Updates for 2018

Welcome farm followers!

We wanted to update you all to make sure you have our current information correctly. We are gearing up for the Upstate SC Farm Tour on June 9-10 from 1:00-6:00 PM each day. Our farm address is 5251 Hwy #184E Donalds, SC 29638. We have a new website: Didaskalosfarm.com there you should be able to find more recent info. We are about to open our Farm Store/Bakeshop! Very exciting. We will try and be more forthcoming with information. Time just seems to get away from me more and more each day. June Lord willing will bring many exciting things to our family. We are expecting the birth of our 19th grandchild! Yay!!!

Hopefully you all are well! Please drop by our website and let us know what you think. It’s an ongoing work in progress.

Thanks again,
Elizabeth

Fine Tuning the Farm-Herbalist Coming Soon!

Greetings farm followers! 

   Many of you might be aware that this amateur blogger was a LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) for close to 30 years. I have long since left the world of allopathic medicine and moved slowly in other directions by God's leading and grace. I still reflect with much gratitude for all the wonderful, caring medical professionals whom became like my family over years. Each and everyone invested so much into my life and the lives of my family for which I am eternally grateful. However, I knew my time was ending in that world and a new door was opening. They gave me a wonderful send off and I closed that door and never looked back.

   In 2001-2002 we became convinced that we needed to educate our remaining two children ourselves. Though we ourselves and our three eldest children graduated out of the government school system we soon realized that our beliefs were taking our family in a totally different direction. We had to obey God's call upon our family so we officially became home schoolers! As I contemplated my new responsibilities and having an open door since leaving my professional vocation I now needed to focus my life in another direction.  My older son Brian was just starting high school which is intimidating enough by itself but to take on his education was something I had to pray long and hard about to truly hear what God wanted me to teach him. Ashley was just starting school so that too was a challenge as to what to teach her first. God was and is faithful and through it all He never left my side. Within two years of this wonderful adventure my husband lost his lucrative job in the NJ so we liquidated what assets we had and God opened the door to a move to Clermont, Florida. We sent Brian to a Christian school there but he did not do well so we investigated the local government school. Brian wanted to play football and so after much prayer and interaction with the school officials we saw that God would take care of him there. His football coach was a Christian man and they prayed before each game and practice. He demonstrated godly character and Brian learned what he needed to and graduated with his High School diploma. However, when it came to Ashley we decided to continue to educate her at home. Fast forward to 2015 and our daughter Ashley graduated from home school and is now a married mother of two wonderful children who bring my grandchildren total to fifteen.

 All through these years we felt the Lord moving us in a new directions. Home schooling allowed me to give Ashley a more God centered education. We began to learn all kinds of new things. And before we knew it our thinking became more aware as to our health, how we live our lives each day and how our lives impacted others. God slowly led us into farming. By this time we were eating much differently than what I was raised to eat and our lives were becoming more focused upon how God calls us to steward the land He gave us. I have always been an outside of the box thinker. I usually challenge everything I hear. So for me to look into the plant world for remedies and health enhancements was a no brainer. By God's wonderful hand of providence I have over the last 15 or more years been working with plants and essential oils in an novice kind of way. Using herbs to bolster or correct some type of disturbance in our bodies. God has given His creation the ability to self heal and if we treat our immune systems as we should many times we can achieve better health as He blesses our endeavors.  I now am convinced by His many acts of providences and the confirmation of His word that I am to pursue a Community Herblist/Woman's Health Educator certification through a godly Clinical Herbalist named Shonda Parker. So I will at the good age of 55 begin a new chapter of my walk with the Lord.

   Many wonderful people have desired my help over these many years and I know God desires excellence so I am humbly submitting and heartily trusting in what wonderful things I will learn about for His glory in the year to come. Lord willing, I will finish my course with full understanding to be a blessing to many in the area of stewarding our bodies for the glory of God. Pray for me as I study and learn, pray that every single thing God allows me to understand will only be used to show you what a wonderful Great Physician we really have! May my knowledge in nutrition grow and may my ability to be the best Herbalist be achieved so that I may serve out my remaining years in this world as a blessing to my generation. 

Thank you for reading this post. 

