Pics from My Garden This Year

How is your garden doing this year? Spring is nearly over and the summer heat is in full swing here in Alabama. The temperatures are pushing 100 degrees every day and the rain hasn't graced us with a reprieve from the heat in quite some time. So things are dry (to say the least!) but I'm glad to say our garden is still pulling through nicely.

Our first crop of potatoes is doing well this year.  My neighbor planted rose gold potatoes in our plot this spring. Rose gold potatoes have an unusual and beautiful color. They are a rosy pink color on the outside, and when you open them up, their flesh is a deep gold. And their taste? Nothing less than spectacular.

To the right you'll see what the rose gold potato plants looked like a couple of weeks ago.

And below is a glimpse at a few of their delicate blossoms--I had no idea potatoes could be so pretty!

 

We've been bombarded with cicadas this year. A few weeks ago their sound was almost deafening. Every time I walked outside, it sounded like a fleet of alien spacecraft was landing nearby. The cicadas are mostly quiet now, their music replaced by the conversation of crickets and tree frogs. Below is a cicada who is presumably playing dead. The fellow flipped over on his back and was generous enough to stay completely still while I took his picture. Where he disappeared to after this was taken I can only imagine. (Being in my neck of the woods he probably ended up as a hen's supper, though.)

 

I must confess I'm not a huge fan of eating my veggies, but I will gladly partake in vegetables that I actually enjoy eating. And though that list is admittedly small, I do love summer squash and zucchini. I'm glad that we've dedicated a large portion of the garden to both of those, and every day when I visit the garden there are a few more ready to be picked!

It may not be truly extraordinary, of course, but there is something deeply satisfying about harvesting dinner from your own garden. Here is a picture of our first picking--it's quite a small harvest, but then it's only the beginning. There's quite a lot more where this came from!

Join Me this Season for a Gardening Adventure!

There's still plenty of time to plant a garden and grow your own this summer. Join me and other Real Food Media bloggers along with our readers this year as we share our gardening experiences on our blogs. We'll also be sharing photos of everything we grow on the Seeds of Change Facebook Page.

To participate in the garden challenge, please shop on the Gardening Supplies and Seeds section of my Resource page. Order your seeds and let’s get planting!

You can also become a fan of Seeds of Change on Facebook. When you have photos of your garden, post them on their wall! Be sure to include a photo caption and a link to the Virtual Garden photo album here: http://bit.ly/seedsofchangevirtualgarden

Next you can follow Seeds of Change on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/seedsofchange (If you want to Tweet about the campaign and encourage your followers to join in the fun, remember to use the special hash tag #sowingmillions.)

Please note: I wrote this post while participating in the Sowing Millions Project by Real Food Media on behalf of Seeds of Change. I received product and exclusive content to facilitate my post. My thoughts and opinions are my own and not those of Real Food Media or Seeds of Change.

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My Back Yard

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This is the typical view from my dining room on a summer day.




















A couple of weeks ago we added three goats to our little back yard farm. My kids took the honor of naming them. To the right is Dixie.















This is Charles Muntz. (Yes, that's from Up. I told you my kids names them.) He has a leaf stuck embarrassingly between his teeth. I should warn him before anyone else sees it!















And this is Dolly, their mother. She's a real dear and has been a lifesaver in training the young ones!
















To the left is Charlotte, our Yorkshire mix and soon to be part of the breakfast club (and I'm not talking about the movie). Sorry, Charlotte. But we love our pastured bacon. And our sod in the front yard which you keep tearing to pieces after Houdini-ing your way out of the fence.

Saving the best for last (though that's entirely a matter of opinion): our chickens--which not only provide hours of viewing entertainment each week, but an ample supply of fresh, free-range eggs with the orangest yolks I've ever laid eyes on. And what would I do with my daily supply of egg yolks?





So that's my back yard. It's a work in progress, to be sure, but it's a darn fine place to spend a summer evening. Anything interesting hanging out in your back yard?

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My Journey to a Nourished Life

I think it’s so helpful to read stories about how other people have changed their lives through nourishing food. It can be encouraging to see how small changes can really add up, and how we all had to start somewhere - and how no one became a expert on nourishing foods overnight! So here is some of my story:

I’ll begin with some background: I grew up in a mildly health-conscious household (stress the mildly!). We unfortunately basically ate the Standard American Diet (aptly dubbed SAD), though not absolutely brimming with junk food compared to other kids I knew. I started my first diet at the age of thirteen when I suddenly became a self-conscious mess (who doesn't at that age?). I knew nothing about dieting except to eat less. I dropped a few pounds like magic and I thought, “Hey, this is great!”

