We had these pork chops last night. You won’t believe how easy they were to make, and they taste delicious! I got the idea from a facebook group I’m in, and made a couple of simple changes based on what I had in my kitchen. The original recipe had 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons chopped onion.  I used 1/4 cup honey, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, and 1/4 of an onion, chopped. I could also see using leeks, scallions, or shallots.

Ingredients

• 4 pork chops (I had chops on the bone)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup ketchup (homemade ketchup is best, or but organic ketchup is available without high fructose corn syrup)
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

To Prepare

Mix the honey, ketchup, vinegar, and onion together until the honey is fully incorporated throughout.

Seer the pork chops on both sides (high heat for about 1-2 minutes each side- I used pastured bacon fat in a cast iron pan)

Transfer the pork chops to a crock pot and cover with the honey/ketchup mixture. It doesn’t look like enough sauce, but it will become thinner and mix with the pork juices.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours, occasionally moving the chops around so they all get coated with the sauce.

We served it with mashed potatoes. It really should have had something green on the plate too, but I was running out of time. Some nice swiss chard sauteed in butter an garlic would go well, as would skipping the mashed potatoes and doing a bunch of roasted root veggies.

This recipe would be just as easy to do with chicken. I also saved the bones and put them in the freezer with my other bones to make stock. I always save the bones! 

If you are short on time, just put this in earlier in the crockpot earlier in the day, and forget about it while you get other chores done- or just want some time to play with the kids. Enjoy!

Dear Homesteading Mom fans,

We have reached another new year, and may it find you and your families well. I’ve spent some time away from blogging to acknowledge the holiday season, look back on the year, and chart a course going ahead into 2012. Normally, I enjoy this time to process and get all fired up over goal setting. This year, however, I was uncharacteristically ambivalent.

I had zero interest (initially) in my yearly ritual of introspection. My husband and I both had a hard time just getting into the holiday spirit. The realization came on slowly, but we ultimately had to acknowledge what was bothering us:

We want to live at our rural homestead full time.

We appreciate our city homestead, but we are limited in what we are permitted to do here. Dividing our time between locations because our income sources are based in MA has cut into progress getting the homestead in Maine established. Yet, without an income, we can’t afford to continue to develop it. We’ve been in limbo, and it needs to be brought to a conclusion sooner rather than later!

This admission cleared the creative block, and ideas for 2012 began flowing like a torrent. This year’s #1 goal is to create a source of income that is not dependent on any specific location so we can move as soon as possible.

I worked out a business plan for an internet-based project that will naturally lead into my eventual midwifery practice in Maine. We’re projecting a year for that venture to become profitable enough to afford us the freedom to move. A year from now would be winter, and moving to Maine in the winter may not be the best plan, so realistically, we’re looking at Spring 2013. 

That means I have a lot more skills to learn in a much shorter period of time. On the flip side, I will also have a whole lot more content to blog about! Be on the lookout for some changes in both appearance, as well as some additional features for Homesteading Mom. There are just some things that might be better handled through the occasional podcast or vlog, and those will be incorporated into this site’s offerings.

I really appreciate the fact that you all take the time to read the Homesteading Mom blog. And I’m grateful to have the opportunity to bring you all a lot more content and a better experience while you’re visiting the site.

I’ve been advocating for a long time that we would all benefit by being more mindful of our spending habits. Often, this is in regard to being more frugal and freeing up funds in a rough economy. But, this post will focus on a different reason why being mindful of our spending habits is important. Every time we spend our money, we are voting with our dollars.

Contrary to popular belief, neither of the two major political parties alone are to blame for the rough state of our economy. They are both bought and owned by corporate and industry interests. Get rid of the illusion that voting one party out and the other party in will fix anything. Both parties are firmly owned by corporations, and all players are beholden to the bankers, specifically the privately-owned Federal Reserve.

Now, I could go on about what the government, corporate and industry interests, and the bankers have done, about the bailout scams and the failed stimulus. However, that information is already all over the Internet. I’m more interested in answering this question: how do we fix it?

And yes, WE need to fix it. Government isn’t going to fix it. They helped cause it! They have enabled the corporations and bankers to do what they have done through enacting regulations that benefit corporations and banks. We need to stop looking to government for a solution, because each time we do, all we get is new regulations that benefit corporations and banks.

