Needle and ThREAD

"Daily-ness, like sewing, puts one stitch after the other.  At first you don't see how on earth you will cover a whole piece of linen with manipulated thread.  And then you start, making each long stitch count, each short stitch, each French knot as good as you can make it, as perfect, pouring all your energy into the measure of the thread, like a measure of music, and watching the work grow under your very hands, and going to bed, and getting up the next morning.  Having one day, and then the next."  Molly Peacock in The Paper Garden: An Artist {Begins Her Life's Work} at 72

Raising a family is a bit like that.  Getting up in the morning and starting the oatmeal, doing the laundry, reading the stories.  Making each stitch count -  each word, each task, each meal, each bedtime, each walk in the woods - as good as you can make it, pouring all your energy in.  The work grows "under your very hands".  Your children grow ... and before you know it, you have stitched a family ... a life ... in all the little daily things that seemed so small, one after another after another ...

Reading:
The Paper Garden: An Artist {Begins Her Life's Work} at 72 by Molly Peacock.  The biography of Mary Delaney (1700-1788) whose flower collages, or as she called them, "paper mosaicks" are in the collection of the British Museum.  (thanks to Alicia for mentioning this book in a post back in February - it is a very interesting read).

Healing Arthritis: Complementary Naturopathic, Orthopedic, and Drug Treatments by Penny Kendall-Redd and Stephen Reed

Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture (Exploring the Great Ideas) by Makoto Fujimura with foreward by Tim Keller, in anticipation of hearing Fujimura speak at the Childlight Conference in early June.

Sewing:
Embroidery on a favorite piece of fabric before sewing it into a "wallet" for prayer cards.

Looking at saris and quilt books in anticipation of one of this summer's quilt projects.

What we did: We ate dinner

Almost every night, we ate dinner.  It was a real home-cooked meal, meaning it was made with real food, mostly from scratch, cooked that afternoon, and served to a hungry family around the table.  Sometimes, there were candles.

I mentioned in one of the previous food posts the connection between sauteeing onions and the theme song from All Things Considered.  One of my children told me a few years ago, that every time onions are being sauteed, they think of that song.  I'm quite sure it is because a great many of the meals I cook begin with the sauteeing of onions.  ATC came on at 5 when I would have been cooking, so naturally those two things would go together in that child's mind.

I've been thinking about how we just didn't eat fast food.  We ate slow food, real food, often local food - before that kind of eating had the cachet it does now.

But how did it all get planned?  That's really the hardest part, after all, isn't it?  I always hated those days when I got to 5:00 and wondered what we were going to eat for dinner and had no plan, no creativity, no energy, no inspiration.  How 'bout pancakes, everybody?  That choice was usually cheered, and the occasional dinner of pancakes isn't bad.  But as anyone with a big family knows, you can't carry on very long without a plan.

I tried lots of planning strategies.  I had notebooks, calendar pages, lists.  Sometimes I got out my ruler and paper and drew lovely charts (this was pre-excel spreadsheet, at least in my computer arsenal at the time and pre-downloadable meal planning pdf's).  I made elaborate and detailed monthly meal plans along with weekly shopping lists.  The were wonderful - but too complicated and too much work to plan.

The thing that eventually seemed to work the best for me arose from a serendipitous moment in the Stop 'n Shop parking lot. I was probably holding someone's hand, carrying someone, and telling the others not to run in front of the cars.  A little sentence floated over to me from the conversation of another mother and her (one) child.  She said simply, "It's Friday.  It's pizza night."

It was an epiphany.  Friday. Pizza night.  Why, every Friday could be pizza night!  What a concept!  Monday could be soup day, Tuesday pasta day, Wednesday curry day,  and so on.  I know, I know.  I'm slow.  But this idea just hadn't occurred to me.  I was trying to be creative in my meal planning.  But with six children, 12 and under, I was overdoing it.  I needed a meal strategy that gave me scope for creativity, but didn't require all that elaborate planning.

So, we moved to a simpler meal plan with good bones (i.e. structure), an ever increasing array of options, and plenty of scope for culinary creativity.  Over the years, I adopted a variety of favorites - curries, rice and bean dishes, soups, stews, pasta dishes - adding to the repertoire from time to time with additions out of cookbooks from the library and an occasional cookbook purchase.

