After leaving Kendahl’s in Phoenix, Arizona, I stayed with Dina-Marie’s family for four days in the West Texas desert. Dina-Marie, her husband John, and their ten children moved from Southern Alabama to West Texas five years ago to grow grapes for wineries.
Whether it’s helping tend the vineyards, milking the family cows, or hanging clothes on the clothesline, everyone pitches in to keep life running on the farm.
Dina-Marie runs a blog called Cultured Palate that follows their daily adventures in farm and family living.
I learned to prune vineyards and milk cows using the claw while I was there.
They get 8 gallons a day from their two milk cows. Plenty of cream to make butter!
All the kids can play instruments, and they have more instruments than people, including a dulcimer hammer!
Dina-Marie has a really open kitchen with gorgeous Polish pottery that they got when they lived Europe.
Her table is gorgeous, too!
Dina-Marie cultures lots of kefir every day, and keeps kombucha continuously brewing on top of her fridge.
Her husband, John, also makes homemade wine.
And I made a chicken curry while I was there.
Speaking of chickens, these are theirs.
Can you imagine feeding 9 people every morning? You’d need a lot of eggs!
Every morning, after breakfast, the family reads passages from Psalms and Proverbs.
Every evening, they read a chapter from the Bible and then pray as a family before turning in for the night.
I had a really great time getting to know everyone in the family and learn about how other people live and how a homestead runs from day-to-day. Thanks to Dina-Marie’s family for hosting me! :)
Questionaire
Blog Name: My Cultured Palate
Blog Authors: Dina-Marie (Facebook)
Location: West Texas
How long have you been blogging?
Before starting Cultured Palate in November 2012, I had another blog that I started in 2009 which was primarily about our beginning a vineyard and money-saving tips.
What topics do you blog about?
Real Food, GAPS, homesteading which includes posts about our family (with 10 children, there is always something going on!) farm animals and vineyard.
Describe your family for us.
My husband and I have 10 children (yes, they are all ours!) – 7 boys and 3 girls. The oldest 3 are married and we are expecting our 5th grandchild in April. Our youngest daughter is 4 yrs old and we have 2 grandchildren older than she is! We home educate the children and enjoy working together in the vineyard.
What hobbies do you enjoy?
Blogging, cheesemaking, gardening, and sewing
If it was your last day on earth, what would you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Junk food totally counts!
Knowing I did not have to suffer the physical consequences of the food I ate, breakfast would be french toast swimming in syrup. Lunch would be lasagna, french bread and tiramisu. Dinner would be steak, a loaded potato, chocolate cake and banana pudding. In between snacks, I would include potato chips, cheese puffs, lemon pie and cheesecake.
What three posts on your blog do you want to share with my readers?
I would like to share 3 posts that have had a huge impact on my own life.
1. “Gallbladder Cleanse – An Alternative to Surgery” This cleanse has kept me from having my gallbladder removed and really works!
2. “GAPS and Osteoporosis” – I have had life changing results by following the GAPS diet! Not only do I now enjoy eating meat after being a vegetarian for 30+ yrs because of allergies, I also no longer sufferfrom rheumatoid arthritis. Plus, I am also reversing my osteoporosis!
3. “Tea Bags – A Natural Remedy for Pink Eye” I started using this on our oldest son (who is now 27 yrs old) and have not been to the doctor for pink eye since!
How/why did you start blogging?
I started Cultured Palate to help spread the word about the healing power of REAL food.
What’s the biggest challenge about running a blog?
For me, the biggest challenge is time. We are currently pruning the vineyard so between pruning, schooling the children and meal preparation, I have to be creative with time managment!
What do you enjoy most about blogging?
I love getting comments and emails from my readers with questions and testimonies of their success stories with the GAPS diet and REAL food.
