I’ve been terribly lax about posting baby photos, I know. Gabriel is nine months old today! He remains a total peach, and it cracks me up that in this photo you can’t see his red hair at all, since that’s what everyone oohs and aahs over in real life. He is on the move – started crawling at eight months and spends most of his time pulling himself up to standing. Don’t get in his way or interrupt his mission – you will be rewarded with crazed dinosaur shrieking. At least, that’s what we call it.

In other news, I started my patchwork quilt. Once I finally gave up on the idea that it should be perfect, it was pretty easy to begin. And now I’m excited, to see some scraps of fabrics I love, given new life.

With some wonderful friends, I’m reading Homemaking & Personal Development: Meditative Practice for Homemakers.  It’s great.  I’m also listening again to Pema Chodron’s The Fearless Heart.  Together, they’re like a jump into a cold lake – a wake up that I needed badly.  Thank goodness for friends, and for good books.

If you’ve been at Wheatberry recently, you may have noticed we have a pint-sized employee. Her name is Ella (aka Lucy), and her favorite jobs include scrubbing the floor and serving customers. She made her apron herself (one of our projects from Sewing School).  (And thanks to Mika for the fabric, which we adore!)

Hello good folks, just here to spread the word that we are adding a new option to pick up your local grain share in Boston, at Waltham Community Farms!  Woo hoo!

In other news, we’re adding lots of awesome gluten free and Paleo options to the menu and the pastry case at Wheatberry (even bread is coming soon!), all made with real, nourishing ingredients (no guar gum, carageenan, etc).  So stop by and check out the deliciousness.

Around here, it was high time for some simplifying.  After many months of digging in, taking on anything that needed to be done, we’re entering a phase of paring down, letting go. When the house starts to get overwhelming, I always start by decluttering, and so far I’ve taken two trunkfuls of stuff to the thrift store, plus aggressively thrown out anything that is actually *trash*.  I think of myself as someone who’s good at decluttering as I go along, but clearly not!  With books that fit on the shelves again and the clothes that were in a crazy avalanche on the children’s room floor packed away into apple crates, I’m starting to feel like I can breathe again.

On the farm, we thought we were going to hire a farm manager this year to help us do more.  But then, the farm manager didn’t work out and with the new baby in the Ergo, we kept right on going with our plans, like completely crazy people.  We planted the big Three Sisters Field, filled up the hoophouse, started to plant another large garden . . . Suffice to say, we were not able to keep up with everything we had hoped.  We did have some great harvests and we grew a lot of food for ourselves and for Wheatberry.  The pigs are happy and getting huge.  But we were reminded that when the farm gets past a certain size, we no longer enjoy it.  We farm to grow food, but also because we find it deeply pleasurable.  For me, it’s not a pleasure when it’s so big that I have to start worrying about the efficiency of my seeding techniques, or thinking about bringing in truckloads of compost.

So we’re getting small again.  Or rather, we’re returning to a micro-farm.  The three sisters field will become a pasture for the animals to rotate onto, and the other large garden space will become an orchard.  (Have I mentioned that I *love* perennials?)  We’ve also decided, even though it breaks our hearts a bit, to find a new home for our draft horse, Cole.  We don’t farm enough to keep a good working relationship going with him, and he deserves better.  We’re going to miss him a lot, but we’re also excited for that space in our lives to open up.  And soon I won’t have to worry about coming down in the morning to this ever again . . .

I’m simplifying my homeschooling plans with Ella, too.  Instead of a theme for each week, which was always too much, I’m planning a theme per month.  Mostly, I’m just not worrying about planning as much, since it’s only kindergarten, after all.  I’m focusing on the seasons, on creating connection and magic and gratitude.  Everything else can just be a bonus.

What about you?  What are you simplifying in your life, how are you creating space for new and beautiful things to find you?

Time to remind myself of this, and thought perhaps you’d like a reminder, too.  Blessings on your weekend, friends.

The Red Bowl

Taking the dog for a walk after work,
you smell wild grapes.
(Always the question: What more
could you want?)
It is the second day of fall.
You see the dog’s breath
and mist begins to rise from the long grass,
like the breath of the land.

