Raw Milk: The Choices I Make, and Why

Raw milk has risks. It just does. That means it is exactly no different from anything else we ingest, from lettuce to alcohol. I choose to accept these risks,because I know what they are, and I’ve decided that any potential risks from raw milk from a local, well-vetted farm with excellent husbandry and milking practices is still lower than that of drinking conventional milk.

Here’s the deal:

-Not all of us who drink raw milk are uninformed, on jumping on some bandwagon. I’ve done the research. In fact, part of my job is literally to research food illness, benefits, husbandry practices,etc. I didn’t just hear someone says “raw milk is awesome” and decide “hey, I must drink that!” Raw milk isn’t a recent thing for me. I grew up drinking milk warm, directly from the teats of the cows and goats I milked on our farm. We didn’t pasteurize, but we were taught really excellent husbandry and milking practices. And yes, we milked by hand. We weren’t a dairy, we were too poor to have a milking machine, and as kids we were excellent free labor for our parents.

-I trust my local farmers far more than I trust corporate agriculture. I can stop by and visit my cow, help feed, watch the milking, and see what they do with the milk (including the fact that they’re drinking it, the same as we are) anytime I want, without notice. They provide any information I ask, including testing/herd testing information, with appropriate  verification if requested. I didn’t just wander onto some field with a guy milking a cow and say “hey, can I have some of that?”  Which is essentially what I’m doing if I buy food from corporate agriculture. Corporate Ag sickens thousands each year, from eggs to dairy to produces. Do people get sick from local goods? Of course. But, after looking at all the facts, I believe that–for my family–the risks of non-GMO, grass-fed, pastured, unpasteurized cow’s milk is simply far less than trusting a corporate food system we already know is horribly corrupt. I’ve been sick from mass-produced goods. I have never yet been sick from anything I’ve gotten from my local, vetted farmers. I realize that’s anecdotal, and I don’t expect others to make my choices. But *I* should have a right to make an informed decision about what I eat.

-The risks are, from all the data I can collect since the data is fairly sparse, pretty statistically insignificant. I know that when it’s you or a family member, statistics become irrelevant; but, when making reasonable food choices, they can be helpful. Depending who you listen to, between 3 and 10 Million people drink raw milk in the US. There is, from all the data I could find, an average of 100-150 cases of hospitalization a year reported, meaning they were serious enough to be diagnosed and hospitalized. Only 2 recorded deaths since 1998 that I could find (there may be more, I am willing to revise this, so please let me know). This means that reported cases of illness are between .00005% and .00016%. Even assuming there are, say, 100o unreported cases a year, you’re still only looking at well below a 1% chance of getting ill from raw milk.  I’ll live with that.

-Not all of us who drink raw milk espouse Weston A. Price Foundation values. I am not a member. I do believe in whole foods, I do believe in not eating processed sugars or many simple carobhydrates. I do think we get too few CLAs, Omegas, and the like in our diets as Americans overall. That is about where my paradigm similarities with them ends. I don’t have a problem with them. They’re free to make whatever food choices work for them, and I do applaud the fact that most members bother to educate themselves on what they’re eating, which is more than I can say for the vast majority of Americans who choose to eat crap “food.” I just don’t believe everything they do, and their paradigm borders too closely on fanaticism for me, personally. It’s also frequently tied to religion, and I prefer to keep religious issues out of my food choices.

-I don’t think raw milk is magic. Yes, there are many people who’ve got stories about it curing this or that, and maybe it does. Or, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know, and that’s not why I choose it. I’m healthy, I am not looking for a panacea. I, personally, notice my (very mild) seasonal allergies are non-existent when I am drinking local, raw milk regularly. The same is true of local, raw honey. Is it psychosomatic? Possibly. But, since that’s not why I drink it, I don’t actually care. I drink it because I like the fact that the cow (from my farm) has been fed no corn or GMO feed, that it eats grass and therefore likely has higher levels of good fatty acids, that the milk tastes better to me, has a higher fat content (yes, we do actually look for that–Thadd needs something like 4 thousand calories a day, and we get almost none of them from simple carbs or sugars) , that it actually contains no hormones or antibiotics (as opposed to “allowable” amounts), that it’s only hours old when I get it, that it supports local agriculture, and that I can make cheese and other products from it much more readily than I can from high-heat pasteurized milk.

-I don’t feed it to the world. Thadd and I drink it. I do make my own cheese, and some of those cheeses can only be made with raw milk or, in some cases, low-heat pasteurized milk. Unfortunately, the latter is not available literally anywhere near me, so the former is my best choice, even if I didn’t want to drink it. These products, and the raw milk itself, are used for only ourselves. We have no children, and typically when we have guests over, we’re drinking local wine, cider, beer, or freshly-made lemonade, not big glasses of milk.

