Author: Tristan Klesick

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Grass-fed Beef, Lamb and Pork

order beefA few years ago, I was invited by the director, Robert Kenner, to attend a screening of Food, Inc. in Los Angeles. This invitation was all thanks for my brother who filmed much of the movie. I jumped at the opportunity to see the film.

Food, Inc. “lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA” (www.foodincmovie.com). It does so in a way that is honest and not intended purely for shock value but to inform and educate the often misguided and undereducated consumer. If you haven't seen the movie yet I highly recommend it.

What struck me the most while viewing the film is that food works best if we let it do what it was created to do. Tomatoes left to ripen on the vine are sweeter, have a much greater nutritional value and a flavor that cannot even compare to the tomatoes that were plucked while still green and left to ripen on the truck while in transit. The same goes for cows.

Cows were created to eat grass. Their digestive systems were designed to consume grass and yet lately, due to ease, cost and control, many cows are being fed grain. Now we all know that grain, in and of itself, is not a bad thing, but when cows start eating something other than grass things start to go wrong.

As things have started to go wrong for cows because of their unnatural diet, science has solved the problem by creating antibiotics that combat the diseases that arise. Rather than solving the problem by changing their diet, which would eliminate the need for antibiotics, we are now consuming meat from "cows that are essentially being kept alive by drugs" (baronbeef.com).

So now that we got that out of the way, let's focus on the benefits of grass-fed beef. For me the most important part is that it just plain tastes better. Richer, meatier and more complex in flavor. But there are other reasons as well. "The animal itself thrives because it is getting the food it was designed to eat and it converts that food to muscle and fat that is higher in minerals, vitamins, CLAs (conjugated linoleic acid) and Omega 3 fatty acids, and lower in cholesterol and fat" (baronbeef.com). Even though grass-fed beef isn't injected with antibiotics you have a much lower risk of getting diseases associated with beef such as E-Coli and Mad Cow Disease.

To learn more about this and in general where our food comes from I can't recommend the film Food, Inc. enough. Also, any of Michael Pollen's best-selling books like the Omnivores Dilemma provide a very thorough look into the world behind the food on our plate.

In the meantime, I highly encourage you to take advantage of this great opportunity to purchase and enjoy grass-fed beef. Not only can you eat it in good conscience but you will be thrilled with the wonderful taste that comes from cows that eat a diet they were created for.

by Ashley Rodriquez
Chef, food blogger, and full-time mom. You can read more of her writings at www.notwithoutsalt.com

 

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Sunday Morning Breakfast

Klesick Family Portraits

Sunday is the one day where our family sits down together for breakfast. The rest of the week is a blur, but on Sunday all the schedules align. 

On a normal Sunday morning we eat around 8:45 and I am the chef. As Chef Dad, I usually provide French toast, waffles or pancakes. My favorite pancake recipe is “Fluffy Pancakes” from the Allrecipes.com website. I usually substitute the butter for oil, add whole wheat flour to the recipe, and then quadruple the servings and start making pancakes. Pancakes are topped off with mixed berries and maple syrup—nothing quite like dessert for breakfast!

My gang can really mow through pancakes! Even little Joanna, at 3 years old, can eat two or three, and the teenagers, well let’s just say they could keep IHOP hopping! But when we all sit down to the table and thank the Lord for His provision, I take a moment to look around our old farm table and I get to quietly thank Him for all His goodness.  

There was a time when Maleah, Maddy, Alaina and Emily were just about to turn 3 just like Joanna, but now Emily is living on her own. And the same can be said, of the boys. It was just yesterday that Andrew, Aaron and Micah were turning 6 like Stephen. But now Micah is a full-time firefighter living in Vancouver, WA and when he comes to visit he brings his fiancé, Elise. It makes me smile. The farm table, once again, gets a little fuller. 

