Saturday, November 29, 2014

Change of focus

I started this blog several years ago because I wanted to "educate" people about ecological farming. While this is still going to be a thread throughout my posts, I really want to focus more on a homegrown, sustainable lifestyle. My main passion is food - the growing, preparing and eating it. It has to be healthy and if I can grow it even better.

Every where I look, I see fat people! I don't really mean this in an insulting way, but we as a society have become so used to being over weight that it's normal to be fat! People, it's not normal, the human body is an amazing machine and we can be fat and sick and still function quite okay. My vision is to make people realise that it's not that hard to produce some of your own food, or prepare food from raw product to a healthy balanced meal. If we ate less rubbish and just ate real food, we would become slimmer, we would be healthier and we would live a lot longer. I'm not skinny, but I'm not overweight - I eat real food, real fat and (unfortunately) I don't exercise much. We need exercise for good health, but not necessarily for weight loss. Weight loss starts when you start eating real food, made from scratch. Give up on the packaged carbs and only eat grains if you prepare them yourself. Plan your diet around meat and vegies! Think traditional food, food that our ancestors ate!

I am an extremely busy person. We run a pig farm and cattle property, market our own free range pork (retail and wholesale selling), I feed anywhere from 5 to 8 people three proper meals a day, 7 days a week! If I can find time to grow some vegies, serve up a cooked breakfast, meat and salads and home made bread for lunch and a "restaurant" quality meal every night, anyone can. Okay so you live in an apartment - well you can have a jar of sprouts on the bench (and find a community garden) Most people though have access to some ground - plant some veg alongside the shrubs, or some herbs, fruit trees, a couple of chooks!
 
If you don't know how to cook, hopefully I'll give you some inspiration to have a go. It's not really rocket science. I do cook some "fancier" type food, but I usually cook basic, tasty meals and as time is often limited, they are quick! I often don't come inside until 6 or later now that it's summer, and we can still be eating by 7-7.30.  This also requires planning - be prepared, and use the oven or slow cooker to make things easier.

I find time to make kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut, bread (sourdough and normal yeast bread), I milk cows, make my own cheese (mostly feta) separate to make cream, make icecream, we kill our own meat and I have some fresh greens and herbs in the garden.


I will try and post at least weekly, focusing on what I'm growing or cooking or eating and if I can inspire people to have a go, that's great. Please comment and let me know what you want to learn/know about. If you want a particular recipe for something, please comment and I'll post it.

6 comments:

  1. I love this post Lucy. You are a classic example of the saying "If you want something done ask a busy person." I agree with everything you've said and I found your blog inspirational. I look forward to reading more.

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    1. Thanks Elizabeth, hopefully it will continue to be inspirational.

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  2. Great idea Lucy I agree with all your comments & look forward to future posts.
    I pickled my last shoulder pork order, turned out well & Ian loves it so will be doing more. Just reading Matthew Evans 'Deli Recipes'& hope to try some.

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  3. Thanks Jane. I do quite like Mathew Evans but haven't seen that one.

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  4. Great post and there are some people out there who are fat because of medical reasons (I know because I was one of them and have now lost 33kg since the medical condition was sorted out) you are right most people are fat because of the poor diet choices and the amount of processed food they eat. And it is not hard to make some of the things people buy anyway.

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  5. Good Point Fiona, I did think I may have been a little harsh with that post, but I suppose the idea is to find out why you are overweight and then see what needs to be done. Ignoring it certainly won't help. I also agree that yes, you can make some of those things that we buy, but you also need to know HOW to cook. Some people find that part just as over whelming! I would like to show/demonstrate that it's not hard.

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