Big Hippie Mama

Not too many years ago you could easily have heard me here there any everywhere talking about 'Bloody Hippies'.  Yes, me.  All that has changed now.  I love hippies, and consider myself an honorary hippie (albeit without the dreadlocks and dubious odours).

Since the birth of my son twelve months ago I have found that I have really relaxed about lots of things.  I fully realise it has a lot to do with the hormones racing around my body...but I kinda like it!  I seem to have lost interest in lots of things that were previously very important to me.  I have lost virtually all interest in having a glass of wine.  Pre-pregnancy I was right into fine wine and food.  Now, not so much.  I have changed my diet.  We tend to eat much less meat now, keeping portions of meat to under 100 grams when we do eat it.  I have been following tips from my friend at My Wholefood Romance and have made my own nut milk, and then used the pulp for baking and making muesli.  I am a changed woman!  I have even investigated Steiner school for my 4 year old daughter, not wanting to expose her free spirit to the occasionally crushing first years of other primary school kids (sadly this was put on the 'we can't afford it' shelf).  What has happened to me?!  My partner laments the loss of 'me' a bit, but is coming around to the 'new improved' version.

I have also become a passionate advocate of natural childbirth.  I was already before my son was born, but have become even more so (even donating money to Independent midwives to fight for home birth rights at the High Court) since his arrival.  My birth experience was truly awful, thanks entirely to doctors and a particularly horrid midwife at the Women's hospital in Melbourne.  I realise that not everyone has this experience there, and many will not be as traumatised as I have been by why happened,but the whole thing has moved me to learn as much as I can about women's bodies and their ability to give birth naturally.  I have even considered retraining as something in this field...but that will have to wait until my own children are a bit older.

Things that I do that some may consider to be 'hippie-ish'

1.  Extended breastfeeding.  I breastfeed my son.  He is 12 months old next week, and I intend to continue to feed him for as long as he wants to be fed!  Many people (especially my own mother) can't really fathom this, and put it firmly into 'Hippie' camp.

2.  Use cloth nappies.  We believe in reducing landfill!  My son is almost exclusively in cloth nappies.  He does wear a disposable nappy at night, because I am just too tired to change him at the middle of the night feeds.  But other than that, and the very occasional long day out, he is in cloth.  Some of our less that 'hippie' friends try the argument that it takes x amount of water to make a cloth nappy, and then there is the washing and drying issues.  BUT, all of the nappies that my son uses are pre-worn, washed in cold water (very occasional hot washes to 'refresh' them a bit) and dried in the sunshine! I even had one friend try to tell me that using disposable nappies was a 'feminist issue'!  And that if men were home with babies we, as a society, wouldn't even dream of using cloth.  Kinda not sure where that idea comes from?! So, just coz men wouldn't, we shouldn't?  Screw the environment!  Hmmm.


3.  Co-sleep.  Well, I don't do this now, but up until my son was about 9 months old he slept in bed with my partner and I.  It was handy in terms of demand breastfeeding and not having to get in and out of bed all night.  Okay, there were nights when I really didn't get much sleep as my little guy likes to feed ALL night if given half a chance (and co-sleeping does give them every chance to do this), but on the whole it was a really positive experience, and I really missed having him snuggled in to me when he started to sleep in his own cot right next to my bed.  If you are going to co-sleep there are all sorts of rules that make it safer for your baby.  Lately there has been all kinds of negative press about sleeping with a baby, my thoughts are that people have been doing this for thousands of years, and as long as we are mindful of things not to do (covering the baby with your bed clothes, putting them in the middle of the bed, using pillows, sleeping with a baby if you have been drinking or smoking, or taking drugs, etc) it is a safe and positive experience for you and your child.  For more on the benefits of co-sleeping go here.

3.  Garden.  Yes, we have a flourishing herb and vegie garden (mostly herbs since the kids arrived...just not enough time to tend to growing vegies as well as growing children!).  The garden is bountiful and watered with rainwater from our own tank.  We try and include something from the garden in all the meals that we cook.

