Mindset | Anxiety | Stress | Burnout | Motherhood
When I look at the title I think, wow what a large topic to discuss but I can’t seem to find a way to narrow it down. We are learning so much on this topic and are excited to share our learning with you!
(side note, please recognize that these steps and actions are simply the way our family is journeying down this path of minimalism and simple living. Your journey or choices may be different than ours and that is ok. As long as you continue to work towards the overall goal of minimalism – which may also vary hehe). If you want to know our definition check out my first Minimalism blog post here.
There is nothing more juicy and refreshing than biting into a fresh, locally grown piece of fruit. There is just so much more flavour my mouth is bursting with delight and my face (and likely hands, and shirt) are covered in fruit juice. There is also nothing more satisfying when it comes to food than harvesting the goodness you grew yourself. Over the past couple years we have realize just how much better fresh food is to processed. Now we don’t have a ton of yard space for a huge vegetable garden so here are a couple ways we try to eat local; eat fresh. (order from best option to best we can do in the situation)
Have you ever walked into your house after someone has baked homemade bread, cookies, or muffins? The smell emanates throughout the house. My mouth is salivating now as I think about it. A similar thought process occurs for eating homemade food – make it yourself or as a community, or buy it local. A couple years ago I made fresh bread with my bread maker and loved it! One day my bread maker broke and sadly, even though I replaced it (second hand of course), I just haven’t gotten back into it. This is one of my goals! On the other hand, as a family we have tried to eat more handmade or ‘from scratch’ meals, as well as dabbled in making Dill pickles and jams. Next on my list is learning to make red pepper jelly! I also recently bought a Kombocha kit which I am super excited about, the only problem is the scoby totally grosses me out!
My daughter and I made this Chia Seed Strawberry jam together – it was simple, easy, and delicious! Recipe card @ bottom of post. We had rhubarb from our farm box so we decided to make strawberry rhubarb jam. In order to customize our recipe we took the 1 pound strawberries it calls for and changed it to 1/2 a pound of strawberries and 1/2 a pound of rhubarb. If I make the strawberry-rhubarb jam again I will likely do 60/40 ratio, adding more strawberries, as I like my jam sweet. Enjoy!
I once read this article on the top 3 ways to have the smallest ‘footprint’ when it comes to impact on the earth. The top 3 ways were 1) Don’t have kids – well too late for that I already have two, 2) Don’t own a car – also challenging as my job requires me to have a vehicle, however we try to bike or walk when we can and need to continue to improve, and 3) Don’t eat red meat. Red meat (and therefore livestock) is very hard on the planet and on our bodies to digest. My meat-a-tarian husband says he can’t go without meat as he loves it too much, however we have drastically cut down and started having meals with no meat and have definitely limited the amount of red meat we consume. The interesting thing is that now when my husband eats red meat he often has a sore stomach after… clearly not great for our bodies!
In my opinion, part of living simply is also finding ways to give back to creation/mother nature since we as humans take so much. There are so many different ways you can do this. We are always looking for ways to do this in our daily lives such as recycling, composting, having less waste, buying less so you have less to discard etc. The one I want to highlight that we recently learned about is becoming part of the pollinator pathway. In North America (and possibly elsewhere) bees are in danger as their species struggles to survive. And without bees we will also struggle to survive as they are so imperative to our food sources. In our community a group started The Pollinator Pathway project, which is essentially people creating a pollinating garden (a specific garden for bees and butterflies) on their property and joining together as a city to ensure there is a easy and sustainable path for the bees to travel. I’m not doing this project justice so be sure to check out their website for better information and to learn more – Pollinator Pathway Project.
Summary – ok i’ll wrap it up here for now…
The last and very important thing I want to share with you today is that while your figuring out how to live simply when it comes to food remember these two things…. 1) Simple doesn’t mean easier, in fact it likely means harder, learning curve, and more time consuming (especially at first). Therefore, be very patient with yourself and persevere. 2) Food is meant to be shared. We were created to break bread together and be in community. So, whatever good decisions you make, make sure you share in this journey with others!
Follow us @mentallyhealthy_me or @mentallyhealthymama
I always ate kohlrabi growing up. My dad grew it in the garden. We loved it. Ate it like apples. I used to tell your hubby about it, but he had never had it before. It’s delicious, I agree!
LikeLike