Raising The Bar

King's Hill Farm is doing on their land what I have always imagined all farmers do (I now know they don't). They are practicing what is known as permaculture, and they're doing it in their own unique way. If you're unfamiliar with permaculture, one visit to a farm that is practicing it is worth a thousand words, but this is part of how Wikipedia defines it:

"The intent is that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals can design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and systematically destroying Earth's ecosystems."


I recently visited King's Hill Farm, near Mineral Point, WI for a day and I received the grand tour, including; petting the two sun-burnt pigs, walking with the chickens and ducks, visiting the hot greenhouses, getting yelled at by the geese, walking through a field of young berry bushes, nut and fruit trees, being mesmerized by the beautiful turkeys, petting a baby Peking duck, looking at the beehives and mushroom plants in the woods and chasing the llama (oh yeah, and I brought home a pet tick too).

Joel Kellum, the farmer, led the tour barefoot, naming plants at a rapid pace and encouraging us to touch the animals. Joel has a connection with the earth that can only remind me of Dickon from A Secret Garden. It is almost as if he knows something about the land, the plants, the animals that others wished they knew. He shares a secret with them, he seems to be one with them. This allows Joel to be extremely creative with how he is building this "self-sufficient human settlement". It appears that he works part knowledge, part intuition, and all love. There is room for trial and error because he is going to make it work no matter what. And he certainly has the skills, the dedication and the passion to make it work!


Of course, without Jai Kellum, the farmer/businesswoman/yoga teacher/ and mom who also manages the CSA and the website, it probably wouldn't work. Jai makes sure that the bounty of the farm gets into the kitchens of all those people looking to eat quality, organic produce, eggs and honey. Jai's easy-going, sweet personality is contagious and, I would bet, her sensibility tempers many of the decisions made on the farm. Together they're a great team and I imagine their children have an envious life with 800 acres of well-cared-for land to roam around on.

There are two reasons why I feel compelled to highlight this farm. One reason is that I think it is very important for every conscientious consumer to visit local farms and witness how much hard work and dedication it takes to provide high-quality food. If nothing else it will make people appreciate their farmers! Even better, it may foster loyalty and a desire to stand up and fight for our local, sustainable farmers. It bears repeating: without our farmers we have no food!

Another reason is that I think King's Hill Farm should serve as a model for other farms. I shop at multiple farmers' markets and buy from a diverse group of farmers, but I'm sorry to say that very few of them actually practice any form of diversified farming. And no, 60 different types of vegetables is not diversified farming. Pigs, ducks, chickens, turkeys, geese, bees, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and mushrooms; that is diversity! Let's all gently encourage our farmers to move in this direction. This is what it means to be "sustainable". The duck and chicken poop fertilize the earth and make for yummy food! A farm without animals will never be truly self-sufficient.


As we drove home from the farm (with unknown tick as passenger, I won't go into the gory details) it was absolutely striking to see corn field after corn field. Is this what we want? Do we want our farmers to produce a few crops that end up in the bellies of tortured animals or as another un-recognizable ingredient in a long list of processed foods? What kind of love could there be in that? I'm not knocking them, most of them are barely surviving themselves, with their houses 1/5 the size of the stainless steel grain storage tanks that tower over them. And the system has them so deeply embedded in debt and a convoluted web of government subsidies and toxic chemicals they are mostly little more than indentured servants.


But without a revolution, how can this change? How about by putting our money into farms like King's Hill and taking our money away from factory-farmed food and highly processed garbage passed off as food at a cheap price? Yes, I think it's a good place to start. You can also visit your local farm, and thank them for all they do. And most of all, be prepared to be part of the revolution, because as it is now, the system truly is unsustainable.

For those living in the Chicago area, King's Hill Farm will come weekly to Green City Market, Oak Park Market, Independence Park Market and Glenwood Sunday Market. Give their delicious food a try.

Fluffy Radical

I've always been off the grid, with just about everything I've done. My parents had a large organic garden in the back yard and we grew up eating fresh veggies and tofu and brown rice stir-fry. My lunch bag was usually filled with a sandwich of whole wheat bread, sprouts and avocado with perhaps some fresh fruit. I used to look longingly at the fluff and peanut-butter, white bread sandwiches my friends had.

