A Quart of Sauerkraut

Ye are the salt of the earth.... Matthew 5:13a

This week at God's Two Acres I've made sauerkraut. Not a churn full like Grandma used to make, but a quart or a 1/2 gallon at a time. A medium head of cabbage that weighs about 3 pounds will make about a quart. I took off the outer leaves and quartered the cabbage. After I removed the core, I shredded it in my food processor but I could have used the slicer side of a four-sided grater or simply used a knife. 

Then I added the salt and worked it into the cabbage until the cabbage began to wilt. A wooden spoon was useful to pack the wilted cabbage into a wide-mouthed quart jar. Then I filled a jelly jar with water, added a lid and set it on the kraut to weigh it down. A clean cloth and a rubber-band will keep the kraut clean and allow the air-borne bacteria access to the salted cabbage. After 3 days the kraut is ready to use or refrigerate. I like mine a little more tart so I will allow the fermenting to continue, tasting every day until it's just right for me and my family. I can then send it to the cellar or refrigerate for fall/winter munching. I'll probably be making a few quarts every time I have a nice head of cabbage.  

Making kraut is a lot like making a Christian. The outside, our skin color is of no importance to God. All He is concerned with is the inside. At our core is a sinful heart that has to be removed. God gets the wrong man out and puts the new man in (the Holy Spirit). He changes our whole being so that we become a new creature. All our old ways are shredded and God's new way begins. 

Salt is important to the mixture of making kraut. God says we are the salt of the earth. So, just what does salt do? Salt adds flavor, it draws out moisture, it creates an environment in which bad bacteria has difficulty growing and good, beneficial bacteria flourishes. It preserves the cabbage so it is not only an edible food but a beneficial food. Lots of vegetables, cucumbers and green beans for example, can be preserved with salt in much the same manner as cabbage. Even meat is salted to preserve it. 

So how are we as Christians the salt of the earth? We should add a different outlook to the world with which we come in contact. We draw people to Christ, to a changed life. We should be creating an environment where evil has a hard time sustaining itself and goodness and love flourish. We should be leading people to life everlasting. We should be useful instruments in God's kingdom. 

We have an awesome opportunity and responsibility to be salt every day, but especially in this time of elections. We need to be outspoken, being the salt that will preserve our marriages, families and nation. If we are not that beneficial salt, Christ says we may as well be thrown to the ground and stomped under foot. 

So, what are some ways we can be salt for the benefit of our homes and our country? Won't you leave your comments below? 

Blessings,

Gail

HEY KIDS! Won't to try your hand at making a quart of kraut? It tastes great with a few hot dogs.

You will need:

a food processor or a four-sided grater, or a knife (be sure to ask for a grown-up's help with these pieces of equipment).

a large bowl

a wooden spoon

a sterilized wide-mouth quart canning jar

a jelly jar with a lid

a clean cloth

a rubber band

1 1/2 tablespoons of sea salt or any salt that does not contain iodine

a medium cabbage

The temperature of the house needs to be in the 70's to make the best kraut.

Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage.

Slice the cabbage in quarters.

Remove the core

Shred the cabbage into a large bowl

Work in 1 1/2 Tablespoons of salt with your hands until the cabbage wilts. (It may take 5 -10 minutes).

Pack the cabbage tightly into the quart jar, packing it down with the wooden spoon.

Add the juice from the bowl to the jar. 

Add water to the jelly jar and screw on the lid.

Place the jelly jar into the quart jar and mash down.

Place the clean cloth over both jars and tie it on with the rubber band.

Check daily, mashing down on the jelly jar. 

If juice runs out of the quart jar, set it on a saucer. 

If the juice does not cover the cabbage in 24 hours dissolve 1 tsp of salt in 1 cup of water and add enough to cover the cabbage. 

After 3 days, the kraut is ready if the tartness pleases you. It may be left up to 6 weeks. Refrigerate at your preferred tartness or place in a cool cellar. Enjoy!!

