Tomato Finale

I know you're all wondering how my tomatoes fared through the season, so I thought I'd share.

This was the result of one day of picking in August.

I picked maybe 2-3 times a week and I had about three picking days of this sort of abundance. In fact, I still have about a blue bucket full of tomatoes in my garden right now that need picking, but it will probably be my last harvest.

What did I do with all those tomatoes? I gave a lot away, I ate a lot, and I canned well over 40 jars of stuff.

One cool benefit of living in a really old house is that there are built in storage racks in the basement specifically for mason jars. Of course, this is only considered 'cool' when I actually can stuff...

Homemade whole wheat tortillas

Lately, I've been falling into a lazy rut when it comes to food. I've been feeding the kids lots of processed crackers, candy (thank you winter full of holidays), sweets and just generally things that aren't particularly good for me or them. I've been feeling the listlessness in my body.

On top of that, my little 3 year-old pretty consistently complains of a tummy ache. I think it might just be constipation, but I'm not helping it much with what I've been indulging in. It doesn't help that she's a super picky eater.

So I am re-inspired to take upon the quest of several years ago when I started making my own bread. I've fallen in and out of making my own bread in the past year, but I'm back on the bandwagon, and I'm taking it a step further. For the next two weeks I have decided to cut out all white flour and processed sugar. Whew. It's not going to be easy. I'm being helped by a blog called 100 days of real food. They have recipes and tips. I'm also SO glad I have a (borrowed) wheat grinder. It makes everything taste better.

Yesterday I made whole wheat tortillas for the first time. They were delicious and the kids ate them. Success!

I got the recipe here and I will definitely be doing this more often. I even had some help.

Oatmeal...

...blech.

Does anyone know how to make oatmeal look good in a photo? I just got a lot of gross shots. Does anyone know how to make oatmeal taste good without adding loads of sugar?

I wanted to try oatmeal for a "filling and frugal start" to my day. It is also ideal for soaking to help reduce the phytic acid. I followed the recipe here. I added little cubes of apple, maple syrup, whole milk, and a little brown sugar. Blech. I couldn't finish the bowl. It's too sticky and not very tasty. Either the apples were not sweet at all or the oatmeal zapped any sweetness that was there.

Even the Babe only had a few bites before she was done.

Anyone know how to make tasty oatmeal without resorting to the quaker instant packs?

Soaked in Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread

I have begun my big new old-fashioned food experiment. I have to admit, this is the first time I've made whole wheat bread! This is also the first time I've ground my own wheat! And not as surprising, this is the first time I've soaked flour overnight in buttermilk! All in all it turned out pleasantly.

The recipe I used was from here. I halved the recipe, left out all the optional ingredients and the dough inhancer, and *ahem* accidentally started with an extra cup of flour. I'm not so good at halving recipes in my head. I kind of expected a flaming disaster and a soaring success all at once. What I got was somewhere inbetween-closer to the success side. The texture was perfect! I could've sold it at the grocery store and competed with Grandma Sycamore. The bread was tasty, too. However soaking in buttermilk left a sourdough tang that I don't know if I really love. It's not bad, but it's not for everything.

The point of this experiment, though, is not to make things that are out-of-this-world delicious. The point of this experiment is to see if eating homemade foods prepared with old-fashioned techniques helps me feel better and digest food better. The more I think about it, the more daunting this experiment can be. The only way to really know the difference is if I am consistant and replace ALL my bread with this bread, and ALL my grains with soaked grains (or the like).

I'll start with the bread. I'm pretty sure I can keep this up indefinitely.

Grinding wheat? Soaking grains? Sounds like a lot of work...

But I'm starting to think it's worth a try.

It started with my sister. She has had digestion problems for years and has tried everything in the book-elimitating certain foods, recipes galore, vegetarianism, even yoga to see if it helped her digestion. She's visited several doctors and all have said "reduce stress and eat more soluble fiber." She was at a point where if she tried to consume more fiber she would've turned into a tree. And still she had painful and poor digestion.

A couple months ago she came across a book that took food preparation back to the pre-industrial days. It was one of the few things she hadn't tried yet so she thought she'd have a go. It worked. She has never felt better. The benefits have extended beyond just improving digestion. She has more energy, doesn't feel like she's battling depression all the time, she has better memory and focus. She couldn't say enough good things about it when I was talking on the phone with her.

So I thought I'd do some research of my own. You should know that I've always tried to avoid overly processed food. I've never trusted some of those ingredients lists, they just don't seem right. In my research I've discovered there are a lot of conspiracy theorists and fear-mongerers out there. I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying to find facts to help me take better care of my body and my family. However, In the Doctrine and Covenants there is a chapter referred to as the "Word of Wisdom" that talks about what is and isn't good for our bodies. There is a verse that says "In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation." So even though I am not a conspiracy theorist, the fact is there is a lot of greedy companies out there who are only looking at their bottom line, not at what their product does to your body.

I decided to approach my research as instructed in Matthew 10:16, "be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," discerning between the fear-mongers and the truth-sayers.

I've found TONS of information out there. I want to use this as a reference for me for some of the more poignant articles I've found, so I'll probably add to this post as time goes on.

1. About Phytic acid and nutrients in grains
2. Be kind to your grains... and your grains will be kind to you
3. The value of soaking your own grains
4. The Ploy of Soy

I haven't changed anything about how I prepare my food yet, but I will, and I will document it here. This may be one of the largest experiments I've tried yet.