Raising a large family is the work of a lifetime and the more support you have, the more fulfilling and smooth it'll be. Listen into today's episode to hear Andrea share what she's learnt through growing up in a large family and now creating her own farm-centered family. We cover budget, space, land, support networks, kitchen organisation and much more.

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"There is no part of life that is disconnected from the table"

Here's what we cover:

0:00-24:00 - What we last ate; ancestral movement; making radical shifts; knives for butchering; using all of a pig.

"The voices that you allow into your life matter a lot"

24:00-33:00 - Andrea's large family and her role in it; the life-cycle learning that happens in large families; giving over tasks to children; Andrea's home-schooling experiences

"The more you can eliminate processed foods and do the processing yourself, the more money you'll save"

33:00 onwards - Andrea's rings of influence in a family: territory; voices; home; kitchen and heart

"You must be willing to train your children early. When a child asks to help, never say no! It's so hard to do..."Sure! Grab a chair! Come sprinkle flour all over the floor!"

Resources Mentioned:

The Ancestral Kitchen Challenge

Alison's Sowans course

Katie Bowman

Chewing The Fat by Karima Moyer-Nocchi

Meet Alison episode

KTC means Kitchen Table Chats; it's the regular, intimate podcast that is available to patrons of the podcast

Alison's Boza course

Andrea's Charlotte Mason Commonplace on Instagram

A Cabin Full of Food by Marie Beausoleil

Homesteading Family on You Tube

Chef Aran on IG

Ball Blue Book (new editions come out every few years! I collect the vintage copies for amazing tidbits of information, albeit also some questionable safety practices, ha! - Andrea)

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving - LOTS of recipes, variations and charts

Lexy Suave on IG - she shares a lot of tips and ideas for cooking for a large family, prepping school meals, encouragement for mothers, and ancestral eating in general

Andrea's Additional Resources Not Mentioned

Here are a few more resources you will enjoy!

For the Children's Sake - it's one thing to say "never say no to children in the kitchen," but without a foundation of understanding and belief behind that it's hard to follow through! This book encapsulates the beliefs that drive our parenting and education.

Radical Homemakers, Long Way on a Little an other titles by Shannon Hayes - Make the meat and the meat dollars stretch and stick to ethical, BETTER tasting meats while you do it! Shannon also encourages a generational family view with multiple generations farming the same area of land.

Home Joys Blog - this blog was a mainstay when I was just starting out homemaking and learning self-reliance skills. Everything from fluency in prepping mixes and canning, gardening and breadmaking and other skills came to me in blog form long before I accumulated any books on the subject!

RuthAnn Zimmerman on Instagram - incredible family wisdom, motherhood wisdom and encouragement, self-reliance skills and tips, and delicious recipes

The Perfect Scoop - if you are cooking for a big family, I'm just sayin that custard and ice cream needs to become fluent and frequent! (Especially if you have a cow and chickens!!) This book includes mix-ins and cones and sauces. It isn't necessarily ancestral.

The Nourishing Traditions Cookbook for Children - if you are bringing children into the kitchen, this can be a fun and beautiful book for everyone to learn out of.

The Nourishing Traditions Cookbook - a resource for learning! The skills and techniques in this book can be applied to any food you want to prepare!

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Thank you for listening - we'd love to continue the conversation.

Come find us on Instagram:

Andrea is at Farm and Hearth

Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay