How Do I Eat?

Here is a lovely article by one of my favorites... Mark Bittman. He answers the seemingly impossible question, How Should I Eat?

Image courtesy of the NY Times 

When Diet Meets Delicious

(Original Source)

The “How do I eat?” thing has become increasingly combative and confusing. Do you give up carbs, or fat, or both? Do you go vegan or paleo? 

No. You eat like a Greek, or like a Greek used to eat: a piece of fish with a lentil salad, some greens and a glass of wine. It’s not onerous. In fact, it’s delicious. 

The value of this kind of diet (“diet” in the original, Latin sense of the word “diaeta,” a way of living) has once again been confirmed in a study from Spain involving thousands of participants and published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine. So compelling were the results that the research was halted early because it was believed that the control group was being unfairly deprived of its benefits. 

Let’s cut to the chase: The diet that seems so valuable is our old friend the “Mediterranean” diet (not that many Mediterraneans actually eat this way). It’s as straightforward as it is un-American: low in red meat, low in sugar and hyperprocessed carbs, low in junk. High in just about everything else — healthful fat (especially olive oil), vegetables, fruits, legumes and what the people who designed the diet determined to be beneficial, or at least less-harmful, animal products; in this case fish, eggs and low-fat dairy. 

This is real food, delicious food, mostly easy-to-make food. You can eat this way without guilt and be happy and healthy. Unless you’re committed to a diet big on junk and red meat, or you don’t like to cook, there is little downside. 

On Monday I spoke by phone with Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, who has been studying the Mediterranean diet for as long as I’ve been writing about food. His take was simple: “We have so many types of evidence that this kind of eating works, but the weight of evidence is important, and this adds a big stone to that weight.” 

As encouraging as the study is, it’s far from perfect, and it would be hyperbolic — ridiculous — to say that it represents The Answer. 

For one thing, the control group was supposedly on a low-fat diet, but didn’t necessarily stick to it; in fact, it wasn’t a low-fat diet at all. And the study did not show reversal of heart disease, as was widely reported; as far as I can tell, it basically showed a decrease in the rate of some cardiovascular diseases in people at risk as compared with people at risk who ate the typically lousy contemporary diet. 

In short, as Dr. Dean Ornish said to me, “It’s clearly better than a horrible diet, which is what most people eat.” Dr. Ornish, who has devised a low-fat diet that has been demonstrated to reverse heart disease, said that “the most responsible conclusion from this study would be, ‘We found a significant reduction in stroke in those consuming a Mediterranean diet high in omega-3 fatty acids, when compared to those who were not making significant changes in their diet.’ ” 

Exactly. And that’s good news, because it might encourage some of the majority of people who are not making significant changes in their diet. Most Americans eat so badly that even a modest change in the direction of this diet is likely to be of benefit. That was the revelation of the Mediterranean style of eating when it came to public notice a generation ago. (Next year is the 20th anniversary of the publication of Nancy Harmon Jenkins’s “Mediterranean Diet Cookbook.”) 

Since we’re being all Med, I could say nihil novi sub sole — there’s nothing new under the sun — but it’s not exactly true. What’s new is all the junk that has been injected into our foods and our diet since the end of World War II. What’s not new is that eating real food is good for you. 

You could say that the Mediterranean diet prohibits nothing that was recognized as food by your great-grandmother. Whole, minimally processed foods of almost any type can be included in a sound diet. Period.

(Original Source) 

Sounds good to me!! 

Cooking Chickens

If you've been reading me for a while you know that I'm obsessed with eating soup in the winter. I'm in soup mode now and have my cooking itch back now that the Christmas season is over and things are settled with the re-branding of Raw Generation.

I made a really great soup a few days ago from one of the chickens I picked up from the farm I get my meat from. I was shocked at how much soup I got from 1 chicken. I made 2 different stocks which I'll describe below. Both were super easy, but do take some time.