As Joelle and I get older and the kids start to leave the farm, what seemed like a small house for all of us, grows a little (emphasis on “little”) quieter and a little bigger. I find myself both looking back at and forward to our breakfasts. It is the one place where my family gathers and reconnects with our past, our present, and our future.  

We are always a family and we do share other meals together when it works out, but Sunday mornings are a priority, and now a tradition and a memory-maker. 

I would love to hear about how your family connects, so we can encourage each other in the ways we make family important. Drop me an e-mail or post it on Facebook. Who knows, your way to connect might be a perfect fit for another family in our box of good community. 

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From where I sit…

LabelGMOFoodstwibbon_940x150Our national food policy is dominated by the likes of Monsanto and the other agribusinesses. Sadly, our elected officials and the USDA are all too willing to listen to Monsanto and other multinational farm and food companies. Those companies have a stranglehold on public policy and the elected officials are far too compliant or complicit on the issue of genetic engineering in our food supply. 

I think it is a travesty that Americans and Canadians have to be the proponents of genetic engineering, forcing it upon other countries. Over the next few months, I will be addressing the issues of genetically engineered foods from a farming standpoint, a parent’s standpoint and a public policy standpoint. 

When it comes to food safety, food security and healthy food, it doesn’t seem to matter if you are a republican or democrat—Monsanto and their proponents have had their way in Washington D.C. and Olympia. This has to stop. But meaningful change is only going to happen when American citizens stop being “the Sheeple,” exercise our rights as “the People” and demand a level playing field. We are going to find out very quickly in Washington State where our local elected officials stand on this issue and also where our U.S. congressmen and women and senators stand as well.

I-522 “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act”
This is an important issue. Please read the complete text found at www.labelitwa.org. This is at its heart a labeling issue. I am not proposing we shut down Monsanto or any other company, but I am in wholehearted agreement that genetically engineered foods need to be labeled as ingredients and that consumers be given the information to make informed choices on the products at the grocery stores or other food outlets. 

Yes, I know how to avoid GE foods and so do many of you, but the majority of citizens are uniformed and the biotech food industry prefers it that way. But I believe that if people are given the choice, they will choose non-genetically engineered foods and the free market will decide what type of food and products will go forward, not Monsanto or other multinational food companies.

I am voting for I-522 because labeling is a fair and free market solution to food security, food safety and a healthy food supply.

How about you?

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"k" Quest

Excalibur_5TrayIt is that time of the year again! It is time for the "k" Quest! Once again we give our customers the chance to win a prize with our virtual quest. You get to search the "k" on our own website! 

Each day of the quest we will hide the Klesick “k” (our green seedling logo) on a new page within our website. When you find it, click on the “k”, enter your name and e-mail address, and you will be entered into the prize drawing (one entry per day per customer).

Follow Klesick Family Farm on Facebook daily to receive clues on where to find the hidden “k”. The quest will take place March 1-10, 2013. The prize drawing will be March 11th and the winner will be notified immediately thereafter. Happy Quest!

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If my fences could talk

After eight years of running grass-fed beef on our farm, the fence is in some need of mending. Cattle are just tough on fences. I remember when we first got cattle and I set up our pastures with two strands of hotwire; I was being really cautious considering my dairy farm neighbors used only one hotwire to keep the cows off the road. Our first batch of cows arrived, unloaded from the trailer and up and left. They had never seen a hotwire or experienced it, got a little shock and kept on moving. Now I was the one in shock. We spent the better part of that day rounding up cows and the better part of the next week building five strand barbwire fences to contain the critters. I am never going to leave a good night’s sleep to a few skinny strands of wire with electricity running through them. So we do our best to keep them in and fix all the obvious and potential “escape” routes.

This week we started fixing up the non-cow barbwire fence along the road. We used to run cattle along this part of the pasture, but now it mostly carries the hotwire to where the cattle graze during the summer. This fence was hammered last year, not by cows, but by cars. Yes, cars. Most of the time, when someone hits it, they back out and head on their way, with a few scratches to their car as souvenirs.