Make your vote count- at the register!

I believe a large part of the solution lies in our spending habits.  This is probably no where more true than in our food and personal care choices. A lot of people think they are being responsible shoppers, gravitating towards “natural” and “organic” brands, and making an effort to seek out items made here in the USA. We try to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup and strange additives that would require a degree in Chemistry to understand. We try to avoid excess packaging and spend our money with responsible companies.

Well, here’s some bad news. Odds are, many of the brands that have made their way into our homes under the guise of being the responsible choice have been bought out by large corporations. Check out this article from Organic Consumers. Brands like Tom’s of Maine, Burt’s Bees, and Kashi have all sold out to corporate giants like Clorox and Colgate-Palmolive. Rather than compete with these brands, corporations just bought them out. So, if you had any designs on not supporting the Corporatocracy by voting with your dollars, you might want to double check which brands your using and who owns their company.

But do we have no alternatives? Of course we do!

1. Produce more yourself
2. Source food direct from local farms
3. Shop your local craft and artisan shops
4. Do your banking locally
5. Pay in cash

Yes, you can produce a lot of your own food and personal care products at home. If you knit, crochet, weave, spin, or sew, you can even produce some of your own clothing. You absolutely can make your own sugar and salt scrubs, dry shampoos, jams & jellies, baked goods, and so on. If you can keep chickens or goats (or even a small cow), you can produce your own eggs, milk, and cheese. You can eliminate a lot of costs associated with living by learning to cook, do, make, repair things yourself.  If you have access to wood and a wood stove, you can provide your own heat and cooking fuel. Hmm…. sounds a lot like typical homesteading skills to me!

If you cannot produce something yourself, a very common problem in cities and suburbs, locate your local farmers. It’s November right now, and up here in the Northeast, there isn’t much growing. But, you can start making your contacts for next year, locating a CSA farm, farmstand, and farmers’ markets. You can make inquiries as to who sells a half a cow, a half a pig, or perhaps a whole lamb. You can locate your local orchards ahead of time for next year. (If you have the space for a garden, pick up some gardening books and start planning your own backyard food source.)

Shopping your local crafts persons and artisans… yes, I can already hear it, that will cost more. Yes, it most likely will. However, if you have been frugal in other areas of your life, you should be able to afford to put some money back into your community, instead of sending it over to China via some Big Box store for some item that will probably break in 6 months anyway.

You can take a significant amount of money out of this corrupt system by choosing to spend your money locally, or even by not spending it at all. Yes, that means a lot of minimum-wage retail jobs would be lost, but that really doesn’t mean a hill of beans. By supporting locals crafts people and artisans, you are supporting businesses with jobs that actually make something. Which would you rather support- a job where something is manufactured here in this country, or a mind-numbing job where someone rings all your cheap imports through the register? (Yes, I’ve done that job, and it is pointless and mind-numbing.)

Finding a small, local bank can be challenging, but most places have credit unions that have more obligations to their membership. In one of the OWS protests, a bunch of people mobbed a CitiBank in order to all close out their accounts. Really, that’s unnecessary. If you feel the bank you currently do business with doesn’t represent your values, just close your account. You do not need a bunch of your friends to go with you to do it with you and make a big show of it.

And finally, please pay with cash. Every time you used a debit card (or even worse, a credit card), you are supporting the very banks that took our money in the bailouts. The government doesn’t produce any of it’s own money. Government money is TAX money that you and I pay. It’s OUR money that bailed out the banks. We really do not need to assist them any more through transaction fees each time we want to make a purchase. If you are buying from a local merchant, wouldn’t you already want that small business to be able to keep as much of the profits as possible? If you use your debit or credit card, you’re obligating some of your purchase price to be paid to the banks.

You absolutely can vote with your dollars. It may be the most important form of voting we have. I urge you to examine your spending habits. Are in line with your values? Do your spending habits support freedom, a strong local economy, and the environment?  If not, give it some thought over this holiday shopping season. To help you out, over the next couple of months, I’ll be posting a lot of DIY projects to help you along the way.

