Goodbye Good Shepherd

We went out last Thursday for the last time. They were so busy that it took us over an hour to get through the line. For 5 years they have been here in Vineland - 4 of which we have bought from them, promoted them among friends, conversed with them, watched them grow. Okay - I get sad when I see a Convenience Store close down, for goodness sakes! I think of the family affected, the financial difficulty they might be in and on and on and I am sad. Now I am glad to report that I was actually happier coming home from seeing them than I was on the way out there. All that I had heard was true. The Health regulations were getting far from what you would say was just about safety for the consumers. They were asking them to renovate, change, spend millions of dollars to upgrade things - and for what reason? To them it seemed like an unending list of demands that would only lead to more and more. They have friends, for example, that will be closing their Mennonite Smokehouse this month. These folks had just spent $3 million dollars to get everything up to "standard". Now they are demanding that they add Nitrates in to their meat. One main reason people buy from them is because there are no nitrates. They can not give in. They are closing. There are others - meat butchers, chicken farms - that will be closing within no time, that Franz (owner of Good Shepherd) knows personally of. He believes that it is systematic attack on the local/mennonite farms. It is all under the guise of healthier/safer meat but I think most people know by now that the ecoli etc. risk is nonexistent within smaller farms. It is the corporations that have to be afraid of that.
Though it is very sad and I wonder if we will go vegetarian (atleast a bit more anyway) or if I will just succumb to grocery store meat and watch as my girls develop early like their peers (??? I know this isn't proven yet but it sure is a great possibility) - all this is sad, but I was so encouraged by Franz and Denise - "We are just moving on to another ministry - He has it all figured out (God, she meant) and it's going to be okay." They are going to settle down in their 'home country' and have a small farm. "Never again retail", Denise says. Who can blame her?
He's got them covered...
Sarah jane

Healthy meat no longer available...???

My heart is sick today. I feel like I want to scream and rant and jump up and down and hit something really hard. I don't feel like this very often. A friend just shared with me that the place where we have been purchasing our meat for the last 4 years is closing down as of this Saturday. It's not that it is just another company closing down - it is what this represents to me that upsets me. This store was so busy that we would purposely come on weekdays so that we could find a parking spot. The owners were always ready with a cheerful smile and welcoming arms. Business was good. It was even great. It was not a lack of business that closed these doors. It was not a complaint from one of their customers. It was one thing only. The government wanted them gone and now the "forces that be" have succeeded. A year ago Franz (the owner) told us that this was so and I posted something about it on my Facebook account. That's it. That's all I did. I think I didn't want to believe it was that eminent even though he told me it was - couldn't I have done more? Would it have made a difference? The Food Inspector had been there that day and had given him yet another new rule that they needed to yield to - one after another, I don't know a lot of the details right now (we plan to go out to get our 'last' load on Thursday). A quote from another helpful blog puts it this way, "our government regulations have become so blind, restrictive,obscure and expensive that they felt closing was the only option."http://niagaracooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-defence-of-local-food.html I like the way my dh put it to the kids tonight at the dinner table. These big farms that are infiltrating our country are like small cities - so large with so many animals all packed in like sardines. Because of this the animals get sick very easily and because of that government has needed to put lots of rules in to place - to keep disease from spreading in environments like that. These rules are impossible and even unnecessary for owners of small farms to afford to follow and so they are closing down. I have even heard that the gov't is pushing for all of these farms to be closed by December of 2010. Unbelievable?? That's what I thought until today...believe me I did not believe this day would come...
What about the meat for my children? What about the meat for their children? What about these farmers and retailers that try to sell their food? What is going on in our country?
Sorry to be such a wet blanket today. I just had to rant.
Please, if you have any other ideas or links, share here cause I am up for a fight!

The War on Food...a Toddler Size War...