I think it's so easy now, because you can browse so many recipe sources online and compile your own list of favorites without ever cracking open a cookbook.  You can also pin your recipes and meal plan via pinterest, like my friend, Kathie.  Easy, peasy.   I still love my cookbooks, though.

With this simple meal planning strategy, shopping got easier.  Keeping a well-stocked pantry, buying some items in bulk, working around the fresh produce that came from our CSA, and going to the grocery store once a week for the remaining produce we didn't get from the farm worked well for me.  Though I don't have a designated meal for each day any more, this kind of planning and cooking still suits me.

What about six little ones at the table?  How did that work?  Well, we had a few rules.  Don't eat before everyone is sitting down and we've prayed together.   Don't put too much on your plate and eat all you take.  Try everything.  No special orders - what I cook for the meal is what we eat.  If you don't want to eat it, see you at the next meal when you will likely be hungry enough to eat whatever is put in front of you.

My, does that sound harsh?  I don't think it was as harsh as that in practice.  It was just practical.  When you have a big family, you just can't satisfy everyone's whims when it comes to food.   Everyone learned to eat what was put in front of them with thanksgiving (mostly) and a minimum of fuss.  Besides, if the food is home-cooked from fresh ingredients, it is likely to taste good, unless, of course, you do what I did more than I care to admit, and burn the beans.  Oh, just add a bit more salsa and you'll never taste that charred flavor.  It also helps to be married to a man who always, graciously insists he likes the burned parts.

We had another rule - no singing at the table (unless the blessing was a sung blessing).  There is a famous story about this rule, well remembered by all in our family because it was once used as a sermon illustration.   One of the children, whose name was changed to George for sermon purposes to protect his or her innocence (or guilt, as it were) was asked to stop singing at the table.  "George" stopped singing and began to hum.  "Hmm, hm, hm, hm, hmmmmm. (Imagine here a young child's high pitched humming).  The father in the family said, "George, I asked you to stop singing."  Cherubic "George" replied sweetly, "I'm not singing, I'm humming."  I no longer remember what happened next.  "George" was probably told no humming either, at least until you finish your peas, and being the obedient, rule-conscious child that he/she was, that was that.  Or not.

I do remember that when the story was told in church, after the sermon was over, quite a few adults came up to George Erin and asked her which one of her brothers was George.  Not to worry, sweetie, that secret is safe ; )

A couple of other little rules we had:
: : If you don't like the food, eat it anyway and then tell the cook later that it's not one of your favorites. She, (meaning me) tried to honor genuine dislikes.  Some people just don't enjoy mushrooms.  That just means more for the ones who do.  It's no big deal if you really don't like it, but you never say anything rude at the table like "Yuck" or "What is THIS?"  Not acceptable.

: : When you're done, ask to be excused and thank the cook for the meal.  Our dear friends, the Duncans, taught their children to say, "I've had a gracious plenty.  May I please be excused?"  And they weren't even Southern.  Imagine!

: : Clear your place when you're done.  Put your dishes on the counter.

: : And then, of course, the normal table manners - elbows off the table, don't talk with food in your mouth, etc. etc.

Lit candles on the table help.  They add ambiance to a weeknight dinner and make everyone feel just a bit special.  Maybe, just maybe, they even help little children to mind their P's and Q's.  The only problem with candles, though, is that as soon as they are extinguished and your back is turned, six pairs of eager fingers are plunged into the hot wax and those lovely beeswax candles - well, they just don't look quite so lovely anymore.  I think hot wax is a universal, irresistible attraction for all small children.  At least it was for mine.  Somehow, I could get them to eat *tofu, bean burgers, and green vegetables of every sort, but I never could break them of the habit of playing in the hot wax.  Sometimes they didn't even wait til my back was turned.  You can't win 'em all.

That's about it, folks.  I probably haven't given you any real tips for meal time success with little people, but I suppose that's not really my aim here anyway.  I'm just remembering - and probably not doing that terribly well.  I know there were a few food battles, tears at the table, plenty of spills, and times when the noise was just below deafening.  But that's not what I remember.  When I think about dinner at our house, I remember the smell of fresh bread, the steam rising from a pot of soup in the cast iron Dutch oven (that I still use almost every day), holding hands to pray, and being thankful for a table full of little people, plenty of good, healthy food to feed them, and the incredible gift of eating together.

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*not meaning to malign tofu or bean burgers here.  It's just that a lot of people we knew thought those meal choices were a little, shall we say, unusual.  My kids loved them.

