Survival Seeds

I think you know about survival seeds and heirloom seeds. I am just writing to you to recommend one such company that I like... called Hometown Seeds. They are based out of Orem, Utah and have some great varieties of seeds - vegetable/survival seeds, perrenials, annuals, herbs and more. Check them out here:   HometownSeeds.com

(Tell them I referred you!)

Oh - and I almost forgot!!! They are offering a discount for a brief time! Here is what they have to say:

We at Hometown Seeds have been overwhelmed by the help given to us by the online gardening community.  From advice on products and tips to improve our website to help in developing exposure to our business, we sincerely appreciate all you have done for us.

In appreciation for your help, we would like to offer a 20% discount on all of our products to you and your web community.  By entering the coupon code thanks, 20% will be reduced from the total cost of any order.  The code will be good through July 31, 2010.  Feel free to offer this to your readers and visitors.

So, take advantage of that while you can! What a deal!  HometownSeeds.com

p.s. If you want me to give your my reasoning as to why heirloom seeds and "survival" seeds are a good idea, please leave a commenting letting me know you want more info...

p.p.s. I stole their graphic, but I hope they don't mind since I'm referring their company in this post and I want you to recognize it when you see it on their site. So, go here to see what they have:  HometownSeeds.com   

Thanks! Until next time.

Grain fed or Grass fed beef?

Okay - another one - this was really interesting to me, too. Do you prefer one over the other?

Meat scientists at Texas A&M University have reported that, contrary to popular thought, consuming ground beef from grass-fed cattle has no beneficial effects on blood lipids in people, while consuming ground beef from grain-fed cattle does have a positive outcome.

Dr. Stephen Smith, who led the team's work, said researchers first looked at previous studies and could find no scientific justification for statements that grass-fed beef is healthier and more nutritious than grain-fed product. 

Here is the rest of the short article - including the benefits to eating grain-fed beef.

Organic Food versus Conventional Food

Reading an article this morning about organic food, I thought this was very intriguing. I've heard this position several times, and think there are really some interesting points here. Read through it and let me know what YOU think. 
 

There currently is no substantive evidence that organic foods have nutrition-related benefits over conventionally produced foods, according to a new review by members of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Health.

They noted that the research on this issue is "disappointingly small" and that where studies have been done, they were focused mostly on short-term effects from eating organic foods -- mainly the antioxidant presence in subjects' bodies -- rather than longer-term health outcomes.

Furthermore, they said most of the antioxidant studies found no differences in conventional and organic diets.

The review, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, added to the researchers' work last year in which they considered 162 articles in the scientific literature over the last 50 years and reached similar conclusions.





Read more at their website

Don't forget to comment!

Can cookies be healthy?

I know, I know, it seems absurd to suggest that those little chewy sugar bombs could be, but, this week, it’s up to us to show you otherwise. Deep in the warm and cozy heart of our kitchen, we decided to bust the myth of unhealthy cookies and still make them taste scrumptious.

Now, what makes these cookies so incredible? Well, we took a basic wholesome oatmeal cookie recipe and then had some fun. Instead of the white flour, we used freshly ground whole wheat including hard white wheat, and spelt. Actually, let me tell you about spelt really quick and then I’ll get back to what’s in these amazing cookies.

Spelt is actually one of the first grains cultivated. (It’s mentioned in the Bible and was even found in the tombs of pharaohs.) It’s old, reliable, and free of tampering. Spelt is actually harder to grow than newer forms of wheat, but the specific health benefits of spelt make it marketable. It contains a more fragile form of gluten than other varieties of wheat. So, it’s easier to break down and digest; in fact, people who are allergic to gluten and can’t eat wheat can usually eat spelt. It also contains a lot of healthy proteins.

Whew. Okay back to the cookies. So, we used hard white wheat, spelt, Idaho-grown sugar (because that the way we like it), and flax. The flax is great too because it packs a healthy load of dietary fiber, and will give you all the Omega-3’s you need.

