One year ago I looked into her eyes, I squeezed her hands just a bit and I said with all authority and conviction, “I do.” She returned the affirmation and we began what I now refer to as “the great adventure.”

Before getting married and moving back to rural, middle Georgia, I lived in Brooklyn, NY. The life was fast paced and there was always so much going on. I prided myself on giving meaning to Ol’ Blue Eyes’ lyrics. With a firm handshake and a toothy grin I had said on multiple occasions to people, “if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,” and by all accounts I had made it. I had a beautiful apartment that had recently been renovated. I was just a block from the train. I had a group of supportive, fun friends. I had a job I was happy with. I was never lacking for artistic inspiration.

But at night, I went to bed alone. My other two bedrooms echoed in their emptiness and leaving the lights did nothing to relieve my solitude. The TV offered little distraction as it became boring and I felt no more connected to the cast of Law and Order than I did the man in the moon.

Several big decisions later though I was standing across from her promising to have and to hold until death do us part. And even those words could not adequately convey to her how much I welcomed this new part of life.

Within days we were at home on Odom’s Idle Acres figuring out how we could make it not quite so idle and how we could breathe life back into our otherwise normal existence. Our faith was strong and our determination was bursting from our beings. There was clearly room for a large garden. We could easily see ourselves with chickens. We simply knew that the life we had now formed together was going to be one that incorporated our dreams, our desires, our hopes, our learned lessons and our love for the world around us.

In short order we had planted several gardens. We had built a coop and purchased laying hens. We had reexamined our dependence on the grocery store and processed foods. We had redone our budget to live more modestly without sacrificing the fun in life. And through it all our connection to each other continued to grow.

And now one year later we still walk our land, dreaming, plotting, imagining. We look forward to being blessed with a family of our own and the opportunity to see them grow as we did; independently but with the support of our friends and family. The acres aren’t so idle anymore and we can see how God has blessed us and continues to bless us.

And now – one year later – I sit here at my keyboard thinking back to the nights that ended with smiles and even the ones that ended without such pleasure and I realize that this great adventure has all led up to this; this one moment. The moment when I can see that life is what you put into it. You plant a seed, you get a crop. In this last year our seeds have turned to crops, and now, holding each other’s hands, we wait for our harvest.

Fully 49 states received snowfall in the last week. Even rural Georgia – Odom’s Idle Acres – found itself covered in 4 inches of beautiful, powdery, Bing Crosby song-inspiring snow. For most it is just an excuse for a day off work or out of school or a reason to slick up the garbage can lid and head for the nearest hill. But for those who see snow as an epicurious test to our homesteading skills it is the perfect reason to make up a batch of Snow Cream.

Snow Cream is akin to ice cream tasting almost as good but definitely twice as much to make. Not to mention the way mother nature does most of the work as opposed to a more traditional method of freezing a custard mix as a first step.

So how do we make this Snow Cream? It’s really quite easy. Needing only a little dairy, some sugar and vanilla flavoring/extract, the largest ingredient is just outside the front door: fresh snow.

Word to the wise, DO NOT try to use snow that is within footsteps of your coop or in the goat pen or where your dog typically finds respite.

But why does snow lend itself to this treatment? Well, let’s think about ice cream for a second. Ice cream is basically a collection of tiny frozen crystals of milk/egg/vanilla/sugar beaten together with air. Snow is fluffy frozen water crystals. So it would serve to reason that all we need to do is add the flavor to try and match one of Baskin-Robbins 31.

Okay, time to get all nerdy real quick.

Because snow has different ratios of water to air based on outside temperatures, wind speed and velocity there is no tried and true recipe for Snow Cream but rather a suggested method. You can fill in your own blanks and add your own flavoring as desired.

INGREDIENTS (based on 1 gallon of Snow Cream)

1 gallon fresh, white snow
1 cup milk
0.5 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla

The directions are nothing more than mix all your ingredients together and freeze for an additional 10 minutes to harden.

I added some chocolate syrup to my first bowl and then added some homemade strawberry jam to my second bowl.

I guess we’ve had blueberries in the freezer for for about 4 or 5 months. They have taunted us by keeping their shape and brilliant color. We have used a few for some waffles and a gallon or two more for jam we gave out at Christmas. But by in large they have remained in their frozen state just waiting for a chance to really be enjoyed.

