If you’re looking for a fun summer treat that holds some of the best tastes of summer, look no further and give these Lemon Blueberry Scones a try! This was Lily and my first time making scones and the recipe we followed was fantastic. The scones were moist, not too sweet and full of lemon blueberry flavor. A great treat for a weekend breakfast or tea party!
The recipe we followed is for Mixed-Berry Scones with Lemon Icing from Jean Van’t Hul’s The Artful Year.
Ingredients:
For the Scones
1 Cup White Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
Zest from 1 Lemon
6 Tablespoons Butter, sliced
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Plain or Vanilla Yogurt
1-2 Cups Blueberries fresh or frozen
For The Lemon Icing
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet with butter or canola oil.
Measure all the dry ingredients, including the lemon zest, into a food processor. Run for a minute to mix.
Add the butter pieces to the flour mixture. Pulse several times until the butter is pea size or smaller. You could also mix dry ingredients and then cut the butter into them using a pastry blender or knife and fork. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.
Whisk together the egg and yogurt. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the egg mixture. Stir the batter until it’s combined and the dough starts to come together.
Fold in the berries.
Turn the dough out onto the counter and shape it into a disk about 1 inch thick. Cut it, like a pie, into eight wedges.
Bake the scones for 20 minutes or until they’re cooked through and toasty brown on the edges. Let them cool slightly.
Make the lemon icing by whisking the ingredients together. Drizzle the icing over the scones. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Looking for something special to make for Dad this Father’s Day – If you’ve never tried Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp (with rhubarb & strawberries fresh picked from the garden), it’s a fantastic treat you’re sure to look forward to every spring!
Rhubarb is rich in antioxidants that have anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. It’s extremely easy to grow. It’s a perennial that requires little work and comes back every spring for you to enjoy. You can eat it raw, straight from the garden, but it has an extremely bitter taste. Our favorite ways to enjoy rhubarb in our house are in Strawberry Rhubarb Oatmeal muffins, Strawberry, Rhubarb Apple Sauce and Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp! Below is our Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp recipe! Enjoy!
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp:
Ingredients:
2 to 3 Cups Rhubarb diced
3 Cups Strawberries diced
1 Cup Sugar
3 Tablespoons Flour
For the Crumb Topping:
1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 Cup Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 Cup Butter at room temperature
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix Rhubarb, Strawberries, Sugar and 3Tbs. Flour in a bowl and put into a 9×13 baking dish
Make Crumb topping by combining, Flour, B. Sugar, Oats and Butter. Mix with hands until crumbs form.
Sprinkle topping all over the Rhubarb Strawberry mixture
Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until topping is golden and mixture is bubbling
Our favorite is to top it off with some vanilla ice cream!
Wishing you all a Very Special Father’s Day Full of Love, Sunshine and Something Sweet!
Any man can be a father, but it takes someone Special to be a Dad.
Spring; A time for Reflection, Renewal, Rebirth and JOY!
Our house is a buzz with Spring Feaver! Spring has sprung; crocuses and daffodils are springing up in the garden beds, buds are popping out on the trees, garden seeds are getting started indoors, the chickens are laying eggs again, baby goats are being born on the farm across the street, it is a time of renewal, rebirth and joy! After a long winter and a time of great reflection, the earth reminds us that brighter days are ahead.
Dying eggs for Easter is an age old tradition. In some European countries children place fresh leaves onto the eggs wrap them in gauze, tie a string around it and place it in a pot of boiling water and onion skins. When unwrapped the beautiful image of the leaves are impressed onto the eggs. It is no surprise that eggs, symbolic of new life, have become tied to the Easter theme of rebirth. Many European cultures dye the eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ and serve the hard boiled eggs with their Easter meals. We have tried many different egg dying techniques over the years and a favorite around here at the moment is dropping bits of crayon shavings onto the hot eggs to melt into beautiful, bright colors spread across the egg and then dip them in some food coloring and vinegar water to add an added splash of color and joy in honor of spring.
Butterscotch & Chocolate Birds Nest
Butterscotch Birds Nests
These are a tradition around here to celebrate spring and Easter. They are a favorite from my childhood and a no-bake treat that my kids look forward to making every year!