Broth #1:

• 1 chicken, whole
• 1 onion
• 1 apple
• 1 container organic vegetable broth
• water
• salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, coriander, cloves (just a touch), bay leaves, garlic powder
• olive oil
• celery
• 4 sml. red potatoes
• carrots

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put whole chicken in lg. baking pan/ casserole dish breast side down. Pour in vegetable broth and fill pan to cover half of chicken with water.
3. Add quartered apple, chopped onion, spices, and drizzle chicken with olive oil.
4. Bake for 1.5 hours
5. Let chicken cool, take out of broth, and cup up breast meat. 
6. Add meat back in to broth with chopped carrots, celery, & potatoes (chop small).
7. Simmer on stove for 10 minutes at medium high heat.
8. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Broth #2

• Chicken from Broth #1
• 1 onion
• water
• salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, coriander, cloves (just a touch), bay leaves, garlic powder
• celery
• carrots

1. Pull chicken from broth #1 apart into pieces and put in lg. pot on stove.
2. Add in onion and spices.
3. Fill pot with water and boil for 10 minutes. Turn heat down to simmer for 45 minutes.
4. Let cool and strain broth into another lg. pot, catching chicken pieces into a strainer.
5. Pull meat off of chicken pieces and put into broth.
6. Add in chopped carrots & celery and simmer on stove to 15 minutes.

Both ways make good chicken soup, but they are a little different. Broth #1 has a stronger flavor and Broth #2 is more like traditional chicken soup. This one chicken made a little over a gallon and a half of soup! I put some in the refrigerator and most in the freezer. Definitely a great way to stock up! 

Hope everyone in the NE stays warm and safe during the snow storm!!! Have a great weekend!

Soup of the Day

Since I got back, I've been trying to use our veggies from the garden. Over the weekend I made a delicious soup with Swiss chard from the garden. I was a little nervous because I don't usually start soup with water, but I didn't have any chicken to make stock with or any veggie stock, so water it was!

• 3 cans cannelloni beans
• 1 lg bunch Swiss chard
• 5 links pre-cooked sausage
• 2 lg sweet onions 
• 3/4 stock pot of water
• 6 cloves chopped garlic
• dried herbs: thyme, sage, garlic, white pepper, sea salt, rosemary, thyme

1. fill pot w/ water, chopped onions, garlic, all herbs, chopped sausage.
2. bring to boil for 30 minutes
3. add beans, simmer for 2 hours
4. add Swiss chard, simmer for final 30 minutes

It took longer than I thought because I started with water. It takes a while for all of the flavors to meld together, but it's worth it if you have the time. If not, use prepared stock. I also cooked egg noodles and added them into the individual bowls topped with Parmesan cheese. It was surprisingly amazing! That was the first time I cooked a soup like that, and got a few compliments from my mom and some friends that were staying over. (Patting myself on the back)

Next up! Either black bean chili or chicken soup!

Back in NJ

Well, I finally made my way back to New Jersey. I got in 2 a.m. Friday morning and was never so happy to be home. It is so weird that almost 2 weeks ago I left and everything was normal. I came home to gas lines that were hours long, barely any stores open, most people still without power, and many that had lost everything. My family and I were fortunate to not have any damage, and I was lucky enough to come home to a warm apartment with electricity, cable, and internet.

My heart goes out to those who were less fortunate. I wish everyone a safe and speedy recovery. It will take a while to get back to normal, but we will. It's NJ. We don't have the reputation we do for no reason.

On the brighter side, I thought I would be eating canned food for a while, but low and behold I found some goodies in the garden. I didn't think we would be harvesting veggies into November, but lucky us!

Stay strong New Jersey!