 As I mentioned in an earlier post, Leila has a series of posts on eating together.  She is so common sense and makes me laugh.

And finally, hope you enjoyed the flowers.  The garden's been awfully pretty this year.  

Not back in the swing yet ...

Sorry, friends.  I'm just not up for writing much right now.  So, how about a few pictures for a Monday...

My sister holding baby Jubilee, 

daughter of our friends, Scotty and Lisa, who are staying with us for a few weeks. 

We all love having a newborn here!

Joel and Natty watching Barcelona and Chelsea. 

Joel is a really great big brother, even though he hasn't had much practice.

DNA lab last week.  

The students loved this one.  

After it was over, they ate their double helices!

The Rhododendron catawbiense var. pinckney (really!)  I purchased this plant shortly after we moved here at the Rhododendron Society Auction.  My former next door neighbors had invited me and when I saw this cultivar's name, I had to buy it!  This year it is the prettiest it's ever been.

The mock-orange is also spectacular this year.  So full of blossosms!

Peonies are just about to pop ...

and Johnny-Jump-Ups have been ... ahem ... jumping up all over the place in the front garden.  

Volunteers abound.  They are so cheery.  

They will flop when the summer hits, but they are awfully pretty right now

I'll get back in the swing of things ...

... and get back to the "What We Did" posts in a day or two.

For now, I am:

: : thinking about how wonderful this past weekend was - spent with women from my college freshman hall.  14 of us gathered at the beautiful Carnegie Guest House at our alma mater for a weekend of reminiscing, talking, laughing, eating, walking, sharing, encouraging.  I am so glad I went.  Thanks for a grand time, Second Watts Women!

: : enjoying the first days with our friends, Scotty and Lisa, and their beautiful daughters, Natalie and Jubilee.  We have a three year old and a newborn in the house now! They'll be with us til later in May.  You may remember that we visited the Misers in Bolivia last summer.  We're so glad to have the privilege of sharing our home with them for a while.

: : washing beautiful saris in preparation for the next big quilt project.  More to come on this!

: : planning for the last classes coming up in the next few weeks.  We're in the home stretch, folks.  I have spring fever, can't wait to be done with teaching and want to finish well. This week it's DNA and double helix models and reviewing the Constitution and Federalist #10.

: : wondering about hand surgery.  I went to my rheumatologist yesterday.  I love my doctor so much, because she listens to all my questions, answers thoughtfully and thoroughly, never rushes me, and tells me what she thinks and why, but doesn't push it on me.   I have a very wonky thumb and she wants me to see a hand surgeon, which I will do on Monday.  She also wants me to think about other medications.  This is all sort of scary to me, but certainly less so, because I trust my doctor and think her counsel is wise.  She referred me to a doctor that she said would "talk to me."  She said there are many excellent hand surgeons in our area, but many "don't talk, they just want to cut."   My doc's words.  Yikes!  I need a doctor that will talk to me.  So, I'm glad my rheumatologist understands that.  Like I said, I love her.

: : missing a certain little someone but delighted that she will be coming, with her Mama and Daddy, to the beach in May!  Here she is wearing my most recent sewing project:

: : thinking about doing this!  It's a triathlon just for women.  I haven't ridden my bike in forever and it will need a major tune-up, but I did start swimming this week.  I walk to the end of the pool and stand there wondering if I really want to dive in, set my stopwatch to 0:00, and adjust my goggles.  Then I push Start on the watch so I won't keep standing there - the watch is going -  I have to dive in.  Soon as I hit the water,  I think I am going to die, it is soooo cold.  Stroke, stroke, stroke, hard and fast and my heart is pumping and I can hardly get my breath from the cold.  After a couple of lengths, things settle down and I settle in and it feels really, really good.  The minutes pass by and then I'm done ... and then, there's just not much that compares with how good you feel when you finish swimming.  I only swam for 10 minutes yesterday and 13 today, but you have to start somewhere, right!  

: : enjoying Erin's new cooking blog and benefiting from her learning and healthy eating advice!  I need to get some coconut oil so I can make this muesli.  It sounds delicious!

OK, that's enough!  Happy Tuesday, you all.

What we did: We ate healthy food at the table ...

... three times a day, mostly all together.  Does anyone do that anymore?

