This being
the start of a 10 day fast it’s a perfect time to reflect back on some of our
activities and observations about our lives as far as our food is concerned. I
can always measure our journey by what we are eating, growing or cooking.
Today we
are working on some honey from one of our hives… I love the smell in the house
when honey is being processed. Of course our form of working with honey is very
simple – for the most part, we don’t do much of anything!
What we
like is honey on the comb or cut comb honey. This is the honey you can gently
squeeze out of the comb or eat the entire thing really. There is a little bit
of wax and lots of honey – all of it with health and healing properties.
Mostly we
don’t take much honey from our bees – just enough to use for medicinal purposes
and a little in my baking. It certainly would not be something I would spread
on my toast (other then the first day with new honey) it is too precious for
that.
This past
week I also cooked a leg of lamb – it was one that needed to be used up,
something that was bought from a shop awhile ago. What I wanted to mention about
it is that it was bland – the day before we had enjoyed some of our own meat
raised here and it did not compare.
First of
all, it wasn’t organic, it was also likely raised and then not handled as
gently as we would our own animals. But, I do think what they are fed likely
makes a bigger difference then we all realize.
Fortunately
here in Ireland, most lamb and grazing animals are on the land and eating
grass. However, those intended for market are often finished on grains which
are mostly genetically modified these days (corn and soy are GM in the regular
feeds).
This gave
me something to think about – and I was not overly impressed with the meat
itself. I was thinking mostly in terms of the flavour – perhaps we are so
accustomed to stronger flavoured fowl and game meats now. Or maybe I just need
to get a lamb of my own and raise it to see if it tastes better or different to
me.
Some other
things I have noticed with my cooking and baking is how much of our meals are
now our own. At Easter we sat down to a meal with the following items made or
grown by us - turkey, pickled gherkins, pickled beetroot, cranberry apple
sauce, sage stuffing, green salad, hot fruit juice.
Everything,
except for items like rice and some of the vegetables (which we are not able to
grow yet) were from our own hands. It was nice to look around the table and see
how far we’ve come with our food.
Even if you
have to buy in some of the raw ingredients – you are still making something
terrific for yourself and your family when you raise, grow and cook your own
food.
I can see
how my focus shifted sometime ago from removing any processed foods (they have
been long gone) to seeing how much we are able to grow on our own. Then tasting
the difference in the herbs, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, vegetables from our own
hands – has become a pleasure.
It is such
a wonderful feeling to put energy out into the raw ingredients and then to have
it all come back full circle – transformed into healthy, nutritious meals for
your family.
The spiral
of life is dynamic and alive….
April
 |
| Honey comb waiting to be pressed |
No comments:
Post a Comment