IN SEASON: October

sweet potatoes

It's been a few months since I've written about what is in season... basically because during the summer almost everything is in season and it's easy to get lots of fresh produce. October is one of my favorite months not only because it is my birth month or Halloween but because the weather is always amazing and I instinctively want to start cooking again. During the summer I naturally want to cook less, eat less, and as of late eat a lot of raw fruits and veggies.

pumpkins

butternut squash

broccoli

spinach

lettuce

cranberries

apples

pomegranates

grapes 

Even though we live in America and it's possible to get every kind of fruit and vegetable all year round, it is still better to eat what's in season. Theoretically produce is more nutritious when it is in season (whether that is the case today with all the pesticides and junk is another topic for another day). And nature always provides the foods we need to thrive in each season. Until very recently we ate with the seasons. Roots, berries, greens, sprouts in the spring. Fruit and greens in the summer. Root vegetables, apples, squash, greens, nuts in the fall. Nuts, meats, root vegetables, and grains in the winter.

One of my long term goals is to continue to eat more and more with the seasons. I have been working on it over the past year and have come pretty close to now craving what is in season. I still get thrown off with "American" foods, especially on the weekends, but I am finding that certain foods are more or less appealing to me during certain times of the year. 

Stay tuned for some new recipes from me!

Garden Oppression

I heard about this story somewhere along my travels and it popped into my life again so I thought I would write about it because it makes me mad, and sad, and happy. This mom decided to turn her front yard into a garden where she can grow her own food. Shortly after that she was hit by a S-H-I-T storm of flack from the local government who claimed her garden was an eyesore and not in compliance with local zoning regulations.

"I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time planning, researching, advocating, documenting, and otherwise defending my front yard urban garden. Moments I could have better spent with my infant son, Kae. He arrived on February 4th, 2012, and at seven pounds even, weighed as much as my heart. Within a month of his arrival, I had decided to turn a large portion of my front yard into an edible landscape. Though it has been a battle ever since, I have no regrets. He was my inspiration to begin with, and it has been my sole motivation to protect his health and freedoms. This has become a cause, not an endeavor. I broke ground when he was 35 days old. 

A lawn, though seemingly lacking, has quite an ecosystem lurking just below the surface. Insects and worms that aerate, living in harmony with beneficial microbes among the roots of the ever browning zoysia grass. Rather than removing the lawn, I amended it into the earth. I could only go about 4″ deep the first time I cultivated the 25′x35′ area. I worked under the topsoil three full times before the sod had broken up and spread evenly. I then added roughly 15 lawn and garden bags of various tree leaves I collected. Last fall’s foliage was evenly dispersed and tilled into the ever improving “dirt”. Composted goat and horse bedding finally killed the 10 years young tiller. In all, every inch of the now redefined “soil” had been overturned roughly 8 times. 

In hopes of making my garden an art form and not an eyesore, I installed a mulch border around the entire perimeter of the soon to be yarden. This was held in place by heavy duty lawn edging, meticulously   wrapped around the outer edge. I sowed the seed of each edible and medicinal plant within. I positioned a flower and ornamental amaranth row along the sidewalk. I placed lush herbs to the east, squash and melons to the west. In between, rows of bush beans, various peppers, and more than a dozen tomato varieties. Hundreds of non- GMO, heirloom seeds. Towards the house, two small corn patches, infused with vining beans, and several grains including chia, flax, camelina, sesame seed, oats, and another amaranth. More than fifty different species and varieties, all sown strategically to benefit both themselves, and the outlook of the neighborhood. 

I’ve since laid landscaping cloth and wood mulch around many of the plants, and along the walk paths between. Weeding has been minimal, and watering has been greatly reduced by mulching. I’m pulling my first meals from previously unused space. Several pounds of green beans, a couple peppers, and various herbs have graced my dinner table so far, along with salads of amaranth and other greens. As dozens of quarter size tomatoes began to swell in the summer heat, I built a double trellis to support their ever increasing weight. Nearly everything is in bloom, and the beauty of the space intensifies more and more with each passing day."

