1. The Pop up Farmers Market in SLC was awesome yesterday. We were able to purchase Local Eggs, Pork, Ricotta and Mozzarella goat cheese, Arugula, carrots, tomatoes, basil, thyme, Celery, red Potatoes, Onions, parsnips, leeks, apples and fresh pasta. All of this was local. It was a great way to spend a Saturday Morning with my family. We were all in awe of everything that was available. The atmosphere was nice. There were a few things that I was not able to get because they had ran out. We will have a great Thanksgiving because of our purchases. We look forward to the next "pop up Market".

   

   
   

Allergy

Cerebral allergies' (allergies which affect mental health in some way) can contribute to irritability, depression and psychosis. Carl Pfeiffer, MD, PhD reported that for 10% of schizophrenics, cerebral allergy is the primary causative factor. William Philpott, MD (author of Brain Allergies: The Psycho-Nutrient Connection) claims that more than 50% of schizophrenics display some form of cerebral allergy which contributes to symptoms.

There are around 12 well known mechanisms of food intolerance. Individual laboratory tests test for one. My preference for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is to start with a 30 day diagnostic trial of a gluten and casein free diet. A high number of people report a significant symptom reduction from avoiding these commonly problematic proteins. See Who should trial a gluten/casein free diet?. No laboratory test is definitive to rule out gluten and casein intolerance. The majority of people who find improvement from gluten elimination test negative for celiac disease. After gluten/casein a full range of food intolerances should be evaluated. The next most commonly reactive foods include:

• 1. Eggs.
• 2. Peanuts.
• 3. Corn.
• 4. Soy.
• 5. Cocoa.
• 6. Yeast.
• 7. Citrus fruits.
• 8. Tomatoes.
• 9. Beef.

The most reliable, and also free, method of identifying intolerances to these foods is via a comprehensive elimination diet. When this option is not possible for practical reasons I recommend paying for an IgG food intolerance profile. See sample IgG report from Metametrix.

Food Transport

In our nation we export 1.1 million tons of potatoes, while we import 1.4 million tons of potatoes.

How does that make sense? It makes sense to the oil companies because they really are the only ones that benefit.

Two month's of eating local

It's been two months of eating local. I have more energy and over all I feel better. I have cheated a couple times again for convenience. I also have a few stragglers Joe isn't doing so well living away from home during the week. I try for the most part to prepare his meals before he goes to Wyoming for the week but, he still feels the need to buy from the grocery store. Madison still has a few things she needs to work on but, I would say 80% of the time she is following the new way of eating. When Kerissa eats with us she eats local food but, she has started a new diet. Elloise is enjoying home made baby food.

I'm finally done canning which is extremely nice my kitchen is somewhat back to normal. I'm still freezing pumpkin and a variety of squash. I started a little kitchen herb garden for the winter. It takes up space but, otherwise is great. We received our last CSA from the farm until I believe March but, they have told us that they will be sending out a news letter on bundles of meat to get us through winter. We start a delivery service this week with Winder Farms. We will be getting a 1/2 gallon of whole milk every two weeks, a quart of half and half, cheese from Behive cheese, Organic fresh eggs and coffee. We have started to make our own laundry soap and it has turned out great. I'm still researching other household cleaners and also beauty products. Our grocery bill is 1/4 of what we were spending a few months ago.

We continue to learn more about what we are eating and what we have eaten over the years, it's pretty scary. Most countries have banned GMO's but our country still thinks it's acceptable. California's are voting on whether GMO"S should be labeled as a GMO's, which everyone should have the right to know what they are eating, Whether it be cow's that have been injected with pig organisms to make their skin tougher or corn  modified organisms with poison that will blow up an insects stomach once it bites into the corn but it's supposed to be okay for humans to eat. Then we have corn syrup instead of sugar again most of the world refuses to use this substitute but we have or we just don't know exactly what we are eating?

Happy Autumn

One Month

We made it to one month of eating local.

It's been a busy month of canning, baking and researching. We have cheated once or twice but, over all it wasn't too bad until this weekend. This weekend was Rissa's 22nd birthday and she chose sushi for her birthday dinner. I called Tona a few days before of course knowing that the fish was not going to be local. I was happy to find out they serve local produce. YAY! The next day she wanted to go to the Hogle zoo with the family. I cooked a roast in the crock pot the night before. I packed the roast in a zip Lock bag along with bread I had made a few days before, Gossner cheese and some nice apples. We stopped for lunch at one of the tables by the snack bar. I started unpacking our lunch and Madi says, "are you kidding? I'm done with this, why can't we just eat normal, I don't want to do this anymore." A few days before she was eating some of my freshly canned apple sauce and said, "I think this is great we should eat like this for the rest of our life." 

