Wild Flour

As you may or may not know, I am fairly obsessed with baking, and my current focus is all about ridding our lives of processed food. This has been an exciting and fascinating journey thus far, including much discussion about goats...

...but more on that another time.

At first my quest, to produce better than I could buy, began with bread. I buy bread, so why not just make it myself? However, once you pull the thread it all begins to unravel, and then you start asking questions about what you are making it with...

Today lets talk about flour. White powdery stuff, simple right? actually not so....

I, like most people I imagine, have been in the habit of just buying which ever brand is cheapest. I was aware of a brand of flour produced by Eureka Mills, and I knew that it was stone ground (because it said so on the bag) but I actually had no real understanding of what that meant, or how significantly different the end product can be.

Allow me to break it down for you. Modern mills generally use a large number of steel rollers to grind their flour, this results in a huge amount of heat being generated. This heat basically destroys the beneficial enzymes within the wheat. Stone grinding flour is essentially the 'old-fashioned' way of doing it - with large stone grinders. However, fewer grinders made of stone, produce far less heat than many, made of steel. Thus, the protein in the wheat is not damaged before your body can use it, making this flour much better for you.

Modern flour processing also generally contains a bleaching step. While this has been purported to produce better baked goods, it is certainly not better for the health of your body! Happily, Eureka Mills does not bleach their flour and I, quite frankly, have never noticed a significant difference in my baked goods.

unbleached flour

Eureka Mills also source all of their wheat locally, with most being grown in the Southern Cape by farmers using sustainable farming practices. These include crop rotation with legumes, so that nitrogen fertilizers need to be used much less than they would on commercial wheat farms. Therefore, better soil = better wheat.

If you care about what you eat, and are going to go to the trouble of making baked goods yourself, then you are at liberty to control what you put in your food. As such, choosing good quality products makes the best sense, both in terms of your health and your purse! It is still cheaper to buy good quality flour and make your own bread, than to buy commercially-produced bread. And honestly, there is nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the house.....

Whenever God Closes a Door.....

Remember the scene from The Sound of Music where the reverend mother tells Maria that 'Whenever God closes a door, He opens a window."? Yes, it has become quite the cliche, but as is so often the case with cliches, it is also true.

Well, recently my favourite blog, Bonzai Aphrodite, came to an end. I know at this point you must be thinking that invoking cliches, God and The Sound of Music is a bit extreme if all I'm going to talk about is a blog....but oh what a blog it was! Is, actually, since the remarkable woman behind it has left it up as is, which is great because I constantly refer back to it. But I digress...

Anyway, when I read the farewell post I was literally in tears at my computer, I felt like I was loosing a best friend (don't judge me, good blogs can be like that!). I was bleak for days afterwards......

But now, a window has been opened (no internet related pun intended)

Enter My New Roots

Wow! what an amazing blog about whole foods, prepared in interesting, mindful ways. For the last year and half I have been really focused on diet with regards to weight loss. Now, as that phase (slowly) draws to a close, I am becoming really interested in nutrition, as opposed to just calories. What I love about the way the recipes are presented, is that Sarah (the author of the blog) introduces each of the major ingredients to you, almost like friends at a cocktail party, with interesting and complimentary details.

"Hi Natashia, have you met Amaranth? Amaranth is is often lumped into the “grains” category, but it is in fact the seed of a cereal-like herb. The Aztecs greatly valued amaranth, and used it not only as a dietary staple, but also in their worship rituals." - love it :)

Also, her recipes are INTERESTING.

White Velvet Soup - hello delicious!

Parsley Root Fries with Roasted Tomato Sauce - a revelation  

 Black bean chocolate chili cherry cookies - I cannot wait to make these 

I feel revived, refreshed and inspired when I read this blog (like I did with Bonzai), and I think that these are the true marks of a great blog. I hope that one day too, this may become a great blog, but for now, go check out My New Roots - you will be glad you did :)

made of words

Today, as part of our annual training at the UCT Writing Center, I did a free-writing exercise that lead me to a surprising revelation about myself.

