Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there.  We had a great day with the Dad’s in our family.

I made brownies this morning and I thought I would share the recipe.

Coconut Flour Brownies

1 cup expeller-pressed, coconut oil
10 oz of Palm Sugar. (more or less)
4 pastured eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup Coconut flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Cocoa powder
1/2 cup Whole raw milk,
1 zucchini, shredded
pinch of real salt
Butter for greasing the pan.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8×8 baking dish with butter

2. Warm coconut oil and palm sugar in a sauce pan. When soft add cocoa and stir until blended. Add a pinch of salt and mix.

3. Beat the eggs and vanilla extract in a stand mixer until frothy.

4. Add in the zucchini, coconut flour, milk, and chocolate mixture beating with the mixer.

5. Pour into greased pan and cook in the oven for 40-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

I ate mine with raw cream and a glass of raw milk!

For those of you who are familiar with the issues around GMO’s and the King Amendment to the Farm Bill click here to sign the petition asking Congress to vote NO.  If you have not hear of this yet please read on!

I recently read this article by Dr.Mercola. 

This lead me to some research about the King Amendment to the Farm Bill.

I think this bill is misleading.  It states it will protect interstate commerce, but it seems to me that they are actually nullifying state’s rights and protecting Agribusiness.  Below is a quote from Congressman Steve King’s webpage.

“I am pleased that the Committee passed my amendment, the Protect Interstate Commerce Act (PICA) because states are entering into trade protectionism by requiring cost prohibitive production methods in other states,” said King. “PICA blocks states from requiring ‘free range’ eggs or ‘free range’ pork but covers all agriculture products listed in section 206 of the Agriculture Marketing Act of 1946. By 2014 California will require only ‘free range’ eggs be sold and the impact of their large market would compel producers in every other state to invest billions to meet the California standard of “means of production.” PICA will ensure that radical organizations like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and PETA are prohibited from establishing a patchwork of restrictive state laws aimed at slowly suffocating production agriculture out of existence.” Here is the link to his page. 

The quote uses free range eggs as an example of a state law that is prohibitive to interstate commerce, but you can replace that with anything agricultural including Genetically Modified Organisms’s (GMO’s).  I looked at section 206 of the Agriculture Marketing Act of 1946.  It is very vague and includes anything agricultural.  You can download and read it here.

Let’s disregard GMO’s for a minute and go with free range eggs.  Raising pastured free range hens can be challenging.  There are many predators that would love to make dinner of a laying hen and will go to great means to do so.  I raise a small flock of organic fed, free ranging hens who search for bugs in green grass.  I would imagine this is very difficult in an agribusiness.  I also know the eggs are the most nutritious with dark yellow/orange yolks. Click here for more information on nutrition and labeling of eggs.   This aside the definition of free range eggs according to the USDA is, “FREE RANGE or FREE ROAMING:
Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside. “  This definition only requires that a small opening be provided to the outside, but does not regulate how large the outside yard needs to be.  You can read more here if you are interested. My point is there is already a loop hole for free range eggs that has many customers looking for pastured eggs.  Yes some farms will need to make some changes to sell their eggs in California, but currently each state has the right to create their own laws. California’s citizens should have the right to decide what goes on in their own state.  If this laws federal law goes into effect it would open up more federal control on states.

Now coming back to GMO’s,  These are considered agricultural.  So by adding this amendment you could replace free range eggs with GMO’s.  This would make GMO labeling laws of any state ineffective.  GMO’s are a great concern to me.  Read here for the problems with GMO’s. My largest concern is that they can cross pollinate with NON-GMO crops.  This could contaminate our food with no turning back.  Read here for a recent incident of cross contamination.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter if you like or dislike free range eggs, GMO’s or anything agricultural.  The greater problem is this amendment potential federal law overriding states laws.  Where would this lead us?

That’s why I signed a petition to The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate.  Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name:

What else can you do?  Find out here.

I am super excited to be freezing green beans!  This is the first year we have planted enough green beans to have some to save.  We are growing purple, yellow, and traditional green beans.  The purple are fun, but they turn green when cooked so no one knows that they were purple unless they see them before they are cooked.  I think the purple are the sweetest and I like them just as well as the green.  The yellow beans are slightly more bitter than the green, but when they are mixed with the others you don’t notice.

What do you need to freeze green beans?

A pot of boiling water.

A bowl of ice water.

A way to dry the beans. (We used a salad spinner, but a towel would work too.)

Something to store them in.  Freezer bags or vacuum seal bags.

 To get started boil the beans for 3 minutes and then transfer to the bowl of ice water to cool them quickly.

Then dry them.

Store them and freeze.

We finished with 2 – 6 ounce packages and 1-8 ounce package of green beans.

Yum!

I had never heard of a garden sink until a friend offered up the idea.  It turns out that he had an extra sink hanging around too.  It was a double sink, but he was able to cut it in half.  This created another “garden project” for my wonderful husband!  The only purchases for this sink were some screws, a quart of paint, the coil hose, and a sprayer.  All the other materials were hanging around from other projects.  Once Kyle got the hard part done Charlotte and I got to work painting.  She picked out the color too!  I had a hanging basket hook that had been bent from a heavy hanging basket, which works great to hold the hose for easy spraying!  This sink has gotten some good use already!  I am thrilled to have it!

We are in Santa Clara for the 13th annual Wise Traditions Conference! This is our second conference to attend and I am so excited to be here. Thursday was the Chapter Leader Meeting and Lunch with some amazing speakers. Then we wrapped up the evening with the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund Fundraiser Dinner and we had a blast! The food was to live for (pun intended) and the speaker were inspiring to listen to!

We started off with Raw Milk Cheeses, Artisan Crackers, and Kombucha.  Then off to dinner..,

The appetizer was a Honey Glazed Bvaker’s Green Acres Mangalitsa Pork Belly with Grilled Pineapple and it just melted in my mouth.

The Entree was Slow Cooked US Wellness Meats Grass-Fed Beef Short Ribs Bolognese served over herbed polenta with roasted vegetables.

The desert was a Warm Apple Cobbler with Shiloh Farms Organic Native American Pecans, Bob’s Red Mill Coconut Flakes, Coconut and Almond Flour, and served topped with Straus Family Creamery Organic Vanilla Bean Ice Cream from Pastured Cows.  Daisy Brand Cultured Sour Cream was served on the side.

Also to drink were a nice Organic Hibiscus Tea from Starwest Botanicals and a hot tea from Organic Herbals that was served with Really Raw Honey.

The food was amazing and we very much enjoyed partaking in a meal that did we did not have to worry about the ingredients. Yet it was still prepared by a talented chef and we had no dishes to clean! We had one young lady who very much enjoyed the meal.