Winter Happenings

 

Welcome back to the Good News Herbs (and Wornicov Family) Blog!

Yes, it has been a while, but it was well worth the absence because I now have a new SON to show for it!  It was a high risk pregnancy and pretty much from the get-go I was out of commission, so there wouldn't have been much to blog about except my misery, big hit eh!? 

Welcome to the world Tav Elijah!  Born October 15

 

So, I never really understood why people had blogs, why people read blogs, I mean who gives a rip about what is going on in my life!  However, I have often found myself googling a recipe or something and finding the answer on a blog, that leads to reading a couple of articles that that person has posted and that leads to me actually doing what they posted about.  My family and I are into at least a dozen projects at any given time.  Those projects range from cooking and baking to gardening, beekeeping, homeschooling, cheese making, herbs and their uses in our daily lives, raising livestock,  and a bazillion other random things.  SO, maybe, just maybe I can inspire someone as so many others have done for us.  Thank you for reading this blog, and please comment or question because I would love to hear from you and because I know that we have so much to learn from one another.

 

Here are some recent happenings around the homestead...

HERBS, of course! That is something that never ceases here.  I have been fine-tuning some of my old blends and coming up with several new ones.  I am opening an Etsy store here in the next month or so, so I am getting that all in order.  Packaging and labels have been a pain in the neck, but it's coming along slowly.  Some of my blends that you can look forward to are: Calming Tea, Restorative Blend, Fairy Tale Blend, The Momma Trio- Big Momma, Little Momma and Milky Momma (yep, that's what I said!), Cold and Flu Brew, a Citrus Ginger Yerba Mate Blend and the winter favorite... Roasty Toasty Tea, similar to a chai and great for circulation.

 

 

Some other things I've been developing and tweaking:

lotions and creams, baby diaper balm, tooth powder, medicinal 

syrups, face and body scrubs, throat lozenges, herbal massage oils

and some other things that we like to use in our home and am trying to replace with natural, herbalicious substitues.

I LOVE cooking from scratch, especially when I can find all or most of the ingredients from right here at home!  I also like to make food so chalk full of healthful ingredients that it is actually medicinal!  This soup has homemade bone broth, free-range chicken, hearty home-grown vegetables, lots of herbs and spices including turmeric, sage, parsley, gogi berries, astragalus root and rose hips.  If you had a cold or were feeling something come on THIS is what you would want to be eating!

 

 

 It's important to me to make sure that my kiddos love to eat healthy foods.  This was our New Year's breakfast.  Freshly ground whole wheat pancakes with bananas, cinnamon and kefir added to the batter.  I also made a plum syrup to go with it instead of adding syrup or honey.  Not diet food at all, just delicious and nutritious!

I've been experimenting with ALL things bread.  I have 50 pound bags of wheat berries, rye, spelt, 7 Grain cereal, rice and lentils.  I've been sprouting grains for bread, making kefir breads, sourdough breads, ancient breads, flat breads, and having a blast doing it.  All this kneading is making me buff! I think I need me a kneading machine, phew!  More on all of this later.

Daniel and I butchered a couple of our lambs this week.  What a process!   But we think it is important to raise as much of our own food as we can.  We are also in the process of tanning the fleeces for rugs, there will probably be a post on that process too. 

 

 

 

This momma looooves elderberries!  Every year our family goes out and harvest buckets and buckets of elder flowers for medicinal teas and berries for elderberry syrup.  This year because I was pregnant I didn't get to get out there myself but my husband brought me lots of branches full of berries and I sat on the deck and combed them off.  Now this winter we are keeping healthy with our elder teas and syrup!

MY GOODNESS, the garden was in full swing for months and we had to  harvest, freeze, can and dry the produce as quickly as we could.  It was a constant chore!  Maybe this year will be better since I won't have a big belly attached to me.  We are still enjoying our potatoes, onions, garlic, green beans, canned tomatoes, dried herbs, pickles and even fresh kale from the garden this winter!

 







Crocheting is another hobby of mine.  I had fun making hats and things for the baby and one new hat for each person in the family too.  They are coming in handy now.  It is FIVE degrees outside as I type this



 

 

 This is Benjamin, we raised him from two months old.  The girls always knew he would be dinner and were fine with that.  The other day when we had the s hanging for a couple of days Nadia (the little one) walks up as her dad was removing the fleece and says "Yum yum,  he is going to be so tasty!" Some may think that is gross but I am proud to say that my kids know darn well where their food comes from! 

 

 

 

There will always be lots to post about around here.  I'll do my best to keep it up but this lifestyle is quite a busy one!  If there is something in particular you'd like to hear about let me know.  My post will probably be short but useful (hopefully) so that I can commit to posting more often.  I hope you have enjoyed the introduction to what this blog will be about.  Have a blessed week!