So throughout my teen years I dieted on and off. I craved junk foods like fast food burgers and candy bars (probably because I wasn't getting any healthy fats and not eating enough in general). As I got older and began to venture out on my own, I also ate fast food more often and indulged in junk sugar way more than before. By the time I was sixteen it was hard for me to stay on a diet for more than four weeks, but eating less still worked for me in the short term.

At this time I made my first step toward healthy eating: a dear friend told my family about the danger of eating hydrogenated oil and trans fats, and I’ve been avoiding those bad boys ever since. Unfortunately, it would be quite some time before I would make any other healthy changes in my diet!


Wedding bells and baby bonnets...

Well, life moved on and I got married. Soon we decided to start a family. I thought natural childbirth would be the best for me and baby, and during my childbirth classes I learned a little more about nutrition (like keeping my protein intake up). This was really helpful, but I still had no clue about healthy fats and how much we needed them. My diet was mediocre at best, but it definitely could have been worse.

After my daughter was born, I again went for eating less as my weight loss method of choice. No specific formula, just cut back on the food (and I tried to ditch the ice cream, which was hard!). This time my weight loss was really, really slow, even though I’d heard weight loss was supposed to be easy when you’re nursing. Yeah, well, not for me. And those last five pounds just wouldn't budge!


Obsession begins...

During my second pregnancy, I was obsessed with not gaining weight like I had the first time around. I would eat very light all day and binge on ice cream most nights. If that’s not a body and baby crying for help, I don’t know what is! But I'd never heard about listening to biofeedback, so these desperate calls for help went unheeded.

After the birth of my son, I picked up Dr. William Sear’s book about family nutrition. Worst. Mistake. Ever. I might as well have read the food pyramid in book format. Saturated fat was portrayed as the evil health villian (well, all dietary fat was on trial in this book). Soy and vegetable oils were on the healthy food list. Right then and there I hopped on the low-fat bandwagon with my whole heart. It was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.

I lost weight fast (still cutting calories and now cutting fat as well), and I thought it was great. I was 10 lbs lighter than I had ever been! I don’t know why I didn’t notice the other ways this kind of eating affected my life: I was moody and exhausted all the time; often lightheaded and forgetful; and my son was a very fussy baby who nursed just about every hour around the clock. It just never occurred to me any of this could be connected with my diet.


And then I became a Cardio Queen...

Of course, life became hectic and I quickly put all the weight back on. Enter cardio queen phase. Coupled with low-fat dieting, it was like a slow death sentence. I fought my body tooth and nail to get back to my skinny weight. Being thin made me feel like I was a better person. I thought to myself: See, I really do have willpower and determination!

But I was also an emotional wreck, suffering from mood swings, fits of rage, and bouts of depression. I also had a poor complexion, pasty with lots of acne. And then came the intense sugar cravings and I started gaining weight again. What the heck was wrong with me?!?


The Precipice for Change:

That summer I realized my life was headed down the toilet if I didn’t change something. Aside from finding more spiritual direction in my life (which I believe goes hand in hand with a nourished life), I finally picked up my copy of The Schwarzbein Principle and read it thoroughly. I realized I’d been getting it all wrong. So I read more. And more. And more. Then I remembered a close friend had once recommended Nourishing Traditions and quickly read it. That's when I finally started making better choices and reaping the wonderful benefits.

I found so many things when I started eating traditional foods like real butter, whole milk, soaked whole grains and coconut oil. I found it was easier to make changes as time went by - my body was starting to want healthier food instead of junk and sugar! I found out what satiation felt like, physically and emotionally. I found the joy in life again, I found I could be a more patient person, I found I could handle some very stressful situations without breaking down. I am far from a perfect person (and I still battle junk food cravings at times), but I feel a hundred times better than I felt two years ago.

And that is why I want to share with others about how eating the right foods can really nourish you inside and out. Getting the right information and choosing nourishing foods can really change your life completely. And I know this because that is exactly what happened to me.

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