One time, I was walking out to my field and saw that someone had done a few donuts. This was a head scratcher. I thought that maybe my boys were having a little fun, but they had never seen the Dukes of Hazard. I must admit that I would like to do donuts sometime, just not when the field is planted! Well, it wasn’t a Klesick. Someone had driven through the fence into the planted field, spun around and driven back through the fence at a different spot. Two holes to fix! 

My favorite all time story happened on one of those rainy October nights. I looked out the back windows of the house and I saw headlights driving through my field. A young man in a Civic had caught the edge of the road (he wasn’t drinking) and it pulled his car into our fence. He went right in between two fence posts and kept driving until his car got stuck. I was impressed that he was able to drive as far as he did. We towed him out and he came back on an agreed upon day to fix the fence with us. I am sure that having the Sheriff take his contact information was plenty of encouragement to return.

Well, as you could imagine, cattle are hard on fences, but teenagers are harder. So we are busy overhauling this fence and, hopefully, I might get a year or two off before I need to mend it.

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Commitment is Love

photo (4)I have been bothered by all the messaging in this world, from sports to Hollywood to the grocery store ads. It is all about pleasure—personal pleasure. It tells us to be discontent with our lives. It tells us we are too short or too tall, our nose is too large or too flat, we'd be smarter if we drove a smart car or cooler if our hybrid was a Prius.

Heaven forbid if you still have a “dumb” phone or are seen without an iPhone. Our world says, you can be loved if you are cool, hip, rad or sic(k). Sadly, there is too much self-love and love of stuff. This is how the media and advertising outlets are defining love—this self-love—and sadly, it can become all-consuming and never satisfying.

Ironically, a love based on stuff and how we look is temporary at best, and satisfying only for the moment. As a breath of fresh air, in January, our family committed a passage in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, to memory. This is the quintessential passage on what Love is and isn't. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. ….13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is love. I would contend that our society needs the above mentioned love to bind the wounds of hate, selfishness and disrespect and begin to heal. Every relationship from the most intimate to the most casual would do well if our code of ethics or standard bearer was 1 Corinthians 13. Imagine how your relationships would be if: Your love is patient, your love is kind. Your love does not envy, your love does not boast. Your love is not proud, your love does not dishonor others. Your love is not self-seeking, your love is not easily angered. Your love keeps no record of wrongs. Your love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Your love always protects, your love always trusts, your love always hopes. Your love always perseveres. Your love never fails. This kind of love can't be manufactured or purchased, it has to be a gift of personal giving. It is the kind of love that says, "I am committed" to you and to our relationship. The list above is a big list, but we can all work towards adding one or two of these to our key relationships. Not sure where to begin re-read the verse and replace “your” with your name and it will give you a good starting point (ouch). Want to join me in a selfless (not self- love) revolution?

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Juices and Smoothies

photo (2)Do you ever wonder …

1. What is the difference between juices and smoothies?

2. Why are they good for me?

3. Why can’t I just eat the food?

The team of youngandraw.com recently posted a highly educational article on the subject matter. 

So here we go!

1. What is the difference between a juice and a smoothie?

What is a Juice?

A juice is the liquid of the plant, with all of the plants fibre removed.  Juices in our minds, are healing drinks.  We like to refer to them as “vitamin and mineral infusions.”  Juicing removes all of the fibre and some of the protein from the plants you are juicing.  This means that your body does not have to do any digestive work in order to extract the nutrients from your juice, as they are absorbed directly into your blood stream.  You can juice any plant that has juice to extract.  Fruits, vegetables and herbs are the most common juice ingredients.

What is a Smoothie?

A smoothie is a drink composed of blended foods.  This means that the foods have been broken down into liquid form, while still retaining all of their fibre.  Because the fibres are just slightly broken down but not removed, your body will still have to do some digestive work in order to fully break down and digest your smoothie, but not as much as it would have to if you just ate the produce.  Smoothies are a little more versatile in the ingredients that work well within them.  You can do greens, other veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, superfoods, protein supplements, herbs, spices, really anything that you can dream up you can add to a smoothie!

