We decided to write today about how we’re all doing for the Real Food Challenge so far. ***comment with your wrap-up by Sunday and you’ll be entered to win your very own copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking!
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Alan here. This was a tough week for us. Inertia set in and I spent a lot of time wondering what the heck I was doing. Here’s a glimpse of where I am today.
The guy who would be god.
This past week has been food production week. We planted in the green house, prepped beds in the potager, and finalized beginning garden production plans. It is a complicated process, deciding what does and what does not get space in my bits of controlled nature. Mostly I’m happy with our plan and the things we have put in place for the coming year, but I’m haunted by the knowledge that I might have asked the wrong questions.
I found that with the goats this year. We have been working on “improving” our herd for the past 5 years. We have bought goats with good pedigrees, pure bred French Alpines with great characteristics. We have been very selective about the bucks we use, always looking to improve our stock. This year our Grand Champion Dairy Doe had one kid die, and one kid survive after weeks of intense special care. (It was due to a mineral deficiency, which we are addressing.) But, she hasn’t come into her milk. She is “perfect” according to the judge. We should show her, breed her, and make lots more like her. But, we aren’t getting any milk from her now, and last year she only milked for 7 months. Yes, she looked great at the show, but… Our best producer is a mutt. No pedigree. Short, stubby legs. Belly like a cow. A bit sway backed. Nothing great. But she gives us two great kids every year, thrives on our grass system, and milks strongly for 11 months.
Everything in my world is encouraging me to continue with the Champion and drop the Mutt. If I let nature decide rather than trying to play god myself I would end up with a whole herd of mutt kids.
Somewhere in this ramble there is a lesson about real food, GMOs, Monsanto, and our role as decision makers. More on that on Tuesday.
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Here at Chiot’s Run we had another busy and eventful week. The weather has been beautiful, so I’ve been out planting the edible garden trying to make sure I have lots of fresh greens in a few weeks. This time of year I get super excited for salads. Today I’m planing peas and a few other things as long as the weather holds out. We had a great week regarding eating real food. I mixed up some of Kim’s whole grain mix. I spend a few days making 16 sourdough boules. Each batch (1 batch = 4 boules) had a different percentage of whole grain flour (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). I wanted to see which one we liked the best. These are all resting peacefully in the freezer waiting to be paired with soups & salads.
I baked up a ton of squash and pumpkins as well. I’m making pumpkin ravioli with sage brown butter today for dinner and a big batch of Barley with butternut squash and preserved lemons. Tomorrow since it’s suppose to rain, I’ll be making butternut squash soup. For breakfast we’ve been enjoying soaked oats and barley cooked with coconut milk topped with crystallized ginger, walnuts and some maple syrup.
Those mushrooms I got last week were made into the most wonderful meal. I threw them in the oven for a few hours with a venison roast, a good bit of butter and a cup or two of good Marsala wine. We enjoyed it with a side of onions caramelized in coconut oil and smashed local purple potatoes. It’s one of the best meals I’ve had in a long long long time. We relished it and the two leftover meals we got from it. We also enjoyed venison burgers from Mr Chiots deer on sourdough buns topped with caramelized onions, local raw milk cheese, and homemade roasted pear chutney and sided with local potato fries (with homemade ketchup).
I also started a jar of sprouts and am enjoying watching the process. I should have taken photos each day because it’s a miraculous process (next time I’ll do that). I’m excited to see how many sprouts we end up with and how we eat them. I was also able to harvest some wild garlic mustard from around our property. It’s an invasive weed we have trouble with, what better way to deal with it than eat it! It’s local, real, healthy and super tasty as a salad.
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Spring has sprung here for Unearthing this Life. We’ve finally settled into a system of foods that we like and don’t like. We adore our homemade breads and each of us has been doing our fair share of eating it toasted, broiled with homemade mozzarella, warmed with fresh butter, and sampled right out of the oven. Hubby keeps reminding me, however, that a lot of these foods aren’t supposed to be in his diet. I admit to going crazy on the butter, preparing a lot of eggs, and overindulging on wheat products. I am curious how much his trigliceride levels have really changed since we’ve adopted all of these whole foods and removed the overly processed and “corn-enriched” (cough) foods.
