Oh boy! You are so speaking to my choir with this essay. And I needed it—as I slipped into eating corn chips in the past weeks. Static. I love that. Time to figure out the why of the corn chips—and of course there is plenty of “why” today in the USA about which to worry. In any case, know that for years each of my emails has a signature block that has my name and “Occupy Your Kitchen” beneath it! But thanks so much for this essay.
Beautifully written and thoughtfully provoking. I also was a formula fed baby, with lots of sugary, processed foods through childhood and into my teen years, although my mother would feed us the cultural foods of our her homeland. Lengua (beef tongue), guatita (tripe stew) and various animals stews were frequent meals growing up.
Despite having allergies and constant infections of various kinds, and given antibiotics, I think eating these nutrient dense meals helped save me from developing more severe illnesses.
When I hit my late teens, I discovered nutrition played a huge role in how I felt. And so began my life long journey into finding the perfect 'diet' or foods for optimal health and wellbeing. Now, in my late forties, I have settled on eating a mostly animal based diet, as this is what makes me feel my best.
Love your blog, it reminds me to stay true to my beliefs and ideals...and oh, btw, that braunschweiger looks so delicious! Is that home made. (stupid question, I know)? I've tried too make it, but the recipes I've used weren't the greatest. Care to share the recipe or point me to where I can find a really good one to begin again?
Hi Mari, the body is a marvel, isn't it? I'm always astounded at its resilience and tenacity! I have an assortment of charcuterie cookbooks, but this recipe, linked below, is quite similar to what I do. We smoke ours and you will need beef middles (which are the wider sausage casings from intestine) if you want it in a roll. You can also buy that same size in a plastic version, I believe. The seasonings here are similar to what I add to mine with the exception of sugar, which I never add to meat charcuterie even though everyone assures me I will die without :)
Ahhh that recipe looks awesome. I have hunted 2 elk and from each one I have the heart and the liver (my beginner organs) the heart is good but the liver I am having a hard time with lol. Last year I tried to fry it with onions I can eat a few bites but I can’t do it for long. Most of it was given to the dogs last year. This year I thought I could jerky it. It’s a little better in terms of eating it but yah still not the best. However this? Spiced, smoked and with meat? This could be good. I wonder if you could use this recipe for other organs too. thank you
You absolutely can. I do that all the time, any animal, any organ. I do find a lot of kidney starts getting a bit weird, but yes, by all means, this is just a foundation.
I have this thing about not wanting labels in my house. I feel like it's free advertising for the corporations and I good indicator of how dependent I am on outside sources. :)
This speaks so deeply to me. I feel like navigating "real food" with a family in a culture where fake & overindulgence is so rampant is a constant battle. Some seasons it feels like we have a handle, others not. Throw in a full time job for hubby, part time for me, homeschooling and a surprise tag along child who has been a tough baby, it would be so easy to give into the flow right now. But I stand determined to keep growing in this and feed my people. As we get into raising more of our own meat, I'd love to hear of you have any books, resources that you found useful for learning traditional cooking, especially how to cure meats, lardo, etc without having to navigate all the pink curing salt recipes online! You inspire as always, thank you Tara.
Hi Anna, that's a busy time of life, to be sure. You have a lot going on and I admire your determination to nourish your family well. I don't know that I have any one book. I just buy books at random from used book stores mostly. You can experiment with all sorts of cultures, like koji, that I haven't done yet. Maybe some day. I find there's so much that I want to do and limited time so I am truly a Jill of all trades, but my interest in mastering any one thing just isn't there. So, I learn to salt and smoke and when it's good, I go onto something else. See if you can find some good used books on the subject, but there's no one book I have to offer.
I cannot wait for part 2?!!? I love to see what your eating! I absolutely love the nutrition posts and the "to-go" food posts. I absolutely have given up social media and the like but I check my email every single day for your newsletters. I am studying nutrition and I desperately want a farm! ❤️❤️❤️ You just light my fire!! Thank you!
Gosh dang it, lady, you’ve done it again. Well, really you do every single post and essay.... but this one really spoke to me. Love it. Thanks, Slowdown.
Yes. To be nourished. In the seasonal fruits and rich greens and living animal offerings.
I have been trying to listen to my body for a long time, ever since my mother took it upon herself to exclude wheats. Which had a marked improvement in her life. Turns out that I am a little different, in that I might have a problem with artificial yeasts, not wheat.
I'm an Ontario based lass, and wanting to try raw milk to see how it interacts with my stomach. Does anyone have any tips or contacts? SW ON, please.
Good to hear your finding what works for you, Magan. I don't have any leads on the raw milk and I don't think online info will be forthcoming given the penalty given to raw milk farmers. It's usually a pretty incognito arrangement. ;-)
Wonderful read - thank you. I'm a new reader so apologies if you've already written on this topic, but I'd be interested to hear your take on how one can transition to more of an ancestral diet when they don't have access to land to grow their own food.