As I got older I began to appreciate being "weird" and even to embrace it. For a long time I avoided shaving my legs and considered myself a feminist, "not to be controlled by any man" (I grew out of that one). With my children I went even more radical and had home-births, breastfed for years on end and never let a needle come within 10 feet of them. Now I eat in a way that makes some people think I'm too extreme. You know; real food, no processed food, lots of raw animal protein and fresh veggies. But all the while, even though I mistrusted government and big businesses I still had a naive belief in their inherent relative benevolence and a quiet acceptance of their necessity. So I suppose you could say I was a fluffy radical; going about my business but not truly questioning the gravity of the matters at hand.

The gravity of the situation truly hit home this past weekend, when I spent a whole day at The 2nd Annual Raw Milk Symposium sponsored by the Farm-To-Consumer-Foundation. It may sound silly to those who have never gone out of their way to drink real milk on a regular basis, but this type of gathering can make profound changes in the hearts and minds of those who take the time to attend. When listening to the deeply moving words of the likes of Michael Schmidt and the intensely motivating words of Mark McAfee one cannot help but be outraged and motivated.

When you look at what is going on with raw milk farmers, the true intent of our government, at the behest of corporate interests, becomes painfully obvious. The government is kicking the butts of raw milk producers; raiding, confiscating, harassing, manipulating, threatening and flat-out wasting wads of dollars in destroyed product (and government money). All in the name of public safety. Well, I hate to point out the obvious, and pretty much any relatively informed consumer can figure this out, but if the government were truly concerned with our safety, wouldn't they be doing these very same things to factory farms and mega-sized slaughter-houses? It is well-established that these are the source of the vast majority of food-borne illness outbreaks and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But this is what we only see on the surface. As infuriating as it is, it is not the core issue. The real issue is that raw milk represents a kind of food freedom statement that those in power do not want to hear. The very simple ideas;"I can eat what I choose" coupled with; "As an informed consumer I choose to eat real food that is produced locally with minimal processing", scare the living daylights out of those who would control every morsel that enters our mouths.

Everything I knew in my heart to be true about corporate greed and government's inability to do their job was staring me in the face this weekend. And one cannot turn away from that. My comfortable illusions have been shattered! They (meaning the greedy and power-hungry who control our food supply) are truly intent on making as much money as possible and they really, really don't care that it is slowly killing many Americans. They really don't care that our rural countryside has turned into a desolate and depressed endless sea of corn fields, factory farms and mega grain-processing plants. They truly, really don't care that that our country is filled with overweight, drug-dependent, tired, stressed-out, sick people! Really, they don't. And the scary part is that not only do they not care, the continuation of this status quo is in their best financial interest and they know it. They will stop at nothing to maintain it. And this is easy for them because usually a nice, shocking smear campaign, like highlighting how raw milk will kill you, is all the ammunition they need. Fear is a powerful weapon, but fear and total control of almost every public outlet of information is pretty much unstoppable.

So what hit home is that raw milk issues are not just about raw milk and the warm and fuzzy notion of drinking this nourishing liquid in its unadulterated form. What the fight over raw milk is about is food freedom. Every time a governmental bureaucrat enters the private property of a farm, harasses them (and often their children), confiscates their products, forces them to dump their products (for months upon months) and essentially forces them to choose between bankruptcy and giving up their many years of blood, sweat and tears, they are infringing upon our rights, as consumers! The reality of our food production and distribution system in this country is so eloquently and violently displayed when you look at what is going on with raw milk farmers. Raw milk is the poster child for food freedom!! Even if you never have the good luck to sip a glass of fresh raw milk from happy, healthy grass-fed cows, raw milk is important to you. And I mean it.

If this has in any way motivated you to step up your game and to really fight back against corporate interests in what you put in your mouth, here are some things you can do today and beyond to help in the fight for food freedom:

1. Call your local and federal legislators and tell them what you think. S.510 is up right now in the Senate. Call your senators and tell them you support the amendments being proposed to this bill by Senator Testor that will protect small-scale farmers and food artisans from the more onerous requirements. More detailed info about the bill and what to say to your senator here.

2. Join the Farm-To-Consumer-Legal-Defense-Fund and/or the Farm-To-Consumer-Foundation. These organizations are dedicated to helping farmers fight back and they're doing an excellent job!