On top of wanting to grow healthy cheap food for herself and her family, she is facing real illness and needs the healthy food that she is growing. It makes me mad that our government has come to harassing people who want to grow their own food on their own property. It makes me sad that she has to deal with this on top of being a new mom and trying to make herself healthier. It makes me happy that she is fighting them every step of the way. If you feel the way I do go over to her blog vegetableyarden.wordpress.com and drop some words of encouragement.

I hope she keeps fighting, wins, and continues to grow her own food.

FINALLY! I got food out of my garden

It is September 13th. The garden just started pumping out food that I can cook with. (I officially picked enough cucumbers to make 4 gallons of pickles.) Hopefully it does't get much colder and kill everything that I am hoping to gather. Today I got a bunch of tomatoes (some ripe some not), an eggplant, peppers, hot peppers, more cucumbers, and zucchini. I also have a giant amount of fresh herbs I need to start using.

There are plenty more eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes that should be ready in about a week. We also have 1 watermelon and 2 cantaloupe melons that I guess I'll have to pick soon. The one watermelon I picked last week wasn't close to being ripe enough. We'll see in a week!

So in honor of the "harvest" I made the 1st giant pot of sauce of the season. I fully plan on eating this until I'm utterly sick of it in about 2 weeks.

• olive oil- a lot!
• 6 lg. tomatoes
• 2 zucchini
• 1 eggplant
• 1 onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 6 hot peppers (this may be too much if you don't like spicy)
• basil, thyme, rosemary, sage
• salt & pepper to taste
• sugar to taste

Cut everything up, put in giant pot, simmer for at least an hour, season, and eat!!! The great thing about sauce is that you can make it with anything or everything. I don't think there has been a time that my sauce came out the same twice in a row. And don't be afraid to load up the olive oil. It is a healthy fat that helps your body assimilate the nutrients in the sauce. Hope this inspires you to get in the kitch!

I may not be Italian, but I make a mean sauce :)

Note to my garden that hasn't produced much of anything

Dear Garden,

I'm not sure what happened this year, but you didn't produce as much as you could have. If we depended on you we would be starving. 

With love, Jess

Whatever is going on it is not cool. With the amount of work I put in planting all sorts of things, we only got some strawberries in the spring, 2 ears of corn, some string beans, and a ton of cucumbers. The tomatoes are there, but not ripening, and the peppers and eggplant are just starting to produce. The carrots are not growing past little nubs. We may get enough cabbage to do something with...hopefully!

I am seriously hoping we don't get a hurricane before I can harvest all this stuff so I can feel like I got something out of all the effort besides jars of pickles (SOOOO good by the way!). If you want to make really good homemade kosher dill pickles read this. 

Hopefully next year we will get better results!

Cucumbers are on the menu

The only thing we have successfully grown a lot of this summer has been cucumbers. It's amazing how many pounds of cucumbers we got out of literally 6 seeds. They seem to love what we've got going on in our garden.

I had about 15 of them that I needed to do something with before they went bad. So I decided to make pickles. I figured it couldn't be that difficult and it wasn't. Here goes it:

• 2 whole cloves garlic (like the entire bunch, not just a piece)
• 1 sweet or Vidalia onion
• 1 bunch dill
• 1/2 c. jarring salt (or fine sea salt if you can't find jarring)
• 2 qts. water
• 1 c. white vinegar
• 5 medium cucumbers

You also need mason jars for this, preferably the ones with the 2-part lids. I used 1 half gallon and 2 quart sized jars, but it would have been better with 2 half gallon jars. 

1. Run the jars and lids through a short, very hot cycle in the dish washer
2. Peel all garlic and quarter the onion
3. Heat water, salt, and vinegar in a pot until salt is dissolved
4. Put garlic, onion, and dill at bottom of jars
5. Fill with quartered cucumbers
6. Place jars in sink
7. Pour water mixture to fill jars to top.
8. Pickles may pop out the top of the jar, this is ok. When you go to put the lid on them, press the flat part of the lid down until it creates a seal with the jar. It will force some of the liquid out which is why it is easier to do this in the sink.
9. Screw on ring and let sit on counter for 2 days.
10. Then refrigerate for up to 9 months to a year!

can't wait to try these!!!

