. Excited to go as it will be a much needed break, although very concerned for what we are going to eat while away! We will not be trying to maintain the 100 mile rule...sad, but it will just be too difficult. I will however be packing a 100 mile travel pack for Friday. Lots of raw veggies, beef jerky, homemade bread and lots of water. The kids are so excited for a trip. They will see lots of kids and get to eat cake! It can't get any better than that. I am nervous about putting sugar into the family, they have done so well up to this point! Jonny has lost three pounds this week and the kids are starting to get used to the new food theme...After this week-end i'm sure we will have to start all over.

Day 4

Really? is it only day 4??? So today's lesson? PREPAREDNESS!! Never take your three children under the age of 4 berry picking at nap time and then expect them to hit Superstore and Airdrie Farmer's Market. And, NEVER think for a moment that when you are on the 100 mile diet, you SHOULD be able to grab a quick bite for supper at the market...just does not happen. Then Karma goes and kicks your ass with VERY cranky children in the truck for the 20 minute drive home and have to prepare a locally grown meal...I felt so bad for our children, they really are troopers! The market was a success. Bought veggies from Innisfail Growers. $31.50 will get you cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, two lg bags of carrots and some green peppers. Dietz Meats out of Medicine Hat (I know a bit far, but tell that to your STARVING children) will really gauge you wallet with a large package of pretty tasty jerky for $20.00! Found a great egg grower out of Linden and she is very reasonable, Oxyoke Farms. My big find was the Homestyle Foods Inc out of Bowden, AB. They carry Pearson's raspberry jam as well as a concentrate lemonade from local fruit! Berry picking was wonderful, grandma came always and eager and ready for an adventure!!! The girls really can't get enough of her and her antics! We went to a farm just outside Cochrane. Meals today; pancakes AGAIN with fruit. Jonny cooked up leftover pasta at lunch, only took 15 minutes to heat up under the hood of his truck!! For real!!! I had granola and berries with yogurt and the girls had leftover soup! Crazy dinner was a scrambled egg pizza...I'll tell you about another time??? So that was it! Another day gone by, have to say i feel great with the lack of sugar...my kids on the other hand, did have a hard time in Superstore though. At one point Bur leaned over to Grams and said "I think I NEED sugar Gram??!!"

Day 3

Yawwwwwwn...so tired. Need more sugar in diet, or maybe i don't! At this point i'm not sure what i need...our children have taken a turn for the worse tonight. Not food related, age related. The girls are just going to bed now, 10:00pm, Yikes no wonder they are hairy canary!!
Today was pancakes with local organic Bison breakfast sausage. heavy cream on top, so good. Lunch was basically leftover chicken on greens with a slab of bread with butter. Blueberries from B.C. with the house favourite Bles world vanilla yogurt. Also had Highwood Crossing's sunflower granola to snack on...dinner was great, everyone loved it, homemade fresh spaghetti meat sauce. Local tomatoes, mushrooms. Onion, garlic, basil, oregano and parsley out of our garden. Also made REALLY great homemade pasta. So easy too! Thank you mom for planting such a lovely herb patch! Side salad with dill/garlic dressing again! Blueberries again for dessert. Also went picking at our local bank today, they have 2 choke cherry bushes that were ripe with fruit...kids came back covered in juice! Jonathan and i are really feeling like this may be leading us somewhere major in our life. The more we talk about all aspects of this and the benefits, we feel like we could make a huge lifestyle change. Not sure what that means quite yet, but is always exciting taking on a project with my family. I am so blessed to have them and feel like together we really can do anything!

Day 2 (for real!!)

O.k. My life as we know it has doubled in stress since we started this thing...not only do I think i am the most diabolical mother EVER! I think, why? WHY AM I DOING THIS???

And then I remember, I am a mother and I feel like I must sacrifice for our children! They don't know what or where their food is coming from and it is my job, no, my MISSION, to teach them. Also, I am a wife. A wife to a lovely man who cares for me in more ways than I can explain. But if I want him to continue caring for me, i will need feed him. This is a challenge when ALL he wants is a bag of NIBS and a can of coke...really?! So all day yesterday i had this INCREDIBLE headache...due to stress no doubt. All I could do to keep my head from imploding was to keep cooking... The baking is driving me INSANE! I bake for our family on a weekly basis. Rarely would you find a box of store bought cookies on a regular day at our house. But this no salt, no rising agents is literally killing me slowly and painfully...I made a loaf of bread yesterday that you could quite easily break a tooth on. no joke. I will give you the recipe though...here it is: don't bake without RISING AGENTS!! I separated the eggs and added the beaten egg whites last, but when you bake with your own HEAVY whole wheat grain. It just cannot rise with only eggs. Substituting honey for sugar works amazingly well and i will do this as a regular practice from now on because it is pure, natural product. Using melted butter instead of oil? LOVE IT! Again healthier choice as it is not processed like oils are. But yeast? oh lovely sweet, airy yeast, what will I do without you???