When the light begins to bend
from the sky, you start back,
towards your best love, your warm house.
More is already here – this life
is what you will long for someday.
The sugar and flour canisters are full,
the red bowl is on the table.
You rinse the mud off the dog,
you step inside.

(c) 2003 Adrie Lester

I can’t get this photo out of my head.

Doesn’t she look amazing?  This Texas grandma is one of seven who locked themselves to trucks trying to build the Keystone XL pipeline on private homeowner’s properties in Texas.  I’m not sure how they did it, but they locked themselves so effectively that it took them five hours to dismantle the truck in order to arrest and remove the protesters, shutting down construction for the entire day.

I saw this photo this morning, via Tar Sands Blockade’s Facebook feed, and at first my heart was so heavy with it – wishing I could be there myself, wishing no one had to be there stopping this insane project.  But it stayed with me, tugging at me, and I kept wondering, why do I keep thinking about this?  What should I be doing?

And soon enough, it came to me.  Which master am I serving?  Whose work am I really doing?

These past six months have been a whirlwind for me, personally.  New baby, a business that needed lots of my time and attention, other family members with lots of needs . . . it was a time to roll up my sleeves, dive in, and do whatever needed to be done to get us through.  But now, I feel the times shifting, the crisis passing, and while there is still a lot of ongoing work to do, I was reminded today to step back and remember that my work is not just the customers I serve at Wheatberry, the nourishing local food and grain shares we provide, or even just my family.

I Belong to the Earth, and you do, too.  I work for her, first and foremost, and when I forget that, that’s when trouble begins.  It’s very easy to get lost in our own small tunnels and problems, and to forget the big Work.  I was so grateful today for the reminder, because without the larger purpose, our work can feel like drudgery.  The kids are just getting in the way of our business work, the business takes up too much family time, the farm isn’t productive enough, oh my goodness the dirty dishes, etc etc . . . But when I remember that I am here to work in Love, to be a light and a beacon, then it doesn’t feel like work, and I can rejoice in it.  It reminded me, also, how powerful each one of us can be, if we choose to.  We often feel powerless, I think, so we don’t take any action because it seems insignificant.  And yet, each customer who comes to our business makes a big difference for us, and each person who stands up against Tar Sands, fracking, nuclear plants, etc . . . each person is just the same as Rosa Parks or Mahatma Gandhi.  Just people, trying to do what is right, trying to do the good work.

Hoping you do, too.  (I’m starting with a donation to Tar Sands Blockade – their bail was $1000 for each person.  Perhaps you can donate too, and you could call the White House and tell them Canadian companies are not allowed to seize private American land.)

Hello everyone.  With the local grain harvests pouring in, and many new members joining us (yes, there are still shares available), it feels like a wonderful time to share more info about local grains & beans.  Here’s the handout I put together for my NOFA class on Cooking with Local Whole Grains & Beans.  We still plan to try and post the video, also, but for now, here’s a lot of info to get you started!  Bon Appetit!

Cooking with Local Whole Grains & Beans

Why Local Grains & Beans?

Flavor!

Health – Nutritional Values, Freshness

Climate Change/Crop Failures

Fossil Fuels/Peak Oil

Storage

You don’t need fancy storage for grains & beans – they’re storage crops!  Your kitchen cupboards will work just fine.  We store our grains and beans at home in glass jars in the cupboard or on the countertops, because they’re beautiful and we like looking at them.  We’ve never had problems with grain weevils, and haven’t had members with problems, either.  Once grains are milled, they need to be refrigerated or frozen after a week.

Basic Pot of Beans
If you’ve only had canned beans before, you’re in for a treat!

Place beans in a jar or cooking pot and cover with twice as much water (for instance, for one cup of beans, add two cups of water).  Soak overnight, or at least for two hours.  (Just like with grains, soaking helps break down the phytic acid and makes the beans more digestible, plus they will cook more evenly and you will avoid any gritty/grainy textures.)

Place over med-high heat and bring up to a simmer (or turn your crockpot on low).  Add one thumbnail-sized piece of kombu seaweed for extra goodness.  Simmer until beans are quite tender all the way through (anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours, depending on freshness).  In the crockpot, I usually start them in the morning before I leave for work, and they’re done by dinner.  Stirring makes them mushy, so resist temptation and don’t stir!

