Hardscrabble Farmer prefers not to eat wood pulp. When will we all revolt and escape from our corporate prison camp lives? Support your local farmers. Develop personal relationships with like minded people. Starve the corporate/banking oligarchs.
Yesterday I saw a sign by the side of the road for a barn sale so I pulled down the driveway for a quick look. I asked if they had any hay forks, windrow rakes or log dogs and the guy was all smiles. I found what I was looking for plus a few extras and then brought up trade for meat. Both he and his wife lit up, we came to a mutually beneficial agreement and I took the tools I had found and returned later that afternoon with my youngest son in tow and a big box of meats- ground beef, chorizo, maple cured ham, skirt steak, ribeyes, sweet Italian sausage and a couple of pints of dark maple syrup.
I don’t expect that most people would want to do their own slaughter and frankly I don’t blame them. You have to be committed to your food and your animals on a pretty serious level to do something like that and you need a lot more than a good rifle and a sharp knife. What I don’t understand is why so many people who have the knowledge of our current food systems still avoid finding a local or even not that distant farmer to purchase from directly. Knowing how someone cares for his livestock, what kind of feeds they eat, how its processed is no different than researching your physician or mechanic and is in most cases far more important. Not everyone needs a heart bypass surgery or a new transmission, but every one of us eats food daily. Is there anything we do that is more personal, more tied to the overall physical health of our body than the nourishment we take from our daily meals?
I get the price conscious decision, but the fact is that as an excuse it isn’t only weak, it’s not even true. A pound of filet mignon I sell for $25 is going to provide the protein requirement for 3 adults. It would cost $50 in ground chuck from WalMart to equal the same protein because of filler and fat. The added costs associated with soil depletion, petrochemical usage, and future medical costs are part of the price no one factors in- never mind that when the last family farm is gone and the multinational food corps take over all production they will no longer have to keep prices lower and will charge whatever they like.
I get folks who come up to the farm and purchase a live animal and wait while I slaughter it for them. Some will even take a hand in butchering it and packing it up. Their cost is on average about $4 a pound for an entire animal from chickens and goats all the way to hogs and beeves. People with a decent freezer can feed their family well for months if not a whole year for a thousand dollars. How many hours of their life would they spend on grocery runs, how many gallons of gas, how many blah tasting meals or stomach upsets?
Wood pulp.
Really?
There are times in your life when you are so powerless that people who are bigger and stronger will hold you down and make you hit yourself in the face with your own hands and say “why are you hitting yourself?” Most of us grow out of that and learn to stand up for for ourselves and refuse to be bullied and pushed around. A lot of us decide to keep taking it and some of us even continue to abuse themselves without being forced to. Eating meat filled with wood pulp or worse yet, feeding it to your loved ones is the kind of self abnegation and masochism I just cannot fathom. And the worst part is that the ones who continue to do so make it so that sooner or later, no one will be able to opt out.
Just got back from the local farmer’s market… picked up a juicy ripe cantaloupe, tomatoes, peppers, squash, peaches, etc. Much cheaper than the box store, and so incredibly better quality than that shit they harvest early and ship halfway around the world.
If we lived near Hardscrabble Farmer we would probably spend 90% our food budget there.
Went to Trader Joe’s yesterday. They are now selling fruits priced INDIVIDUALLY …. instead of by the pound, as they did last year. Last year, a pound of peaches was around a $1.25. Today …. 80 fucking cents EACH. Jeebus!!
Hardscrabble
I think people are slowly waking up to the fact that “industrial” food is of mediocre value at best., harmful to health at worst. More and more organic produce and grass-fed meat and poultry are appearing in stores, which indicates the market share for real food is increasing.
I do little shopping at supermarkets anymore. I am able to get organic produce from my own garden or a local farmers’ market or Trader Joe’s. I buy ground bison and organic produce from Costco. A local independent grocery store sells locally raised free-range chicken and turkey. When I begin to get anxious about the price of this good food, I remember that much of the processed crap is also expensive but provides less nutrition and more bad chemistry.
