Simple Living: How Connected Do You Want To Be?

In pursuing a simple, thoughtful life, have you given much consideration to how connected you want to be?

Our culture currently places premium value on being connected to everyone everywhere all the time. You have an internet connection, an email account, a Facebook profile, a cell phone, a BlackBerry...is there, in fact, any time when you are NOT accessible to the world at large in one way or another?

Connectivity is not all bad. We want to be deeply connected to our families, our friends, and our local communities, and we need those relationships. But does your technology use foster those deep and meaningful connections or does it in fact detract from them?

I recently read the fabulously titled Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age and found it a helpful framework for examining my own use of technology. The author examines thinkers and innovators from history who lived during similar times of technological change in order to consider ways we might use our technological connectedness as an advance rather than becoming enslaved to it.

On this blog we have long advocated for simple and deliberate living. For most of us, pulling the plug entirely is not really an option, so it behooves us to give careful thought to how we might best navigate our hyper-connected society. If you've considered these things for yourself or your own family, how have you found ways to take the best of technology while still maintaining space for depth and reflection?

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Cut of the Week: Grass Fed Ground Beef

Every so often we see a huge surge in ground beef sales. Whenever this happens we find someone with a TV and inevitably there has been a ground beef recall. In his brilliant book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser reveals that the typical fast food burger contains ground beef from as many as 100 different cows. Farm Shop ground meat comes from one grass fed animal and we never add back fat from other animals.

Since all of our animals are 100% grass fed the fat content of our meat is lower than the average supermarket ground beef and comes in at around 90% lean which ensures a tender, great tasting burger for your recipes.

Remember, you can always try our ground beef and lamb in the Local Burger at Fido's in Green Hills.

"Plenty - Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet"

If you're determined to eat locally, you might enjoy Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon. The couple embarked on an experiment to spend a year eating only what they could grow, gather, or purchase from a 100 mile radius around their home in Canada.

I found the memoir interesting and thought-provoking in parts, although at times the authors' tones were a bit strident for my taste and I could have stood less gratuitous profanity. However, if you're attempting to eat locally yourself, especially from an urban environment, this book may be helpful to you.

If you only have time for one local eating memoir, we would more highly recommend Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, but if you're a fan of this genre and have the time, you might also enjoy "Plenty."

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"The Cook and the Gardener"

Although set in the French Countryside, Amanda Hesser's book The Cook and the Gardener holds many lessons and much encouragement for Americans seeking to tie their living more closely to the land. Over the year she served as a cook in a chateau in Burgundy, Hesser developed a friendship with the chateau's gardener and documented the garden and its impact on her cooking throughout the months. I enjoyed the descriptions of what was happening on the land during each month and also the interesting descriptions of heirloom foods and how to cook them. In each section, Hesser covers one month, with additional chapters devoted to the seasons in general, and includes many recipes and shorter essays on particular foods and how to select and prepare them. The recipes are adapted for American cooks, and Hesser notes, where possible, how to find and select the foods she mentions from American sources.

The book's emphasis on cooking with fresh in season foods, preserving for the colder months, and adapting the kitchen to the rhythyms of the seasons makes this a great read for those who would like to incorporate more local seasonal foods into their diets, but also invites the reader to consider the passing of seasons in our own backyard gardens and homes.

It is difficult to say if this book is a cookbook that also includes interesting reading, or if it is a memoir/treatise that also includes recipes. Either way I think you'd find something to interest you and I'd recommend it.

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"Good to the Grain"

If you enjoy baking with whole grains and enjoying fresh seasonal food like we do, you will love Kim Boyce's excellent cookbook Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours. Boyce is a trained pastry chef with experience at famous restaurants like Spago and Campanile, but her recipes are accessible for the average cook and I guarantee you will be inspired by what you find in this book.

The book covers flours including whole wheat, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, corn, kamut, oat, quinoa, rye, spelt, and teff. I appreciated how Boyce explained the characteristics of each flour and how to use it without getting a dense or tough product. I've been frustrated in my past efforts to translate white flour recipes to whole grain, but Boyce takes the guess work out of it.

If nothing else, you'll certainly enjoy the beautiful food photography in this book and the author's reflection on different grains. I love books that make it easier to eat healthy, beautiful and delicious food, and this book certainly advances those three goals.