Make sure they stay covered by water and don’t dry out.  Adding a ham hock or other bones is delicious and adds wonderful nutrition.  If you don’t have any leftover bones, adding a spoonful of bacon fat works wonders, also, and gives them that silky texture.  You can also cook them with veggies, such as onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaf . . . Dried nettles make a tasty, nourishing addition also.

After the beans are thoroughly cooked, add salt to taste, and other seasonings like molasses or maple syrup.  Adding these before the beans are done interferes with their cooking.

Working with Beans

Now you have basic cooked beans – now what?  I start my week making a big pot of beans that I use throughout the week.  Burritos, huevos rancheros, soups, baked beans, bean salad, and a simple bowlful of beans and broth are all available to you now.

When making a bean salad, be sure to warm up the beans before dressing them with vinagrette, so that the flavors can meld.  Season well with vinegar and salt – cold foods need more seasoning.

Beans are a fantastic component for soups – chilis, stews, and simple soups all benefit from the addition of beans.  Some ideas include white bean kale soup, chili (vegetarian or con carne), Nine Bean Soup, Minestrone, and Black Bean Soup.

Health benefits of Beans

Compared to grains, legumes supply about the same number of calories but usually two to four times as much proteins.
Diets rich in beans are being used to:

• lower cholesterol levels

• improve diabetics’ blood glucose control

• reduce risk of many cancers

• lower blood pressure

• regulate functions of the colon

• prevent and cure constipation

• prevent piles and other bowel problems

Also richly coloured dried beans offer a high degree of antioxidant protection. In fact, small red kidney beans rate even higher than blueberries.
A lesser-known benefit of beans, though, is their high levels of isoflavones, compounds that are similar in structure to estrogen produced by your body (which is why they are also called phytoestrogens).
These isoflavones may ease the symptoms of menopause, prevent some form of cancer, reduce your risk of heart disease and improve your bone and prostate health, among other benefits.

(Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA share, 2009)

Why Eat Whole Grains?

Why eat true whole grains, not just baked goods made with whole grain flours?  First, big difference between “whole grain” and “whole meal.”  Even in whole meal flours, many of the enzymes and nutrients in the grain are lost as soon as they are milled and exposed to oxygen – for total nutritional value the grains must be consumed in whole form.  Humans evolved eating whole grains, not flour, and traditionally those grains were soaked and pre-fermented before consumption to add their digestibility and nutritional qualities.  It’s no wonder so many people are getting sick from eating so much white flour all the time!

A signification portion of the phytonutrients and phytochemicals are found in the bran and germ (the parts removed from store-bought flours, even whole wheat).  Regular whole grain intake helps prevent disease, including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, stroke, and digestive system cancers (according to Tufts University, American Heart Association, and Harvard Public School of Health).

Around the world, humans have traditionally pre-soaked and fermented their grains before eating them.  We know now that grains contain phytic acid in the bran, which can block absorption of nutrients in the human digestive system.  A diet high in unfermented whole grains can lead to bone loss and mineral deficiencies (i.e. just adding bran to your diet will actually adversely affect intestinal health long-term).  Soaking grains gives time for lactobacilli (same culture as found in yogurt) and other enzymes to break down and neutralize the phytic acid – overnight soaking in warm acidic water does the trick!  (You can add a bit of sourdough culture, whey, or yogurt to your soaking water to introduce the healthy flora).  This also produces numerous beneficial enzymes which increase the nutritional value.  (Corn is in its own category, and for maximum nutrition should be soaked or cooked with lime – pickling lime or wood ash can be used, this releases the vitamin B3.)

Many people find older varieties of wheat easier to digest than modern industrial wheat (including heirloom wheats such as Red Fife or Turkey Red, and ancient kinds of wheat such as spelt, einkorn, or emmer).  Many folks who feel sick eating white bread can eat whole wheat bread, especially whole wheat sourdough.  And folks who have trouble eating sourdough breads are sometimes able to eat wheat as a whole grain.

