Saving Seeds

I will openly admit that I am addicted to seeds. Not just growing things from them, but collecting, saving them from the plants I grow, buying them, etc. I am not quite so bad yet that I have to use whole rooms to store them, but I do know that I have more varieties than I have the room to grow them in.

If there was a Seed Addicts Anonymous group, I'd be the president.

That said, I'll tell you another thing: Seeds are expensive! Especially if you are buying the organic, heirloom, non-GMO types. Depending on where you buy them from, they are everything between $2.50 and $4.50 to buy from retailers (no joke; I bought seeds at one nursery for $3.50, and the same brand of seeds at another nursery were priced at $4.50!) I even bought a two year membership at Digger's Seeds so I could get the members price on all their goodies, which was cheaper than the retail (plus it had some other perks too). In fact, in the time that I've been sitting here thinking about what next to write, I chose four free packets of seeds for them to send to me (they are such filthy enablers, aren't they?)

I decided finally (after the initial sticker shock wore off) that I couldn't keep buying packets of seed, because that would be the opposite of being self sufficient and sustainable, right?

Right.

So my only choice then was to learn how to collect and save seeds. It's been my project baby for a while now.

These are the swelling seed pods of an Angelica plant.

Now, in my head, seeds are more than the little objects produced by flowers after pollination. In my non-technical, non-scientific definition, a seed is something you can grow a plant from. It's a very simplistic look at things, but it's a start for those who don't have degrees in botany and horticulture, and doesn't even begin to touch on the differences between bulbs, rhizomes and seeds. But because I'm not here to be non-specific, I'll give you the real definition.

Wiki says:

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant.

It's a remarkably boring and wordy way of saying seeds are plant babies! (Or future plant babies...or something.)

Like reproduction in animals (the male sperm fertilizing the female egg to create off spring), seeds are the result of plant reproduction. The male pollen "sperm" fertilizes the "egg" of the female plant, and creates a seed (an "embryo") that carries the combined genetic material to create a whole other new plant.

Seeds come in as many shapes, sizes, colors and designs as there are plants making them. By themselves, they are eye candy, but put into the ground, they create a plant that will make even more seeds that you can collect. In fact, from two plants (two seeds) you can grow maybe a hundred times the amount of seed you started with (probably more, depending on the plant and how many seeds it produces in a good growing season). Even among related species the seeds can vary greatly, especially among the legumes.

Seeds Are Cost Effective

Demonstrating the wide variety of seed details

I know a lot of people like to buy their vegetables as seedlings, because it means they don't have to do all the waiting around part that growing from seed means you do. It's can be a good thing for busy people, I suppose, but part of the great pleasure of gardening is the ability to watch it grow from a tiny seed in a big thriving plant, and knowing that you, of all people, nurtured it into life. There is an advantage to growing from seed (and saving the result) though, which is especially relevant in these times of economic tension, when gardeners might be looking at those $2, $3, $4, or even $5 plants and thinking they might not be worth it this year.

Let's take beans, for instance. Beans are legumes (this works for peas too) that come generally in a climbing or a dwarf variety. But that doesn't matter so much when you think about what they produce. Many of you might have memories of mum or grandma growing greens beans, and how many they were picking every day. If you were like me, you might even have gotten a little tired of eating them, and if your mum or other relatives were thrifty enough, they'd be freezing, drying or canning all those green beans. And if they were growing peas, gods forbid you accidentally let slip you were bored, because you'd be shelling peas before you quite realized what had happened!

When you buy a packet of beans or peas, you might get anywhere from 25-50 seeds in the packet. At an average of, oh, say $3.50 per packet (small packets here, not the bulk bags), it's an average of $0.7- $0.14 cents per seed. Of course, you plant the seed, grow the plant, and the plant grows the pods which you eat and preserve.

