Third Thursday Farm Day: River Cottage Farm

Tonight we went to our third Third Thursday Farm Day. River Cottage Farm, which in my opinion is a hidden gem in Warren County, invited everyone to come out for an evening at their farm. I was very excited about this because I go out to River Cottage Farm at least once a week to pick up our milk, eggs, meat, cheeses, maple syrup, etc.

 We own a cow share which means that we own a portion of one of these cows. 

Here are seven of the eight cows that provide our raw milk each week. 

They are only grass-fed and they look happy and healthy.

They all have names and you can get up close and personal with them.

 

We also got to take a peek at the organic raised beds...

 goats, beehives, and bird houses.

 We saw lots of cats and kittens wandering around and Seth was a huge fan.

The Apple family has a small store next to their house that is open Tuesday-Saturday and it contains all kinds of neat things. Tonight it was pretty crowded with lots of people purchasing things, but we did snap of photo this sign. We couldn't agree more.

 

While we were finishing up dinner, Debbie Apple showed us how to spin some wool. They have their own flock of lambs and sheep, which they both shear and use for meat.

 Since we have chickens now, we actually buy our organic chicken feed from River Cottage Farm. We got to take a peek at their chickens and at the end of the evening we even got to collect some eggs.

 It was such a fun evening. 

We're so thankful to live in a community where farms like this one exist.

Paleo Resources

When I tell someone that our family is eating Paleo, I usually get one of two responses. Either they think it sounds crazy, wish us luck, and go about their business, or they are intrigued and want to know more about it. As a newbie to Paleo, I have scoured the internet for resources and I thought I would share what I have found. If you are considering Paleo or you just want to know more about it, I hope this helps.

You can find general Paleo info here:
Mark's Daily Apple 
The Paleo Diet 
Paleo Diet Lifestyle 
Beyond Paleo

We decided to go Paleo after learning about the results Terry Wahls had in treating her MS. She doesn't do Paleo exactly, but her diet is very similar. I am half way through her book called Minding My Mitochondria 2nd Edition: How I overcame secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) and got out of my wheelchair.  She is very specific about eating a certain amount of veggies a day. She also takes lots of vitamins and does a detox everyday. I don't do all of that yet, but after learning more and more I just might, especially if it prevents MS flair-ups.

It seems like everyone tweaks the Paleo diet to meet their own needs. Some people choose to follow the Paleo diet specifically to lose weight. In fact, Crossfit actually endorses the Paleo diet. We aren't doing this to lose weight but it sure helps shed the pounds. I have lost 15 pounds and dropped three sizes in less than two months and feel healthier than ever.  Oh, and the tingling in my feet is gone and I have had slight improvement in my vision already.

We have watched these documentaries about food (they are all on Netflix). They have helped us learn more about food, the way it is grown, and even about some of the healing properties.
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
Food Inc.
Food Matters
Fresh
The Gerson Miracle

My easiest way to find Paleo recipes has got to be Pinterest. I have a Primal/Paleo Foods board that I add to pretty much daily.

I subscribe to the following Paleo blogs:
Against All Grain
Cavegirl Cuisine
Civilized Cavemen Cooking Creations
Elana's Pantry
Everyday Paleo
Healing Cuisine by Elise
Health-Bent
Holistic Kid
Hunt Gather Love
Multiply Delicious
Nom Nom Paleo
Paleo Parents
PaleOMG
Primal Fed
Primal Kitchen
Rubies & Radishes
The Urban Poser
The Paleo Mom
Vaughangela

We have bought the following books so far and hope to add a few more:
Make It Paleo: Over 200 Grain Free Recipes for Any Occasion by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason
Eat Like a Dinosaur: Recipe and Guidebook for Gluten Free Kids by The Paleo Parents

We have been compiling a list of frequently asked questions that I hope to answer soon. If you have a question, feel free to leave a comment and we'll do our best to find an answer.

Tillery Tot School- Letter V

This week we learned about the letter "V." 

Here's a look at our Tot School board:

 We colored our letters violet this week. 

Silas loves to join in on the fun now!

 

 We made a vase filled with violets.

 We made a volcano using a small bottle wrapped in Play dough. We filled the bottle with baking soda. We mixed red food coloring with vinegar and then poured the vinegar into the bottle. I think I was really more excited about this than Seth at first. No matter how many times I see it I always love it!

 We read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert...

 and then we planted some vegetables on a letter "V." 

We also went outside to see our own vegetables growing in our garden!

 

With a few scraps of paper I let Seth practice cutting using "big boy" scissors. Seth loves this and is content to cut a for a long time. He will cut the paper into the tiniest pieces. It seriously looks like confetti when he is done with a piece of paper, but he is really great at cutting. Soon we will try cutting on specific lines and shapes.

 Next week we move on to the letter "W." 

We can't wait to have lots of fun, especially with water!

Introduction to the Outside World

The chickens will be two weeks old on Monday and so far taking care of the girls has been really easy. They are growing each day and they are in this awkward feathering out stage right now. Once they have all their feathers we will be able to move them outside. (Right now they are hanging out in the basement in their brooder box.) 