Living within Gardens

I'm going back to my architecture roots for a moment. I just came across a house built in Vietnam that is the coolest thing I've seen come out of the architecture world in a while. Even when I was in school and surrounded by design everyday, there were very few buildings that inspired me.

The front and rear facades are created by horizontal cement planters that run floor to ceiling. Isn;t this such a great idea? They are spaced according to the height of the plants in each. If this were my house I would plant  fruits, vegetables, and herbs. This brings urban gardening to a whole new level!

This really just goes to show that with a little creativity, you can put gardens anywhere. You don't need a huge swath of land, or a tractor, to grow plants. I guess in this case though you need an architect and a lot of money haha. But you can start small with pots in windowsills, or if you have access to a roof, make a little potted garden up there.

(source for all images)

LOVE IT! Going to put this in my idea box for when I design my own house :)

Generation F

There is a new wave of people out there that are within 5-10 years of my age that actually wants to return to the land and become farmers. Yours truly included. Let's call them (us) Generation F. I actually fall somewhere at the end of Gen X and the beginning of Gen Y- but I'm not really sure what those generations stand for? Over spending or bigger government maybe?

Being part of a new generation of farmers is something concrete that I can get behind. Although I'm surprised that this group is emerging at such an early age. Generation F is comprised of people ranging in their mid 20's to late 30's who feel the need to get back in touch with the land and animals that feed us. I think it's great, and am proud to be able to say that I grow my own food, I get my hands dirty, and I want to feed myself better quality food.

Lee Kornhauser & Heather Colburn  Ages 26 and 35 | Elder Fire Farm Arts | Dowling, Michigan

"Be patient, each year gets easier! Not everyone is cut out for this sort of lifestyle, but even if you grew up in the suburbs or the city you can learn what you need to know to be a successful farmer—the earth will never stop teaching you."

Kristen Johanson  Age 37 | Blackberry Meadows Farm | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 

"My husband and I became dissatisfied with the commercial food system and were seeking a more meaningful and sustainable life. On a whim, and with no experience, we chose to quit our jobs and start farming. The road has been long and full of bumps, but we have since found our home here, with our friends at Blackberry Meadows, where we live and work with our new son and the rest of the farm crew."

Courtney & Jacob Cowgill  Ages 32, 34 & 19 months old (Willa Cowgill) | Prairie Heritage Farm 

Conrad, Montana 

"We started farming partially because it was in our blood and partially because we wanted to live and work closer to our families, our food and the land, but mostly because we saw it as a moral imperative. The landscape and communities that raised us -- in rural Central Montana -- needed more families, needed more food and needed more farmers. It was a call we couldn't ignore."

A.M. Thomas  Age 25 | East Hill CSA | Middlesex, New York

"Farms are a microcosm of civilization. If we have heartless, industrial, unhealthy farms, then our country will be heartless, industrial, and unhealthy. But if we have good farms that care for our land and the food that they produce, then our country will be rich with wellness."

(Source)


Drop a comment if you grow your own food- even if it's just one tomato plant or a pot full of herbs- you are part of Generation F!

RECIPE: Summer Salsa

This is a simple summer salsa that can literally be used with just about anything you are making right now. A cold pasta salad, as a salsa w/ corn chips, as a side with grilled chicken, as a topping for fish, whatever!

• 2 peaches
• 2 ears sweet corn
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 Vidalia onion
• 1 mango
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• juice of 2 limes
• salt & pepper

It's so refreshing! Try it out for the 4th of July. Just these few items above makes a pretty large bowl whhich is perfect to bring to a barbecue or picnic.

