If you’re anything like me you grew up on Kraft dinner & hot dogs, and you definitely didn’t learn how to cook before you moved out on your own. Ok ok, I knew how to make scrambled eggs. Does that count?
In my early twenties I decided to become a vegetarian, and suddenly I had to learn how to cook –like, for real. Back then there was no such thing as “Beyond Meat” or other vegetarian stand-ins for the foods I grew up eating (except Yves, but ….not a fan). If I wanted to make a veggie version of my grandmother’s sweet & sour pork, I had to make seitan first, then use the seitan to make the dish. Over the years I learned how to use new ingredients and techniques to create nutritious, flavourful dishes, thanks to a few fantastic cookbooks, Google searches, and a Vegetarian Culinary Arts course at George Brown College.
In my late early thirties I started volunteering for a fruit tree project in Toronto called Not Far From the Tree, and that experience led me to dip my toes into things like gardening, foraging, fermenting, canning, and sourdough.
A few years later I had two kids, and as you can probably imagine, I no longer had anywhere near the time I use to spend on preparing meals, let alone any of my other interests! I went back to an omniverous diet, but even then, once I returned to work after maternity leave we were so busy that often the best we could manage was convenience foods or take-out. It did the job, but it didn’t feel good. –and I was burnt out.
…and then, a pandemic. Oof.
I was laid off from one of my jobs, and my freelance work dried up because everything was shut down. A lot of heartbreak, stress, and trauma came from that period of time, but so did an opportunity to reevaluate my priorities. I got back the time and space to do some of the things that had given me so much joy all those years ago. When everyone started baking their own bread at home, I taught people how to make a sourdough. I started spending more time outdoors. We bought a bike trailer to take the kids for bike rides. I grew my garden and added several fruit trees, dreaming of a hobby farm or homestead with more land…
I knew then what kind of life I wanted to create, and at the time I thought I’d have to buy acres of land to do it, but it turns out that’s just not true. We live in the suburbs and we have a small yard, but I grow lots of food here, I raise quail, I lead a backyard fruit harvest & share project in my local community, and forage for foods in local fields, parks, and forests. When there’s an abundance of something, I preserve what we won’t use by canning, fermenting, or freeze drying it for later use.
My mission is to show you that you don’t have to escape to the woods to find the elusive “balance” we’ve all been looking for and get a lot of enjoyment out of life and some good old “granny hobbies”! We can all find abundance, community, and a peaceful life right where we are. Ditch the hustle, and start homesteading wherever you are.
Start stretching your grocery budget, and give “future you” some time to relax later in the week with 5 meals from two rotisserie chickens
