What is Healthy

The Farm House at Kings Valley

This post could also be called a slice of humble pie. I am really proud of how healthy I eat. Last year my roommate regularly commented that my partner and I were the healthiest people he knew, which I definitely enjoyed hearing. I also feel like I generally do a lot to live sustainably. To me how I eat and the impact on the environment are very much linked. 

I mentioned previously that Shaun and I have been WWOOFing at Kings Valley Gardens. The experience has lead me to question how healthy my diet is. Since being here I have realized that I cannot sit on my laurels and say that I am eating healthy enough and doing enough to reduce my environmental impact. John and Andrea, who own Kings Valley gardens, are inspirational in terms of eating healthy food, but also living simply and sustainably, being joyous, and just generally living a life in line with their values.

Homemade AND homegrown canned goods

They grow a huge percentage of the food they eat at Kings Valley which is amazingly awesome. The diet is predominantly vegan. We do eat eggs that come from a neighbor's chickens. I think the food choices come from a limit on space and time on the farm and a desire to be able to leave for a weekend occasionally (apparently animals make it much harder to take a vacation). Though I have eaten vegan meals on occasion for a long time, going an entire day without dairy products is new to me.

At home we eat a lot of cheese and I drink a lot of milk. We bought local milk for a little bit, but if got relatively expensive. Dairy is something that thus far we have not prioritized in terms of buying a more sustainable version of and yet consume a lot of. This is something that I have felt bad about in the past, but feel particularly guilty about now. We also got lazy last winter when it got difficult to purchase local produce and organic produce seemed to get more expensive, probably because it was being shipped further. We slipped into purchasing mostly conventional produce and more exotic items such as bananas.

In addition to being vegan there is very little refined sugar, no caffein and no alcohol. I don't eat a lot of sugar, but do consume more alcohol and caffein than I probably should. It's not that we can't have these things it's that they are not provided as part of the work trade for WWOOFinh and we are trying to save money so we can't purchase them regularly. From a public health standpoint it is a great illustration of how the environment shapes decision. From a different type public health standpoint I also feel more understanding of smokers who resent smoking bans in public places as I hide coffee in my room so that I can enjoy my vice in peace.

All of the WWOOFers learning how to transplant things

Both of these things, the change in diet and the restriction of vice, have been frustrating at times. But I am also grateful for the opportunity to remove myself from day to day pressures and focus on living simply, joyfully, sustainably, and I would say healthily. I don't thing I want to become a farmer but I do want to bring some aspects of this life back with me to the "real world". I am still trying to figure out which aspects those will be. How I can recommit myself to being healthy in all ways. Hopefully this will provide some fodder for this blog throughout the next couple of months.

How do you live sustainably in an urban or rural environment? What is your definition of healthy?

Not so quick

I am apparently giving up on the quick part of my blog (not that many of my recipes have been very quick). But am fully embracing the cheap and local parts of it. Shaun and I decided to spend the summer WWOFFing. We have had a small garden for several seasons and are hoping that spending almost an entire growing season working with someone more experienced will help us improve our own gardening skills fast. Well, faster than several years of trial and error. We currently live in an apartment in Minneapolis so I am not sure how much of what we learn will but into practice within the next couple of years, but eventually we hope to grow a significant portion, if not all, of our fruits and vegetables (and maybe our eggs and honey as well)

As a plus we are hoping that WWOOFing in the northwest will give us the opportunity to spend some quality time with friends and family. We have returned to my native Willamette Valley to spend the next six weeks on a small farm outside of Monmouth and then the six weeks after that near Shaun's hometown in NE Washington. The picture on the left is actually neither. On our way to the Willamette Valley we stopped off in the Grande Ronde Valley to spend a wonderful weekend with some great friends and that's the view from their deck (Why did we move to MN again?)

I don't know how many recipes I'll post but I thought this would be a good place to track the things I am learning about farming.  We are finishing up our second day on the farm. So far I have learned that fava beans are a good dry bean for small spaces they are really big and you can use them in tasty dishes like fava bean hummus which needs lots of sauteed onions to mellow out the strong flavor of the fava beans. You can make your own tahini by blending 2 cups of sesame seeds with 1/2 cup of oil. The farmer also recommended the book the New Organic Farmer by Eliot Coleman which apparently has a lot of good information including her favorite recipe for potting soil. Also, black forest squash over winters the best, but the seeds are very tough and you can't eat them.

I consider myself pretty healthy, but the diet here is predominantly vegan, includes VERY little sugar, and no coffee or alcohol (there are no rules about having these things they just aren't provided). It is amazing how much I find myself wanting sugar and cheese. I also think I am getting caffein headaches which I previously thought I was imune to. It is interesting feeling how my body adjusts. We are still very much adjusting to life on the farm. The schedule is very relaxed, 10 to 5 with a long lunch, and it is amazing to have time to read, knit, meditatie, run and do yoga all in the same day! Though I have to admit I haven't actually done all of those things in one day yet. It also turns out there are parts of farming that are a bit on the boring side, four hours weeding blueberries for example. It has been fairly rainy and cold which has made me a little cranky, though I have been trying to hide it. But like I said, it is only our second day. The people we are staying with are truly inspirational!  They are so committed to living sustainably and in harmony with the land and are wonderful teachers.