Pizza Farms

I'm always looking at ways farms get people to know them and know their produce and products.  I think this is a really excellent way to get people out to farms.  The concept is to have one night a week be a "Pizza Night" where people can bring anything in (like blankets, alcohol, etc.) and enjoy a freshly made pizza from ingredients grown right where they are chilling.  The farm that I found doing this is the AtoZ Produce and Bakery out of Wisconsin.  I'm not quite so sure on the price.  The reviews on Yelp were saying that one pizza was priced at $26.  That's pretty expensive!  But the apparently these people have a good idea!  And it doesn't seem QUITE so expensive to make happen!

Meat...Again

Apparently Ashton Kutcher has started making interesting "culture" videos with his new Thrash Lab concept.  I happened across one that I absolutely love about butchers (of course!)  Why do I love videos about cutting up meat?

Earlier, I wrote about my new (but not so new) rules on meat.  In the last few weeks I've had a few friends approach me about their thoughts.  One was feeling bad about eating meat due to the numerous food documentaries being made and watched.  The other is attempting to go vegan.  The only advice that I had for the documentary-watcher was, "You don't like it!  Do something about it!  Change your ways!"  Obviously my advice is NOT to give up meat.  I think animals are a very important part of our food system.  And they should be eaten in order to keep balance!  But we do need to respect the life that we take.  One of my favorite examples of this is in the Last of Mohicans.  I couldn't find a clip of the scene, so I've embedded the whole movie (which I love).  From 3:22 to about 4:26 you can see the homage that the Mohicans pay to the deer after they shoot it.  I think this is definitely something that a lot of us forget about when we sit down to eat.

The hopeful vegan and I had a completely different conversation.  The attempter is thinking that even if animals are being raised sustainably, they are still contributing to the messed-up food system.  I completely disagreed with this, and told the vegetarian as such.  After my obvious disagreement, the conversation stopped, so I didn't receive any good arguments for the reasoning.  I think the vegetarian is trying to turn me completely vegetarian.  I'm pretty sure that is never going to happen!

Meat

I have developed an interesting eating habit in regards to meat.  I try to eat meat only when I know where it has come from.  Whenever I mention this to my friends, I always get hit with this youtube clip:

I would like to offer a disclaimer that I'm NOT like that at all!  I definitely don't make others follow my eating habit either, so don't ever worry about inviting me over for "unknown meat"!  All meat that I purchase, I purchase directly from the farmer.  And if I eat at restaurants, I research the farms/ranches where they get their meat.  And if I approve of their practices, I eat the meat!  If nothing is disclosed, I just don't eat meat.

Since I now have this fascination with meat, I've also been fascinated with the butchering of animals.  I absolutely cannot wait until my parents move out to the farm and we can have our chicken butchering parties!

The butchering and the cuts of the meat have stumbled me upon a really cool butcher, Farmstead Meatsmith.  He has a few videos that he has created that are REALLY great.  The most recent being about curing meat, but really I have enjoyed all of them.  Butchering is catching on as an art again.  It seems that those interested in the great taste of meat are realizing again that it starts with the farm and ends with the cook, but is heavily influenced by the butcher in between.  Chefs are even becoming butchers!  Ryan Farr, the chef/butcher in the article is definitely in it for the cause!

I think I still prefer the raising of the animals over the butchering of them, but I'm glad I realized the importance of the butcher.  And really how important it is to have an excellent one!

Bringing Back the Local Country Store

Lately, my synapses have been firing not only around farming, but also around encouraging people to eat and buy locally.  I'm a frequent listener to Greenhorns Radio, a show put on by the founder of Greenhorns and the National Young Farmers Coalition, Severine Fleming.  A couple of times the show has been a hit, and I'm sure you'll hear about those in my blog!

One of the hits was an interview done with a couple that just started a country general store in upstate Maine, Sheepscot General.  Their business plan was around taking the local produce that farmer's didn't sell at farmers markets or canning to preserve the produce so that it wouldn't go bad.  They would then sell whatever they had (canned or non-canned) and give a portion of it to the farmer.  To me, this is a perfect plan.  The food would have gone to waste if something wasn't done with it.  They are in the process of creating their own "local" grocery store in the truest sense!  I love it!

A New Kind of Ethical

Hunting is a pretty popular past time for people in the Nebraska area.  A friend sent this to me while I was living in Chicago (knowing my passions).  It was a little interesting how difficult it seemed for these women to find someone to help them with the hunting.

Nebraska has quite a few hunting lodges, but not really a place for hunting education for adults outside the area.  It could be an option for a marketing tool.  Game will definitely be on the menu, even if this doesn't turn out as an option!

Be How You Think Things Should Be

This past week I had the opportunity to hear Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms speak.  Joel is a pretty amazing rancher AND speaker for that matter.  I actually found out about him from Michael Pollan's book, Omnivore's Dilemma.  From there, I immediately became intrigued by him.  He rotates his animals (chickens, rabbits, pigs, and cows) in order to bring in the least amount of food from outside his farm and make the least amount of impact on the environment.  Being "local" is more important to him than being 100% organic and natural.  Although his animals are raised naturally once they are on his farm, he doesn't worry about buying USDA-claimed organic seed.  He'll buy seed from his local buddies instead.  The only animals I've seen (I purchased a DVD of his) that he actually births are chickens and rabbits.  I believe he purchases his cows and pigs as babies, then raises them from there.  In that case, he also buys a few supplements in the beginning to help them get into the groove for his "salad bar" of grasses.

