Real Food Kitchen Tour: Dimes2Vines

by Ann Marie Michaels on August 21, 2012

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Dina-Marie Oswald, author of the Dimes2Vines blog.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Dimes2Vines

This week we travel to West Texas to tour the kitchen of Dina-Marie Oswald, author of Dimes2Vines.

Dina-Marie moved from lower Alabama 4 1/2 yrs ago to west Texas to start a vineyard. She left the “secure” corporate life for a simplified farming life where she, along with 7 of her 10 children, raise their own chickens, milk their own cow, and make their own cheese!

Dina-Marie is also one of our newest Real Food Media blogger. We’re so excited to have her join the Real Food Media blog network.

Blog Name: Dimes2Vines
Blog Author: Dina-Marie Oswald
Location: Brownfield, Texas
How Long Blogging: Two and a half years
House or Apartment: 1500 sq ft “basement” – We are building our house overlooking our 22 1/3 acre vineyard ourselves (literally). We moved into what will eventually be the basement in November 2011. Phase 2 of our building plan (the upstairs) will begin in October, after this year’s grape harvest.
Size of Kitchen: 15 x 17 feet (main kitchen area)
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: In one word – openness. The open shelves make everything accessible, easy to see and find. The kitchen is open to the dining area which is open to the living area. So, I never have to miss anything going on, and, with 7 of our 10 children still at home, believe me, there is always something going on!
Things You Would Change: I wish I had more counter space, but that will have to wait until we build the main kitchen upstairs. For now, I use our stone dining table when I need extra work space.
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: I would have to say my Bosch mixer, my 5 and 10 gallon stock pots, garlic press, freezers and food processor. Reasons: Bosch mixer – I make our bread, baked goods and even use it to make butter from the cream our family milk cow gives; 5 and 10 gallon pots – we have a big family and they are wonderful to use for cooking, plus they are great for cheese-making (which I do several times a week thanks to Buttercup!); Garlic press – it makes using fresh garlic so easy and encourages me to get the health benefits from fresh garlic instead of being lazy and settling for garlic powder; Freezers – we have 3 which I fill with garden produce and our own pasture raised beef which we process ourselves; food processor – what a time saver! Without it homemade sauerkraut would be more difficult and time consuming.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: Planning! Whether it is making sure I have the needed ingredients or having soaked the needed grain/nuts, I have found that I must plan ahead to make the most of our menus. We live 45 minutes away from markets which sell quality produce – I cannot just make a quick trip to pick up an ingredient which I forgot! I usually try to plan around what we have in the freezer which helps but does not provide for the fresh produce.
Current Family Favorite Meal: We just butchered our first steer (raised from a calf on pasture) so meat dishes are a definite hit. I had gone 30 years as a vegetarian due to meat allergies which were corrected through the GAPS diet. That being said, I have 30 years of meat eating to make up for! Spinach lasagna made with eggplant slices (in place of lasagna noodles), ground beef, tomato sauce and spinach is everyone’s favorite.
Favorite Cookbooks: Nourishing Traditions, Internal Bliss, Sue Gregg’s Eating Better Cookbooks, Wild Fermentation, Home Cheese Making, CheeseMaking at Home, and food bloggers have also become an invaluable resource!

My open kitchen

View from living room

View from kitchen

Pantry which will be the stairwell to upstairs

Apron rack and kegerator (homemade kombucha and beer on tap!)

Kombucha fermenting – two 4.75 gallons = 9.5 gallons!

Shredding cabbage for sauerkraut

Chickens sharing Emme’s treat

Vineyard July 2012

Aglianico Grapes August 2012

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?

Please email me at Questions AT realfoodmedia dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
How about a lovely herb garden?
Kids or pets are always cute!
Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.

Photo credit: A warm welcome Project365(3) Day 10 by Keith Williamson, on Flickr and photos by Memories by Michelle
Disclosure: cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5

{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }

maggie @ say yes to salad August 21, 2012 at 10:28 AM

This is such a cool kitchen – and so interesting how it’s not even going to be the final one!

I very much like the openness and the hanging shelves. When you are organized and your dishes and appliances are pretty, no need for cupboard doors! One less thing to clean.

Dina-Marie, I can’t believe you are a grandmom and a mom to 10 kids! You look so young.

