Parade of Giveaways Winner!

Congratulations to Mel whose comment said:

Mel said...

I love to add flax seed to my yogurt, but it looks like I should be adding it to almost everything! I'm excited to have found your blog...I have a dozen or so that I check up on with food storage. Enter me into your drawing!

September 29, 2010 9:34 PM

Mel, I need your information (starting with email address) so please email me at info@histakes-spelt.com to claim your prize.

Thank you to all who participated for all your comments and wonderful suggestions! I loved reading ALL of them and learning from you as well. I hope you will continue to come back and share your knowledge about food storage and promote our business as we do our best to promote building food storage and being prepared.

Thanks again - and until next time... happy storing!

Fruit Cocktail

Hi! I have been lost for a minute, but I promise I'm here. We have been running our fruit stand this summer and have been harvesting our crops on our farm (actually, we just finished harvesting the grain for the year!)

Anyway, I wanted to share my lastest adventure in canning! I am so excited about it, too. I made my own fruit cocktail! I heard of a lady making her own a few years ago and have thought about it ever since. Why not? Why can't we make our own fruit cocktail? I only wonder about the grapes, but everything else processes for the same amount of time in my handbook.

Ready? Here is what I used, with the specific varieties grown in my favorite orchard in Caldwell, Idaho: white (canning) peaches (summersweet), yellow peaches (I think I used the last of my flamecrests), nectarines (honey royales), and bartlett pears and a few green grapes that I had in the fridge. (If anyone knows of a reason I shouldn't use grapes, please let me know.)

I took a half of a fruit per jar and had plenty. (For example, I needed 7 jars and used 4 peaches - half per jar, make sense? It worked out pretty close to what I needed.) I blanched and skinned the peaches - both white and yellow peaches, chunked them up, and threw them in a jar on top of the grapes. Do you know you can bottle nectarines and you don't have to skin them? Well, I skinned these - just like peaches - boiling them in water for 20 seconds, first, then to cold water and slip the skins. I mostly did it for looks in the jar. Then I peeled, chunked, and added the pears and then poured the sugary syrup over the top, topped the jars, and processed my jars in a water bath - just like I would for pints of peaches.

We tried some on Sunday, just to see what the jars and the fruit were like. They look a little mushy, but they really weren't when we tried the fruit. It was really a nice combination - and everything was ripe - unlike most of the store\-fruit cocktail I usually use.

Although, I think I have to try quart jars next time! It was a hit! And I'm so pleased with myself for doing it.

What do you think?

Parade of Giveaways

So, I'm excited to participate in the Parade of Giveaways this year.

First, I love to do food storage and be prepared.I've been canning like crazy and building up my food storage - especially now - to get ready for winter.

Do you use flaxseed? Do you know what to do with it? Since it is my prize, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about it. This is a 1.5 pound bag of heart healthy golden flaxseed. Flaxseed is full of good Omega-3 fats and provides good amounts of fiber to your diet. Everyone needs more fiber in their diet, right? It is best to eat flaxseed when freshly ground - so your body can absorb the maximum amount of nutrients available from the flax.

This golden flaxseed is an Idaho Preferred product and is a great variety for baking. I add it to almost everything I bake: cookies, breads, muffins, cakes. It even is a great substititue for eggs in your baking recipes. You only need to take 3 Tablespoons cold water and 1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed and whip them together. Allow this mixture to sit until a little slimy (about 1 minute) and you have a great replacement for 1 egg.

Just remember to grind your flaxseed in a spice grinder or a coffee grinder - something that can handle oily seeds. A flour mill is usually not able to handle flaxseed.

RULES TO ENTER THE PARADE OF GIVEAWAYS PRIZE OF FLAXSEED

1 - You must live in the US. I will not ship out of the USA.

2 - Please leave a useful comment on this blog post about my website: www.HiStakes-Spelt.com or about flaxseed or even food storage. Easy, right?  =)

(Mostly, let me know you are interested in entering the parade of giveaways)

Remember all giveaways will run September 1st - September 30th and the flaxseed winner will be announced on October 1st on this blog. Happy blogging and good luck!

Until next time!

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...