Gardening with kids: the impact I never imagined I'd make by starting an organic garden

It's become a ritual in our house to look at the tray of just-started seeds every time we come home. The kids go check on them every time they wake up, when they get home from school, when they are finished getting ready for school in the morning, before bed time.

When we were choosing our seeds, the kids helped pick out their favorite veggies and new ones they wanted to try. They helped work up the existing beds around the house and actually enjoyed doing a chore for the first time ever. They have been adamantly watching the weather forecasts just waiting for the day they can help move all the plants outside.

The kids have gotten very involved in making our organic gardening dreams come true. They are learning what it means to grow organically and why it is important to our health and the environment. More than that, they've been eating more healthfully with no complaints. The produce section at the supermarket is a place of wonder all of the sudden. They search the racks for the veggies they picked out as seeds and are happy to eat them knowing that, in a few short months, the seeds they are diligently watching for signs of growth will create that very same produce.

Those tiny plants have made the transition to eating whole, organic foods so much more exciting, and therefore less painful, for our family. The kids (and my husband) have been happily eating raw spinach, even!

It's astounding to me what a few seeds and dirt under our finger nails has done for our family's well being. A little common ground (pun intended) has worked wonders for our relationships. We cooperate better, truly listen to one another, and talk more all due to a few seedlings and a plan.

P.S., The pictures are our seedlings today (3/27), my son (age 4) checking on his snow peas, my daughter L (age 7) showing off her summer squash, and daughter K (age 3) displaying the carrots she picked out.

Simple natural cleaning solutions

I know that highly scented cleaning fluids smell good to some people, but to me, they wreak of chemicals. I have a hard time breathing around them, plus I can taste them for hours after using them.

Since I have small children and pets in the house, it makes me extremely nervous to clean any surface with chemicals. All those store-bought cleaning solutions have warning labels stating that you should call poison control if ingested. Yikes!

Instead, I use the cleaning tricks our grandparents used. I can clean my whole house with items from the pantry and fridge. Here are some of my extremely simple solutions to our toughest cleaning challenges.

1. White vinegar makes a much better all purpose cleaner than bleach, simply because my skin will come to no harm in it's use and I don't have to run out of the house like I just set off a bug bomb after mopping. Mix a half cup of vinegar into a bucket of warm water and get to scrubbing! If you're working on a surface that doesn't streak easily, you can add a couple tablespoons of baking soda for extra cleaning power (think elementary science fair volcano). However, make sure you don't cover that mixture. You can add a few drops of dish washing liquid for especially greasy messes.

2. Half a grapefruit sprinkled with table salt sounds like breakfast to some, but it equals cleaning the shower and bath tub at my house. You simply cut a grapefruit in half (avoid pink because it can stain some surfaces), sprinkle the fruit side with salt, and scrub away and rinse. My bathroom smells delicious afterwards! You can also use a large lemon or lime, but oranges have too much sugar in them. The exposed peel makes an fabulously gentle scrubber, a little like a Magic Eraser but with out the potentially skin-damaging chemicals. Plus, I just toss it in the compost pile when I'm done. Lemon is also great for polishing up water fixtures and stainless steel sinks, and cleaning the garbage disposal (simply stick half a lemon in, turn it on, and eliminate unpleasant smells and build-up).

3. Microfiber towels are amazing. You can dust with them, chemical free. You can wash windows with two of them (one wet, one dry). Just scrub the window down with the wet one, then dry with the other. I attach washcloth-sized microfiber towels to my name brand dust mop instead of their disposable cloths. They are a little more expensive than cheap-o dish rags, but not by much. Microfiber is also great for cleaning stainless steel and electronics. Make sure you don't use fabric softener when washing microfiber towels, though. They loose their absorbency if you do.

4. To polish wood and clean cabinets, use a cup of lemon juice, a tablespoon of both olive oil and warm water mixed together. Wipe it on, wait a few minutes, then buff the surface. How easy is that? Your coffee table doesn't even care if the lemon juice isn't organic or if the olive oil isn't top notch.

