Gleanings From April
Has a another month really passed us by already? I can’t believe it’s time for another Gleanings post! I’m hardly going to complain for the quicker the days fly by, the sooner warm weather will be upon us! We’ve had a taste of warmer weather here, but just a taste.
I was surprised to find the Purple Martins & Tree Swallows arrived yesterday ahead of a front that came through in the evening and brought us our first bolts of lightening and thunder claps of the season. It feels like we haven’t had enough warmth yet to bring these signs of spring, but it sure is encouraging to see them!
Before we start gleaning, let me tell new readers what this post is all about… basically it’s my monthly “link love” post where I share some of the interesting articles I’ve come across the past month.
I posted this link on Facebook to a message written by Joel Salatin on his Polyface Farm page. It was a shocking and eye-opening look inside today’s current food system and why he’s not feeling very optimistic about the current state of things.
• Polyface Farm: A note from Joel
I was asked by a “Washington Post” writer a couple of days ago about whether the
interest in Polyface type food would increase or decrease in coming months/years.
The one thing I refuse to do is prophecy, so I have no idea if things will get better.
But I do know things are getting worse in the industrial food sector, and it is absolutely
clueless. My hope is that more people will jump off that ship. A couple of recent things
came across my desk that illustrate the continued degeneration of orthodox food.
Over the years I’ve had lots of questions about clothing choices and the Christian woman (probably more questions on that topic than any other, go figure!) as many of you can’t figure out how to integrate skirts into farm & garden chores and wonder if/how I do it. I appreciated this article (and the others in the series very much) and thought you might too if you struggle with this question.
• Is it a Sin For Women To Wear Pants?
If there ever was a topic that needs sound clarification and exposition, the submission of a wife to her husband certainly qualifies. Too much of the teaching from pulpits and expositors is not grounded on the law of God, and fails to take certain Biblical accounts at face value. As in every era, many of the attitudes and conclusions are a reaction to something prevalent in the culture rather than a true application of what the Scripture states.
Why you should use them, saving money on essential oils; protecting your investment; essential oils for your business, home, and farm; ensuring quality; defining terms; preserving essential oils~
• Your Essential Oils Guide
•Why Vaccine Mandates Are Dangerous to Democracy
Right now we are in the midst of a national feud about whether the government should mandate vaccinations for both adults and children. The main issue appears on the surface to be about whether vaccinations are safe, or whether in some cases they are harmful.
But there is a deeper issue that is much more important: Who should make medical decisions for you and your children? The government? Or you as individuals and parents?
The precedent we are setting should chill you to your bones. Here’s why…
•As Parents Make More Baby Food, Industry Tries to Adapt
“Today, moms are 50 times more busy and don’t have the cooking skills that women did when we introduced baby food 80 years ago,” Mr. Boutelle said. “But the category is so bad that they’re going to the grocery and spending an afternoon boiling and cooking and filling jars and sealing them because they don’t like what’s on the shelf.”
•A Shift in the Homeschooling Movement
My heart has been heavy for the future of this movement. In recent months, the homeschooling community has been rocked by a couple of national scandals involving some of the best-known speakers/advocates of homeschooling in America. As a result, many families are struggling to find their sense of “True North.” Many feel angry, some hurt, others betrayed, and more confused.
I believe we are experiencing a shaking. That isn’t all bad. “And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (Hebrews 12:27).
We’ve had some shifts before.
• (Round-Up) Now Found in Womens Breastmilk
If you are eating processed foods or foods from nearly any restaurant, odds are very high you are getting loads of this toxin, and if you are a pregnant woman, you may be passing them along to your unborn child via your baby’s placenta, umbilical cord, and in your breast milk. This is gravely concerning as there is mounting scientific evidence that Roundup may be even more toxic than DDT.
•Which side do you fall on? : The Great Milk Debate: Cow vs. Goat
•Is God Able to Provide For Another Baby?
The Scriptures are very clear that God will provide food and clothing for His people who walk in His ways and who trust Him. As believers, we do not live by what we see, but by faith in God’s living Word which cannot lie. It is an indictment to the church of God today that most “believers” do not believe. We have the same attitudes as the people who do not know God. Surely, we are a different people. We are a people who are saved by faith and now live by faith in His promises.
• North Country Farmer has written a rebuttal to an article ridiculously entitled.
(Praise God for something He didn’t create?? What!? Guess we’ll praise Him that since He couldn’t get it right and create enough food efficiently that can feed all the people He created, that we have been able to infallibly make in a lab what He couldn’t in the beginning.)
Pittman takes the low road in his argument, never offering many sources or facts. His basic argument being that without GMOs people would starve to death.
Please read this rebuttal folks! We’re obviously going to have to address this issue among our own who don’t understand that we’re poisoning our babies in the womb- see above- (if we don’t kill them first!) because of the “good” that Monsanto is doing!
I’m feeling kind of feisty about this on so many levels. It bothers me both practically & spiritually. Stewardship of both body & earth, the curse, poor eschatology, the gullibility in believing self-serving studies done by the companies that stand to profit from them, socially in feeding the poor and understanding where to draw the boundaries in doing so…
It is NOT cheaper and more nutrient dense to eat a cheeseburger than it is to cook organically from scratch! By my calculations, our grocery budget would be 2 1/2 times HIGHER if we ate off the dollar menu (no drinks) at every meal. Practically speaking, this isn’t an issue of money. It’s an issue of education, laziness, and a preference to allow ourselves to be entertained to complacency and a willingness to let someone else take care of us. And lest anyone think that it’s easy for me to say that because we’re so well off, we’re not (in the worlds eyes- the blessing of the Lord IT maketh rich!). Considering our family size, we’re below the poverty level of one person working a full-time job on minimum wage would be.