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Chocolate chips
1/2 Cup Butterscotch chips
3 Cups Chow Mein Noodles
Cadbury mini Easter egg candy
Directions:
Melt chocolate & butterscotch chips in a double boiler on the stove top
When chocolate mixture is melted, add the chow mien noodles and mix
Line a muffin tin with cupcake paper and spoon small scoops of noodle mixture in nest like shapes into tin
Place Cadbury eggs in center and let cool
Lily making Italian Easter Wheat Pie “Pastiera di Grano” A favorite from my childhood that my Nonna would make.
This is a traditional Italian Easter pie made using wheat berries, ricotta, lemon zest, eggs, sugar and vanilla. The taste and smell of it baking brings me back to my childhood Easter gatherings at my Nonna’s house. I haven’t yet mastered making it as good as my Nonna’s and not sure that I ever will, but we’re working on it each year!
A great historical educational program that we really enjoyed watching is Rick Steve’s European Easter. Full of history, tradition and Hope.
Wishing you all a Blessed Easter and a Rejuvenating Spring!
Brighter Days are Ahead!
“The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.”
Nothing says New England quite like Sugar Maples and fresh maple syrup. The roots of modern American sugaring traditions lie heavily in Native American history and culture. In the early 1600’s before the arrival of European settlers, Native Americans were already tapping sugar maples and making maple sugar. The Native Americans in New England used maple sap to make cake sugar, grain sugar and wax sugar. During maple sugaring season, New England Native Americans would set up sugar camps. They would collect the sap in wooden buckets by creating V-shaped slashes in the tree to allow the sap to pour out. Since they couldn’t boil the sap in the wooden buckets, they would add hot rocks to help boil away the water and create a syrup-like consistency that would be made into products like brown sugar, maple sugar molds and wax sugar which was a taffy like maple confection made by pouring hot syrup on snow.
Sugaring was a skill that European settlers learned from Native Americans. Instead of making V-slashed cuts into the trees, the settlers drilled small holes into the trunk that allowed the sap to drip into metal pots which could later be boiled down over a fire. The settlers poured the syrup into wooden molds to create sugar blocks. The sugar blocks stored well and were used throughout the year for baking.
What started long ago, still carries on strong today. The hills of Western Massachusetts are dotted with Maple Sugar Shacks that come alive this time of year. It is amazing to visit these establishments and see how the sap is collected, stored and turned into syrup! Each year my kids have loved volunteering at a local Maple Sugar farm to help transport the sap down to the sugar house. They have learned so much about history and the hard work that goes into one gallon of Maple Syrup. Usually, about 40 gallons of sap are needed to make 1 gallon of maple syrup! That’s a lot of sap!
40 gallons of sap to make this gallon of Maple Syrup!
Maple syrup can be made from any species of maple tree. The highest concentration of sugar is found in the sap of the sugar maple. If you have some maple trees in your yard, it is a simple and very rewarding process to start tapping your trees. We picked up some sap buckets and taps from our local farmer supply store, but you could also use plastic food grade buckets. The best time to tap your trees is when the day temperatures stay consistently above freezing, but the nights still dip down below freezing. When we’ve collected enough sap we just put it in a pot on the stove until it boils down to syrup. It’s a great family tradition to share with your children. Who doesn’t love homemade pancakes and some homemade syrup!
Two of our favorite books about the Maple Sugar tradition and process:
Sugaring by Jessie Haas and Maple Moon by Connie Brummel Crook
Here’s a little glimpse in to a New England Sugar Shack Maple Sugaring Process:
Wishing you all a Very Healthy and Sweet Start to Spring!
This Christmas, my wonderful husband surprised me with a pasta machine! I was truly surprised because even though it was something I’ve thought of purchasing over the years, I had never mentioned it. I know what you’re thinking, how could someone really be that excited about doing more work to get a simple meal like pasta on the table? Doesn’t she know that a box of pasta only costs less than $2.00? Call me crazy, but there’s something about making pasta from scratch that makes me feel as if I’ve stepped back in time into my great-grandmother’s kitchen in Italy and am taking part in a very sacred tradition.
