On Big Turtle Creek (KYF060)

Prepare to be inspired! In this episode of Know Your Food with Wardee, you’ll meet Judy Bowman. She and her husband live “on the land, off the grid, and close to the Lord” (her blog’s motto). Judy shares many of her traditional adventures at her blog On Big Turtle Creek — including food preservation, old fashioned skills, treadle sewing, foraging, raising goats and other small livestock, and much more…

Get to know Judy and her homestead through the links and information below, and of course through this podcast. Plus… the tip of the week!

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Tip of the Week: De-Crystallize Honey Easily at Low Temp!

GNOWFGLINS writer Lindsey shares:

“My honey has been crystallized since I ordered it from Azure Standard. I’ve tried immersing it in hot water to no avail. Today I got the brilliant idea to heat it in my dehydrator. I put the jar in there, turned on to about 100 degrees, and after 30 minutes, it had started to liquefy! I think it will be totally fluid by the end of the hour. Anyway, just wanted to share that tip for liquefying raw honey without destroying the enzymes!”

Visit Lindsey at her blog Today in Dietzville. 🙂

About Judy Bowman, her family, and Tabletop Homestead / On Big Turtle Creek

In Judy’s own words…

“Twenty years ago I graduated from nursing school and dove headfirst into homesteading all at the same time. After 10 years in the military and a failed attempt at raising sheep commercially we realized that there had to be a better way, so we began to learn traditional homesteading skills.

After much prayer, we purchased 45 acres in the Cross Timbers of South Central Oklahoma. We built a home and a homestead, then turned it over to our daughter and her growing family while we moved down the hill about a quarter of a mile and did it again! Not being quite as young as we were the first time around, we find that, nevertheless, the learning curve continues.

We live off-grid with a small solar system to power minimum refrigeration, a couple of fans in the summer, and the computer and movies on DVD. We heat and cook entirely with wood in the winter, using propane and solar methods in the warm months.

Cob construction is something I recently began learning about and I built a cob bread oven and fire pit in the last couple of years. We raise LaMancha goats for milk and cheese, and chickens, rabbits, a pig on most years and Homer, the ox in training. David hunts for deer each fall to supplement our larder and I’m getting almost proficient at tanning the hides. We garden and forage for wild edibles as well.

It seems our world revolves around food, its preparation and preservation. I endlessly study traditional methods and there’s almost always some type of food related experiment going on in my kitchen.

My other interests include history, particularly frontier living and farming across the ages; traditional music, (I’m learning to play the autoharp); sewing on my old Singer treadle machine and herbal medicine.

David is a jack of all trades and a talented welder and we joke that if I can dream it, he can build it.”

Read more about Judy’s life and adventures at On Big Turtle Creek.

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Links Mentioned

• On Big Turtle Creek — Judy’s blog
• On Big Turtle Creek on Facebook
• On Big Turtle Creek on Pinterest
• Agrarianism by M. Thomas Inge (short excerpt)
• The Definition Of An Agrarian by Herrick Kimball (blog post at The Deliberate Agrarian)
• Writings Of A Deliberate Agrarian by Herrick Kimball (book)
• The Unsettling Of America by Wendell Berry (book)

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Anything to Add?

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