After the zoo we stopped by cousin Annie's home and she shared some beautiful peppers from her garden.

What came first the chicken or the egg?

The chicken comes firts for the Anaya familY. Next spring we will have our own chickies.

Backyard Chickens

The most important thing you need to know before buying chickens for your backyard chicken coop is whether your local law permits you to raise chickens. There isn't one Utah law that applies to the entire state. Rather, if you live within city limits, check to see if your city code has any laws about raising chickens; if you don't live within city limits, check the county code.
For example, in Salt Lake City, you must first apply for a permit from the office of animal services in order to raise chickens and the fee is $5/animal. Salt Lake City Code 8.08.010. A permit will not be granted for more than 25 chickens. Salt Lake City Code 8.08.020. Different rules apply to people who want to raise chickens for commercial purposes. However, no animals may be housed closer than 50 feet from a building used for human habitation. Salt Lake City Code 8.08.060.
Anexample of local laws regarding chickens is found in the Brigham City Code. Brigham City residents may keep up to six chickens but the chicken coop may not be larger than 50 cubic feet per household. Brigham City Code 4.01(16).
other Another example is found in the Vernal City Code. In Vernal, if property has been zoned RA-1 (residential-agricultural), up to 25 chickens may be kept on a lot that is at least 20,000 square feet. Vernal City Code 16.38.020. However, if other animals are kept on the same lot, that number decreases.
To find your city or county code, begin at the Utah.gov page and then select your city or county. Once directed to the city or county's page, you'll need to locate the code. Local codes are sometimes referred to as "municipal ordinances" or simply "ordinances." If you can't locate the code online, contact your local government

Candy is dandy but, fruit helps you poop.

Yesterday morning Elloise and I went to the fruit stand to get apples, peaches and tomato's. We were the first customers of the day. One of the biggest comparisons with the fruits stand vs. the supermarket is the down to earth customer service. I feel funny about using the phrase 'customer service" when talking about the fruit stands because it's so much more. At the supermarket the produce guy isn't going to pull out a knife to cut an apple and give you a piece to try. That's exactly what happens at the fruit stands that I'm so lucky to live close to. It feels more like he is a personal friend and I'm visiting his orchard. Getting to know who produces your produce is a lot more than making sure your getting a good product.

One of my favorite memories as a child was having an apple with my Grandma Jaramillo. She used to peel the apple for me. The funny thing was I liked to eat the peeling more than the apple, it always tasted sweet to me. As I'm peeling apples with my handy, dandy new gadget the apple peeler. I was thinking about how much I loved the peeling's from the apples my grandma had given me. I thought how sad that I'm wasting part of the apple and from my memories the tastiest part of the apple. I started thinking of ways to preserve the skin. I came up with an idea, not a healthy idea but, a very tasty idea.

I heated up some oil in a frying pan. I had some brown sugar in my pantry and i coated the apple peeling  and parts of the apples where the skin hadn't come off. I fried them for about ten minutes until they were a little crispy. Took them out layed them on a dish and put more brown sugar on top. KICK your mother it was so good! They didn't make it through the night because Madi devoured them.

Local coffee shop

Local Coffee shop the "Merc", great coffee with friendly service. If you want a coffee shop where they remember your name and what your favorite drink go to the Merc.

Elloise and Nick at the Merc. You can find Nick at the Merc most mornings.

Elloise an

What is a locavore

What is a locavore

Lazy Dinner

My plan today was to make noodles, that didn't happen. I played with Elloise instead.

I made eggplant lasagna. I had  a bit of cheddar cheese from Gossner cheese in Logan , a little bit of Parmesan cheese from Hebert valley cheese and my beautiful spaghetti sauce. I layered the eggplant as if it were pasta alternating the cheese and sauce. I put in the oven for 11/2 hours, it was delicious.

That's just stupid. Or is it just that...

..http://welivesimply.info/media/livesimply-manifesto.pdf

Good luck with that.

http://www.localfoodbee.com/how-do-i-still-eat-local-for-the-winter-months-help/

Slow down

http://www.slowfood.com

One of my resources

I have thought of this speech several times through out the last four years. 

We thought of this speech when we decided to change the direction of our future.

Meatless Monday

Today was a busy day!

I was able to can 14 jars of spaghetti sauce and bake three loaves of beead. One of the loaves I thought I would experiment with. I added garlic and fresh basil and it was awesome.

Today is also meatless Monday. I made spaghetti squash with the marinara saucet that I canned and the garlic bread that I baked today. It was a big hit the family loved it. 

Yia Yia's baby

Pettingills Fruit and Veggie stand is where we get most of our produce.http://m.facebook.com/pages/Pettingills-Fruit-Farm/170915542936358?id=170915542936358&_rdr

A New Way to Live

This is the beginning of a new healthy, more responsible and simpler way of life.