-You can know the risks, and still elect to take them. Simply because someone chooses to do something someone else views as “risky” does not mean the chooser isn’t aware of the risks. People who climb Mt. Everest are doing something I would personally never do, but I am pretty sure they’re aware of what they’re getting into. People have many different reasons for choosing what they choose to do, and can look at the same information, and come to a different decision. For some people, any germ associated with food is abhorrent. For me, food without germs is abhorrent. I think, overall, that germ theory has led us in the wrong direction, and is one reason we’re so sick as a nation. (I don’t use hand sanitizer, but I do wash my hands thoroughly. I don’t use bleach to clean my house, but I do clean well with soap and water.)  Of course, germs are not the same as pathogens, and while I realize that pathogens can be present in raw milk, appropriate practices keeps the risk of that very small. Small enough, in fact, that I choose to take it because for me, it’s a smaller risk than the long-term effects of what is in much commercial milk.

-Not all of us believe that raw milk should flow freely like a river down a mountain, unhindered and unregulated. I certainly don’t. I would love it if our government could take a step back from lobbyists who contribute heavily to their campaign funds, and draft real, reasonable regulation that would help ensure the safety of a raw milk supply and the products thereof. It’s not impossible. Other countries have done it well (some so well it can actually be gotten at vending machines, and the instances of illness are reported to be the same as pasteurized). Europe is famous for its fresh, raw milk cheeses. People are not hospitalized or dying in droves from fresh ricotta or aged Roquefort (the latter of which is required, by law, to be made from fresh, raw sheep’s milk). Unfortunately, our government, and many people who seem to speak on either side of this issue, seem to see no middle: it’s either a free-for-all, or a felony.  When really, it should be more along the lines of: here are solid regulations for husbandry, milking, testing, storage, and transport. Follow them, or you will be liable, just like other food companies (oh, wait…other food companies get people sick and hospitalize them all the time with no real consequences). So, until and unless those who do the regulation can get their collective heads out of their collective arses,  it leaves those of us in the middle with a lot of vetting to do on our farms.

Raw milk is not for everyone. There are plenty of instances when pasteurized milk is the better choice. But, there’s no good reason why the choice can’t be offered in a safe way.

Related Articles

• Why Hide Serious Government Data on Raw Milk Drinkers? (via Food Freedom) (healthisahabit.wordpress.com)
• Real Raw Milk Facts

Keeping It Low

There’s a lot of advice on how to keep your food budget low: buy in bulk, watch for sales, use coupons, etc. Most of it is fine advice, and I do use some of it; but, I also don’t use a lot of it. So, how do I keep our food budget low while eating really great, sustainable foods if it’s not intensive couponing and vigilant watch on sale papers? Here’s what I do, what I don’t do, and why.

What I Do:

1. We don’t eat meat like Americans. As a country, we eat far, far too much meat.  So, instead Thadd and I elect to do vegetarian meals several nights a week, and rarely eat whole cuts of anything. We use meat in a dish, not as a dish. I take that savings and put it into buying local, sustainable meats; or, short of that (usually if I can’t get it for some reason), I’ll opt for organic. When you eat a lot less of it, it becomes reasonable to purchase.

2. We recognize the difference in food as sustenance, and food as indulgence.

Sustenance (albeit yummy sustenance), Kale & Grapefruit Quinoa salad with veggie frittata:

Indulgence, roasted orange-cranberry sauce with port:

This means that we eat a lot of meals that aren’t our “favorites,” but are just fine, filling, and fairly tasty. Too many people have come to believe that everything they eat must be their favorite food. Since our bodies are designed to like high-calorie foods the most (hey, years ago we needed all those calories!), this means expensive and crappy food is topping the American “wish list” right now.  I am not saying we eat tasteless goo or anything, but we do often eat simple, inexpensive meals because they’re healthy and it’s in our budget.

3. We buy frozen veggies. Fresh vegetable are nice, but when we can’t get veggies locally (and we can’t necessarily put up everything to survive on all winter, though someday we hope to do so), we often buy frozen. They’re typically cheaper–organic frozen is often less expensive than non-organic fresh–and they’re usually healthier. Frozen fruits and vegetables are typically picked when ripe and flash frozen, so they have more nutrients than their fresh, green-picked counterparts. Since frozen rarely cooks up like fresh, these often get used as part of entrees, instead of just as sides. If I am making miso chicken, I’ll  toss in a bunch of frozen spinach at the end, for example.