I got up early so I could have a few moments of quiet before the day got going.  I made breakfast - oatmeal, grits, other hot cereals, sometime pancakes, occasionally eggs and biscuits or toast, sometimes scones, yogurt and fruit, often cold cereal.  We were cereal mixers at our house.  First the cheerios, then the raisin bran, then the granola or some such order.  You were supposed to take mostly less sweet cereal - like cheerios or shredded wheat - and only top it off with a little of the sweeter ones - like granola or raisin bran.  Not sure it always happened that way.  I didn't buy the super sweet cereals marketed to children.  We made our own granola, usually.  We drank OJ and tea.  I wasn't really a coffee drinker back then.  Times have changed.

When you homeschool, you have the luxury of sitting down together in the morning at the start of the day.  You are not rushing around trying to find matching shoes or making lunches, you are not hurriedly gathering your things to rush out the door to get to the bus stop on time.  You can gather at the table, look each other in the eye, say a prayer, read something together, and at the end of the meal, issue instructions for the rest of the morning and then move into your day, having had time together, sharing food.  It is a very good way to start the day.  (With just three of us at home now, we have sadly gotten out of this habit. I took a break in writing this post to cook steel cut oats, and Coty, Joel and I sat down for breakfast.  It's time to get back to our old breakfast-together ways!)

Breakfast at our house was not complicated and didn't require lots of prep time.  We didn't eat Almanzo Wilder breakfasts, but then we weren't headed out to put up hay or do farm chores.  On the occasions that we ate something like cinnamon rolls or doughnuts for breakfast, I reminded us all that it was ok every once in a while.  After all, Almanzo ate apple pie for breakfast!

A little aside - (I've told this story many times so if you've heard it before, I apologize and you can skip the next paragraph)  One rainy, cold November day, we were celebrating something.  I no longer remember what, but for some reason, I had decided to take all the kids to the doughnut shop in town to get doughnuts for breakfast.  We piled into our van and headed out of the neighborhood.  The neighbor kids were waiting at the corner for the schoolbus, huddling under umbrellas or inside hooded rain coats, trying to stay dry and warm as they waited for the bus.  We rounded the corner and saw them, waved merrily, and said, mostly to ourselves, "We're going for doughnuts!!!"  Just a little homeschool perk - going for doughnuts instead of standing in the November drizzle at the bus stop.

OK, back to eating.  Another thing we did most days, was to take a tea time break, either in the morning or the afternoon.  I usually had some sort of baked good, most often scones, sometimes muffins or cookies.  I brewed a pot of herbal tea in the blue teapot, and we would sit at the table and read our chapter book.  I alluded to the "addiction" all of my children have to hot beverages in the April Fool's post.  It was not dandelion root coffee that fostered the addiction.  No, I think it was those tea times that did it.  Such sweet breaks in the midst of the day to sit together, drink tea, and read.  When we get together these days, there is almost always tea.

Lunch on weekdays was leftovers or sandwiches.  PB&J, grilled cheese, lettuce/tomato/cheese - remember, we didn't eat meat.  No sliced turkey, no salami, no anything like that.  Soup was probably my favorite lunch.  I made a lot of soups - homemade vegetable, potato, or cauliflower cheese soup.  As with breakfast, we sat at the table and ate lunch together most of the time.  Coty was not usually there - he was at the college teaching - but the kids and I would have our noon meal together.

Did we snack in between?  A little.  Not too much, really.  Mostly fresh fruit, rice cakes, sometimes granola bars, sometimes homemade cookies.  I tried not to feed my kids too many sweets or processed foods.  I rarely bought cookies, though I could be persuaded to get Vienna Fingers from time to time.  They are quite nice with tea. (The website practically says as much - "companion for your break from a busy day")

It is true that my kids probably had their first junk food from that Cumberland Farms store, also mentioned in the April Fool's post.  (I was reprimanded by a son who was highly offended that I called it Cumbies.  "We never called it Cumbies!" said he).  Whatever we called it, milk runs turned into candy runs sometimes.  Unless I have been fooled all these years, my kids didn't really eat toooo much candy, though. Just a little here and there - for fun.  I was no candy nazi.  After all, I had my occasional package of Necco wafers -  which didn't last long when six children wanted me to share.  I had to hide sometimes, too!

Well, that's enough for now.  The morning is getting on and I have work to do.  I'll write about dinner later ...

Have a good day, friends.

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For an explanation of this series of posts, go here. 

What we did: We ate healthy food ...

