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GF Sourdough Bread with Kombucha Starter
Because warm homemade bread is basically love in carbohydrate form. Two of my ‘kitchen’ goals for our little homestead this year were, 1) to keep my kombucha continuously brewing, and 2) to bake bread every week. We are gluten-free as my youngest son has some issues with digesting it and my daughter is allergic to eggs. This combination, added to the fact that we live in a village in the jungle where certain trendy luxuries (ie: GF cookies, bread and pizza) have never been heard of, means that if we are going to have treats, I pretty much have to make them myself. I was utterly delighted when I stumbled…
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Homesteading in Costa Rica, 2017
2017 Homesteading Goals Normally, I subscribe to the ‘don’t tell people your goals’ school of thought. Due to my introverted nature, I prefer to work quietly behind the scenes and then appear magically with finished projects no-one saw coming. But this whole homesteading/self-sufficiency thing is new to me and I am genuinely curious as to what my family will manage to accomplish this year and what other families are planning on doing in the same vein. So please, include your homesteading goals for this year in the comments below and let’s see how we can grow our Permaculture community (no pun intended)! Here are three areas where I see big…
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How to Make Tamales – Tico Traditions
Tamales are traditional Costa Rican cuisine. While the ingredients are simple, they are time consuming to make. They remind me of my Ukrainian family making perogies, women working together in an assembly line to make hundreds for a special event or holiday. Last Friday we were invited to join a Tico family to make tamales and, while it was great to learn how to make this local staple, the best part was that feeling of community. A kitchen full of people talking, laughing and working together. I have seen recipes for tamales online and in books, but learning from a matriarch is different. Family recipes are passed down in approximations.…
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Gluten-Free Pizza Recipe
Warning: This recipe is not going to be perfect pizza dough. You could never toss it up into the air while singing Italian folk songs. It is, however, fairly tasty and doesn’t fall apart instantly once it’s cooked, which is a step ahead of many gluten-free crust recipes. 4 cups brown rice flour 2 cups corn flour ½ cup arrowroot starch 3 tbsp cane sugar 1 tbsp dry yeast 1 tsp salt 3 cups warm water 1 egg 2 tbsp olive oil We live in the middle of nowhere and gluten free flour blends are hard to come by (and really expensive). I throw 4 cups of brown rice in…
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Why No-One Should Eat Wheat Ever
Health practitioners and naturopathic doctors tend to shy away from sweeping statements, so when someone like Dr. Joseph Pizzorno announces flat out at a lecture that no one should eat wheat, it tends to stick with you. Dr. Pizzorno is well respected in the health industry. Among his many credentials, he has authored the definitive Textbook of Naturopathic Medicine, and is the co-founder of Bastyr University. His statement that no one should eat wheat came during a presentation about gut permeability and the damage it can do to the body. Alas, it also came during the dessert course at a beautiful winery, so it put a bit of a damper…