Things of Late...

First homemade pumpkin lattes of the season!

Studying for my master herbalist course with my cup of black coffee

Pecan pumpkin donuts - loved them! You must try them.

First try at gluten free bread...

Listening to John McArthur speak on Isaiah.

Second time chicken slaughtering at the Parkers!

Mia's first tooth that I had the pleasure to pull.

Second recipe of gluten free bread.

Our version of Sunny Baudelaire.

In Christ,
~Micaela Marques

A New Venture

That's right! I enrolled into Vintage Remedies' Clinical Master Herbalist program back in May. After six months, I can definitely say it has expanded my knowledge and love for all things nutrition and herbal. I have learned much through this course so far, and I'm excited for these next months of more. 

In Christ,
~Micaela Marques

Life On A Farm

Life on a farm has its stereotypes.

Overalls, for example. Chickens scattered all over the place. Fresh milk from a brown-eyed cow. Lots of grasshoppers. Rows and rows of vegetables.

Earlier this year I took, what I thought, was a one-trip visit to a local farm called Home Sweet Farm. This farm does what is called a workshare. This is where you can visit the farm weekly and do whatever work is needed to be done with the crops that week in exchange for a share of the crop. One of the workshare volunteers is a clinical master herbalist, a certification for which I am currently studying (more on this later). A good friend of mine knows this, and so invited me to lunch/lecture on nutrition at the farm by this herbalist.

I got to experience picking kale and collard greens for the first time, and got to hear a lecture on nutrition from a master herbalist. I loved every bit of it! I told my parents how much I enjoyed it, spoke with Mr. Brad and Mrs. Jenny, and have been volunteering there for about three months now.

Farming isn't everything I thought it would be. Sometimes the chickens have a scare and then don't lay eggs for a week. Perhaps putting butternut squashes in the cooler results in them going bad quicker. Maybe not staking tomatoes isn't the greatest idea. If you don't put up the electric fence, the horses may just get into the kale. This is what I love about a farm: it paints a true picture of life.Things don't always go the way we plan or expect. It is a sure reminder of God's sovereignty. 

And in between all the ups and downs, we sure manage to laugh about it all.

As the weeks go on, you will probably see more and more of the farm itself. Stay tuned!

In Christ,
~Micaela

Another Juice Recipe

So, I am ever-so-slightly obsessed with my juicer right now. I love making fresh juice in the mornings, especially this one.

Now I love to make it, but then I remember that I have to clean the juicer afterwards. You know how that is. You have to take apart the entire machine, scrub every piece (and there's a lot of them), dry it, and then put it back together. While a tedious process, it is worth it. I've learned to love cleaning the juicer because I'm so grateful for the juice it presses. 

The one pictured has a combination of beets, celery, lemon, swiss chard (from the garden!), lettuce (also from the garden), and an apple.

 I just love beets right now. Not only are they gorgeous (I want a skirt in this color), but they are very good for you. Plus, if you throw them in a gluten free cake, people might just think you served them red velvet cupcakes.

In Christ,
~Micaela Marques

How To Make Your Own... Kombucha

My first exposure to kombucha was through my mom, who had found it at a healthfood store while she was visiting a friend. She came home raving about how delicious it was and what a great health drink. We found it again at some stores here and began buying it. But, as any kombucha fan knows, we didn't just buy one. We bought another. And another. And another. And so on, until we put a slot in our budget for them.

One of my new favorites--made right here in Houston!

Just kidding, though they truly are expensive.  Not a wallet-friendly habit to keep.

We told all our friends about it. Then a dear friend from church mentioned that she has been brewing it herself for years, and that she would give us what we needed to get started. She informed us on the entire process and gave us...

THE SCOBY!

Five years later, we have the same SCOBY and have been enjoying the fruit of it. At first we all thought the SCOBY was the grossest thing we had ever seen and nobody wanted to be in charge of it. We took turns, but I ended up claiming it. I don't think it's gross now and I love making it.

Believe it or not, I'm continually tweaking the process of how I do it! I'll share with you what I do, and a variety of ways to make it.


Materials needed:
- a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast (can be purchased online or email me and I'll send you one)
- clean water (I've heard Reverse Osmosis is best, which is what I use)
- organic tea (green, black, oolong, or a combo of them)
- organic evaporated cane juice or regular sugar (more on this later)
- two glass containers

The process:
Using a medium sized pot, bring a gallon of water to boil. Turn off and remove from heat.

My favorite tea to use right now!

Stir in one cup of sugar and add 4-5 tea bags. Let steep for at least 15 minutes. Remove tea bags with clean tongs.

Put the lid of the pot of sweetened tea and let it cool overnight. It must be room temperature to continue. It will kill the SCOBY if it's too hot.

Be sure your glass container is clean and dry. Carefully pour the now room temperature tea into the container.

Optional: Add about one cup of store-bought or home-grown kombucha (not flavored).

