The 30 day challenge

Let me explain the “eat less meat” part of this.
First off realize this is a depression era poster however………. Relevant still, just in a different way. I think it’s up for interpretation without losing the overall message. Now remember it doesn’t say eat none just less and that I take as talking about our gratuitous consumption of these items as an overall nation, but I would definitely add corn to this list as well.

So here is my long winded roll on this: Right now groceries stores, fast food establishments and restaurants are jam packed with meat from CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations), CAFO’s have allowed the American population to eat as much “inexpensive” meat as we wish. Every meal if we like. However this comes at a price to our environment, animal welfare and our health as an overall population. Not to mention the subject of corn production that is needed to feed these animals and the Pandora’s Box that opens up to, as well as pushing small local producer literally out of business (this is especially true with the family dairy). Meat is part of our culture as Americans but the way our culture raises meat for the masses is relatively new.

If you imagine yourself in a sustainable life you don’t support industrialize meat production, therefore if you eat meat you buy it from a local source that you believe fits with your values. But, all of the local sources put together could never equate to the mass meat production and cost /price of a CAFO. Naturally we would all eat less meat, we would also naturally pay a higher price but CAFOs would be obsolete. Imagine that!

It’s a well accepted fact that the health of Americans changed dramatically following industrialized food practices. Heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, all rose dramatically following the 1950, Of course what makes it worse is our life style has changed too. Now most of have to work really hard and go to extreme measures to stay fit.

So go back to before industry and scientists began raising your food and imagine what things would look like. How much more value would that steak or roast have if you raised it yourself or a friend or a local farmer? Would any of it at anytime get thrown in the garbage, or wasted? What would a fast food meal look like? What would we look like? What if we ate according to our energy demands/needs? I’ll tell ya what, I’m a little thing but I easily put away 4500 calories or more in a day, A high percentage of that is protein, eggs mostly, milk, cheese and meat, the rest vegetables, then rice, grains, beans and bread. Each person has different energy requirements. I’m not qualified to pass any judgment or make any suggestions regarding that subject but it just makes sense to me.

Right now I’m talking about meat; however this could be applied to nearly everything on our grocery store shelves. I’m talking about eating more mindfully, going back to a community of food production. A farmers market, garden, co-op, not a manufacturing plant.
This challenge is just that it’s a challenge and for some it’s going to be stepping out of their comfort zone, but it will be up to each individual’s judgment and personal journey. It’s not my intention to be preachy or judgmental. I am not and don’t ever plan on being perfect. But I believe there is a misconception that eating this way is impossible, and me staying in business for the long haul depends on busting this misconception.

So here are some suggestions that might help you get started.

1) plan a weekly menu for all of your meals based on things you know you have or can get locally, even plan your snacks. It’s a hassle to begin with but soon will become a no brainer. (I do this on Thursdays, and have a list at the farmer market)

2) Make a shopping list, farmers market, co-op order, csa pick up etc, grocery store etc. Buy nothing outside of your list. Nothing. If you can’t cook every night, make extra and eat the left-overs, but at least cook 5 nights a week. Share meals with friends whenever possible.

3) Share sources with like minded people. You’ll need the support and the laughs.

4) make this challenge fun, don't take yourself too seriously.

30 day challenge!

This was sent to me via a friend on face book. Notice the very small writing at the bottom, here let me help: U.S. FOOD ADMINISTRATION. The exact date is unknown to me but it's really timeless. My challenge to myself and to all of you readers is to follow these 6 simple steps for one month; 30 days. Use your food as if it had great value to you and your country and more importantly Oklahoma!. I know it seems like it's the end of the season and farmers markets are winding down, but you would be surprised how much local food will still be out there.

If you're interested in taking this challenge, here's what to do: comment, let me know you're in by Oct 1st 9am. The person who makes it through the month of October with the most creative solutions wins a farm table dinner for four here at the farm for our ' Like Water for Chocolate Dinner' (a 7 course meal inspired from the book) for Valentines- Saturday Feb 12. (this is a $200 dollar value) would make a great Christmas gift!

I'll be randomly sending out tips via facebook page.

So spread the word !

Here's what you do:

1) Leave a comment on this blog-if you can't comment here, leave a comment on our facebook page www.facebook.com/livingkitchen letting me know you're in from now until 9am Oct 1st

2) Make a plan

3) October 1st start a loose journal

4) Share your journey via our Living Kitchen facebook page www.facebook.com/livingkitchen

5) October 31st send me a 500 word or less essay of your experience, successes and failures via my e-mail www.livingkitchen@gmail.com be sure to include your contact info.

