Staying Healthy This Season

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I woke up this morning to 12 degrees of coldness outside, but to 60+ degrees of warmth inside, thanks to our lovely woodstove insert.  Such happiness, to not have to rely on 60 year old electric ceiling heat to try to keep up when outdoor temperatures are frigid.

But enough on that; that's not why I'm writing today.  I'm writing because of the excess of colds and flus that accompany winter.  I work in a school, with students aged 10-15 -- I am surrounded all day every day by a variety of bacteria and viruses and other bugs -- and here are my tips to staying mostly and relatively healthy.

1. Rest & relax
2. Hydrate
3. Get outside
4. Eat lots of vegetables (and fruits)
5. Take an elderberry tincture
6. Drink kefir
7. Find reasons to be happy


Rest & Relax
Winter is a stressful time, especially for northern folks.  The days are short and dark and cold, many layers are required to simply go outdoors.  A lot of jobs become more stressful in the late-fall, early-winter months, and holidays cause their own brand of anxiety.  It's an exhausting time.  In eras past, this time of year was one for sleeping and resting and finding time to *enjoy* the company of others.  Follow the lead of those long past and create regular downtime for yourself.  You'll be glad you did.  (Our pets are also master-relaxers, so if you don't believe in learning from history, you can learn from them.)

Hydrate
The body needs water to work, and the dry cold weather and the dry pumped heat of winter wreak havoc on physical body systems.  Hair dries, skin cracks, and the internal systems aren't immune either.  Drink plenty of water (add a piece of citrus to your water to improve taste and add natural electrolytes) and get a humidifier -- fight off those dehydration headaches and sinus issues and the exhaustion that comes with a body that doesn't have enough water.  Humidifying can also help with sleep, which is also part of that "resting and relaxing" bit above.

Get Outside
I'm not much of a winter person (neither are my chickens), and I quite frankly hate being cold.  But I find that I have been getting sick less often since we got a dog and I have to take the dog out, rain or shine or snow or wind.  I get at least 30 minutes of semi-active outdoor time every day with our dog, and I'm pretty sure that has boosted my immune system.
Getting outside will also help you get more sunlight into your eyes, which can help counter the "winter blues."

Eat Lots of Vegetables (and Fruits)
It's old news, if it's news at all, that vegetables and fruits are healthy for you.  They are full of vitamins and minerals and hydration (if fresh) -- all things that can help ward of colds and flus.  Plus, eating more simply helps your body have energy.  Fruits and vegetables make up close to 50% of the daily recommended food intake (if you take advice from MyPlate and others).
There are many ways to eat vegetables and fruits -- fresh, frozen, dried, smashed, steamed, cooked in soup, pickled -- just make sure they aren't over-processed, because then they loose a lot of their potency.  (We love salt-pickled veggies and a potato-cauliflower-spinach smash and fruit-veggie-kefir smoothies.)

Take an Elderberry Tincture
A couple of years ago, I took an online herbalism course.  I learned a lot about natural remedies to common problems, and elderberry was something that I learned could improve the immune system.  I started making (and taking) an elderberry tincture, and it has been great!  My body has more capability to ward those nasty bugs.  (My tincture is filtered water, vegetable glycerin, elderberry, echinacea, and apple cider vinegar.)

Drink Kefir
Kefir is one of those special things that not everyone takes to right away -- it's a kind of a sour, liquidy yogurt.  But, it's full of probiotics and bacteria that are good for your insides -- and a healthy gut helps make for a healthy body. 
Using kefir for smoothies by adding fruit and vegetables (banana, frozen mango, spinach for example) is a delicious way to drink kefir and get the extra fruits and vegetables recommended above.


Find Reasons to be Happy
The mind affects the body and vice versa -- a whole person is an amalgamation of complex systems that work together.  Finding something to be happy about or thankful for on a cold, dark, dreary winter day positively affects those systems -- it's like taking a different kind of vitamin!

One last tip:
Did you catch that cold already?...  Mince and crush some garlic, mix with honey, and take in tiny portions throughout the day.  The duration and symptoms of your cold should decrease.

Happy health!

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Relishing the Relish

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Just in time for the holiday season, I present one of my favourite holiday foods -- cranberry relish!  I know cranberry relish doesn't typically hit the top ten ten list of holiday treats, but it's a big deal at my house, and I try to keep a bowl of it around from mid-November through the end of December.