Basic Whole Grains

Most whole grains can be cooked up very simply using the following method, and then used in a variety of ways – as an addition to salads, soups, as a side dish, dressed with pasta sauce, or baked in a gratin.   All of these grains, once cooked, can also be stored in the freezer, ready to use!  Lorna Sass calls this the “Grain Bank.”  Adding a small piece of kelp is a great way to add minerals, and adding bones or replacing the water with stock adds flavor and great nutrients!

Wheat, Spelt, or Kamut
1 cup wheat berries
2 ½ cups water
pinch of salt
2 qt pot
This will yield 2- 2 ½ cups cooked berries.  Soak your grains overnight.
Bring the water and salt to a rolling boil.  Add the berries, cover, and reduce heat.  Simmer until tender (about 20-40 minutes), then drain them thoroughly.  You can also finish cooking them in the oven – bring to a boil, cover, and place in a preheated 325 degree F oven, check for tenderness after 20 minutes.

Barley
1 cup barley
3 cups water
pinch salt
2 qt pot

This will yield 2 cups cooked barley.  Soak your grains overnight.
Bring the water and salt to a rolling boil.  Turn off the heat to avoid boil-overs.  Add the barley, and return to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 40-55 minutes.  To test for doneness – the barley will be tender but still chewy, and one color throughout when cut in half lengthwise.  Drain off any unabsorbed water, and return barley to the pot.  Cover, and allow to rest off the heat for 5-10 minutes.
You can also bake this in the oven, After adding the barley to the boiling water, place it in a 350 degrees F oven, in a covered pot.

Oats (note – these are whole oat groats, not rolled oats)
1 cup oat groats
10 cups water (2 1/2 qts)
3/4 tsp salt
4 qt pot

This will yield 3 cups cooked oats.  Soak your grains overnight.
Bring the water and salt to a rolling boil.  Add the oats and turn the heat down slightly to prevent boiling over.  Boil uncovered until the oats are tender, 25-35 minutes.  To test for doneness – cut an oat groat in half, it will be one color throughout.  Drain off any unabsorbed water using a strainer.  If you want a creamy breakfast porridge, you’re done.  If you would like plump, chewy grains that don’t stick together, set the strainer holding the grains over a pot holding 2 cups fresh boiling water.  Set a towel on top of the oats, and the pot lid over the whole thing.  Boil for seven minutes.  Use immediately or cool to room temperature and store in the fridge or freezer.

Rye
1 cup rye berries
2 1/2 cups water
2 qt pot

This will yield 2 1/2 cups cooked rye berries.  Soak the rye berries overnight.
Bring water and grains to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until tender, 25-40 minutes.  Add salt to taste at the end of cooking.  Once a few grains have burst open, check for doneness.  Cut a rye berry in half; it should be one color throughout.  They should be juicy and the center should be soft.  Remove from the heat, and let soak for 10-15 minutes (this will plump the berries).  Drain off any excess water.  If you want to reduce the surface moisture, you can return the berries to the hot pan and let them sit, covered, off the heat for 5-10 minutes.
To bake in the oven: once the water and grains have come to a boil, cover and set the pot in a 350 F oven.

Emmer (Farro)
1 cup emmer
1 ¾ cup water
pinch salt
2 qt pot
This will yield 2 1/2 cups cooked rye berries.  Soak the emmer overnight.
Bring water and grains to a boil.  Simmer over low heat until tender, about 20 minutes.  To finish in the oven, bring to a boil, then cover and place in a preheated 350 degree F oven and check after 20 minutes.
Emmer is very delicious eaten with butter and a little grated parmesan on top – simple and delicious!

How Do I Really Add These To Meals?

Cooking whole grains and beans is simply a lifestyle change, a new set of habits that may take a little while to get going!  Make a meal plan (See Fields & Fire for more info about this) that includes beans and whole grains, and use it!   Get in the groove of checking your meal plan for the next day, and pre-soaking your beans or grains. Get rid of pasta in your cupboard, and simply substitute whole grains in your favorite recipes that call for pasta or rice!

