Gluten Free At The Farmer’s Market

Mama Sue Is Bringing You Gluten Free & Dairy Free Goodies

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a decade since downtown Lawrenceburg had a Farmer’s Market. June of 2023 was our first market day and Mama Sue filled The Square with lots of gluten free baked goods! My Dad and myself have been gluten free for over 20 years and recently Mama Sue developed a dairy allergy. That means we know the struggle to find delicious tasting baked goods that don’t taste like cardboard. Our kitchen at Healing Homestead is a gluten free kitchen, period.

While developing our gluten free bread recipe, my Dad decided to mill his own white and brown rice flower. We also use our free range duck or goose eggs to give it that extra depth of flavor. Not only do I think it’s the best, when celiac friends tried it…they almost cried because it tasted so much like “real” bread! You can either buy a loaf of bread or you can try our homemade gluten free all purpose baking mix.

Other homemade gluten free baked goods and farmer’s market items

• waffles: the thick, square ones like Grandma used to make! gf df
• coconut macaroons: get them before they sell out! gf df
• chocolate chip cookies: almost as big as your face and loaded with chocolate chips! gf
• rice crispy treats: one of my favorites, a close second behind the chocolate chip cookies. gf df
• popcorn: Mama Sue’s flavor of the week. Sometimes it’s sweet, sometimes it’s savory. gf df
• free range eggs: chicken, duck, guinea, goose (in season and limited availability)
• grass fed lamb: must preorder, frozen, USDA certified processing.

Happy Birthday To Me

June was like the month of May. We spent another entire month building fences. Now that it’s July, I can say it with excitement but while you are in the middle of fencing it is said with sweat and dread…fencing. Since it was so hot, our goal was an hour or two per day working on the fences. We would auger two to five holes. Our quantity of post holes all depended upon how hard/rocky the soil was in a given location. Not only did the rocks break the auger tip to a 90 degree bend, we broke at least five shear pins. The shear pin is what is supposed to break under severe force so that the auger doesn’t break.

We’ve tried auguring all of the post holes at once but then quickly learned that if it rains, it fills you hole in. So our process is to add the wooden post, level it, add a bag of concrete, cover it with soil, and level it again. After all of the fence post are installed, we had to use brace wire and horizontal post to secure the corners for the force of the five strands of high tinsel wire. Next we had to measure and install the insulators for the fence lines and add additional t post and insulators where it needed more support. The final step is pulling the wire around the whole pasture. Did you know that the spool of wire weighs 100 pounds?!

My husband, Jason (Jason Eagle QRA), asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said I wanted the cows moved to the new pasture. He said it wasn’t going to happen because he was working (holistic health practitioner). With the help of my Dad and another friend, we moved the cows on the 27th…my birthday present! The cows are on green pastures again and they love it. You can see Bull-ero enjoying his new home. It didn’t take long to find fresh cow patties. This is super exciting to watch the animals bring health and vitality back to the clear cut land! I also added a photo of the garden gates.

Upping Our Feed Game To The Next Level With Sprouts

With the cows moved to new pasture, now I can think about a project that I have wanted to do for years. I saw a video on fermenting and spouting grains is far superior in nutrition for the animals. At our previous homestead, we got bulk local grains from a neighboring farmer. Every morning we would freshly grind our own custom blend of feed with our secret ingredient, Azomite minerals. Not only was this feed more nutritious than what we could buy, it was less expensive because we bought in bulk. Since December of 2021 we have been buying feed by the 50 pound sack and I am super EXCITED to say that not only are we back to making our own custom blend of feed for our animals but we have taken our feed game to the next level.

Now for the sciencey stuff on why we sprout our feed. When you soak a grain, legume, seed and or nut, you break down the phytate and release Phosphorous . Phytic acid is an antinutrient which inhibits the absorption of certain vitamin and minerals. Ruminants have an enzyme to help break down Phytic acid but pigs, chickens, and foul do not. Either way, but soaking the grains overnight, the seed is activated and can start to spout. Sprouted grains increase digestibility, increase nutrient availability, and increase protein.

We tried two concepts to sprout the feed, fermenting for three days and soaking over night. We saw that the fermented grains did not sprout. As much as I LOVE fermented foods for me. The data showed how much healthier the sprouted feed was for the animals. So we settled on soaking and then letting the feed sprout.