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Winter Philosophy

At this writing, we are experiencing a Polar Vortex dipping into the middle of the U.S. It brings us some of the lowest temperatures and wind chills in recorded history.

We have taken the steps we can to prepare:

  • Check the propane level for the house and the generator
  • Close off the porch
  • Stock up on birdseed to help our feathered friends
  • Dig out our warmest clothes
  • Make sure the vehicles are full of gas

Like many of you, we prefer long days of warm sunshine, being outside working in the garden or mowing the grass, and sipping cold iced tea in the afternoon shade. We don’t like to be cold or to shovel snow when it piles up in the driveway or drifts in front of the garage door.

Some people cope with the cold dark winter by moving south to warmer weather, but we hunker down and stay put.

There is also a beauty to winter we must not forget. Winter gives us time to do some of those inside chores we put off until after gardening season. It offers us a time to rest from the hard labor that often comes with outside work.

In the midst of the vigilance required to stay safe in bitter cold and snow, while we wait for the sun to drift further north on it’s daily rounds, let’s remember to be grateful.

Here’s a short list to get you started:

  • Long evenings to read a book
  • The beauty of pure white snow pouring a cleansing blanket on the brown landscape
  • When fog freezes on the trees turning everything into a wonderland
  • The blessing of a warm house

What are you grateful for?

Instapot Peasant Stew

Last Sunday, I was hungry for Boeuf Bourguignon.

What is this fancy French sounding dish? It is a beef stew in red wine made somewhat famous by Julia Child. The stew is simmered for 3-4 hours in the oven, developing deep rich flavor.

Before I go further, I must make a disclaimer. For those of you following our adventures at Five Feline Farm, you know we have significantly reduced our consumption of red meat. However, when we do choose to eat beef, we go all out on something high quality, delicious and special.

Back to the Boeuf Bourguignon.

It was already 4:30 PM and not wanting to wait until 8:00PM to eat, there were two choices: make something different or find a short cut.

I made up an Instapot shortcut.

Since I wasn’t following a recipe, I also decided call my version Peasant Stew.

Peasant Stew

1 pound beef, cut into 1 inch cubes (use any cut that has some fat marbled throughout, I happened to have a couple of strip steaks in the freezer)

1 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup minced onion

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 cups beef stock

1 bay leaf

2 Tbsp tomato paste

3 large carrots, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch slices

2 Tbsp flour

salt and pepper to taste

1 pound buttom mushrooms, quartered

6 Tbsp butter, divided

2 tsp neutral oil such as canola or grapeseed

Heat oil in Instapot using the brown/saute setting. Add beef in single layer and brown all sides. Work in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the pot. Remove beef and set aside. Add onion and garlic, saute for 2 minutes or until fragrant and beginning to turn transluscent. Add flour, stirring for about 1 minute until browned. Add red wine and continue cooking for 3 minutes to release alcohol. Add tomato paste, carrots and browned beef to pot and then beef stock. Make sure the stock just covers the beef and carrots, using more or less than 2 cups as necessary. Add bay leaf.

Attach cover and set steam vent to closed. Use stew setting or manual with high pressure for 35 minutes.

While stew is cooking, melt 2 Tblsp butter in skillet and saute mushrooms until browned. Work in batches to avoid crowding if needed.

After pressure has released, remove and discard bay leaf. Remove beef and carrots, then set pot to brown/saute to boil broth. Once reduced by half, add remaining butter by tablespoons until sauce is silky. Stir in beef, carrots and mushrooms and stir to coat.

This is best served with a crusty bread and green salad.

Bon Appetit!

For more recipes like this, check out Simply Delicious, a memoir of cooking.

How Do You Treat Your Skin?

You have probably heard that your skin is the largest organ in your body. It is responsible for protecting your delicate insides from the elements. That’s a big job. Taking good care of your skin can help protect the rest of you.

Did you know your skin is porous?

This means what you put on your skin can be absorbed into your body. In fact, there are several medicines that are topically applied. Everything from analgesics to birth control to nicotine to high end narcotics can be delivered to your system through a patch or a cream rubbed on your skin.

What about your lips?

Lips are skin too. Not only does the skin of your lips absorb what you put on them but you are likely licking your lips taking in whatever you have applied as a protectant.

So what is the point of all this?

Take a look at a tube of national brand lip balm. Do you see an ingredient list? No. If you want to know what you are smearing on your lips, you have to search the internet and even then, it is not easy to locate. When you do find the list, the first ingredient is petroleum. It then progresses through a number of ingredients or chemical compounds that are difficult to pronounce.

Our Answer.

Here at Five Feline Farm, we take a more simple approach in our lip balm known as BEEk Balm. We use beeswax for durability and protection, sweet almond oil for soothing and moisturizing, and Vitamin E oil for heathy skin support. Then we add pure honey or food grade essential oil for flavor.

That’s it. Four ingredients. Our list fits on the tiny label of a lip balm tube.

You can take this one small step to living a more pure life. Get yours here today.

How To Do Anything

I walked 250 miles.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that number show up on my Fitbit app. That is a long way. It’s like walking from St. Louis to Indianapolis.

Or Fort Worth to Houston.

Or Sherman’s march to the sea from Atlanta to Savannah.

I didn’t think about walking that far. I had no specific plan to go 250 miles on foot. I didn’t sign up for a marathon or even a 5K. I wasn’t training for any long distance event. But there it was in black and white.

250 miles.

Here’s the catch: I didn’t do it all at once. I did it one step at a time over a period of time. Day after day, putting one foot in front of the other, going about my daily activitiy. Some days I moved more than others. Occasionally I was on my feet almost all day and logged a lot of steps. Most of the time it was a few thousand steps. But it all added up.

Seeing that number made me think. I realized I had completed a significant distance even though it took a while.

The same thing is true in building this Farm business or doing anything of value. It’s hard work and sometimes it goes slow. But if I do at least one thing toward the goal every day, over time it will bear fruit. One day I will look back over 250 tasks and find that a lot has been accomplished.

The key is to be patient in the process. Continue to do each task as it comes even when the goal is far off. Even when it feels like nothing is getting done. In those dark days, I just have to put one foot in front of the other.

250 miles is walked one step at a time.

If you enjoy our blog, you will love our podcasts. To listen on itunes podcast app or google play, just search for Farm Chatter. To find our online Mercantile, click here.