So I feel like I should share what has been going on in our house today...The children have had SunRype Apple Juice, SunRype fruit bars and we ALL ate whole wheat baking powder bread with our soup at lunch. Pretty bad eh? As Jonathan and I laid in bed last night (starving of course) we decided that the children should not have to go without fruit, so we extended our diet to include B.C fruit. Also, i will eventually be baking with rising agents as it much to painful to go without. I figure; the loaves that i have tried over the past couple of months just do not cut it. And also, my goal is to make my own product on a regular basis. Which means it must TASTE good, so that the family will EAT it??? right? A little bit of guilt but we are thinking of this diet as a challenge and we are trying our best to succeed in a way that is practical and sustainable for us. That being said it is a real bummer finding our our U-Pick farms did not have yields on their strawberries and raspberries. SOoooo, we are going to pick Nan King cherries at our local ATB treasury tomorrow. They have two trees in their yard!! Also, going to a u-pick outside of Cochrane for strawberries that may have survived the bad season. As well Saskatoon's will be getting ripe o the vine and the growers are positive about their outcome!

Right, so with the cheating off my chest i can let you in on our food for today...for breakie we had eggs. I do scrambled with cheese and cream and green onions out of the garden. We added pea meal bacon from The Butcher Shoppe in Airdrie. For snack the girls had fruit bars and bread with honey. Lunch was great, a soup that was completely out of OUR garden. Squash from last year, potatoes, parsley, onions and garlic with a chicken stock i had frozen from a Hudderite bird i made a while back. YUM. Ate it with the baking powder bread with butter and it was quite satisfying...For a afternoon snack I made blueberry/oatmeal cookies and the girls snacked on raw veggies. Dinner was potatoes sliced thin and baked in very hot oven with loads of butter. Much like a chip, very tasty! And my mom and dad brought out local bison ground meat as well as some bison sausages. They found these at Planet organic. Our salads are always picked right out the backyard...carrots, beets, onion, celery, sweet peas with spinach and head lettuce. We dress is with the very best sour cream out there. Vital Greens organic, and tonight we added dill and garlic form our garden.

So that's a wrap. I will leave you with the last thing that came out of my husbands mouth last night in bed...no no it was not I love you Honey...it was "No i didn't brush my teeth, I am saving what's in there for sustenance in the night!!!!

Day 1

Today we started our day with oatmeal. Highwood Crossing out of Aldersyde, Alberta is a locally run, certified organic, family based company. They have a huge range of grain products including white and whole grain milled wheat flour, rolled oats, pancake/ muffin mix and more. They also make flax and sunflower oil as well as a hot cereal mix. We ate the Organic rolled oats with honey and milk, with a spoonful of yogurt. Vital Greens is a certified organic company that believes in non homogenized dairy products. When speaking with the owner, Joe. I was so impressed with the passion he and his family had for delivering wholesome product. He briefly taught me the process of making butter if need be and also a little about the reason for not homogenizing his milk. He believes that the process absolutely strips the dairy of vital nutrients as well as changes the product and does not allow for the natural separation that occurs in the milk. We bought the 1% milk from Community Natural Food in Calgary SW. It tastes more grainy, but way more creamy. The honey is available at many different local growers. The girls have been snacking on raspberries and a few strawberries out of the garden, the problem solely being they cannot (or will not) keep clothes on. They run naked amongst the vegetables. Our peas are ready for picking, and they hardly make into the bin, the kids are devouring them! For lunch we ate eggs, with cream, cheese and green onion. With a biscuit on the side...I replaced the baking powder with 3 eggs and used no salt and honey for sweetener...they ate it, sort of...So for dinner I have planned to make a honey/garlic baste to put on chicken breasts BBQ'ed with potatoes out of our garden and salad...Yogurt for dessert. So the children seem really hungry, they don't really understand what is going on and why they can not have a granola bar. They are eating what we give them (except Bur would NOT eat the oatmeal!) It's just they want ketchup with their eggs, pancakes with syrup and the list goes on and on and on...not sure if this was the best thing to do for them. Feeling guilty about it all...We will try a bread recipe this afternoon and see how that goes. Also, for butter we are using Foothills Creamery and eggs are local bought at the Farmers Market in Calgary. Have to find a local egg producer, but this shouldn't be too hard. All and all, i am feeling o.k. a little stressed with everything else going on in our life. But the adventure has started and there is no turning back now!!!

