Weekday Suppers: Beer Braised Beef with Peppers and Mushrooms

And the band played on

Okay so I've said it before and I'm saying it again - an ecologically sound, locally sourced, sustainable eating lifestyle is the ideal. Sometimes however, you can't live up to the ideal. Sometimes paycheques won't stretch any further than the meanest of food budgets that forces you to make some hard choices in terms of what sorts of meals you can make for yourself and your family. You know you should be feeding your family and indeed yourself the best of foods in order to stay healthy. You know the ideal is what you should be aiming towards and the guilt starts to eat at you when you can't seem to attain that consistently. 

What do you do then? Do you dig into the very back of your closet, you know the dark place at the back that seems to absorb all light and odd socks, searching for that hair shirt you could swear you hung on to? Should you castigate yourself with a willow switch and a ham sandwich for not being perfect? Of course not. You have to live in the real world and we'll leave the intense guilt for someone who has time for that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, when we are faced with an example of how we cannot live up to the standards we've imposed upon ourselves, we are apt to give up entirely. Dieting, recycling, getting more exercise - all seem to be endeavours of which we demand absolute perfection from ourselves or it isn't worth the effort. We sell ourselves short of so many 'good' things when we do this.

It seems especially dimwitted to me to try to attain perfection when it is a foreign state for us mere mortals, especially to attain perfection as defined by someone else's standards. Better for our sanity and our world if we simply try to be the best we can be as a person and at everything we try, but never perfect.

Two out of three ain't bad

Sounds weird but one of my life goals since, well, forever, is to be the least hypocrite I can be at all times. That little voice in my head, which abhors hypocrisy, especially the willfully blind kind of hypocrisy, analyzes everything I say or do for the scent of it. At times it seems a losing battle as there are so many ways a human can become a hypocrite. It's just easier to talk about doing than to actually do.

 I try to do what I can in terms of sourcing local, sourcing humane and in season foods but I also must make that philosophy budget friendly. It's all fine and dandy to want to save the world one calorie at a time but in the real world of mortgages, credit cards and university dreams, money you can save by going bulk at Costco or the supermarket when there is a sale on is not only prudent but necessary. You must balance a desire to support local business while giving the finger to BigBusiness with the need to keep to a budget, both in money and time. 

In a word: compromise.

Beer Braised Beef with Peppers, Mushrooms & Onions on a bed of arugula

My compromise for weekday dinners is to utilize pantry ingredients more often. Canned, dried, preserved and frozen items can help get a quick and easy meal on the table when you need the help the most. Some items I wouldn't recommend more than twice per year, others once or twice per month. For some, their meals will consist of a boxed or frozen prepared side dish and if that is what is necessary, so be it. Just try to serve it within a balanced meal, or if it is to a meal itself like the college standby of mac and cheese, then add other ingredients to it to balance it out. Try also to limit how many times per week you turn to these types of side dishes. (A three dollar bag of potatoes will go a long way and is a much healthier side alternative to a boxed pasta.)

I use less tender meat cuts or mid-range meats that are on sale when my budget requires me to shop for meat at the grocery store. Let's face it, if you are buying from the supermarket, one cut pretty much is the same as the next regardless of what you may read or hear from marketers. The beef isn't aged and the pigs and chickens are killed too early, in my opinion. Sometimes it is necessary to buy your meat from those stores, so choosing and preparing an inexpensive cut is best and don't really concern yourself with what is on the label. Making cheap cuts stretch for a few meals and taste good is imperative. 

What you need to know

Look for well marbled meat without a thick rind of fat. Not because the fat is bad - it is very necessary for the juiciness of the meat, but not for the added weight that will contribute to a higher cost per lb/kg. Why pay for something you'll just be removing later?(The only time I do that is when I buy a large pork loin roast - the whys and wherefores I will be covering in a later post.) Thick cuts are a better choice than thin ones, especially with pork, for tenderness even if you plan to use a marinade. This recipe is great for every cut of beef and will yield a moist and tasty meat that resembles pulled pork in its consistency.

