Common Sense Home Good News Letter 5/21/23

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.” ― Bruce Lee

When I was growing up back on the farm, we ate a lot of seasonal produce. We also ate whatever was put on the table in front of us and didn’t complain. (It was weird to me when I went to school and found out that these things were not typical. Although, having eaten school food, I could understand why some things were avoided.)

Mom served most veggies cooked on the stove top with a little butter, salt, and pepper. Which was good, and we still do that. Sometimes she’d make a cream sauce, or a cheese sauce. (I don’t usually do that, unless we’re going for a casserole.) For the cheese sauce, she’s steal a cheese packet from mac and cheese. (I don’t do that.)

We still eat a lot of garden veggies, and don’t complain. Now we’ve added roasting veggies (like ​roasted asparagus​) and stir fry veggies to the rotation. (Both yummy, and fast.)

We’ve also added more words of appreciation for whoever’s cooking and cleaning, as it’s so easy to take those things for granted. Some words of encouragement (and sometimes a helping help) lighten the work.

Absorb, discard, add.

With the Growing Healthy membership (launching in early June), I’ve decided to break it down into 4 main topic areas:

1. Gardening tips and troubleshooting
2. Boosting nutrition while growing and after harvest
3. Food preparation and storage for best nutrition
4. Food as Medicine

Whether you’re growing food or buying food, we want to help you get the best possible quality and full use.

We’ll be building with input from our Founding Members to create something truly unique and useful.

All our best to you and yours,

Laurie (and August IV, August V, and Duncan)

This week’s Featured Articles…

I went to a plant sale on Friday hosted by an online friend. It was nice to meet in person for the first time. After meeting her, I was thinking she’d get along well with another local friend, who has children that are similar in age. This spurred a conversation about our homeschooling days when the boys were little, and how we ended up driving all over the place to meet different families.

There was one group we used to get together with that used to have potlucks. There were a number of vegan families in the group, so when I brought homemade buns and sloppy joes, I made up our usual sloppy joe recipe, and a vegan alternative.

At the end of the evening, most of the vegan option was still there, but my husband saw a couple of the other homeschooling dads carefully cleaning out the bottom of the crockpot with our regular recipe with some of the homemade buns. ​This is the recipe that had them cleaning the crockpot.​

We have a new freeze dried food review up for ​Backpacker’s Pantry​.

Note – If you’re in the market for preparedness food, our favorite freeze dried food company, Valley Food Storage, is currently running a ​Memorial Day Sale with up to 40%​. You can ​read the review of their products here​.

If you find that your garden turns into a jungle as the season goes on, you may want to check out vertical gardening. Even if your garden is already planted and growing, you may be able to add a trellis to help make caring for and harvesting the crop easier. You can ​check out over 20 different ideas here​, including several different trellis types.

Popular on Instagram – ​our favorite duckies in the whole world ​and ​a slideshow of blossoms from around the yard​.