As GP dude (as the A man likes to be called these days) discovered these first few days of school, one must eat to sustain one's self throughout the day.
This week I move from trying to force feed him eggs and bacon to toast, and lastly to smooties packed full of everything I can from wheat germ to yogurt, from fruit to egg.
Any suggestions world, on how to get a preteen to eat what he needs to survive a day in the free-form big kid world of U32? He did learn his lesson eating Skittles for breakfast...
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Harvest season is upon us
Harvest season is upon us, and I never even wrote anything here... all delicious, hot, spicy summer, I never wrote here.
Mostly because GEEZ!! Summer was a blitz of children and heat and farm animals and projects and work and non work and not really ever relaxing, and certainly never writing. How'd I get through the whole summer without really ever blogging? I was going to do "it" this summer.... It being whatever stage or step came next.
And all I can say is I ate bacon for breakfast yesterday and today. And it came from a pig from our yard. And I ate right after running out to do chores and feed four more pigs in our yard, and a bunch of meat chickens. And tonight, I had to buy chicken because we haven't slaughtered yet (Ahck, the part we hate so much, even when we are very humble about the process), but we'll eat greens and squash and whatever else from the garden, and two nights ago we ate a meal almost entirely from a 30 mile radius, including much from our yard, right down to the cider I cooked the pork in, and the maple syrup I glazed it with.
But the truth is, the stimulus package gave us all extra foodstamps this month. Funny thing is the foodshelves are all advertising "only until September 30th" extra food, due to the stimulus package. Who thought that up? AFTER the kids go back to school and the free lunch program, THEN give families extra help? And when you double their foodstamps (leaving me feeling giddy enough to use those foodstamps at the Montpelier farmer's market), make sure you also double the food at food shelves? I mean... LAST month when the kiddos were all home, couldn't families have used a bit of a safety net? And when the extra food stamps run out, probably over a month or two or even three if you're really frugal (and besides, that's the time limit for using them up anyway... no saving up here), shouldn't THAT be when the food shelves have extra?? And that will be when the crush of the recession hits anyway, right around time to be ThankFULL and GIVING.
Soooo... I have to feed my kid chicken soup anyway. And tonight, because I have no stock in the freezer, that'll be Campbell's. Because the co-op is too far away and too expensive anyway (even with the extras), and the store in town that has some decent food doesn't have their EBT machine... yet.
Mostly because GEEZ!! Summer was a blitz of children and heat and farm animals and projects and work and non work and not really ever relaxing, and certainly never writing. How'd I get through the whole summer without really ever blogging? I was going to do "it" this summer.... It being whatever stage or step came next.
And all I can say is I ate bacon for breakfast yesterday and today. And it came from a pig from our yard. And I ate right after running out to do chores and feed four more pigs in our yard, and a bunch of meat chickens. And tonight, I had to buy chicken because we haven't slaughtered yet (Ahck, the part we hate so much, even when we are very humble about the process), but we'll eat greens and squash and whatever else from the garden, and two nights ago we ate a meal almost entirely from a 30 mile radius, including much from our yard, right down to the cider I cooked the pork in, and the maple syrup I glazed it with.
But the truth is, the stimulus package gave us all extra foodstamps this month. Funny thing is the foodshelves are all advertising "only until September 30th" extra food, due to the stimulus package. Who thought that up? AFTER the kids go back to school and the free lunch program, THEN give families extra help? And when you double their foodstamps (leaving me feeling giddy enough to use those foodstamps at the Montpelier farmer's market), make sure you also double the food at food shelves? I mean... LAST month when the kiddos were all home, couldn't families have used a bit of a safety net? And when the extra food stamps run out, probably over a month or two or even three if you're really frugal (and besides, that's the time limit for using them up anyway... no saving up here), shouldn't THAT be when the food shelves have extra?? And that will be when the crush of the recession hits anyway, right around time to be ThankFULL and GIVING.
Soooo... I have to feed my kid chicken soup anyway. And tonight, because I have no stock in the freezer, that'll be Campbell's. Because the co-op is too far away and too expensive anyway (even with the extras), and the store in town that has some decent food doesn't have their EBT machine... yet.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Gentle food.