Happy 4th of July! 

From seed to plant in 2 weeks

peas & kale

It's amazing how fast things grow. I planted everything just about 2 weeks ago and already we have major growth on some of the vegetables. It amazes me when you start out with a big patch of dirt filled with seeds and in a few short weeks you have plants you can eat. I'm really looking forward to being able to eat fresh veggies right out of the ground in a few short weeks.

mini tomato plants

I highly recommend everyone plant at least something of their own whether it's herbs, a tomato plant, or an entire garden with a variety of stuff. It is so important to get a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in every color. Each color is associated with different nutrients and all of them are equally as important from collard greens down to potatoes. I put together this little chart to show some of the nutritional info for each of the colors of fruits and vegetables... 

Some of that language is kindof technical, however, for those of you who need to know all of this stuff here it is. I have been reading about all of these different phytochemicals and antioxidants since I started researching how to eat to prevent cancer. While I am no expert, I have gathered that it is not as important to know exactly how everything works, but just that it does. I personally believe that most scientists don't even fully understand how all of these individual chemicals work together to do the magic they do.

TIME TO START PROJECT GET THE RAINBOW OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN YOUR FACE!

GOAL: Live to 110 years of age

Cutest centenarian ever!
(Source) 

I just finished a book called The Blue Zone that talks about the four areas around the globe where there are the highest percentage of centenarians (people who live to 100 years of age). The four areas are Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Pininsula, Costa Rica; and the Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, Southern California. This book interviewed many centenarians and their families over the course of several years to figure out what were the characteristics that set them up for a long, healthy life.

I am interested in this because of a couple of reasons. Just recently I realized that I want to live to be a centenarian. I wondered how does one do that? Also, even if I don't end up living that long, I want to have the best possible quality of life for as long as I can.

This book touches on both of those topics.

In a nutshell, here are the principles that people in these Blue Zones lived by:

• Surround yourself with family and friends. Almost all of the centenarians interviewed lived with their children and grandchildren and also had a consistent social obligations from playing cards with friends, to morning group exercises, to going to church. Each area had different customs, but all of the four areas were consistent in that they all put a great deal of emphasis on being with other people everyday. 
• Don't let stress get the better of you. Maybe it comes with age, maybe these people were born with a stress-free attitude, or maybe it is part of their cultures. One thing is for sure, the centenarians had a very care-free way about them. They also had downtime, either everyday or every week. It was built into their lives. Costa Ricans would rest everyday in the late afternoon. The Seventh Day Adventists would have a day of rest every weekend. No work, no homework, just family and fun activities.
• Be active every day. The stories of the centenarians in this book tells of them chopping wood into their late 90's, riding bicycles, walking for miles everyday, gardening into their 100's, sitting on the floor cross legged and getting up and down with ease and grace. (How many elderly people do you know that can do that?) 
• Eat unprocessed foods. All of the four cultures ate completely differently. But they ate real food, food that was culturally theirs. They didn't eat fast food. They made just about everything. The centenarians in Costa Rica ate eggs, coffee, tropical fruits, corn and beans. In Okinawa they ate fish, rice, seaweeds, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. In Sardinia, the people ate a diet of whole grain breads, beans, garden vegetables, fruits, and goat's milk. The individual foods were different, but the principles were the same- whole foods cooked at home.
• Spend time in the sun. When the sun touches our skin it starts a chain reaction in our body that ends up producing Vitamin D. Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin but a hormone that controls the absorption of all other vitamins and minerals as well as the function of our immune system. These centenarians all lived in temperate to tropical climates that allowed them to get outdoors and get Vitamin D for a large majority of the year. Since they were accustomed to working outdoors (farming, shepherding, relaxing) their entire lives, they were inadvertently making plenty of Vitamin D. 