What are the different health benefits of Juicing vs. Blending?
Why Juice?

Juices are really amazing healing drinks.  Juices are particularly good for people who have damaged digestive systems, who have difficulty digesting vegetables, or are ill in any other way.  This is due to the fact that removing the fibre releases all of the nutrients from those plants, without your body having to do any work.

Juices are great to have when you want to do a cleanse of your body.  This is because your body will not be putting any effort towards digestion, so all that energy can be directed to ridding the body of built up waste and toxins. Juicing allows the body to focus on healing while still providing nutrients to your body that would not be present during a water fast.  Juices are also awesome for supporting the healing of a damaged gut, and a plethora of other health issues depending on the ingredients present.

Why Blend?

Smoothies are awesome for those who need a quick meal on the go and do not have time to sit down and eat something.  They are great for a meal before or after a workout, because smoothies are light enough that they won’t weigh you down but they are substantial enough that you won’t feel hungry again in 15 minutes.  You can also pack them full of ingredients that will help with your recovery after a work out.

Smoothies are also great for those who are coming off of a fast of any kind, as it will help to re-introduce your body to solid foods again in a more gradual way than jumping straight into eating would.  Smoothies will help to cleanse out your colon, because they contains the fibre that will help to “sweep” out your intestinal tract. These fibres will bind to toxins and usher them out of your system. Smoothies are also amazing for those who want to start introducing more raw foods into their diets, but don’t know how.  You can hide a number of less palatable ingredients like dark greens and superfoods under the sweet taste of fruit in a smoothie.

How to make juices & smoothies

How do you juice?

To make juice, you will need a juicer. You can get a Centrifuge juicer, which will have a blade or disk that spins at high speeds, grating your fruits and veggies, and then straining them through a fine sieve in order to extract the juice, or a masticating juicer which uses a slower pressing action to extract your juice.  Juicing greens is really awesome because our bodies do not have the enzymes needed to break down the cell walls found in greens.  This means that by juicing your greens you will gain access to the nutrients locked inside those cells be removing those fibres.  This also applies to other veggies that are often more difficult to digest.

Greens are best juiced through a masticating juicer because the slower extraction process allows for more nutrients to be separated from the fibres in the plant than with a centrifugal juicer.

How Do You Blend?

We recommend that you get a high-speed blender if you are serious about making smoothies a mainstay in your diet.  A slower blender (one with less horsepower) will take longer to blend your smoothie and will not break down the fibres as well as a high-speed blender will.  This will introduce more oxygen into your smoothie, increasing the oxidation rate, which means you get less nutrition from your smoothie.

Blending with a high-speed blender will ensure that you get the least amount of oxidative damage, and the most pleasing and palatable texture.  For the absolute least amount of oxidation, pulse blend your smoothies.

Are there any foods that shouldn’t be juiced or blended?
There are a few plants that do not lend themselves to juicing or blending quite as well as others. Below is a quick list of a few things that are best to avoid when making juice and smoothies.

Foods that are not great for Juice

Too much fruit – It’s best for your body, and your liver in particular, to avoid juicing copious amounts of fruit.  Fruit is best processed in our bodies when it comes with all its natural fibres, otherwise the sugars present are released to quickly into your blood stream, and your liver has to work extra hard to filter them.  It is best to keep your juice fruit free, or limited to small servings of green apple.

Spinach or Chard every day – Spinach and chard are high in oxalates which can cause kidney stone issues in those people who are susceptible.  We recommend that you do spinach and chard only every other day, as opposed to every day, just to be on the safe side.  Aside from these two greens, you should be fine to juice greens every day.

Foods that are not great for Smoothies

Starchy, hard to digest veggies – It’s best to avoid putting really starchy veggies like sweet potato or regular potato, as well as very hard to digest root veggies like beets and carrots in your smoothies.  These ingredients will just be hard for your body to break down, even in blended form.  Stick to the more water rich veggies and leafy greens.

