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You are here: Home / Archives for April

April

Baby Steps- Transitioning to Traditional Foods in April

April 4, 2011 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

Last year on the forum, we started a Baby Steps section to help people new to traditional foods. Each month, I will be posting those baby steps to the blog in case you’re wanting to start your own Traditional Foods journey.

For April, our theme is veggies. This month we turn to upping vegetable intake and soaking grains. This will be easier now that we have reduced our sugar intake and increased the trace minerals in our diets since the beginning of the year. [Read more…] about Baby Steps- Transitioning to Traditional Foods in April

Filed Under: Baby Steps to TF Tagged With: April, baby steps

Gardening Season is Upon Us

May 13, 2010 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

I haven’t blogged much in the last month because we have been working hard to get our raised garden beds built and extended onto some new ground.  We are effectively trying to double our vegetable garden space despite being limited by the steep topography and shade from all of the woods.  Once we are done, we will put in some new beds in a different area of the yard for the herbs and perennial plants.  We also had an extended visit from my grandparents and my grandmother came down with shingles while they were here.  That sent me into a tizzy of work, trying to get ready with extra food cooked and the chores and gardening done ahead in case the kids caught chicken pox from her. Their 14-day incubation period ended on Wednesday and they show no symptoms, so I assume they did not catch it from her.  We will still continue to watch them until this coming Wednesday, just in case.  So the last few weeks have been very busy but very productive.

Living in Western NC, our last frost date is mid-April but we don’t put out the warm weather vegetables until Mother’s Day weekend or after.  This past weekend was too cool to plant out (under 55 degrees at night) and The Farmer’s Almanac lists today and tomorrow as the favorable days to get the hot weather plants into the ground.  So I will spend tomorrow trying to break the new ground and get the grass/weeds up, finish spreading the 15 cubic yards of topsoil into the new raised beds, amending with azomite and greensand and then transplanting the plants out that were hardened off earlier this week.

I will be transplanting tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, winter and summer squash, zucchini, lettuces, melons, hibiscus and a good number of herbs.  We will also be putting beans, cowpeas, carrots, lettuce and okra into the ground. None of my beets sprouted, so we will try those again later in the year. Once things are transplanted, the weeding, feeding and soil work on a large scale begins.  We also have 5 roosters and a few hens to butcher soon and need to get the outside equipment set up for that.  Since next Saturday afternoon is taken up with another scheduled activity, I hope we can accomplish culling the flock next Friday and Saturday morning, as Jeff normally gets off in the afternoon on Fridays.

On the personal front, my husband was able to get a new job in April.  He was laid off one year ago today.  Eleven months of unemployment was very difficult and the downturn in the economy has greatly affected us.   I am grateful that the long period of unemployment is over and that God provided Jeff with a job at a company where he is happy and fits in well.  The last year was a good opportunity to fine-tune my penny pinching endeavors and it helped me to weed through some strategies that, while they work, they take up too much time in comparison to the money they save to be useful to me on a regular basis.

—

KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.

Filed Under: Gardening, Uncategorized Tagged With: April, beans, chicken, dessert, economy, food, herbs, incubation, kids, Menu Mailer, soup, unemployment, vegetables

Cheap Heat

February 8, 2010 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

The kids and I survived the big storm last weekend while Jeff was gone, without incident.  We then had a storm that was mostly ice this weekend that took out our power for a few hours and the phone/internet for two days.  We’re expecting another mild storm beginning Tuesday with sleet and snow.  We just can’t catch a break with the weather and the whole Eastern Seaboard is in the same boat with some spots currently having 3 feet of snow.  We still have not had an opportunity to clear the garden or re-do the chicken coop shavings thanks to this incredibly wet weather.  Locally there have been rock slides and other such assorted nastiness from ground that is too wet.  The river by our house is amazingly high but not flooding.  Yet.  This is the highest we’ve ever seen the river, and we still have more rain, sleet and snow coming this week.

This week we will use the last of the wood we had purchased to heat our home through the winter.  This winter has been so difficult that many are saying they’re in the same situation.  We’re having trouble finding anyone to deliver firewood since so many other people are also trying to purchase more.  In a normal winter we’d go through approximately three-and-a-half full cords of wood (as opposed to a face cord) from September to April and this year we’ll likely go through about five cords by the time we can stop using the fireplace at night.  The type of wood you purchase determines how long a cord will last you, as certain types burn longer and hotter than others.  This chart tells you how much heat each type of wood puts out.

Considerations and Questions

Be sure you know the difference between a full cord (4’x4’x8′) and a face cord (4′ high x 8′ long x varying lengths of pieces) and the average price of different types of woods before you begin calling people who are advertising wood in the local paper or places like Craig’s List.  Know the maximum length of the wood pieces your stove can accommodate- 18 inches is standard.  Be sure to ask how long the wood has been seasoned– you don’t want wood that has been seasoned less than eight months to a year for the maximum heat output and minimal creosote production.  Wood that isn’t seasoned can cause a fire risk due to creosote build-up in the chimney.  Kiln drying can shorten the amount of seasoning time needed.