Each of those pods we eat from the bean or pea plant are the plant ovaries, and inside each are the seeds. One pod contains four, maybe six seeds, sometimes more, often less, depending on how well they were pollinated. Several seeds per pod, many pods per plant (gotta love my reckoning skills here!) and generally people tend to plant more than one plant, so you might have a row of twelve plants, or twenty plants, or a one hundred foot row of plants. 

If, at the end of every season, you saved twenty-five pods, and those pods averaged at five seeds per pod, you end up with 125 seeds, which is already two and half to five times the number of seeds you got in the original packet. If you packaged them up and sold them for the asking price of the original packet, you'd have earned $8.75-$17.50! And those are just beans! Imagine what that's like with a plant that puts off thousands of seeds, such as angelica or kale. 

My point? Why wouldn't you save the seeds?

Clockwise from the black seeds at the top: Cherokee Yellow Wax beans, Scarlet Runner beans, Dwarf Green beans, Borlotti beans, Purple King Climbing beans, Stringless Pioneer beans, Yin Yang beans, and Dragons Tongue beans.

This reasoning can be applied to nearly all vegetables and fruit you would would normally plant in your garden. Squashes, tomatoes, beans, peas, even carrots, beets and spinach, if you have the patience to wait out their slow seed maturation periods.

However, as I want to provide you something easy to start off with, I'll give you some easy to save seeds you can gather right in your own kitchen.

Beans and Peas
Easy as, really. You'll know the seeds are viable if the pods are plump and bumpy. It means the seeds have been fertilized, and are swelling within their protective case. Leave the ones that look extra fat on the vines, and wait until they are browned and dry. Gather the pods, and break open to release the seeds. Leave the seeds in a dry, cool place to finish drying, and store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.

Tomatoes
Somewhere in the tomatoes past, it's ancestor plants primed their seeds by over ripening the fruit, fermenting the juices and pulp, and then bursting upon contact with the ground when the fruit dropped. If you don't feel like leaving your tomatoes on the vine that long (I do, actually) let your tomatoes ripen until they're a bit too soft for eating, then gather the fruit and let them sit about in the kitchen. You'll know when they're fermented; they'll start to smell vinegary. Then, squash the fruit, sieve the worst of the muck through a fine mesh strainer, rinse with some cool water, and lay out to dry. If you don't feel like letting it "do it's thing", you can squash the tomatoes and smear them across some paper toweling and let dry, but I find this leaves a lot of extra muck attached.

Cucumbers, Zucchini, Melons and Other Squash
These are almost as easy as the beans and peas. When the fruit is very ripe, pick it and harvest the seeds by scooping out the pulp. You can rinse the seeds, dry for a few days, and store. Melons and cucumbers should be done fairly promptly, zucchinis and other marrows can be done within a couple months, and pumpkins can be done anytime, as they store very well.

Herbs and Flowers
There are some garden herbs and plenty of flowers that you can easily collect seed from. Basil, sage, angelica, nasturtium, marigold, calendula, love-in-a-mist and sunflowers are all seeds you can collect yourself. Most involve waiting until the seed head or pod is very dry, and then the use of a brown paper bag and a good shake or three to dislodge the seeds.

Brassicas
Brassicas are not actually a single plant, but a family of such including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts and a variety of Chinese cabbages, as well as mustards, swedes, turnips and kohlrabi. Most will readily go to seed in one year, since they are usually annuals. With a bit of patience, you can watch them go through their flowering stage (I do like their cheery yellow flowers) and finally their seed pods (usually long, thin, pointy green things when they start growing) will turn dry and brittle, and you can then gather the whole plant, place in a large bag, give it a good crushing, and collect the seeds from the bottom. The seeds are usually black or brown, and very small, similar to poppy seeds.

So there you have it folks. All of the easiest seeds you can save, on your own, and use year to year, without ever having to pay for another seed packet again. You'll have hundreds of seeds to contend with, so you might even take advantage of  the opportunity presented to sell a few seeds yourself. At the very least, you can give the excess away to your friends and family, grow seedlings for sale, or store it for years to come.

