Keep Culture Alive!

We have evidence that we are at our planet's ecological tipping point.  Our consumer-based society has largely led us to this crisis.  The fossil fuel consumption that powers our consumer-based, mono-culture dominated, Monsanto-bullied agricultural system is clearly unsustainable, and each day we are becoming more uncertain as to how long we will have cheap fuel.  If environmental costs aren't enough to change our ways, what about human costs?  Do we participate in a system that engages in foreign conflict based on a desire to secure that country's energy resources?

What would a modern society that used much, much less fossil fuels look like?  Of course, it would be based on a local agricultural system.  We would end our reliance on our large-scale food system where our food travels, on average 1500 miles before it reaches us by way of refrigerated trucks.  We would return to subsisting off of the goods that can be produced in our local region.  To take this concept further, we would move away from our current unsustainable modes of food preservation.

Some may have given up hope on the establishment of a more sustainable way of life that can prevent the ecological collapse that looms around us.  But others, out of passion for sustainable-living principles, or out of a propensity toward survival, will be interested in learning the techniques that are necessary for not only short-term survival without fossil fuels, but methods of food cultivation and preservation that adequately nourish and sustain the body over time--a way of living and eating that provides for healthy peoples over generations.  

What would a food system look like that persists despite the decline of the fossil fuel supply?

It may not include the household refrigerator and freezer.  Energy intensive canning that drastically reduces the vitamin content of  foods may be replaced by drying food in low-tech solar dehydrators, or preservation by lactic-acid fermentation, a process where food is transformed by the action of beneficial microorganisms. This is not new technology, but ancient technology used by all of the cultures of humanity that maintained healthy populations over many generations.  Milk is preserved by transforming it to more stable products such as kefir, yogurt, cheese, and butter.  Meat from large animals is preserved by drying into jerky, allowing to age by hanging, or curing by way of sausage in its various forms.  Each home or small community would have small animals such as chickens, quail, or guinea fowl that would be harvested as needed.  Food would be fresh, systems would be small, and each person in society would have some food specialty to contribute to the household, or offer foods for sale or barter.

All cultures that have stood the test of time have had a way of preserving food that harnessed the ability of lactic acid bacteria to ferment food.  For Germans it was sauerkraut - sour greens or sauerruben - sour roots.  Koreans have kimchi.  Italians have prosciutto and salami, preserved meats with the help of lactic acid bacteria.

Not only do these preservation methods preserve food, but they provide increased nutrition, enzymes, beneficial bacteria, easier digestion, and enhanced flavor.

I have not gotten rid of my refrigerator yet, but enjoy making simple fermented foods like kombucha and lacto-fermented vegetables.  I have also made sourdough, kefir and yogurt.  Recently, I have been holding tele seminars for family, friends, and clients in order to share and exchange information and cooking techniques related to the incorporation of traditional foods in the diet.  

Beet Soup for Any Season

It's a chilly June 3rd here in the mountains of Pocahontas County, West Virginia.  I just finished planting tomatoes and peppers in time for them to "enjoy" some cold drizzly weather.  You never know what the weather is going to be like lately, so when planning your weekly menu, a great idea is to include soups that can be enjoyed hot or cold.

I've been wanting to make a cold soup with a chicken bone broth base ever since my teleseminar on Bone Broth.  After hearing me go on about the wonders of gelatin and bone broth, a client asked me if it could be used in cold soups.  I actually had not been in the habit of making cold soups, but I didn't see why not. After a little research, I found that most any soup you enjoy hot can be enjoyed cold, but this works particularly well for pureed soups.

Enjoy the health benefits of bone broth year round.  Many soups you enjoy hot can be enjoyed cold.  Cream of carrot, beet, sweet potato, vichyssoise (potato and leek), and zucchini all work particularly well.

You can use any simple recipe, just make sure you avoid the refined vegetable oils (like canola) and opt for butter.  Use homemade chicken stock when it calls for bouillion or canned stock.  

Today I made beet soup or Borsht as it is commonly known.  It was absolutely delicious!  It was not a sweet soup, but more savory - especially with well-made, rich chicken stock and the addition of sourdough bread to garnish.  

Beet Soup or (Borsht)

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, sliced
4 medium-large beets
2 tablespoons butter
6 cups homemade chicken stock
Celtic sea salt to taste
Sourdough bread croutons to garnish (optional)
sour cream, yogurt, or creme fraiche to garnish (optional)

In a 4 quart pot, saute onion in butter on medium-low until tender.  Sprinkle with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Add in chopped beets and chicken stock.  Simmer until beets are very tender.  Use a handheld immersion blender to blend, or blend in small batches in the blender.  Salt to taste.  Garnish with sourdough bread croutons and sour cream, yogurt, or creme fraiche (for enzymes).

The Bone Broth tele seminar will be held again on July 16 @ 8pm.  We'll be discussing the healing properties of gelatin and properly made stock to help with digestive and autoimmune issues, cooking techniques, and recipes.

Tips for Using Nourishing Traditions

My well-loved copy

I'm going to let you in on some of my health secrets today.  Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon is my nutrition bible.  It has been for about 10 years.  It is what inspired me to teach people about nutrition and to go to school to get my health coaching certification.  I have attended several of Sally Fallon's workshops and lectures, and met her a couple of times.  In person, she is lovely, sweet and mild mannered.  I draw most of my inspiration for the Traditional Foods Tele seminar Series from Nourishing Traditions.

I want to share some tips for using this phenomenally popular text:

1. 1f you have it but have merely skimmed it and kept it on the shelf, I encourage you to study it - especially the first 50 pages.  
2. Sally Fallon is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Organization.  A major goal of the organization is universal access to clean raw milk.  I agree that all people should have access to clean raw milk.  I also think people should have a right to grow and process their own food, right to clean air, and right to clean water. (I'm sure Sally Fallon would agree, especially since her other project is the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.)
3. That being said, you don't need to have access to raw milk to be able to follow the principles of a Traditional Foods diet, described by Weston A. Price, and Sally Fallon.
4. You do not need whey in order to soak grains or in order to prepare lacto-fermented vegetables.  This is a great thing to do if you are a cheese maker and have an abundance of whey to use up, but you do not need to obtain raw milk to carry out the principles of a traditional foods diet.  
5. This way of eating does not advocate eating huge amounts of animal protein.  It advocates using all parts of the animal, including the fat, bones, cartilage, organ meats, and some muscle meat, as traditional peoples did.  
6. If you have pre-existing health problems, you may not get well following a hodgepodge of the many recipes or principles outlined in Nourishing Traditions.  For example, if you have an abundance of Candida albicans, you may gravitate toward a lot of properly prepared dairy and grains, which may exacerbate your condition by feeding this yeast.  Most likely, one single food (even raw milk) is not the silver bullet to solving complex health conditions.  You will need to choose foods that help your specific condition, and most likely seek the help of a holistic health practitioner.   
7. You do not have to cook elaborate meals each day to stay on a traditional foods diet.  Just follow the main dietary guidelines.  Use saturated fats, buy the best quality free-range eggs you can afford, use Celtic sea salt, avoid commercially processed grains, soak grains overnight (in water with a splash of vinegar or lemon) before cooking, save your bones for bone broth, eat several types of fermented foods, eat organ meats, source grass-fed meat, eat plenty of vegetables, especially green ones.  You're going to need a source of vitamin K2 so incorporate raw egg yolks, raw organ meat,  raw grass-fed butter, natto or high-quality cod liver oil into your diet.  Or eat insects :) 
8. My Traditional Foods Teleseminar series is like a study group/support group for this way of eating.