We are all gonna die!

Every so often, I get a bee up my butt about things. Generally, it has to do with the state of our government. Or the Economy. Or Big Agri. Or lobbyists. Or our elected officials. All of which are essentially the same thing, when you boil it down to the bare minimum.

Today, I am irritated by the fact that we are all going to die. Sounds silly, I know. We all have to die sometime, from some cause or another. But what is bothering me today is the absolute staggering numbers of ways to day that no one is telling you about.

Where to begin. Pesticides. That seems to be a given, right? If it can kill a bug, it can kill a person, right? Seems simple. So we all try to limit our pesticide use. Except for Big Agri. See the connection here? To get the increased yields that the GMO (again, see the previous rants about Big Agri) grains and seeds are supposed to supply us with, you have to keep the bugs out of it. So, pesticides are sprayed over the fields. Supposedly, they can't be used within so many days of harvest so that the effective half life of the chemical of choice is degraded enough to be safe for consumption. That all sounds lovely, doesn't it? In reality, only part of those chemicals have degraded enough for the arbitrary levels that the EPA sets to fall within the "safe" limits. The rest of it is still on the product. Well, we all wash our fruits and veggies to make sure we get rid of the rest of it. The problem is that if it has rained at all during the growing cycle, and we all know it has or the crop wouldn't grow, that pesticide gets washed into the soil where it is taken up by the root system and deposited into what ever the crop is. So that beautiful tomato that you wash so carefully, probably has pesticide residue inside it that can't be washed off. So all of that careful washing, while it will remove anything left on the surface, is irrelevant to the overall picture.

And another overlooked fact is the that when Big Agri first started it's boom in the 1950's and 60's, there wasn't a lot of research on the long term effects of some of the pesticides being used. DDT for instance. DDT was wonderful for vector control of insects, like mosquitoes, but had the disturbing side effect of hanging around long after it was sprayed. DDT has been linked to diabetes, cancers, hormonal changes in both men and women, miscarriage, developmental problems and hypothyroidism. And all of that isn't even counting the enviromental effects on wildlife. Thankfully, DDT was banned for use in agriculture in 1972 in the U.S. but it wasn't until 2004 that it was restricted to vector control worldwide. So most of use who are at least 40 years old probably have come in contact with it at some point in our lives.

These days, other less persistent insecticides are used yet the long term effects of these poisons are being overlooked or deliberately withheld from the general public. Even pesticides labeled for use in "organic" crops haven't been sufficiently tested because the companies that make them make billions of dollars from them and will not allow anyone to say they are bad.

OK, Enough on pesticides.

Another way we are all gonna die is from the food itself. Lets say you know about the pesticide issues so you grow all of your food organically, including grains, for your family. You have the 5-10 acres and the time needed to do that. First off, that makes you part of the extreme minority. But lets say you do it anyway. That is Great! You eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, eat a hot multigrain cereal for breakfast every day, bake all of your own bread, eat less than 4 ounces of lean meat a day if you eat meat at all. OK, lets look at what you are eating. Look at all the carbohydrates you are consuming every day. All of that cereal and bread. Every bit of those carbs turn into sugar in your body. If you are not a highly active person who actually uses all of those calories you are eating, all of that sugar will do one of two things. It either gets stored as fat or it gets burned as fuel. If you do not burn all of the calories, you will get fat. Seems simple right? Well, there is another problem. If you are constantly, consistently, eating too many carbs, you will run the risk of diabetes. And that is just from all the bread, grains, and starchy vegetables.

Most of us do not get the right mix of vitamins and minerals from our food. We just don't eat a varied enough diet. Even if you think you do, you probably don't. We have a tendency, as a society, to eat maybe 10 different vegetables on a regular basis. Peas, carrots, corn, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, with a couple of more thrown in on the individual basis. And we have a tendency to load those few up with butter or other fats to make them tasty. Then we eat more of them than we actually need. There are micro-nutrients in things like squash and leafy greens (which most people won't eat) that we just won't get from our normal diet. And if you don't cook or use highly processed mixes and "kits" to save time, or eat fast food a lot, your diet is even more lacking in nutrients.

All of this boils down to high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, etc. and the associated diseases like heart disease, arthritis, gall bladder issues, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, the list goes on and on.

So the food we eat will kill us even faster than the pesticides.

