Food Inspiration
I'm really excited about the challenges and rewards of learning to grow food in my small space. Veteran growers might roll their eyes at this neophyte, but in a world where we're increasingly disconnected from our food sources and where full reliance on others to supply our food is becoming more and more of a liability, I will take great pleasure and pride in my apprenticeship. Here is a brief summary of some of the foody literature I've come across that has shifted the way I think about food and more importantly has forever changed the way I eat. The purpose of this first blog is to provide some context to my foody goals and to provide some sources of potential inspiration to others.
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” This is Michael Pollan's food manifesto. It's inspiring in its honesty and simplicity. It's also what began my family's food revolution. Well not really, but it was a large part of the gradual shift we made to eating more whole foods and making food a larger priority in our busy lives. Pollan is a wise man when it comes to food – for example (and these are just a few of his ideas very broadly summarized), he recommends shopping the perimeter of your local grocery store because that's where you'll find your whole foods – most of the processed stuff is in the middle aisles. He suggests not eating food that contains ingredients your grandmother wouldn't recognize, or that has more than 5 (give or take) ingredients listed. He talks about how many people now eat meals while driving in their cars, and about the opportunity we have to build stronger families by making certain that we sit down to eat and share our meals together. Clever.
Most of my cookbooks have the words “quick,” “fast,” or “easy” in the title. Some of them are pretty good, but George Mateljan's “World's Healthiest Foods” website and cookbook has helped my family to eat really good tasting simple whole foods better than anything else I've tried, ever. We eat more vegetables because of George Mateljan. This is a book that will inspire you because of the recipes, not because of the rudimentary layout or grainy graphics. It's also a mammoth reference book about very specific health benefits of the foods we grow, and how to cook these foods in the quickest way possible while maintaining the most nutrients and flavour. I've given a copy to most of my family members and it's changed the way they eat too. He also has great free recipes on his website.
And finally, Barbara Kingsolver's book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." For those familiar with eating locally and the 100 Mile Diet, I don't think there's much new here in the way of concepts. But Kingsolver is a really good writer and this particular non-fiction story is a great yarn about a family navigating the ins and outs of producing the majority of their own food for a whole year. It's also filled with interesting facts about food and eating locally, and each chapter ends with a recipe. After reading this book, my husband started to make bread from scratch a few times a week, which requires surprisingly few ingredients, very little hands-on time, and just a little bit of forward-planning. Next up we're going to try making our own cheese. Just read this book and you'll understand.
I don't expect to harvest great quantities of food in my small space or that this first season will be particularly successful. But I do expect to learn a lot, work hard, and enjoy digging in the dirt and growing things with my family. I also hope that others will feel inspired to grow, harvest, eat, and play in their own communities, and to maybe even think about food a little differently. In the meantime, we'll continue to choose to buy locally as much as we can - by shopping at our local farmer's markets and by doing our weekly grocery shopping online with SPUD.
Next I'll be posting pics of my small space and asking for some design/layout/growing tips – please share your expertise!