3. Most important of all, buy local!! Support your local farmers with your dollars, stop feeding the greedy bellies of mega-corporations. This means eating little or no highly processed food and completely avoiding conventional meat and dairy. No crackers, chips, pasta, soda, fast food, (where do you think all that corn goes?) etc. I know, I know, it sounds totally radical. But that food is bad for you anyway. You'll feel much better without all that junk and the joy of buying directly from someone you know who has worked hard to bring you the best quality food they can, is unmatched in shopping experiences.

4. Always be on alert to help out by attending meetings and rallies, calling elected officials, giving donations, even just sending a letter of support to a farmer who has been beaten down.

I'm not sure if food can fully cure but I do know that junk food can kill. I refuse to let anyone tell me what I can and cannot eat but without real farmers there won't be much of a choice. Please, please let's all support our local farmers who are giving their hearts and souls to provide us with real food!!

Quick and Fabulous Dinner

OK, so I made dinner in 45 minutes today. I served Cioppino with steamed broccoli soup and salad. If you have never had Cioppino before I suggest you try it, it is simply (and I mean simply) wonderful!

Ingredients for Cioppino:

2 dozen Manilla clams
1 dozen large shrimp
1/2 lb halibut (chopped)
1/4 cup olive oil
3-5 tbsp pastured butter
5 cloves garlic
herb mixture (see below)
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 head of fennel
1/2 cup red wine
3 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 cups tomato sauce
juice of 1 lemon
2 cups fish stock
tabasco sauce is optional

You can use pretty much any fish or seafood for Cioppino.

Herb Mixture:
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sea salt

Just put in spice grinder and grind to a fine powder.

I started by soaking the clams in filtered water. Then I chopped the garlic, fennel and onion while I waited for the butter and olive oil to warm. As soon as I added the garlic I pulverized the dried herbs in my spice grinder.

I then added the onions, fennel and herb mixture. After letting them heat for a few minutes I added the wine, vinegar and fish sauce. I let that reduce for a few minutes (meanwhile separately I chopped the broccoli for the soup and began steaming it) and then I added the home-made tomato sauce (canned in the summer), the lemon juice and the fish stock (made from last night).

By this time the clams were ready to be scrubbed and rinsed, so I did that and added them to the soup and covered the pot. During that time (about 5 minutes) I quick as lightning peeled and de-veined the shrimp (butterfly them to make this process go quickly) and added them to the soup with the halibut. I covered the pot and let them cook for 2 more minutes and turned off the heat.

At this point I removed the broccoli from the steamer and put them in a small soup pot with about 4 tbsp butter and some sea salt and then I made the salad (a simple salad of lettuce, cilantro, avocado, red bell pepper and cucumber). Then I added some duck stock (home-made last week) to the broccoli, heated a little and pureed in the pot. I dressed the salad with olive oil, raw apple cider vinegar and wheat-free tamari.

And that's it. Simple but really, really tasty. The broccoli soup may seem like an odd addition but that was a request from my daughter.

A few days ago I made red snapper, which I bought whole at the store. I saved the head and bones for my fish stock. You can make fish stock from any whole fish but white fish is best (and red snapper and halibut are really the best, but both are pretty pricey).

Fish Stock:
I put the carcass in a pot and added about 2 quarts of filtered water and about 2 tbsp vinegar (any kind will do). I let that soak for about 1 hour and then added 1 onion, 1 head of garlic and some slices of ginger. Then I turned on the heat to low and simmered overnight.

About 10 minutes before I was ready to drain the stock I added some fresh parsley to the stock.

To drain I used a strainer and a funnel and I strained the hot liquid into quart-sized Ball jars. I immediately plunged the jars in ice-cold water to cool quickly (this helps with gelatinization) and then put the jars in the fridge to fully cool.

Stock is easy and sooooooo good for you! It is packed with minerals and the gelatin aids in digestion. There is a reason why people have served chicken soup when you get sick. But it only works if the soup is made with high-quality stock.

The fish stock was my inspiration for the Cioppino. Stock, butter, cream and salt are magic ingredients that make everything taste good.

As far as eating raw today, well, I did OK.