4. We eat soups and casseroles a few times a week.

If it’s soup, there’s usually some form of bread on the side, but not always.  I’ve had people say “oh, but my husband/wife/children won’t eat those! It’s meat and potatoes every night–so how can *I* save money?” Um..you can’t. Not if you still want to eat healthy. Look, here’s the truth, which I’ve said before hundreds of times here: people are spoiled and they need to get over it. A few mealtimes roll around and what’s on the table is a soup or casserole or go hungry, and the household will get the idea. Refusing to eat healthy, well-prepared, and flavorful foods just because they’d rather be eating something else is childish. I’d rather be a millionaire, but I can’t stop working just because I’d rather not. If it’s a spouse, well, I’m not going there–that’ll have to be figured out between the couple. If it’s the kids, then it’s time to pony up to the Parent Table and put your foot down.

5. Legumes are a main ingredient several times a week.

Beans, split peas, lentils…all great sources of lean protein that you can prepare a hundred different ways. And, even the organics are fairly inexpensive.

6. No processed or convenience  foods. Processed foods are expensive (even if they look cheap, just look at their cost-per-pound–it’s always higher than whole foods), and lack nutrients.

7. Meal planning. I harp on this here, I know, but it really is probably the #1 thing we do to keep our budget low. Eating spur-of-the-moment, as most people do, is a recipe for disaster. Good, fast, cheap: pick two (saying courtesy of Thadd, who I believe got it from the military folks he worked with). If you want good, healthy food fast, you’re going to pay through the nose for convenience food. If you want cheap food fast, you’re going to pay the price by eating empty calories. So, the other option is good and cheap, which means it’s not fast. Planning for this is the only way to make it work.

8. Shop at my local Amish & Mennonite stores. They have the best prices and quality of grains, spices, cheese, and a lot of the produce we use fresh. Spices are often 1/2 to 1/3 what they are at Kroger or FoodLion, and they have just as large a selection of organic spices. Same thing with grains. Plus, they’re local, and that puts dollars back into our community (and, they’re great people, who are happy to do special orders, etc.).

9. Shop with a list (which was made using our meal plan). Stick to that list.

10. We keep a pantry stocked with basics. This lets us throw something together on the night that nothing went right, and to purchase items either in bulk or when we caught them on sale at the store.

11. Eat leftovers.

We do this a lot. In fact, we do this almost every day, and it’s actually part of our meal plan. We make sure to cook enough several days a week for us to eat lunch from, so no buying lunch out.

12. Make your own beverages. If you just have to have that specialty coffee or tea, make it at home. Shop craigslist or FreeCycle if it requires special equipment.

13. Keep snacks readily available.

We keep nuts, yogurt, some veggies & hummus, and the like on hand to munch on. This keeps us from doing something dumb, like ordering pizza, if we get home late and need to wait for dinner.

14. I use my slow cooker several times a week.

There are few things in life more useful for saving us time and money than our slow cookers. I have a few cookbooks (though I want more), am a regular visiter at A Year of Slow Cooking, and often just throw stuff for soup in and call it good.  I love coming home to a good-smelling house and a yummy dinner.

15. Choose foods that will keep us fuller, longer.

Whole grains and protein are they key. In the morning, we usually eat fermented oats or steel-cut oats from the slow cooker. Sometimes, we do eggs and homemade toast. We don’t do pop-tarts, freezer waffles, or the like. Not only are those foods far more expensive than our options, but both of us would be hungry within an hour.

16. Store foods when they’re in-season.

Drying, freezing, canning. ‘Nuf said.

What I Don’t Do:

1. Use coupons. About 95% of the foods we eat never have coupons. The other 5% have them so rarely that buying a paper to get them isn’t worth it. If I happen to get a store coupon for something like $1/off fresh produce, I’ll obviously use it; but, generally the things that have coupons in my area are unhealthy and expensive.

2. Shop a bazillion stores to save 5 cents. Stores here are fairly far apart, so unless I happen to be going somewhere else in that direction, driving to more than 1 store rarely pays for itself in actual money saved, not to mention I don’t have hours upon hours to drive.  Since we get all our meat, eggs, and milk from farms, there’s rarely enough price difference to warrant driving around. I do shop at a local health food store (which is also where I pick up our milk share and chickens), and the Mennonite market, in addition to Kroger. The health food store I shop at not only because I am already there, but because in this very culture-deprived town, it’s the only place I can get a lot of the ingredients I use (red lentils, etc.). The Mennonite store is a stock-up for me, when I need grains, spices, and cheese (which we freeze).