Some Hand-Stitched Quilts -- Leave a legacy

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. Colossians 3:23

Mrs. Analee married late in life to a truck farmer who lived in his family home, way back off the road. She never had children, but she did what farmers' wives did half a century ago. She kept the house, planted and picked along side her husband, lived by the farm rules of "eat what you can and can what you can't". She sewed and crocheted to clothe herself and her husband and decorate their home, and she quilted - beautiful hand-stitched quilts, she intended to warm her husband and herself in the cold winter months. She made courthouse steps and Ohio star, log cabin and sun-bonnet Sue, crazy quilts and friendship quilts, more than she could possibly use. So she tucked them away for a colder day.

Mrs. Analee lived to a good old age and passed before her husband, the quilts still tucked away in a chest at the foot of the bed. At his passing I was given the responsibility to dispose of the estate. I knew no one would come to a sale "way back off the road," so I set up tents and made little rooms on our property along the road. One tent was filled with kitchen furniture decorated with plates, silverware, cups and saucers and all the other necessities of a country kitchen. Another tent contained bedroom furniture with a bed, spread with her bright quilts. Another tent had the wood stove and barn equipment left from days with mules.

People traveling the busy road stopped not just for an estate sale, but to revisit childhood days spread under the tents. Practically everything sold before the day was out. The prices were reasonable and the display tugged at the nostalgia the purchased items would bring to the buyer's home. Only one major item remained at day's end. Though I had spread the quilts on a bed and turned them several times for customers, no one had purchased even one quilt. Odd, I thought. I love quilts and this is quilt country. I gently folded each one and placed them in a storage box in our basement for safe keeping, thinking maybe we should take them to the mountain shops for consignment.

Years passed and the quilts remained in the box. The VBS theme this year was pioneer days. Someone suggested we use quilts to decorate if anyone had any. I opened the box and removed quilts and quilts and quilts. We hung some on the bare walls of the fellowship building. Others we spread for family groups to use during puppet and lesson time. The children seemed to know they had a place of their own where they could sit quietly while the gospel was given.

Mrs. Analee was a Christian woman. She would have been glad her quilts had been used to bring the gospel to children. Mrs. Analee didn't know she was leaving a legacy. She was just doing the best she knew how to do; but without her careful stitches we may very well have had wild Indians instead of quietly amazed children. l'm hoping Jesus whispered to her that the quilts she loving stitched brought peace and joy to the church built just two doors down from her farmhouse, way back off the road.

We do not know how God will use the things we leave behind to affect generations to come. I pray we all leave a legacy that demonstrates our careful attention to God's purpose for our lives.

Blessings for God's purpose,

Gail

Hey Kids

Have your parents or grandparents shown you things from their childhood or told you stories from the good old days? Ask about an old quilt or baby blanket and take a few minutes for snuggle time this week. Ask questions about the role God has played in the lives of your parents and grandparents. You will likely find some amazing and moving stories. You may just be making memories that you will share with your children.

Where Have the Seeds Fallen?

Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. John 5:14 

The summer beans have been tilled under. It's almost time to scatter seeds for fall greens. I'm wondering if I should even bother. School has started. The sun is setting earlier. My time to work in the garden will be very limited as autumn approaches. The seeds are good, but between the hard ground of dry weather, the rocks and the fall weeds, there probably is little use in planting fall greens. Maybe some will find good ground.  

The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) shows us a picture of a farmer scattering seeds. Not everything fell on good ground. The Lord was comparing the hearts of people with the different types of ground. He was sowing the good seeds of the gospel, but where would they fall? Satan often snatches away the gospel seeds as soon as people make their way to the car. Some folks make a profession of faith without understanding sin must be repented of. Soon the heat of taunts from others causes them to fall away. Some folks get the need for repentance of sin. They are growing in the Lord until the cares of this world, work, family, friends, entertainment, recreation, etc, etc, get in the way and their growth does not produce any fruit. Then there are those whose hearts are ready to receive the gospel seeds. They show Christ in their words and their actions. The fruit of their salvation leads others to know the Lord as well.  

With all that is transpiring in our families, our churches, and our nation, the real question is where have the seeds fallen in my life? Yes, I did say that in the correct order. The problem began in our homes half a century ago. We were told we deserved to be happy. Someone forgot to remind us that marriage is what you make of it and unborn lives matter.  Then it crept into our churches under the guise of love and acceptance. We must love everyone but we cannot accept their/our sin. Now our nation is disintegrating because of – not immigrants, not racism – but immorality.  

