Visiting the turkeys! "Bock bock bock bock!" (They all go bock, apparently!) |
I admire so much about what Kevin and Sarah are doing with their fifteen acres of earth. In the relatively short time they’ve held their property, they’ve acquired cows (for milking and raising beef), pigs, turkeys, and chickens. My family is hoping to make another trip out to visit in time to help raise the barn before the sheep arrive. A huge vegetable garden sits very near the new house. The tops of Sarah’s kitchen cabinets are lined with large glass jars of staples like grain, beans, and rice. This is a family that has gone to a lot of effort to make sure they have a close relationship with the earth that sustains them. I admire their life choices (and the little piece of heaven they call home) and am resolved to think of their progress in bringing food production home anytime I start to feel that my recent changes are extreme.
A table set for a brunch feast! |
Sarah, who grinds her own grain when her grain mill is working (it is currently in need of a repair), served us a wonderful home cooked meal of whole grain waffles, blueberry sauce, fruit, sausages, and an out-of-this-world quiche that she says has no recipe. Kevin revealed that it’s Sarah’s mother’s recipe—and Sarah (who has not written it down) calls her mother each time she makes it. Sarah says her mother gives her a new combination of ingredients each time! We contributed homemade bread and sweetened cream cheese. Brian had made blueberry limeade, but in our rush to make it out the door 20 minutes later than planned, we left it sitting in our refrigerator.
After breakfast, we flew kites in the field. I am an avid power kite flyer*, who loves to fly huge power kites that can power a three-wheeled buggy. I brought one of my big kites and flew it for the first time since before I was pregnant! It was a low wind day, so I only got in about five minutes of good wind (though I flew in less than ideal wind for much longer) but I was amazed at how much easier it is to resist the pull of the kite now that I am stronger, leaner, and better nourished. I still have plenty of distance to go repairing the damage of an eating disorder and losing the weight gained by years of poor diet, but I will take every chance I get to celebrate and enjoy how far I’ve come! While I played with my three and a half meter kite, Brian helped the kids fly one of our smaller kites and though the breeze was lumpy and short lived, it went up a few times, to their delight and ours.
Delicious fruit! |
Mmm! Potatoes! |
Sarah and I are both still nursing our children, and I think this gives us a similar perspective. It is my firm belief, though I can’t prove it with scientific evidence, that in order to be healthy, we need a close relationship with our food. It starts when we are born and we require skin to skin contact with our mother in order for her body to continue to produce nourishing milk to sustain us through those early years. In that same way, as we grow and even after we are grown, we need to have our hands in the cultivating, harvesting, storing and cooking of our meals. When we do so, we no longer just eat, we experience a deep relationship with our food and our earth. This is something I’ve experienced firsthand, as I have slowly immersed myself in a whole, traditional, food lifestyle.
Our haul from the country vegetable stand! |
When I think of Sarah and Kevin on their farm, I think of my pregnant friend, close to term and still carrying buckets of food and water to her animals, while tending her first born child and telling me of her plans for growing her food, raising her animals, building her house, and having her baby at home. I have great respect for her commitment, in part because over the past few years I’ve realized that food wasn’t meant to be had without work: work I do each week to make our bread and prepare meals days in advance, as well as the kind of work Sarah and Kevin do to raise and prepare their meals (at home) a year or two in advance, and even more.
Blancing tomatoes to remove skins before freezing. |
I’m not saying that the sick, poor, and those who don’t work don’t deserve food. What I mean is that food has a context in a community and in the world as a whole. Over indulgence is less likely when your hands are in it and you have a closer relationship to it—when you know the people it comes from and have a sense of harvest and limits. (For example, when you realize that there are no more tomatoes because they have been claimed, eaten or put up for the winter, or when there is no more lamb shank because the slaughter is done for the season and there aren’t 1000 head in a lot somewhere just waiting to be de-shanked.) Much of the food eaten in the United States today—food my family ate at restaurants and out of packages before we began this change—has lost its context. For me personally, eating out of context created a life of illness, obesity, exhaustion, and imbalance. Reclaiming that balance has lead to peaceful days enjoying great food at home and on the farm with friends, reveling in family and indulging my favorite pastimes.
Getting my hands into the tomato! (It's easier than trying to do it with a knife!) |
Ready for 11 pots of chili this winter! |
*Power kiting is an extreme sport and dangerous. You should learn from someone who knows what they are doing and can give you proper safety instruction. For the curious, here is some power kite stuff I like:
And, the most important item of all if you are planning on being around poison ivy (or skunks):
The Quiche Recipe - from friend Sarah's mother: (Crust) 1 C whole wheat pastry flour, 6 T butter, 2 to 3 T cold water. Cut butter into flour. Stir water in all at once. Form ball with floured hands. Set aside. (Filling) 1 pound Swiss cheese, grated; 3 eggs; 18 oz (1½ cans) evaporated milk*; 1/4 teasp salt; pinch nutmeg. Beat eggs and salt. Stir in milk. Roll out crust. Line 9" pie pan. Put grated cheese in pan. Add milk/eggs. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake at 350ยบ about 1 hr till knife in center comes out clean. Cool at room temperature about 15 min. *Sarah makes her own evaporated milk by simmering whole milk until half its original volume.
ReplyDeleteThank you Susan! :) Know something funny? My Mom's name is also Susan--but she goes by Susie! :)
ReplyDeleteI love this post. You guys are an inspiration to me.
ReplyDelete-Jesus