5. If you're concerned about mold and bacteria, you might consider investing in some tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is a natural disinfectant and a cure-all in our family (great for acne, owwies, canker sores, and thrush in infants). Add a few drops to some warm water and wipe down surfaces to assure they are germ free. It is fairly accessible (we buy ours at Wal-Mart), and you use so little at a time that it is still very affordable. I'll warn you that it smells VERY strong. I find the scent energizing and invigorating, though, which is great for cleaning. Eucalyptus is another great essential oil for household disinfecting, though it's a little harder to find.

Aside from keeping dangerous chemicals out of your house, these tactics eliminate a TON of packaging waste. They also don't require much more effort than traditional cleaning products, which is great for busy families.

Do you use any other all-natural cleaning solutions in your house? Please share!

Organic gardening- how we got started

I decided it was time to get this post written because, this morning, I woke up to sprouts! The organic broccoli and organic cucumbers I started indoors last Friday are germinated and starting to peek out of the starting medium.

This is very exciting because, though I gardened a lot as a kid, this is my first experience as an adult without the assistance of the years of experience my parents have accumulated. I haven't even had to call them for advice yet, thanks to bajillions of fabulous articles on the web. I'm sure the day is coming soon, though.

How did we get started?

First, I assessed the possible planting spaces in our yard. We decided to forego the planting of non-edibles this year, so no flowers for us! We have four beds already installed, one of which is very small ( 2ftx4ft). I watched how much sun each bed got throughout the day. I needed to plan how much space I'd have to plant where my fruits and veggies would get the right amount of sun (or shade as the case may be).

Next I started thinking about the things I'd like to plant, and ways to optimize planting so that we could get fresh produce for as long as possible. In the end, I decided I wanted to plant corn, jalapeno peppers, yellow summer squash, zucchini cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes (big and small), eggplants, strawberries, some winter squash, garlic, onions, white potatoes, looseleaf and head lettuce, spinach, broccoli, snap peas, green beans,  and assorted herbs.

Seems like a lot, right? It will be! Finding new ways to plant is going to be the key to fitting all of these vegetables in our small yard. Putting in permanent beds isn't really a practical option because we rent. There are TONS of ideas out there to make the most of your space, though. We're gathering fallen tree branches from a recent winter storm to build a teepee for the beans to grow up. We're asking around for abandoned vegetable cages so we can plop our tomatoes and peppers in nice sunny spots throughout the yard. I've gone in search of a couple kiddie pools that no longer hold water to act as strawberry beds. Be creative! You can find containers all over the place, so even if you don't have a yard, you can grow your own produce.

Since the weather is quite variable here in Kansas, we started our seeds indoors. I took a shortcut and bought a Jiffy professional greenhouse, which has space for 72 plants with little sphagnum peat moss pods that you soak to expand them for planting. You just poke a little hole, drop in your seeds, and lightly cover them. It was ridiculously simple this way, but it's not so difficult to start your plants in small containers or recycled cell packs from the purchased plants of years past. Organic starting medium is easy to find and very affordable as well. Maybe next year I'll get brave enough to make my own starting mix.

I set the greenhouse in a south facing window and I've been rotating it to make sure the whole tray is getting a fair amount of sunlight. I also planted some looseleaf lettuce and spinach in pots (cute red ones that I purchased for under $2 each). They are outside on the front porch, though they will have to come inside later in the week because we are expecting SNOW!

So far, we've spent about 12 man hours working up the soil by hand in the 4 existing beds and getting seeds started. Gardening takes time. It may also require physical effort. Having a yard full of fresh, delicious produce that I am positive hasn't been soaked in chemicals will be well worth the time and effort expended.

