Writer With A Farm

For the love of growing, eating, creating and doing

● Featured Article

  • The Introduction

    Good Day all! My name is Ayana and I’m glad you’ve stumbled upon my blog today. As this is my first post, I want to tell you a little about myself I hope that it inspires you to go after the life you want.

                    I fell in love with writing accidently. I had been given a pad of construction paper and began drawing pictures.  As time went on, I started writing words within my pictures which turn into writing poems to go along with them. Soon my pad was filled more with poems than pictures.

      In high school, thought watching the show Charmed I thought my calling was to be a baker and went to a trade school for baking. While learning to bake, I was also in a poetry club and I started writing a screen play and several books. Life got in the way and I never got around to finishing them.

                    I went to college for English with a minor in creative writing, after realizing I really passionate about writing. I started working on finishing on of the books I started in college. During this time I lost 70 lbs and discovered a passion for nutrition and thought about writing a cook book. I also got introduced to Open Mic and started writing more poetry.

    Post college I applied for a writing job and actually got it but went with a different opportunity that ended up being a sales job. To this day I kick myself for not taking that writing job. I, again, started working on finishing the books I started and started going to open mics on a regular basis. I Eventually got the courage to start performing.  I started to dream of performing at big open mic competitions.

    I started my first professional job and getting caught up in getting out of debt and building a career, writing, again, took a back seat. During this time, I also discovered my love of growing things and had a new dream of eventually being a writer with a farm.  I started working more hours and bought 6 acres in which to build a farm. I met my husband, got married, became a mom and focused a lot on building my gardens and growing my own food but I wasn’t writing. I didn’t have time; it wasn’t a priority. Recently I stopped and evaluated my life.  I am making progress at getting out of debt, I am building my gardens and getting chickens, I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful and sweet baby girl and I was taking steps with building my homestead. The only thing missing was writing. My goal in life was to be a writer with a farm and the only thing missing was me taking the steps to be a writer.  So here I am.

    This blog is me achieving my dreams. This blog will encompass all of my favorite things: coffee, gardening, baking, nutrition, homesteading, poetry and short stories. I hope you join me on this journey of building the life I’ve always dreamed of and I hope following me inspires you to do the same.

  • My first time making apple crumble

          On this beautiful fall morning my kitchen was filled with scents of cinnamon, nutmeg and apples.  I’ve had the thought to make apple crumble for the last several weeks. We bought a bushel of apple seconds from the farmers market for 10 dollars. After making apple jelly, apple jam and apple butter my kitchen was still filled with an obsecne amount of apples. This morning as I sipped my coffee and read a chapter from a book I’m reading called Awakening by Nora Roberts, I realize this morning was the morning to try making apple crumble for the first time.

          When I am making something for the first time I always start by looking up several recipes. I see what each recipe has in common and I use that as my base, then I tweak the recipe to suit my needs from there. Below is the base recipe I used https://www.recipetineats.com/apple-crumble/.

        

           The recipe called for 2 pounds of apples, peeled. I don’t care for peeling my fruit because you lose nutrients and I like my food to be as nutrient dense as possible. Therefore I did not feel my apples and honestly I couldn’t tell you how many apples I even cut up. I diced several apples. The recipe called for some amount of lemon juice. I cut a whole lemon into four pieces and squeezed one of the slices over the apples. I also added some cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, a little all purpose flour and honey and mixed it all together. In the topping I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup freshly milled flour instead of all purpose, 8 tablespoons of butter and a little bit more vanilla. I usually make my own baking powder but haven’t gotten around to it yet so I just use a tad bit of baking soda and cream of tartar. The only items I measured was the freshly milled flour, brown sugar and butter and oatmeal. I free handed everything else and It came out a tad bit sweeter than I was expecting but still delicious. The freshly milled flour added a nutty flavor to the apple crumble that was deliciously unexpected. The next time I make it I’m going to use 1/3 cups of brown sugar and see if  that is more to my liking.

           I approach Cooking and baking much more like an art than a science. That is why when you read my post you will see very few actual measurements. Most foods don’t need exact measurements to be good. People hundreds of years ago was cooking, without scales, weights and thermometers. You don’t need those things to make delicious food.  Find a recipe and use it. Tweak it for what works for your family. If it wasn’t quite right the first time write down what you would change and the next time you make it try the change and see if you like it. Don’t be afraid to experiment. I probably could have done with a little less apples or a little more crumble and even still I created a dish my family enjoyed. Dishes don’t have to be perfect to be delicious.

● Latest Articles

  • A Rainy Fall Morning

    I woke up to a beautiful yellow haze. It showed through the blinds on my window like God himself was saying good morning. When I…

  • A Journey to More Nutritious Bread

    Today may be the warmest morning we’ve had in a couple of weeks. It’s 50 degrees. The rising sun is broadcasting a hazy glow across…

  • Making cheesesteak rolls

    Let me start off by saying, this is not a how to post. This is a, I tried something new and it came out kinda…

  • Learning fermentation

    I recently have been listening to this podcast called Ancestral Kitchen. What I enjoy most about this podcast is how much I’ve learned about fermented…