“A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.” {joining Soule Mama today}
If you’re inspired to follow along, please leave a link to your moment in the comments!
This offering to Heirloom Offerings :: The Grandma Project was contributed by Maria Epp. Are you interested in sharing? Read our submission guidelines and get started.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my Grandma. She loved to share her skills with us in baking, sewing, crocheting, preserving and house-keeping. Now that I live far away from her, I cherish those childhood memories that much more.
Maria learning to bake in Grandma’s kitchen
{Kris}: I love that Maria’s family recipe can get a quick whole foods boost without compromising the recipe by simply using butter in place of margarine, sea salt instead of table salt, and perhaps experimenting with different flours.
{Kris}: Those photos are oozing with sweetness! What a special experience for your girls to bake with their great grandmother and carry on the traditions of your family. Our family bread tradition is for all the women to gather to make paska (easter bread) each year. Thank you for sharing this!
Share your family’s traditional foods in the comments. What do you remember your grandmother (or other significant person in your life) making when you were a child?
Some snapshots from the last week of October, with the exception of the daily nature walks, and tree climbing expeditions which weren’t photographed. If you have a post about your week, share the link in the comments. If you don’t have a post, feel welcome to just share about your week.
Milo’s first knit.
Mama’s first knit.
Castles and towers.
Caring for the home.
Early morning quiet.
Snack time magnet exploration.
Learning how to make coffee (and use the scale, ssshh…).
From the much loved Herb Fairies course.
Lunch prep.
A woodworking project carry over from our last exploration on castles, knights and horses.
Sketching together.
Starting off the day with yoga.
Sensory activity – matching the scents in the jars – vanilla, peppermint, and orange.
Sorting wild cats and domestic cats.
Halloween costumes – superhero, sheriff, and our version of wonder woman.
Hot apple cider came along on halloween night…
“A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.” {joining Soule Mama today}
If you’re inspired to follow along, please leave a link to your moment in the comments!
This offering to Heirloom Offerings :: The Grandma Project was contributed by Kris Antonius. Are you interested in sharing? Read our submission guidelines and get started.
My grandma was one of the most generous people I knew, and was also quite frugal. When she used Crisco lard for baking, she tore off the wrapper to open the block and used it to grease her cookie sheet, muffin tin, or cake pan. If the piece was large, she’d tuck it back into the box in the fridge for the next time.
Though we use butter or coconut oil in place of Crisco, we have learned from my grandma and save our butter wrapper in the fridge for the same purpose. I also melt coconut oil for use in recipes now and then, and have started to use the tiny bit left in the pot to grease the muffin tin – there always seems to be just the right amount!
This photo of us baking was taken about twelve years ago! Based on the yeast package on the counter, my guess is that we were making Paska (Easter Bread).
Kris Antonius has a crew of four budding gardener chefs, ages 4, 7, 11, and 14, and is passionate about good food and learning. She enjoys exploring sustainable farms, food, and recipes with her family and nurturing the seeds that are planted on their numerous food and learning adventures.
*Photo of Kris by Pauline Boldt.
This post was shared as a part of Simple Lives Thursday at My Humble Kitchen, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Unprocessed Fridays at Girl Meets Nourishment, and Simply Natural Saturdays at The Pistachio Project, Thank Goodness It’s Monday at Nourishing Joy, Natural Living Mondays at Natural Living Mama, and Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager.
One of our favourite outings is a trip to our local garden centre, Sage Garden Herbs. It’s not just a garden centre. It’s really so much more. Evelyn and Dave grow organic herbs, flowers, shrubs and trees and have a beautiful gift shop full of treasures for gardeners, cooks, and kids. Our little ones love the thought taken to make the visit special for them while mom and dad shop. There’s a little play house with tools, a train set, a small table and chairs… and a huge and lovely outdoor space with pathways, little birdhouses, and other treasures to find.
This weekend we visited in search of seed garlic and some herbs to grow inside over the winter. We were surprised with a treat of spiced cider made by the staff using plants from their greenhouse. Oh my, this cider hit the spot on a chilly fall day! Below are the plants that were used in a base of pure apple juice or cider. Play with the amounts to find a combination perfect for you and yours.
We purchased a Galangal Ginger plant. The leaves can be used for cooking, as well as the roots. How cool is that? We’re looking forward to picking up the other plants as well, so we can make the full recipe over the winter…
Thanks to Evelyn and Dave for sharing the ingredients.