Breakfast:
3 raw eggs with raw cream and strawberries pureed in the food processor (Jill's shake)

Snack:
2 pieces of raw cheese

Lunch:
Raw ribeye steak sliced and eaten with Lewis Labs' Brewers Yeast and dipped in soy sauce and vinegar. Salad with dulse. Egg drop soup (this was super easy to make)

Snack:
Raw liver shake: Add about 4 oz of raw liver (I used beef but chicken or duck is much more mild) to food processor, add 1 raw egg, 3 tbsp raw cream, juice of 1 lemon, 1 tbsp raw honey and 1 tsp cinnamon and process. Take a deep breath, muster your courage and drink up. If you can't handle the aftertaste (which the cinnamon greatly reduces) have a strong drink to chase it with, kombucha works beautifully)

Dinner is above.

Egg Drop Soup:

5 eggs from pastured chickens
1 quart duck, turkey or chicken stock
4 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 cup tomato sauce
sea salt and pepper to taste

Heat stock and thicken with arrowroot powder (take about 1/2 cup of hot stock, add to a small bowl with arrowroot powder and dissolve, then add back to stock and stir until thickened). Add tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper. Crack eggs in a bowl, turn off heat, add eggs to hot stock slowly, whisking as you add the eggs. Serve immediately.

This is a simple soup that is a wonderful complement to any meal, the stock helps with digestion and is rich in minerals, the arrowroot is rich in calcium chloride (balances acid/alkaline in the body), and the eggs (provided they are from pastured animals fed a healthy supplemental diet) are full of good fat and cholesterol, protein (in particular the detoxifying sulphur-rich amino acids), omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamins D and K.

Something about spring just makes you want to get all healthy, doesn't it? I recently heard a great theory as to why we have this impulse. Originally, the term, "spring cleaning" was not meant for cleaning out the cobwebs or washing your back deck, it actually referred to the process of cleansing your body as the weather grew warmer and more humid. The theory as to why people did this is that in the winter your cells slightly, yet significantly, constrict in order to retain moisture and heat, but in the spring your cells are able to relax and expand and so do not hold on as tightly to heat and moisture and, it so happens, toxins. This makes spring-time a perfect opportunity to cleanse your cells of built-up toxins because the cells just don't cling to them as strongly. So trust that instinct that is telling you to change your diet and get a few more nutrients in there. Those nutrients are the little soldiers that facilitate a continual state of detoxification.

So, perhaps that is why I've decided to take up writing in this blog again. Last year I started this blog in order to account my experience with a raw milk diet. After my dismal failure I turned away from the blog, thinking I didn't really have time to sit around and tell people what I was eating and how I felt. As boring as that may sound to some, for some reason now I do feel like sitting around and writing about what I eat and how I feel.

So, since last year, I've learned many, many things and I hope they will all come out in various entries in bits and pieces. I still take medication for my autoimmune issues (Hashimoto's Thyroiditis) and it irks me to no end. I've improved my nutrition greatly over the past year and I feel absolutely fabulous most of the time. I haven't been sick in over 2 years and I have tons of energy, I have improved strength and stamina when I work out and I don't get achy joints or back pain afterward, my period comes and goes with little or no discomfort, I rarely have cravings for sweets (which I used to have all the time) and, best of all, I have a pretty constant high state of contentment in life.

As I go I will blog about all of the things I do to keep myself in a calm, peaceful state of contentment with plenty of energy, but today I will begin to talk about what I have been eating (this is obviously key to health). I hope to include my daily food in here as well. Many people have asked me for recipes so this will be a good place for me to start recording some of my favorite recipes.

2 days ago, I had 3 amalgam fillings replaced with pretty porcelain ones. Despite my dentist's best efforts, I'm pretty sure there is some extra mercury floating around in me somewhere right about now. So on the advice of my mentor I am leaning toward eating a detox diet. I refuse to say I'm going all the way, no exceptions, because if the raw milk diet taught me one thing, it was that life happens, you gotta go with the flow. I also hope to talk another time about the importance of staying cool with food. Faithfully striving is great, fanatical up-tight adherence is perhaps not so healthy. And that is the goal, now isn't it? To be healthy, in the highest sense of the word.

So the goal is as much high-quality raw animal and vegetable food as possible in ratios that are appropriate for my individual metabolic needs.

