sacred agriculture

Agriculture is only about 10,000 years old and it has shaped today’s cultures fundamentally.  Agriculture enabled population growth and the population explosion of the past 50 years.  Agriculture is also what has brought forth culture as we understand it; it is specifically agriculture that enabled the development of the first great cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Agriculture was a new concept then, as we moved from a nomadic lifestyle and collecting our food through hunting and gathering, to settling down and harvesting food from the same surrounding area year-in and year-out.  The hunter-gatherer lifestyle permits nature to renew itself naturally, while agriculture, if not practiced wisely and in tune with nature, depletes the soil – and then what?

Agriculture is the unification of nature and man.  We exhibit our current disconnection from nature through the type of agriculture we have created – soil-depleting monocultures that require outside chemical input to produce food at the expense of environmental and human health.  However, the significant growth of the organic (funny -  until about 150 years ago all agriculture was organic), sustainable (better than organic), and  biodynamic (the best) agricultural movements demonstrates an emerging awareness of the deep connection between ourselves, nature and our food supply.  We exist as part of nature, not apart from nature, and strictly on the basis of light and water.  Without nature we do not exist. Sacred agriculture!

yum - raw milk

Our cats love the cream from the top of the milk.  Not only cats digest raw milk, which has neither been pasteurized nor homogenized, better than the processed version.  Many people, who are supposedly lactose intolerant, also have an easier time digesting milk the way nature made it.  The health benefits of raw milk versus its processed compromised poor cousin are tremendous.  Today was our milk pick-up day.  We take turns with a few other local families, coop style, picking raw milk directly up from the (currently) only dairy farm in Orange County approved to sell raw milk by the Department of Health.  So we actually get to meet the cows that provide us with our milk.

Personally, I love the cream on top even more than the milk.  On the photo you can see how much cream comes with a ½ gallon of milk, more than a cup.  I use it for making ice cream, deglazing, in quiche, and as a treat for our cats.

Yum - raw milk!

why eat organic?

The stale and narrow premise that what distinguishes organic from non-organic foods is simply their nutritional content is on the table again in today’s NY Times article by Kenneth Chang about a new megastudy to that effect.  But, as Sonya Lunder,a senior analyst with  the Environmental Working Group stresses, many who buy organic foods are aware of the complexity of issues beyond mere nutritional aspect. The nutrition debate leaves, as in the past, a whole host of other reasons why to buy organics off the table.  Besides ingesting less residual toxins from pesticides buying organic groceries, produce, meat and fish means choosing the health of the environment and biodiversity over sprayed monocultured fields, it means voting for the health of the farmworkers so they don’t get exposed to toxic pesticides and herbicides, in the case of meat and fish it means choosing not to ingest antibiotics and surface bacteria (another relevant article in today's paper), it also means voting against genetically modified plants and animals, and it means choosing the more humane tending to, raising and slaughtering of animals for meat.  Lastly, if buying from a nearby farm, choosing organic is linked to choosing local over global.

So, buying organics is a vote for a multitude of betterments, not simply a choice for more nutritious food.

perspective and pizza

There is nothing like a vacation to reset thoughts and priorities.  We need the perspective of comparison to differentiate things and set them in proper light. For one I understood during our recent vacation in Italy why the Italians think American pizza is hard to digest (something I read somewhere recently).  In the little  Tuscan village  of Radicofani in a humble outdoor lunch trattoria we had the thinnest possible pizza, like a sheet of crumbling paper, simply covered with some choice but rather scant toppings,  a few shreds of prosciutto,  some arugula, scattered pecorino shavings (no parmesan here), perhaps on a thin smear of tomtoey sauce.  Nothing like that thick yeasty crust we are used to with gobs of toppings (kitchen sink pizza, anyone?) and a gooey and heavy layer of cheese on top.

bulk produce shopping

My shopping logistics have changed drastically over the past 10+ years since I have shopped for more and more organics.  In order to get the best variety and price on produce I order every 4 weeks from Albert's Organics  through our food coop, through which I also get bulk groceries.  Getting bulk produce in huge loads all at once takes some getting used to. 