approx $5.65 per person - serves 4 with leftovers

Beer-Braised Beef with Peppers, Mushrooms & Onions

2 ginormous steaks (I used top sirloin grilling steaks) approx 4-5 lbs total
1 bottle of ale, stout or porter depending on your tastes
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar or wine vinegar in a pinch
3 - 4 cups beef broth
1 tbsp oregano
steak seasoning of your choice
      mine: blend of ground pepper, paprika, oregano, celery seed, salt, garlic
2 bay leaves
2 medium onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
couple of dashes of liquid smoke, optional

Liberally sprinkle steak seasoning over meat.  Add oil or lard to a large saucepan and get heat to a fairly controllable high heat. Sear meat. Assemble braising liquids in a large bowl. Put seared meat in to sit while onions and garlic are sautéing in same saucepan. Put meat and liquids into pan once onions are softened. Add seasonings and bring pot to the boil. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until meat falls apart. This works well in a slow cooker at low heat for 8 hours then cranked at high until really done.

Steak top

1 green, 1 red, 1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced

Sauté until softened and serve on top of beef which in turns sits on a bed of arugula. Spoon a bit of the cooking juices over top of the beef.



Tip: Strain braising liquid and refrigerate. Next day, remove the disc of fat and use it to sauté mushrooms and onions to make a gravy for leftover hot beef sandwiches or a pot pie using the liquids within the recipe.


all text and photographs ©michelle levasseur The Groaning Board 2015

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Quick and Easy: Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Soup

Soup. You may well wonder, as you look through my recipes, why I focus so much on soups and stews. It's really rather simple. It is inexpensive, easy, can be made to feed many people and next to pizza, is the perfect meal. Pizza? you ask. Yes, but let's be clear here. I am talking about pizza done right; in perfect balance. Where we go wrong is in our choice of pizza, how much of it we eat and how often. Otherwise, pizza in and of itself is a balanced meal choice.

When we indulge in pizza we tend to go for items such as pepperoni, bacon, sausage and extra cheese which translates into nitrates, nitrates, nitrites and fat, not to mention all the extra fillers found in dry sausage-style cold cuts and in sausages themselves. We also seem to drop the word 'vegetable' from our vocabulary when ordering our pizzas. If we choose vegetables that are as fresh as possible, meats such as chicken and ground beef and lighten up on the cheese, we can have a slice or two and greatly diminish the possibilities of another lecture on how bad pizza is for us. 

This soup packs all the flavour of a great pizza, costs less to make than it does to order a pizza and is so very good for you and not to mention but I'm gonna anyway, it is incredibly easy to make. Consider whipping up this smooth, velvety, flavour seduction for your lovely one after a romantic day of ice skating this Valentine's Day - it's one way to warm up.

If you read my previous article with the Red Pepper Chipotle Soup, you'll know a bit about lycopene in red vegetables. Sweet potatoes also have some lycopene as well as beta-carotene which is found in orange coloured vegetables. It is extremely high in vitamin C making this soup a powerhouse for boosting your immune system and the overall health of your skin and body. I attribute only suffering from a bad cold for three days to the week I've spent developing and making these soups. Not a testimonial, more of an opinion :)

What you need to know

This easy-to-make soup requires no special know-how at all especially if you've followed along so far and are clear on caramelized onions. I encourage the non-cooks who want to make something special to give this a try. Not only will you impress people with an elegant presentation of this golden yumminess, you will be able to add to your repertoire of go-to dishes and put this in a place of honour right beside PB&J's and Kraft Dinner. Of course, if making toast makes you sweat, you may want to consider going out to eat.

Putting it all together

Caramelized Onions

1/4 cup butter

1 tbsp olive oil

4 large sweet onions, chopped or sliced

1 tbsp packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp allspice about 3 berries if using whole, crushed in mortar and pestle

pinch salt

This will have to been done in batches so make sure to divide the sugar and spices between the batches. Increase your butter/oil as needed. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes until golden brown and soft.

Soup

While your onions are caramelizing, prepare the soup pot with the following:

5 medium sweet potatoes, chopped

2 boxes of beef broth 900mL each (approx 4 cups each)

1 tsp dried thyme

3/4 tsp allspice about 5 or 6 berries, crushed

salt and pepper to taste

scallions or green onions for garnish, greens only

As the onions are cooked, add to pot. When the last batch goes in, bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Process with immersion blender. It is not necessary to add cream to this very thick soup. If you find the consistency is too thick (?!) add some hot beef broth until you're happy.