3. Buy things because “they’re on sale,” and I “might need them later.” If it’s not on my list or on the “stock up” list (we keep one of these, and have a certain amount each week we spend to do this), I don’t buy it.

4. Keep a garden. I’d love to do this, and I think anyone who can, should. We did do some herbs and greens this year, but we just don’t have a reasonable place to put indoor pots (by which I mean, a place we can keep them that my cats won’t eat them). Since we live in a rental that has really poor soil and very limited sun, and we don’t want to invest a pile of cash in doing what it would take to set up a box garden since we’ll likely only be where we are a short-ish period of time, we do without the savings. The time it would take us to recoup our outlay means we probably wouldn’t, so for us, it’s not a great option.

What do you do to eat healthy on a budget?

 

 

 

Related Articles

• 10 Winter Dinners from the Slow Cooker Recipe Roundup (thekitchn.com)
• Chef Eric Akis gives slow cooker recipes a contemporary tweak (canada.com)
• Karen Kelly: Changing the Food Landscape, One Person at a Time: Part One (huffingtonpost.com)
• In Praise of Frozen Vegetables (theatlantic.com)

Fast One Fridays, Oct. 29, 2010

Fast One: More bad news for HFCS:  The HFCS in many sodas contains significantly more fructose than the companies reported. What This Means To You: HFCS could be an even greater contributor to obesity than previously thought. And, as importantly, there’s NO SUCH THING as moderation of this product, because you simply cannot have any idea how much you’re getting in anything you eat that contains it.  We all know that too much sugar of any kind is bad for us, whether it be table sugar, honey, maple syrup, or HFCS. The difference here is that HFCS is in so many things because it is artificially cheap, and you can’t know for sure how much or in what formulation you’re intaking it. So, just stop eating it. If you need something sweet, make some homemade cookies, or lemonade with local honey. You’re waistline (and your brain, since mercury has been found in a large percentage of HFCS) will thank you for it.

Fast One: Morningland Dairy is headed to court, after lodging a formal complaint against Missouri Milk Board’s order to destroy their products. What this means to you: Do you like having a choice in what you eat? Do you want to be able to eat raw foods, or local foods, or foods produced by someone with a face that’s not employed by one of the Big Ag companies that already own 90% of our farms and dairies (which, btw, they still try to tout as “family farm,” so be aware of that misrepresentation)? If you do, you need to speak up. Donate (see button at the end of this post), write your representatives and let them know the FDA needs to follow due process, blog about this, and just generally raise some hell. I don’t know about you, but I am terrified to see our food options continually taken away from us.

Fast One: Only 1% of chemicals on the market today are tested for safety, says Senator Lautenburg (D-New Jersey).  The laws are lax, and only 5 chemicals have been banned in the last 34 years. This means of all the chemicals on the market, only about 200 have been tested at all. What this means to you: Who knows, since this stuff isn’t tested? Okay, that was flip, I know. The point is there, though: we can’t have any real idea of the implications. It is terrifying to think companies have little regulation, and few rules about what they can or cannot put on the market without testing. We come into contact with these things every day, regardless of how “crunchy granola” we are, because they’re in everything from flooring to cell phones to clothing. What can we do about it? Write your representatives, and ask for tougher laws. Minimize what you can (chemicals in food, etc.).

Got interesting food news?

The Kids Are Home, Hide the Veggies!

Image via Wikipedia

Time for a mid-week rant.

NPR did a story about what a great idea it is to get kids to eat vegetables at school by adding vegetable puree to the school lunch cheese sauce at lunch time.  There’s a whole movement, including cookbooks, on how to get your child to eat vegetables by hiding them in brownies, cakes, cheese sauces, etc.  I can’t even begin to express how much I loathe this entire idea. It’s faulty from it’s toes to it’s nose, it’s destructive, and it’s just stupid.

What, exactly, does this teach children about healthy eating? Nothing. They don’t learn to make appropriate food choices, they don’t learn to like healthy food. In fact, they don’t even learn what “healthy food” actually is, because as far as they’re concerned, they’re not eating it. It does teach them, however, that they don’t have to ever eat anything green. It teaches them that yes, “healthy” foods must taste crappy or why would we have to hide them? It also teaches them that they are correct when they assume they should get everything they want, that they should be catered to.

Here’s a radical thought: don’t hide children’s vegetables. Instead, let’s serve them well-cooked, healthy vegetables and then, like adults, make sure they eat them.

This is going to get really controversial, and it’s not going to be sugar coated. I am tired of all the namby-pamby advice about how to get kids to eat well. It’s not that complicated.

