Beorc - Berkana

And so we begin again…

The Nordic Rune Beorc (also known as Berkana) represents the birch, a symbol of rebirth/renewal and is associated with spirituality

Welcome to the relaunch of my blog - yes, I did what I swore I wouldn't do, I became an absentee blogger for a year. Stopping went against the plan and indeed knowledge of my distraction from the blog lurked in the back of my mind like a guilty secret for most of the year. But I was riding the ADD rail and you don't usually get a choice of destination, you just hang on and hope to arrive intact. 

There has been a name change, a few template changes even though it does resemble the previous one, and there have been some removals of posts I didn't feel were a part of the original vision for the blog - just evidence of when I veered off course. However, the 'mission statement' and the heart and soul behind it remain unchanged. My statement is shop local, shop small, shop right with a sidebar of pragmatism I call 'just shut up and eat it'. Our attention is so taken up with the minutiae of food nutrition and health information that we lack focus on the truly pertinent details.

I am a firm advocate of small farms and markets, which you will see if you look at my earlier posts - markets that care about the quality of the foods they produce. The food that we obtain from the supermarkets typically contain 30-50% less nutrients than just a few generations ago and chemical usage is up to astronomical percentages. That was true when I first wrote about it and it remains true, sadly.

Most grains we ingest, knowingly and unknowingly, have been tampered with both genetically and in terms of what chemicals they have been exposed to as seed and seedling, all in the name of consistent profit for 'them' and health risks/ depleted genetic diversity for us and the plant kingdom.

Land that used to belong to small farms that could have remained in their and their descendants hands had the government chosen to support small businesses rather than persecute them, is now given over to Factory Food growers who push the land to its limits and beyond. The Powers that Be are handing over prime agro areas to foreign interests that in turn sell us what we could be doing for ourselves, all in the name of pandering to BigBusiness. (google Melanctin Ontario for a prime example of an attempt)

Diversification is slowly but steadily becoming a non-word, a non-issue as small producers of heritage breeds are being dogged and harassed out of business and this will continue until we have a perverse rendition of Noah's Ark occuring... We will have only one kind of chicken, one cow, one pig, one sheep and you will buy them from a BigBusiness grower. All heritage breeds will be lost to time and knowledge. This is not an issue for just farmers but for our own future. Heritage breed growers are the keepers of the past, not just for a euphemistic historical symbol but for the fact that they are not tampered with through scientific manipulation or through heavy chemical exposure. That surely is important enough to alarm everyone at the threat to their existence.

Unification is the goal. That is the plan, the ideal plan for a modern government. Diversification is expensive. Standardization, conformity and consistency is cheap - cheap to regulate, cheap to administer, cheap to enforce. 

If there are no choices, no 'wrong' choice can be made.

By making the choice to shop local and in season, by finding quality small markets for your shopping needs, you not only vote against Factory Food with your wallets, you gain a new perspective and appreciation for your food; gain a foothold to better health for you and your family; gain a greater involvement in your community and you keep the money circulating within your community. On a side note, by shopping local you help diminish the carbon footprint that our food shipping creates on a daily basis.

My goal remains the same - to share some pragmatism and hard won wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is power. We should be and feel empowered, especially when it comes to our food sources.

 I wish to share my love of food, love of cooking and my love for learning. I admire those that live close to the land and live a life that is hard but rewarding in the sense of freedom that subsistent living can engender. In an ideal world, I would still be living a part of the life I had during my childhood. 

I would be growing my own food for my family, shopping at a neighbours for a side of beef and picking up what vegetables I didn't grow myself from a farmers market at the weekend. My bread would be hand made and filling the house with the yeasty smells of yesterday and made with unbleached locally milled flour. I would have a dairy room where I would make fresh and aged cheeses and a cold cellar where I would store my surplus foods for the winter. My canned and preserved goods would line the walls of the cellar, on their shelves, bright like jewels; standing like ceremonial and decorated soldiers. 

There are those that can live that life and I do so envy them for their determination, their drive, their ideals and their challenges. However, we all can't live that life, not unless necessity drives us there. Does that mean we can't live a better life than the one we are 'meant' to have in today's society? According to media we are supposed to shop Big, eat Big, drive Big and live Big or we are not patriotic, we don't support our countries. It is a load of codswallop but we are force-fed it nonetheless. The screaming fanatics from both sides of the issue would have you believe in an all or nothing campaign but I believe that we can live better in terms of our health and lifestyle choices that can blend with our budgets, time constraints and general level of interest. I don't believe in all or nothings, just win-wins. 