This will make enough soup for a large family to be full and satisfied so there will be leftovers if you're a couple or a single. The soup freezes, thaws and reheats well so I suggest making the recipe as is and freezing the rest but you can divide the recipe evenly in half for a smaller meal.

Coming up next is, yes, another soup that will not only tempt your tasty buds but make them want to sin again and again (naughty tasty buds), but then we step it up a bit in time for Valentine's Day with a meal that is nicely presented and manly enough to please everyone. I don't post 'gourmet' recipes often as my goal is to provide meal ideas for the everyday, but I do love to experiment on special occasions. The recipe in question was the result of a need to challenge myself to present an elegant dish with seasonal and local ingredients only. As I've only made it once before, I will be retesting this dish this weekend to ensure my memory is as good as I believe it is :)

all text and photographs ©michelle levasseur The Groaning Board 2014

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Feeding Body and Soul: Soups and Stews

Quick and Easy:
Spicy Veggie Crockpot stew

Well, alright maybe only quick in the preparing but this is a slow cooker recipe so it's easy!

2 orange sweet potatoes, cut           into 1/2" cubes
2 medium parsnips, halved and thinly sliced (1/4")
2 onions, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped

1,2 or 3 jalapeños depending on your love of heat. I used three with seeds and membrane. Hot!!!!

1 can each, rinsed
        black beans
        chick peas
        Romano beans
        Fava beans
2 tsp curry paste, rounded
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
450 ml stock

Throw it all in a large crock pot and set to low for eight hours.

Quick and Easy:
Tomato Curry Soup

I do have another recipe that is similar and uses canned tomatoes or stewed from your freezer. It is different enough that it's simply a matter of what is better for your taste buds. I like them both but this version is "meatier" for lack of a better word. But word of warning--this is a creamy soup with the accompanying fat content. If you are watching your fat intake please don't substitute the real ingredients for chemicals. Use skim milk if you like but stay away from butter substitutes. That's death in a plastic tub.

To eat this relatively guilt-free is to eat it on a day you haven't gone overboard on the fats or for lunch on a physically demanding day. Don't eat this three times a week along with the trips to McDonalds. 

Common sense= fat fighting the healthy way.

3 cans condensed tomato soup--use the can for the next three measurements
2 cans of milk
1 can of broth (I use beef)
1/2 can of cream
1 tbsp curry paste, rounded +1 tsp
2 sweet onions, halved and thinly sliced
butter
olive oil
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp your favourite garam masala blend
8 hard-boiled eggs, quartered lengthwise

Sauté onions until soft and translucent. Add ginger and cook another 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan combine cream, milk, broth and the first instalment of curry paste. Whisk and heat on medium low.

Add tomato soup, salt, pepper, garam masala and the last tsp curry paste to the onions.

When both the cream mixture and the soup are hot, mix them together. Add more broth if a thinner consistency is desired.

To serve:
Ladle soup into a shallow bowl, being careful to snag some onions. Drop 8 egg-quarters into the bowl. Serve with naan bread or simple homemade crackers.


Quick and Easy:
Caramelized Onion and Sweet Potato Soup

This light-tasting, warming and satisfying soup I developed one winter when I grew tired of heavy stews and casseroles. You can serve this with a chunk of pumpernickel bread or a thick buttered slice of country bread.

1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cups chopped sweet onion
1 tbsp packed brown sugar--use any 'though I prefer Demararra 
1/2 tsp freshly ground allspice (two to three berries)
pinch salt--use kosher or sea salt for better health and flavour
3 cups chopped sweet potato--strive for the deep orange type rather than the yellowish.
3 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp dried thyme or 11/2 tsp of fresh
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 leek, split and rinsed, chopped, optional

Cook onions in lidded pan with the butter, oil, brown sugar and the first instalment of the allspice and salt. Cook until caramelized. 
In soup pot place potatoes, broth and the second instalment of allspice, salt and the thyme and pepper. Add onions and leek if using. Bring to a boil; lower temperature and simmer for 20 minutes until potato is tender. Process smooth with an immersion blender.


