#like farm animals or stocking up on farming like a mini garden for food

[aho-dapa]

I’m listening to the ACOTAR audiobook, and it said that it took THREE YEARS for the Archeron family’s money to run out?? AFTER THE CREDITORS ATTACKED PAPA ARCHERON?? Apparently they left them with nothing except a few gold coins that they used to buy the cabin?? And Papa Archeron actually inherited his debt?? So his ultimate sin aside from being disabled and neglectful is that he made a risk to get out of debt???

I’m speechless

[anxiousanteaterr]

UH! but basic gameplay stuff: there'll be different jobs you can do across the workshop, most being inside one of the many buildings, but there are some outside jobs too. Each job will have mini-games you can play, and for the sake of sanity for players, you can pick and choose. The only thing worse than a mini game you dont like is one youre forced to play.

I havent decided on how many jobs total, but so far I got:

The Toy Factory: Rhythm mini games that focus on the toy assembling/painting, present wrapping/tagging, and sending them to the warehouse/stocking them away.

The Kitchen: Cooking game style mini games. Each day of the week will have a specific menu, and you can choose to make any from the list, but there's a minimum of making one from each course (apps, entrees, and desserts) so at minimum, you make 3 dishes, but get some choices just in case there's a dish that you find a fucking slog to make. For dishes like cakes, you can even decorate them freely :)

The Reindeer Barn: A special job that you- a first year- somehow get privileges to (the reindeer like you :)). Standard animal care mini games. You get to brush, feed, talk to, ect. the reindeer. I don't want to go too far into horse ranch territory, but I'm also thinking like... flight practice or sm can be unlocked if you get in high standing with all the reindeer and butter up Santa enough.

The Greenhouses: Gardening related-mini games. The kitchens need fresh produce to keep the workers healthy and fit, but the North Pole is not very... well, you know. Your job options here would be planting new foods, harvesting what's ready, cleaning it up and getting it into crates to be shipped off to the kitchens. I have a very specific mini game idea in mind for sorting and bundling the different veggies into their crates.

I'm still stewing on potential other jobs, and I've been hmming and hawwing on a maple tree farm. All the automatons in the workshop run on maple syrup so its crucial that they have it in constant supply + its sweet and tasty, the elves LOVE it. Maple syrup is like a second currency at the workshop. The automatons also have a funny consequence where the syrup turns into alcohol over time, and the longer they go without getting their syrup changed, the stronger it gets. Maple moonshine is a huge thing between the elves too. Gifting it gets you big friendship points, but good luck finding an automaton to help you ;). The biggest issue w the maple farm is that 1. North Pole. 2. Maple syrup season starts in February. So huge suspend the disbelief here. Probs gunna explain it away w magic bs. I've considered doing a hybrid Maple-Pine tree that specifically runs during the winter when they have warm christmas lights strung around them to warm the trees. This also would give me an excuse to have a (albeit already decorated) christmas tree farm set up out there as that's something else they wouldn't actually need up there.

the christmas stuff is coming in early at work so i am mentally shifting toward daydreaming abt my overtly complex dating sim game where ur an elf working at the north pole for the first time but im currently stuck on how exactly the calander system would work for it

[yandere-dark-cupid]

Mama Bear AU ✨🌹❤🐻❤🌹✨

Warning⚠!!!: This Au have A/O/B themes. If you are uncomfortable with that I suggest you to either read some of my other works or exit my blog please. Thank you 💜

Side note: Got inspired by how Ms @headingalaxys writes her A/O/B works and thought to do one myself. Ms. @headingalaxys also suggested me to write this because of me telling her this Idea ( originally I wasn't going to do it, but- ), so props to her 😊💜. ( really love your work Lovely )

Side note: The darling would have a preference of all the A/O/B statuses. I don't care if she's an Alpha, please don't fight me on this. Don't like it please exit.

Side note: Had this Idea stored at the back burner for a little while; until Ms. @headingalaxys encouraged me to make a post about it. This and the Nsfw part 2 will be one large brain vomit, soooo

Side note: This will be a bit OOC, hope you don't mind.

Side note: The crossed-out parts are the most important. It'll also have a bear 🐻 next to it.

Side note: This is the Sfw part. I'll make an nsfw part 2 either later or tomorrow. Though I won't make to much of a promise.

Sfw: ✨🌹❤🐻❤🌹✨

❤ Well for starters, in this AU the darling is an Alpha.

🌹 Lives a quite peaceful life in the country side.

🐻 Very soft and mothering.

✨ She loves to take care of Omegas, Betas, and some Alphas ( some Alphas, especially the weaker ones; are a bit to cocky and doesn't like the thought of another Alpha taking care of them. )

🐻 Sometimes she helps rogue Alphas, Omegas, and Betas when they've become outcast. She secretly houses them and takes care of them until they can join a hidden outcast society. It's her dirty little secret.

❤ Compared to some Alphas ( especially the strong ones ), her sense of smell is not all that great. But her inhuman strength and incredible hearing makes up for it. Plus she has some nice long legs that runs pretty fast.

🐻 There is a reason why her smell isn't as great as it used to.

🐻 Has connections with the A/O/B peacekeepers and corporation. Occasionally even works with them on certain occasions.

🐻 Can easily earn herself on the A/O/B Council. But chooses not to. To her it's to much work and she doesn't like being in the public eye.

🌹 Owns many large vegetation lands and owns 2 large food corporations. So... She's rich rich

✨ Lives in a large house. It's like a mini mansion.

🐻 Owns a rifle, shotgun, and like 4 other smaller guns; they're all hidden in her house. When push comes to shove and she somehow isn't able to physically defend herself, she's always strapped and ready to pop a cap.

❤ Lives in a large open area that's surrounded by animals and livestock. It's a bit far from civilization.

✨ Likes to go mushroom hunting in the woods.

🌹 Farm aesthetic and cottagecore 🌟.

🐻 Very good at cooking 🌟🍴🍤🍖🌟

🐻 Even better at baking 🌟🍮🍫🍪🍰🌟

❤ Loves to make jams and is really good at it. Likes to give away her extra jams to the elderly when she's in town.

🌹 Has her own personal little farm and a lovely little garden

✨ She's really tall. Like 6'6 😳

🐻 One word: MOMMYMILKERS.

❤ Loves to wear long sundresses and sunhats.

✨ She's an Older woman. ( She's in her 30's Angels ).

🐻 She has been a sergeant mother a few times.

❤ Helps out at kid shelters and homeless shelters as well.

🌹 When the darling's stock pile of food has over flowed or is about to, either from her own little farm or her corporations; the donations she already makes to those in need will increase a bit for a time 😊.

✨ Crochets and makes her own clothing. But is somehow terrible at knitting ( she pricks herself every time ).

🐻 She has 2 pet huskies and 3 cats. Her house is always cold because of her huskies.

🌹 One of her cats is a Sphynx cat. Because the temperature her house is in most of the time, she makes her ( yes, the Sphynx is a girl. ) the most sweaters and crochet booties out of all her pets. She doesn't want her to get sick 😞

🐻 Once had a baby snapping turtle. But sadly the he ran away, when she accidentally left him unattended for to long outside.

🐻 She has a preference for Alphas, Omegas, and Betas. She genuinely likes them regardless of what status you are in the A/O/B society. She'll love you, whether it'll be platonically or Romantically.

🐻 She likes to kind of spoil her lover(s). With all that money she have and half the time doesn't know how to spend it, she'll spend some on her lover(s). ( She gives off. ✨ sugar mommy ✨ vibes 😂 ).

❤ Makes her lover(s) some nice Crocheted blankets, sweaters, scarves, ect.