I could go on. But sadly, I was too busy this morning planting seeds & seedlings, turning a chicken carcass into stock to use in our homegrown asparagus soup for tonights dinner, and snuggling & nursing my newest blessing of a baby daughter to have the time. You know. Feeding my family & learning lessons so that one day I might have the skills to help feed our neighborhood.
•Large Family Crisis Reduction
Life as the mother of many people has its challenges, but they do not have to be overwhelming. If we can keep certain keys in mind, we will finally be able to live productive, joyful, loving lives, no matter what circumstances we live under. These keys are:
•The Most Urgent Thing for Our Homeschooling Generation
In my mind, grass has one main purpose: it’s animal food. It is painful to drive around and look at all the wasted grass being cut and thrown away. Do you know how many animals we could raise to feed ourselves if we grazed our lawns? And the meat produced from grass-grazed animals is so much better for you than meat raised on corn and soybeans. So, as a solution to what I see as a combination of many problems, people around the country are now renting out their sheep to graze in individual yards. It’s a pretty neat idea: The sheep get to eat, and your yard gets mowed. Added bonus: your yard gets fertilized!
Where the danger lay for us and others in our position is that while we may clearly have seen God’s hand in our move, and did so with a desire to glorify Him, we can tend to lose focus over time. What generally happens is we begin to get so involved in the process of the move and change in our lives that we lose sight of the One that defines not only the place we are to be but also the means to getting there. We begin to do all we do in light of what it produces and neglect to stay focused on seeking and seeing God in all things.
• When Motherhood Feels Too Hard
• The Deliberate Agrarian: Snippet #22- Farm Story:Jerry Apps Documentary
My favorites and yours from off the Pinboards and around the web…
A little potager inspiration for your front yard… not for mine. I’d have to cut down all the trees first. And at this point I’d rather starve than lose even that small buffer from the road noise. (Not to mention privacy!) This is so much more beautiful than a lawn though!
How Much Should You Plant In Your Garden To Provide A Year’s Worth of Food?
(It looks good enough for us to eat! Might that be a good indicator of what to feed a chicken?)
Nourishing Foods For Labor & Childbirth
(Lots of different ideas… including dark chocolate!)
Homemade Tomato Sauce With Beef Bones
Sneaking extra nutrition into tomato sauce. Clever.
From consecutive months of pantry envy to successive months of wood stove love.
Odd Bits: How To Cook the Rest of the Animal
Worth a try for those of us whose growing space is horizontally challenged.
Nourishing Mounds or Almond Joy Candy Bars
These.were.so.good.
I had issues making them where the coconut oil separated from the other ingredients, but they were so tasty anyway! And if you’re shooting for a one tablespoon serving of coconut oil per day then you only need to eat half a disk to achieve it! Everyone here loves them and was begging for more. I’m clearly going to have to start stocking up on coconut oil.
Homemade Oats & Honey Granola Bars
If you’re at all interested in growing a holistic orchard, here’s a great (free) resource to get you started. Lots of similar information that you’ll find in The Holistic Orchard, which I highly recommend.
Benefits of Wood Ash in the Garden
I’m not surprised. Ash sure did wonders for our grain patch.
A surprising number grow right in our backyard!
Mason bees for raspberry pollination
Trellising Space-Saving Pole Beans for Beauty
From Puritan Richard Baxter-
The Mutual Duties of Husbands and Wives Towards Each Other
Lastly, Help each other by an exemplary life. Be yourself, what you desire your husband or wife should be; excel in meekness, and humility, and charity, and dutifulness, and diligence, and selfdenial, and patience
I used this site to create a “recipe” that allowed me to get an email every time a treadle sewing machine was posted to craigslist. I passed quite a few up and was able to get a really beautiful one. I have other recipes searching for various breeds of feeder pigs, spoiled hay for mulching, and more. This could be a huge time-saver so you don’t have to perpetually check for new listings. I must warn you though that certain language can return some filthy spam listings, so proceed with caution.
IFTTT- If This Then That
I’m really quite excited about this…
The Rebuilding of Western Civilation Just Got a Whole Lot easier, Faster, Cheaper, and Better- and Therefore More Likely to Happen SOONER Rather Than Later!
This will, if it is successful, spur an ongoing cultural and social reconfiguration of every institution in society — a total transformation of civil, political, ecclesiastical and family life as we know it — the likes of which none of us has ever seen before.
Are you ready for a restoration of liberty, constitutional government, free enterprise/free-market (“Austrian”) economics, a “non-humanist” renaissance in literature, learning, the arts and sciences, a peaceful, well-informed rolling back of tyranny, poverty, ignorance, illiteracy and their attendant evils?
And, if all goes well, given enough time, eventually, who knows, maybe even a restoration and flourishing of a true and vibrant biblical Christendom around the world?
I know families of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and a few with an even dozen. Whenever there is a movie about big families you always see children hanging from fans, piles of horrible food and a mum on the edge of a breakdown. Perhaps that’s why the general public feel they can be so rude to those with a brood. I come from a family of six and my Mum was often asked by strangers: “Why didn’t you buy a television?”, “How do you remember their names?” , or just told “You poor thing!”
So I thought I would share a few home truths – here are ten things I know about big families.
Encyclopedia of Country Living- A free download!!
Reviewing his latest book, The Intelligent Gardener (next in the pile), Steve Solomon shares his years of wisdom and talks about why he no longer recommends Gardening When It Counts. The Ruminant Podcast with Steve Solomon
This looks like it could be a valuable resource to help me get that sewing machine in proper working order again.
The pages available here will provide the information you need to select, restore and use treadle and hand crank machines.
Read or seen anything interesting lately around the web?