this side of heaven

:: farm arts category
:: Christian Homesteaders Association
:: Complete Guide to Country Living
:: DMOZ Homesteading
:: DMOZ Voluntary Simplicity
:: Homestead.org
:: Homesteading Today forums
:: Polyface Farm

We found this little volume (now in a reissued paperback) at a yard sale the year before we moved to the country. We constantly referred to it. The author edits Countryside & Small Stock Journal, our favorite homesteading magazine.
:: Backwoods Home magazine
:: Countryside bookstore
:: Farm and Ranch Index
:: Home Meat Processing
:: Old Timers Page
:: Raising Milk Goats
:: Small Farm Today
:: Small Farms Library
:: Lehman's non-electric catalog
:: Murray McMurray Hatchery

There is no one volume book that covers everything you need to know to be truly self-reliant. That is why having five or six of the one-volume "everything you ever need to know" books in your library is important, along with subscriptions to Countryside and Backwoods Home. All taken together, they provide the necessary knowledge we have lost in the last hundred years of industrialiazation.
:: Encyclopedia of Country Living
:: Self-Sufficient Life
:: Storey's Basic Country Skills
:: Handy Farm Devices

:: home business ::

:: home work category
:: My business mentor
:: PRMama marketing blog
:: Small Business the Old-Fashioned Way
:: Starting a home business

:: CPSIA compliant suppliers

:: home schooling ::

:: homeschooling category
at a little perspective
:: 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum
:: Classical Christian Homeschooling
:: Favorite Homeschooling Links
:: Home Schooling Methods
:: Homeschooling Resources
:: Nothing New Press

:: garden arts category
:: Biblical principles of organic gardening

This reference serves as the indispensible backbone of our gardening library. I couldn't garden organically without it.
:: Organic Gardening Magazine
:: Holistic Gardening
:: Rodale Institute's New Farm

Healthy garden plants (thus healthy food) begins with good soil which promotes life. The organic gardener must compost; this book is the invaluable standard.
:: Compost Guide
:: Home Composting
:: Mastercomposter.com
:: Pay Dirt by J.I. Rodale

To garden organically, you cannot only promote life. You must also deter the effects of the curse on creation, which means, control pests, disease, and weeds. This book gives you the knowledge to successfully do that.
:: Pest and Disease Solutions
:: Integrated Weed Management

:: weight control ::

Discover the connection between body toxicity and weight control. Once I detoxed my body, following Dr. Gittleman's easy two-week plan, I lost 45 pounds in 2005.
:: Aspartame Toxicity
:: Fat Flush Plan
:: Food Allergies and Weight
:: Overcome Overeating
:: The Maker's Diet
:: Weight Loss and Detox

:: home arts category
:: home and garden category
(at a little perspective)
:: beauty arts category
:: the contented life category
:: Better Basics for the Home
:: Better Basics for Non-Toxic Living
:: Soap Making
:: Five Basics of Non-Toxic Cleaning
:: Clean Windows with Vinegar
:: FlyLady
:: Frugal Homemaker

:: simplifying gift-giving ::

:: non-commercial gifting category
:: Christmas nostalgia & mincemeat
:: Non-commerical Christmas
:: Simplifying Christmas links

:: tips ::

We were given this book for Christmas, and it is packed full of interesting and useful information. Over 2,317 tips to save time and money!
:: Cook's Illustrated Quick Tips
:: Healthy Living
:: Hints from Heloise
:: Old Fashioned Living
:: Simple Home Remedies

:: needle arts category
:: Ten ways to recycle a favorite sweater

:: quilting ::

:: Quilting favorites
:: Memory quilts

This book is not the most comprehensive how-to guide (that is this book). It is not chock full of patterns (that is this book). This is, however, the most satisfying quilt book I own: a history of hand quiltmaking, with myriad photos illustrating techniques. It is the most relaxing quilt book I own.
:: American Patchwork & Quilting
:: Basic quilting lessons
:: Jinny Beyer
:: Buggy Barn
:: Color Confidence for Quilters
:: Color Magic for Quilters
:: Foundation paper piecing
:: McCall's Quilting
:: Moda's free pattern archive
:: Jo Morton
:: Nickel Quilts
:: Quilter's Cache
:: Pat Sloan

Chocolate blogging

posted Thursday 26 January 2006 :: 7:43 AM

Chocolate is proof that God loves us, LOL. That cocoa has many health benefits, including heart protection and diabetes prevention, is proof that God is a God of grace, LOL. I allow myself one bar of chocolate per week. I break off a little piece every day and make it last. It is currently the only sweet I am getting in my diet (except for fruit, and cheesecake on my birthday, LOL). Most desserts are off-limits to me because of gluten intolerance. Gluten intolerance is really GodÂ’s grace to me in disguise; He knew getting off sugar would be hard for me otherwise.

Two good things about organic chocolate: it tends to be much darker chocolate, so more actual chocolate content and less sweet than Â“regularÂ” chocolate to begin with, and the sweet is usually from one of the natural sweeteners rather than refined white sugar. I tried a new chocolate this week: Dagoba Organic Lavender Chocolate, a blend of dark chocolate (59% cocoa content), wild blueberries, and lavender. You canÂ’t even imagine the sumptuousness of lavender-infused chocolate until that first bite melts in your mouth. It was soooo heavenly.

