Why Pretty City Homestead

Why did I name my blog Pretty City Homestead? Don't laugh. You should have seen the names I tried, starting with "Simply Urban". It was taken. Seriously? Now try coming up with ANY title similar. All taken. Right down to "Urban Chic". Finally, Pretty City Homestead popped into my head. Not taken! Yay! The name is rather funny considering there is NOTHING pretty about my homestead. Laugh, laugh. Maybe it's the beginning. I can work on fixing this old, falling apart, POS house, and blog about it. Ok. That works. Next on my list of things to blog is my return to the "simple life". Such a funny phrase when there is nothing simple about it. It's not difficult, or overly time-consuming, but it's a little more work than modern Americans are used to. My foray into "simple" has begun with culturing probiotics. I am lucky enough to have friends who love to share. My first try is kombucha. This is a culture that looks like a mushroom. It's fed Sweet Tea, which it turns into a sweet/tart drink. Fabulous for doing a kidney and liver cleanse. I was also given some milk kefir grains. The kefir culture "eats" the lactose in the milk, separating it into "curds and whey". The curds can be eaten like cottage cheese, made into a cheese spread, eaten like yogurt, or drank like a smoothie. The final culture is water kefir. These "grains" look like clear, plastic chips. They live on sugar water and create a fizzy drink similar to soda pop. i can't wait to try these. Oops, I almost forgot! The final, FINAL culture is Sourdough. This one is really fun to work with. I love watching it "feed". It bubbles and foams and is just really cool. It is also a lot more work than the other cultures. Sourdough has to be fed more often than the others. Luckily it's as easy as stirring in a little flour and water once a day to once a week. I can not wait to make bread. This is going to be fun. So, welcome to the beginning of my homestead in the city. I can't wait to share as learn. I'm sure I'll make many mistakes along the way. Hey, that's part of the fun of the journey!