This book really struck a cord with me. It's so SIMPLE!!!  How did we stray so far from what seems to create a happy and healthy life? I feel like I have been getting back to basics as of late. I feel the need more so now than ever to be happy and healthy. I have been thinking recently that health is about much more than the food you eat. It's the whole picture. 

"People talk about curing cancer and heart disease, and of course it is an important and worthy goal that can happen soon enough. But there are simple things everyone could be doing right now that would save so much money and suffering- like drinking enough water everyday, exercise, and eating healthy food. But hey, " Wareham said, suddenly catching himself in is fervor, "everybody has his own idea about these things- it's their lives, after all. You can tell somebody what to do, but it's up to them whether they do it. But you can tell them how good you feel."

~quote from The Blue Zone 

IN SEASON: June

Summer is here! Which means that so much great produce is in season. No excuses! We should all be eating a lot of fruit and veggies right now. I just finished planting most of our garden so the only thing we have been getting a lot of is strawberries. Better late than never I guess! But in a few weeks we should be in business with some of the things we planted. 

apricots

                                                 

corn

lettuce

watermelon

coconut

strawberries

cantaloupe

cherries

blueberries

peaches

As the weather gets warmer it is better to eat more fresh and cooling foods. No one wants to be a hot, sweaty mess! Take notice the difference in your body temperature and the way you feel when you eat a steak vs. a salad. I don't really have a problem with profusely sweating, but in the winter I am constantly freezing. And I don't eat much more than hot soups, stews, sauces, and more meat because that really keeps me warm. The type of food you eat really does make a difference in how much you sweat. 

Eat more fruits and vegetables!!!

The Great Disconnect

In the past year since my father and I started this garden I became aware of how much work it actually takes to produce food. Before that, I had no idea! I just went to the grocery store and picked out whatever the hell I wanted anytime of the year and that was that.

It takes A LOT of work to produce enough food to live off of. And you have to have the right tools.

We are very fortunate (or unfortunate depending how you look at it) that we can drive to the grocery store and pick out over 50,000 items to feed our faces. In my life and my parents' lives we have not wanted for food. But I believe we are the exception not the rule.

I think that if Americans were more in touch with where our food comes from and how hard it is to physically grow your own food and knew what it was like to kill an cow and cut it up that we would be eating much much differently.

I'm not sure how it happened to be this way but there is absolutely no connection between the animal that was living and the perfectly packaged pieces of meat in the meat department. There is no connection between the farm and the produce we eat- especially considering most of our produce is now imported so we have a fresh array all year long. (I'm not complaining considering I live mostly off of these plants that we are importing.)

bet you never thought you would be staring into a bumble bee's ass
sticking out of a squash flower

Over the past 2 years of going on this "becoming healthier so I don't get cancer" journey I have done some things that I never thought I would do- stop eating meat, stop eating cheese, stop eating cooked food, live on juice only, meet the animals that would be my meat, grow my own food.

I have gone to extremes, and I usually bounce back to somewhere a little healthier than I started, but one thing is for sure... I appreciate real food and what it can do to my body and soul. I have heard people who are in the holistic health/food industry speak about how when you change the food you eat, your whole life will change. I didn't believe them at the time, but looking back over the last 2 years to before I started this, my life is completely different.

I am more aware of what food does to my body. I am aware of how food affects my mind and my mood. I am more aware of stress and how to avoid letting it get the best of me. I am happier. I am working on surrounding myself with people who will support me and lift me up and getting rid of the Negative Nancy's.

Is it a coinkydink? I don't know, but I'm sure as S-H-I-T happy that this is happening to me. (bet you thought I was going to get through this whole post without using the S word)

So a summer project for you all! Go to a farm and talk to a farmer about whatever it is that they grow- corn, cows, chickens, whatever! Ask them about how they care for their crops and animals, and what their beliefs are about what they are doing. Start to get to know where your food comes from and I promise you Oreos and frozen chicken tenders won't look as appetizing once you realize they come from a factory and are made of chemicals and animal "parts".