Yes, it’s that time of year again, where people join together and rush the isles of stores. There’s an added bonus to this year’s shopping insanity: customers pepper spraying other customers to get video game systems! Sounds like a whole lot of “fun” that I am thrilled to miss out on.

For the past 3 years, we have opted to make our own gifts, and limit purchased gifts to those that are in line with our values. We have given honey, beeswax candles, baked goods, and knitted items I’ve made. And yes, even the children and teenagers in our family and extended family have enjoyed the handmade and homegrown touch.

One challenge though- this was not a productive year for knitting. My toddler, as cute with all those golden ringlets as she is, is totally fascinated with my knitting needles. She swats at them while I work, and invariably finds a way to get into my knitting bag and rip rows and rows of work right off the needles.

The solution this year will be kitchen-prepped. I’m thinking:

• brandy-soaked fruits like prunes, raisins, and dehydrated apricots.
• Chocolate bark in festive cookie tins.
• Herbal remedies like my Elderberry Syrup and some homemade lozenges.
• And of course, honey and beeswax candles.

Now, there’s still time to knit a few things, and I’m planning on knitting up some toy animals and holiday decorations, both are quick projects. But, with the time constraints of watching two kids, and all the many trips up to Maine to build the cabin (awesome pictures posted yesterday), some of the nicer knitted items are getting tabled for birthday gifts throughout the year.

Some of you are thinking, “That’s all well and good for the adults, but what about the kids?” First, consider the lessons you’re teaching. Do your kids really need you to spend large amounts of money on video games and other crap they won’t care about in a month? If you really need to buy that stuff, try to buy it used. It saves money, but it also keeps money flowing here in the US. Most electronic devices and entertainment are manufactured elsewhere. When you buy a new item, the money ultimately leaves the country. When you buy a used item, it stays right here, in the USA. Do you really think the Chinese deserve more of your money? I didn’t think so.

Now, I could go on about how many older kids are equally, if not more impressed by a hand-knitted blanket. Many teens are fascinated by the stitching and can watch a knitter for hours. The end result means something to them. I still have the afghan my grandma crocheted for me when I was a kid. Could I even remember what else I got for the holidays that year? Nope. But, I still have the afghan. This year, however, I didn’t have a lot of time to knit. So, I’m relying heavily on my kitchen and herbal crafts to make up the difference.

The holidays happen to fall during cold and flu season. I know exactly to whom to give a nice helping of my Elderberry Syrup and homemade throat lozenges. It’s great when medicine tastes good! This is an easy project since I can make several batches now, pop them in the freezer, and then put them in a pretty basket or bag to give them (with instructions to store the syrup in the freezer until needed.

For a few others who are accustomed to a certain amount of elegance, some brandy-soaked fruits, like prunes, raisins, and apricots. This will be lovely dessert topping, especially over ice cream!

We will still give honey and beeswax candles. Those are always a big hit, and a natural choice for a beekeeper to give.

Now, for those who have a sweet tooth, I think the perfect, impressive-to-look-at, simple treat has to be Chocolate Bark. Easy peasy to make, and broken into a festive cookie tin, this will be a sure winner. Seriously, who doesn’t love chocolate?

I’m still looking at knitting a few small, quick projects, like some toy animals and ornaments.

So that’s the run down for our DIY, handmade holiday plans for 2011. Do you have any favorite gifts to make for the holidays? I’d love to hear about them! Please post in the comments your favorite DIY Yuletide gift.

For the past two years, we have been building an off-grid cabin as a base of operations to live out of while we build our house and develop our homestead. It isn’t easy to make a lot of progress living over 5 hours away and having to watch a couple of small kids during the process, but our little project has really taken off. Best part- no construction loan!

We spent the better part of the last two weeks in our little home, including Thanksgiving. We got a lot of little interior odds and ends done, with plenty more left to do. Here are a few images that tell the story much better than I ever could.

Still left to do and projects we’re looking to tackle this spring and summer are having a well dug, adding a gravel driveway, establishing our orchards, finishing the second floor and at least one of the additions. (I’m pushing for the bathroom!)

