Girlfriend Gifts

My co-leader Pat & I wanted to give something special to the women of our Bible Study Group to celebrate the end of a particularly meaningful study.  Here's what we came up with.  This is easy AND delicious!

Find yourself a few pretty dessert plates.  If you're not trying to match them, your local thrift shop is a good place for these. 

Then find a few candlesticks, small cocktail-type glasses (use your imagination), for the base.  Epoxy the base to the bottom of the plate.  This was Pat's part.

Make a couple dozen Strawberry Cake Ball Truffles, and wrap them up in cellophane & ribbon.  This was my part.

We met at a local restaurant for brunch, where we deocrated the table with them.  Our girlfriends loved them!

Here's the scoop: Total expenditure for 6 gifts - about $30.00!

Family Farms or NO Family Farms? That is the question...

Okay, so you're not really into the Real Food, Traditional Food, Nourishing Traditions lifestyle, yet.

 Hmmm...

Do you ever purchase food from a Farmer's Market?  Do you even care that you are able to do so?

Do you want to continue to have the choice to buy from local farmers rather than industrial food (I use the term "food" loosely) operations where cruelty & sickness abound? 

Or, for that matter, do you wish to have the choice to buy your food from ANY place you choose?

Do you care that in many cases, the "foodlike substances"* that you purchase in your supermarket bear no resemblance to their traditional forms; that they have been genetically-modified to withstand tons of fertilizer & weed control to the detriment of any nutritional benefit?

Do you care that huge operations are feeding antibiotics and growth hormones to animals destined for our food supply and are still involved in recall after recall; yet they are allowed continue to produce sick food?

Does it bother you that small farmers who carefully manage their herds/flocks to be healthy, and produce food in the same manner as our great-grandparents did, are harassed and put out of business by our government?

If you have answered YES to any of these questions, you need to go visit Ann Marie at Cheeseslave. She has a link to a podcast you must hear.  I know you'll be saying, "this can't be happening in America".  It is.  Small farm, big US gov't agency.  It isn't pretty! 

Could you EVER have imagined that family farms would need a legal defense fund?  OMG! Please consider if you might donate to the legal defense fund.  You can click on the buttons at Cheeseslave or right here in my sidebar.

Thank you!
Chris

P.S. Here are a couple of links to further enlighten you:

Morningland Dairy
Estrella Family Creamery

* Love this term from Michael Pollan's Food Rules!

Learning to Eat Well

About six months ago, I took "weight control" a class at a local Wellness Center.  It was a real eye-opener for me.  What I learned, while a serious departure from conventional nutritional wisdom, resonated deep within me.  The class was definitely 6 weeks of  "aha!" moments.

I was introduced to the Weston A. Price Foundation & to Sally Fallon Morell and her cookbook (much more that that) "Nourishing Traditions - The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats ".   As I read this book, I felt as if a weight (pun intended) had been lifted.  It all made so much sense.  Why hadn't I put it all together before?

You see, many facets of the NT (Nourishing Traditions) lifestyle were familiar to me.  I was already trying to shop & eat locally and seasonally.  I was buying organic produce, at least most of the time. I always had an inkling the nutrition was the key to health.

Now, a few of months into my conversion to the NT lifestyle, I am still learning, every day.  From pastured eggs to grass-fed meat & butter, it's been an adventure!  (raw dairy is next!)  And, I am loving it!  I posted HERE about my first batch of sauerkraut and HERE about making cream cheese.  I have really enjoyed cooking with real, traditional foods.  And spending time at the Farmer's Market, getting to know my local farmers has been a blast!

I'll be posting more about this my new way of cooking and eating and the resulting benefits I gain. That certainly is "refining life", isn't it??

Here's a link to Real Food Media.  Love their tag  line:  REAL FOOD. SMALL FARMS. GREEN LIVING.  It's a great place to learn more about traditional foods, sustainable agriculture and get a whole bunch of great recipes & health info.