It’s truly amazing how emotions and memories can be triggered by traditions. I used to love going down into my Nonna’s basement kitchen around the holidays and crank the dough through the pasta machine to make fresh pasta and Italian Christmas cookies. My grandmother and her sister would put on their weathered aprons and enormous dollar store magnifying eye-glasses. Nonna would always pull her hair back in a handkerchief and Zia Rossa would have on a winter cap. For the pasta dough, Nonna never needed a recipe; It was engrained in her heart from her own childhood. The Christmas cookies were another story. She would pull out the smallest, crumpled piece of scrap paper with her recipe jotted down in Italian. She would always have a hard time reading her handwriting and ask me what I thought it said, I don’t speak Italian well, and am no better at reading it! Zia Rossa would soon chime in about how she used orange zest not orange juice and before you knew it, they were on the phone with a cousin in Italy to solve the dispute. Oh yes, a simple thing like a pasta machine can bring back so many memories.
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Pictures from many years ago when Ava was just a baby and we made Italian Christmas cookies filled with chestnuts and chocolate – with Nonna and Zia Rosa Somehow I subconsciously must have been channeling my Zia Rossa as I too, wore my winter cap to make pasta!
My excitement must have been contagious because everyone in our house wanted in on the pasta making fun. Fortunately, our dough came together beautifully. No real chemistry there, just a simple recipe of flour, egg, oil and a touch of salt. Yet, us rocket scientists had a hold up as we encountered a bit of trouble getting things rolling through the machine. If you’ve ever seen a pasta machine, the simple ones with the crank handle, there’s not much to them to figure out. We were pros at sending our rolled out dough through the first round of the machine flattening it out to the desired thickness. But, as we all anxiously awaited the final step that actually makes the fettuccini; Lily cranked the machine, Leo had his hands ready to grab the pasta as it came out… and nothing. Like a carousel ride, our pasta just kept going round and round the machine. Mike suggested I make the dough less sticky, so I patted it all down with a little flour and we tried again. Nope, the pasta kept going round and nothing came out. I took out the directions, yes, now I took out the directions, but there was no information in the ten different languages written that instructed you on how to put the machine together. Hmm, what were those little metal bars and plastic inserts for that were sitting on the counter? I just assumed they were to clean the machine. Good thing Mike is a contractor, because yes, a contractor is always good to have around especially when you are making pasta and need help figuring out where the missing parts fit into the machine!
2-Year-Old Vivienne cranking out the dough
Leo & Lily channeled their Italian heritage and would have made their ancestors proud with their pasta making skills and enthusiasm!
The kids loved making pasta. I think they were truly amazed that they could make yet another thing on their own that we usually buy from the store – and that it could taste so good! The fettuccini was such a hit that a couple nights later we made homemade spinach ravioli and Leo made us all spaghetti!
If you’re feeling inspired, I encourage you to get that pasta machine, put on your apron and if you’re really feeling it, your winter cap and give pasta making a try! The memories you will be creating for your family are priceless.
Pasta Dough Recipe (makes about 1 pound of pasta)
Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 1/2 Cups “OO” Flour
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
A pinch of salt
Instructions:
Add all ingredients to your food processor and pulse for about 10 seconds or until the mixture is crumbly in texture
Remove the dough and form into a ball with your hands. Then knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for a couple minutes until it is smooth and elastic. The dough should be pretty dry, but if is seems too wet, just add more flour a tablespoon at a time.
Form the dough into a ball and wrap it in parchment paper or plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
When dough is ready, roll it out into small rectangular shapes and run through your pasta machine to desired thickness for the pasta you are making (this is indicated in the pamphlet that comes with the machine). Then send the dough through the machine to be cut into your pasta shape!
*Fresh pasta will cook quicker than dried pasta – usually between 1-5 minutes depending on the thickness of your pasta.
*Our pasta machine is an Atlas 150 and now that I know how to use it – I really do love it!