Quick and Easy:
Onion Stew with Dry Mead (or Smithwicks style Irish beer)

I wanted to develop a soup/stew that was hearty and utilized some mead I had come across. I had used the Blueberry Mead for the mustard I canned but needed to use up the dry mead as well. This is what I came up with.

3 large sweet onions, Vidalia preferred, chopped
3 yellow onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups pearl onions, skins removed and stemmed
2 medium carrots, halved and sliced
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 tsp each thyme, savoury, herbes du provence
1/4 tsp salt and pepper
8 cups meat broth*
1 cup dry mead or 3/4 can Smithwicks
2 tbsp brown sugar
good dollop light honey
butter
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp worchestershire sauce
2 bay leaves

Saute and caramelize the onions, garlic and pearl onions in butter, brown sugar and honey for 45 minutes. Add dried herbs halfway through cooking. After 45 minutes, add more butter if necessary then add the flour. Cook for at least two minutes to get rid of the flour taste. Add stock, worchestershire, and mead or beer, scraping up any brown bits. Add in the carrots and celery. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 1/2 hour or until vegetables are tender.

To serve:
Rip an artisanal bread into large chunks. Serve a chunk along with a piece of sharp, old cheese and a green salad.

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Summer Bounty Hunter

Well people, went to the farmers stand today and brought home more goodies. I picked up garlic scapes, top onion, fresh green beans, field cucumber, juicy ripe tomatoes, early yellow plums and Ontario peaches. Not pictured is the bag of fragrant freshly cut basil I also picked up.

Spoils of the Bounty Hunter

Can't ya just smell it?

Wondering what garlic scapes are? Here is one definition for the scholarly types and for the rest of us it is the stem of the garlic flower that must be removed for the bulbs to grow properly into the garlic we know and love. It should be a vibrant green, firm and smell divine. I was actually caught out with my head buried in the scapes by the employee. Fortunately she laughed and said she does the same thing with freshly cut dill! Oh my, dill......

For those of us following the seasonal guide in purchasing produce(if you're not, why not?), this is a wonderful opportunity to have that garlic in our meals that will tide us over until August when the bulbs are in. They have a delicious taste something like if garlic and scallions had a baby....You can use it where you would chives or scallions(young top onions) or if you find garlic bulbs too strong,(I love it but my GERD doesn't. Traitorous body!) this is a great fresh substitute. It is not an overly popular veg mainly because people don't know what to do with it but I look forward to them every year. I will be experimenting on a few recipes that are simple and yummy to prepare, like a relish maybe, and I will post them in Kitchen Journal Two. I'm staring at the picture looking from the plums and peaches over to the scapes and an idea has occurred: my mango galette tweaked... hmmm. Something to think about. I do know there is a recipe online for garlic scape pesto but I have never tried it or even looked at the recipe but google it. Let me know what you think.

Couldn't make up my mind which picture I like the best so....

Early plums and peaches

I have put up some berries already (freezer) but I will not be doing any canning this year, of fruit anyway. I am saving my energy for the millions of tomatoes I will be canning and freezing soon! It is such a fun and wonderful thing for the whole family to do and a great thing to teach your kids, so I hope you are doing a few preserving projects with them this year. I will be snapping pics through the whole process (pardon the pun) so you will be able to see what's up if you have never done this type of food preparation before. It's easy peasy, lemon squeasy as a Brit friend once said to me.

What is fresh in your neighbourhood right now? I'd love to hear from you in regards to how you prepare your fresh garden goods, especially those readers from Europe and Asia. It may not make fiscal sense for us here in NA to utilize your in-season veg (according to the philosophy of 'buy local, buy in-season' which is primarily what this blog is about) but it would still be interesting and fun to learn about it. Please feel free to share.

Have a great day today, my friends, and a terrific tomorrow!

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Why should you care?

                 

             

 

As Canadians we are extremely lucky to live in such an agriculturally prosperous country with ample space in which to stretch our mental and physical wings, breathe in clean air, grow our own food and maintain a healthy and active outdoor lifestyle. Unfortunately, a lot of us dwell in overcrowded, overstimulated and overweight cities where space, time and motivation to be healthy and stay healthy are limited. We are riding in cars or buses, taking elevators, sitting at desks at work and the couch or computer chair at home. We eat at BigFood dispensaries, shop in warehouse sized grocery stores and make choices there based upon convenience and expense.

