GARDENING
This has been a hard gardening year. I think the main reason is because it’s rained so much….now isn’t that crazy? We’re usually praying for rain and this year it’s rained every week, sometimes inches at a time. This week is the first full week all summer we haven’t had rain.
You may recall we started from scratch on a garden this year….it went from this
to this:
but there just wasn’t much fruit on anything. We’ve planted tomatoes 3 or 4 times in different places (and even a different garden spot) and they’ve all been spindly and weak. We’ve had lots of healthy looking vines on our butter beans, but very few pods and only two watermelons on what seems like miles of vines. That happens sometimes but it’s sure a lot of work with not much in the way of results. However, friends have shared with us and our freezer is still full. As we watch the prices at the grocery store go up and up and up, we’re so thankful for our garden and our friends!
GRAIN
While on a trip last summer, we stopped at an Amish store and bought a loaf of multigrain bread. It was, hands down, the best bread I’ve ever put in my mouth. I began to wonder what they did that made the bread taste so much better. In addition, I’ve been studying quite a bit on the foods we eat and their affect on us as we’re trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle. One of the areas that has really captured my interest has been bread, and even more specifically, the flour used to make the bread, even to the point of reading about the evolving of bread over the years into the chemically industrialized product of today that is so detrimental to our health. And buying whole wheat is not the answer either. Did you know that any flour begins to turn rancid within hours of being ground? Rancid flour tastes flat, stale, and then bitter. Since most people have never tasted fresh flour, they have no point of reference for how bread should really taste which is what I discovered when I tasted the ‘Amish bread’.
I may talk about this more in a future post, but I’m convinced that grinding my own grain is a much healthier (and better tasting) way to go! To that end, I’ve recently acquired a grain mill to grind my own grain into flour as needed. I’m still learning and haven’t made the ‘perfect’ loaf of bread yet, but I’m heading that direction.
Above is a photo of my new grain mill and some freshly ground flour. This is a manual version but I also have an attachment to connect it to my mixer. This is such fun to me and is also a part of what I refer to as ‘the simple life’. The simple life is not an easier life by any means. But it definitely is a healthier one…fresh fruits, vegetables and bread (and no fast food) go a long way toward better health and longevity. After living out in the country away from town (with its convenience and availability of processed foods) for over two years, I can tell such a difference in the way I feel. I highly recommend it! And I might point out that this is a Scriptural concept. As I’m reading in Daniel right now in my ‘Daily Walk Bible’, it’s pretty clear in chapter one that Daniel and his friends were much healthier eating fresh foods and vegetables than the ones eating the rich foods.
Daniel 1:15 At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king.
I’m definitely not ready to give up eating meat, but I know the more ‘non-processed’ foods we eat, the better off we are!
GOD
When we look around at the world we live in, it can get pretty discouraging. Sometimes I wonder why I want to be healthy and live longer….things keep getting worse and worse and worse. However, I’ve been praying for ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’ and I continue to see glimpses of God in the midst of the turmoil in our world. After just finishing the book of Ezekiel, I’ve read over and over, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says”. At times it’s easy to forget He’s Sovereign. We can look around and wonder, “Where are You, God?” But He is at work and He can give us ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’. We simply have to stop, look and listen! Will you?
Proverbs 20:12 Ears to hear and eyes to see—both are gifts from the LORD.
