Start me off on this stuff!

[Wolfcat]

Okay, I'm very interested in doing this. We already eat a lot of very whole foods. We live in a very rural area so cost of "unusual" foods is pretty high, since they need to be ordered online and shipped. We use wheatberries, muscuvado sugar, honey, stocks, etc. We have a garden and will be going to the (not so good) farmer's market when it opens (nope, not yet!). BTW, we both work full-time and the kids aren't old enough to be any real help (5 yo and 14 mo).

So, give me three things that you would suggest we do to take this to the next stage. And talk to me like I don't know the lingo, cuz I kinda don't. :D

[JMJ]

1) Soaking - grains, beans, nuts, seeds.... add some acid to your grains/beans, salt to your nuts/seeds, and then soak for the specified time.  Google "soaking x" for more information.  Different people will tell you different things about times, etc.  Most of the sites on this are raw vegan.  That's not a problem.  They need to be careful about this more than the rest of us.

2) Find a source of high quality fats.  This is worth ordering online if you need.  Coconut oil, Extra virgin olive oil, grassfed ghee, pastured lard are all great options.

3) Start playing with ferments - sourdough bread, yogurt, kefir, kombucha, beet kvass, saurkraut, pickles, etc.... the list goes on and on.

4) Start scouting out farmers that are kinda nearby to buy from.  Is there grassfed/pastured meat nearby?  What about milk?  Can you raise your own chickens for eggs and maybe some meat?  What is the best that's available.

oh wait... you only wanted 3.... well pick 3...

[Casha'sMommy]

I'll chime in about the farmers.

We've had to decide if it's cost effective to drive say 45 minutes to get meat once a month and buying in bulk allows us to get a discounted price per pound.

You may also want to join your local wapf yahoo group or something similar in your area or find some like minded

person/people in your area who already make fermented veg, raise chickens, etc and learn from them. My farmer is always willing to teach someone about how they do things. While they are in business to make some money they're doing it the way they do because they care and truly wish others cared as well.

Maybe you can get in on a co-op or even start one yourself. Call around to see what discounted prices you might get for coconut oil, or ghee, or even flours.

You might also find someone willing to give you a kombucha scoby or a tablespoon of water/milk kefir grains. It seems like there's always someone offering a trade for one or the other.

Darn it! I went over the limit of 3 as well.

[Wolfcat]

Thanks for the advice!

I went ahead and got some kefir from Amazon (my go-to online ordering site), and I got a catalog for organic fruits and grains, so I think we are going to try some buckwheat and millet next.

Strangely enough, we live within walking distance of hog farms, stockyards and even two slaughterhouses. Do you think you can get anyone to grassfeed though? Not really. I found a place online that is within an hour of here that raises grassfed cattle, yaks and cow-yak hybrids. We will get some of that as soon as our finances stabilize a bit more. We got about 2/3 of a llama last year, and we may do the same thing this year. It only took us about 6 mo to go through it, so I know a 1/2 a yak for a year would be no problem.

High quality fats? We eat only real butter and cheeses from all over the world. Could you go into the fats thing a little more?

DH would like to try his hand at canning, so I may push him towards pickling. And what is the thing with ferments? Is it because it begins to break down the foods? Provides a pre/pro-biotic effect with the organisms that grow? Both?

We already soak beans, though adding an acid (lemon juice or vinegar?) is new to me. I like my grains a bit crunchy, and my nuts salty, but soaked? Could you explain this one too?

Hey, I warned you... I'm a bit of a newby at this.

[ltlmrs]

A couple of sites w/ TF baby steps:

http://www.cookingtf.com/2011/01/06/baby-steps-transitioning-to-traditional-foods/

http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/11/28/overwhelmed-start-here/

[Casha'sMommy]

re: the high quality fats

I use a lot of coconut oil. For instance, I heated some in a double boiler over as low a heat as possible until it melted and removed from heat. I added a handful of chocolate (I have large hands so this was probably 1/2 cup or so) and some raw honey until it tasted sweet enough. I put that into a parchment lined 8x8 baking pan and allowed it to cool in the frige until hardened. I then cut it into about 80 pieces, put the pieces into a container and into the frige to keep them firm.

Voila! Coconut oil candy

And, let me tell you, AF is about to visit and I've been into that candy like nobody's business.

I also add coconut oil to cookie dough, pancake batter, anything that calls for an oil or butter. Things generally turn out well.

[JMJ]

Originally Posted by Wolfcat 

Thanks for the advice!

I went ahead and got some kefir from Amazon (my go-to online ordering site), and I got a catalog for organic fruits and grains, so I think we are going to try some buckwheat and millet next.

Strangely enough, we live within walking distance of hog farms, stockyards and even two slaughterhouses. Do you think you can get anyone to grassfeed though? Not really. I found a place online that is within an hour of here that raises grassfed cattle, yaks and cow-yak hybrids. We will get some of that as soon as our finances stabilize a bit more. We got about 2/3 of a llama last year, and we may do the same thing this year. It only took us about 6 mo to go through it, so I know a 1/2 a yak for a year would be no problem.

High quality fats? We eat only real butter and cheeses from all over the world. Could you go into the fats thing a little more?

DH would like to try his hand at canning, so I may push him towards pickling. And what is the thing with ferments? Is it because it begins to break down the foods? Provides a pre/pro-biotic effect with the organisms that grow? Both?

We already soak beans, though adding an acid (lemon juice or vinegar?) is new to me. I like my grains a bit crunchy, and my nuts salty, but soaked? Could you explain this one too?

Hey, I warned you... I'm a bit of a newby at this.

Fats: Here's a little summary I wrote on this a while ago.  Basically, good fats include grass-fed/pasture-raised animal fats, coconut and palm oil (non-hydrogenated), butter (especially if grass-fed), olive oil (especially cold-pressed, extra virgin sold in dark container), expeller pressed flax oil (kept in dark container in the fridge), and high quality fish oil (especially fermented, kept in a dark container in the fridge).  Do not cook with flax oil or fish oil because they are very easily damaged.

Canning/Fermenting:  Canning destroys a lot of nutrients.  Fermenting actually adds them and makes them more easily assimilated.  They become acidic, supplementing our stomach acids to help break them down better.  Anti-nutrients, goitrogens, and other things that we don't really want to be eating are broken down, and the cultures produce nutrients of their own, especially B-vitamins.  Additionally, the cultures in naturally fermented products tend to survive our stomach acid much better than most probiotics that you might find in the store so that they make it all the way to the intestines to colonize them.

Soaking: Again, different people use different soaking protocols.  Google "soaking nuts" etc for ideas of how long/how to do it.  Here's some of my protocols:

-Brown rice - 1 c rice + 1 c water + 1 T whey (substitute your own acid), leave at room temp for 7 hours, add 1 c broth, cook.... If I was really good, I'd drain off the soaking liquid and then add 2 c of broth

-other grains - same as rice, but soak for 12 hours

-most beans: add about 1 T whey per 1 c water, soak overnight, drain, rinse, fill with water and add 1 piece kumbu, cook

-almonds: cover with water, add a couple T salt, soak at least 7 hours, blanch if necessary to remove skins (removing skins is optional, blanching is not necessary if you wait long enough), rinse, dry, spread on cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt (optional), dry until quite crispy in warm oven (up to 150 F) (Make sure they're really, really dry... a lot of people lose their first batch because they don't get them dry enough.  They should be brittle.)

-pumpkin seeds (use hulled), pecans, walnuts - same as almonds (add optional cayenne pepper or other spices to pumpkin seeds), but do not rinse, just strain before drying in oven