If you want to know more about saving seeds from things like carrots, beets, chard, or spinach, or how to propagate fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, currants or tree fruit, then I encourage you to hit Google, or your local library, and take advantage of all the free knowledge they can provide you.

Happy growing!

Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed
http://livefreelivenatural.com/save-seeds-huge-list/

Living High On The Hog: Rendering And Using Lard

I can remember, as a kid, Dad telling me about his father slaughtering pigs for their meat, and of his mother taking the fat from those animals and rendering it, in her own kitchen, to make lard. He described the big jars of pure white fat which, when poured into the clean jars hot, sealed the lids naturally and which, if stored in a cool, dark place, kept very well without processing or refrigeration.

My Dad taught me many things (and still does) but one of the best lessons was when he showed me how to make a traditional lard pie crust. Flour, lard and bit of water. It was so good, total strangers were asking me how I made the crust. Even though it was store bought lard, and not home rendered, it was excellent.

Now, I wasn't very enthused by the idea of rendering lard at the time, but when I started my self-sufficiency journey in 2010, I decided that the rendering of lard would be the simplest, easiest task I could manage in my little kitchen at home, and it was as easy as buying the fat from the grocery store (and later on the butcher shop) and using a small pan on the stove top.

So, as the Aussies say: I had a go. The result was a soft, richly flavored product that added a little something extra to my cooking. Now you can have a go, too, because I did a lot of the fancy footwork for you, and gathered all the basic need-to-know points about lard and fat in general here into this blog, just for you.

Types of "Lard"

As is usual for me learning about something new, I hit the internet and Googled "rendering lard". It came up with a few methods that looked easy enough, but it also went into fats in general. I didn't know, for instance, that tallow differed slightly from lard, and that you could render fats from other animals too, such as bear, deer, duck, goose and even chicken (assuming you had them available, of course; there are plenty of other fats that might be available regionally too).

Pork Fat

Lard
Lard is a soft fat, rendered from the fatty tissues of the pig. The quality depends on what part of the hog it was taken from, and how it was rendered (which will be discussed later).

The best lard is the "leaf lard"; it is the visceral fat that grows around the kidneys and under the loin. It has little flavor if rendered properly, and is usually used in baked goods.

"Fatback" is the thick layer of subcutaneous fat that lies between the skin and muscle. It's a softer, "B" grade of lard, and has a stronger flavor. It is, however, a perfectly fine fat for frying, or savory pastries.

The lowest grade is the "caul fat", the membrane that surrounds the digestive organs, such as the small intestines. It's often used directly as a wrapping for roast meat, or in the making of pate.

Beef Suet

Tallow
Tallow is the stable fat left over from rendering suet. To get the tallow from the suet, you must first remove the blood vessels, membranes and other non-suet bits, then grate it for rendering. Suet must be refrigerated, just like meat. Tallow is slightly different from lard in composition, resulting in a hard, white fat when chilled. It can be rendered from beef, mutton (sheep), bear, or deer, and is rendered the same way lard is. It's generally taken from the fat growing around the kidneys or under the loins and has many uses, from making suet puddings, to the creation of bio-diesel. It has a high smoke point and is ideal for deep frying and pastry.

Chicken Fat

Schmaltz
Schmaltz is fat rendered from chicken, goose or duck. It has a strong flavor, and is rendered much like tallow and lard or, even more simply, through the making of chicken soup. Like lard, it is a very soft fat. Duck fat is famous for its use in confit, and goose fat has it's uses for roasting meats and vegetables, and even making ointments.

Rendering

There are two methods you can use to render lard (or other fats): Wet or Dry. Each has a slightly different result.

Wet
The fat is boiled or steamed, and skimmed off the top or (industrially) spun off in a centrifuge. Seeing as the average person doesn't have a centrifuge hanging around in the cupboard, you can heat the fat in a pot with some water and cook it until you can skim no more fat off the top. If there are little bits in the fat, I'd suggest straining through a couple layers of fine meshed cheesecloth before allowing it to set up. Wet rendered lard has a more neutral flavor (which is good if you are making sweet pastries), a lighter color, and a high smoke point, which makes it better for frying and baking.

