Purging the Kids Toys

Phew! It took us an exhausting seven hours of non-stop work (with the exception of a few ten minute snack breaks and some take out for dinner) to purge the kids toys. At one point Haleigh even said something like this: “We’re kids. You can’t work us like this.” I believe my response was… “Oh yes I can.” And did I say it only took seven hours. I have to admit, I didn’t think it could be done in one day. For the next couple of days I was still finding the odd Lego, a plastic coin (from Linsey’s old money set) or a piece of this set or that, but I actually think we have it contained – for the first time since we’ve had kids. For 11 years we’ve been overrun, overtaken and overwhelmed by the kids’ toys.

I’m not taking any bets or making any guarantees on how long it will last, but I like to think that the new minimalist me isn’t ever going to let that happen again. My new rule is this: when something new comes in, something old must go. I’ll let them keep the new thing (or things) for a week or two to let them try it out, then decide if it’s worth it. London just had a birthday and got a few new toys. I’ll let her play with them until the newness is gone and then let her decide (or if she can’t, I’ll decide for her).

So how did we do it? Well to be honest, I wasn’t sure where to start. I thought it would be good to gather the toys in one room first. So for about forty-five minutes the girls filled laundry baskets again and again until they had moved all the toys from upstairs to the family room downstairs. Every. Single. Toy. I started helping about halfway through.  Going up and down the stairs with purpose felt good. Here’s a tip. When doing housework, make as many quick trips back and forth as you can, instead of loading yourself up to make fewer trips. I do this when unloading groceries, straightening up around the house and when I’m doing yard work. Making more trips isn’t as efficient, but it’s a good way to get in a little more exercise if you aren’t pressed for time.

When the toys were finally amassed in the family room… I panicked! I dropped my face into my palms and said out loud, “WHAT was I thinking?!”

And this was just what was upstairs. I still hadn’t raked the toys out from under the couches, behind the couches, in the couch cushions, under tables and scattered about the downstairs. This was enough for now. We quickly began sorting the toys into piles: play kitchen, dress up, puzzles, Barbie’s, dolls, Zhu-Zhu Pets, puppets, Build-a-Bear (f-ing, useless, overpriced crap – even with the coupons), Littlest Pet Shop (again, useless), the socks we thought the drier ate… We were focused. And then I raked out all the toys (and more socks) from under the furniture and dumped the down stairs toy boxes and we started sorting again. While making a quick assessment and looking around at these piles I realized how much money had been wasted on toys that leave little to the imagination. Many of them were hardly ever played with. A few were broken or modified by the girls in an attempt to re-purpose them – to make them more interesting. This realization was the swift slap to the face that I needed to wake me from my toy hoarding stupor. We were doing the right thing.

A couple hours later, and after we’d gathered and sorted everything, I let the girls “shop” for their five favorites. Some things in sets were allowed to stay together as one – pretend kitchen stuff, dress up, Zhu Zhu Pets, puppets, etc. I chose for London, who was napping and too young for this challenge anyway. I gave them about thirty minutes to decide and offered some advice when asked, which they accepted, but ultimately gave them full discretion. It went much better than I expected and they chose well. The girls were really into this and were just as relieved as I was to get rid of the junk. Haleigh made a pretty good case for why her stuffed animals should be considered a set, but I was unwavering. Linsey’s only problem was that after choosing her top three, she really didn’t care about the rest. She wasn’t, however, going to let that stop her from getting her five things. She even offered, mercifully, to accept the puppets and puppet theater as her last choice, to appease her older sister. Haleigh was miffed about the puppets because they just missed her top five, and Linsey saved the day.

Change-ups were allowed during the final process of sorting, and I let them keep a few things that didn’t fall into their top five. Once Linsey realized that we had found all the pieces to her beloved pretend school set, she decided to trade one of her original five in for it. Good move. The rest was either “trash” or “sell”. We’re participating in the community yard sale on April 9th and I’ve agreed to let the girls keep any money they earn in the “toy department”. This incentive helped them part with what was left.

When it was all said and done we had 6 heaping boxes of toys to sell, and we half-filled our roll away trash can. We even filled a recycle bin with badly damaged books, used up notebooks and workbooks, some plastics and other paper and cardboard trash. There were also a few larger items – a Barbie house, a toddler ride on toy, a (broken) framed Hannah Montana poster and an easel (which we may keep to use for outside play). The girls took their laundry baskets with their five things upstairs and proudly cleaned and organized their rooms.