Hi Sophie, I can write about that more in the future. I have talked about it quite a bit, but maybe the best place to start would be two of the podcasts I did that were specifically about this topic. One was on the Weston A Price podcast, Wise Traditions episode #175 and the other was on Food Lies podcast, Peak Human, episode 26.
Hi Tara, I commented on IG about navigating the world of canning rules and regs as a novice and you pointed me here, thank you! Substack indeed is much nicer than insta, and more interactive than email! (I also have the little boy who asked me to do the 'sniff-test' on his gingerbread that he baked at kindy :)
I'm trying to learn about water bath canning (and maybe pressure canning down the track) as a complete newbie, and in the course of my research I've seen a lot of homesteaders talk about the safety concerns over the invisible botulinum, which they say means that you can't trust your Grandma's or neighbors recipes as they aren't safe (only approved and unmodified recipes should be trusted), you need brand new lids or seals every time you can (due to risk) and I even heard you shouldn't squeeze your own lemon juice for your preserves (you should only buy it in a bottle!?) because the acidity level won't be guaranteed? Caught in the trap of always needing to buy something to keep safe, was how it struck me... I might be over-reacting but it made me want to throw the towel in before I begin, except that I will have a garden full of food and I am inspired by your shelves and your common sense approach to life!!
I sort of want someone to say 'yes, that's all correct, listen to the modern advice as it's all necessary and your food won't be safe without the approved recipes etc', and I will happily listen and not be arrogant in my beginners ignorance... but the current times have got me questioning everything and I feel like an unhealthy fear of botulism (which is something I really do want to avoid!) will have me forever buying the new lids and bottled lemon juice without asking the question 'how did our great-grandparents ever survive without all these 'rules'?'
I know everything has rules, but I want to try to understand them and not just be ruled by fear... finding wisdom amongst all the noise can be a tricky exercise though, and I would love any helpful further reading ideas or points of view (even if it is 'just buy the new lids!!' ;) And sugar-free fruit canning?? Is that even possible? We don't eat sugar except a little honey so I dearly hope it is!
Thank you for all your writing and speaking. I feel like I am 'mothered in humility' each time I listen... if that is a thing! There is a humility that you teach/impart which underscores all your knowledge; it's truly special. I would like to be able to teach this to my children.
Hi Grace and Liz, a very similar question to this was answered in the most recent Q&As. If you have any follow up questions from there, you can submit them in the next go around. 🙂
Totally separate note, Tara, but is there anywhere that you talk about your decision not to raise pigs anymore, and also what you fed your pigs when you were raising them?
Sounds like a good question for the next farm q and a. Sorry Grace, it makes more sense to answer these things in a more structured way to safeguard my time and have more people get to share in it.
This gives me hope. Similar story in my youth. From 5 to 12, I was brought up on goats milk and later raw cows milk. When I was 12, my parents separated, sent us to public school where we ate toxic school lunches, had all the vaccines, and then I developed allergies to dairy, and had chronic strep and tonsillitis. Oddly when I graduated and moved away from home to a friend's farm, strep and tonsillitis went away and I had no issues with raw dairy. Now I recognize it was food related. But only in the last 2-3 years have I really begun to see the importance of our food and making those changes. I was given antibiotics during pregnancy and it still makes me cringe to realize how foolish and uneducated I was. So determined in pregnancy not to follow modern medicine just to swallow the pills as they shoved them at me. I'm now trying to heal my body and learning to listen to her and what she needs. I've found I really love paté loaded with herbs and butter and ghee, sourdough is becoming my best friend and sugar and caffeine I've divorced. Progree!
Yes, very similar story. Have hope! I think I will always have to be careful with how I eat, but that's okay too. I am grateful for an appetite trained to nourishing foods. You're on the right path, Rebekah :)
Hi Tara, First of all please accept my deepest condolences for your significant loss. Secondly, I am new to you and your work. Thank you for sharing your life, heart and soul. It speaks to me so deeply, and I know I was meant to find you.
I relate to your story. I road the rollercoaster of eating ‘well’ and then succumbing to temptations, on and off for years, until after the birth of my 3rd child. I finally hit rock bottom in September 2020 at 34 yo. I was determined after that to truly heal. I had been before, and went back to following one guru after another, but always with a focus on plant-based foods “because they were healthy dammit!” Finally, in December 2021, I gave up almost all plant foods and started a keto-carnivorish diet. In the past 6 months I have started to heal in every way possible, mind, body, and most certainly, soul. I am finding out what it really means to be human, I am woke.
The struggle now is, I want to make the change for the whole family to a traditional and mostly animal based diet. My husband kind of agrees, but is nervous to push his mother, who cares for them a few days a week and is a low-fat high-carb processed food addict, and has been the main source of processed foods. (I know one alternative is to not have them there but that is also controversial).