Growing our own organic produce and preserving what we can't eat will make eating whole foods more cost effective. Eating what we have in the gardens as opposed to running out to buy what we need for a recipe will not only be cheaper, but ensure we are eating fruits and vegetables that are at their nutritious peak. Plus I can buy seeds that are GMO free. Seeds of Change is a great, affordable company for organic, GMO free seeds. I found them at my local Wal-Mart, but you can also order online.

Here are some great resources to help you research how to get your garden growing!

Offers great breakdown of how to plant various fruits and vegetables:

http://www.organicgardening.com/

Last frost date by zip code:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/#b

Are you planning a garden this spring? What do you plan to plant? I'd love to hear your plans or even just your gardening dreams!

P.S., below you'll see pictures of my sprouts, the biggest bed all worked up, and my go-to gardening tools.

Make your own bread to avoid unsavory ingredients

Ever checked out the hefty list of ingredients on a loaf of store bought bread? Though there are some brands/types that are better than others, most contain questionable ingredients that are used to preserve the texture and flavor, and also sometimes to stave off mold. Many brands that are free of preservatives and seem relatively alright still contain oils that often come from genetically modified plant matter. For example, soybean, safflower, and sunflower oil are often made from plants that have been modified. Since food  manufacturers are in no way required to report whether or not their product contains genetically modified materials, we are trying to stay away from ingredients that are commonly modified.

My answer is not to stop eating bread and other baked goods, but to make my own. I know exactly what will be in the bread my family have for breakfast in the morning because I'm baking it right now.

How did I do it? I'll show you! Remember I'm no expert, though. We got a first timer over here!

You'll need:

2 packets of dry active yeast, 5 cups of whole grain white flour, 3 cups of warm water, 2/3 cup honey (divided in half), 5 tablespoons of butter, 1 cup organic rolled oats, 5 cups whole grain wheat flour, 1 tablespoon salt

Start by mixing the yeast packets, warm water, and 1/3 cup honey together in a large mixing bowl. Add 5 cups of whole wheat white flour, mixing until the flour is all moistened.

Let it rest for 30 minutes, or until it puffs up and the surface gets bubbly.

Add the salt, the remaining 1/3 cup of honey, 3 tablespoons of melted butter, the rolled oats and 1 1/2 cup of whole grain flour.

I used a stand mixer up until this point, but I could no longer resist sticking my hands into the dough. Flour a surface heavily with whole wheat flour and plop the dough ball down in the middle of the flour and begin kneading in the flour on the surface into the dough ball. Keep kneading flour in until the dough is tacky, but not sticky anymore. Knead for another five minutes after you've finished adding flour or until the dough is smooth (except for the oats of course).

Place the dough in a greased bowl. Cover it with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size. Mine took about an hour to double.

Punch down the dough and separate it into 3 equal parts. I decided to bake two loaves now and save one for later in the week, so I wrapped one of the three parts in parchment paper and then in Saran wrap and laid it flat in the freezer.

Roll the dough into loaves and place the loaves in a 9x15 loaf pan. Let rise again until the dough rises over the side of the pan.  Preheat the oven to 350° and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Remove from the pan immediately when done. You can tell it's done when it sounds full when you knock on the top, not hollow. Brush the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter so the crust doesn't get too crunchy.

This was my first time baking bread and this recipe turned out great. The kids love it, and my husband, who dislikes wheat bread even liked it. Give it a try and let me know how your bread  came out!

It's a huge relief to me to know the toast my kids had for breakfast was preservative free and I know precisely what went in to it.

Handiest kitchen tools for making whole foods work for your household

Making the leap to becoming a whole food household can be a daunting task. If you have a crowd to please, like I do, it becomes even more difficult. However, there are a few kitchen tools that can make the transition a little easier. Here's my list of life-savers.

1. A full set of sauce pans and skillets with lids: We use a LOT more dishes around here when we don't eat from freezer to microwave. I'd regularly be washing dishes while trying to cook if I didn't have a whole set.