Haleigh's & London's Room "Before"

"After"

Linsey's Room "After" (can't find a before picture)

Just as I suspected, the kids are relieved and content. A weight has been lifted off of their shoulders (and mine). They haven’t missed a thing and probably never will. For now at least, they don’t have enough stuff to create a disastrous mess and won’t have to spend hours cleaning their room. Linsey’s room actually looks downright bare. I’ll suggest using her part of the yard sale money to redecorate her room and I’m pretty sure she’ll love the idea. Haleigh is so pleased with her organized, uncluttered room and all the extra space. She has vowed to spend a few minutes straightening it up every evening. So far, she’s done it. The girls have less stuff to keep up with and more freedom to use their imagination and to just be kids. And I’m happy to let them. And I’m happy that we solved the mystery of the missing socks.

The Kids on Eating Well and My Struggles

I was lucky to grow up in a multicultural household. As a kid I was exposed to many different foods. I wasn’t able to appreciate the groundwork that was being laid for me by my parents until I had kids of my own, and I’ve decided that I want that for them too. Linsey, lucky for me, is already an adventurous eater. Haleigh and London on the other hand, not so much. There is always a negotiation with these two at the dinner table – a few bites of this and a few bites of that in exchange for desert or a second helping of their favorite food. But sometimes one of us is especially stubborn and we just can’t work out a deal. So they go hungry… or I resort to threats: “I suggest you eat your fish, or I’m going to make you take cod liver oil every morning!” Or this one – “Fine. I’ll just put it in the refrigerator and later, when you get hungry (and you will get hungry), it’ll be there waiting for you. And if you think it tastes bad now… psh! You’re really gonna hate it later.”

So what’s a parent to do? I figured, why not ask the picky eater herself. This is Haleigh’s advice (paraphrased):

Haleigh enjoying a meal she and her sisters prepared. She chose and prepared the salad.

• Bribe them with dessert.
• Let them help cook the meal.
• Be creative with presentation.
• Put only 1 “gross” thing on the plate at a time.
• Make them eat it often so that they get used to it.
• Mix unappealing foods with something really tasty.
• Praise them when they eat well.

That’s pretty good advice if you ask me. I’m going to print those out and stick them on the refrigerator as a reminder (for all of us). They can be our negotiating terms.

I used to think that it was my fault that Haleigh was a picky eater because I used to cater to her when she was very young, often making her a separate dinner. By the time Linsey came along I decided I was done being a short order cook. I’d go crazy preparing three different meals each night. So they ate what we ate and it worked, so I thought. Linsey has never been picky and will generally eat whatever I put on her plate. But then London came along and blew that theory out the window. (Sometimes children are the best teachers.) I don’t cater to her, yet she is still a picky eater. She’s stubborn and won’t eat anything if it looks “yucky”. I continue to offer her foods, but she refuses… just like Haleigh did. But I’ll I just keep serving it up and hopefully, eventually, she’ll eat some of it.

I conducted a little interview with London. Here’s how it went:

Me: “London, do you like vegetables?”

London: “No.”

Me: “What’s your favorite food?”

London: “Bagel. Eggs.”

Me: “What else?”

London: “No more vegables.”

London chose corn and luckily, it was easy enough for her to prepare.

Since Linsey isn’t picky, I though I’d try and find out why. I have a feeling that it has more to do with temperament since they’ve all pretty much had the same exposure to food and expectations at home. I’m paraphrasing, but here’s what she wrote:

Linsey chose mashed potatoes. She had a hard time cutting the potatoes and mashing them later, but did almost everything else and prepared the steaks.

I’m not a picky eater because if I don’t like something I eat it anyway. I know I will eventually like some of them. The vegetables I like are snap peas, corn, carrots, cooked broccoli, lettuce, green beans and more. The vegetables that I hate are tomatoes, peas and raw broccoli and cauliflower.

Good point Linsey. Just because you don’t like something one way, doesn’t mean you won’t like it prepared differently. She doesn’t hate broccoli. She just doesn’t like it raw.

