I've been looking into grinding my flour.
WHY?! you may ask. Is Rita trying to live out her childhood dream of being Laura Ingalls?
No. (And that is not why I braid my hair either.)
Nor am I jumping on the 'green-is-hip-save-the-earth' bandwagon.
The things is... grinding one's own flour is not a new thing. Neither is hanging one's clothes on a line to dry, or letting a cow roam and feed in a pasture (yes, innovative, isn't it?) My mother-in-law used to grind her own flour because it was cheaper. She made her own bread because store-bought bread was a luxury. Now, pre-cut white bread is cheap, and the fresh-straight-from-the-oven one is the luxury. And it used to be that white sugar and white flour (both bleached) were expensive, and now they are the common items on a store shelf. How is it that with modernization, we've gone backwards?
I am a mother who wants to give her children the best she can, and save money while doing so. I grew up half on home-cooked Chinese foods, and half on American fast foods and baked goods freshly made 'from the box.' I don't know if my parents knew better. Hong Kong is a great place to eat, but you could find almost anything conveniently packaged in plastic for the 'on-the-go' lifestyle of that metropolitan tropic.
But with the release of books and movies like 'SuperSize Me' and 'Food, Inc', I'm realizing that the way things were in my childhood was not necessarily the best. Somehow, our decision to make everything bigger, faster, and cheaper has turned Mother Nature on her head. Plants are genetically grown, animals spend their lives in cages, and even water is 'boosted' with added nutrients. This is all based on the assumption that God made a mediocre world and Man must improve upon it. I'm trying to approach it from the opposite angle: God made the world perfectly suited for us. Our bodies are designed perfectly to interact with the world, even on cellular levels.
So I hope to grind my own flour soon, and master the art of making a beautiful tall loaf of bread. If I could raise my own chickens again, I wouldn't even hesitate. I'd even be willing to try raising a goat for milk if I had to! I want to explore God's plan for nourishing our physical bodies, and rediscover the Garden of Eden that is right in front of our noses.
If you eat organically or make your own foods, I would like to know why you chose to do so. Please comment!
Ben Allen wrote this on Facebook:
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm a tentative consumer of organic foods. Why? 1) I think it's important to protect the environment from over-use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides; and 2) I don't trust commercial food producers to have my best interests at heart.
I too have been very aware of our impact on the environment. God commands us to care for his planet, but greed has directed people to do things that are destroying the environment, the plants, and the wildlife.
ReplyDeleteWe live in an area that produces massive amounts of produce, so it made sense for us to start getting a CSA produce box weekly from a local farm. That was 2-2.5 years ago. We have never looked back. Now, after having shares in 2 farms (at different times), we get our produce from a small business Wyatt works for. Each week, the owners shop at farmers market, and pick up produce from several farms, pack, and deliver it to their customers. Aside from the produce, customers can purchase nearly anything sold at the market: pastured eggs, grass fed cheese and butter, local bread, honey, pastured beef & chicken (both raised by a couple from our church), pies, nuts, local coffee and tea, quiche, Indian food, etc. It's really wonderful! What is there not to love about local, organic food stuffs?
ReplyDeleteWe're hoping to get a grain mill and start making our own bread as well. My mom also used to grind her own wheat and make our bread. I didn't always love it as a kid -- wonder bread seemed so neat-- but I am so thankful that she did so much for our family, whether for the cost or health, or both.
Food Inc. really kicked me and Wyatt into higher gear about local, organic, pastured, raw foods. Working in the sustainable food industry, and meeting lots of people who make a living from it, have caused me and Wyatt start dreaming big(ger). He hopes to transition from academia and make a living, or at least more of a living, in the industry. We dream of some land, a garden, and a milk cow. God's will be done. Glory to God for all things.
We're not overly hippy dippy about saving the earth, but it makes so much sense to take care of our selves, animals, *and* the earth that we live on and get our nourishment from. I hope more people grow to share our view.
Plus, local, organic, raw, pastured, really does taste better!
Books I'd recommend (and I mentioned on facebook) are "Real Food" and "Real Food for Mother and Baby," both by Nina Planck, and "Nourishing Traditions," by Sally Fallon.
Woosh, long comment. Hope you don't mind. ;-)