Fundamentals of TF?

[CherryBomb]

I did read the stickied "how to start" thread, but I'm looking for more of a personal opinion/experience angle What are the fundamentals of TF, in your opinion, that would you suggest people focus on when starting out? I can't afford to throw out everything I have (we're on food stamps right now, thankfully there's a health food store that takes them but I still don't have a huge food budget), so I'm mainly trying to replace things as they get used up and trying to decide what to focus on first.

Oils was really the first thing I did, because I've already been using real butter for years and have never used much vegetable oil or shortening. So cutting those out completely and adding in coconut oil and upping my usage of olive oils was pretty easy. I can't always afford high quality organic butter, so I just buy it when I can and don't stress out when I can't. I've also got some home rendered lard I need to go pick up (rendered from fat from local grassfed cows) from a friend.

We started raising chickens at the beginning of the year and they're really getting into laying now, so I get about 2-3 eggs a day at the moment. They free range the yard but right now I just feed them layer crumble from Rural King so the eggs aren't really "organic" but still, better than regular store bought, right? I do plan on doing my own organic feed some day, I just haven't gotten there yet. We had 15 for meat too that we butchered, so that's the majority of the chicken we eat (I do still have some reg store bought in the freezer that I can't stand to throw away that I use occasionally, I think it's almost gone, though). Right now I've got 3 carcasses and a bunch of feet simmer on the stove for broth.

I'm looking now at focusing on grass fed beef and securing a raw milk source. The gfb is expensive, but since I can buy it with food stamps, that helps a lot (and we're getting almost $800 next month since dh's unemployment ran out, so I plan on stocking up on it). The raw milk is the hardest for me. We get WIC and my two younger kids love milk, it's just so hard to justify paying $5 a gallon when I can get it for free...but I know the stuff in the store is really just horrible. I did find a local farmer that does cow share and I was planning on signing up when dh got his student loan and paying for a year up front so I didn't have to worry about coming up with the money, but then he emailed me and said he's taking a break and won't be offering cow share till spring at the earliest I got a number for an Amish family I might be able to get raw cow and/or goat's milk off of, so I guess I need to get a hold of them.

So that's where I'm at right now. Is there any aspect of the WAPF view of TF that you'd suggest I focus on next or add in asap? I read the archives at WAPF a lot and most of it sounds great, it's just a little overwhelming!

[tanyalynn]

I'd say one of the bigger aspects, and cheap to boot, is preparation of grains and legumes. Fermenting grains and legumes, or at least soaking them in an environment that will reduce the phytic acid, is a good way to boost their nutritional value to you and it's not costly.

The other thing I really like is fermenting vegetables. There's a long thread on fermenting vegetables, Search for it, I think Hibou started it, with a lot of recipes and even more importantly, discussion of fermenting itself, how it works, how it's more flexible than NT makes it sound. We're dairy free (kefir-ing less-than-great milk would be a good option) and I love making kimchi, I use NT's recipe for the most part and it's great. It takes a bit of time to get used to the idea of fermenting if you aren't already, but it's actually a really straightforward process with just a few tricks. And it's always helpful that it's cheap.

So those would be my additions to what you say you're already doing. Because to me, TF is real food, prepared in ways that are intended to maximize the nutritional value, with a special focus on fat soluble vitamins and how to obtain them.

[FairyRae]

Sounds like you are doing amazingly well already! And your free range eggs are fantastic--I'd rather have chicken eggs that were from chickens running around on a small family farm than certified organic any day!

+1 on everything Tanyalynn said. (I fermented veggies, and they are soooo easy to make and sooooo beneficial.)

Really, it seems like you've totally got a handle on what it means to be TF and are doing it. Woo hoo!

ETA: Fundamentals of TF (IMO, in no particular order)

Bone broth
Fermented foods (veggies, dairy if you do it--I would totally get the WIC milk and make it into kefir/yogurt/etc.)
Organs/offal (liver esp--get it in however you can )
Great fats
Soaking/Sprouting/Fermenting grains/legumes (if you eat them)
Trying to get local veggies and fruit, as much as possible

[pixiepunk]

i'd also say that, since you're getting milk for free thru WIC right now, use that free milk to do dairy kefir and make home made yogurt. that way the milk you get from the cow share can just be drinking milk, and you can up the nutritional benefit of the pasteurized/homogenized milk by turning it into kefir and yogurt. if you find that you have more kefir than you can consume yourselves, chickens LOVE kefir and it is a great source of protein and probiotics for them. whenever we get over-run with kefir (sometimes the kids just don't feel like it for a few days here or there) we always give our extras to the chickens. and if i don't have anyone to pass along the extra grains to, they get the grains as well. you can also strain the whey away from the kefir or yogurt solids and make a soft cheese that tastes awesome as a cream-cheese replacement, especially if you mix in some herbs and spices. and the whey can be used for lacto-fermenting veggies, and soaking grains and legumes!

and ITA about the soaking grains and legumes. very easy to do, and will simply make the foods you're already eating TF. just that simple step is going to be huge!

sometimes food stamps will also pay for seeds, so if yours do, then you might want to consider some gardening. especially fresh herbs which are easy to grow indoors all year with the same care as a house plant. and especially if you have some outdoor space (which you must if you have chickens), you can buy the seeds for next spring/summer now while they're super cheap, they will still be viable next year. you can also this time of year often pick up dirt cheap or free herb plants because no one is planting them in their gardens this late in the growing season.

what about making sourdough bread? even if you do it with cheap white flour (like i do) it is still a lot better than store bought bread. and inexpensive to make.

[Smokering]

I'm still TF-lite... I bake regular evil white-sugar-and-flour cookies and cakes, for instance, and haven't really explored ferments much or shelled out for hideously expensive butter oil capsules. Basically, I do what's easy, relatively cheap and yummy.