Tick ToCk TiC ToK

Wow

It's almost here...stress. Today i woke with sweat dotting my forehead...no really, i'm seriously freakin' out! I have been busy trying to organize, meal plan, purchase food. As well our plain old life has been keeping us very busy. We have been desperately searching for recipes...bread without rising agents=questionable! We found a substitution chart online and found that you can replace 2 teaspoon of baking powder with 1 egg. So we tried a recipe for Baking Powder Bread and did the conversion. Used two eggs, it made one very measly loaf. It rose but not half as much as normal bread! Also it was very dense. Tasted alright with a whack load of butter, although you could put enough butter on a piece of bark and it would taste good! Also tried a Mennonite sausage soup that Amber's neighbor graciously came over and helped us make. She also showed us how to make pasta. it will work without salt, just a little on the bland side. As well she shared her cookbooks and we found her to be a wealth of information. So I will be sharing all the recipes as well as my meal plans with you, in case there is anyone insane enough to do this...I hope my family won't disown me!

Local Food Security

I found this on another local food blog out of Ontario...pretty self explanatory and very informative! Go figure it is from Hellman's! Interestingly enough Hellman's has a very cool website that includes a "Real Food Movement" portion. Their recipe uses 100% Canadian free run eggs. Their principle is "real, simple, ingredients". They have removed ingredients that you cannot pronounce such as Xantham Gum, Phosphoric Acid and Beta Carotene. O.K, also i have been doing the research on the five grocery items tht my family will most the most in the up coming week!!


Post Shreddies: Could not even reach these guys by phone! Disappointing website with very little pertinent information

Kraft Canada- Cristie's Premium Plus Saltines: Very easy to get on the phone...an actual person no doubt! He did not have information on where the wheat came from in the Shreddies. Although he did let me know it was "Winter Wheat" that they used. I began some research on the winter wheat production. It lead me to realize that, shockingly, Canada is not even on the top 5 for wheat production! Crazy right? We are actually 6th on the list behind China, India, United States, France, Russia( I didn't think anything grew there!!). We are, however, second for world exports. U.S being the first. This is due to the large number of people in the top countries. They simply cannot be self-sufficient, so they are importing from us! This blew my mind as I have married into a long line of grain producers, who really we not kidding when they stated "we feed the world!" The problem is, we need to be feeding ourselves first! Also the gentleman I spoke with mentioned that if there is even one ingredient the is not manufactured or produced in Canada, they will with hold the "made in canada" label.

SunRype Fruit Bars: I left a message with these guys, awaiting their response!

Aylmer Tomatoes Cangro Foods: Yay!! another human voice on the line!! All tomatoes are sourced in South western Ontario and also manufactured in the same province...

Histories and New Additions...

One thing that I love about life is that is is ALWAYS changing. I love change, it means growth, adventure and never-ending knowledge. I figure, if you can adapt to change you will be richer in ideas. Capable of greater things are the people who thrive on trying new things. When i was little I hated a lot of things. I say hate because as a young child you are two things; hostile and overly exaggerated. I never hated people or things so much as the idea of trying new things. Like stir fry. I "hated" stir fry. Why? Probably because i wanted to drive my mother crazy. But also because I didn't want to TRY all my favorite vegetables TOGETHER. Stupid right, i wasted all those years fighting an idea, a change. Now, stir fry and I are buds, long lost soul mates if you will. My children today are so much like me that it freaks me right out. Our one rule at the dinner table is that you try it once. Just once. If you don't like it that much, forget it and eat the rest. But I WILL make you try it again later. Because your palate for food and all great things should, and will change. My husband mind you is in a WHOLE other ballpark. Stubborn is really the only way I can explain it, kinda like a mule. There are many foods he doesn't "appreciate". Does this affect his attitude and daily capability for growth? I don't think so, I think he just knows what he like and likes what he knows. But he is missing out on the wonders of mushrooms, the splendor of rhubarb and the palatable squash ripe from the garden simmered in butter and brown sugar.
We have been changing greatly in other ways out here on the ranch. Our children have learned about loss with the passing of grandpa Littler; a man who taught me it was ALWAYS o.k to speak my mind, even if it was bullshit. We have planted our garden and watched it grow. We have suffered through the trauma of teething with Riel. Poor little man got 5 new teeth in a matter of 10 days(of course the days we decided to vacation in SK) And we have collected a bouncy Boston Terrier named Bow and said goodbye to Lily our doodle. She went to a home back in the city as she was having a hard time out here...so lots of change. good and bad. Excited for this project to get back on track. Next blog will try to post pics of the garden, it is beautiful.

