Friday, March 5, 2010

Real Food Friday Wrap-up

So it was a short first week of the Real Food Challenge. Here are the highlights from our house:

*Our main focus this month is in the dairy department - switching to raw, local, and homemade dairy. We eat Real Food in most other aspects of our life.

*We located a reliable, affordable supplier for raw cow and goat's milk.

*We made half a pound of butter from our first gallon of cow's milk.

*We discovered that we can go through a gallon of milk in four days now, since I don't hesitate to let my children drink a glass of it when they want to.

*I learned that there's no way the butter we get from the cream off of one gallon of milk will last us a whole week. I've started researching other options and am excited to try them next week.

*In other news - we made two and a half pounds of homemade lunch meat - smoked, shaved turkey breast. Really good stuff. Easy, too.

*I'm starting to realize that I'm going to need to plan even better than I have in the past if we're going to really do this. And I was already a good planner, so that's sayin' somethin'. I have a whole new respect for Ma Ingalls - she must've been one incredibly organized woman!

*Thinking about where my food is coming from has made me consider every other thing on my shopping list, too. Keep an eye out for an upcoming post on homemade shampoo.

Overall? A pretty successful first week. I hope to accomplish more in the coming month - I've been scouring the Nourishing Traditions cookbook's dairy section and I'm getting kind of excited.

What's even more thrilling? Reading the blogs of other Challenge participants and feeling the camaraderie - love not feeling like I'm the only weirdo out there with an obsession for living from scratch!


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Julie - I gave you an award today! http://wp.me/pLUsz-40

Anonymous said...

Love it :-) We found a raw cows' milk cheese at the grocery store, but my testing isn't coming out clearly enough. I'm going to wait a bit longer, and see about goats' milk... Your family is well-blessed to have a weirdo for a Mamma!

Wendy said...

cool. what a great challenge. I'll have to check it out!

Mama Kautz said...

I found a FARM and I can 'rent' a cow for fresh milk!! Wonder though....the organic milk at Safeway almost ALWAYS has % off stickers...makes it cheaper than regular milk. Granted it is close to the date, but with 3 drinking it and myself for mochas so, wise one, which is better?

Mommaofmany said...

I am so ready to get raw milk again. The goats we get our milk from will deliver soon. I'm glad you could find local milk; that's often one of the hardest challenges!