-Be a parent. We need to stop pandering to children. Parents get to control your child’s diet, the child does not.  Do parents let kids control the finances simply because they want to? Do parents let kids skip school because “they don’t like it?” So why in the world do they let their children control their food. Look, kids are NOT going to starve themselves to death because they’re not fed their three favorite foods every night. They CAN go to bed without dinner and not wake up emaciated and ready to die, no matter how big a fit they throw to the contrary. No one should starve their child, obviously, but unless a child has an emotional or intellectual disability, they aren’t going to starve to death because they are only presented with healthy options for dinner every night.

-Children are smart, and will manipulate you if you let them. Most of the kids who are “picky eaters” have learned that if they say “I don’t like this food,” someone will get up and make them a favorite food instead.  They have adults trained. This is a great racket, right?  This has got to stop. It’s not appropriate parenting, and it’s not doing the child any favors in the long run.

-There is a difference in “don’t like” and “not favorite.” Everyone has things they don’t like. Most people have 3-5 general things they don’t like. A child who *only* likes 3-5 thing and “doesn’t like” everything else knows how to get what they want.  Most of the time, when a child says they don’t like something, what they actually mean is they prefer something else. Time for a valuable life lesson: Too Darn Bad. We Don’t Always Get What We Want In Life.

-Kids learn to like what they’re fed. As I’ve said a thousand times, children in India are not born liking curry, children in Japan do not come from the womb craving udon,  and kids from Louisiana aren’t genetically predisposed to loving jambalaya. Children like their ethnic/cultural cuisine because it’s what they’re fed when young (and, if a child of one ethnicity/culture is adopted as a baby someone from another culture, that child does not grow up craving it’s birth-parents home cooking). A child isn’t going to learn to like legumes if they never eat them.

-Kids eat what their parents eat. Simple as that.  Just like smoking or drinking, parents need to look at what they’re eating in front of their children.

There are other things, such as it’s been proven that children who help grow and cook vegetables are far more likely to choose to eat them. Or, that children who are taught to cook tend to eat a wider variety of healthy foods. But, the main point is this: Children are children. They do not get to make the decision on whether or not they eat their vegetables. That is what parents are for. Hiding healthy food in “unhealthy” food teaches children bad eating habits, poor decision making skills, and that they don’t have to do anything they’d rather not do.

2/3 of the children in the US are obese. Most of these children will grow up to be obese adults, with all the health issues and concerns that go along with that.  This problem will not be solved by hiding vegetables in cheese sauce.

Related Articles

• 5 ways to get your kids to eat their veggies (sfgate.com)
• Kerry Trueman: Let’s Ask Marion Nestle: Is Stealth The Way To Healthy Eating for Kids? (huffingtonpost.com)
• 5 Simple Ways to Get Your Kids to Eat Vegetables (thehappyhousewife.com)
• Children’s Veggie Intake Doubles with Education, Role-Modelling and Popeye (diet-blog.com)

Monday Healthy Eating, Oct. 25, 2010

Today’s healthy eating tip:  Make convenience foods yourself ahead of time, so there’s no excuses!

Right now, I have apple-pomegranate-nut granola bars whipping themselves up in my dehydrator.  They took me a grand total of about 2 minutes to mix up, another 30 seconds to spread on the dehydrator sheet, and now I do nothing with them for the next 4 or so hours when I turn them off to cool down.  They’ve got very little sugar, tons of fiber, protein, and omega fatty acids, and no additional fat or preservatives. And they cost pennies each. Which makes them pretty much the antithesis of store-bought granola bars, which are loaded with empty calories from sugar, unhealthy fats, and things you can’t pronounce.

What’s this got to do with anything? Well, we’re all busy. Most people these days work at least one job (those lucky enough to have jobs in this economy), usually all adults in the house need to work, kids have school and a bazillion activities, and things sometimes get out of hand. This is when you’re likely to stop by McDonalds to get the kids (or yourself) a quick snack, or grab some mac-and-cheese out of a box. If that’s rare treat, then that’s totally okay. If it happens a few times a week, it’s a problem. So, this has to do with avoiding that problem.

One way I stay on track is to take a few minutes to set up conveniences foods when I have the time. The granola bars happened today both because I need them for my clients and because I had 5 minutes to spare. I keep a list of recipes on-hand, and some basic ingredients, and whip up some easy, healthy food for the pantry of freezer whenever I can squeeze it in, and it means I don’t have to resort to fast or processed foods.