2. A sharp, high quality knife: You don't necessarily need an entire set of very expensive knives in your kitchen, but having one for those jobs that require a tougher or more precise utensil will make your life a little easier. Mine is the utility knife from the Pampered Chef's cutlery line. I love it because it was relatively affordable, works fabulously, and has a life-time warranty.

3. A sturdy grater: Store bought shredded cheese has additives to keep it from getting too moist and clumping. Block cheese does not. Grating your own cheese is difficult with a plastic framed grater. It's worth the extra $5 or so to spring for one that is all metal and far more heavy duty. It just might keep you from  grating your knuckles as well.

4. Glass storage bowls: These are great for storing and heating leftovers without the possible harmful chemicals released by heating plastic. They also work well for bagged lunches, because it's highly unlikely that you'll find a healthy, whole food meal in the vending machine at work.

5. A sturdy stand mixer: I know a high quality stand mixer can be a big investment, but if you're planning on baking from scratch regularly, it's totally worth it. I find myself a lot more likely to tackle a batch of cookies, quick bread, or homemade whipped cream with my Kitchen-Aid on my side. Plus, Kitchen-Aid makes many attachments that can transform your mixer into many specialized kitchen appliances.

6. Pampered Chef's Kitchen Spritzer: Avoid aerosol cooking sprays but keep the simplicity of them. Fill this gadget with healthy liquid cooking oil and pump it to spray. I find I use a lot less oil that way. There may be similar items on the market, but I've never found one.

7. Coffee grinder: Organic, fair-trade coffee is tough to find pre-ground. If you're a coffee connoisseur, it's definitely worth having one around. It really opens up your options as far as the brands and types of java you can buy.

8.  A microwave chip maker: If you have a chip fanatic in the house, you may want to consider investing in one of these. You simply throw thinly sliced potatoes on without overlapping them, season to taste, and pop them in the microwave, no oil necessary. It helps keep more processed snacks out of the house. You can even use other veggies like sweet potatoes and radishes. I found mine at, you guessed it, The Pampered Chef.

What kitchen implement do you use to make preparing real foods easier? What task in real food cooking do you wish was easier or faster? Maybe we can help each other find solutions to our whole food hang-ups.

P.S., below you'll see pictures of my microwave chip maker and one of my glass storage containers (please ignore the leftover steel cut oats inside it)

Our first REAL meal- Steel cut oatmeal

This morning, I made oatmeal. Doesn't seem like a big deal? For us, it is. This was our first meal made with whole food, made from scratch. Okay, the peanut butter we added to the oatmeal was store bought, but it was organic and without additives.

We're transitioning. We are striving towards eating whole foods that are unprocessed, with no preservatives, no artificial dyes or flavors, no chemicals that you need a masters in chemistry to figure out just what they are.

Switching to whole grain versions of foods you already eat is a great way to make a healthy change in your diet. We used to use instant microwave oatmeal. If I could find a box of name brand instant oatmeal packets (about a pound) on sale, I could snag them for $2.50. At the local food co-op, I found bulk organic steel cut oats for $1.05/lb. I bought just over 3 lbs for under $3.50. I used one cup of the oats for our breakfast, which fed all three kids and me with oats to spare (which I saved for leftovers). Can you say CHEAP?!

To cook the oats, I boiled four cups of water, then added one cup of oats. I turned the heat down to medium low and let it simmer for 25 minutes. Be sure to stir often!

I added a little bit of local clover honey and let the kids pick out some dried fruit to throw in for added flavor and texture. Then we stirred in a spoonful of peanut butter. It was delicious, had great texture, and I stayed full all morning. Plus, I feel energized already (though that could just be enthusiasm and my new outlook on food).

There are lots of whole grain products out there. We will be making the switch from white flours and processed grains to whole, more hearty counterparts. Trade white rice for brown rice. Ditch the all-purpose white flour for whole grain versions. These are not exceptionally expensive changes. Whole grains bought in bulk can even come much cheaper, plus they eliminate a lot of packaging waste.

