Then We Like to Eat It

I’ve been carving spoons in the evenings. Sometimes it hurts

A few days back, E asked what comprises the 10% (or thereabouts; I actually think it’s a good bit less) of the calories we buy in. I answered him in the comments, albeit briefly, but figured I’d share in more detail here. Besides, I’ve got a big ole day of book writing, firewood getting, and geetar playing planned, and therefore don’t want to burden myself with anything too terribly thoughtful.

Anyone who’s been paying attention for any length of time has probably ciphered our general dietary habits. Still and all, what follows is likely to reveal our personal nutritional philosophy in more detail than has been discussed on this site before. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I would rather extract each and every one of my short n’ curlies with a pair of tweezers while sober and listening to Rod Stewart than argue diet over the Internets. That’s real graphic, and I’m awful sorry ’bout that, but I would very much like for there to be zero ambiguity. That said, please feel free to ask questions, or make comments pertaining to diet and even to your personal beliefs surrounding diet. Actually, come to think of it, you can even make argumentative and dissenting comments. But I reserve the right to not respond to ‘em.

Phew. So glad to have that out of the way. Here we go. The other 10%. Of course, there are occasional additions to this list, but these are the regulars.

Wheat berries. We bake bread approximately 1x/month, and probably have some other wheat-y thing once or twice per month. Everything we make with wheat is soaked or fermented to reduce phytic acid (except for the occasional birthday cake), but we still feel better when we keep it to a minimum.

Almonds. One of our big regular splurges. We buy raw almonds direct from an organic farm in CA and soak them before crisping them at low temperature (125 – 150) in the oven. We eat a good amount of almonds, maybe 50-75-lbs/year.

Coconut Oil. Our other big splurge. We buy it in 5-gallon tubs to save $.

Coffee. Penny doesn’t drink it, but I’m a user. Not caloric, but seems worth mentioning. Ditto salt and spices/herbs, though we increasingly grow our own spices/herbs. We now make all of our own herbal teas.

Sugar. Our only use for sugar is to feed kombucha, so we don’t go through much of it.

Honey. We are wicked fortunate to have access to never-heated, never chemical-treated honey at ridiculously generous prices. Still, we don’t eat a lot. We bought a 5-gal bucket a couple years ago and are still working on it.

Rice. Very little. Without proper treatment to reduce phytic acid, rice – and particularly brown rice – isn’t all that healthy. And it’s a pain in the ass to treat it, so we generally avoid it. Maybe 2x/month. Nah, probably a bit more than that. But less and less.

Oats. Nasty little buggers better fed to livestock. Maybe 1x/month, and only if soaked in kefir for 24hrs prior to cooking

Beans. Ditto rice regarding treatment/cooking. I literally cannot remember the last time we had beans. Wait… I think we had chili last month. Or maybe it was the month before that.

Beer. Penny doesn’t drink at all; I like good beer. But I don’t like paying for it, which keeps me on the straight and narrow. Mostly.

Wine. Our friend Paul makes a wicked good bathtub wine. We trade for a couple bottles every few months, use it mostly for cooking.

Cheese. As a treat. Maybe a pound, pound-and-a-half per month.

Jeezum. I guess that’s ’bout it. We produce all our own meat, all our veggies, all our fruits, and all our diary (we do buy a few gallons of milk every year from friends when our cows are dry), and that’s pretty much what we eat. We just don’t consume a lot of the staples that many families eat on a regular and even daily basis. When’s the last time we had pasta? Couldn’t tell ya. How ’bout soy? Maybe 10 years ago. Maybe. Bread, obviously not that much. Our kids have literally never had boxed cereal, unless at a friend’s house. We’ve got our systems down real good, and despite the lack of “convenience” foods in our diet, we generally don’t feel burdened by our decision to eat essentially no packaged/heavily processed foods. Most of the time, we cook real simple meals. Lots of stews. Lots of eggs when we have ‘em, which is most of the time. We rarely eat out as a family; maybe twice per year, we go for pizza, but that’s about it. Because I sometimes travel for work, I eat out a bit more than that on my own, but not much.

We’re not actually as dogmatic as it might seem. At parties, or when we go to someone’s house for dinner, we eat what’s put in front of us, and do so quite happily. Ain’t no one died yet from a piece of apple pie. Least ways, not that I’ve heard of. Of course, we don’t tend to cavort with the sort of folks who put out bologna sandwiches for dinner, either.

Looking over this list, I’m almost tempted to amend my 90% claim. I bet it’s more like 95%, but since I haven’t actually done the math, I’d rather be conservative. And it’s somewhat beside the point, anyway. We’re not really interested in applying metrics to how we eat. You know, food miles and all that, or trying to hit some particular percentage of how much of our food we produce.

We just like growing food.

And then we like to eat it.