“Tutti a tavola a mangiare”
(Everyone to the table to eat)
Below is a video (I found on Youtube) of my dad’s village in Italy preparing for the September festival to celebrate the Saint of their town. It is a tradition that dates back for centuries and is truly an honor to experience. People come from all the neighboring towns to celebrate and some, like mine, travel every year from the United States back to their village to visit family and friends and celebrate together. One of my favorite pasta making memories is visiting this village and making pasta with family and friends as we prepared for the festival. The first image in the video is of the remains of a church built in 1590 and the second stone building is the grain mill where my Nonna and her family would grind their grain into flour. Although this video is in Italian, you can still appreciate the work that goes into the festival and the joy of the people who make the village what it is! Wait until you see how much pasta they make!
And here’s a video I found to give a peek into the festival! After the church service, everyone processes through the town singing and circles back to the church to feast on all the amazing food and enjoy the music and festivities. If you visit Italy in the summer and early fall, you too could visit these historic villages in the mountains and enjoy a different festival almost every weekend!
Nothing says Holiday Baking quite like some Old-Fashioned soft gingerbread! During a normal holiday season one of our favorite things to do is visit Old Sturbridge Village’s Christmas by Candlelight in Massachusetts. It is an amazing living history museum and their old-fashioned holiday celebration is truly a treasure of an experience. One of our favorite soft gingerbread recipes is adapted from a very old recipe found in The Good Housekeeper by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1841. I got this recipe at our last visit to Sturbridge Village and it has been one that we love to make during the holiday season.
Six teacups of flour, three cups of molasses, three cups of cream, two of butter, one tablespoon of pearls and the same of ginger. Bake in a quick oven about half an hour.
The Good Housekeeper by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1841
The Modern day method of making this soft gingerbread:
4 1/2 Cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Ginger
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking soda
1 1/2 Teaspoons Cream of Tartar
2 1/4 Cup Cream
2 1/4 Cup Molases
1 1/2 Cup Butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, sift together flour and ginger. Dissolve baking soda and cream of tartar in the cream. Cut butter into dry ingredients and blend thoroughly. Stir in cream mixture and molasses into dry ingredients. Pour into two greased 9-inch pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Dust with Confectioners sugar and serve warm, but it’s also tasty after being chilled in the fridge!
If you’re looking for a fun craft to do and book to read while enjoying your gingerbread, you can’t go wrong with The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. An easy beginner sewing project to do with your children is to sew a felt or fabric gingerbread baby. Leo sewed this handsome gingerbread baby when he was 5 years old. He drew the pattern of the gingerbread baby with chalk onto some felt, we folded the fabric in half so that we would have two pieces the same size and cut it out with fabric scissors. He drew on a mouth and nose with fabric marker and we sewed on the button eyes together. Then, Leo sewed it together with a large needle and embroidery floss and stuffed it with batting – you could use old clothes or stuffing from an old pillow. It’s a lot of fun and a great beginner project to hand sewing!
Elderberry’s are really quite an amazing plant with numerous health benefits. I have been using the syrup for years to help boost our family’s immune system during the fall and winter seasons. Elderberries are known to fight and protect your immune system against bacterial and viral infections along with reducing the symptoms and duration of the common cold and flu. They are anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and are high in vitamin A, which is great for healthy skin. Purchasing organic Elderberry syrup can get expensive, so I’ve tried making it at home and the product was easy to make and tastes delicious!
If you’d like to give it a try here’s what you’ll need.
Ingredients:
1 Cup dried organic elderberries
4 Cups water
1 Cup Raw Honey
1/4 Cup lemon juice
dash of cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger (dried ginger can be substituted)
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
Directions:
Add 1 Cup dried elderberries, ginger, cinnamon stick and 4 Cups water to a medium sized sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour.
After elderberries have simmered for 45 minutes to an hour, pour the liquid through a mesh colander into a bowl and mash elderberries over bowl in the strainer to be sure to get out all the juice from the berries. Remove cinnamon stick if used.
