So, this is what TF looks like for us (as far as the food is concerned):
Simply put, Traditional Foods are foods consumed in the way our ancestors ate them. The basis of Traditional Foods is that the food you consume be as nutrient dense and nourishing as possible. Traditional Foods (TF) goes beyond just avoiding packaged and processed foods. It is about choosing the best food options available for your budget, individual chemistry & location and consuming it in a way that allows your body to extract the maximum nutrition from that item.
- buying pastured meat directly from the farmer. We found a semi-local source for beef and poultry (minus ground beef, but we can get grass-fed ground beef from several local health food stores...) We drove up to this farm (Rainbow Ranch Farms, if anyone is interested - they also have a facebook page) and picked up a wholesale order of 20 whole chickens and about 75 lbs. of beef a couple weeks ago. We are so excited to have been able to not only get some good quality meat, but to support a small family farm at the same time. Plus, in order to be able to buy all of this meat, we got to buy a chest freezer-lol! Grass fed beef (also called pastured) is soooo much better for you than the "meat" you will find at your local grocery store... And it is tasty. So very, very tasty! Have you seen Food Inc.? ((shudder)) So now, if it is not grass fed/pastured/organic.... I just can't buy it. For other meat products (bacon, lunch meat, BACON...) we really like Applegate Farms:-)
- Organic Dairy. If we are buying milk to drink (which is a rare occasion, we are not milk drinkers) we get raw milk from Organic Pastures. We have some of their raw butter as well, for spreading on toast and things like that. For cooking/baking with, we use non-homogenized whole milk from Straus Family Creamery, and pastured butter from Organic Valley. Taking the fat out of dairy is so yucky:/ Raw dairy is so much healthier for you, but where I live, it is so expensive:/ Hopefully someday we will live somewhere where we have a local, affordable, raw dairy and cream source... But for now, this is a good setup:)
- We recently completely stopped buying cold cereals, even if they are organic. I have learned to love my oatmeal, pancakes, and eggs:) I am always open to new breakfast ideas though!
- Pastured eggs. I have not found a local (enough) source for free-range eggs that are NOT veggie fed... so for now, I buy Chino Valley eggs.
- not a new one for us, but I try to buy anything that we will be putting into our bodies organic. I should have put this one first, as it pretty much applies to everything. I started out, a while ago, trying to buy produce according to the dirty dozen. As our finances allowed, that slowly changed into us just buying everything organic. Produce, body products, the few snack foods that we might buy, nuts, beans, wheat...
- The big one, that everyone and their mom will tell you about, is the Weston A. Price Foundation. I, personally found this site to be a *nightmare* to navigate, until someone directed me to their guided tours. There is a lot of information here. Oh, and a wiki rundown of the WAPF.
- The Nourishing Gourmet. This is not one that I have spent a lot of time perusing, but it has come highly recommended by friends.
- The Nourished Kitchen. Again, not one I have spent a ton of time on. But, a while back, I followed some one's link to something on the site called the 28-day real food challenge. It piqued my interest in TF, and is full of great info and recipes.
- Some online forums, like MDC have their own Traditional Foods sub-forum. Forums like this are a great way to learn about TF, and talk to others about it.
- The last one I have, and my absolute favorite- CookingTF (which I linked to earlier) and their very own forum, TFRecipes. This site has the basics laid out for your very nicely on the main page. And also, for recipe-deficient folks like myself, they have a nifty menu-mailer. I signed up a couple of weeks ago, and I love it! I have been in such a rut, meal wise, for a looong time. Add in this new way of eating and preparing meals... I was just lost... There are a few things on the menu that I have looked at. and though "meh... not gonna try that..." mostly things with seafood... or butternut squash ((shudder)) But EVERY single recipe that I have tried so far, has been a hit. Seriously yummy! When there is something on the menu that I just can't handle, I can just pull another recipe of hers out. This week we had Teriyaki Chicken, Beef Kabobs (that I could not Kabob properly...), Bacon, Kale and Tomato Soup, Chicken and Wild Rice, and Chili (for the record, I have NEVER been able to make a good chili from scratch. These recipes rock. They are awesome.