Resources

Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass
Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck
Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair
Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams
Heirloom Beans by Steve Sando
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

If you aren’t lucky enough to have a local grain CSA, you can get some great dried beans from Seed Savers Exchange, Rancho Gordo, or try searching on LocalHarvest.

Dear Katherine – and you, too, dear readers -

I mostly have this to say: Take courage.

I asked a few weeks ago for your challenges in the kitchen, and Katherine related her own trouble with motivation, particularly because she’s often met with complaining, whining, etc at mealtimes from her children.  Kate mentioned struggling with having the right supplies on hand when her husband and son eat everything.  And many more of you, I’m sure, have similar challenges.  We all do!

I want to remind you how important the work you do is.  No one else can do what you do.  You, mother or father, or both, are shaping your child’s life, and growing your child body and soul.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m biased – I think truly healthy food is a top priority.  It is more important, to me, than ballet lessons or soccer practice, more important than hand-sewn clothes or handknit sweaters, more important than stacks of books or playdates.  There have been times in my mothering when I’ve totally failed to provide it – when I was pregnant with my second and miserably sick, we ate a lot of organic grocery store food and take-out.  There are times in life when it happens, and no one is perfect.  I want to focus on the everyday, every week, ongoing state of your kitchen, your health, and your family’s health.  Take courage – it may not be easy, especially at first.  I think it takes about a year to detox if you’re used to eating out a lot, or eating a lot of industrially produced foods.

Katherine mentioned that it might require a change of attitude – I think you know just what you need to do.  Decide if this is a priority, and what that means in your family, and then do it. You may stumble, you will make exceptions, that’s okay, just start doing it.  What you make for dinner is dinner.  If your kids complain, let it roll off your strong shoulders – you can take mild complaining.  If they keep going, or they’re really being obnoxious, they can leave the table.  In our house, children can say “That’s not my favorite,” or “No thank you,” and they canc hoose not to eat everytthing I’m serving.  They can’t say “This sucks” or “I hate this” etc etc.  My daughter sometimes swears she doesn’t like collard greens, and sometimes she tries to eat the whole pot.  Don’t assume that just because they don’t like something today, they never will.  Also, don’t assume that they’ll hate you forever because you’re “torturing” them with healthy food.  I got such a great laugh out of my super-healthy-eating friend Heather talking about wishing she could eat Pop-tarts as a kid (her mom fed them healthy homemade food).  I was the same way!  And now I thank my lucky stars that my parents did eat they way they did, and our family eats even healthier. Kids are like that – they want to eat gross weird junk food, they don’t want to go to sleep at bedtime, they don’t want to brush their teeth . . . it’s just part of the reality of parenting.

So gather your courage!  You are more than strong enough to make this happen for your family, if you choose to do it.  I start thinking about dinner first thing in the morning.  I check my menu plan – what are we having tonight, what do I need to get out to defrost (like frozen meat), does it need to cook a long time, etc.  When the baby takes his nap, or my daughter is happily playing and I have a few moments, I don’t run to check email or call a friend or pick up my knitting (as much as I might want to) – I work on dinner.  And if I don’t, I always regret it, lol.

Also, a few thoughts about snacks.  You make life a lot harder for yourself and your children if you have a lot of really appealing snacks around.  If super sweet salty crunchy store-bought junk (even organic junk) is waiting in the cabinet at all times, your child may not be very hungry at dinner, but they’re starving by snack.  Serve real food for snacks.  Snack should be food that you wouldn’t cringe to have on their dinner plate, so even if they fill up on it, or go light on dinner, you won’t be annoyed/horrified, and they won’t be tempted to binge on snacks.  Apples, carrots, boiled eggs, fruit-yogurt smoothies, bread with nut butter, etc . . . there are more ideas at the Radical Kitchens post.

I hope this helps!  Please let me know if you have more questions along this line of thought.  And for Kate, whose male household members eat all the food – I’m wondering what sort of things they’re eating up?  Are they devouring raw ingredients, or pre-made items?  Can you hide them?  I find that males often don’t look under things when they’re searching – so can you hide dinner ingredients under a bunch of kale, or carrots, or something else large, leafy, and that doesn’t yell “eat me!”?  Or can you leave a note on the fridge that says, “You can snack, but don’t eat xyz because that’s dinner”?  I do recommend keeping backup dinners in the freezer, generally, for times when mom is sick, or you’re out way later than you thought you would be, or have company, or whatever.