🌹 Will happily gives some of her stuff to her lover(s) for their nest or.. Just because. Especially if they're an Omega

🐻 Stuff her lover(s) full with sweet treats and hearty meals. I swear with her around, you'll never go a day hungry every again. If you haven't eaten today, she'll be up your ass like a pushy worried mother until you do. Even sacrifice her own food just for you ❤. Regardless if you're her lover(s) or not.

✨ Overall a nice companion, a good friend, and a lovely lover in conclusion.

Hey Angels. I took a lot of time off and will try my best to get back into the swing of things. So I know it's been a little while, but I'm back and with a fresh new Idea ✨. At first I wasn't going to do it, but another yandere blog ( Ms. @headingalaxys. ) encouraged me to do it. And with that it has been nagging at me ever since until, I decided to finally contribute to the idea. This is my AU, Mama bear; I hoped you guys liked it. Hopefully I'll be working on it in the near future 💜, whether it'll be for yandere works or non-yandere works; it doesn't matter. Again, I'll try my best to get back to how things were supposed to be. And with that; Until next time my little tainted Angels, see you soon 💜❤💜 ~

P.S. I highly recommend you to check out Ms. @headingalaxys . If you like yandere, especially yandere hetalia, I suggest you to hit her up. I'm obsessed with her writings, and maybe you'll be too 💜😊💜

P.P.S. If you're going to use my AU, please credit.

[urban-homesteading]

How to make money from a Mini Farm: a series

Due to the popularity of my post on how to make money from your mini farm, I’ve decided to go point by point and expand on each one.

Raising Red Wrigglers

1) Give ’em a home

Tumblr user NRDC has an excellent guide on how to make a worm composting bin.

2) Acquire ’em

It’s often hard to tell worm types apart, so it’s best to purchase worms for your compost rather than trying to find them in nature. If you don’t have a local supplier, you can order worms online. It takes about a pound of worms, which is around 1,000 individual worms, to process a half pound of food a day.  I have heard quite a few good reviews about Jim’s Worm Farms, but have not tried them myself.  Otherwise, it is simple to buy them from your local pet store or bait shop.

3) Feed ’em

Here’s a quick chart by NRDC on what you can feed your worms.

You feed your worms with your kitchen scraps. However, that doesn’t mean you can give your worms everything that comes out of your food. You should stick to organic leftovers such as fruits or veggie scraps, grass clippings, bread, beans, and more. Worms don’t have teeth, so chop these materials into chunks that are easier to process.  You can also blend or place the foods in a food processor.

Put in the Worm Bin:

Fruit Scraps

Vegetable Scraps

Paper

Squash and Pumpkins

Eggshells

Coffee

Tea Leaves

Bread

Pasta Grains

Animal Manure (not dog or cat!)

Lawn Clippings (make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides)

Don’t Put in the Worm Bin:

Salty Foods

Spicy foods

Oils

Foods with Preservatives

Meat

Dairy

4) Breed’em

It is easy to cultivate a massive worm population in a very short time period. An adult red wiggler worm can produce 2 to 3 cocoons every week, and each cocoon can hatch up to 20 baby worms.

When there are too many worms in a particular space, red wigglers tend to slow down their breeding so that their home does not become overcrowded. This helps them to avoid depleting the available food supply.  But, if there are too few worms in an area, the mature breeders will have difficulty locating each other, and reproduction will be hampered.

The best population is a half pound of worms for every square foot of surface area in your worm bin. A bin that is two feet long by one foot wide would have a surface area of 2 x 1 = 2 square feet. One pound of worms would be the perfect amount of worms to stock in this bin if you are trying to breed your worms.

Worm cocoons have the ability to survive in conditions that would kill off the rest of their colony. By focusing their efforts on cocoon production when death may be near, the worms ensure that the colony will carry on into the next generation even if none of your living worms are able to make it through the dangerous conditions.

You are able to harness this natural instinct by allowing your bin to become “slightly” dangerous for a short time. That means you can let it dry out a bit more than you normally would, or you could temporarily move the bin to a less insulated location.  Once you notice an increase in baby cocoons, return the bin to normal conditions so the babies have the best chance for survival.

5) Harvest ’em

The vital job of composting your organic waste and turning it into soil is really all your worms need to do to earn their keep.  But if you would like to make money off of them, there are two ways.  One, you can sell the worm’s compost and casings, or you can sell the worms themselves.

If you just created a worm compost bin, don’t expect castings to be ready for harvest immediately. The worm bin needs to get established, and be routinely fed and fluffed for a few months first. This gives the worms time to eat, turn things over, and break down food and bedding into worm castings – their poop.

A week or two before you want to harvest the worm castings, stir and spread the contents of your bin out in the bottom. Next, feed the worms exclusively on one side of the worm bin during that time. Bury the food (and if needed, any new browns/bedding) in one far corner, with plans to harvest worm castings from the opposite side. The worms should migrate there to eat, leaving the other side of the bin hopefully worm-free. If there is a lot of existing food matter and worms spread evenly throughout your worm bin, it may take a little longer to accomplish this.  (If harvesting large amounts from a bin that is 4-8 months established, you can also dump the whole thing on a tarp.  The sun will warm the pile and the worms will go as deep as possible to escape.  You can then scoop off the top.)

Using a small trowel, scoop out the finished castings from the “resting” side of your worm bin into a bucket.  However, depending on how well broken-down the material in your worm bin is, or how well the worms migrated to the opposite side of the bin, you may need to pick through the material a little by hand. Sift through the castings and throw back large pieces of food matter, lumps of shredded paper or other bedding, and as many worms as you reasonably can. If the worm castings are clumpy, break up the large chunks.  You can also harvest and then sift them with the aid of a simple screen.

6) Sell ‘em

As always, your best chances of selling your worms and worms casings are going to come from your marketing (Craigslist/Facebook Marketplace), farmer’s markets, and small businesses.  Call your bait stores, your small gardening shops and greenhouses, and exotic pet stores.  Even if they don’t want to sell your products directly, they may allow you to hang a flyer on their poster board.

If you would like some more in depth details on creating a worm colony, please check out this excellently written article.  

[mitigatedchaos]

Banished

(1,400 words, ~ 6 mins)

Banished, Colonial Charter, The North, and the 4 gigabyte Megamod

I purchased the game Banished (2014) some time ago, but hadn't gotten around to actually playing it until recently. (I also replayed the excellent Populous: The Beginning, a game released back in 1998, and thus presumably older than some of the people that read this blog. Both are or were going for around $5-7 lately.)

Reviews described death waves, crop infestations, entire towns lost due to starvation, families killed by frostbite, and fires wiping out house, smithy, and storage barn alike. And sure, I could micro-manage a hundred tiny medieval villagers in a never-ending fight against the crushing poverty of the era, slowly grinding away surplus on meagre human and animal power, always one harsh winter away from ruin in an unforgiving wild landscape... or, having bought it on sale, I could wait and test it out when the mood struck me.

After playing vanilla Banished, I wasn't sure who wrote those reviews.

(The old way would have been to attribute this to console gamers, but this is a forward-thinking blog and we embrace inter-system solidarity.)

Build the hut to gather some berries, then plunk down some houses and a woodcutter before the winter hits and you, too, will soon be waiting impatiently for the randomly-determined traders to bring the specific variety of seed or animal you were hoping for and finally give your villagers the nutritionally-balanced breakfast they deserve. Yields will vary with the climate and seasons (and you'll lose some yields when winter comes early), but stored food in Banished doesn't rot and only about a quarter of your villagers will need to be assigned to food production.

If you're used to these kinds of games - say you racked up some hours in Anno 2070 - vanilla Banished will seem light on content. The production chains are short, the variety of goods is low, and there are only two kinds of houses. If it seems as it were made with a development budget of "just one guy," well it more or less was.