This post was shared as a part of Thank Goodness It’s Monday at Nourishing Joy, Natural Living Monday at Modern Alternative Health, Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager, Simple Lives Thursday at My Humble Kitchen, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, and Unprocessed Fridays at Girl Meets Nourishment, and Simply Natural Saturdays at The Pistachio Project.
“A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.” {joining Soule Mama today}
If you’re inspired to follow along, please leave a link to your moment in the comments!
World Food Day was October 16th, and today is Food Day (October 24) in the United States. How can families truly embrace the heart behind these celebrations in our everyday? Here are a few quick ideas:
Mealtime
Activities
Crafts
Tiny Peasant Pantry is a fantastic resource for your home or homeschool. Whether your children already love to spend time in the kitchen, or have the meal-time ‘blahs’, they will love this engaging food skills program that equips them with the skills to nourish themselves and those around them. Parents will love the section on age-appropriate ways to involve kids in the kitchen as well as the sanity-saving menu planning resources (also available separately).
In our Menu Planning Resources package, you will find everything you need to get your family on track with menu planning. Forget about the 4pm overwhelm once you start using this system. There are handouts with tips to get you started, as well as actual menu planners that you can print out and keep in a binder, or laminate and use on the fridge. Seriously save a ton of time, money, and your sanity!
This post was shared as a part of Simple Lives Thursday at My Humble Kitchen, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, and Unprocessed Fridays at Girl Meets Nourishment, Simply Natural Saturdays at The Pistachio Project, Thank Goodness It’s Monday at Nourishing Joy, and Natural Living Monday at Modern Alternative Health.
Several years ago when we started taking regular nature walks, I found this activity online. The whole family will go for a walk and try to find natural items to fill in each section of the egg carton. The photo above shows what the kids found this week on one of their walks, just in our own neighbourhood. I was surprised at how much colour is still out there this far into fall, when we’ve already had snow. If we took the carton out on one of our forest adventures, the findings would be quite different -fewer domestic flowers, but likely more wild berries, seeds, and things like prickly wild cucumbers!
To make your own egg carton nature collection, simply paint or colour in each section of the carton in a different colour. Enjoy your walk as usual, and look for flowers, leaves, stones, seeds, sticks, and other items to fill in the sections.
If you don’t already have a nature table, you can use your egg carton as a mini nature collection to display somewhere special.
This post was shared as a part of Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now.
This offering to Heirloom Offerings :: The Grandma Project was contributed by Kelly Bernardin-Dvorak . Are you interested in sharing? Read our submission guidelines and get started.
In French, grandmother is Grandmère. Grandma is Memère. I’m thankful that I still have both of my Memères not only in my life but near enough for visits.
Here’s me a couple years ago with one of my aunts and my mom’s mom, Cecile. This Memère taught me hospitality from the heart. When I’d visit, she’d haul out all sorts of things for me to eat. Soon, the spread in front of me consisted of something like this: left over mashed turnip, cut up tomato, a few pickles, a garden salad with lots of different veggies, maybe a wiener without a bun, and always: tomato vegetable soup. Over time I saw through the mis-matched-ness, and realized that she was sharing everything she had with me. For her, hospitality wasn’t about performing or perfection. I started to see her heart in this array on the table. She didn’t want to withhold a single thing that I might enjoy, and everything she had was for sharing. Thinking on it, I’m reminded of the old Sunday school song – you know the one about banqueting tables and banners of love?
Here’s my dad’s mom, Henriette, in a photo taken just a few months ago. This Memère has taught me commitment to family and community as a way of life. She had 11 children and helped run the family farm; responsibilities she managed with incredible efficiency and no shortage of love. When people remark that I have a habit of taking on a lot, I’m thankful that I am my grandmother’s granddaughter. At 89, she is still active in her community, dearly loved by extended family and many friends, and has close relationships with their children and grandchildren. She is leaving an inspiring legacy.
Kelly Bernardin-Dvorak is a French Canadian woman who hopes to live these examples of hospitality and commitment. She wrote this post on (Canadian) Thanksgiving, 2013. She also writes at www.abidethree.wordpress.com.
{Kris}: Thanks so much, Kelly, for sharing these meaningful life lessons from your grandmothers! It’s easy to forget about true hospitality and what that means – simply offering what we have and who we are.
Share your memories and experiences of hospitality from the heart and commitment to community as a way of life in the comments…