Rich Mushroom and Veggie Stew

It’s autumn and the garden is winding down. Pretty soon, it will be limited to some cold-hardy greens in cold frames. I had a bunch of odds and ends to use up, both from the garden and in the refrigerator, and soup is a great way to use up veggies! I made three different soups, filled them into glass mason jars, and put them in the refrigerator for the week. One of them was a delicious, thick and rich stew with mushrooms and assorted veggies. This is one of those things that you can add something, take something away, switch ingredients, use whatever you have on hand- and it’s going to be just delicious. Please use all ingredients and amounts as suggestions, go clean out your fridge and garden, and see what you come up with!

Ingredients

• Butter, 2 tablespoons
• Leek, 3 medium stalks, chopped and rinsed (2 large stalks or 1 small onion or equivalent shallots would also work- chop and save the leek leaves for vegetable broth)
• Zucchini, 1 large, peeled, seeded, and chopped (a few of the zucchini in my garden grew enormous before I even knew they were ready to pick, 2-3 zucchini from the grocery store would be approximately what I used- save the seeds to toast like pumpkin seeds)
• Bell peppers, 3-4 chopped
• Mushrooms, one 16-ounce package (I had a package of sliced button mushrooms that needed to be used up, but other types of mushrooms would add more flavor)
• Stewed tomatoes (I used half of a pint jar I previously canned, but a small can from the store should work fine)
• Parsley, 1 large bunch, chopped
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

• In a dutch oven, add the butter, and turn the heat to medium.
• Add leeks (or chopped onion or chopped shallots) and bell pepper, and cook until the peppers are soft.
• Add mushrooms and cook until they soften.
• Add chopped zucchini, stewed tomatoes, and chopped parsley.
• Let cook until the zucchini is tender (this will depend on how big your zucchini chunks are, I left mine big).
• Turn the heat off, and puree half of the stew. Add it back to the pot and stir to even out the texture throughout the stew.
• Taste, and season with salt and pepper (or whatever else you’d like) to your liking. Wait until this point to add any salt or pepper especially if using canned stewed tomatoes which often have their own herbs and seasonings added.

The stew was delicious, but next time I make it, I think it would benefit from a few carrots. My batch filled one quart and one pint canning jars (about 6 cups), with a little left over for a small serving for the cook to enjoy. The addition of carrots and possibly some other roasted veggie would easily have made two quarts (8 cups)

Serving Suggestions

• Add a dollop of sour cream or yogurt per bowl just prior to serving.
• Serve over rice, quinoa, or potatoes (roasted or boiled- though roasted with butter, rosemary, and thyme sounds delicious to me right about now- I guess it’s time to go roast some potatoes!)
• Hollow out a small round squash, pumpkin, or bread boule, and pour the stew inside the hollow. If using a squash or pumpkin, save the seeds to toast in the oven.

Last winter was a tough one in our house for colds and the flu. I had heard about how effective elderberry syrup was for battling infections. So, I tried it, and I now swear by it. I’ve played around with different recipes, and came up with a strong syrup that tastes so good that my kids gladly take their medicine!

According to the information found at Mountain Rose Herbs, elderberry has been clinically proven to be effective at fighting 8 different strains of the flu, has the ability to prevent the flu virus from spreading through the respiratory tract, and 90% of test subjects received relief from the infection in 3 days as opposed to 6 days with placebo. For more information, click here for Mountain Rose Herb’s full elderberry profile (you might want to buy some dried elderberries while your there).

You can buy elderberry syrup pre-made, or you can make it at home. It’s much less expensive and very simple to make. The most basic way to make it would be to boil the berries, strain the liquid, and add it to honey. However, I have added a number of other ingredients to my syrup because when it comes to respiratory infections, I can’t afford to play around. They always hit me hard, so I fight back even harder.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dried elderberry
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 5-6 cloves (like you stick in a ham, not garlic cloves- those are listed below)
• 2 tablespoons anise seed
• 3-4 sliced garlic cloves
• Sliced ginger root (about the size of your thumb)
• 3 tablespoons spearmint or peppermint
• 1 Tbs thyme
• 1 Tbs rosemary
• 1 Tbs mullein
• 1 Tbs marshmallow leaf.
• 1 cup raw honey (or 1/2 honey and 1/2 maple syrup, or all maple syrup if for a child under 1 year)

Put the elderberry, cinnamon sticks, cloves, ginger, and garlic into a pot with 2 cups cold water and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. This is called a decoction, which is necessary in preparations using roots and barks. Lower heat to a simmer, and add the spearmint, thyme, rosemary, mullein, marshmallow. This is an infusion. An infusion is more gentle as the leafy and flowering parts of plants are more delicate and the healing properties can be destroyed by boiling.