Dry
Another way to render the large is to dry render. Cut the fat into small pieces, and place in a medium sized pot. Heat on medium or medium high until you start to get liquid fat leaching from the pieces. Stir often to keep them from sticking and burning. Soon you will have the pieces frying in a pool of liquid fat. It will spit a bit, so do be careful not to get burned. When the chunks of fat have been reduced to crispy brown bits, remove from heat and strain through a layer or two of fine meshed cheesecloth to result in a smooth, golden oil, which will set into a soft white jar of fat. Dry rendered lard has more color and flavor, but a lower smoke point, so it's a little better for sauteing things, rather than frying or baking.

Those leftover browned bits are called "crackling", and make excellent snacks!

Dry rendered lard is also known as "dripping", or "schmalz", which is a general German term for any fat that have been rendered.

Storage

Industrially produced lard is usually hydrogenated to make it shelf stable. That's not a good thing, in my opinion, no matter how low in trans-fats they might claim it to be (ideally, you don't want trans-fats at all). There's also the matter that it's treated with bleaches, deodorizers, emulsifiers, and antioxidants, in order to produce a product that can sit on a shelf at room temperature almost indefinitely, and appeal to the public, while also neatly severing them from the origin of their food.

If you are looking for a good quality lard, you must leave the "manteca" on the shelf, and look in the refrigerated section. This might be difficult in America, but I do know that Australian stores have a few brands you can look for, such as Allowries Pure Lard,or Supa-Fry, which is animal dripping, probably a mixture of beef and pork. Or, as I've suggested, you can make your own.

My grandmother used to just pour the hot, rendered lard into clean jars and screwed the lids in place, no water bath or pressure canner required. She kept the jars stored in the pantry where it was cool and dark and used the lard whenever she needed it. I have rendered lard and kept it refrigerated in small plastic tubs or glass jars, or even just sitting a jar next to the stove, a simple "can" of dripping drained off from whatever I had been cooking at the time.You can portion it up and freeze it. The folks at Preparedness Pro suggest:

"To preserve, you’ll use the pressure canning method of 100-120 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. (Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for high altitude.)"

(Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for high altitude.)
Read more at http://www.preparednesspro.com/rendering-and-preserving-lard#iQUx45DWezhbG8He.99

(Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for high altitude.)
Read more at http://www.preparednesspro.com/rendering-and-preserving-lard#iQUx45DWezhbG8He.99

Whatever method you choose to store your rendered lard, always make sure that the fresh fat is store chilled or frozen until you can process it, and the rendered fat kept cool to avoid rancidity.

Uses

Lard and it's by-product (crackling), have many excellent culinary uses. The crackling alone can be frozen and used in home made dog food and cat food or added to hearty soups and stews, spaghetti sauce, chili, cornbread, or just eaten on their own as a fresh snack.

The rendered lard can be used for sauteing, frying, roasting meats and vegetables, pie crusts and other pastries. In Britain, it is a traditional ingredient in mince pies, Christmas puddings, for frying fish and chips, and in "lardy cakes". It is used in Scandinavian pates, and in Spain a popular breakfast menu is a variety of flavored lards spread on toasted bread. The Chinese mix lard with soy sauce and rice, the Japanese use fatback lard in their ramen dishes to create a rich flavor and in Poland, they mix it with chopped apple or other fruit and spread it on thick slices of bread as a starter.

Salt cured pork fat being sliced into lardons.

In the Depression era, lard was spread on bread to provide a source of much needed calories in those hard times, and the Native Americans used soft fats, dried fish or meat, and dried fruits to create pemmican. Salt cured pork fat is sliced into lardons for addition to certain French dishes.