If you decide to read the book and try any of the recipes, please let us know! You can get a variety of whole grains (including, at the time of this writing, white wheat, kamut, oat groats, and spelt) as well as various natural sweeteners and baking needs at the Farm Shop. Happy baking!

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"The Animal is the Product of the Soil"

Published on behalf of Debbie via the Farm newsletter. To subscribe to the letter, please contact us! It's a great way to stay up to date on farm news and product information.

Well, the heat is on. Temperatures are soaring and things just seem to naturally slow down on the farm. Chickens stop laying eggs, we need more breaks, and the pace of life mimics the pace of nature and becomes slower and quieter.

I sometimes wonder about our running around and hurrying from one emergency to the next. Chaos seems to find a crack in the door and pries and pulls until it finally enters into our lives, fully and with force, almost without our knowledge. And then come the storms or the heat or the snow and life takes on a whole new look. We remember that things can be set aside and the truly important always get done if we look through the eyes of peace.

And that is where we find ourselves this week. We are sitting more, talking more, reading more and allowing ourselves more rest once all the needs of the animals are tended to. I have picked up a book I read years and years ago by Andre Voisin called Soil, Grass and Cancer that fascinated me 13 years ago and continues to do so each time I slow down enough for a reread.

Andre begins by reminding us that the famous quote “Man, remember that you are dust and that you will return to dust” is not just a religious or philosophic statement but that it should be engraved above the door to every faculty of medicine. I would add that every farmer should have it engraved above the barn door to remind us of the direct link between the “dust” that grows the grass consumed by our animals and the “dust” that makes us what we are. The fact that our farming ancestors understood this connection is obvious when you read old farming manuals that repeat the mantra “the animal is the product of the soil”.It would do us well to remember this also. There was a time when serious detective work could be done to determine where a problem was stemming from since most of the food and water consumed came from a small circle around the home. Now, with our foods coming from all parts of the world it is much more difficult to pinpoint insufficient “dirt” in order to fix a problem due to missing nutrients.

Carlo Petrini of Slow Food coined the phrase “co-producers” to explain the relationship between farmers and consumers. Indeed we could not do what we do without your support. Thank you for your patience as we learn the ways of this “dirt” beneath our feet and as we continue to understand the relationship between, soil, animals and man.

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An Easy Summer Bread

Debbie did an excellent post on bread baking last fall, and we've also talked about how baking bread fits in to the rhythm of the seasons, but when spring rolls around I'm much more likely to want to spend time in the garden than in the kitchen.

And yet, curiously enough, my family still requests regular meals.

I find that my cooking style becomes more streamlined and simple in the warmer months, and now I've found a way to still enjoy fresh homemade bread without requiring a huge time investment.

In their book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Jeff Hertzberg (a scientist) and Zoe Francois (a chef) outline a method for mixing and storing dough in the refrigerator, taking out portions as needed, that eliminates the need for kneading, long rise times, or additives. I'll admit that I was initially skeptical, but since getting this book I've made several of the dough variations and have achieved uniformly excellent results. The bread is well shaped, has a great crusty outside with a good texture and crumb inside. The taste is comparable to artisan bread from a bakery, just as the authors claim.

In addition to the basic recipe, which makes a boule loaf or baguette, the book contains a wealth of other breads ranging from Limpa (a Swedish bread made with cardamom, orange zest and honey), to za'atar flat bread, to na'an. Breads from all over the world are well represented in this book. The book also contains recipes using bread, such as Aubergine Tartine, Panzanella, Red Pepper Fougasse, and Fattoush. Many of the bread-containing recipes make use of fresh seasonal produce, which also makes the cookbook handy for the summer months.

I found the authors' section on alternative flours particularly helpful since they note that the different weights and compositions of flours, including how they are ground, influences the outcome of their recipes, and their instructions for substituting flours are clear and easy to implement.

Although there are few things as comfortable as making bread the old fashioned way in the fall and winter, if you're in need of a simpler method for spring and summer I would highly recommend this book.

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How To Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine is the one absolutely positively indispensable gardening book in my library. It is ripped, filthy, filled with notes and jottings and in desperate need of replacing but that's because this is not the type of book you sit in your overstuffed chair reading whilst sipping a cup of Lady Grey tea (although I have done that quite a bit), this is the kind of book that you take out into the garden with you while you plant. This book is hands-on, filled with charts and fill-in-the-blank sections to determine how many plants you need and when you will plant them in our area. If you plan on gardening - at all - you need this book.