You are what you eat

Statistics coming out of government sources are definitely discouraging in terms of health vs longevity; we're living longer but we are living sicker. It seems counter intuitive to have ninety to a hundred years of life if half that time is spent ill. Quality of life is a phrase often bandied about but rarely when concerning the food we eat and how it is grown in the factory conditions of industrial farming. Our foodstuffs garnered at the grocery store are uniform, glossy specimens of visual "health" but are sadly lacking in nutrition and flavour. I believe the common consensus is that todays fruits and vegetables have about half the nutrients of unaltered heirloom specimens from the past.  Exotic foods imported from far away paradise are irradiated and more often than not underripe-I don't know which is worse!

People- groups, government, individuals- have come to the realization that something has to be done beyond the availability of "farm markets" on Saturdays and Sundays in some larger towns. They are all well and good if you can find one but certainly not a standard amongst all communities. Concerned individuals and health conscious restaurants have taken to shopping at these markets but there are pitfalls that will catch the unwary. I have seem some inferior product on display at some markets. Organic or home grown foods will not have the same uniform shape or glossy condition as grocery stores but they should still look and feel fresh, ripe and in good condition. To confuse matters more, plenty of markets carry foods that are out-of-season purchases from the same suppliers as the grocery stores. Are you getting full-nutrient foods if they are force grown under chemical conditions out of season? Why are they for sale at these markets?

                                           

Picking and Choosing

                Southern Ontario Seasonal Guide

• Rhubarb             May 10
• Strawberries       June 10
• Peas                   June 15
• Beans                 July 10
• Raspberries        July 10
• Cucumbers         July 10
• Pickling Cukes    July 10
• Zucchini             July 10
• Corn                   July 25
• Tomatoes           August 10
• Peppers, 

      sweet and hot  August 10

• Eggplant            August 10
• Squash               August 25
• Cabbage            August 25
• Gourds, Indian   September 1
• Corn, Pumpkins September 1

Knowing which vegetables are in season will go a long way to helping you avoid foods that are available in markets but are not necessarily forming a good nutrient value to dollar expense ratio. For example, buying cauliflower in May regardless of location will not result in a purchase that is home grown on the farm and freshly harvested but greenhouse grown and harvested a few days ago. It may be "on special" but in terms of nutrient value it will be less than ideal. Getting to know your community is essential for building trust when you are handing over your hard earned money for their goods so the character of the market sellers is vital knowledge to have.

So, there you are wanting to be a part of Slow Food and feed your family healthier foods, shopping responsibly at farm markets, bringing your cloth bag, and expanding your culinary skills and I am telling you you're doing it wrong. Not true. Your intentions are perfect; execution is where the flaws are apparent.  You are told to eat healthier but are not told how to accomplish this feat in todays Good Food vs Industrial Food environment. 

Well, you could grow your own food, provided you have adequate space, light, ease of maintenance (important!) and dedication (goes with ease of maintenance). Adequate growing space can be anything from a balcony/patio with pots for a one or two person household to an acre of raised beds for a suburbanite family of four. We could lump time, ease of maintenance and dedication into one as each can influence the others and it can vary immensely from a simple watering to an afternoon spent weeding, cultivating and watering and an evening spent pampering your aching back and wimpering. Depending on your circumstances,  growing your own food can be rewarding and challenging, demanding and profitable. Profitable? Yes, in terms of money saved on daily groceries as well as gift giving of preserved or "canned" goods. Nothing beats a hostess basket or mother-in-law gift of preserved goodies (especially when it's last minute because you forgot!)