Lard is also used in making soap, bio-diesel, and even in certain kinds of machining. Need lubricant for a task? Lard has been used as an effective greasing agent for centuries.

Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmaltz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suet
http://www.preparednesspro.com/rendering-and-preserving-lard

I would like to thank my friend Debbie for suggesting this topic. Your curiosity has led to me expanding my knowledge, and hopefully the knowledge of those who read this blog.

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo

For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It occurs in November, when aspiring authors everywhere  spend 30 days trying to bang out a 50,000 word novel (the average 180 page paperback book), with varying degrees of success.

I've been participating in this event for the last six or seven years (with varying degrees of success). I've decided that I'm going to attempt to do it again, but instead of flogging my brain for a sci-fi/fantasy, I'm going to join the "rebels" in some non-traditional types of NaNo writing, namely a collection of educational/informational blogs, one for each day of November. I put this out there for everyone:

If there is a subject you would like to learn about related to homesteading, gardening, cooking or baking, the making of wine or mead, cheese, DIY or other such projects, feel free to make a suggestion. Note that it needs to be simple enough that it can be researched and written in a day (each article needs to be about 1667 words). It can be a question you'd like answered, or just a subject in general that you are curious about.

I will probably do a few on gardening, cooking, sustainability and domestic-related subjects, but could use a few more ideas. There are 30 slots to fill.  You can write your question/subject of choice in the comments section, and I'll add your contribution to my list. (Some subjects, if they are similar, might be combined; if I don't get to you in November for whatever reason, I'll do my best to do another blog for your subject afterwards.)

Here's to you, and may you all have an excellent day!

DIY Laundry Soap

Why would you want to make your own washing powder? It's not like it's a rare commodity; any grocery store carries it. No one, I assure you, is selling washing powder on the black market, and I'm pretty damn sure that people are not being taken hostage for a ransom of powdered washing soap. 

What I have noticed about the average commercial laundry detergent is that they can be quite expensive, quite questionable regarding their ingredients, and quite overpowering in smell.

Having a few relatives who find fragrances overpowering, being aware of the fact that there are many people allergic to washing powders, and personally finding most chemical scents an assault on the nose and sinuses, I decided that it would be worth trying to make my own, and see if I couldn't remedy the situation.

There are lots of different ways to DIY laundry soap. Like all things, there are as many recipes as there are people making them, so if one doesn't work for you, another might. That's part of the fun in the process, right?

There are a couple ways you can make it, as a powder or as a liquid gel, but as I have limited space to store things, having big buckets or jugs of liquid is a bit cumbersome, so I prefer the powder version. 

It's easy! Check it out, I'll give you a list of the ingredients I use, and what they do for the washing powder.

Washing Soda

Washing soda is also known as "sodium carbonate". It's a water softener, which means it keeps the minerals in hard water from interfering with the effectiveness of the detergent, unlike baking soda, which is mostly a deodorizer and a fabric softener. It can also be used to remove grease, oil and wine stains, which is good news for my hubby's work shirts! (Why he wears white shirts in a dirty warehouse, I'll never know...)

I'm not saying you can't use baking soda; you're free to throw some in there if you feel like you need it. I'm just telling you the difference.

Fun fact: you can make washing soda (sodium carbonate) at home! All you need is a baking soda, a pan, and your oven. Holly Homemaker has some good instructions: http://hollythehomemaker.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/how-to-make-washing-soda-redux.html

Borax

Borax is a somewhat debated ingredient. Some people swear to it safety, others will shout that it's terrible for you and the environment and everything. It took some looking around on the net, but I think that it's a common sense matter. Sure, it's safe enough... just don't eat it, and in case you have kids or pets that might get into it, put it someplace where they can't get to it. Also, I wouldn't use it wholesale in my garden... but I might use a small amount to cure an ant problem (I have never actually had an ant problem bad enough to warrant the use of borax; I'm just sayin'.) If you don't want to use Borax, there are plenty of recipes out there that don't require it, and you can make those instead.

