East Texas Heritage Homestead

As a family farm advocate, I am often asked for advice about the process of transitioning to clean foods from our processed foods world. It has been my experience that, and if I could do it all over again, I would have started with drinks and grab-and-eat foods to have on hand. Because of our busy daily lives there is little time to make this type of adjustment or we fail and completely give up. Simply jumping into cheesemaking, sourdough bread making, fermented foods recipes, and more caused a lot of waste without good solid planning. I've heard others say something similar.

 As I began this wonderful journey for the health of my family, the environment and community around us, I found I was always behind and there were days we had to just "go get something". A few months into this process, yes I'm stubborn and held out a few months before giving into what I should have done, I began to focus on having ready made quick grab-and-go clean foods and experimented with several types of drinks to replace all of the commercial sodas, teas, coffee, etc. that our family was addicted to through the world's influence. This one step should have been my first and relieved much of the time pressure and burden of making a smooth transition to a better and healthier lifestyle. 

Some you may want to consider:

Ginger beer sodas - a much healthier choice

Fermented lemonades and berry drinks

Raw Milk Yogurt smoothies 

Fermented Salsas and other condiments

Veggie chips -- okra being one of my favorites, but kale, sweet potato, carrot, etc. were all hits too!

 ...just to name a few!

 At East Texas Heritage Homestead, we are dedicated to setting others up for success. For instance with regard to teaching clean food living, we have developed a step-by-step process in the form of the old "party" platform or like a "bee". We schedule canning and jelly making workshops during the summer months, soap making at cooler times of the year as a way to get together as a community helping each other through the process and get things really done for you to take home either finished products or with the majority of the preparation for processing already done. At the same time sharing our experiences over tea on the back porch or wandering around the prayer gardens or a friendly visit in the pasture with the livestock and pets. It's a friendly environment to help others learn the lost and forgotten techniques of life on the prairie and plains. 

As the season begins be sure to watch for our upcoming events to get you started out on the right foot and get some help along the way.