Once getting a grasp on vanilla, it was time to get some mods. More specifically, mod compilation packs, something I've learned to appreciate from industrial minecraft.

Colonial Charter

Colonial Charter is a mod pack with a relatively unified aesthetic and theme (although less unified on either count than The North, which we'll discuss later). You're (implicitly) a colonial governor working on behalf of some European power perhaps in the 1600s or 1700s. If you were hoping to engage in the true violence of the colonial era, setting out to conquer a continent with only muskets of iron and a will of steel, you will be disappointed - Banished does not feature combat. With one fierce touch, hunters transmute a deer into venison and leather without even the pretense of a bow and arrow, and so Colonial Charter represents your colony's entirely-optional military adventures as just another production building, this time masquerading as a rocky outcrop. (It does dutifully note your soldiers will require snazzy uniforms, the 'full livery' itself the result of a production chain.) If you want to build the rest of the fort, though, with cannons and wooden palisades and the like, you're in luck. Vanilla Banished has certain rustic charm to the art, and that's still on display here, so you may well find yourself taking a picture of your snow-covered frontier fortress with canons that don't do anything.

Both vanilla Banished and Colonial Charter lack a capstone building, like Anno 2070's 'monuments,' as well as, it seems, specific victory conditions. Disasters, when activated, seem relatively rare. In one game two wooden houses burned down, hardly a major setback for the Mitigated East Pensachussets Company. In another, a tornado tore through an uninhabited part of the map, and in another, a disease outbreak resulted in the (ordered) slaughter of about 75% of my supply of beef cows - a herd which was itself only one third of my supply of farm animals. In fact, with traders taking food in trade, I was often swimming in supplies, the only real constraints being the slow rate of production for Building Supplies or Fancy Homewares and waiting for traders to bring the right kinds of seeds (either for specific industrial purposes, for diet balance, or for a diversity of crops to resist blight).

But buildings don't require maintenance, so even a relatively slow production of Building Supplies is just a cap on the rate of expansion (while in real life, if you don't continuously produce the same, your building stock will gradually decrease in number and condition). Banished could use some elements from Anno 2070 - the combat or the missions help to liven things up and create breaks in the periods of building and stringing up production chains, and present a bit of risk/reward in how you allocate your resources. Alternatively, a genius aspect of The Sims 3 was the "wishes" system, both the "lifetime wish" and the more ephemeral ones that came up in response to immedate context, which could be "promised," creating a stream of game-seeded player-directed mini-goals that implicitly create a narrative around the relatively empty vessels of the sims themselves.

Story aspects presented in either way might be interesting - and a good resource sink.

The North

The North is a mod best acquired from its website. The Steam Workshop edition is out of date.

The North is more-or-less everything I thought Banished would be, but Norse, and still without unpreserved food rotting. Starting with only a chapel, one man's worth of rye, and around 20 nomads, none of whom were in the posession of tools, I subsequently struggled to reap enough surplus production to afford a charcoal pile in the hopes of maybe one day using it to fuel a blacksmith, as often even if the grain were planted early, winter would arrive early, and despite throwing every villager in the village at the fields, not enough grain could be collected to survive the year before it succumbed to bitter cold. In one village an entire population froze to death. In another, they starved. It was, in a word, brutal.

But the difficulty of The North depends a lot on the starting conditions. In the Shepard start with three families for a total of nine villagers (six adults), each with tools and the village starting with a herd of sheep, the situation was much easier. The North requires a lot of micro-management. It extends the idea of the game's developer of a more personal style of city-builder, where each villager and each family matters. In this case fewer villagers was better - while rotating one or two through the production chain to replace the tools, there were fewer mouths to feed, and thus less overhead needed for manual hunting and gathering.

The buildings are nicely-made, but while in vanilla and Colonial Charter child villagers reach age 18 after about 4 game years, in The North it appears villagers age one year per game year. This makes the situation easier to handle (as The North is tough!), but growth takes longer. Ultimately I didn't want to micro-manage the village for 100 years to get it up to size, though it might be worthwhile to visit it every now and again for the gentle gardening feel of the shepard's hamlet.

Megamod

The problem with the 4.67-gigabyte (once uncompressed; it's 1.5 GB compressed) Megamod is that it has too many mods. This makes it in some ways reminiscent of Minecraft modpacks like Feed the Beast (long live Industrialcraft). If you want to build the perfect-looking little village, Megamod is probably the best - especially if you want to stretch across the whole map, rigging up canals, moats, ponds and castles. But it's unfocused, with too many concepts and too many buildings. Some of the buildings are great, while others are clearly novice efforts. With so many options for everything, it would likely be easy to min-max and lose the element that makes Banished a game. Had all the effort that went into these mods been, instead, applied as one project with a relatively coherent vision of gameplay, it would have been able to produce a game that is 'complete' in a way that vanilla Banished is not.

Alas, with normal Banished food yields in Megamod, I set my villagers off to gathering up food and farming and wandered off to look through the piles and piles of buildings. I'd say that maybe somewhere in Megamod is a tornado shelter, but I doubt the base game code supports it. In the Early Summer season, a tornado ripped through what very little existed of the whole town, destroying every building and carrying off all the villagers to the great beyond.

[travellingczechia]

Ekologický Záhradnictví (Gardening, cooking, and generally living green in the Czech Republic)

(above: some herbs and garlic on my host family’s kitchen counter.)

HERE’S something I’ve been meaning to write about for awhile: environmentalism in the Czech Republic, and in Europe in general.

Now, the Czech Republic doesn’t have the eco-friendly reputation that some European countries like France or Austria do. However, from the perspective of someone from the US, the lifestyle is still a LOT greener. Here are some differences I’ve noticed:

1. Transportation. Mainly, public transportation. For a city of 100,000 people, České Budějovice has a remarkably convenient and efficient bus network, one vastly superior to the one in my home city of over 800,000. The whole country is well connected by trains (yeah, there are delays sometimes, but it’s better than nothing) so I could travel to any city in the country or even abroad for a pretty low price. South Bohemia also has fantastic bicycling paths, which in many cases are as well marked and maintained (if not better) as the roads. 

Speaking of roads, Czechs don’t like to drive. So when possible, they make use of all these public services, as well as private bus lines. (Also, shoutout to neighboring Slovakia, which provides free train service for students. Good idea Slovakia.) 

(above: some vegetable leavings in the compost box.)

2. Waste

Czechs are so, so diligent about how they handle waste. With a few exceptions, almost every Czech household I have been in has sorted out plastic, paper, and biodegradeables. Even when a household doesn’t have its own compost, there is often a city-provided compost box to dump your stuff in. However, my second host family composted their own, and used the wonderfully rich soil in their garden. 

Another way that Czechs (and Europeans in general) reduce waste is by simply not buying as much. Rather than always trying to be stocked up on everything and anything, they buy ingredients as needed. The only time this can result in a loss is with fresh bread. Almost no one eats packaged sandwich bread, bread is NEVER frozen, and so a fresh loaf often goes stale before it gets eaten. However, all my host families have then saved that bread, dried it out, and fed it to birds or given it to people they know with farm animals. 

3. No electric dryer.  I thought it would bother me, but honestly, I don’t mind at all hanging clothes outside (especially with my view now- spot the castle turret in the background.) In the winter, we hung our clothes on a rack next to the fireplace. 

