You are what you eat

Produce from our Family Farm (Jan 27, 2012)

"Through World War II, farm life in my region (and, I think, nearly everywhere) rested solidly upon the garden, dairy, poultry flock, and meat animals that fed the farm’s family. Especially in hard times farm families, and their farms, survived by means of their subsistence economy. The industrial program, on the contrary, suggested that it was “uneconomic” for a farm family to produce its own food; the effort and the land would be better applied to commercial production. The result is utterly strange in human experience: farm families that buy everything they eat at the store."

Wendell Berry
(Renewing Husbandry)  

When we started our little homestead farm, the sentiments expressed in Wendell Berry's quote above was one of the driving forces in motivating us.  We wanted to become somewhat independent and wanted to grow our own food.  Farming had always been a love deeply rooted within me.  There was another reason as well.  Our kids all, to some extent or another, had some health issues.  The more we started to read, the more we became aware that many of the health issues we face are caused by the American diet.  Rather than looking to doctors or pharmaceuticals to cure us, we began to employ the advice of the Father of Western Medicine, Hippocrates, who said, "Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be food."

We began to see that we could largely get away from processed foods, foods laced with chemicals and unhealthy additives and genetically modified organisms and move toward producing most of our own wholesome, nutrient dense foods of which we know (and can pronounce) every single ingredient.  I'll be the first to admit, it's not easy.  It takes work, time, diligence, and persistence.  The result is so worth it, though!

You know what else?  Sometimes (many times!) we fail.  Plants don't grow or bugs eat them or droughts occur or rains come and flood and scald the plants  Sometimes the doggone plants die.  We keep going though.  That's life.  It has been an incredible journey to learn about growing different crops, to learn to preserve and can foods, to learn how to care for animals (and butcher them), to learn how to cook different foods that we grow and maximize the harvest by trying new recipes.

I have to tell you, though, that food is my weakness.  I love food. I love sweets.  When someone at the office brings cakes or pies, donuts or kolaches, I'm all over that like white on rice.  I wish that I could tell you that I turn it down.  I don't.  I want to get to the point that I do.  I like my cell phone and the safety it provides and how it puts you instantly in touch with people.  I like my laptop that enables me to pull up information at my fingertips.  I like having a vehicle that allows me to be mobile.  Living in the South, I like my air-conditioning!  Part of me likes modern food and modern conveniences.  But a big part of me is running backwards as fast as I can go.  I like learning about the "old ways" that rural agrarian folk used in order to survive.  I'm old-fashioned.  I really like the following verse in the Bible:

Jeremiah 6:16  Thus says the Lord,
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

I am aware that the context of this verse involved the Prophet Jeremiah pleading with the people of Judah to return to the LORD and to obey His commands.  They had become enamored with neighboring nations and were influenced by "advancements" in religion, economy, and culture and were quickly abandoning their historical moorings to Truth.  God, through His prophet, was calling them back.  They were stiff-necked.  You see their answer to his plea:  "We will NOT."  We would do well to heed the Prophet's call from a spiritual perspective today. 



"Crossroads" (C) by www.martin-liebermann.de



We aim to return to some of the ancient paths (old ways) in agriculture and provide homegrown food for our family and have found it to be nourishing and rewarding in more ways than one.  Maybe the "advancements" in our modern diet are not healthy and are actually harming us.  Furthermore, our economy is very fragile.  It is wise to build a storehouse of food and a storehouse of knowledge as a hedge against the growing financial stormclouds.  Don't be motivated by fear, though.  Do what you can.  Start taking baby steps.  We started off small and just try to learn more and do more each passing year.  You can too!