Anyways, as I’m sure the story so often goes, my husband feels our children are healthy and fine, and eat better than those around us. And while that might be true, they do eat better than what I see/hear others eat, it is clear to me that they are getting confused messaging from us and their bodies. They cry out for crackers and won’t eat meat or even cheese these days. They say “But oh, it is just a phase - they will grow out of it” Even though I have made the arguments that science points to the role microbiome has in foods preferences, the addictive nature of sugar etc…
My biggest fear is that if I stand my ground I will push my husband away but if I don’t I will live in guilt and shame for not trusting my motherly instincts. As it is I can hardly write this without crying, and feeling the guilt from wavering in the first place. I started out following the Weston A. Price baby food guidance with my now 4 yo twin daughters, but things have slipped far from what I know is best. It has never been more clear to me, that at least to start, you cannot straddle the fence. As you said, you have to remove the static first to know what it is like to be truly nourished. And this is the argument we have.
It does not help that all of this is so tied into "conspiracy theories.” My husband is far from lifting the veil and so many of my arguments fall on deaf ears. I am sure you get this a lot and many go through this, but looking for any support/advice from this community as a whole. I have also reached out to a local Weston A Price FB group for some guidance as well.
Hi Alexandra, I think you're over on the marriage discussion thread so I will leave some of this to there, but I will say a couple of things here. Of course, this is my experience only and doesn't mean it will work with you, but there are a few issues here and I don't know that any of them are about food as much as principles in relationships. When a man and woman marry, their loyalty is to each other and their kids. That means that the families that raised us naturally step back and make room for us as autonomous human beings that are now adults. I think a lot of parents continue to relate to their kids as children even well into adulthood. It doesn't work that way in a functional relationship. Our two daughters are in their twenties. We respect them as well functioning adults. If they told us they didn't want us to do X or Y with their kids (not yet), we would respect that. Any parent that does not evolve as their children do, is missing out on a mutually respectful, close relationship.
A man should forward and endorse the agreed upon principles of his family on their behalf. If you are the lead person on nutrition and it's not really his interest, than, in my humble little opinion, he should default to your knowledge and support it. That's always how it's worked with us. My husband loves to eat well, loves that he has a strong, lean functional body, never gets sick etc.. because of the effort I put into our food. I put that effort in with love and joy, so grateful to be able to nourish my family. I don't need to harp or nag and never have. I make and feed them nourishing foods. There is nothing else to eat. However, my husband knows enough about nutrition to know that we have always eaten organic, farm foods, no sugars and seed oils etc.. I would tell him pieces here and there, but like I said, he was more than happy to leave that stuff up to me and show up to the table to eat. And of course, that included the feeding of our children.
I was always very vocal with our kids about food, why we were eating what we did and why we didn't eat other foods. I educated them on the politics of food. I set the example and then ensured the principles I was setting out were followed. That got uncomfortable at times. That meant I had to take flack quite a few times. That meant I had to have a strong spine in a time when children need a strong foundation more than ever. The food our kids eat as children develops their tastes and preferences for a lifetime. So what if they cry out for crackers if there are none in the house? Our kids were fed their food and if they didn't want it, they were excused from the table. The end. I'm not a restaurant. And, by the way, my kids literally eat anything, including tongue and liver and all else. The only thing they don't eat is seed oils, flours, sugars etc..
There's a lot to your comment, much which seems psychological and worthy of digging into it. I don't know why standing your ground would push your husband away if it's done with clear conversation, compassion, love, and patience. You are trying to nourish your family, there should be celebration and gratitude around that. Maybe this book might be worth looking into - more relationship foundational building, but it sounds like this is about a lot more than food. "Hold Me Tight" by Sue Johnson
Thank you for your kind wisdom. I have asked him to let me take the lead on nutrition, but he insists on being involved, and while I wish he would default to my knowledge, maybe I should be grateful that he does want a say in our family nutrition, and he wants to understand where I am coming from.
At the same time, he questions the information I have gathered around nutrition. For one, I have bounced around a lot with my own understanding, from "diet to diet", so it must be hard to follow! Secondly, he questions whether I have an unhealthy relationship with food. Which in a sense is true but not in the way he means. Most of us do have an unhealthy relationship to food and in fact I have been in search of the opposite. I love your wisdom of looking to nature's laws, after all we evolved over millions of years, under all of the light of the sun, hunting and gathering, loving and just living.
There really is a lot to unravel and relearn for both of us, I'm just more incline to do so. As I mentioned in the marriage discussion, he is trying to follow my lead to some extent.
I am realizing I am a very impatient person, afraid of the passage of time. In my mind, the changes need to be made now! Then I'm rushing him down a path he is not ready to follow. I am working on my patience, and communication, as well as showing my love for him first and foremost. Last thought, maybe I should write a letter to express position or will the book offer some guidance on that? I will read and see. Love and hugs back.
