Slow Living: A Farm to Table Lifestyle
“…and at the end of summer when our cup runneth over with wonderful things from the garden that need to be harvested, prepared and preserved—life is not “slow,” as in “leisurely.” Yet, this is the choice we make… We call that slow living”
It was only just a year ago, in the throes of stress and disappointment, work woes and worry, financial calculations, and thousand what if scenarios, that we opted ourselves out of this version of the “American dream” and we made the wild and crazy decision to live tiny and pursue a bigger dream— that would begin first by getting rid of all that did not contribute to our overall hopes and goals.
We had six months remaining on the lease for our city home and I was determined not to waste a moment of it. I made use of that time to learn all that I could about this new lifestyle we were moving toward. Lesson one: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.
"Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we'd know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be ourselves as we learned to produce what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle through. Or starting with baby animals, and enough sense to refrain from naming them."
—Barbara Kingsolver
It’s hard to put to words how much this book made an imprint on my heart. What I love most about books is that I often find myself sitting with the mentor I had been wishing for. Barbara Kingsolver was like the friend who had walked the path I was dreaming and had stories upon stories to tell. The wise councilor who is firm in her honesty but speaks gently with a heart so ignited from a life of purpose that you can’t help but willing to weather the storms, that you too may know the great joy of a bountiful harvest. She opened my eyes to the simplicity of the philosophy and set my hearts desire to know what it would feel like to nourish our bodies and minds in such a meaningful and natural way.
I would read passages and pages to my husband and there was almost no persuasion necessary. He was just as eager as I to know the fullness of it all.
There was of course a temptation to feel inadequate for starting such a quest, as we were not yet living in a place we could dig in the dirt, and we hadn’ t an inkling of experience to carry us through. But we had heart, and with that we tucked the insecurities away and opted to begin where we were, as best we could. We took an assessment of our kitchen and started to make note of things we’d like to change about our grocery trips. And we marked the calendar for opening weekend of our local farmers market. Admittedly, I had always looked forward to the farmers market, but my motives were rooted in nostalgia and paper wrapped bouquets. I would be going to familiar place with fresh eyes, and that idea thrilled me.
The dark days of winter passed, and the sun rose a bit higher in the blue sky on a chilly March morning. We strapped on our helmets and rode our bikes to the first market of the season. It was a whole different experience to fill our baskets with all the seasons first offerings, to ask the farmers questions about what they had and get tips on how to cook with it. It was inspiring and empowering. Meeting face to face with the farmers really left a mark on my heart. These dear people do so much to bring good food to our tables, and how sweet it must be to receive a smiling thank you week after week.
I had perviously lived under the assumption that farmers markets were just full of expensive vegetables. And sure, they do cost a bit more, but let us not forget the value of these delicious vegetables. There is nothing that can compare with fresh and local food from the earth. And if we’re talking fair pricing, the entrepreneur in me cannot dismiss the cost of a booth rental to be at the farmers market, as well as the time to pack, unload, set up, stand at the market for hours, tear down and unpack again at the farm. And that doesn’t even include the farming its self. Farming is not a get rich scheme, and once I shifted my perspective, I would stand at the booths wondering how on earth I could walk away with a basketful of veggies having only spent $20.
We made it our goal to purchase as many of our needs as we could from the farmers market, including meat, eggs, honey, bread and produce. Adding in all the extras (especially meat) would get a bit expensive, so we opted for more meatless dinners and in its stead, we added more veggies. And when we would cook meat, we’d make it a special weekend meal—a delicacy.
Once we moved to the outskirts of the city, we signed up for a CSA + CSB (community supported bakery) and reaped the benefits of sharing a garden space with my husbands parents. Between these three sources, we hardly had to grocery shop. And when we did, we were really mindful about our purchases, looking first at what we could get in bulk, and then only what we really felt was necessary. Any extra money we spent on local/seasonal foods, was soon made up for in our savings of omitting all the unnecessary extras from the grocery store.
One of the most common questions I receive when I talk about eating local and in season, is how I do it with toddlers. Our girls were just shy of two years old when we began this little experiment. And leading up to it, we had been eating whole foods on the regular, always sharing our same meals with our girls. We have a handful of food restrictions in our home, including gluten, diary, corn, and for a number of months, eggs and bananas (thank heavens we’ve outgrown those), and we haven’t purchased any processed sugar in 4 years. I think this was a really helpful starting point because it wasn’t a HUGE change for any of us, it was just a better change and one that made more sense. However, two staples I didn’t feel like we could take away from them at the time were bananas and avocados—so we let those be our exceptions.
It has always been important to me to include the girls in everything, especially in the process of our meals. They always come to the farmers market and help fill the baskets, and I took them to the farm for our CSA pickup every week, and by the middle of summer they could name all the veggies we’d bring home and they would help pick out which ones we’d prepare for dinner and then they’d help set up for our routine picnic dinner and when our plates were empty, we’d wander to the garden and pick a small handful of strawberries and finish our festivities by feeding the veggie scraps to the chickens. There was something really truly magical in all of it, and I was daily inspired by the girls’ enthusiasm—it kept my spirits lifted on days where I was tired and imagined how nice it might be to order take out.
I think the most important thing to remember when including children in this lifestyle is that you are not “doing this to them” you are “doing it with them”. The more their hands are involved in the process, the more they will come alongside you with an excitement and eagerness that cannot be matched. For us, it’s about cultivating habits and values while making deep rooted memories centered around the seasons and the richness within each one.
Admittedly, winter has been more of a struggle to stay on par with our goals. And I knew it would be. I was so invested in the present during spring, summer, and fall, that I didn’t have much extra time or energy to put into preparing for the winter months to come. And I was fully aware of that in the moment, but as with all things slow living, I knew this was a long term journey. And for me that means that we have to grow into the process and the progress. So I gave myself permission not to worry myself about winter, knowing in the coming year I’d be more prepared and I could do better.
However, we were fortunate enough to find a near by CSA that offered a late fall and winter share—which really made me so happy because I’ve come to cherish that basketful of earthy goodness, and I love learning how to use new things I haven’t tried before. And we’ve been having a jolly time looking at seed catalogs and dreaming up a tasty garden of our own. Although given my amateur gardening status, I think we’ll continue with our CSA share and fill in at the farmers market, as well as berry picking ventures, while we learn and grow in cultivating our little plot of earth.
As for me personally, I’ve spent most of my teenage and young adult days trying this diet and that eating plan and battling the many insecurities a woman in our culture battles. For the first time in all my years, I don’t obsess over calories consumed or burned, I haven’t stepped on a scale in a year, I don’t restrict based on good foods and bad food—we eat to our hearts content, whatever is local, whatever is in season, we fill our bellies and nourish our souls. The food is delicious to be sure, but the personal freedom from the negative food associations—I feel almost as if I am living a new life, in a new body.
It’s a most delightful feeling knowing that we’ve only really just begun our slow food journey, and that it will continue to bless us further more as we sink our roots deeper and deeper into the soil.