This week our pork came.
And for breakfast on Sunday morning we had omelettes made from our own eggs and herbs and Maine sea salt, loaded with homemade cheese (not our milk). I served it with a side of bacon from our pigs.
That felt French and luxurious and busy. And it felt righteous. But that is silly... I don't want to be one of the elitist Hardwick-area micro farmers. So then I just felt happy to have the chance to grow my own food, be it animal, vegetable, or mineral.
But after that, it just was tasty. And a bit different. My cheese is tangy and lemony and had a touch of goat milk (from Sue and Aaron) in with the cow milk which gave it a richer taste than it otherwise might have had.
We recently also began making our own charcoal. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But when we have a fire, we burn the coals down at the end in a very specific manner, wait for them to cool, and move them into a container. Next time we want to grill, rather than just have a fire, we pull it out, add a touch of lighter fluid to get it started (and some old paper bags), and off we go. Grillable in 15 minutes. So we had some nice beef tips on the grill with Italian Bread Pudding (in honor of Aunt Eunice going to Italy), and roasted potatoes. Last night we had pork chops oven baked in herbed rice with a cream sauce, and salad of our own (and our CSA) greens, topped with my cheese... cubed and delicious.
But the best part of this week's food??
Homemade Ice Cream.
I picked up an ancient ice cream maker in a free pile in Hardwick. I am sure it is using about a million watts of electricity every time we use it. But we plugged it in, made a sweet cream base from the Ben and Jerry's cookbook, touched it with an ample amount of vanilla, and made it up. It was delicious!! And a double recipe has lasted us three days. First night? Bowls of delicious ice cream. Next night? Colin and I had bowls of ice cream with Bailey's on top, while the kids had creamsicle "cha chas" (our term for milkshakes via the Greenstein Doolittle bunch), made with ice cream and a touch of orange juice. And today, as the rain falls, and the kiddos build forts (all 9 of them today!), I sip coffee laced with ice cream.
Don't forget, Potluck Dinners on Thursdays! This Thursday at 5:30! YEAY!
And for breakfast on Sunday morning we had omelettes made from our own eggs and herbs and Maine sea salt, loaded with homemade cheese (not our milk). I served it with a side of bacon from our pigs.
That felt French and luxurious and busy. And it felt righteous. But that is silly... I don't want to be one of the elitist Hardwick-area micro farmers. So then I just felt happy to have the chance to grow my own food, be it animal, vegetable, or mineral.
But after that, it just was tasty. And a bit different. My cheese is tangy and lemony and had a touch of goat milk (from Sue and Aaron) in with the cow milk which gave it a richer taste than it otherwise might have had.
We recently also began making our own charcoal. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But when we have a fire, we burn the coals down at the end in a very specific manner, wait for them to cool, and move them into a container. Next time we want to grill, rather than just have a fire, we pull it out, add a touch of lighter fluid to get it started (and some old paper bags), and off we go. Grillable in 15 minutes. So we had some nice beef tips on the grill with Italian Bread Pudding (in honor of Aunt Eunice going to Italy), and roasted potatoes. Last night we had pork chops oven baked in herbed rice with a cream sauce, and salad of our own (and our CSA) greens, topped with my cheese... cubed and delicious.
But the best part of this week's food??
Homemade Ice Cream.
I picked up an ancient ice cream maker in a free pile in Hardwick. I am sure it is using about a million watts of electricity every time we use it. But we plugged it in, made a sweet cream base from the Ben and Jerry's cookbook, touched it with an ample amount of vanilla, and made it up. It was delicious!! And a double recipe has lasted us three days. First night? Bowls of delicious ice cream. Next night? Colin and I had bowls of ice cream with Bailey's on top, while the kids had creamsicle "cha chas" (our term for milkshakes via the Greenstein Doolittle bunch), made with ice cream and a touch of orange juice. And today, as the rain falls, and the kiddos build forts (all 9 of them today!), I sip coffee laced with ice cream.
Don't forget, Potluck Dinners on Thursdays! This Thursday at 5:30! YEAY!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Coming Clean about Sustainable Foods
Eating is sensitive business.
