Strawberries

We went picking strawberries this morning. I think we went a little overboard. We made 59 jars of jam, including rhubarb and sugarless and put up 20 quarts in the freezer for future jam making. Plus we did some garden work and harvested for the CSA pick up this afternoon. Very, very productive day.

Our Idol

Not sure if any of you folks have heard of Joel Salatin. He is our idol. If you have 15 minutes of time, we encourage you to watch this. His words are our words.

Garlic Scapes are Here

Time to make garlic pesto!

Our Path

As I sit down to write this article, I am wishing I was a better writer. I have so many things in my head from my own thoughts and from the many blogs I read that believe in the same system we (my husband and I) believe in. I look back the two years since we moved to Gilmanton and the changes that have happened since we came here are miraculous. We see now that we are meant to educate people on what is in their food and it is our privilege to be able to grow food that we know is nourishing and is like food that our great grandparents use to grow and eat and provide this food to you.

To reinforce our belief in how we grow and how we eat, we made the commitment to go to a naturopath and get a full blown blood test to see where we are at and to affirm we are on the right path. Neither of us have ever had blood work of this magnitude done before, ever and Keith never goes to the doctor. It is a shame that our health care system is so messed up. We both have insurance (different plans with different companies) and neither of them will pay for us seeking alternative methods. Of course, if we went to a conventional doctor and got a prescription, that would be covered 100%. It just does not make sense.

Let’s take a step back. Two years ago, we did a 21 day cleanse. It was great. We decided to do it again this year and we did, but we did it in January (some say you shouldn’t do cleanses in the winter). While on this 21 day cleanse, I was researching health, gluten-free diets, paleo eating and I was being sucked in. I couldn’t get enough information. I refer to so many blogs and now have more books sitting on my table that I really need to read. So we decided to go gluten free when we finished our cleanse and get rid of our white sugar intake. We have been gluten free since January. Initially, the thought of me never eating cake, cookies, pasta, bread was shocking to me. But the more I researched, the more I discovered there were more alternatives out there. Cooking with almond flour or coconut flour. I have always cooked from scratch. Granted there are products out there that are gluten free such as pre-made this and pre-made that. This is not a true gluten free diet. So we have been enjoying occasionally, spaghetti sauce with gluten free noodles. I just made my first gluten free pizza crust and it wasn’t that bad. We’ve enjoyed muffins and cookies, all made by me, in moderation of course. We find we really don’t miss it the way we use to eat.
So back to the blood test. After each of us meeting separately with a naturopathic doctor (of course we had filled out a 5 page questionnaire prior to coming that asked questions about everything). We each were sent along with multiple tests, me having more than Keith and I even got to do a spit test. That was fun! Three weeks later we had to go back for a 40 minute visit to go over the test. Keith was first. He was perfect. Everything was within range. Everything that we put into our soil to nourish the soil and the vegetables were showing up on the blood test within range. The only thing he had was that he was low in Vitamin D which is hard to believe because he is always outside. Next up was me; my blood test was perfect as well with one exception. The blood test for both of us showed us that all of our organs were functioning perfectly. My cholesterol was 154; Keith’s was 167. We were both tested for our thyroids. My body appears to not like my thyroid and my antibodies are attacking it. To combat this, gluten free is number one. Well we had already begun this. I need to go even deeper. Did you know that many skin care products contain gluten? I did not. So now I need to figure out what does and what does not. Another part was to avoid anti-inflammatory foods such as corn, dairy and eggs. And, to have to limit or get rid of all sugar sources (honey, maple syrup), the two things we raise/make here? This is going to be tough. I can have these in limited amounts. I just need to be aware and reduce. I like to think that the things we raise or produce ourselves, would be much better than the ones we buy off the grocery store shelf. By making these changes now, we will have better health when we are in our 60’s and beyond. We are glad we did what we did and are looking forward to where our path takes us down the road. These last two years have been amazing; everything just falling into place. We must be on the right course!

By sharing our story, we hope you do your own research about what foods you to choose to put into your bodies. We will be here for many years providing you with healthiest vegetables that we can produce. It is an honor to grow for you and we look forward to continuing to do so for our current customers and for the many customers we have yet to meet.

Well it seems that everything survived the rain, the wind and the cold. Hard to believe. Now we have 90 degree weather. What a roller coaster ride. We’ve put all the tomato plants in, 300 of them. We’ve put in all of our pepper plants, over 100 of those and we’ve planted some hot peppers too, about 70 of those, I think. Our second planting of beans was done today and new this year, we just planted some dried beans which we want to offer customers in the fall and winter months. We wanted to get these planted before the rains came, but just didn’t have enough time and it’s been so wet that we were not able to get on the garden. We hope that we will have some head lettuce ready the week of 6/10. Some of the Swiss chard is sizing up and ready but not enough to offer all of our customers. Kale is coming along awfully slowlyyyyyy. Can’t wait to start enjoy this. New this week is Bok Choy.

Our first out door summer market begins this Thursday, Main Street in Laconia from 3 – 7. We will have romaine, lettuce mix, beet greens, spinach, leeks, radishes and bok choy. We are looking forward to being outside again and seeing all of our regular summer customers. Just a reminder to the Thursday CSA folks who pick up, please note the new location now for the rest of the season.