A teacher or cafeteria worker once asked Linsey if she was on a diet because she chose chef salad for lunch. Maybe this person also noticed that she eats them often and only chooses fresh fruit and vegetables, drinks regular milk instead of chocolate and only eats dessert once a week. Though I was proud that an adult noticed her healthy eating habits, Linsey’s response to the question was a shy  “I don’t know”, which made me sad… and angry (at the teacher, not Linsey). First of all, she doesn’t choose them simply because they’re better for her. She enjoys salad and would prefer it over the other junk they serve. This woman could have given Linsey a pat on the back for choosing (and enjoying) food that is good for her. Instead she made Linsey feel like she was doing something wrong. It’s sad that a nourishing salad with lettuce and carrots and eggs, cheese and ham (even if the quality is less than perfect) is viewed as “diet food” by so many adults. And therein lies the problem.

In general I think kids will learn what you expect them to. If you have high expectations for schoolwork and manners, why not have the same expectations for choosing the right foods? They’ll put up a good fight (just like everything else) and you’ll have to remind them again and again and again… On the other hand, if you only expect them to eat “kid food”, and offer them the choice, they probably will choose the chicken nuggets, hamburgers, french fries and macaroni almost every time. Haleigh often gripes about having to “eat vegetables” the way she gripes about having to clean her room, do homework or put her clothes away.

Likewise, if I let them eat sugary foods often and regularly… “because that’s what kids are supposed to do,” I’m just enabling a habit that they will one day struggle with (as many of us have). I think it’s better to teach the lesson sooner rather than later… even if they don’t practice or appreciate it until later. Besides, as much fun as it is, sugary junk food is not healthy, not even for children (as some well meaning individuals have suggested). Before you start thinking “Those poor children…” It’s not like we don’t get treats and plenty of them. Our society is so saturated with junk food that  (as hard as I try) we can never escape the temptation. Sadly, schools are the biggest contributors with their sugary rewards and prizes. It’s sneaky and the least imaginative way to get kids motivated. It reminds me of feeding a dog a biscuit to get it to jump through a hoop.

Haleigh’s school is offering burgers and fries from McDonald’s as a reward for meeting quarterly goals. Keep in mind that this is not going to be offered in place of lunch, but as a snack, later in the day. A “snack” which the school is “limiting” to no more than a total of 4 items per student – no more than 2 sandwiches and 2 orders of fries… each… *gasp!* I’m disappointed that they’re offering it all, let alone allowing one child to eat two orders of fries and two sandwiches. According to the letter that was sent home the children can choose between a regular cheeseburger, a double cheeseburger, a chicken sandwich and/or french fries. After a quick look at McDonald’s Nutrition Facts I discovered that this “snack” could potentially add up to 1340 calories (2 double cheeseburger and 2 orders of fries), 68 grams of fat, 2620 mg of sodium and 14 grams of sugar. Baylor College of Medicine recommends a daily caloric intake of 1600-2000 for girls between the ages of 9 and 13 and 1800-2200 for boys in the same age group, a fat intake of 62-85 grams and only 1500 to 2200 mg of sodium. This is pretty close to the USDA’s recommendations as well. There is no “recommended sugar intake” for anyone because added sugar (any amount above that found naturally in food, like fruit) isn’t recommended at all. So that’s 14 grams (in 2 double cheeseburgers and 2 orders of fries) over the recommended amount – zero. Haleigh is allowed one item, which is one more than I’d like. Luckily she only wanted one anyway. (Yay!)

I could (and some would argue that I should) let the school know that I don’t approve. How can I expect change if I’m not willing to call them out on this? But at the same time, I don’t want to be that mamma. The crazy health nut. The one that took McDonald’s away. And I don’t want to embarrass Haleigh (especially during the socially sensitive years of middle school). It’s a struggle I find myself in daily. One I’m still trying to work out.

Letting Kids Cook

We all know most kids like to cook. The tricky part is letting them. During the week, I’m in such a hurry to just. get it. done. Most times I’d rather do it myself. Do it right and do it quickly. Just like any good cook (or any good anything), they need practice. How are they ever going to be efficient enough to really help me, if I don’t let them learn? Linsey (8) and Haleigh (11) are the perfect age for this. They are going to make a lot of mistakes. I do, all the time. I also need to practice letting them make mistakes. A couple nights a week I’m going to let one or two of the kids help me with dinner. At this point having all three of them “helping” in the kitchen at the same time might compel me to trade my apron in for a straight jacket.

