Soy is a contentious bean as it can be both

good and not so good for you.

About a decade ago I thought about my impending journey into menopause, and with so many women these days having issues with menopause symptoms,  I thought I had better prepare myself through natural means- just in case I will be experiencing those nasty hot flushes and mood swings.

I read up on soy and looked at scientific tests done in relation to treating menopause symptoms, and I found it to be quite interesting and promising. I even read a book that was written by a doctor on using soy for this purpose with glowing reports of success. It was about the same time when my interest in soy was in full flush so to speak, that I also came across some very negative information on soy. Phytic acid in soy reduces the assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and soy phytoestrogens can disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer.

Phew! Not at all straight forward it seems.

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How To

You will need the stomach of a two week old goat or lamb. Separate the main stomach from the rest of the intestines and rinse thoroughly. Prepare a brine made with two cups of water and three tablespoons of salt. Immerse the rinsed stomach in the brine for three weeks in a crock or glass bowl and place in the fridge. After three weeks tie off one end with some jute string and place a funnel in the other stomach opening and pour in as much of the mother's milk into the stomach and tie off the other end.(Only the mothers milk in the stomach will make rennet, there is no substitute.)

When the stomach is as full as it can take the milk then tie off the other end of the stomach and turn it into a bag with a handle.

Soak the stomach bag with the mothers milk in a new batch of brine in a glass bowl or crock for another three weeks and then you will have rennet for making cheese. 3-4 tablesooons per 10 litres of milk can be straight into the milk pot and the milk will set into a solid curd in about 3/4 of an hour.

Herb spirals are a novel way of growing herbs with different growing requirements all in the one spot. The Mediterranean type herbs need a well-drained position and mint needs a damp spot to grow in. All the other herbs fall somewhere in between.

The spiral garden is sited to face north and the bottom of the spiral that ends in a small pond is situated south. Start from the ground on a one metre square base and begin on the outside edge from the pond upwards and work your way up into a spiral shape towards the centre to create a height of one metre. Larger rocks are used to build the foundation and form an inside and an outside row. As it is built up, the dirt is filled inside the two rows and so on. Stack the rows of rocks one on top of the other in a double row whilst gradually building up the height and filling it with dirt as it gets built upwards. The top of the spiral should end up somewhere in the middle, one metre off the ground.

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We first started keeping a couple of pigs nearly fifteen years ago and had only a two year break of having none. Now that’s thirteen years of pig keeping, and as you might guess, we like having them. This means that we have a steady supply of organic pork, bacon and sausages at our finger tips. There is nothing like the taste of a bit of bacon fried in onions in the wok or a smoked sausage for breakfast with an egg and sauerkraut all made and grown on the farm.

Keeping a pig or two is a must if you have a cow, as the cow will mostly feed the pig. The left over whey from cheese making is shared by both the pig and the chooks and this makes keeping them very cost effective. I hope you’re starting to see the picture. There is some hard work and plenty of commitment and dedication involved but it certainly can be done. Being largely food self sufficient is not only rewarding and satisfying but will also give you access to healthy organic food at low cost.
Keeping pigs is very much a part of the whole process of growing your own food. Not only do they feed you eventually and give you fertilser in the process, but they can help you to grow more food.

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I found the instructions for making soap in 'The Australian Earth Garden’s Self- Sufficiency Handbook' on page 324 very handy over the years. Use plastic buckets and a wooden spoon and wear rubber gloves and have some vinegar or lemon juice handy in the event of splashes.

• One kilo of soft lard at 26- 29oC
• Lye solution – In a well ventilated place into a plastic bucket, pour seven cups of water and add 360 gram of caustic soda. Gently stir and make sure you don’t breathe in the fumes. Allow to cool down to 21- 24oC
• Slowly in a thin stream pour the lye solution into the fat and keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken. Pour the contents into a plastic or wooden tray mould and allow to cool. That evening make score marks to marks the bars of soap. The next morning retrace the score marks and lift and stack the bars of soap in an airy spot for at least four to six weeks before using

We've been keeping bees for over ten years now and I certainly couldn't possibly imagine life without a perennial supply of honey at my finger tips. Having our own honey has always given me that sense of appreciation for this natural sweetener which changes in flavour with every season. Using a spoon of honey in our cup of tea instead of sugar has elevated us into this luxury status and sugar is nowhere to be seen in our house except for the brewing of our fruit wine- but that's another story.

From the moment we first had the idea of wanting our own bee hives until licking that delectable honey from the comb, a lot of water had passed under the bridge. It was all quite straight forward really when looking for a hive or two for sale in the local Trader, buying them and then taking them home. It was, until the getting out of the car time came with the bee hives that things began to get very interesting. The bee hive boxes had moved around in the trailer. Although they were strapped together, bees were escaping everywhere. We couldn't get out of the car as there were bees abuzz all around us! After a while, with the windows wound up, we began to gasp for air and decided to make a run for it. It certainly got the adrenalin pumping.

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