Add 1 Cup raw honey, 1/4 cup lemon juice and dash of cayenne pepper and mix together
Pour liquid into a clean mason jar and keep in the refrigerator for 1-2 months. Adults take 1 Tbsp. daily and children 2 and up take 1 tsp daily. Children under 1 year should not consume raw honey, so if making for younger children add honey that isn’t raw. If you have a cold or feel one coming on, take 1 Tbsp/Tsp every two hours until cold subsides (up to 4 Tbsp/tsp a day). *Raw honey has many nutritional benefits that add to the syrup, cayenne, lemon juice and ginger add some heat, which helps the syrup activate when consumed. The cinnamon stick is for flavor.
Ava and I in the kitchen getting ready to make some goat cheese!
Ok, so you’ve joined the slow food movement – you have a garden, you’re baking bread and you’re making meals from scratch – what else is there to do, but venture into the crazy world of making your own homemade cheese! I know, it may sound crazy, maybe even impossible, but trust me, once you give it a try, you’ll appreciate the simplicity of making something that seems so ordinary, yet connects you to age-old artisan traditions. I am a cheese fan; always have been, always will be. I cannot put into words, my true love for not just cheese, but fresh cheese, especially goat cheese! One of my fondest memories of a trip to Italy is of a summer stay in the mountain village in which my father grew up and discovering our neighbor, the goat farmer, and his cheese making business. Barley twenty years old this young farmer was already running his own cheese business and raising goats on the family farm. It was a simple, yet impressive operation that left not only an imprint on my tastebuds, but on my heart. It was a glimpse into the old-fashioned, slower paced living that Mike and I craved and left us amazed at how during modern day times, here was a young entrepreneur, in a remote mountain village, raising goats and making delicious cheese in the cellar of his family’s home.
A view of the the mountains from my dad’s village and a friendly goat out on the town!
When we returned to New England, Mike and I both were on a hunt for goat cheese that reminded us of Italy. Fortunately, we live in an area where local farmers never seize to amaze me and to my great delight we discovered that some of the best goat cheese in the US is made right around the corner! And I do mean this literally because my fabulous goat farming neighbor makes some unbelievable chèvre!
If you haven’t ever given cheese making a try you’d be surprised at how easy it is to make a simple farm cheese for the family to enjoy! We use raw goat’s milk from our neighbor’s farm, but you can substitute raw cow milk or pasteurized cow milk for cheese making.
This simple goat cheese recipe is from Lisa Schwartz’s “Over the Rainbeau” book.
Ingredients:
1 Quart Raw Goats Milk or Pasteurized Goat Milk (Don’t used Ultra-pastuerized milk) *Cow Milk can be substituted
Food Thermometer
Cheese cloth (made of cotton, not synthetic materials)
Medium sized cooking pan
Wooden spoon and ladle
Juice of two lemons (4 tablespoons)
Salt
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, heat milk until it reaches 180 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Let stand until set, about 15 seconds. If milk does not set, add a little more lemon juice.
Line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth. Ladle set milk into colander. Tie the four corners of cheesecloth together; hang on the handle of a wooden spoon set over a deep bowl and let drain until it is the consistency of slightly dry cottage cheese, 1 to 2 hours. Transfer to a bowl and store in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to 1 week.
Once you’ve separated the curds from the whey, save the whey to add to other recipes. Whey has several nutritional benefits. It is full of protein, calcium and potassium. We use it as a substitute for buttermilk when making pancakes and it is a great substitute for water when making pizza dough.
If you’re interested in purchasing a cheese making kit or getting some more information about cheese making, the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company has a fantastic website with great information, recipes, kits, cultures and supplies. Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll is also a great resource.
Wishing you all some time to enjoy the slower pace of life, to experiment in the kitchen cultivating memories and bringing the process of food making back to the center of family life! We all care a little more about the product, when we are involved in the process – true for food and for life.
“Once I had a pumpkin, a pumpkin, a pumpkin…” This tune is a favorite of Vivi’s, my 22 month old, right now as she dances around the house singing “pa-kin, pa-kin” and encourages us all to join in. She too is getting into the fall spirit! Fall is here! – and our household is busily making the shift from summer into fall. We are pulling our fleece apparel out of the closet and searching for our fall bin of decorations. I always have a hard time saying goodbye to summer, but living in New England over the years, has helped me fall in love with Fall! Getting outdoors in the cool, crisp air, hiking the mountain range taking in the warm autumn colors, picking apples and pumpkins and eating them! It is now a season that I truly look forward to and especially love sharing its beauty with my children!
