Big Watermelon

Look what I just got out of my garden.

19 inches 25 lbs

Freezing Quinoa, Ground Dehydrated Onions, Kale chips

When I make Ancient Harvest Quinoa I make the whole box.  The box contains 1 3/4 cups of quinoa.  I rinse it, and put it in a pan.  I add 3 1/2 cups of water.  Simmer 20 minutes.  Cool then put some in the fridge and some in a ziploc freezer bag. 

I grounded up some of the dehydrated green onions and put them in a jar.  I used some of the ground onions on kale chips.  I made the kale chips with acv, water, honey, salt, onion powder, and a dash of grapeseed oil.

Why am I allergic to corn?

Anyone like me allergic to corn wonders why god has made my life so difficult.  Corn is in everything.

Check out these movies:
Food, Inc.
The Future of Food
King Corn

I believe the GMO crops are the reason for my allergy.  After watching, "The Future of Food" I am wondering if perhaps my issues are not with corn but with the genetically engineered process.

Hair Care with corn allergy

There are always questions about hair care.  I tried and can't use Shikai.  I have tried using other soaps and just ended up with soap scum on my hair.  yuck!

I contacted gfsoap and here is there reply:  Reply from www.gfsoap.com

Since purchasing the Gluten-Free Savonnerie Shampoo and Conditioner I discovered: 
http://crabappleherbs.com/blog/2008/02/01/simple-herbal-hair-care/

Currently I am doing a combination of both.  I use the Savonnerie Shampoo once or twice a week depending on how oily my hair is.  I inherited oily scalp.  All in all I have to say that I am not having dandruff any more since getting the food allergians out of my diet. 

Next I want to try the Flaxseed gel.

Side note, hair rinse:  I steep my herbs in a quart jar and keep them in the fridge and use about 1/2 a cup or so to a tsp? acv in a pint jar.  I top off the pint jar with hot water as I am running the water for my shower.

Quinoa Bread

This original recipe is from:  Organic Grain Free Vegan Thanks Jennifer:  Quinoa Bread

Alteration:

Ancient Harvest Quinoa has only 1 3/4 cup in the box, so I altered this recipe to use 1 box of Ancient Harvest Quinoa, and a blender and Kitchenaid mixer instead of a food processor.

Pre-heat oven 350, grease loaf pan with palm shortening or coconut oil.
Add to blender:
1 - 12 oz box of Anicent Harvest Quinoa, rinsed
3 cups water
Mix 5 minutes

Pour into mixer bowl, Add
1 cup ground flax seeds(use spice coffee grinder to grind flax seeds)
Mix a couple minutes

Add
1 cup buckwheat, or quinoa flour, or almond flour
1 tsp salt (optional)
3/4 tsp baking soda
Mix until blended

Briefly mix in
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Pour and spread into loaf pan bake 1 hour, rest 5 minutes before turning out onto cooling rack.

Dehydrated Green Onions

I am excited that I will have green onions ready to use.  Make sure you put the dehydrator in the basement, garage, or outside it just stinks up the place!  :-)

Dehydrated Zucchini and Yellow Squash

I filled all 7 trays of my dehydrator with squash and ended up with less than a quart of dried squash.  Cut the squash 3/8 thick steam blanch for 2 minutes, cool in ice water, place on the trays, set the heat to 135, ran for 9 hours, turned down to the coolest setting, went to bed, and they were all dry when I got up.  Put the dried squash in a quart sized freezer bag.  Labeled with the date and popped into the freezer.  I plan to use in soup or something this winter.  I have to add that while the squash were drying I tasted a few and they were pretty sweet and tasty.

Next time I plan to cut the squash thinner and sprinkle with cayenne and salt, maybe some ground dill too before drying.  I am not going to blanch.  I am hoping to make chips. 

Garden July 2011

I started in February out of hunger.  :-)  I was harvesting lettuce by April.  Put most everything else in in April.  I am in East TN.  I think I am going to have a watermelon in a couple weeks.  I looked up how to pick one yesterday.  It’s almost ready.  We will also start having eggs by next week.  Yeah!  I am excited about that. 
I have to say I have had gardens before, but this is a first year garden since we moved here a year ago.  When my plants don't seem to be growing I have been side dressing them with the 10-10-10.  It seems about every 2 weeks.  I am having a hard time with my cucumbers being bitter.  I am guessing its fertilizer, because after I fertilized they seemed to get better.  I have been meaning to look it up. 

I was just up at my little hardware store.  I am trying to support the little guy when I can.  They had a note on the door that they will be getting fall plants July 25th for Aug 1st planting.  Cole crops broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts....  I was able to clean up the area where my lettuce and broccoli was and put in sweet potatoes.  My white potatoes look like they are ready.  I have to look up when to harvest those.  I was cleaning up where the peas were and onions.  I hope I will have enough space for the cole crops by the end of the month.  I am debating about using the 1/2 decomposed straw chicken manure.  It has some of their corn feed mixed in.  My chickens are not feed commercial food.  Its a mix I get special from a natural farm.  If I didn't have the opportunity to get that feed I'd drive a little farther for the organic.  I figure for the most part that if I let it decompose really well (maybe over winter) the corn will become dirt again and not give me a problem.  I just don't know.