What's It Going to Take For You? 

Our first planting of lettuce waiting for
the cold rains of April to stop.

It's an early cold and rainy "spring" morning. I'm itching to get outside to begin planting thousands of transplants I've been growing under lights since early January. I'm struggling to be thankful for another rainy day.

Each morning my husband blesses me with a pot of green tea with peach! This morning to combat the dreary day he even has a fire going in the fireplace for me to snuggle in front of while having my devotional time. He continually shows me what love is in action, and I am blessed!

The Bible describes itself as, "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword...and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12  This morning my heavenly Father drew near and helped me see myself in the widow's life as I read through 1 Kings 17: 8 through the end of the chapter. This simple story of the widow's heartache and loss became my own story while the Spirit asked me pointed questions. 

I ached with the burdened widow as she gathered "two sticks" to bake a cake with the handful of meal and a bit of oil.  Her hunger had wracked havoc on her body as the famine lingered in the land. I picture her pushing herself to find enough wood to build a little fire to use the last of her hoarded meal.  As she worked, she pushed aside the nagging thoughts of what tomorrow held.  In the midst of the severe drought, she was resigned to her fate. This was to be the end of her story, but then God stepped in! (I love the word but in Scripture!) As she was gathering the few sticks it would take to bake the cake, a traveler called out to her with a simple request. "Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink." With her task burning in her heart, she turned to serve this stranger. As she was hurrying away to get him his drink he made a further request for a "morsel of bread".  I picture her quickened steps coming to complete halt as she contemplates the sacrifice of her last cake. Her thoughts churning, she began to share her weighty burden with Elijah. He spoke the words God sent just for her, "Fear not...".

Often fear cripples us from seeing the plan God has for us. It blocks our ears from hearing what the Spirit wants to say to us, and it paralyzes our bodies from action. These were the words from God she needed to hear at the moment. 

I don't know for certain what was running through the widow's mind, but I can see her heart through her actions. She made a little cake for Elijah before she made a cake for herself and her son. This one action brought her abundant blessings in the days ahead. 

This morning I remembered the hard-learned lesson of giving to others when God whispers to. I have struggled with this for years as I had 13 lil' mouths to feed daily. It took a few hard lessons to learn how rich I truely was, and that my "barrel of meal" would always contain enough. Living with this mentality is exciting once I learned it. Last summer I saw God make seemingly little produce from our gardens STRETCH to feed many families. Each time I rejoiced in my little miracle!

As I neared the end of the chapter (and my quiet time before the fire) I saw how sickness complicates the widow's emotions. She had obeyed all that was asked of her. But maybe she had only served outwardly. Nagging thoughts may have haunted her nightly as she laid down to sleep. Would there be another handful in the barrel in the morning? Sometimes like this widow a lesson may register in my head but hasn't rooted itself fully in my heart yet. Growing can be a painful process. When God took her son in death her emotions erupted! She may have spoken angrily to the man of God through her pain, "I've done all God commanded me to do, and all I reap is more loss and more pain!?" Ignoring God's lessons of surrender will only bring increasingly harder lessons until we embrace God's teaching whole heartedly. 

Elijah tells her, "give me thy son." Have you heard the Sprit of God ask for a loved one? I have. It's heart wrenching! But by giving them to Him, He can accomplish His will, in His time, and His way. Through an ensuing  miracle we see that heartbreaking surrender brought the power of God surging through her son and into her arms!

 Her next words reveal the "Why?" that motivated the difficult lesson in her life and often yours and mine. "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth." 1 Kings 17:24.  There was a deeper lesson God was working towards all along in the widow's life. Her eyes were opened to Truth. (God) For her it took the loss of her husband, the deprivation of drought and famine and ultimately the death of her son. What is it going to take in your life? 

The widow had obeyed outwardly. No one saw her doubt, fears, and lack of trust. It took a heart wrenching loss to wholly enable her heart to believe and truly trust. What about you?  Are you facing insurmountable difficulties, heartache, and fear? Like the widow's painful lessons that brought her to God, maybe He's trying to get your attention too. How low do you want to go? What will it take for you to see God's saving power? 

As we can see there's a deeper lesson for this widow than her daily bread. She needed a relationship with the living God. In my last blog post I wrote about your ONLY hope.  Please read it. If you already know Jesus Christ as your Savior, ask Him to open your eyes to what He is teaching you. There is sweet peace of surrender on the other side of the lesson!

My next blog post will be about demystifying sourdough. It's REALLY not as complicated as others have made it look. Join me next time by simply subscribing to this blog post. If you are blessed with these posts, please spread the word via social media, or word of mouth. Since I'm not able to do this anymore, it's up to ya'll to spread the word!

