As many of you know, Sam and I plan to retire sometime in
the not-too-distant future, and we’ve already bought property in Oregon with
that in mind. Some of you may also know that many moons ago, before moving to
Seattle, we had another small acreage in Northeastern Oregon—in fact, I grew up
on a ranch outside of Baker City, and Sam spent his childhood on an acre lot in
La Grande. His parents and grandparents had a huge garden and raised most of
their own food, as did my parents. We participated in gardening and raising
small livestock (and some rather large ones as well) most of our lives, and
even when we lived in a dinky one-bedroom apartment on Queen Anne in downtown
Seattle, I always managed to have a couple pots of cherry tomatoes and a
smattering of kitchen herbs on the balcony .
We plan to produce most of our own food in the future, and
with our backgrounds we are (fortunately) fully capable of it, unlike many
other people who set out to do it today. Since our place is 30 miles from the
closest REAL grocery store (I would not call the Imnaha Tavern and Store a
grocery store!), I won’t be able to just “run down” and pick up a few items for
today’s menu. No, and with the price of gasoline at around $4/gallon, I won’t
be going to the store more often than I absolutely must. With that in mind,
I’ve begun learning how to make many of the things I normally just buy:
convenience foods, by most definitions. Being aware of the nutritional value of
whole foods vs. processed, I have always preferred to make things myself,
rather than buy them, because not only is the food better for you, it tastes
better too. I hope to share some of what I’ve learned with you, and maybe you
can benefit from it or pass it along to someone who can.
I have a theory relating to the epidemic of obesity today.
Food is only a part of the problem, since many of us live stressed-out,
sedentary lives and are bombarded constantly by advertisements for food,
especially fast food. We eat on the run, rather than sitting down to the dinner
table with our families and sharing a relaxed meal of wholesome, homemade food
together. Who has time for that? Most of the time we eat something quick that
is thrown together, and much of the time it comes out of a can, a box from the
freezer, or we’ve grabbed something on the way home from work. We eat McFood. More
is better in our capitalistic society, so we have become accustomed to over-sized
portions and the mentality that if we haven’t gotten twice as much food as we can
comfortably eat, we didn’t get our money’s worth. Add to that mix foods that
have been selected for their shipping qualities and shelf life (rather than
nutrition and taste) that are harvested before they are ripe, shipped hundreds
or thousands of miles, then cleaned-up, processed, packaged, and distributed to
the local supermarket or grocery. Who knows what is left in these foods, other
than cellulose? I’m not counting all the preservatives, emulsifiers, colorings,
or artificial vitamins that are put back in. Get in the habit of reading food
labels, if you aren’t already, because it will blow your mind. I don’t think it
is any stretch of the imagination that food you grow in your own garden (or pea
patch if you live in an apartment) just HAS to be better. I firmly believe that
a large part of the obesity epidemic is that the food we consume is largely
worthless, and our bodies are frantically trying to get what they need by
eating more of it.
For instance, back when we had our little farm in Oregon,
where I raised dairy goats among other things, I took a correspondence course
from Union County Extension, which is part of the State and Federal Dept. of
Agriculture. I don’t remember the course title exactly, but it had to do with
gardening and supplementing your soil for optimum yield. Free access to trace
mineral supplements was the rage back then with the dairy goat folk, in fact
one fellow had patented a trace mineral feeder that goats could use 24/7. The
theory was that animals would seek out and eat only what their bodies needed to
be healthy. It was a worthwhile idea, but unfortunately he didn’t account for
the fact that they can also develop an addiction to salt and eat it until they
become toxic. Still, the county extension agent teaching the class didn’t have
a clue regarding trace minerals in the soil—I had to tell her about it.
Can you imagine?
With all of this in mind, I’ve given some thought to
breakfast foods. Most of my life I haven’t eaten breakfast at all. It was part
of how I controlled my calorie intake. As I’ve gotten older, however, my body
doesn’t want to do that anymore, so I now eat breakfast. For awhile it was
coffee and a banana, but then I started eating breakfast cereal with the idea
of adding more fiber to my diet. Our favored ones through the years have been
Raisin Bran, Spoon-sized Shredded Wheat, and Corn Flakes, but one day I decided
I didn’t want to eat some of what was in them.[i]
Considering I was going to be living out in the boonies, I decided to see what
I could easily make myself and did some research on granola. I particularly
like the fact that the ingredients list on the container of Old Fashioned 100%
Whole Grain Oats says “INGREDIENTS: WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS,” and not a
preservative, artificial flavor, or added vitamin in sight. The same goes for
the almonds, raisins, and most of the other ingredients.
I used to eat granola all the time back in my college days,
but it went by the wayside years ago as being too fattening. Yes, it is made
with vegetable oil and honey, or even maple syrup, plus most kinds have nuts
and dried fruit in them as well. Supermarket brands of granola were always so
sweet I could hardly stomach them, so I checked out what the local PCC natural
foods markets offered. The one in Renton has half of a wall devoted to granola,
and I couldn’t begin to tell you how many kinds they have. All of them looked
wonderful—and very expensive. I bought a bagful of one that looked especially
yummy (it was $9/lb!) and took it home, but I resolved to make my own from then
on. After a bit of research in my cookbooks and online, I came up with an easy
and wonderful recipe for granola that I look forward to eating every day of the
week. You can vary it however you want to suit yourself, and that’s the beauty
of making your own food. It is also tasty and satisfying, so you don’t feel the
need to eat three bowls of it. Here’s the recipe I came up with, based mainly
on the one in the Ball Blue Book[ii]
of canning. Hope you like it:
Aunt
Di’s Granola (Makes about one gallon freezer bag full, or +/- 8
cups)
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
½ cup wheat germ
1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
1 cup almonds, coarsely chopped (or slivered
blanched ones)
1 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
¼ cup flax seed (or you can substitute sesame
seeds)
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup canola oil
½ cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups raisins (you can use half golden raisins,
if preferred)
Preheat oven to 300⁰ F. Mix all dry ingredients
together, except raisins, in a large bowl. Combine liquid ingredients and then
thoroughly mix into dry ingredients. Spread on a shallow baking sheet and bake
for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool and then add raisins. One note:
be sure you break it up shortly after removing it from the oven, or it will set
up like a brick and you’ll have to take the ice pick to it.
[i] Ingredients Of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran:
WHOLE WHEAT,
RAISINS, WHEAT BRAN, SUGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SALT, MALT FLAVORING, VITAMINS AND MINERALS:
NIACINAMIDE, REDUCED IRON, ZINC OXIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6),
RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), VITAMIN A
PALMITATE, FOLIC ACID, VITAMIN B12 AND VITAMIN D[i]
Corn flakes:
MILLEDCORN, SUGAR, MALT
FLAVORING, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SALT, IRON,NIACINAMIDE, SODIUM
ASCORBATE AND ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), PYRIDOXINEHYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6),
RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMINHYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), VITAMIN A
PALMITATE, FOLIC ACID, VITAMINB12, AND VITAMIN D. TO MAINTAIN QUALITY, BHT HAS
BEEN ADDED TO THEPACKAGING[i]
Shredded Wheat:
UNABLE TO FIND
INFORMATION ON-LINE
[ii] The Ball Blue Book of Preserving,
published by Alltrista Consumer Products Company, p. 112.