John Jeavons does such a masterful job of guiding us through the process of really, truly gardening. He explains soil prep, watering techniques, intensive planting, harvesting, rotating crops and much more.

There are two things in this book that separate it from all other gardening books. The first is the complete list of page upon page of fruits, vegetables, grains, trees and cover crops with information on each entry as to planting requirements (depth, and spacing), possible harvest amounts, and any other notes. The second noteworthy section contains garden plans for everything from a mini garden to a full Feed a Family of Four garden that teaches you how to succession plant for continuous harvest. All you need is the first and last frost date for your area and a pen to fill in the blanks and you will end up with a complete gardening plan for your own garden. What more you ask, except so for someone else to do the double digging for you - and don't look at me I done enough for a lifetime!

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine is now available in the Farm Shop.

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Michael Pollan's latest book, "Food Rules"

If you have 30 minutes to spare and a passing interest in natural foods you might enjoy Michael Pollan's latest book, Food Rules: An Eater's Manual. This is probably the shortest book you've read since you were a first grader, but it does have interesting ways to remember how to eat in a healthy way. If you need or want to read the research Pollan did to arrive at these rules, you would be better off reading In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. Although there is quite a bit of overlap between Food Rules and Pollan's previous two books, there is some new food for thought. Some of my favorite rules are:

• Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
• If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
• It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
• Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
• Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it (this would be impossible for me with restless toddlers, as I am a slow cook, but it's a good thought!)
• Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does.

I also thought Pollan did a good job pointing out that an organic diet is not necessarily a healthy diet. Organic corn syrup is still corn syrup, organic sugary cereal is still sugary cereal, and organic processed convenience food is still processed convenience food. Fresh, locally grown organic food with as little processing as possible is the best way to go.

Because this book is short and easy to read, it would be a good one to have on hand for people who are just getting started thinking about a healthier lifestyle or who are wondering why you choose to each meat, milk and produce from a local farm.

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The Fragrance of God

People recommend books to me on a daily basis as I am known as some what of a book buff. And as an avid collector of books I check into almost all recommendation, never wanting to let one good book escape my library. Every once in awhile though, someone doesn't just recommend a book, they insist that I buy it and that I can't live without it. Such is the book by Vigen Guroian , The Fragrance of God. This book is unlike any other gardening book I have read. It is the kind of book that I will re read every year as I find myself out of the garden due to inclement weather and on the verge of spring. Beautiful, inspiring and heart stirring, The Fragrance of God reminds us, or shows us for the first time, why we really garden.

What is it that causes us to toil and sweat over weeds we know will just return, probably stronger than ever? Why plan and dig and plant and weed when we can just load into an air conditioned car, drive to the air conditioned supermarket and buy perfectly clean versions of what comes out of the ground? Vigen knows. This is his personal journey through the seasons of his life, moving and staying, losing and finding, all relating to the garden. In The Fragrance of God Vigen takes us with him on a journey through the year’s

changing seasons as he reflects on the great biblical themes of the sublimity of God’s creation, on seeing the senses as “paths” to experiencing God and “the garden as a place of birth, death and renewal."

This is not a how-to gardening book but a look throughout the ages into why we garden and how gardening relates to our spiritual state. Vigen summons the words of Christian mystics from as far back as the first century who warned us of our tendencies to leave behind the senses and remind us that there was a time when beauty was the trademark of Christianity, when all of the senses were employed in the the worship of God and a true understanding of His Creation.

I remember reading of a discourse between Plato and some of his followers regarding the question of what happens when we forget true beauty. I was immediately reminded of that conversation when I passed a garden in a front yard that was planted entirely with plastic flowers. The haunting words of Plato came rushing back and continues to echo each time I witness such an abuse of the senses. What happens when we forget the beautiful scent of a rose - Glad Air Wicks. What happens when we forget the taste of strawberries from the garden still warm from the sun? We are assaulted with "strawberry" jello. Pockets that taste like - you name it - are the inheritance of our children if we are not careful to wade through the products that lie to our senses. Every once in a while we need an awakening and this book will certainly fill the bill.

This book is half gardening guide, half spiritual guide. Read it at your own risk. It will change the way you see, smell, taste, touch and hear.