4. Gardening culture! This one is my favorite. 

One of the very few pieces of information I picked up before coming to the Czech Republic was that Czechs like to garden. When I arrived in August this didn’t seem to hold true, but now that spring has come, it certainly does. Gardening just looks a little different here. Rather than rows of identical houses with a big green lawn and a large rectangular planter for colorful, decorative flowers, Czech gardens feel more practical. Many avid gardeners live in city apartments, and hold property elsewhere for gardening. For example, my host grandmother lives in a flat, but bicycles about half an hour to her garden near our house. This allows the garden to be much bigger than if it were tucked onto a city street.

And rather than filling planters with frilly, brightly colored seasonals, most Czech gardens I have seen have been mostly edible. (Don’t get me wrong, seasonal flowers are beautiful. But I personally like the Czech way better, because if I’m going to go to all the trouble of cultivating a plant, it’s much more rewarding to have something to eat in the end.) On their garden plots, Czechs grow cabbages, cucumbers, zucchini, sweet peppers, lettuce, potatoes, pumpkins, raspberries, blueberries, currant fruits, strawberries, and apples. They plant herbs and spices to use in the kitchen, and then they actually use them in the kitchen. (My family has a bay leaf plant in the living room. I had no idea what it was until my host mom told me to go get some of it for the soup.) 

I recently read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, and it has given me a lot to think about. But I think many of his ideas would seem painfully obvious to a Czech grandmother. Pollan argues that gardening and preparing fresh food inevitably improves both the quality of what we eat and the impact we have on the environment. I am convinced, after reading his book and after helping in gardens here, that it would be a thousand times easier to make people care about soil and water quality and climate, if those people were paying attention to all those factors and how they affected the raspberries they wanted to put on their waffles. 

This year in the Czech Republic, the winter was extremely mild and spring came early. Everything is blooming and becoming ripe a full month in advance. This is a big deal, because people expect to eat things when they are fresh. Last week, cherries became ripe, and I immediately noticed that every fifth person seemed to be carrying an enormous number of cherries down the street with them. Before that, it was strawberries. Soon, Czechs will go out to the forests to harvest blueberries, and in the fall, mushrooms. 

(above: freshly picked mini-strawberries and some early forest blueberries on a poppyseed cake.) 

I’ve found it difficult to express this observation of greater connection to nature to Czechs. Much of the younger generation, for one, doesn’t garden or forage, and isn’t nearly as interested in the seasons as their parents or grandparents. When I have gushed to older Czechs my admiration for the freshly cooked meals, the carefully tended gardens, the bakeries with cheap, whole grain bread, and the composts, their reactions are generally along the lines of, “um... thanks?” To most Czechs I’ve spoken to, local, unprocessed food isn’t some kind of hipster luxury- it’s just what makes the most sense. That isn’t to say that Czechs don’t import pineapples year round or eat processed things, they definitely do. But there is a recognition that what is better for the environment is also healthier and tastier. I firmly believe that, for the long-term health of the planet, that is a subtle culture difference which matters. 

5. Forests. Disclaimer: Slovaks will laugh at me for being impressed by Czech forests. Also, I googled “Czech forests” to find statistics for this post, and this was one of the first results: http://www.radio.cz/en/section/panorama/environmentalists-ringing-alarm-bells-over-ailing-czech-forests

That said, the World Bank estimated that in 2015 34.5% of Czech land was forest, and that percentage is increasing. Numbers aside, Czech forests are great because they are accessible. Trails are numerous and well marked. Every castle I have visited- and there are many, many castles- have at least a small woods around them which someone living in the castle used as hunting grounds at some point. It is never difficult to get to the woods, living in South Bohemia. That is something I appreciate a lot, not just for the climate benefits. 

[accomtour]

Royale Solaris Los Cabos Reviews

Royale Solaris Los Cabos maybe a family-friendly All-inclusive resort located just twenty minutes faraway from San Jose del Cabo international airport, Five minutes from San Jose del Cabo downtown, and 25 minutes from Cabo San Lucas. Incredible facilities and excellent quality of service for the whole family are expecting you. we’ve exciting night shows, mini water park and a kids club for the small ones, we invariably have the simplest entertainment during the day in our pools, having within the background the luxurious Sea of Cortes

Royal Solaris Los Cabos may be a magnificent oceanfront Mexican hacienda-style resort with beautiful gardens, pools and 390 rooms, strategically designed within the shape of a horseshoe to supply easy and quick access to all or any areas and hotel services.

Location of Royal Solaris Los Cabos

Located on the gorgeous golden sand beaches of Lower California Sur, Los Cabos, which began as a little fishing village, has now become a world-class tourist destination. Discover the contrasting world where the desert coexists with the ocean, an exquisite destination is an ideal place for your dream vacations.

The Los Cabos International Airport may be a 20-minute chase away and there is free parking at the hotel for travelers with cars. The colonial downtown area of San Jose del Cabo maybe a 10-minute drive from the hotel; this lovely historic section has charming restaurants, bars, and art galleries, which are often featured in chic travel magazines. The Flora Farm within the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains, a destination in itself with a 10-acre organic farm and restaurant, is about 14 minutes away by car. There are several golf courses and excursions like whale watching and diving nearby also. The bumping nightlife of Cabo San Lucas is 20 minutes away, but be forewarned that taxi fares from the hotel are quite high.

How About Rooms?

The Royale Solaris Los Cabos has 400 rooms in three sections wrapping around the large pool area. this is often not a little property by any means, and reaching rooms — especially those closer to the beach — would require quite stroll to and from the lobby. Guests have several categories to settle on from but all rooms have an identical traditional (albeit a touch bland) decor: pale tile floors, white linens, dark wood headboards, and a touch of Mexican-inspired orange and red accents. they need tables for 2, work desks, flat-screen TVs, and coffeemakers, also as furnished balconies — though many are tiny. Mini-fridges are stocked daily with Tecate beer, drinking water, and a couple of sodas, which are some things neighboring resorts don’t offer. Bathrooms have counter space, enclosed toilets, and walk-in showers, plus basic toiletries.

Location of The Mayan Riviera in Mexico

Deluxe Rooms (the lowest category) have city or garden views, though there are upgrades during this category to Partial View (overlooking the garden or pools, sometimes with a glimpse of the ocean), Ocean View, and Ocean Front, for an immediate view of the ocean of Cortez. There’s also an upgrade to a Deluxe Room with a jetted tub. The Deluxe Ocean Front Rooms are the very best tier and have an enormous orchid print above the bed, more modern wood furnishings, and a Murphy bed for families (these rooms sleep up to four, though they’re also are some Family Rooms available sleeping five).

Features of Royale Solaris Los Cabos

The resort’s beach may be a huge stretch of beige sand with beautiful views of the ocean of Cortez (look out for whale sightings from December to April). Near the beach entrance are rows of lounge chairs and palapas found out for shade — and yes, the shady spots get snagged early within the morning. Guests are strongly advised to not swim along this section of the ocean (this applies to guests at neighboring resorts as well) because the current is dangerous. Vendors along on the beach offer souvenirs or horseback riding.

A great kids’ club for ages 4 and up is out there for free of charge, and it includes a pool with a series of waterslides, giant animals, and fountains. Inside there are computer game consoles, arts and crafts, and other supervised activities. an area for teens is outfitted with a billiard table and arcade games. For more activities, there is a court with faux grass and a court. Guests also can use a modest, windowless gym with cardio and strength-training machines and free weights. The spa offers typical massage, skin, and nail treatments, plus a bathtub. Additionally, a cushty hospitality room with showers is out there for early check-ins and late check-outs.

As guests typically can’t swim within the ocean, the four pools are a serious highlight here. Three are near the beach, surrounded by bright-blue loungers and blue umbrellas upon request. the most activity pool has several sections, including wading areas for toddlers, also as a net and a swim-up bar. A smaller adult-only pool is more peaceful and overlooks the water. Another small pool near the pizza shack is devoted to skin diving training, but that needs a fee.