So, yeah, I’ll admit it. These cookies won’t lose weight for you. But, they also carry some great stuff like spelt and flax. We all need cookies. Yes, need. Living a healthy and happy life undoubtedly must contain cookies. Our bellies and souls need to be fed somehow, so let’s do it with some Omega-3!! (Because it’s better in a cookie than in an oily teaspoon, right?)

So, for the next few Friday’s, at the Farmer’s Market in Rexburg, come try one of our sample cookies! This week we will also be serving delicious, nutritious cinnamon rolls, Gossamer milk (which is surprisingly good), potatoes, rhubarb, and tomato and pepper plants. So come see us at the Ashland Produce stand and get a delicious and healthy cookie!!


In case you didn’t notice, this article wasn’t written by Jamie. My name is Patrick and I’ll be working for her this summer. Thanks!

Whole Wheat Pizza and Breadsticks

Aren't these cute?!

My three year old came up with the idea to use the dinosaur sandwich cutter on the breadsticks. Isn't he brilliant? We used our pizza dough recipe to make whole wheat and spelt pizza (do you need that recipe?). We used half of the dough to make breadsticks and half to make a pizza. (by the way - the one with the "well-done" head, was a little thin on the dough. The rest of the dinosaurs were thicker dough.)

Note- I have a super-picky eater at my house. This child likes pizza, but only likes tomato sauce on the pizza. I wondered what he would think of these dinosaur shapes. I even made some and baked the tomato sauce on top. 

They were such a hit, and he ate them all up so fast that I only got pictures of the ones that didn't have baked on tomato sauce. I only made four or five tomato sauce dinosaurs, so when he wanted more, we just threw some tomato sauce on top of the dinosaurs and he ate a few more! Hooray for fun food!

Here are the breadsticks that I made - with a layer of cheese on top. YUMM!

And just for fun - the pizza. I'm not a supreme pizza kind of girl, so this is how I like my pizza.

Flour in Food Storage & Notes on Hard Red Wheat

Question of the day:  (I haven't done this in a while. I'm glad for the opportunity.)

I have just started my food storage in earnest and... in my eagerness to begin my storage, I went to Costco and bought 300 lbs. of flour. I have come to realize that is A LOT of flour, and I am skeptical that I will go through it before it spoils. I have decided storing flour is probably not the best option.

I have a ton of red wheat in storage, but I have been told that only having red wheat in bread is bad for digestion, and therefore having 1/2 red wheat and 1/2 flour is best. Because I do not wish to store flour as stated above, I am wondering if I can store white wheat to replace the flour and therefore avoid the digestion problems?

I bake all of my own bread, and that is primarily what the wheat in storage would be used for.

Do you have any other suggestions about storing wheat that would help me in my food storage voyage? Any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

My Answer: 

Great questions. Well, first of all, hard red wheat is not necessarily BAD for digestion. It depends on the person and their individual digestive system. Though, Hard red wheat is typically harder to digest than others.

I used to store a lot of flour in my food storage. I now only store about 150 lbs for my laziness (when I don't have time to grind flour or energy and just need a quick cup for some cookies or something) and then store several types of grains. As a matter of taste, I do not love to use only hard red wheat. It is too much "heavy" whole wheat flavor and texture for me. I do not enjoy hard red wheat by itself. I do enjoy using hard red wheat in portions, though. I store hard red wheat, hard white wheat, spelt and bread flour. I use the flour, like I said, when I'm being lazy or my kids want to bake something. (At least for now.) Otherwise, I'll grind my own flour from the red, white wheat and spelt - usually in equal portion and use that. The flavor is so much better when I mix my grains. Even if you use 1/2 red wheat and 1/2 flour (so you can use up some of that flour faster than you normally would if you ground all of your own flour for your bread), your bread would be much better than just using whole red wheat and you shouldn't experience such drastic digestive problems.

As a matter of interest, hard white wheat is great in breads and will give your bread a sweeter flavor. Spelt has a bit of a nutty taste to it. So, mixing all of these grains together and storing them for such use is my preferred method.