Simmer for an additional 20 minutes with the cover on. Strain the mixture through a sieve, mesh strainer, or a cloth and catch the liquid into a bowl. Make sure to squeeze all the liquid out that you can, because you don’t want to pass up any of that cold & flu fighting goodness!

While the liquid is still warm, add in the honey and stir until it is fully blended. The liquid should have reduced by half during that 30 minutes total on the stove, and with the 1 cup of honey, the syrup should fit nicely in a pint canning jar. My son prefers a 50/50 mix of honey and maple syrup, which results in a thinner syrup. Babies (under 1 year old) shouldn’t have honey, so use all maple syrup or agave syrup.

When I’m sick, I take 1 tablespoon every hour for the first day, then back it off to 1 tablespoon every 3 hours, until I feel better. Taken this way, a pint of syrup should last about a week before it is used up, stored in the refrigerator. It is also useful as a preventative by taking 1 tablespoon daily throughout cold and flu season. I really don’t know if it spoils, because it never lasts long enough for me to find out.

I don’t normally do long, opinion pieces here on this blog. The most recent raid on the Rawesome food club has many folks, including myself, riled up and rightfully so.

Normally, most law enforcement personnel are decent folks doing a difficult and sometimes dangerous job. But this ever-increasing use of multi-agency crackdowns, especially the use of armed SWAT teams, to repeatedly invade law-abiding  businesses and family farms is disturbing. I cannot help but wonder what these folks think and feel about what they are doing. They have lowered themselves from being officers of the law to mere thugs enforcing a mob-style Corporatocracy.

If you haven’t heard, the private buying club, Rawesome Foods, has been wrongfully raided for the second time in one year by armed SWAT teams. We’re talking gun-toting, jackbooted thugs taking down people who lawfully produce and distribute fresh food.

Rawesome provides safe, raw foods to their private club members. They are not a retail outlet. Their members are under private contract. Because they are not a retail operation, their farmers and their club do not require the permits necessary for the retail sale of raw dairy in California. Private herd shares and buying clubs are becoming more common across the country, and also more frequently the targets of FDA and state harassment.

Within the span of just one year, Rawsome has now been subject to two unlawful raids by armed enforcement (I’m sorry, I just cannot recognize the individuals that raided these places as “law” enforcement- they are simply government and corporate-interests enforcement). Over $10K of perfectly safe raw food and dairy were dumped- pouring the milk directly down into the sewer! Three people are now in jail facing felony charges, including “conspiracy to commit a crime”. They are being held in prison, unless their families pay the extortion fee of thousands of dollars in bail.

It wasn’t long ago that local dairies delivered fresh milk to our doors, without fear of the many pathogens inherent in factory farmed milk. So why is fresh milk supposedly such a big danger all of a sudden? Because the Industrialized Food Industry needs fresh milk to appear unsafe, otherwise no one would drink their blood and pus tainted dairy product they pass off as milk.

People have been waking up to what the Industrialized Food System is doing to our health. People are asking why our government is cracking down on healthy, natural foods, unfairly painting them as unsafe in the media, while at the same time they are pushing sugar-, salt-, and chemical-laden, GMO, processed foods through their food stamp programs and agri-business subsidies. People are demanding real food- food that tastes better and is actually good for us. We are literally sick and tired from the processed foods that result in chronic disease that are the plagues of our age which are brought on by manufactured foods from factory farms.

We are turning to local farms that simply do a better job of producing a higher quality of food. We are growing our own produce and planting heirloom variety tomatoes that actually smell and taste like a tomato! (Commercially available tomatoes are picked under-ripe and gassed to turn red and look ripe, then coated with wax to look shiny and healthy, but with little taste, smell, or nutrients.) We are growing local economies by supporting farmers markets and local private buying clubs. We are establishing new farms and homesteads and turning to agriculture as a new career in the face of massive layoffs. Small-scale agriculture is actually one of the few GROWTH areas in our failing economy! But, the government seems intent on scaring us and subduing all these activities.  Why would they do this?

