Things Are Coming to a Close

The deadline is almost here. 

Two free books.  And one symbiotic culture (water kefir grains).

• Always True by James MacDonald . . . . This isn’t just a good book.  It’s a GREAT book.

Hardly any of my IRL friends have entered.  Does anyone read my blog anymore? 

Let’s see, leave a comment telling me what is stopping you from make all the changes in your life that you need to make to be healthier. 

I will randomly choose someone to send some homemade granola to.  Are you listening?  Enter all three giveaways, give yourself three entries (comments).  Tweet about it and give yourself another entry.

400+ of you receive my blog posts in your email.  Are they going to no-man’s land?  Another handful of you read me on Facebook.  The other handful pick and choose what you will read of mine on your Google reader . . . . and the last bit find me on Twitter.  Which are you?  Tell me by leaving a comment for another chance to win my granola. 

Back to the giveaway recap:

• Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon . . . . seriously if you follow my blog . . . you know a lot of my recipes come from here.  You could even email me . . . requesting me to write a tutorial on a certain recipe.  On this particular giveaway you receive bonus entries if you sign up for the Get Cultured e-course.

Speaking of which, there is a bonus lesson being offered.  Bonus.  Free extra lesson.  Yup.  Sign up for the Get Cultured e-course through this BONUS link.  You’ll receive 2 VIDEO TUTORIALS, 2 RECIPES, 2 PRINT TUTORIALS, and 2 FAQ SHEETS.

Here is a bit of subliminal advertising.  Play the following video (in your bedroom) over and over all night long while you sleep.  Then, in the morning . . . sign up for the Get Cultured e-course.  (You can give yourself another entry for the Nourishing Traditions giveaway if you watch the below video.)

Remember, set your calendar to have some school in your pajamas on March 4th, 2011 with the Get Cultured:  Learn How to Ferment Anything (shoelaces?  twinkies?).

The price goes up on March 1st, 2011. 

All I am asking you to do is pray about it.  Discuss the course with your spouse or your parents or your dog before you purchase. 

I wouldn’t be nagging you . . . OK harping at you . . . if I didn’t think that fermentation was important. 

It’s just that I think it is important.  I so wish I had had the Get Cultured e-course at my fingertips when I entered the whole foods/traditional eating/fermenting lifestyle.  Life – would --  have --  been – easier. 

I’m done with my speel. 

Have a great rest of the weekend.  Stay tuned for some questions.  Questions that my IRL (in real life) friends DREAD me asking.  They are coming your way. 

Library, Gardening, Food, and an Explanation

You are due some sort of an explanation. 

You will have to keep reading to find out what the explanation is.

First I just have to tell you that I went to the library today.  Very dangerous.  I heart books.  So when I go to the library and am surrounded by free books to bring home . . . I bring them home. 

Not just a few.

A lot. 

They weren’t books for children either.

They were . . . gardening books.  After a vacation from my summer hobby, I *think* I am ready to dirty my hands in the soil.

This year I have so many possibilities.

With four years of gardening under my belt, I have been given the opportunity to start from scratch (again) with slightly questionable soil.

The field has been mowed and is hibernating under a dense pile of snow trodden leaves.  It is awaiting a deft hand to turn the microorganisms upside down and a layer of Mel’s mix (1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost) poured on top. 

I desire to employ the square foot gardening principals that have worked so well under my tutelage, but with a twist. 

Slow foods style.  I call it that because I saw a Slow Foods garden that I wish to copy. 

Meandering.  Whimsical.  Heirloom.  

The perfect place for a constitutional.  (Thanks, Renee.)

I’d really like to have someone come and design it for me, like William Alexander did in his book, The $64 Tomato, which I am reading right now.

However, one has to have time to drool, to plan, to organize unused seeds, to order new seeds . . .

Which brings me to what I need to explain.

I’ve been blogging a lot about food.  Nourishing food.  Fermented food.  Grain Free food. 

The reason is because if you already thought we were in deep with eating traditionally – you haven’t seen anything yet.  Whole foods eating, once uncovered, is like the rabbit hole.  Not only do you uncover an amazing world of taste, but also of health. 