So where do we go from here? We must go back to our homes, our marriages, our children, and begin to make commitments that are Biblical covenants – lifetime covenants. We must take responsibility for our children, training them in the way they should go. Our children do not yet belong to the government. We must love one another but not be accepting of sin. We have all sinned but Jesus told the crippled man at the well to go and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon him. I'm afraid that's where we are. A worse thing is coming upon us.  

I've been very preachy today but what else will turn hearts? Romans says how shall they hear without a preacher? Let us take this week and examine ourselves. Where are we? Do we have hard hearts that dismiss the preaching of God's Word? Did we think we were saved but failed to make repentance part of our salvation experience? Have we allowed the things of this world choke our testimony? Or hopefully, we are bearing fruit that will change the world.  

Blessings for your week. 

Gail 

HEY KIDS: Make a Terrarium

  

Does mom have 4 empty wide-mouth jars you could borrow? 

You'll need a few seeds as well. Any kind will do. 

Create a different type of environment in each jar.  

Jar 1: Add a small amount of dirt that can be packed down hard.  

Jar 2: Add a few rocks. 

Jar 3: Add good soil but also all the weeds that are growing in the soil. 

Jar 4: Add good, rich soil. 

Sprinkle a few seeds in each jar.  

Add just a little water. 

Screw on the lid and place in a sunny window. 

Observe what happens over the next 2 weeks.  

Record your observations.  

How has your experiment given you a better understanding of The Parable of the Sower? 

Does the Color Make a Difference?

The phone rang. The box had arrived. All I needed to do was go to the post office and pick it up. I hit the road at 7:45 on a Saturday morning.

As I entered the post office I could here the peeping over all the clatter and voices of early morning preparations. I rang the bell by the big blue door as I had been instructed. No answer. I rang again. No answer. I held the bell. "I'm coming!" The post office lady emerged with with the box. "What's your address?" She shoved the box in my hands as I gave her my address.

"Thanks," I said as she disappeared behind the big blue door. This was the box I had waited for all summer, waiting for the right chicks, the right price, the right timing. It was the right timing. Grandkids were coming to at 8:15. They would want to help open the box.

I prepared the cage. filled the water bottle, and scooped the chick starter feed. A pair of scissors lay beside the box waiting the kids arrival. They too, had waited for the box. We snipped the tape and opened the box to find two sections of peeping, wiggling fluff balls.

Fluff balls of Ameraucana Easter Egg chicks, not Araucana, Ameraucana! These are not show birds, but birds that do lay eggs of blue, green and pink. There are Ameraucana chickens that are show birds but mine are just cute little cross breeds. Did you notice the variety in the colors of the chicks?

They eat together, drink together, and peep together. When they are grown they will still flock together; and they will still be a variety of colors and lay a variety of colored eggs. Are you wondering about the color on the inside of the eggs? Will I cook green eggs and ham? No, not without food coloring. All the eggs are exactly alike on the inside. As a matter of fact they are exactly like white and brown eggs on the inside.

I heard a presidential candidate make that same type of remark the other night. He said when he operated, he was concerned with what made that person who they were, not the color of their skin.
People are just like chicks and eggs in that respect. We aren't eating feathers or shells. We are concerned with what's under the feathers and inside the shell. We shouldn't be concerned with the outside coloring of people either. We need to be concerned with the inside, the hearts of the people we meet.

For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. I Samuel 16:7b  (NKJV)

There seems to be a lot of division often created by the media because of the outward appearance of our neighbors. We need to be like my chicks and ignore the outward and the media hype. We need to be concerned with hearts that need the Savior. We cannot pick and choose those to whom we will give the gospel. Jesus felt the need to go through Samaria to meet the woman at the well and her neighbors. The Good Samaritan couldn't leave a wounded person even if the person was a Jew.  Peter learned a lesson about people when God gave him the vision of the unclean animals. God needed someone willing to go to Cornelius, a Gentile. God needs someone now who is willing to go into the whole world. Take a look around you. In the United States, we live in an international community. The world has already been brought to us. All we have to do is go next door. Will you be that person who will go into all the world? 