6) The winner will be notified November 7th

Your essay wont be judged on quality of writing spelling, or being perfect okay, the journey!

gitty up!

I've never been that cute little girl who loved horses, and had all the horse books and magazines and little figurines of horses on display in her pink color themed bed room. No not me. I did have a pink shag rug and white walls that were left empty. I decorated my room as a child with dirty laundry, shoes, books, art in progress on the easel waiting for finishing touches and albums, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Heart, Foreigner, Head East, and BOC, all of this of course scattered about. I was a mess.

My parents had a sort of time share thing east of the mountains as we say in Seattle, in a small town called Cle Elem. The time share thing was called "Sky Meadows" and folks would buy an acre, build if they want and come and enjoy the country for a spell. There we had one acre of land that my parents thought they would build a cabin on someday. Sky Meadows had some small stables and that's where Peanuts lived, a Shetland Pony I learned to ride when I was eight. I of course grew out of peanuts, whom, I, because of a little lisp would often refer to as penis, much to my parents amusement and at times I'm sure embarrassment. But me and ol'penis parted ways when I was 12. So did the family and Sky Meadows, back to a full time City life.

I've ridden a few time since but nothing really worth mentioning. However in spite of not being that little "in love with horses" girl, I've always been drawn to them. I have raging envy every time I see people riding happily down the street. I've always wanted a horse but really could never justify one and it really just never seemed practical. Until now....

This past few years I have been thinking about having a horse quite seriously, I've just kept it at bay cause I've never had the space or time to really make that kind of commitment, but the want has just kept getting louder so to quell my mind I decided the least I could do and the most responsible means to do it would be to take horseback riding lessons.

Meet buddy and Lindsey!

I did it! I took my first horse back riding lesson!

Lindsey started me off on Buddy, an 18 year old paint who is very gentle and used to being rode by kids. Which is good cause I totally feel like a kid. My first lesson went well and I cant wait to do it again! I don't know where this will go but it feels really good to learn something new and actually do something that is just for myself. I do see this eventually leading to horse ownership but that will be a while, I love horses enough not to have one right now, but I'm pretty sure there is a horse for me when the time is right.

Its Fair time!

Since I can remember I've always been fascinated by the State Fair and the annual rodeos. Many of the events were based on real life tasks required on the ranch. Rodeos have changed as well as state fairs with more entertainment for folks not involved in farm or ranch life. And seeing that the number of folks involved in farm and ranch life has dwindled in the last 40 years it makes sense that gut churning rides on machines would take the place of a sort and branding team.

In Seattle as you can imagine the State fair is made up of 20% animals and the likes and the rest to vendors of the latest gadgets, tons of rides, and food, the worst stuff you could think to put into your precious body, and big name concerts. So the original Ag. stuff has just slowly evolved out.

Last Sunday Linda and I went to the Oklahoma City state fair. We were hoping to see some different breeds of sheep, but not much was there probably because it was a Sunday, but we did get to see a really great competition of field sorting. This was done in teams of two. This is where the team on horse back sort the calves. The calves are in one corral and the object is to get them all in the second corral in numerical order before the bell goes off. Okay, this was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The horses were amazing and the handling was so incredible to watch. The great thing was the diversity of sex and age. Young, old, male, female. Amazing! I watched this young kid of maybe 12 work with a dude about 70 and they got eight out of 10 calves in!

I want to do this!

One thing this has inspired me to do is take horse back riding lessons. I really want a horse one day. When I was young I rode a little but cant remember anything important so I've decided to do something good for myself that will take me off of the farm and take some lessons, at least then, if and when I do get a horse I'll know what to do with em. Like sorting and roping and cool stuff like that! Yea right!

Prairie winter

I think the thing I like best about making my way in farming is all the very interesting things I get to witness on a regular basis regarding "nature", seems kind of cliche, but things I would never have noticed in a million years I now have a front seat to. Also this is the beauty of being an organic farm. I don't really have a too much of a hand in how things work out there cause I'm not killing everything or trying to manipulate things too much, I just get to observe. Its frustrating sometimes, like when blister beetles ate my chard overnight. but there was a lesson in there too. They ate the chard but left everything else alone. So I planted more chard, as a trap plant, then gathered em up and well, I killed em! Organically, with my foot, and some neem oil. The horses in the neighborhood have all sent thank you letters.


The chard is gone and so are the beetles. Today I feel like I can plant chard. Or find more blister beetles. Who knows!


