My Food Journey...Where We Are Now.

Ever since Ava started eating solid foods, I have gotten a lot more educated about food. My food journey has taught me a lot and has gotten me very interested in getting physically fit and also into supporting my local farm community.  It's overwhelming at times, but I find it I make little changes, we adapt much easier.  Thankfully Ava eats anything and JP is very supportive and also eats anything I present. :)

I am still running! In fact, I ran 4.1 miles the other day, my farthest run! Here I am just after that run, haha!

 I went through our fridge and got rid of any food that has either high fructose corn syrup in it, or tons of icky fake ingredients. Be gone!

Since our CSA ended, I have found myself missing the weekly produce, hating deciding where to buy produce, hating spending $$$$ on produce, and I certainly do not love having to come up with meals on my own. With the CSA, I never knew what I was going to receive, so I had to be flexible and just "go" with it each week. I bought Brussels Sprouts at Genuardi's this week, and the checkers thought I was nuts. They told me how gross they are and how they cannot believe I eat them. Oy. :)

JP now loves Brussels Sprouts and Ava just likes to lick them and suck on them but does not actually check them up yet.  I also bought Kale and made Kale chips, but JP missed out on those because Ava and I ate them!

 I recently went to The Old Dutch Cupboard in Franconia on a milk hunt (more on that in a minute), but I found myself stocking up on more, like the coffee we drink at our farmers market--One Village. It's roasted right in Souderton and is dedicated to helping the communities that grow the beans around the world. Apparently the people at One Village are familiar faces in the farm communities, which is pretty neat. They are dedicated to keeping a low carbon-footprint, so they are only available locally.

 As you saw, I threw out our old syrups, which honestly I have not used in a very long time, but I know JP has pulled them out when we don't have maple syrup, so I knew they had to go!  We switched to pure local maple syrup in which there is only one ingredient: maple syrup. No artificial this, no synthetic that. No high fructose corn syrup, dyes, etc.

The real purpose of my mission was to buy milk that is:

1. local
2. organic
3. grass-fed
4. pasteurized (not ultra pasteurized)

Guess what? Thanks to some friends from high school and elementary school (via facebook)- I found it! Alderfer's Farm is right in Telford and it's milk is all of the above. It's also homogenized which means the cream is up on top so you have to shake it. 


I got most of my information from a book called Real Food: What to Eat and Why, and by reading blogs and talking with friends who are interested in milk and farms. 

Click here for some easy-to-understand information about Pasteurization from a local blogger, Jo-Lynne, at Musings of a Housewife.

Click here for some information about non-homogenized milk.

Here is some info on grass-fed milk, too.

Guess what? They also have organic, free-range eggs! YUM!   This means the chickens are free to roam the farm, instead of being caged, diseased and filled with nasty steroids like factory farm chickens.

What is the downside to all of this goodness? Price.

I wish I got a discount for buying local, but unfortunately, it's less convenient and more expensive.  After doing much research, I have decided it is an important decision to make, and if we have to cut back on other things to have better quality food, then that will have to be the case.

The dairy has the same glass bottles as Pennview Farm, which is cool because not only are you recycling each week, but you are not getting the lovely toxins and chemicals that supposedly leak out of the plastic and wax milk containers!

  

Well, this is turning into quite the novel, but I still have a bit more news! In a week and a half, I will be running in my first 5k!!!!

Lastly, the Phillies have decided to host their own 5k to raise money for the charities they support so JP and I have decided to run it together! We actually got some new running shoes and man am I glad I did, apparently my sneaks had 100% NO support! My new shoes are nice and shiny and feel way different. I can't wait to break them in!

If you are still reading, I love you:)  Tell me if you did get through this and let me know your thoughts on milk, farms, 5ks, whatever!!!