Luxury Homesteading: Day Spa, Essential Oils, Homemade Sourdough

Sensory indulgence was the unplanned theme of the week: 

Bubble bath 

Warm, homemade sourdough bread 

Homegrown tomatoes & basil mixed with homemade goat cheese 

Champagne  

Honeysuckle  

Gardenia 

Chocolate fudge face mask 

Day spa  

Essential oils 

  

Late last week, our first three tomatoes- which we’re growing with basil in clay pots outside our front door- ripened. I sliced them, spread them with some homemade goat cheese (thank you to the Goodens for the goat milk) and sprinkled chopped basil leaves, olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top. Yum. 

For the past nine nights, I’ve tended my wild yeast sourdough starter. Doubt perched on my shoulder and teased me each time I checked in on the smelly concoction. I’ve never made homemade bread before, and I don’t exactly understand the chemistry behind yeast and gluten and rising dough. The recipe I used to create this sourdough starter explained that the invisible wild yeasts which are always present in the air can be coaxed into one’s bowl of flour and juice, but I had a tough time buying the idea that my bread would rise in the absence of store-bought yeast. In spite of my skepticism, I measured and stirred as directed. 

Tonight, I finally got to test the results. Success! I made a delicious little loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread.  

My sourdough loaf

 

Though it took diligence to work with the starter, the process was simple and only took a minute or so each night. The advantages of using wild yeast versus store-bought are: *wild is healthier, so I’ve read *if store-bought isn’t available, the yeasts in the air always are (combined with flour and water, the cloudy white film on blueberries and Oregon grapes can also be used to encourage wild yeast starters) *if you make enough, you can continue to use the starter after your first loaf- no need to continue tending it every night once you really have the yeasts working. 

Today I also experimented with making honeysuckle and gardenia essential oils. The eHow article that gave me directions was wrong. Or maybe it was me… either way, I ended up with exactly zero ounces of essential oils and a big mess on my hands.  I ended up finding a good deal on an essential oil still, though, so I’ll try again with proper equipment in a week or so.  

Over the past few days, I tested out recipes for day spa skin, hair and facial treatments. For the most part, I stuck to foods and herbs that we’re planning to grow in our Guatemalan garden, but I did make an exception for a chocolate fudge facial mask. Theoretically, I *could* produce all of the ingredients for this mask, but chances are, I won’t. Cocoa powder, cottage cheese, heavy cream, honey… all could be made in my yard if I become a ridiculously ambitious homesteader. I think I’ll have enough to do without trying to figure out how to pound cocoa beans into powder and fashion curds into cottage cheese, though. Right now, however, I can pretend. 

unattractive but I liked it!

 

Yesterday my mom and I had a blast playing around with various recipes. We ended up soaking our feet in a bubble bath while sipping sparkling wine and testing avocado-antioxidant versus cocoa-oatmeal-cream masks; a banana-lemon-sea salt foot massage scrub; and various herb-and-honey hair treatments. I haven’t yet found a hair treatment I like, but the other treatments were fabulous. 

A week of luxury, thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. 

Kimbriel Dean is a writer for Adbongo, Inc. and is the author of The Apothecarys Song. 

Moonshine in the Works…(and wild yeast bread, too)

Don’t have time for more than a quick note right now- the babe will wake any moment and I’m supposed to be writing a business plan (ugh)- but just wanted to share the exciting news… I just bought this kit!

Home Wine-Making Kit

E C Kraus Fruit Wine Kit

I can’t recommend this brand til I try it, so stay tuned.  I think the title of this blog is misleading. Moonshine is probably whiskey or maybe Everclear-style grain alcohol. I like the word “moonshine,” though, and so I used it.

In other news, I’m attempting to make whole wheat bread using “foraged” wild yeasts (“foraged” in quotes because it’s not like I’m digging through the dirt searching for a stash of yeasts. They’re just in the air, and they’re doing all the work for me. In my mind, foraging is a hefty, sweat-soaked action verb…).

I’m using a recipe that calls for either pineapple or orange juice combined with flour to make a sourdough starter. It takes days for the yeasts to do their work, so I’ll post more info about the process and the recipe if I actually end up with a yummy bread-like food.

