Today is the Spring Equinox for all of us in the Northern Hemisphere (Autumn in the Southern Hem), meaning that we get an equal amount of day and night. To many, this also marks the first day of Spring. 
I feel like very few people regard Spring as their favorite season, usually favoring Summer or Winter for the heat and cold respectively, or Autumn for the beautiful colors that all the plants change to. While I don't know if Spring is my favorite season (I struggle to choose a favorite, honestly), I appreciate it for what it represents: rebirth. After enduring the cold and darker days of Winter, Spring brings new life and growth, as well as the return of brighter and warmer days. It also brings allergies for a lot of people, unfortunately!
We really embrace the four seasons here in my household, and we love to decorate. Well, I do. But my husband really appreciates it and helps me put up lights and such. We decorated our place at the beginning of the month, and we are currently celebrating the Equinox (also called Ostara). We've been having a really fun time, and I wanted to share some of the Spring vibes with everyone here.
Our place is lightly decorated with lots of light green and pastel-colored flowers, as well as colored eggs. This whole celebration is pretty similar to Easter, aesthetically. I couldn't get a good photo, but we have pastel-colored string lights for our living and dining room. That was a new addition this year, and it really, really adds a nice vibe to the whole place. Our cat, Saffron, is always super involved.
We also did naturally-colored eggs, which is always really fun. We make our own completely organic dye from scratch, only using food-based ingredients! The colors can turn out pretty funny, especially when we try to mix to make other ones. But that's part of the charm. They're always different each year, especially with the weird patterns that turn up (never intentional, but always fun!) on them when they're drying. I also enjoy our collection of stained paper towels that we have at the end from wiping our spoons after using them over and over. It's like a tie-dye shirt.
Lastly, we had a mutton feast. I'm putting all of this into a spoiler TW for those who do not eat meat and may really not want to hear about the details of the meat and farming process behind it.
I hope everyone else is having a good Spring! I know depending on where you live, it's either still snowing or potentially super hot already. We've been getting a lot of rain, which I think suits Spring really well. We're really looking forward to what the rest of the season has in store for us.
So, after all that rambling, I just want to say HAPPY SPRING! 
Does anyone else have Spring-based stories or things to share? Do you care at all about the Equinox? Easter stories are also welcome! And anything else that I may have not included.
I feel like very few people regard Spring as their favorite season, usually favoring Summer or Winter for the heat and cold respectively, or Autumn for the beautiful colors that all the plants change to. While I don't know if Spring is my favorite season (I struggle to choose a favorite, honestly), I appreciate it for what it represents: rebirth. After enduring the cold and darker days of Winter, Spring brings new life and growth, as well as the return of brighter and warmer days. It also brings allergies for a lot of people, unfortunately!
We really embrace the four seasons here in my household, and we love to decorate. Well, I do. But my husband really appreciates it and helps me put up lights and such. We decorated our place at the beginning of the month, and we are currently celebrating the Equinox (also called Ostara). We've been having a really fun time, and I wanted to share some of the Spring vibes with everyone here.
Our place is lightly decorated with lots of light green and pastel-colored flowers, as well as colored eggs. This whole celebration is pretty similar to Easter, aesthetically. I couldn't get a good photo, but we have pastel-colored string lights for our living and dining room. That was a new addition this year, and it really, really adds a nice vibe to the whole place. Our cat, Saffron, is always super involved.
We also did naturally-colored eggs, which is always really fun. We make our own completely organic dye from scratch, only using food-based ingredients! The colors can turn out pretty funny, especially when we try to mix to make other ones. But that's part of the charm. They're always different each year, especially with the weird patterns that turn up (never intentional, but always fun!) on them when they're drying. I also enjoy our collection of stained paper towels that we have at the end from wiping our spoons after using them over and over. It's like a tie-dye shirt.
Lastly, we had a mutton feast. I'm putting all of this into a spoiler TW for those who do not eat meat and may really not want to hear about the details of the meat and farming process behind it.
I splurged a lot for this year's celebration and got 100% pasture-raised/grass-fed heritage-breed mutton from a regenerative farm. For those who don't know, heritage breeds of animals are superior to conventional ones (mostly) that you'll only find at the store. These breeds of animals are usually far more hardy and easier on the environment. Conventionally-bred animals have exclusively been bred for efficiency and profitability, almost always resulting in an animal that can develop health issues easier, have more difficulty surviving in a natural environment, and need assistance with birth. Heritage breeds of animals are also usually tastier. This is especially true for pork, where the meat is actually a deep, red meat extremely similar to pork, unlike the light pink and almost gray-colored meat you find at the store.
Regenerative farms are also the best place to source food from because, unlike feedlots and conventional animal farms, they have a positive impact on the environment. You can rest assured that your meat is not contributing to any sort of environmental or climate issues because properly raised animals actually reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. If you've ever worried about the impact of eating meat on the planet, this is the answer.
Anyways, lambs and sheep are among some of the more popular symbols of Spring (chickens, ducks, and rabbits are there too). Since we'd never had mutton, we wanted to use this celebration to try it out. We're aspiring farmers, and we've been wondering if we'd prefer lamb, hogget (over a year old), or mutton (over two years old) more. We recently tried 3-year-old bull beef, and it was better than anything we'd ever had before.
We got a full rib rack of mutton, which would be the equivalent of a Prime rib. We smoked it at an extremely low temperature and finished it off in the broiler for just a couple of minutes. It was divine. Better than any lamb I've ever had, and it definitely converted us into mutton fans. We're really happy too because now we know we definitely want to raise sheep on our farm for more than just milk. Sheep are so amazing.
Regenerative farms are also the best place to source food from because, unlike feedlots and conventional animal farms, they have a positive impact on the environment. You can rest assured that your meat is not contributing to any sort of environmental or climate issues because properly raised animals actually reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. If you've ever worried about the impact of eating meat on the planet, this is the answer.
Anyways, lambs and sheep are among some of the more popular symbols of Spring (chickens, ducks, and rabbits are there too). Since we'd never had mutton, we wanted to use this celebration to try it out. We're aspiring farmers, and we've been wondering if we'd prefer lamb, hogget (over a year old), or mutton (over two years old) more. We recently tried 3-year-old bull beef, and it was better than anything we'd ever had before.
We got a full rib rack of mutton, which would be the equivalent of a Prime rib. We smoked it at an extremely low temperature and finished it off in the broiler for just a couple of minutes. It was divine. Better than any lamb I've ever had, and it definitely converted us into mutton fans. We're really happy too because now we know we definitely want to raise sheep on our farm for more than just milk. Sheep are so amazing.
I hope everyone else is having a good Spring! I know depending on where you live, it's either still snowing or potentially super hot already. We've been getting a lot of rain, which I think suits Spring really well. We're really looking forward to what the rest of the season has in store for us.
So, after all that rambling, I just want to say HAPPY SPRING!
Does anyone else have Spring-based stories or things to share? Do you care at all about the Equinox? Easter stories are also welcome! And anything else that I may have not included.