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Book Review - Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Winter Food to Warm the Soul

Roast Figs Sugar Snow: Winter Food to Warm the Soul is a beautiful cookbook full of warm and comforting recipes inspired by seasonal foods and the author's travels around Europe and America.

I most enjoyed the author's essays at the beginning of each section. Her ode to cheese is outstanding. The book also boasts wonderful food photography and a sprinkling of quotes from literature about winter food.

I appreciated the author's interpretation of traditional winter foods using interesting flavor combinations I would not have thought to try on my own. For example, I have never paired red cabbage with cranberries, nor have I thought of using parsnips as a mashed potato substitute. The recipes are all hearty and warming - this can in no way be construed as a dieting book - but a variety of ingredients and foods in season is a healthful way to eat and I think if you're willing to exercise moderation and portion control this cookbook would add a great variety to your winter cooking repretoire.

If you enjoy eating seasonal foods and trying new combinations of flavors, or even if you just like to read pretty cookbooks, I would highly recommend Roast Figs Sugar Snow.

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Book Review: Not So Fast

If you're looking for tips and ideas on how to slow life down for your family, you might find Ann Kroeker's new book Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families
helpful. Even if your family has a fairly good handle on your pace and activity level, I think this book would be thought-provoking and useful in clarifying your vision and commitment to simple living. The end of every chapter includes a list of things you might consider or try to slow down and simplify in a given area, as well as testimonials from parents who have decided to live counter-culturally in terms of slowing down and cutting back on activities.

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Book Review: Chez Panisse Cookbooks

Cookbooks are always interesting to read because they spark the culinary imagination and give new recipes to try, but some go far beyond simple cookery and offer a wealth of information on food history, living by the seasons, eating locally, and natural health. The Chez Panisse series of cookbooks falls squarely into the latter category. Each book offers fantastic and useful information as well as recipes that range from simple to gourmet, all using fresh and flavorful ingredients in combinations that work seasonally. Available titles include Chez Panisse Vegetables, Chez Panisse Fruit, Chez Panisse Cooking, Chez Panisse Desserts, and many others.

These cookbooks are wonderful to have on hand if you're supporting local sustainable farming, because you'll be able to craft delicious recipes with foods and herbs that are in season at the same time.  It's helpful to be able to structure menus around whole food in season and to pursue a goal of organic cooking with local foods.

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Book Review: Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book: A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking
is an excellent and comprehensive guide to learning or perfecting your skills at baking whole grain breads. From detailed instructions for a beginner loaf of whole wheat bread to recipes for Indian breads, sprouted grain loaves and gluten-free baking, this book is hands down the best book on bread I've ever come across. The book features page after page of troubleshooting ideas, explanations of what is going on in each step, and a conversational style that puts the reader at ease and inspires confidence. I only wish I had found this book during the year and a half that I tried (and usually failed) to make good bread out of a temperamental sourdough starter. I learned a lot from reading through the book, and I think I'll get even more from it as I start to try out the recipes.

If you have an interest in baking your own bread, or if you bake bread but aren't yet an expert at it or are just interested in getting even better, this book would be a great resource for you. The author does not require or recommend very many additives (which I find daunting and off-putting in many bread treatises) but does give detailed explanations for why she recommends certain types of flours, differences between store-bought and fresh-ground flours, and the like. I'd heartily recommend this book to you, and also suggest that if you have an interest in bread you stop by the farm shop to talk about it. The shop carries sourdough starters as well as a variety of grains and ingredients that are recommended in The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book.

Happy baking!

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Book Review: Nourishing Traditions

If you only own one book about the natural/organic/whole food lifestyle,
Nourishing Traditions should be that book! It is an indispensable resource for organic cooking and natural living.  Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price Foundation wrote the book, which includes recipes, history, nutritional information, explanations of the hows and whys of whole food, and more. You will find this book to be an incredible resource in your kitchen, and an informative reference in your pursuit of a natural living. Even if you don't normally enjoy reading cookbooks cover to cover, you might find yourself compelled to do so with this volume.

If you have this book in your home library already, what are some of your favorite recipes or natural living tips from Nourishing Traditions?

