Cereal Substitution

What you'll need:

1. cereal bowl
2. spoon

Ingredients:

1. 1 banana
2. sprinkle of walnut pieces (~3 T)
3. sprinkle of dried cranberries (~2 T)
4. 1 T flax or chia seed, finely ground
5. coconut milk (~1/2 c)

What you'll do:

1. using spoon, chunk banana into bowl
2. sprinkle walnuts, cranberries and ground seed over banana bits
3. add milk

What mine looks like:

Truth Telling

It's all about truth. Telling the truth. 
I don't mean just saying the truth or hearing the truth, I mean how to tell what the real true-to-you truth is. Have you ever noticed when you discuss truth with someone in order to resolve a conflict, suddenly the discussion turns to a blame game. You go from talking about how you feel to sorting out who said what.

The blame can go wherever it needs to go, I am not concerned with that. What I am concerned with is knowing, feeling what is true. I'm not talking about what someone tells you is true, and then says they don't know how to make you believe it. Truth isn't something you believe, it's something you recognize. It's something your gut recognizes, your mind sees. It's not something that requires convincing, it requires knowing. How do you know? You already know, it's that feeling that something just isn't quite right no matter how convincing the circumstances may be. Need help? Use the tools I wrote about in Turn and Face the Change.

After recognizing and knowing, comes acknowledging and acting; that's where bravery comes in 'cause it is not easy. It's easier to put truth aside or bury it and go on about your way, but then that gets complicated too. Your body, mind, and spirit reside somewhere in conflict when you do that. 

Why does it even matter? For a body, mind, and spirit to reside in health, they must be in a state of ease. Conflict and ease don't live together well. So, the next time someone you love says "tell me the truth"  and you're tempted to tell them what they want to hear, think of the anxiety, regret, blame, and worry you'll save yourself in the long run. And the more you practice living by truth, the really true-to-you kind, the more at ease you will become.

Community. Connection. Creativity.

"The cure for what ails us—both in our bodies and in our nation—can be found in the kitchen. It is a place to rebuild community and connection, strengthen bonds with family and friends, teach life-giving skills to our children, enrich and nourish our bodies and our souls.

In fact, real food can be inexpensive. Choosing simple ingredients, cooking from scratch, shopping at discount club stores, and getting produce from community supported agriculture associations (CSAs) [see BEM GENERAL'S CSA info below], community gardens, or co-ops all build health and community and save money.

I believe in the power of collective intelligence. Within my community are hundreds, if not thousands, of unheralded chefs experimenting with food and creating extraordinary meals and recipes." --Dr. Mark Hyman

[insert artisans, crafters, artists, creative workers] The creative work of my community BLOWS me away! It's one of my MOST favorite things about my work at BEM GENERAL. While I'm on the subject of creativity, doing something creative does not necessarily mean throwing caution to the wind, being impractical, focusing on whimsy and beauty over practicality and function.   To me being creative is often "doing with what is available" whether it's in cooking, home-keeping, farming, educating…whatever our life's work may be. Creatively useful things are often the most beautiful and inspiring to me. Some may call this more innovation than creation, but what we choose to call the process isn't important. What is important is that the process is intuitive and deeply fulfills our desire for self-reliance, for knowing that "by damn, I can make something" whether for fun, whimsy or necessity. Practice doing something intuitive, creative, innovative, see what happens.

"Within our individual and our national communities is the cure for what ails us. We are the answer. We are the revolutionaries who will change the face of food in America and around the world.

In this way—one by one, kitchen by kitchen, community by community—we will take back our health together!" --Dr. Mark Hyman

See the article "Why Cooking Can Save Your Life" by Dr. Mark Hyman from which these excerpts were taken.

{BEM GENERAL CSA 2013}

FULL SHARE:
1 whole pasture raised chicken from Stuart Farm, LLC
2 lbs grass fed, finished ground beef from Moon Dance Farm
1 dozen free range eggs from Riverbluff Farm and Hydrangea Hill Farm

pick up- Bem General front porch every Saturday 9 a.m. June-September                                         price- $464 due by March 1 (payment options available)

HALF SHARE:
1 whole pasture raised chicken from Stuart Farm
2 lbs grass fed, finished ground beef from Moon Dance Farm
1 dozen free range eggs from Riverbluff Farm and Hydrangea Hill Farm

pick up- Bem General front porch every other Sat. 9 a.m. June-September
price- $240 due by March 1 (payment options available)

fruits, veggies and other farm fresh goods available at the front porch market during pick up!
Full Share = 32 lbs. grass fed, finished ground beef, 75-80 lbs. pasture raised chicken, and 16 dozen eggs
Think that's more than you'll need for the summer? Stock your freezer for the winter with the excess!

Message or email me to sign up or answer payment questions. We can't wait to see you on the front porch this summer!