One reason only: they are bought and paid for by the lobbies of the Industrial Food System. And if this trend towards healthy, quality food continues, Industrialized Food won’t be able to compete. Government has become the enforcement, protecting corporate food profits.

California’s Rawesome isn’t the only SWAT-invaded operation in the country. There have been dozens of these raids. Two notable raids have targeted horse & buggy driving Amish farmers! The FDA has been treating Amish dairy farmers back east like drug lords. Both Dan Allgyer and Mark Nolt, two Amish farmers (running separate dairy farms) ran thriving businesses offering cow shares. People purchased shares in the cow, just like investors buy shares in corporations on Wall Street. They then become shareholders and part owner of the cow. They then also own the milk from the cow, which is divided to represent the share that each shareholder has in the cow. The FDA had government agents infiltrate these cow share programs, just as they do with drug rings. In Dan Allgyer’s case, the surveillance went on for over 18 months!

Really? Is this really what our tax dollars should be spent on? While our government spent weeks scaring us with threats of disaster and halting payment of Social Security benefits in order to pass some unconstitutional plan for a Super-Congress, do we have the tax dollars to waste on harassing small, local farmers? Are the Amish such a threat to national security? Is raw, fresh milk, once the standard for in-home milk delivery, now in the same category as cocaine or heroine? This is such a waste of tax payer resources as to be shameful.

There are a lot of other blogs covering the safety of raw milk and cheese. There are plenty of articles on just how disgusting and unsafe pasteurized milk from factory farms actually is. I would like to see more people asking questions like why any law enforcement personnel would stoop so low as to allow themselves to be thugs for Big Agri-Business? Do you remember your oath? Do you remember you swore to uphold the Constitution and to protect and serve the People? Why would you follow orders that are clearly only being given to serve the Corporatocracy? We need you folks to honor your oaths, and to stick up for the citizens that you swore to serve. Otherwise, you are nothing but hired guns. Is that what you signed up for? Is that what you dreamed of being when you made the choice to enter law enforcement? I know it’s not. You are better than that, and it’s high time you started acting like it!

We the People have enough trouble securing healthy, affordable food, and farmers have enough challenges producing this food while still earning a living wage, without having to fear the police on top of it. I know that corruption is difficult to challenge. But, either live up to your oaths and refuse corrupt, unlawful orders, or have the moral compass to find another career.

Check out the video below to see how a part-time employee of a farm who had nothing to do with the farm’s raw dairy operation was arrested.  While I cannot see how these felony charges would stick, this must be very frightening for her and her family. Shock and awe people.  Shock and awe.

Wife Arrested in LA for Allegedly Selling Raw Milk- YouTube

Hi everyone!  I’m back from our homestead up north where, unfortunately, we do not yet have Internet access. It was a lovely trip, great to get away, and we cleared some land. All day yesterday, I was been busy getting caught up in the garden and with chores around the house. We came back to zucchini of unnatural size and even more golden chard. But, we also have some newcomers to the garden- green beans and basil. Yum!

Another thing I found when I got home was an article written by a friend of mine, Kenzal Hunter, on how to make a healthier lemonade that fits into the Paleo Diet. It’s just raw honey, lemons, and water. No white sugar involved at all!  It’s also so simple, you will never want the store-bought powdered stuff again.

From his blog, the proportions are: “The proportions I used, by volume, are based off the amount of juice. I used 3/4 of the juice volume in honey, and 6 times the juice volume in cold water.” He also mentions that he would try less honey in future batches as it was a little too sweet. You can find the entire article and details here at Kenzal’s blog Soot Happens.

I spoke with him after reading the article, and he passed along that it keeps getting better the longer it sits in the refrigerator. The taste of the honey blends with the lemons and the flavors continue to improve. I’m not sure how long Paleo Lemonade would keep in the refrigerator, but I’m guessing that it will be consumed long before that’s an issue.

Another thing I like about this Paleo Lemonade, it is something that can be produced entirely on one’s homestead without the need of a grocery store or dependence on the Industrialized Food System. If you get yourself a miniature lemon tree (or two- lemons are great for cleaning), you keep bees, and you have your own water source, you can enjoy this little luxury without any reliance on outside sources or added expense.