Seeds Gone CRAZY!!!

This is nuts...the amount of snow we have had in the last week makes me want to both cry and jump for joy! The moisture is much needed, but c'mon? SNOW? Brrrr. Our seeds have really taken off. I mean really. The corn is like eight inches tall and starting to fall over. The only thing that did not come is the hybrid "early" cucumber. Go figure that's what i get for something that has been genetically engineered. Our local seed is proving to be healthy and happy! My girlfriend Stacy has recommended that i move them downstairs into the unfinished bathroom so the growth slows down. At this rate we won't be planting for weeks to come and I'm pretty sure i DON"T want to re-pot them AGAIN. Messy, messy job. Boy did the girlie's think it was wonderful playing with dirt INSIDE the house. Jonathan has laid our manure pile out on our new garden spot. We are moving the garden due to landscaping that will be taking place this summer. We will be transferring dirt hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Never thought i would be so excited about dirt mixtures. Manure to dirt ratio's swimming in our heads. Amber and I peeled the straw off our strawberry patch about a week ago and good thing to cause the SNOW arrived just in time to freeze them a little more...yeesh! I think they will be o.k actually, the kids and I checked them out today and there are some green shoots coming! amazing! Bread. Lemon Juice, key to fluffy nice bread. Not so dense and lighter in taste. Flat bread=key to 100 mile diet. I will start to post recipes as soon as possible. Amber is finding much information on local producers. I have been researching dairy and it is totally stressing me out! Milk is so regulated that it will be difficult to find local suppliers as it is illegal to sell milk directly off the dairy. It needs to go to processors and distributers. Yogurt and cheese isn't so bad. Perhaps my dream of buying a milk goat will come true???

Littering Annnnnnd???

Has anyone ever noticed how much our food is packaged? Seems to me that it is pretty ridiculous how much waste their is to everything store bought. Sure, sure we are recycling now and trying to reuse as much as possible. But imagine the impact local eating would have on the amount of garbage we have. Since we have been on the acreage we have really had to see how much waste our family is producing because we physically take runs to the dump and recycling depots. Excessive cardboard and plastic is used, i think, due to the shipping and handling aspect of food. It needs to be shipped so far and still look and taste fresh! Strange really? We could completely eliminate these problems if we bought locally and made much of our own food from scratch. Never really thought about it before. I mean, we have done what most do and jumped on the green band wagon. We try to use reusable grocery bags, we recycle, we compost, and we are trying to cut back on waste in general. But even 1 box of cereal (and i can't believe i am dissing cereal!) is bagged in thick plastic, enclosed in a HUGE cardboard box and has lord knows what in the ingredients to keep is "fresh". Bah! NOT giving yup cereal!!! (yet).
What is an alternative though? Eating homemade breakfast? Fresh, easy and a lot less packaging. Eggs; if your own has zero packaging. Toast; homemade bread; very little with the ingredient lists that can be produced locally. Bacon; from a butcher has that nice brown paper instead of plastic...
So anyways, trying my darndest to find out where the ingredients from some of our favorite items are coming from. You really get the run around from these big organizations. I will keep you all posted. Still trying to find a yummy whole wheat recipe that rises well, anyone? Also poking around with yeast free breads for August??? YIKES!

Snow Storms in March???