Add the SCOBY, also called the culture (make sure your hands are clean!).

Cover the container with a cloth or unbleached coffee filter and secure with a rubber band.

Keep your container somewhere warm (around 70 degrees F), out of direct sunlight, and at least several feet from anything else you're culturing, like yogurt or kefir. I like to keep mine in the pantry, at the bottom shelf. 


Brew 7 to 30 days. Like any fermented edible, the longer it sits, the more fermented and bubbly it will become (and much less sugar). Right now, my favorite is 21 days. 


A new culture (also called the "baby") will form on top. This is perfectly normal and will happen every time. 

When the kombucha is to your liking, Remove the culture. Remember to save some Kombucha for your next batch before adding fruit juice or ginger.

At this point you can pour it into an airtight containers(s) of your choice,  put it in your refrigerator and begin drinking it, or do a second fermentation. Even though the culture is removed, the natural bacteria and yeast will continue to eat the sugar and create gas in an airtight container. This gives kombucha a soda-like fizz.

If you choose to do the second fermentation, keep your kombucha (without SCOBY) in a glass airtight container at room temperature for another 2 to 5 days. It doesn't have to hide in the pantry at this point. Open the lid once a day during this time so that the pressure doesn't build up too much. When you open a kombucha that has done a second fermentation, I recommend caution in case it has lots of pressure built up. There will be very little sugar left in your Kombucha after this process is complete.

Refrigerate your kombucha after the second fermentation.

Important things to note:
Cleanliness is key here. Your SCOBY will mold and you will have to throw it away if any bad bacteria gets into it.  

Brown wispy yeast tails are normal. They are a byproduct of the fermentation. If you ever seen green mold, you must throw it all out and get a new SCOBY.

Every few batches the SCOBY will "have a baby," which can be used as compost, trash, or given to a friend.

Organic sugar. This can be a bit tricky. We do buy it, and most of the time I use it, but it also gets expensive. It is unbleached, unlike regular white sugar. I recognize the importance of using it since it's what the SCOBY eats, but I can't always afford it. Especially considering how much kombucha we drink. So, make your choice.  


DO NOT use any metal utensils when handling the kombucha or SCOBY! This will also kill it. It's okay to use a metal pot to boil the tea, but don't use metal tongs or spoons or strainers for the actual kombucha.

Continuous Brewing Method: Once you have fermented the kombucha to your preferred level, all you have to do is replace that which you drink with fresh sugar/tea mix. Adding new sugar and tea may be done each day, every other day, or the third day. An advantage to The Continuous Brewing Method is the optimum health benefit of all the nutrients are readily availabe. No need to remove the SCOBY, no need to transfer from jar to jar, and mold is far less likely to form since you are simply maintaining a consistent established ferment.  

That's it! I hope you get started on it someday. It's not hard, and the probiotic benefits are amazing.

In Christ,

~Micaela 

How To Make Your Own... Vanilla Extract

Material #1: Vodka

Material #2: Vanilla beans

Material #3: A bottle with a lid.

There are many strong voices who say you must cut the beans into pieces, while others say it doesn't matter. I slit my beans down the center, exposing the insides.  I squeezed them inside the jar, poured vodka until it covered them, closed the lid, and put it in the pantry next to my brewing kombuchas. Be sure to put your vanilla somewhere dark, or at least in a dark bottle.

For the first week, shake the bottle vigorously once a day. By day three, the extract should be darker.
Weeks 2, 3, and 4, shake the bottle a few times per week.
Week 5, you may now use the vanilla extract! Most people like to wait until the second month, but it is fine to begin using it at this point. Top up the bottle with vodka if you expose any vanilla beans.

This vanilla can be used after 5 weeks, even though the extraction will continue for 6 months. When the extraction is finished, the vanilla will continue to mature indefinitely like a fine wine.

As a side note, these vanilla beans are fresh from Dubai, where I bought them at the old spice souks. The man who sold them to me, after we haggled for a while, said they were from Madagascar and were (imagine a thick Indian accent), "the best quality". I'm no vanilla-bean expert, but these are truly the best and freshest that I've ever seen.

Now, to wait for two months.  We'll see how it turns out.


In Christ,
~Micaela

Yogurt

I think I may have found my new favorite yogurt.

We visited my sister's, Nicole, new living quarters in Bay City, TX. In addition to our usual talking 'til all hours of the night and eating yummy food, we walked around Bay City's downtown. Among the many stores was a healthfood store, which, of course, I had to stop in.  When I saw it sitting in the fridge section of a local healthfood store, I got curious. Besides homemade yogurt, can it get much better than this?  Dreaming Cow certainly knows how to make their yogurt. Grass fed, non-homogenized milk and no refined sugars! It's a thinner yogurt, but so smooth and tasty.

Check out their site; see if there are any sellers near you. You won't regret trying it!

In Christ,
~Micaela