A Good Food Week

We had a really good food and eating week this week. Of course we were off on Monday but I didn't eat lunch out all week except for Friday and we ate almost exclusively whole foods all week with the exception of Tuesday evening. Tuesday night Bryon and Grace ate Ramen noodles and tuna and I made Hummus from a can of organic garbanzo beans. Bryon told Grace, "Grace, look over there, your Mama has gone right over the edge making that hummus. She was near the edge, but now she's over it." He told her to come and check my armpits for hair. Well, surprise for him but that hummus was GREAT and I took it two days for my lunch!

I also now know WHY hippies girls let their armpit hair grow out. For one, it's convenient but I think the main reason, after switching to a natural mineral salt deodorant this week called Crystal http://www.thecrystal.com/product_information.cfm thanks to my friend Jen, is because that stuff burns the CRAP out of newly shaved armpits!! Dang! Sort of takes your breath away for a moment. It sure has worked well so far though. I haven't been stinky all week and I sweat like crazy the past two days. Not one bit of odor. So far so good.

I plan to continue to shave the old pits however. I'm a type A hippie chick at best (which I realize is a complete oxymoron) and I'm pretty sure no amount of patchouli can make me change those practical ways.

So Wednesday night we decided to roast one of our large five pound chickens we'd just put into the freezer. Bryon got the grill going early and an hour and a half later that sucker still wasn't done! We ended up having to thaw out some leftover hamburger patties I had frozen along with our organic Earthbound carrots, steamed Summer Fresh corn on the cob, lettuce from our garden and a fresh tomato, vine ripened in a greenhouse which I bought from a guy selling on the corner in Niangua. Still good.


Then Thursday night we finally had the roasted chicken and I had found some new potatoes at the Springfield Farmers market that we roasted with some Borsin cheese, the leftover carrots,Mamaw Rice's canned green beans from last summer and again...salad.


Of course just to show you how crazy we are, Saturday Grace and I went through the McDonald's drivethru on the way home. We had a car full of quail in the backseat that were not going tolerate tallying and we were hungry NOW. Three steps forward, two steps back in that case.

I have a lot of food guilt now. The more I read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, Food Matters, The Botany of Desire...the more I want us all to do better. To eat better. To be better.

Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks. We just keep trying.

We did eat a new potato right out of our garden yesterday so I'd say another week or two and we'll have a mess of them.

I met a couple of great farmers at the Marshfield Farmer's Market on Friday. One is a lady named Sheila from Morgan, Mo (just up the road a spell) who is raising goats and trying to make it her full time job. She's been selling goat yogurt and cheeses and chevre for the past few weeks and I've been buying it. I want her to succeed. I asked if I could come visit her farm and learn about her goats and she said sure so I hope to make that happen in a couple of weeks.

The other person I met has a farm in Norwood and they are raising organic meat, eggs and milk plus a whole lot more, http://www.rockinh.net/ I can't wait to visit their farm too . His family knows Joel Salatin (made famous now from Michael Pollan's books among other things) http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ and I just want to learn from all these folks and make our little homestead all it can be.

Grace's friend Riley has been staying home on the farm with her Daddy the last several months and she asked why we can't do the same. Good question. Maybe someday we all can. Wouldn't that be great? To be able to feed our family AND make a living from a farm.

How quaint.

Someone should have thought of that a long time ago. Wait a minute...they did.

Here's to hoping it's all not a thing of the past.