Archive for the ‘Post Topics’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Montana Co-op: Open to new Memberships

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

by Catherine Haug, June 20, 2012

The Montana Co-op is an online farmers market, for locally grown/produced food in Western Montana. In its last stage of development, the Co-op hopes to be operating by October 2012. I’ve added a link to their home page in the links column of our home page – scroll down to Food: Local/Organic Links and look for ‘Montana Co-Op‘.

We hope to have their steering committee make a presentation at one of our gatherings, soon, so stay tuned.

For more information about the co-op, see the Montana Co-Op Info files section, below. Or see Contact Info, below. For more information about organizational progress, read on.

(more…)

Posted in Community, Food-Nutrition-Health, Local Food System, Shop Local | Comments Closed

Why ‘Pasture-Raised’ trumps ‘Organic’

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

by Catherine Haug, June 12, 2012 and David Brown, November 2011

Most of us believe that Organic is the best you can buy, to feed your family. And it certainly is better than commercially-produced fresh and processed foods. But is it really the ‘best’ available?

I’ve posted on this topic before (see Related Posts, below). David Brown (avid gardener, compostor, and health researcher from Kalispell) writes about the advantage of ‘pasture-raised’ over ‘Organic’ when it comes to animal foods like meat, dairy and eggs. (more…)

Posted in Compost, Food-Nutrition-Health, Gardening, Livestock, Organics, Shop Local | 4 Comments »

On Small Farms and a Sustainable Food Supply

Sunday, June 10th, 2012

by Catherine Haug, June 10, 2012

The June 3 issue of the Great Falls Tribune featured a great article: Wanted: Big crop of young farmers and ranchers (9). It speaks of an “epidemic of sorts sweeping across America’s farm and ranch land… The average age of Montana farm/ranch operators was 56 in 2002 and 58 in 2007“. This aging of farmers and ranchers, the reluctance of young people to pursue this career, and a net decrease in working farms and ranches could mean “unspeakable woes” that will descend upon our children and grandchildren if we don’t retain and repopulate our working lands. It could even mean food shortages today.

Depopulation of working lands is only part of the problem; because of world population increase, we could “require 70% MORE food production by 2050“, including a “doubling of animal agriculture” (9). Yet along with the decline in farmers comes the decline of working lands, such as we’ve seen right here in the Flathead, as these lands are developed for housing and commercial interests.

This brings two challenges: inspiring our youth to an agriculture career; and preserving working lands. While the answer to these challenges is complex, one way to encourage young adults to pursue food production as a career, is by  providing incentive to make it pay. And the Farm Bill 2012 can help with that. (more…)

Posted in Agriculture, Food-Nutrition-Health, Home & Ranch | Comments Closed

Curing Meats at Home

Saturday, June 9th, 2012

Brisket in brine

by Catherine Haug, June 5, 2012, and ongoing updates

One way to reduce your energy consumption is to find ways to keep foods without refrigeration, such as curing meats: homemade jerky; pemican or (real) mincemeat; home-cured bacon, ham and sausage; dried beef or pastrami; and so on. We hope to have a presentation on this topic later this year.

Many questions also arise: How long do you cure the meat? What herbs & spices make the best flavor for a particular cured product? How much salt should you use? Is saltpeter needed? When do you use a wet brine vs a dry cure? I don’t have all the answers to these questions, but I’m researching them as I experiment with making cured and dried beef (more on this below).

Subjects addressed in this post:

  • The saltpeter (nitrate) dilemma: Botulism, Cancer,  and Alternatives to saltpeter
  • My dried beef experiment
  • Home-cured bacon
  • References & resource

See also my posts Corning Beef,  Cured vs Processed Meats, and Sugar and Salt in Food Preservation. The book: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Ruhlman, et. al., is an excellent reference with recipes. See Amazon for a peek inside.

(more…)

Posted in Fermentation, Culturing & Curing, Food-Nutrition-Health, Home & Ranch | 3 Comments »

Enhancing your immunity

Monday, May 28th, 2012

by Catherine Haug, May 27, 2012

Each and every day, every moment in the day, we are exposed – at risk – for disease from infectious microbes. You can’t avoid them, and since there are far too many microbes to decimate them all, we’re better off learning how to live with them. They are, after all, everywhere. And the way to live with them without giving in to them, is by building and maintaining a strong immunity.

How does one do that? One way is to start with children. Research has shown that children who eat dirt (as I did – pulling up carrots from my Dads garden and eating them without washing) have stronger immune systems than those who are raised in a sterile environment.

How can this be? Because many microbes – even some pathological ones – are beneficial. Our own native flora prove this true: (more…)

Posted in Ecology, Food-Nutrition-Health, Health, Home & Ranch | Comments Closed

Common contaminated surfaces, and how to avoid infection

Monday, May 28th, 2012

by Catherine Haug, May 27, 2012

We have become a society afraid of infection, leading us to seek ways to avoid contamination. Infectious bugs live on just about every surface we encounter (including our own skin and hair), and are also present in the air we breathe, so it is impossible to avoid these bugs. But there are things we can do to reduce exposure and enhance our immunity.

NOTE: there are also non-infectious diseases such as cancer that cannot necessarily be avoided by avoiding contamination, but may be avoided by enhancing your immunity

First, lets explore the most contaminated surfaces we encounter every day, then look at ways to enhance your immunity so you don’t succumb to contamination or exposure to infectious disease. (more…)

Posted in Ecology, Health, Home & Ranch, Simplify | Comments Closed

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »