Eat Like A Pagan - For Everything There is A Season

Today I have taken some raw milk from our goats and am starting my own yogurt/buttermilk/cheese culture. In an effort to do things as naturally and simply as possible I am not using anything other then the normally occurring bacteria in the milk itself.

To do this is simple – pour the raw milk into a glass jar, cover it loosely with a lid and allow the jar to sit out at room temperature for 24 to 30 hours until the mixture thickens and clumps into a culture.

Shake the jar once or twice and then pour off the cultured milk into an ice cube tray and freeze. Each cube then becomes a starter and can be taken out – placed into some fresh milk – voila – instant meophilic bacteria to start a batch of cheese or some other delicious food.

This week because we are fasting (some of us) there will be a little extra milk – so the plan is to attempt different kinds of cheese and perhaps yogurt. SO, I can’t wait to have enough milk saved up to give it a go!

Milk has become such an important part of our diets and lives – but not because we drink so much of it. Quite the opposite in fact. It has become important because we are connected to where it comes from, and we enjoy interacting with and raising our goats.

What is quite interesting is we have adjusted our eating, diets, lifestyle to enjoy what we have when we have it – if it’s a little amount of milk, that’s what we use and we budget for it. Sharing out the milk for cereal, baking and cooking. It’s the same with eggs, vegetables and meat.

When there are an abundance of eggs, we all eat eggs (more often and in more things). When we have a celebration of some sort, an animal such as a turkey, young goat or duck might be killed for our meal – but only what we need.

However, we also prepare for leaner times by preserving some of the extra foods when they are harvested. Thus my interest in making cheese (preserving milk), drying herbs, honey and raising animals for food. 

Last week we had lots of greens sprouting (leaves, sprouting broccoli, spring onion) and herbs to be harvested in the garden – salads and fresh herbs were added to our food and meals all week. But some were also made into meals that were then frozen. 

What I am finding is when you live your life following the natural rhythms and cycles of nature – you eat what is available, when it is ready and in the quantities you have - thus creating less stress on your digestive processes (and your budget).

You are also learning to wait for your food, to be disciplined in your eating and then to really enjoy all that you are given. It’s not Christmas everyday – but there are enough feasts and reasons to celebrate throughout the year, which are well worth the wait.

It really is true – for everything there is a season.

April 

Herbs in jar for vinegar!

Change Your Diet with the Seasons?

Seasonal eating is something we would have found easy to practice way back when we only had access to locally grown foods for the most part and had to preserve as much of our own for use later in the colder months.

Of course there is a fair amount of scientific and anecdotal support as well as common sense in this thinking while adhering to some very simple food ideas as much as possible. Eating organic, local, in season as well as unprocessed will take you pretty far down the road towards healthy digestive function. 

But why is that the case?

First of all organic should be a no-brainer for most of us - of course the presence of far less pesticide is better for you. How would more chemicals and poisons be good in any way? I have heard it said (it was attached to some sort of research) that organic is not any different from conventionally grown produce. I would love to know where they found the organic food used for the testing so I can avoid it, because it should be different. 

And yes, eating locally grown produce as much as possible would also make sense to those of us who consider carefully everything that goes into our mouths. Local food would not have travelled ten thousand miles to get to us, meaning it would at least be fresher. And usually it should contain local soil bacteria commonly found in our guts. All good for us.

When it comes to eating in season, what could possibly be wrong with eating strawberries in January or fresh peas at Solstice and Christmas when you live in a Northern climate? As an intuitive I would say it has to do with the lining of our guts, the bacteria living there and digestion (back to this again). 

The seasons on the outside of us change (in some locations they do) this also reflects an inner change. Right now for instance the gut is growing thinner towards the darkest time of the year. Until we reach Halloween - a time when we acknowledge the thinning of the veil between the worlds. 

This veil becomes thinner on the inside of us too. Meaning it is a good time to cut back on excesses in diet, hunker down for the winter, eat foods which will keep - root vegetables, a little fruit - and easily digested produce such as preserved foods. As much as possible. 

Gut flora undergoes the same seasonal changes inside of our bodies as the does the environment outside. Therefore, our ability to digest each of these foods changes with each season or at least it should. That is why in nature, the types of produce available for each season are quite different from each other or 'to everything there is a season'.

Your digestion, the foods you eat and the way to eat them will also change throughout the year for a healthy gut - all because of the way nature is reflected in us. Eating in season then, is along the exact same lines as choosing organic foods - it is vitally important. 

Some things just make more sense. 

Have a healthy day,

April 

Lamb, sweet corn and root vegetable stew