You do have the time. Watching TV for an hour tonight? Take 5 minutes before your show or on a commercial to pop up some stove-top popcorn (don’t use microwave–it’s expensive, and it’s awful for you, even the “low-fat” stuff), toss it with some spritzed olive oil and your choice of spices (favorite combo of our are garlic, salt, and smoked paprika) and let it cook while you watch your show (eat some if you like, of course). Toss it into individual serving bags, and you’ve got a crunchy, low-cal, high-fiber snack for the week.  Sitting at the computer playing on Facebook? While you’re waiting for your updates, mix up a healthy meatloaf (black beans, lean ground beef, oats, an egg, spices, red & green pepper, onion, and whatever chopped veggies you want to toss in) and toss it in the oven. If you want, you can divide it up into individual serving sizes in small pyrex dishes to make lunches easier. Some of my favorite conveniences foods to whip up in a jiffy:

-Mini meatloafs

-Mini healthy muffins (there are even some decent mixes out there, and I add fruit and nuts if I use them)

-Mini frittatas

-Seasoned popcorn, pumpkin seeds, or nuts in individual packages

-Boiled eggs

-Dehydrator granola bars

-Cheese cubes (way cheaper to make these yourself than buy the pre-cuts)

-Homemade hot pockets (I use leftovers for filling), with a fat-free, whole wheat dough. You can even buy fairly healthy whole wheat pizza dough at some stores, and use that.

-Soup in the crockpot. There’s nothing faster: just throw in some beans, some broth, and a some veggies. If you want fancy soup, throw in some spices and canned tomatoes. Let it cook for a few hours, and you’ve got something easy for the week, or to throw in individual portions in the freezer for those lunches or dinners you just don’t have time to cook.

There’s more, I’m sure, but these are what I can think of off the top of my head. None of them takes more than a few minutes, and those few minutes save me hundreds of calories (and preservatives) every day.

To get started, just get a piece of paper and write down out what you tend to need convenience foods for: breakfasts, snacks, lunches, etc., and what kinds of things you’d like to have on-hand. Make a list and stick it up somewhere you can see it, and next time you have a couple of minutes, use those to help you make good food choices when it would otherwise be inconvenient.  There are tons of recipes on the internet for fast convenience foods, including some great whole-grain cookies (these are my current obsession)!

Planning is everything in making healthful choices, but you have to start in small steps. You’ve already started meal planning (right?), and this is just an extension of that, really. We’re all busy, and we all want those few extra minutes to do something else; but, it’s about priorities. “Convenience foods,” many of which aren’t food at all, are one of the biggest culprits behind obesity in this country, especially childhood obesity. You’ll feel better eating better food, and it only take a few times making healthy items for later before you have a nice little stash to choose from. Once that happens, you have to take those few minutes less often to replenish it.

 

Related Articles

• Make healthy lunches kids will want to eat (canada.com)
• Healthy back to school snacking (thismamacooks.com)
• The Minimalist: Granola Bars, Unwrapped (nytimes.com)
• Quick Healthy Meals for Busy Families (webmd.com)
• How Food Affects Your Brain 10 Facts We Now Know (losethattyre.co.uk)

Friday Fast Ones, Oct. 21, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

So, for those of you waiting for it: Yes, I am diligently working on a Part II to the whole “Feed the World” thing. It’s long, it’s complicated, and I’m writing it in between Life and Everything Else. So, keep checking, it’ll be here soon. Now, onto…

Friday Fast One: Hershey sources it’s chocolate from areas and suppliers known for child and forced labor. It’s a well-known problem, one that other chocolatiers have taken steps to help remedy. Except Hershey.  What This Means To You: Well, that depends on how much chocolate you eat. For me, it means taking a stand against Scharffen-Berger, a chocolate that was amazing and is unfortunately now owned by Hershey. It means buying chocolate from other candy companies, or forgoing it. If you purchase Hershey chocolates or candies, you’re supporting their practices. Chocolate shouldn’t be an indulgence built on the backs of children and slaves.

And…that’s it. I know, slow week, largely because the issues of the past few weeks (The Rawsome Food raid vs. the Egg Debacle) is still ongoing. And, enough bloggers have hopped on that issue and done it better than I could that I don’t feel compelled to do a Friday Fast One on it. Suffice it to say that you should eat local eggs and do all you can to support local dairy.

Have a great weekend, and swing by for Monday Healthy Eating on..well, Monday!

