eatkamloops.org

Kamloops Garden Box Project

About a week ago Joel Dyck contacted me about his project to build raised beds in Kamloops for FREE. If you are interested in having someone put some raised beds in your yard please read the following outline for the Kamloops Garden Box Project. If you are interested in participating in this project, Joel’s contact information is below:

This project will be called Kamloops Garden Boxes. The purpose of this project is to get more people interested in small-scale urban gardening.

Project Director: Joel Dyck
Email: joelfish(a)hotmail.com
Phone: 250.573.2479
Sponsored by Garfield Weston Award and the Kamloops Chapter of BC Sustainable Energy Association

February 21, 2010 Weston A Price Foundation Potluck in Kamloops

When: Sunday February 21, 2010 at at 2:00pm-4:00pm (meeting) 4:00pm-6:00pm (potluck) 
(Third Sunday of Month)
Where: 2853 Bowers Pl, Kamloops, BC (map)
Contact: Caroline Cooper at 250.374.4646

We will be hosting a Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck. Please bring one nourishing traditional dish to share with others. If you are unsure of what a nourishing traditional dish is, please read Dietary Guidelines and Dietary Dangers.

Come to the meeting before the potluck if you are interested in a herdshare program in Kamloops. I do not have good news about the progress of this project. Sorry.

January 17, 2010 Weston A Price Foundation Potluck in Kamloops

When: Sunday January 17, 2010 at at 2:00pm-4:00pm (meeting) 4:00pm-6:00pm (potluck) 
(Third Sunday of Month)
Where: 2853 Bowers Pl, Kamloops, BC (map)
Contact: Caroline Cooper at 250.374.4646

We will be hosting a Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck. Please bring one nourishing traditional dish to share with others. If you are unsure of what a nourishing traditional dish is, please read Dietary Guidelines and Dietary Dangers. Please bring a list of ingredients for the dish or a copy of the recipe. This is for those people with food allergies or sensitivities to even properly prepared nourishing traditional foods.

We will be discussing the formation of a herd share program for Kamloops. We will review Naomi Fournier’s lecture on January 9, 2010 for those families that could not attend. If you are interested in raw milk, please come to this meeting.

Special Meeting for Kamloops Herdshare Program

Please note there will not be a potluck on December 20, 2009. There will be a Special Meeting for the Kamloops Herdshare Program on Saturday January 9, 2010.

When: Saturday January 9, 2010 at 2:00pm-4:00pm (meeting) 4:00pm-6:00pm (potluck) 

Where: 2853 Bowers Pl, Kamloops, BC, V1S 1W5 (map)

Contact: Caroline Cooper at 250.374.4646

We will be discussing the formation of the Kamloops Herdshare Program. Naomi Fournier of Birdsong Farm will be answering questions about herdshare formation. She runs a herdshare program in Enderby, BC. We will have a copy of the CFAI grant application we made to Interior Health. We will answer basic questions about herdshare formation and the estimated cost to shareholders. If you are interested in raw milk, please come to this meeting.

After the meeting there will be a Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck. Here are directions to GO BOX Storage, home of eatkamloops.org. Please bring one nourishing traditional dish to share with others. If you are unsure of what a nourishing traditional dish is, please read Dietary Guidelines and Dietary Dangers. Please bring a list of ingredients for the dish or a copy of the recipe. This is for those people with food allergies or sensitivities to even properly prepared nourishing traditional foods.

Update December 11, 2009: Here is a link to Sally Fallon talking about the work of Dr. Weston Price on One Radio Network.