Some easy changes I've made:

Using homemade chicken stock wherever possible

Eating fish as much as possible. DH doesn't like frozen fish and we don't have a car, so I get it once a week when we go grocery shopping. If I end up in town at any other time during the week, I'll pop to the supermarket by the bus station and get some more fish. And I just discovered I like sardines, so I might stock up on a few cans of those today.

I've switched from regular homemade bread to sourdough. I prefer the taste of regular bread, but I'm trying to acclimatise. DH and my flatmate both like sourdough, so that helps me not give up.

I eat eggs most mornings for breakfast, fried in butter and often served with bok choy or pak choy.

I *just* started (as in yesterday!) swallowing pills of frozen raw liver. It's gross, but at least I don't have to taste it.

I make kefir - it's ridiculously easy.

I've cut down on carbs - it's kind of a shame, because I love them, but they seem to make me bloated or gain weight or something. We're not carb-free by any means, but I don't double up on potatoes and bread in one meal any more, and I try to serve chicken on a bed of wilted greens instead of rice.

[Arduinna]

I'm TF lite too. I do bone broths, we drink non homogenized milk, because we don't have a local source for raw and I cook with coconut oil, olive oil, butter and lard. We get as much organic free range meat as we can, eggs are easy as are fruits and vegs. Dh hunts and fishes. But I am a baker and still use white flour, I'm never going to give up rice, I have absolutely no desire to soak grains other than beans before cooking LOL and I'm not giving up sugar.

[Magelet]

It sounds like your doing great on sourcing, particularly given your finances.

(and your chickens and their eggs sound like they are 100 billion times better than storebought, not just a little better)

I'd focus on the preparation stuff:

lots of stocks
plenty of fermented foods (particularly veggie)
soaking/sprouting/sourdough grains and legumes


To me, the most important TF things are:
tons of healthy fats, the better the better (aka, grainfed butter is good. grassfed butter is great)
stock
fermented foods
grain and legume prep
organ meat
some grass-fed animal products (if you can do all that's great but just the best your finances can handle)

[CherryBomb]

Thanks for the feedback! Using the WIC milk for kefir/yogurt is a great idea, I hadn't thought of that! We eat a lot of yogurt and I do know chickens love it (ours get whatever leftover we have that isn't fresh enough for us to eat but not quite ready to throw out).

I think I've been kind of avoiding the grains part because I know that's going to be the hardest for me. I really love to bake and I really love "down home" type of food (buttermilk biscuits and the like, nom nom). I get the reasoning behind it, I'm just a little lost on the logistics. But I'm going to be buying Nourishing Traditions soon so I'm sure it will make more sense once I get that and actually have some recipes and what not, too. I do love sourdough bread and have starter in the fridge that I revive periodically, but no one else in the family will eat it so I don't make it often. I bought some sprouted grain hot dog buns and they were horrifyingly awful, so...

Oh, we do have a big veggie garden, I forgot to add 650sq ft, this year we have cucumbers (I need to look into fermenting those, right now I just do regular pickling and canning) green beans, corn, tomatoes, and peppers.

I'll have to check into some type of liver pill, I really do not like organ meats at all I grew up with them, I just have never liked them (the texture especially really freaks me out). Which is a shame since I can get organic livers from my meat chickens!

[Magelet]

how about pureeing the liver, and mixing it in with other food (specifically any place you use ground meat)

[FairyRae]

Originally Posted by Magelet

how about pureeing the liver, and mixing it in with other food (specifically any place you use ground meat)

I puree fresh chicken livers from my farmer when I can get them and freeze them in ice cube trays. Then I toss a couple cubes in when I do ground meat dishes (like tacos, pasta sauce, etc) and the family eats it up. I don't like to do this w/ beef liver b/c the flavor is so strong (and I won't eat it then, as it grosses me out )

Just one way to sneak it in! I'm currently loving the frozen beef liver pills myself--WAY easier to get down (for me) than any other method I've tried--I really don't like the taste or texture of liver...

[velcromom]

An article about the basics from a TF blog I like: TF in a nutshell

[pixiepunk]

oh, wanted to add a bit on the chickens. we also feed our chickens commercial feed right now because it's what's available locally and we don't have the funds to have organic grains shipped to us right now. but we try to supplement them with other things as much as possible, which not only means they're eating less commercial feed (which also costs less $$) but also means they're healthier and their eggs are better.

so in addition to the kefir, we also give them most of our table scraps - especially veggie peelings and meat scraps. this is a great way to use the chickens to speed up your composting process - they eat the scraps and turn it into chicken poo for the garden! we're also planning to start growing meal worms as a cheap source of protein for them. if you have room (or a place to wild harvest) nettles are great for chickens. and during the winter time we give them apple cider vinegar or super tonic in their water to help boost their immune systems.

[CherryBomb]

Originally Posted by Magelet

how about pureeing the liver, and mixing it in with other food (specifically any place you use ground meat)

That's a good idea! I'll have to keep that in mind next time we butcher chickens
Also, where do you all get your frozen liver pills, or do you make them yourselves?

I'm trying my hand at fermenting pickles, so wish me luck I hope it's not too hot in here, I'm trying to keep it at 72 to save on my electric bill.

PP, I'll have to check out the nettles! I give the chickens most of the table scraps and throw what they don't want into my compost (like celery, they hate it, lol!) I let them free range the yard though they're destroying my tomatoes so I'll have to get some fencing for next year (hopefully I can afford it!).

Thanks for the link, VM! I love the nourished kitchen, I haven't read that article, though.

Another question- what's the minimum frequency you should have bone broth? Like 2-3 times a week, daily, etc?