Borax has a mild bleaching effect (more effective in hotter water, according to About.com) but also helps to increase cleaning power, disinfects, inhibits and kills unwanted pests. 

Soap

Soap, for those familiar with making it, is a fat or oil that has been broken down by a strong alkaline solution (in most cases, sodium hydroxide, which is lye). It is used as a surfactant, which means that it takes some insoluble materials, interacts with them, and makes them soluble (water washable, basically). The simplest way of explaining it is adding a bit of dish soap to wash water with oil floating on top. The detergent works to break up the oil, making it "disappear". Which is why you can washing dishes by hand and still end up with clean, non-greasy plates.

Soap comes in many forms, but I suggest the use of the simplest types. I made my own lard soap to use for the laundry powder, but I have used the store brand laundry soap bars at the store. You can also use Fels-Naptha or Zote soaps, or just plain Ivory soap. I prefer unscented soaps myself, so my plain lard soap worked well for this. Use a microplane grater to get a nice fine shred to the bars.

Alternatively (although I haven't tried it) you can use soap flakes. The average bar of soap is 1 to 1 1/2 cups of grated soap.

Essential Oils

This is the first batch I've made that used essential oils. To be honest, I didn't consider it until I saw the latest episode of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, where the woman who later turned out to be a murderer used eucalyptus oil in her washing powder because it "killed the germs". So I thought "Ah! Brilliant! I'll add some to this next batch."

Eucalyptus oil is a deodorant, antibacterial, antiseptic, and antimicrobial agent. Pretty cool, eh? And it smells great! (I love the smell of eucalyptus personally.) As a side note, I also use it in my cleaning spray, but that's another blog post (maybe).

I also used Tea Tree oil. Now, this is also personal opinion, but I don't like the smell of Tea Tree oil as much, but it doesn't mean it's not effective against bacteria, fungi, and viruses, according to several sources I found. It's also claimed to stimulate the immune system. I just hope it acts to keep the mildew down.

Now, for the recipe! It's easy peasy.

For a single batch, you need:

1 cup washing soda
1 cup Borax
1 bar of soap, grated (approximately 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oils (other oils can be used if you so desire)

Mix all the ingredients together, breaking up the lumps as needed. Add as much of the essential oils you feel the batch needs to smell the way you like. Mix in well to incorporate the scent throughout the dry mix. Store in an air tight container (in my case, a wonderfully re-purposed Moccona instant coffee jar). I keep it in the wash house, on the shelve above the washing machine with a Tablespoon measure scoop in it.

To use, use 1T for a lightly soiled load, and 2T for heavily soiled clothes. It seems to work well with cold water, and leaves the clothes smelling fresh without an overpowering fragrance. Overall, it's easier to measure out, so you have less waste, and your batch lasts much longer, thus making your overall cost quite cheap.

If you want to know what you're using in your life, I think the best thing to do is to make your own. So go make your soap, enjoy the lightly pleasant smell of clean washing, and keep living, learning and loving!

A Little Honesty For Encouragement

Being overweight is not easy. It takes a toll physically, mentally and emotionally. You may be tired all the time, or have health problems related to your weight, such as a bad back, or diabetes, or high blood pressure. Your physical state affects your mental state; you may have negative feelings about yourself, and negative feelings can feed bad habits, such as eating to feel good. It affects you emotionally, because people are often cruel or dismissive of overweight people; this is especially true among children, who often bully the "fat kid" on the play ground. This is even true among "health professionals", who very often have "fat blinders": whenever an overweight person arrives in their office, those blinders go down over their eyes, and they can't see you for anything other than those extra kilos you carry.

I was that "fat kid". I am that overweight adult being patronized by her doctor. I have been shamed for my extra weight. I have eaten to make myself feel better. I have been depressed and pessimistic because of my health and my size. I have hated people for their cruelty and rudeness.

But my sassy nature finally came through for me: my response to those people was to essentially give them a middle finger salute and go do my own thing.