When my son was a toddler I belonged to a biodynamic working CSA.  When I’d return from my once-a-week work and harvesting sessions loaded with the freshest and ripest vegetables right from the field I got used to processing large amounts of vegetables since it was impossible to eat it all right away.  And I don’t mean canning (haven’t learned that yet), but cooking some, keeping some in the fridge, keeping some in the cool basement, and blanching and freezing some more. 

I keep the fruit in large bowls around the house, which looks so beautiful and abundant.  The fruit lasts about two weeks, bananas keep well and ripen slowly, but sometimes we end up having to sauté them slowly in butter (with a pinch of curry) for dessert (very good with vanilla ice cream, too), sometimes I make banana bread and muffins, and in a real pinch I'll freeze them (works just fine for muffins).  Some of the pears I roast in the oven, brushed with olive oil, salted and peppered (wonderful with blue cheese and some walnuts for dessert, or sliced on arugula salad (with goat cheese and honey), or simply eaten as a snack.  Apples keep, and if they start to go they get juiced with carrots.  The peaches are trickier because they ripen, and potentially go bad,  all at once – so I am envisioning peach jam, ½ organic sugar, ½  peaches by weight, slowly cooked on the stove top until reduced by ??? (I forgot, maybe by 1/3).  Since I am no canning expert,  I simply freeze the few jars (just finished the rest of some plum butter from last August).  Tuesday I got many pounds of plum tomatoes and decided to  make a quick sauce (onions, garlic, tomatoes, bay leaf, honey, balsamic vinegar) slowly simmered for an hour or so, then pureed, and voilà – several jars of sauce, which I froze (good for making homemade pizza or calzones, pasta of course, English muffin pizzas…).

mindful chopping

I love cooking and all the prep work that goes with it.  Sometimes I even like the prep work more than the rest of the cooking process.  It is meditative to me, the peeling, cutting, dicing, and slicing.  At the end of the day I spend quiet time with myself in the kitchen, pour myself a glass of wine, and begin preparing dinner.  Because my life is sooo busy these days my dinner making process is usually somewhat unplanned and spontaneous.   I plant myself in front of the fridge, contemplate all the vegetables, fruits, meat or fish (if I thawed something) and staples, and figure out what kind of a meal I can conjure up. Then comes the mindful part, the part where I could almost forget that I am supposed to make a meal for my family, when chopping becomes an activity in its own right.  Peeling, chopping, dicing, sipping, whoosh into the pot, and all over again, peeling, chopping, dicing….very relaxing and grounding at the end of a busy day.

an egg is not just an egg

Why do we complain so much about the price difference between organics and conventional foods?  Quality – in eggs in this case - is something inherent that arises out of how and where the chicken lives, what it eats, and how it is treated.  When eggs are grown in conditions as Nicholas Kristof describes them in today’s New York Times, is it any wonder that eggs from farm hens that run around freely and feed on grubs cost more?  Their shells are strong and healthy, their yolks a deep yellow or orange, and the whites don’t run.  While science has not yet come up with quick ways to measure the energetic and qualitative difference between a healthy and a weak and sick egg, yesterday’s cat food story illustrates the difference clearly.  So, an egg is not just an egg.  Without balking many people pay more for the perceived value of some name brand purse, then complain about the high price of organic foods. I believe we need to reevaluate our priorities.

holistic living and artisanal cheese

holistic living and artisanal cheese - what do they have in common?

This blog is about holistic living, which for me is authentic living.  Take the difference between processed cheese and artisanal raw milk cheese (or the difference between a Twinkie and a homemade oatmeal cookie).  Raw milk cheese is authentic cheese, the way cheese was originally made from simple ingredients that came straight from nature, while processed cheese is an industrial factory-made product that emulates cheese.  When I am talking here about authentic living it is about deep living, life with all its emotions, joys, sorrows, life beyond material acquisitions and the rushing around from one activity to the next, a life true to who we are.

Life, to me, is about finding your true self through interaction with people and your environment.  There is something deeply satisfying about spending quality time with friends and family, a satisfaction we can’t quite recreate through the purchase of a new dress or earrings.  Much has been written in recent years about living in the moment.  When I cook for example I am so self-absorbed that I forget everything around me and am only aware of what I am making.  That is when I truly live in the moment.  That is deep living, or holistic living, or authentic living.  It is meaningful and satisfying.

Stay tuned for more.