I have fond memories of Thanksgiving in my youth.  It was always a big family affair with many relatives and often friends, too.  My grandmother made the most delicious, melt-in-your-mouth rolls and my grandfather made cranberry relish (they also made fabulous stuffing).  I started making cranberry relish on my own when I moved far from family after grad school and needed some traditions to help me feel connected and grounded.  I didn't have a recipe, so I recreated it from childhood memory.  It has been a personal favourite ever since, giving me an easy, quick, healthy food tradition that adds brilliant colour to the dinner table and reminds me of happy childhood holidays.


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Ingredients:
1 bag cranberries
1 apple (sweet)
1 orange
1 c. frozen raspberries
3/8 c. sugar (more or less to taste)

Instructions:
Total time: ~30 minutes
Clean the fruits -- rinse, wash, etcetera.  Pour 4/5 of the cranberries into a food processor and chop into pieces; dump into a large bowl.  Core and chunk the apple; put the pieces in the food processor and chop.  Save out 1/5 and pour the rest in with the cranberries.  Do the same with the orange (rind and all, though you can remove the white strings).  Add most of the raspberries in with the raw fruit.  Mix in approximately 1/4 c. sugar, stir, and let sit.

Put about 1/2 inch of water in a small pot, add the saved-out fruit and 1/8 c. sugar.  Heat over medium until the fruit comes to a boil and the cranberries start popping.  Turn the heat down and allow to simmer until it turns into a lovely, red, sweet sauce, slightly thickened.

Pour the sauce over the raw fruit and stir well.  Eat immediately or let sit.  It ages very well.

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The New Wheelbarrow; or, the Perils of a Too-Small Car

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A few weeks ago, we had two cords of wood dumped onto our lawn -- potential energy to provide our winter heat.  Two cords is is big pile and it takes some effort to move.  We started in, piling it into our rickety wheelbarrow, and stacking it.  Until the off-balance wheelbarrow, which we bought second-hand at a garage sale, got a flat.  And not just a flat, but the flat after the flat after the flat that we already fixed.  So, we decided it was time to purchase a new wheelbarrow.

We went to box store #1.  Didn't find what we were looking for.  We went to box store #2.  Found what we were looking for.  Bought it, unreasonably excited to have a new wheelbarrow.

And we couldn't fit it in the car.

We both drive small, economy cars -- we try to be as efficient as possible.  But there was no way that wheelbarrow was going to fit in either of those cars.
A quandary.
Option: we decided to buy online.
Which we couldn't, without paying a huge shipping fee.

Option: get a wheelbarrow that's not assembled yet.
All the wheelbarrows, upon arriving at the store, are immediately put together.
And they can't be disassembled, because the people at the store use a fancy machine to make sure the bolts are too tight to remove.

Option: rent a truck and drive it home.
Really?  We have cars.  Why can't we get an unassembled wheelbarrow?!  We don't even need the box.
Plus, renting a truck for a wheelbarrow ....

Option: find a friend to pick it up for us.
Unfortunately, none of them with big enough vehicles were around at the time.

Option: go somewhere else and try again.
And so we did.  A locally own smaller-box store.  They had what we wanted, assembled, but were more than happy to take the time to disassemble their wheelbarrow, so we could fit it in our car and take it home.
And now, despite having too-small cars, we have a new wheelbarrow.  Soon we will also have marvelous stacks of wood, seasoning in our back yard, readying for the cold of winter.  With this heat potential, I can almost look forward to winter.

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For the Joy of Garlic

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I love growing garlic.  If the soil is rich enough, garlic can be a very rewarding (and easy) thing to grow.  Planted in late autumn, it sits in the garden throughout the winter, popping green shoots through the cold earth before anything else in the garden even begins thinking about waking up.  At our house, it begins showing before the daffodils and tulips.  During the spring it grows tall and strong, and when summer hits, it sends out twisting, curling scapes that will eventually carry a large, round, seedy blossom at the end (if not cut down).  By late July or early August, garlic is ready to be harvested and cured.  Right now, we have a bushel basket of garlic in our dining room, complete with scapes and stems and some flowers.  I held out some of the best bulbs for planting in October, but the rest will be used in soups, stir fries, sauces, and more.  Glorious, delicious, pungent garlic.

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Eggs, Dried

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How to preserve eggs is a big question for those with chickens.  Chickens will lay and lay and lay throughout spring and summer, then when they molt, they will stop.  My chickens lay steadily for about 7 months, during which time we have more eggs than we can use (even giving one to the day every day!).  We give away tons of eggs.  And then fall hits, and the chickens quit, and we have to buy eggs.  Now, there are some great egg producers in our area, and they sell fabulous eggs.  But if our chickens lay more than we can use, why can't we save some of those for later?


