In celebration of summer!

In celebration of summer between now and July 4th I'm offering a buy three get one free sale on soap while supplies last and limited to stock on hand. Contact me at fromthecountryfarm@gmail.com for more information!

ingredients vs. ingredients

The kids and I were grocery shopping the other day and we were in the isle with all the coffees, teas, and milk additives when Andrew picked up a container of the product below and asked if I could buy this to have on hand for an occasional treat. After just having seen Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution episode with the cookie dough ice cream containing human hair, duck feathers and beetle secretions (which incidentally you need to see! And yes, that's really what was in there!) we were totally grossed out but came away with a valuable lesson which left a huge impact on the kids. The lesson being if you don't know what the ingredients are do not put them in your body! One I've been trying to teach and with success, but this made a lasting impression! I smiled and said "Sure! Why don't you flip over the container and see what the ingredients are." He did and promptly put it back on the shelf. I said, "Let's look and see what they are, sugar - shocking, artificial flavors -yum, (likely from corn) citric acid, (again likely from corn) red #40 (coal tar) more yumminess! salt and blue #1. Then they list the added vitamins and minerals. ::sigh:: Where are these 'vitamins and minerals manufactured and/or from what?! I'll be honest, he was disappointed, grossed out but disappointed. So I seized the moment to reinforce good and healthy eating habits albeit with flavored milk. In the 2 1/2 years we've been milking our goat and drinking it (gasp) raw, we've had strawberry milk once (the other day) and chocolate maybe 3 times? Other than that it's milk, whole and raw, the way it was intended to be consumed. So anyway, I told him I was proud of his choice and that we could still have strawberry milk but with actual strawberries. I took them to the frozen food isle and grabbed a package of strawberries; the ones I had frozen last year were gone, had him check the ingredients: strawberries, placed them in the cart and went on about the rest of the shopping.
Here are our ingredients: whole, raw, cold, goat's milk, frozen strawberries, (slightly frosty, it was humid that day and I had to blog about this so I needed a picture... ;-) ) and organic agave, and oh a blender it whip it together.
I placed the milk in the blender, tossed in the berries and sweetened slightly with the agave and blended for 30 seconds maybe? The kids loved it and said it was better than the other "junk," Ron really enjoyed it as well, tasted great and took about the same amount if time (or less) it would have taken to make the 'other' stuff. So I say this as a challenge to you, think outside the box, take baby steps, make it from scratch with ingredients you know and can pronounce and and maybe we can create national health care reform! If it to be it is up to us! Will you join me?

Do you see my pot of gold?

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.


Thank you SouleMama for this wonderful idea!

if you're so inclined...

...would you please pray for Ron and the kids. Ron's got some serious health issues right now and Faith especially is having a difficult time dealing with it, so if you're so inclined to pray for my family I'd especially be thankful.

Ramsey gets a haircut - finally!

With everything happening here recently and all the crap we're dealing with it has not been at the top of the priority list to buy a set of clippers to clip the alpacas, a new washing machine was however. Especially when on the spin cycle you hear a loud BANG BANG BANG - on a front loader. Turns out the blah blah blah bearing went and it would have cost more for the replacement part not including labor and a house call than it would have cost for a new machine, with a warranty - guess what I opted for. So anyway, I had to ask the neighbor if I could borrow theirs again to get it done. I detest asking for help, but it was necessary, so I managed. My neighbor brought the clippers over tonight and after the barn chores were finished I decided that since it was cool now and would be hot tomorrow and we'll be busy that 9pm at night seemed like the perfect time to start shearing. So I did! I got most of the fiber off and will finish up just here and there spots tomorrow, well I guess technically today. And I think Ramsey will be less likely to attempt to climb into the water bucket. Between the time I get the rest of the boys shorn and next spring I've got to set aside a couple dollars here and there to be able to purchase my own clippers or maybe just maybe Santa will bring me a pair if I don't end up on the naughty list - again. :-)

And oh! The turkey poults arrived too!