For More Info Royale Solaris Los Cabos Please use the smart box below:

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Food and Dinner

Guests at Royale Solaris Los Cabos are on an all-inclusive package which provides them access to food and drink outlets (four of each) round the resort. an outsized breakfast buffet is served during a covered open-air space by the beach. From the time this closes, a snack counter — offering burgers, hot dogs, french-fried potatoes, chips, & salsa — and pizza shack open, both of which are easily accessible from the pools and beach. A lunch buffet is served under a separate palapa also.

Dinner is out there at two a la carte restaurants — Panchos for Mexican, and Polo for Italian (this one is more romantic with its pretty outdoor terrace) — though hours vary counting on occupancy. Menus are posted daily and guests need to call to form reservations. Men must wear pants and a collared shirt. for everybody else, dinner buffets happen near the lobby and have changing themes. Room service is out there for a fee. Dinners are followed by typical family entertainment within the theater, like karaoke or the Mexican Show.

The post Royale Solaris Los Cabos Reviews appeared first on AccomTour.

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[mykatesingh-blog]

  Well, I’m finally back to my old self. Some of you know that we were about to purchase some land and old mobile home and it fell through. We should have stopped there but we had our house on the market and had committed to our realtor for six months. We tried our hand at another home, a loan, and lots of drives in the country to explore. We were disappointed over and over and the loan was not sufficient or the owner carry situations didn’t work out.

It was the confusion and vagueness of life that really took me down to the dark end of the street. It was that desire to have a new challenge and live somewhere better and not having a clear answer.  It was that raggedy hope that limped along to the next carnival booth to try at winning a prize only to lose big again and again.

But today I had a clear answer. NO. Not now. Or for a lonnnnnggg time. Get over it and get back to tending to this world lady!  So, no decent loan, no deal, no new home or land. Then other things happened to back it up. Bali’s only two employees are going to India for two months leaving him and the big boss to deal with the store alone leaving no time for a future move or home restore. And then the realtor for the last hope house never called back. Things have literally stopped moving forward.

I feel better. I do. I was getting downright depressed. I wanted to cry with frustration. Now I feel grounded and sanity is returning. Even the answer no is comforting sometimes.

I spent today cleaning a filthy house. I washed and scrubbed, I swept floors by hand, I turned up the music and brewed the coffee. Nothing like that coffee smell to signal the brain to start being productive. I put away piles of laundry. I feel so good right now that you would never know I was so wilted. I even laughed during a conversation on the phone.

Now I’m back to a plan. If we can’t get a good loan we will have to save cash. And I can save like a rock star. I love to get that notebook and pen out and write out our budget and then list all the ways we can save. Out comes the envelope for groceries.

  Bali manages a gas station down the street but it doesn’t pay much so we are considering selling the old car, getting something younger and hybrid and he can work Uber, Lyft or even delivery of some kind part-time in the city.

I can manage our money better by finding ways to take care of what we have, mend holes in our clothes, hand wash the stains out to preserve clothing better. I will work with a much smaller food budget. I can shop at WinCo, have us go back to a plant-based/whole food diet (I usually still feed the boys’ goats milk, fish, eggs…I’m not into them being veganish).

I have learned new tricks from Homestead Tessie on YouTube with going to food pantries after hours when they throw away the leftover food and produce and I would can and dehydrate all of it to stock my pantry. I would only take what was about to meet the garbage bin and not be taking from anyone in true need. I’m not ready to dumpster dive although I am glad others are doing it and helping curb that waste of good food.

We ate from our garden well this summer but not for long. I did put up 13 quarts of spaghetti sauce and may have more soon to put up. I have two bushels of butternut squash. The eggplant and zucchini are still producing but we went through the potatoes and onions fast. The melons didn’t do well and my corn is not coming up. We didn’t plant that smart and the viny plants took over not leaving much room for other foods. I also stopped gardening in my quest to move to greener pastures.

Now that my house is clean and organized I will work in the garden the next few days. I need to see what I can plant in August, harvest the old stuff, start seeds in my greenhouse, get back to my mini-farm. Eating from our neighbors’ nectarine tree (just what grew on our side) and our garden allowed me to have plenty of fresh, organic produce for a few weeks all free.

The Dollar Tree can even help stock the pantry. Oh, and I have a new homemade laundry soap recipe…all from Homestead Tessie. I don’t have many original ideas, I learn from others. I do the research. When I get into this mode I have so much fun learning new tricks and finding creative ways to make do or do without!

There are a few things you should know about me; first of all, I really want to live in a mobile home on some land. I love the forest and mountains and small, charming towns. I like everything lush and lovely but I have the obsession for an old mobile home that I can fix up like my very own dollhouse. I like challenges and old things. I like fixing things up. I enjoy being on a budget and I love nothing more than finding a fun vlog or blog about living a cozy life on pennies. I don’t know why. I shan’t ever be rich with this fascination. I would rather follow someone making a great life on a fixed income than someone finding riches.

I can’t speak for my family, but I don’t need much. I would like to travel later on when the boys are bigger and don’t act like feral puppies when we go out. I would surely lose them in some foreign country now with how they ran about.

I can’t get into coupons. Tried and never works for me. We eat simply and I cook from scratch. What the coupons are offered for are things we don’t use.

I love making everything from scratch and stocking my pantry. It’s becoming a hobby. Canning is a new thing for me as well and I love doing it.

I love all things homesteading as long as I don’t have to deal with animal husbandry (not that I don’t love animals but it’s a messy, poopy job) and I’m not the skilled woman with the knitting needles and sewer. I’m far from crafty but I have found you can transform an old piece of junk furniture with a can of spray paint. I like to browse Pinterest and find those simple crafty things an eight-year-old can do…then I know I might be up for the task. The smart way to find ways to use odd and old things…yes, Pinterest and see what others have done with say a broken metal rake or all the things you can do with old jars or shipping flats.

Since starting the writing of this blog yesterday, my husband gave me $179 in cash for groceries. I’ll get into the budget later but anything over $1000 paycheck is for groceries, dog food, and toiletries.

The family and I traveled over to WinCo and did some shopping. I hadn’t done a grocery shop in over a month. At the beginning of July, some generous soul sent us a $300 Winco card and I completely stocked my pantry with bulk ingredients. I have cooked from that supply, the garden, and maybe a few items from the store once a week such as a watermelon, baked chicken, milk…

I spent $125 on 6 bags of groceries last night. I have restocked my freezer with frozen veggies, my pantry with 10lb bags of rice, potatoes, rice, and plenty of fresh produce and extras to make good, healthy meals for 10 days plus extra supplies for the month. The trick is cutting out the meat and dairy. We did get a little yogurt for the boys but I can easily and inexpensively make homemade yogurt from now on.

The magic formula for feeding your family well on a small alotment is simply this:

All scratch cooking, buying bulk (check the price per pound because it doesn’t always save), stick to produce, grains, beans, potatoes, whole foods, everything in season, limit meat and dairy or cut it out, and no junk food.

So, off I go to look on Farmer’s Almanac to see what is ready to plant mid-August. I’ll go work out in the garden all day today since we are being blessed with the 80-degree weather after days of triple digits.  Planting your own produce section is another great money saver as well.

Have a great week!

      Time to buckle down and get creative with saving money. Well, I'm finally back to my old self. Some of you know that we were about to purchase some land and old mobile home and it fell through.

[gyrlversion]

JANET STREET-PORTER: Don’t worry about starving after a no-deal Brexit

Batten down the hatches and start stockpiling now – according to the British media the country is enduring a major constitutional crisis.