It affects not only our gastronomic system, but our wallets, our backyards, our gasoline tanks.
The issue of where our food comes from and what it is treated with has become something of an elephant in the room. If you are knowledgeable about ecological systems, agricultural practices, organic living, and natural living, you are cued into the fads of localvore eating and green living.
But the elephant bears the burden of socio-economic factors into our discussions and fads. He trumpets social justice, stomps on small businesses, and bulldozes through corporate grocery stores. In his wake, those who cannot afford choices glean what is left.
I am one of those people.
Every grocery shopping trip begins with a decision laden with controversy. Where to even go shopping in the first place? We live in rural Vermont. When we bought our house we were excited to find ourselves in a small town with a good school and a thriving local community. There are several ponds, a couple of cute general stores, and even a huge parcel of trailed, but thick, primeval woods surrounding us. But there is no real grocery store.
Our local general stores are pretty great. They do their best to support local farms, and provide local foods. They even will buy eggs off of you to sell to their customers, if you are first in line in the spring.
There is only one problem. Only one out of the three takes food stamps.
I bring this up because we are one of the many Vermont households, who despite working wage earners, receives foodstamps.
This is a difficult public admission for me, although many of you who know us personally, knew this already. The thing is that it feels like a failure to not be able to feed your family. When I was in highschool we were given these budgeting formulas that contained percentages of what your househould expenses things shhould be, like housing and groceries, utilities and charities, retirement and entertainment. But these are not valid percentages in an environment of ever inflating food and housing costs. The economic picture of our parents or our grandparents is just plain out-moded, and not yet redefined.
We live a simple life, and yet I do not feel we want or have need. The kids might feel bad at times that their friends have the latest gadgets or games, but some of the denial of that in this household stems from a philosophical disagreement with the current climate of childhood.
That aside, it is of the utmost importance to me that we eat in a way that nourishes us... our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our souls. That we give bad to the earth what we take, and we do so with the best of intention. We are not vegetarians because in a northern climate that is impractical, and because the estrogen-laden meat alternatives add even more hormonal disruption to an already disrupted world. We garden, we have chickens and raise meat birds and pigs for ourselves, and others when feasible. We look to market our extra in order to bring a bit of cash into the home to justify my being at home.
I am not unaware of the idea that I have a lot of kids, that I stay at home, that perhaps others look down on me for my choices. That some see our budgeting woes as issues relating to that. I have lived long enough that I know no matter how much huffing and puffing I do about that, I wouldn't change your mind. I can only say I wouldn't do it any other way, and frankly, if I went back to work full time, we'd actually be bringing in less cash by the time we paid for childcare than we do when I stay home, and bring a kid or two in here.
But back to the issue at hand. In Vermont, food stamps are meant to represent 50% of your grocery budget for the number of people in your household for any given month. This means, for most of us, that number changes every month, depending on the previous month's income (including unearned income such as child support, alimony, disability, or unemployment... which count more harshly against your food stamp amount, reducing the total amount you get). For many members of our community, many true, old-time-Vermont families, these are all the income they get.
Yet the press is riding a wave of "Ain't Vermont Grand?" as local young adults from their late teens into their late forties, redefine food systems by providing organic, sustainably produced, localvore menus for all of us. Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs, aka: "farm shares" consisting of paid or work-oriented memberships to farms or local restaurants) are all the rage. You can Google "Hardwick, VT" and come up with all sorts of examples of this. I won't go into them here.
But the truth of the matter is this. Your everyday Vermonter, despite our higher-than-average minimum wage, cannot afford to eat this food. We can't crumble local bleu cheese on local crackers. We can't have baby lamb and arugula greens for dinner twice this week and then eat out at Claire's of Hardwick. No. And we are ecologists, parents, teachers, environmentally minded people who'd love nothing more than to provide our families with chemically free, local food.
Feeding six people on a budget of $450 a month is no easy task. I pinch. I push. I wildcraft. I reuse leftovers. And I do not buy boxed crap food. But I do have to decide, before I even turn on my ignition, whether it is organic and local for much more than I can afford, or conventional and crappy and enough for us all, before I ever turn over my ignition.
