We like frogs. In fact, we have quite a few frogs around here! It is not at all unusual to find a tree frog or two napping on the side window outside the front door. The younger kids are always off catching little toads and watching them hop around on the lawn. But nothing quite prepared us for this “little” guy that we happened across yesterday. Rather, one of the dogs found it at the edge of the woods beneath a bush and was not being very friendly towards it. The younger ones rescued it and put it into a bucket to show to everyone. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a frog this big, and definitely not in our own backyard!

Simultaneously, David interceded a turtle crossing the lawn on its way to find a big luscious strawberry in the garden (not like he’s ever experienced a Stelzl strawberry before!) – did you know that turtles love strawberries? Someone found another turtle, and now I’m convinced that we might as well just start a petting farm or a zoo while we’re at it!

So, that was yesterday’s excitement. We ended up letting them all go on the other side of the road, where the dogs couldn’t get to them.

You never know what will happen. It’s not everyday that a 5″ frog and two turtles come to visit!

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of unusual incidents, and cute animals…remember Buddy? We got him as a puppy in September last year, from a couple handing out free German Shepherds on the side of the road in Waxhaw. In December when we had our traditional Christmas party gathering, some friends of ours mentioned that they had a dog that looked just like Buddy, that had jumped into their car at the library in Waxhaw. They had taken him home, not sure of what to do with him and had still not found the owners (several weeks later). Long story short, they ended up giving him to us, after we discovered that the dogs were brothers from the same batch of puppies. It’s funny…they named theirs Buddy, and we got ours already named Buddy. We had to rename their Buddy, so we call him Shiloh.

Last year we had the opportunity to purchase some strawberry plants from a man who had a strawberry farm in SC. He had 2000 extra plants, and was selling them for $0.25 each! David cared for the 50 plants we purchased, making sure they had the proper growing conditions.

This year we are enjoying the sweet reward of his diligent work, and the Lord’s abundant blessings! Who would have thought such tiny plants could become so healthy and fruitful!!! We have enjoyed going out to the garden to look for ripe berries, and returning with handfuls. There are few things so rewarding as planting a garden, and watching the Lord bring forth life from such tiny seeds. God is good!

Our garden is doing so well! In the past we have always struggled with our rocky-orange-clay soil, because it seems the only thing we successfully grow here is weeds. This year, after months of working with Michael to plant cover crops and improve the soil conditions, David tilled the garden and found the soil much better! We are grateful for Michael’s knowledge and help, and God’s blessing on our garden!

This year we planted tomatoes (big ones, as well as cherry tomatoes), cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, corn, lettuce, bell peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, spaghetti squash, strawberries, blueberries, black raspberries, blackberries, and of course our orchard (peaches, nectarines, apples, and crab-apples – for pollination purposes).

The bee farm has officially expanded, from two to six hives. We are grateful for the Lord’s provision, and look forward to seeing how he will bless the honeybees. (The two hives on the far left are the only ones that survived the winter, and the biggest one is quickly filling up with honey!)

See our lovely orchard? The fruit trees are barely visible in the midst of flourishing squash plants. They sprouted from the compost that the trees were planted in earlier this spring. We recently weeded out TONS of plants which we moved to the edge of the woods where the soil is very nice. They are loaded with tiny squashes growing strong and healthy – far better than even the ones in the garden! It’s always nice to have a few extra squashes, so no one is complaining over here . We dug up one plant at the base of a black raspberry bush, only to find a cabbage core that had sprouted .

So there you have it! The Stelzl Family farm is growing very nicely, and we are so grateful to see all that the Lord has provided and brought to pass. We are amazed with each passing day to behold the gift of life in each healthy plant, and look forward to the sweet reward of home-grown fruits and vegetables in the months and years ahead.

Psalm 111:2-3 “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious: and His righteousness endureth for ever.”

In our family we have two sets of birthday twins! Hannah and David share a birthday, and Josiah and Timothy share a birthday! May 1st was Hannah’s 20th birthday, and David’s 17th birthday. We had a special meal and dessert which they requested (did I mention that we are pretty much off our diet now, but just being careful to stay healthy??). We had a wonderful celebration as a family!!!

We love you Hannah and David!!!

We’ve always dreamed of having an orchard…but it wasn’t until this year that plans fell into place. David diligently worked to research the best place for the varieties and types of fruit trees we wanted. He found a company in Georgia, and then set to work digging holes so that we could prepare the soil.

Tiny Tim enjoyed helping out. He is always eager to do “man’s work”!!!

The boys found a snake while we were filling in the holes with different types of soil, sand, and peat moss. We think it was a worm snake – they are not poisonous, but eat earthworms.

It’s been over a month since we planted our orchard, expanded the blueberry garden, and started our seeds for the garden plants. We are thrilled to watch the trees budding, the blueberries ripening, and the garden alive with healthy plants (We’ve been enjoying an abundance of delicious strawberries from the 50+ plants we purchased in SC – from a man who owns a strawberry farm and had 2000 extra plants which he sold for $0.25 each).

We laugh about the orchard, because there are huge patches of thriving vegetable plants around the base of each tree, that sprouted from all the compost we mixed in.

This week, four more hives of bees arrived, ready to be assembled and added to the farm. We were able to go into the hives this week and mark the queens, so we will have more success with locating them in the future – just to be sure each hive still has a queen and is expanding.