I think the book would be a good jumping off point because it's not about addressing a specific issue but in getting to your underlying communication and deeper ways of being for and with each other. Also, I would highly, highly recommend getting a membership with the Weston A Price Foundation. They will mail you a quarterly journal loaded with dense nutrition information backed by studies. He could read it on his own! They also have local chapters and a fabulous yearly convention. I think a year membership is $40 in the US.
I started reading the book last night, after some pillow talk with my hubby! Just the opening Celtic quote had me.
I am exciting for this next phase of self and relationship growth. I have been having quite a few ahah moments lately, and it has been a tough slog but so rewarding.
I recently got a WAPF membership based on your advice you left to someone else on an IG post. I have been listening to many of their podcasts and the zoom discussions. Yesterday I learned about de nova lipogenesis (DNL), enzymatic pathway to convert carbohydrates to saturated fats if limited in diet! How could saturated fats be bad for us! It was reconfirming for me that animal products needs to be part of human species diet. Such a wealth of information. I have also reached out to a local lady who is running a local WAPF FB group and we are going to touch base in private soon. Not sure if it is an official chapter but I have joined. Turns out my farming friends whom I get pastured pork and chickens from are part of the group too. I also volunteered with them for harvesting the chickens, it will be my first experience with taking a life to give me life, but I am here for it.
I cannot thank you enough for sharing your heart and soul with us. You have helped me connect so many more dots in relation to who we are as a species and why we are here. It sounds like sharing your life can be overwhelming at times, so again, you have my deepest gratitude. 🙏
I'll try my best not to bombard you with the million questions I have and slowdown and listen as it comes! But please do not hesitate to let me know when I am. I hope to be a more productive contributor to this community soon. I know of course my perspective is unique but I can be shy in sharing it. That said, It seems this is a very safe place to share. Again for that, thank you! ❤️
This all sounds wildly energizing. Things are happening and unfolding for you in big ways, Alexandra. Thank you for your kind words, but I can only mention things, you're the one out there doing it. Give yourself a lot of credit for that, too.
Your authenticity is so accessible and enjoyable. Im lucky to tend land near my ancestral home of Ireland, and I share your words with the kids here often - they are always inspired, opened up and intrigued. Even the vegan ones! Please know your impact is far and wide.
Also - seeking advice RE liver. I am re-entering the daily sacred of eating what my great-grandmothers ate, and organs/ferments/broths are at the top of the list. I have tried liver ‘shots’, eating a few tablespoons of raw liver in the morning from a local supplier. I do it with ceremony, but I’d love to welcome it more, not force it down. I wasn’t raised eating a lot of red meat - the taste is new to me - would you recommenced pâté? I know and accept that not all medicine is sweet - I just wonder if this one could be a bit more savory. Would cooking and blending it amplify the iron taste? Any other recommendations/advice?
Much, much love from across the pond - and many thanks for all you do, share, and create
Hi Tara, you are such an inspiration and honestly your words really seem to resonate with feelings deep within me that are akin to your way of thinking. I wanted to recommend a book that I thought you would love if you haven’t yet read it: “The Lost Language of Plants”.
A little off topic. So in one of your question and answer podcast you mentioned butcher paper and what you wrap all your meat in. Right now we have the plastic and vacuum sealer. But I hate using all that plastic. I can’t find wax paper that doesn’t include plastic in my area. I would order it online if I could find it. However I was also wondering if I ordered a roll of Kraft paper and waxed it myself with beeswax. Would that work? I think so but you might have other ideas?
Sadly, it won't work. It used to be wax, but even then it was parrafin wax. The beeswax would be too thick and to wrap a whole animal would truly be a nightmare. Here's my best solution: I never use the plastic for reasons beyond the plastic, including high bacteria counts and oxidation from light. The opaque paper is still superior even with a plastic lining in it. We wrap the meat and it goes right in the freezer so there is no breakdown of the plastic seeping into the meat. When we take the meat out, we unwrap it while it's still frozen and let it thaw on a platter so it's not sitting in a plastic slurry. It's the best option there is, IMO.
Thanks for answering but also darn! What if I got some fabric and made beeswax wraps that way? Then it would be a little more flexible from the fabric part of it? Maybe? I was reading online that you can freeze meat in beeswax wraps. Then you could potentially reuse them too? I don’t know 🤷♀️ Have you known anyone who uses the beeswax wraps?
I use them for cheese. I wouldn't use them to freeze, but you could try. I would spend my life making them in order to freeze 3 beef, 5 lambs, 2 goats, a pig, charcuterie, and all of our birds. Wouldn't make sense and I wouldn't trust them. I'm happy with the paper.
Oh boy! You are so speaking to my choir with this essay. And I needed it—as I slipped into eating corn chips in the past weeks. Static. I love that. Time to figure out the why of the corn chips—and of course there is plenty of “why” today in the USA about which to worry. In any case, know that for years each of my emails has a signature block that has my name and “Occupy Your Kitchen” beneath it! But thanks so much for this essay.