Morning Sunshine

What you'll need:

1. blender
2. knife + cutting board

Ingredients:

1. 4 large carrots
2. 1 apple
3. 2 lemons, juiced
4. 2 T. coconut oil
5. 2 c. water
6. 1 c. ice

What you'll do:

1. chop carrots + apple, place in blender
2. add coconut oil
3. add lemon juice and water
4. blend until smooth
5. add ice, blend until smooth
6. pour it in a glass and drink it up, serves 2

What mine looks like:

Porta Pizzas

What you'll need:

1. skillet
2. casserole dish
3. oven at 400 F
4. knife + board for chopping
5. spoon for scooping out mushroom caps

Ingredients:

1. olive oil
2. yellow onion, diced
3. 1-2 cloves garlic, smashed
4. 4 large carrots, diced
5. 4 large portabella mushrooms
6. 3 handfuls fresh greens, baby leaves or rough chopped
7. salt, red pepper flakes to taste, dash of balsamic vinegar
8. pasta/pizza sauce
9. optional: cheese, fermented bean paste, ground beef

What you'll do:

1. preheat oven
2. sauté onion, garlic, and carrots in saucepan with desire amount of seasoning
3. scoop out gills and inner flesh of mushrooms, chop, add to veg sauté 
4. add greens and balsamic vinegar to sauté, wilt
5. place portabella caps in casserole dish
6. fill each cap with 2 T. bean paste (optional) and 2 T. pizza sauce
7. pile veg sauté in caps, placing any extra directly in the dish  
8. sprinkle with cheese (optional)
9. bake 15-20 mins. until cheese is melted and caps are soft

without cheese + with cheese

prep cook

 sub sweet potatoes and artichoke hearts

Short Ribs + Sweet Potatoes

What you'll need:

1. crockpot
2. knife + cutting board
3. cheese grater

Ingredients:

1. 1.5-2 lbs. grass-fed and finished short ribs from Moon Dance Farm
2. 1 organic apple, finely chopped
3. 1/2 yellow onion from Stuart Farm
4. 1/4 c. olive oil
5. 2-3 T. balsamic vinegar 
6. 2 cloves garlic, pressed
7. 2 sweet potatoes, rough chopped
8. 3 handfuls fresh spinach 
9. 1 carrot stick, grated
10. salt and pepper to taste, a pinch of ground clove
11. pat of grass-fed butter or 1 T. coconut oil

What you'll do:

Pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar into crockpot. 

Add apple, onion, and garlic.

Add short ribs (I put mine in straight from the freezer).

Mush (yes, technical term) the ribs right down in the sauce, sprinkle with spices.

Add sweet potatoes and cook on medium-high (depending on your crockpot) for 10-12 hrs.

Wilt spinach and grate carrot, set aside.

Remove ribs from crockpot.

With a whisk or potato masher, mash sweet potatoes adding butter or coconut oil.

Plate spinach, sweet potato mash, ribs, and finish with grated carrots.

What mine looked like:

Turn and Face the Change

I am often telling my loved ones to "be good to yourself" and a few days ago I thought "what exactly does that mean, what am I asking them to do when I say that," so I wrote.

Be kind, be true, be good to yourself. Be true to your heart and trust your gut--you know it knows! Be gentle and loving by allowing yourself to follow that truth. 

Trusting your gut is an amazing gift; because, even when you know you're doing what's right it can be scary. How do you know if you're anxious because you're just scared to make a change or because you are about to go down a path that isn't true to you? 

Try this: 

When you think of what you're about to do and you get nervous, anxious or begin to question if this is really the right thing...

1) Do you feel open or closed? (I know, what the heck does that mean right, keep reading!) 

Look at your body language do you look pulled in? Are your shoulders pulled forward or back? Is your head up and lively or slanted downward and drained? Do you gesture out, up and away from your body or in, down and toward your body? 

2) How does your energy feel when you think or talk about the thing for which you are seeking clarity? 

Do you feel more alive or less so? Do your eyes sparkle or dim? Does your face glow or ashen? 

3)You say trust your gut, but how do you know when its butterflies "the good nervous" or a pitted knot "the bad run-away-like-your-life-depends-on-it" ('cause it does) nervous? 

For me butterflies feel floaty, jittery, and light. A pitted knot feels heavy, weighty, and sinking. Learn to notice the difference, it's there.

4)When you've commited to something and then you hit a bump-in-the-road, do you feel instantly defeated or irritated with the slow down but feel you'll make it through probably with greater insight? 

This is often where that pesky little voice in your head comes in, is your self-talk deprecating or triumphant? 

5)When you're on this path, do you feel physically sick often--colds, flu, headaches, and draggy or do you feel pretty invincible, energized, and clear-headed? 

For me, this is that place where I can spend hours upon hours reading, working, or researching and come away feeling energized and clear when it's true-to-me. 

Or, that place where I spend hours doing what I (or other people) think I should be doing and feel like I was hit by a train, fuzzy headed and drained.

Basically it's doing two of the hardest things there ever were...listen and trust, truly.