Yesterday, the Commons speaker (who is supposed to keep parliamentary business moving along like a smoothly oiled machine) dropped what has become known as the Bercow Bombshell, announcing triumphantly that Mrs May cannot make MP’s vote on her wretched Brexit deal for a third time, unless she can offering new terms – about as likely as me giving birth to twins at the age of 72.

Mr Bercow looked as pleased as punch amidst this chaos, a smirking ring master of the world’s most arcane and disorganised puppet show. MP’s shouted abuse, moaning and whimpering. Some want another vote – but only if the result will be remain.

Mr Bercow looked as pleased as punch amidst this chaos, a smirking ring master of the world’s most arcane and disorganised puppet show

Some want trade deals few of us can understand, with names like Norway plus one or Sweden plus two – which sound like invites to a swingers’ party.

Some dreamers talk of a new coming together in the middle, a new centrist grouping but time is not on their side. Meanwhile, 100% of the public (most of whom voted for Brexit) are totally fatigued.

All they want – like someone suffering from painful piles – is an end to the suffering, the blathering and the waffle. If it takes radical surgery and the removal of the Prime Minister, bring it on.

Outside Westminster, the nation’s mood is being tested by scare-mongering journalists and business leaders, busily exploiting Brexit chaos to the max. A climate of fear is being encouraged every single day.

Yesterday, the Commons speaker (who is supposed to keep parliamentary business moving along like a smoothly oiled machine) dropped what has become known as the Bercow Bombshell, announcing triumphantly that Mrs May (pictured)

A few weeks ago we were told that everyday food was toxic – cooking a roast dinner was ‘as polluting as inner city traffic’. Then ‘toast is more toxic than traffic fumes’. I switched to stews and gave up toast. Then, eggs were linked to heart disease. 

So my breakfast has been switched again to a slice of bread (not toasted) with slices of tomato (not avocado because another scare story told me that was full of fat and the mafia are allegedly moving into avocado farming because it is so lucrative).

It was inevitable that the people promoting fear stories about food and flab would turn their attention to Brexit. 

Last weekend, I learned that ‘families are lining up to learn survivalist skills of hunting, foraging and fighting’ because of the threat of post-Brexit chaos. 

According to one newspaper, expensive courses in survival skills like unarmed combat, self defence and ‘urban foraging’ are seeing a surge in the number of applicants.

Supermarkets are stockpiling non-perishable goods and filing vast warehouses. The biggest supplier of frozen food to the NHS has stockpiled one million ready-meals in case of disruption

It costs £299 to spend two days learning how to deal with prolonged food shortages, how to survive mass blackouts and deliver emergency first aid. All these skills will be essential (according to the ‘experts’) if Britain faces rioting and a breakdown in law and order. The course will show you how to send smoke signals and navigate by the stars! A shame that light pollution in our cities means those signals will be useless.

Attendees will learn what food they should start stockpiling, and how to hunt and eat ‘natural meat sources’ (ie roadkill because there aren’t that many tasty fish in most city canals).

Supermarkets are stockpiling non-perishable goods and filing vast warehouses. The biggest supplier of frozen food to the NHS has stockpiled one million ready-meals in case of disruption.

Like everyone else, I am not sure when Brexit will happen – it might be March 29th (which I have ringed in black in my diary), it might be the end of June, according to some politicos, or it might be 2020, according to Amber Rudd and her band of wishful thinkers.

Why not guess at the length of time Theresa May can still wear that trusty pale blue coat without sending it to the dry cleaners? Or simply throw a lot of sticks in the air and see what pattern they make when they fall. That’s what we used to do in the old dope smoking hippie days of the late 1960’s.

Business leaders have stopped complaining about the Brexit deal, they just want a date. Meanwhile, they issue daily press releases telling us how well prepared they are- designed to get their brand names mentioned on the radio and telly as much as possible.

Others have seen an opportunity in the chaos, and have come up with ‘Brexit boxes’ offering 30 days of food rations which will stay fresh for 25 years, if the current mess lasts that long. A box costs nearly £300 and contains liquid to light fires, emergency water filters and 108 servings of freeze dried food.

Start shopping now, because if Britain leaves the EU on March 29th without a deal, the government has brought in new trade tariffs which mean food like beef, pork, butter and cheese from the EU and imported cars will cost more. Stock up on bananas too, because they will be more expensive for some reason no one can understand since they don’t even grow in the EU.

If you aren’t already scared, then one newspaper revealed last weekend that supermarkets are planning to introduce rationing. Suddenly it seems like Britain will be re-living episodes of Dad’s Army, with the hapless Defence Minister Gavin Williamson inevitably in a starring role.

Sainsbury’s say they are ‘looking at a range of scenarios’- well, one might be NOT to introduce rationing, but that doesn’t suit the scare-mongerers, does it?

Stockpiling has already started- with foreign brewers sourcing more barley ready to supply us with extra beer should the going get tough. And water companies are rushing to announce that there will be no disruption to our drinking water, even though the chemicals used to purify it will run out within days of a no-Brexit deal.

One of the main suppliers of organic vegetables says supplies will run out at the end of March, because British veg won’t yet be ready and they will not be able to bring fresh stuff in from Europe.

 My dwindling supply of home-grown purple sprouting broccoli is down to three ageing plants – will I make it past March 29th? The potatoes are all eaten, and the first ones of the new crop will not be ready until May. All I have from the vegetable garden are last years mushy pears and apples and a few turnips – a bit of chard and some parsley.

Forget what lovely veg you see Monty Don growing on Gardener’s World every Friday on BBC2 – that’s in the South. Post no-deal Brexit, the North will be starved of vegetables and will live on potatoes and swedes meant for cattle. We’ll survive on dried pasta, tinned beans and chickpeas, according to one Tesco delivery driver.

I cannot see what ‘urban foraging’ might yield in my part of North London – just a lot of dog poo, some very dirty herbs from the path by the canal (where a lot of pets wee) and perhaps some edible flowers steeped in diesel fumes.

There’s not a lot of roadkill in Islington- a 20 miles an hour speed limit, means a fox can easily move faster than your car or bike. 

My freezer is full of venison – we found two animals hit by lorries in Yorkshire in the last two weeks – the drivers were probably supermarket delivery men, dropping off tons of bottled water and dried spaghetti.

My partner watched a YouTube video on how to slaughter a deer, and now we’re dining on venison bolognaise, and braised deer shoulder. I stopped him picking up a squirrel and a wild boar by the side of the M2 in Kent – they were too small. 

If we have another week of Bercow bombshells and no-deal madness, I won’t be so choosy, and might turn my mini lawn into a potato patch. 

Just like my dad did in the 1950’s. We Brits don’t need survival courses, when we’ve got so many old telly series to inspire us. Keep calm, and stock up, I say.

The post JANET STREET-PORTER: Don’t worry about starving after a no-deal Brexit appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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[yegfoodie]

One of the most epic places in the city of Edmonton to be able to support your local small businesses, find sustainable and healthy food choices and get that “Farm to Fork” experience is the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market. 

The market started outdoors in 1983 in the space that is now the free parking.  It is now Edmonton’s largest year-round indoor market with approximately 10,000 people through the door each Saturday. 

A team of Edmonton bloggers was invited to a meet and greet with some of the local producers and farmers this past weekend.  This was their first “food tour” and they called it the “Picnic Edition”. 

It was an early start for some, but the market gets busy (and quite crowded) quickly.

After we were all introduced to our lovely Hostess, April, we were on our way to our first stop which was Sunworks Farm. 

Sheila was very passionate when she was talking about her farm and the way that the animals are treated humanely and respectfully.  Coming from an indigenous background myself, this is something that has always been important to me.  The animals should be treated well, killed humanely and we should use as many parts from snout to tail as we are able.  Sunworks does all those things. 