We are excited to see how the Lord will bless the bee farm, as well as the orchard and the gardens. Our little farm is growing, and it is a joy to behold the gift of life everywhere!

Tomatoes, Squash, Potatoes, and strawberries are thriving in the garden right now. Soon we will plant our remaining plants, which we started from seed earlier this year.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty…He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth.” – Psalm 104:1, 13-14

Rice Waffles with Berry Syrup

To make the waffles, mix together the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl:

1 cup rice flour, or gluten free baking flour (Note: if it has baking powder in it, you will need to reduce the amount it calls for below)

1/4 cup Tapioca flour

1/4 cup Corn starch

1/4 cup Potato starch

1 Tablespoon Baking powder

1 teaspoon Salt

(You can use 1/2 cup of potato starch, or 1/2 cup of corn starch if you prefer not to use both)

1-1/3 cups Water + 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider vinegar, whisked together (or 1-1/3 cups buttermilk if you prefer)

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 Tablespoons melted butter, or oil (coconut, sunflower, olive, etc.)

Whisk the ingredients together with a wire whisk or use a blender to ensure that there are no lumps of flour left. Heat a waffle iron or griddle to make waffles or pancakes. Serve hot with fruit syrup (recipe below) or other toppings! Makes about 8 square (4×4″) waffles.

Berry Syrup

To make the berry syrup, blend enough strawberries, blueberries, or other desired berries (with a little warm water) in the blender to make about 4-5 cups of puree (I partially thawed the frozen berries before blending them).

Pour into a saucepan.

Stir in several tablespoons of maple syrup (or whatever natural sugar you like best!) until it has reached your desired sweetness!

Heat over medium heat until the mixture is bubbling but not boiling.

Remove from heat and gradually whisk in tapioca flour until the liquid begins to thicken to desired consistency (about 1/8 cup).

Serve over waffles, and do enjoy!!!

“I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.” – Psalm 104:33-34

Today is day 85, and we’ve finally reached phase 3 of the Candida diet. This means that we can start incorporating a few more foods back into our menu – including small amounts of certain dairy products (plain yogurt, farmer’s cheese, kefir – things we don’t really eat much of anyway:-) ), corn products (like corn chips and corn bread, or just putting corn into our soup!) small amounts of ground meat (we made chili today using ground beef, and have put ground seasoned turkey in our eggs once or twice for breakfast) and a little more fruit than usual (like a half of an apple or a few berries once a day rather than just a few times a week). We can also experiment with a small amount of date sugar or other natural sugars as long as it is cooked – for instance, we will be making gluten free biscuits soon. So far we have tried Millet bread with our eggs for breakfast, and just today we made one of our favorite recipes for cornbread!!!

Corn Bread

1 1/2 cups yellow corn meal

1/2 cup flour (we used corn flour since we cannot have gluten yet)

1 T Baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups milk (we used rice milk since we are not supposed to have much dairy)

1/2 cup oil (we used butter – the one dairy product we have enjoyed throughout the entire diet!)

3 T sugar (we used a small amount of coconut crystals)

Mix all ingredients together and pour into an oiled 8×8″ pan. Bake at 350 F. degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy ~ we certainly did!!!

Spanish Rice

I posted a recipe for Spanish Paella a while back, which is a rice dish similar to this one. This is our other favorite recipe for Spanish rice, and since we rotate between the two from time to time, I though I’d share this one as well!

Saute the following ingredients in a large pot:

Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serves 10

You’ve probably discovered by now that we eat a lot of rice on this diet… This recipe is quick and simple. I’m sure you’ve made something similar to it for your family at some time. It’s really just rice with a lot of other yummy ingredients thrown in. Since it’s so quick and simple, we make it for lunch on Sundays, after church.

Fried Rice

Cooked brown rice – enough for your family (we usually cook large batches and freeze them so we can pull out a bag or two whenever we need it).

(Note: The following measurements are for a batch that serves about 10 people.)

1 onion, chopped small

10 eggs, beaten and fried (scrambled)

Frozen sweet peas, thawed – about 24 oz

Frozen broccoli, thawed (baby florets, or just small bite sized pieces) – about 1 pound

Saute the onion in olive oil in a large pot, until soft and thoroughly cooked (Use a lower temperature to avoid browning them while they are still crunchy inside). Add the peas and broccoli and eggs. You can also do some bean sprouts if you like – we have tried them a few times and really enjoyed them. (But be sure to add those before the broccoli, peas, and eggs as they need to be cooked and require extra time).

Once you have your ingredients mixed together in the pot, cook over a low temperature for a few minutes until heated. Then add them to the rice (already thoroughly heated!) and stir it up. Enjoy.

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Thursday, April 12th (Arrive)

Friday & Saturday, April 13-14, 9AM-5PM (Raising Entrepreneurs Conference)

Sunday, April 15th (Fort Rock Family Camp Chapel)

Family rate: $795 (There is an additional fee if your family exceeds 5 people)

Food and lodging are included in the family entrepreneurial conference rate. Activities will be provided for younger children, and those who do not wish or are not able to attend the workshop.

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For more details on the Raising Entrepreneurs Workshop, or to read about the VA conference and view pictures, visit www.raisingentrepreneurs.net.