General/Miscellaneous

Reduce, Reuse, Wrap (in Beeswax!) 6

dakota pharmgirlMarch 20, 2021March 11, 20266 Comments

It's been a continuing journey to reduce our family's waste footprint over the years - at times really difficult making that choice of consciousness over convenience - particularly with a large family.

We've tried to be aware of our food choices and their impact on water (see What's Your Water Footprint?), our health and beauty choices and their impact on plastics and packaging (switching to bar soaps, shampoos, conditioners), as well as household items like Ziploc bags, cleaners, and laundry detergent (switching to silicone bags and eco laundry sheets).

We're by no means close to model eco-citizens but we keep slowly plugging away at it, hoping to keep lowering our impact.

The Tale of the Farmer’s Daughter 7

dakota pharmgirlAugust 5, 2017March 20, 20267 Comments

As I sit in my garden quietly content after checking on the upcoming bounty of fresh veg, nibbling away at a few plucked snap peas and cherry tomatoes, I wonder about my ties to soil and the urge to have my hands in the dirt.

Where does this come from? Why such a strong sense of connection to this voluntary toil I do with willingness, hope, and joy every year when so often the effort is way more than the output?

Or is it something deeper in us? Some cellular level DNA thing that is built in over time?

I recently had reason to ponder this further when, out of the blue, an unserious web search looking at my family's genealogy produced some surprising but reaffirming revelations. What I found makes for a great story and ties into what this blog is all about despite the fact that I'm not talking about food this time.

A Different Kind of Vacation: Farm Stays

dakota pharmgirlJuly 31, 2016March 19, 2026Leave a comment

Remember my post on making cheese a couple weeks back where I said I dreamed of having goats in my backyard to make my own supply of yummy goat cheese? At the time I wrote that, it was definitely wishful thinking.

BUT, guess what I just learned about in the past couple weeks?? Farm Stays! The next best thing!

I first came across an article on farm stays while skimming our Mid-Atlantic Region AAA travel magazine about a month ago. And then, while visiting my parents in Kansas a couple weeks back, we just happened to watch an agricultural news show that featured a segment on farm stays.

I felt unseen forces were speaking to me =). So of course I had to investigate further.

Whistle While You Work

dakota pharmgirlJune 19, 2016March 19, 2026Leave a comment

Digression alert! I'm taking a break from talking about food. I really like listening to music while preparing dinner or tackling one of my baking experiments on the weekend so let's do something different and talk about what kind of music keeps you movin' and groovin' while making food!

I love when people share clips of what they enjoy so I can check them out too, and I like to explore roads a little less traveled than just what's on the radio.

I'd love to hear about what you like to whistle to while you work!

So take a break and take a listen.....

If music be the food of love, play on.
- William Shakespeare

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What’s Your Water Footprint? 9

dakota pharmgirlFebruary 5, 2016March 19, 20269 Comments

Given the recent news from Flint, Michigan and the tragedy of their completely unacceptable water quality, I've had water on my mind lately. What a precious resource we take for granted and don't even think about unless it's undrinkable (Michigan) or unavailable (California), right??

A couple months ago, I had ordered a book called the 'Waste Free Kitchen Handbook'. At the time, I was really just trying to find suggestions to reduce the amount of waste our family produces (beyond composting and feeding veggie scraps to our guinea pigs, rabbit, and chickens).

What’s your gut telling you??

dakota pharmgirlNovember 6, 2015March 20, 2026Leave a comment

A couple weeks back I attended a continuing education program called 'The Pharmacy in Your Kitchen: An Overview of Medical and Medicinal Foods' given by Dr. Michael Lara. It was a fascinating all-day presentation, and I am hoping to share a couple posts regarding the valuable information shared that day.

Did you know your gut contains more than 10 trillion microorganisms?!
Don't you want to know what they're doing??

Open Letter to My Hot Flash 1

dakota pharmgirlSeptember 26, 2015March 19, 20261 Comment

Since I'm new to blogging, I've read a bunch of advice books and webpages on getting started, what plug-ins and web hosts to use, how to create a name and logo, and all that jazz. All of them advise you to find your niche and to not write about a bunch of disparate things. But they also say to write what you know.

While the topic this week is certainly something I know, it's quite a bit 'off road' from what I expect to be writing about. But it's been like an irritating bug bite in my Evernote files - I wrote it just to get it out of my head one night and now, quite frankly, I'm posting it just to stop looking at it. I'll go back to my regular programming of recipes and guilt tripping you into eating more veggies next week.

Many parents thoroughly enjoyed M.blazoned's viral post that circulated all over Facebook this summer entitled 'Open Letter to My Kids About Summer'. If you have not yet busted a gut over that one, stop now and go there - click on the link and read it. It's well worth the laughs even if you don't have kids and despite the fact that summer has come and gone.