All grocery options, outside of local general stores with miniscule sections of food, are at least 25 to 40 minutes away. I choose one chain over another depending on what we most need. One has better organic veggies, or more fruit options outside of apples and bananas. Another has better meat. Still another has better deals with their member card, which also saves me a great deal on gasoline. Last time I cashed in on my gas rewards, I saved 60 cents a gallon. Which just about paid for my trip to the store. Local co-ops have become purveyors of gourmet foods, rather than food buying groups with saving money as a key goal. Now it is fancy and schmancy that rule the day.
None of this is to say I don't prefer the fancy options, or even to deny that if we were made of money, I probably wouldn't think too much about the fact that the co-op is expensive. Maybe.
But there is an innate sense of injustice about this whole scene. Even those who are involved in the great Hardwick, Vermont revival have remained largely silent about the inability of locals to afford the foods produced here. Food may have saved Hardwick's main street, but it is hardly saving it's trailer parks and cabins in the woods. The children I worked with for years in early childhood settings still come to school with KoolAid stains on the corners of their mouths and Doritos in their snack bags. You can use your food stamps at the Montpelier Farmer's Market, but what does that matter when the food is still too expensive to justify buying?
Add to this the governmental food supplement program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is supposed to provide needed foods to low income children and pregnant or nursing women. But women who nurse beyond one year are cut from their food package, as if it does not matter if you are benefiting your child's health past one year, or that you will still have extra calories to fill... your child is one, isn't that a success story?? It also consists of conventional, non-organic foods, despite mounting evidence that pesticides and hormone disruptors in foods are dangerous to young children, particularly infants. Recently, in response to the obesity epidemic, they cut your milk options. Now you can only get one percent or skim milk. I have news for WIC, and the government. Milk is NOT making America fat. Soda, juice-drink, and pre-prepared, but unbelievably cheap, foods are making America fat. They see no issue with giving us beans in BPA-lines cans, but feel that milkfat is a problem.
I suppose this really has just become a rant, and so I will move on.
It is my goal in future posts to show how to integrate organic, natural, local foods into one's meals, regardless of socio-economic status. I mean this truly, in a "I live my words" kind of way, not in a "we pretend to live our values, but actually live off free crap from work or a trustfund" kind of way like many self-professed ecologically minded people I know. (I know, snarky).
The truth of the matter is we must all live our consciences. Starting yesterday. If the BP oil spill does nothing but show us that yes, human wreak all sorts of havoc we cannot undo and must prepare for, then we have accomplished one small thing.
I am asking us all to start with our dinner tables. If you can afford local, and or organic, incredible! Go for it. Please support your small farmer. If you cannot afford it, do not despair. There are ways to creatively be healthy and healthful.
Let's find them together.
It affects not only our gastronomic system, but our wallets, our backyards, our gasoline tanks.
The issue of where our food comes from and what it is treated with has become something of an elephant in the room. If you are knowledgeable about ecological systems, agricultural practices, organic living, and natural living, you are cued into the fads of localvore eating and green living.
But the elephant bears the burden of socio-economic factors into our discussions and fads. He trumpets social justice, stomps on small businesses, and bulldozes through corporate grocery stores. In his wake, those who cannot afford choices glean what is left.
I am one of those people.
Every grocery shopping trip begins with a decision laden with controversy. Where to even go shopping in the first place? We live in rural Vermont. When we bought our house we were excited to find ourselves in a small town with a good school and a thriving local community. There are several ponds, a couple of cute general stores, and even a huge parcel of trailed, but thick, primeval woods surrounding us. But there is no real grocery store.
Our local general stores are pretty great. They do their best to support local farms, and provide local foods. They even will buy eggs off of you to sell to their customers, if you are first in line in the spring.
There is only one problem. Only one out of the three takes food stamps.
I bring this up because we are one of the many Vermont households, who despite working wage earners, receives foodstamps.
This is a difficult public admission for me, although many of you who know us personally, knew this already. The thing is that it feels like a failure to not be able to feed your family. When I was in highschool we were given these budgeting formulas that contained percentages of what your househould expenses things shhould be, like housing and groceries, utilities and charities, retirement and entertainment. But these are not valid percentages in an environment of ever inflating food and housing costs. The economic picture of our parents or our grandparents is just plain out-moded, and not yet redefined.