We prefer to avoid poplar as the bulk of the load because it produces more ash than other woods for less heat output.  Ash output is a consideration to stretch the time between cleaning out the ashes to help us time our fires so we can clean out the box when it isn’t as cold of a day.  Poplar is easier to light, so we do use some of it for starting a fire with fatlighter.  Loads of mixed types of wood will be cheaper than all one type.  Another thing to consider in the price is if they stack the wood on delivery and if they charge for delivery.   Most delivery men just dump it in your driveway and will charge an additional fee to stack it for you.  You can get a discount if you pick it up yourself but we have found that the price difference isn’t worth the hours of work, especially when you figure in the cost of the gasoline.  Ask around to people you know about what the local prices are for different types of wood to have an idea of what is reasonable before agreeing on delivery.

Savings

We keep our house at 60 degrees with the thermostat and heat the living area with the wood heater.  I desperately hate heat pumps for a variety of reasons (unless you live in Florida), but because we do not have the correct R value and installation of insulation in our walls we can not heat our house exclusively with wood.  Our power bill runs about $65-100 a month during the winter (depending on how much I use the dryer) as I am extremely careful with our energy usage.  During the month of December, we babysat my parent’s parrots and raised the thermostat to 65 degrees and kept the living room around 75 degrees using the fireplace.  Our power bill went up about $130 for that colder than average month for the extra five degrees.  Considering one cord of non-dense wood costs about $130 here, the use of firewood can be a significant cost savings if you are able to drop your thermostat while burning the wood.

During the December power outage, we were able to keep the living area 10-15 degrees warmer than the back of the house and over 20 degrees warmer than the basement thanks to to the wood heater by hanging a blanket in the hallway to trap the heat in the living room and using a three-blade ecofan my husband had purchased on clearance to push the rising heat into the room.

Finally, consider that depending of the type of wood heater you have, you might be able to heat water/leftovers or cook on top as an additional form of savings.  You might be able to heat up a soup for lunch or if you have one that can accommodate a modified toaster box or a camp/stove top oven, even bake on top of your wood heater.

—

KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.

Filed Under: Frugality, Uncategorized Tagged With: April, breakfast, chicken, December, dessert, family, Menu Mailer, September, soup

What’s in Season- April

April 1, 2011 by KerryAnn 2 Comments

Produce is always cheapest when you buy it in season for your location. While I can not list every single area of the country and what is in season, this is a general over-view of what is currently in season for most of the United States. If you only buy local produce, not all of this will be available to you, but if you do purchase from stores, this is what should be the least expensive and the most fresh right now, even if it’s being trucked in from another state. Use this as a guide for Purchasing large amounts from non-local farmer’s markets for canning, freezing, lacto-fermenting, dehydrating and preserving. If you can purchase locally and it is within your budget, please do. However, if you are new to eating seasonally or don’t have a local farmer, this list will help you make the best purchasing decisions.

Artichoke
Asparagus
Avocado, Haas [Read more…] about What’s in Season- April

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: April, fruits, seasonal eating, vegetables

What’s in Season- April

April 6, 2010 by KerryAnn Leave a Comment

Produce is always cheapest when you buy it in season for your location. While I can not list every single area of the country and what is in season, this is a general over-view of what is currently in season in the United States.  If you only buy local produce, not all of this will be available to you, but if you do purchase from stores, this is what should be the least expensive and the most fresh right now, even if it’s being trucked in from another state. Use this as a guide for purchasing large amounts from non-local farmer’s markets for canning, freezing, lacto-fementing, dehydrating and preserving. If you can purchase locally and it is within your budget, please do. However, if you are new to eating seasonally or don’t have a local farmer, this list will help you make the best purchasing decisions.

Artichoke
Asparagus
Avocado, Haas
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chinese cabbages
Collards
Fennel
Grapefruit
Green onion
Kale
Kiwi
Leeks
Lemon
Lime (early)
Navel orange
Peas
Radish
Rhubarb
Sunchoke
Shallot
Spinach
Strawberry
Swiss chard
Tangerine

Filed Under: Food Storage, Seasonal Eating, Uncategorized Tagged With: April, budget, food storage, fruits, seasonal eating, United States, vegetables

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Meet KerryAnn

I'm KerryAnn Foster, a crazy vibrant Jesus Freak with a heart full of hope. I'm not afraid to love on the least of these or get my hands dirty. This blog is my journey from ineffective, uptight, obese wallflower to a woman on fire for God and living the most vibrant, passionate life possible!

I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina with my husband, Jeff, and our two teens. I blog about self-confidence, health and home, homeschooling and living a vibrant, wide-open Jesus-centered lifestyle. I have over seventeen years of real food, natural lifestyle and health experience. We have homeschooled our children since birth and both Jeff and I run home-based businesses. We're crazy, we know it, and we love every second of it!

Read about my journey to health through celiac disease, PCOS, food allergies, obesity, adrenal fatigue and heavy metals.

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