How did I do that? I found like-minded people with similar problems, and I listened to them. I read books, I looked up information. I did my research, and said "Well, it won't hurt to try." 

Back in January sometime I developed a bit of a freaky health problem that I went to a doctor to address. I won't bore you with too many details, but that was when I started encountering those "fat blinders". In fact, those fat blinders are so prominent, that I'm still stuck going back to the doctor in order to chivvy them along to figure out the actual complaint I came in with is, because all they do is look at me, pat me on the head, and say that I'll be fine when I lose some weight.

I dunno about you, but that is so NOT okay to me. I go to the doc when I have a problem I want figured out, not to be judged on my weight. I know I'm overweight, and I'm doing my best to change that. I don't need you to tell me that.

But I digress.

Back around the beginning of the year, I decided that I needed to do something about my weight. Going on some good advice, I went low carb. I kept a food diary, tracked the carbs I was eating, drank a lot of water, etc. But you know what? Keeping track of everything is hard work, and it sucks. Being the ADD Adult that I am, I did it for a while, diligently, and then moved on to other things. I managed to lose a couple kilos, but for the most part, I noticed no change in my weight.

Then I got a brilliant book from the library. Wheat Belly opened my eyes to the possibility of other problems causing my weight gain, as well as a variety of skin issues I'd been plagued with for years (eczema, psoriasis, etc). So I went wheat/gluten free.

When the weight started coming off a little quicker, AND my skin issues started clearing up, I became encouraged to stick with it just a little more. Sure I had cravings, and naughty moments, and fell off the wagon, but the important fact is that I stuck with it, and didn't give up. I moved on to cutting out sugary things, like fruit juice and soda, upping my healthy fats intake, and getting just a bit more exercise than I normally would get. And I kept on going.

So what is my point? You can do it too.

I started this journey at 145kg (319lbs). When I checked my weight yesterday, I was 133kg (293lbs). That's a 12 kilo (26 pounds) drop! Granted, it took me several months to get this far, but I did it nonetheless, and I intend to keep going with my low carb high fat lifestyle until I reach my goal weight of 70kg (154lbs).

This is not an advertisement for any diet. It's me, an overweight person jaded by society, trying to lose weight, telling everyone else who is discouraged about it that it's possible. I'm telling the world that I can do it, that you can do it, and that we most definitely don't need the rest of ignorant society to tell us what they think about it or us. Do your research, talk to to like-minded people, and do what works for you, but never give up, and don't feel bad or bully yourself if you lapse. Just get up, dust yourself off, and get back on that horse.

So here's to our weight loss journeys, and the encouragement we can provide each other, and may we all look at the patronizing, bullying jerks in the world, and give them our middle finger salutes.

Dietary Woes: Breaking Up With Wheat

Recently I've decided that wheat products don't agree with me. (You really don't want the details.)

After I finished crying about it (I love bread) I decided to look for alternative ways to fix my favorite, usually wheat-based goods.

Unfortunately, bread is hard to replace. It might be one of those things that I'll have to keep to occasional intake, and just suffer the consequences afterward. Pasta is down to occasional intake as well, but I can use gluten free pasta, so it's not so bad. After reading the Wheat Belly book, I decided not to rely on gluten free products, as they are more likely to spike blood sugar even higher than wheat would. So, the pasta is my only gluten free food "crutch".

I have attempted to make wheat free "breads", with varying forms of success. Most, like the wheat-free almond butter bread, are expensive to make, unless you have the capacity to make your own almond butter at home (I currently don't). Some, like the coconut flour pancakes, are disgusting (yeah; texture, mouth feel, flavor, all massive fails). I Found one recipe (almond meal biscuits) that came fairly close to being a good bread replacement, so far. it's a never ending search.