Last week Haleigh helped me make stone ground grits with butter, feta, mozzarella and cheddar (just a little of each) and Brian and I mixed in sauteed onions, chard, criminis, scallions, tomato and basil. With just a little guidance and a few tips from me, she did most of the work. This left me available to clean the kitchen. It turned out wonderfully.

 

 

Haleigh helped me with dinner again on Monday, which happened to be our wedding anniversary. I wanted to surprise Brian with a clean house and elaborate dinner. None of this would have been possible without Haleigh’s help. We made pork chops, cranberry sauce, butternut squash supreme, green beans and whole wheat buttermilk cheddar biscuits. She also helped by washing the dishes as we went along, which made clean up after dinner, a breeze. This was her “gift” to me and I was so grateful! She helped chop everything up and stirred and combined ingredients. She also made a sweet sign for Brian (“Brian’s Diner”) which she taped to the door to the garage, and some “menus” for all of us.

Leftover vegetables from porkchop night a/k/a "lunch"

Tuesday night was Linsey’s night. We made spaghetti and stuffed aji dulce peppers. We cheated a little. I started with Ragu’s Organic Chunky Garden Combination then added a ton of fresh veggies: garlic, red pepper, onion, zucchini, broccoli (and I’m just remembering that I forgot to add the shiitakes). She did all of the chopping, combining and stirring and practically cooked the pasta all by herself. There were a few accidents (she’s clumsy like her mommy) and I tried to keep my cool. She was bored by the time I needed her to grate cheese, so Haleigh pitched in. The sauce was a little thin (juice from all the fresh veg), which was of course my mistake. We should have cooked them a little longer by themselves and drained them before adding the jarred sauce.

The aji dulce peppers were wrapped in bacon, which I carefully precooked so that they were soft enough to wrap around the peppers. I cut the tops off the peppers and removed the seeds then stuffed them with Linsey’s mixture of feta cheese, cream cheese (about half and half) and thyme. After stuffing them we wrapped a piece of bacon around them and secured with a toothpick. In the end, I had a few bacon pieces left over that were too small to wrap, so I just shoved them in the remaining peppers with the cheese. I actually liked them better this way. The bacon overpowered the pepper on the ones that were wrapped and it cut down on the fat… so I could eat more! It was also easier, so next time I won’t even bother wrapping them. I put the stuffed, bacon wrapped peppers in the cast iron skillet that I used to precook the bacon and roasted them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes. These little guys are a little bit of work, but so good. Even Haleigh who resisted at first, couldn’t resist the lure of bacon. I hope I can still find these peppers at the market on Saturday. Maybe I’ll make them again on Sunday for football.

I’ll probably get London to help tonight. We’re eating leftovers or sandwiches (made with fresh baked bread). Easy enough for a 2 year old.

Random Stuff

I’ve finally had some success baking bread!! I’ll still play around with the recipe. I’m starting to get the “feel” of the dough. I’ve been trying to avoid adding gluten, which I finally figured out was like putting the cart before the horses. Whole wheat is harder to work with, so until I get the basics down, I’ll keep adding gluten (in the form of King Arthur’s organic unbleached all purpose flour for now) back into the recipe until I get it right. Then I’ll start working backward again, until I figure out a way to make it with just whole wheat. I just need the training wheels a little longer. I checked out King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook from the library, to get a few more tips.

Speaking of books, I’ve read a few lately. Mostly about food of course. Even Eat, Pray, Love had a section solely dedicated to food. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan was okay, but honestly it wasn’t anything I hadn’t already heard. If you just skip to the last section, you’ll get the entire book in a nutshell. If you aren’t already familiar with reasons to eat whole food, Big Industry and Big Agriculture and such I recommend it. I’ve been told I might like another one of his books,  Omnivore’s Dilemma more.

I read Building Bone Vitality, which was boring, to be quite honest, but there was some really compelling information in there explaining what’s wrong with the current recommendations to eat lots of dairy and take calcium supplements to build strong bones and prevent osteoporosis.  The authors/doctors recommend eating less meat and dairy and other the high acids foods that steal the calcium right from your bones. Instead eat calcium rich fruits and vegetables like collards, kale, spinach, broccoli, carrots, oranges, dates and raisins. Even nuts and seeds have calcium.