4.  Living locally!  I almost NEVER get in my car.  If I can't get what I need in Brunswick, I will pretty much do without (although internet shopping is excellent for just such emergencies)!  I walk or ride my cargo bike to the places I need to go, or to catch up with people I want to see.  The car sits idle out the front getting covered with bird poo.

5.  Cook like a frugavore!  I love cooking, and I especially love cooking from scratch.  Pasta, stock, curry, sausages, etc.  In an effort to live more sustainably we are trying to only eat free range meat (and not too much of it), and to use everything we buy.  For example, I am the queen of poaching a chicken with lots of vegetables and herbs, then using the liquid as stock, taking the skin and sinew off the chicken for dog food, and using the succulent meat in all sorts of different meals (more on this in another post!).  If only I had a bone grinder I would make my own fertiliser for the garden with the carcass!

6.  Support alternative health/medical professions.  This is not to say that I forgo all kinds of more main stream medical stuff.  I don't.  But I can really see the value (and have experienced it first hand) of alternative medical treatments and care.  I have a lovely friend who is a naturopath and has all sorts of knowledge about the benefits of eating the right kinds of foods, and using herbs to heal and be healthy.  I also use a chiropractor fairly regularly.  This miracle worker helped me repair my broken coccyx after child birth when conventional doctors told me (repeatedly) that  it would just 'eventually get better' and after over 6 months of pretty severe pain the chiro set about fixing it in a matter of weeks.  Love her.  We also used an independent midwife, and if we were to have another child it would be at home, without medical intervention.

7.   Believe in public education!  Sadly, this is becoming more 'hippie and alternative' than forking out tens of thousands of dollars to buy your child the 'right' kind of friends and contacts!  State schools are great schools, and if we want Australian public education to flourish we MUST USE IT.  Don't bypass your nearest school to go to the school that you 'think' your child should be at.  If you really think your child needs more support in a particular area, why do you think this will be any different at a private school?  They will still be just one kid in a class of many.  Hire a tutor!  $60 a week for some one on one time with a teacher for your child will make so much difference to their learning.  AND, it is heaps cheaper than private school fees.

8.  I don't shave my pits!  That's right...they are hairy!  Admittedly, I don't wear singlets and let it all flow free for the world to see, but under my shirt I have wildly hairy armpits.  I used to shave them, but my partner asked me not too when we first started going out...so I have nearly 11 years worth under there.  Hmmm, perhaps a touch personal.

9.  I make my own beer!

10.  I talk to my neighbours (giving them homemade beer is always a good conversation starter!)

 So, as you can see, I am perhaps slightly more alternative than most.  I'd say it is mostly the not driving much thing, and my refusal to leave the 'hood unless absolutely necessary.  Perhaps it is my 'zen' attitude to motherhood??  I certainly don't have feathers in my hair and wear patchouli oil while doing a dance to the moon goddess. 

Pearl Barley

 

 

I've always thought of pearl barley as a rather old fashioned ingredient.  Something that my mum would include in soups and casseroles.  Not very glamorous at all.  My views on this humble grain have recently changed.

In the last two days I have cooked three pearl barley based meals.  Yes, THREE!  There are a number of reasons that pearl barley has become flavour of the month at our place:

1.  It was on special at the supermarket (2 packs for $2.50)

2.  We are being frugavores this year, and healthy cheap meals are the order of the day

3. Autumn is here, and as the weather has been cooling down I have had a hankering for delicious soups, studded with pearl barley 'just like mum used to make' (not really my mum as she is a shocker of a cook!)

4  In my experiments with the grain, I soaked WAY to much barley and it was all plumped up and ready to go, and I really needed to cook it rather than waste it.

Anyway, I LOVE IT.  And so does the rest of the family (okay...the 4 year old still needs some convincing, but she is well on the way).

