Berry Treasure

This year’s berries are so big!

Just as Texans anticipate bluebonnets as a herald of spring, we wait all year for the dewberries to ripen a month later so we can make jam and cobbler to last until next time. The delicious challenge is that these blackberry cousins are generally not cultivated; rather they grow in bramble patches along fence lines and in empty fields.

Because picking strawberries last week only inspired me, I made a playdate with a mom friend who claimed to live near apparently dewberry mecca. I figured if she over promised, we at least had a fun road trip playday with a houseful of friends. So we piled in the car and drove an hour to the house of our friends who have kids the same ages as all my kids. That’s always a bonus in playdate world.

Instead of disappointing me, she over delivered on her promise. We drove a couple blocks from her house, and for an hour ten of us (8 kids ages 4-12) picked gobs of dewberries from an empty field. When we finally had to break for lunch because of the little ones, I was pleased to have collected 5 pounds of berry treasure.

But then.

After lunch, my friend offered to watch the four youngers, and sent me back to the field with the four big kids for another picking session. Great day, we found a patch with bigger berries! That time out we picked 6.5 pounds of berries. Our playdate went from great to AWESOME!

My helpers in the bramble patch

When we returned with our treasure, my friend surprised us with fresh Dewberry Cobbler for an afternoon snack. Whaaat? It was divine. Not only that, she shared the family recipe with me. That’s a privilege right there. See my hand behind the recipe card? It is stained purple from berry picking. That’s how awesome this rite is, you will brave brambles and stains to collect every last berry you can.

Grandma H’s recipe–a treasure on its own.

Tonight my kitchen smells heavenly as another cobbler prepares to reward us for making it to Friday. My cupboard overflows with jars of dewberry jam, to add to last week’s strawberry jam. My freezer hides five bags for future pies and cobblers. And my heart is full with the success of having navigated the rapids of this spring’s heavy rainfall and stored up jam for my family for a year.

Cobbler, a sweet reward!

Strawberry Fun

May means berry season in Central Texas, and we are enjoying the fruits of the season very much this year.

The littlest helper fills her basket with ease

Monday we went strawberry picking with a friend, Cathy Cox of Cox Family Farm. For the curious, we visited an organic farm in Plantersville called Jollisant Farms. Between us and the kids, we harvested almost 50 pounds of organically grown berries!

Everybody helped!

We brought all the berries back to my place and spent Tuesday making strawberry jam for her store. The kids all helped top the strawberries. I washed lots of dishes, then strawberries, then added sugar and berries to two giant pots; then Cathy stirred the pot for two hours while we slow cooked those berries to coax out maximum sweetness. We also enjoyed an afternoon of friendship, while the kids swam and played together.

Stirring strawberries

Wednesday I enlisted my littlest kitchen helper to process my own strawberries. We turned 5 pounds of berries into 10 half-pints plus a bit left over. My house has smelled like fresh strawberries for days, and I love it.

Next week we will set out to collect dewberries (a southern blackberry cousin), and repeat the delicious job all over again. Can’t wait!

Teachable Moments

I started the homeschool year with the idea that my philosophy of education fits with a model termed classical: involving the systematic use of memorization, dictation, narration, and copywork to organize the assimilation of knowledge across language, history, and science. The trivium seemed an efficiently appropriate way of presenting this type of education through the three stages of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. It all made so much sense.

Only real life happened. My primary student entered the homeschool arena due to her non-traditional learning style. And we have had quite a journey. As a non-traditional learner who learned how to cope by organizing information, I find my fragile organizational abilities tested by the effort of trying to find the order in my child’s world. Or impress the order upon her.

Here at the end of the year, I start to recognize our group learning style may tend more toward the opposite end of the spectrum, toward the philosophy of unschool. Or perhaps the two are not so far apart as I once understood. Today, for example, we probably had a terrible day by classical standards; but I think it was a pretty stellar example of unschooling in action.

We did spend twenty minutes before lunch discussing the First Triumvirate, the three-person ruling group that formed the beginning of the Roman Empire in 60 B.C. But one of those rulers, Pompey, was known for getting pirates under control across the Mediterranean. Did you know that in a single 40-day period, he destroyed 1,300 pirate ships? We found that impressive.

To commemorate, we declared the rest of the day Pirate Day. So the kids built a giant fort in the back yard. In the face of an imminent thunderstorm. And spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between the fort and catching tree frogs at the pond down the street. Which has nothing to do with pirates whatsoever; but when Rooster brought home a gloriously huge wolf spider, I had him look at it and observe it. Which counted as a science lesson. Check.