Let's talk about the food part today and later, we'll talk about the sitting around the table part.

When I started thinking about what we ate, I asked several of my children for some of their food memories.  Here are a few:

tabouli and homemade bread

Salmon patties and grits every Sunday night
Enchanted broccoli forest (a Mollie Katzen recipe from a cookbook with the same title)
Rice and beans
Rice and black-eyed peas
Chili and cornbread
Scones
Rhubarb dipped in sugar (we had a massive rhubarb plant in our back yard, they would sneak and dip stalks of it in the sugar bowl and eat it raw).
Greens
Sauteeing onions and the theme music from All Things Considered (I listened to the radio when I cooked!)
Butternut squash
Homemade bread
Biscuits
Waffles or pancakes on Saturday morning, cooked by Daddy

Pretty down home eating.  Not too fancy, on the low-end, budget wise.

sauteeing onions and beets for beet risotto

We did eat a lot of rice and beans.  Brown rice. All kinds of beans: pinto, black, small red, Great Northern, kidney, navy, garbanzo ... and there were also lentils and split peas.  Coty and I were mostly vegetarians (only a little fish back then) til our kids got older, so they were raised on a mostly meatless diet.  When I say meatless, I mean that we never ate chicken or beef, but occasionally, like on Sunday nights, we ate fish.

Dal (lentils), cauliflower curry, brown rice in the black pot, and raita

We had a garden and we belonged to a CSA farm.  That farm was wonderful.  We picked up our share every week and ate whatever the farm was producing - beets, turnips, carrots, greens of all kinds, different varieties of leaf lettuce,green beans, and in the summer, tomatoes, cucumbers, and all kinds of fresh herbs in abundance.  I loved the farm, loved going out to pick up my share each week, loved picking as many fresh herbs as I could use, loved feeding my family that fresh, organic, local produce.

One summer, the farm had a super crop of cucumbers - so many, they were starting to feed them to the cows.  Almost every week, I picked up a 5 gallon bucket of cucumbers and we made freezer pickles.

We lived near apple orchards and strawberry farms and would go pick, in season, and make applesauce, apple pie slices, and freezer jam.  I wasn't a canner, like my amazing daughter is now, but we made good use of the freezer.

We ate our share of spaghetti, but with home-doctored sauce (tofu and grated carrots added to Ragu!).  We ate macaroni and cheese, but never from a box.  We ate lots of soups and stews, but rarely from a can (with the exception of Campbells Tomato Soup with grilled cheese sandwiches.  That was a quick Sunday lunch meal when we weren't having company).

 Brussels sprouts, cooked the way my Daddy cooks 'em

 
We weren't sick too much and we didn't have food allergies - at least not that I was ever aware of or that ever kept us from eating certain things (like wheat or dairy).  We drank milk, but not too much, and we ate yogurt, sometimes made at home.  I think I was just blessed with children who had (have) healthy constitutions, so we didn't deal with many of the challenging food issues some families do.  

Way back before I had children, I bought a copy of Laurel's Kitchen.  I think my food ethos grew out of reading Laurel, Diet for a Small Planet, the old More with Less cookbook, and after kids started arriving, Mollie Katzen's cookbooks (Moosewood Cookbook and Enchanted Broccoli Forest), as well as the later Moosewood Collective cookbooks.  All of these books helped me toward a type of eating that was healthful and delicious, simple and satisfying.  We ate real food, as fresh as we could get it, cooked mostly from scratch and yes, that meant lots of hours in the kitchen.  And no, I don't regret all those hours cooking for my family.  As Erin says now, "Love is spelled F-O-O-D."  I think my kids knew that growing up.  I think they know it now.

raw kale salad

*All the photos are from more recent meals, but don't look too different from what we used to eat, except that raw kale salad is new to us in the last couple of years and I'm not sure I ever served Brussels sprouts to my kids when they were younger.

What we did: We ate healthy food at home around the table 3 times a day!

That's a mouthful of a title, isn't it.  But it does sum up what we did when the kids were growing up.  I want to back up just a little though, and start from the very beginning -  what we fed our babies.

