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MarilynW
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by Nina Planck
I got this from a friend in England - an amazing book - I started reading it last night and could not put it down.
Has anyone else read it? I suggested to my dh last night that we go start farming in Loudon county - he just started laughing and pointed out that with my allergies I would not survive a day!!! Maybe somewhere else with no allergies? 
At least it has inspired me to eat local produce - just got to find out how to find local produce in the winter. I will get my CSA application in on time this year
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Rachel May
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MarilynW wrote:
| just got to find out how to find local produce in the winter. I will get my CSA application in on time this year |
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You are supposed to buy it in the summer and freeze or cold store it.  I just read the Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food from the library. Ummmm, I'm too busy and don't have a chest freezer, but the idea of eating locally is inspiring, I agree.
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msclavel
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I heard Nina Planck interviewed on the radio months ago and loved her. I've read a bunch of articles at her website and have been meaning to read the book. Time to check my library.
We shopped the farmer's market several times this summer. My children just loved the whole experience and these were some of our loveliest summer mornings. We're looking forward to it again this year.
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Elizabeth
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After reading Real Food, I had read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Barbara Kingsolver does a very good job of delving into the nitty gritty of a year on locally raised food. She writes from southwestern Virginia, so her climate issues are roughly the same as ours, Marilyn. Short of moving, it's impractical to think we could ever grow all our own food, but the books did give me much food for thought. I agree with Rachel that we aren't exactly in a position to devote the kind of time to canning and preserving as she did and I am so not going to raise and slaughter chickens myself. There are no babies in her life, among other considerations. On the other hand, I am planning to buy and grow lots of produce this summer and put lots of produce by for the winter. I plan to grow our own and then to buy at farmer's markets. We did the CSA a few years ago and I was really frustrated. I understand shared risk, but it was a drought year and I felt like I wasted an awful lot of money because the farm did so poorly. Since then, I've become pretty committed to local farms. We get our meat from Polyface Farms, which is mentioned by Nina Planck several times (she quotes the farmer, Joel Salatin) and we get eggs, cheese and some produce from Quail Cove Farms, also local in Virginia. This kind of bulk buying is very big family-friendly.
This is a great conversation Marilyn! I'm eager to hear what other people are doing.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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MarilynW
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Elizabeth wrote:
On the other hand, I am planning to buy and grow lots of produce this summer and put lots of produce by for the winter. I plan to grow our own and then to buy at farmer's markets. We did the CSA a few years ago and I was really frustrated. I understand shared risk, but it was a drought year and I felt like I wasted an awful lot of money because the farm did so poorly. Since then, I've become pretty committed to local farms. We get our meat from Polyface Farms, which is mentioned by Nina Planck several times (she quotes the farmer, Joel Salatin) and we get eggs, cheese and some produce from Quail Cove Farms, also local in Virginia. This kind of bulk buying is very big family-friendly.
This is a great conversation Marilyn! I'm eager to hear what other people are doing. |
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I have really failed at growing my own produce in the last 2 years - even zucchini  Nobody wants to dig up soccer lawn for garden so I have done the wading pool gardens - and even messed that up - once the heat starts my gardening fades away, added to hyperemesis last year.
I was thinking of sharing a Great Country Farms CSA with my neighbor - thought it might be a good place to take the kids too often with all the added perks of the CSA membership.
I do Quail Cove but have not yet ordered from Polyface although the drop off is not far from me. I just ordered from another grass fed farm Mount Vernon farm as Polyface is not delivering till Marh.
The one thing about the Nina Planck book - it has me craving that lovely creamy raw milk and raw butter I have settled for the Trickling Springs cream from Wholefoods - I must need dairy as all I can think about is cream and butter 
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I too just started reading Real Food. I even found myself walking/reading/and somehow giving a grammar assignment at the same time this morning...realized I should put the book down.
We have thought about the CSA thing, but haven't done it. But I fear what Elizabeth mentioned about not getting a great crop and thinking of where I could have spent that money instead. Maybe just being a good regular at a farmer's market would be better.
I literally just discovered Smith Family Farm is right around the corner from us, so I might look into them for some beef. We don't have a freezer yet (any recommendations on that, I guess that would be another thread).