Occupy Your Kitchen!!! I love that, Louisa. Make shirts, I'll be your first customer! :)
Beautifully written and thoughtfully provoking. I also was a formula fed baby, with lots of sugary, processed foods through childhood and into my teen years, although my mother would feed us the cultural foods of our her homeland. Lengua (beef tongue), guatita (tripe stew) and various animals stews were frequent meals growing up.
Despite having allergies and constant infections of various kinds, and given antibiotics, I think eating these nutrient dense meals helped save me from developing more severe illnesses.
When I hit my late teens, I discovered nutrition played a huge role in how I felt. And so began my life long journey into finding the perfect 'diet' or foods for optimal health and wellbeing. Now, in my late forties, I have settled on eating a mostly animal based diet, as this is what makes me feel my best.
Love your blog, it reminds me to stay true to my beliefs and ideals...and oh, btw, that braunschweiger looks so delicious! Is that home made. (stupid question, I know)? I've tried too make it, but the recipes I've used weren't the greatest. Care to share the recipe or point me to where I can find a really good one to begin again?
Hi Mari, the body is a marvel, isn't it? I'm always astounded at its resilience and tenacity! I have an assortment of charcuterie cookbooks, but this recipe, linked below, is quite similar to what I do. We smoke ours and you will need beef middles (which are the wider sausage casings from intestine) if you want it in a roll. You can also buy that same size in a plastic version, I believe. The seasonings here are similar to what I add to mine with the exception of sugar, which I never add to meat charcuterie even though everyone assures me I will die without :)
https://www.food.com/recipe/braunschweiger-ii-277692
Ahhh that recipe looks awesome. I have hunted 2 elk and from each one I have the heart and the liver (my beginner organs) the heart is good but the liver I am having a hard time with lol. Last year I tried to fry it with onions I can eat a few bites but I can’t do it for long. Most of it was given to the dogs last year. This year I thought I could jerky it. It’s a little better in terms of eating it but yah still not the best. However this? Spiced, smoked and with meat? This could be good. I wonder if you could use this recipe for other organs too. thank you
You absolutely can. I do that all the time, any animal, any organ. I do find a lot of kidney starts getting a bit weird, but yes, by all means, this is just a foundation.
Just dropping in to marvel at your label-free fridge—!! That is a major accomplishment
I have this thing about not wanting labels in my house. I feel like it's free advertising for the corporations and I good indicator of how dependent I am on outside sources. :)
This speaks so deeply to me. I feel like navigating "real food" with a family in a culture where fake & overindulgence is so rampant is a constant battle. Some seasons it feels like we have a handle, others not. Throw in a full time job for hubby, part time for me, homeschooling and a surprise tag along child who has been a tough baby, it would be so easy to give into the flow right now. But I stand determined to keep growing in this and feed my people. As we get into raising more of our own meat, I'd love to hear of you have any books, resources that you found useful for learning traditional cooking, especially how to cure meats, lardo, etc without having to navigate all the pink curing salt recipes online! You inspire as always, thank you Tara.
Hi Anna, that's a busy time of life, to be sure. You have a lot going on and I admire your determination to nourish your family well. I don't know that I have any one book. I just buy books at random from used book stores mostly. You can experiment with all sorts of cultures, like koji, that I haven't done yet. Maybe some day. I find there's so much that I want to do and limited time so I am truly a Jill of all trades, but my interest in mastering any one thing just isn't there. So, I learn to salt and smoke and when it's good, I go onto something else. See if you can find some good used books on the subject, but there's no one book I have to offer.
I cannot wait for part 2?!!? I love to see what your eating! I absolutely love the nutrition posts and the "to-go" food posts. I absolutely have given up social media and the like but I check my email every single day for your newsletters. I am studying nutrition and I desperately want a farm! ❤️❤️❤️ You just light my fire!! Thank you!
Thank you so much, Holly! What a wonderful compliment :)
Gosh dang it, lady, you’ve done it again. Well, really you do every single post and essay.... but this one really spoke to me. Love it. Thanks, Slowdown.
Thanks so much :)
Yet another top-notch essay - I have nothing to add aside from I can't wait for part 2 :)
Yes. To be nourished. In the seasonal fruits and rich greens and living animal offerings.
I have been trying to listen to my body for a long time, ever since my mother took it upon herself to exclude wheats. Which had a marked improvement in her life. Turns out that I am a little different, in that I might have a problem with artificial yeasts, not wheat.
I'm an Ontario based lass, and wanting to try raw milk to see how it interacts with my stomach. Does anyone have any tips or contacts? SW ON, please.
Good to hear your finding what works for you, Magan. I don't have any leads on the raw milk and I don't think online info will be forthcoming given the penalty given to raw milk farmers. It's usually a pretty incognito arrangement. ;-)
Wonderful read - thank you. I'm a new reader so apologies if you've already written on this topic, but I'd be interested to hear your take on how one can transition to more of an ancestral diet when they don't have access to land to grow their own food.