I attended a banquet Tuesday night after my son, Andrew's Phi Beta Kappa induction.  There were a lot of smart people sitting around those tables and the banquet speaker, a pediatrician and community activist, shared his thoughts about how people can make a difference in their communities.  His first of five points was, "Learn the be the best parent you can."  Then he said, "Breastfeed."  I was rather taken aback.  Not that I disagreed with him, not at all.  I was just surprised to hear those words in that setting. The first thing he had to say about being a good parent was about the very first nutrition you provide for your child outside the womb.  He told those law school/med school/Harvard/Columbia/grad school bound students to breastfeed their babies. I wonder how many of them will take his advice.

I didn't learn about breastfeeding from a doctor at a college honors banquet.  Rather, it was the women in Kawangware and Kamweleni, Machakos and Mombasa that taught me.  In the two years before our first child was born, I taught nutrition to village health workers and spent hours and hours in the company of rural Kenyan women.  I observed babies carried in kangas on women's backs wherever they went - to the market, the fields, to our classes.  When the babies got hungry, they breastfed them, right then and there, no disappearing to a private place, no covering up, just feeding their babies, as though it was the most natural, normal thing to do.  Which it was ... and still is.

By their example, those women taught me well.  When Erin was born, I knew I'd breastfeed.  Like all new moms, the start was a little rocky, but we made it through the first few days, and tiny as she was (5 lbs. 6 ounces) at birth, she grew and thrived on mama's milk.  All of our subsequent children were breastfed and weaned themselves when they were ready. I think the longest any of the little ones breastfed was just over two years, the shortest, 15 months.  I am completely convinced that this is the very, very best way to feed your babies.  Easy, free, and the healthiest food you can give them.

Well, we're not to the "three meals a day around the table" yet, but it's time to turn the corner and put this series of posts on the back burner for a few days.

I want quiet tomorrow, Good Friday ... quiet and time to meditate on the cross of Jesus.  Then, I look forward to reflection and rejoicing in the resurrection of my Savior, the bread of life, the one who bore the sins of the world on the tree and rose to new life, conquering death, so that those who believe in him will live and not die and join him eternally at the greatest meal of all, the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Jesus has died.  Jesus has risen.  Jesus is coming again.  Alleluia.  Come, Lord Jesus.

Happy Easter, all.  I'll be back next week.

Well, now ...

that little bit of April foolery was fun, wasn't it.  There was just enough truth in that food post to fool even two of my children.  They were lured in by mention of the fiddleheads ...

"Oh, yes, we did eat those, but I don't remember that we ate them that much ... maybe I just don't remember."

The nettles got them worried ...

"Wait a minute, ski masks.  I don't think we did that.  What's going on here?"

The woodchuck fricassee should have given it away ... but instead of remembering it was April Fool's, they were starting to get mad and worried ...

"Why is she saying these things?  We didn't eat that!  What is wrong with her?  Is she making this up - or losing her mind?  Has her memory gone completely."

The fresh water mussels bit really got to my mussels connoisseur ...

"I know I didn't do that!!!  Why is she lying????"

And on it went until, by the end of the post, two of my boys were completely irritated, "literally fuming," said one, and questioning their mother's sanity and truthfulness.

Got 'em good this time!

The funny thing is, a lot of people believed that we really ate woodchuck.  Seriously??? Woodchuck???  And that we had a goat named Mabel and grew all our soybeans.  No folks, we didn't do those things and no, I didn't find a stash of candy wrappers in Erin's closet, though I did find and surreptitiously dispose of her entire paper and plastic bag collection once.  But that's a story for another day.

Before I sign off for the night, here's one little bit of sewing I finished today ... no fooling!

All fabrics from my stash ...

A proper bow in the back

Covered buttons, which I love! 

and a toile waistband.  Very sweet.

I used Lindsay's Party Dress tutorial which was very easy to follow. My sash is done a little differently than hers since I used two different fabrics.  

OK, off to bed now.  Tomorrow I'll tell you what we really ate!

What we did: We foraged and grew our food

When you have a big family, people always want to know how you feed them.  Well, I was worried about that as the size of our family grew and especially with all those boys.  Oh, my goodness.  Their appetites were voracious.  They were bottomless pits.

But, I found easy and economical ways to fill those hungry bellies.  As you know from the previous post, we lived adjacent to the woods.  Like all frugal women, I used what was nearby and free.  In the spring, we foraged in the the woods and came home with bucket loads of fiddle head ferns.  They are a delicious, nutritious treat - they taste sort of like asparagus -  and we found all kinds of ways to use them; in salads, sauteed, stir-fried, fiddlehead quiche, fiddlehead lasagna, even fiddle head smoothies for breakfast.