Related Articles

• Make A Reese’s Ad Asking for Fair Trade Chocolate (humantrafficking.change.org)
• Tagged Cocoa Beans Help Eliminate Blood Chocolate (food.change.org)

Friday Fast Ones

Fast One: Store-purchased organic eggs may not live up to all they’re cracked up to be. Those in the local food movement pretty much already know this, but it’s worth getting out there. Most organic eggs from supermarkets are produced in glorified (and often not so glorified) factory farms with very little difference from non-organic eggs, except for the price tag. Supermarket brands, including Whole Foods, rank lowest on the list of quality. What it  means to you: If you’re buying Certified Organic eggs at the supermarket, you’re probably being shafted. Find a local farmer, and get your money’s worth. And, honestly, it’ll probably be less money; though, it’s still a far better value even if it’s the same price or more expensive.  Ask around at your local farmer’s market, or go to localharvest.org to find real eggs.

Fast One: PA rejected regulation 2777, which would have effectively banned any an all ways of selling raw milk in PA! What it means to you: Well, if you’re in PA it means you can still get raw milk. If you’re anywhere else in the country, it means that some politicians are hearing those of us who are being active about wanting choices in our food. If you want the ability to decide if you should drink raw milk, eat pastured eggs and chickens from a small farm, or any other kind of food freedom, you need to get active.  Monsanto, the Corn Refiners Association, The Dairy Council…all of these companies spend millions of dollars a year lobbying to control your food.

Fast One: Speaking of the Corn Refiner’s Association, they’re now actively pushing their “educational” agenda about HFCS on blogs, and paying or otherwise compensating “mommy bloggers” to push their product as healthy. Essentially, they give money, gifts, or other compensation to people for listening to a presentation, and they blogging the positives. CRA reps are popping up on negative-HFCS blogs everywhere, and disappear when pushed about their agenda, whether or not the CRA is paying them to comment, etc. What this means to you: Buyer beware. Take a critical look at the blogs you read, and do some digging into their integrity. Taking money or other gifts to post positively about a product or service isn’t something I consider ethical, do you? There’s a large amount of money being spent here. People are becoming more aware of  HFCS and choosing to eschew it, which is starting to hurt the profits of Corporate Agriculture. They’re fighting back, and doing it in a fairly sneaky way, which writes a story all it’s own. There’s a whole post here in and of itself, one I’ve done before in some respects; but, really, just go read the link and the comments. It’s worth it.

And, last but not least:

Friday Fast One: It’s VA Wine month! There are 180 wineries in VA, many of them using grapes grown either on their estate or in close proximity.  What this means to you: Well, a very good weekend, if you plan it right! It also means, however, that all of those locavores (I hate that word, btw) out there need to hop on this bandwagon. Supporting local includes beverages, and there are some amazing wines coming out of VA. Several wineries are competing for international awards, and holding their own. For some insights, visit Swirl, Sip Snark, Dezel at MyVineSpot.Com, Drink What YOU Like, or  VA Wine Time to check out The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and plan a trip!

To Celebrate VA Wine Month, I’ll be splashing (which means pouring wine tastings) for Wintergreen Winery at Rebec’s Garlic Fest this Saturday. Swing through, say hello, see my New Hair, and try some great local wines! I’m the short blond with the short ‘do at the tasting station!

Related Articles

• Rebranding High Fructose Corn Syrup: Good or Bad Idea? (mpdailyfix.com)
• New York hopes to ban spending food stamps on soda (salon.com)
• Brands and blog tours – not always so sweet. (mom-101.com)
• Not a Sweet Idea: Rebranding HFCS to Corn Sugar (triplepundit.com)

Preservation Frenzy

It’s that time of year. Harvest time. Squash, beets, potatoes, fruits, honey, and all kinds of other things are pouring in, so it’s time to put by for the winter.

Put by? Isn’t that just something old people and crazy survivalists do? No. If you want to eat well, eat local, and do it on a budget, you learn to “put by.”  There are some foods available in winter, and we’re luckier than some because here in VA, we have a season that often lets things grown right through winter. Unless, of course, you were here last year. Last year, we had more snow than many northern states, colder temperatures, and very few good ways to deal with it. Our stores shelves were stripped bare, and we were snowed in (even though we have a 4-wheel drive and are from MI) for a week at a time. The state simply doesn’t keep the equipment around to dig folks out in a hurry.

If you want to make sure you can eat local, healthy food, and if you want to do it without having to make a choice between your mortgage/rent and eating, preserving is the easiest way. This year, we’re doing as much cold-storage as possible. Here in VA, there often isn’t a good way to do a cellar. We live on rock. So, we store hard vegetables and squashes in our bathroom:

Yes, I said bathroom. This room isn’t heated and isn’t exactly well-insulated. It’s our half-bath, and in the winter it’s not used much. We keep the door closed, so it stays very cool, which is perfect for squashes, beets, cabbage, apples, potatoes, and the like. It’s not 100% perfect, but it’s enough. This is just the beginning of our store. The space will be full by next week, and I’m going to hang some things, as well.

