3 Ways to Adjust to the Slow Food Mentality

My family has, for a long time, enjoyed the benefits of raw milk.  We have had raw milk farm shares (what’s a farm share?) with a few different family farms here in Oregon, and right now, we’re loyal patrons of Helios Farms, which is “out Yoncalla,” (rural Oregon slang for “in the Yoncalla zip code, but so far out of town you’d barely guess it.”)

I really respect Theo’s dedication to his farm, his family-friendly philosophy, and his quest for constant improvement.

However, I also…you know, like to actually drink milk.  And give it to my kids.

And sometimes, that doesn’t happen as often as I would like.  So many little things can make small farm food production unpredictable: the sow goes on a rampage, and the farmers are up all night hunting it down, or the cow gets into the garden and everything tastes like tomatoes!

This is the trade-off when you start pursuing real food:  You gain your health.  But you lose the convenience and predictability of the American food system that is based on speed and uniformity.

Is it a bad thing?

I don’t know.  I think it’s more of a hard transition, away from food being an afterthought.  Once upon a time, I could go through my whole day barely thinking about where my meal would come from.  No dinner plan?  No problem, we’ll go through the drive through!  No lunch plan?  No biggie, I’ll grab a granola bar from the vending machine.

But when, in the history of the world, has food been an afterthought?  Most people on earth even now spend much more of their time, income, and intention on feeding their families than the average American.

Here are a few of the main changes I’ve had to make in my thinking as we’ve adopted a slow-food lifestyle:

1. It’s ok for food to make up a significant portion of our budget.

We are not trying to win an award for lowest grocery budget here.  We are nourishing tiny bodies, bodies that are growing so fast, and literally laying down the foundation for a lifetime of health.

2. It’s ok for food to take up a significant part of my day.  

Making yogurt, sprouting beans, chopping veg, shaking the milk before pouring it into cups, washing so.many.dishes, these little things add up to make food prep more of a time commitment than it used to be.  I have to schedule time into my day to prep, eat, wash, repeat, and it can sometimes interfere with the other things I would like to be doing instead.  But it’s worth it, both for the nutritional value of the food, and for the values it instills in my children: patience as they wait for lunch to bake, diligence as they help me in the kitchen, and (let’s be real here) independence when the control freak part of me is fed up with kids in the kitchen and tells them, “Just go play!  I need to finish in the kitchen by myself!”

3. It’s ok for food to be an adventure.

Sometimes we have milk to drink.  Sometimes we don’t.  You can’t set your watch by it.  But isn’t that what an adventure is?