Filthy Farm Girl

On a recent to trip to my favorite State, Vermont, we attended the local farmers market in Dorset. The produce was amazing. A local farmer had brewed up a concoction of garlic honey, that was wonderful. We ate it with some local vermont cheddar and cut up apples. It would also be a nice addition to a homemade salad dressing. Very easy to make, just add tons of pureed garlic to raw local honey and don't forget to refridgerate.
Another great find was the eye catching Filthy Farm Girl Soap. http://shop.filthyfarmgirl.com/ . I let each of my girls choose a soap, my eldest chose the Rose Butter and my youngest the Muddy Puppy, the later not being the best smelling since it is designed for a dog, however they did reassure us that it was safe for all. So at bath time the wonderful smells of the Rose Butter soap mingled with the Muddy Puppy which had a strong resemblence to Tee tree oil, perfect for a dog, not a three year old!!!!!!

Designer Organic Children's Clothing

My friend Anthia has introduced me to so many wonderful lines of organic children's clothing. Anthia has a children's website www.urthchild.com. She sells various lines of organic clothing and she says they are becoming incredibly popular. I think going forward people are going to become more and more concerned with the toxins their children are being exposed to; children's clothing, as well as adults clothing, carries residues of many different pesticides and fungicies. The organic clothing that I have featured are "designer" so their prices are "designer", however there are many different children's clothing companies that carry less expensive options.

I love these grey organic wool dresses for the winter, they are available at www.whittengrey.com/

Another great organic children's designer is Sarah Waldo. I bought these sweet little cream organic cotton jackets in the Spring for my girls to wear. www.sarahwaldo.com/

I have not yet bought anything from the Wovenplay line, but will as it is just dreamy. The designer/owner Katherine Edmonds has done a line of "modern imaginative playclothes" that any child would just love. For my three year old that is just addicted to ballet clothing (has never seen or been to a ballet) this would just be ideal. Her fantasy wardrobe could become a reality. I especially love their tights that have the criss cross ribbon effect, true ballerina style. www.wovenplay.com

Healthy Almond Nut Cookies

Why almonds

Almonds are high in phosphorus which is good for bones and teeth. They have more calcium that any other nut. They also have more fiber than any other nut. They contain more magnesium than spinach.

Try to eat organic almonds as nuts have high levels of pesticides.

Another reason to use almonds instead of peanuts is because of higher levels of aflatoxin, this is a carcinogenic mold that flourishes in the shell of peanuts. If you must choose peanuts choose Valencia peanuts as they are grown in a dryer climate where mold is less likely.

Lucy, my 7 year old daughter, and I experimented with a variation of the traditional peanut butter cookie recipe. We don't typically keep peanut butter in the house, much prefer almond butter so used the almond butter instead of peanut butter. I buy the whole foods "365" brand of organic smooth almond butter, it is in a glass jar. I also added chopped up organic raw almonds to the recipe.
So here is the recipe, try to use organic ingredients where you can:


Almond butter Cookies
Heat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit
1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
one egg
1 cup of almond butter
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt, I use salted butter so leave this out.
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup chopped raw almonds.

Beat butter and add 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar
Beat for about 2 minutes, then add 1 cup of almond butter
Beat for a further 2 minutes
Then add egg and beat until well mixed.
Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a separate bowl mix 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. If you want to use the salt now would be the time to add it.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter/egg/sugar mixture and beat until combined. once combined add 1 cup chopped raw almonds.

I used 2 cookie trays for this mixture it makes about 24 cookies, 12 on each baking tray. I line the baking trays with unbleached parchment paper.
Then take pieces of the cookie dough, you are going to make balls with the dough, about 1 1/2" in diameter. Then push down gently with a fork, place with about an inch between then as they spread.
Place in heated oven and cook for about 10-12 minutes until just browned, do not over brown.

The ultimate chicken coop

Wanting to keep chickens, this mod chicken coop is a must, it is the Airstream of chicken coops, love the design and love the colors. "The new eglu cube is the ideal way to keep up to 10 chickens in a town or country garden. It has slide out dropping trays, hose clean surfaces, twin walled insulation and no maintenance. The eglu cube makes is easy to keep a larger number of hens in your garden and leaves you with more time to enjoy the pleasures of owning chickens. The eglu cube is a really flexible chicken house, whether you want to keep 5, 6 or even 10 chickens, you can customise it to suit your needs.". I also love the way you can just spray it down and how it has all these trays to help with easy cleaning.
http://www.omlet.co.uk/products_services/products_services.php?view=Eglu%20Cube

Daylesford Organic

This past summer instead of spending my days tending our vegetable garden I decided that it was time to visit my home country South Africa. I had not been back for 6 years and my youngest daughter had not yet met many of our family members. We broke the long trip and stayed in London for three nights on the way there. At the hotel I read an article about an organic restaurant, "Daylesford Organic" on Pimlico Road. It was our first stop after taking the girls to Buckingham Palace. I was so overwhelmed by the place, I had finally found something that was "perfect". They have two shops on pimlico, one is the "The Garden" shop and the other is the store where you can buy incredible vegtables, fruit, pastries, bread, meat ect... and then upstairs they have a restaurant. We had the most fantastic meal, all done so simply and it tasted out of this world. They also sell amazing kitchen wear and books that i could have spent all day reading if my youngest daughter had not been ready to tear everything off the counters. The design is just beautiful, simple but powerful, take note of the organic pastries to the right, not everything organic has to look "homemade".The shop is almost entirely done in Carrara marble, clean and cool. http://www.daylesfordorganic.com/

My husband and two girls outside "The Garden" shop, they were selling flats of organic lettuce and other organic vegetables, all so beautifully presented.

Waiting for our meal!!!!