Elizabeth
Farm Manager
Didaskalos Farm

Einkorn-The Ancient of Grains

      Good day to all of you blog followers. It has been a long while since this blog had any real life to it. But Lord willing 2015 we will do better. I humbly admit to not being much of a "blogger" myself but we have created this page to keep folks informed of the progress we make here on Didaskalos Farm in Donalds, SC! So here goes!

      I would like to give you all a little bit of history regarding myself. I have been a Licensed Practical Nurse for over thirty years. I left the professional world when my youngest child was about two. Over 20 years ago. But as any Nurse will attest you never really stop being a Nurse. I have always been deeply interested in real health and teaching others what profitable information I have been able to glean. I have studied the human body extensively in its structure and function and have made many changes in my thinking. I have also spent much time studying the plant world and incorporating many herbal remedies into my repertoire to maintain good health. The allopathic medicine world has its place in health-care" but we have allowed this to become tainted and unsound forcing people to choose only from that place, so we see a barrage of health issues unresolved. People are suffering unnecessarily. So I am going to boldly declare some of what I have learned with you all in 2015. Of course nothing will mean anything unless the blessing of the Lord is upon it. 
   
      In this "age of information" almost everyone is a writer but many times the information is not truly sound. So rather than putting myself out there as another "self-appointed expert" my goal is to understand the things I learn and put them into practice within my capacity. Only then when I can see the successes and failures can I be confident to make it public. God holds us accountable for every word we speak so I hope by His grace to choose very carefully. By God's grace we have been eating organically for well over 10 years or more now. We started our first farm in Alabama in 2004. Since that time God has taught us so much about the land, the soil and how to raise many different kinds of food animals. He has convinced me fully that our health truly begins with the soil. Adam was created from the dust of the Earth so obviously there is a connection. If the plants and animals depend upon the soil to properly nourish them, how can it truly do that if it has been "chemicalized" and treated unnaturally? It can not! We are foolish to even believe that. Only when we nourish the soil properly can it be a life and health supporting force that God intended it to be. Health is our goal and by saying that I want it to be fully understood that health means the absence of disease not the control of it. We can live life full of God's blessings if we care for ourselves as He intends us to. Yes we will have times of sickness but these can be managed better when our immune systems are functioning as they were made to function. So lets us begin with the most ancient of grains. Einkorn! After all Bread is the staff of life!

     Einkorn is known as an "Ancient grain". It is believed to be the original wheat spoken of in the Scriptures as far back as Jacob. Folks date it as far back as 7600 BCE.  It is quite a unique grain in that it is smaller in size but taller than hybrid varieties of wheat. It is called a "diploid" which means it has just two complete sets of chromosomes and contains 14 chromosomes in total. Modern varieties contain as high as 42 total chromosomes. As the genetic protein structure of modern wheat is manipulated its gluten and gliadin seem to cause more intestinal reactions. There is much sound information regarding this problem documented to read. True celiac disease sufferers should understand that Einkorn does contain gluten but it is a vastly different grain than hybridized wheat. Many folks who are considered gluten sensitive can eat einkorn without difficulty. So there is a glimmer of hope for all of these people but they should introduce it very carefully back into their diets. Of course choose only organically grown einkorn and make sure that the other products used are not something that can cause reaction in your body. Einkorn packs some pretty powerful nutritional value! It can rightly boast high values of lutein, iron, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine and Vitamins A&E. It is a blessing to see that these ancient grains are inherently more nutritious than modern varieties and they taste a whole lot better. Einkorn, an ancient grain given to man by the result of the Lord's untouchable craftsmanship.

        By God's leading I have been seriously working with this grain for over a year now. I have purchased American grown einkorn and Eurpoean grown einkorn. In my trials I prefer the European product. I have milled my own flour and I have purchased already ground flour. Both have a place in my home bakery. I prefer Jovial Food variety at this time. I also have stopped using chemical manufactured yeast such as LeSaffre brands Red Star and SAF, and Fleishmans. I now use only my own Einkorn sour dough starter or an organic yeast grown in Germany called Bioreal. I use organic local honey till my honey supplies increase and an artisan salt mined in Virginia.