I have been thinking about this recently and figured that I had better get my thoughts together since the way my memory is working lately, in a year it will all be forgotten again!
Food is an incredible gift. We have such a variety and easily accessible choice of foods in our society that there really is so much to be thankful for. With that variety, though, comes many detrimental habits that can very quickly become instilled in to our vulnerable little people. You all know what I am talking about - the habit of grabbing a bag of chips instead of an apple, or a chocolate instead of a few raisins - whatever it is for you, it is only going to be that much more difficult for your child when they are our age...Food isn't just food anymore - a high percentage of it is processed, refined, enhanced, enriched, great tasting (sometimes) 'substance' - a lot of it I don't even class as food. Now I am not going to give you all kinds of scary stats about Cancer and Heart Disease, Diabetes and Mental Health Issues etc. But suffice to know that these 'diseases' or 'symptoms' are on the increase - we are not winning these battles and as we continue to consume the way we have been consuming, in North America, then we are never going to win them. Nuf said.
Now - that is my heart. That is what I go to my battle with - as I begin to transition from exclusively breastfeeding to feeding my babies solid food - usually not till after 9 months old (I have researched and decided that their little tummies are much better at digesting foods after then- the later the better so I just up my intake so that baby gets enough from me, until I am sure we are both ready) Anyway, when I go to introduce foods in to them I don't mean that I am ready to fight them tooth and nail to eat - that only rarely has to happen - it is more that I am protecting them from other foods that I know are harmful (ie.icecream) or even not healthy/void of nutrition (soda crackers for example) and I am protecting them from caring friends/family who try to feed them these foods too. I think of them as this beautifully pure baby, and every time I have something on the end of that spoon, I imagine it either harming or benefiting my baby and that is how I decide what to feed them. So to start a baby of mine would have just vegetables - steamed (by me) and ground up with the steaming water so that it is a nice consistency. I do not 'do' pablum. Pablum was created in the 50s/60s or so by Heinz and it was a brilliant marketing scheme but it has not been proven to be beneficial or necessary for a breastfed baby and is highly processed. What did we do before then? Well, a long time ago, the mothers would chew up their own food and then spit it out and give it to the baby - that was the first baby food. I am not saying that we should all start doing that but just think about it - why do we have to have this processed powder in the first place? Many babies start with constipation/tummy aches when pablum is introduced. So, I go with veggies first, and then (real) meat and then maybe starches/fruit by 12 months or so - and always whole foods - now I don't mean Dempster's Whole Grain Bread either - read the labels! If there is a word in it that you can't read, then it is not healthy! (for you or for babe!) and very soon after that she/he just eats what we are eating, since our family makes healthy choices most of the time anyway...Oh yes, and food combining too - I don't give them fruit right after a meal - the fruit is much easier to digest and when it sits in the tummy with the food from the meal, you can have a very gassy baby, which no one likes - especially little babe...save the fruit for an hour or two after the meal and by itself.
Now, what got me thinking about this - Boo is 2 years old and I will have to say that she has been my most difficult baby to feed. I know that it is because I am busier, having 4 others to chase, and I have not stuck to my rules as strongly as I did with the others. I have let her have crackers and things earlier, or milk before or with a meal (that is another thing - kids will fill up on their milk and not eat, so cutting out the milk for a while can retrain those tummies). So recently I felt like all was lost with her but alas I would not give up! I went back to this other little strategy that has worked well with the kids that I have had to use it with...Okay so let's say we are having Lentil Soup which I know she likes but she doesn't love and with it we are having some bread - which I know she loves. If I give her the whole chunk of bread then down it goes and then 'more mommy' I want more bread...so, I sit right beside her with her bread and break her off one peice at a time. In order to get the next bite of bread she must have one - or more - bites of her nutritious soup. Now, generally this is done with quite a bit of screaming and lamenting - at least for the first week or so with her, that was the way it was - and I did have to put her in to her crib for a timeout once,but now I just start to threaten it and she immediately gets herself together. Now I can say that I am victorious! She gets it and she goes with it and she is eating so much better even since implementing this method. I have done this method successfully with younger children, too - Lise was just over 12 months when I had to get tough with her when she didn't want to eat her beets - she quickly learned to love them. I am certainly not the first mom to do this - I have friends who have kids that are great eaters and they have implemented similar methods. My oldest - now 10 - thanks me for giving them such weird food - she loves the variety and she notices the way she feels when she eats over at a friend's and doesn't like it. I have tried to naturally educate my older kids so that it is not like I am just saying 'No, you can't have that' without any reason other than your mom is a Kook - I want them to understand what is happening in their body when they eat those foods and make the choices for themselves. I am careful about what movies they watch, who they hang out with, what books they read, why would I not care what food they eat too? These are my precious ones and I am going to do the very best with them for the time they are given to me.
Happy Eating...spring is a comin'!!
Sarahjane

Community Supported Agriculture - what did you say?

Mmmmmmmmmm ....Fooooood. I have the privilege of being part of CSA - that is a Community Supported Agriculture. I pay a chunk a few times during farming season (April-Oct) to a local organic/heirloom farmer. It helps her out by supporting her financially to get through the year, and it helps me out cause I get a basket "full" (depending on the yield) every week. This is the basket that we received today. Notice the second picture where my 3 year old Mia can't keep her hands out of it. Tuesdays are exciting days in our family! Today I recieved some heritage cucumbers (yes one of them is an odd orangey colour but tastes amazing), lots of tomatoes (notice the variety! You won't find that kind of variety in a grocery store), some peppers - sweet and hot, swiss chard, onions, beans(they look different now but when they are cooked they turn green -true story) and even - yes - POTATOES - I was very very excited about that one - I know we are getting close to the height of our growing season when I see those included in the basket. I love supporting someone local, love that my food is fresh and highly nutritious and I really want to support someone that grows varieties of vegetables that our ancestors grew but we haven't seen for years in the grocery store because the skin is too thin (like with tomatoes) or the size isn't big enough, or "Monsanto" isn't creating it - or whatever the reason. Do you know that this farmer alone deals with over 400 VARIETIES of tomatoes alone? Where are all these varieties disappearing to? By the way if you live in the Toronto area and go to a good restaraunt with "heirloom" tomatoes - they are likely from my farmer friend - she has a blog too- check out http://www.treeandtwigfarms.com/ if you are interested in more info.
In the meantime, enjoy the local fruits and veggies that are in your area - find a farmer that cares about the soil, spends some time and effort putting back into this earth that God has entrusted to us, rather than pulling and demanding from it the way we have traditionally done as a nation. It isn't easy in some areas but it is becoming more common, so keep a look out, and if you can - support a farmer. Join a CSA - or start a garden for yourself :) You never know - you might just grow something really yummy. Our family bit the bullet last season and tore up half our front lawn so that we could grow some veggies (our back yard is totally shaded) - and yeah, the neighbors wonder about us no doubt - but we are growing some veggies (more to come on that later) and we are doing our part. Go do your part. Whatever that might be :)