I think the cold weather has been good for us and bad for us. Good because it has allowed Pan and I the opportunity to eat a lot of our freezer foods and dried foods, but bad for us in that we have found ourselves baking more and more and eating even more. NOT GOOD considering we have seriously changed our eating and benefited in both health and weight. So, yesterday with the skies darkening for rain and the thermostat sticking at 41 degrees, I thought it would be a great chance to reach for the blueberries and make some Blueberry Wheat Skillet Cake.

Inspired, in part, by the recipe Ms. Chiot laid out (including beautiful pictures) I set about making something a little different from our normal eggs and spinach.

We chose to go with a skillet cake because cast iron is a lot more fun, cooks a lot more thoroughly and doesn’t have the aluminum byproduct found in so many non-stick pans. Besides, it feels a little more “real,” if you know what I mean.

Keep in mind that I used whole wheat flower predominately and not a whole lot of sugar as I didn’t want the S’bucks sweet muffins that are often high in glucose and low in real flavor. Not to mention I made a blueberry sauce/powdered sugar “dressing” to finish off the top.

Blueberry Wheat Skillet Cake

2 cup of wheat flour
2/3 cup white flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup of sugar (double this for sweeter muffins)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 eggs, room temperature (I used brown eggs from the *girls* outside)
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons of room temperature buttermilk
3/4 cup melted butter
1 1/2 – 2 cups berries (fresh or frozen, allow to thaw a bit if using frozen)

Heat oven to 400. Put cast iron skillet in oven for 5 minutes. In large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and lemon juice. Stir to combine.

In another bowl crack eggs and whisk. Add vanilla extract and buttermilk to eggs and stir to combine. Remove cast iron skillet from oven and melt butter in skillet swirling around to coat skillet.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and lightly fold until almost combined. When almost combined add berries and stir to incorporate. If batter is too thick add a little regular milk. You want this batter to be too thick to pour, but not too thick to smooth into edges of pan.

Spoon batter into cast iron skillet and put in oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes.

I have to admit that the taste was wonderful. Oh, I almost forgot. I made a topping by taking 2 Tablespoons of blueberry jam, microwaving it for 25 seconds. I spooned that across the top of the cake. I then sprinkled powdered sugar liberally over the whole cake. Served with a cup of hot coffee this was an ideal way to start a busy day of rental movie watching, pants hemming, chicken coop cleaning and Facebook checking!

So? What are you waiting for? Go get some berries, get some eggs, and start cooking! Bon apetit.

If you are anything like me you find this time of year to be stifling, frustrating and sometimes completely overwhelming. The rain never seems to end. The sun seems to take hiatus and leave us with nothing but lackluster dirt and plants who can’t even muster enough energy to be a pretty brown. They are dull and lifeless moving inertly in the cold breeze offering little that is thrilling or inspiring. But as my Facebook page gets weighed down by people’s images of fleeting winter wonderlands and no-school days due to snow, I find myself dreaming about cucumbers and English ivy; a garden so green even Marvell is taken by its beauty.

“No white nor red was ever seen / So am’rous as this lovely green.”

And so this past weekend my wife and I sat down with some tea and a few leftover niblets and began to plan this years “potential.”

We talked about containers, raised beds, our existing landscape and what percentage of self-sustainability we were currently living in. We quickly decided to expand our main garden by another 98 square feet. We opted to remove our tomatoes from the garden bed and grow them instead in containers so as to move them around, if necessary.

Our seed catalogues had long been sitting next to the couch with dog-eared pages and post-it notes as well as highlighted items and notes in the margins. I have been staring at the pages long enough to know the scientific names of some plants I had never even seen before. Between Victory Garden, Main Street Seeds and Johnny’s Selected Seeds we were confident we would have an even better garden than last year.

Armed with a piece of posterboard, a ruler, some Sharpie pens, a Macbook and Excel, we got down to business. I plotted and she entered. Before long we had laid out beds, prepared our seed orders and continued our dream of becoming homesteaders free from the confines of our local grocery store.

Tips for Your Own “Potential”

• Do your homework. Find seed catalogues and online reviews to match. Remember, plant what you like, not what the books tell you to.

• Find our germination times and hardness zones. The right time to plant is as important as what to plant! If you start indoors and transplant outside you will need to do some basic calendar counting to figure out your key dates.

• Layout your garden on paper. Don’t let your taller plants shade out your smaller ones.

• Think about companion planting so you can make the most of your soil.