Good morning (almost afternoon here) readers!
I am so sorry that I did not post yesterday, but have been diligently trying to get the garden into the pantry, and pushing loads through both the pressure canner, water bath canner, and the dehydrator as we plan ahead for winter.
It can be such a challenge, right?
Meanwhile, we have been eating simply—eggs, hashbrowns and sausage for dinner, spaghetti with leftover sausage cut up into the sauce for dinnner, etc.
At this point the fridge is starting to look pretty empty, and we have totally turned off the second fridge in the basement that normally keeps produce for a couple days until we can get everything put up.

It is a nice change.

One thing I noticed right away though, yesterday, when out in the garden, is that things are looking far more mid September-ish than mid August-ish. Very surprising considering we got a late start on gardening this year with a very cold Spring through the end of May. How are things looking where you are?

Tuesdays and Saturdays are my baking days, so today I made up six loaves of bread (two go to my mom for her month’s supply), a large banana bread cake (we had to use up the last of the bananas before they totally went bad), pizza crusts (two), and two dozen hamburger buns. One of the things I am finding out is how much we have relied on the “convenience” part of our pantry since my stroke, and how hard, again, that habit is to break. Anyone else running into that?

I find it interesting when people try to talk to be about how carb-based our recipes and such are, and how that is such a terrible thing. While I am not talking about cheap carbs, that are empty calories, but carbs that give strength and fill tummies for much longer than many of the items people put in their carts in the grocery store! My family’s diet during the summers, fall and Spring is filled with veggies and fruits that are available to us. We also eat a lot of meat that we grow or process ourselves. Carbs are an important part of the diet, and really, it is only because we live in a very processed food culture, that we have given them such a poor reputation. The Bible calls bread the “staff of life” for a reason, and so frankly, if you are one of the people I have been chatting with graciously, and you can afford to stock your pantry with non-carb foods that are organic and specialty items, I am glad for you. We can not. We do the best we can with what they have, and there are lots of foodie blogs out there that can give you recipes you will love. 😀

Anyhow, I hope that you are finding great success, seeing the gaps, and learning how to make everything work together. On Thursday I am going to be linking quite a few of the recipes or videos I follow for my home pantry for stocking up on things we would otherwise consider perishable. 😀

Tomorrow we are going to continue the series on what to do to naturally deal with some really serious diseases. I hope to see you back here for the rest of the week. 😀
Blessings to you and yours,
~Heather <3