Fooducation

Our family has begun exploring how best to attend to our nutritional needs.  Through a great deal of research (which seems only to be in its first phase), we are uncovering a ton of information that is causing us to question the nutritional quality of the food, or “food-like substances,” we have been purchasing and consuming for the last four decades.

One result of our self-education process is that we have decided to raise and harvest as much of our own food as we can.  This is proving to be very rewarding, on multiple levels.

We have also determined to more intentionally share with our children (even though they’re grown) and our grandchildren the thinking and skills that underlie being able to grow, find, and harvest food with some actual nutritional substance to it.

Last Wednesday, we and our daughters’ families joined together in processing 50 (yep, 50), chickens which were purchased some nine weeks ago and have been nurtured for that blessed event.  It was most rewarding to participate together in that ritual of real food preparation with 10 family members involved (the three-year old is not quite ready for participation in that process yet).

Why? (you may be asking)

Here are some of the drivers behind our decisions:

• We want/need food with real nutritional “punch” to it.
• We want/need food that has been raised free of pesticides, herbicides, genetic modifications, and a steady infusion of antibiotics.
• We want/need animal protein that has been raised on natural forage, in as near a free-range setting as we can provide.
• We want/need for our children and grandchildren to understand and embrace the knowledge, skills, and traditions of raising and harvesting their own sustenance.
• We want/need to honor the sacredness of the reality that humans can only live (and live healthily) when robust plants and/or animals die in the provision of our sustenance.
• We want/need for the living organisms that provide our sustenance to also live, grow, and die in the healthiest and most respectfully provided environments possible. 

 We continue to learn about others of like mind who are accomplishing these same kinds of goals – in urban settings, in suburban settings, and in rural settings.  It seems that “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”