Eating local: What to ask your farmer?

I was surprised to find out how many local food options there are here. I live in a small city 86,000 people and there are 3 local farmers markets starting up in May. A farm that does organic beef and chicken (and treat their animals kindly). Right beside the beef farm is a produce farm and I must add its HUGE! There is a Cheeseworks farm close too!

The point of me telling you how many local foods/farms are around my little city is if you google 'local produce' 'farms' or a synonomous term, you too might be just as surprised as I was! 

That is just what I found doing a quick search. 

So of course now that our home is almost 100% organic foods we headed out on a search for farms that we could purchase from almost year round. Our family spent 2 days going to farms and learning how the farmers care for their animals, produce and workers. We also pet and met a whole lot of animals! All the farmers seemed so open and proud of what they were doing: Building a community of healthy natural living!

We are changing to local foods because of...

Safety: I wonder how safe or natural it is to use pesticides on foods. They spray produce during each stage of growth and in turn absorbing a toxic chemical that kills every other thing on that farm except the one growing produce. Pesticides are chemically engineered to kill everything but that one plant. There is no way that could be good for me or my family's health so we have gone organic and are purchasing many foods locally.

Environmental Impact: Buying local increases local farming which has decreased significantly within the last 20 years thanks to the large corporations and manipulation. Large companies that are Genetically Modifying foods seed spread (like normal plants do) and contaminates other natural farmers crops. Once they are found with these crops that now have the genes from the GM crops they are sewed and put out of business. The next part of environmental impact is that these foods are being picked before they are actually ripe (about 1-2 weeks) and chemicals are put on them to help them travel great distances. Pollution is also another thing to consider as many foods are put through a large corporation then travel by plane from one truck to another truck to your grocery store.

We spent about an hour talking to each farmer. We wanted to know at the very least if they were:

• local
• organic
• humanely raised
• sustainably raised
• grassfed
• pastured and/or free range
• “free” of X
• sprayed
• fertilized

Here are some questions my future hubby and I came up with to ask them.

• What do the animals eat?

Organic food, grass, including hay and alfalfa in winter (for cows), bugs, grass, outside things, as well as either local or organic grain (for chickens). Does the feed include corn and soy? If yes, are they genetically modified?

• Where do the animals live?

Regularly outside or on pasture

• Do you use any medication, antibiotics or hormones?

You do not want any of these in your foods

• How do you fertilize?

Organically, composted cow manure, sustainably, fish oil, anything that sounds like it started with the earth or an animal. It's ok if a farmer says they are not certified organic if they have full organic practices as the product will be significantly cheaper.

• How do you manage pests and disease?

“Grown inside” or chemical free” “crop rotation” or “we don’t spray” are probably some of the best answers, but “integrated pest management,” “we spray as seldomly as possible,” “zero day to harvest rated sprays,” are also on the right track.

If you want to get to know your farmer then ask these questions:

How was the growing season last year/this year?
How did you get into farming?
What crops are coming up next, seasonally? Are they growing on schedule? Any complications?
How do I store X unfamiliar food that I’m purchasing from you?
What’s your favorite way to prepare X?

Now go and Google farms in your area. You might be surprised how close some are to you! 

Happy natural healthy living! 

How to get rid of the stickiness under stickers or labels

You know that stickiness that lays behind stickers/labels that you cannot get off without scrubbing your heart out and even then its still sticky?!?!

This is my little cookies bunk bed frame that we got for free! But it came with half ripped off boys stickers...

Of course with the rest of this blog and my life I am trying to stay away from chemicals so "goo-gone" is out of the question. Plus I can save a couple dollars by NOT buying more stuff!

Baking soda to the rescue!!! Well that and coconut oil. Or any oil for that matter...
Baking soda has natural abrasives that removes the stick so the oil can loosen everything up!

Thats it! Equal parts coconut oil and baking soda, mix together and rub on sticky area. I let it sit for about 5 min then wiped it off!

This works for all things sticky, glass jars that you want to reuse or peeling stickers on your vacuum!

Happy de-stickafying!!!

Vitamix intro into our Whole Foods life

We have just discovered the Vitamix. Well not just. We picked it up the end of December... If you haven't heard of it before you can go checkout there site. It is everything they promise and MORE!

Whats in here? Banana, Kale, strawberries, blueberries, apples, coconut oil, an orange and pineapple!

We purchased this about a month ago with healthy living in mind. Hoping it would help increase our green food intake and promote our whole food beliefs. We were right!

I use it every day! Most days twice! I make a smoothy in the morning before work and after work if I work into the evenings instead of eating a big meal before bed. Or if I feel like a snack in the middle of the day I will make one then too!