And this is another local thing...but I am bound and determined to get down to
Cibola Farms for buffalo. We love buffalo meat here, but it is really pricey...one reward for going down there would be the fun of seeing the buffalo!
The only "real food" thing I do consistently right now is milling and baking our own bread. So we have a lot of room for improvement!!!!!
Oh and Marilyn, my dh says the same thing about me and allergies and farming...he likes to remind me I'm allergic to probably every animal that doesn't have scales And when I said the kids would do the work, the laughter was even harder!
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Mary G
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Problem we have is that I don't have a CSA nearby ... can you believe out here in the WEST there aren't co-ops to get farm fresh from?
Am I missing something?
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MichelleW
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Someone on this site recommended "Simply in Season" several months ago. It has become my absolute favorite cookbook. The recipes are arranged by what's in season. Last week I made lentil soup with sweet potato crescent rolls. YUM! This book is more than a cookbook, it has essays, poems, verses from Mennonite and Catholic contributors. It has really challenged how we see food and how we spend our grocery money.
By arranging your menus so that you eat mainly what is in season, you don't have to spend large quantities of time preserving the harvest. There are lots of things in season NOW. Yes, we are eating way more carrots and sweet potatoes, winter squash, potatoes and turnips that we would the rest of the year. But these are veggies that can easily be found locally grown, organic and fresh.
When I first started eating this way (about 9 months now), I was afraid that I would spend a great deal more on local organic produce. Instead, eating in season, we are eating higher quality produce, grown closer to home for about the same price I was paying before. Now I only eat asparagus when it is in season here and that means the price is lower, the spears are fresher and I am thrilled to give my family such good food. We are also more than ready to devour it when the time comes.
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Mary, that is surprising!
I'm planning on being a farmers' market regular since it's in the parking lot of the local library on a Tuesday morning. How perfect is that? Until the farmers' markets open again, I've been looking at where the produce is coming from and buying as locally as possible. Once I found organic green peppers from one state over for the same price as regular ones, but usually "product of the USA" is the best we can do.
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I've just finished re-reading Nina's book. It's a really good read.
We do raise our own chickens Elizabeth but haven't slaughtered any yet. Just been eating the eggs. This summer though we'll be doing more. Last year was a learning experience.
We do grow quite a bit of produce in our huge garden but I wasn't able to do much with it last year because I spent the summer and fall in bed.  But the reward is only 9 weeks away .
We belong to an organic produce coop that I can get to every 2 weeks. Only need to order what I want. It's pretty seasonal although I can get fresh blackberries right now if I wanted to and wanted to PAY for them.
As for beef we've been ordering from a grass-fed cattle ranch for the last 3 years. We live in Alberta which is known as cattle country here. We generally go through a whole cow a year with extra hamburger thrown it too. We're almost out and they aren't butchering again until the end of Febuary. We have a bison ranch not too far and they're also grass-fed so I might be calling them soon.
We also have access to pastured pork. Yum!
Milk.... well it miraculously appears on our door step once a week. Full of cream. Raw milk is a no-no in Canada. That's as far as I'll go with that. However we're looking for a nice Jersey for spring. It does help that we live on 6 acres. 
Things kind of slid this year with me being so sick this pregnancy but we're back on track again.
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guitarnan
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In case anyone wants to interest middle-school/jr. high age kids in sustainable farming, Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park has this topic as one of its main themes. It's about a Korean-American girl and her friend, who decide on a silkworm-breeding/silk thread-making project for a 4-H-like group. The group's adult advisor is modeled after the owner of Polyface Farms, and there's a lot of discussion of sustainable farming.
It's a great book. One of the other main themes is racism, as the mom of the main character (who is Korean) doesn't like the African-American man who gives the kids the mulberry leaves they need, and Julia, the main character, tries to figure out why.
We grew green peppers and some tomatoes last year...I am the ONLY person on Earth who can't grow zucchini, ack. This year I plan to move the zucchini bed to the back corner of our yard. Dd really enjoyed growing and harvesting her veggies (and she eats them now!). We always grow our own herbs and we try for strawberries every year, but don't have the heart to keep the bunnies out.