Dina-Marie @ Dimes2Vines August 21, 2012 at 10:59 AM: Thanks Maggie! The family picture was taken in 2010 and we have had another granddaughter since then – it is definitely time for a new picture!

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Ginny August 21, 2012 at 12:13 PM

Big families are so much fun. I love the Kombucha on tap, that must be nice!

Dina-Marie August 21, 2012 at 1:12 PM: You are right, Ginny we have a lot of fun! Putting the kombucha on tap was my husband’s idea and a very good one -he will even help himself to a glass now whereas before, he did not like it! And, of course, the children love helping themselves! Even with 9 1/2 gallons every 3 weeks, we run out!

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rosyjo August 21, 2012 at 12:24 PM

Thanks for sharing! You have a wonderful temporary kitchen! Your vineyard looks so beautiful as well as your grapes. I love your Kombucha jars. Mine are ‘on tap’ too but they are the ice tea jars one sees every year at the grocery stores.
A stone table? I just recently realized they made marble top dining tables. We need something really durable for our family. A stone table sounds wonderful. Loved your apron assortment too!

Dina-Marie August 21, 2012 at 1:16 PM: Thanks, Rosyjo – the closer to harvest that we get the more exciting it is and we will probably begin next week! We lived in Swizerland for 4 years (aka a 4 yr vacation!) and brought our table from Italy. It is stone and has held up very well – and, it definitely gets a lot of wear around here!

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Cecilia August 21, 2012 at 1:27 PM

What food processor is pictured here? We have 7 children and are looking for a replacement for our food processor that recently quit on us. Sauerkraut for a crowd sure takes longer by hand!

Dina-Marie August 21, 2012 at 5:11 PM

Hi Cecilia,
I will have to take your word for the sauerkraut by hand – I can not imagine!!!!
I actually have 2 different food processor – 1. Bosch is the one pictured and attaches to the base of the Universal machine. I love it! It shreds right into your bowl so you can feed “whatever” as quickly as you want without having to empty the processor container. I bought mine in Germany so I am not sure if the one sold here in the US is the same as the one I have or not. 2.Cuisinart which I really like but I do not like the safety feature of snapping in the top funnel plunger before the machine turns on – I am safety minded but I like to get things done!

Kathy @ Granny's Vital Vittles August 25, 2012 at 10:16 AM: I had no idea there was a continuous feed shredder for the Bosch Universal … so cool!

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DaNelle August 21, 2012 at 3:40 PM

Yay! I love reading about other people that drink raw milk too! We own goats and chickens and lambs, it’s awesome!

DaNelle recently posted…Why I changed my mind about Homeschooling

Dina-Marie August 21, 2012 at 5:14 PM: Thanks DaNelle, farm life is great and Buttercup (1/2 jersey, 1/2 holstein) sure does her part in keeping us supplied with milk!

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Oh Lardy August 21, 2012 at 4:20 PM

Beautiful land!! Thanks for sharing!

Dina-Marie August 21, 2012 at 5:15 PM: Thank you!

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Bebe August 21, 2012 at 10:54 PM

I love open shelving in the kitchen… especially when there’s so much Polish pottery to gaze at. Nice collection!

Dina-Marie August 22, 2012 at 9:25 AM: Thanks Bebe! They definitely encourage me keep things in place!

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Jennifer @ 20 something allergies and counting...down August 22, 2012 at 5:38 AM

Dina-Marie, I am so glad you were able to heal your allergies with GAPS. What a wonderful thing to be able to say. Local, pastured meat is something we could never do without here, so I understand the cravings for it!

The open kitchen is a definite must for Real Foodies whenever possible. I can’t imagine going back to a traditional layout. My daughter’s playroom would have to be in the kitchen, and I go crazy with people underfoot while I cook. Can’t wait to see the new kitchen tour when your house is done!

Dina-Marie August 22, 2012 at 9:28 AM: Thanks Jennifer! I can not believe that I did not heard of GAPS 30 years ago! Makes me all the more passionate about spreading the word! I look forward to being able to share the new kitchen too!

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Stephanie (@wbhomesteader) September 30, 2012 at 10:33 AM

I love your open cabinets and apron collection! What a cool place to live!

Real Food Kitchen Tour: Dimes2Vines

What’s a Real Foodie?

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Dimes2Vines

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

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