Eat Healthy, Do it Yourself, Live Well, Have Fun.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a Saturday Share – a video or a website that I’ve found in my internet wanderings. Here’s one that came my way recently – just for fun and the the truth of it!
If you are reading this in email or somewhere that the video doesn’t show up, click the link to go on over to A Pinch of Joy. (And while you are there, check out the picture index I’ve been working on — the drop down menu categories at the top are getting their own little galleries!)
Zucchini is a prolific producer. If you’ve ever grown it or lived within five miles of a zucchini plant you can probably testify to that fact! That’s a good thing if you like healthy fare, but it is a challenge to find new and different ways to use zucchini every day in order to keep up with the supply. Wheel’s sister ElAy, found this tasty recipe to add lemony goodness to zucchini. Harvest continues up to frost so chances are you or your favorite gardener may still have fresh zucchini available. You can add this to your holiday meal – or have a refreshingly different bread for a weekend brunch.
While visiting family recently, we got to see another kind of harvest. Corn, corn and more corn was being harvested on Wheels’ family farm. It was a fascinating process! If your last encounter with a farmer was Farmer MacGregor or Old MacDonald – well, this is as far removed from that as Star Wars is from Ivanhoe! Wheels was the photographer and Wheels loves wheels, but what he is showing in the first few photos is the size of the behemoth cornpicker. A tall adult can stand in the cab and the tires the cab sets on are as tall as a basketball player – think major HUGE! It is computer controlled from the GPS unit – that yellow ball on the top above the windshield. As the machine moves down the row, the farmer gets a read out with precise location, grain moisture, yield and who knows what else.
I was amazed at how quickly the whole process moved. The picker is picking eight rows while the trailer moves into position. As the picker turns at the far end of the field, the tractor trailer paces alongside it as they move in tandem toward the road. The picker is picking eight rows of corn and shelling it into the bin and at the same time it is auguring its load into the trailer. At the end of the row along the road, three semis are waiting. The tractor trailer augurs its load into the semi while the picker turns and begins picking its way to the far end. The trailer is empty when the picker is about halfway down the quarter mile stretch so the trailer scoots down the rows and is in place when the picker reaches the far end and turns to go back toward the road. They repeat the offloading process. When the semi is full, it goes into town where it is weighed and within half an hour after leaving the field it arrives at its market point where it is sold and used almost immediately.
Take a look — the video is just sixty seconds long – and then scroll down for the Zucchini Bread recipe – ElAy was happy to share!
Ingredients
Instructions
Don’t miss a thing – subscribe by email or RSS feed, follow on facebook or twitter to catch the latest post! If you found this post helpful, please give it a Stumble, Tweet, Pin, or Facebook Like. Your support of A Pinch of Joy is greatly appreciated!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linking up to these awesome parties here and [Read more...]
Wheels’ work schedule includes 12 hours each on Saturday and Sunday, the days people normally get together with friends and family, go to movies and church, and relax. If we aren’t careful our lives become nothing but work – work at work, work at home, all day every day and half the night. We have to be intentional about building in time for rest and renewal, reflection and rejuvenation. Usually we get a few hours here and half a day there, our daily half hour walk. When I saw a story in the local newspaper about an unusual garden tour, we decided to set aside that entire day for us – no phone, no computer, just leisurely taking in whatever the day would bring.
A big breakfast started the day. Yes, that is dessert! Who said you can’t have dessert for breakfast on a special day?
We drove an hour and a half to our destination, through quiet country side dotted by small towns. A beautiful day of sunshine and rare blue sky! The GPS didn’t lead us through the town near our destination but surprisingly wound us through beautiful hills the “back way’. And then, we were there. Seventy-five acres of rare conifers, glorious art and beautiful landscaping tucked in amongst the rolling hills. Mr and Mrs. Schnormeier, owners of the Jeld Wenn Company, open their private gardens near Gambier, Ohio to the public once a year, free. The gardens are beautifully planned, meticulously executed and well worth the trip – even if you live further than an hour and a half!
It was truly a day of renewal . . . a sabbath. Sabbath is often thought of as a religious tradition, but it actually is much more. It is a time set aside for rest and relaxation, yes. Everyone needs down time of some sort. There are sound psychological reasons to stop our busyness, to slow down and change our activity. We stop what we are doing to read a magazine, talk with a friend, check out our favorite blog, pin a few on pinterest (anybody ever actually do a few?). If we work in solitude, we seek out other people; if we are talking to people all day, we seek solitude. Weekends are often just a longer time frame allowing us to pursue different activities than we do otherwise, but we are never far from from being scheduled and “busy” and productive. Still those kind of breaks are great. They help us avoid burnout from daily life.
Less spoken of, is the fact that we also need a time in which we stop producing and just enjoy that which has been created. We all have a long to-do list on paper or scrolling in our heads. Lay down the list, stop the scroll! Savor what has been accomplished. Admire your handiwork – the pile of laundry folded, the bills paid, the sleeping children, the weeded garden. Give yourself credit for what you have done. Give credit to others in the family for what they have done. Does wonders for everyone’s morale!
If we can check out of our own world completely for a while and celebrate life, the benefits are deeper. Some do this with daily meditation, others with weekly worship. We can also do this with a relaxation break – a cup of coffee and just staring into the garden, beautiful music that brings us pause. Sometimes people plan entire vacations, to “just be alive” somewhere different. We may not have that luxury, but a bit here and there is entirely doable! I hope you can find something near you this summer, that gives you the gift of renewal! In the meantime, here is a mini break – four minutes of music and beautiful gardens to explore! Take time for yourself, to renew your spirit and rejoice in beauty. May it remind you to search for these moments, no matter how small, in your life!
Pssst — Click on the four cornered icon in the lower right to view full screen!
Don’t miss a thing – subscribe by email or RSS feed, follow on facebook or twitter to catch the latest post!
What are the basic tools every cook needs? Does your kitchen come up short? Or are your drawers full of every gadget made and in desperate need of a throw away? Jill Santopietro, chef and recipe tester for The New York Times, discusses the essential cooking tools to help with these questions.
Don’t miss a thing! Follow A Pinch of Joy on facebook, bloglovin’, RSS feed, twitter, or email.
Scarves are a great fashion statement — and a necessity for those of us who live in cold weather areas. Here are 25 different ways to tie a scarf to fulfill both fashion and necessity! Wendy from Wendyslookbook shows an amazingly entertaining and easy to follow presentation in a short amount of time. More detail? At the end of the video, follow Wendy’s directions to click on the scarf tying tutorial you want. Have fun with today’s Saturday Share!
Remember the post about the perfect way to cook corn on the cob? Donna was kind enough to send another way to achieve that perfect ear. Quick, easy and “clean as a whistle.” Hope we can score some late ears of corn to give this a try! If not — then we’re prepared for next season. Thanks, Donna, for a great Saturday Share!
Get A Pinch of Joy updates by email, RSS feed, bloglovin’, Twitter or Facebook.
Eyeglasses can be a major expense. The style of frame we choose will affect our appearance for a year or longer, so it is important to make an informed decision. What are some of the elements to consider when you are choosing eyeglass frames? Imogen Lamport, Australian fashion consultant and blogger at Inside Out Style, has a short video demonstrating her great tips on how to choose flattering eyeglass frames.
A Pinch of Joy
© Copyright 2011 · All Rights Reserved · Modern Blogger Theme on Genesis Framework
A Pinch of Joy blog by Charlene Vance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.