I want to show everyone that it is possible to be earth-friendly, wallet-friendly, and health-friendly while still living a modern lifestyle of your choice. I want to show you that food is our friend, our lifelong companion, our drug of choice, our survival kit, or arsenal if you will, for a long and enjoyable life.

Thank you for joining me :) You will notice changes occurring over the next few days/weeks as I find my footing again and begin walking in the direction that holds my destination. Thank you for coming along.

Be safe. Be happy. Be well.

Click below to read the recipes I just posted or move to the right to the Pages tab and click on the Home button to see all posts.
Meyer Lemon Chicken
The Hen Party
all photographs and text ©michelle levasseur The Groaning Board 2014

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Summer of Expectations

What a week it has been here in Ontario's south--heat wave before the official start of summer and I am already melting. I spent four days in the bathtub pretending I was lounging in my luxury 40 foot pool with Juan the manservant serving me Mai-tais. Sigh. Hey, you get through a heat wave your way, I'll do it mine. 

Seriously though I have been concerned, for months now, about our weather and how it will affect us in the near future such as harvest time. As everyone knows our food prices rise and fall accordingly and all farmers feel the 'heat' with maybe the exception of the industrial farms that rely on sales of greenhouse grown produce. That won't mean they will abstain from raising their prices when everyone else has to raise theirs. Since we had such a warm and dry winter, we were already off to a parched start in the spring. Grass should not crunch in March as it did here. Both the dog and I should have been muddy from belly to butt instead, we were (I was)slapping the dust off. There was no spring thaw; no river and creek system overflow; no 'lakes' in the fields slowly seeping into the thawing ground. We then had high winds for weeks on end and with the clear cutting of trees for farmland, windbreaks are few and far between. This means loss of top soil, loss of seed. The birds were plentiful due to a mild winter; deer and other crop eaters would have had large spring births and there would have been a surplus of insects and bugs for food. The birds adore freshly sown fields as a favoured buffet and seagulls, as we are close to one of the Great Lakes, are frequent guests. South of us the crows have always been a plague and the numbers this year ensure a trial for farmers there. Cats are going to be busy.

We need to be aware of this and follow the signs that will alert us as to when to tighten the food budget belt a few holes higher. There is not much we can do to change the effects of weather and the resulting infestations of pests other than irrigation, shading and insect-proofing 'tents', and of course, the ubiquitous scarecrow. However, we can protect ourselves as consumers by application of some smart shopping and canny preserving.. Pause... Okay, lame joke. 

Starting with the fruit season, strawberries right now in my area, try to purchase large amounts of the foods you eat most or would like to/should be incorporating in your food lifestyle and preserve them. Fruits can be frozen whole or in their own syrup, water-canned as a jam or jelly as well as pieces in syrup. Vegetable readiness seems to happen quickly, one harvest after the other so if you love most veg, you may have to pick and choose carefully which ones to preserve. Some veg are easy to do up, like green beans and some need more preparation so time your chores wisely. The last thing you want is a fridge full of rotting food because you misjudged how much time you actually could devote to this. Life is full of little surprises that will interfere with any plan so we want to minimize the possible waste of food and money. Myself, I learned the hard way that we do not each much fruit or use much jam. You should see my cellar shelves. Anybody want any jam?

As I have mentioned in previous posts, shopping local is the best thing to do for everyone's wallets and it is even more important during food price hikes. Buying in large amounts and developing a good relationship with the farm market owners will help you keep a smart budget and a healthy life. Butchers are also important to visit often and get to know. I need to do that myself, again, as I am not happy with the one I was purchasing from and as I am making my dog's food, I go through a lot of meat. Supermarket shopping is just getting too expensive. I do load the deep freezer whenever there is a sale, especially chicken, but in between those times I have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a minuscule amount of meat. If packaged properly, you can safely freeze meats, cooked and uncooked, for a substantial amount of time.

So, I plan on enjoying my summer embarking on yet another journey around the farm markets, munching on the freshest of vegetables, the juiciest of fruits and working like a fiend preserving as much as possible.

You may want to check out the Canning and Preserving Page for more information.
Have a good one!

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