Then there are the environmental factors that we can't control. A little over 6 months ago, there was a devastating earthquake and tsunami to hit Japan. It severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant and they lost containment. Radiation poured into the ocean because they were having to use ocean water to put out the fires. Radiation poured into the air through the smoke from those same fires. The land around the plant has been so thoroughly contaminated that the people who used to live there will probably never be able to go home. In the days after the accident, people in the U.S. were very concerned about airborne radiation being carried by the Jet Stream. The folks in California got down-right panicked about it. But after the first month or so, the media thought it was a non-story anymore so the coverage stopped. You have to really look to find any stories about it, even on the internet. But there are stories out there. Radioactive iodine 131 was found in milk collected in the South Central parts of the United States. Radioactive rainwater was collected in California that contaminated reservoirs used for drinking water. And again, the list goes on. But the government doesn't tell us these things because it would just cause panic and there is nothing we can really do about it anyway.

Then there is the fact that rice from the Fukushima Prefecture has been banned for export because of the high radiation levels found in the rice grown there. Has no one thought that maybe the world might need to know these things? What about all of the radiation that is falling in California as rain? What will that do to the crop land there? All of those strawberries we all gobbled up last spring probably came from California unless they were from a verified local source. But you know what? It rained here too. Hmmm, makes you wonder, doesn't it? There are places in Scotland that still cannot sell their sheep as meat because the grass they eat was contaminated from the Chernobyl accident back in the 1980's. Kind of a scary thought.

But the big concern here is that the Fukushima Daiichi plant is STILL releasing radiation. They hope to have it contained by the first of the year. So all of that radiation that made the news back in March and April is still floating around us, unseen and unreported. Pleasant thought, huh?

What this all boils down to is the fact that we are all going to die. Not necessarily because we are just old and worn out, but because the Powers that Be either don't want us to know they are poisoning us, don't want us to know what is going on around us, or they give us mis-information so we cannot make informed choices.

None of these things make me trust the media or the government.

Canning Time!

It is getting to be that time again...Canning season. We managed to consume a great deal of what I canned last year. We still have some things left, like some of the jellies, a few jars of beans that I canned late in the season, and some fruit. We also have a couple of jars of meat left, but I have started using those more lately to rotate them out.

The garden is starting to produce too. I didn't plant a lot of stuff this year, mainly squashes and peas. I wanted to try some new things this year so I planted 3 different kinds of squash; butternut, patty pan, and spaghetti squash. I planted the butternut last year, but I got it in late in the season so I only got 2 squashes off of it. But this year I planted earlier and have gotten a better yield.

I am looking forward to my favorite Farm market opening. Time for tomatoes, beans, potatoes, corn and melons. Peppers, fruit, green beans, onions, and other veggies I get from another farm market. I can get just about everything I will need to can for the year over the next 2 months. I have been told I need to make more sugar-free blackberry jam and black bean - corn salsa. LOL

I have already been drying cherries and strawberries. I need to dry some more onions.

I guess I had better get busy.

Eating Natural

We haven't actively been trying to go natural, but it is working out that way.

A couple of years ago, DH went thru a layoff scare, Thankfully he didn't lose his job, but it got us thinking about grocery bills and the way we eat. I had started canning the year before and was looking forward to doing more. We stopped buying things like Hamburger Helper, Mac and Cheese, and all of the other processed foods because they were so expensive for very little nutrition. My mother gave me a Make A Mix Cookery cookbook and her copy of The Old Virginia Cookbook. We started buying foods in bulk and on sale and vacuum sealing it into portion sizes. I got a dehydrator and started using it regularly.

We have essentially stopped buying anything packaged, except for my son's lunch box stuff. We also look for origin labels on ANYTHING consumable. If it isn't made or grown in the US or Canada, we just won't buy it. It has made us really crave fresh veggies over the winter, since so much is grown out of the country and shipped in, but since the garden is up now, we know it won't be long before I am shelling peas and snapping beans.

And fortunately, we had a lot of last years harvest canned or dried to use over the winter. With the exception of dairy and eggs, we still have at least a month of food put back, including meats and fruits, so we would not have to buy groceries if he loses his job. And this way, I know exactly what is in it. No preservatives, not too much sodium, no MSG, no high fructose corn syrup, and nothing that I can't pronounce.

My goal is to eventually get to the point where I only have to go to the store, maybe, once a month. But that is still a couple of years off. Until then, we are doing what we can to protect our health, and our expenses, by eating closer to the land.

Squash is so misunderstood

I have been thinking a lot about nutrition lately. And how to eat healthier without spending a lot of money to do it. Usually all I really have to do is look in my garden.

This year that means tomatoes, green peas, snap beans, broccoli, and garlic. I have been reading about Native Americans and their gardening choices. They mostly grew corn, beans, and squash. It grows fast, can be planted together, and generally produces a lot of food for a small space. The corn is planted first, and when the seedlings get about 4 inches tall, they planted beans around each corn plant. As they grew, the beans would climb up the corn stalks. The squash (pumpkin is actually a squash) would be planted in hills around the field.

