The Real Food Challenge at Not Dabbling
Over at Not Dabbling in Normal, we’re kicking off the Real Food Challenge today. If you’ve ever seen a Food, Inc. or read the The Omnivore’s Dilemma you’ve probably thought about making changes to your diet by moving away from processed foods. That’s exactly what this challenge is about. Kim from The Inadvertent Farmer saw the movie and was challenged to make some changes in her diet. She decided to make it a group effort and the Real Food Challenge was born. You can read about my goals for this challenge here.
All month long we’ll be running this challenge with posts featuring how to’s for making things at home, ideas for saving time in the kitchen, successes and failures, giveaways and so much more. If you’ve ever considered making a few changes to your diet, this is the time. Join us.
Have you ever been challenged to make changes by something you’ve read or seen?
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Quote of the Day: Henry David Thoreau
Nature will bear the closest inspection.
She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf,
and take an insect view of its plain.
-Henry David Thoreau
I love this quote and thought about it when I was taking a few photos the other day. I had to add this quote to one of the photos, it was a little to small to show up well here and be easy to read so I put it on Flick – check it out.
I have a small fig tree that I’m overwintering in the basement. It was dormant for a few months, but it’s starting to wake up for the season. It has beautiful little leaves that have emerged from the buds, they’re so beautiful! They’re tiny at the moment, only about an inch tall, but so intricate in detail. Plant are truly amazing things! I’m always amazed at the tiny new leaves that appear when plants are coming out of dormancy.
What’s most amazing to you about plants?
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Organizing the Seed Stash
I finally settled on a method to organize the seed stash I’ve acquired over the past couple years. There were tons of great suggestions when I posted about it earlier this week. I found this nice metal box in the attic and a few empty folders in the office. After spending the afternoon cutting and labeling I’m just about done taming all the little envelopes of seeds.
I cut each folder in half and then trimmed to fit my box. This made them the perfect size for the small metal box. I organized the seed by type and planting season. So I have early spring greens, summer greens, and fall greens, etc. I printed out a list for the front of each file listing the contents and where they were acquired. I’ll be able to see at a glance what’s inside each folder. I also left space for noting date of sowing and extra info.
This should help greatly in my efforts to find specific seeds when I need them. No more sorting through the entire box of seeds to find the one pack I need that always seemed to be at the bottom. Finishing this task also made my seed ordering much easier and saved me from accidentally ordering some seeds I already had, but had forgotten about. Now that I’ve got the seeds under control, I need to think about starting a journal to keep track of the specific things I grow so I know what works well in my area/garden.
Do you keep a journal of the things you grow for future reference?
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Making Colombian Empanadas
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ve heard that I grew up in Colombia, South America. I really enjoy Colombian cuisine and Mr Chiots has grown to love it as well. One of our favorites is Empanadas. Empanadas are eaten in many Latin American countries, and each country has their specialty, as does each region within each country. I grew up in the prairie region of Colombia so I make mine the way they do there. I use areparina for the crust which is pre-cooked corn flour, I can’t find it locally so my dad brings it to me when he travels back from Colombia. In many other countries empanadas are made with a pie crust type dough, or a potato dough.
Traditionally the empanadas in the prairie region of Colombia are filled with ground beef and rice or chicken and rice. Typically they’re not super seasoned, but they’re eaten with a spicy aji which is a blend of cilantro, green onion, vinegar, salt, pepper and hot peppers. I generally make mine with beef and it’s fairly spicy with toasted cumin seeds, coriander and a lot of red pepper. They’re usually fried or baked, I prefer to bake mine. I mix some shortening in the dough which makes them nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Since I can’t get the crust mix often, these are a real treat for us. They grace our table a few times a year. Last week I made a big batch with some of Mr Chiot’s venison. These are the ultimate Colombian comfort food, definitely one of my favorites.
What’s your favorite ethnic dish?
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Sand Hill Preservation Center
My mom got this great new catalog in the mail this year from Sand Hill Preservation Center. I’m always on the lookout for places like this to buy seeds from so I brought home the catalog to read through it. I was amazed by the number of heirloom items from poultry to potatoes and everything in between. I’m amazed by all the wonderful things listed in the catalog, the sheer number of heirloom tomatoes is staggering! You won’t be dazzled by glossy pages with beautiful photos, you can tell this catalog is about the preservation of seeds, not about selling the latest and greatest “seedless tomato” or whatever the exciting new vegetable/flower is this year.
This is what they say about themselves:
“We are not a large operation and all of the work is done by Linda and me with occasional inputs from outside sources. The family consists of myself (Glenn) and my wife, Linda. Our two grown sons, Nick and Cory are no longer living at home. We are not a wholesale seed company nor are we a large hatchery. We are genetic preservationists that are in this for the genetic diversity of this planet we all call home. We produce all of our own eggs for our hatches, tend all of our own flocks, weed and care for the seed crops and produce around 90% of the seed which we sell. We also work with several close friends to produce some rare and unusual items to help give you a better variety. We purchase a few common varieties of nontreated seed to expand our offerings.”
I’m certainly glad I haven’t ordered any seeds yet, I’ll be getting some of my seeds from Sand Hill for sure, a few tomatoes. Now if I can only whittle down my list to what will actually fit in my limited garden space. I’m always happy to find out about new places like this order seeds from. I really appreciate what people like this do, devoting their lives to saving heirloom poultry and vegetables. I’ll definitely be supporting their efforts! When I’m in the market for chicken I’ll be buying them from Sand Hill for sure!
Have you found any new seed resources recently?