I pray we all reach out to someone this week. Won't you share a comment how God led you to the person you spoke with this week?

Blessings,

Gail

Hey Kids:
Have you ever thought about the eggs you eat? Some people say they buy a particular color of eggs because of the taste. Why not conduct an experiment.
Ask Mom if she can buy white and brown eggs this week. If you are privileged enough to raise your own eggs perhaps you can trade some of yours for a different color. 
Have someone other than yourself cook eggs of different color shells. 
Label the eggs plate 1 and plate 2 so you won't know what color shell the eggs came from.
Now do the taste test. 
Take a bite from each egg plate. 
Take a guess as to what color the shell was.
Have others in your family take the taste test as well.
Did you guess right?
Was there really a difference in the taste?
My guess is that about 1/2 of the tasters guessed correctly.
Can you tell why about 1/2 guessed correctly? 

Rising to the Top - Cream of the Crop

Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,… II Corinthians 6:17a

This week was Vacation Bible School with an old-fashioned circuit riding preacher theme. We decorated the fellowship building with quilts and old farm equipment: push plow, churn, baskets, hoe, quilts on the wall, etc. The best thing we learned was using quilts for seating kept the children in their seats; it was like a carpet square at school. Our crafts were paired with Bible stories. Our teachers taught the stories in a conversational style as the children worked on the crafts. We tried to plant gospel seeds and water them well, so God will give the increase in His time. He has already begun; one of the older girls received Christ on the fourth night!

The old - fashioned item that the children seemed most fascinated with was a crank butter churn. I added raw milk, you know, cream on the top and they took turns turning every night. Since it was just a few minutes each night we never got butter but they sure enjoyed watching the cream and milk slosh around in the glass jar.

Planting seeds, watering and churning butter is a lot like our lives. It is extremely rare that a person will be saved on first hearing the gospel. It takes hearing over and over in a period, maybe a long period, of time. But when the person finally understands that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” and he/she is part of “all”, then the seeds begin to take root, the cream begins to separate, the gospel begins to take shape in that person’s heart. As a seed pushes through soil, the seed dies and changes into a plant. As cream thickens into butter, it separates from the milk and forms its own mass. Plants cannot become seeds again, neither can butter separate back into the milk again. So we, as saved people, are changed; we can never return to what we used to be.  

Scripture is filled with agricultural metaphors. It’s fun to take a few minutes here at God’s 2 Acres to see how scripture plays out in our daily lives.  Won’t you share how God is opening your eyes to His word through your daily life?  

Father, help us not pass by Your Word in our daily lives because our lives seem so ordinary. There is truly nothing ordinary in the world You have created by Your own hand. Thank you, Lord for showing us the extraordinary in our ordinary. In Jesus name, Amen.

HEY KIDS:

You may not have a butter churn at home but you can make butter with just a few kitchen items. You will need:

A mixer

A bowl

Some whipping cream(in the dairy case at your grocery store)

Pour the whipping cream into a large bowl. Place the mixer in the cream and slowly turn the speed up to high. If you still need to stand in a chair to reach the counter, you probably will need help with the mixer. In a few minutes, the whipping cream will become whipped cream. If you stop here, you can add sugar and put it on some fruit for dessert. If you whip a little longer, the whipped cream will begin to separate and butter will form on the beaters. Pour off the now skim milk and remove the beaters with the butter. The butter can be pressed into a small bowl. Pressing will release the rest of the skim milk. Get mom to fix you some hot biscuits for the butter. YUM!

If you’re small and patient you can make butter in a jelly jar. Pour ½ cup of whipping cream into a one cup jelly jar. Tighten the lid. Shake and shake and shake some more. When you get tired, shake some more. If you have a brother or a sister, get them to help shake. Mama can probably bake the biscuits while you’re making butter. It will take 10 to 15 minutes for the whipping cream to form and then just another minute for the butter to form. Pour off the skim milk and press the butter. Are the biscuits ready yet?

Blessings,