Slow living 2014 ~ June

After a crispy cold walk with my buddy and our dogs while dodging rain drops, bundled up like the abominable snow man I thought I would reflect on what was for the month of June. I checked in with Christine at Slow Living Essentials this week to see how she was doing and I think, like all of us, she is busy juggling life with homestead, children, winter and learning skills. I am not sure if she will do a link up this week, but I find that looking over my previous month brings a sense of achievement in a small way when most of my time consists, rightly so, of the things that are not easily measured in life.

With that in mind, and with cold numbing my fingers, here was my month of June.

Nourish

June is the month of mushrooming for us. A few meals were made from the forest offerings of pine rings. I used up my last of our autumn butternuts in a few meals from Save with Jamie. Every time I had to have the oven on for a slow roast I popped one of our butternuts alongside in a dish. Roasted butternut can be turned into a few things like butternut fritters with sage, butternut pasta with gorgonzola cheese, butternut humous on crispy ciabatta and even spicy butternut muffins for breakfast.

The garden has slowed down immensely with the cold weather, but we still have lettuce, spring onions, carrots and spinach to use sparingly.

Prepare
I try to keep either beef, lamb or chicken stock prepared all through winter. Keeping about 4 one litre jars in the fridge a week is about right for Bolognaise, stews and especially warming soups for lunch. Whether it is chicken carcasses I use or beef bones or the chicken necks my children sell, there is generally enough stock to use for our meals. Stocks are a wonderful easy way to add nutrition to meals and health to your body. The biggest thing for me is the glycosaminoglycans which aids in keeping my spine from deteriorating any more and while I do still supplement with this same pill, stock is just a much more homey way to do it! You can read about other benefits here and how to make it here.

Reduce
Waste nothing has been high on my agenda this month. I have tried to use up the left over bits of soup in other sauces, wilting veg in bakes or stock, fruit in crumbles (using almond flour as a topping) and even readdressing the food waste hierarchy. Here is an interesting article on this concept and one we implement in our home.

Green

Not that we did any thing much in this area specifically, but my son and I went to visit Soil 4 Life this month when he was busy setting up his square foot bed and we were inspired in a variety of ways for our own garden.

Being "green" can become a religion to some and cause a skewed perspective of what it means to live as a wise steward of the Earth than God has given to us to live out our years on.

At Soil 4 Life we just enjoyed seeing some ideas on making do with what we have and I see where we could have saved money by using existing resources in our home before going and buying new ones.

With this in mind I have to repurpose some items we have lying around for our summer garden. I will have to get Sam busy on this soon as spring will be on us in no time...


Grow
My youngest set up a square foot garden bed planting carrots, spring onions, spinach, kale, broccoli and herbs.

I have put in our next broad bean bed, spring onions and coriander this month.

Create
Food, lots of food.

Enhance
Just a pin to share...

Enjoy

School holidays are upon us and with 3 delicious weeks there will be a few special things to enjoy. Last week it was a visit to Kirstenbosch and the new tree top canopy walk way.

The weather makes things a bit tricky planning outside activities so we settle into the winter rhythm and play scrabble around the fire, cuddle cats and kitten, enjoy fellowship with friends, lie in bed and read...lovely winter things to do when the world outside is dripping wet and cold.

How was your June?