Last night we were all reminded that while pastured meat birds carry many benefits, they also have their own set of challenges. As the wind began to blow last night and the rain started to fall, everyone headed to bed feeling grateful for the rain again. When the storm ended, Cory headed out to check on the chickens in the pasture, and Aiden went out to check on the new baby goats on a different pasture. A few minutes later, Cory called to ask for help because all the chickens, turkeys, and ducks were in the pasture and their shelters were all gone.

For the last year, our area has been in a severe to exceptional drought. In the spring of 2022, the wind blew fiercely most days and the rain didn’t seem to want to fall. I had a feeling it was going to be a dry summer and that we should cut down on our animals, but I kept seeing chances for rain on the weather and the little that did come had us hopeful. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive much rain and ended up selling off a lot of sheep and cows in the fall after we had overgrazed some of our pastures. We have learned a lot from this, and I believe we will look back at this with thankful hearts.

Recently I purchased ink for our printer that we have had for several years. The description stated that it could be used with the printer we had. We added the ink and a few weeks later started having a lot of issues with our printer. To make a long story short we contacted Epson for help and the first question they asked us was, “Are you using Epson ink?” No, we weren’t, and I had not known there was a difference, but now I do.

By switching to einkorn sourdough bread, our bread went from being something that caused allergy symptoms in our family and made me physically sick to one of the most gut healing foods I now eat. I have been making my own bread for around 15 years. I started out making white then wheat bread and finally gluten free bread that I made by milling several different grains. I was never completely satisfied with any of these. I discovered sourdough einkorn bread a few years ago, and I can’t see myself ever doing anything else. I started experimenting with recipes and this is my favorite recipe so far because it’s enjoyable, tolerated by our whole family, holds together well for sandwiches or toast, and only uses a few ingredients.

Abby, Asher, and Aiden got up at 4:00 am last week to make a trip to Kansas with Cory to get our goats and 5 packages of bees in eastern Nebraska. After an almost 12 hour trip Abby smiles with excitement because she finally got to buy her first goat. She has been wanting to raise goats for a business for over a year, and we have been wanting to have something to eat down all of the weeds in the pasture. She owns the friendliest one in the picture and we own the other 3. It’s been a bit of an adventure so far. You can hear about it below.

Do you have a favorite spice, herb, or salt you like to cook with? I think I would consider onions and garlic my two favorite seasonings after real salt. When Cory and I were first married, I used highly processed salt, pepper, bay leaves, and cinnamon. That was it. Now my large spice cupboard is overflowing. It has been so fun to learn more about adding these natural flavors to regenerative, pasture raised meats, nutrient dense vegetables and fruits, sprouted nuts, and ancient grains.  I still have a lot to learn, but I look forward to sharing the little bit that I have learned with you.

Have you ever eaten processed food and thought, “I can’t stop eating this!” only to feel terrible later? It used to happen to me quite often. The food industry has created over 10,000 chemicals that they use (and try to hide) in most of the food today.  These ingredients fall under the label GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe), but these chemicals have never been tested for human safety. The food industry has come to love these, because they can use low quality ingredients, flavor it up with cheap artificial ingredients, and sell it at a competitive price. These fake flavors trick our brains into believing we are eating something nutritious and often leave us wanting more and more.

A couple of questions I hear a lot of people ask these days is how to make pastured meats fit into their budget and how to source truly grass-fed, quality meats. While we are raising most of our own meat at this time, for years I did source most of it from local farmers. Getting started with this can feel a little overwhelming, but once you figure it out, it becomes easy and very rewarding.