Today's wheat free experiment is chocolate cake. It's based on a Whipped Cream Cake recipe I've had for a few years now. It is my most favorite recipe to use, and since I offered to make a cake for a friend's birthday on Thursday, I want to be able to have cake without it's undesirable effects. So here's the recipes, the original and the altered:

The Original Whipped Cream Cake (White)

2 c cake flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
3 egg whites
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c cold water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract

Wheat Free Whipped Cream Cake (Chocolate)

1/2 c cocoa powder
1 1/2 c almond flour
3 tsp arrowroot powder
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 egg whites
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c cold water
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325F. Butter two 9" cake pans (or one 9" spring form pan). Dust with cocoa powder (or flour, for the wheat version).

Sift together the salt, almond flour, baking powder, arrowroot powder, cocoa powder, and set aside.

Whip the egg whites until stiff, adding 1-3 tb sugar to keep them from graining. They should be stiff, but not dry. Over-whipping the whites will make for a dry cake.

Whip the cream until stiff, and fold into the whites.

Fold in the remaining sugar.

Fold in the dry ingredients, alternately with the water, mixing well.

Add the extract(s), and mix well.

Pour into pan(s) and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in pan(s) for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

The cake is out of the oven, so I am looking forward to seeing how it's turned out, but if I can judge anything by the bits left on the ring after I removed it, I'd say it's a success. I shall use this recipe to make the cake for Thursday, and top it with a chocolate ganache, sparkler candles, and a massive in-joke we currently have going.

For all you folks struggling with similar dietary woes, just remember: it's not the end of the world. There are alternatives out there, you just have to be wide eyed, curious, and very active in the finding them. And of course, you must experiment, just like I did.

Happy baking!

Summer Wrap Up

Well, we all know that all good things must come to an end, and it's the same with summer. All those gorgeous summer gardens in Tassie are gradually coming to a close, and mine is no exception. I've been breaking things down for the winter here, cleaning up and preparing for fall and winter crops.

I had a whole bunch of starter pots at the side of the house near the gate, just sitting there, with (I am embarrassed to admit) a few dead, brown twigs sticking out of them. So, I cleaned up that mess, dumped the soil out into the bigger pots to bring them up to level (no matter how much soil you put in, it always seems to disappear), before lining a few up neatly under the window. I now have two empty pots flanking my basil, my jalapeno chilies, and a volunteer tomato plant that amused me by popping up randomly in a vacant space.

The starter pots and water dishes are stacked up, ready for storage in the shed as soon as I can make the room to get them in there. I swept the sidewalk, and did some weeding, and started pruning that big bush by the corner of the fence, until I developed a blister, so I just threw the limbs onto the pavers in the yard to be dealt with later. Hubs said he'd get up there and cut it back all the way for the winter. it helps the sun reach the house better if we do.
 
I also cleaned up the front porch "nursery", where I keep the mini greenhouse in spring. Shook the dirt off the door mat, swept the steps, swept the drive to neaten it a bit (discovered a large nest of honey ants in the process...ick!), took in all the small starter pots there to be emptied and put away for the winter with the others, trimmed that south african bush (whatever it is) back to let the sun get to the porch (and considered removing it completely...), and then set up five large pots with Fordhook Giant Silverbeet, Rainbow Chard, Perpetual Spinach, Lacinato Kale, and Tatsoi seeds. *GASP!* The pots are artfully arranged with staggered heights on the porch steps. Artfully, I said. I do try to be stylish. ;)

We'll see if I can get myself some pots of greens growing before it gets too cold to germinate.

And, I consistently forgot to remember it was Easter, as I wasn't baking anything special or making chocolates. I did, however, bust open that big pumpkin I had harvested from the plots and baked up a few chunks, and decided that I've found the PERFECT pie pumpkin. Huge, thick, fleshy walls, relatively thin skin, nice dark orange flesh. Some pumpkin pie might be in our near future. I'm definitely saving the seeds. 

All in all, I hope your holiday weekend was a good one, and that your gardens are going well, and may everyone have an enjoyable upcoming season, whatever it may be.