I already knew of Joel Salatin's practices.  I was a little concerned he would just talk about stuff I already knew when I went to hear him speak.  I commend him for knowing his audiences.  For him being in Boulder, he was expecting that everyone there knew who he was and knew what he did.  (I guess that makes sense.  If you are going to buy a ticket to hear someone talk, you know you are most likely going to enjoy it.)  He did call people out about choosing biking over gardening and a dog over ten chickens (which was awesome.)  But he also REALLY motivated me personally.  One thing he said close to the beginning of his talk was, "You need to be how you think things should be."  So many people have asked me "what's the point?" after I talk about my passions with them.  I get the "especially in Nebraska, you know the farm right next to you is going to have a TON of chemicals on it.  Yours can never be natural."  I always tell them that you have to start somewhere!  If I would have to be the example for others to follow, then so be it!  I think whenever I'm faced with that question again, I'm going to use Joel Salatin's words.  "I will be how I think things should be."

There will be many more posts about Joel; I'm just not prepared to write them.  I wanted to write about his inspirational phrase before it lost its luster.

Fighting for the cause

Since I have taken some time off recently, I've been spending the majority of it reading.  Two books in particular caught my fancy, both recommended by friends knowing my interests:  Alejandro Junger's Clean and Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.

(Sources:  Clean and Michael Pollan)

These two books actually portray the exact same message:  you are what you eat, and we as Americans are not eating well.  

Alejandro Junger is an M.D. that developed a detoxification program for clients that were having health issues, no one issue in particular.  He has several testimonials claiming success and his detox essentially consists of no meat, no caffeine, and no alcohol!  He recommends juicing twice a day and then eating a healthy meal for dinner (from his suggested recipes).  There are also interesting tidbits about eating raw garlic daily to boost immunity, letting your body rest from eating for at least 12 hours a day, and getting enough sleep.  None of his concepts really seem like rocket science.  

Junger's belief that we need to follow our human nature has stuck with me.  Our ancestors didn't have food available every season of the year.  There were months during the year where fasting was necessary due to the lack of food available.  With commercial farming and transport, we have every type of food available 365 days out of the year.  If we eat these "unseasonal" foods, we are not eating them at the peak of their ripeness and are losing key nutrients that our bodies need.  Michael Pollan also mentions this when he speaks of Aboriginies in Australia going "back to the bush".  By eating the foods that their body has evolved to accommodate, they lost weight and were in remission from diabetes.  This story also coincides with a conversation we had at the Yoga Oasis with someone who personally experienced going "back to the bush".  All of the effects were positive!

Michael Pollan made several good points in his book.  The one that I thought to be the most interesting is the amount of money Americans spend on food as opposed to other countries (% of income in ~2008):

• Americans:  9.9 
• Italians:  14.9
• French:  14.9
• Spanish:  17.1

He makes the point that if Americans spend more money on food, maybe they would be less likely to eat as much.  The Italians, French, and Spanish eat less food than us, but spend more.  

More money, higher quality, better health.

Initial Inspiration

I gave myself an excellent quarter-century birthday gift - 3 plane tickets to the Big Island of Hawaii. One ticket was for me and the other two were for my sister and cousin. We spent two weeks in paradise!

For one night, my sister and cousin agreed to stay at a yoga retreat that I had found online. None of us really knew what to expect, but I've found that for at least one night on your "vacation" it's good to get out of the comfort zone. The yoga retreat I found seemed pretty secluded in the middle of the Hawaiian jungle. I was really excited! The retreat was called Yoga Oasis. Everything is eco-friendly: the mosquito nets that cover porches, the electricity, the water system, the food. We ended up staying in the Coconut Cabin. My cousin and sister didn't seem to be too thrilled about the accommodations at the time. I think it was mainly due to the bugs and bathroom situation. (The outdoor coconut showers seemed a little too out in the open. It's a little weird being able to hear people and cars on the road, but not able to see them. The tub room also did not have any curtains, but you were in a screened building so no bugs! The picture is the view through the "windows" in the tub room.) All of the noises in the night were a little frightening, as well. I think not having locks on the doors was also a source of anxiety for us city-folk. But in the end, we all loved the Oasis.

There was no TV in the Coconut room. Just sitting space, a porch, and a book on the Dalai Lama. We were enough company for each other, so none of that mattered. We talked, read, and slept until our yoga session in the morning. At about 7:30 we took a walk up to the main building (through the chickens scratching in the yard) and sat drinking some tea before our yoga session. There was only one other person besides us at the yoga session with Hayward. The other person was a techy from LA that had just gone through surgery and was recovering at the Oasis. It seemed like a pretty cool place to concentrate on health and recovery.

The studio was amazing. And I will never forget the chant (now featured on their site) that Hayward said before the session:

"Good Morning Sun!!!

It's Great to be Alive!!!

And thanks for those rays, I needed that"

It was the most intense yoga session I've ever had in my life. I still remember the feeling of great exhaustion afterwards while walking down the stairs to breakfast. We had fresh eggs from the chickens and about two hours of great conversation. We talked about everything - from Nebraska's corn population to the kids who were breaking the toilets the week before we got there. Ever since I've left Yoga Oasis, I can't stop thinking that we need more places like this! More places to concentrate on health, local sustainability, and eco-consciousness.