One of the solutions is for food production to become as localized as possible. This idea is the enemy of Big Farma of course, and Big anything is a formidable foe. Kudos to you for trying to provide a good alternative to those who want a better choice.
“What I don’t understand is why so many people who have the knowledge of our current food systems still avoid finding a local or even not that distant farmer to purchase from directly.”
Because most people don’t have any local farmers.
How true, Hardscrabble Farmer. Even more true than you think. The recent revelation about wood pulp indicated that it wasn’t just in the meat, but in all the fast food items such as bread, french fries, onion rings, dessert items, cheese, basically every food item. I’d be willing to bet it’s not just limited to fast food chains. As a “hardscrabble farmer” in training, in recent years I have begun to grow and butcher my own meat as well: rabbits, poultry of various kinds, sheep, goats and hogs (I get professional help butchering hogs). The peace of mind is well worth the effort, not to mention the quality. Now, if I could only get my gardens to grow. It sucks having a brown thumb.
This. This is why I love Indiana. I not only go to Farmers’ Markets, but also belong to a farmng Co-Op. I haven’t had fast food in YEARS. I buy limited things at a supermarket, the kind of stuff you don’t get at a Farmer’s market. The Midwest is so marvelous, compared to the Nevada desert in which I grew up. It is so lush here that I need “greenblocker” sunglasses. And plenty of water. I almost feel sorry for those I left out West.
I have been going to my local farmers market for years and I enjoy meeting the people who grow my food. I do get a bunch from my garden too.
I found a new farmers market that is fantastic. There is this one person who has raw milk, yogurt, kefir, etc. I bought his yogurt expecting it would be similar to the organic yogurt I buy at the store, was I wrong. His yogurt is the best. I searched the internet on how to make yogurt and got a few different methods and temperatures, then I spoke with the farmer and he told me the correct temperatures to use. Heat the milk to 185 to kill everything then ferment the yogurt at 115 for 10 hours. The 185 was found on the internet but the 115 for fermenting was not, the only temperature I found was 110. All temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit.
I am brewing my yogurt today so I can see if I can make yogurt as good as his. I will still buy his yogurt until fall because I only go to this farmers market in the summer. I am learning as I already stopped using my crock pot and threw the milk in a pot and heated it more quickly. Now I have to work on cooling to 115.
Joe
When I saw the title of this thread I immediately thought of that line from the movie “Network”;
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore”
I’m reaching that point. There may only be one solution left.
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We are fortunate. We live in a food rich environment. Lots of small fruit, vegetable, dairy and livestock farmers. Piles of them. Everywhere. There is a farm just down the road – a short walk – that makes cheese the old fashioned way. I’m a cheese head – we eat a lot of it.
We’ve also gotten good at trading goods from our business for meat from local farms and butchers. We know where our meat comes from and how it is raised. We pick a lot of our own berries – many wild as they grow in abundance here and my wife makes pies, jams and – yum – smoothies from them.
Local farmers sell their food everywhere here and farmers markets are plentiful. We eat it all.
We also hunt so there is usually an ample supply of game when we want it.
As a side note my son is not just an honour student and athletic he recently took TOP honours in a mathematics competition in his school (that would be first place) and additionally placed in the top 25% of a prestigious math competition in the entire nation. No one can tell me that food doesn’t matter. My kids are bright and inquisitive because they eat and lead healthy lives. FOOD MATTERS! So does being an active parent for that matter.
Tell the factory/corporate food system to pound sand. Develop a relationship with your local producers and line their pockets with your cash.
God Bless the local farmer.
JOe
If you are interested in making your own Kefir, you might want to take a look at this web site. I found it a year or so ago and still haven’t tried it. lol But, my younger son has, and he’s quite pleased with their products and instructional articles.
http://www.yemoos.com/learn.html
Very nice clip, Admin.
Only saw the movie once. I had forgotten what a marvelous speech he gave leading up to that famous quote. Good grief …. it sounds just like 2014.
HF:
I live in the North East. I am very, very fortunate to be able to drive 20-30 minutes in a bunch of different directions and get grass-fed beef from very nice people who take care of their animals and care about what they eat.