My favorite experiment of the week has been a healthier version of the cupcake. I’m quite enamored with these little guys since they’re not as sweet and wholeheartedly admit to nibbling on them for quick breakfasts. This last week and a half, though, will be focused on reducing some of the fats and carbs and working on adding more veggies in our diets. Tough to do and keep it local since it seems so hard to find anyone in the area with fresh greens this time of year. I guess I’ll be hitting the freezer and working on ridding ourselves one of my least favorite legumes – green beans!
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***Don’t forget to comment with your wrap-up by Sunday for a chance to win your very own copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking!
I had my first commercial soda in almost a month today, a tamarind Jarritos. Toooooo sweet. I’ve lost my tolerance for commercial sweetness.
I’m feeling much better about my ability to meet the challenge this week, thanks to the Family Farmed Expo in Chicago, which serendipitously for this project was last weekend. I found a local warehouse that sources everything but dry goods from local farms, including greenhouse-grown roots and greens. In fact, I just unpacked out first delivery. I’ll need to sit down and write out a food plan for the next week.
I had a blast making things I usually buy– bread, chocolate bars (!! which didn’t work, but were delicious raw and gooey anyway, that’s why I didn’t put them on the blog), crackers, pita bread. I realized yesterday that it has been 17 days since a single molecule of high fructose corn syrup passed my lips (by the way, the Jarritos have none, keep them in mind if you’re jonesing for soda made with sugar). I have a load of store-bought bread in the freezer from last time it was on sale and I don’t want to eat it; I may donate it to my starving-musician son.
And, I’ve lost 6 pounds, even though I’ve been eating like a horse (in fact, exactly like a horse, on things that my body was designed to consume).
Haha, I said “load” I meant “loaf”
My challenge is going great so far! Have experimented with homemade snacks for the kids with great success. Had a break down this week and bought granola in a bag instead of making it, but I am allowing myself to slip up from time to time. We are eating tons of real foods, homemade breads, and are researching more and more things that we can make at home rather than buying pre made!
Thanks so much for the inspiration and for the chance to win this book that I Have been wanting so bad…in fact I have it on hold at the library just waiting for the last person to return it..I am dyeing to check it out!
Thanks again!
Suzy
I’ve just had a chance to sit down for a bit and check some favorite blogs (that would be you :o) ). We have found a source for raw milk and have been bartering our eggs in exchange for the milk. We get two gallons at a time so I have been busy making butter from the 1 quart of cream I get from the milk. Home made grapenuts are then made from the resulting buttermilk from buttermaking. I made a quart of fresh yogurt using last week’s yogurt as my starter for the new batch. We like yogurt on home made granola so I made that, too. Of course, we need fresh bread for the fresh butter. I used our eggs tonight to make a sausage (from a hog we bought from the neighbor that he processed) quiche and our raw milk was used in that plus I made some home made tapioca pudding to use up some more of the eggs that the girls have been popping out like crazy. Our veggies and fruits have been what I grew or picked locally last summer that were then frozen or canned. I went to the store yesterday and bought toothpaste. Maybe I should start making that too! :o)
I blogged details about how we have done so far this month.
It has been a very busy month, so it has been a real challenge at times, but I think we have done well meeting that challenge.
We are unable to eat completely local at this time of year, even with all the food I canned and froze last fall we are out of or quickly running out of most of our fruits and vegetables.
I took the challenge to see if I could stick to our homemade meals even though this is a particularly busy month, both at work and at home, rather than resorting to eating out or buying frozen premade meals.
So far we have only eaten out once this month, this challenge has kept us eating healthy and saved us money.
This week was tough for us, schedule-wise. We ran out of bread a day I wasn’t home, so my husband had to buy a sandwich at work one day for lunch. We’re out of granola and yogurt but I haven’t made it to the natural foods store to get more milk. I lost a day to a migraine (didn’t eat much, but didn’t cook/bake anything either).
A long-time friend is in town so we ate out a few times this week, but once was to a locally-sourced sustainable-mission restaurant we have wanted to visit, and once was to a taco stand — for research. We’re going to attempt homemade corn tortillas for fish tacos this weekend!
