tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35393481434473521112024-03-12T17:00:36.430-07:00What's Cooking RichmondElli Sparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17181743403105039088noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539348143447352111.post-41088727363995187962012-01-23T17:12:00.000-08:002012-01-23T17:12:48.320-08:00We've got a website now!Welcome to What's Cooking Richmond Blog...<br />
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We've got a website now. Please visit us there for information about classes and monthly gatherings. <br />
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Thank you.<br />
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- Elli Sparks<br />
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www.whatscookingrichmond.org<br />
<br />Elli Sparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17181743403105039088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3539348143447352111.post-90480381745536037842011-03-06T14:11:00.000-08:002011-04-16T13:20:01.666-07:00Cluck Cluck… Good<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6WHG-DCQ86X3dFOueq1uCElu8_HckohiFT2zOljAJE_xl4LvlFWdsVksTmYBJArs-9Rv4mDO8-vho-xLWr9i2uX8UNrUHauGdUOvvi_Z-hcdOzkPDiABuJJoUqDdGPsSXFgw00mAiA8/s1600/eggs.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6WHG-DCQ86X3dFOueq1uCElu8_HckohiFT2zOljAJE_xl4LvlFWdsVksTmYBJArs-9Rv4mDO8-vho-xLWr9i2uX8UNrUHauGdUOvvi_Z-hcdOzkPDiABuJJoUqDdGPsSXFgw00mAiA8/s200/eggs.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595921991002811858" border="0" /></a><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">Early March was warm enough to open the window in my home office.</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">I watched the hens as they moved around the yard scratching through the leaves for bugs and heard them clucking at their latest discovery.</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">My husband had tossed a bale of straw on the ground and the hens were investigating.</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">Two hens stood on top of the rectangular bale, two were on the left side, and two more on the right.</span><span style=""> </span></span> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >“He’s dropped a bale of straw for us,” they called out. <span style=""> </span>“It’s right here.<span style=""> </span>We are standing on it.<span style=""> </span>It’s golden.<span style=""> </span>It’s beautiful.<span style=""> </span>Come and see it.<span style=""> </span>We’ve got something new.<span style=""> </span>Come and see.”</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >What a treat it was to watch my hens and hear their chatter as I worked at my computer.<span style=""> </span>My life, however, wasn’t always this pastoral.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >Several years ago I was hit with a serious health crisis.<span style=""> </span>Unable to find a way out, I stopped everything I was doing.<span style=""> </span>I quit my full-time job.<span style=""> </span>We drew on our savings.<span style=""> </span>Things were tight while I focused all of my energy on getting better.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >I had a hunch that changing my diet might help.<span style=""> </span>I read a lot and discovered interesting facts about the food people used to eat and the food we eat today.<span style=""> </span>Our great-grandmothers had prepared food in ways that heal and sustain.<span style=""> </span>We had forgotten their nourishing traditions.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >Our great grandparents picked fresh vegetables from their gardens and raised animals on pasture.<span style=""> </span>They served good clean raw milk.<span style=""> </span>They made yogurt, kefir, and homemade cheeses.<span style=""> </span>They fermented all kinds of food: pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, and chutneys.<span style=""> </span>They made stocks, broths, butter, and lard.<span style=""> </span>They served liver and an assortment of organ meats.<span style=""> </span>They used honey or maple syrup for sweeteners.<span style=""> </span>They always soaked or sprouted nuts and grains. <span style=""> </span>All of this made the food easier to digest and the vitamins and minerals more accessible. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >When asked, the grandmothers would say, “We prepare food this way to make healthy babies.”</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >Generations of grandmothers had done thousands of years of research on every continent in the world.<span style=""> </span>While the varieties of vegetables and types of animals differed by region, the principles of preparation were consistent.<span style=""> </span>This “Grandmother Research” sounded good to me, so I began to try these old-fashioned ways.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >It took a while to learn how to soak, sprout, and ferment, but eventually I figured things out.<span style=""> </span>I found local sustainable farmers growing good healthy meats and vegetables.<span style=""> </span>I switched from sugar to honey.<span style=""> </span>My kitchen counter-top grew cluttered with jars of veggies, fruit, and milk in various stages of fermentation.<span style=""> </span>In the winter, a stock pot bubbled on my stove.<span style=""> </span>I served Amish butter and cooked with lard. <span style=""> </span>Liver and onions became a weekly ritual.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >The names sounded weird and the food tasted odd at first, but I came to love the variety of flavors this old fashioned cooking offered.<span style=""> </span>And, I started to feel better!</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >As a young person, I had dreamt of becoming a small farmer.<span style=""> </span>Life, however, had turned out differently than my dreams.<span style=""> </span>I was married to a city-boy, and we were living an urban life.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >As my body healed, I began to explore the idea of farming again.<span style=""> </span>I read a book called, “You Can Farm” by Joel Salatin.<span style=""> </span>Farm where ever you are, he said.<span style=""> </span>Don’t wait to buy that big piece of land in the country.<span style=""> </span>Fill your backyard with raised beds.<span style=""> </span>Grow sprouts on your window sill.<span style=""> </span>Ferment veggies.<span style=""> </span>He didn’t exactly say to ferment veggies, but I figured that if I was growing tons of enzymes – those beneficial bacteria that heal and strengthen the digestive system – in the fermented veggies right on my counter-top, then I had, indeed, become a <i style="">small</i> farmer!</span></p><p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >Inspired by what he saw, my husband got in on the act.<span style=""> </span>He built a tiny chicken coop and found six beautiful hens through Craig’s List.<span style=""> </span>We bought a black and white speckled chicken called a Barred Rock.<span style=""> </span>We found a lovely little multi-colored French hen called a Mille Fleur.<span style=""> </span>He brought home a golden hen, a Brown Leghorn, a reddish hen that lays eggs with green shells, and a black hen that lays eggs with chocolate-colored shells.<span style=""> </span>We shared our table scraps with them and offered a yard full of bugs. In March these ladies gave us 132 eggs with bright orange yolks.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0); font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >My husband went on to build raised beds and a fence to keep the hens out of the garden.<span style=""> </span>We pruned the raspberry bushes I put in a few years ago and the blackberry bushes that had crept over from the neighbor’s yard.<span style=""> </span>We ordered seeds and started seedlings indoors.<span style=""> </span>We planted garlic last fall.<span style=""> </span>It shot up green and tall this spring.<span style=""> </span>We expect to harvest six varieties of garlic along with spinach, peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and herbs throughout the summer and fall. </span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);font-family:georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >Today, as has become our habit at the end of each day, we went outside with our two children.<span style=""> </span>We visited the hens and thanked them for their partnership.<span style=""> </span>We looked at the plants growing in the garden and noted their progress.<span style=""> </span>We nibbled on greens poking up through the spring soil.<span style=""> </span>We felt a great sense of peace, contentment, good health, and connection to each other and to the Earth.</span></p>Elli Sparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17181743403105039088noreply@blogger.com