Speaking of heavenly, Green & BlackÂ’s Organic Maya Gold Chocolate is a blend of dark chocolate, orange, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. This is probably my favorite chocolate of all time. Now I love the chocolate-orange flavor combination, but this is nothing like those chocolate oranges people give at Christmas. The chocolate is much darker, denser, and richer, and the spices add depth and warmth to the orange flavors.

Is everyone drooling yet, LOL. I have to get off of all these food-related posts sometime, LOL. I am just learning so much about what we eat and how it affects us right now.

category :: the sugar-free life
post a comment

Chocolate!

posted by Greenberry on Thursday 26 January 2006

I may have to go make a raid on the health food store; those chocolates sound wonderful!

permanent link :: ::

Chocolate

posted by motherearth on Thursday 26 January 2006

Thank you! These sound yummy, and I was wondering about the differences in these chocolates. A girl can never have to much chocolate.

permanent link :: ::

Drooling

posted by kayinpa on Thursday 26 January 2006

Yes, I'm drooling. Now to see if my healthfood store has them!

permanent link :: ::

Dagoba

posted by CircleZ on Thursday 26 January 2006

I like the Dagoba chocolate too. Their Eclipse bar is about the darkest, least sweet chocolate bar I've ever eaten (except plain baking chocolate, of course) that still tastes great! I've seen these on Dr. Mercola's website too. Yum! :-)
Amey

permanent link :: ::

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Hi, my name is Christine. My husband and I have been married for 27 years, and we have three grown children and three grandchildren. We lived most of our lives in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies, where we homeschooled our children and raised an organic garden, chickens, and goats. We recently moved to Florida, and are continuing our interest in natural health, wholeness, and home- based business. Thank you for stopping by!

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Packed full of nutrition information, and recipes for everything normally commercially prepared (apple cider vinegar, sauerkraut, ketchup, salad dressings), this cookbook is indispensible for those needing to ensure their families are eating chemical- and additive-free foods.
:: Homegrown Pure & Simple

This wonderful cooking magazine contains no advertisements, just page after page of product reviews, basic cooking lessons, luscious recipes, and tips and techniques from America's Test Kitchen. This is my favorite "cookbook" besides my family recipes. (If only America's Test Kitchen would publish a cookbook ... oh, they just did!
:: Baking Illustrated
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:: gluten-free cooking ::

I am no longer gluten intolerant (I was healed of my gluten allergy!) but am leaving all these resources up for those who are.
:: the gluten-free life category

The authors connect the dots between gluten allergy and many degenerative illnesses common in our society. Did you know that genetic markers for gluten sensitivity occur in 43% of the US population? Find out if that might be you or your family, and reduce your incidence of GI distress, mental, emotional or behaviorial problems, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, arthritis, and more.
:: Celiac Disease Foundation
:: Celiac.com - fantastic resource!
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:: A Gluten-Free Journey
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:: I Am Gluten-Free
:: Jennifer Ate
:: Mona’s Gluten-Free
:: Moore Homeschool Adventures
:: Mountaineer Musings
:: Please Don’t Pass the Nuts
:: Something in Season
:: Sorry, I Can’t Eat That
:: This Mama Cooks!

:: msg-free cooking ::

:: the msg-free life category
:: sneaky tricksey food manufacturers!
:: msg questions
:: msg research
:: MSG Truth
:: Why be MSG-free?

Dr. Blaylock is a board certified neurosurgeon in private practice for 24 years who serves on the editorial board of the official journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. This is his first book, which explains the potent neurotoxins known as excitotoxins (MSG and aspartame), and demonstrates the link between them and degenerative disease.

:: sugar-free cooking ::

:: the sugar-free life category
:: On natural sweeteners

My health improved so dramatically after implementing Dr. Gittleman's detox diet, that I was ready to listen to her about the dangers of refined sugar. This is the year we will, with God's help, get the sugar out of our diet.
:: 10 ways to sweeten w/o sugar
:: Ask Dr. Sears: Sugar
:: The Bitter Truth About Sugar
:: Little Sugar Addicts
:: Potatoes Not Prozac
:: Radiant Recovery
:: Rapadura whole cane sugar
:: Really Raw Honey
:: Technorati Low Sugar Tag
:: The Saccharine Disease
:: Shake Off the Sugar
:: Sugar Blues (online)
:: Sugar Blues (book)
:: Wholesome Sweeteners sucanat

:: Homecanning.com
:: National Center for Home Preservation
:: Root Cellaring
:: Old Timers Root Cellar

This was another yard sale find, but has consistently provided the best, clearest, most comprehensive instruction I have seen in print on putting food by; and covers not just canning, but also drying, freezing, root-cellaring, curing, and sprouting.
:: Recipe Source Jams & Jellies
:: Making Sugar-free Jam

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Chocolate blogging

Chocolate!

Chocolate

Drooling

Dagoba

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