I blogged our week: http://jules138.blogspot.com/2010/03/real-food-friday-wrap-up_20.html
We’ve been pretty darn successful, even though I haven’t been in the mood to cook – too much fun to be out in the sunshine!
Barb – would love to know how you make homemade grape nuts!
The one area we fail in is eating locally. I’m pretty sure it’s not possible, especially since we subsist so much on fresh fruits and veggies, and we have no local year-round farmer’s markets. No local veggies will be available until about June here.
Thanks for keeping up the great inspiration, all of you! Love these informative posts, and can’t wait to try some of these ideas.
Here is a P.S. to my earlier post. I remembered, as I went out to do chores last night, that Thursday when it was really nice here (in the 60’s in WI) I decided to see if the carrots and parsnips that I left in the garden all winter actually made it without turning to mush. I ran out of time last fall to do all the canning and decided to give this a try. Much to my delight I was able to dig up about 2-five quart pails of bright crispy carrots and wonderfully white parsnips. I brought them in and made a carafe of carrot/parsnip juice. It was wonderful!! Still have have a bucket left to juice and four more rows in the garden to dig up. What a wonderful early spring surprise….the garden still giving us veggie goodness.
Just wanted to pop back in and say I went to see Joel Salatin speak last night! It was truly amazing, motivating, and energizing!
So jealous!
Great week for us… Our vegetable box is ready, our seeds are sprouting. I made our own dark brown sugar (thanks for the tip!!). Plans are underway for chickens! We’ve talked about it, but now we have actual plans! I made my own pizza dough for the very first time. And because I won the cheesemaking kit, I’ve been looking for a local dairy provider!
(While I would LOVE to have this book, please give someone else a chance to win since I won last week!!)
We’ve been doing pretty good. I just made some noodles, but I am disappointed in my noodle attachment for my Kitchenmaid. It’s great for the first three passes but doesn’t form them right so I still rolled them out and cut them with a knife. (something I’ve been doing for decades) It was so nice yesterday and today I worked up my little garden and re-sawdusted the permanent paths. So many earthworms-I was thrilled! And I dug up one unexpected carrot.
We’ve been eating the last of the frozen veggies from last year’s garden. And my cooking onions are almost gone. I did plant peas on the 12th and yesterday I planted a small patch of dwarf pak choy, just to have fresh greens.
The good-
*my lust for fountain diet coke has diminished and replaced with kombucha. I plan on trying to make that soon.
*I am in love with the homemade bread, crackers, granola bars I have been making and will keep those going.
*I am more committed than ever to having a year round garden because I just finished off the last of my kale and it is pretty sparse around here.
The bad-
I have failed at cheesemaking. Boo.
The nicer weather makes it hard for me to want to cook.
Cheesemaking is a tough one to master. I finally mastered making mozzarella. I tend to stick to quick cheeses, I made an aged cheese once that was so sharp it sucked all the water from your mouth when you ate it.
I’ve decided to cut down on my baking, because my losing weight and baking are mutually exclusive.
My seedling are also doing wonderfully and I need to compile my post and pictures of the growth since I planted them about 2 weeks ago.
While I’ve been failing in the sticking to real food department I have been getting both myself and my children more active. My youngest and I went to the pool Wednesday with my sister and her son. Then later that evening me and my eldest walked to check the mail and it turned into a walk almost 1.5 miles long. Friday I went on a
I can make things from scratch and continue to improve what we consume, but until I get up off my duff I’m going to continue to be unhealthy. Hence my cutting way back on the baking. I’ve switched my focus to getting exercise in as much as I can, and getting enough fiber (both of which should help lessen my chances of getting another colon polyp, or another flare-up of diverticulitis).
Changes for a better life, right? 😀
That’s right, Real Food, Real Exercise (not a treadmill) make for a healthy life!
Crap I just realized I got all involved with something else .. and hit “submit” without finishing what I was adding on. Go me!
What the rest of it should say….
Friday I went on a 1.8 mile walk around the Marina about 30 miles away after I went to Whole Foods (the only “packaged” stuff I got was a tub of yogurt, and pack of turkey bacon!). Today I went for a lunch time walk that was 1.07 miles then decided to go for another outing that was 1.59 miles.
