Building a Traditional Native American House

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 18, 2013 at 01:15:48 AM PDT

Details and photos below.

Book Review: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Food Rights

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 11, 2013 at 15:36:43 PM PDT

Gumpert's last book, Raw Milk Revolution, was about raw milk. This new one is about the larger issue of "food rights," no doubt a completely foreign concept to some people. But anyone trying to legally procure and drink raw milk, unless they own their own cow or goat, will understand completely.

A Fresh Start

by: Joanne Rigutto

Mon Jun 10, 2013 at 23:09:03 PM PDT

I had originally planned on buying the property in Mulino, where my partner Harold and I lived for 15+ years when my father died and left me enough of an estate that I could do that. Well, when Harold died (7 months after my dad), I talked to his kids (we weren't married and Harold died intestate) about buying the property. We agreed on a price and a year long battle ensued between me and my younger brother over the property we had jointly inherited from our father. By the time all was said and done I didn't have enough money to pay cash for the property and I can't qualify for a bank loan (for a number of reasons), which meant that I had to find another piece of property that I could afford.

With the help of Susan Barlow of Sundance Realty, I was able to find and purchase a piece of property that is actually better for my farm than what I was on up in Mulino. My first night at the new place was on December 10th and I slept better than I had in decades. I started setting up the new farm in earnest that month and this is the first in a series of diaries documenting the move and set up of my farm through its first year.

Homemade Cream Cheese

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Jun 09, 2013 at 22:43:02 PM PDT

In 1867 the New York market chronicler Thomas F. De Voe described as a Philadelphia specialty one kind of cream cheese "made from rich sour cream tied up in a linen cloth to drain, then laid on a deep dish, still covered around, and turned every day, and sprinkled with salt for ten days or a fortnight, until it is ripe. If wanted to ripen quick, cover it with mint or nettle leaves.

De Voe's Philadelphia cream cheese sounds much more interesting (and creamier) than the kind now known from Rome to Rio, which undoubtedly didn't reach anything like its present form until the late 1920s. That was when a series of technological innovations began paving the way for cream cheese made by liquifying a hot particularly creamy curd at a temperature well above the boiling point of water, concentrating it in a mechanical separator, standardizing it to a desired fat percentage, and pumping the hot fluid mixture directly into small rectangular foil packages for retail sale. Because the heat treated cheese tends to leak water, gums such as guar and locust bean are routinely added at the standardizing stage. The end product, "hot pack cream cheese," has a distinctly cooked flavor and gummy consistency that cannot have belonged to cream cheese before the hot-pack revolution. Today even gourmet and health-food shops and some cheese stores are unlikely to carry anything but hot-pack cream cheese, under whatever label. - Milk: The Surprising History of Milk Through the Ages by Anne Mendelson

OK, so if I don't want to eat that, then how do I get some good cream cheese? Turns out it's not too difficult to make it yourself!

Pot Luck

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Wed Jun 05, 2013 at 14:39:44 PM PDT

Book Recommendation: Wild Fermentation

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 04, 2013 at 00:38:15 AM PDT

Of course, it's more than just a simple cookbook, but even still. Katz is not your average, mainstream guy, and I have a hunch that that's a good thing. After all, an average guy would not undertake crazy fermentation projects like making chicha, the traditional Andean beverage made by chewing corn and spitting it back out prior to fermenting it. (The enzymes in saliva malt the corn, changing the starches into sugars so that the sugars can become a delicious alcoholic drink. And, by the way, there's a spit-free way to make chicha.)

Native American Cooking: Rabbit, Snake, and Woodrat

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Jun 03, 2013 at 22:40:58 PM PDT

Food stamp Update: No Soup For You

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Jun 03, 2013 at 21:12:12 PM PDT

And really, that's a GREAT thing. It means I'm no longer completely broke. I've got enough money to pay off a bunch of old bills, buy a few badly needed new clothes (on sale, for very cheap), and go where I need without fretting over the cost of gas. I paid my car registration (five months late, but I paid it!). I paid for my car insurance for the next six months. I can afford my prescription drugs. I bought my kid a birthday gift. And, while I can always grow, forage, and barter for food - and even get it free from kind and caring friends with gardens in a pinch - I can now afford to buy what I want at the store.

In other words, the $70 a month I get from food stamps are not all that's standing between me and starvation. And I'd rather be financially stable without food stamps than broke and on food stamps.