Since a picture speaks a thousand words here are a few to show you what we've been up to......

Lil' broccoli seedlings from early spring.
(They're now in the garden!)

Steve began work on the outside of our "new" home. We
didn't have a back door, so he broke through the brick to install one.
There are more pictures below.

I have two metal racks of seedlings growing under lights. 
Until last week I had a night and day shift. Now I'm transitioning
plants outside to harden off. Many have been potted up into larger growing space too.

One of our favorite spring greens is Swiss Chard. I just
pulled up a patch we grew our first year here! (2020) I covered it with frost
cover the past two winters. It's a hardy green and can be used in any recipe that calls for spinach.

We grow a lot of onions, this years plants grew wimpy indoors,
but have picked up amazingly outdoors!
Don't give up hope on your plants.

We've incubated two batches of chicks to introduce new blood into our flock.
We've also ordered our meat birds (Cornish Cross) that we will raise this fall. 
Another exciting challenge for our farmstead this year will be the introduction of 
American Bresse chickens to our flock. They are an exciting dual purpose 
breed that will allow us to raise our own meat birds. Right now we're at the 
will of the hatcheries that are struggling to supply and ship during these challenging days. 

O

It's difficult to get a good picture in my seedling growing area, but I use these
two shelves with a table to bottom water the flats on.

Since I was so close on space under the lights, I started to 
sow hardier seeds in lettuce mix containers from the store. When the seedlings
were starting to sprout their true leaves, I pricked them out and potted them up to
larger cells. I'm all for using what you have in your hand!

Like I said above, Steve started to renovate the outside of our home.
He's added a carport to the front of the house and when he reroofed the house he added this  screened outdoor dining room. This area overlooks
our pond about 100' away.

Mass sown Red Amaranth. I pricked these out and potted them up.

These are the Red Amaranth seedlings I potted up. Now a few weeks
later, they are almost ready to brave the open field! 

In mid-April I was able to put our first planting of 
lettuce in the cottage garden. I'm able to cover these
raised beds with frost blanket, so all early plantings usually start here. Now this bed is full
of kale, Chinese Cabbage and 3 kinds of lettuce.

Early lettuce growing in a raised bed. The red
lettuce in the rear doesn't show up real well, but is hardy in
the cool days of spring on our mountain. Now a few weeks later, I've
been tempted to pull off the outer leaves for a fresh salad. I'm biding my
time!

I wish I could easily rearrange these pictures, but Blogspot
is now a clunky outdated program. This picture shows the hole in the wall 
Where Steve put our new back door.

My "handy-man".

The view from our dining room and kitchen!

The view from my chair in the dining room! I love
looking out and seeing the pond's "mood", birds feeding, 
and the rolling pastures beyond.

In the mountains of east Tennessee there are many "little winters". 
During Dogwood winter my lil' transplants were safely tucked
under frost blanket. We still have several cold snaps ahead, so 
it lays rolled up at one end until all danger is past. (Usually
in mid-May.)

My son made me the handy stool for my birthday.
I don't have to bend over to move it since it has a handle on 
one side! On the other hand he thought I didn't need
the wires separating each square in my square foot beds, so
he cut most of them! Thankfully I have a square foot
marker that helped me plant radish and salad mixes here.

My early lettuce bed during a cold snap. To keep the frost
blanket up off the plants I simply pushed sticks into the ground
to keep the blanket above the plants. (They get killed if it sits
on the plants.) Why set up the hoops when there aren't tall plants to protect?

My new back door! It wasn't completed in this picture yet.

I had so much fun making aprons for my granddaughters recent
birthdays. I also found lil' stainless steel bowls and utensils at Dollar Tree
to go with them. Next I found recipes for cake and pancake mixes online. I made 
made the mixes and split them up between them for added fun.

God blessed us with a Grillo walk behind tractor last fall. It has been ever so helpful
this spring turning sod into larger gardens with ease. Praise God we've sold our seven farm tractors!! Now we're down to one, though it is in pieces being repaired.

We worked as a family for about a week and a half to get the early canning/sharing
garden prepped and planted. We've got garlic, rhubarb, 3 kinds of onions, broccoli, cabbage, 4 kinds of lettuce, yellow squash, 8-Ball Zucchini, regular zucchini, Snap Peas, 2 kinds of Beets, Spinach, green beans, 3 varieties of potatoes, and strawberries. There are rows waiting for over 100 of tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, winter squash, pumpkins and more after all danger of frost is past. I have my trusty frost blankets nearby for the lil' winters ahead.

