Laura Lawrence- Northern Michigan Homesteader

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Come discover what a Homesteader's life is like in Northern Michigan.

June 28 2023

Imagine This

It’s nearing dinner time and the family starts creeping into the kitchen asking…sometimes begging…perhaps wailing “What’s for Dinner?!?!”  You look around and see nothing ready and forgot to take something out to make. What do you do? Panic sets in!! Do you tell everyone to get in the car to go eat out and spend WAY to much blowing your budget for the week?  Do you grab something from a prepackaged box deep in the freezer and heaven forbid read the ingredients on the back of the box. You’ll have to grab something else to because they’ll just be hungry again in an hour due to the lack of actual nutrients.

OR (Hang in there with me!)

You realized last night you took 3 minutes to mix together the Sourdough Breadsticks recipe and it gives you the idea to make Spaghetti to go along with those Breadsticks.  While that meat is thawing and cooking in the pan you decide to make some 15 Minute Homemade Spaghetti Sauce made with only a few ingredients.  Now you’ve got the water boiling for the noodles, the Breadsticks rising and the Sauce simmering.  Now you are back in control, now you can tell them “Dinner will be soon and it’s Homemade!”    Wait, what about a vegetable?  Did you perhaps grow a garden last year?  Grab some frozen Cauliflower or pop open a canned Carrot from the pantry.

Do you see where I’m going with this?  A lot less ingredients, a lot less headaches (from the screaming family members and the awful ingredients in those prepackaged things), and full bellies at the end of dinner!  If you’re like me you’ll just feel better, physically and mentally because you ate REAL food and fed your family the best you can. 

Let’s pretend a little more…… (Thank you for indulging me- there’s GREAT HOPE!)

The Breadsticks was made with fresh ground Wheat Berries, the ground pork or beef was from animals you raised yourself (or bought from a local farmer), the sauce you’re making is from YOUR own homegrown tomatoes, the oregano you dehydrated is yours, the onions are yours still good from storage, the frozen green peppers, the garlic is yours. And wait, the pasta is yours that you made from Sourdough Noodles!!! There are not many more ingredients that wouldn’t be yours.

What if every single meal you are was like this?  What would it feel like for you if you knew your families’ meals were made with Love from YOUR OWN stuff!!??  What if you knew you were feeding your family the best ingredients to fuel their brains & bodies!?!? 

What your family feels and see’s is the love, the hard work, the admiration and respect of how God created these things to FUEL US!

Now if you just fell off your chair or got mad at me. I get it.  You can’t do this overnight. I surely didn’t. But it’s where I’M AT NOW and YOU can get there to. This isn’t a shame on you for grabbing that box from the freezer or eating out, it’s a question for you “CAN YOU DO BETTER?”  Do what you can and the best you can now.  But let’s see what we can do better with.   What can you learn to do now?  There is hope and I know that you can do it. I'm sincere, I'm not special or any different than you so I know that YOU CAN DO IT!!!