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How to make Local food Work ... Look to the Brits?

11/26/2014

A short little post I had on my mind to share... about how places do local food. Some food for thought (hahah see what I did there!)

While here in New Zealand I do my best to eat locally. Some people think the food here is expensive. Frankly I think its just the cost of food. I love that I can buy canned tomatoes that were grown and packaged in New Zealand. Yes the climate here is much more conducive to a year round supply of fresh vegetables. SO many people here grow their own herbs and have their own gardens, they grow different things during the winter than the summer so there is seasonal eating here too.

I have a friend living in England right now, she sent me some photos below of produce. Each bag of potatoes and each broccoli has the name of the farmer that grew it. My local eating, healthy eating, take responsibility for your food side went absolutely NUTSO on this!

If they can do it there... why can't we do it everywhere (Canada, Ontario, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto) We try to have "local" branding, but what if we just said screw it and put the farmer's name on it. Then you would at least be able to see it is local, and heck you could call the guy/girl up and ask some questions if you felt so inclined. Just like that study where people were more likely to shock and injure other participants if they didn't see them. The same applies here, if the farmers name is on it, we as farmers are more likely to hold ourselves to a higher standard knowing our neighbours are going to eat it. I think only good can come from this!

AAAND see below for some cute black kitten action ... I do miss him!! (and I would not have described myself as a cat person, but in a barn, atop a cow is where a cat should be!)

seriously... how cute is that?

I'm getting my fix of jersey cow snuggles here, but certainly haven't found a cat nearly as snuggly or as unconditional purring as he was!

Cheers
Melissa

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What is Eating Locally and is it Healthy... FOR YOU?

11/18/2014

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So as you know I'm in New Zealand and learning all about their food systems and their way of life. I sometimes can't help myself, I have a Social Science degree so I find people, norms and general group behaviour fascinating!

I am staying with friends of mine. They have a beautiful yard, with orange trees, lemon and lime trees, and avocado trees all around us! It's been amazing to have access to this, ginger lemon and Manuka honey tea has a whole new meaning when you can step outside your backdoor for most of the ingredients!

My friends are for the most part Vegetarians and eat any fish they can catch... because that is ALSO outside their back door! I however am allergic to fish! This got me thinking. I would normally have been all on board with eating all locally and not even thought twice about it. In a world where you can grow plenty of veggies even in the winter time, and fish is always available... what is eating locally? If I can't have the fish what do I eat. I started to realize that some things I was eating were not doing so well on my tummy (both internally and externally...if you know what I mean).

I started to realize that some of the root veggies here were causing me serious bloat, some of the wine didn't sit well with me (New Zealand also happens to be a hot bed for great wine.. I know, its a rough life I live! haha) I also noticed that the amount of fruit I was consuming, while incredibly tasty just seriously didn't sit well in my tummy. So I got to thinking, am I going against nature by not eating the food of the land of which I live or should I be listening to my body?

Listen to my body
I started to listen to my body, I started getting some good quality meat (funny story: Local New Zealand lamb is not readily available here, neither is their tasty grass fed beef, or their grass fed dairy). I kept eating the same amount of veggies, reduced the root veggies and the grains, and didn't eat fruit close to my other meals (which naturally reduced the fruit consumption). My body felt like it took a big deep breathe and started to function the way I know it to be, my PH got right to 7.0 in the MORNING! (which, for those of you who take your PH regularly know how difficult it is to get it at 7.0 in the morning. If you want to know why PH is important in understanding your body's health read here). And I was feeling "clean on the inside" as I say.

So is eating locally, eating healthy?

There has been some discussion on eating for your genetic makeup. This talks about eating the foods YOUR ancestors ate. I'm of German Swiss decent, so maybe the 4 season eating thing works for me well. If you have Native American blood in you, perhaps you'll find benefit to eating a diet higher in animal fat? This is for you to figure out on your own.

My approach is do what's best for my body and what makes me feel most alive, gets me the most sleep, and gets me proper PH, good scans on my live blood analysis, mental clarity and last but not least... GREAT POOPS! I know through many years of trial and error the following things:
- combining fruit with any meal makes for a seriously funky odor (same goes for sugar)
- Eating vegetables and Meat makes my body run hot and efficient
- Eating too many grains of any sort ESPECIALLY in combination with the aforementioned meat and veggies makes for a restless sleep and a big bloated belly
- lots of water, slowly sipped (I can't gulp or it goes straight through me)
- Some root veggies have the same effect as grain on my body
- fats... especially the coconut, avocado, raw butter and grass fed meat types actually help my body to get leaner... figure that one out!

What are your things you know for sure? I'm not delusional enough to think these will be truths for the rest of my life. Heck I haven't even gone through pregnancy, or any other major life changing thing like that. I have however had depression, rotting teeth, several physical injuries, serious digestive issues, adrenal fatigue, hormone imbalances and some other things. Food has been the major factor in bringing those things back around. My body has been a glorious feedback loop of information. I am lucky enough to have been raised in a family where listening to my body was as important as learning what 1+1 was. So I'm pretty well versed in it. I find I get better and better at it as I get older however. It's an exciting journey!
What might be a short term healing solution may not be your life time solution

So what is eating healthy for you? Is it combination diet? Is it moderation? Is it paleo? Is it gluten free? Dairy free? Sugar free? Soy free? What is your body lacking? It's so individual, while the internet is abound with self proclaimed experts, and that can be a negative thing I think it's also a wonderful thing because we have never before been able to access so many personal stories and so much insight. We can now make more informed choices for ourselves! Yes science is important, but in the end it has to work for you. Sometimes my body is bang on with what the scientific studies say and sometimes I'm an unexplained outlier.