 Yesterday my family and I changed the way we have been living. Let me back up a little and provide a little history.

In July of 1998, after struggling to make ends meet in Utah Joe and I decided to move our young family to Las Vegas Nevada. We had hopes of better wages, housing that we could qualify for and a better school system, all of those hopes were met.

We lived in "Sin City" for twelve years, and every visit we made to Utah was full of tears on the day of departure. We desperately missed our family, friends, the beautiful mountains, the rivers, and the hometown feel. There were a few years that we couldn't visit because, leaving caused so much heartache.

We made several visits to Utah in 2007 and 2008, visiting family and different outdoor activities.
After one visit in July 2008,  Joe promised me that in a year we would return to Utah. At the time we were still both doing very well in our career's. Joe was a general foreman for a big construction company, mostly working at a desk and going out for breakfast. It was a much easier job than what he had been used to in the many years as an Iron Worker, and he deserved it. He still wanted to move back to Utah, where he knew work would be much harder, the pay much less but, his family would be happier. I also loved my job as a secretary at St. Rose Hospital in the Pediatric and Pediatric intensive care units. I had a great boss, great co-workers, great company with an awesome wage and benefits. All of that and I still longed to move back to Utah.

On October 5, 2008, which happens to be Joes birthday the stock market crashed, the DOW Jones fell over 700 points. Hotel and casino construction projects in were being canceled and shut down, by the day. The real estate industry also hit rock bottom. Our home in 2007 had been valued at 320, 000, now was only worth 140,000. Joe's employer was making cut backs and decided to make make Joe one of the cut backs. Just in time for Christmas 2008, Joe had been laid off.

I took this as a blessing in disguise, we now would make every effort to move back to Utah. While still in Las Vegas Joe starting working for a Utah company (another sign). My mom Brenda actually helped him land this job, through a friend. In July the break that we had been waiting for happened, the company wanted to transfer Joe to utah. At the time we were all thrilled with the thought of being back in Utah.

Life was harder in Utah Joe and I both worked harder and worked more hours.  We ran into health problems, money problems, school problems, housing problems and the kids missing their friends. We were enjoying get togethers with family and friends. We had a deeper appreciation for the beautiful mountains and the magical rivers, than we had before. I remember driving on Harrison BLVD. and thinking "I'm really back" while smiling to myself.

Over the next few years we had many ups and downs. In November of 2011 we paid cash for our home in Brigham city (not my ideal location). No house payment is a very nice situation to be in, but our home is a fixer upper and requires a great deal of time and money. On April 13, 2012, we were blessed with our first grandchild,

One of the few nice things about our time in Las Vegas, was having enough money to eat healthier and buy organic foods. Living in Utah we made about one fourth of what we were making in Las vegas, even with no house payment we could not afford to buy organic.

I started to pay closer attention after downloading the Fooducate App. on my iphone. I began to learn some frightening facts, one fact being that the food that had been I feeding my family was on the FDA's watch list for toxicity.  My thought while discovering all of those horrendous facts was "we just needed to live simpler." Ahh Ha! That was the beginning of my Epiphany!

I continued my research, found books and websites that supported my ideas, I just had to sell it to my family. Once I explained to Joe that we would be buying everything second hand, getting fresh fruits and veggies from farmers markets and local roadside stands, he agreed with my entire Idea. We both decided that we would pay a higher price for natural pasture fed meat from a local farmer rather than buy from the grocery store. Madi was up for the whole idea except the idea of buying ALL her clothing second hand, which I can respect. who has her own place but, spends much of her free time at our home. She doesn't like the idea of seeing the chickens on the farm and then eating it the next day. The things that I had been learning were terrified me. I explained the humane treatment of the animals, and the the health benefits of farm to fork but, she still can not do it.  instead will once again be a vegetarian. Our son Jacy lives in Las Vegas and has mostly eaten a vegetarian diet for the last year due to health problems. If he lived with us he would be up for our new way of living.

So the plan is to, only eat food that is grown or farmed with in 100 miles of our home. I started canning and freezing foods that we purchased locally. Learning how to make bread and noodles is also an adventure.I found Appenzell Farm that provides natural, pastured fed meat close to our home. We are also going to make our own laundrey soap, dish soap and bath soap. No more paper products, except toilet paper.

The benefits

• Eating meat that doesn't have added antibiotics and hormones

  • Knowing that the animals were treated and fed humanly 

    • Helping our local economy

      • Saving 3/4 our our grocery bill every month

        • Enjoying fruits and veggies that don't have harmful chemicals sprayed on them

          • The quality of the meat and produce are much fresher and taste better.

            • Getting to know the people in our community.

The Disadvantages

• ?