Chiotsrun.. none of it was on a treadmill, though I do have a gym membership and if I cannot get out until after dark then I head over there. Since it’s been really nice here I’ve been trying to avoid the treadmill. 😀
It has been a harder week. I have been out of town visiting people which meant not local food and eating out a lot. I did manage to bring homemade bread for breakfast, that was one thing that helped (me at least).
It seems like little things this week. switching to organic butter, using the raw milk in things, baking and stocking more granola bars. Today will try to make orange marmalade with oranges I brought back from a recent trip to friends house in AZ (so local to where I was and fresh). Squeezed lemons (from same friend) and froze for future lemonades. Baking bread and will make pizza from dough for dinner tonight and trying to use home made toppings for that. Still eating out of the Freezer – that sure cuts down on the grocery bill. Didn’t get in any local meats this week. Once we get through the store bought meat that will be easier. Made a scalloped potato dish using local organic potatoes and onions from garden.
soon time to plant garden. Trying to be patient and we had a freeze last night so I am glad that I waited. Seedlings are started (a bit late). I know it will take a bit to work out what grows best in what season here and what works for us (to eat). Trying eggplant, tomatoes, red bell pepper, leeks, cabbage, lettuce, chard and more. Also some hot peppers after Susy’s posts on peppers. The garden will be a big help with organic and healthy foods and then finding ways to preserve them that works for us.
Emily in So TX
I have been EXHAUSTED! Seriously, like I can barely drag myself out of bed. I’m feeling more rested today as I went to bed at 8:30 and slept till 7:00 this morning. I’m trying to take it easy today.
Wednesday I cooked the corned beef I had cured myself. Ehh, it was just ok. Nothing to rave over, at all. I was a bit disappointed as I used a 5lb grass fed brisket! Oy!
My farmer’s market is blooming with salad greens!! Yay. I’m tired of turnips and cabbage. I bought a huge bag of baby spinach last week and placed an order for 6 more bags to put in the freezer. I cut the Swiss Chard from my own garden and made the most delicious gratin. I love topping it with soft cooked country eggs.
My hubs told me that on Tuesday’s farmer’s market, they’ll be salad greens as well as the spinach I ordered. Yay! Fresh salads w/homemade ranch dressing all week.
Today is my busy cooking day. I made two quarts of milk kefir, 2 quarts of yogurt, 1 1/2 gallon of sauerkraut, and a batch of homemade tortillas. I saw a recipe in Cook’s Illustrated for Mexican Tingas, which I’m cooking for dinner (basically shredded pork tacos).
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this book! I’ve looked through it at the store and it’s pretty cool
I’ve got some garden peas growing that my son and I planted in January. We mulched them with pinestraw and they survived the really cold weather we’ve had this year. They are certainly one of my favorite real foods.
I had a pretty good week over here! I think I found the great bread recipe I want to use from now on, thanks to inadvertent farmer! I have a bread machine, but made this in the oven and liked it a whole lot better! I had planned on going at it all by hand, but I cheated and kneaded it in my machine…it’s still from scratch right and going at real food doesn’t mean we can’t take shortcuts! I think I didn’t oil my pans enough and probably could’ve baked them a little longer, but it still taste great, it’s just missing the bottom of the loaf! The second loaf was a cinnamon raisin walnut loaf. I also made the Blueberry/ lemon muffins from Chiotsrun and those were a hit! My third grain product I tried this week was crackers! I got a simple recipe and made a couple different kinds: plain, cinnamon sugar, onion/garlic and ginger/pepper/poppyseed. The trick really is to roll them thin and then thin some more and more….I also made carrot/daikon pickles (first time using a canning pot) and sauerkraut and more green juice and fresh squeezed blood orange juice. Next week on to tortillas again…
Okay I feel silly, but I must give credit where credit is due….I actually used the bread recipe from Julie over at The Little Things…but when I was going through my stack of recipes it was so similar that I thought I had just cut Inadvertent Farmers recipe in half. I guess they both have the right recipe though, because it was delicious!!