For sweets, I usually replace sugar with honey or maple syrup, and I often cut it in half, and find it plenty sweet.  My friend Sarah just started making muffins with mashed banana instead of sugar and she’s loving it.  I’m a big fan of eating fruit plain instead of sweetened, and letting it sing for itself.  If you have less sweets in your diet generally, you’ll appreciate the sweetness of what you do have more.  I also believe in treats – hey, I run a bakery with awesome squash brownies, you know?  Everything in moderation.

Blessings to all of you on this journey (and it is a journey, not a fixed destination).  I love hearing your stories, and being part of it with you.  So please, continue sharing, and I’ll be back with the handout from Cooking Whole Grains & Beans.

With love,

Adrie

Joining Ginny for Yarn Along . . .

At last, after what seemed like a lot of work deciding on a sweater that I could make for both of my wee ones (it’s always faster to do the same pattern twice, and winter will be here before I know it), I cast on for the first Molly Curly Sweater – Gabriel’s Plain Pickle, in green.

And have I mentioned how much Ella and I love Sewing School?  I had this sitting on the shelf, waiting for when she was older.  But, she found it and started working on the first projects pretty much by herself!  She quickly made the pin cushion, needle book, and Wonder Wallet, and it’s been so fun to see her go!  This week she’s working on the Little Friend.

Hello everyone!  Ben, Gabriel, and I had so much fun presenting at NOFA last weekend!  The great news is that Ben got it all on video, so very soon we’ll have those videos up here for you to view!

In the meantime, get a cup of tea and dig in to the handout I gave everyone, and enjoy!  I’m loving your comments, and am excited to reply further to them, and also to keep teaching this class and expanding it – we have lots of ideas   So keep your feedback coming, and as always, it’s a privilege to share our knowledge with you.  I’ll be posting the Cooking with Whole Grains & Beans class also, in just a few days.

Radical Kitchens

First – congratulations!  Making the decision to take back production of your food into your own kitchen is one of the most amazing gifts you could ever give yourself and your family.  It’s a journey and an ongoing adventure to be sure, so remember to be kind to yourself.

Menu Planning!

You need to learn to menu plan.  Unless you currently make three meals a day, seven days a week successfully (in which case, why are you taking this class?) – you need to buck up and do it.  It takes 15-30 minutes once a week (or once a month!), and it will save your sanity.  Learning to menu plan is more important than learning recipes.
Do your menu planning on the day before you go grocery shopping, the day you find out the contents of your CSA share, or the night after you come home from the farmer’s market.  You need to know what ingredients you’re working with, then grab a stack of cookbooks, a dedicated notepad, a pen, and sit down and get inspired!
Use designated days of the week – soup night, pizza night, leftovers night, etc . . .  You can make a weekly menu that continues for a whole month, especially in periods where you have less time (sickness in family, new baby, etc).  Be sure to have a leftovers night, and a night where you make something that uses up random odds & ends, like pizza, soup, or a casserole (sheperd’s pie, tamale pie, etc).  You want to eat up all that good food you’ve got!

Make it Ahead:

Once you know what you’re making, make as much of it in one big bang as you can!  My friend Sarah makes pancakes for breakfast almost every day, so she makes a huge batch of pancake batter and keeps it in the fridge.  The same works for granola.  You can make a big batch of muffin batter and freeze the uncooked batter in muffin cups.
At the beginning of the week, make your staples: a big pot of beans and a big pot of grains (rice, wheat berries, spelt, etc), some loaves of bread.  If you’re chopping an onion for dinner, go ahead and chop five and keep the rest ready to go in the fridge.  This is an important lesson from working in commercial kitchens – it takes about as much time to make 10x as much, so go for it!