We live a simple life, and yet I do not feel we want or have need. The kids might feel bad at times that their friends have the latest gadgets or games, but some of the denial of that in this household stems from a philosophical disagreement with the current climate of childhood.
That aside, it is of the utmost importance to me that we eat in a way that nourishes us... our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our souls. That we give bad to the earth what we take, and we do so with the best of intention. We are not vegetarians because in a northern climate that is impractical, and because the estrogen-laden meat alternatives add even more hormonal disruption to an already disrupted world. We garden, we have chickens and raise meat birds and pigs for ourselves, and others when feasible. We look to market our extra in order to bring a bit of cash into the home to justify my being at home.
I am not unaware of the idea that I have a lot of kids, that I stay at home, that perhaps others look down on me for my choices. That some see our budgeting woes as issues relating to that. I have lived long enough that I know no matter how much huffing and puffing I do about that, I wouldn't change your mind. I can only say I wouldn't do it any other way, and frankly, if I went back to work full time, we'd actually be bringing in less cash by the time we paid for childcare than we do when I stay home, and bring a kid or two in here.
But back to the issue at hand. In Vermont, food stamps are meant to represent 50% of your grocery budget for the number of people in your household for any given month. This means, for most of us, that number changes every month, depending on the previous month's income (including unearned income such as child support, alimony, disability, or unemployment... which count more harshly against your food stamp amount, reducing the total amount you get). For many members of our community, many true, old-time-Vermont families, these are all the income they get.
Yet the press is riding a wave of "Ain't Vermont Grand?" as local young adults from their late teens into their late forties, redefine food systems by providing organic, sustainably produced, localvore menus for all of us. Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs, aka: "farm shares" consisting of paid or work-oriented memberships to farms or local restaurants) are all the rage. You can Google "Hardwick, VT" and come up with all sorts of examples of this. I won't go into them here.
But the truth of the matter is this. Your everyday Vermonter, despite our higher-than-average minimum wage, cannot afford to eat this food. We can't crumble local bleu cheese on local crackers. We can't have baby lamb and arugula greens for dinner twice this week and then eat out at Claire's of Hardwick. No. And we are ecologists, parents, teachers, environmentally minded people who'd love nothing more than to provide our families with chemically free, local food.
Feeding six people on a budget of $450 a month is no easy task. I pinch. I push. I wildcraft. I reuse leftovers. And I do not buy boxed crap food. But I do have to decide, before I even turn on my ignition, whether it is organic and local for much more than I can afford, or conventional and crappy and enough for us all, before I ever turn over my ignition.
All grocery options, outside of local general stores with miniscule sections of food, are at least 25 to 40 minutes away. I choose one chain over another depending on what we most need. One has better organic veggies, or more fruit options outside of apples and bananas. Another has better meat. Still another has better deals with their member card, which also saves me a great deal on gasoline. Last time I cashed in on my gas rewards, I saved 60 cents a gallon. Which just about paid for my trip to the store. Local co-ops have become purveyors of gourmet foods, rather than food buying groups with saving money as a key goal. Now it is fancy and schmancy that rule the day.
None of this is to say I don't prefer the fancy options, or even to deny that if we were made of money, I probably wouldn't think too much about the fact that the co-op is expensive. Maybe.
But there is an innate sense of injustice about this whole scene. Even those who are involved in the great Hardwick, Vermont revival have remained largely silent about the inability of locals to afford the foods produced here. Food may have saved Hardwick's main street, but it is hardly saving it's trailer parks and cabins in the woods. The children I worked with for years in early childhood settings still come to school with KoolAid stains on the corners of their mouths and Doritos in their snack bags. You can use your food stamps at the Montpelier Farmer's Market, but what does that matter when the food is still too expensive to justify buying?