Some things, as pointed out by Sharon Astyk in her book “Independence Days,” are fine in a cool house. Our house is cool whether we want it to be or not most of the winter (historic home, undersized heat pump, and a rental so we can’t do much about it). Fortunately, we tend to like it cool, so it doesn’t bother us. And, it lets us store some thing right inside:

These are just a few of the local, organic pumpkins we’ve got stored. They work great in the house because they do double duty as food (they’re amazing roasted, pureed, or steamed) and fall/Halloween decor! That’s also some of our local garlic, which actually needs to go into our hanging basket.

For the stuff that can’t be stored as-is in cold storage or the house, there’s drying, freezing, canning, salting, and lacto-fermenting.  We have a fairly large store of grains like oat groats, rolled oats, millet, quinoa, etc. (all frozen for 14 days before going in the pantry, because it helps them keep longer), beans and the like. But, we do like some fruits and veggies, too. For that, we often freeze (which, for us, is actually more energy-efficient than canning because we have an appallingly inefficient electric stove), lacto-ferment, and dehydrate.

Watermelon and limes. The watermelon are local, the limes are not (though they are organic). I assuage my guilt about this because we eat few things that aren’t local, and trade has always been an integral part of civilizations. I just pick my trade items carefully. Okay, fine, I just like limes.

We don’t do a ton of dehydrating, though. It’s just not great for a lot of things, and the humidity is so high here that it’s hard to do many foods. Our primary choices are lacto-fermenting, freezing, and cellaring. In the next few weeks, I’ll be putting up more posts, including some how-to stuff and maybe video, about those, too.

What are you doing to get ready for winter?

Related Articles

• Preserving Your Summer Bounty (thegreenists.com)
• Jam-packing memories into a jar (canada.com)
• Eating Local and Organic By the Seasons (ecosalon.com)
• Beet Basics (lifescript.com)

Real Food Daily News!

For those who follow Twitter, or even those who don’t, there’s an online “Twitter paper” that features the latest Real Food news and blogs. It changes daily, is a quick read, and has some great articles and recipes. I made today’s edition with Monday Healthy Eating.

So, take a minute and check it out (because you know you need one more thing to do online every day!):  http://paper.li/tag/realfood And, follow me on twitter at EclecticEdibles. I post real food and VA wine related news, recipe ideas, and good eating tips.

Food Photos!

I’d like to think you come here for my wit and food politics, but we all know you’re here for the food. Since I’ve been a bit light on food porn these last weeks, I’m going to throw a bunch at you today to catch up!

Above: You all know we eat from local sources as much as possible, and I just found a new source for amazing chicken: Davis Creek Farms. Their 100% pastured, free-range, better-than-organic chickens are slaughtered on the farm by the family, and they’re delicious. The bird above came trussed just as you see it–ready for roasting. His prices, which was about $3.40/lb for whole birds, are totally worth it for the flavor and the good farming practices. The carcass will, of course, go into stock later this week.  Below: These freshly-dug potatoes and carrots were roasted with Herbs de Provence for a wonderful side dish. Fresh potatoes have a richness that store-bought just can’t match, because store-bought potatoes are stored in warehouses just above freezing. These temperatures change the starches in the potatoes, rendering them less creamy and muting the flavor. The baby carrots tasted like carrots, not like sugar. Yum! The leftovers will be mixed with beets and beet greens in a homemade chicken stock base for a wonderful soup. The carrot tops will be used in pesto (thanks to the farm for this idea!).

Below: Falafel is hard to come by in this area, and we’ve been craving it. I finally had time to whip up a batch a few days ago:

Below: Summer brings cold fare to the table, in part because I tend to lose my appetite in the heat. For lunches, I’ve really gotten into savory smoothies, which are essentially gazpacho every day! They’re healthy, full of vitamins and fiber, and fill me up while cooling me down. I side them with some protein (usually an egg, cheese, and/or nuts), and it’s a light, filling lunch that is also full of what I need to keep up my active lifestyle.

Now that market season is here and our CSA has started, we’re looking forward to a lot of produce and a lot of new recipes. We’ll also be doing, as usual, a lot of preservation via canning, freezing, and drying. All this means lots of new pics, so if you’re just here for the food porn, you’ve got something to look forward to. If you’re here for the politics, don’t worry, that’s coming, too!