Meanwhile, I finally roasted the Thanksgiving turkey today, to make a few more meals for my freezer. I don’t understand my obsession with filling that space, with four weeks to Moving Day. But there I was, preparing a bird for the oven, and the kids suddenly crowded around to see what they could see. And one asked about all the different anatomical parts, while the other asked for a bone at the end, “Because I always read about people sucking the marrow out of the bones, and I want to see if it’s really all that great.”

Conversation then turned to what we will do once we move and get chickens. “Our chicks will grow up and have baby chicks then we will eat the momma and daddy birds and play with the chicks until it is their turn to grow up and get eaten.”

So much for worrying about whether their “fragile constitutions” will comprehend the difference between pets and food. These kids make me proud more often than not. And again, I can chalk up that entire conversation to learning.

I am fairly sure we will find ourselves challenged yet well suited to the requirements of running a homestead. We may already have a running start between the 12 quarts of spaghetti sauce I put up over the weekend, and the six turkey-based dinners I am assembling tonight and tomorrow. We probably won’t eat all that before June.

Now I suppose I had better get packing so I can be the right kind of ready for that day when it comes. I wonder what kind of educational experience we can roll into packing boxes tomorrow?

 

The Right Start

This was published in P31 Woman Magazine online a few years back, my first official published piece. It actually turned out to be a seed that started rolling down a snowy hill, and that snowball has turned into my book proposal. I am having a great time reworking it, but good glory I get hungry when I write about food.

Photo Credit

A noted Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.“

Moms could adapt these words to say, “Give a child good food, and she will eat good food at home. Teach her how to make wise choices with her food, and she will eat good food wherever she goes for the rest of her life.“



One of the first choices we make in any day is of what to eat. Breakfast is not the largest meal of the day, but nutritionists are always telling us that it is an important one.



Why Eat Breakfast?
Consider these benefits of breakfast eating, as reported by the Mayo Clinic. Those who take the time for a good breakfast (i.e. not coffee and a doughnut!) have a tendency to eat more nutritious food in general; to accomplish more before lunchtime; to keep their weight under control; and to have lower cholesterol, thus reducing certain health risks.



Kids especially can benefit from breakfast with improved coordination, concentration, and ability to think clearly. Moms want the best for their kids, and one very simple way to give them the best is to make the effort to feed them a good breakfast each day.



With today’s busy lifestyles, getting a good start can be quite a challenge. Planning ahead always helps. It starts with laying out clothes and other necessary items the night before. Then if the right food is in the pantry, and the choice for the morning already pulled to the front of the fridge, breakfast time can proceed a lot more smoothly.



What makes a good breakfast?
There are several components to any healthy meal, including protein, whole grain, dairy, and fruits and vegetables. According toUCLA Health, the magic is in the combination of elements. When we consume a breakfast with at least three of the above components, we set our bodies up to be able to regulate our blood sugar throughout the rest of the day. We also give our digestive system enough to keep it busy for longer than a bowl of sugar cereal does.



Some suggested traditional breakfast combinations include high-fiber cereal, skim milk, and a banana; whole-grain toast with peanut butter and a glass of 100% juice; a hard-boiled egg, an apple, and an English muffin; or a smoothie made with plain yogurt, fruit, and a couple tablespoons of wheat germ. Less traditional, but still appropriate, options could include leftover veggie pizza on whole-grain crust; cut-up veggies layered in a tortilla with salsa and string cheese; or even a baked potato topped with broccoli and cheese.



How Do I Train the Kids?
Moms can help their kids learn to make good breakfast choices in two ways. The first is to offer good options, by only bringing “good choice” food home from the store. Just a few alterations can make breakfast a whole lot healthier for the whole family. Change one item a month for a few months, and they will have gradually re-educated their taste buds.



Choose cereals with higher fiber, such as Raisin Bran, Shredded Wheat, and Multi-Grain Cheerios. Switch from flavored to plain yogurt, and stock up on frozen fruit to stir in. Begin to serve less juice, but make sure it is 100% juice with no sugar added, then dilute it about 20% with water. Develop the habit of only buying whole-grain bread. One final trick is to invest in some wheat germ and/or ground flaxseed, and stir it into all kinds of things from muffin mix to yogurt to oatmeal.



