in December 2016, shortly after the passing of our dear friend we started to consider making a move to the country. their farmhouse was on the market for sale. this place being one of the first places that felt like home for aj throughout his college years, and where I had experienced my first taste of the driftless

I’m always a fan of handmade gifts. I love crafting something special for the folks in my life. I seriously turn into a holiday elf come the last week of November. I love making gifts that are consumable, meaning they are used up and then done, little to no waste.

I truly love the holiday season. I love creating rituals and traditions with our family. Making the little moments special, magical. I’m not a huge fan over the overconsumption and commercialization of the holiday season so I love the idea of bringing the outdoors in and repurposing things around the home for decorating for the holidays.

I’ve turned Ball® Canning little quilted jars we used for jams this season into magical sparkling candleholder with the addition of a beeswax tealight, and turned the Ball® Canning Fluted Jar we canned our pears in into flower vases + drinking glasses.

this the beginning of a conversation i’ve been wanting to have here on my blog for a while. about consumerism, about fast fashion, about my relationship to clothing, about building my capsule wardrobe. it’s a sorted past me and consumerism, but I feel the story that hides in my shame is the one that should be told.

for the grower + garden lover in your life

this is not hyperbole, this is my favorite recipe yet as a ball® canning ambassador. unsweetened, cinnamon spiced pears.

Autumn is a time for the harvest, gathering up all the literal fruits of your labor, and storage is a big part. This week, a goal of mine is to finally clear out the drying rack, garble herbs into glass jars. Harvest whatever herbs + vegetables are still alive in the garden.

a delicious, heart warming apple cider recipe with fall, infused with herbal goodness, brought to you with the help of Ball Canning.

I want to begin by saying that wherever you are in your journey with schooling, my hats off to you. There are no easy decisions to make it you have children in covid. Our family made the decision that is best for us at this moment, and I completely anticipate it shifting and changing as the year goes on.

From garden to table, let’s talk tomatillos. At the end of summer we collected pounds of tomatillos, but we haven’t planted a seed. The old owner of our home grew most of her food on our small .6 acres of land in town.

Happy August to you. While fall feels like its right around the corner, we are still enjoying garden harvest and waiting for a spell of hot weather to ripen our tomatoes. Today, i’m talking pickles. disclaimer: this is not a sugar free recipe, but it is low sugar, with only 1/4 cup. while we don’t eat a lot of sugar, I was curious to explore the world of pickling

One of the values I hold in the kitchen, among trying to use fresh, organic, and local ingredients when I can, is sugar free eating. It started when the kiddos were little, I made almost all their baby food and when we started feeding them solids, we decided not to introduce them to sugar

it’s peach season! before putting up some peaches, i’m making some simple, naturally sweetened summer treats.

first up, it’s peach + pecan baked oatmeal for breakfast. not too much writing here, as the frenzy of summer has kicked in, you can find the recipe below!!!

it feels like so much life has happened in the past six months, that even though things have slowed time is moving as fast as ever. black raspberries ripening on the vine is one of those signals to my heart and mind that we are nearing the midpoint of summer.

I am so excited to share this post with you. Food preservation is something we can use to bring our garden harvests of summer and early fall into treats to nourish and share in the winter months. The act of canning is preparing + storing food like our ancestors did. It is a return to traditional ways to tap into our own resilience and lost knowledge.

wild rose is a powerful medicine for the heart especially during these time of social upheaval and processing the shadow parts that exist within ourselves and our society. people are processing deep emotional and ancestral trauma, which feels heavy.

Even before we were deep in social isolation, I’d been working to make the choices for our home good for our bodies and the planet too. Now that we are spending so much time in our home, i’m being called to make my choices for more intentional. Our homes are more than four walls, they are the spaces that shelter and nurture us and we are influenced emotionally and physically by what is around us.

It’s finally feeing like spring here in the midwest. For me, that means it time to shake of the heaviness of winter. I spring clean my house, why not nourish my body too. One of my favorite ways to incorporate spring cleaning for my body is spring tonics

dandelion is such a welcome sight in our yard come spring. sometimes I have to pause for a moment and remember that unfortunately, many people abhor the sight of this sunny flower in their yards.

dandelion has been unfairly demonized and is actually a wonderfully resilient, nourishing plant available to most people.

In these times of global pandemic, in our home, we’ve found it important to try not to overspend, over shop for items and hoard out of fear. This pandemic has put the economy, societies and the whole world on pause and in a state of uncertainty. It has asked us to reexamine our lifestyles and what is essential in our day to day. I find myself struggling because on one hand I feel very grateful that my family is healthy, that my extended family is safe, and that we are preparing our gardens to grow our food and sustain us through these uncertain times. I feel very grateful that we still have access to food and supplies, and that this time has brought us closer together as family unit but people across this country and the globe are facing illness, lack of healthcare, job loss, and death and economic inequalities are being exacerbated by the virus and its effects.