Joel Salatin’s Vision of a Local Food System

This last weekend I had the great pleasure of meeting Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm. He was speaking to a sold-out crowd hosted by the Cowichan Agricultural Society in Duncan, BC. Joel Salatin speaks passionately about family run, grass-based farming. In his own words, he is “in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture.” The guiding principles behind “Polyface are:
TRANSPARENCY: Anyone is welcome to visit the farm anytime. No trade secrets, no locked doors, every corner is camera-accessible.
GRASS-BASED: Pastured livestock and poultry, moved frequently to new “salad bars,” offer landscape healing and nutritional superiority.
INDIVIDUALITY: Plants and animals should be provided a habitat that allows them to express their physiological distinctiveness. Respecting and honoring the pigness of the pig is a foundation for societal health. 
COMMUNITY: We do not ship food. We should all seek food closer to home, in our foodshed, our own bioregion. This means enjoying seasonality and reacquainting ourselves with our home kitchens.
NATURE’S TEMPLATE: Mimicking natural patterns on a commercial domestic scale insures moral and ethical boundaries to human cleverness. Cows are herbivores, not omnivores; that is why we’ve never fed them dead cows like the United States Department of Agriculture encouraged (the alleged cause of mad cows).
EARTHWORMS: We’re really in the earthworm enhancement business. Stimulating soil biota is our first priority. Soil health creates healthy food.”

My husband Shaen has read most of Joel Salatin’s books, so much of the information in the lecture wasn’t new to him. Near the end of the lecture, Shaen asked Joel Salatin if there was any big differences in his thinking now compared to when he wrote his books. Joel Salatin answered that in the past he believed thousands of farmers would communicate directly with customers. But most farmers find marketing and distribution very difficult and don’t like the work. Now he sees “clusters of farms” working with “local streams of marketing and distribution”. Joel talked about a six part system for a successful local food supply: producer, processor, accountant, marketer, distributor and customer. My husband and I looked at each other and wondered if there is a place for GO BOX Storage and eatkamloops.org in this new vision.

We realized we could become a local food distribution center for Kamloops. We could form a buyer’s group for Kamloops. We could increase the size of our orders and get better prices for everyone. We could run pocket markets or personal deliveries for a cost. If you do not know about pocket markets please read: Pocket Market Toolkit.

It was exciting thinking that we could become part of a successful local food system which helps all of us get the best in local food at a reasonable price. If we could develop a successful local food system, Joel Salatin believes “we could give the big-box stores a run for their money.”

Update November 25, 2009: I contacted Sally Fallon and asked if she knew of anyone who could mentor me to start a buyer’s group for Kamloops. She suggested John Moody who started a buyer’s club called Whole Life Buying Club. Before a new member can join the Whole Life Buying Club, they recommend the new member watch The Story of Stuff. The Whole Life Buying Club follows a Food Philosophy which defines the type of products the buying club will bring in for members. John Moody has written an essay for the journal Wise Traditions called Building a Local Food Buying Club.

Update December 1, 2009: Here is a link to Martha Stewart’s interview with Robert Kenner producer of the movie Food Inc. and Joel Salatin. I hope you enjoy the hypocrisy of the commercial, marinated in the content, more than I did. This is a link to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund about Buyers Club Victories.

Updated December 23, 2009: I have just learned from Sandra Burkholder that Joel Salatin will be coming to Quesnel, BC on March 27, 2010. Joel Salatin will be speaking at the 2nd Annual Poultry and Rabbit Forum being put on by the Cariboo Central Interior Poultry Producers Association. Sandra Burkholder and her husband Chris Newton are building a earthship house in Darfield, BC. An earthship house is made from recycled materials and is designed to be completely self-sufficient housing system requiring no outside support. The earthship is the brain child of Mike Reynolds of Earthship Biotecture.

Updated February 28, 2010: I found a series about Polyface Farm on Watch.MeetTheFarmer.TV. You will get a personal tour of Polyface Farm with Joel Salatin. There is an incredible amount of information in this video series about his pasturing systems for the watchful viewer. He will go into the types of grasses and herbage plus the effect of mass group grazing and resting of the pasture. He goes in to some theory but most of the videos are very practice. If you are interested in the theory behind his practices please read his books for more information. Here is Part I, Part II and Part III.