The second way moms influence their kids is to lead by example. When moms eat right, the kids learn to distinguish good from poor choices. This can be a challenge for those of us still loving the fact that we are on our own and have the freedom to choose! But it is so important, given our role in setting our kids up for long-term success.



More than Good Food
Choosing a smart start in the morning includes one other element. All of the child-rearing good we do is useless if we fail to teach our kids the importance of looking to God at the beginning of each day. Psalm 5:3 says, “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation” (NIV). Again, we start by setting the example of doing so ourselves: Take a moment to invite God to be part of your morning before even getting out of bed; allow ten minutes to read God’s Word before getting the kids up.


Then, help them do the same. As you greet the kids, sit down together for a moment to ask God to be part of their day. Some parents even wake their kids early enough that the kids can do their own quiet time before getting ready for school. It is so simple, yet all it takes is just a little planning ahead. And the rewards will continue for years.

Sometimes change does come hard, but a mom’s job is to stand strong. The kids may complain for awhile, but soon they will have forgotten the old ways. And remember, the changes are not just to give them good fuel for the day, but to help them learn to make good choices for the rest of their lives!

I took Cupcakes to a Twitter Party

Last night I had the most fun of all my years in blogland. I attended a Twitter Party with an unknown number of new friends. The #goodwork Twitter Party consisted of a whole bunch of people throwing vaguely connected comments into a shared window. We discussed pie, blogging, miners, and possibly a few other things that would only seem funny to one who had been there.

Wait. Pie?

Oh, yes. I took cupcakes to a Twitter Pie Party. I thought they made a nice addition to the table. And do you know what? Nobody complained. Since we were sharing, I also enjoyed someone else’s cherry pie very much.

But seriously.

The group of people attending the Twitter Party with me are part of a community of writers and bloggers known as The High Calling. From the website:

TheHighCalling.org seeks to create opportunities for Christian leaders to encounter God through new media tools for the transformation of daily life, work, and our world. Christian leaders are in all aspects and activities of daily life—including home, community, leisure, as well as occupation.

Essentially, followers of Jesus work at sharing their faith in Jesus through the medium of, well, social media. My High Calling profile tells me I have been part of this community for two weeks, one day. Had I known sooner it existed, I would have already joined.

While I don’t talk about it every day here, I do feel strongly that every word I write has a higher purpose than just entertainment or journaling. Underneath everything I say and do, lies a desire to break open God’s truth the best I know how, to present it in a way that draws a reader closer to that truth.

My new High Calling friends talk about their faith and family with such intelligence and grace. I fancied myself full of intelligence and grace until I met them. But they inspire me to work harder, to seek God more earnestly, to refine my own thoughts until they begin to contain more of God’s intelligence and grace.

Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.”

This is the High Calling of my written work. I am glad to have found a community that shares this calling.

Oh, and the cupcakes? They were for my birthday today. Not many of them made it past the Twitter Party (I had to eat for lots of people), but that’s ok. I have been promised that I don’t have to make dinner.

Happy my birthday to you!

Learning Opportunity

My little suburban plot continues to grow. I could say it thrives, but gardening in Texas still feels more like chipping away at a block of stone than the pastoral earth-working experience I remember from hazy childhood days in Ohio. More accurately, I would say this plot lives.

Determination wins this battle, coupled with a stream of hope. The words that come to my mind over and over this year say, “We learn more from our failures than we do from success.” Two seasons a year, I have the opportunity to try new soil amendments, irrigation techniques, planting strategies, so I can someday feed my family a meal or two without having to go to the store.

I grasp for the discipline my garden requires of me. I determine to apply its lessons to other areas of my life: parenting, housecleaning, seeking God. Failure does not make me a terrible parent, a miserable housekeeper, a wayward child of God.

Every mistake simply gives me further opportunities to learn. Please, Father, let me never come to a place where I have nothing left to learn.

What failures have taught you the most?

Farmers’ Market Fun

Q: How do you follow a Friday evening assembling dinner entrees to fill your freezer?

A: By visiting the Farmers’ Market Saturday morning, for produce to fill the crisper!

Since watching the documentary Food, Inc a month ago, I have been trying to grow more knowledgeable about the origins of the food I feed my family. I’ve got the Batch Party process under review, thinking about how I can buy the meats & ingredients with identifiable origins while also sharing the assembly process with my friends, but that’s a whole other piece of the puzzle.

