The Quaker Pantry features our farm journal, seasonal recipes and holistic homesteading ideas that promote better health through natural foods and simple, sustainable living. If you have ideas or thoughts to share related to healthful living we welcome you to send them in! For Quaker Anne's Christian spiritual essays click here

Autumn 05 Farm News * Winter 05 News Spring 06 News * Summer 06 Farm News Autumn 06 Farm News Create a Well Stocked Kitchen Pantry Candles in the Windows 1st Month 07 News * 2nd Month 07 News Feeding an Orphaned Lamb Cooking with Honey * Home Schooling How to Make Maple Syrup Making Sugar Snow Candy 3rd Month 07 News * 4th Month 07 News 5th Month 07 News* 1st Month 08 News Starting Mail Order Chicks 2nd Month 08 News * 3rd Month 08 News

At Quaker Hill Farm, we produce most of our own food. Pasture raised meats, chemical free produce, free range eggs, raw honey and even raw milk, most of which have provided us with the staples of our diet for almost 30 years.

Our lifestyle, strongly based on the Christian ideals of simplicity and stewardship, was led by grace to learn and put into practice the principles of living as closely to God's plan for man as possible. Among other things, this meant cultivating a family diet consisting of natural foods produced as chemically free as possible. Our feeling has always been that the human body can be in the best health if properly nourished on truly wholesome foods. The challenge became finding food sources we could trust and ultimately led to our raising most of our own meats, fresh produce and dairy.

Unable to find a local source for raw milk years ago, we began to raise our own dairy herd of goats. Pasture raised, hormone and antibiotic free, our goats have produced healthful nutritious milk which we have consumed raw for over a quarter of a century. Our children were raised on raw goat milk (and raw cow milk) and over the years, we've thoroughly enjoyed a wide variety of delicious products made from our milk such as yoghurt, cheeses, butter and more. The results have been optimal health for the entire family. Click here for interesting information about the safety of raw milk. Maintaining a strong immune system has resulted in the ultimate life perk, we seldom need doctors because we're rarely ever sick. The advantages of exceptional health earned through a truly natural diet has been of such value to our family that little else can compare to it. We want to share with others the things that have served us so well and we encourage you to make healthful life choices that fit and benefit your family. We are often asked how to make good food choices and we recommend becoming pro-active. Here are a few helpful ideas. Learn more about making healthy dietary choices through research and reading as much as you can from a broad variety of sources. Your local library is a good start and so is the Internet. Invest in memberships in organizations such as the Weston A. Price Foundation and help support groups that provide real education. Purchase your food from local farms and growers where produce is assured natural by being either organic or Certified Naturally Grown. Spend time getting to know those farmers and producers. Farmers and producers of natural foods are often more than happy to share their enthusiasm and those pearls of wisdom are priceless. Recognize the true value of natural foods and don't compromise that value with price comparisons to "cheap" foods. That's like comparing organic apples to artificially flavored orange soda. If the assurance of knowing where your food actually comes from and how it is raised really matters, be willing to pay those farmers accordingly. The real bargain can not be measured in dollars saved, but is realized by the investment of better health through consuming natural products, as well as the community support you provide to your local growers. Help sustain them and they will continue to sustain you. Of course some may not agree. Individuals willing to purchase soda pop, that has not one single nutritive quality of any kind, for $1.00 or more per bottle generally can not comprehend for instance the real value of naturally produced farm eggs from pastured chickens that sell for $1.50 per dozen, little more than $.12 apiece. A paradox indeed.