[The road to] hell is paved with good intentions.
English Proverbs

25 Steps to Eating Nourishing Traditional Foods

1. Purchase your food as whole ingredients and as close to the original natural state as possible. Avoid processed foods. Avoid all additives, coloring, stabilizers and fillers. Avoid Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). Make it a point to understand the system used to process your food. If you cannot understand the process, do not eat the food.
2. Try to source your food locally. Get to know your farmers and ranchers. Show appreciation for all the work that goes into producing your food. Look for pastured raised or organic. Find the local suppliers for un-sprayed products. There are many local suppliers which are not certified organic but follow organic principles. Un-sprayed products are usually cheaper than certified organic. Use eatkamloops.org to find local farmers and ranchers. For some guidelines about assessing food quality read WAPF Shopping Guide for Canada.
3. Eat local foods seasonally. The food has better nutrition and is cheaper. If you would like to eat these foods out of season, find a suitable storage method. Get a large deep freezer and find an area in your home for dried stores. Consider building a root cellar or cold room. For more information read Winter Storage Part I and Winter Storage Part II.
4. When buying from non-local sources try to buy certified organic. When we can’t talk to the producers about their practices, having a third party certification is a good idea. If certified organic foods are not in the budget, read about The Dirty Dozen and avoid foods with the most contamination.
5. Consider growing your own food. Use container gardening on small properties or a big garden on larger lots. If labor is an issue, you might be able to trade garden space for labor. Depending on your zoning, you might be able to have laying hens for eggs or a miniature goat for raw milk.
6. Start a grease bucket. Save all your drippings and fat from roasted meat and fowl. Use the grease for any high heat frying or roasting. For more information read The Grease Bucket - Something from Nothing.
7. If you eat industrial vegetable oils or foods containing industrial vegetable oil, stop now. For cooking, replace these industrial vegetable oils with your grease bucket, butter, or coconut oil. Save your extra virgin olive oil for salads and uncooked foods. Other cold-pressed oils may be used occasionally in very small amounts. If you have any condition involving inflammation, removing even quality cold-pressed oils may improve your condition.
8. Make bone broth. Save all your bones from meals and store in the freezer until you have a pot full. Cover the bones with water and add 4T cider vinegar and simmer for 6-24 hours. For more information read Beautiful Bone Broth.
9. Eat some fermented foods each day or with each meal. Fermented foods improve our digestion. Fermentation can remove anti-nutrients from our food and increase nutrient availability. Fermented foods are not commonly available in the Industrial Food System and must be made at home. For more information read Wild Fermentation.
10. Start making some fermented foods at home. A good place to start is making yoghurt or kefir. If you do not consume dairy, try making lacto-fermented vegetables or use sourdough for breads and biscuits. Contact eatkamloops.org for free starter cultures. For more information about what starters we have read I Got Culture!
11. If you eat grains, beans, and legumes, soak them overnight in water, salt and fresh lemon juice before cooking. This soaking will remove the anti-nutrients from the food and make it easier to digest. Use bone broth when appropriate for the recipe in place of water. This will improve your digestion of these foods. If you are wondering why you need to soak grains read Be Kind to Your Grains.
12. Purchase all of your grains whole. If you are making flour, grind it yourself, and use it within four days. Flour is very perishable and will go rancid very quickly. Freshly ground flour can be stored in the freezer for later use.
13. If you eat nuts and seeds, soak them overnight in water and salt. Nuts and seeds can be then dried and consumed uncooked. These store well in the freezer for quick use.
14. Look for a local supply of grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds. There are many local varieties which will be fresher. Look for un-sprayed or organically grown.
15. If you eat rice, buy organic brown rice. Since this is not a local product, buy certified organic. Brown rice does not need to be soaked overnight but cooking in bone broth will help with digestion and improve flavor.
16. Buy your meat by the whole animal. This allows you to have a variety of cuts, offal, fat and bones. The butcher will package the meats in sizes that are best for your family. Get all the products from the animal even parts you do not know how to cook. They can always be used to make bone broth. For more information read Cooking with Grass-Fed Meat and Fowl.
17. If you consume dairy, find a source of raw milk or raw milk products. This will involve having your own cow, goat or sheep or being a member of a herd share program. If you are wondering what is so great about pastured raw milk please read Let’s Talk about Raw Milk Safety. For more information about herd share programs in the province read Birdsong Farm - Cow Share Program.
18. If you are concerned that you have a deficiency in your diet and want to take a supplement, consider using whole foods, sometimes called superfoods. Examples of superfoods are: fermented cod liver oil, high vitamin butter, liver, spring and fall butter, raw milk products, bone broth and fermented foods. Other superfoods are related to the health problem of the person such as: various fresh or dried glands, kelp, assorted clays, probiotics, assorted high vitamin berries and herbs. For more information about superfoods read Supplement or Superfoods.
19. Look at your cosmetics and decide if you would eat them. If you would not like to eat them, consider stopping use. Our skin is far more porous than was once believed. The use of coconut oil can be a excellent moisturizer. Consider making your own soap or buying brands with very few ingredients. A good source of information about the safety of your cosmetics can be found on Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database.
20. Look through your medicine chest and decide if you can do without most of your medication. Many medications mask symptoms while the condition worsens. It is better to feel the pain and make fundamental changes in our lives, rather than masking symptoms while the condition gets worse. Think about the other drugs you take on a daily basis. Assess if these drugs might be adding to your health problems.
21. Think about food preparation in the home and how the task can be done efficiently. The job of running a traditional household is more work than eating convenience foods. This means someone must be willing to allot time for this important work. Some people use one day a week where they spend a morning in the kitchen producing meals for the whole week. Others cook larger meals and consume the leftovers. Remove all plastics from your kitchen and replace with glass containers. Remove Teflon and aluminum from your kitchen and use stainless steel, glass, cast iron or enameled cast iron. Stop using a microwave for cooking or reheating foods.
22. If you are thinking about having a child, start thinking about what you eat before you conceive. All traditional populations had a special feeding schedule for mothers and fathers to be. For more information read Thinking about Motherhood.
23. If you continue to have health problems after changing over to a nourishing traditional diet, consider looking at the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This diet is also known as Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS). This diet is for very sick people. For more information about SCD and GAPS please read Specific Carbohydrate Diet.
24. Continue getting educated about health. eatkamloops.org has donated a number of books to the Kamloops Public Library. For a list of donated books read Recommended Reading List.
25. Come to our monthly potlucks. The potluck is on the third Sunday of the month between 2:00pm and 6:00pm. For more information read Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck in Kamloops.

Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck in Kamloops

When: Sunday November 15, 2009 at 2:00pm-6:00pm (Third Sunday of Month)
Where: 2853 Bowers Pl, Kamloops, BC
Contact: Caroline Cooper at 250.374.4646

We will be hosting a Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck. Please bring one nourishing traditional dish to share with others. If you are unsure of what a nourishing traditional dish is, please read Dietary Guidelines and Dietary Dangers. Please bring a list of ingredients for the dish or a copy of the recipe. This is for those people with food allergies or sensitivities to even properly prepared nourishing traditional foods.

We will be discussing the formation of a herd share program for Kamloops. If you are interested in raw milk, please come to this meeting.

The First Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck

When: Sunday October 18, 2009 at 2:00pm-6:00pm
Where: 2853 Bowers Pl, Kamloops, BC
Contact: Caroline Cooper at 250.374.4646

We will be hosting the first Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck. We are hoping to have the potlucks the third Sunday of each month. Please bring one Nourishing Traditional dish to share with others. If you are unsure of what a Nourishing Traditional dish is please read Dietary Guidelines and Dietary Dangers. Please bring a list of ingredients for the dish or a copy of the recipe.

I received the first order of Green Pasture’s fermented cod liver oil, high vitamin butter oil, fermented skate oil and coconut oil. They will be available for sale at the potluck if desired.

We can discuss starting a herd share program or other issues of interest to the group. We also have material from Sally Fallon’s lectures. Children are always welcome.

Slaughtering Chickens

We just finished two days of slaughtering chickens. It was a big job because our “fingers” for the Whizbang Chicken Plucker were out of stock. If you have ever plucked a chicken you know this is the most tedious job in processing chickens. Commercial chicken pluckers cost in the thousands of dollars. I decided to look for a used model online but found Herrick Kimball’s book Anyone Can Build a Tub-Style Mechanical Chicken Plucker. I bought the book but the rubber picker fingers, which his son Robert sells, were out of stock. If you would like to see a video on the process, please watch Whizbang Chicken Plucker. You’ve got to love these guys!