Their farm was started because their daughter had such severe allergies and food sensitivities that they needed to be able to grow their own food.  They started out feeding themselves and through a few requests started raising a little bit more, and a little bit more until it grew into what it is today.  No farming background.  Amazing! 

Free range, BCSPCA certified humane, grass fed, certified organic and “as close to nature as possible”.

These folks are passionate about their farm and their animals and it shows.  The end products are delicious, good for you AND celiac safe and allergy free.  The Chicken Moroccan sausages are so good. 

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Sunworks has an open farm day on September 3.  Go and meet the family, have lunch and get a tour.  You need to REGISTER to attend.  See you there!  

  Our next stop is now one of my new favourite things to eat!  

Alex from Golomein Noodle House introduced us to his fresh, healthy and convenient meal packs.

There is always a lovely story on how every small business started and Alex’s story is inspiring as well:

“Our Dad developed the recipe initially 52 years ago where he worked the streets of Brunei, as a hawker trying to earn enough money to support a family of 10.  Struggling agains all odds, he developed the awesome recipe he would later bring to North America”.

He made his noodles only to serve his friends, family and coworkers charging them only for their gas and their time it took them to visit his home.  He even delivered packages to his mother who always looked forward to the tasty treat. 

The fabulous noodles caught on and before long, everyone wanted more.  People searched for the delicious meals, but they were at the mercy of whenever Dad felt like making them and his kitchen was the only place this amazing taste could be found.

Alex, the youngest was unable to sleep one night , so he decided to do a marathon session of watching 5 episodes of “Dragon’s Den”.  Tired of beating his head in the corporate world, he decided a change was in order.

It brought back memories of the work his Dad put into his noodle recipe that he created over 50 years ago.  The noodles were so good that Alex’s childhood friend, Paris, would rid his way too small bike halfway across the city just to eat the noodles. 

Recognizing the incredible opportunity before him, he immediately told his 2 brothers, Albert and Allen.  Alex’s enthusiasm was infectious and it didn’t take much convincing to persuade his 2 siblings to join his quest to bring their dad’s noodle recipe to the masses.  All 3 brothers were excited about continuing their beloved Dad’s legacy and making noodles for future generations.”

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For the meal packs, the noodles are lovingly prepared and then packaged in a neatly folded square of butcher paper.  They are then frozen.  They are sold individually ($11) or in packages of 5 ($50).  You simply pop the frozen package, paper and all in the microwave for 5 to 6 minutes and then unfold the package to open and enjoy!  You don’t even need to transfer the contents to a plate or bowl.  They are available in beef or pork.  

If you crave them like I do, the family has a restaurant waaaaay in the south with a more varied menu. Worth the drive!

Next stop was Mojo Jojo Pickles and Preserves.  Johwanna has been an Edmonton staple for many years now.  She is definitely a pickling artist and knows how to make the vinegar bend to her will!

Salted caramel pear butter… Do I even need to say anything else?  We were treated to some very lovely marscapone grilled cheese sandwiches with some equally lovely pear butter to dip it in.  This was simply joy on the tongue!  The pear butter would go well with so many things, as do many of her pickled veggies.  Charcuterie anyone? 

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Johwanna was also sampling “Shrubs” which is a drinking vinegar.  I had no idea how tasty they are.  I am a new fan!  

If you can’t make it to the market, Johwanna has a store on the website where you can purchase most of the products. 

Nancy from Market Pizza was our next stop.  “Delicious take & bake pizza made with the finest ingredients”.   The booth smells amazing!  They offer samples all day. 

If you would like to make your own creation, they also offer frozen, ready-made crusts.  They have a secret recipe that makes it the lightest pizza crust that I have ever come across. It is not a thin crust, but it is light and airy, almost like the dough is whipped before baking.  

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The take & bake pizzas are frozen and are $15 each.  There are some amazing flavours available and it will be a different mix every Saturday at the market.  I tried the Bacon Cheeseburger and the Donair pizzas.  It was like you were eating a cheeseburger or a donair, just a flat version without the traditional bun or wrap.  Both of them were delicious, but my favourite out of the two was the donair pizza.  A donair eating experience without all the mess!  

I can’t wait to get my hands on another.  

Monica with Rainbow Acres was our next stop.  Berry farm extraordinaire!! 

How Rainbow Acres farms differently:

From Dave’s own market garden specific equipment to their modified old granary pack house, Dave and Monica are masters at making use of materials to fit their needs. This kind of instinctual innovation is part of what makes their operation so unique.

Their incredible variety of crops is a result of their eagerness to try anything new that comes to their attention. They like to “dabble” in many crops to see what will thrive on their land and add to their already diverse produce offerings. Anytime something new comes up, they want to try it out.

When they started in 1989, Dave and Monica were cautioned against doing fruits and veggies at the same time because their harvest seasons overlapped. While it can be an intense work load, they’ve been making it work for years. While most of their fruit is used in processing their delicious jams, jellies and juices, in her commercial kitchen Monica also processes many of the veggies that are leftover from market. To make sure none of their product ever goes to waste, Rainbow Acres regularly donates left over fresh produce to the Edmonton and Leduc Food Banks.

And those are just the Coles notes!  Rainbow Acres is famous for their carrots, but they have a wide selection of preserves to choose from at the market.  These are some hard working farmers!  

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I used to help my Grandmother with the canning, pickles and jam.  It’s a lot of hard work!  Rainbow Acres makes it easy for you to stock up for the winter and to pop a few of their products into a gift basket at Christmas time (its close folks!) 

Martina’s Vegan House, where veggies are sexy, is up next. 

I got the impression that the Peanut Brittle is what Martina’s passion is.  Vegan Peanut Brittle is available in the regular version, or the spicy version.  The spicy version is amazing.  

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Martina has frozen vegan meals, soups and stews at her booth for all of you folks that are passionate about plant based eating!

Doef’s Greenhouses visit was a bit of an eye opener.  The family has been farming since 1979.  What is grown today is all done hydroponically in greenhouses which allows vegetable production all year round.  Currently the greenhouses span 11 acres and employ 50 people. I had no idea that we even had such an operation near Edmonton.  

Tomatoes are what they started with, their grape tomatoes are juicy and full of flavour. The main crops continue to be Long English cucumbers, mini cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers, with small amounts of eggplant and hot peppers as well.

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Birds & Bees Organic Winery and Meadery was the next stop.  My Grandfather kept bees so I was fortunate to see the whole process of how the honey was extracted from the hives.  A sweet treat for me as a child was to be able to chew on the beeswax that had a bit of honey left behind.  As an adult I still love the smell of beeswax and used to be obsessed with making candles. 

From the website: 

“Birds & Bees Organic Winery and Meadery straddles the fine line between naughty and nice – and sometimes more. Flirtatiously flavored and seductively styled, our full-bodied wines and mead are always up for a one night stand or an evening rendezvous. 

But, you can’t have your Marilyn Monroe without your Jackie-O.

A little restraint can make a true romance.

So how do you like it? The purity and innocence of the Bird? Or the seductive tease of the Bee?”

The statement above from the website sums things up quite nicely.  Naughty names like “Kinky Cranberry” and “Big Tease Raspberry” adorn the bottles.  If you visit the website, it gives you the sassy profile of the wine and tells you what it pairs best with.  

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The wines and meads are available at some liquor stores in Edmonton. Liquor Connect can help you find them! 

Ben was next up with Farm Fresh Lamb/Blacksheep Farm 

Another reason why I love the farmer’s market: Sustainably grown & humanely treated without the use of animal by-products or growth promotants.  No antibiotics, no animal by-products.  The sheep are fed a mixture of oats, barley, yellow peas and alfalfa hay grown on the farm in the Peace Country, and allowed to pasture graze during the summer months.