Too many ingredients –  It can be very easy to get carried away, wanting to add an abundance of nutrition into your daily smoothies.  There are lots of super foods, powders, potions, herbs, fruits, veggies and leafy greens out there, but you do not have to put them all in every smoothie that you make!  Keeping your smoothies on the simpler side (2-6 ingredients) will be much better for your digestion.  Otherwise it may do more harm than good.

As you can see, both smoothies and juices have their place and purpose in a raw diet, and in a healing plan.  Neither is better than the other, but rather they just have different applications and different areas where they shine the most.

Source: http://www.youngandraw.com/juices-vs-smoothies-the-difference-health-benefits-between-them/

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The nurturing power of food

“The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture.” –Michael Pollan

I am often asked what it is about food that I love so much. “What is there not to love?” I say. Then I immediately start to think of the food itself. I think of the thrill of tasting pungent black truffles for the first time or when I made my first batch of preserved lemons, anticipating their sour, salty and floral flavor permeating my food as it did while in Morocco. I think of the many times I’ve had a bite and then closed my eyes in order to shut out all other senses so I could simply taste.

When someone has a few minutes for me to get philosophical, I’ll tell them that food doesn’t need to be enjoyable, but the fact that it is tells me that we are loved. It’s because of this that I desire to share food with others. If those I feed can experience a bit of the joy and provision I feel when eating, then I’m satisfied. 

As the new year came and brought with it introspection and goals, I set out to create more shared memories around food. Besides my family, there are not many others who have sat at our table. I want to change that. It is so easy for me to make excuses. “My home is too small. What would I make? I’m too tired. The kids are too crazy.” But the reality is, it’s not about any of that. In fact, it’s not even really about the food.

Last night, some friends and I fed a simple meal of chili, salad, cornbread and cookies to a group of women and their children who came to the shelter for a warm meal and a place to sleep. We talked briefly of the fragrant chili, warm from cayenne and cumin, and the scallion flecked cornbread. And then we listened to them tell us of what brought them to this place, about how much they love their children and, with tears in their eyes, how hard things have been. We listened and we ate. This happened around the table, in the presence of food, as does much of life.
While I’m inspired by new flavors, intricate recipes and ingredients from around the world, it is the life that happens around the food that sustains my desire to keep cooking and feeding.

by Ashley Rodriguez    
food blogger

http://notwithoutsalt.com/

 

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New to Juicing? – 5 things you need to know

stockvault-lemon-juice130752Juicing seems to be the latest trend going around but really it has been popular in the health and fitness circles for decades. Here's 5 things you need to know:

1. There’s room for debate.

Fans of green juicing, or juicing raw vegetables, say that you can drink more vegetables than you can eat, and that juicing allows your body to more easily absorb the vitamins and antioxidants extracted from fresh produce. Juicing has been credited with alleviating everything from skin diseases and immune disorders to cancer and high blood pressure.

But skeptics claim that the detox and cleansing benefits attributed to juicing may be more psychological than physical. There’s also a lack of scientific evidence that proves that juicing your vegetables is significantly healthier than just eating them. If you’re not eating enough vegetables, drinking them might be one way to up your intake. The bottom line is, juicing certainly can’t hurt.

2. Your digestive system will thank you.

Juicing proponents believe that your digestive system can function more efficiently when drinking raw vegetables. Although you lose the benefits of consuming fiber when drinking your produce, it takes less energy to digest food in liquid form. Heating and cooking vegetables also reduces or destroys some of their enzyme content, which some say can impede digestion. With juicing, it’s believed that these food enzymes are not only preserved, but your digestive system also gets a “rest.”