Of course, those woods were full of stinging nettles, too, so we would regularly don our longest jeans and long sleeve shirts, put ski masks over our faces and go out into the woods to gather nettles.  There are also many, many ways to eat these nutritional goodies.  My favorite was nettle fricassee.  What a delicious dish!  Instead of chicken or pork, though, we used what we could find in the woods.  Remember that woodchuck from the last post?!  Well, you haven't lived til you've eaten a woodchuck nettle fricassee.  That dish, of course, hearkened back to my southern upbringing.  We usually had it with possum when I was younger, but woodchuck is a good substitute.

We had two rivers behind our house so we had a plentiful supply of fish and fresh water mussels.  When Andrew went to Brussels to study abroad last year and ate mussels again, he said it took him back to his childhood and fond memories of standing in the muck on the edge of the river, digging with his toes for the mussels.  The kids would gather them and bring them home in a bucket.  We'd scrub off the sand, steam them and eat them with a salad of dandelion greens, straight from the backyard.

About those dandelion greens - we never put weed killer or pesticides on our lawn, so we never worried about our kids getting toxic chemicals in their diet from the items we foraged from our lawn.  In addition to eating the dandelion greens, we would harvest the roots, dry them, grind them and use them for a coffee substitute.  Such a treat!  I think starting their mornings off with dandelion coffee is one of the reasons all of my children are so fond of hot beverages to this day.

One of our favorite delicacies was the snails from our garden.  My neighbors always had problems with snails eating their vegetables, but we solved that problem by having the kids go out at night with a flashlight and pick off the snails.  Can you imagine - escargot for a family of eight straight from our backyard.  What do you think that would have cost us in a restaurant ... and it was all free!  The French usually eat their escargot cooked in wine with garlic and butter, but I like different ethnic cuisines, so I usually cooked them the Maltese way, (scroll down in the article) simmered in ale with plenty of mint, basil, and marjoram from our garden.

Of course, I taught my kids how to distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous mushrooms and a day or so after each rain, we would go to the spot in the woods where trees had fallen and begun to rot to find oodles of mushrooms sprouting in fairy rings.  There were so many, we would dry them for use in the winter when foraged food was harder to come by.

Now, you may be thinking that we only ate food we could find on the land.  I wish that were true because it certainly would have been healthier, but here is the more difficult part of our food story.  We didn't own a cow so we had to buy our milk.  The closest and cheapest place to get it was the Cumberland Farms convenience store just around the corner.  Because they didn't even have to cross any streets to get there, I could send even the youngest to the store for milk.  By the time they could walk, each one of them was itching to "run to Cumbies" for milk.  It was a rite of passage.

Little did I know, however, that on these errands for milk, my children were being exposed to the evils of processed food.  Those rows of candy and packaged pastries at toddler eye level were just too much, and by the time they were four or five, each of my children had discovered the delights of Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, Snickers bars and Skittles.  I never knew why they were so eager to run to Cumbies for me til the day I discovered the stash of discarded candy wrappers in the corner of Erin's closet.  Imagine my dismay.  All this time, I thought my children were eating the healthiest food on the planet, only to discover that they each had secret addictions to one form of junk food or another.

The only solution to that was to stop buying milk.  We would eliminate the trips to the convenience store by getting a cow.  But then we discovered that our neighborhood did not allow cattle to be pastured in back yards, so we had to opt for a goat.

Goat milk, goat cheese - oh, it was wonderful til the goat got out.  You know how easily they can leap over almost any fence.  Well, that darn goat, Mabel was her name, got out one night and in one fell swoop ate my entire vegetable garden.  That was the straw that broke the camel's back.  After that, I decided - no more milk.  We'll just have to be vegans.

So, we stopped drinking milk that comes from animals, planted the rest of our backyard in soybeans and made all our own soymilk.  I tell you, when it comes to food and eating healthy on a tight budget for a large family, where there's a will, there's a way!

We never had time for anything else besides food production and I regret to say that as they are growing into adults my children are rebelling.  They have opted for the fast food lifestyle and now spend most of their food budgets at places like Cookout and Burger King.

Well, I must quit.  Joel has a soccer game and I'm headed out the door.  I hope this little reflection on how we ate has encouraged you.  Even though my children all now eschew anything that is green or healthy, at least I know they had a good start in life!

; )

April Fool's!