Abundance (or a 10 minute lunch done right)

Oh summer, how I love thee. Today was a good day, made all the better by a trip to one of our lovely, local organic farmers. I came home with a bounty of deliciousness and set to work making a ten minute lunch for me and my sweet man.

We came home with colourful swiss chard, radishes, asparagus, all types of lettuce, garlic scapes, flowering chives (so pretty), rhubarb, nettle, shitake mushrooms, green onion, and a whack of fresh herbs. Everything was so fresh and beautiful.

I grabbed a handful of my favourites, the shitake mushrooms, asparagus, some Shanghai bok choy, swiss chard, and the garlic scapes, gave them a quick rinse, and chopped them up in big hunks.

I grabbed my glorious raw butter, compliments of a happy, grass-fed cow, and melted a few dollops with the garlic scapes. Once those were softened up, I threw in all of the other veggies. I threw in a couple more spoons of butter, some sea salt, and freshly ground pepper.

While all of that was going on, I was reheating a chicken quarter from last night. I always make enough meat with supper to give us leftovers for lunch the next day.

It's a pretty simple lunch, and really quick to make. I think a lot of people assume I make complex, time-intensive dishes, but when you have good food, there's very little that needs to be done to it. On the other hand, you can add mounds of sugar, colouring, sauces, and flavour enhancers to lousy food, but it's still lousy food.

Today's lunch is standard fare around here. I hesitated to show something so simple, but it's how we eat everyday and I thought it was a good representation of how easy it is to eat really good food. My food reminds me of the many things and people I have to be grateful for. My plate, an embarrassment of riches. I'm a lucky girl, indeed.

Beyond Organic

Organic, confinement dairy operation. Source: The Cornucopia Institute

Organic certification is definitely a step in the right direction, but I would love to see people going "beyond organic". Did you know that organic certification still allows for animals to live inside, never seeing the light of day? And the "access" that poultry must have to the outdoors in order to be classified as organic merely means a door in a corner of a huge warehouse (a door they rarely, if ever, use). If organic farming has you envisioning a thick, lush pasture with animals running about freely in the sweet meadow air, you may be surprised.

Never mind the big business of creating organic food products (Isn't that term just great? What's in your grocery cart - food or food products?). The Cornucopia Institute has a great chart linking big businesses to the wholesome looking foods you find in your local health food store. So, if you don't think Hersheys, Coca-Cola, Nestle, or a multitude of other junk food manufacturers care a smidge about our health, you may be surprised to know that they own a lot of the products consumers are paying a premium for under the assumption that they're somehow better for you. (By the way, the Cornucopia Institute is a fabulous organization intent on promoting healthy, ecologically sustainable farming practices.)

I'm not trying to insinuate that organic certification is useless, far from it. Feeding animals an organic feed, free of chemicals, and avoiding the use of antibiotics, growth hormones and the like are all very positive farming practices, but there's more that needs to be done.

Enter small, mixed farmers looking to heal the land while raising animals outside, on pasture. Cows chew their cud, chickens scratch, pigs dig... animals being what they were intended to be.

Happy Jersey, coming in to be milked before she heads back outside for some more juicy grass.

Animals raised in confinement, on grain, are a God-send for the industrial agri-producers, but they are detrimental to the environment and to your health. I've handled beef that was from an animal raised on grain and I've handled the same meat from a beef animal raised solely on grass. I wish everybody had the chance to do the same. The differences were disturbing. The grain fed meat was sour smelling, likely due to acidosis, it was greasy with an odd texture. The grass-fed animal had meat that was of firm texture, it smelled earthy and pleasant and it lacked the greasy finish. I saw this again and again in the different carcasses I handled. Acidosis is a real problem arising from the unnatural practice of feeding grain to a ruminant.

The best way to find good, healthy meat and poultry is by getting out there and meeting farmers in your area. Check out Eat Wild to help you in your search. Frequent your local farmers market. Ask questions! Ask the farmer how he raises his animals, whether he feeds and finishes on grass or if he supplements with grain. Find out what kind of food the animals are fed in the winter. Are they kept indoors? Is their feed sprayed? What age is the animal brought to slaughter?

You may also want to educate yourself on the different breeds of beef cattle. Some 'finish' better than others on grass leaving you with a more tender, nicely marbled animal. I've had some meat from bigger beef breeds, intended for confinement/grain-fattening operations that were fed on grass. I found the meat disappointing compared to the lovely Dexter meat of my beloved Alberta farmers (and other smaller framed animals I've had the pleasure of devouring). Most farmers have sampler packs. It may be well worth it to try out a few pounds before investing in a large quantity.

Sweet, little Dexter cattle. They're so fun to watch - they're so spritely!

The point is to get to know your farmers. Visit their farms, see how they are growing and raising the food you are going to consume. Some of our most treasured relationships have developed as a result of us spending time learning about our farmer's practices, what their challenges and value systems are, and how we can support them. The only way to fix our broken food system, which encourages the production of toxic food products, is to vote with our wallets. Start with your local farmers.

Further reading:

• A thorough, well documented report on the corporate take-over of organic milk production by Mark Alan Kastel, sponsored by the Cornucopia Institute
• The Stockman Grass Farmer reports on the futility of cage-free, organic, omega 3 or any other silly marketing name they attach to eggs. If the chicken are not outside, eating grass, you're wasting your money.
• Jo Robinson, of Eat Wild, weighs in on why grass is better than a "certified organic" label.

Can you pick out the organic, free range egg?

Eggs from happy, free roaming chickens are measurably different from your regular grocery store variety.  Besides the issues of antibiotics, hormones and the like in industrially raised eggs, there are some vast differences in taste between the two.  It makes sense really. Eggs carry the energy from where they came from.  Battery hens in cramped conditions laying egg after egg without ever seeing the light of day could not produce the type of egg a healthy chicken would.  Taste the difference yourself.  

Be wary of terms like "organic", "cage free", or "free range" on supermarket eggs.  Organic simply means that the chicken is eating organic feed, they can still be living in cramped, indoor barns. Cage free is equally ambiguous.  A barn crammed full of chickens, without basic sunlight or fresh air, can produce "cage free" eggs.

Your best bet is to find a local farmer that can supply you with eggs.  Go visit them.  Any time we've ever moved I've had to source our farmers to supply us with the quality of food we wanted.  It's a wonderful experience to speak with the people that produce your food, to share in their passion. We've been so grateful to have made such incredible friendships through our search for healthy food. It's also a wonderful experience to share with kids.  Teaching our children what healthy animals look like, how they are raised, and how we can make a difference by purchasing food locally is a benefit to them and their communities in the future.