The only lousy thing is that I qualified for food stamps in April 2013 after I filed my 2012 taxes and finally had documentation to prove that I had really qualified for food stamps for the entire last year. And I didn't apply for or receive a single penny from food stamps until April 2013 because until I had all of my 1099s in hand, I couldn't prove I was poor enough.

Most of the issue - and this is always the case for me - is that I don't have a stable income because I'm a freelancer. It makes it difficult for me to apply for loans or apartments - in which case I need to prove that I make enough money - or when I apply for programs like food stamps - in which case I need to prove I'm poor enough. Our society is set up for people who are employed by someone and receive regular paychecks each month. Or at least people who don't have wild fluctuations in their income each month.

I don't have any solution for that. It just is what it is. But I would have appreciated getting those food stamps several months sooner than I did. Back when I really, really, really needed it.

Adventures with an Uncooperative Goat

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Jun 01, 2013 at 23:11:26 PM PDT

This post covers my adventures trying to milk her and then what I ended up doing with the resulting milk. It also contains some revelations I've learned from a fantastic book called Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Anne Mendelson. I highly recommend it.

Some Comments on Raw Milk and Food Freedom

by: Jill Richardson

Thu May 30, 2013 at 00:24:47 AM PDT

Since it's my friend's goat and it's her milk, it's legal to drink. If she wanted to sell that milk, it would be another matter entirely. We're in California, where it's actually easier to legally obtain raw milk than it is in other states. But the fact is that in many parts of the country, the only way to legally get raw milk is to buy your own dairy animal and milk her yourself.

Right now I'm reading David Gumpert's upcoming book Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Food Rights. I'll do a proper review of the book soon, but right now I've just got a few things to get off my chest.

Loquat Salsa

by: Jill Richardson

Wed May 29, 2013 at 13:37:37 PM PDT

I tucked the idea away in the back of my head... until this week, when a fellow San Diego gardener sent out an email announcing that she's got two overly generous loquat trees with more ripe fruit than she can eat in a lifetime. Would anyone like to come pick some?

I arrived with a few grocery bags to fill with loquats. She set me up with a step ladder and a fruit picker and off I went.

If you're like most Americans, you're reading this and thinking "What the hell is a loquat?" Answers and recipes are below. (Note: You can make this with peach or mango instead of loquats.)

Loquats

Why Broccoli Fights Cancer

by: Jill Richardson

Sun May 19, 2013 at 20:26:35 PM PDT

A few weeks ago, in my Native American foods class, we cooked up mustard greens. They aren't traditional, strictly speaking, because they were introduced by the Spanish. But they grow everywhere, and at some point in the past few centuries, the Indians started eating them.

I wasn't even going to taste them, since I know I hate them. But the teacher of our class put them in a pot of water and brought it to a boil and then poured off the water three times. The resulting product had no horseradish taste.

Yes! I thought. Now I can eat this abundant wild food! But... does cooking it to death reduce its health value significantly?

As it turns out, it does. In fact, for people who hate the horseradish flavor, it's all very bad news.

Wild Fermentation: How to Make Uji (Kenyan Millet Porridge)

by: Jill Richardson

Sat May 18, 2013 at 13:30:15 PM PDT

In western Kenya, I stayed with a family who served a more traditional breakfast: uji. It was typically the only part of breakfast made entirely from native foods, in fact. And it's fermented, making it extremely healthy. Other breakfast foods included cassava and peanuts (introduced from the Americas) and tea with sugar (from Asia). The kids' favorite breakfast was mandazis, which are like donuts.

I'm not sure I'd apply the adjective "love" to the sour flavor of uji but I DO love that it's healthy and sustainable. I asked how to make it and I was so incredulous of the answer I received that I never tried - until now.

This week, I picked up the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. I've now got fermentation experiments all over my kitchen, and uji - which he calls ogi - is one of them. Here's how to make it.

Native American Cooking: Rattlesnake

by: Jill Richardson

Sat May 18, 2013 at 12:14:42 PM PDT

A member of our class did the honors, catching a few snakes and skinning and gutting them before class. He said it was just like gutting a fish. Unfortunately, one snake bit itself as he was killing it, and we couldn't decide whether or not it was safe to eat that one. In the end, we decided it was probably safe - but we left it for the coyotes to enjoy since nobody wanted to take the risk.

Here's how we cooked the other one.

My Secret Oasis

by: Jill Richardson

Fri May 17, 2013 at 21:27:09 PM PDT

The other day, I was on my way home, caught in traffic, and just one exit from this very spot. I pulled off the freeway, headed for the woods, and found a parking spot next to an elder tree and a gap in the fence.

You wouldn't believe what I found!