As we prepare for the Fall Equinox on Tuesday September 22nd, the kids and I have been putting together our fall nature table, doing some fall decorating and nature crafts and putting together idea’s for our fall festive feast with local ingredients for Tuesday. As you may have guessed, the menu includes lot’s of pumpkin recipes! Fortunately, Leo’s pumpkin patch has been very rewarding this year. We have already carved and roasted 12 pumpkins! With more still to be picked! My little pumpkin farmer has carried his pumpkin interests into the kitchen and we’ve been busy making some of our pumpkin favorites.
Beyond its delicious taste, pumpkin is nutritious and linked to many health benefits. It is good for your heart health, your immune system, and contains a variety of nutrients that can improve your overall health. There are so many ways you can use pumpkin purée. I add it to our oatmeal, to our tomato sauce and put it in our smoothies. The kids love fresh pumpkin butter on a slice of bread. We’ve also enjoyed pumpkin soup, pumpkin ginger quick bread, and of course, giant pumpkin pies! Surprisingly, no matter how big we make them, we never seem to have leftovers!
Making the Pie Crust
Keeping watch over the Pumpkin Butter
The Giant Pumpkin Pie!
One of our family favorite pumpkin recipes are Pumpkin Rolls from The Artful Year by Jean Van’t Hul. These rolls are easy to make and taste fantastic. They don’t last long in our house!
Ingredients
1 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Water
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
2 Eggs
4 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
2 1/2 Cups White Whole Wheat Flour
2 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup (1 Stick) Butter
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
Instructions
Whisk milk, water, brown sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice together in a saucepan. Heat the mixture over low heat until warm (not hot).
Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the eggs and yeast.
Mix the flours together in a large bowl. make a well in the center and pour in the milk-egg mixture (but don’t stir). Cover the bowl with a lid or plate and set aside for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pan. Remove from the heat. Add the pumpkin puree and stir until blended.
When the 30 minutes are up, add the pumpkin-butter mixture to the bowl of flour and stir to combine the ingredients.
Place the dough on a clean counter and shape it into a ball. Cover the dough with the inverted bowl and let it rise for 20 minutes.
Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface, then shape it into small rolls. The dough is sticky, but try not to add too much flour.
Place the rolls on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Let them rise for another 20 minutes.
During this last rise, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Bake the rolls for 15 minutes. They are delicious warm or at room temperature.
Enjoy!
Wishing you all a Festive Fall Equinox Celebration! Enjoy the Autumn Sunshine, Go on a nature hike, Make some fall themed nature crafts, have a fall harvest feast, watch the leaves turn, make a bonfire and roast some marshmallows – Reflect upon your gratitude for nature and the earth!
I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.
Animal, Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver is always on my nightstand. I read and fell in love with this book years ago when I planted my first vegetable garden in my city-living courtyard! A part of me still dreams of running a homestead as Kingsolver has accomplished in this book – someday maybe. I was truly inspired by Kingsolver and her family. She captures the true joys and hardships of being a family, working together and the simple joys of life. Kingsolver, her husband and two daughters leave the comforts of their Tuscon, Arizona home and travel across the country to settle in a rural town in Virginia determined to live off their land for one year – they only buy food raised in their own neighborhood or grow it themselves. Their story is one of human resilience, rediscovering your roots, the rewards of self-sufficiency and the love of food! It is an empowering read that is extremely informative about the politics of food and how we can all benefit by taking our food into our own hands.
This book couldn’t be more relevant than at a time when we are dealing with a global pandemic that has encouraged many across the globe to become more self-sufficient, connect with a slower pace and care more about the earth that sustains us all.
The beautiful stories woven throughout this book are of the joys of growing food, the hardships and rewards and what you can do in your own simple ways no matter how big or small to nourish your own mind, body and soul – and by doing it, make this world a little better. I hope this inspiring story finds its way into your heart and home and maybe even finds a place on your nightstand!
Tell Me What You Eat and I Will Tell You What You Are.
Be The Route 