For now, I am at least reducing the amount of processed food I purchase, and choosing locally sourced food whenever possible. This week I made it to the Brazos Valley Farmers’ Market and for $13 came away with a pound of carrots, a pound of onions, two pounds of potatoes, a 2 qt container filled with sweet red peppers, a quart ziplock bag of spinach, a pound of okra, and 3 pounds of blackeyed peas, still in jackets.

On my way home from the Farmers’ Market, I happened along a country property with a large hand-lettered sign reading, “PEARS FREE.” I made time to stop and chat with the lovely lady of the house, and went home with two shopping bags full of sweet, crunchy, cooking pears I picked myself.

Saturday night we already had dinner plans, but Sunday dinner was bound to be divine given the contents of my kitchen!

Of my ten entree choices, I went with Dijon Pork Chops.

Boo literally spent hours shelling the blackeyed peas for one side dish. I was so proud. Rooster joined her for awhile, and the two of them amused themselves opening each pod and exclaiming, “Look! These peas have black eyes, too!” They didn’t tire of it nearly as fast as I expected, but I still ended up recruiting Boo’s next door neighbor friend to help finish the job. Eventually all the peas were shelled.

Then my Louisiana neighbor not only told me how to cook the peas, she sent over a bit of Crisco so I could make them authentic. I’m still not sure what was more hysterical about that whole exchange: my horror at the idea of using (a teaspoon of) Crisco, or hers at my suggested alternative of bacon fat.

I mean, c’mon, at least I know where the bacon fat came from, and it was something I ate, and it’s tasty! I don’t really know what Crisco exactly is, but I think it’s related to death.

I just enjoyed laughing at both of us. It’s fun. I love that we entertain each other.

Later I sent over a taste test for her to approve. Crisco and all, she pronounced my peas authentic. I might be learning how to be a little bit Southern. (May one claim such a thing?)

Meanwhile, once the girls finished shelling peas, I put them to work peeling/coring/slicing the pears so I could cook them into pearsauce. The pears were exactly as promised, sweet and crunchy. Sprinkled with a little cinnamon sugar, they paired nicely with the chops and peas.

Dinner rounded out with a salad including the spinach from the market, and everyone pronounced it a spectacular meal.

Well, everyone except Boo, who privately confided to Louisiana Sammy afterward that those peas weren’t very tasty, considering how much work it took to shell them.

I can’t say as I blame her.

This post is linked to Tuesdays Unwrapped. Today I unwrap the pleasure of preparing new food; something I got directly from the farmer or picked off the tree.

Freezer Full of Fun!

Friday night I got to participate in what I hope becomes a new trend for my household: Batch Cooking through Menus, Meals and More. This is a home business started this summer by a friend of a friend, who became a direct friend after her son and my son became friends when placed in the same kindergarten class. LOL. The serious explanation is that I have really enjoyed getting to know Elizabeth, and I so appreciate her combination of listmaking skill, shopping prowess, and knack for good freezable recipes.

The ultimate selling point that got the Captain’s signoff was that she uses very few casserole-type dishes. Another nice feature was that I could request to split several of my entrees. Each of her recipes feeds six, and between the five of us we usually eat about three adult servings. Thus I came home with the same amount of food as everyone else at the party, but it was packaged into more usable portions for my family.

The way it worked was that she offered a list of about 20 choices, evenly divided between chicken, beef and pork entrees. Each participant in the Batch Party chose 2 recipes. Then the night of the party each of the five of us assembled our two recipes, times five.

Depending on the participants, the party could also involve just one recipe per person. Also, I think the available entrees list varies from time to time, and can be customized to the preference of the participants.

The end result made for a great photo opportunity there on my kitchen counter. For a grand total price under $135, I came home with ten meals using almost 20 pounds of meat, seven of which were divided into 2-meal portions. The three crock-pot roasts did not divide, but usually I cook a bigger roast anyway and either use it for a company dinner or reinvent the leftovers.

Next time I will take a cooler, because the cardboard box someone happened to have on hand to give me almost couldn’t take the weight of all the goodness.

I was impressed that all that food actually fit into my freezer. Fortunately, it was mostly empty before I arrived home with my treasure.

I can’t decide if my favorite element of this is the convenience of someone else doing all the shopping and directing, or getting new recipes to try on my family. I am so bored with dinner, and this is a great jump-start.

Now the hardest problem I have is deciding which meal to serve next.