I don’t know that I will be doing the whole liver thing, though.  Or brain.  Can’t go there. 

And this time, health (though taste has been a perk) is the reason we are getting out our shovel and digging deeper. 

There is some surmising that the Granola Family is suffering a bit from The Fall.  You know . . . the one in the garden.  Of course, we all have stumbled due to this fatal bite of fruit, thanks to two certain people which shall remain nameless (ahem . . . Adam and Eve). 

Some of us fell harder.

What I have come to realize is that sometimes NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO sometimes you can’t completely overcome the obstacles in your health without some outside intervention and strict attention to what you are ingesting and using externally.

Because I have had to make serious changes in certain family members diets . . . I have been doing a lot of research on food  and on food preparation.

I discovered that I need help.  I need one thing less to plan.

I signed up for the Nourishing Kitchen meal plans.  Three dinners a week are planned, providing plenty of leftovers for the remaining nights.  Included in each week’s packet are one ferment and one soup.  And because these meal plans are set according to the season . . . I am hopeful that I will be able to use the produce from my garden to supplement our grocery budget.  Hence the reason I was telling you about my garden.

I discovered that my thyroid needs healing. 

The particular thyroid disease that I have is triggered by an inflamed gut.  Though I have been eating relatively well the past 5 years, it hasn’t been well enough to heal my thyroid. 

Had I been living more of a SAD (Standard American Diet) the past 5 years, there is no telling what my health issues might be. 

This is where my love of fermentation has been encouraged.  Health begins in the gut.  A healthy gut is a happy gut.  Fermented foods, when eaten in reasonable amounts, act like a natural medicine.  For this reason, I am super–duper excited about Jenny’s Get Cultured e-course. 

By the way – you can still sign up.  Classes don’t begin until March 4th.  BUT on March 1st the price goes up to $199 (currently it is $149).

Then . . . the bomb got dropped on me.

A health professional strongly encouraged us to avoid all grains . . . unless properly prepared . . . and then only sparingly. 

I didn’t and I don’t have the time to research the GAPS diet.  So, I am relying on Cara, from Health, Home, and Happy, to guide us through this learning curve by subscribing to her menu plans for our breakfasts and lunches.  (By the way, it is rare for the Nourished Kitchen meals to contain grain.)

And so . . . my friends . . . that is why I have been talking about food . . .

A Lot.

There is your explanation.  A rather long one.

Nourishing Traditions Cookbook Giveaway

If you have been enjoying my fermenting recipes . . . now you can enjoy them a little bit more.

You already know that I like the Nourished Kitchen. 

I like fermenting.  I want you to like it too.

In fact, I highly recommend enrolling in the Get Cultured e-course. 

But you already knew that. 

I first started learning about fermentation from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. 

And though I think this cookbook rocks, I think that the Get Cultured e-course would be more like a quarry than a rock in your kitchen.

However, I would still like you to have the book. 

So . . . . twofold blog post. 

• First, sign up for the Get Cultured e-course using the code sourpickles to receive $20 off!  This coupon is only valid until Monday.  (Classes start March 4th.)
• Secondly, win a copy of Nourishing Traditions! 

 

RULES
Please, please, please . . .do not put more than one entry per comment. I will be using www.random.org to pick the winners. Make sure you leave your email address in your comment.  All options are worth 1 entry.

(Mandatory) Read about The Nourished Kitchen e-course and tell me one thing that you would like to learn if you enrolled in it.

1. Become one of my fans through Google Connect if you aren't already! (It’s over there on your right . . . see all of the little people?)
2. Sign up to take The Nourished Kitchen e-course through my link and give yourself 10 entries.
3. Tweet, blog, email some friends, or Facebook about the giveaway and then come back and leave me the link or a copy of your email.  Do this as often as you like.  Spread the good bacteria!
4. Subscribe to my blog.

Remember, only #1 is mandatory. The rest of the entries are optional, but you MUST comment separately for each one.

The Fine Print: I will email you when you have won. You must respond within 48 hours.

Contest ends February 28, 2011 at Midnight

P.S.  This giveaway has nothing to do with The Nourished Kitchen . . . . Who knows?  I may send you my battered and loved recipe book or a new one.