One way to preserve eggs is to dry them*.  (You can also pickle them and freeze them, but I haven't tried either of those methods, yet.)

First, I took 8 eggs and blended them well.


Then, I poured those blended eggs onto plates -- my dehydrator sheets do not have ridges or raised edges that would keep the egg from dripping off.

I set the dehydrator to 145 degrees and let it work overnight.  When I opened it the next morning, I had three plates with very dry egg.

 

I chipped the egg off the plates (that was easier than I thought it would be), and then put the crumbles back in the (clean, dry) blender.

I blended the dried egg to a fine powder and put it in a jar.  Eight dried eggs filled about half a pint jar.


Dried eggs.  Easy.  The big question, however, is: how can they be used?  Obviously, sunny-side up is out of the question, as is hard-boiled, but I hear they can be used in baking and for scrambles.  So I tried a scramble.

Mix one tablespoon of dried egg with two tablespoons warm water and mix.

Put the mixture in a hot frying pan and scramble.

 

Add a little salt or other seasoning, and give them a try.

Verdict: the eggs do not taste exactly like fresh eggs -- they are a little gritty.  But with seasonings and/or sauces and/or vegetables added, they make a passable scramble -- a great way to preserve some of your eggs for winter when the hens aren't laying, or for taking on camping trips.
Store them in a sealed container in a cool, dry location.

*A reminder to be careful with the eggs you choose.  Eggs can carry a variety of food-borne pathogens, so only dehydrate eggs you trust, and keep the temperature appropriately high.

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Winter Improvements

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It's a still, quiet morning.  The snow outside is dampening the sounds of the few cars on the road, and the birds have left off singing their spring songs.  It seems a good day to look back on the three major improvements we made on our house last summer and autumn to make it more winter efficient. 

Our house is heated entirely by electric radiant heat from the ceiling.  Electric radiant ceiling heat is delightful -- it feels like the summer summer sun when you can turn it up high and not worry about the cost of electricity, monetarily or environmentally.  We worry about both.  And so last summer and autumn, we began to look into improvements* that could be made on our older, not-quite-perfectly-sealed house.  Here are the three things we did:

1. Make window inserts.

I constructed a couple of window inserts using wood, wood glue, and plastic window sheeting.  I hope over the years to perfect the method and build a solid squadron of these that can be placed in the windows to help with the drafts.  A table saw was the only tool needed.


2. Install programmable thermostats.

Each room in our house has its own thermostat.  Five of the rooms we only heat on an as-used basis (like the guest room), but the others we like to heat at least enough to take off some of the winter chill.  Over the summer I installed programmable thermostats in five rooms, so the heat would be up only when needed, and we wouldn't have to remember to turn it down again.
Until I replaced the thermostats, we still had the original (beautiful) thermostats that came with the house when it was built in 1959.  I far prefer the look of them -- vintage and bronze -- but there are times when one must make sacrifices!  The ones I installed look a little better than I thought they would, and they are quite easy to use.


3. Put a wood stove insert into our fireplace.

We have a lovely fireplace.  It faces our living room, and backs into the kitchen.  We have used it in past winters, but it has not been an efficient source of heat, allowing a fair portion of it to escape up the chimney, and requiring quite a bit of work to keep going on a cold evening.  It never really heated much of the living room, and the back wall to the kitchen rarely warmed enough to make a difference.  So this fall we *finally* (after years of waiting and saving) had the Pacific Energy Super insert installed. 
I admit that this was not my first (or even second) choice of inserts, but the size and setup of our fireplace was small, and this was the best insert that would fit.  We had a few problems with its initial installation, but after getting a replacement firebox and fan, it works wonderfully well.  When left burning for a full day or longer, it heats the living room, the kitchen (via radiant heat from the brick wall), and a fair portion of the upstairs; and even if it doesn't burn through the whole night, there is often enough heat in the brick and the insert to keep the downstairs warm enough that the electric heat doesn't have to turn on.  It keeps us cozy!

Making these improvements have vastly decreased our electricity usage (of course, a mild winter doesn't hurt), and they should pay themselves off within just a few years.  Plus, they make us a little bit less dependent on the big energy suppliers and the accompanying market fluctuations.

*We did look into solar this past summer, but the upfront costs were prohibitive, and we don't have enough property for a windmill.

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