In an attempt to go wheat free as a family, I've been getting a little more creative in my cooking.  That usually scares my children, but at least one daughter was willing to try a new version of Enchiladas last night.  She said they were good, and I thought so too.

I used a combination of millet and lentils for the filling, with some sauteed onions, mushrooms and frozen corn.  I layered it all between corn tortillas, dumped lots of green enchilada sauce all over it and used liberal amounts of jack cheese, but if you took the cheese out of the mix it would be perfectly vegan.  Too bad it uses corn.  We're not going off corn yet.  One step at a time right?  I count it as a great success that we are abandoning wheat.  Corn is next.  But then I have no idea how we would make enchiladas without any tortillas at all... Maybe we should just make an "enchilada casserole" with the above ingredients minus the corn?  The point here is to make a meal with sufficient protein and flavor. 

I've been thinking that maybe what we can do is settle for being lacto ovo vegetarians.  Most of the time.  I don't think we should have to eat meat every day to be healthy.  I do think that there is great benefit to bone broth, which I have more than 20 quarts of in my freezer from the cow we butchered this year.  I like the idea of using the broth to cook my grains and legumes in, both for flavor and for nutrition.  And the meat from one cow should theoretically last us for a year.  We only got half a cow this time.  I would still prefer not to need animal products at all, but since that isn't where we are at philosophically or practically, I want to make the best use of what we have by eating less meat and stretching out what we have.  Incidentally, half our family is sensitive to milk, so we will probably have to let that go anyway.  I need to move us to almond milk, but first I need to find a good source of almonds so we can make our own regularly. 

So Vegan it's not food!

I once spent a period of my life as a vegan.  I was not a terribly healthy vegan because I had never learned how to eat vegetables or whole grain or nuts or seeds.  I like fruit and I made lots of homemade whole wheat bread.  Eventually I conceived a second child and found a severe need for protein and fat in my diet.  But I've always looked back and wondered if there was some way to be both vegan and healthy and pregnant.  It seems that a lot of my "beliefs" about food, the things that really ring true for me, are either PALEO or VEGAN.  How they can all exist and be true at the same time is the paradox which haunts me.  But I have learned not to completely buy into one philosophy or the other, and also not to throw either of them out.  So I continue on my journey.

This year we are developing our land to join the local food scene.  We will be deer fencing it.  You can't grow anything out here- not trees or flowers, or vegetables without deer destroying it.  They're very pretty while they destroy our food sources and potential livlihood.  But I still want to shoot them.  Sort of.  However, it's a moot point, because we are not ALLOWED to shoot the deer, so the local Department of Wildlife agrees to give us the deer fence supplies as long as we can show them we have a commercial interest that needs protection.  Sounds like a deal to me!  We also are digging a pond and installing an extensive irrigation system, which should give me pasture.  Maybe we will still manage to put a steer on it.  We have a place to keep pigs and chickens so we'll at least start in on those.

Considering my internal conflicts over killing to live, I am happy to report that our business will consist of growing vegetables to feed the local food scene on.  We will be focusing on Hydroponics with fish (Aquaponics) and greenhousing salad veggies in the dead of winter.  The local places ship it in from California, but I am convinced that we can offer a superior product, locally grown and for an equal or better price.  We may also add some fruit trees and grapes this year.  I hope to offer CSA memberships next year.  Imagine a CSA membership that includes not only veggies, but fruit and grapes and blueberries!  We will be starting with aquaponic blueberries.  Blueberries will not grow in the soil here in the west because of alklinity issues.  I also plan to sell eggs with our veggies.  Thank you to the recently passed Cottage Industry Food Act, which makes this all possible.

We will not be selling meat.  We will just be raising if for our own use.  And hopefully, as we have more abundant veggies to eat onsite, our perceived need for such quantities of meat will be reduced.

I can hope, right?