On a side note, do you know how many kinds of flour you can get? A fabulous organic, health conscious company called Bob's Red Mill has managed to make flour out of just about everything you can think of. Their products are available at your local health food store and on Amazon.

Your local natural food grocer can be an incredibly inspiring place. If you've got one around and have never visited before, just make a little time to go in and explore. The employees at ours were incredibly helpful, and didn't even mock us for being total (and obvious) newbs to the real food thing. If you don't normally bring your own bags to the store, I'd suggest picking up a few reusable bags, or better yet, sewing some. Hop on over to flakymomcrafts.blogspot.com (my craft blog) where I'll put up a tutorial soon.

My next post will focus on starting our organic gardening adventures. I'm so looking forward to growing our own produce! The idea of literally working directly for our food appeals to me, as does the idea of knowing exactly what went into fertilizing and protecting our food from pests.

Resolve to eat real food..not for a month, but for life.

It is time to make a change in our household. It is no huge revelation that we (we being my three children ages 7, 4, and 3, my husband, and myself) aren't eating the best possible diet. Toaster pastries, frozen chicken nuggets, potato chips, and diet soda are commonly found in our fridge or pantry.

Are foods like that present in your kitchen? If so, go pull a few out and check out the labels. What did you see? Were you able to recognize all the ingredients? Probably not (unless of course you are a chemist).

The human body isn't made to process artificial dyes, flavors, and sweeteners. Sure, being omnivores, we muddle through okay. Food goes in and goes out and we still seem relatively unscathed for all the junk we typically consume. We are all still standing. We all feel okay.

I for one am tired of feeling okay, though. Regular fatigue, headaches, joint and muscle pain are everyday occurrences. That's okay, right? I trudge through. It's not like I'm dying or something.

But it's really NOT okay! I want to feel good. I want to feel healthy and vital and energetic. I want my kids to have the oomph to do well in school and at play. I don't want them to make the food choices we are making right now when they are adults.

And so a plan has been hatched.

What is our plan, you ask?

The first phase was research and development. I pulled out some of the more questionable items in the fridge and pantry. I checked for weird, chemical-y sounding names among the ingredients and I Googled until I had a better idea of what I was actually feeding my family. The results of my search were surprising at best and nauseating at worst.

For example, I found TBHQ in the list of ingredients on the microwave popcorn box, and had no idea what it was. It turns out it is a form of butane, as in butane lighter. Yikes! I won't even get in to the great aspartame debate; I'll simply say I decided I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Much of the food on supermarket shelves seems to contain ingredients that are non-nutritive, non-natural, or altered in some way. I don't know what you all think of that, but it makes me nervous. Though the FDA stands by these products, I've decided that they aren't the right choice for my family.

That decision made, it's time to execute a plan to phase out store bought processed, non-organic food. That means no more convenience foods, no more store bought baked goods, no more tubes of meat. It means baking our own bread and delicious treats.

It also meant a trip to a local food cooperative. I had never even been there before, as it's about 30 miles from our home. They had an amazing selection of local products, which really appeals to me (plus they advertise the distance the product traveled to get to the store). We bought non-homogenized milk, cage-free eggs, raw honey, organic yogurt, and lots of other good, real food produced right here in our state. Plus I found a great grass-fed beef and poultry farm just ten miles from our doorstep.

From here on out, we will only purchase REAL food. Since it's cold around here, we're kind of stuck with store-bought vegetables, but we will be growing as much of our own produce as possible when the time comes. I'll dedicate a post to beginning our organic gardening adventures in the very near future.

Now, I'm not trying to preach to anyone here. Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions about the food that they eat. Eating real, chemical free food is mine. I hope to inspire. I hope that I can show people that if I can forego the convenience of processed food, they can too. We aren't rich, we don't own a farm or live in a commune. We're a busy family with three picky children (plus my picky husband, who calls potato chips a food group) to feed. I'm going to share the ways I'm managing to make this work for our family, and just maybe they'll work for your family, too.