Hi Sophie, I can write about that more in the future. I have talked about it quite a bit, but maybe the best place to start would be two of the podcasts I did that were specifically about this topic. One was on the Weston A Price podcast, Wise Traditions episode #175 and the other was on Food Lies podcast, Peak Human, episode 26.
Fantastic! I will take a listen. Thank you so much!
Hi Tara, I commented on IG about navigating the world of canning rules and regs as a novice and you pointed me here, thank you! Substack indeed is much nicer than insta, and more interactive than email! (I also have the little boy who asked me to do the 'sniff-test' on his gingerbread that he baked at kindy :)
I'm trying to learn about water bath canning (and maybe pressure canning down the track) as a complete newbie, and in the course of my research I've seen a lot of homesteaders talk about the safety concerns over the invisible botulinum, which they say means that you can't trust your Grandma's or neighbors recipes as they aren't safe (only approved and unmodified recipes should be trusted), you need brand new lids or seals every time you can (due to risk) and I even heard you shouldn't squeeze your own lemon juice for your preserves (you should only buy it in a bottle!?) because the acidity level won't be guaranteed? Caught in the trap of always needing to buy something to keep safe, was how it struck me... I might be over-reacting but it made me want to throw the towel in before I begin, except that I will have a garden full of food and I am inspired by your shelves and your common sense approach to life!!
I sort of want someone to say 'yes, that's all correct, listen to the modern advice as it's all necessary and your food won't be safe without the approved recipes etc', and I will happily listen and not be arrogant in my beginners ignorance... but the current times have got me questioning everything and I feel like an unhealthy fear of botulism (which is something I really do want to avoid!) will have me forever buying the new lids and bottled lemon juice without asking the question 'how did our great-grandparents ever survive without all these 'rules'?'
I know everything has rules, but I want to try to understand them and not just be ruled by fear... finding wisdom amongst all the noise can be a tricky exercise though, and I would love any helpful further reading ideas or points of view (even if it is 'just buy the new lids!!' ;) And sugar-free fruit canning?? Is that even possible? We don't eat sugar except a little honey so I dearly hope it is!
Thank you for all your writing and speaking. I feel like I am 'mothered in humility' each time I listen... if that is a thing! There is a humility that you teach/impart which underscores all your knowledge; it's truly special. I would like to be able to teach this to my children.
Gosh, this is long. Sorry!
This is such a wonderful and detailed question. I have all the same questions. I hope she answers.
I asked at the April Q&A and Tara gave some wonderful answers there! Some other helpful comments on that post from other listeners too :)
Hi Grace and Liz, a very similar question to this was answered in the most recent Q&As. If you have any follow up questions from there, you can submit them in the next go around. 🙂
Thank you! I’ll listen today.
Totally separate note, Tara, but is there anywhere that you talk about your decision not to raise pigs anymore, and also what you fed your pigs when you were raising them?
Sounds like a good question for the next farm q and a. Sorry Grace, it makes more sense to answer these things in a more structured way to safeguard my time and have more people get to share in it.
This gives me hope. Similar story in my youth. From 5 to 12, I was brought up on goats milk and later raw cows milk. When I was 12, my parents separated, sent us to public school where we ate toxic school lunches, had all the vaccines, and then I developed allergies to dairy, and had chronic strep and tonsillitis. Oddly when I graduated and moved away from home to a friend's farm, strep and tonsillitis went away and I had no issues with raw dairy. Now I recognize it was food related. But only in the last 2-3 years have I really begun to see the importance of our food and making those changes. I was given antibiotics during pregnancy and it still makes me cringe to realize how foolish and uneducated I was. So determined in pregnancy not to follow modern medicine just to swallow the pills as they shoved them at me. I'm now trying to heal my body and learning to listen to her and what she needs. I've found I really love paté loaded with herbs and butter and ghee, sourdough is becoming my best friend and sugar and caffeine I've divorced. Progree!
Yes, very similar story. Have hope! I think I will always have to be careful with how I eat, but that's okay too. I am grateful for an appetite trained to nourishing foods. You're on the right path, Rebekah :)
Hi Tara, First of all please accept my deepest condolences for your significant loss. Secondly, I am new to you and your work. Thank you for sharing your life, heart and soul. It speaks to me so deeply, and I know I was meant to find you.
I relate to your story. I road the rollercoaster of eating ‘well’ and then succumbing to temptations, on and off for years, until after the birth of my 3rd child. I finally hit rock bottom in September 2020 at 34 yo. I was determined after that to truly heal. I had been before, and went back to following one guru after another, but always with a focus on plant-based foods “because they were healthy dammit!” Finally, in December 2021, I gave up almost all plant foods and started a keto-carnivorish diet. In the past 6 months I have started to heal in every way possible, mind, body, and most certainly, soul. I am finding out what it really means to be human, I am woke.
