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Tough times

Get in touch with your inner wisdom
mudmama

It's been a rough weekend, bad news from far and wide and close to home.  I'm feeling the need to hug my kids tight and make more to do lists.  As usual my mama instinct drives me to check the pantry first to say "Yes, everything will be fine."

I've been meaning to write about food.  I usually do so with recipes but this is really about the politics of food.  So bear with me.

There is an upside to the collapsing of the agrifood industry.  I'm not talking about the roll up your sleeves and grab a hoe urban farming going on.  That is wonderful in that it gets people back in touch with where their food comes from.  What  I'm thinking about is the fact that the food processors aren't in control any more.  Grain cartels have too much on their plate with blight to cram more white flour down our gullets with influencing the Food pyramid.  People are eating much more natural diets now.  Guts are readjusting and the cravings are important to listen to.

"I want fat."  "I want sour" "I want bitter"  "I want to chew on bones"  Listen, it's your body's wisdom waking up.

Okay neo-primitive SEHI?  How are you meeting your body's need for fats (brain function depends on it)?  Unless you live in the mediterranian olive oil is insanely expensive.  Bet you've turned to animal fats right?  Don't worry about heart disease (you're hungry, you aren't thinking about your arteries I know) back in the early 20th century when westerners ate approximately 18 lbs of butter each a year heart disease was virtually unheard of.  Now that is down to about 4 lbs and heart disease is the number one killer in the west. Animal fats are not a poison to our bodies.  They contain no transfats (transfats are a poison), they aren't usually rancid (heat expressed vegetable and nut oils go rancid as soon as we heat them and release toxins) and if you get them in dairy products from healthy animals they can be put up like any other food and saved for lean periods in the year.  (as cheese, butter, fermented dairy products) You're benefitting from everything good that cow or goat of mare ate while on pasture.  If you're one of the many people who is sensitive to dairy foods you should know that fermentation breaks down the sugars and the proteins into easily digested amino acids...but a lot of us need help with digestion, the standard american diet (sad) has totally upset our intestinal flora.

That is why you're craving pickles.  REAL pickles help reestablish the intestinal flora we need to digest our food.  It is easy to do too - all you need is a clean jar, a vegetable - start with grated carrots and ginger if you have some - to fill the jar to an inch below the top, 2 tablespoons of salt, and either 2 tablespoons of whey or another tablespoon of salt.   Mix them together, fill the jar with water til the vegetable is covered (weigh it down with a rock if need be) cover it and leave it on the counter for 3 days then take out the weight, cover it again with the lid tight, and store in a cool place.

What is whey?  Well start making yourself some cheese and you'll find out - whey is what is left after the curds form - it's very nutritious and it keeps for a long time (6 months or so) if you can keep it cold, treat it as a digestive tonic, add it to foods or just your drinking water.

Don't let the food processors have their way - this isn't rocket science - it is the way we've been feeding ourselves for millenium in harsh climates that don't support fresh foods through long cold winters.

Food preservation is easy!

Now about that bitter you're craving.  You're craving bitter greens because they are like a vitamin pill.  When you get them, gorge on them.  Dandelions nettles, rocket, frisse, most will do well over the winter in a cold frame (you urbanites have a leg up on us rural dwellers on winter harvesting - the ambient heat on your windowsills is higher than ours cause your buildings are so close together.  The bitter a bit hard to get down, add in the dairy - a dollop of yogurt and a bit of salt and they are delicious.

Bones - if I could convince hungry people of one thing it's that you gotta make stone soup every week.  It should be a staple.  Catch yourself a mangy old hen who is past her laying prime.  Thank her profusely for all the golden gifts she laid for you.  Soothe her, quiet her, sing to her.  When she's calm and hypnotized with your gratitude, wring her neck.  pluck her (easier if you submerge her in boiling water for a minute), gut her, and put her in a big pot, feet head and all and simmer her all day.  When the bones are soft strain out everything but the liquid which should be greatly reduced.  Use this as a basis for soup.  Even by itself it is a rich stock full of minerals and vitamins and broken down proteins.  You can do this or save the bones from other meals and throw them into a stock pot - a communal pot is even better to make broth.  There's a south american saying that good broth can cure death.  It is certainly a cure for hunger.

About hunger.  Things really aren't so bad yet.  Rationing isn't the end of the world.  When my mother was a little girl her family saved up their butter rations to have one beautiful bowl of grusse on sunday - cream of wheat with browned butter and cinnamon and sugar.  It was a celebration every time.  We survive rationing...we will still find joy.  But in a show of solidarity with the rest of the world, many of whom have known hunger all their lives for generations why not observe a FAST day every week?  Fridays are a good day.

Today?

 

Today I'm packing a jug of whey in my pack and going into town to teach about lactofermentation.  I'm taking turnips (I really am not a great fan of turnips is it any less charitable of me to give away food I don't like???) a beets and sea salt.  I asked everyone to bring a jar.

 

Nov 16
stone soup


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  • zoefirestar
    Nov 17
    Tough times indeed - this was very informative. I'll read it more closely when my brain is quieter- right now I'm dealing with the inequity of drug coverage in our fair country and my distaste for administration. I hope that the bad news close to home gets better.
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