O.K. So what puts you more in the mood to start your garden than a spring snow storm. Gusting winds of up to 90km an hour, power out at our place for over six hours and snow covering the ground. What really gets my goat though is frozen water troughs. Ugh! thought i was home free of dragging 100 feet of hose in and out of the house so the horses won't dehydrate!
So seeds were postponed until today.
Again, snow. But we will tough it out because we are 100% Canadian and our children will not take no for an answer. Amber, my mother and our seven children set out to Bowden for an adventure in seed collection. The convenience of the location is astounding right off the highway (QE2). Alberta Nurseries and Seeds is well marked and so easy to find. We were greeted with outstanding service from a gentleman who had been working there for the past 16 years. The variety of seed is quite amazing. They do however sell more of a majority of seed shipped from other provinces and the U.S and then repackaged at their Nursery. That being said we bought all the brands we could that were actually produced in Bowden. They had many varieties of tomato, corn, and tons of flowers. One thing I wished they would have better labeled where it was coming from. Everything has their name on it, but for someone trying to eat locally it is difficult to see where it actually came from. We ended up having to ask which seeds were grown by the nursery. I am finding it very difficult to decipher where much of our food comes from. I remember watching a program on CBC that was outlining the way companies label their food and products. Loblaws (which is company that owns the Superstore, No Frills, chains) are very tricky in how the will state something is made in Canada or 100% Canadian, when really it was only packaged in Canada. Or perhaps one out of fifty ingredients are locally produced. Anyhow this had led me to my next challenge...finding out where some of my groceries are coming from! I think i would like to research 5 items that we use often; Post Shreddies cereal, Alymer canned tomatoes, Kraft Premium Plus Saltines, SunRipe Fruit Bars and DairyLand Classic Vanilla yogurt. Wow lets add ONE more thing to my growing list of to do's Lark?? Well better to be busy than idle...Right?

29 Miles to Seeds

Wow! Local seeds for my garden! The benefits are endless to having seed that has been produced in local soil. Alberta Nurseries and Seeds out of Bowden, Alberta, approximately 29 miles from our place. They are growers who do field trials to ensure all seed is hardy for our climate and can grow within our peak growing months. A producer who has been around since 1922, they have been able to specialize in certain species and have endless experience and knowledge about plants, trees and food production. I phoned for a catalogue the other day and spoke with a wonderful lady! She was very helpful and we got talking about the process of a 100 mile diet. She was most impressed with my ideas around food and children. We got a charge out of how children who get homemade cooking and baking always enjoy going to friend's house's to eat store bought cookies and Kraft Dinner. And vice versa, those who get store bought items generally hoover anything out of the oven! She felt compelled to tell me a quick story about when she was raising her young children. Her son went to school one day and she sent with him the usual lunch. When he returned home from school that day he let her know he did a trade and his friend wanted to know what that "brown" stuff in his sandwich. Minutes later, the friend's mother phoned and began to rant about how much her son LOVED the sandwich that had been traded, and could she please tell her what the "brown " stuff was! Well it took her a moment to realize it was Roast Beef from the night before that she had put in her son's sandwich... she quietly told this to the mother and was replied with "I guess I'll have to learn how to cook one of those!".
It is really a pleasure getting everyone's views/opinions and general thought on this project. We will be heading out this week for seeds. My girls are excited about helping pick out all the things they love! We have a greenhouse... just barely without a family feud! So we will be starting seeds soon! Can't wait!!

April 01= April Fools Day?

Am I Crazy? Perhaps this is some kind of delirium that i have chosen to take on. Since the idea struck about 2 months ago to do this 100 Mile Diet, I have many sleepless nights. Will we STARVE? Will my kids disown me for lack of Apple Juice and GOLDFISH crackers? I think I have to focus on the positives rather than the negatives, right? Like the taste of fresh rather than packaged. The benefits of no hormones in the beef we will be buying. The impact of community support that I know exsists. It just needs to be promoted. So i have decided to start journaling now, in April, because there is going to be so much preparation in order for it to run smoothly in August. Because I have three young children, I need to keep our meal plans very basic. I have found many recipes from other 100 mile dieters that sound wonderful. Like Mint Agrula Salad with Roasted Turnips, Yummy for Mommy but more than likely not appreciated from the rest of the family. Basic is best for the time in our lives. Lots of meat and potatoes, eggs, and fresh veggies. I am doing this mad project with a a friend who has the same values and morals that we do. She is a dear person who I respect so much. Amber has four children and a supportive hubby so I think we should make quite a team... Excited!!! Here's to a new adventure. One that I am sure will change our family's lives for the better!!!

Day 1