The struggle now is, I want to make the change for the whole family to a traditional and mostly animal based diet. My husband kind of agrees, but is nervous to push his mother, who cares for them a few days a week and is a low-fat high-carb processed food addict, and has been the main source of processed foods. (I know one alternative is to not have them there but that is also controversial).
Anyways, as I’m sure the story so often goes, my husband feels our children are healthy and fine, and eat better than those around us. And while that might be true, they do eat better than what I see/hear others eat, it is clear to me that they are getting confused messaging from us and their bodies. They cry out for crackers and won’t eat meat or even cheese these days. They say “But oh, it is just a phase - they will grow out of it” Even though I have made the arguments that science points to the role microbiome has in foods preferences, the addictive nature of sugar etc…
My biggest fear is that if I stand my ground I will push my husband away but if I don’t I will live in guilt and shame for not trusting my motherly instincts. As it is I can hardly write this without crying, and feeling the guilt from wavering in the first place. I started out following the Weston A. Price baby food guidance with my now 4 yo twin daughters, but things have slipped far from what I know is best. It has never been more clear to me, that at least to start, you cannot straddle the fence. As you said, you have to remove the static first to know what it is like to be truly nourished. And this is the argument we have.
It does not help that all of this is so tied into "conspiracy theories.” My husband is far from lifting the veil and so many of my arguments fall on deaf ears. I am sure you get this a lot and many go through this, but looking for any support/advice from this community as a whole. I have also reached out to a local Weston A Price FB group for some guidance as well.
Love, Alex. @the_primal_m.arch on IG.
Hi Alexandra, I think you're over on the marriage discussion thread so I will leave some of this to there, but I will say a couple of things here. Of course, this is my experience only and doesn't mean it will work with you, but there are a few issues here and I don't know that any of them are about food as much as principles in relationships. When a man and woman marry, their loyalty is to each other and their kids. That means that the families that raised us naturally step back and make room for us as autonomous human beings that are now adults. I think a lot of parents continue to relate to their kids as children even well into adulthood. It doesn't work that way in a functional relationship. Our two daughters are in their twenties. We respect them as well functioning adults. If they told us they didn't want us to do X or Y with their kids (not yet), we would respect that. Any parent that does not evolve as their children do, is missing out on a mutually respectful, close relationship.
A man should forward and endorse the agreed upon principles of his family on their behalf. If you are the lead person on nutrition and it's not really his interest, than, in my humble little opinion, he should default to your knowledge and support it. That's always how it's worked with us. My husband loves to eat well, loves that he has a strong, lean functional body, never gets sick etc.. because of the effort I put into our food. I put that effort in with love and joy, so grateful to be able to nourish my family. I don't need to harp or nag and never have. I make and feed them nourishing foods. There is nothing else to eat. However, my husband knows enough about nutrition to know that we have always eaten organic, farm foods, no sugars and seed oils etc.. I would tell him pieces here and there, but like I said, he was more than happy to leave that stuff up to me and show up to the table to eat. And of course, that included the feeding of our children.
I was always very vocal with our kids about food, why we were eating what we did and why we didn't eat other foods. I educated them on the politics of food. I set the example and then ensured the principles I was setting out were followed. That got uncomfortable at times. That meant I had to take flack quite a few times. That meant I had to have a strong spine in a time when children need a strong foundation more than ever. The food our kids eat as children develops their tastes and preferences for a lifetime. So what if they cry out for crackers if there are none in the house? Our kids were fed their food and if they didn't want it, they were excused from the table. The end. I'm not a restaurant. And, by the way, my kids literally eat anything, including tongue and liver and all else. The only thing they don't eat is seed oils, flours, sugars etc..
There's a lot to your comment, much which seems psychological and worthy of digging into it. I don't know why standing your ground would push your husband away if it's done with clear conversation, compassion, love, and patience. You are trying to nourish your family, there should be celebration and gratitude around that. Maybe this book might be worth looking into - more relationship foundational building, but it sounds like this is about a lot more than food. "Hold Me Tight" by Sue Johnson
Much love and hugs to you.
Thank you for your kind wisdom. I have asked him to let me take the lead on nutrition, but he insists on being involved, and while I wish he would default to my knowledge, maybe I should be grateful that he does want a say in our family nutrition, and he wants to understand where I am coming from.
At the same time, he questions the information I have gathered around nutrition. For one, I have bounced around a lot with my own understanding, from "diet to diet", so it must be hard to follow! Secondly, he questions whether I have an unhealthy relationship with food. Which in a sense is true but not in the way he means. Most of us do have an unhealthy relationship to food and in fact I have been in search of the opposite. I love your wisdom of looking to nature's laws, after all we evolved over millions of years, under all of the light of the sun, hunting and gathering, loving and just living.
There really is a lot to unravel and relearn for both of us, I'm just more incline to do so. As I mentioned in the marriage discussion, he is trying to follow my lead to some extent.
