Well Written Words

sometimes I pick up this book when I have a spare minute. I snatched it from a friend's to-be-thrifted pile and am always glad i did.

I don't believe in heavily structured, teacher-directed activities at any age, but i think such activities are most damaging when forced on tiny children. Babies don't need to have flash cards flipped in their faces in order to stimulate proper brain development. There have been experiments conducted which proved that rats in a natural environment learned more and had better brain development than those who were being trained by experts in an artificial environment. I doubt that God made human babies less capable than rats.

--Mary Hood , Ph.D.

As a mother I have changed dramatically in my approach to 'teaching' my children so much from when Naomi was born. I was terrified that I was going to hold her back in some way if I didn't do my best to expose and 'teach' her things she might not otherwise learn. It's a good thing I had her first, now she's the only one of my children who will ever have suffered from the force-feeding of 'nutritional brain stimulation', but she's always been good at shutting me down.
As with any vitamin, learning from the real food of life is the only REAL nourishment available. What my kids learn from exploring the world with open eyes is more than I could hope to teach them on purpose. So, now we only sit down for stories and short activities--there may be more 'structured' time as they get older, but I truly now believe that the BEST thing I can do for my children is promote a joyful and eager spirit towards learning, that's all.
Giving them more freedom to roam, experiment, play, eat dirt, swing, dig, mimic, defy (to a healthy extent), get hurt even--the rest will likely take care of itself. Drew and I like to try and learn new things, demonstrating this is all they need.
I can say, in the experimenting I've done on child #1 and #2, no flashcards, no 'Baby Einstein', no constant 123's and abc's; they are excellent learners--it's obvious, even in our 10 month old. Naomi, she is too, but I often wonder if the butting of heads we go through from time to time isn't in part due to the throat-shoving I toyed with when she should have just been figuring it out for herself...

Sprouting Grains: Breaking Down the Learning.

I'm in the process of learning a TON. Some of the stuff had been festering in my brain for some time, but it's finally off the shelf and into reality. The class I'm taking is making me break down the barriers of confusion very quickly...very grateful!

*the 3 simple things you can do (one ore all)*

each step breaks down even more of the anti-nutrients

:: Soak / sprout your grains ::

(that includes soaking rice, corn, quinoa, etc before cooking)

:: Mill your own flour ::

:: Soak flour for bread, biscuits, etc. ::

The main thing I've learned about this way of preparing grains is that it makes them more nutritious by breaking down an anti-nutrient called Phytic Acid. This particular anti nutrient is found in nearly any nut or grain, and is not digestible by humans. The problem is, in modern day processing we do very little to get rid of it, and without getting rid of it it can make us sick. Things like gluten intolerance, celiac's disease, tooth decay, etc are all highly effected by this anti-nutrient, and we eat a LOT of it. So, we're cutting back on our grains, and trying to make sure the ones we get are as nutritious as possible.

The first step is knowing your grains. Most products in the grocery now parade themselves as 'full of whole grains'. Well, I'm just now understanding that whole grains can be even worse because they are more indigestible. The idea that we need bran for fiber is because bran makes us poop. It makes us poop because our body doesn't digest it, so is it really beneficial? Are there not other ways that don't stress out our systems to make us go?

Our thought process on all of it has been under evaluation, and I'm going to tell you right now--there are moments of extreme frustration trying to understand what is 'good' food. If you want to be as frustrated and boggled as us, read Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. It's a doozy.

One simple thing we did to make our grains more nutritious (because you don't have to do every step, even just doing 1 makes the grains way more nutritious): we bought the grain mill attachment for our Kitchenaid. It was the least expensive milling option, and why not add another function to our favorite kitchen equipment? It works great, and, using the second simple thing we've learned (soaking flour), we soaked that fresh flour with buttermilk to make the biscuits from the Nourishing Traditions. They were great warm with butter and honey, but they cooled into a hockey puck like consistency--far from the biscuit of southern tradition. We're going to have to work a little harder to make those something we look forward to...(to point out there's hope, the pancakes we made in a similar way with regular unbleached all purpose/spelt flour were AMAZING!)

Right now I'm sprouting my first round of Hard Red Wheat Berries. The process of sprouting grains breaks down that phytic acid. Once they're sprouted, I'll use our oven to dehydrate and then we'll mill them into flour.  It sounds really complicated, but really the only difficulty is it is planning intensive. The berries have to soak until you see small sprouts, 1-3 days (not sure yet). Then, you dehydrate, which takes at least overnight. Then mill. Then soak again if you desire.

All this means we have to know ahead of time--like a week--if we want fresh bread with our soup. Of course, there are shortcuts--mainly, once you've sprouted, dried and milled your grain you can then freeze that flour and just have it on hand. This is a GREAT modern convenience! Just another reason for us to love our extra freezer.

So, that's a lot for one blog post, and I'm going to stop semi-abruptly there. Later I'll share how the sprouting goes, how I made a sourdough starter from 1.25cups of flour and a cup of filtered water and whether it works well to actually make bread, and how all this fits into homeschooling--which it does, nearly effortlessly. We're all fascinated by the science experiments going on all around the kitchen right now...

getting our garden on

We've been busy in the garden these past few weeks, and 80degree weather is confusing us all into believing summer is here--forget the end of winter, or even the entire spring!

here are a few of the sq-wormies thriving in our biodynamic compost. it is rich, black soil, the perfect addition to our garden beds.

there's a promise for blueberries on this bush!

carrots were planted last Sunday--a biodynamic 'root day'.

It's likely to turn cooler again, but it's been such a mild winter in NC, it's difficult to imagine how the sweltering months will look, hopefully they will be cooler than normal to balance things out...

Our seed starting has expanded this year. Last year's method of using gutters in the greenhouse worked marvelously, and so we doubled up. Things are springing up all over the place. I'm really excited about a southern variety of Rhubarb that looks great so far, and of course--tomatoes. As always, we're trying several new varieties and some old favorites, too. 

Are you planting yet? what's your favorite homegrown produce?

Paper Chain Crowns

Sometimes the simplest crafts provide the most joy. This is a great thing for me to embrace. Though I always have grand ideas and notions of what we can accomplish in a single day, sometimes the cranky baby that can't seem to be calmed throws us for a loop. Today was one of those days, so we have Hamantaschen half made and some paper crowns to show for it.

this one is very elvish

course, we also made penguins and racoons 

If you're familiar with making paper doll strands, snowflakes, and the like, you should have no trouble picking up some paper and scissors and getting to business. I had lots of ideas to take the craft one more step, like fabric or pretty wrapping paper...but, for today the simplicity of construction paper served us well.

these new costumes are what they'll dress up in tomorrow for our party, scored Naomi's at a local consignment store--it's really cute!

LEARNING: How to Soak and Sprout Grains

Last week a friend and I are started a class on soaking and sprouting and cooking with grains. I am so excited. The diet in which grains are non existent is NOT for me, but I am willing to accept that our modern processing techniques are depleting the nutritional value--perhaps omitting it.

Here's why I love the class so far:
1. videos. I neeeeed to see it.
2. I don't have to start at the beginning figuring all this out for myself.
3. It's a lifetime access set-up, in other words I watch at my own pace, again and again if I so choose.
4. recipes, recipes, recipes, recipes...

(I don't think it's too late to join in, do it!)

Click here to find out more, Single classes are available for purchase as well, if you're already a grain-soaking pro--surely there's at least one you'd like to participate in!