Farm Fresh

Our garden has been pretty productive, considering that I let it get really weedy for a while there. It's hard to get out into the garden every day when a) it is super hot and muggy, b)your kids won't nap, or not at the same time, or if they do you have like 10 minutes of overlap, and c) if you garden with the kids out in the yard, the 3 year old begs for you to push her in the baby swing, while the 1 year old climbs to the top of the playground. So unless another adult is handy or I slip something into their smoothies, gardening is an early am or late pm proposition.

All that being said, we are eating something from the garden every day, and almost at every meal. We've got tomatoes, cucumbers, turnips, patty pan squash, zucchini, string beans, dill, parsley, chard, carrots, beets, and some radicchio.

Our pumpkin and cantaloupe vines are really taking over and we have lots of fruit on both of them. Here's a shot of a pumpkin vine that has escaped the garden. It's turning the corner and I'm sure it will become a border soon enough! I'm hoping the critters don't eat too much of the fruit, but maybe this one gift will dissuade them from working hard to get the stuff inside the fence.

I just planted the second batch of lettuces, so we should have a nice fall crop as well. One of the things I really love about gardening is that I am always thinking about the next season. I already have plans for how I want the new garden beds to lay out and how I want to rotate the crops. I have ideas about better ways to support and trellis plants, amend the soil, and keep critters at bay. I learned that carrots need much more friable soil than I have given them this year, so next year they will go in a raised bed with really nice loose dirt so they will grow down instead of split. I think these look just like a nice pair of pants!

Tastebuds reset!

Our family has been eating either GAPS or Primal most (75%? maybe) of the time now. We still have some no no's in our pantry (pasta, rice, etc), but I for one don't really want them so we haven't cooked them just yet. We have had lots of veggies, but it feels like I'm the only one who really enjoys them.

Last Sunday and Monday we made an attempt to do the GAPS diet intro program. Essentially, you eat fresh broths (meat and/or bone) for a few days along with boiled meats and vegetables and probiotic foods. As you feel ready, you add in eggs, avocado, and a bench of other "healing" foods. This has been hard for Honey as he really only likes veggies raw, and those are off limits. Cooked veggies are his nemesis I think. Anyway, by Sunday at 7pm, I was so hungry I could have eaten anything, and Pumpkin was screaming because I think I wasn't giving him enough through my milk. So I bailed.

I don't mean to imply that I started eating crap, I just bailed on soup for days. We are all still doing well with out meat, veggies and fruits, and I know I feel pretty good. I've definitely lost my desperate need for carbs and sugar. Someone left ice cream in our freezer on Halloween and it has not been touched. By this time if we were not on this eating plan, that ice cream would have easily been history. I think Honey feels better too - less reflux as far as I can tell.

Peanut is still eating some grains and yogurt, but we have noticed that if she has a grain of any kind, she will eat very little of anything else. We've also noticed that she tends to get full fast on grains, even gluten free, and the rest of the day is a lot of me bugging her to eat. When she only does meat and veggies, she eats way more. I'm not completely sure, but I think she is also happier and less labile without grains. The decrease in her dairy (she could have survived on cheese alone before) has absolutely made a difference in her tummy and - not to be gross- bowel habits.

It has been fascinating to see how our tastes are changing. We had roasted squash this week which would have made me gag before, but I loved it! I'm finding carrots to be very sweet, and food to need little additional spice. Honey and I compared notes yesterday, and we had both tried a little milk chocolate after Halloween and found that it tasted a bit chemical and nasty. Dark chocolate is still wonderful as far as I am concerned!

At the end of this week, I was tired of cooking (we already do a lot of cooking, but the soup and stew and broth thing is really time consuming), so we ordered in. We decided to experiment a bit, and we had Five Guys burgers and fries one night and Chinese food last night. The burgers were good and pretty close to GAPS legal aside from the buns. Fries are of course out, but the strange thing for both of us was that our ketchup was way too sweet! We haven't had ketchup in a long time as we cut out tomatoes a while ago, so this was pretty shocking. We both felt fine though after eating whereas our Chinese food made us both a little queasy. That was surprising because I ordered steamed chicken and vegetables with brown sauce on the side and only had a tiny bit of sauce. You would think that wasn't hugely different, but I did have some soup and part of a spring roll, so who knows. There could have been soy and sugar and whatnot in there.

The most interesting thing this week though was Honey's lunch at Thai Basil. He always orders the spiciest food he can, and Thai has actually been spicy enough for him in the past. More often than not, what other people find to be really hot doesn't even phase him. Well, he couldn't really eat his Thai dish as it was far too spicy for him. So the readjusting of the taste buds is definitely happening here.

This morning we went to the farmers market to do our shopping, and for the first time we got everything we will need for the week for under $90 from the market. This may be the most exciting development. I'm thinking less about how to put meals together - it's easy because there are not a million choices - veggies and meat is really it. We are using every part of what we buy, either for a meal, stew, soups, or for compost when all is said and done, so I feel like we are living even more lightly. There is lots of cabinet space being freed up as we use up our flours and grains too - I'll soon be able to have space for jarred and canned vegetables in the pantry! Now, I'll have to learn to can...

It Really Works!

I've been trying to get more vegetables into all of us, especially Peanut. She can eat a ridiculous amount of food, and always wants to eat, but at regular meals, her veggies are usually untouched. I've had some success when I happily chow my veggies commenting on how great they are, and she will always eat them if one of her little friends does (peer pressure even works at 2 years old). I always see these crazy good housekeeping Martha Stewart things where you make the food into a fabulous artistic masterpiece and it goes down the hatch just like that. OK, so finally I tried this - I'm not saying it was a masterpiece, but it was a creative way to serve veggies. We did carrot hair, cucumber and grape eyes, red pepper mouth, cheese ears and a little hummus for eyebrows and teeth. I only used things I know she has already enjoyed at least once, and next time I'll add some new things to the mix. It was kind of cute - and best of all - it actually worked! She ate almost everything on the plate as well as about 1/4 of what was on my plate! (I put all the extra cuts of veggies on a little plate and snacked along) So try the crazy artwork with food - a little extra effort might be worth it!