The theme of the free-write was our earliest memory of writing, and this is what I wrote:

The first time I ever remember writing was when I was in sub A. We were living on a small-holding at the time, and I don't know if that influenced my choice of subject, but I was writing about cows. Actually we didn't have any cows on the farm and perhaps we had to choose a magazine article or picture, and I chose pictures of cows? I'm not sure, anyway it was on a small page, an A5 and on the top of the page I stuck a cut out colour picture of a friesland cow and at the bottom a picture of a jersey cow. My text was in the middle and consisted of just 2 or 3 sentences. I said something about how jersey cows produces thick creamy milk. I must have paraphrased the text from the article in the magazine. Thinking back I suppose my mother must have helped me, or at least read the article to me.The pictures were stuck down with cellotape. I still have this 'first writing assignment' somewhere. I remember my teacher, Mrs I have forgotten her name suddenly, was really pleased with it. I remember a great sense of pride over this project.

And then I jotted down a few more thoughts that came to me while we were discussing the exercise after we had finished.

Tartan book and ABC book - very excited about writing. The only other thing I remember academically was joining the WWW society.

annie is an apple

my dad - creative writing stories

What I realised while writing this, and through our discussion afterwards, was that even though now I'm a scientist, ALL my early academic memories revolve around literacy. This surprised me because I have a great memory, but honestly I don't remember learning anything in school besides reading and writing until about the age of ten or eleven. This seems to suggest how powerful the written word was during my formative years, and why I keep finding myself being drawn back to writing over and over again, in increasingly meaningful ways. First recreationally, then competitively, and now in a more professional capacity at the Writing Centre. Even this blog, the point really was to give myself another place to write, to experiment with different genres. 

I remember while doing English A-levels that my teacher, who generally didn't like me and knew I was planning on pursuing a career in science, told me that writing would become a late-onset career for me. Now, more and more, I'm wondering if she will be right?

Getting out 'enough'

The other day I was accused of not getting out enough, while out enjoying a beautiful lunch at DeliCATessen - the irony was not lost on me. Yet, at the time, I really couldn't think of a good way to respond to this, except to say 'Of course I do!', shrug it off and change the subject. However, after the perspective of a good nights sleep and a little mental percolation, I find myself becoming increasingly indignant at this accusation, in fact I'm actually rather cross about it.

The accusation came from someone only 3 years my junior, a mother like myself. Yet here she is still measuring the quality of my life, and probably her own, based on how many nights out she has sans child. Really? REALLY? When are we going to grow up?

The more I think about it, the more I realise that my life is so full of so many more enriching and wonderful things (and I am NOT simply referring to my child) that a night out in a club kind of pales in comparison. I went out plenty before I had a child, most of the time I was out more than I was in. I loved it, and missed it for a long time after it stopped being a realistic pursuit. However, I also know that at that time, in comparison to now, my life was pretty empty - I studied and I socialised, prefect when your 25, less than fulfilling in your 30's. Now I grow vegetables, I belong to a book club, I belly dance, I still study full time, I have a part-time job, I am involved with organisations that I am passionate about such as Le Leche League and the Community Exchange System , I have started a small market-based business with a friend and obviously still spend as much time as I can with my family and friends - I'm a busy girl, and I get out plenty! Sure, the hours between 9pm and midnight are no longer the most happening (thank God!), but from 6:30am to 9pm I'm your girl!

Now, if you will excuse me I have to get ready, I'm off to a club tonight.

Be kind to yourself

This is a hard one, as children we are taught to be kind to others, to do unto other as you would have them do unto you. But the message 'be kind to yourself', well that kinda gets lost along the way. In fact, the messages we do get are 'try harder', 'do more', 'be better'. Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking striving to be your best, I believe in that, but I do think that sometimes, we should cut ourselves a little slack. 

When we are constantly focusing on what we haven't achieved yet, we so quickly forget to celebrate what we HAVE achieved. And I don't know about you, but I tend to find it much easier to reach my goals when I remind myself that I AM a strong, capable woman, rather than constantly berating myself for not being there yet.

