For the love of growing, eating, creating and doing

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  • 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.

  • I am excited for all the things happening in my kitchen right now. A friend gave me a simple recipe for making yogurt. I have that going on in a crockpot on my kitchen table. I have some apple cider vinegar fermenting on the counter. Since I am making yogurt I decided to make some homemade granola. Then I remembered something about soaking your grains being good for digestion so I decided to try making fermented granola. ( I’ll let you all know in the morning how all of this turns out haha). I also have a sponge for sourdough bread doing it’s thing in a bowl on my stove.

    Tomorrow I hope to make sauerkraut and a jar of fermented veggies. I really miss having a easy vegetable to add to my dinner plate. I also want to start another batch of apple cider vinegar. My current batch isn’t safe for consumption so I plan to use it just for cleaning. I haven’t been this productive in my kitchen in a few months and it feels so good!. We got some warm weather yesterday. It was over 60 degrees and I think that has turned a tide in my energy and motivation. I can feel the spring energy tingling around me and I am buzzing with excitement.

    Also the growing season is almost upon us!  I’m about to order compost and start getting my backyard together for the warmer season. Spring is on the horizon and not evening the next week and a half of rain can damper my spirit.

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