I also read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. They actually had it on cd at the library, so I listened to most of it while chauffeuring the kids back and forth to school. (The girls were so glad when I finished it.) The author basically uprooted her family from Arizona and moved back to Virginia where they grew most of their own food (fruits, vegetables, eggs, chickens and turkeys) and ate locally for one year. Very inspiring, and there was a lot of insight in this book about eating local, whole foods.

Now I’m reading The Conscious Kitchen by Alexandra Zissu. I like this book the most because it’s more of a why and how to. She gives lots of tips and resources, like how to read PLU codes (those little stickers they put on produce). 5 digit numbers beginning with a 9 are organic and according to her, conventional produce begins with a 4 and has a four digit number (however I know that some also begin with a 3). Genetically Modified produce can be labeled with a five digit numbers beginning with an 8, but good look finding those. PLU’s are optional and I doubt those producers would be willing to divulge that information. She also has touches on almost everything I’m concerned about these days – from dairy to fish to plastic and more. Read this book!!

Next on my list is Real Food What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. Then maybe the other Michael Pollan book.

One more thought. I caught a quick glimpse of an episode of Oprah last week in which she was discussing the horror of puppy mills. Shortly after that, I was shopping at HT and found myself in line behind a woman with reusable grocery bags (great!), but she also had a ton of prepackaged food in her cart. I know every little bit helps, so I’m not knocking their efforts by any means. In fact I need to ramp up my own. What I’m suggesting is that now that we’re paying attention and doing our part to rid the planet of puppy mills and plastic bags, it’s time to take the next step, whatever that means for you.

Pick one thing that concerns you and figure out how you can make that situation better. When it becomes a habit, choose another. Recycling is good, but avoiding all that packaging is better. (Something I need to work on.) Likewise, if you can’t bear the thought of puppies raised in a mill, then you should reconsider buying conventional meat from the grocery store. That steak or chicken was once a living animal that most likely came from a factory farm. The animal abuse and neglect happening on factory farms is much worse than that of a puppy mill. (See pictures below.) Livestock and chickens aren’t bred for adoption and the public isn’t looking to rescue them. The whistle’s been blown and still no one is listening.

For me, the next step is going to be further avoiding packaging and any meat that might have been factory farmed. I’m going to reuse all the produce bags I’ve been saving. I use them at the farmers market, but now I’m going to take them into the grocery store too. Once they’re gone, I’m going to put a couple of those handy grocery baskets inside my cart and put the produce right in there. I’m also going to try and eliminate paper products at home. That will be a little harder and the additional washing will probably fall to me. I’m not sure if I’ll get a lot of support at home for this one.

Avoiding conventional meat outside of my home will be difficult. I have been reluctant to take this step, because it’s not something I can do discretely. It will leave me vulnerable to ridicule and some people will question it. But I’m going to do it. Some might think I’ve gone vegetarian, and that’s fine I guess. In fact, this would probably be easier to explain than: I only eat minimal amounts of meat from animals that were raised humanely and fed a proper diet, free of growth hormones and antibiotics. Unfortunately, someone along the way will take offense to that. They might assume I think I’m too good to eat what they are eating or that I’m judging them, when in reality I’m just taking a stance against something I feel strongly about. I’m sure there will be opportunities for me to show my girls that standing up for what you believe in may not always be easy, nevertheless it’s an important virtue. Of course I’ll probably break the rules every now and then, when it can’t be avoided, but I am going to give it more effort. Saying “I will never eat” or forbidding myself from any food is not something I’m willing to do.

 

How is this...

 

 

... different than this?

 

 

Mama pigs are literally pinned down so that her babies can nurse freely and to keep her from rolling over on one of them, which is a real possibility. But still no excuse.

 

 

These might be considered "Free Range" chickens on a factory farm, but not to me. Buyer beware.

 

Dealing with Negativity

Why is it that when you’re trying to lead a healthy lifestyle, some people (even good people), try to make you feel like a douche? Or they give you advice that is clearly not based on fact, but rather on their their own experience (of which they really have none, since they aren’t exactly the picture of health). “I turned out okay?” Ummm… no.