However, it's not enough to just tell yourself that you are strong and capable, you have to give yourself concrete examples. So, here is my challenge to you. Make yourself a cup of tea, sit down and actually write out a list of the things you have achieved. My secret tip here is not just to write down those things that you have viewed as major goals in your life, but also the things that you have achieved without making them specific goals. These are the things, little and big, that millions of people fail at every day. Things that may have come easily to you, so easily that you don't even view them as achievements. But the fact that certain things come easily to you is a product of who you are, a product of your talents, and so these things too must be celebrated. 

So here is my little list, I wrote this in my head a couple weeks ago when I needed a bit of a 'pick-me-up', and and it really helped.

I have given birth naturally, with no pain medication

I have breastfed a child for over 3 years

I continue to proudly breastfeed my toddler in public

I only used cloth nappies

I have completed a BSc, BSc (Hons) and an MSc

I have quit smoking

I have stayed married for almost 6 years

I have stayed in the same relationship for over 10 years

I have lost 23kg

I have belly danced, on a stage, in public

If you want to share your own list in the comments section, that would be great. Be inspired by the achievements of others, and as proud of your own achievements as you are of those of others. 

Tori Amos LIVE IN CAPE TOWN!

It is still sinking in that last night I sat, mere meters away from Tori Amos, and watched as she played the most beautiful and transforming music. I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that it was akin to a religious experience.

I was first introduced to Tori 14 years ago, when I was 16, by my best friend. Since then Tori has pretty much been the sound track to our lives. We both have so much emotion, pain, joy, growth and metamorphosis wrapped up in her music. So, sitting there with her last night, watching Tori, was definitely nothing short of spiritual.

In the bus from the car to the venue - we are two VERY excited girls

I cried, laughed and squealed with excitement. I was moved and transformed, yet again, by Tori. She is older now, and to me she has become like the wise mother, and I listen to her wisdom because her music is real, powerful and honest. The pain on her face when she sang Hey Jupiter, and the emotion in her voice when she sang Me & a Gun - I felt that at my core, I was shaken. And, although she looks different now, her voice is still as powerful and beautiful as it ever was. Rich and deep, it bows to her every command.

Playing silly buggers in the bathroom before the show :)

She had total and complete respect from the audience, with absolute silence during every song she played. The few times I could bear to tear my eyes from her, everywhere I looked I saw people holding on to each other watching her, the atmosphere was so intimate, it felt like it was just you and her.

This was actually taken during the show by someone - found it online this morning

She played a staggering 17(!) songs, with no back-up or accompaniment, just Tori and her piano's - perfect. I don't know how she found the strength, but I think she knew we were like the starving and she was manna from heaven, feeding us as much as possible of her very best. She opened with Little Earthquakes, then Icicle, Silent all these years, Consitina, Hey Jupiter, Dragon, Sorta fairytale (very special to me), Bells for her, Mother, Pancake (I felt like I was hearing this for the very first time, incredible) , Me & a gun, I can't see New York and finally closed with Carry, the only song she played that was actually from Night of Hunters. For the encore she played Personal Jesus, Leather, Precious things and Tear in your hand.

I continue to remain, ever more powerfully, under her spell

Story Time!

One of my favourite things, now that Chicken Little is almost 3, is story time before bed. When she was younger she would enjoy looking at her books with us, but didn't yet have the patients to sit through a whole story. Now she will quite happily sit through 3 or 4....or 5 or 6 stories.

The first book she fell in love with was Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. Such a classic, the copy she has actually belonged to the Rooster when he was little. Enough said. 

Then came her Donaldson phase, The Gruffalo, Tiddler and What the Ladybird Heard - oh lordy, the imagination of this woman!

Next we moved onto Oliver Jeffers's How to Catch a Star and Lost and Found. SUCH beautiful, evocative

illustrations!

At the moment her favourite book is Angelina's Invitation to the Ballet. She received this for her 2nd birthday, but we only really discovered it again recently. She loves the fact that this book is full of pull-out letters, invitations and tickets to the ballet.

Looking forward to what comes next!

P.S. Chicken Little just came in and spotted this post, she was beside herself with excitement and shrieked "What did you make for me mummy?!"