One experiment this year is growing feed for our animals. Right now we only have chickens, but Levi (16) bartered work for 3 feeder pigs and we're adding our milk goats back on the farmstead this summer! I can't wait! So, we've planted quite a few mangles, parsnips, a LOT of sugar beets, field corn, millet, oats, wheat, and pumpkins to off set the rising cost of bagged feed. It's been fun to research how farmers used to feed livestock before bagged feed became popular. Next we'd like to get into forage trees! (Google it!)

Charity planting onions.

Steve hooked up a mid-sized irrigation system. 

Levi and Charity are earning high school Agricultural Science credit this
summer as they take on projects around the farmstead. Levi is also earning a credit for Building Trades. He'll be helping build a small barn along with helping with the 
outside renovation to the house.

If you don't know our back story, we've downsized from a working farm that supplied
300 families a vegetable/meat CSA at 13 farmer's markets in middle and east Tennessee. We decided to use our inventory of irrigation and black plastic to make life easier this year.
 (Learn more about our family by reading older blog posts.) 

We all like to learn new things each season. Building on my love of flowers,
I'm learning about flower farming this year. Since I'm an artsy gal I've designed newly tilled beds instead of just planting in straight rows in the canning garden. I've got 35 varieties of flowers waiting in flats for planting. I'm really looking forward to this new challenge!

My new flower beds are in between my
 existing cottage flower and herb gardens. Since the area is oddly shaped and has a plum tree in it, I marked out a diamond, then a circle, and another diamond shaped gardens. There will be a rock lined path through the middle. Then alongside the raised beds there are two 3' X 42' beds for annuals to grow in. What are YOU learning this summer?


Abundant Blessings,


Val Colvin
The Farmer's Wife 

 

Is there anything as enticing as the smell of fresh bread baking in an oven? Memories may be flooding your mind of your grandmother’s kitchen or your favorite bakery shop. Ahhh! A good deep breath gets us craving a thick, warm slice!

There’s something I’ve found more satisfying than even fresh bread! The recipe is so easy that even a young child can take part. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger…” John 6:35. Never hunger again?! You know the feeling; that hunger that we try to satisfy with money, entertainment, drink, dope, and love. These things don’t really satisfy that hunger in us. That’s why we’re constantly searching for the next big thrill, pay raise, or that certain someone who will accept and love us unconditionally. Jesus is the ONLY fulfillment to that deep craving, and He promises we’ll “NEVER hunger again!"

Matthew 4:4 says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” We cannot truly live a full and satisfying life collecting the newest toy, traveling to new places, finding the “perfect” mate, or whatever you are searching for. The wise King Solomon, who had it ALL, calls it all vain and empty pleasure. We’re created by God to NEED Him. What He gives, will make your life truly worth living!

I grind the wheat I use to bake bread with. When I dig deep into a bucket of wheat berries, I’m reminded of the Scripture that gives us a picture of Jesus’ sacrifice. “…except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.” Remember, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life…” He was sent by God the Father to die on the cross for us, that we might have “much fruit” (eternal life with Him in Heaven).

There’s only one BIG problem. We’re dirty and cannot come before a holy God alone. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. We’re compelled to look to the cross where He died for our sins. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6

 As a teenager I was compellingly drawn to the “Bread of life” where my hunger for satisfaction, love, and acceptance was forever fulfilled. I saw my sin and my need of cleansing. I accepted God’s free gift and my search was over! That deep sense of emptiness left. Now Jesus Christ is my “Bread of life”, and I am clean, forgiven, and His child that will live with Him in heaven forever!

My freshly baked bread compels my family to get out the cutting board, bread knife, and of course, the butter to satisfy the craving we’ve felt as the bread baked! Come to the “Bread of life”, Jesus Christ, and you’ll “never hunger again”!

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:51

 

The Farmer's Wife

Whole Wheat Bread

5 Cups Very Warm Water

2/3 Cup Melted Coconut Oil

1/4 Cup Black Strap or Sorghum Molasses/Honey

2 Tablespoons Yeast

2 Teaspoons Salt

Approximately 11 Cups White Wheat Flour. (You may need less, or you may need more.)

To a heavy duty mixer (like a larger Kitchen Aid or Bosch) fitted with a dough hook, add warm water, melted oil, molasses and salt. Add a few cups of flour along with the yeast. 

When you've added about 7 cups I like to turn the mixer off and let it sit for a few minutes. This allows the water to be absorbed into the flour. It also safeguards you from adding too much flour and ending up with crumbly bread. You are not in a hurry.

Continue to add flour slowly, letting it knead between additions until the bread begins to pull away from the side of the mixing bowl. 

