Spiral of Life - Energy Transformation from Field to Fork

This being the start of a 10 day fast it’s a perfect time to reflect back on some of our activities and observations about our lives as far as our food is concerned. I can always measure our journey by what we are eating, growing or cooking.

Today we are working on some honey from one of our hives… I love the smell in the house when honey is being processed. Of course our form of working with honey is very simple – for the most part, we don’t do much of anything!

What we like is honey on the comb or cut comb honey. This is the honey you can gently squeeze out of the comb or eat the entire thing really. There is a little bit of wax and lots of honey – all of it with health and healing properties.

Mostly we don’t take much honey from our bees – just enough to use for medicinal purposes and a little in my baking. It certainly would not be something I would spread on my toast (other then the first day with new honey) it is too precious for that.

This past week I also cooked a leg of lamb – it was one that needed to be used up, something that was bought from a shop awhile ago. What I wanted to mention about it is that it was bland – the day before we had enjoyed some of our own meat raised here and it did not compare.

First of all, it wasn’t organic, it was also likely raised and then not handled as gently as we would our own animals. But, I do think what they are fed likely makes a bigger difference then we all realize.

Fortunately here in Ireland, most lamb and grazing animals are on the land and eating grass. However, those intended for market are often finished on grains which are mostly genetically modified these days (corn and soy are GM in the regular feeds).

This gave me something to think about – and I was not overly impressed with the meat itself. I was thinking mostly in terms of the flavour – perhaps we are so accustomed to stronger flavoured fowl and game meats now. Or maybe I just need to get a lamb of my own and raise it to see if it tastes better or different to me.

Some other things I have noticed with my cooking and baking is how much of our meals are now our own. At Easter we sat down to a meal with the following items made or grown by us - turkey, pickled gherkins, pickled beetroot, cranberry apple sauce, sage stuffing, green salad, hot fruit juice.

Everything, except for items like rice and some of the vegetables (which we are not able to grow yet) were from our own hands. It was nice to look around the table and see how far we’ve come with our food.

Even if you have to buy in some of the raw ingredients – you are still making something terrific for yourself and your family when you raise, grow and cook your own food.

I can see how my focus shifted sometime ago from removing any processed foods (they have been long gone) to seeing how much we are able to grow on our own. Then tasting the difference in the herbs, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, vegetables from our own hands – has become a pleasure.

It is such a wonderful feeling to put energy out into the raw ingredients and then to have it all come back full circle – transformed into healthy, nutritious meals for your family.

The spiral of life is dynamic and alive….

April 

Honey comb waiting to be pressed

Love Summer Fruits

Yesterday was another interesting day with still being on this fast, and wanting to create and cook - I ended up making ice cream and apple sauce in small batches to just keep myself occupied really. I find that I relax, am happy in myself and can think or process through things when I am busy working with food. 

First of all ice cream is something that I have been making for awhile and we have a small ice cream maker. The main reason we got this was because we had been all going without any ice cream for several years due to the fact that we don't eat cows milk, sugar or want the added chemicals of commercial ice cream.

There are companies out there who make ice cream from goat's milk however, it would have other ingredients that we did not like or need. Therefore, being resourceful, I started to make my own for our special occasions (such as summer!) and feast days. There is a feast day coming up soon at the beginning of August, and now the ice cream is ready for this celebration. 

When I first started out making ice cream I just researched what other people were doing and then improvised to fit our own needs - and it turns out very well. I make goat's milk ice cream using bananas, milk, jam and little else.

Yesterday I used 4 bananas, about 2.5 cups of goat's milk, 1//2 cup fresh peach jam and a tiny bit of raw agave syrup - mostly because I could not taste it to see how sweet it was. Otherwise I would not use the agave, but the jams I am making are mainly only fruit, some lemon juice and 1/2 cup of apple concentrate per batch of jam. They will not be overly sweet.

Then I decided to try my hand at making my applesauce recipe and canning it into the last remaining jars because I had apples that were not being eaten. I never liked applesauce as a child or at any other time - until I started making it myself. I think for me it has to do with the texture - if it's too much like baby food, I don't want it.

I also like applesauce that is warm and spicy with lots of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger or allspices in it. So this is what I did - 8 cups of chopped apples, teaspoons of spices, tiny bit of lemon juice and cooked the apples into a sauce. They bottled up perfectly as well, in the jars that would not seal the day before, go figure! 

Now, when I open the cupboard there are a dozen jars lined up filled with jams and sauces - ready for the coming winter and changing seasons. It is a warm and fuzzy feeling for me and I truly feel right now these few remaining items that have been creeping into our diets will be eliminated once and for all.

Soon, I want to try my hand at making some chutneys and perhaps pickles as I get more adventurous  with my canning abilities. Last night Max came home with over 30 more jars, so I guess that was my green light to keep going with this. 

Keeping it real here in West Cork,

April

This is my ice cream maker - very simple little thing!

Here is a deep mixing bowl filled with the 4 ingredients of my ice cream

Love In The Making...

If I were to be completely honest about the true way that I want to live - the way that I have always dreamed of living, it would be to create, source, grow, make, cook and provide all of my own food. And of course, through doing this as a family we would be even healthier, stronger in body and spirit without much energy coming in from outside sources. 

Most people would look at us and think that already we are pretty well free from food and lifestyle of the majority - and we are. I do not eat the same foods as others, I always cook our own meals, which are mainly vegetarian unless it is a feast day or festival. However, we got to a point that we were feeling stuck in our souls - unable to move forward any further towards our goals, and I feel that this remaining 'food' that was coming into our diets from outside sources, was the sticking point. 

Even though I have been doing this for a little while now, there are still areas for improvement and you would probably not be surprised how easily processed foods creep back in to our food chain when we get busy. There is a lot I want to say about eating this food - the first thing is that it is devoid of love. Machines, people just doing a job, government regulations, corporate rules, bottom lines and business plans - do not place a lot of 'love energy' into the final product. 

Why is this a real problem for those of us wanting to walk the talk and follow a spiritual path you might be asking? It is because, when food is empty of love, it fills up with something else - and this is fear. When an energy is removed (during processing) something else comes in to fill the void, like a vacuum.  So, we have been consuming fear, it doesn't feel good and I am doing something about it. 

I started with jams because this is something that we would eat a lot of - sugar free jam is also relatively easy to make as well. Over the years I would have considered we were buying some of the best quality jams and I have enjoyed them. They are tasty and full of fruit - however, they are still made in a factory which is processed food and contains the negative qualities that I no longer want in my body.

Last night, I decided to start out on the right foot, I researched how to use my glass jars for the jams and followed all the instructions to the letter - at the end of the evening I was sitting down, listening as each jar lid popped and sealed. Exactly as it was supposed to do.

So, I was pleased with the good start. We now have 8 jars of peach and nectarine ginger jam! And I am delighted with it. Of course, it is fruit season right now, so I want to carry on with making quite a few more jams for the winter - you might be hearing a lot about jam making in the coming days. (smile)

I also realized how much more equipment I need to get, as well as to source more jars. I can see that I am going to be busy with this - and of course, there is nothing I would love more.

Have a great day,

April

Some remaining jars waiting for labels - the half filled one, will be enjoyed as soon as we are finished our Master Cleanse!