It also appears that when you eat these three vegetables together, it creates a complete protein very similar to meat protein. So Corn+Beans+Squash = Meat. Very useful for those lean times when hunting was difficult. And with a seasoning of herbs gathered in the wild, very tasty.

Anyway...we don't generally eat a lot of squash. The kids don't really care for it, and the only way my husband had ever eaten squash (yellow crookneck, BTW) was fried. Except for the annual pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. I grew up eating patty pan, crookneck, and butternut squash. Can't say that I ever really liked it. But I ate it anyway.

I picked up a butternut squash on sale, thinking that it was something different and that different is good sometimes. I sliced it in half, scooped out the seeds, and turned it cut side down on a baking sheet. 375 oven until it was soft. My husband actually ate half of it by himself. It seems that he had never eaten any type of squash except crookneck and even then it was fried. He didn't really like it much so he thought that a squash is a squash, and so he doesn't like squash. He was wrong. We have eaten it several times since then.

Now I have something to add to my garden. If I can find a place to put it.

Cooking on the Cheap

There are a lot of ways to save money on meals. One of the easiest ways is to buy meat in bulk. It is always more expensive to buy individual sized servings than to buy enough for several meals. I never buy less than 3 pound packages of hamburger meat. I also buy family packs of other cuts and break them down into meal sized freezer bags.

For chicken, the most economical way to buy it is whole. They are not hard to cut up and I can use 1 chicken for about 3 meals for my family of four. I will explain the process.

First things first. Wash the bird. You want to make sure that all of the bone meal and any possible contaminates from processing are washed off. Always use a sharp knife. You will be much more likely to cut yourself with dull knife than a sharp one. Cut off the wings at the shoulder joints. Pop the thighs out of socket at the backbone and cut it at the joint. Then bend the leg and the thigh. It will make a really thin spot at the "knee". Cut it straight through at that spot. You might get a little bit of the bone, but if your knife is sharp enough it should cut on through.

Cutting the breast at this point is very easy. the area between the ribs and the back is very easy to see. I generally use knives, but if you are less than confident with a knife, you can use kitchen shears to cut through the ribs to separate the breasts from the back.

Now that you have both halves of the breasts removed, turn them over, skin side down. You will be able to see the keel, or breastbone. Place your knife firmly in the center of the bone. Put your other hand flat on the back of the knife and push firmly down. It will be a little hard to break the bone but it will cut.

Now you have 2 wings, 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 breasts and a backbone. Depending on what meals you have planned, and how many people you are feeding, you should be able to make at least 2 meals, maybe 3 if you are careful. I will give examples for a family of four.

Meal #1. Cheesy chicken pasta. Take the chicken breasts and cut(or tear) them from the bone. Take the bones and skin and place them into a stock pot. More on this later. Cut the breast meat into 1/2 inch cubes. Saute the chicken in about a tablespoon of oil with 1 teaspoon of poultry seasoning until it is no longer pink. Add 1 can(2 cups) of chicken broth and 1 can(2 cups) of water. Add a pound of egg noodles and salt and pepper to taste. When the noodles are done and most of the water is gone, remove from heat and add about a cup of shredded cheddar cheese or if you prefer, you can use Velveeta. Bacon bits are a good addition to this. (This is actually better than Chicken Helper and it doesn't have all of the preservatives added.)

Meal #2. Chicken stock. This is the way to really make a chicken go farther. The skin, bones, and wings, legs and thighs can all go into a stock pot. Add 6 to 8 cups of water, a couple of carrots cut into big chunks, celery cut the same way, half an onion, really anything you have hanging around in the crisper. Here is where you can salt or not, depending on your personal preference. As you boil the chicken, you will notice a brownish foam rising to the top. Skim this off, you won't need it. When your chicken is done remove it from the pot and let it cool off. Continue to boil the stock until it is reduced by about 1/4. Strain the broth and remove the veggies. Throw them away or compost them. Put the broth into the refrigerator over night. The next day, all of the fat will have solidified on the top. Simply scoop it off. You can use this to make soup or it can be reduced even further to make a richer stock for gravies and sauces. It freezes well in either a freezer bag or in ice cube trays for portion control.

Meal #3. The cooked meat needs to be removed from the bone, skinned and chopped. There is even a small amount of meat on the back so be sure to look for it. The chopped meat can be used to make soup, barbecue chicken sandwiches, used in stir fry or lo mein, or to make chicken salad.

Now that you have a general idea on how to portion up a chicken to make it go farther, keep in mind that you can do this with many different foods.