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Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is Barbara Kingsolver's memoir of the first year her family experimented with eating ONLY locally-grown foods. In order to abide by their agreed-upon rules, she and her family began growing more of their own food on their land in Virginia, and became much more connected to the sustainable farming and animal husbandry of their region. The family learned to eat food in season and grew more adept at preserving food for use during the winter. Each section of the book describes one season, how the family procured food, ate, and preserved in that season, and includes recipes they liked for seasonal foods. Interspersed in the narrative are Kingsolver's thoughts on the importance of local sustainable farming and the health benefits of eating locally-grown foods, as well as sidebar articles giving the perspectives of her husband and daughter on the year-long experiment.

In addition to being a memoir, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle also contains a wealth of interesting and useful facts and tips for organic gardening and notes about the history and importance of different foods. Although Kingsolver espouses some political opinions and conclusions that might not be in line with those of all readers, for the most part the book was useful and inspiring.

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Book Review: Better Off

In his excellent book Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology, Eric Brende, then a MIT grad student studying the costs and benefits of technology, undertook an 18 month experiment with his new wife to leave Boston and go live in a Mennonite community without electricity, gas, or modern conveniences. The book is well written and full of great stories that will be of particular interest to you if you are pursuing simple living.

The real strength of the book, in my opinion, is Brende's discussion of his thought processes on the philosophy of technology. His measured and throughtful approach is both insightful and piercing as he suggests new ways to think about the impact technology makes on our lives for good and bad. Brende concludes that technology is not inherently evil, but that in our day and age, technologies that are supposed to be making our lives easier are more often than not making them harder when you really consider the expenditure of resources, your stress and lack of true leisure, and so forth.

Better Off is a compelling and entertaining book, and I highly recommend it.

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Book Review: In Defense of Food

After you read The Omnivore's Dilemma, you might find yourself wondering what on earth you should be eating. Fear not, Michael Pollan wrote a follow-up book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, that offers thoughtful, practical and well-researched suggestions to answer your food choice questions.  In short, Pollan recommends you eat local, eat whole food, and support sustainable farming.  We agree!

Pollan boils his research down to seven words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." The book explains these maxims further, and exposes the many despicable things the "food" industry does to sell their products even at the expense of your health. Furthermore, Pollan's interviews with top food and nutrition researchers in the government and private sector reveal how bad the science is in that area and point out, as Pollan notes, "there is a lot more religion in science than you might expect."

Some of the guidelines Pollan arrived at include:

• "Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" (Berry Bubblegum Bash Flavored Go-Gurt Portable Yogurt Tubes anyone?)
  
• "Don't eat anything incapable of rotting"
• "Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high fructose corn syrup"
• "Avoid food products that make health claims" (when Cocoa Puffs are endorsed as being whole grain "heart healthy" food, or when margarine is labeled "trans fat free!" you should pause and reflect)

And, my personal favorite:

• "Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does."

This book is worth reading if you are interested in natural living, whole food, the Eat Local movement, or sustainable farming. Like Pollan's first book, In Defense of Food is a well written, engaging, quick read that will serve as a helpful reference.

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Book Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a fascinating book about the origins, science, marketing and nutrition of the food we eat. The author, an investigative journalist, followed four different types of meals down to their smallest component parts in our food system to find out the truth about what's in our supermarkets, on our tables, and in our backyards.  His conclusions advocate for sustainable farming, natural living, and the Eat Local movement.

First, he discusses the economics, government policies, and marketing that drive the conventional food system as well as an analysis of the content of that food, it's actual price, and the science that enables us to make about 90% of our diets out of corn. While readers with some interest in natural living will likely be familiar with a lot of the material in this section, you will probably still find it eye-opening.

Next, the narrative turns to conventional organic foods (such as you find at the grocery store, or the health food store) and if you're really getting what you think you are (you probably aren't). Many consumers misunderstand the compromises that conventional organic foods incorporate because of governmental regulations and the economic bottom line. This section of the book is particularly illuminating.

Third, the book covers the Eat Local movement and sustainable farming along the original organic model. This section expands on the nutritional and long-term benefits of natural living and eating a whole food diet, but also digresses to an examination of the animal rights movement.

Finally, Pollan hunted and gathered a meal from around his home in northern California and from his experience readers will learn about the ins and outs of foraging for mushrooms, hunting wild boar, and an ill-fated attempt to collect salt from the San Francisco Bay.  It's always interesting to read about other people's experiments in natural living!

The book is witty, highly engaging, and written in a conversational tone that is informative but never boring or too preachy. Whatever your current level of understanding and conviction about sustainable farming, natural living, whole food, or the Eat Local movement might be, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a worthwhile read.

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