Somehow my avoidance of unhealthy foods or behaviors and any discussion of it, has occasionally been mistranslated as, “You are so unhealthy because you eat that or do that.” I can think of several situations (not just regarding food) in which “no thanks” or “it’s not for me” comes across like this: “You are a turd if you do that.”

In case anyone else out there is getting “the look” or the eye roll or the sneer, for choosing the more natural real food over the processed fake food (for yourself or *gasp* your children), I’d like to offer some encouragement instead. Be proud of yourself and stand your ground. You’re doing something really good! If you happen to be the one rolling your eyes and full of sarcasm, maybe try to lay off just a little. It’s easy to become discouraged when making a change. You’ve probably been on the receiving end before.

We’ve been led to believe eating fatty food is what causes obesity, but that is yesterday’s theory. Our fat intake has decreased, yet obesity is still on the rise. Sugar addiction is a serious problem. It’s an addiction that deserves the same sort of attention as tobacco and alcohol addiction. I’m not saying it should be illegal, but many people don’t realize that it’s as addictive as crack. Most kids will literally lie, cheat and steal for it. They’ll even get into cars with strangers… just kidding. Kids know not to do that now, right? I just pictured a group of sugar fiends in a vacant, condemned house splitting a tablespoon of sugar, purchased with the money they scrounged, just to get a taste. Bet it would happen though.

So many things we thought we knew about nutrition, are just plain wrong. “They” over thought it and led us astray. It’s not rocket science. Go back to eating food the way it was naturally grown. When you eat corn, it should still look like corn. Butter is better than margarine (especially if it the margarine contains trans fat). Sugar should be eaten as it naturally occurs – in fruit, and occasionally honey or pure maple syrup (not Mrs. Butterworth). Stay away from those fad artificial sweeteners. “They” can’t seem to make up their minds about their safety anyway. The whole egg is better than just the egg white, especially if they’re free range and fed well (happy, healthy chickens). Most food is better for you if eaten in it’s original form. The apple, rice, corn, potato, etc. is better and easier to digest when it’s eaten as a whole, or at least eaten together, i.e. mashed potatoes with skin, brown rice, etc. A glass a wine or beer or even a mixed drink (or two) with a meal should no longer be taboo. But all of these, along with meat and dairy and wheat products, should be consumed in much smaller quantities than we’re used to. This should go without saying, but if you have health problems or allergies you should probably listen to your doctor and ignore me.

Eat more vegetables. If you have access, buy locally, organically grown food, including pastured meats. (By the way, happy and healthy animals naturally produce meats that are higher in Omega 3′s.) Don’t support unethical, unhealthy and inhumane practices with your hard earned money. Save the gas and energy used to process, transport and store items that can’t be produced in our region. Be conscious about what you eat. Try growing your own organic food. It’s much easier than you think, and there’s a good chance you’ll actually take pleasure in it. It’s a pasttime that goes waaaaay back. I started with a low maintenance container garden, but next spring I’m actually looking forward to adding an “in ground” garden. More and more research is turning up regarding the harmful side effects of pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMO’s or GM Foods). The evidence is mounting and it’s just a matter of getting everyone’s attention now. Oh and artificial ingredients should be taboo.

Did you know that parents in western societies are likely to outlive their children if things don’t change? It’s true. Let that thought marinate for minute. Our diets and health are spiraling out of control. You might be condoning or even facilitating it by supporting fake food manufacturers and feeding this junk to your kids. If making a change for your own benefit isn’t motivation enough, then do it for your kids. Their lives, literally, depend on it. (Yea. I went there.)

Okay. I’m getting off my soap box now.

KYFT 2010

This weekend the girls and I, and a few of our friends, visited seven farms during the the Know Your Farms Tour. Twenty-seven local farms participated. Saturday we visited three: Birdbrain Ostrich Ranch, Grateful Growers Farm and Lewis Farm/Carolina Cattle Co. The ostrich farm was our first stop. The little guys were so cute. We sampled some ostrich meatballs. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but ostrich is nothing like the poultry I’m used to. If someone had told me I was eating beef, I would’ve believed them. Lewis Farms was more fun for the kids. They fed hay to the horses and there was a hayride tour.