I was actually searching for a hand-crank flour mill when I stumbled upon the wine-making kit (or to be more precise, when I realized wine-making seems more fun than flour-grinding and googled “home wine-making”).

I’ll follow up once I’ve successfully produced my first five gallon batch of wine and when I achieve tasty wild yeast bread.

Now, back to work!

Kimbriel Dean is a Texas-based writer for Adbongo, Inc. and is the author of The Apothecarys Song.

photo by Cameron Jordan

Goat cheese, Joel Salatin and Beekeeping

Oh shoot, I fell down on the job in the first week. Doesn’t bode well for my future as a self-sufficient ninja…

My apologies for not living up to my word. Two weeks ago (maybe three weeks), I promised to learn a skill a week and blog about it, and I have yet to produce said blog. You’re shattered, I can feel it. I’m intuitive like that. I’ll try harder in the future… I promise.

I admit, I haven’t actually soiled my lily white hands quite yet. I wanted to, but I haven’t found my spot. I searched for community gardens in the Lakewood, Dallas area. I think participating in a community garden sounds fantastic. I highly recommend getting involved with one. Have fun with your neighbors and produce fresh food… excellent. I did find community gardens in my neighborhood- East Dallas Community Gardens- but the plots are reserved for recent refugees. Certainly will not complain about my exclusion- I’m glad that Cambodian and Laotian refugees are given this opportunity. They sell their produce at a weekly farmer’s market, which I intend to frequent.

Since I didn’t have much luck finding a community garden built for me on the intermanets, I contacted Slow Food Dallas. I was over the moon to discover they were putting on a dinner featuring Joel Salatin. Salatin is Virginia’s rock star soil farmer, the purveyor of Polyface Farms featured in Michael Pollan‘s “The Omnivores Dilemma,” the wildly popular documentary, “Food, Inc.” and probably plenty of other books and movies I’ve yet to see.

I attended the dinner, which was actually more like a stroll through the aisles of Whole Foods during peak sample hours. Locally raised and produced cheeses, meats, wines and other goodies were proffered at taste stations throughout the rooms.

I had a great time, though I confess I was anxious as I entered the party alone. I lean towards introverted and awkward. Walking into a (too expensive) party at an art gallery featuring violinists and a guru farmer was a little intimidating.  I met several nice people, including a woman who is the host of an environmental and gardening talk radio show which plays on Dallas’ CNN station and is nationally syndicated on a station with a name that slips through the cracks of my bionic brain (note to self:  find a mad scientist to patch those steely holes).  She asked me if I might want to help write scripts for her show.  Yes, the answer is absolutely. Not only would working as a radio script writer fatten the girth of writing experiences on my resume, but it would also probably be an excellent source of information for this very blog.  We’ve emailed back and forth a few times about meeting to discuss the details. I should email her again.

The radio host meeting was enough to make the Slow Food Party worthwhile, though I do wish Mr. Salatin would’ve spoken, as I assumed he would when I bought my ticket. He has so much to say that’s worth hearing. I thought I would pick up some farming tips and advice.

Fortunately, though, I found out my sister’s in-laws are walking the self-sufficient path, but they’re much farther along than I. They’re milking goats, training a mule to plow the farm and are raising worms for soil fertility. Last Sunday, the whole giant extended family had lunch at which time they gave me about a gallon of raw goat’s milk, farm fresh fudge and homemade soaps made from goat’s milk and essential oils (look for Guudie Soaps at the coming-soon-Pilot Point, TX farmer’s market, organized by this family).  Score! They invited my family to come visit their farm to help me in my quest for skills.  My virgin hands will soon milk a goat.

With my generous gift of milk, I went home and made cheese. Backing up a half step, I had tried to make goat cheese using the only goat milk I could find at the local Whole Foods, which was ultra-pasteurized. Nothing happened, no curds and whey, my cheese did not curdle. Upon further research, I found out that the high heat used in the ultra-pasteurization process kills the proteins needed to form curds. But, oh happy day, the raw goat milk transformed into a small but tasty ball of cheese. (other tips: store bought lemon juice shouldn’t be used- my sister’s in-laws had no success with the pre-squoze but it worked with fresh squeezed juice. Also, they told me they used the whey as food for their chickens and goats).  No rennet needed, and the process was surprisingly simple.