My husband and I visited a farm right over the border in CT. They raise heritage Devonshire cattle, and they are wonderful animals and produce a very nice steak and ground beef. We recommended them to a local restaurant who like to serve “local, sustainable, organic” food and he serves their steaks and hamburger and it’s awesome! The chicken is local, the greens, etc.
The desserts are made in-house by local people.
The prices are not really much more than conventional food at other places, but this restaurant is always packed and always full of locals supporting it.
I can get raw milk about 30 minutes away, local artisan cheese made from raw milk, local fruit and veggies, and pastured eggs for 2.50 a dozen.
Would it be easier to stop at one place, the grocery store? Yes. Would it be cheaper? Maybe, in terms of gas and time.
HOWEVER….my husband and I are in our mid 40’s, we are on no medications, have no chronic health issues, and feel good about supporting local farmers and business people.
My parents live in SC and have a harder time finding all the organic, local stuff but the primarily do.
They are in their mid-60’s and also are on no meds, and have no chronic health issues. Their friends, however, are a mess. These people are obese, on mulitple meds, look like death warmed over, and look ready to drop dead!
Our bodies run on food as fuel. Just like you would avoid crappy gas for your car, why would you put crappy “food” in your body? What do you expect to happen?
Because there is zero money to be made from a healthy population, no one mainstream or government is going to actually push anything coming close to real nutrition. Their BS “food pyramids” and garbage GMO’s speak mountains of where the true agenda is.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not about banning anything. If you’re an adult and want to eat crap, eat crap. That’s your choice. But don’t make my choices illegal in the form of banning raw milk or making it impossible to get true food to my table.
Stucky, thanks for the web site, I will try making my own kefir soon. I will speak with that farmer again on how to make it. It does seem very easy put the grains in the milk and let it sit on the counter then strain.
I like brewing and will be brewing another batch of beer after the hurricane blows by tomorrow. I will be making a Maibock then an Oatmeal Stout. The beer experiment is the vanilla Porter. Another beer experiment is a Maple Nut Brown Ale. I made it once and failed because I did not get any maple flavor only a good Nut Brown Ale. The yeast worked to hard and fermented all that maple flavor. Tommyknockers out of Colorado makes a great Maple Nut Brown Ale but I have yet to figure out what they do.
Speaking of fermentation, I will be making horseradish soon. You run your horseradish root through your food processor and add some whey close the jar and place it in your refrigerator. The horseradish stays hot for many months. One place you get whey is from yogurt with live cultures. Put the yogurt in cheese cloth and suspend it over a bowl. The liquid that drains out is whey and the remaining stuff is cheese yogurt or something like that. Similar to cream cheese but will not melt with heat from a bagel.
Don’t forget to pay the gooberment on that trade HSF otherwise they’ll turn your farm into some kind of section 8 community.
Here in New Zealand I always go to the farmers market. A great variety of fresh fruit, vege, meat and seafood available. Buy organic grass fed beef from the farmer who has a picture of the animal he is selling the meat from: filet Mignon at $35 Kg, ribeye and “scotch filet” steaks at $25-$30 Kg!
Fruit such as apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, etc. range from 99 cents to $4.00 Kg dependng on the season. Massive heads of all varieties of lettuce for 99 cents to $2 each. Gargantuan (2 to 4 Kg) daikon radish for $2 to $3 each. etc!
All prices in NZ dollars.
Funny, as I was hilling potatoes this afternoon, I thought about how ridiculous it was that we had to buy a bag of potatoes from the store this spring to get us through to the next crop. It’s been years since we bought any produce from the store; I still have freezers and canned jars full of carrots, parsnips, leeks, turnips, green beans, peas, cauliflower, broccoli and dozens of fruits. Going to pit and put up 50# of tart cherries tonight that we picked yesterday.
Thing is, as much as the life that HSF describes — growing all your own stuff or purchasing from local farmers — is a way of life for many of us, it’s far out of reach of a majority of the population. It’s just not possible to feed everyone this way. We’re lucky and those who seek us out are, too. More and more people are going out of their way to find local food; our phones ring off the hook all weekend long from just those calls.
