One of my goals in 2019 is to get away from processed foods and start eating a better diet. I turned FIFTY FOUR this year. Now a little over half a century old and the sobering fact of that alone has made me consider some things about my eating habits that should have been considered a long time ago. Even though I have been pescatarian for a while, there are areas of my diet that could stand to be seriously reconsidered for my health now and in the future. I still eat too much processed food and fewer veggies and fruits than I could. The veggies and fruits that I have been eating are standard grocery store fare. This mean that I have no idea how many chemicals I am dousing my insides with since it is never disclosed. This troubles me, as it should.
I have always loved gardening and growing veggies, but it seems since we moved to Kansas over 20 years ago, my gusto evaporated. I love gardens and I LOVE the taste of a homegrown tomato. Lately I have been reading a lot about the chemicals that we are routinely consuming. As a result, I am trying to make some changes to both the way I shop and the food I consume. So this year I am making a big effort to clean up our sadly neglected back yard and put in gardens of both flowers (to encourage and support pollinators) and veggies for eating.
I have my work cut out for me.
Our backyard is a neglected mess. But that is my fault. So now I will be spending time correcting that situation. I have ordered seeds from a couple seed catalogs, which is a weakness of mine when it it cold and snowy here in Kansas. My goal is to construct raised hay bale beds for most of the veggies and some regular raised beds for some of the tomatoes and the ground cherries. I am relying on buying only open pollinated or heirloom veggies since I have an issue with the fact a lot of our seeds have the potential to become narrowed by hybridizing from corporations with big budgets for advertising and the word magicians to make it seem OK to buy seeds that are basically food time bombs that have to be bought over and over again (insuring profit for the company). Hybrid seeds usually are not good candidates for seed saving since they do not come back "true" a second season outside the lab conditions. Heirlooms and open pollinated seeds will come back--hence the fact they have been passed down through generations.
The way to ensure food diversity is to grow the heirloom and open pollinated seeds that will not come under the control of corporate seeds. So much of what we consume is the result of chemical processes, I want to get away from that in my consumption as much as I can.
Part of my "education" into eating and behaving in a more sustainable manner involves reading the stories of others who have spent their time working through the process of moving processed foods from their lives. I just received a pretty good book in the mail yesterday titled " Unprocessed - My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food" by Megan Kimble. Not sure how I happened to find this book on Amazon, but it sounded intriguing. She is younger, so it is nice to get the perspective of someone who is not the same age as I am. I am only on chapter 1, so I will update as I read along. So far she has a good perspective and I am curious as to how a city dweller without access to a garden space navigates the journey. I am fortunate that I have the ability to grow my own food in a small backyard, so I will also be keeping updates on that journey, especially since it is basically starting from below "scratch" with a depleted and neglected backyard. That journey be the subject of several posts. Along with the goal of providing my home with good organic food, I hope to be able to supplement that table of several family members and friends.
This week I am taking stock of the seed packets I have so far. along with the ones I just ordered, and start actually planning the garden. I have ordered an abundance of tomatoes, peppers and other veggies that I can plant in order to be able to can jams, salsa and sauces for the upcoming year. It is easy to eat a variety of food in the summer and Fall, but in the winter and early Spring, it is a bit more challenging here in Central Kansas. So hopefully I will have several posts that involve canning for the slimmer seasons.
I am also curios to see how eating "whole" influences my weight. That has been an issue for a while. So the focus on real food is an important one. I have tons of vegetarian cookbooks. It is time that I used them.
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