This post is kind of like the second half of Homesteading: Where to Start?, and tells more of the story leading up to our big move, which I talked about in Rethinking Things: How We Got Here. We hope you enjoy it!
Ok, so now that we’ve been researching homesteading as the Lord leads, we came up, in April, with a whole new reason why homesteading is indeed what the Lord wants us to do.
Our young son has long had problems with allergies to things like: dairy, HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup), MSG, maltodextrin and the like. His symptoms include things like rashes, tummy aches, vomiting, diarrhea and so on.
Things have taken a bit of a turn for the worse in the last month. Part of that was our fault (Valentine’s Day and his March birthday prompted us to be a bit more lenient in his diet), but even though we’ve been pretty strict lately, he still is having symptoms.
This led to alot of research, on the part of my husband primarily, in the last 24 hours. We’re now thinking, for several reasons, that corn may be the culprit.
As we looked into what to avoid if that’s the case, we came to the realization that corn truly is in nearly everything. Not to mention the dangers of the genetically modified corn that most food producers use.
Our son will see the doc in April for official allergy testing, but until then we’re going to keep him on a whole foods diet entirely. I’m also going to start changing my baking methods, as butter and vegetable oil (and canola oil – didn’t realize how very bad that stuff was till today!) are out of the picture.
This sheds a whole new light on why the Lord is leading us to homesteading. We had thought of all the regular reasons, like self-sufficiency, saving money, healthier eating and the like, but the food allergy thing and the rising prominence of GM foods wasn’t a thought factor for us – until now.
I’ll be sure to keep you all posted as we step out on this new journey. Today, we’re making Great Grandma’s Banana bread with coconut oil and pure cane sugar instead of vegetable oil and white sugar. No, no whole wheat flour yet, but we’ll get there, one day.