The highlight for me on Saturday was visiting Grateful Growers. If you’ve read any of my earlier entries, you probably know that this is who I buy pork products from at the Matthews Farmers Market. It was nice to visit a farm that actually provides food for our family, and it was the only one we visited this go round. Linsey was very excited when she recognized Natalie from the market. I though we’d just be seeing a lot of happy pigs, but it turns out they grow other things as well for their own consumption: chickens, turkeys, mushrooms!! We ate lunch from their Harvest Moon Grille concession trailor. The GGQ (Grateful Growers pork barbecue) was good, but the pork burger with sriacha aioli and cheddar cheese on a homemade yeast roll – was devine! It would have been even better with the tomato. Haleigh ordered it without. This place has been highly rated (and not just by me), so if you’re ever in uptown Charlotte, hunt this orange concession trailer down!!

On Sunday we visited four farms that were really close together: Hartsell Farms, Bame Farms, Wild Turkey Farms and Landis Gourmet Mushroom (which is actually in an old cotton mill). We saw Fainting Goats, Belted Galloway Cattle and Gulf Coast Sheep (all endangered breeds) at Hartsell Farms. This is where I realized I had never really tried lamb before. I wish I’d though of it before we left and bought some while we were there. As soon as I figure out how to order some local, humanely treated lamb, I’m going to attempt cooking it.

Bame Farms was a small operation. The girls enjoyed playing with the antique corn sheller and grinder, but this is not the type of farm I want to support, at least until things improve for the pigs. I was really disappointed at how they were treated here. The pen was too small and the entire thing was just one large muddy mess, which I’m sure included the pigs’ own waste. This is better than a CAFO on a factory farm, I guess. But the chickens that we saw on the entire tour had better living arrangements than these poor pigs. I’m not saying that pigs should be treated better than chickens. However, this farmer claims that he grows the pigs to around 150 pounds (although they can get much larger). At best, that’s about 145 pounds more animal than a nice sized chicken. These guys need way more room to run than chickens do.

There were at least two faucets with water trickling out constantly and the pigs were completely covered in this dark mud/urine/poo mixture. (I’ll admit that the pen didn’t smell as bad as it looked.) The pen was no more than 10′ x 10′ and only about 3 feet high. It was covered, so the pigs wouldn’t have to worry about getting too hot. But pigs are smart and playful and enjoy running around every now and then. That was clear on every other farm that we visited. I wonder if these poor guys ever have the chance to set their feet on dry land (or whether some of them could even walk at all). Moving around in that gooey muck can’t be easy. If I remember correctly, they are fed mostly corn, which is not good. One of them appeared to be sick or injured. When asked about the pig, the farmer said he didn’t want to take it to the vet, because he feared they’d tell him to put it down. I’m not sure if he was looking out for the pig or his investment, but the pig should have been isolated from the others at the very least.

Wild Turkey Farms in China Grove was my favorite, by far. When I dream up an ideal, sustainable farm, this is pretty close to what I imagine. Everything they do here is done with care and respect for the animals, the environment and the consumer. The are even Animal Welfare Approved. All of the animals were pastured. The pigs live in huge, uncovered pens with a couple mud holes and ark shelters. There is plenty of grass under their feet. The cows roam in a huge pasture. While on our hayride tour of the farm, we could see them at a distance, relaxing under the cool shade of some trees, along with some protection – a llama (a couple of dogs also help with this). According to the farmer, llamas are extremely territorial and can sense an intruder from much further away than the cows can. They are also pretty fierce toward unwanted guests. The chickens also had nice sized pens on the pasture. The turkeys pen was a little smaller, but I’m pretty sure it’s due to their frailty. According to two different farmers on the tour, they are more difficult to keep alive and one of them isn’t planning to raise them anymore.

When one of the guests asked about slaughtering, which can be a touchy subject, the farmer didn’t flinch. The slaughtering company was in North Carolina and is family run. Based on what I had seen and heard so far, I believed him when he said it was a company he could trust to do the job with respect. I am considering ordering meat from this farm just to show my support for their high ethical standards. Standards so high, that some of their own family members and other farmers have given them a hard time about it. (Haters!)

The $25 that we paid for the ticket covered as many people as we could fit in one vehicle for both days. What a bargain. This annual tour will become a tradition for us. I highly recommend it, especially if you have kids. Even if you don’t care about the food aspect, this tour is such a fun learning experience.