After doing quite a bit of reading up on how to best use my pearl barley, I decided I was most keen to make porridge out of it.  In the end I am so pleased that I did, because as I was preparing it I was reminded of my visits to my grandparent's farm and my grandfather making me porridge.  His porridge was never made of flat rolled oats.  Rather, plump and chewy grains.  I could never work out why it was different and oh-so-good, and now...25 years after the event (with grandpa long gone) I have solved the mystery.  My grandpa was no slouch on eating well ( 2 shots of wheat grass a day, whole grain porridge and brown bread, etc), he was also a raging fundamentalist Christian, but had toned it all down by the time I came along (thank god!).  

Back to my porridge.  I lovingly soaked my grains overnight, watching them closely, and frequently pinching them between my thumb and finger to feel how soft they were getting.  I had a bit of a look around for recipes, but eventually decided to make the porridge the way I usually do with soaked rolled oats.  Here's what I did:

Pearl Barley Porridge

Put one cup of soaked (at least overnight) pearl barley into a saucepan.

Slice up a banana and chuck it in too.

Pour in milk (or milk substitute) to cover the grains and banana

Add a good pinch of cinnamon (I used about a teaspoon, as I love it)

Drizzle in some maple syrup (about 2 teaspoons tops)

Turn on the heat and stir and mix until the banana is all melty and the pearl barley is cooked to your liking.  I didn't cook it for too long, as I liked the grains to maintain their shape and chewiness.  They were nutty and delicious.  The result was a scrummy little concoction, kind of like a dessert risotto.  I served it up with a dollop of yogurt.  YUM.

The quantities I have mentioned are fairly 'fluid' in terms of exactness...just go with your gut!

I have since cooked this twice more, and have frozen small portions of it for my baby to have at any time.  It has reheated well.  The addition of a bit more milk or yogurt loosens it up if it has thickened too much.

 SOUP!

The other dish I cooked was soup (of course).  But I hadn't been shopping for a while and was rather low on ingredients for soup.  I did a google search for the things I knew I had 'pearl barley, potatoes, silverbeet' and HEAPS of really good soup recipes came up!  The one I chose to loosely base my meal on also contained bacon, which I luckily had 4 pieces of beautiful free range goodness, in the fridge.

This soup is a super hearty, super delicious, and I suppose quite healthy meal (a bit of bacon never killed anyone, did it?!).  Here's how it goes:

Potato, Bacon, and Pearl Barley Soup

4 rashers of bacon, chopped up

 1 large onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

around 2 cups of soaked pearl barley (more if you like)

around 300 grams of diced potatoes (I left the skin on)

2 packed cups of shredded silverbeet leaves - I have lots of this growing in my garden (save the stalks for a stir fry or something!)

2 bay leaves (I used fresh from the garden)

2 tablespoons thyme leaves (again, fresh from the garden)

About a litre of stock (I used chicken, as I had poached a chook last week with all kinds of yummy vegies and it made a beautiful, light and fragrant stock...mmm!). You may need to add more stock or water if the soup becomes too thick.

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

First I put the onions, garlic and bacon in a pot with a whack of olive oil and got it all nice and soft and aromatic.  Smelt amazing after only 5 minutes.

Then I added the potatoes, barley, bay leaves and thyme.  I covered the lot with the stock and let it simmer for around 45 minutes to an hour.  

After this time I checked the seasoning, and added a little salt to bring out the flavours.

When the potatoes were soft I switched off the heat and chucked in the silverbeet**.  After about 5 minutes I dished it up, served with a dollop of sour cream on top, and some freshly chopped silverbeet leaves.  This really made the dish.  It had that beautiful smokey flavour from the bacon, and then this creamy finish from the sour cream.  It was almost like a chowder.  The barley had lost some of it's shape, but was still chewy and yum. 

**Just to note:  The silverbeet does discolour if it is cooked for too long, so if you are doing this soup for guests, I would make the soup in advance, but not add the leaves until just before serving.  That way they are still vibrant and green.

I think that pearl barley is definitely making a come back in my kitchen.  Grandpa would be so proud.