This is today:

Breakfast: 2 eggs cooked omelet-style with raw cream and sea salt and my daily shake: 1 raw egg, 4-5 tbsp raw cream, and a handful of fresh berries mixed in the food processor (could work in a blender), 2 slices of bacon

Snack: Home-made raw farmer's cheese with fresh garlic, onion, leeks and sea salt, 2 pieces of organic salami, 1/2 stick of celery

Lunch: About 4-5 oz of raw ribeye steak, eaten with olive oil, raw apple cider vinegar, sea salt and homemade pesto dressing, 2-3 tbsp. raw chevre with nutritional yeast, and a salad of red bell peppers, celery, cucumbers and olives

Snack: 6 oz. fresh juice of celery, cucumber, red bell pepper, fennel, and cilantro with 2 heaping tbsp raw cream and 3 raw eggs.

Dinner: Garlic-Herb Red Snapper with Cauliflower, 3 heaping tbsp. sauerkraut and 1/2 cup beet kvass

Recipe:

Garlic-Herb Red Snapper with Cauliflower (GF, Can be DF)

• 2 red snapper fillets, about 6 to 8 ounces each
• 4 tablespoons butter or olive oil
  
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced (add more if you love garlic)
  
• 3 or 4 drops Fish Sauce
  
• 1/2 teaspoon Creole or Cajun seasoning, or your own favorite seasoning blend, (be careful of MSG here), or your own favorite seasoning blend (I took 1 tsp. thyme, 1 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder and 1 tsp. sea salt and crushed them in my spice mill, I didn't use all of it in this recipe, I just kind of threw in what looked good)
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 to 2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon snipped fresh or frozen chives, optional
• 3 to 4 tablespoons plain or seasoned bread crumbs (gluten-free bread crumbs work just as well)
  
• 2 tablespoon freshly grated parmesan cheese, optional

Preparation:

Place snapper fillets in a baking dish.

In a skillet, melt butter with garlic, fish sauce, seasoning blend, pepper, parsley, and chives, if using. Cook on low for 2 minutes, just to blend flavors. Brush both sides of fish fillets with the butter and herb mixture. Toss bread crumbs in the remaining butter mixture; sprinkle over the fillets. Grate cheese over fish (optional). Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets, until fish flakes easily and is no longer translucent.

Cauliflower:

1/2 head chopped cauliflower
1/2 cup grated cheese (monterey jack or cheddar work well)

Saute cauliflower in same pan that you heated the butter-herb mixture in. Add a little salt. Cook until slightly softened. Place in baking dish, sprinkle grated cheese over cauliflower and heat in oven at 350° for about 6-7 minutes, until cheese is fully melted.

Good stuff!

Moutain Goats Make Good Cheese

Imagine a long dusty road winding up and up a French-country mountainside scattered with cows and alternating steep and rolling pastures. The red-tiled roofs of the quaint country houses dot the valley below; resembling the roses and geraniums grown so profusely throughout the area. The farmhouse is nestled on a ledge overlooking the green undulating hills and valleys below. There is a warm, soft breeze that occasionally belies the presence of farm animals but in a pleasant, unobtrusive way. Above the farm the hills rise on three sides decorated with tall grass, wildflowers and large tumbled rocks. This is goat heaven here and we can't help but think of Heidi and her friends. We are fortunate enough to have stumbled upon a biodynamic farm up here in the French Vosges Mountains. They have about 100 goats, a dozen or so pigs, about 10 beehives, a crowd of chickens, a duck, a few roosters and a pony. There are lots of rocky paths leading up the surrounding hills, that provide even more spectacular views of the valleys below. These are the regular stomping grounds of the lovely brown and black goats.

The farmers settled this corner of the mountain about 30 years ago and have been tending their goats and creating their delicious chevre ever since. They have lodging quarters in the old barn, which is attached to the farmhouse. Dinner was simple. Alsatian Tarte Flambe topped with bacon and cheese with a fresh salad, roasted potatoes and, of course, 5 local raw cheeses. Our host, the daughter--in-law of the family is from the French side of the Swiss Alps but her mother is Irish so she speaks perfect English with a slight French accent. She cooked and served us dinner with her baby on her hip (I tried to hold the baby but she was a little shy). It was delicious! There were two of their goat cheeses, one fresh and one aged, one aged blue cheese and two other local cows-milk cheeses.

Our children loved this place. They ran from the rocky hills to the smelly pig barn to see the goats and to pet the donkey, and back again. Before we left we watched a little chevre-making and bought as much as we could fit into our cooler. The fresh Chevre is so sweet and soft and fluffy we can't help but stick our fingers in it and eat a small block on the ride down the mountain.