One really amazing thing that I have been noticing is how many grass hoppers are out there. They are really quite beautiful and have amazing intricate markings. Their flight is music and when they are still they are still. I had been noticing little holes in the soil, some times these small little holes are caused by birds plucking out grubs but the grasshoppers are making these holes I've watched them. What were they doing? I asked google of course! This is from a web site called Prairie Winter.

Grasshopper (family Tettigoniidae {long-horned})
In the fall the female grasshopper drills deep holes in the prairie soil by pushing the tip of her abdomen into the ground and squeezing out twenty to a hundred eggs. She swallows air to blow up her abdomen so it can push deeper into the soil. She covers the eggs with a white froth which soon forms a hard case to protect the eggs. She dies, but the eggs last through the winter and then

hatch into tiny grasshoppers.

It seems a little hot still to be laying yur eggs but who am I to question. So I'll be curious to know if it doesn't start tuning cooler here real soon.

One thing I've really come to understand is how alive winter is below the soil. On top everything looks dead and dormant but underneath it's a party that I was not invited too, at least yet! All those eggs and micro organisms at work. I'm having a farmy nerd fest here!

And the lady bugs........I've seen quite a few.

Ladybird Beetles "Ladybugs" (family Coccinellidae)
In the fall these beetles gather in groups making it easy for farmers to collect and transport them to the farms for pest control. However, the ladybugs' reason for gathering is to prepare for winter by piling one on top of the other in tree stumps or under rocks and leaves to protect themselves from the winter cold.

So I guess I appreciate the opportunity to pay attention. To watch my farm mates get ready for winter and for me to do the same. Its serious business for them, nothing to take lightly. They don't have flannel, or quaint little wood burning stoves, warm goat milk with honey, apple butter on homemade bread like the frogs and toads do.

three days

Why cant life just leave me alone once and a while! Why, when I'm trying really hard to focus all of my energy on one very important task, do things keep coming up that cause me distraction. If I ignore everything else just for three days will the world fall apart? three days that's all I'm asking! and really now only two more. This is what I need to finish up planting for fall and winter. Nothing else needs to exist right now but that. AT&T notified me of EXTREME data use. Ok have no idea what that means of how little ol' me could have anything extreme from data. The deposits are adding up, the bills feel like they are piling up too and the e-mails, oy the e-mails. I only need three days, no wonder I cant take a dang vacation!

I'm ranting, I know. I hear myself loud and clear and again I do realize I'm catastrophizing! Thursday I'll sort it all out, Thursday. But today and tomorrow I plant, nothing else exists in my world except that! I will not be derailed.

I felt like this yesterday morning too, so I took a walk out to the pasture and opened a big gate to another pasture that I have been letting the sheep and goats into. It's lush and full of excellent stuff. The only problem is, there is the boundary fence of barbed wire but other than that its a little oasis surrounded by trees and creeks within 300 acres, so knowing the goats I wondered where they would end up. But I haven't gotten any calls from concerned neighbors yet so I let em' go for it. I walked back to the field and began my work, a few hours later I saw them all in a single file line headed back to the barn for their afternoon nap. They do this everyday with out fail and today thankfully was no exception. What a beautiful sight. That's enough to untwist my panties or take the pee out of my Cheerios! Seeing these beautiful animals come back home gave me an ahhhhh feeling. The day went off with out a hitch.

last little bit on cold frames

So you've built your cold frame, now what?

Line the bottom with paper feed bags or landscaping fabric (this is to suffocate the grass and weeds underneath. Add the soil. I use mushroom compost which I buy from Kevin Davis in Tulsa (918)280-0717 they will put as many front end scoops as you can carry for a really great price. They also have a garden mix which is mushroom compost and sand. One load of garden mix mixed with 1/2 bag of peat moss and your ready to roll. Now if you cant get to Tulsa and don't have a pick-up, instead buy about 5 bags of some kind of nice compost. Mix it with one bag of sand and 1/2 bag of peat moss. If you can find mushroom compost or cotton burr, that works really well. Just don't use miracle grow only because seedlings have a bad habit of dying off just all of a sudden like. I think too much nitrogen.

The seeds I like to use for a baby lettuce mix is black seeded Simpson (its a green leaf) red oak leaf, arugula, spinach and bulls blood beet (just for the nice red greens). Plant in rows that are 2" apart and just kind of sprinkle the seeds into a little trench (1/4" deep) that you make with a pitch fork or something. cover with soil and water. Keep the soil moist until seeds germinate. Right now you can leave the lid off at night unless you need to keep your cats out, just don't forget to take it off in the morning. If you plant now your seeds should germinate in a few days (3-5). The cooler it gets the longer the seeds take to germinate.
Good luck, contact me if you have any questions.