Healthy Traditions Network - Tips on eating a nutrient-dense diet on a budget

Tips on eating a nutrient-dense diet on a budget

For the next several newsletters we will be bringing you tips about eating a nutrient-dense diet without breaking your budget, as well as tips on being greener in your home, etc. We were sent a great list of tips from local farmer Marian Listwak of White Pine Farm; we have added some of our own favorite tips too and would love for you to send us your favorite tips. You can email them to Lrimerman@comcast.net with HTN Tip in the subject line or leave them on our Facebook page.

Join a CSA- CSA’s are a great way to get a great deal on awesome produce from a local source. Make sure you ask how the farmer grows the produce and make sure it is sustainable and even if not certified organic, that they follow organic protocols. Many CSAs offer working shares which can save you even more money. It is also a great way to introduce your family to a variety of the freshest produce available, and kids usually love the experience!! See our condensed list of local CSAs in this newsletter or check out www.localharvest.org for CSAs in your area.

Learn how to preserve food. This is not a lost art. There are many good books available, “Stocking up,” “Keeping the Harvest,” “Canning and Preserving,” “Wild Fermentation,” etc. The list is long. You can dehydrate, lacto-ferment, pickle, hot bath can, and freeze food. A vacuum packer is a great way to extend the shelf life of all foods. If you are lucky enough to have a community kitchen in your area join it. These ways of saving food are not just budget friendly but they are healthy too!!

Buy freezer meat like a ¼, ½ or whole cow, a pig, a sheep, a lamb, or other animal. Many farmers sell their cattle, pigs, and sheep directly to the consumer. The farmer takes the animal to the processing plant and the consumer determines how they want their animal processed. The consumer picks up the finished product from the processor. To do this you must have a freezer preferably an energy star freezer and it should not be a self-defrosting freezer as that shortens the life of your meat. Buying meat like this is different than buying bulk meat at the supermarket. Freezer meat once processed is placed in a deep freeze—this extends the shelf life and the quality of the meat. Bulk meat in the grocery store has been stored at refrigeration temperature and if you take it home and freeze it in your freezer (which is not a deep freeze freezer) it loses quality and will not have the same shelf life as freezer meat from a farmer. Plan carefully how you want your animal processed as it makes no sense to turn tenderloin steak into hamburger, although if your family refuses tenderloin steak than maybe it is best ground into burger. This is a really economical way to get pastured meat of the highest quality, custom cut to your specifications and since you know the producer and processor you can rest assured that any food safety or food-borne illness risks are greatly reduced. You know where your food comes from, it is healthier and it is less expensive. If this seems daunting to you, feel free to call or email HTN and we will help you through the process or ask your farmer or processor as they are also a wealth of information!! See our list of freezer beef farmers in this issue of the newsletter.

Request all that you can from the animal. Bones can make broth or are great for your dog (some not all bones are good for dogs). Suet is easily rendered. Most processing plants will not give you these unless you request them. Also, request the organ meats, they are very healthy and economical. Beef heart can be used frozen, you can grate it into your ground beef and then hide in many meals and your family will get the healthy benefits without the strong flavor or “ick” factor. Buy whole chickens (preferably from a local farmer who pastures them, etc.) and save any scraps, necks, carcasses if you cut them up, etc. to make stock. When roasting a whole chicken, save the carcass as it can still be used for stock too. Bone broths are extremely healthy and easy to make. Save organic vegetable scraps (onion peels, carrot trimmings, celery trimmings, etc.) in a container in your freezer and use those along with a few whole vegetables for making stock. See recipe in Nourishing Traditions for proper way of making a mineral rich bone broth.

Consider the fact that a full freezer uses less electricity than a ½ full one. Chest freezers are more efficient. Canning meat is another way to preserve it. This would require a pressure cooker canner. If you have experienced long power outages and are worried about losing the food in the freezer this may be a good option. During short power outages, just covering a chest freezer with blankets and making sure it stays shut will work. Coincidently most power outages occur in the winter when we have a huge freezer outside. In a pinch, you may want to put your food in totes and let Mother Nature keep it frozen. If you have a generator, consider an outlet for the freezer. Make sure if you do have a manual defrost freezer that you take the time to defrost it at least annually or twice a year, which will help it run more efficiently.