     I believe that the Lord is calling me to address this need so currently I am diligently working on a small home bakery exclusively for einkorn baked products. I have tried many recipes and read many blogs and baking sites for days! Hopefully God will bless my 50 plus years of cooking and baking to truly help others. Shanna and Tim Mallon have written the first Einkorn cookbook I have ever found. It is a great starting place for those interested in this wonderful grain. You can purchase the book on Amazon. It is called the Einkorn Cookbook. I have gleaned much from this Christian couple as they seek to live healthier lives to the glory of God and to share it with others. Some of the information shared in this post is from what they have learned as well. The grain is very unique as I said and it takes time to work with it. Feel free to comment if I can help you at all. We are hoping to build a wood fired oven outside this Spring. Our desire is to bake many more varieties of bread than our small kitchen oven can crank out. That said I have been able to produce some good tasting bread, English muffins, pizza dough and tortillas. I have also been able to bake some sweet things like cakes and cookies and I will offer all of these products straight from our farm.

   Hopefully this post has been somewhat informative and profitable. I by God's amazing grace continue on my journey and may the Lord truly allow you all to profit from what He allows me to learn. Brethren pray for me please.


Elizabeth

News from the farm

What a blessing! We have been invited to a special event. This is at the college here (Erskine) that is about a mile down the road. The director of the liberal arts department has graciously recognized our family with this invitation to this recognition ceremony. 
Bless her heart. We are excited.

History "the Dinky" all aboard!

Farm Friends,

     The "Dinky" a train gone but not forgotten. Today we travel by train. This was a period of time that was predominantly horse and buggy days. In fact the third occupant of this house,  a J. McClintock was the "taxi service" by means of horse and buggy. His service ran between the towns of Due West and Donalds, SC. The track was approximately 4.5 miles long between the above aforementioned towns. This would include our current property with a stone marker thankfully remaining in our front yard as it's first stop. It was known as "Lee's crossing" but there is no hard evidence that this stop was officially bore the name. The stop was named for the second owner who lived here for 53 years.

The first train to be in existence was "the Due West for Donald's" in the 1907.  It had some difficulties upon it start,  as my research has uncovered the first engine had to be replaced early on but the second engine did the job that was required. The iron horse traveled in only one direction. It then had to go in reverse back to it's home. It was alleged that it was the shortest railroad in America. When the director R.S. Galloway was posed the question of it's length,  he would would respond " it maybe the shortest railroad but it is just as wide as any other."

This train was solely owned by the townspeople who bought stock in the little railroad. It was one of the very few that truly operated without occurring any debt. Amongst it's regulations were rules that included not operating on the Sabbath (with one exception) transporting a emergency  patient. Also, there was to be no consumption or transportation of alcohol at all.

I have uncovered many priceless stories and pranks that were played on the engineer. It is told that some of the students upon occasions would tie the whistle rope up to allow all the next day's steam to poor out through the whistle.  Another prank would be altering the time of the blowing of the whistle to interrupt some special event like a wedding or program of singing. One story has the Director asking the engineer "where did he hit a cow." The engineer replied "Out in the field." A local woman Mrs. Alpha Smith in a recent interview commented that this was "quite a sight".

To reduce uneven wear on the wheels, the train was driven to a near by town and turned around every three months. The fare for passage on the train originally was 25 cents. Unfortunately the little train had a sad ending, it was believed to be scrap sent to the Japanese. But in its time it served this community very well and I am thankful for its existence and history.

Below I have included some old photos of the Depot, the Dinky and the town in its existence. Hopefully you are more aware of some of the wonderful history of our new little farm.

History "The Dinky"

Hello farm bloggers.
This week we will continue with the topic of the train that once ran in front of my house.  Exciting news as I have uncovered a source that will give an eye witness account of this little marvel. Check back later this week as I bring to you this and other amazing facts on this topic.

2/21 History continued

Wow. I am taken back by this little undiscovered gem. As you know I have several personal historical reserach projects going on pertaining to our 1830's house.
Recently I have found information about the third owner by the name, McClintock.
He purchased this house approximately in 1908. He only owed it for three years and there is little information on him.

Another project finds me researching a train that at on time passed the front of the house. This train was small and only connected two towns, Due West and Donalds, SC on a 4.5 mile track. My house was an actual stopping place for "Dinky" that went one way down the track, then in reverse to the beginning.  Funding and construction began in 1906 - 1908. It began its initial in service January 1908.

In the same time period that the house was sold, to its third owner, was a man by the name McClintock. This man also had the title of "Conductor" of the  new Due West train.
Coincidence???
You answer......