We actually bought the chicks before we had a coop because we knew we would have some time before we needed it. We ordered our coop from a guy that we found on Craigslist. It was the largest coop and enclosed run that we could find for the least amount of money. Our coop arrived a week ago and this weekend we are busy making some slight modifications to it before the girls need to move into it. 

Here's a view of the coop and run 

(more details coming soon):  

 

Since we were outside and we needed to clean out the brooder box, we thought we would introduce the girls to the outside world by letting them spend a few minutes in the enclosed run. They didn't know what to think at first.

They looked so tiny!

 

It took them a few minutes to warm up to the new environment, but then they discovered leaves. They would grab a leaf and run and even try to fly away with it. They were hilarious!

 They were so fun to watch.

 

 They seemed to enjoy their time outside and we did too!

Collard Green Wrap

We are almost two months into our Paleo eating lifestyle and we have learned a whole lot about food. We have cooked and tried so many new things. We have ventured out to eat at a few different restaurants and we have figured out easy Paleo snacks like dehydrated kale chips, grass-fed jerky, dried fruits, and nuts. But what do you do when you need a portable lunch or dinner that has to be eaten on the go? We used to rely on sandwiches or wraps that we could carry with us. There was also the very convenient option of picking up fast food like Chick-fil-a. But with the elimination of grain those options are out. So when I learned collard greens could be used in place of a tortilla, I thought I would give it a try. Boy, oh boy, this was a great Paleo find! Tonight we had to rush out the door as soon as Bryan got home from work, so we took our portable chicken wraps with us on our way to Curbside Ministries. Collard green wraps are super easy to make. They can be filled with just about anything and they are super tasty! I have a feeling we will be eating a lot more of these!

Raising Chickens

If you had told me a few years ago that I would one day own chickens, I'm not sure I would have believed you. We have been tossing around the idea of raising our own backyard chickens (yes, right here in the middle of the city) for the last few months and then after switching to Paleo, it just made sense to us. We eat a lot of eggs. The eggs that we buy aren't exactly cheap. So we started researching and calculating. Bryan figured up for us (and has a fancy spreadsheet with a corresponding graph to go along with it) that if we could own chickens for at least 60 weeks after they begin laying eggs (which is around 5 months old), we would pay for the expense of the coop, the cost of the chickens and supplies, and begin getting eggs for less that what we are paying for them now. I love having a husband that is an engineer!

After spending some time figuring everything up and deciding we did in fact want to raise chickens, we had to decide what breed we wanted. We also had to figure out where we were going to get them and where we were going to get the organic feed that we wanted them to have.

We decided on Buff Orpingtons because of their docile nature (a breed that's supposed to be good around kids and as backyard chickens) and the fact that they are supposed to be good layers/meat birds.

There are only a few hatcheries that allow shipments of small quantities of birds so we had to do quite a bit of researching to figure out how we were going to get the breed we wanted. We ordered our girls from Cackle Hatchery. Our chicks were shipped out Monday morning just shortly after they hatched from their eggs. They were packed securely in a ventilated cardboard box. They arrived at the post office this morning and we got a call letting us know they were ready for pick-up.

 We ordered five chickens and they had the sweetest little chirps coming from their box. We all anxiously opened the box and all five chickens had survived the trip. It is not uncommon at all for some chicks to die in transit, so we were thrilled that they all made it.

 We quickly moved them to their brooder box which will be their home for the next 4 to 5 weeks. After that they will move into their coop (which is being built and will be delivered soon) in the backyard.

 I dipped their beaks in the water just like my instructions told me to do and they soon discovered the water and the food. We are giving our girls organic chicken feed which we thankfully can purchase from River Cottage Farm here in BG. We buy our eggs from them currently, so we know their eggs taste good and are healthy. We also plan to feed our girls our organic food scraps and some flax seed.

 After they had been eating for a few minutes their chirps died down and they seemed to grow more content in their surroundings. The brooder lamp seems to be keeping them plenty warm and in a couple  of days we will remove the paper towels that are covering the pine shavings in their box. (Paper towels keep them from slipping right now.) Our instructions and everything I have read says to leave them alone for the first day so that is exactly what we did.

Tomorrow we start handling them though because we need these girls to be friendly and familiar with people. 

So our chicken adventure begins...

Tillery Tot School- Letter U

 Last week we learned about the letter "U." 

Here's a look at our Tot School board:

 

We colored our letters like usual.

 It started to lightly rain at the beginning of the week 

so we went out and used our umbrella. Seth thought this was super fun.

 

 We colored a picture of an umbrella underneath the dining room table. I taped it to the table and Seth had to look up to color it. We talked about the words "under" and "up" beginning with the letter "u."

 We made an umbrella out of construction paper.

 We read Great Day for Up by Dr. Seuss.

 Then we also talked about the word underwear starting with the letter "u." Seth is very familiar with underwear because he has been potty trained (even at night) since the week before Christmas. I tried and tried to convince him to color the pair I drew on a piece of paper. Seth insisted on keeping them white since most of his are white.

 This week Nana and Pop are coming to visit us so we are going to enjoy our time with them. 

We'll move on to letter "V" after that.