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I find that when you treat the animals well and give them a good diet, the meat tastes much better.  With lamb, if it is butchered properly, it doesn’t have that “gamey” taste that a lot of people complain about.  I am going to be looking up all kinds of lamb recipes now!  

  Last, but certainly not least was Sean from Mighty Trio.  (no website)  From Organic Box:

  “Mighty Trio Organics is a family owned and operated business located on a beautiful acreage just outside of Redwater Alberta. They are both a manufacturer and distributer of highly nutritious, fresh foods such as hemp, flax, and canola oils. This allows them the opportunity to interact directly with customers and seed producers. By bringing people closer to the farms where their food is grown they are able to provide the freshest, most nutrient rich foods available. Mighty Trio Organics values the environment and supports local businesses, which is why they only use seeds that are grown as close to their facility as possible. By supporting Mighty Trio Organics you are also supporting local farmers and because their products have not traveled great distances, you are also making a friendlier choice for our planet. Mighty Trio Organics provides you and your family with the fats, fibers, proteins and nutrients essential for healthy bodies and minds. To your good health!”

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“Smoke Point” is a thing.  Hemp is not recommended for frying.  Canola on the other hand has a pretty high smoke point compared to other oils.  So the hemp and flax oils are great for salad dressings etc.  In fact Culina has done a collaboration project with Mighty Trio to make their salad dressing. 

This food tour was an absolutely wonderful experience.  It gave me the opportunity to get to know the people behind the brand.  I am very passionate about shopping local, but not necessarily someone that will approach the owners to get to know them.  This was very informative and very fun.  

I look forward to meeting more of the vendors for the next round, and sharing them with you! 

  New Blog Post: OSFM Quarterly Local Food Tour - Picnic Edition! Meet 10 of the @strathconamrkt vendors. #yegfood #newfriends One of the most epic places in the city of Edmonton to be able to support your local small businesses, find sustainable and healthy food choices and get that "Farm to Fork" experience is the…

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Happiness is Right Here! – Photo Essay

By Taylor Faria – Bryce rises with the morning sun, and when he does, so does everyone else. So, each morning we all throw on our boots, say our goodbyes to Daddy, and watch the way night disappears so gently here on The Land: The sun surfaces overtop willowing oak trees and brightens the earth through the air between branches.

Goldenrod blossoms catch my eye with their sweet ochre-yellow color, like burning honey and twinkles from morning’s dew. As it drips onto the wired fence, I feel renewed. The cows graze over to greet us by the crackling of a stick fire, and between the laughter of my children and the elaborate orchestra of chickens performing in a distance, I hear the day begin.

Living with nature is the most important part of the slow-paced, authentic lifestyle Ethan and I intend for our children. So in 2014, when Bryce was an infant and Blaire was growing in my belly, we began raising cows — and occasionally pigs and chickens — on our newly purchased 10 acres. We became home-owning contractors, and after lots of time and patience, finally moved into our dream home on The Land this past August. Over the years, “The Land” became an affectionate name we call our homestead.

Living on The Land as a mother offers tangible wisdom to teach my children, and as a writer and artist, it allows me to live my bliss of creating within an inspiring space every day. The Land has always served the kids a place to intuitively learn with a hands-on approach.

Bryce once told me, “Happiness is right here, living on The Land,” in other words, this is his favorite place. And Blaire, she’s been tagging along since she was born; it’s always been home to her. I can honestly say that first-hand experiences with nature here have taught them more than I could ever imagine out of toddlers.

The cows, chickens, and pigs; gardening and foraging wild blackberries or goldenrod for tinctures and dyes; identifying trees like oaks and their acorns or magnolias and their flowers, and identifying ducks and birds through sound— these are natural activities the kids take part in and learn from here.

We often times climb up on our fence and watch migrating animals in our flag pond; we’ve seen all sorts of ducks and birds like huge sandhill cranes and even pink flamingoes! It’s like schooling in the purest form — learning through observation.

Symphonies of cicadas in the forests lighten our moods as we wander throughout the day. There have been times of such awe from their music that I instinctively pause… that sound is just so healing. But, my favorite part of the day is connecting together under a boundless sky, filled with stars so bright that the harvest moon couldn’t block their light. And the howling of night-dwelling coyotes echoing in the fields around us… something about it intrigues me. Living on The Land gives off a sense of wonderment that all could benefit from.

Hearing things like, “Mama, the trees are dancing with the wind!” and “I’m digging up mashed potatoes!” make me laugh and appreciate the lifestyle in which our children are being raised. I hope that living on The Land will teach them the importance of being self-sufficient and self-reliant, and how to use the earth as their tool, but also how Earth is one with all.

I hope that they will learn to be confident with their unique knowledge and use it as an inspiration for life. But most importantly, that one day when they’re in nature looking up at the stars, that they feel a sense of home and think of our time together, celebrating all there is to life.

The value and benefits I see in a homegrown meal make raising cows a lot easier for me since I was a self-declared vegetarian as a child. Yeah, a homestead that raised meat was never my intention, but after the food knowledge I’ve gained these past four years, I would much rather my children be eating cows we raise, if any.

We raise the cows without growth hormones or steroids, but with lots of love and acres of land to graze. Future homestead plans include a proper garden for fruits and vegetables, as well as one for butterflies and bees and one specifically for botanical dyes.

With the Peace River nearby, we can easily take spontaneous sunset and fishing trips, and we even started stocking our own pond. So, catching and eating our own fish is already in the making. And who knows what kinds of animals will come along next… we’ve talked goats, ducks, and a mini horse for Blaire, but we seem to do things pretty instinctively.

From buying The Land, to starting a farm, to adding Blaire to our family, to building a home and setting intentions for our children’s future days… to home (pre)schooling, living with nature, and taking part in daily farm chores… to being free and wild and inspired; this is what homesteading has been all about here on The Land for us.

Follow Taylor’s journey on Instagram: instagram.com/living.ontheland/and at www.instagram.com/studio.ontheland/

  Blaire leaving the feed shed with her hands full. As a baby, she’d always sneak some for herself.

  Bryce washing his hands in the farm sink after feeding the cows and adventuring around The Land.

  Foraging acorns from the oak trees on The Land for observations and to use as a natural dye.

  Dew dripping off of the banana tree we recently planted on The Land.

  Morning trip to the chicken coop for eggs.

  Blaire pointing to the cows as we watched the sunset from under the oak tree.

  Ethan putting a Magnolia flower in Blaire’s hair. The abundance of Magnolia trees originally sold us on the property. They brighten up the forests and fragrance the breeze.

  Bryce on his John Deere “tractor” that he never gets off. He enjoys collecting campfire sticks in the bed of it. It’s truly a Peg Perego Gator and we recommend it to everyone.

  Our favorite moon over one of our biggest oak trees on The Land.

  Blaire feeding and giving love to her favorite cow.

  Decor designed by me.

  Goldenrod in its glory.

  Blaire foraging some sticks and dead grass for a fire. They often load the bed of their John Deere with sticks to drive over and dump them out at the fire pit.

  Climbing the gates on The Land, something they’re always doing. They always make sure to give the cows a big Hello!

  Bryce waving hello to the cows. They’ve been his favorite since he was just six months old.

  A little natural garden began where we kept our pigs. Cucumbers were plentiful, along with some potatoes and corn.

  Foraging acorns for play, observation, and natural dye. The kids love the process of using nature as their tool. It is something we hope they hold onto as they grow older.

  Happiness is Right Here! – Photo Essay was originally posted by All About Chickens