Add to this the governmental food supplement program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is supposed to provide needed foods to low income children and pregnant or nursing women. But women who nurse beyond one year are cut from their food package, as if it does not matter if you are benefiting your child's health past one year, or that you will still have extra calories to fill... your child is one, isn't that a success story?? It also consists of conventional, non-organic foods, despite mounting evidence that pesticides and hormone disruptors in foods are dangerous to young children, particularly infants. Recently, in response to the obesity epidemic, they cut your milk options. Now you can only get one percent or skim milk. I have news for WIC, and the government. Milk is NOT making America fat. Soda, juice-drink, and pre-prepared, but unbelievably cheap, foods are making America fat. They see no issue with giving us beans in BPA-lines cans, but feel that milkfat is a problem.
I suppose this really has just become a rant, and so I will move on.
It is my goal in future posts to show how to integrate organic, natural, local foods into one's meals, regardless of socio-economic status. I mean this truly, in a "I live my words" kind of way, not in a "we pretend to live our values, but actually live off free crap from work or a trustfund" kind of way like many self-professed ecologically minded people I know. (I know, snarky).
The truth of the matter is we must all live our consciences. Starting yesterday. If the BP oil spill does nothing but show us that yes, human wreak all sorts of havoc we cannot undo and must prepare for, then we have accomplished one small thing.
I am asking us all to start with our dinner tables. If you can afford local, and or organic, incredible! Go for it. Please support your small farmer. If you cannot afford it, do not despair. There are ways to creatively be healthy and healthful.
Let's find them together.
Monday, June 7, 2010
UnCommon School meest Six+ Bellies Full
Today... as I dreamt a dream of nostalgic summers, I decided on lunch for the sweet little ones who are here all day.
Today, despite the cold, the moisture, the quiet, my need to eat better, ALL OF IT...
We are having a campfire with hot dogs roasting on a stick, and potatoes cut into teeny tiny little pieces wrapped in tinfoil, cooking in the coals. Because sometimes, you just have to have some fun. Outside. Even in June. In Vermont. After the tornadoes and thunderstorms bring cold air for two days after days of real summer warmth. And even when you don't have a real campfire ring.
So here it comes, hot dogs on sticks, potatoes in foil, and maybe real homemade maple lemonade for kicks.
Eat up and enjoy!
Today, despite the cold, the moisture, the quiet, my need to eat better, ALL OF IT...
We are having a campfire with hot dogs roasting on a stick, and potatoes cut into teeny tiny little pieces wrapped in tinfoil, cooking in the coals. Because sometimes, you just have to have some fun. Outside. Even in June. In Vermont. After the tornadoes and thunderstorms bring cold air for two days after days of real summer warmth. And even when you don't have a real campfire ring.
So here it comes, hot dogs on sticks, potatoes in foil, and maybe real homemade maple lemonade for kicks.
Eat up and enjoy!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Perfect hot weather health...
In the perfect Iced Tea:
Nettle, a touch of apple juice, and my own maple syrup.
Add ice, stir/swirl/shake... and sip or guzzle to your heart's delight!!
Nettle, a touch of apple juice, and my own maple syrup.
Add ice, stir/swirl/shake... and sip or guzzle to your heart's delight!!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Catch Up
I have been experimenting with homemade bread. This one here was a delicious broiled sandwich white that was fabulous! It has coarse Kosher salt and blue cornmeal sprinkled on it. It was amazing. Soft, thick, easily cut, and delicious. Plus, I am huge fan of the free-form loaf. Far and away my favorite.
I also have made some sourdough, rye sourdough, and various other types of white. Soon to try? Black bread. I love black breads and am hoping to find one that is easy to bake and delicious.
As for the baking itself, I have really enjoyed baking it on a pizza stone on the bottom of the oven. Someday, I hope to have an outdoor bread oven.
Other fun for the last few weeks has included lots of homemade granola. I made a simple maple vanilla, but have decided maybe we're going through our homemade syrup too fast. So... so... soooo this time, brown sugar and cocoa! Delish!
Hopefully, all of these will be for sale out front of the house this summer. I am hoping to rope a friend of mine into baking with me, and if we can pull it off, finding a space for a certified home bakery kitchen. Hmmmm... In the meantime, rhubarb, bread, and granola out front with the eggs should appear by this weekend!
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