Stop the mixer and touch your dough. You'll get the hang of knowing you have enough flour when the dough is tacky but not sticky. Slowly add more flour until the dough doesn't stick to your finger. (Be careful not to add too much flour.)

Knead 10 minutes or more until you can stretch a small piece and make a window out of it. Window Pane Test Video 

In my 7 qt. Kitchen Aide it takes up to 15 minutes to develop the gluten to this point. 

A Bosh has developed the gluten by 8-10 minutes. 

Kneading by Hand: Simply put a bit of flour onto the counter and knead until the gluten is developed. This video will be a help to making my bread totally by hand. 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the middle.

Remove the dough from the mixer onto a slightly oiled counter. Using a bench knife divide your dough into 4 to 5 pieces. If you have a kitchen scale I divide mine into 1.35 lb. pieces. Shape it slightly and place into oiled bread pans.(I use spray coconut oil.) 

Cover your bread pans with a light tea towel or plastic wrap, and let it  rise in a warm place till the dough is about 1 inch above the sides of the pan. I like to place mine on top of my stove as the oven will be preheating. 

Place into a preheated 375 degree oven to bake for 25-30 minutes. The dough must be 190 degrees if you have a thermometer or you'll easily see it releases from the pan with a golden bottom when fully baked. You can also give it the tap test. It should sound hollow when it's baked.

I hold my pan by the corner and tap the sides to release and then place it on a cooling rack until fully cool...if you can resist the temptation! 

All of this may seem complicated, but like any new skill it is worth working towards. My family ate "Monster Bread" for quite a while until I understood how dough should be handled in MY kitchen. Each of our kitchens, water, flour, etc. is different and you will get to know your process in short order.

If all you have is a small mixer like a Kitchen Aid, I've included a one loaf recipe below, but look online for No-knead recipes that require no mixer at all. I use them too even though I could make more complicated breads.

Single Loaf Recipe 

1 1/4 Cups Warm Water

2 1/2 Tablespoon +1 Teaspoon Oil

1 Tablespoon Molasses/Honey

1 Teaspoon Salt

Approximately 5 Cups Flours

REST

We all live such busy lives! Even if your work is at home, the many interruptions of the media make our lives seem busier than they really are. We're used to instant answers when we "Ask Google", we're used to the quick and easy meals that can be made in under 30 minutes, and we're even used to fulfilling our "every wish" by just jumping over to Amazon and hitting the "Buy it Now" button. Waiting for something to show up that wasn't PRIME seems to take forever! We've forgotten the how to practice the patience it takes to wait.

As mothers, it seems we're always waiting forsomething. One of our first lessons is waiting 9 long months for our lil' one to arrive! Then we can't wait for nursing to become natural, the baby to sleep through the night, or for your toddler to learn to fall asleep by themselves! We can't wait for our child to walk so we don't have to carry them, and then we can't wait for them to learn to stay with us as we walk in public....as Mommas, we're always waiting for something! We can't wait for Daddy to come home. We can't wait for payday. We can't wait for a better house...car...(fill in the blank). Even at 60 I'm waiting for a teenagers to "grow up"! (Take that from a Momma of 13 whose oldest is about to turn 38.) 

Like I've written in the past, I've been waiting...and waiting...and waiting a long time for answers to some of my prayers. Isn't God tired of me asking the same things repeatedly? 

"And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him." 

 Isaiah 30:18

Why does the Lord wait so long to answer our pleas? It's not because He isn't listening, but because He is waiting...on me...on us. 

Noah Webster uses the word "rest" in defining the word wait. In John 15, Jesus is teaching us about His role in our lives as the Vine, and He keeps pointing to the word "abide" as I read through it. Again the word "rest" is used to define "abide"! What is the Lord trying to tell us? He is waiting for US to learn a few lessons before granting us our petitions in prayer. He wants us to be content to rest, awaiting His time. 

Now, I'm a doer. If it can be accomplished with a

check by it on my to-do list I'm happy. The genteel art of "waiting on another" is more difficult for me, and He knows it. He also knows that I need to learn to wait on Him...and He's waiting till I learn to rest before my  prayers are answered. 

This lesson must be over 30 years in the making as I've once again given my children to the Lord....hands off...prayers engaged. I cannot make lasting change in my family's lives as it must be the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Since He knows I'm a "doer", He's directing my energy

learning to bless others. With only two at home now, my time has been more free. He's opening my eyes to needs I can meet, and learning to truly rest on the weightier issues. As a friend says, "He's GOT THIS!" He will not delay one hour too long! He will answer my prayers when I've learned to rest.

Abundant Blessings,

The Farmer's Wife

Val