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She will level out, no doubt about that but I thinks she is a bit on the positive side. It is not a professional business so an sich it doesn't matter if she's out her costs in 6.5 years instead of 5. . -
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Not really sure why she feels the need to justify “recouping costs.”
If you believe “homesteading” is what is right for your family, then the cost need not be justified.
Maybe stop trying to be “frugal” or “budget friendly” and be more “good steward.”
Seems these content creators are running oy of steam. Years of the same content is catching up with them, and they’re grasping at straws.. -
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You're right. She doesn't have to justify anything.
BUT
She started the whole 'it will save you loads of money, hundreds of dollars, even thousands. So ofcourse people will ask questions.
If she had said nothing about money and just went with we do this because we really want to know where our food comes from and have as much control over it as possible then it would have been just that. But she started about how it all saves you loads. So yes in a way she brought this one over herself.. -
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Agreed. I guess I didn’t explain myself well.
Jessica needs to get back in her lane. She started with the “saving money” schtick, and people called her out, and rather than let it go, she dug herself a big hole.
Same with “this (bacon fat, fruit jams, fruit syrups, 2 year old home canned carrots, 5 year old freeze dried duck eggs, recycled cranberries and cranberry juice) is much healthier for you” schtick.
Not necessarily, Jessica. For every carefully cultivated study she presents to back up her statements, there are 5 more to state differently.. -
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I totally get what you mean.
She is claiming a lot and using 'big' words at times. But anyone with some common sense knows that food starts loosing nutrients as soon as you harvest it.
Her meals will still have nutrients in but she words it with 'packed with nutrients' and that is not right.
Her food might be more pure, like the beef and meatbirds because raising them yourself you know what you feed them and no hormones are used. That is true. Also her meatbirds won't have any added water like you find often in supermarket chicken parts.
I noticed that in some of her more recent video's with using spend cranberries over and over or eventually freeze drying them to add to bake goods she isn't making claims about nutrients and vitamins anymore. It's just to give some flavour and color now.
She is still big on her wording about her vegetable broth (the canning water when she empties her jars). Yes some of the nutrients that was in the canned veg will be in the water now but there won't be much left of it if you keep it in your fridge for almost a week untill you have enough to make a soup or stew.
That is what most of us here are calling her out for. And her use of sugar. Even with her pomona pectin she still feeds her kids tons of sugar when you look at what they eat in a day. And we count all sorts of sugar, even fruit sugar. At the end of the day, healthier or not it is still sugar.. -
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I often wonder what her kids will do once they move away from home and come in contact with real food out in the real world?
I don't mean the kids with the allergies. I do feel bad for them because the real world can be a deadly, not just dangerous place for them.
I mean the kids who just don't get to eat like normal people. Like with roast beef, roast chicken, roast pork, a plate that has 2 or 3 side of FRESH vegetables that have been lightly sauteed or oven roasted. Not ones that have been canned and have been sitting in the basement for a couple years, or that have been dehydrated or freeze dried and reconstituted. Or served out of a crock pot. I would love to be there when they get to experience the joy that tasty, beautifully prepared fresh foods, fruits and vegetables can bring!
And just imagine....being able to serve yourself and choose your own size of servings. Not being handed a plate like you're 2 years old.
Can you imagine the first time they get to go to a real grocery store and shop for their own food? Not "shopping" in the cellar or a pickup from Azure Standard?. -
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They are not complete strangers to the world but they don't get as much acces to it as the average kids do.
Gabe is the only one with allergies but for the rest the other kids get taken out when staying with family and with what I made up out of her video's is that they are the only family with such an extreme lifestyle.
Her mother has a proper canning kitchen with potfiller etc but what I've seen of that kitchen it is way more modern then hers.
The kids are no strangers to fresh produce but only when it is available on the homestead because it won't be bought otherwise.
She even mentioned about her canned green beans that only 2 of her kids will eat them so main purpose of those is to use in dump meals and soups. Why not blanch and freeze more so you can serve a side of green beans that more kids would like? No all the freezer space has to go to her lemon juice and raw apple cider that will last them and then she has to hurry up using the lemon juice and do more homemade lemonade then she actually deems good for them because she has a new order coming in. Eighter cut down on the order or spread it more. Same with her apple cider, gonna have to use it up coz more is coming. Get less of it and freeze some more veg instead of canning. Frozen veg are more attractive to kids then canned.