What is your goal?
It’s important to take some time and identify what you want your kitchen and your family’s eating habits, ideally, to look like.  Important to remember that your kids may turn their noses up at what you make sometimes, but be very grateful later on.  As a kid, I was totally mad that my mom didn’t serve us pop-tarts for breakfast and TV dinners, but now I’m deeply grateful!
Get a vision and do your best to stick to it.  You’re not a short order cook, so don’t get sucked into making different meals for different family members.  Don’t make something you know everyone will absolutely hate, either – make sure there’s a crowd pleaser you still feel is in line with your goals (i.e. mashed potatoes, a simple soup, grilled cheese sandwiches) at each meal, and then make peace with some minor complaints.  Major complainers may exit the table.
If you don’t want yourself or your family eating it, don’t bring it home!  This can be a hard one to really dig into.  It’s easy to think we’ll buy a treat, bring it home, and save it/dole it out in small portions.  It’s much, much easier to just leave it at the store and not have to bargain with the family about when, how much, how often . . . Figure out treats you feel are appropriate that your family is excited about, and make those together.  If they want the treat they can pitch in to make it.

Sourdough:

I got a lot of requests to talk about sourdough in this class.  Making sourdough bread is beyond the scope of this class, but I can give you some helpful tips for keeping your starter happy.  Always remember that your starter is a living being – it’s like keeping a pet.  It needs food and water twice a day, every day.  If you have to leave town or something, you can store it in the fridge for a few days, but then it will need several days to recover before you try to make bread.  If you’re starter isn’t happy (bubbly, smells alcoholic, rising) don’t bother trying to make bread – you’ll just be disappointed!
Buy a digital scale, only use recipes that go by weight, and buy a digital thermometer.  Unless your house stays a steady 70 degrees F, seriously consider investing in a seed mat (sold at garden stores and online), and set it to 70, and keep your starter on it.  This will make your starter super strong and happy!  Make sure your water is warm and your dough is warm when making bread.
Also, use your starter as frequently as possible!  Ideally, use it every day.  Sourdough starter is delicious in bread, pancakes, pasta, etc . . .

Use it All Up:
In a happy Radical Kitchen, there is no waste.  Save your meat bones in the freezer and make bone broths or cook them with your beans.  Save your cooking fat and use it to cook eggs, add to beans, etc.  Make sure all those veggies get used up on pizza night or in a soup.  Soup is your best friend.  If your family eats meat, have a meat casserole night as part of your menu – use up any leftover meats chopped up and leftover veggies/unused veggies, put a pie crust on top and you have a delicious dinner!  No one has to know it’s all the leftover bits
Speaking of leftovers, leftovers are awesome!  In our house, we eat leftovers for lunch almost every day.  I usually make enough for dinner that we’ll have leftovers, and I try to make meals that improve with age.  Industrial foods taste disgusting reheated, most homemade meals are actually even better as the flavors continue to meld.  Get rid of your own ideas that leftovers are gross or second-best and your family will follow you.

Snacks

Afternoon slumps happen – be ready with healthful snacks.  Here are some we love:

- green smoothies (if you use bluberries, your kids will enver know you added greens)
- popsicles
- popcorn (nutritional yeast is a great topping, so are dried herbs, cinnamon, etc)
- applesauce
- rice with soy sauce and sesame seeds
- frozen blueberries
- nuts
- make a snack tray with veggie sticks and cheese slices – whatever isn’t eaten can be used in lunch or dinner

Condiments

Here are some condiments you might not know you can make amazing versions of at home.  I highly recommend it, since even the organic versions of these have lots of additives like guar gum, carrageenan, etc –

Sour cream (New England Cheesemaking Supply sells the culture)
Ketchup (Putting it Up with Honey)
Mayonnaise (Mastering the Art of French Cooking)
Salsa (Putting it Up with Honey)
Vinegar  (Wild Fermentation)

Resources

Preserving, Condiments: Putting it Up with Honey
General Cookery: Cooking from Quilt Country; Forgotten Skills of Cooking; Mastering the Art of French Cooking; Lulu’s Provencal Table; Feeding the Whole Family; Nourishing Traditions
Vegetables: Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables
Online:  101cookbooks.com; nourishedkitchen.com
Whole Grains & Beans: Whole Grains Everyday; Heirloom Beans; Ancient Grains for Modern Meals