"THAT chicken comes from chickens?"

It never occurred to me, until that moment that my children don’t know where their food comes from. Why would they? As far as they know, it comes from our refrigerator. Actually, they know that it comes from the grocery store. But how did it get to the grocery store? Where did it come from? They honestly don’t care enough to ask those questions. They just want to eat. I don’t blame them. When I was a kid, I felt the same way. Feed me. As I grew, I learned where chicken, hamburger, and bacon came from and I was okay with it.

Now that I have a family of my own and along with the national movement towards supporting small local farms, I started to ask myself, “Where does my food come from?” In my quest to know the origins and history of the food on my plate, as well as to provide my family with the healthiest options, I decided to start small.

Tomatoes. Since our backyard does not have a prime location for a garden, growing heirloom tomatoes in a couple of pots seemed like an easy thing to do. And, it was! The fresh tomatoes have been so delicious and I really enjoyed knowing that they were grown in my backyard without any pesticides and with the best fertilizer I could find. Talk about fresh! Even the boys were excited to taste the first tomato. B doesn’t even like tomatoes and he eats these from time to time.

Some would say that adding some backyard chickens to our family wouldn’t be considered, “starting small.” I might agree if it weren’t so incredibly easy. These chickens can give us fresh eggs. Not only fresh eggs, but eggs from chickens that have a huge backyard to forage in, are fed organically, and who enjoy the many fresh treats that we bring for them. Our eggs will be richer than any egg I could buy in the grocery store. I think we have some very happy hens. We haven’t had any eggs yet, but when we do I will be able to say that I know exactly where my eggs came from. Plus, I am thrilled that the boys will know too.

B, who after watching me take frozen chicken from the freezer and asking me what it was, uttered the title of this post. Even though we refer to that meat as chicken, it didn’t occur to him that the meat we eat comes from the new friends we have in our backyard. After explaining that we only intend to eat the eggs from our chickens, he returned to playing with his toys. I thought he would quit chicken forever. He didn’t.

That little exchange got my wheels turning. Where does my chicken come from? Costco. That is the best answer I can come up with. Prince Charming and I would love to raise backyard meat birds to feed our family. However, neither of us can stomach the thought of processing the birds. I have been looking for a way around this, but haven’t found one yet. Keep your fingers crossed for me as I have heard that backyard meat birds are superior in flavor and texture than any bird I could buy at the store.

What about pork? What about beef? Safeway. I can do better than that! My dear friend sent me an email about cowpooling this morning. That is where a few families get together and order an entire cow, or a portion of a cow. I have been interested in doing something like this ever since I saw it on Jon and Kate plus 8. They bought a half a cow to feed their family for a year. There are a few reasons why this interests me. First, the cost is cut because I would be buying directly from a local farmer. Second, I would be buying beef that has been GRASS fed (as opposed to grain fed) which is lower in saturated fat and higher in healthy fats than in store bought beef. Plus, I would have the satisfaction of knowing where our beef came from. The same friend pointed me to a website of a local cattle farmer. It is nice to know that I can find a quality product close by. While we haven’t been known to eat high amounts of beef, it would be nice to find a few people to split a cow with us.

As I continue my quest for food knowledge I am comforted in the fact that I am proactive in searching out the best food for my family. In the meantime, I am going to start visiting the downtown farmers market to see what I can see.

Do you know where your food comes from?

E Said

"I love you Mommy Toothbrush."

My favorite thing that E says, lately.

My little fish

Before I had kids, I assumed that any children of mine would be doing laps in the pool by the time they were five. At the beginning of this summer, I have a 5 year old that would sink to the bottom of the pool if I weren't there. Enough is enough. This kid is going to swim and he is going to like it, darnit. Swimming is fun. Every summer my bathing suit was glued to me. I swam in it. I hung around the house in it. I swam. I swam a lot.

Sweet B isn't as enthusiastic as Prince Charming and I are. He is just old enough to know that water is dangerous and he just isn't quite comfortable there. This summer he is in lessons 5 days a week for 45 minutes each day. I have seen amazing progress during these first 10 days.

He would never admit it, but I think he likes it. Today we went swimming at Aunt J's house. No lesson. Just fun. On the way there he told me that he doesn't want to do any swimming. He just wants to hold on to the edge and monkey crawl around the pool. And that is just what he did. At first. After a while he was backing up a ways and swimming to the steps on his own. Aunt J begged him to show her his cannonball. He obliged and after doing so, turned around and swam to the steps. This kid is so capable, it kills me. I should have known, since B is pretty much just like me, that he has his own plan and will do it on his own time. And he did. Swim team next year? Cross your fingers.

Here is some video from today.

Oh, Cabin, we heart you!

Our first trip up to the Cabin for the summer was nice. It was a bit short, but we managed to pack a lot of fun into that brief stay. None of us wanted to return home, but we felt good knowing that we would be back at the beginning of July for a longer stay.

While we were there, B caught the most fish in the Fishing Derby. He was pretty excited about that. Unfortunately, all of the fish let themselves go before he could get a good look at them. E didn't have any bites on his line. Maybe next time.

I managed to get some good porch time in. Every afternoon it stormed and on this particular day I decided that it would be perfect to grab a blanket and a book and snuggle on the couch. I was right.

Before we left we managed to get over to the zip line and enjoy a few rides.

One thing that we don't usually spend time doing at the cabin is hang out in the ER. Prince Charming has this recurring neck thing that gives him a stiff neck and limited movement. It hurts him, but he can power through and it goes away after a couple of days. This time the poor guy was completely immobile. He was in terrible pain and I finally convinced him to let me take him so that he could get some help. The PA that saw him suspected a muscle spasm and prescribed some meds. That helped a bit, but he was still unable to play golf. He was bummed about that. Hopefully we won't have to spend any more precious cabin time in the ER!

Dinner

I have really been enjoying this meal lately! Wild salmon with yummy goodies piled on top and a side of creamy orzo. Even the burps are good, people.

Worth it's weight in gold

I recently purchased one of these lovely little devices and I wonder why it took me so long to get one!  Probably because I didn't know about them, I don't watch much news you know.  And, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a news story specifically for the Clarisonic.  If there hasn't been one, then there should be!  My face has NEVER been so smooth and soft.  Thanks, Sis, for tipping me off to this wonderful invention.  My smaller pores thank you!  

There is no place like it

And we are going there.  This weekend.  To the Cabin.