This past Sunday, I went to the White Rock Lake Festival, where I again had the good fortune of meeting helpful folks. I connected with the Texas Honeybee Guild and learned that I can participate in a beekeeping mentorship with them. Becoming a beekeeper has held the top spot on my list of eccentric things I want to do for over five years now. Plus, bees are essential to fruit and veg development. I love bees.

The Texas Honeybee Guild is concerned with protecting diversity among bee populations in order to help keep them from being wiped out by the kind of disease or pesticide issues that decimated bee populations over the last few years.  There’s a chance Adbongo may even do a trade or a partial trade on my behalf,- we’ll help the Texas Honeybee Guild gain nonprofit status if they’ll teach me to become a beekeeper.  Please, daddy, please?

In the final analysis, I would say I planted the seeds of education on my urban quest to farm. Did I actually learn skills this past week (or two)? Not so much.

Final Tally:

Goat cheese-making: check.

Future job writing about gardening: check (maybe).

Planned visit to farm where I can learn more: check.

Beekeeping Mentorship: check.

All in all, not too bad, though not quite on track. Three days until I need to blog about the new skill I learned this week. Must get to work.

Kimbriel Dean is a Dallas-based writer for Adbongo, Inc. and just released her first novel, The Apothecarys Song.

author in El Panchan, Mexico

Day 1: An Urban Girl’s Quest to Farm

As thousands upon thousands will attest, Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivores Dilemma” shakes the unconscious American eater to the core.  In this book, journalist Michael Pollan begs the question, “What do you actually know about your food?”  He explores our four food systems, including industrial agriculture, large scale orgag,nic agriculture, sustainable organic agriculture and foraging. His findings inflict a mix of heartbreak and inspiration.

After reading it two years ago, I wrote a novel called “The Apothecarys Song” which was largely inspired by Pollan’s masterpiece. The bad guy in the book is Malsapo, Inc., the agribusiness giant responsible for Agent Yellow and all configurations of hybrid corn… (wonder which real corporation Malsapo is based upon? Doesn’t take a rocket scientist…). Not only did I write a book, but my fabulous but crazy partner, John, and I decided to sell the old abode in Austin, Texas, pack up the one-year-old, and search for a fertile Central American paradise where we could learn to grow all of our own food. Yes, it’s true, he’s not the only crazy one…

Apparently, though, the universe is a big fan of insanity because we found a breathtaking plot of land on a mountainside overlooking Aldous Huxley’s famous “most beautiful lake in the world” in the land of eternal spring- Guatemala. Growing season is year-round there; we get two harvests instead of one each year.  Pretty much phenomenal.  We hired a crew to build our dream home, and construction is under way.

The conflicts: a) we know nothing about growing our own food, and b) we need money to manifest the dream.

The solutions: While our house is being built, we came back to Texas to scramble for the funds to complete the project (we’ve paid several installments in cash, but we need to raise funds for the next few rounds…ack!).  John is the president of an amazing small business development firm called Adbongo.  For the most part, his clients have been based in Dallas, not Austin, so we thought, what the hey, shouldn’t we live close to our client base if we’re going back to Texas? And so we made the move to Dallas, the city of shiny, sparkly people and layers of gray concrete coating over nature. Money flows where rivers should in this town, which means Dallas is a good place to solve our money problem, but, based on the stereotypes, anyway, it doesn’t seem like the best place to solve our ignorance-of-food-growing problem. We just moved into a condo with bricks where grass should be, for crying out loud.

Therefore, one week into our stay in Dallas, I pose the question I will attempt to answer in this blog: how does an urban girl with practically no experience in gardening or farming learn to raise her own food?  Is it possible? I don’t actually believe I will be able to grow or raise anything but a negligible percentage of our total food intake in our current Dallas living situation, but I aim to learn as many skills as possible so that I’ll be mentally equipped once we move to the place in Guatemala. I hope I prove myself wrong, though. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to discover that it’s possible to grow food in the middle of an apartment complex? Cheers to hoping…

The mission: Each week, I’m committing to learning one new skill that will help me produce food.