The day before yesterday, Shaen set up the assembly line:
1. The first area is for killing cones. He uses inexpensive roadside cones that are cut down to accommodate the chicken’s head.
2. The second step is located outside. The scalding area uses a turkey deep-fryer attached to a 20 pound propane tank. This is a big pot full of water which is heated to 150 degrees. The chickens are dunked for about one minute to loosen the feathers.
3. The third area is the plucking seat. There is a big bin for feathers and a seat for the plucker. An upside-down pail acts as a table to rest the chicken being plucked.
4. The fourth area is a washing area for cleaning and removal of pin-feathers.
5. The fifth area was for cutting off the feet, gutting and final cleaning. The “dressed” chickens then go into a cooler full of ice and water.
6. The sixth area is for wrapping the chickens and packing up the organs. We saved the feet, liver, heart and gizzards. The chickens were then put into our massive old-style freezer. This freezer has a special setting for maximum cool down which isn’t normally available on new freezers. People are just not freezing large amounts of meat at one time anymore.

We started processing the chickens yesterday morning. Shaen caught the chickens and worked at the killing cones. He did double time dunking the chickens in the scalder which loosens the feathers before plucking. I was the main chicken plucker. Christine washed, checked over the birds, and removed any pin feathers. Chris Harder, our welcome volunteer, worked at the gutting table and wrapping area.

It took the four of us about 10 hours to process about 50 chickens. If we called in a professional team to do this job it would have cost about $4.00 per chicken. It will take far less time when we have the Whizbang Chicken Plucker finished.

Update September 13, 2009: I have been asked if I can sell the chickens we are producing. Unfortunately, if I sold even one chicken, I become a criminal. The government wants to keep you safe from people like me. They know their “government inspected meat” is far safer than my chickens wash in the kitchen sink. If you are wondering about the governments record of safety regarding inspected meats, please read: Slaughtering in BC: Information You Need to Know.

WAPF Kamloops Chapter at Farmer’s Market on August 15 and 22, 2009

Where: 200 block of St. Paul Street, Kamloops, BC
When: Saturday, August 15 and 22, 2009
Time: 8:00am to 12:00noon

I will be at the Kamloops Farmer’s Market on August 15 and 22, 2009. I will have information about the Weston A. Price Foundation. There will be free brochures on a number of topics such as: real milk, trans fats, why butter is better, diet for cancer, alert on soy, and myths about cholesterol. I will have copies of the WAPF booklet which gives guidelines about healthy eating. This is a great booklet which normally sells for $1.00 but will be free at the market. This booklet is also good for giving to family members to help them understand more about nourishing traditional foods.

I have just received the WAPF 2009 Canadian Shopping Guide. It will sell for $1.50 and is full of information about Canadian suppliers of nourishing traditional foods. If you buy a WAPF membership or are presently a member, I will give you a Canadian Shopping Guide for free. Membership is $50.00 and includes the quarterly journal Wise Traditions and can be purchased at the market or you can go online and join. Membership is how WAPF funds their good works. They do not receive funding from industry. WAPF membership is not required to join in on local potlucks and informational sessions.

I will have the present copy of the Wise Traditions quarterly journal and some copies of back issues for sale. I have copies of the Wise Traditions special issue on Growing Healthy Babies and Heart Disease. There are fridge magnets for your favorite pregnant woman to help remind her to eat nourishing traditional foods. I will have some fun items like bumper stickers and buttons to tell the world where you stand!

We are having a free draw for Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions! If you would like a copy remember to put your name and number into our draw box. We will do the draw on August 22, 2009 at the end of market day and call the winner.

Hope to see you there!

Update August 22, 2009: It was great meeting people interesting in healthy food at the Kamloops Farmer’s Market. Our winner for Nourishing Traditions was Michelle Wells of Kamloops. For those of you that entered the draw but did not win, please remember we have donated a number of books to the Kamloops Public Library, Nourishing Traditions being one of them. There was a number of families interested in starting a Cow-Share Program in Kamloops. I will forward this list to a farmer interested in starting a Cow-Share Program. There was some interest in monthly potlucks and informational sessions.