And yea I can't compare exactly but when the pandemic was going on I bought some tins of green beans, carrots and peas. Normally I buy them frozen but with not knowing how things would go I made sure to have some things just in case. When I served the tinned stuf, comparable with canned, kids would only eat a fork full or maybe 2 of the portion I put on their plate. While with the frozen veg they eat almost every time the whole portion I give them.
I wonder more how they gonna be socially. Lets say they met someone and things get serious, they will get married. Get invited to the thanksgiving or whatever important dinner the family has. How is that going to be? Bring something along... will they show up with jars of canned stuff? Or if it is a more formal dinner in a venue how is that gonna go?
The kids are tought manners but do they know how formal dinners go?
Probably things like that are low chance to happen but never say never.. -
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I grew up with a mom that didn’t cook. Okay, to be fair, she didn’t cook well.
I taught myself to cook, honestly no big deal. I watched different cooking shows on PBS then later the Food Network. Growing up in a home with parents of limited cooking abilities isn’t necessarily a roadblock to your ability to learn to cook.
Lotta YTers out there feeding their kids convenience foods, pre-packaged “quick meals.”
Maybe I don’t follow enough of the topics here to know if people are questioning if those kids will be able to function as far as feeding themselves once they’re in their own.
An observation I’ve had over the years watching cooking shows and competitions, kids who grow up on families where there are food limitations seem to go out into the world & learn on their own. Lot of successful chefs talk about growing up with parents that couldn’t or didn’t cook.. -
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She cooks, she fills bellies.
Nobody says she has to be a gourmet chef but it is her approach in combination with how the kids are raised that raises questions.
They don't have much interaction with the outside world, only some other homeschool families with the same beliefs both religious as on general lifestyle. They don't watch tele so no cooking shows where they can pick up ideas or social media. Only social media is family app based as in family groups on whatsapp etc.
The only source the kids have to learn from is her and cookbooks but if they get something out of a cookbook in most cases they have to adapt and substitute because of Gabe's allergies. And that is not a dig at him, the boy can't help it he has those allergies. Making something for the first time can already be a challenge but then also immediatly having to substitute and adapt makes it even more challenging.
Even with a parent who doesn't cook well there are some basics that you will pick up and are foolproof that give you a base and somewhere to start.
Or stupid example, I grew up cooking on both gas and electric stoves. I can adapt well between them with heat settings. My niece used to only cook on electric couldn't cook on a gasstove at all. Or even the pans you use can make a difference. Most modern day recipes are for the nonstick lightweight pans. So niece was going to cook dinner for us, a new recipe she had. But oops the pan she had to use was enameled cast iron. That thing holds heat much longer, she never cooked in one of those so when it came turn heat to medium and let cook for 20 mins she just did that. Dinner didn't turn out as expected.. -
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🤷🏻♀️we had one TV. I managed eventually to learn to cook.
I
It’s interesting, there appears, maybe I’m misreading or misunderstanding, a hyperfocus of concern from outsiders, on how the kids will adapt to the “outside world” and “normal people.”
Is they a requirement? People can’t exist with people of different backgrounds? How do “normal people” adapt to living/working with people of different world views? Or is the adaptation on the more conservatively raised kids?
I grew up on a fairly conservative family, more an introvert. People managed to adapt to me, and I to them.. -
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That is totally not what we are saying but this is a snark forum to start with. And a thread about a certain channel. Jessica is the main figure but she portays her family and all they do heavily on her channel. Going into details about chores for the kids, what she expects from them etc. She is also their main teacher for both school and life skills.
They live a different life then most of us who comment here do and with her stark opinions and no or barely any room for discussion we question certain things and compare to our (and a lot of other people's) normal.
I am active in more threads of different channels here on this forum and sometimes I read comments that I think are just not right or pulled out of context and made worse than things actually are but then I just think this is a snark forum after all. I don't have to agree with it all or see wrong where others see it. I just scroll past them and go on with my day. After all, this is just a past time and gives me something to read when I have my morning coffee or cup of tea before I go to bed. No more no less, comments here are not going to change the course of my day.. -
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Okay, sorry. I didn’t realize the questions couldn’t be asked as part of the discussion. Thanks for the correction.