I am realizing I am a very impatient person, afraid of the passage of time. In my mind, the changes need to be made now! Then I'm rushing him down a path he is not ready to follow. I am working on my patience, and communication, as well as showing my love for him first and foremost. Last thought, maybe I should write a letter to express position or will the book offer some guidance on that? I will read and see. Love and hugs back.
I think the book would be a good jumping off point because it's not about addressing a specific issue but in getting to your underlying communication and deeper ways of being for and with each other. Also, I would highly, highly recommend getting a membership with the Weston A Price Foundation. They will mail you a quarterly journal loaded with dense nutrition information backed by studies. He could read it on his own! They also have local chapters and a fabulous yearly convention. I think a year membership is $40 in the US.
I started reading the book last night, after some pillow talk with my hubby! Just the opening Celtic quote had me.
I am exciting for this next phase of self and relationship growth. I have been having quite a few ahah moments lately, and it has been a tough slog but so rewarding.
I recently got a WAPF membership based on your advice you left to someone else on an IG post. I have been listening to many of their podcasts and the zoom discussions. Yesterday I learned about de nova lipogenesis (DNL), enzymatic pathway to convert carbohydrates to saturated fats if limited in diet! How could saturated fats be bad for us! It was reconfirming for me that animal products needs to be part of human species diet. Such a wealth of information. I have also reached out to a local lady who is running a local WAPF FB group and we are going to touch base in private soon. Not sure if it is an official chapter but I have joined. Turns out my farming friends whom I get pastured pork and chickens from are part of the group too. I also volunteered with them for harvesting the chickens, it will be my first experience with taking a life to give me life, but I am here for it.
I cannot thank you enough for sharing your heart and soul with us. You have helped me connect so many more dots in relation to who we are as a species and why we are here. It sounds like sharing your life can be overwhelming at times, so again, you have my deepest gratitude. 🙏
I'll try my best not to bombard you with the million questions I have and slowdown and listen as it comes! But please do not hesitate to let me know when I am. I hope to be a more productive contributor to this community soon. I know of course my perspective is unique but I can be shy in sharing it. That said, It seems this is a very safe place to share. Again for that, thank you! ❤️
This all sounds wildly energizing. Things are happening and unfolding for you in big ways, Alexandra. Thank you for your kind words, but I can only mention things, you're the one out there doing it. Give yourself a lot of credit for that, too.
Your authenticity is so accessible and enjoyable. Im lucky to tend land near my ancestral home of Ireland, and I share your words with the kids here often - they are always inspired, opened up and intrigued. Even the vegan ones! Please know your impact is far and wide.
Also - seeking advice RE liver. I am re-entering the daily sacred of eating what my great-grandmothers ate, and organs/ferments/broths are at the top of the list. I have tried liver ‘shots’, eating a few tablespoons of raw liver in the morning from a local supplier. I do it with ceremony, but I’d love to welcome it more, not force it down. I wasn’t raised eating a lot of red meat - the taste is new to me - would you recommenced pâté? I know and accept that not all medicine is sweet - I just wonder if this one could be a bit more savory. Would cooking and blending it amplify the iron taste? Any other recommendations/advice?
Much, much love from across the pond - and many thanks for all you do, share, and create
Hi Tara, you are such an inspiration and honestly your words really seem to resonate with feelings deep within me that are akin to your way of thinking. I wanted to recommend a book that I thought you would love if you haven’t yet read it: “The Lost Language of Plants”.
A little off topic. So in one of your question and answer podcast you mentioned butcher paper and what you wrap all your meat in. Right now we have the plastic and vacuum sealer. But I hate using all that plastic. I can’t find wax paper that doesn’t include plastic in my area. I would order it online if I could find it. However I was also wondering if I ordered a roll of Kraft paper and waxed it myself with beeswax. Would that work? I think so but you might have other ideas?
Sadly, it won't work. It used to be wax, but even then it was parrafin wax. The beeswax would be too thick and to wrap a whole animal would truly be a nightmare. Here's my best solution: I never use the plastic for reasons beyond the plastic, including high bacteria counts and oxidation from light. The opaque paper is still superior even with a plastic lining in it. We wrap the meat and it goes right in the freezer so there is no breakdown of the plastic seeping into the meat. When we take the meat out, we unwrap it while it's still frozen and let it thaw on a platter so it's not sitting in a plastic slurry. It's the best option there is, IMO.
Thanks for answering but also darn! What if I got some fabric and made beeswax wraps that way? Then it would be a little more flexible from the fabric part of it? Maybe? I was reading online that you can freeze meat in beeswax wraps. Then you could potentially reuse them too? I don’t know 🤷♀️ Have you known anyone who uses the beeswax wraps?
I use them for cheese. I wouldn't use them to freeze, but you could try. I would spend my life making them in order to freeze 3 beef, 5 lambs, 2 goats, a pig, charcuterie, and all of our birds. Wouldn't make sense and I wouldn't trust them. I'm happy with the paper.
Thanks, Cassandra :)
The fridge is awesome:) Goals for sure.