I love seasonal cooking - five years in Italy convinced me that out-of-season veggies taste like, well, paste. I am constitutionally unable to eat fennel in August or artichokes in February as a result.
My dh can't eat beef, so I would be very interested to see more bison farm links. (Currently all we can find is TJ's frozen bison patties, which are reasonably priced, for bison, and taste decently good.)
I love this thread, so far...please help keep me motivated to clear out my zucchini plot!!!
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Elizabeth
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Nancy,
Rebecca and I were discussing this very thing last night. I read to her excerpts from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle where the author discusses how "illiterate" we all are about the origins of our food and what it takes to get it to the table. She makes a very compelling argument for educating children about --ALL about-- food. Rebecca and I were talking and brainstorming a bit about how well this fits into our botany plans. This book sounds just perfect. Thanks!
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SusanJ
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I'm sure you are all familiar with this book, but just in case . . .
For younger kids, my ds's all time favorite book is Pancakes! Pancakes! by Eric Carle. It really drives home, even for me, how much work goes into simple pancakes by all the different people who raise wheat, milk cows, raise chickens, etc.
We are really committed urban dwellers (though, given the state of dh's job hunt, the Lord might have other ideas for us). The great thing about the city, ironically, is all the local food you can get because it's really easy to get together a big enough co-op for farmers to delivery their stuff. Of course, the downside is that we can't grow anything ourselves because we don't have a yard. That will be my one consolation if we end up in a rural, or even suburban setting: I can get the kids (and myself) into gardening.
Susan
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I'd love to hear more about how all of you work seasonal eating into your everyday menus!
We buy all of our meats from Burt's Beef and we get most of our butter and eggs from them as well. That leaves staples for the grocery store.
I'm just soooooo bad about incorporating enough fresh fruits and veggies into our daily menu. It all comes down to me, and I'm really struggling. I'm certainly convinced of the positives of eating seasonally, but the practicals elude me. Do you shop only at the Farmer's Market? What if there's no local, organic choice? Do you just go for local and seasonal?
I've added all of the books you guys linked to above to my wishlist at Amazon - they seem promising.
I have one more question: In Nourishing Traditions Sally Fallon briefly discusses pork. She implies that pork is not a healthy meat to consume - ever - even if the pork is pasture fed, blah, blah, blah. Has anyone heard more about this? Know why? She uses a lot of science to back up her claims in this book. I'm just wondering and haven't come across this anywhere else. Very curious!
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Mackfam wrote:
I have one more question: In Nourishing Traditions Sally Fallon briefly discusses pork. She implies that pork is not a healthy meat to consume - ever - even if the pork is pasture fed, blah, blah, blah. Has anyone heard more about this? Know why? She uses a lot of science to back up her claims in this book. I'm just wondering and haven't come across this anywhere else. Very curious! |
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If I remember correctly the main problem with pork is that the pigs don't digest food as thoroughly so toxins and whatnot are not cleaned out the way they are after several trips through a cow's digestive tract. If this is the only problem I would think that knowing your farmer could mitigate concerns. We've met the farmer who raises the pigs we eat and we trust that he is raising very clean animals. They are milk-fed with the milk from his clean cows. We don't have major concerns about eating his pork--though we tend to eat pork very moderately anyway.
Anyone else know about this?
Susan
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Angel
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I recently posted about our desire to eat local, and my "nightstand" has a whole stack of books on the subject. I haven't made it to Real Food yet, but have read the Barbara Kingsolver book and am in the middle of The Omnivore's Dilemma and Kitchen Literacy, both great books.
Basically, we're eating sort of half-local right now: we have onions and potatoes we've stored from our garden last year; frozen corn, tomatoes, green beans, and zucchini from our garden; local garlic because we didn't plant enough; leeks we just dug Sunday (and made a really yummy leek and potato soup) ; beef and chicken from a farm about 3 miles away, and tomorrow night we're going to pick up half a hog from another farm about the same distance. (This will include hams, roasts, sausage, bacon, and chops.) We're buying local eggs from a health food store. I had the chance to buy local beets, winter squash, and apples in bulk, but I wasn't thinking in those terms yet and dropped the ball.