I am surely enjoying the amount of readily available vegetables here! The other thing I notice is the soil is different here, there are different things that ail people here. Pregnant women are advised differently on things, such as what to take for prenatal vitamins because the soils here are lacking in different things than in Canada. THAT is pretty cool if you ask me! In the end we are people of the land from which we graze, I suspect a lot of us are a combination of various countries and various soils now that we have access to so many options. I guess that's sort of a study in Social Science too - if anyone ever wanted to take that on!

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New Zealand through the eyes of a Canadian Farm girl

11/9/2014

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Well I've arrived in NZ, I'm coming up on 2 weeks of being in this beautiful country! I think I've caught up on sleep, getting used to the windy roads (I have a history of car sickness), getting used to the food, learning about the farming methods.

If you want to skip to the bottom, and visit a short little video of some really pretty Jerseys and an astounding view of the country side here

Some Super Cool Things You May Not Know About New Zealand
1) Most top quality New Zealand food is all exported (Milk and Lamb)
2) There really are not harmful animals here
3) They have a possum problem, which was imported and they DIDN'T bring in a predator to try to eat it, which could cause more problems, they just trap them.
4) For a country that is so green, they surprisingly enough do not have widely adopted composting programs and have run off and waste management issues here
5) There is very little litigation and its commonly held understanding that basically your life is your responsibility.
6) Three national languages: English, Maori, Sign Language

Food
I find it most interesting that they export most of their milk and their beef and lamb. On the flip side of that is actually quite a cool thing. The dairy farmers actually only produce in accordance with the grass seasons. They don't try to make the cows produce lots of milk during the winter, when the grass is the best they send them out on pasture and have very small percentages of other dry feed in their diet.

*(some cows are milked during the winter for domestic liquid consumption, however the population is so small it is a very small percentage of total milk production, and often its quite costly to produce in winter, so they offer more money to farmers who do milk in winter)

Most milk is manufactured and exported. Manufactured you say? Yes, think milk replacer for baby cows when the North American dairy industry takes the calf off the mother so the farmer can sell it for mostly liquid and human consumption. Also think whey protein isolates for the ever booming fitness industry. The fancy "grass fed whey"... yep, it comes from here. From a business perspective I find it quite a fascinating model, the company doesn't actually have to be as concerned about shelf life. In North America since most milk is produced for human consumption the shelf life is like managing a very intricate logistics chain, one that could make someone very sick if mismanaged. Here they can produce when the cows are producing well, and they can stop when the cows aren't. They don't necessarily need a steady supply all the time, they can take it when its good and not take it when its not good. This is arguably much easier on the cows (and the farmers for that matter). This is essentially what our ancestors did when they had a family cow, they would make cheese and butter when the milk was abundant and great quality. That is how they preserved their dairy products. It was glaringly evident how much our need to have consistent product all year round in North America has put so much stress on cows and our land. Could we go back to a more seasonal logistics chain? Brings a whole new meaning to eating locally and eating seasonally - doesn't it!

The People

I have a background in Social Science (and Business) from University. I can't help but be fascinated about the people. I see new places through the people and through the food. The people here seem to have a very laid back approach to many things. I have to wonder if its because the seasons aren't as drastic and there isn't a rush to finish something before the snow flies? They have a sense of knowing they will be provided for. There is abundance surrounding them, oceans full of fish, land full of avocados, lemons, grapefruit, oranges, every bearing strawberries. Tea tree and Manuka honey exist in abundance here too! The other part of this approaching life knowing everything will be ok, is the lack of very harmful predators. Aside from the occasional shark attack (which I think has happened maybe 2 times in 40 years - not official, just in talking to people). They really don't have predators here, I noticed as I walked into the forest at night to see glow worms, that I have an underlying approach of defensiveness, knowing there can be harmful things in the forest at night at home. It took me a few moments to realize that really nothing was going to harm me. (The most harmful thing is probably tourist driving... on the wrong side of the road!)

Adventure Abounds - So does playfulness
Both Maori people and kiwi people (European settlers) enjoy the fact that there are hikes and adventures right under your nose. You'll see people snorkeling, hiking (they call it tramping here) and generally enjoying the outdoors. I met a few of my hosts family and they are ocean people. I noticed how much of a land person I am when they started talking about how familiar they are with the sea, its like a second habitat for them. I am familiar with the land and land animals. They can hold their breath under water for crazy lengths of time. They know where all the crayfish are, how to catch large fish, when to fish, where to fish, when the ocean is dangerous, when it isn't. They are very much one with the ocean. I on the other hand, feel totally like an outsider in the ocean, I have no sense of what is a dangerous wave and what isn't. I realize this is how most feel when coming to the farm. It is part of me, it is in my bones. I became very grateful right then and there for my upbringing, my understanding of food and health and soil and animals and livestock. The woman hosting me right now calls me "the animal whisperer". She says wherever we go it seems there are always animals and they always want to come to talk to you!

Next up an interview with Mr. Joel Salatin - Food Inc movie star. - Be sure to subscribe to the Newsletter. I'll be releasing exclusive content there. Find out what he says is the biggest problem our world is facing!

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How to make Local food Work ... Look to the Brits?

What is Eating Locally and is it Healthy... FOR YOU?

New Zealand through the eyes of a Canadian Farm girl

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