Exactly The Opposite

Barn window

Sometimes I think I should write more about food. I know a lot about food, I really do. For instance, I just finished making a shepherd’s pie. I cooked up burger from one of the cows we killed back when. I tossed in some sausage from the last batch of pigs. I diced up an onion and a bulb of garlic. Grated a couple of carrots and a half of one of Penny’s monster beets. Thyme and oregano. Chopped a whole bunch of lacto-fermented green beans and mashed a half-dozen potatoes, added a splash of fresh cream and some of our own butter. The only boughten ingredients in the whole mess were salt and pepper. Oh, and some fennel that was in the sausage. I like me some fennel sausage.

Last night I made a soup. I sautéed onion and garlic. Carrots. When those were ‘bout done, I dumped in a couple quarts of beef bone broth. We make a lot of bone broth. I browned ribeye and blade steaks (no particular reason I chose those; they just happened to be on top of the pile of freezer beef) in lard and chopped ‘em up pretty small. Still bloody. Tossed ‘em into the mix. I rehydrated some dried chanterelle mushrooms. Lacto-fermented green beans again. Splash of tamari. Pepper. Crumpled in a few handfuls of dried kale. Real handy, that dried kale. Real handy.

We don’t ascribe to any particular diet. We pretty much eat what we grow and call it good. I guess you could call it a “whole foods” diet. Or maybe “traditional,” assuming one associates tradition with region. Which we do. I mean, otherwise it’d be pretty confusing, would it not?

There are few foods we avoid. We don’t eat much, if any, highly processed, multiple ingredient prepared foods. We rarely have pasta. Maybe once a year. We consume relatively few grains, but not because we’re paleo or anything. Not because we’re afeared of gluten. Mostly because we’re too lazy – our habits are such that it’s easier for us to cook with vegetables, meat, and diary, that’s all. We eat hardly any dried beans. I’d eat more, but Penny hates ‘em. The only food we might be a little dogmatic about is sugar. Oh, and soy. Sugar because it’s sugar. Soy because it’s loaded with phytoestrogens. Well, that, plus it’s disgusting. (yes, I know that soy is the primary ingredient in tamari. But it’s fermented, and that’s a whole ‘nother dealeo)

We aren’t foodies. We don’t talk about food in exhausting detail (although, like most of you, I’m guessing, we are sometimes exhausted by food). Our kitchen is simple, and usually pretty cluttered. We spend waaaay more time growing and processing our food, than actually preparing it for the table. But of course growing and processing is preparing it for the table, so maybe that’s a ridiculous distinction. We try to make the most of the animals we slaughter; in addition to using many of the hides, we eat a lot of organ meats. We make a mean liver pate, and pate on warm sourdough crackers with a side of kimchi is one of our favorite meals. In fact, yesterday we polished off a pint of pate in no time flat.

My general sense is that a lot of people are really confused about food. My other general sense is that the dominant food industry likes us to be confused. And maybe a little afraid. It likes us to think we’ll die of some horrible disease if we make a batch of sauerkraut or butcher a pig at home or drink unpasteurized milk. It likes us to skip from one diet to another, because each skip represents an opportunity to sell us more things we don’t much need.

I also suspect that the first step toward eating a truly healthy diet is to listen to whatever government nutrition professionals tell you about eating a truly healthy diet.

And then do exactly the opposite.

PS: Andrea posted an interview with me. Check it out if you’re interested.