The Rooster

Today the 'Old Man' died. I am speaking of our old rooster. He was a son of our favorite rooster, 'Starbucks'. Born here on our farm, he did a great job, for numerous years, keeping the hens safe and in order. Many days went by that we took him for granted, but he will surely be missed.

Thank You Finger Lakes Times!

Thank You to the Finger Lakes Times and reporter/editor Susan Clark Porter for the nice article about the blog! The article was titled Locavore for 60 days, featured in their Life by the Lake section in the Sunday edition. I also visited them online at http://www.fltimes.com/ The Living by the Lake section features local; restaurants, events, wine recommendations, and several other community related topics.

Thanks for promoting our beautiful and bountiful area!

Quotation

"By choosing to buy food grown locally and sustainably,in ways that are healthy and humane, I had woven myself into a community that cares about the same things. As a community, we share not only a commitment to protect our natural resources, but an appreciation for the value of food itself, a love for its taste and beauty and the deep pleasure it can bring by connecting us to time and place, the seasons, and the cycle of nature." Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food

Seeds

All of the non-gmo seeds arrived this week! I had hoped to have them planted in their seed trays two weeks ago, but maybe I am still not too late!? We will see. It does look like I got carried away and ordered too many! :) My goal is to make it through this winter with enough vegtables and with a large selection of vegtables until the next garden. I am feeling pretty excited and anxious as we seem to be having an early spring here in the Finger Lakes! One can dream!

Cultured Butter

I have made homemade butter several times since I started getting my milk at Galens Homestead Acres, Clifton Springs, NY. Using the cream that rises to the top of the raw milk has produced some very sweet tasting butter that melts instantly in your mouth. Making the butter turned out to be very easy and very fast. After reading about cultured butter I wanted to see the taste difference. Cultured dairy products are known to lower cholesterol and protect against bone loss, not to mention provide beneficial bacteria. The cream sits out at room temperature 8 hours before making the butter. The cultured butter is just as silky, but has a slight sour taste that compliments the sweet flavor of the butter. I lightly salted mine. Perfect! Now I just wished I had a dairy cow.

I'm Back

It has been two weeks since I last posted. In that time I have had a few days and a few social gatherings that I let myself be tempted eating foods that are not real, much less local. Each time I felt bad the next morning. It made me remember what I used to feel like all the time. Most of the foods that bothered me might not be considered that terrible by the average person. I ate white bread, potatoe chips, pasta, and pretzels. I physically and mentally felt a difference that lasted about 24 hours. I have decided to stay focused on real, local food as much as possible. I will add to my original list of coffee and spices: olives/olive oil, vinegar, sea food, cocoa powder and citrus. With these additions I feel I can really make it until garden and local produce time! As I write this I am feeling better already :)

60 Days

I can hardly believe sixty days have gone by since I started this eating adventure! I have learned a massive amount of knowledge concerning food, myself and my community. There is no question what I eat affects me daily. I have not felt this good in a long time. My skin is better, I have more energy and I have lost eight pounds without any extra physical exercise. Clearly processed foods, processed oils, refined sugar, and refined flour are not good for me. I am not going to stop eating local and want to keep working toward eating only real food. This month I would like to tackle buying and starting heirloom/non gmo seeds for the garden and also purchase a grain mill to grind local wheat. I will keep the blog going and post my endeavors! Here's to an exciting 2010!!!