I’ll stick solely to snark in the future.. -
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Well, couldn't get past about 5 minutes. Her world revolves around convenience with food ALL THE TIME. The fact that she's planning on making X amount of jars for X amount of meals, etc, etc....she obviously continuing to be very controlling with portion sizes. Again, this infuriates me when she had 4 teenage kids in the house, especially the boys. My goodness, any teenage boy I've ever known would eat their mother out of house and home. These boys...doesn't appear so. I think she even controls if/when/what her kids can have snacks. The little ones, yes, they need to still be monitored. The big ones, NO, they are old enough and should be able to help themselves anytime.
I GET IT where families have to portion size with big families and are on a very tight income, I do get it. BUT, she isn't poor and making good money on YT. Those older kids can dish out their own food at meal time and she can certainly cook extra. When she shows leftovers from night before/days before that she's slops in a pot for soup if the kids just didn't like the meal and don't eat much. B/c I rarely see her season anything with other than s/p. She only uses montreal steak spice on all the meat. Geez, there are a bazillion marinades and dry rubs to make from scratch to give a whole different flavor profile to different proteins.
I wonder if she feeds soup to Adam on the weekend, or just the kids get the slop soups during the week. Sorry, but that's not cooking IMO, that's dumping a bunch of stuff in a pot and calling it good. I don't know, I think more of my family than that. I feel they deserve more than daily slops.
Does she ever made a FRESH pot of soup using fresh vegetables and not using something freeze dried or vegetables from a jar. I get convenience but she uses her busy homeschool mama as an excuse to NOT cook.
I bet if they tasted a pot of my good old hamburger/veg soup made with fresh chop veggies (onion, carrot, potato, celery, garlic) and frozen peas/corn and freshly fried ground beef, they'd devour the whole stock pot before you turned around to ask if they'd like seconds.
She controls the food but does she take into consideration (except on the kids birthday) what that kid likes in healthy food items? One love avocado. Why doesn't she keep it on the house so he can enjoy one daily instead of the occasional freeze dried for chip dipping. It won't break her bank. If one loves apples, does she keep them on demand? Or are they expected to eat the applesauce in lieu of. You get the point. I would never deprive my family of a healthy fruit/veg that I had to purchase from the store b/c I can't grow it myself.
Edited by Blabbermouth - 4/28/2024, 03:06 PM. -
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The convenience is creeping in more and more. It's almost every day now except for weekends and other occasions Adam is home.
Honest is honest, I like to have convenience items aswell, I think most of us do or we will order food (what they can't really do due to Gabe's allergies) but not every single day.
With a lot of things she says and does it makes her look and sound like she only wants to do what she likes and ignore the rest. Unfortunatly that is not how adult life works.
And how much she claims it is not, social media and internet are her biggest time consumers. So if she makes a dump meal the time she saves prepping can be spend online.
Her older kids don't need constant supervision anymore and the younger ones can be in the family room colouring or writing, playing. Even an older sibling could sit there with them keeping an eye while reading a book or like in case of the girls do knitting or sewing.
My boys used to build whole traintracks around me and in the kitchen. While it was not always practical I still think back of this with a big smile on my face.
I don't get her completly. She'll be big on the life and raising their animals but happily hands them over to the kids. But something like food needs to be very controlled. How long she been saying that she would have to go to 3 pans of breakfast stuff instead of 2 since the kids were growing? It took her quite some time. Or kids went back for seconds and even 3rds. Yes probably the oldest boys going for a second but be so considerate of the other ones making sure they had seconds aswell before getting the last of it.
I said this before but that freeze dryer is really a good thing for her family. Freeze drying will keep more nutrients in the food then canning, since she's always preaching about her nutrients. But I wonder, would she have bought a freeze dryer? She was very vague about it for a while but then said clear they were given it.
Ah that is one of my biggest issues with her I suppose. Preaching about nutrients that are not as packed in her canned goods as she claims but loading everybody except herself, chrons disease you know, with tons of sugar.. -
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There were a couple other channels who said they were given the freeze dryer by the company to "try out" and promote. I suspect they got all the start up trays/bags and then had to buy additional supplies on their own. I suspect those people all reached out to the company and probably Jessica did as well and got it for free. .
Three Rivers Homestead |