When in Germany, eat.

It has been awhile. I have been spending most of my free time working on my website. But now that I am on vacation in Germany I have taken a bit of a temporary break from that work. What I have seen yesterday and today in Germany has inspired me to write a bit here. The green and golden rolling hills bathed by the warm sunshine against the backdrop of a sparkling blue lake and snow-capped jagged mountains is enough to set one aday-dreaming.

I am staying on a farm. The building we are in was once a chicken coop but it was converted to a rental house. There are two farmhouses, one other building that was a mill (also converted to a rental house) and a horse stable on the property. The owners come from a long line of land-owners and their property goes on for acres, earning the master the title of "The Baron" in these parts. Don`t let the image of a "chicken coop converted to a rental house" fool you. It is a charming building with all the modern conveniences of a typical German home, large windows, solid doors, spacious bathrooms, high-speed internet, and the best light-blocking blinds I have ever seen. Coming from the city it is so calming to sit on the balcony and watch the endless gentle commotion of the lush countryside. Twice a day we see a stampede of horses running across the plateau on the hill we look out over and on clear moments we can see the Alps sparkling in the distance. In the nearby town colorful houses serve as the palette for the annual neighborly fight over who can produce the most prolific and healthy roses. Our landlords here may just win. They are both in their eighties and they are outdoors working on their land from early morning to late evening. They grow or raise almost all of the food they eat. Needless to say, they are extemely healthy.

I am not sure if it is the scenery or if it really is so, but the food here is just spectacular. Today we shopped at the local biodynamic store. No, that was not a typo, there is actually a store that sells only biodynamic food here. Until I really started focusing on eating local foods I was eating lots of swiss cheese, in particular I am a huge fan of emmenthaler. I bought some today, since it certainly can be considered local here (we are about 30 minutes from the Swiss border). And now I can say with confidence that there is something to be said for buying food near its source. I have never had Emmenthaler this good, despite my buying the fancy stuff at Whole Foods. The salami, the olives, the cheese, the raw milk and yogurt have been beyond words. And the cloudberries, currants, strawberries and cherries we have picked in the back yard have all been delightfully luscious and tasty.

For dinner last night we ate roasted peppers and sausage, potato salad, a lettuce that we cannot figure out the name of with ripe red tomatoes, sourdough bread with gobs of raw butter, raw sauerkraut, feta cheese with basil and olive oil and lots of cold raw milk. All of this stuff comes from our neighbors (except the olive oil but even that is not that far away) and all of it was delicious. Who needs desert when dinner knocks you off your feet (not to say I turned down the rich dark Swiss chocolate).

Another strange and wonderful thing we saw today was a German biodynamic dairy. It is part of the Waldorf school here in the nearby town. Of course we went there to get our supply of raw milk but our children were mesmerized by the brown cows munching on huge piles of fresh grass. I had never seen anything like it. The cows were fed fresh grass in the barn (I would have put an exclamation point at the end of this sentence but I can´t find it on this German keyboard). As far as I know cows are fed hay in the barn, not fresh grass. It made the barn so beautiful to see the floor covered in mounds of freshly cut green grass. The milk has a complex sweet and rich taste. It is out of this world and we are drinking a bit more than a gallon a day between the four of us.

OK, I suppose I have induced a little mouthwatering. I will stop here and maybe write more another day.

On To Other Things

Lately I haven't been writing in my blog because I've chosen to dedicate as much of my time as possible to creating a website. The website is called "The Village Life". My vision is to create an online community for families to connect with other families and generate opportunities to create a modern urban "village" life.
Right now I am focusing on the "Feed The Farm" section, which has a local-eating guide, a farm visit guide, and has specific information about local organic, sustainable and biodynamic farmers. In the course of researching all of this I have been surprised to find some very interesting locally grown foods and I have spoken to many articulate and intelligent farmers dedicated to nourishing their land and their neighbors.
I am also planning on including a clothing/gear exchange, community networking forums, and school and care-provider review forums, among other things.
Needless to say, this is taking all of my time so I'm not sure if I'll be writing much here in this blog. I am thoroughly enjoying this work for the website. I don't know where it will lead but I have such a passion for what I'm doing that I'm not too worried about that right now.