Happy Grateful Growers Piglets

By the way, did you that NC is second only to Iowa in pig production, and that Smithfield is the nations largest pork producer. I wonder how Paula Deen feels about CAFO’s… Anyway, I won’t get all political on you, but if you’re interested in knowing how poorly these pigs are treated or how the waste is affecting the water supply, read this (please click the link), or do you own research.

An 8 Year Old’s Perspective

Linsey wrote her “story” about a week ago, but I’m just getting a chance to post it. I was going to do a little editing to cut down on the repetition and correct obvious errors, but I’m going to fight the urge to change anything, and post it “as is” so that you can get the full scope of it’s 8 year old charm! I apologize in advance if it’s too difficult to read.

Linsey’s Perspective:

I like to go to the farmars market with my mom. I see lots of food at the farmars market. There are lots of vegetables at the farmermersmarket We go to farmarsmarket on Saturdays evry week. There are not a lot of furts at the farmer. The first day I went to the farmersmarket I thout the farmersmarket was boring but I was wong now I bon’t thinnk that the farmersmarket is boring eny more. I amso Excted evrytime I go to the farmersmarket I went. one time I went I stayed to wach a chef cook I was so happy when the chef was done I got to try the food that the chef cooked. I was so good that I wanted more but I couldn’t have more. I tasted a pear at the farmersmarket the pear was so good. Evry time I go I can get a treat. I can get eny treat that I want. I am so happy that I can get a treat. The treats I get are so good that I want more Love Linsey the End

In case you were unable to decipher: “There are not a lot of furts at the farmer,” she was not talking about flatulent or grouchy old farmers. She meant: There are not a lot of fruits at the farmers market. She was blown away when I told her that tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins were all fruit. It was not easy for me to ignore all those red squiggly lines as I typed, as well as her misuse of punctuation and lowercase and capital letters. But there it is.

Last night for dinner I had planned on putting some leftover ingredients together with some new ones to save time and also because I didn’t want to waste any of our treasured fare. I chopped two cloves of fresh garlic, stemmed and chopped some shiitakes from Clover Mushroom Farm and rough chopped about two handfuls of fresh sweet basil from my garden. I started my pasta water, then heated a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and threw in the garlic, mushrooms, leftover Grateful Growers pork sausage (about half a cup), sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I had planned on adding leftover tomato sauce from our Italian sausage dinner to these ingredients, but after being hit with the wonderful aroma of mushrooms, garlic and sausage sauteing in olive oil, I decided not to drown them in the heavy sauce. Instead, I added about a half a cup of Chardonnay that I had in the fridge. While the alcohol was cooking out, I diced a tomato, thinly sliced about a quarter cup of sweet onion (very thin, I mean almost shaved) and grated about a half a cup of fresh parmesan. I also tossed fresh handmade pasta (by Pasta a Mano) into the boiling pot of water. It only takes about 3 minutes to get fresh pasta cooked al dente. I drained the pasta, then tossed it, along with the tomatoes, onions, basil and parmesan, into the the mushroom and sausage mixture. It was delicious and the pasta was perfect.

I now know that fresh, al dente pasta does not compare in any way to the bland, dry pasta sold in a box at my local grocery store. I would love to learn how to make it from scratch myself. Then I could spend time making pasta with my kids, the way Italian mothers do. I know we’re not Italian, but what a lovely tradition to share between generations.

After dinner I cut two acorn squash in half, seeded and then microwaved them, cut side down, for about 5 minutes (shortcut to reduce baking time). Then I turned them over and wished I had remembered to slice a tiny bit of the end off so they would sit flat. It was much more difficult to do this while they were hot. I put about a half a teaspoon of butter and about two tablespoons of chopped walnuts in each half, drizzled them with a small amount of maple syrup, and then VERY lightly sprinkled some brown sugar on top. I put them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. When they were done, I set them out on the stove to cool while I got the girls ready for bed. The smell in the house was amazing, but still they had no interest in eating a “vegetable” for desert.

In the mean time, Brian finally got home and came straight upstairs, grinning and inquiring about what was sitting on the stove. Once the kids were in bed, we ate our desert. Brian commented that he wanted to eat them again and, lucky for him, it’s squash season! I’m already inventing new recipes in my head. Maybe I’ll try it with some fresh squeezed orange juice and zest, or cinnamon, maybe even diced with apples. Mmmmm, endless possibilities. Seasonal eating is so yummy!