Esprit de Corps

You probably spend a lot of time perusing labels in the grocery aisle, trying to remember the good and the bad, proportions, daily intake, whether or not you need more fibre and on and on and on. Can you really see your self hunting down organically grown, pasture raised, mumbled over by a hedge witch perfect foods? That seems to be the only advice coming from fresh food fanatics of which I am not one. I am more pragmatic than that. I say, shop seasonally at trusted farm gate stand or community farm markets where you know the eggs you buy are not from battery or enclosed lay-ers but lay-ers that eat bugs under the sun;the meat is pastured raised on nutritious grasses and not grain fed in a feedlot;the vegetables you buy are in season, locally grown, and with as little of chemical use as possible ideally certified organic. If you get to know the owners you can quiz them on their growing practices politely and more than likely you will get the truth. It helps if you are also a customer.

Pragmatism Rules!

Sometimes compromises must be made in the name of a healthy diet; compromises between fresh and not so fresh(canned), butcher shop or supermarket meat counter. Sometime the recipe you are dying to try is made up of all exotic ingredients. Sometimes making your own bread or churning your own butter is not going to be a feasible option. There are going to be numerous times you have to choose supermarket over farm market and that is just life. The point is to be aware of the opportunities to make better choices and exercise those options as often as you can.

There are pantry staples that can be home canned, for the most part easily but relying on store bought, Ontario/Canada grown and processed goods are a fine substitute. Off season, frozen vegetables can have the same level of nutrients as fresh so are a wonderful option for a veggie dish that is quick and easy. You may not be able to visit a butcher shop that supplies pasture fed meats but choosing as close to it as possible such as no hormones, antibiotics and limited confinement of the animals is a good choice. Check with your butcher if you do go to one, for Heritage breeds and inquire about their aging process and the availablility of ordering pastured animals. Purchasing Heritage breeds ensures the continuation of the breed ::supply and demand. 

Do you often go for Sunday drives in the country, drive back roads on the way to the beach or to visit the Grandparents? Why not stop off at a farm stand to pick up in season veg or farm fresh, farmyard-raised eggs? In the winter months, shopping for eggs and veg at the grocery store is a needful thing not a shameful thing. In the summer months, the availablility of farm stands negates this necessity. I know that sounds preachy but really, a fact is a fact.

Canning Like a Grandma

Canning or preserving can stretch a food budget more than elastic on a pair of track pants after Thanksgiving dinner. Canning acidic foods is cheap, easy and consists of many re-usable components that makes it a cheap investment as well. Canning non-acidic foods requires more expensive equipment and more knowledge but expands the variety of foods available to you over the winter and early spring months.

You may feel some trepidation about canning, either water or pressure canning, but it is not as difficult as you may believe. There is such a delicious incentive as well; think crunchy pickles made in one afternoon, from buying to cleaning to wiping the jars and applying the labels; think spicy, aromatic tomato sauce bubbling on the stove in February that only took a couple of days to put up the August before. A little bit of effort goes a long way to improving your food budget and culinary masterpieces during the winter months.

                                                              and it does make for a pretty pantry...

An alternative to pressure canning your non-acidic dishes is freezing which is an easy and inexpensive way of capturing summer sunniness to enjoy in the darkness later on. Grean beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, asparagus, tomatoes and tomato sauce, fresh soups etc are just some of the delicious food ideas that you can utilize in your freezing-to-preserve adventures.

The Bottom Line

So what does all this mean? How are you supposed to incorporate healthy, inexpensive foods into your diet instead of relying upon processed and packaged foods? Does this mean you have to give up you Kraft Dinner? Hell no! Don't even think it! But how about adding some in season green and red vegetable and some locally sourced meat sizzling alongside? Sound do-able?

I am of the opinion that to be a responsible shopper you have to include whether or not your food is locally sourced, humanely grown and financially feasible to purchase as well as what the calories and nutrients may be. I don't think it is necessary to be a vegan, or a hair shirt wearing hermit, or an environmentalist, animal rights fanatic and tree hugger to be a responsible shopper. There is a middle ground where most people would be comfortable living in and I firmly believe in it. I also enjoy giving this knowledge away so that more people support their local food growers and really become aware of the lifespan and quality of life of both themselves and the food they eat. I strongly encourage people to take drives in the surrounding countryside where they live and find those farm stands. Only by voting with our wallets will availablility and price become more comfortable for everyone. Humans crave habit and routine and if you accept these ideas into your routine, your good habits, you will find they incorporate themselves seamlessly and are easy to live with.

                                                         

text: Chelle Elle

all photographs found on Google Images

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