Does that help?

p.s. Plastic Buckets (5-6 gallons) or large rubbermaid or metal garbage cans are a great way to store your grains (I don't take mine out of the original packaging, though you could) and/or flour. It helps keep the rodents out, helps maintain dryness (supposing things flood sometimes) and basically keeps the air and sunlight off of your food storage.

Until later.

Chicken Fried Chicken

I never thought I would use whole wheat flour as much as I've been using it lately. Last night I made chicken fried chicken with whole wheat flour. It was DIVINE!!

Oh, you mean I was supposed to take a picture? I devoured it too fast.... oops. It was that good. I felt like I had been to a restaurant and someone else had made it.

Not to say that my cooking is bad - I've just never done fried chicken before, of any variety. But I do love a good chicken fried chicken with a little creamy country gravy.

I've also been using whole wheat flour in my cookies lately. I feel like I can eat more cookies when they have whole wheat goodness in them! (Just what I need - more excuses to eat more cookies!)

Do you use whole wheat flour in your baking/cooking? Frequently or just sometimes or never?

p.s. I'd probably use it more often than I do, but I fresh grind it, and I think grinding can be annoying when I have a sleeping baby close by...

Top Secret!

Just to let you know, I've been working on a "top secret lab" experiment lately. (Sounds really cool,  huh?) Well, it is. I'm working on developing some products (dry baking mixes) that have to do with spelt, hard white wheat, flax. I am mostly planning to sell them at the farmer's market in Rexburg, but if there is enough interest, I'll probably sell them all over the US to my favorite blog readers.   =)

So far, the experiments have gone well - there is just so much to do - like packaging, designing a good label, figuring the exact weights of the ingredients. Did you know it took so much? (And that is just the start!) Well, I'm excited about it and hope this venture turns out well for us all.

So, the blog is lacking a little - but while I'm writing - are there any recipes/mixes you would like to see happen? What would you like to see in a package, easy to make, and ready for your enjoyment using more healthy, natural ingredients? Any suggestions?  (Feel free to email me directly at info at histakes-spelt dot com)

Rexburg Farmer's Market starts April 30

So, if you've been looking forward to new posts lately, I'm sorry to disappoint... I realized the Rexburg Farmer's Market starts on April 30 and I've been racing to have something ready to sell.

I've been working on different recipes and trying to perfect them - like Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies and my new Whole Wheat Potato Bread. (Boy, they are good once I get the recipe right.) So, I hope your mouth is watering and my efforts are worth it and I have some to sell to our Farmers Market fans on April 30 (from 4-8 pm in the parking lot just south of the Rexburg Tabernacle).

Meanwhile - I'll get some new posts together and let you know I'm still here.

(And hey, if you live close, ask me about taste testing some of my trials - I need a few more guinea pig critics!)

eating healthy

So, I hear complaints from people now and then about how expensive their food is. I just thought I'd give some information I learned from an economics class I took at USU in 1998. I then realized that, ah, that was over 10 years ago so I did a little digging at USDA/ERS expecting to see the figures going back up because of the recent spike in prices, but found that they were actually holding steady.

In 1929 we as Americans spent 23.4% of our disposable income on food, In 2008 we spent 9.6% of our disposable income on food. In 1998 we spent 10.1% on food (this includes eating at home and dinning out). Entertainment (including recreational toys), on the other hand was closing in on 20%! We wanted to have fun instead of eat I guess.

Well today we are in tough economic times and we need to make choices, but the Farm Bureau, and I will agree, that eating doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. Using fresh veggies and fruit to prepare your meals will cut the price drastically at the counter. If you have a farmer nearby you can ask him if he'd be able to sell you some of his produce out of storage.

For example, we have potatoes in storage that we can sell directly to you the consumer. I dare say that we can give you a 50% discount on potatoes as compared to the stores price, and we will. It really only works for those who can drive out to our farm unfortunately, but then if you put together a big enough order with all your friends, then shipping can be figured out and can be reasonable.

There is also the option of shopping for fresh produce at farmers markets. Market season is almost upon us in Idaho, but in California, markets can be more readily available.

What do you think? Do you use very many fresh fruits and vegetables in your daily eating?

p.s. Follow the link for more information on eating healthy on a budget.