Driven by the need for a durable surface to accommodate heavy loads, increased traffic, faster travel, and simplified maintenance, dirt roads are becoming less and less commonplace as they are being covered over with asphalt. Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie, tells of her first encounter with an asphalt pavement.  She…

One thing leads to the next. Oftentimes, we don't know where we'll end up until we get there. To retrace the steps from whence one came brings understanding to know how it all began. Therefore, I begin at the beginning. Most every summer, Dick and I attend the weekend-long "Old Wadena Rendezvous and Folk Festival"…

It began with a chocolate pie recipe that became fudgsicles. In my world, that's often how it works. A slice of "Chocolate Banana Freezer Pie" pictured on the cover of my Clean Eating Magazine has been tempting me since its June 2011 publication. However, as I was reorganizing my walk-in pantry, some retro-style popsicle molds,…

Thus far, since purchasing it in November 2016, there is an additional way that I use my Instant Pot on a continual, consistent basis. Every two weeks, I make two quarts of raw milk yogurt using a recipe from Traditional Cooking School which uses the Instant Pot's yogurt setting to maintain a temperature of 96.8°-109.4°F,…

Sure, you can purchase quality broth at your local ShopRite, Whole Foods, Publix, or Cub Foods, but is it gelatinous? With a little effort to source the proper bones and learn the methodology, you can prepare collagen-rich broth with minimal time commitment. What cooking method works best for making homemade broth (i.e., stove top, slow…

Sometimes, we need to slow our pace and consciously, intentionally breathe in and out and think. Think about how events in our life, over time, connect like a jigsaw puzzle. For me, a series of events slowly unfolded beginning in the autumn of 2012 when our daughter, Lisa, walked into a shop in Paris where…

We coordinated our Seed Savers Exchange outing with a Saturday morning farmers market in Decorah, Iowa. It was the first day of the Winneshiek Farmers Market's 2014 spring season. My eyes fell upon pots handmade by Jeff Scott, owner of Driftless Gardens, which is a full service organic garden and landscaping business in Decorah. They…

It's the color of Jell-O brand chocolate pudding. It's the consistency of the familiar boxed mix. But is it Jell-O Instant Pudding and Pie Filling? Hmmm. Let's look at the ingredients in a box of 5 Minutes to Homemade Jell-O Instant Pudding and Pie Filling, Chocolate Flavor. IngredientsSugar, Modified Food Starch, Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Disodium…

Look at the happy surprise awaiting me on the kitchen table in the cabin in the pines. A simple, but artfully arranged, bouquet of plants… weeds really, set gracefully in a water glass. Beauty that could so easily be missed if not for guests that slowed their pace to notice.   A field of red clover to feed the…

I was on a quest recently to discover the difference between Grade A and Grade B maple syrup, so I purchased a quart of Grade B maple syrup from an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania to compare it with a bottle of Grade A maple syrup. In a nutshell, Grade A is the first syrup of the season…