If you juice for enzymes, you might also believe that the right food combinations can help with digestion. Food combiners believe that eating a protein like meat or cheese, which requires one type of enzyme to be digested, with a carbohydrate, which requires another kind of digestive enzyme, can result in bloating and indigestion. When you juice, you only eat one type of food at a time, so digestion is speedier.

3. Moderation is key.

Despite what some raw foodists and “juicearians” might say, it’s not best to live on juice alone. A juice fast, in which one consumes only juice and no solid food for a day or more, can have healthy benefits, but it’s not entirely necessary. Drinking green juice can still have healing effects when combined with a regular, healthy diet.

For best results, drink green juice on an empty stomach, and make sure it’s as fresh as possible. More extreme measures, like the lemonade-and maple syrup-only Master Cleanse, or juice fasting as a quick-and-easy weight loss method, are not recommended.

4. Not all juices are created equal.

You can get your green juice at a juice bar, health food store or through a delivery service, but be wary of bottled and pasteurized juices. And read the labels carefully: Too much fruit or fruit concentrate can increase the sugar level, and heating and processing can lessen nutritional value.

Buying a home juicer and doing it yourself can pay off in the long run, although the juicer you buy might also make a difference. Centrifugal juicers, which grind and strain produce at high speeds, are the most affordable machines, but also less efficient – some say the high speed generates heat, and decreases the amount of enzymes in the resulting juice. Masticating juicers “chew” produce and can make more juice out of the same amount of vegetables, while triturating juicers, the most expensive and efficient option, “press” produce and retain more nutrients.

While juicers extract only juice from produce and remove the fiber, blenders retain all of the content by simply mashing everything together. Fiber aside, the blender versus juicer debate might come down to a matter of taste: drinking celery juice mixed with carrot juice will probably taste better than drinking a celery and carrot smoothie.

5. The possibilities are endless.

If you make your own juice, experiment with combining different kinds of fruits and vegetables for taste and nutrition. Popular combinations include mixing leafy vegetables like spinach or kale with celery or cucumber, and adding beet, carrot or apple for sweetness.

Adapted from: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/juicing/10814/

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I am your ingredients farmer

20110204-FAT SICK and NEARLY DEAD

After watching the DVD Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, I went to the “Extras” section and watched a few of the deleted scenes. There were some great farm interviews that didn’t make the cut and also a section on “How to Shop” from Harvard Nutritionist, Stacy Kennedy. 

One of the most memorable or significant messages she was driving home was to buy ingredients when you shop, not food. Now, most everything at the grocery store is technically food. However, what Stacy would call food is that which comes in a box or jar, whereas ingredients would be those things which are unprocessed or unpackaged. So, her emphasis was to just buy ingredients. For the last 15 years, we, at Klesick Family Farm, have been supplying families with ingredients—ultra fresh and organically grown ingredients. 

Another observation was that our shopping should not be in the middle of the grocery store. That makes sense. After all, that is where all the sugary drinks, the sugary cereals and the processed other foods are merchandised. Most ingredients are located on the perimeter where you find the produce, meat, and deli departments. 

One additional suggestion I would have would be to bring a shopping list to the grocery store and stick to it. Those end cap displays are there for a reason—because the stuff being merchandised there sells really well. But, if those items are not on your list, keep moving. Shopping at the grocery store can be like going to war with yourself. Most of the products being offered are not healthy or processed and it can take an incredible amount of will power to come through the checkout without extra stuff. Of course, if you shop at one of the natural food stores, the potential for damage is less, but those places sell a lot food too.

Ironically, because you receive a “box of good” you actually save money on your food bill, because you don’t have to fight with your will power at the grocery store as often. You are also getting a lot of great ingredients to keep you and your family healthy, conveniently delivered right to your door.

As a company, 95% of our sales are ingredients and all of those ingredients come from farms committed to raising food that respects the earth, the farm workers and the consumer. Which means every time you get your “box of good” two messages are sent: one to your body that you care about it and the other to the good food community saying, “Keep it up!”

Let’s keep working together to improve your health and the health of the world–one bite at a time.

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