If you are not interested in keeping bees, every county has a beekeeping association, and they will have a web site. Just google your county’s name and “beekeeping association.” From there, you can locate a local beekeeper that sells raw honey. You can also try looking for honey at your local farmers market.

I love sourdough bread. It’s the only bread I’ve been able to make successfully. Whenever I try to make a loaf of regular, white sandwich bread, it always turns out too dry and ends up being ground into breadcrumbs or cut into bread pudding almost immediately. (Any bread experts out there- please help!)  But, my sourdough loaves have been a delight to eat, especially spread with some homemade cultured butter, or honey butter.

Sourdough has a long history, going back to Ancient Egypt, 1500BC. It spread throughout Europe during the middle ages where it was made from rye (most often) or spelt (old variety wheat). It was a food commonly associated the ’49ers during the California Gold Rush, and San Fransico is known for having the world’s best sourdough bread, owing to a bacteria that only thrives in the unique conditions of San Fransico.

I have always made the sourdough sponge from a commercially prepared starter . If you choose to go this route, click here for a quality source of sourdough starters. But, I got to thinking, how would a person go about making their own sourdough starter. Ancient Egyptians from 1500BC couldn’t go online to place an order for sourdough starter. I’d like to try my hand at making my own starter.

After looking at a few different web sites, it seems the method for making your own sourdough starter is very, very simple. There are bacteria and yeasts that are naturally occurring in flour, and the trick is to wake up them up. All you need is water and flour (rye or spelt work well) in equal amounts and a clean container to grow your starter. Add additional water and flour to the starter to “feed” it, still in a ratio of 1:1, on a daily basis. It should be fed at roughly the same time on a daily basis for at least one week.

After a few days, small bubbles should start to appear and the volume will increase. At this point, bacteria is causing gas to expand the volume. After a day or two (or three), this bacteria will stop growing, and the mixture will finally start to grow yeasts. When this happens, there will be small bubbles throughout the mixture. It will start to look foamy, and the starter will start to smell sour. At this point, either keep feeding the starter on the counter to develop the flavor even more, or put it in a container (a mason jar with lid works well) in the refrigerator.

A few tips:

• Use the freshest flour you can. You can buy wheat berries and grind your flour at home, or you can order freshly ground flour online. I buy freshly-ground sprouted flours here. But, you can use any unbleached, non-bromated flour. King Author Flour is a brand commonly found in most supermarkets.
• Use filtered water or spring water. Chlorine and contaminants in tap water could effect the fermentation of the flour.
• Try using water left over from cooking potatoes. It provides more starch, and gives more leavening ability to the starter.
• Some people use something acidic, like pineapple or orange juice instead of water in the early phase of making the starter. It bypasses the gas expansion stage to get to the yeast proliferation stage faster.

I’ve seen some instructions for starting a sourdough starter use 1 cup of water to 1 cup of flour. However, I’d rather not waste a lot of flour if something goes wrong. So, here’s my plan…

Day One- 2 Tablespoons unsweetened orange juice plus 2 Tablespoons spelt flour, mix well.
Days Two & Three- Add 2 Tablespoons unsweetened orange juice plus 2 Tablespoons spelt flour, mix well.
Day Four – Measure out 1/4 cup of starter, discard the rest. To the remaining 1/4 cup starter, add 1/4 cup potato water and 1/4 cup spelt flour, and mix well.
Days Five through Seven-  Add 1/4 cup starter, add 1/4 cup potato water and 1/4 cup spelt flour, and mix well.

After a week, you can either keep feeding it on the counter, or store the starter in the refrigerator. Make sure the lid is loose (mason jars make convenient storage with an adjustable lid). Over time, a mature starter will develop a darkish liquid that you will need to stir in before using. This is called the “hooch”. It’s actually a form of alcohol, quite unpleasant to drink, but helps to make great sourdough.

I had originally intended to start this project this today. As it turns out, I had an offer this morning that will cause me to be in and out of town over the next two weeks enough that it will have to wait until then. I’d ask for my husband, but cooking and food projects are not his forte.  :)  I will make a single post of the daily progress of the starter in a few weeks.