Before the Vitamix it was impossible to get my future hubby to eat the full amount of servings of fruit and veggies every day. Now, a piece of cake! Well... not cake, veggies! HA-HA-HA

Don't get me wrong, I love eating fruits and veggies not blended. Its very important for your teeth and gums to eat crunchy foods to strengthen the ligament around the teeth and also to help self cleanse your teeth. (Wow, just my little burst of dental info for you) But if you aren't getting enough just eating veggies and fruit that way then this is a great boost up! I also personally believe we should be eating more then what is recommended based on Canada's food guide or the US food guide. Go check out what the healthiest people are based on diet!

This one has banana, orange, strawberries, apples, carrots, kale, blueberries, pineapple and coconut oil.

This thing (Vitamix) is unbelievable! I put in apples cut in half (seeds and stem), grapes (including the vine), entire oranges and it blends it up so fine you cannot feel a single seed, texture or anything! I make my own homemade almond flour, coconut flour, peanut butter, and ice cream now!

The other morning our little cookie asked for orange juice with breakfast so I put in a whole orange, blended it for no longer then 1 min, added water, blended again for another min and voila homemade orange juice! It does not get fresher then that! Our little girl loves strawberry banana smoothies (with kale and coconut oil). Best way to sneak in known 'super foods'.

Now we have upgrated to 'green smoothies'!! Even little one likes the green smoothies now. Don't start with green smoothies right away, start your tastebuds out with fruit and a few veggies  :)

This is not only keeping more chemicals out of our foods (by not buying things in containers or pre-made) it is also much cheaper and fun/good to know for children understanding what they are eating!

Happy healthy Vitamixing!

How to clean an oven naturally... after a much needed clean!

Thats right, its time to clean the oven. Its getting cold out and no one wants to go outside in the rain. Why not clean your oven? BEFORE it starts on fire... Thats right, I said fire...

My girly friend came over the other night with pizza. It was this giant pizza, with tomatoes spinach and lots of cheese! (I know, not part of my healthy choices)... anyways... I heated up the oven and we started our much needed girly chat at the table in the kitchen.

I looked over at the oven and smoke was coming out of the elements. My thought, "this cannot be good." Seconds later smoke was billowing out of the sides of the door of the oven... "Ok, definitely NOT good!" I opened the oven to see how bad the damage was and flames flew out at me! (I am skipping the ridiculous conversation my friend and I had or the amount of time we let the fire continue) I quickly closed the oven door, grabbed my giant container of baking soda (and I mean GIANT) and emptied it into the oven covering the flames. Surprisingly, it wasn't enough to put the fire out so I grabbed my extra large container of flour, and started scooping handfuls of it throwing it in the oven... Blast! What a MESS!!! Yes, we do have a fire extinguisher... but I was told it makes a real mess... I don't think it can be messier then this...

Baking soda and flour was EVERYWHERE!

The worst part, We didn't even get to put our pizza in the oven to cook... and my goodness were we both sooooooo hungry!!!

 Until I realized I have a mini oven. We sliced up the pizza and put a couple slices in there at a time... The first round. Burnt. Black on the bottom...

 Anyways... back to my oven. I told you this whole using the oven and cooking was new to me and now I realize how dirty it gets when you use it so often. The oven fire was caused from my first homemade turkey! I left it for 3 days dreading the day I will clean it up. Not only because it was a HUGE mess but I was told and researched how bad using an oven cleaner was for your health... Did you know they suggest a mask and opening all windows and doors and the use of a fan while using oven cleaner? Yikes. Oven cleaner is NOT good stuff... Good to know. It is also soooo expensive. At my grocery store it cost $20... much too much for a part-time worker! Especially when I can do the same job using non-toxic chemicals for free! Yay to being Thrifty!

So I looked up what our people of the past used to clean the ovens. Good ol' arm and hammer baking soda, white vinegar and lemon! Best inventions ever! I obviously had to pick some more up as I used my other stuff in the fire...
I first took a rag and wiped up the stuff that created the fire. Turkey grease from Thanksgiving!
Then I dusted the baking soda all over the oven.
Next I grabbed an old spray bottle and poured vinegar in it. I sprayed the vinegar all over the baking soda and let it fuzz and sit for 2 hours. This loosened up the grime I couldn't remove with the rag. 2 hours later I grabbed my scrubby that has no metals and scrubbed the heck outta the oven. It really wasn't that much work! My trusty natural cleaners did most of the work!

 I took a pic of my oven door half cleaned. I just wanted to show you how it just came off with a little elbow grease. Look how dirty this oven is...

I tackled this next... 

Yay a  clean oven door! By the way, did you know your oven door comes off of most models? I didn't until I accidentally almost pulled it off... Good to know.

 This is my cleanish oven! I know there is still grime on it but it looks worse in the picture then in real life. Promise!

And from  now on I am using this tinfoil liner I bought from the dollar store (but I am sure you could lay tinfoil down...

I put the door back on, cut the lemon in half covered them in water and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 min. The leftover grease comes off with a rag after the oven cools enough for you to wipe.
And your home is left with that scrump citrus smell!