About

Hello, I am Sadie Mae.

I live on 20+ acres, one of the most beautiful places on earth in my opinion, nestled among the trees in rural Northwest Montana. Out here on the homestead our family consists of myself, my wonderful husband, and 3 sweet children… and 2 dogs. My mother-in-law lives in the walk out basement with the cats. the cats and dogs don’t get along. and in the other house on the property is my brother-in-law, his fiancée, and their girl and couple more dogs and another cat. We are working on leveling up our garden step by step. We have a nice flock of chickens, and a goat… hoping she’s pregnant! We have some good family friends that live not so far away, and they come by quite a bit with a couple more dogs! I homeschool the kids while my husband is at work! and I have been on a food journey, reclaiming our basic knowledge of food, health, and sustainable skills one from scratch item at a time!

I have been called to live my life as a Christian, Wife, and Mother! Oh, what an amazing calling it is! I feel the Lord has blessed me so very much with this life and this family! Not only have I found great joy through these blessings, but so much opportunity to be tested and grow! It has caused me to be introspective, and to reevaluate what I think or believe about, basically everything, over time, because truth maters! A few of the big things I have had to reevaluate is my faith: what was biblical verses cultural, food health: what is actual food what is foodesque, and lastly the many changes culturally in the name of progress that haven’t necessarily been for our betterment. I suspect this will be a lifelong journey in learning and growing and thought I would try to put it out here in case anyone has interest in joining me. I think I will mostly be posting about food… but my views on food will be colored by my beliefs.

My Roots

When I think of my childhood, I feel like I experienced a bit of a dichotomy. My mother was a single parent most of my upbringing, so she relied heavily on my grandmother to watch us in the times we were not at school, and she had to work. My mom was a wonderful from scratch cook, but being a single working parent, she relied on the convince foods in the grocery store. We might get some hot dogs, mac n cheese, and watermelon which gave us time left over to the playground or watch a movie. Maybe we would get a take and bake pizza and while it was in the oven sing Shania Twain at the top of our lungs while we danced around the house. A fast dinner, still a favorite to this day, simple ground beef tacos fallowed by a late-night drive down old back roads, windows down, rocking out to Van-Halen!

My grandmother on the other hand was still married and did not have to go to work. She could pop in and out of the kitchen all day to slow cook a roast, rise dough, or spend whole days in the kitchen canning pickles. She would regularly spend the whole morning talking to God in the garden while she pulled weeds or collected the harvest! I lived off the land at Grandmas house! Imagination running wild under the sweet-smelling canopy of orange trees, or being marooned by a steer, in the big sturdy branches of an old fig tree (the best for climbing) or learning to do pull ups on the perfect branch of an olive tree so I could sit perched up there to eat a pomegranate. I loved helping Grandma in the garden squishing snails and tomato worms or gathering beans in the shade of the green bean tee pee!

As a Young Adult

Unfortunately, nobody told me this is real food packed full of awesome nutrition, and this on the other hand is subpar and is packed full of chemicals, hormones, additives, and fillers. The beef you buy in the store is not of the same quality as the steer we are raising here! These two bowls of chili are not equal, this can of (insert brand name here) is not the same as Grandmas slow cooked all day made with broth, dried beans, home grown steer, tomatoes, onions garlic and the like. Part of that is the fact that there was not so much focus on the facts. I think people genuinely believed it was mostly comparable. When I became a young adult (18-19) and moved out before the logic, reasoning, rational part of the brain fully developed (mid-late twenties) I went to the store assuming if it wasn’t ice cream, cookies, chips or candy bars it was all regular food. And I just didn’t understand a lot about food. Obviously, fruits and veggies good, sweets and treats not so much. Eating a nutritionally balanced diet was provided for me but not really explained to me so when I realized I liked all the deliciously addictive ultra processed foods I thought if I eat it with some peas, corn or watermelon I was doing good! Now I have learned it’s all a bit more complicated than that!

Here We Are

Now here I am mid 30s with 3 little sweet people needing me to do my best to nourish them! Sadly, by the time I learned about much of this stuff my mom and grandma have passed away, so I’ve lost the chance to learn it from them. Although, I am fortunate enough to have a couple of my mom’s handwritten and typed cookbooks! I am having to learn much of the skills from other lovely people on the internet! Learning how to take whole raw food and turn it into something enjoyable, how to preserve food, and how to stock my own shelves with the foods we enjoy and making a clean version at home! Through this process I have found many little moments I feel connected to these wonderful women! And closer to God in seeing how what he made is best, not what man made. In taking a step into the slow lane gives space, so much space to have those quite little moments all through the day with the Lord, just like Grandma used to do!