As much as I feel sorry for people who prefer or are forced by their circumstances to buy from the store, I recognize that that’s a choice inasmuch as ours is to do the opposite. To each their own; I’m just glad we still have options open to us, when much of the world does not.
Sources for produce:
localharvest.org
Sources for animal items:
realmilk.com
eatwild.com
westonaprice.org/get-involved/find-local-chapter/ Find your local chapter leader; ask her/him.
Sources for both:
slowfoodusa.org/local-chapters Find your local chapter; ask.
By the way, everyone new to a farmers’ market or food club goes into sticker shock. BUT, despite the higher individual prices, focus on your total meal cost–it probably won’t rise. I look in people’s carts in the grocery store: they’re price conscious on produce/meat and then fill the carts with processed foods, which are super expensive. Almost everywhere in the country you can buy from the best farmers and not exceed a fast food meal price. When there was a bunch of press about poor people going hungry on food stamps, I calculated that–buying from the same farmers I buy from now with zero from the grocery store/big box–I could eat on the EBT/SNAP allotment of $178 a month, though I probably would have to grow something like sprouts so I’d have more cash for animal items. (I spend way more than that now, but by shifting to cheaper things from the same farmers, it could be done.) Sprouts by the way are one of the most expensive items at the farmers’ market ($20-22 a pound here in Miami), but they also are one of the best values because they are so nutrient dense and you can get 4-5 meals from one pound. You’d freak out at $22 a pound, but 4 huge salads for $25 is a good deal ($3 extra bucks for the oil and salt to add to the sprouts).
The food many of these farmers produce is incredible. And because the ingredients taste so good to begin with, the simplest of meals taste the best. Beyond sea salt, I rarely season meat any more because the meat tastes better without the expensive seasonings I bought in bulk.
I could go on and on, but you haven’t lived ’til you’ve picked an ear of corn and eaten right then in the garden, raw. The flavor will be different by the time you walk inside to rinse it. Or had a properly roasted soy-free pastured chicken (cut into pieces, roasted at 425F for about 23 minutes a side is what works in my oven).
I have come to believe the most efficient way to improve the world is by changing what you eat. The ripple effects are incredible.
Cellulose has been in shredded cheese for years and years. Which is why I buy the bulk of my cheese from the Amish, and shred it myself (with an old fashioned Mouli, which is one of the coolest things ever, this is my second one, my first I lost in my divorce and it took me 15 years to find a replacement).
About a year ago, or so, I noticed that the McD’s burger had distinctly changed. Because i only eat it about 4 times a year, it was very noticeable. When this story broke, I figured out what changed.
They are poisoning us with our “food” and medicine. Additives act as neuro-toxins and cause us to crave their crap. Lack of real nutrients due to GMO, and again, additives, leave our very cells starving, screaming for nutrition and nutritionally dense food, but only being given grain and chemical based “healthy” crap.
Then we are told to avoid salt, eat low fat/fake “good for you” fat, avoid red meat. The very things that keep a human healthy, satisfied and nutritionally happy.
As for “how much more,” a lot. A whole freaking lot more.
And don’t ask. God/the Universe, will always show you exactly how much more you can take. 99.99% of the time it is a whole lot more than you think you could/or would even want to.
Be grateful, be in the here and now, be in peace. Cause this shit is just getting started.
” Because i only eat it [McShits] about 4 times a year, ….. ” ———- TE
ummmmm …. that’s four times too many.
Why do you, of all people, punish yourself so cruelly?????
Stuck, my dad’s hometown has very limited options for food. Especially before 9 am and after 9 pm, and that is on Saturdays, Sundays is even worse.
Sadly, McDs is often the only place open and I’m starving.
Since my dad, sister, brothers, all believe in better living through chemically processed, convenience “foods,” McD’s actually seemed a decent option when faced with no decent food in their houses, or starving.
Now I know that starvation would be better. Or the twigs on the ground. Either or.
Realestate…if you make it to S.C.come to the Low Country…we’ll get some real organic meat…from a deer stand .