The good thing about winter produce like squash, potatoes, onions, beets, and cabbage is that they all store well, provided you have a)space and b)reasonable storage conditions. (There's a book about root cellar storage that I like, but I'll have to come back and link it. It has some ideas about converting part of your basement.) And in the summer, if you have the freezer space, you can freeze tomatoes for use in future sauce, which is about a million times easier than canning. We also froze our corn in the husk this year, which was really easy. It tastes pretty good, too, although it does suffer from texture loss.
We do have a big garden, but I plan on attempting to make up for any crop failures resulting from our own inexperience (as opposed to weather, which will hit everybody) by visiting the Farmer's Market and buying in bulk. Plus, our orchard and berries aren't really producing yet, so we'll need to make up that deficit, too. Our kids were responsible for various parts of the garden last year, and our 4 yo grew some pretty darn good corn, plus our biggest pumpkin. I think that if large families are going to pursue this lifestyle, we will have to take as our role models those large, pre-industrial farm families for whom producing and preserving food was a family affair. In other words, the kids *have* to be a part of it, because you need their hands -- to pull weeds, plant seeds, shell peas, shuck corn, etc. But I feel really good about our working together to produce our food, and I think the kids do, too. And I think that they learn a tremendous amount in the doing of it as well. So while it is really hard work, I think that it is the kind of work that is totally worth it.
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Mary G
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Mackfam wrote:
| I have one more question: In Nourishing Traditions Sally Fallon briefly discusses pork. She implies that pork is not a healthy meat to consume - ever - even if the pork is pasture fed, blah, blah, blah. |
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Now I have and love the Nourishing Traditions book, but I have to say 1) I think she's way too demanding of what you should and shouldn't do -- use common sense and adapt what she says to YOUR family, and 2) so many of her recipes have you soak things overnight or longer -- I went to make cornbread tonight for dinner and she has you soaking the corn meal for 20hrs! I decide to make cornbread about 2 hrs before cooking  so this doesn't help me a whole lot!  But her stuff is great -- especially the margin info she includes.
Now, the Simply in Season sounds great and I've got it on hold at the library. Thanks for the heads-up!
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You're very right Mary. I have to apply common sense to all that I read and discover along this journey. Her book is very informative, but she does go to some extremes.
I guess I was asking because most of the extreme things I had read in her book, I had already encountered in one way or another and had found other sources to help me make a common sense decision about the application to our family. But, other than in the Bible, I had never heard of pork being a no-no. We buy our pork from a local farmer who pasture feeds his hogs and they are an heirloom variety, so there is no concern about a genetically weird pig that plumps up for slaughter in 12 days. But her statements really made me wonder, and I haven't come across that kind of statement anywhere else. I was hoping someone here would have heard/know more about pork - specifically how your body metabolizes it and its carcinogenic potential. I believe those were the authors misgivings. Since we make/made these changes because of our family's dealings with both brain and breast cancer, I'm always on the lookout for a potential carcinogen.
I know what you mean about soaking - she likes to soak and sprout everything doesn't she? Not a do-able solution for us either! But I really liked the part about oils in the book.
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Elizabeth
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Not all pork is equal. Nina Planck discusses this at some length. I'm nursing at the keyboard here; perhaps someone else will chime in.Heritage hogs are different from those who've been bred for feedlots. The great thing about raising heritage hogs out on pasture where they can really forage for all sorts of food, is that it has been proven that the fat is actually loaded with healthy Omega-3 fatty acid and CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). This is not the same type of pork you can pick up at any store (which has been bred for leanness, among other things)and the taste is very different.
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Mary G wrote:
Problem we have is that I don't have a CSA nearby ... can you believe out here in the WEST there aren't co-ops to get farm fresh from?
Am I missing something? |
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OK, I "lied" ! We do have CSAs around here and I'm checking them out now. Sorry for the confusion but I could swear I had pulled it up last Spring (or whenever this came up last time) and I couldn't find anything .... guess this is what happens when you pass the 45 mark?
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Real Food - What To Eat and Why
